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+Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 445, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 445
+       Volume 18, New Series, July 10, 1852
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: William Chambers and Robert Chambers
+
+Release Date: March 11, 2007 [EBook #20797]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. Shiffer and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                     CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL
+
+  CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S
+  INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.
+
+
+  No. 445. NEW SERIES.   SATURDAY, JULY 10, 1852.   PRICE 1-1/2_d._
+
+
+
+
+ECONOMY IN DISTRIBUTION.
+
+
+We had lately occasion to proceed by an omnibus from a country town to
+a station on a railway, by which we were to return to the city where
+we have our customary abode. On arriving at the station, we learned
+that we should have to wait an hour for an _up_ train, the omnibus
+being timed in relation to a _down_ one, which was about to pass. Had
+this arrangement been the only one readily practicable, in the case,
+we should have felt it necessary to submit uncomplainingly to the loss
+of our hour; but it really was not so. We had come in one of three
+omnibuses, none of which had more than two or three passengers. Why
+should not one have come at this hour with _down_ passengers, and
+another come an hour later with _up_ ones, thus by the same trouble
+giving more accommodation? We found that the three omnibuses are run
+by so many hotels, and that an arrangement for general convenience was
+impossible, as it might have interfered with the hotel business. On
+the continent, the government would have ordered matters otherwise:
+with us, the genius of _laissez faire_ permits them to be as we
+describe.
+
+It is in the same part of the country that a system exists amongst
+bakers, which we described many years ago in these pages. There are
+three towns, triangularly arranged, about ten miles from each other.
+One or more bakers in each has a van, in which he sends bread every
+day to the other two. As there is no witchcraft in the making of
+bread, it might be as well for the inhabitants of each town to be
+supplied by the bakers of their own place exclusively, and then the
+expense of the carriage would be saved. Such, however, is the keenness
+of competition in the case, that each baker strives to get supporters
+in the neighbouring towns, and willingly pays for van, horse, and
+driver in order to retain their custom. We presume each van goes
+thirty miles a day, and that there is not much less than 2000 miles of
+this unprofitable travelling weekly in connection with the three
+towns.
+
+Any one who has a sincere respect for the principle of untrammelled
+industry, must lament to see these its abuses or drawbacks. But our
+commercial world is full of such anomalies. The cause is readily
+traced in the excessive number of persons engaged in the various
+trades. Not many years ago, the number of bakers in a town known to
+us, of the same size as one of those above referred to, was fourteen,
+while everybody acknowledged that four might have sufficed. In such
+circumstances, it is not wonderful that expedients like that of the
+van are resorted to, notwithstanding that it can only diminish the
+aggregate of profit derived by an already starving trade.
+
+Few persons who walk along a street of nicely-decorated and apparently
+well-stocked shops, have the slightest conception of the hollowness of
+many of the appearances. The reality has been tested in part by the
+income-tax inquisition, which shews a surprising number of
+respectable-looking shops not reaching that degree of profit which
+brings the owner within the scope of the exaction. It may be that some
+men who are liable, contrive to make themselves appear as not so; but
+this cannot be to such an extent as greatly to affect the general
+fact. In the assessing of the tax, no result comes out oftener than
+one of this kind: Receipts for the year, L.2200; estimated profit at
+15 per cent., L.330; deductions for rent of shop, taxes, shopmen's
+wages, and bad debts, L.193; leaving, as net profit, L.137. The
+commissioners are left to wonder how the trader can support his family
+in a decent manner upon so small a return, till they reflect that
+possibly a son brings in a little as a shopman, or a daughter as a
+day-governess; or that possibly an old female relative lives with the
+family, and throws her little income into the general stock. It is,
+after all, a fact capable of the clearest demonstration, that a vast
+number of shopkeepers' families maintain decent appearances upon an
+income below that enjoyed by many artisans--what goes, in the one
+case, for the decent appearances, being enjoyed in substantial
+comforts in the other, or else misapplied, to the degradation of body
+and mind.
+
+The evil primarily lies in an erroneous distribution of industry.
+Where twenty men offer themselves to do a duty to society for which
+three are sufficient, it cannot be good for any party; whereas, were
+the extra seventeen to apply themselves to other departments of the
+labour required for all, it would be better times for the whole
+twenty. The light, easy, and pleasant occupations are those most apt
+to be beset by superfluous hands. Shopkeeping is generally easy, and
+often pleasant; hence the excessive number of individuals applying
+themselves to it. In the difficulties of the case, conspicuousness of
+situation, extravagant decoration, and abundant advertising, are
+resorted to, as means of obtaining a preference. Many, to help out
+profits, resort to tricks and cheating. The expense thus incurred,
+above what is necessary, in distributing certain goods, must be
+enormous. To bring most articles to the hands of the consumer should
+be a simple business. Every member of the public must feel that his
+clothes will be as good, coming from a wareroom on a third floor at
+L.30 a year, as from a flashy corner shop which costs L.300. He will
+feel that to make him buy a new hat when he needs one, it is not
+necessary that an advertising van should be continually rumbling along
+the streets. His tea and sugar from the nearest grocer cannot be any
+better because of there being fifty other grocers within two miles of
+his residence, and forty of these not required. Yet, by reason of the
+great competition in nearly all trades, these vast expenses, which do
+nothing for the public, are continually incurred. Means misapplied are
+means lost. The community is just so much the poorer. And we must
+pronounce the superfluous shopkeepers, those who live by the rents of
+fine shops, and those who are concerned in the business of advertising
+beyond what is strictly necessary for the information of the public,
+as incumbrances on the industry of the country.
+
+One unfortunate concomitant of competition is, that it prompts in the
+individual trader an idea which places him in a false position towards
+the general interest. It is the general interest that all things fit
+for use should be abundant; but when a man is concerned in producing
+any of those things, he sees it to be for his immediate interest that
+they should be scarce, because what he has to sell will then bring a
+greater price. It is the general interest that all useful things
+should be produced and distributed as cheaply as possible; but each
+individual producer and distributer feels that the dearer they are, it
+is the better for him. It is thus that a trade comes to regard itself
+as something detached from the community; that a man also views his
+peculiar trading interest as a first principle, to which everything
+else must give way. It might, indeed, be easily shewn, that whatever
+is good for the whole community, must be in the long-run beneficial to
+each member. He either cannot look far enough for that, or he feels
+himself unable to dispense with the immediate benefit from that which
+is bad for the public. In short, each trade considers the world as
+living for it, not it as living for the world--a mistake so monstrous,
+that there is little reason to wonder at the enormous misexpenditure
+to which it gives rise.
+
+The idea essentially connected with these false positions, that
+_because_ there are certain persons in a trade in a particular place,
+they _ought_ to be there, and that the primary consideration regarding
+them is how to enable them to continue living by that trade--as if
+they were fixed there by some decree of Providence--is one of the most
+perverse and difficult to deal with in political economy. The
+assertion of any principle ruling to the contrary purpose, seems to
+the multitude of superficial thinkers as a kind of cruelty to the
+persons, the severity of the natural law being, by an easy slide of
+thought, laid to the charge of the mere philosopher who detects and
+announces its operation. In reality, those are the cruel people who
+would contentedly see a great number of their fellow-creatures going
+on from year to year in a misery, which, being brought upon themselves
+by ignorance, and the want of a right spirit of enterprise, can only
+be banished or lessened by their being rightly informed, and induced
+to enter upon a proper course.
