force alone, having survived just to see the whole object of his life accomplished, can be said, of all the number, to have dropped like the ear ripe for the sickle.

M. Dupin, a passage in whose Travels in Great Britain,' published a short time before, is understood to have in a great measure prompted the meeting, and who was himself present, has preserved a record of the proceedings, in one of the interesting discourses which make up his work on Industry and Commerce (2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1825) already quoted. Lord Liverpool, who first addressed the assembly, concluded his speech by announcing that the King himself had desired him to state how deeply pene. trated his Majesty was with a sense of the services rendered to Great Britain by him whose memory they were met to honour, and desired to place his name at the head of the subscription list, with a subscription of five hundred pounds. Sir Humphry Davy, who followed, in an eloquent comparison between Watt and Archimedes, said that Archimedes held abstract science in the highest esteem, while the genius of Watt, on the contrary, transformed every principle upon which it seized into a useful practical application, and might be said to have called down science from heaven to earth. Mr Boulton, the son of Watt's partner, in an address which he read, stated, that in the single establishment which belonged to Watt and his father at Birmingham, as many steamengines had been constructed as represented the power or effective force of a hundred thousand horses. And allowing, he added, three hundred working days in the year, the annual saving effected by this substitution of a dead for a living motive power, would be not less than two millions and a half of pounds sterling-M. Dupin expresses the disappointment and regret he felt at not hearing any of the speakers do justice to the great merits of Boulton, without whose liberal application of capital and intrepid support of Watt, in the face of every difficulty and discouragement, even the genius of the great improver of the steam-engine might have existed in vain. "To show," he says, "the rare merit of a courage such as this in one, who, not being himself profoundly skilled either in the practice or in the theory of mechanics, could not altogether judge by any examination of his own, either of the value of the proceedings of his partner, or of their chance of eventual success, I will mention a fact. When Watt and Boulton had commenced their establishment at Soho, near Birmingham, and had constructed their first steam-engine, they invited Smeaton, the ablest civil engineer then in England, to give them his opinion of this production of their workshop. After Smeaton had convinced himself by the necessary trials of the great superiority which it already possessed over Newcomen's machine, he doubted the possibility of executing the different parts of the new machine with the extreme precision necessary for its completely successful action. And this difficulty alone made him declare that Watt's invention never would be generally applied as an advantageous moving power in the industrious arts."

It was at this meeting that Mr Peel did himself so much honour by his frank and ardent acknowledgment of the debt of gratitude due by himself and his family to the inventor of the steam-engine, to whom he said, they owed all that they possessed. He felt that the class of society from which he had sprung had been ennobled by the genius of Watt. Mr Brougham dilated eloquently, and, as M. Dupin describes it, "in a tone of voice simple, grave, impressive," on the general character, both intellectual and moral, of his illustrious friend, whose memory they had come together to honour. "Not," he said, "that his memory needs a monument to make it immortal; for the remembrance of him will be as durable as the power which he has subjected to the use of man; but to consecrate his example in the face of the world, and to show to all the world that a man of extraordinary talent cannot employ it better than in devoting it to the service of the whole human species."

Mr Littleton, who spoke after Mr Brougham, quoted a calculation of M. Dupin, according to which, it appeared that the difference between the expense of main

taining all the steam-engines then in Great Britain, and that of maintaining as many horses as would do the same work, was not less than twenty millions of pounds sterling annually. But upon this point we shall conclude with an extract from the newly published work by Dr Ure, on the Philosophy of Manufactures, which places it in a striking light :

"The value of steam-impelled labour may be inferred from the following statement of facts, communicated to me by an eminent engineer, educated in the school of Boulton and Watt :-A manufacturer in Manchester works a sixty-horse Boulton and Watt's steam engine, at a power of 120 horses during the day, and 60 horses during the night; thus extorting from it an impelling-force three times greater than he contracted or paid for. One steam horseraised one foot high per minute; but an animal power is equivalent to 33,000 pounds avoirdupoise horse-power is equivalent to only 22,000 pounds raised one foot high per minute; or, in other terms, to drag a canal boat 220 feet per minute, with a force of 100 pounds acting on a spring: therefore a steam-horse-power is equivalent in working efficiency to one living horse, and one half the labour of ano

a

ther. But a horse can work at its full efficiency only eight hours out of the twenty-four, whereas a steam-engine needs no period of repose; and, therefore to make the animal power equal to the physical power, a relay of one and a half fresh horses must be found three times in the twenty-four hours, which amounts to four and a half horses daily. Hence a common sixty-horse steam-engine does the work of four and a half times 60 horses, or of 270 horses. But the above sixty-horse steam-engine does one half more work in twenty-four hours, or that of 405 living horses. The keep of a horse cannot be estimated at less than 1s. 2d. per day; and, therefore, that of 405 horses would be about 241. daily, or 7,500. sterling in year of 313 days. [But where are years of 313 days to be found? Must not the horses, though working only 313 days, be kept 365 days in the year?] As 80 pounds of coals, or one bushel, will produce steam equivalent to the power of one horse in a steam-engine during eight hours' work, sixty bushels, worth about 30s. at Manchester, will maintain a sixty-horse engine in fuel during eight effective hours, and 200 bushels, worth 100s., the above hard-worked engine during twenty-four hours. Hence the expense per annum is 1,5651. sterling, being little more than one-fifth of that of living horses. As to the prime cost and superintendance, the animal power would be greatly more expensive than the steam power. There are many engines made by Boulton and Watt, forty years ago, which have continued in constant work all that time with very slight repairs. What a multitude of valuable horses would have been worn out in doing the service of these machines! and what a vast quantity of grain would they have consumed! Had British industry not been aided by Watt's invention, it must have gone on with a retarding pace, in consequence of the increasing cost of motive power, and would, long ere now, have experienced, in the price of horses, and scarcity of waterfalls, an insurmountable barrier to further advancement. Could horses, even at the low prices to which their rival steam has kept them, be employed to drive a cotton mill at the present day, they would devour all the profits of the manufacturer."

