unpublished political poem by Schiller, in which the poet first puts the question doubt ingly whether the Germans have any reason to be proud of their nationality, while the English and the French struggle about the mastery of the world. Finally he answers the question in the affirmative, and prophesies that the German spirit will one day conquer the world, and that the Germans will gain the Weltprozess.

HERR ANDREAS PERTHES, chief of the wellknown publishing firm at Gotha, died recently at Eisenach, in his seventy-sixth year, after a short illness.

THE original autograph мss. of the first canto of Sir Walter Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel" and the whole of Tom Moore's “Lalla Rookh'' was recently sold by Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge. In the same sale was also included Sir John Franklin's autograph diary, written during 1831, while travelling in Malta and the Ionian Islands; several characteristic letters of Dickens; one of Sir W. Scott; a short note written by Nelson not long after he had lost his right arm; a portrait in water-colors of an Oriental, drawn and signed by Thackeray; and, on an octavo sheet of note-paper in Lord Tennyson's autograph, the songs inserted in "The Princess." This manuscript varies in several verses from the printed edition. Included in the sale were two valuable illuminated English manuscripts from Bere Court, one the second portion of Wiclif's version of the Bible, and the

other a Book of Hours.

ONE of the few men remaining who could give personal recollections of Goethe, Ch. Schucherdt, the printer, died at Geneva recently. He was a native of Weimar, where he served as printer's apprentice, and used as a boy to carry proofs to the poet. In the year 1848 Schucherdt was involved in the revolutionary turmoil, and fled to Switzerland, where he ultimately became head of the firm which printed the Journal de Genève and several of the publications of the many learned societies of French Switzerland. He worked also for not a few houses in Paris.

"There, my dear young lady, I have done the little that was necessary, and hope it may suffice. Affectionately yours, Robert Browning."

MR. W. A. CLOUSTON, to whom the world is indebted for so many volumes popularizing the folklore of the East, has recently published

"

another work of a similar character. It takes its title, "Flowers from a Persian Garden,' from the leading essay, which consists of extracts from the Gulistán of Sa'dí, with illustrative notes. Other essays deal in the same way with the well known Tútí Náma, or "Parrot-Book," the Arabian love-story of Majnún and Layla, Rabbinical legends from the Talmud, and anecdotes of Oriental wit and humor. At the end is added a collection of amusing stories of the Middle Ages.

MISCELLANY.

SOMETHING ABOUT AMBERGRIS.-Amber, as everybody may now be supposed to know, is fossilized or mineralized rosin, and is therefore a vegetable product. Ambergris is an emanation from the sperm-whale, and is therefore an animal product. Amber is found mostly on the shores of the Baltic; ambergris only on the surface of the sea off the coasts of tropical countries. The word ambergris is French, and signifies gray amber; but by whom or when first applied to this marine phenomenon we have not been able to dis

cover.

The scientific explanation of the nature of ambergris is, that it is the product of some disease in the sperm-whale analogous to gullstones. It is found sometimes in the intestines of the creature, but more frequently is found, after expulsion, floating on the surface of tropical seas. It floats in masses which have a speckled gray appearance, and mixed with which are generally found some remnants of the known food of whales.

The best quality of ambergris is soft and waxy, but it is said not to be uniform in color. The streaky or marked specimens are preferred. It is opaque and inflammable, remarkably light as to specific gravity, as may be understood from its always keeping the surface; and it is rugged to the touch.

Most of what comes into the market is found near the Bahama Islands; but it is also found at the Moluccas and other parts of the Indian Ocean, off a portion of the coast of South America, and sometimes, as we have seen in

the case of the Fanny Lewis, floating on the Atlantic Ocean.

The essential characteristic of ambergris is its powerful and peculiar odor. It is so peculiar, that art has never been able to imitate it, although the scarcity and enormous price of ambergris has lent every stimulus to invention. It is so powerful and diffusive that the very minutest quantity is perceptible in the most fragrant perfumes.