+
+If there were a right knowledge and just views of these subjects
+diffused through the community, a man would be ashamed to enter upon a
+business in which a sufficient number of persons was already engaged,
+knowing that he was thereby trifling with his time and fortunes, and
+perhaps encouraging in himself a love of ease, or some other desire
+which he was not entitled to gratify. He would rather go to some new
+country, where he might eat in rough independence the rewards of an
+actual toil. What is really required, however, is not that men should
+leave their own country, but enter upon such pursuits there as may
+preserve an equal instead of an unequal distribution of industry
+throughout the various fields in which there is something to be done
+for the general advantage. Distribution should be less a favourite
+department, and production more so. With more producers and fewer
+distributers, the waste we have endeavoured to describe would be so
+far saved, and there would be fewer miserable people on the earth.
+
+Even amidst all the delusions which prevail upon the subject, it is
+curious to observe that there is a strong current towards a
+rectification of what is amiss. The interests of the individual, which
+produce so much fallacy, after all bring a correction. The active,
+original-minded tradesman, seeing that, with an ordinary share of the
+entire business of his department, he can scarcely make bread and
+butter, bethinks him of setting up a leviathan shop, in which he may
+serve the whole town with mercery at a comparatively small profit to
+himself, looking to large and frequent returns for his remuneration.
+The public, with all its sentimentalisms, never fails to take the
+article, quality being equal, at the lowest price, and accordingly the
+leviathan dealer thrives, while nearly all the small dealers are
+extirpated. Now this is a course of things which produces partial
+inconveniences; but its general effect is good. It lessens the cost of
+distribution for the consumer, and it decides many to take to new and
+more hopeful courses, who otherwise might cling to a branch of
+business that had become nearly sapless. Underselling generally has
+the same results. When in a trade in which distribution usually costs
+43 per cent., one man announces himself as willing to lessen this by
+15 or 20 per cent., his conduct is apt to appear unbrotherly and
+selfish to the rest; but the fact is, that for goods of any kind to
+cost 43 per cent., in mere distribution, is a monstrosity; and he who
+can in any measure lessen that cost, will be regarded by the community
+as acting in the spirit of a just economy, and as deserving of their
+gratitude. These may be considered as the rude struggles of
+competition towards a righting of its own evils. The public sees two
+selfishnesses working in the case, and it naturally patronises that
+which subserves its own interest.
+
+The waste arising from an over-costly system of distribution, will
+probably lead to other correctives of even a more sweeping kind than
+that of underselling, or the setting up of leviathan shops. For the
+greater number of the articles required for daily use, men begin to
+find that a simple co-operative arrangement is sufficient. A certain
+number agree to combine in order to obtain articles at wholesale
+prices; after which a clerk, shopman, and porter suffice to distribute
+them. They thus save, in many trades, as much as 15 per cent. So far
+from their being under any peculiar disadvantage as to the quality of
+the articles, they are rather safer than usual in that respect; and
+indeed a freedom from the danger of getting adulterated or inferior
+goods is one of the recommendations of the system. It would probably
+extend more rapidly, were it not for the difficulties attending the
+law of partnership, which, however, will in all likelihood be speedily
+removed.
+
+We make these remarks on distribution mainly in the hope of saving
+individuals from entering upon a career in which, not being truly
+useful to their fellow-creatures, they have little to expect of good
+for themselves. At present, shopkeeping is limited by what an able
+writer of the day calls the _bankruptcy check_;[1] that is, men go
+into it, and remain in it, while they can just barely sustain
+themselves, not regarding that they do not and cannot thrive, and that
+they are only adding to a mass of idleness already burdensome to the
+community. What we desire is, to see men so far enlightened in the
+principles of economy, that they will be at least less apt to rush
+into fields where their help is not wanted. We wish to assist in
+creating a public opinion on this subject, which, fixing on
+shopkeeping in such circumstances the odium of a masked idleness, will
+tend to send the undecided into courses of real activity and
+serviceableness; thus securing their own good by the only plan which
+can be safely depended upon--that of first securing the good of the
+entire community.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Mr F. O. Ward.
+
+
+
+
+THE VENDETTA.
+
+
+In the morning, we were off the coast of Sardinia, steaming rapidly
+along for the Straits of Bonifacio. The night had been tranquil, and
+the morning was more tranquil still; but no one who knew the
+capricious Mediterranean felt confident of continued fair weather.
+However, at sea the mind takes little thought for the morrow, or even
+for the afternoon; and as we sat in the warm shade of the awning,
+looking out to the purple horizon in the east, or to the rocky and
+varied coast to the west, I felt, and if the countenance be not
+treacherous, all felt that it was good even for landsmen to be moving
+over waters uncrisped except by the active paddles, beneath a sky all
+radiant with light. My companions were chiefly Levant merchants, or
+sallow East Indians; for I was on board the French packet _Le Caire_,
+on its way from Alexandria, of Egypt, to Marseille.
+
+I had several times passed the Straits, each time with renewed
+pleasure and admiration. It would be difficult to imagine a
+scene more wild and peculiar. After rounding the huge rock of
+Tavolara--apparently a promontory running boldly out into the sea, but
+in reality an island, we are at once at the mouth of the Straits. The
+mountains of Corsica, generally enveloped in clouds, rise above the
+horizon ahead, and near at hand a thousand rocks and islands of
+various dimensions appear to choke up the passage. The narrow southern
+channel, always selected by day, is intricate, and would be dangerous
+to strangers; and indeed the whole of the Straits are considered so
+difficult, that the fact of Nelson, without previous experience,
+having taken his fleet through, is cited even by French sailors as a
+prodigy.
+
+On one of the rocky points of the Sardinian coast, I observed the
+ruins of a building, but so deceptive is distance, I could not at
+first determine whether it had been a fortress or a cottage. I asked
+one of the officers for his telescope; and being still in doubt,
+questioned him as I returned it. He smiled and said: 'For the last
+five or six years, I have never passed through the Straits by day
+without having had to relate the story connected with that ruin. It
+has become a habit with me to do so; and if you had not spoken, I
+should have been compelled, under penalty of passing a restless night,
+to have let out my narrative at dinner. You will go down to your berth
+presently; for see how the smoke is weighed down by the heavy
+atmosphere upon the deck, and how it rolls like a snake along the
+waters! What you fancy to be merely a local head-wind blowing through
+the Straits, is a mistral tormenting the whole Gulf of Lions. We shall
+be tossing about presently in a manner unpleasant to landsmen; and
+when you are safely housed, I will come and beguile a little time by
+relating a true story of a Corsican Vendetta.'
+
+The prophecy was correct. In less than a quarter of an hour, _Le
+Caire_ was pitching through the last narrows against as violent a gale
+as I ever felt. It was like a wall of moving air. The shores, rocks,
+and islands were now concealed by driving mist; and as the sea widened
+before us, it was covered with white-crested waves. Before I went
+below, a cluster of sails ahead was pointed out as the English fleet;
+and it was surmised that it would be compelled to repeat Nelson's
+manoeuvre, as Sardinia and Corsica form a dangerous lee-shore.
