recovered, yet his head got a twist, and he was compelled to wear it looking over the right shoulder. At the battle of Waterloo, in 1815, (having been upwards of three years with his neck awry,) he received a shot in the left ear, which came out within half an inch of his former wound in the back of the neck, and it set his head straight again! The individual so wonderfully cured of stiff-neckedness is stated to be Lieut. Worsley, still living, a prosperous gentlemen, in Nottinghamshire.-Kincaid's Random Shots. AN ENGLISHMAN'S WHIM.-The late Mr. Norris, of Nonsuch house, near Bromham, was the last of the highly respectable Wiltshire family of that name, which had inhabited Nonsuch for a century and a half. The deceased had, a great number of years ago, been troubled with erysipelas in his face, and the operation of shaving was attended with so much pain, that he at last determined to allow his beard to grow, and it eventually hung on his chest. Naturally bashful, he was now averse to any one seeing his person: he entirely secluded himself from society, and saw no one but his housekeeper, and her but a very few minutes at a time. He lay in bed during the day, and roamed about his grounds or read during the night. He took his meals in the kitchen, but no one saw him eat. A short time before the servants retired to rest (at which hour he usually got up,) they placed a kettle of water upon the fire, and some milk and bread and butter on the table in the kitchen, of which he partook, and on their rising in the morning he went to bed. For several years previous to his death he became utterly regardless of personal cleanliness; though possessed of great wealth, he clad himself in rags, and scarcely ever consented to a change of linen. The draw ing-room, it is said, had not been unlocked for ten years preceding his death. He had a good library, and was fond of reading in his early years. We have heard that he was a great botanist. SINGULAR INCIDENT.-Upwards of 3,000 tons weight of earth fell down at a quarry near Bolton, on Friday week, the property of Mr. Ainsworth, M. P. The workmen escaped by shortly before having noticed the fissure in the headland. Geologists are at work to ascertain the cause of this accident. MR. CAMPBELL IN PARIS.--On Tuesday last the Polish Literary Association of Paris gave a public dinner to Mr. Thomas Campbell, the poet. It was numerously attended. Prince Czartoryski was in the chair. The prince, after dinner, prefaced the toast of Mr. Campbell's health by a recital of all the obligations which the cause of Poland had owed to the pen and the zeal of their illustrious guest. Mr. Campbell returned thanks in French, in a speech that produced the warmest emotion. He congratulated his brave friends, on finding that in the depth of their misfortunes they had not abandoned themselves to despair, and he exhorted them still to look forward to the resurrection of their sacred cause, and to the day of their deliverance. Sir Grenville Temple was present, and his health was drunk as a known and proved friend to the Polish cause. SAVINGS' BANKS.-The minister of commerce has addressed a circular to the prefects, urging them to encourage the system of savings' banks, to which a late law had granted several additional advantages. At the beginning of 1833 there were only 19 savings' banks, which at present amount to 126 regularly authorised, and applications for 36 more are under consideration. The minister desires the prefects to make a report to him of such towns of their several departments where banks may be established, and gives instructions as to their management. MICE. A farmer of Beame, who kept his corn on an unboarded floor, found it constantly devoured by mice, To remedy this, he plunged a number of earthen pots into the earth, all round the heap of corn; he filled them half full of water, and, being varnished withinside, when the mice came to drink they slipped in and were drowned. In the space of two months he thus destroyed 14,500. INFERNAL MACHINE.-An exhibition of considerable interest at the present moment, has opened in the metropolis-a fac-simile of the "infernal machine," and a couple of wax figures of Gerard; one before and the other after the explosion. The machine is beautifully made, and correct even to the want of a touch-hole; and altogether well worthy a visit. THE VESSEL-FISH--According to the Paris papers, some curious experiments have lately been made at St. Ouen, near Paris, with a submarine vessel, the invention of M. Villeroi, the engineer. The vessel is of iron, and of the same shape as a fish of the cetaceous tribe. Its movements and evolutions are performed by three or four men, who are inside, and who have no communication with the surface of the water, or the external air. With this machine, navigation can be effected in spite of currents, any operations may be carried on under water, and it may be brought to the surface at will, like an ordinary vessel. It was with a machine similar to this, that the project was formed in 1821, for getting away Napoleon from St. Helena.-The Société Général des Naufrages (protector, the king) has appointed Admiral Sir Sidney Smith, Count Godde de Liancourt, the Baron de St. Denis, and Dr. Daniel St. Antoine, to report on the ex. periments shortly to be made at St. Ouen. MANUFACTURE OF PORCELAIN.