The chief component of ambergris is a fatty matter called ambrein, which is obtained by boiling in alcohol. This ambrein-and there is said to be about eighty-five per cent of it in the best ambergris—is what gives it its value, for it is in this ingredient that the perfume lies.

There is another peculiarity ascribed to ambergris, and that is the power to exalt the flavor and perfume of other substances with which it is brought into combination. Thus, a grain or two rubbed down with sugar is often added to a hogshead of wine, giving a perceptible and, what is considered by some, an improved flavor to the whole. And a small particle of ambergris added to other perfumes is found to exalt the odor of the blend.

In fact, ambergris is too dear to use alone, and it is so dear that it is one of the most adulterated articles known to chemists. It is adulterated both by those who export it and in the countries in which it is used.

The odor of genuine ambergris is not unlike musk, but is more penetrating and more enduring. That which is called Essence of Ambergris by the perfumers contains only a proportion of an alcoholic tincture of ambergris, made up with oil of cloves and other ingredients. Again, the pungent perfume known as Tincture of Civet is made from ambergris and civet in the proportion of a quarter of an ounce of the former to half an ounce of the latter, dissolved in a quart of rectified spirit. A few drops of either the so-called Essence of Ambergris or the Tincture of Civet will convey the unmistakable odor of ambergris to lavender water, soap, tooth-powder, or any of the other "toilet requisites" in which it is favored.-Chambers's Journal.

JURYMEN'S MEALS. -Noth withstanding the respect which is generally felt for the method of trial by jury, there is perhaps no honor which is less esteemed by individuals than that of exercising its duties. Twelve men may be good and true, and yet feel some regret at the frequently long duration of their enforced

absence from business in order to attend in court. When to this is added from time to time the further hardship of being locked up without a prospect of necessary refreshment in order to consider a debated verdict, the position of even the unpatriotic juryman excites our sympathy. Is there no way out of this latter difficulty? In these days of police efficiency it is incredible that a body of men engaged in discharging an anxious public duty should not be allowed the ordinary privilege of taking food lest some chance collusion with the outer world should warp their judgment. Both in the interest of justice and of human frailty, some relaxation in the antique rigidity of law with reference to this matter is clearly called for. A hungry man may be innately just; nay more, he may by dint of patience persevere in an attitude of calm fairness in spite of his hunger. Most people, however, are not thus judicially perfect. If hungry they become proverbially angry, and the irritated mind is never the most just. There can be very little doubt, therefore, that a reasonable concern for natural wants, far from corrupting, would enhance the truth, as well as greatly expedite the facility of jury findings. If, then, it should be needful in any given case to imprison together for a time the twelve select. ed citizens, we earnestly hope that it may be found permissible to lock in along with them a due allowance of needful refreshinent.Lancet.

EASTER TRIPS.-The term "cheap tripper" is usually regarded as one of reproach. Time was when travelling was a luxury from which all but the very richest were delivered. We have only to read a few of the novels of fifty, thirty, or even twenty years ago to realize how painfully restricted were the movements of middle-class families. Miss Austen's heroines rarely paid visits, and never went abroad. The golden rule for travelling is not to adopt the American plan of cramming in the greatest number of places possible. If we want to get local color we must move slowly, and to the happy possession of ten days of leisure and as many sovereigns, there is no end to the tours that may be planned if the modern mode of travelling be adopted. Normandy fairly teems with beauty and historic interest, and can by no means be explored in a single visit. Holland is especially fascinating in spring, we are told, when the tulip farms are in all their glory. Belgium is another ideal happy hunting-ground for such as take their