MECHANICS OF LAW MAKING.

The Mechanics of Law-making. By Arthur Sy monds, Esq. Churton. 1835. 12mo. pp. 416. THE cumbersome and perplexing tautology of English Acts of Parliament, and other legal instruments, has long scandalized all men. "If a man," says Mr Symonds, in the present treatise, (p. 75) “would, according to law, give to another an orange, instead of saying, 'I give you that orange,' which one should think would be what is called in legal phrase ology an absolute conveyance of all right and title herein,' the phrase would run thus:-'I give you all and singular, my estate and interest, right, title, claim, and advantage of, and in that orange, with all its rind, skin, juice, pulp, and pips, and all right and advantage therein, with full power to bite, cut, suck, and otherwise eat the same, or give the same away, as fully and effectually as I, the said A. B., am now entitled to bite, cut, suck, or otherwise eat the same orange, or give the same away, with or without its rind, skin, juice, pulp, and pips, anything herein before, or hereinafter, or in every other deed or deeds, instrument or instruments of what nature or kind so ever, to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding,'-with much more to the same effect.

Such is

the language of lawyers; and it very gravely held by the most learned men among them that by the omission of any of these words, the right to the said orange would not pass to the person for whose use the same was intended."

The absurdity of all this to an ordinary understanding seems prodigious almost beyond belief. But we are glad that professional men (who are by far the best fitted for the task) are at last turning their attention to the evil, and coming forward with their aid to reform it. From the technical knowledge which his book displays, we presume Mr Symonds is himself a member of the legal profession, cast aside the prejudices of his though he has craft. His book, though perhaps a little too long, is, its correctness in all cases as to points of law, we we think, upon the whole a very sensible one. Of do not profess to be able to judge; but most of the author's general principles appear to us to be sound, and his suggestions reasonable. Nor is the book the worse for a sort of apparently unconscious humour, or oddity of thought and manner, which occasionally breaks out in it. The following, for instance, which occurs in the preface, is a droll imagination—at least it will seem so to the unprofessional reader. "The reader," says our author, in explaining his plan of divesting a statute of its superfluities of phraseology, "is supposed to have before him an act of parliament-not unlike a piece of statuary, whose value is unknown from being incrusted with mud, and other foreign substances. The first step is to remove carefully this incrustation, until the figure shall appear in all its naked beauty. [The notion of an act of parliament, exhibiting as a naked beauty, is really something too licentious.] Whatever may be its merit, it will then be discovered; but, at the same time, it may also be found that, though not without some points of excellence, the conception of the whole is wanting in vigour and singleness; &c. &c." The spirit of Mr Symonds's strictures also, though he has so much to expose and condemn, is uniformly good-humoured and conciliatory. Then, after having pointed out by examples, "how much," (as he expresses it) "the wording of an Act of Parliament is like the sound of ding-dong, ding-dong-bell," and how "the constant repetition of the same words, and of what may not inappropriately be termed their doubles, or equivocations, gives an air of sing"In all that is here song to the style," he subjoins: said on this point, it is not meant to attribute any fault to anybody. Here the thing is: it has been done, and men who presume not to disturb the established order of things, quietly follow in the wake of their predecessors. It is hard to do a good thing, and to be laughed at for one's pains; this would be the fate of a single member or official, who had not a forward position in public favour, and, therefore, it is not wonderful that nothing has been done to correct a grievance of old standing. The best way of reforming these matters would be

by the establishment of an uniform practice. Most men, lawyers in particular, have become accustomed to the jingle of the words, and, though sensible people, they can scarcely believe even on reflection, that the meaning is full and clear, if the usual formu laries of expression are not employed. This, however, is an evidence of the evil, as well as of the difficulty of remedying it. It shows how indistinct are the common impressions of the legal meaning of the terms, and how hesitating and doubtful even the best informed minds become, through the want of definiteness for which our Acts of Parliament are distinguished. It has often happened that, on presenting an Act to an intelligent man, he has said- Don't give me that, but tell me what it means,' and the lawyer's popular ex

planation, given off-hand, shall be more precise, definite, and clear, than the elaborate wording of the law itself, even to the practised lawyer. The latter finds it necessary to cast away the profuseness of expression, to forget it, and then he is able to deal with the marrow of the Act."

It is right to observe, that Mr Symonds does not confine himself to the mere phraseology of acts of parliament. His work, as the title implies, is a treatise

on the Mechanics of Law-making' in all its parts -and embraces not only the whole subject of the form and constituents of a law, but those also of the classification and consolidation of the statutes, and of institutional reforms connected with lawmaking.

