"At Gungoutri there are several sheds erected for the shelter of pilgrims; and as the evening was far advanced, and a storm brewing, I went into one of them. It was a long narrow building, and the further end was so wrapped in darkness, that I had been some moments in it before I perceived anything. I was attracted by a sullen murmur, and went to the spot whence it proceeded. A miserable wretch had just blown a few sticks into a flame; and as the light burst upon his countenance, I unconsciously receded, and had to summon all my fortitude to return to him again. His eyes started from his head, and his bones were visible through his skin his teeth chattered, and his whole frame shook with cold and I never saw hair longer or more twisted than his was. I spoke to him, but in vain he did not even deign to look at me-and made no motion, but to blow the embers into a fresh blaze; the fitful glare of which, falling on his skeleton form, made me almost think that I had descended to the tomb. I found that he had come for the purpose of ending his life by starvation at Gungoutri. Many faquirs have attempted this death, and have lingered on the banks of the river for several days without food. The Brahmin, however, assures me that nobody can die in so holy a place; and to preserve its character for being unconnected with mortality, the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages take care they should not, and bear them by force away, and feed them, or at any rate give them the liberty to die elsewhere.

"A small temple marks the sacred source of the river; and immediately opposite is the orthodox spot for bathing and filling the phials, which, when ready, receive the stamp of authenticity from the seal of the Brahmin who wears it as a ring upon his finger: it bears the following inscription engraved upon it-"The water of the Bhagirathi, Gungoutri.' Without such mark the water would not be deemed holy by the purchasers in the plains."

Men of all countries have aspired to something beyond nature; even in our land, ladies acknowledge supernatural gifts, and men believe them; workers of miracles are not scarce in the East:

66

"I do not believe much in that, for indeed I never witnessed a man but once, who could work a miracle. A naked faquir came to the village where I was born, and asked me to be his guide to Gungoutri. He refused food, for he said he could feed himself whenever he felt hungry. Take your stick," said he, "and leave the rest to me." "To you?" I answered, "why, you are a beggar! what can you give me?" He had nothing with him but the dried gourd, from which he drank water. He looked angry, and repeating, "Ram! Ram!" desired me to set forth. When we reached Bairo Ghati, he bade me wait at the temple while he bathed; and on his coming up to it, asked if I was hungry, and what I would like to have: "Some cakes of flour," I replied. In a few moments after he had prayed, the ground was spread with cakes. He performed the same miracle at Gungoutri-on that very spot,' pointing to the front of the adjoining shed. 'I do not lie, for I saw it with my own eyes, and eat the cakes; and very good they were.'-' I do not lie, like Mr. Mathews' Longbow,' was the invariable summing-up of every story he told; and it frequently offered a fair presumption why a verdict of 'guilty' should be recorded against him."

sight to see the honour and attention she meets with from a Christian society. Many of the worst tales are currently believed, particularly that sad one of her stretching a carpet over the ground, beneath which two female slaves were buried alive. She smoked her pipe coolly, it is said, until she thought they were dead; afraid, if she had moved from the spot, that more ten

der-hearted people might have rescued them. In the present age, when these horrors are supposed to live in story alone, it is difficult to believe such cruelty possible, when confronted with the gay and smiling countenance of the perpetrator of them. We may really say, though from a very different cause, Look in her face, and you forget them all,' for a more lively old dame is not to be found. I have heard many instances of her bounty as well as of her cruelty; and I believe the Europeans about her person have no cause to be dissatisfied with her generosity. She is, however, a female Djezzar Pacha, and has all the caprice as well as the barbarity of a tyrant."

We shall conclude with a picture of eastern manners; the Captain grows thirsty on his way from Doolah to Meerut:

"I felt very thirsty from my long drive; and as I had no cup of my own, I feared I should find some difficulty in obtaining a draught of water. In Bengal, when I asked for a drink on a similar occasion, a man brought me a new

earthern vessel, which he dashed to the ground in a thousand pieces the moment I had satisfied my thirst, lest any Hindoo should be polluted by using it after me; I was agreeably surprised to find myself better treated here, although all were Hindoos. A woman sent me a brass vessel to drink from; and, when I returned it, merely emptied out the water I had left, and rubbed it over with sand, deeming a purification of some sort still absolutely necessary."