+However, the atmosphere thickened rapidly; and we soon lost sight of
+all objects but the waves amidst which we rolled, and the phantom-like
+shores of Corsica.
+
+The officer joined me, and kept his promise. By constant practice, he
+had acquired some skill in the art of telling at least this one story;
+and I regret that I do not remember his exact words. However, the
+following is the substance of his narrative:--Giustiniani and
+Bartuccio were inhabitants of the little town of Santa Maddalena,
+situated on the Corsican side of the Straits. They were both sons of
+respectable parents, and were united from an early age in the bonds of
+friendship. When they grew up, Giustiniani became clerk in a very
+humble mercantile establishment; whilst Bartuccio, more fortunate,
+obtained a good place in the custom-house. They continued on excellent
+terms till the age of about twenty-one years, when an incident
+occurred, that by making rivals of them, made them enemies.
+
+Giustiniani had occasion to visit the city of Ajaccio, and set out in
+company with a small party mounted upon mules. Bartuccio went with him
+to the crest of the hill, where they parted after an affectionate
+embrace. The journey was fortunately performed; in about a month
+Giustiniani was on his way back, and reached without incident, just as
+night set in, a desolate ravine within a few leagues of Santa
+Maddalena. Here a terrific storm of wind and rain broke upon the
+party, which missed the track, and finally dispersed; some seeking
+shelter in the lee of the rocks, others pushing right and left in
+search of the path, or of some hospitable habitation. Giustiniani
+wandered for more than an hour, until he descended towards the plain,
+and, attracted by a light, succeeded at length in reaching a little
+cottage having a garden planted with trees. The lightning had now
+begun to play, and shewed him the white walls of the cottage streaming
+with rain, and the drenched foliage that surrounded it. Guided by the
+rapidly succeeding gleams, he was enabled to find the garden gate,
+where, there being no bell, he remained for some time shouting in
+vain. The light still beamed gently through one of the upper windows,
+and seemed to tell of a comfortable interior and cosy inmates.
+Giustiniani exerted his utmost strength of voice, and presently there
+was a movement in the lighted chamber--a form came to the window; and,
+after some delay, the door of the house was opened, and a voice asked
+who demanded admittance at that hour, and in such weather. Our
+traveller explained, and was soon let in by a quiet-looking old
+gentleman, who took him up stairs into a little library, where a good
+wood-fire was blazing. A young girl of remarkable beauty rose as he
+entered, and received him with cordial hospitality. Acquaintance was
+soon made. Giustiniani told his little story, and learned that his
+host was M. Albert Brivard, a retired medical officer, who, with his
+daughter Marie, had selected this out-of-the-way place for economy's
+sake.
+
+According to my informant, Giustiniani at once fell in love with the
+beautiful Marie, to such an extent that he could scarcely partake of
+the supper offered him. Perhaps his abstinence arose from other
+reasons--love being in reality a hungry passion in its early
+stage--for next day the young man was ill of a fever, and incapable of
+continuing his journey. M. Brivard and his daughter attended him
+kindly; and as he seemed to become worse towards evening, sent a
+messenger to Maddalena. The consequence was, that on the following
+morning Bartuccio arrived in a great state of alarm and anxiety; but
+fate did not permit him again to meet his friend with that whole and
+undivided passion of friendship in his breast with which he had
+quitted him a month before. Giustiniani was asleep when he entered the
+house, and he was received by Marie. In his excited state of mind, he
+was apt for new impressions, and half an hour's conversation seems not
+only to have filled him with love, but to have excited the same
+feeling in the breast of the gentle girl. It would have been more
+romantic, perhaps, had Marie been tenderly impressed by poor
+Giustiniani when he arrived at night, travel-stained and drenched with
+rain, in the first fit of a fever; 'but woman,' said the sagacious
+narrator, as he received a tumbler of grog from the steward, 'is a
+mystery'--an opinion I am not inclined to confute.
+
+In a few days, Giustiniani was well enough to return to his home,
+which he reached in a gloomy and dissatisfied state of mind. He had
+already observed that Bartuccio, who rode over every day professedly
+to see him, felt in reality ill at ease in his company, spoke no
+longer with copious familiarity, and left him in a few minutes,
+professing to be obliged to return to his duty. From his bed, however,
+he could hear him for some time after laughing and talking with Marie
+in the garden; and he felt, without knowing it, all the pangs of
+jealousy: not that he believed his friend would interfere and dispute
+with him the possession of the gem which he had discovered, and over
+which he internally claimed a right of property, but he was oppressed
+with an uneasy sentiment of future ill, and tormented with a
+diffidence as to his own powers of pleasing, that made him say adieu
+to Marie and her father with cold gratitude--that seemed afterwards to
+them, and to him when reflection came, sheer ingratitude.
+
+When he had completely recovered his strength, he recovered also to, a
+certain extent his serenity of mind. Bartuccio was often with him, and
+never mentioned the subject of Marie. One day, therefore, in a state
+of mingled hope and love, he resolved to pay a visit to his kind host;
+and set out on foot. The day was sunny; the landscape, though rugged,
+beautiful with light; a balmy breeze played gently on his cheek. The
+intoxication of returning strength filled him with confidence and joy.
+He met the old doctor herborising a little way from his house, and
+saluted him so cordially, that a hearty shake of the hand was added to
+the cold bow with which he was at first received. Giustiniani
+understood a little of botany, and pleased the old man by his
+questions and remarks. They walked slowly towards the house together.
+When they reached it, M. Brivard quietly remarked: 'You will find my
+daughter in the garden,' and went in with the treasures he had
+collected. The young man's heart bounded with joy. Now was the time.
+He would throw himself at once at Marie's feet, confess the turbulent
+passion she had excited, and receive from her lips his sentence of
+happiness, or---- No, he would not consider the alternative; and with
+bounding step and eager eye, he ran over the garden, beneath the
+orange and the myrtle trees, until he reached a little arbour at the
+other extremity.
+
+What he saw might well plunge him at once into despair. Marie had just
+heard and approved the love of Bartuccio, who had clasped her, not
+unwilling, to his breast. Their moment of joy was brief, for in
+another instant Bartuccio was on the ground, with Giustiniani's knee
+upon his breast, and a bright poniard glittered in the air. 'Spare
+him--spare him!' cried the unfortunate girl, sinking on her knees. The
+accepted lover struggled in vain in the grasp of his frenzied rival,
+who, however, forbore to strike. 'Swear, Marie,' he said, 'by your
+mother's memory, that you will not marry him for five years, and I
+will give him a respite for so long.' She swore with earnestness; and
+the next moment, Giustiniani had broken through the hedge, and was
+rushing franticly towards Santa Maddalena.
+
+When he recovered from his confusion, Bartuccio, who, from his
+physical inferiority, had been reduced to a passive part in this
+scene, endeavoured to persuade Marie that she had taken an absurd
+oath, which she was not bound to abide by; but M. Brivard, though he
+had approved his daughter's choice, knew well the Corsican character,
+and decreed that for the present at least all talk of marriage should
+be set aside. In vain Bartuccio pleaded the rights of an accepted
+lover. The old man became more obstinate, and not only insisted that
+his daughter should abide by her promise, but hinted that if any
+attempt were made to oppose his decision, he would at once leave the
+country.