BOSWELL'S JOHNSON.

He

The sen

Boswell's Life of Johnson. Vol. IV. Murray. 1835. In this volume we have that singular being, Boswell, in all his glory; for his Journal of the Tour to the Hebrides, of which it consists, is really the richest portion of his wonderful biographical portraiture of Johnson, from the rest of which, it is strange that it should ever have been separated. We should say, "indeed, of his portraiture of Johnson and himself together-for the one scarcely interests us more than the other. Scarcely was there ever a more effective contrast, either in dramatic scene, or other work of fiction. It is the next best thing of the kind we have to Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. In this Journal, however, as we have said, Boswell is still more Boswell, even than in his larger and better-known work. Here we have him making an exhibition of himself with a lavish honesty, compared to which, Montaigne, Rousseau, and all the other confessions in literature are affectation and concealment. It is the case of a man altogether incapable of thinking except aloud, and, as it were, under the necessity of printing and publishing everything, wise or foolish, that comes into his head. Even Pepys, with his short-hand, was reserve itself to such a loud and universal proclamation as 'this. Hear, for example, what he says in one place:"Mr Tait, the clergyman, read prayers very well, though with much of the Scotch accent. preached on Love your Enemies.' It was remarkable that, when talking of the connexions amongst men, he said that some connected themselves with men of distinguished talents; and since they could not equal them, tried to deck themselves with their merit by being their companions. tence was to this purpose. It had an odd coincidence with what might be said of my connecting myself with Dr Johnson" Again, at Kingsburgh :-" He (Johnson) was rather quiescent to-night, and went early to bed. I was in a cordial humour, and promoted a cheerful glass. Honest Mr M Queen observed that I was in high glee, "my governor being gone to bed." Soon after, at Dunvegan: :-"I was elated by the thought of having been able to entice such a man to this remote part of the world. A ludicrous, yet just, image presented itself to my mind, which I expressed to the company. I compared myself to a dog who has got hold of a large piece of meat, and runs away with it to a corner, where he may devour it in peace, without any fear of others taking it from him." Or, to quote only another instance: Johnson, in dilating upon the superior cleanliness of vegetable to animal substances had said, " I have often thought that, if I kept a seraglio, the ladies should all wear linen gowns or cotton;" on which the narrative thus proceeds: "To hear the grave Dr Samuel Johnson, that majestic teacher of moral and religious wisdom,' while sitting solemn in an arm-chair in the Isle of Sky, talk, ex-cathedrâ, of his keeping a seraglio, and acknowledge that the supposition had often been in his thoughts, struck me so forcibly with ludicrous contrast, that I could not but laugh immoderately. He was too proud to submit even for a moment, to be the object of ridicule, and instantly retaliated with such keen, sarcastic wit, and such a variety of degrading images, of every one of which I was the object, that, though I can bear such attacks as well as most men, I yet found

though founded upon Mr Croker's, is both decidedly superior to that, and also much cheaper. The volume is ornamented with a very striking view (by the burine of E. Finden, after a drawing by Stanfield,) of St Andrew's, the ancient ecclesiastical capital of Scotland-now a city of ruins-and by a tasteful vignette of Loch Lomond, by the same artists. It is also furnished with a map of the Tour.

GIGOUX'S EDITION OF GIL BLAS. Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane. Par Le Sage. Vignettes par Jean Gigoux. Paris. Paulin. London. H. Hooper, Pall-mall, East.

THIS is a beautifully illustrated edition of Le Sage's immortal work, forming part of a collection of French classics which is to be published from time to time in parts.

The elegance of the letter-press will recommend it to all purchasers of French books; but what we have especially to notice is, the rare spirit, humour, and grace of the vignette etchings. In their way we have seldom seen cleverer things than these. The lively, witty, versatile spirit, with which the author was brimful, has descended freely, and without stint, on the artist.

A bundred years of admiration and fame which the work has enjoyed in all the civilized countries of the world, render it unnecessary to say a single word as to the merits of Gil Blas,' but we are induced to mention one little fact which some of our readers The may not be acquainted with. scenes of the tale, it will be remembered, are fixed wholly in Spain, and the numerous characters introduced are all Spanish. Now, struck with the truth and nature of these characters, and the correctness of these descriptions, the Spaniards have long insisted that none but a native could have written the book, and that the witty, farseeing Frenchman must have stolen all the matter it contains from some unknown Spanish writer. So strong is this impression, that the most popular Spanish editions of the work bear on the title-page "Gil Blas de Santillana, robbed from the Spaniards by M. Le Sage, and here restored (not translated) to its original Spanish."- The most circumstantial details in the literary history of France, place, however, the original authorship of Le Sage beyond the reach of a doubt, and the assumption of the Spaniards is a striking tribute to his genius. Like the Don Quixote' of Cervantes, and the Tom Jones' of our own Fielding, Gil Blas' will continue to delight remote ages and all classes and conditions of men. It would be difficult, we fancy, to find any reader unacquainted with the work. The number of editions, in a great variety of languages, already spread about the world, is immense, but we are glad to see the press employed in multiplying them, and truly delighted with the impression now under our notice.

A graceful edition is to a favourite author what a good frame is to a picture, and something more.