We make our salaam to Capt. Skinner, and thank him for the entertainment and instruction he has afforded us. The East India Company may well be proud of the attain ments of their servants: they have written many excellent works, and some of them on very lofty topics.

Characteristics of Woman, Moral, Poetical, and Historical. By Mrs. Jameson. 2 vols. London: Saunders & Ottley. "ACCIDENT first made me an authoress; and not now, nor ever, have I written to flatter any prevailing fashion of the day for the sake of profit, though this is done, I know, by many who have less excuse for thus coining their brains. This little book was undertaken without a thought of fame or money: out of the fulness of my own heart and soul have I written it. In the pleasure it has given me, in the new and various views of human nature it has opened to me, in the beautiful and soothing images it has placed before me, in the exercise and improvement of my own faculties, I have already been repaid: if praise or profit come beside, they come as a surplus. I should be gratified and grateful, but I have not sought for them, nor worked for them."

Some of the eastern dames are not, however, so harmlessly employed, as speaking a language which no one understands :

characters-all this, and more than this, are reserved for next week: in the meantime, to enable our readers to taste the spirit of the work we shall quote a passage-we cannot well open it wrong: a part of the Introduction will do as well as any-nay, better, for here we have the notions of the authoress

concerning the handling of her quicksilvery subject.

"Alda. Women are illustrious in history, not from what they have been in themselves, but generally in proportion to the mischief they have done or caused. Those characters best fitted to my purpose are precisely those of which history never heard, or disdains to speak: of those which have been handed down to us by many different authorities under different aspects we cannot judge without prejudice; in others there occur certain chasms which it is difficult to supply; and hence inconsistencies we have no means of reconciling, though doubtless they might be reconciled if we knew the whole, in stead of a part.

"Medon. But instance-instance!

"Alda. Examples crowd upon me: but take the first that occurs. Do you remember that Duchess de Longueville, whose beautiful picture we were looking at yesterday?-the heroine of the Fronde ?-think of that woman-bold, intriguing, profligate, vain, ambitious, factious!who made men rebels with a smile, or if that were not enough,-the lady was not scrupulous,

apparently without principle as without shame, nothing was too much! And then think of the same woman protecting the virtuous philosopher Arnauld, when he was denounced and condemned; and from motives which her worst enemies could not malign, secreting him in her house, unknown even to her own servants-preparing his food herself, watching for his safety, and at length saving him. Her tenderness, her patience, her discretion, her disinterested benevolence, not only defied danger, that were little to a woman of her temper,) but endured a lengthened trial, all the ennui caused by the necessity of keeping her house, continual self-controul, and the thousand small daily sacrifices which to a vain, dissipated, proud, impatient woman, must have been hard to bear. Now, if Shakspeare had drawn the character of the Duchess de Longueville, he would have shown us the same individual woman in both situations; for the same being, with the same faculties, and passions, and powers, it surely was: whereas in history, we see in one case a fury of discord, a woman without modesty or pity; and in the other an angel of benevolence, and a worshipper of goodness; and nothing to connect the two extremes in our fancy.

"Medon. But these are contradictions which we meet on every page of history, which make us giddy with doubt or sick with belief; and are the proper subjects of inquiry for the moralist and the philosopher.

"Alda. I cannot say that professed moralists and philosophers did much to help me out of the dilemma; but the riddle which history presented I found solved in the pages of Shakspeare. There the crooked appeared straight, the inaccessible, easy, the incomprehensible, plain. All I sought, I found there; his characters combine history and real life; they are complete individuals, whose hearts and souls are laid open before us-all may behold and all judge for themselves."

and

This is as it should be, a most lady-like work; beautiful in its print and paper, elegant in its embellishments; nor can it well fail to be a successful one, and for the sake of genius, we hope it will be so.