+
+As may well be imagined, Bartuccio returned to the city with feelings
+of bitter hatred against his former friend; and it is probable that
+wounded pride worked upon him as violently as disappointed passion. He
+was heard by several persons to utter vows of vengeance--rarely
+meaningless in that uncivilised island--and few were surprised when
+next day the news spread that Giustiniani had disappeared. Public
+opinion at once pointed to Bartuccio as the murderer. He was arrested,
+and a careful investigation was instituted; but nothing either to
+exculpate or inculpate him transpired, and after some months of
+imprisonment, he was liberated.
+
+Five years elapsed. During the first half of the period, Bartuccio was
+coldly received by both M. Brivard and his daughter, although he
+strenuously protested his innocence. Time, however, worked in his
+favour, and he at length assumed the position of a betrothed lover, so
+that no one was surprised when, at the expiration of the appointed
+time, the marriage took place. Many wondered indeed why, since
+Giustiniani had disappeared, and was probably dead, any regard was
+paid to the extorted promise; whilst all augured well of the union
+which was preceded by so signal an instance of good faith. The
+observant, indeed, noticed that throughout the ceremony Bartuccio was
+absent and uneasy--looking round anxiously over the crowd assembled
+from time to time. 'He is afraid to see the ghost of Giustiniani,'
+whispered an imprudent bystander. The bridegroom caught the last word,
+and starting as if he had received a stab, cried: 'Where, where?' No
+one answered; and the ceremony proceeded in ominous gloom.
+
+Next day, Bartuccio and his young wife, accompanied by M. Brivard,
+left Santa Maddalena without saying whither they were going; and the
+good people of the town made many strange surmises on the subject. In
+a week or so, however, a vessel being wrecked in the Straits,
+furnished fresh matter of conversation; and all these circumstances
+became utterly forgotten, except by a few. 'But this drama was as yet
+crowned by no catastrophe,' said the officer, 'and all laws of harmony
+would be violated if it ended here.' 'Are you, then, inventing?'
+inquired I. 'Not at all,' he replied; 'but destiny is a greater
+tragedian than Shakspeare, and prepares _dénouements_ with superior
+skill.' I listened with increased interest.
+
+The day after the departure of the married couple, a small boat with a
+shoulder-of-mutton sail left the little harbour of Santa Maddalena a
+couple of hours before sunset, and with a smart breeze on its quarter,
+went bravely out across the Straits. Some folks who were accustomed to
+see this manoeuvre had, it is true, shouted out to the only man on
+board, warning him that rough weather was promised; but he paid no
+heed, and continued on his way. If I were writing a romance, if,
+indeed, I had any reasonable space, I would keep up the excitement of
+curiosity for some time, describe a variety of terrific adventures
+unknown to seamen, and wonderful escapes comprehensible only by
+landsmen, and thus make a subordinate hero of the bold navigator. But
+I must be content to inform the reader, that he was Paolo, a servant
+of Giustiniani's mother, who had lived in perfect retirement since her
+son's disappearance, professing to have no news of him. In reality,
+however, she knew perfectly well that he had retired to Sardinia, and
+after remaining in the interior some time, had established himself in
+the little cottage, the ruins of which had attracted my attention. The
+reason for his retirement, which he afterwards gave, was that he might
+be enabled to resist the temptation to avenge himself on Bartuccio,
+and, if possible, conquer his love for Marie. He no longer entertained
+any hope of possessing her himself; but he thought that at least she
+would grow weary of waiting for the passage of five years, and would
+marry a stranger--a consummation sufficiently satisfactory, he
+thought, to restore to him his peace of mind. Once a month at least he
+received, through the medium of the faithful Paolo, assistance and
+news from his mother; and to his infinite discomfiture learned, as
+time proceeded, that his enemy, whilom his friend, was to be made
+happy at last. His rage knew no bounds at this; and several times he
+was on the point of returning to Santa Maddalena, to do the deed of
+vengeance from which he had hitherto refrained. However, he resolved
+to await the expiration of the five years.
+
+Paolo arrived in safety at the cottage some time after dark, and
+communicated the intelligence both of the marriage and the departure
+of the family. To a certain extent, both he and the mother of
+Giustiniani approved the projects of vengeance entertained by the
+latter, but thought that the honour of the family was sufficiently
+cleared by what was evidently a flight. Paolo was disappointed and
+puzzled by the manner of the unfortunate recluse. Instead of bursting
+out into furious denunciations, he became as pale as ashes, and then
+hiding his face in his hands, wept aloud. His agony continued for more
+than an hour; after which he raised his head, and exhibited a serene
+brow to the astonished servitor. 'Let us return to Santa Maddalena,'
+he said; and they accordingly departed, leaving the cottage a prey to
+the storms, which soon reduced it to ruins, and will probably erelong
+sweep away every trace.
+
+Giustiniani reached his mother's house unperceived, and spent many
+hours in close conversation with his delighted parent. He did not,
+however, shew himself in the town, but departed on the track of the
+fugitives the very next day. He traced them to Ajaccio, thence to
+Marseille, to Nice, back to Marseille, to Paris, but there he lost the
+clue. Several months passed in this way; his money was all spent, and
+he was compelled to accept a situation in the counting-house of a
+merchant of the Marais, and to give up the chase and the working out
+of the catastrophe he had planned for his Vendetta.
+
+A couple of years afterwards, Giustiniani had occasion to go to one of
+the towns of the north of France--Lille, I believe. In its
+neighbourhood, as my narrator told me--and on him I throw the whole
+responsibility, if there seem anything improbable in what is to
+come--the young man was once more overtaken by a storm, and compelled
+to seek refuge in a cottage, which the gleams of the lightning
+revealed to him. This time he was on foot, and after knocking at the
+door, was admitted at once by a young woman, who seemed to have been
+waiting in the passage for his arrival. She was about to throw herself
+into his arms, when suddenly she started back, and exclaimed: 'It is
+not he!' Taking up a candle, which she had placed on the floor, she
+cast its light on her own face and that of the stranger, who had
+remained immovable, as if petrified by the sound of her voice.
+'Madam,' said he, brought to himself by this action, 'I am a stranger
+in these parts, overtaken by the storm, and I beg an hour's
+hospitality.'
+
+'You are welcome, sir,' replied Marie, the wife of Bartuccio, for it
+was she; but she did not at the moment recognise the unfortunate man
+who stood before her.
+
+They were soon in a comfortable room, where was M. Brivard, now
+somewhat broken by age, and a cradle, in which slept a handsome boy
+about a year old. Giustiniani, after the interchange of a few
+words--perhaps in order to avoid undergoing too close an examination
+of his countenance--bent over the cradle to peruse the features of the
+child; and the pillow was afterwards found wet with tears. By an
+involuntary motion, he clutched at the place where the poniard was
+wont to be, and then sat down upon a chair that stood in a dim corner.