-The Society for the encouragement of National Industry in France, has voted a gold medal, of the second class, to MM. Grouvelle and Honore, for their method of drying the clay used in the manufacture of porcelain and pottery, by pressure; M. Brongniart, the superintendent of the royal manufactory at Sèvres, and whose authority must have great weight, speaks most highly of this new method. Literary Chit-Chat. FROM ALL THE MAGAZINES. Messrs. Scott and Webster have sent forth a very neat and portable edition of Dr. Robertson's History of Ame rica, the most interesting and fascinating work of that historian. The life of the author, by Dugald Stewart, is prefixed to the volume; which is also illustrated by maps of Mexico and the West Indies; so that the reader may put this reprint into his pocket on a journey or a country stroll, and when tired of idleness, set himself to a pleasant study with all appliances at hand. For the sake of compactness in size, the two books descriptive of the first settlement of Virginia and New England are omit ted, as are also the notes and illustrations; with which curtailment we do not quarrel, for the latter are frequently omitted by the reader, and the ninth and tenth books originally formed no part of the history. But we should have preferred the original text without alteration, even though it professes to be condensed rather than abridged. We have heard that the historical work upon which Mr. E. Lytton Bulwer recently announced that he had been long engaged, is all but completed, and on the eve of publication: it is a History of Greece. It is impossible to notice without unreserved admiration, a series of illustrated classics, which are periodi cally appearing in Paris. One of these is Gil Blas, to be illustrated, when complete, (in one volume,) by five hun dred wood-cuts, from the designs of Gigoux. If we may judge by what we have seen, this will be the edition of Gil Blas: there is a spirit and force in the groups of figures which have rarely been exceeded; and the touch of French mannerism to be detected in the attitudes, arrangement of costume, &c. is certainly not unpleasing. I mony of tossing him (the said Dr. Gregory) in a blanket! The plays of Molière, too, are in similar course of publi- This book (in which is raked together all the commoncation, with five hundred illustrations, by Tony Johannot; the Orgons and Cleantes of that incomparable dramatist could hardly be safe in the hands of any save a French artist. We must add, that the execution of the wood-cuts we have seen is capital for its clearness and finish; and that all the ornamental letters, vignettes, &c. and in the best possible taste. places extant against women) is another version of the history of the lion written by a man." In due time, perhaps, we may be called upon to review the "history of man written by a lion." In the interim, we advise our fair friends to peruse "Woman as she is, and as she should be ;" for-fas est el ab hoste doceri. For some time past the reduction of the newspaper THE FAMILY LIBRARY, No. LII.—“ A Journal of the stamp duty has been believed a settled thing. The chanPlague Year, by Daniel Defoe; edited by E. W. Bray-cellor of the exchequer, however, has disappointed the ley, F.S.A., M.R.S.L., &c. &c."-This most impressive expectation so creditable to the government. He reof all chronicles seems to be one of those works which, duces the duty on flint glass from 6d. to 2d. per pound, quite unintended, make their authors immortal. No more and leaves the oppressive tax of 200 per cent. on knowneed be said about the new edition. But the new editor, ledge. He gives glass, and refuses information, to the with a tail to his name, of high-flying tags as long people. O sage Spring Rice! Mr. C. Buller made some as a kite's-this is another thing. What are we to say excellent remarks, in no very complimentary strain, on of an F.S.A., M.R.S.L., &c. &c., who can write such the budget; and with reference to the newspaper stamp English as follows:-"There can be no hesitation in duty, he observed on the monstrous absurdity of the ascribing to the authenticity of Defoe's production?" government refusing a people political knowledge after Nor can the blunder be put down to a slip of the pen or granting them political power. the printer, for we have immediately after-" he has composed a far superior history of the plague year than any other writer." Again: "Dr. Heath is an imaginary person devised by Defoe to give an air of greater validity to his narrative." In same page we find has, ASTRONOMY PROFESSOR.-The king has been pleased to cocknicé for us. Yet our F.S.A, plumes himself on hav-appoint George Biddel Airy, Esq. professor of astronomy ing corrected poor Defoe's "grammar and pointing!" in the university of Cambridge, to be astronomical obWhich errors are the most censurable-those of gram-servator in the observatory at Greenwich, in the room of mar and pointing committed in 1722 by an obscure, belly-John Pond, Esq. resigned. Amongst the announcements of the day, we perceive that of a portrait of the Rev. Charles Gutzlaff, the Chinese missionary, engraved by R. Lane, from a picture painted at Canton by G. Chinnery. pinched author, or those of syntax and sense in 1835 by We regret to observe an announcement of the death a member of two learned societies, and as many others as we please to think couched under his etceteras? M. Scribe is at present engaged in preparing his Discours de Réception for the