Mirabeau's Letters during his residence in

England. 2 vols. London: Wilson. THIS work comes before us in a very "questionable shape." The anonymous translator states in his preface, that being at Brussels in 1806, he had an opportunity of taking copies of these letters, some of which, he confesses, were not in the handwriting of Mirabeau, nor did it appear to whom any one of them was addressed. Upon such authority only, does the authenticity of this correspondence rest; and we must confess, that, after reading them attentively, we entertain strong doubts of their being genuine; there is certainly no internal evidence of their emanation from a mind like that of Mirabeau. The objects noticed, and the views taken, evince no superior understanding; there is none of that powerful philosophy-of that keen and searching perception-of that wonderful political acumen for which Mirabeau was so remarkable.

There is prefixed a biographical sketch of Mirabeau, the writer of which seems to be on the best terms with himself. It contains nothing not already known.

OUR LIBRARY TABLE.

'Rhymes and Reminiscences,' by the Rev. J. Saul. Mr. Saul must excuse us, but we cannot enrol him among the prophets. There is nothing in his Rhymes or Reminiscences of which he need be ashamed, in point of moral sentiment; but as to poetry and poetical expression, a flag-staff contains as much. Apropos of a flagstaff-here is the military opening to a fragment touching a broken heart:

I sentinelled her death-couch-saw her part!
The look that telegraphs a broken heart
Glanced from her upturned eye; yet, Patience, thou,
Like a young angel, sat'st upon her brow, &c.

Leaving the angel Patience to his or her very uneasy seat, we turn to another specimen at once military, marine, and legal ;

What! though of earth the direst forms appear-
What! though Destruction his red gauntlet rear,
And crush the life of life beneath his shock,
Like Ocean's spindrift spattered on the rock!
Hope still directs pale Pity's dewy eyes,
To sure reversions treasured in the skies.

We also beg to ask the candid reader whether the two following lines, meant to illustrate the growth of a vine, would not much better describe the noonday peregrinations of a cat :The clambering vine o'er clustering roses crept, Then climbed the roof, and in luxuriance slept.

We would gladly praise if we could; but after searching the volume, as the lady in Logan's ballad sought the forest, "thorough," we have been equally disappointed

She only saw the cloud of night,
She only heard the roar of Yarrow.

Charlotte in wayward mood her mind had changed, Her wealth and confidence from me estranged; A private will she made, and left me nought, Save the poor income to her store I brought; The which she mentioned as in bitter hate, Saying, "I would not leave him desolate!" My Acracy's stipend-('twas that she meant)Th' expenses of my voyage home had spent; And when I stood again on English ground, An empty purse-a sorrowing heart I found. The Smaller Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon of Professor Simonis, translated by C. Seager,' is a brief but comprehensive vocabulary, and well adapted to the use of junior students, who are too frequently deterred by the toil of hunting over the larger lexicons, and confused by the number and prolixity of the explanations. Some very useful hints on the best mode of acquiring a practical knowledge of Hebrew, are given in the preface.

'The Bibliotheca Scoto-Celtica, by John Reid,' is a useful catalogue of all the books which have been printed in the Gaelic language. It is enriched by many judicious bibliographical notices, and by several interesting anecdotes respecting the modern Gaelic poets. The author has given some account of the several dialects of the Celtic in his introduction, and has dwelt at some length on the subject of Irish manuscripts. There is one in the possession of Dr. Murphy, the Catholic Bishop of Cork, which he has not mentioned, but which would probably throw much light on European history; it is a life of Charlemagne, apparently written by some Irishman who resided in the French Court, and contains many curious anecdotes respecting the habits and customs that prevailed during the period of the Carlovengian dynasty.

A Manual of Grecian Antiquities,' by G. H. Smith.-This is the second Manual of Grecian Antiquities, that has come before us in the course of a few weeks, and we welcome it as a proof that the guardians of education have at length become convinced that such ponderous tomes as those of Potter and Robinson are wholly useless to junior students. The compilation before us is fairly executed, and the editor has availed himself of the modern works of Heeren and Cardwell, to explain many interesting particulars respecting the religious system and political economy of the Athenians.