+A few minutes afterwards, Bartuccio came joyously into the room,
+embraced his wife, asked her if she was cold, for she trembled very
+much--spoke civilly to the stranger, and began to throw off his wet
+cloak and coat. At this moment the tall form of Giustiniani rose like
+a phantom in the corner, and passions, which he himself had thought
+smothered, worked through his worn countenance. Brivard saw and now
+understood, and was nailed to his chair by unspeakable terror, whilst
+Bartuccio gaily called for his slippers. Suddenly Marie, who had
+watched every motion of the stranger, and, with the vivid intuition of
+wife and mother, had understood what part was hers to play, rushed to
+the cradle, seized the sleeping child, and without saying a word,
+placed it in Giustiniani's arms. The strong-passioned man looked
+amazed, yet not displeased, and, after a moment's hesitation, sank on
+his knees, and embraced the babe, that, awaking, curled its little
+arms round his head----
+
+A tremendous crash aloft interrupted the well-prepared peroration of
+the narrator; and, to say the truth, I was not sorry that a sail was
+carried away, and one of our boats stove in at this precise moment,
+for I had heard quite enough to enable me to guess the conclusion of
+the history of this harmless Vendetta.
+
+
+
+
+WRECK-CHART AND LIFE-BOATS.
+
+
+Many of our readers are probably aware that Prince Albert, in his
+capacity of president of the Society of Arts, Manufactures, and
+Commerce, suggested that lectures should be delivered on the results
+of the different classes of the Great Exhibition, by gentlemen
+peculiarly qualified by their several professions and pursuits. This
+suggestion has been admirably carried out; but we propose at present
+to direct attention only to one of the twenty-four lectures in
+question--namely, that on life-boats, by Captain Washington, R. N.;
+our individual calling in early life having been such as to enable us
+to understand thoroughly the technical details, and judge of the
+accuracy of the views and opinions propounded by the gallant and
+intelligent lecturer.[2]
+
+First, we will speak of the wreck-chart of the British islands
+prefixed to the lecture. Round the entire coast is a prodigious number
+of _black dots_, of two kinds--one a simple round dot, and the other
+having a line drawn through it. They all point out the locality of
+shipwrecks during the year 1850, and the latter dot shews the wreck to
+have been total. The English coasts are most thickly dotted, but this
+is to be expected from the greater proportion of shipping; next in the
+scale is Ireland, and then Scotland, which has comparatively few black
+dots, the densest portion being on the west coast, from Ayr to Largs,
+where we count eleven, nine indicating total wrecks. In the Firth of
+Forth there are but three, one total. A sprinkling of dots is seen
+among the Eastern Hebrides, but not so many as one would expect.
+Turning to England, we count about forty-five wrecks in the Bristol
+Channel alone, by far the greater number being total. On the Goodwill
+Sands there are fourteen, all total but one. On the Gunfleet Sands
+there are nine, four total. They are numerous on the Norfolk and
+Lincolnshire coasts, especially off Yarmouth and the Washway. On the
+Welsh coast, particularly around Beaumaris, Holyhead, &c., the number
+is very great. In the firth leading to Liverpool, we count no less
+than twenty-one, of which twelve are total. On the north coast of
+England the numbers are appalling. Off Hartlepool are fifteen, eight
+being total. Off Sunderland are twelve, all total but three. Off
+Newcastle are fifteen, eight total. Ah, that fearful, iron-bound coast
+of Northumberland! We have hugged it close in calm weather, with a
+fair breeze, and the views we caught of its shores made us shudder to
+think of what would befall a vessel on a stormy night and the shore
+alee. The following is the awful summary of 1850:--'The wrecks of
+British and foreign vessels on the coasts and in the seas of the
+United Kingdom were 681. Of these, 277 were total wrecks; sunk by
+leaks or collisions, 84; stranded and damaged so as to require to
+discharge cargo, 304; abandoned, 16. Total wrecks, &c., 681; total
+lives lost, 784.'
+
+Certain peculiar marks on this chart indicate the spots where
+life-boats are kept. In the vicinity of Liverpool we count no less
+than seven, and not one too many; but in many parts of the coast,
+where numerous wrecks occur, there are none. In all England there are
+eighty life-boats; in Ireland, eight; in Scotland, eight. A most
+portentous note on the chart informs us, that '_about one-half of the
+boats are unserviceable!_' Think of Scotland, with its rocky seaboard
+of 1500 miles: only eight life-boats, and some of these 'quite
+unserviceable!' The boats at St Andrews, Aberdeen, and Montrose, have
+saved eighty-three lives; and the rockets at eight stations,
+sixty-seven lives. 'Orkney and Shetland are without any provision for
+saving life; and with the exception of Port Logan, in Wigtonshire,
+where there is a mortar, the whole of the west coast of Scotland, from
+Cape Wrath to Solway Firth--an extent of 900 miles, without including
+islands--is in the same state.' With regard to the chief distribution
+of English life-boats, there is one to every eight miles on the
+Northumberland coast; one to every ten miles in Durham and Yorkshire;
+one to fifteen miles in Lincolnshire; and one to five miles in Norfolk
+and Suffolk--a fact which, the lecturer well observes, is highly
+creditable to the county associations of the two last counties. But
+'from Falmouth round the Land's End, by Trevose Head to Hartland
+Point, an extent of 150 miles of the most exposed sea-coast in
+England, there is not one really efficient life-boat.' On the Welsh
+coasts are twelve boats, some very defective. At the five Liverpool
+stations are nine good boats, 'liberally supported by the dock
+trustees, and having permanent boats' crews.' These Liverpool boats
+have, during the last eleven years, assisted 269 vessels, and brought
+ashore 1128 persons. As to the Isle of Man, situated in the track of
+an enormous traffic, with shores frequently studded with wrecks, we
+are told that there is not a single life-boat; for the four boats
+established there by Sir William Hillary, Baronet, 'have been allowed
+to fall into decay, and hardly a vestige of them remains!' The paltry
+eight life-boats for the whole Irish coast of 1400 miles are stated to
+be likewise inefficient.
+
+On the whole, it appears to us that the present number of efficient
+life-boats is not more than one-fourth of what ought to be constantly
+kept ready for immediate service. Only think of the amount of wrecks
+occurring occasionally in a single gale: On the 13th January 1843, not
+less than 103 vessels were lost on the British coasts. In 1846, nearly
+forty vessels were driven ashore in Hartlepool Bay alone. In the month
+of March 1850, the wrecks on our coasts were 134; in the gale of the
+25th and 26th September 1851, the number wrecked, stranded, or damaged
+by collision, was 117; and in January of the present year, the number
+was 120. The above are the numbers actually ascertained; but it is
+well known that _Lloyd's List_ is an imperfect register, although at
+present the best existing.
+
+A secondary mode of communicating with a stranded vessel is by firing
+rockets with a line attached to them, by which means a hawser may be
+drawn from the ship and fastened to the shore. Mortars are likewise
+used for the same purpose; the latter plan having been invented by
+Sergeant Bell, and first tried in 1792. Bell's plan was very greatly
+improved by Captain Manby; and all the mortars now in use for the
+purpose are called after him. Mr Dennett, of the Isle of Wight, first
+introduced the rocket-plan in 1825. Rockets or mortars, or both, are
+kept at most of the coast-guard stations; but in numerous cases were
+found worthless on trial, owing to the lines breaking, or the rockets
+being old and badly made. Nevertheless, at twenty-two stations, 214
+lives have been saved by them. The evil is, that neither rockets nor
+mortars are of any use unless the wreck lies within a short distance
+of the shore; for the maximum range attained is only 350 yards, and in
+the teeth of a violent wind, often not above 200 to 300 yards. If a
+ship, therefore, is stranded on a low shelving shore, she is almost
+certain to be beyond the range of the life-rocket or of Manby's
+mortar. The main reliance, therefore, is the life-boat, and to it we
+return.