pleasure while the vineyards of the Rhine are under bare poles. To Mr. Gooday, the courteous continental manager of the Great Eastern Railway, tourists to Holland and Belgium are indebted for an admirably arranged Continental Train Book, in which will also be found an excellent series of well-considered circular tours, especially commending themselves on the score of economy and convenience. Those who are fond of the sea may set sail for Hamburg, now one of the most splendid cities in Europe, and take a glance at quaint Heligoland, where the national colors -red, white, and green-are reproduced on the sands, the cliffs, and the meadows. It is wisest to make an early tour among towns and cities. Other climates are apt to resemble that of England and to be somewhat variable at fickle Easter-tide, so that the resources of picture-galleries, music, and theatres are extremely desirable. In spite of Mr. Stevenson's assertion that, to enjoy travel, solitude is essential, most people will agree that a single tried friend adds vastly to the pleasure of the journey, especially if he be better informed than his companion. Those who contemplate a little trip when the rigors of an English spring have in some measure abated may be warmly recommended to pick up as much information as they can before starting concerning the scene of their projected wanderings. Novels-descriptive novels-are the best of all guides, and these are now so nu. merous that there are few celebrated places around which the desultory reader cannot cluster a crowd of charming or thrilling asso. ciations. Hawthorne will be the guide to Rome, Thackeray to Paris, Charlotte Brontë to Brussels, Rowland Grey to " Sunny Switzerland," and in the same author's later books, entitled "Lindenblumen" and "Jacob's Letter," we have in romantic settings a series of pictures of Antwerp, the Rhine, Heidelberg, Homburg, and Lake Como; while Mark Twain's jocular " Tramp Abroad" conducts us to many of the cities and villages on the tourists' beaten track. - Western Independent.

THE SCENERY OF THE MODERN STAGE.-The modern fashion is to build the scene together piece by piece, each section being attached to its neighbor by "cleat and line," as it is called (the line on the one piece passes over a small hook or projection-the cleat-on the other, is then made fast below, and holds the whole in its place), while additional stability is obtained, if required, by attaching the back of

the scene to the stage with iron "braces." Scenes so constructed possess almost unlimited capabilities of varied and picturesque effect; but the time occupied in setting them far exceeds that required by the older and simpler methods, and hence has arisen, in some theatres at any rate, that new-fangled addition to the "unities of the drama," the principle of "one act one scene." The old method, whereby stage carpenters dragged together coram populo the halves of a landscape or a drawing-room, was not without its artistic drawbacks, but at least avoided doing that violence to the text of some of our finest plays with which recent revivals have familiarized us. The importance of modern mise-enscène appears reflected in the very bulk to which it swells; the old-fashioned scenery was painted on flat-canvased frames, which would in storage stand closely side by side like a gigantic pack of cards; but it is now no longer the fashion to trust for perspective entirely to the painter's brush. Architectural details are solidly reproduced in heavily timbered carpenter's work, or in papier-mâché mouldings; raised grassy banks, rocks that might deceive a geologist, and streams of "real water" adorn a woodland scene; while modern interiors," with walls and ceilings, doors and windows of massive aspect, appear far more capable of withstanding the elements than the "jerry-built" residence of many a suburban playgoer. Thus space, which would formerly have held the scenery for an entire season with its constant changes of programme now scarcely suffices to house the mounting of a single play, and an additional and very substantial bulwark appears to be erected to protect the present system of long runs and scanty répertoires. But, after all, the most serious charge we have to make against modern mise en scène is that it is so costly, and we make this charge out of no tender solicitude for the exchequers of our managers, who are quite able, if they are fit to be managers at all, to take care of themselves. On the contrary, we make it because we see that the artistic advance of the drama is constantly obstructed by this costly expenditure on its trappings. It is this expenditure that makes our managers so chary in the production of novelties; the man who ventures a younger son's portion with each change of his programme is not unnaturally inclined to " hedge" (so far as lies in his power) by minimizing the other risks attendant on his enter.. prise; and, as the production of a play which

has already proved successful either on our own or on some foreign stage is less of a "leap in the dark" than the exploitation of new and original work, so we find in certain managerial counsels a tendency to play for safety, and to rely mainly on revivals and translations. Were £100 considered sufficient to purchase the decorations which now perhaps cost £1000, there would be more work for our playwrights.—Saturday Review.