'The Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations,' by J. C. Prichard, M.D.-The learning and research displayed in this work, leads us to regret that the author has devoted so much time and toil to an unprofitable subject. After all the boasts of our antiquaries, it must be confessed, that Celtic literature is scanty in extent, and still more limited in value; and in this age of utilitarianism, we fear that few will encounter the toil of studying and comparing languages, merits to reward the labour of study. difficult to be learned, and possessing no special

'Ince's Outlines of General Knowledge.'-It is difficult, and even dangerous, to define what are "school essentials": we shall never know enough, and we can never know too much. Mr. Ince does not, however, affect to have comprised, in a small book, all that will suffice in the matters of history, biography, geography, &c.&c.: he intends it simply as initiatory; and though, for our own part, we decidedly prefer beginning even on a more extended scale, we are bound to say, that the present manual contains, for its size, a remarkable quantity of interesting and well-arranged information. It would make a valuable present to Sunday-schools and lending libraries.

'Remember Me: a Token of Christian Affection.' -This is the second appearance of a religious Annual-small in size, prettily got up, and, without affecting any great pretensions, sufficiently attractive to be worth encouraging. It contains a pleasing piece of biography; also two interesting poems by James Montgomery

and Bernard Barton.

'Kidd's Picturesque Pocket Companion to Richmond,' &c.-A very neat, communicative, and portable book, which should find its way to the hands of all strangers who wish in one excursion to get intimate with the beauties of Kew, Richmond, Twickenham, and Hampton Court. The wood-cuts are numerous, and not unfaithful.

'Pierce Egan's Book of Sports,' No. 21.-Those who desire to know the rise and progress of the noble art of wrestling in England, need only look into this number for full satisfaction; they will there learn the comparative merits of the wrestlers of Cumberland, Westmorland, Devon, and Cornwall; the former for our money-we exclaim with Chaucer

In wrastling there was none their peer
Where any ram shulde stonde.

'A Treatise on the Nature and Causes of Doubt.'-A subject is here taken, and in many respects very well disposed of, which requires the earnest consideration of all who are anxious to prevent the growth of infidelity. The author of this little volume has evidently written from experience; and whilst he does not affect to have put forth a work having much claim to original reasoning, he has carefully digested much information. What is better still, he debates in the right spirit, and makes a wide difference between the scepticism of conscientious doubt, and the scepticism which has its rise in "faults in the life." We commend the book to the attention of those who have much contact with minds at once intelligent and audacious; and for all who are connected with the great work of education, we quote the following weighty remark:

"I conceive it a radical error in the general system of education in this country, that while the truths of the established religion are sedu

I do acknowledge I can scarcely swallow The homage which mechanics pay Apollo. Every one for himself;-probably Apollo may as little like the lady's; of which a specimen, and then we commend the Tales entire, to all who are not particular what they read, and are ignorant of the true value of three and sixpence. Her love was sudden, flexuous, like the flame Which wasted by its flickering became ; But Laura's shone with steady cheering ray, And burned still brightly till she passed away:

and proved by a process which would demonstrate equally well the non-existence of America, and the reality of Lilliput. Of such a book, it of ridicule could aggravate its absurdity. It is impossible to speak seriously, yet no powers will be read and valued by the descendants of those Britons who monopolized civilization before Rome was built; but the posterity of the semi-barbarians that Cæsar found in these islands, will speedily consign it to unhonoured oblivion.

"The Church of God; in a Series of Sermons.'These Sermons, by the Rev. Robert Wilson Evans, author of the Rectory of Valehead,' are too elaborate for family use; but for the private study of cultivated readers they are much to be admired, as combining devotion and literature.

"The Nature, Use, and End, of the Office of Dean Rural.'-This little publication comes, it seems, from the manuscripts of one not unknown to science and letters, Dr. Priaulx, Rural Dean of Chalke, in Wiltshire, in 1666. Concerning the name, title, origin, appointment, and functions, personal and capitular, of Rural Deans, we have neither space nor leisure to make comments; some light is afforded both by the text and notes of this pamphlet-sized work; but more is required to enable laymen to form right conclusions: we are not however sure that more light would make the matter attractive.

ORIGINAL PAPERS

TO SORROW.