+
+The Duke of Northumberland recently offered a reward for the best
+model of a life-boat. This offer was responded to by English, French,
+Dutch, German, and American boat-builders; and the amazing number of
+280 models and plans was sent in. About fifty of the best of these
+were contributed by the duke to the Great Exhibition; and he had also
+a report and plans and drawings of them printed, of which he
+distributed 1300 copies throughout the world. Baron Dupin, chairman of
+the Jury of Class VIII., thus summed up the award of the jury
+concerning them:--'These models figure among the most valuable
+productions in our Great Exhibition, and furnish an example of
+liberality in the cause of humanity and practical science never
+surpassed, if ever equalled. Such are the motives from which we have
+judged his Grace the Duke of Northumberland worthy of receiving the
+Council Medal.'
+
+The inventor of life-boats, as is well known, was Henry Greathead, of
+South Shields, in 1789. His boat was 30 feet long, with 10 feet
+breadth of beam, 3-1/4 feet depth of waist, stem and stern alike
+nearly 6 feet high, and pulled ten oars (double-banked.) A cork lining
+went fore and aft 12 inches thick, on the inside of the boat, from the
+floor to the thwarts; and outside was a cork fender, 16 inches deep, 4
+inches wide, and 21 feet long. 'She could not free herself of water,
+nor self-right in the event of being upset.' She was launched in 1790,
+and in the year 1802, the inventor was rewarded by the Society of Arts
+with its gold medal and fifty guineas; and parliament voted him
+L.1200, 'in acknowledgment of the utility of his invention.' Many
+presumed improvements and modifications of the original boat have been
+effected, with more or less success. James Beeching, a Yarmouth
+boat-builder, has carried off the prize offered by the duke, and we
+may therefore suppose his was the best of the models submitted.
+Captain Washington thus describes Beeching's model sent to the
+Exhibition: 'It may be seen from the model of that boat, that from her
+form she would both pull and sail well in all weathers; would have
+great stability, and be a good sea-boat. She has moderately small
+internal capacity under the level of the thwarts for holding water,
+and ample means for freeing herself readily of any water that might be
+shipped; she is ballasted by means of water admitted into a tank or
+well at the bottom after she is afloat; and by means of that ballast
+and raised air-cases at the extremities, she would right herself in
+the event of being upset. It will thus be seen, that this model
+combines most of the qualities required in a life-boat; and the boat
+which has since been built after it, and is now stationed at Ramsgate,
+is said to answer her purpose admirably.'
+
+M. Lahure, of Havre, sent a full-sized boat of _iron_; and Mr Francis,
+of New York, also sent a model life-boat of corrugated galvanised
+iron. Captain Washington thinks, that if metal is used at all, it
+should be copper in preference to any other. For our own part, we can
+only say, that we have helped to build boats, though not life-boats,
+and we have helped likewise to man boats, but we should like to have
+good sound timber beneath our feet in preference to any metal
+whatever; and we should prefer cork for the floating substance to
+air-tight cases, or copper tubing, or any of the other contrivances
+that have been adopted to give buoyancy to a swamped boat. Air-cases
+are very liable to leak, or may be stove in by the sea, or be crushed
+by coming in contact with the wreck or rocks, but cork can never be
+injured. And as to metal air-cases, it was found on opening the sides
+of a life-boat at Woolwich Dockyard, that her copper tubes, supposed
+to be air-tight, were corroded into holes; for copper will corrode
+when in contact with sea-water, especially when alternately wet or
+dry, as is the case in life-boats.
+
+We cannot here follow Captain Washington through his critical and
+technical details, but we think it right to express our strong
+suspicion, that the much-lauded _self-righting_ power of certain new
+life-boats is obtained only at the cost of greater liability to upset.
+Doubtless a boat can be made to right herself after a capsize, but
+this really seems to us something like locking the stable-door when
+the steed is stolen; for even if she rights the very instant after
+upsetting, three-fourths of the crew are almost certain to perish. We
+think it far more important to construct a boat that will hardly
+capsize at all, than to build one that will right itself _after_
+capsizing; for we repeat our opinion, that the latter boat will prove
+liable to upset just in proportion to her capability of self-righting.
+
+Many fatal accidents have happened to life-boats; and the details of
+some mentioned by the lecturer are peculiar and interesting. On the
+coast of Northumberland, in 1810, one of Greathead's boats, after
+saving several crews of fishing-cobles, was returning to the shore,
+when a heavy sea overwhelmed her, and by its sheer weight and force
+broke her in two, and the whole of the crew, thirty-four in number,
+perished. In 1820, Greathead's original life-boat, after saving the
+crew of the ship _Grafton_, at Shields, struck on a rock, and swamped;
+nevertheless, the brave old boat--although she had not the boasted
+power of self-righting--preserved her centre of gravity, and brought
+both crews to land. At Scarborough, in 1836, the life-boat, in going
+out to a vessel, turned completely end over end, 'shutting up one of
+the crew inside, where he remained in safety, getting fresh air
+through the tubes in the bottom, and was taken out when the boat
+drifted, bottom upwards, on the beach: ten lives were lost.' In 1841,
+the life-boat at Blyth, Northumberland, capsized, and ten men were
+drowned. At Robin Hood's Bay, Yorkshire, in 1843, the life-boat
+capsized, three men remaining under her bottom, while others got upon
+it. The accident was seen from the shore, and five men put off in a
+coble, fitted with air-cases like a life-boat; but she almost
+immediately turned end over end, and two men were drowned. The
+life-boat herself drifted ashore, and the three men under her bottom
+were saved. In all, twelve lives were lost. But the most lamentable
+disaster that ever befell a life-boat was at South Shields, on
+December 4, 1849, when twenty-four men, all pilots, went off to rescue
+the crew of the _Betsy_, stranded on Herd Sand. 'The boat had reached
+the wreck, and was lying alongside with her head to the eastward, with
+a rope fast to the quarter, but the bow-fast not secured. The
+shipwrecked men were about to descend into the life-boat, when a heavy
+knot of sea, recoiling from the bow of the vessel, caught the bow of
+the boat and turned her up on end, throwing the whole crew and the
+water into the stern-sheets. The bow-fast not holding, the boat drove
+in this position astern of the vessel, when the ebb-tide, running
+rapidly into her stern, the boat completely turned end over end, and
+went on shore bottom up. On this occasion, twenty out of
+twenty-four--or double the proper crew--were drowned under the boat.
+On seeing the accident, two other life-boats immediately dashed off
+from North and South Shields, saved four of the men, and rescued the
+crew of the _Betsy_.' It is added, that the life-boats have been in
+constant use at Shields since Greathead first launched his boat there
+in 1790, and excepting the above accident, no life has ever been lost
+in them, or from want of them. Between 1841 and 1849, they saved 466
+lives. But good is frequently educed from evil, and it was this very
+disaster at Shields that induced the Duke of Northumberland to offer a
+premium for the best life-boat; and his Grace has now, with princely
+liberality, undertaken to place a well-built life-boat at each of the
+most exposed points of the coast of his own county, with rockets or
+mortars at every intermediate station.