French Academy. He is at the same time proceeding expeditiously with two vaudevilles, a comedy, and two comic operas. The Napoleon Gallery gives us most imposing pictures of the pomp and confusion of battles, and some striking episodes in the history of war, illustrative of the devotion of the French soldiers, their esprit de corps and sang froid. Horace Vernet, Bellange, and all the best French artists, contributing to swell the pictorial triumph of Napoleon. But the miniature outlines merge all distinctions of style: the treatment of the subject and the composition of the picture are the principal features. In no class of scenes is the genius of the French school seen to more advantage. Could not Fuseli, or Martin, have given us a more exalted notion of Satan than Westall has done, by way of frontispiece to the third volume of Milton's works by Sir Egerton Brydges? Yes, from the works of either of those distinguished artists might be selected designs each of which would convey the idea of an "archangel fallen." Westall's Satan, on the contrary, is only a tall, stout, fierce, infuriated looking man. Turner, also, notwith. standing his own richly poetical imagination, might, with incalculable advantage, have had recourse to some of the old masters for his vignette design of the Fall of the Rebel Angels. This volume completes the "Paradise Lost." With a little that is true, much that is specious, and more that is absolutely false, "Woman, as she is, and as she should be," is an amusing, though an illiberal and ill-natured book. The act of the greatest wisdom evinced by the author is, the concealment of his name. We would not, for a trifle, be the wearer of his cloak amongst a bevy of ladies, if it bore the impress of its owner. The gentle ones would be justified in casting aside their gen. tleness, and we should speedily be "victimised." Roche foucald is a grand favourite with our two-volume assailant of woman; and he even summons Dr. Gregory to his aid. Were the old fellow alive, we would walk naked ten miles through a snow-storm to "assist" in the cere of the ingenious young author of the "History of the Round Towers of Ireland." From a notice in Fraser's Magazine for the present month, written with unaffected and scholarlike feeling, we take the following:-" In the village graveyard of Hanwell (ad viii. ab Urbe lapidem) sleeps Henry O'Brien, and the rude forefathers of the Saxon hamlet have consented to receive among them the clay of a Milesian scholar. By way of variety to the novel-reader, "Ofelia, or the Child of Fate," by Dona Francisca Pazos, may while away an hour not unpleasantly. As the performance of a Portuguese lady, this tale exhibits a striking instance of facility in English composition attained by a foreigner. Purporting to have been written by a retired military officer, an unpretending little volume, entitled “ Jamaica, as it was, as it is, and as it may be," is accurately described in its title-page, as comprising interesting topics for absent proprietors, merchants, &c., and valuable hints to persons intending to emigrate to the island. It contains also the best and most graphic account that we have seen of the negro insurrection in 1831, and a variety of useful matter. The author of the Modern Dunciad has reprinted that work, together with his Virgil in London, and other poems. "The Diary of a Solitaire, or Sketch of a Pedestrian Excursion through Part of Switzerland," is confessedly from the pen of a Quaker; and to the Society of Friends, in particular, we have no doubt, it will prove acceptable. In his "Prefatory Address," the writer shows himself a stanch conservative; and in his notes, as well as text, the pious Christian. HISTORY. In this department we have three volumes (1.) The last volume of the Life of Napoleon Bonaparte (in Scott's prose works); which opens with the battle of Waterloo. In the appendix there are a variety of histo rical or biographical documents; amongst which are Maitland's Statement and Captain Pringle's Remarks on the Campaign of 1815. (2.) The second volume of Historical parallels, in the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, gives seven chapters narrating events which in their external character have some relation to each other. The exact parallel between Cleon and Titus Oates, is not quite so obvious. (3.) The fifth volume of the History of England (a continuation of the undertaking of Sir James Mackintosh) in Lardner's Cyclopædia, will most likely require us to return to it,—at least if bulk is any proof of merit; for the whole volume is occupied with the reign of Charles the First, and still leaves it unfinished. POETRY.