Spirit of the lonely vale,
With the long-lash'd dewy eye
Bending o'er the lilies pale
'Neath the melancholy sky;
Sorrow! when in primrose fields,

Where the rills laugh, sing the bowers, Fondest sigh life's pilgrim yields

To thy vale of sunless flowers. Who beside the streamlet dwells,

With the merry sylvan song Mingling music through the dells, Little heeds, or heeds not long: Bless the guide's mysterious hand,

Sun that smiles, and cloud that lowers; Doubly fair joy's summer-land

For the vale of sunless flowers!

S. S.

MEMOIR OF SHELLEY. [Continued from p. 474.] SHELLEY'S ill-assorted marriage contributed, as might have been foreseen, to the misery of both parties.

Some of the outpourings of his soul on this fatal union were these:

"What is love? Ask him who lives, what is life-ask him who adores, what is God. I know not the internal constitution of other men. I see that in some external attributes they resemble me; but when, misled by that appearance, I have thought to appeal to something in common, and unburthen my inmost soul, I have found my language misunderstood, like one in a distant and savage land. The more opportunities they have afforded me for experience, the wider has appeared the interval between us, and to a greater distance have the points of sympathy been withdrawn.

"With a spirit ill fitted to sustain such proofs, trembling and feeble through its tenderness, I have everywhere sought, and have found only repulse and disappointment. Thou demandest, What is love? If we reason, we would be understood: if we imagine, we would that the airy children of our brain were born anew within another's: if we feel, we would that another's nerves should vibrate to our own, that the beams of her eyes should kindle at once, and mix and melt into our own, that lips of motionless ice should not reply to lips quivering and burning with the heart's best food. This is love; this is the bond and the sanction which connects not only the two sexes, but everything that exists.

"We are born into the world, and there is something within us which, from the instant we live and move, thirsts after its likeness. This propensity developes itself with the developement of our nature-to this eagerly refer all sensations thirsting that they should resemble or correspond with it. The discovery of its antetype-the meeting with an understanding capable of clearly estimating the deductions of our own-an imagination which can enter into, and seize upon the subtle and delicate peculiarities which we have delighted to cherish, and unfold in secret-with a frame whose nerves, like the chords of two exquisite lyres strung to the accompaniment of one delightful voice, vibrate with the vibration of our own--and of a combination of all these in such proportion as the type within demands,-this is the

invisible and unattainable point to which love tends; and to attain which it urges forth the powers of man to arrest the faintest shadow of that without which there is no rest or respite to the heart over which it rules. Hence, in solitude, or in that deserted state when we are surrounded by human beings, and yet they sympathize not with us, we love the flowers, and the grass, and the waters, and the sky. In the motion of the very leaves of spring in the blue air there is found a secret correspondence with our heart that awakens the spirits to a dance of breathless rapture, and brings tears of mysterious tenderness to the eyes, like the enthusiasm of patriotic success, or the voice of one beloved singing to you alone.

"Sterne says, that, if he were in a desert, he would love some cypress. So soon as this want or power is dead, man becomes the living sepulchre of himself, and what yet survives is the mere wreck of what he was.' Is there anything in the writings of Rousseau that can compare with the tenderness, with the eloquence of passion, contained in these aspirations?

What disappointed hopes gave birth to them we may more than conjecture. It was with such lacerated and withered feelings that he sate down to trace the wanderings of Alastor, and, under the idealism of the spirit of solitude, to paint his own vain and fruitless search of a being with whom he could sympathize, and render this earth, what, in his enthusiastic admiration of nature, I have often heard him call it, a paradise.

In looking back to his first marriage, it is surprising, not that it should have ended in a separation, but that he should have continued to drag for more than three years the matrimonial chain, every link of which was a protraction of torture. That separation, for which there were other and more serious grounds, into which I shall not enter, took place by mutual consent, and, considering himself free, he resolved to go abroad. His health, always delicate, was impaired by the misery he had undergone, and the quantity of that beverage, other than a Lethean one to him, laudanum, which he had taken. He required change of scene, and a milder climate; and on the 28th July, 1814, commenced a continental tour. He crossed the Channel in an open boat, and had a very narrow escape of being upset in a sudden squall. Passing a few days in Paris, he received a small remittance; and after talking over with his party, and rejecting many plans, fixed on one eccentric enough-to walk through France-went to the Marché des Herbes, bought an ass, and thus started for Charenton: there, finding the quadruped too weak to carry his portmanteau, he made the purchase of a mule, and not without many adventures arrived with this singular equipage at Troyes.