+
+As to dimensions, the existing life-boats are of three classes: from
+20 to 25 feet long, from 25 to 30 feet, and from 30 to 36 feet. Some
+are only 18 feet long, and on thinly-inhabited coasts are the best, as
+unless a regular crew is provided, it is often difficult to man a
+large boat--at least efficiently. The largest boats are used at
+Caistor and Corton, in Norfolk, and are 40 to 45 feet long, weigh from
+four to five tons, and cost L.200 to L.250 each. They are said to be
+admirable vessels of the kind, and well manned. The 36 feet boat is
+used at Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Deal, &c., and always goes off under
+sail. The 30 feet boat is used at Liverpool, Shields, Dundee, &c.; and
+one of those at Liverpool brought sixty people ashore on one occasion.
+Some of the models sent to the Exhibition were of boats that did not
+weigh more than half a ton; but we fully agree with the lecturer, that
+a boat so light as that would never be able to pull out to sea in a
+head-wind. A life-boat ought to possess a certain weight, or momentum,
+or it will be driven back by the winds, or sucked back by the sea,
+like a feather.
+
+It is exceedingly desirable that all life-boats should have regularly
+trained crews, for an ordinary sailor or fisherman is by no means
+competent to do properly the duty of a life-boatman. The cockswain,
+especially should be well trained.
+
+Captain Washington remarks, that 'a careful examination of the returns
+of wrecks by the Coast-guard officers, forcibly impresses on the mind
+the painful conviction, that the greater part of the casualties that
+occur are not occasioned by stress of weather, but that they are
+mainly attributable to causes within control, and to which a remedy
+might be applied.' This has long been our own opinion, and we have
+again and again expressed it. 'Wherever the boats have been looked
+after, and the crews well trained, as at Liverpool, Shields, and on
+the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk, the most signal success has
+rewarded their exertions. The first step is to insure a safe and
+powerful life-boat, and this, we feel confident, has been
+accomplished; the next is to build a sufficient number of such boats,
+place them where required, organise and train the crews, and provide
+for their supervision and maintenance.... There seems no reason why a
+very few years should not see a life-boat stationed at each of the
+exposed points on the most frequented parts of the coasts of the
+United Kingdom; by means of which--with the blessing of Divine
+Providence upon the endeavours of those who undertake the work--the
+best results to the cause of humanity may confidently be anticipated.'
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[2] Published by Bogue, Fleet Street.
+
+
+
+
+THE SALONS OF PARIS.
+
+
+News has just reached us from Paris of the death of Madame Sophie Gay.
+She was a writer of the half-historical, half-sentimental school of
+French fiction, of which Madame de Genlis, the Duchess d'Abrantes, and
+Madame de Souza were specimens more or less worthy; but in ease and
+grace, Madame Gay was superior to all we have mentioned. It is, in our
+minds, very affecting to witness the last lights of the ancient salons
+of Paris dropping out one by one. Mme Gay has herself, in a single
+volume published in 1837, entitled _Salons Célčbres_, left us a very
+beautiful picture of them as they were in their prime. We have
+translated--abridging, however, as we went--the opening chapters of
+this work, and may add a notice of more modern salons, as given by the
+lively pen of Mme Emile de Girardin--_née_ Delphine Gay--daughter of
+Mme Sophie. The reader will judge whether the fashionable Frenchmen
+and Frenchwomen have really profited much by the storms and tempests
+that have gone over their heads. To be sure, Mme de Girardin's
+pictures were given twelve years ago; but we believe they would
+require little change, at least up to the conclusion of the Orleans
+reign in 1848. The volume from which these last extracts are made, is
+entitled _Lettres Parisiennes_. It has all the wit and talent of the
+cleverest of fashionable Frenchwomen. The tone is sometimes extremely
+good--better than we were led to expect; but the picture it presents
+is about as mournful a one as pictures of French frivolity usually
+are. We will, however, leave them to make their own impression. First,
+then, for Mme Sophie Gay and the ancient _salons_.
+
+Now that the empire of the salons, she observes, has passed away with
+that of women, it would be difficult to convey to our youthful France
+an idea of the influence which certain of these were wont to exercise,
+in state affairs and in the choice of men in power. To have a salon is
+far from an easy thing; a crowd of people may, and do every day, give
+concerts and balls in their gilded apartments, and yet they may never
+have salons. Essential conditions are required which can rarely be
+found in conjunction. The most important of all is the talent and
+character of the lady who does the honours. Without being old, she
+must have passed the age in which a woman is chiefly spoken of for her
+prettiness or her dress, and be at that point of time when a woman's
+mind may rule over the self-love of a man more than her youthful
+attractions enabled her to rule over his heart.
+
+Rank and fortune were important items, not quite indispensable,
+however; for Mme du Deffand was poor, and Mme Geoffrin was the wife of
+a manufacturer. In the salons of these two women edicts were framed,
+and academicians reared; but the questions discussed there were not
+nearly of the importance of those to which Mme de Staël's salon gave
+rise. It was essential that the mistress of the house should have a
+decided and superior taste in a variety of ways; also a total absence
+of those little, envious feelings which might have tended to exclude
+the fashionable woman or successful author. She must know how to bear
+enemies in her presence, to place talents according to their worth, to
+shew the tiresome the way to the door--things which require address
+and courage.
+
+The salon of Mme de Staël, during three different periods of her life,
+took considerable modification from the changes of the time; but it
+was always the same in power, if not in brilliancy.
+
+Under the first Revolution, it was the scene of most momentous
+deliberations. Barnave, Talleyrand, Lameth, Dupont, Boissy d'Anglas,
+Portalis, Chénier, Roederer, and Benjamin Constant, discussed at the
+place of familiar meeting many a half-formed decree, and many
+important state nominations. The only member of the Directory who
+visited there was Barras; and it was a common saying, that every visit
+cost him a good deed; for Mme de Staël never slackened in her
+intercessions for the victims of the tribunals. She infused courage
+into the hearts of those who were pleaders for them. Through her
+means, Talleyrand was recalled, and even named minister of foreign
+affairs. 'He wanted some help,' she said, 'in order to arrive at
+power, but none to enable him to keep it when gained.' Her sagacity
+was at fault, if she persuaded herself that the returned
+emigrant-priest would bring harmony into public counsels. On these
+evenings, pregnant with deeds both evil and good, it was said that
+some very foul conspiracies were concocted, and some of these were
+directly imputed to Mme de Staël; but she earnestly denied the truth
+of such surmises. Her salon, not herself, was guilty. Most generously
+did she exert herself in behalf of those who suffered after such
+conspiracies; but some one was heard to say: 'She is a good woman, but
+would push any of her friends into the water for the delight of
+fishing them up again with her own tackle.'