THE HORSES OF THE PAMPAS.-It would indeed be as impossible to measure the Pampas horse by the standard of an English horse as to measure a Gaucho by the standard of an ordinary city man. Each man and each animal must be estimated according to the work he is required to do. Putting aside carthorses and those employed in heavy draught, almost every horse in England, except the cab horse, is an object of luxury. He has a man to look after him, is fed on regular hay, is never called on to endure much fatigue, carry much weight, still less to resist the inclemency of the weather. He is valued for his speed, for his docility, or merely for his pecuniary value in the market. In the Pampas none of these things is of prime importance. We do not require great speed from our horses, we care nothing as to their docility, and their pecuniary value is small. What we do look for, is endurance, easy paces, sobriety, and power of withstanding hunger and thirst. A horse that will carry a heavy man seventy miles is a good horse, one that can do ninety miles with the same weight is a better horse, and if he can repeat the performance two or three days in succession, he is the best, no matter if he be piebald, skewbald, one-eyed, cow-houghed, oyster-footed, or has as many blemishes as Petruchio's own mustang. Talking with some Gauchos, seated on the gravel, one starlit night, before a fire of bones and dried thistles, the conversation fell as usual upon horses. After much of the respective merits of English and Argentine horses, after many of the legends as closely trenching on the supernatural as is befitting the dignity of horsemen in all countries, an ancient, shrivelled Gaucho turned to me with, "How often do you feed your horses, Don Roberto, in England? Every day?" Thereupon, on being answered, he said, with the mingled sensitiveness and fatuity of the mixed race of Spanish and Indian, " God knows, the Argentine horse is a good horse, the second day without food or water, and if not He,

then the devil, for he is very old.' In all countries the intelligent are aware that you can't estimate a horse's goodness by his stature. The average stature of the Pampas horses is about fourteen and one half handswhat we should call a pony in England. In his case, however, his length of loin, his lean neck, and relatively immense stride show that it is no pony we have to deal with, but a horse, of low stature if you will, but one that wants a man to ride him.

Intelligent and fiery eyes, clean legs, round feet and well-set sloping shoulders, long pasterns, and silky manes and tails, form the best points of the Pampas horse. His defects are generally slack loins and heavy head, not the coarse" head of the underbred horse of Europe, but one curiously developed that may or may not be, as Darwin says it is, the result of having to exert more mental effort than the horse of civilization. Of his color, variable is he; brown, black, bay, chestnut, piebald, and gray, making a kaleidoscopic picture, as on the dusty plains, or through the green monte (wood) a herd of them flash past, with waving tails and manes, pursued by Gauchos as wild and fiery-eyed as they. As on the steppes of Russia, the plains of Queensland and Arabia, the trot is unknown. To cross a Pampa loaded with the necessaries of desert life, without a path to follow, it would be a useless pace. The slow gallop and the jog trot, the Paso Castellano of the Spaniards, the Rhakran of the Turks, is the usual pace. The pacer of the North American, the ambler of the Middle Ages, is in little esteem upon the Pampas. You spar him, he does not bound; he is a bad swimmer. As the Gaucho says, "he is useless for the lazo, though perhaps he may do for an Englishman to ride." Manso como para un Ingles (tame enough for an Englishman to ride) is a saying in the Argentine provinces.