The desolation and ruin that the Cossacks left everywhere behind them in their pestilential march-the distress of the inhabitants, whose houses had been so lately burned, their cattle killed, and their all destroyed, made a deep impression on Shelley's feeling mind, and gave a sting to his detestation of war and despotism.

Further pedestrianism being rendered impossible by a sprained ancle, the remainder of the journey to Neuchatel was performed par voiture. Lucerne was the next canton visited:

coasting its romantic lake up to Brunen, the château was hired for a week. But finding he had only 287. left, and no chance of further remittances till December, he resolved with that small sum to return home by the Reuss and the Rhine. Shelley and his party took the coche d'eau for Loffenburgh: thence to Mumph the passage was made in a narrow, long flat-bottomed machine, consisting of pieces of deal nailed together. "The river is rapid, and sped swiftly, breaking as it passed over rocks just covered by the water. It was a sight of some dread to see the frail boat winding along the eddies of the rocks, which it was death to touch, and where the slightest inclination on one side would instantly have overset it." However, this punt brought them in safety to Basle, where, hiring a boat for Mayence, they bade adieu to Switzerland; and landed in England from Rotterdam on the 13th August, having travelled 800 miles at an expense of less than 301. Shelley used to describe with an enthusiasm that was infectious, the rapturous enjoyment this voyage down the Rhine was to him;-to dilate with all the fire of poetic inspiration, on the rapidity of their descent of that torrent-like riverwinding now along banks of vines, or greenest pastures-now rushing past craggy heights surmounted by feudal castles.

This was one of the favourite topics in which he delighted to intoxicate his imagination; and, with a prodigality, like that of Nature in some tropical island, to lavish a world of wealth, as though his store was inexhaustible as hers.

The next eighteen months after his return were passed almost exclusively in London, where he had to suffer all the horrors of poverty. It was at this time, I imagine, that he walked the hospitals, and studied medicine, not with any intention of practising it as a profession, but with a view of alleviating the sufferings of humanity. His knowledge of anatomy was very limited; but he made himself a tolerable botanist. I doubt, however, whether Shelley had not too much imagination to make any great proficiency in the abstract sciences: nature and education both designed him for a poet.

In May 1816, Shelley paid a second visit to the continent, and reached Sécheron, near Geneva, on the 17th of that month. On his arrival he learned, that Byron was living in the Hotel. Some correspondence on the subject of 'Queen Mab' had already passed between himself and Shelley: it was renewed, and in their interview they were so mutually pleased with each other, that it ended in Shelley's deciding to take a villa immediately at the foot of that already taken by Lord Byron, the Campagne Diodati,name associated with that of Milton, and perhaps one of Childe Harold's principal reasons for choosing it as a residence. The cottage occupied by Shelley is in a most sequestered spot. There is no access to it in a carriage. It stands only separated from the lake by a small garden, much overgrown by trees. A pathway through the vineyard of Diodati communicates with it. It was here that Byron formed an attachment to the mother of Allegra. They were not altogether strangers, he having seen her once on the eve of his departure for the continent, when she applied to him for an engagement at Drury Lane; but he was no longer on the Committee of the theatre, and could not for

STEAM COACHES.

Or the various projectors who have engaged in the adaptation of the steam-engine to propel carriages on turnpike roads, there are three whose proceedings are brought to such a state of maturity, as to present a reasonable probability of the speedy establishment of steam carriages in several populous districts of this country.