THE engravings in this volume are, almost without an exception, exceedingly beautiful, and the letterpress may be found useful to such travellers as are altogether new on the continent, although the work is far from being so good a guide as Mrs Starke's well-known book. In the post-chaise or diligence it may be a different matter, but looking over Mr

207

recently republished, each in one convenient and elegant octavo volume.

We are sorry to see that Mr Brockedon, whose short stay in the country and very imperfect knowledge of their language must have prevented him from forming any correct notion on the subject, has hazarded one or two hasty remarks on the character of the Italian people.

The frontiers of the Neapolitan kingdom have always been infested by a certain number of banditti, but to set down all the peasantry as brigands and objects of disgust and horror, is unwise and untrue; and instead of saying that the squalid people at Fondi looked as if they all regretted that they had not had the opportunity of robbing him and cutting his throat, he ought to have said they looked as if they had all had the malaria fever. Place a colony of handsome, healthy, open-countenanced English peasants in the neighbourhood of the same rank swamps, and put them on the same miserable diet, and they will soon either die outright, or look just villanously" as the poor Neapolitans now at

as

Fondi.

SAFETY DURING THUNDER STORMS. Directions for Insuring Personal Safety during Storms of Thunder and Lightning. By John Leigh, jun. Esq. London. Ridgway. 1835. 12mo. Pp. 41. ALTHOUGH the superstitions, and also the nervous terrors felt by many persons during a thunder storm, are foolish enough, there is no denying that there is some real danger on such an occasion to be guarded against. The annual number of fatal accidents from lightning in this country is indeed very inconsiderable-perhaps smaller than that of those arising from any other common danger to which human life is exposed. The number of persons killed by lightning bears, we should suppose, no proportion, for instance, to that of those who are destroyed either by the burning of dwelling-houses, or by being run down by or thrown out of carriages, or by drowning. With regard to most of these other accidents by flood and field, however, timid people have probably a feeling that they have it more completely in their power to keep out of their way than in the case of lightning. Thus, if I am very much afraid of being drowned, I need never venture on the water, and I shall be tolerably secure of a dry death. If I have a great dread of coach accidents, I may keep myself pretty much at ease by determining never to ride. And even the risk of being burned by your house catching fire from any ordinary cause, may be reduced nearly to nothing by proper attention and caution. But the electric fluid is an enemy so mysteriously sudden and subtle that it seems to set all preparation, all circumspection, at defiance. The feeling, too, of the instant effect that is sure to follow the stroke, naturally bewilders and baffles the mind in attempting to guard against it. To those who are apt to be made miserable by such sensations, and indeed to others also, we recommend Mr Leigh's unpretending little publication. The facts stated, and the directions given in it, are so much useful knowledge which every body should be familiar with. As a specimen we give the following short passage:

"Some persons, who are alarmed during thunder storms, will open all the doors in a house, and shut the windows: others open the windows, and shut the doors; and some are silly enough to keep open both doors and windows. Now all these little contrivances are of no use. You cannot bow the lightning in at one end of the room, and out at another. You cannot shut up lightning in a box; and if it comes down the chimney, as it usually does, you cannot, either by leaving the door or window open, direct it to pass through it will always follow the best conductors. Concern yourself only about your own situation in the room. Sit as far removed from the wall as circumstances permit, and not very near the fire-place; for,

:

would gladly expunge from my mind every trace of this severe retort." What other writer has ever reported of himself to the world in this style? Boswell's Tour' had become rather a scarce book, till it was re-printed, a few years ago, and incorporated, for the first time, with the Life of Johnson,' in Mr 'Croker's edition of that work. The present edition,

we cannot help being risibly affected by the contrast between the beauty and poetry of his views and sketches, and the homeliness of his hints about lodging-houses, hotels, bills, soda-powders, drugs, English medicines, &c. &c. For our own part we should prefer seeing these good engravings bound up in Forsyth's or Matthews's Tour, which have both been

which would attract the lightning towards it, by whatever means it might enter the room, it is usually found, that, when a house is struck, the lightning has descended by one of the chimneys, probably owing to their promient situation, rising some feet above the rest of the building. After arriving at a fire place in au upper room, it will frequently pass through the floor, attracted by the metal around the fire place in the room beneath,

When it has once entered a room, it will leave traces of having passed over almost everything of a metallic nature near at hand. It runs round the gilded frames of pictures, strikes along the metallic rods from which curtains are hung, the strips of gilt wood running along the tops of wainscoting, and bell wires, which are usually melted. If no metallic conductor is at hand, it will pass round the walls of a room, conducted by the paste between the paper and the walls, if at all damp, or even without such assistance. Unbattened walls, and the walls of most cottages and outbuildings, contain more or less moisture, which facili. tates the passage of the electric fluid around them; and it is therefore very dangerous to be in contact with them. Under any circumstances, walls form imperfect conductors, whether they are supposed to be damp or dry, and whether they are outside or inside. A position in a room immediately adjoining the walls, is always therefore to be particularly avoided."

"Since a current of air will in some measure conduct lightning, a position between a door and window, if open, or window and chimney, should be avoided. The door-way of a house, or a passage, is not so safe as the middle of a room, through which there is no similar current of air.

"A bed is one of the safest places a person can be in; and it would be rendered more secure still, if removed a little from the walls; and if provided with wooden curtain-rods instead of metal, and if there was no bell wire immediately over-head. Under ordinary circumstances, it may, however, be considered a tolerably safe situation."