Where did these horses come from, from where their special powers of endurance? How did these special paces first characterize them, and how is it that so many of the superstitions connected with them are also to be found among the Arabs? My answer is unhesitatingly, from the Arabs. All the characteristics of the Arabs are to be observed in the Argentine horses; the bit used is that of Turkey and Morocco, the saddle is a modification of the Oriental one, and the horses, I think, are in like manner descended from those in Barbary. It is pretty generally known that the conquest of America was rendered much

easier to the Spaniards by the fact that they possessed horses and the natives had never seen them. Great, well-watered, grassy plains, a fine climate, and an almost entire absence of wild beasts-what wonder, therefore, that the progeny of the Spanish cavalry horses has extended itself (in the same way as did the horses turned loose at the siege of Azov in the sixteenth century on the steppes of Russia) all over the Pampas, from the semi-tropical plains of Tucuman and Rioja right down to the Straits of Magellan? Spanish writers tell us that Cordoba was the place from which the conquerors of America took most of their horses. To ride like a Cordobese was in the Middle Ages a saying in Spain (and such it has remained to this day). Cervantes makes one of his characters say "he could ride as well as the best Cordobese or Mexican," prov. ing the enormous increase of horses in the New World even in his time, not much more than a hundred years after the Conquest. In the plains of Cordoba, to this day, large quantities of horses are bred, but of a very different stamp from their descendants of the Pampas. Where, then, did the original stock come from? Cordoba was the richest of the Moorish kingdoms of Spain in the thirteenth century. It was directly in communication with Damascus. Thus there is little doubt that the Cordobese horses were greatly improved by the introduction of Arab blood. However, Damascus was a long way off, and the journey a difficult and a dangerous cne. It therefore seems more probable to me that most part of the Cordobese horses came over from Barbary. A remarkable physical fact would seem to bear out my belief. Most horses, in fact almost all breeds of horses, have six lumbar vertebræ. A most careful observer, the late Edward Losson, a professor in the Agricultural College of Santa Catalina, near Buenos Ayres, has noted the remarkable fact that the horses of the Pampas have only five. Following up his researches, he has found that the only other breed of horses in which a similar peculiarity is to be found is that of Barbary. Taking into consideration the extreme nearness of the territories of Andalusia and Barbary, and the constant com. munication that in Mohammedan times must have existed between them, I am of opinion that the horses of the Pampas are evidently descended from those of Barbary.-Time.

How LARGE WAS ANCIENT ROME ?-After carefully examining all the data we have, all the

statements and various ancient writers who allude to it, and all the facts which seem to bear on the question, I am convinced that in estimating the population at 4,000,000 I am rather understating than overstating it. It is much more probable that it was larger than that it was smaller. De Quincey also estimates the inhabitants of Rome at 4,000,000. I will only cite one fact, and then leave the question. The Circus Maximus was constructed to hold 250,000, or, according to Victor, at a later period probably, 385,000 spectators. Taking the smaller number, then, it would be 1 in 16 of all the inhabitants if there were 4,000,000. But as one half the population was composed of slaves, who must be struck out of the spectators, when the circus was built there would be accommodation then for 1 in 8 of the total population, excluding slaves. Reducing again the number one half by striking out the women, there would be room for 1 in 4. Again, striking out the young children and the old men and the sick and impotent, you would have accommodation for nearly the whole population. Is it possible to believe that the. Romans constructed a circus to hold the entire population of Rome capable of going to it?-for such must have been the case were there only 4,000,000 of inhabitants. But suppose there were only 1,000,000 inhabitants, it is plain from the mere figures that it would never have been possible to half fill the circus.— Blackwood's Magazine.

ENGINEERING FEATS AND THEIR COST TO LIFE. -The opening of the Forth Bridge is certainly an engineering achievement of which we may legitimately be proud, but the piteous appeal to the Prince of Wales on behalf of the widows and orphans is evidence of the cost to life involved by these gigantic enterprises. In the present instance, every conceivable precaution seems to have been taken to prevent accident, but in spite of these some fifty lives have been immolated to the steel Juggernaut. Large as this number appears when viewed in the aggregate, it is in reality a small relative mortality for an undertaking which has taken seven years to carry out, and on which as many as four thousand men have been at work at the same time. Indeed, if one inquires into the conditions under which the work was carried on, the ultimate feeling is less one of surprise at the number than of satisfaction that no more were sacrificed. Apart, however, from direct danger to life, the damage to