Mr. Gurney, the earliest and most spirited projector, has associated with him in his patent four gentlemen of large property; and a company is in progress for the purpose of working carriages under this patent. Carriages constructed with Mr. Gurney's boiler were worked for four months during the early part of last year, between Gloucester and Cheltenham-a distance of about ten miles. This journey was performed regularly four times a day, during the period just mentioned, at a greater speed than that of horse coaches, and at half their fares. The hostility evinced by the various parties who fancied their interests injured by the establishment of steam carriages and the removal of horses, occasioned the proprietors of the steam carriages constant and most vexatious annoyance. In addition to this, those who had the management of the road threw obstructions in the way, by spreading loose stones to the depth of eighteen inches on a considerable portion of the road over which the carriage was compelled to run. Finally, a number of Turnpike Bills were smuggled through Parliament, laying prohibitory tolls on all carriages propelled by machinery. This gave the coup de grace to the steam carriages, and they were necessarily discontinued in June last.

Mr. Gurney now petitioned Parliament for the repeal of the prohibitory toll bills; and a committee was appointed, which received evidence, and published a report in October last, in which, after recapitulating the evidence, the committee declare that the following propositions have been fully established:

1. That carriages can be propelled by steam on common roads, at an average rate of ten miles per hour.

2. That at this rate they have conveyed upwards of fourteen passengers.

3. That their weight, including engine, fuel, water, and attendants, may be under three tons. 4. That they can ascend and descend hills of considerable inclination, with facility and safety.

5. That they are perfectly safe for passengers. 6. That they are not (or need not be, if properly constructed) nuisances to the public.

7. That they will become a speedier and cheaper mode of conveyance than carriages drawn by horses.

8. That as they admit of greater breadth of tire than other carriages, and as the roads are not acted on so injuriously as by the feet of horses in common draught, such carriages will cause less wear of roads than coaches drawn by horses.

9. That rates of toll have been imposed on steam carriages, which would prohibit their being used on several lines of road, were such charges permitted to remain unaltered.

The prohibitory toll bills are now in process of being repealed, the repeal bill having already passed the Commons, and steam carriages will speedily be subject to the same tolls as carriages of an equivalent weight drawn by horses.

All carriages worked by steam, whether on turnpike roads or rail roads, are propelled by causing the engine to turn the wheels of the carriage, in exactly the same manner as ordinary steam engines turn their fly-wheels. The propelling wheel is fixed or keyed upon the axle, so as to be incapable of turning independently of it; and the axle being caused to revolve by

a crank, or other similar contrivance connected with the piston-rod of the engine, the wheel is thus turned, and from its adhesion to the road, it cannot turn without causing the progressive motion of the carriage. The chief point of difference then between the steam carriages of different projectors is in the form of the boiler.

The objects to be attained in the construction of a boiler for a steam carriage, are, 1, power2, rapid production of steam-3, lightness.

The power must depend principally on the strength of the boiler, the pressure and temperature which it is capable of bearing, and on the intensity and magnitude of the fire which can be maintained in the furnace. The rapidity with which steam can be produced will also depend on the intensity and magnitude of the fire. But it will equally depend on the extent of surface of the boiler in contact with water which is exposed to the action of the fire.

In the boiler of Mr. Gurney, the fire is surrounded on every side by tubes filled with water. The grate-bars on which the fire rests are tubes slightly inclined upwards; the back of the furnace is formed of a grating of vertical tubes; and the roof of the furnace is likewise formed of a grating of tubes filled with water, sloping slightly upwards from the back towards the front. The tubes forming the fire-grate and roof of the furnace, communicate with two strong cylindrical vessels in front, above and below the fire door; and these vessels again are connected by two short vertical tubes on each

side of the fire door. It will thus be seen that the water is distributed on every side around the fire. When the furnace is in action, an extensive sheet of burning fuel is spread on the lower tubes which form the grate-bars; and the water in these tubes receives whatever heat from the fire may pass downwards. The radiant heat, which is scattered upwards in every direction, is received by the water which fills the tubes in the roof, at the back, front, and on every side of the furnace. The draught of air which passes through the burning fuel, and maintains it in a state of combustion, is carried through a flue in the back of the furnace, and is conducted behind the tubes at the back, and above the tubes in the roof, imparting, as it passes, its heat to the water in those tubes, and it finally escapes by a chimney.