The pamphlet also contains some directions, which seem to be the product of good sense and acquaintance with the subject, for the right application of conductors to houses and other buildings...

EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE.

Ir may be necessary to state for the information of our new readers, that under this title the PRINTING MACHINE when a separate publication was accustomed to give a weekly record of the progress of popular instruction, embracing notices of the proceedings of Mechanics' Institutes, Schools of Art, and other associations for kindred objects in all parts of the country. It is intended, as was stated in the notice announcing the incorporation of the two Journals, to continue this register in our Monthly Supplements; but as the space that can now be afforded to the subject is comparatively limited, it will be necessary to confine the notices principally to such matters as have not only a local but also a general interest. We

hope, however, to be able to insert all facts relating to the subject that have much novelty or importance. Statistics of Public Education.—At a late meeting of the Statistical Society, a paper was read from Thomas Vardon, Esq., containing a table founded on the parochial returns to the House of Commons, obtained on the motion of the Earl of Kerry, of the numbers of children receiving instruction in the different Infant, National, Public, and Private Schools in England and Wales. The total number of young persons receiving daily instruction is stated to be 1,222,000. This number includes all those educated at the various colleges, with the exception of the members of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The number of children under fifteen years of age in the kingdom may be estimated at about 4,000,000, and deducting from this amount those who are under two years of age, or about 500,000, there will remain 3,500,000 of the proper age for attending school. If the number of those who receive private instruction be further deducted, and these be estimated at 500,000, there are still 3,000,000 to be provided for. The existing means of instruction, therefore, do not provide for nearly one half of the existing want. The number of children taught at Sunday Schools is stated to be 1,359,719; but these Schools, although justly to be considered valuable auxiliaries in the formation of religious habits, cannot be considered to impart education. The principal part of the children receiving their instruction at Sunday Schools also, are in the habit of attending day schools, although it must be noted that there are 968 Sunday Schools, containing upwards of 40,000 children, in places where no other description of School exists. The Infant Schools, also where the children leave at the age of seven years, can only be considered as auxiliaries. Considering the great benefit that has resulted from the annual Parliamentary grant of 20,000l. før aiding in the erection of School-houses, Mr Vardon expresses a hope that the grant may not only be continued, but increased. Charitable Institutions for the purposes of Education. In Mr. Harvey's speech, on the 11th of June, in the House of Commons, in moving for a Select Committee to inquire into the Public Charities of England, with a view to render them more efficient for the education of the people, the following particulars were stated:

The inquiries respecting these institutions commenced in 1818, and have been continued down to 1834. The commission has presented the 24th volume of its labours, each volume averaging about 800 folio pages. The expense of printing each volume, has been, on an average, about 6007. or 7007. In round numbers, the Commission of Inquiry has cost about a quarter of a million sterling. The charities of twenty-eight English counties bave been inquired into, and it has appeared that they contain 26,751 charities or endowments, having property of various descriptions connected with them. There are six other counties, the charities of which have been partially investigated, and they amounted to 1,734. In twenty-four counties, (these counties being twenty-four out of the twenty-eight in which the investigation was perfected) the actual amount of the charitable incomes arising from land and houses was 331,7031. a year. In connection with these charities, confined to these twenty-four counties, there was actually money in the Funds, on mortgages, and in various convertible securities, amounting to 2,228,5137. Mr Harvey, after detailing various cases in which legal proceedings had been taken, and the progress which has been made, moved that a Select Committee be appointed to examine and consider the evidence in the several reports presented to the House of Commons by the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the charities of England and Wales, which motion was agreed to by the House.

North of England Schoolmasters' Association.-The annual meeting of this association was held in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on the 8th of June. The society is in a flourishing state. The twelfth anniversary of the Hull, East Riding, and North Lincoln Schoolmasters' Association was held in Hull. The benefits of the

society are already enjoyed by several pensioners, and the accumulated funds amount to upwards of 9007., the greater part of which is placed out on approved securities.

Edinburgh Model Infant School. The exhibition of this institution took place on the 30th of May, at the Waterloo Rooms, Edinburgh. Lord Cockburn was in the chair, in the room of the Lord Justice Clerk, who was detained in Court. There were present Lords Jeffrey and Medwyn, Sheriffs L'Amy and Matheson, Professor Pillans, Messrs Scott, Spence, Combe, Simpson, Dr Spittal, and many other persons, who are well known as taking a warm interest in the cause of education. The day being fine, the children came in procession, bearing nosegays and coloured diagrams, and attracted much attention. The meeting was much gratified by the interesting exhibition.

was

Edinburgh Association for procuring Instruction in the Useful and Entertaining Sciences.-This institution has been in full vigour during the winter. A voluntary course of six lectures on sidereal astronomy was delivered by the Rev. J. P. Nicholl, which attended by crowded audiences. South Shields Mechanics Institution.—This institution entered upon the occupation of its new building on the 10th of June, when there was a general meeting of the members, Dr Winterbottom, V.P., in the chair. The building is a spacious hall, 50 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 18 feet high, lighted with gas, and furnished with ornamental fittings. The library, consisting of 1400 volumes, is at one end.

Leeds Library. The annual general meeting of the subscribers to the Leeds Library was held on June 1st. The committee reported plans and estimates for increasing the means of arranging the rapidly accumulating stores of the Institution; and they were authorised by the meeting to lay out a sum not exceeding 300l. in the erection of additional galleries in the library room.