-Here also we have a trio. (1.) The third volume of Sir Egerton Brydges's Milton, completing "Paradise Lost." (2.) The seventh volume of Cowper's Life and Works; containing the four last books of "The Task," and the Miscellaneous Poems. (3.) The second volume (and the last) of the Songs of England and Scotland; containing those of Scotland, with a very graceful vignette engraving after Reynolds, and an intelligent portrait of Allan Cunningham. The present selection is not only better than that of the first volume, because the songs of Scotland are better than those of England, but it seems to have been executed with more care. The MISCELLANEOUS class of serials gives half a dozen. (1.) The sixth volume of Boswell's Johnson; full of entertainment or instruction, open where we will. (2.) The twentieth number of the Sacred Classics, containing three of Howe's Theological Treatises, with a very good life of the excellent Nonconformist divine, by Mr. Thomas Taylor. (3.) The fifth and sixth parts of the Resources and Statistics of Nations; which forms the first volume of the work, and terminates the Political Statistics of the World. (4.) The second volume of the Spirit of Chambers's Journal; a capital little book, containing a selection of the best original articles which have appeared in that popular periodical. (5.) The fifteenth volume of the Library of Romance. Its tale is Ernesto; its author is a Mr. William Smith, the writer of "Guidone" and "Solitude." The work itself is a philosophical romance, and contains the "history of the mind, rather than the fortunes of an individual." This scheme is not over promising; we must look further before we can tell whether it will be necessary to recur to Ernesto. (6.) Another volume of that beautiful work, the Naturalist's Library; forming the fifth of Ornithology, and treating of Pigeons. Part VI., forming the commencement of the-second volume of the embellished edition of" The Poetical Works of Samuel Rogers, Esq." is enriched with no fewer than sixteen of the exquisite designs of Stothard and Turner. In addition to the periodical works on Floriculture and Arboriculture, we have now a work on flowering plants and ferns, called Florigraphia Britannica, conduct. ed by Messrs. Deakin and Marnock. Each number contains twelve figures of plants, neatly cut in wood, six on a page; with descriptions of their generic characters, localities, and uses. A glossary of terms is appended; as the editors aim at popular simplicity as well as scientific accuracy. The cheapness of this publication is as remarkable as its neatness-being only 6d. each number plain, and double the price with the plates coloured. In the first number we see advertised a work on the Lichens of Britain, by Bohler, but more expensive. In the seventh and eighth numbers of Loudon's Arboretum, a few wood engravings are introduced, which, by their neatness and sharpness, make the zinc plates look black and indistinct. The foliage of the tree, however, is best imitated by the drawings on zine; though the minute details of the germination are most clearly shown in the wood cuts. Literary Entelligence. List of New Publications. The Bible Atlas. By Samuel Arrowsmith. Large 8vo. 128. and 4to. 21s. The French Language its own Teacher. By Rene Aliva. Part II. 12mo. 58. The Prime Minister; a Poem Political and Historical. By a Peer. 12mo. 48. Frithiof's Saga; a Scandinavian Legend of Royal Love, translated from the Swedish of Ě. Tegner. By the Rev. W. Strong. 8vo. 12s. The Last of the Corbes. By the Rev. J Wright. Post 8vo. 10s. 6d. Eight Illustrations of the Lord's Prayer from Flaxman's Designs. 8vo. 5s. Progressive Exercises in English Grammar. By R. G. Parker, A. M. 18mo. 18. 6d. The Parables of Jesus. By the Rev. B. H. Draper. First series. 32mo. 2s. Eliza Mordaunt; or, the Governess. By Mrs. Sherwood. 12mo. 4s. 6d. Memoirs of the Right Hon. Sir James Mackintosh. Edited by his Son. 2 vols. 8vo. 11. 128. Practical Observations on the Nature and Treatment of Nervous Diseases. By C. R. Mart. 12mo. 6s. Dr. Brook Taylor's Linear Perspective. New edition. By J. Jopling. 8vo. 10s. 6d. Breton's Excursions in New South Wales. 8vo. new edit. 10s. 6d. Autobiography of an Irish Traveller. 3 vols. post 8vo. 31s. 6d. The Laird of Logan, or Wit of the West. Carrick. 24mo. 3s. 6d. The British Pulpit, Vol. III. Withering's British Botany. 3d edition. 10s. 6d. 8vo. 8s. By J. D By Macgilivray. 12mo. A Parallel of Shakspeare and Scott. Royal 12mo. 2s. 6d. Memoirs of J. Howard Hinton. By his Father. 2d edit. 32mo. 1s. Lyell's Geology. 4th edit. 4 vols. 12mo. 24s. Works in Progress. The Life of Admiral Lord Exmouth, drawn up from official and other authentic documents, furnished by his family and friends, is now preparing for publication. By Edward Osler, Esq., and will appear early in August. The large Ale and Porter Brewers will next week be presented with a work on the subject of Brewing, upon which they may with confidence rely; as the whole process of Fermentation, Mashing, Temperature, and other important points in Brewing, are treated both practically and scientifically, by one of their own body, Mr. William Black, who has been a practical brewer for the last forty years. The fifteenth and concluding volume of the Library of Romance will be published in a few days, containing an original and philosophical romance, entitled "Ernesto," by the author of "Guidone," &c. The Diary of a Solitaire, containing a lively and animated sketch of a Pedestrian Tour through the most interesting parts of Switzerland, will be published early in August, and will form an excellent guide for future travellers through that romantic country. A History of British India, from the termination of the war with the Mahrattas in 1805 to the renewal of the company's charter in 1833. By Edward Thornton, Esq. author of "India; its state and prospects." The work will be completed in two volumes, 8vo. The first volume will be published immediately, and the second shortly rings and Adventures in the Interior of South-afterwards. 58. Scenes and Characters illustrating_Christian Truth; No. I. Trial and Self-Discipline. By the author of "James Talbot," &c. |