The effect of this arrangement is, that the water in the tubes, at the back and roof of the furnace, becoming lighter by increased temperature, acquires a tendency to ascend, and passes towards the cylindrical vessel at the top of the furnace in front. It is immediately replaced by the less heated water from below, and a circulation is thus constantly maintained. As the action of the furnace proceeds, a number of thin threads of water are thus continually whirled round the fire with inconceivable rapidity, and the water is raised to a temperature which affords steam of from 100 lbs. to 200 lbs. pressure on the square inch. The steam bubbles produced in the tubes are carried upwards by the circulation of the water, and are finally discharged into a vessel called a separator, removed from the action of the fire. Here, the pure steam is separated from the particles of water which are mechanically suspended in it-the latter being conducted back to the tubes, and the pure steam supplied to the engine.

It will be observed that this boiler is not only formed so as to produce steam with all the rapidity necessary to propel a carriage with the requisite velocity, but likewise from its form and materials is capable of sustaining almost unlimited pressure. Every part, being cylindrical, has the shape which, mechanically considered, is best adapted for strength; and the manner in which the water is exposed to the action of the fire, but more especially the prin

ciple by which a rapid circulation is sustained around the fire, is eminently favourable to the abundant generation of steam. It is likewise to be noticed that there is no part of the boiler exposed to the action of the fire,-not even the grate bars, which is not constantly filled with water. This secures the boiler from rapid wear by the burning away of the metal, inasmuch as the water constantly carries off the heat, and the metal of the tubes can never acquire a greater temperature than that of the steam. We have no hesitation in saying, that no form of boiler which has fallen under our attention fulfils so completely as this all the conditions required by theory in a locomotive boiler.

The method of blowing the fire deserves especial notice and approbation. After the steam has worked the engine, it is received into a close chamber, into which it is driven by the returning stroke of the piston. This chamber is kept sufficiently warm to prevent the re-conversion of the steam into water. It communicates with a chimney by a number of small jets presented upwards, through which the steam compressed in the chamber rushes in a constant and steady blast, which, of course, produces a corresponding draught through the fire. The functions of this chamber for the reception of the waste steam from the cylinders may not be inaptly compared to the space included between the upper board and middle of a smith's bellows, the effect of which is to convert the alternate puffs produced by the lowest or working board into a constant and uniform blast..

We regret that our limits compel us to overlook many admirable points in this engine. In our next Number we shall offer some observations on the steam carriages of Mr. Hancock and Dr. Church.

ANTOINE PORTAL.

THE French Institut has again to lament the loss of one of its members. Antoine Portal died this week at Paris, at the advanced age of 90. He was born at Tarn, in the south of France, and sprung from a family celebrated for having, through a lapse of several centuries, constantly produced men of distinguished merit in the healing art. He received his medical educa tion at Montpellier, where he obtained his degree of Doctor of Medicine. In 1765 he went to Paris, and studied surgery, a science then more distinct from medicine than at present. A thorough knowledge of both is now requisite in a good physician or a good surgeon; and the strict separation still existing in England, between medicine and surgery, is a remnant of old prejudice, which the immense progress made in the knowledge of anatomy and surgery ought to have eradicated.

Portal succeeded Ferrein, also a celebrated physician and anatomist, at the Academy of Sciences, and in the Professorship of Medicine at the College of France. In 1777, he was indebted to the friendship of Buffon for the ap pointment of Professor of Anatomy at the Jardin des Plantes, then called the Jardin du Roi.

At the restoration, Portal was appointed first consulting physician to the King, an office which he filled during the successive reigns of Louis XVIII. and Charles X.

Among the numerous successful works of Portal, we need only mention, as imperishable monuments of his fame, his 'Histoire de l'Anatomie et de la Chirurgie,' a work of immense labour, in six volumes; Cours d'Anatomie Médicale,' five volumes; Instruction sur le traitement des Asphyxies par le Méphitisme,' several editions of which were printed by order of the government and gratuitously distributed; and 'Considerations sur la nature et le traitement des maladies de famille et des maladies héréditaires.'

Portal was physician to the celebrated Madame