West Riding Proprietary School, Wakefield. -The annual meeting of the friends of this Institution was held on the 10th June, and was numerously attended. Letters were read from Earls Fitzwilliam and Mexborough, and from Lord Morpeth, and one or two other members of Parliament, apologising for inability to attend. The Vicar of Halifax was in the chair. The Principal's Report stated that the termination of the first year's labours was very satisfactory—that the parents of the pupils continued to express high satisfaction with the progress of their children-that the numbers were increasing so rapidly as to render it difficult to procure a nomination-and that there was a confi

240 to 300, a resolution to effect which was proposed and adopted.

Liverpool Mechanics' Institute.-It has been for some time contemplated to erect an appropriate building for the use of this Institution, and it is now stated that the arrangements for effecting this object are so far completed, that plans have been called for, in order that the building may be proceeded with. The new building will occupy one thousand nine hundred square yards, and will comprise a lecture-room capable of containing from one thousand to one thousand two hundred persons; a comfortable house for the keeper; an apparatus room; a laboratory and chemical class-room; a classroom for the English language, capable of containing from eighty to one hundred and twenty persons; one for writing and arithmetic, for from one hundred and sixty to two hundred persons; one for mathematics, for from eighty to one hundred and twenty persons; one for receiving musical instruction, for from forty to fifty persons; one for figure-drawing, for from eighty to one hundred and twenty persons; one for landscape, perspective, and architectural drawing, for from one hundred and sixty to two hundred persons; one for mechanical drawing, fer from sixty to eighty persons; one for geography, use of maps, globes, &c, for from fifty guage, for from fifty to sixty persons; one for other to sixty persons; one for the study of the French lanContinental languages, for from thirty to forty persons; making, in all, eleven class-rooms, capable of containing about one thousand pupils, and affording the opportunity of instructing, at the same time, this large number, in eleven different branches of knowledge and art. Besides this accommodation, there will be a library and reading-room, a committee-room, a museum-room for casts, models, &c.; and cellaring will be constructed, from which the committee deem it probable that they may derive an annual rent.

Royal Naval School.-The annual meeting of this institution, (which is established for the purpose of educating, at a small expense, the sons of naval officers not in affluent circumstances) was held on June 9th, at the rooms of the Horticultural Society, Regent street, from the report of the council, that the funds were in a Sir Robert Stopford, G.C.B., in the chair. It appeared flourishing state.

Society of Arts.-The ceremony of distributing the rewards adjudged by this society during the present the arts, manufactures, and commerce, took place in session to successful essayists in matters connected with the large room at Exeter Hall, on June 8th. The room was filled by a most respectable and fashionable com. pany;-Sir E. Codrington in the chair, in the absence of the president of the society, his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex. Among the receivers of rewards were a number of ladies.

Glasgow Educational Society-The Sub-Committee of this Society state that, in visiting the parochial and private schools of Glasgow and its vicinity, they were forcibly struck with the unequal excellence of activity and intelligence in masters and scholars, with the schools. In some might be seen the utmost the most recent improvements in operation; but in the same city, nay in the same street, might be seen a school conducted on the worst possible methods, whose master knew little, and could impart little. save the mechanical arts of reading and writing, and even these in a slovenly manner. The Committee press strongly the necessity of attending to the education of schoolmasters, in preparing them for their profession.

Sunday Schools. The twentieth anniversary of the Leeds Sunday School Union was celebrated on June 9th. The teachers and scholars to the number of 6,000 or 7,000, assembled in the Coloured Cloth Hall Yard, Leeds, and then proceeded to their respective places of worship. In the evening the meeting for business was held. The number of schools in the Union is 73; teachers 2,174; scholars 9,941. In Sheffield, on the same day, the children of the Sunday School Union assembled to the number of 10,000; those of the National school to the num ber of 3,000; and the Wesleyans to the number of 5,000.

On the 9th, the twelfth annual festival of the NewThe castle Sunday School Union was celebrated. children of 54 schools, amounting to 4,065, and ac

companied by 538 teachers, assembled. The Worcester Sunday Schools assembled, as usual, on Whit-Monday, when about 2,700 children were present. On the same day, the Bristol Methodist School Society held its thirty-first anniversary, at which 2,500 children, accompanied by 400 teachers, appeared.

dent assurance that the Institution was based on a solid and firm foundation. The report also adverted to some remarks in the Quarterly Journal of Education,' in which, while praising the general management of the school, the writer condemned the retention of corporal punishment, even for immoral and flagrant offences, and contrasted the school with the Bristol College. The Principal contended for flogging, as occasionally indis. Manchester Sunday Schools.-The children belonging pensable in a large school, though to be sparingly reto the schools of the various societies in Manchester sorted to. The report of the Directors stated, that the were assembled during the Whitsun holidays, to celenumber of pupils was 175. and that there was a pros-lishment Society assembled 2,400 children; the Society brate their anniversaries. The schools of the Estabpect of an immediate and large increase to this number that additional masters for the school had been appointed-that owing to the expenses incurred in completing the buildings, grounds, &c. the Institution was 18007. in debt-that towards liquidating this debt, a saving of 300l. would be effected in the expenses of the year, and that there was every prospect of its being cleared off in four years. But in order to get rid of the incumbrance at once, the Directors proposed the creation of sixty additional shares, raising the number from

for Children of all Denominations about 6,000; and the Catholic School Society about the same number. The number of children assembled by the Methodists, Unitarians, &c. is not stated.

LONDON:

CHARLES KNIGHT, 22 LUDGATE STREET.

From the Steam-Press of C. & W. REYNELL, Little Pulteney-street.

tinctive; but a greater number of distinctions would only embarrass us and lead us into tiresome length, without contributing, in any essential degree, to the present purpose. If any one shall further remark, that the pronunciation of the Hebrew letters is not with certainty known to us, he too will be right; but not in thinking that this circumstance need invalidate our conclusions. If the question were as to the relative value of the cognate letters, it would indeed be futile, but there is very little to prevent us from ascertaining with accuracy the proportions of the different kinds of letters. Thus, whether is to be considered as having had the power of a B, or a P, or both, it is certain, at least, that it was a labial. According, then, to the most generally received scheme of Hebrew pronunci. ation, let us consider M, B, P, and Vau (incipient) as labials; L, R, Th, N, D, and T as linguals; C, Ch, K, and G as gutturals; and S, Sh, Tsade, and Z as sibilants. The two first Psalms will be found to exhibit these in the following proportions :—

First.

Second.

=

Total. Linguals . 70+ 72 142 Labials 5948 = 107 Sibilants 26 +33 = 59 Gutturals 24+ 30 = 54 In round numbers these proportions will be-linguals 28, labials 21, sibilants 12, gutturals 11. (I cannot pledge myself for perfect accuracy in this calculation, but it is as accurate as three or four trials can make it.) Here then we see, that in these two specimens-which confirm one another in all respects-so far from the language being mostly guttural," as it was "natural to suppose," the guttural division of it is so much below the rest, as to be exceeded in a proportion of two to one in one case, and two and a half to one in another. I

have remarked that the labial letters are the easiest to utter. I do not mean by this that they are therefore most numerous. It may, indeed, be justly supposed that their number, from the circumstance of this facility, will have been considerable in all early languages in the earliest, perhaps, preponderant; but from the greater variety of movements which the tongue can make, and the greater number of shapes it assumes, it would soon come to pass that the offspring of the latter would multiply beyond that of the lips, which have performed all the evolutions they are capable of when they have closed and unclosed, thrust themselves outward, or retreated upon the teeth. All that the above calculation is intended to prove is, the small relative proportion of the guttural letters in the Hebrew, contrary to the opinion which supposes them to have pre

dominated in early languages.

but

With respect to that division of the letters into Dentals, which our orthoepists usually adopt, it will be seen that I bave rejected it altogether from the foregoing plan. In fact, I am glad of an opportunity of doing so, and of showing my ill-will to that division, because I think it a very foolish one. What in the world, for instance, do they mean, by calling La dental? If L is a dental, then it would be pleasant to know, how it happens that infants pronounce that letter quite well, before they have cut their teeth, to say nothing of old men, after they have lost theirs? In pronouncing L very briskly, the tongue may possibly just tip the teeth in coming away from the roof of the mouth; you may likewise be able to produce it from the teeth at once, if you purposely endeavour it ; the natural and ordinary way is quite independent of teeth. The teeth, by throwing up a wall all round the tongue, act as an important auxiliary to it in its different operations, preventing the escape of more breath than the tongue desires to liberate, and in many cases completing some necessary figure of the mouth which the tongue has begun. But in all these, and any other cases, let me ask, which is the principal operatortongue or teeth? D is a dental, says Walker; yet, without a tooth in my head, I would undertake to tell Walker he was a dull dog for saying so ;-without a tongue I could not. The fact is, there is not a single letter in the alphabet that merits this name of dental, if you except the two sounds of Th, in which the teeth performs so conspicuous a part, as perhaps to justify the distinction. Most of the other letters

• Supposed to have the sound of French j.

usually classed as dentals are pronounced by an appulse foreign medical appointment. Knowing that the of the tongue against the upper gums, and perhaps it station was acceptable to him, I was astonished to see was from the reluctance of orthodox linguists to coin a him again in London, but the wanness of his apnew word for the occasion that these letters came to be pearance, and a something peculiar about his teeth, called dentals, teeth" seeming the best way of which had the character of those of a man who is in saying "gums," I suppose, in the absence of the mental and bodily distress, who resorts to fluid stiappropriate word. Booth, in his Analytical Diction- mulants, and who does not consume much solid ary,' is not content with fewer than ten dental conso-food;-teeth not closely united, looking worn, unnants, viz. D, L, N, R, S, T, Th, (soft and hard), Y, healthy, and not firm and perpendicular in the jaw,— and Z! Now with the exception only of the two Th's, these things told me in an instant the history of his there is not one letter among all these but what a man journey and his return, which I need not detail now. might very well pronounce "sans teeth, sans every- Subsequent conversations (a month after) confirmed thing"-but the tongue. Walker talks of "mute my impressions. The nature of these is of no moment dentals" and "hissing dentals," and "lisping dentals," to my story. and "dento-gutturals," and dento-liquids," and "dentonasal-liquids," and, so talking, seems not to have the slightest suspicion that he wags his tongue all the while. If he had called F and V dento-labials or labio-dentals, (he calls them "hissing labials") there would have been an obvious propriety in such a compound; he might also have called Th a dento-lingual, but in the above compounded terms, he gives the most prominent

place to the least prominent, as if he had said "Walker, John," or "published by Co. Brown, Orme, Rees, and Longman." For the teeth, in short, are in every case the inferior partners of the firm, the undistinguishable" Co." whom nobody should inquire for-Tongue, Lips, and Co. I cannot conceive what objection ortheopists have to recognise the claims of that lively organ, the tongue; but if they desire a different distinction for those so-called dentals, above named, let me propose a new term. What think you, gentlemen, of the Gingival, or the gum letters?* Better be laughed at and understood, than wondered at and found perplexing. At any rate, gums are not teeth.

In inventing a name for anything, I conceive the quality or circumstance, as by this it will best be known rule should be, to memorialise its most conspicuous and recognised. In pronouncing such letters as D, L, N, &c. the tongue is the chief agent; therefore, those letters ought to be called linguals. In C, K, G, &c. the tongue also plays a part, but the thick sound which the throat contributes forms the stronger characteristic; therefore these are properly called gutturals. The letters S, Sh, &c. would require to be numbered with the linguals, but that peculiar hissing sound which accompanies them constitutes so striking a feature in spoken language as to seem to merit a distinctive name. It is this which is considered to characterise English in so remarkable a degree, and we shall presently see what proportion it bears in our language," the language of serpents," as it has been called.

Gingival, with the accent on the second syllable. Catullus has a poem on one Egnatius who, having white teeth, smiled incessantly. A line in this poem, which represents the hero as rubbing his gums with a very odd kind of tooth powder (see the Latin), discovers to us the proper pronunciation of the word gingiva, as above marked,

what the grammarians call an antibacchius;

"russam defricare gingivam,"

But if the dictionaries cannot stomach such an uncouth

one

word, let them go to the Greeks, who have a much prettier at their service,-ουλον or ἔνυλον- as if to say tender part, from ovλos tender. The enoulic consonants!

ASSOCIATION OF PERSONS AND THINGS DURING DREAMS.

To the Editor of the LONDON JOURNAL. SIR, I beg to relate to you a curious instance of the association of real events with the fictions of sleep, which occurred to me a short time

since; for I think that the clear manner in which I was enabled, on waking, to trace the things that I had dreamed, to sources which had a true existence, renders them sufficiently interesting to be recorded; since no published facts are fewer in extent, than those which afford materials for constructing a good "theory of dreaming." A perusal of the article at page 157 of your Number for May 20, has induced me to write to you.

As I rode into London one morning, some months since, I suddenly met a gentleman who, a few months before, had left England to enter on the duties of a

In the course of the afternoon I was examining a manuscript which contained the words "hunger and the mange," under circumstances that rendered them particular objects of note to me.

In the evening I wrote a letter to a gentleman, conveying to him an appointment which had previously been held by a friend of my own, and was vacated by the latter on his leaving Europe for

India.

This friend had now been so long away from the shores of England without writing to me, that I was much troubled about his fate, and begun to fear that some untoward accident of flood, climate, or field, had carried him from this world of trials. At night, in my dreams, the mystery was thus solved by the creative power of the brain,-a solution which I should premise was not a true one. I relate the events for no accomplishment of a prophecy, no rare coincidence, but simply as evidence of a distinct combination of ideas which occurred in one state of the mind, with events which occupied the Such combinations' mind when in another state. occur, I believe, during every dream, but the difficulty is to trace them. There are causes for all things: even the vagaries of the mind during sleep

are not purely inventive.

My dream on this occasion turned on my friend in India, because I had written on the previous day to the gentleman who had obtained the appointment which my Indian friend formerly held. I thought he came into my study the picture of wretchedness sallow, wan, emaciated, and with marks of eruptive Surprise filled me, and I quesdisease on the skin.

tioned him as I should have done if awake; whereupon he told me a heart-rending tale of his voyage, of which the chief event was supplied by the rustling of those two day words in my brain, “hunger and the mange." The captain of the ship, he said, had not taken out a sufficient stock of provisions, and all the miseries of starvation visited the unhappy crew and passengers. The last meal on board was made from candles, and debility had brought forth an eruption on. the passengers which was like the mange of dogs, and his hunger had been such, that involuntarily attempts to supply the reality of eating by the imaginative process of grinding food, had worn his teeth to stumps; to prove which he took me to the light of the window, threw back his head, opened wide his mouth, and shew-. ed me the miserable remnants of those instruments. I had seen their fellows in the morning, unintentionally. displayed, in the mouth of the physician in the street. "Alas," said I, "dear and suffering friend, why did you not return a few hours sooner. I have but this day conveyed an appointment of the post you held to another person, and you again might have had it."-He afterwards detailed to me the cause of his long silence and absence, the cagerness with which he left the provisionless ship for one that was homeward bound, and the perils and delays he had met with on

his return.

So powerfully did the fiction move me, that I woke with the agony which the affecting and truly natural character of the relation had excited. I at once distinctly traced the connexion between the series of events, including many that I have not here given, and cannot now fully recollect. The voyage of the physician whom I had met in the morning, was plainly the parent fact to the voyage which occupied my attention in the dream. The parties connected