+
+When the Consulate was established, Mme de Staël's salon empire was
+watched by the rising influence of the day with a jealous eye. It was
+certainly a turbulent scene. Very bitter were the complaints of the
+men of the Revolution. They had risked so much; they had fought so
+courageously for liberty! They saw the disorders of the time, but they
+could not bear to lose all the fruits of their toil; and Garat and
+Andrieux, Daunon and Benjamin Constant, urged on by the eloquence of
+Mme de Staël, framed powerful appeals on these occasions for the
+morrow. Bonaparte could not tolerate this. His power was too recently
+gained--his projects too unripe. In vain did the friends of Mme de
+Staël say, that a _salon_ could never be dangerous to a rule like his.
+'It is not a salon,' said he; 'it is a club.' It was, in fact, the
+antagonism between mind and physical force. The First Consul had said
+before, of the orators of the Tribune: 'I have no time to answer these
+refractory speechifiers: they _do_ nothing but perplex all things;
+they must be silenced.' And one great point of attack was Mme de
+Staël's salon. It was necessary she should abdicate her throne. A
+sentence of banishment condemned the brilliant lady to lay down the
+sceptre. Exiled to Geneva, surrounded by friends, sharing her father's
+lot, occupied with her daughter's education, she had, it may be
+thought, plenty of objects: she was unquestionably the first literary
+woman in Europe, too, and as such, Geneva was as her salon, where she
+received the homage of royalty and talent. Yet, a true Frenchwoman,
+unable to bear separation from the peculiar atmosphere in which she
+had been reared, she pined after it--pined still more for the friends
+who visited her only to be partakers of her exile; and so she passed
+the whole period of the Napoleon dynasty.
+
+Meanwhile, in the interval between the banishment of Mme de Staël and
+her return, the most captivating mistress of a Paris salon appears to
+have been Mme de Beaumont. She was the daughter of M. de Montmorin,
+the minister of foreign affairs, who had immediately followed Necker.
+She married early, and not happily. She lived with her father,
+separated from her husband, and was intrusted to transcribe some of
+the very important correspondence between Mirabeau and the court. In
+the Reign of Terror, her father, and it is thought others of her
+family, fell by the guillotine; but she herself was spared, even
+against her will. She retired for awhile into the country, visiting
+among her friends, who did all they could to console her. She was the
+object of the strongest attachment on the part of Châteaubriand,
+Joubert, Fontanes, Molé, and many others; and when, once more, quiet
+and order were restored, even at the sacrifice of much of liberty, she
+came to Paris again. Her old friends rallied about her, her spirits
+seemed to revive for awhile, and her salon was for a year or two a
+scene of remarkable enjoyment. One who truly appreciated her, and who
+was worthy to be himself the centre of a social circle--M. Joubert,
+the author of some beautiful thoughts on literature and divers other
+subjects--thus tenderly commemorates the evenings to which we have
+alluded: 'Peaceful society! where none of those disuniting pretensions
+which spoil enjoyment could come; where acknowledged talent was not
+divorced from good temper; where praise was given to whatever was
+praiseworthy; where nothing was thought of but what was really
+attractive. Peaceful society! whose scattered members can never unite
+again without speaking of her who was the connecting link that brought
+them all together.'
+
+To our minds, there seems something unique and infinitely touching in
+this bursting out, though but for a short time, of the slumbering
+fires of an older society, from underneath the heaps of hard and alien
+material which had gone far to extinguish every spark of gentleness
+and refinement. The relics of families--their hearts still bleeding
+from their wounds--came to forget, if possible, the terrible past, and
+indulge their quiet hopes for the future. Very soon, indeed, the dream
+was dispelled; the tyranny proved to some unbearable; and some it
+vanquished in their highest part--their inward conscience--making them
+subservient when they might have shunned the danger altogether. But
+while the quiet interval lasted, it was like an Indian summer,
+prolonging the intellectual and tasteful beauty which was soon to be
+overwhelmed by the vulgar splendours of the Empire.
+
+The greatest loss this circle could have had was the first. Mme de
+Beaumont died at Rome in 1804--attended only by Châteaubriand--who has
+given an account of the closing scene in his memoirs, and thenceforth
+it does not appear that the same society reassembled.
+
+But another and third edition of the salon, under Mme de Staël, was
+witnessed at the Restoration. Hitherto we have sketched from Mme
+Sophie Gay's pictures. At this period, she declares herself unable to
+bear the mortification of mingling with the public of Paris: she could
+not see the Cossacks without shuddering. She shut herself up in her
+house, and knew what passed only through the kindness of friends, who
+wrote narratives for her amusement of any remarkable incidents they
+might note. Among these communications, Mme Sophie Gay has preserved
+one from the Marquis de Custine, and she has given it as a faithful
+picture of one of the last of Mme de Staël's soirées in Paris.
+
+'I am just returned, and will not go to bed without telling you what
+has most amused me--not that _amused_ is the right word, for Mme de
+Staël's salon is more than a scene of amusement: it is a glass in
+which is reflected the history of the time. What we see and hear there
+is more instructive than books, more exciting than many comedies....
+
+'You know that the Duke of Wellington was to visit her this evening
+for the first time. I went in good time; she was not yet in the room:
+several others were also waiting--such as the Abbé de Pradt, Benjamin
+Constant, La Fayette. They were conversing; I remained in one corner,
+as if listening to them.... At length Mme de Staël came in. "I am
+late," she said; "but it is not my fault. I was invited to dine
+at----, and was obliged to go." A great many of the guests were come:
+all were looking for the hero of the evening--we had seen him only as
+part of a show, now we wanted to hear him converse. At length he
+entered. The nobleness of his figure and simplicity of his manners
+produced a most agreeable impression on us. His pride, as it ought,
+has nearly the grace of timidity. Mme de Staël, impressed by a style
+and manner so little like that of our countrymen, said: "He carries
+his glory as if it were a nothing." Then, by a quick recall of
+patriotism, she whispered in my ear: "One must admit, however, that
+nature never made a great man at less expense." It seemed to me that
+the whole man was portrayed in these brief remarks.
+
+'You would suppose, after this _début_, that we had a very pleasant
+evening: you shall judge. The Duke had not reached the end of the
+salon, when the Abbé de Pradt fastened on him, and actually forced him
+to listen for at least three-quarters of an hour, while he expressed
+his ideas--the ideas of the Abbé de Pradt!--upon military tactics.
+Conceive the wrath of Mme de Staël, and the annoyance of everybody
+there! M. Schlegel said, that he could fancy he was listening to that
+rhetorician who pronounced a discourse on the art of war to Hannibal.
+
+'This remark did not make amends for the nuisance of hearing in good
+French what we all knew before, when what we wanted was to listen to
+new things, in a foreign accent. Among the very few words which the
+English general was allowed to put in, I caught one sentence which
+struck me. While the abbé took breath, or coughed, the warrior had
+just time to tell us, that the most awful day in the life of a
+commander is that in which he has gained a battle; because, before
+having passed a night on the ground, and being assured on the morrow
+of the departure of the enemy, the conqueror cannot even know whether
+he is not conquered.
+
+'Everything has its cost in this world, and if every man told us his
+secret, we should see that the most dazzling triumphs are paid for at
+their full price. However that may be, I thought there was sense and
+good taste in the Duke's remark. It seemed as if he tried to make us
+forgive him for exciting our curiosity so much.
+
+'Many people went away discouraged by the bad manners of M. de Pradt.
+The hero himself was thinking of a retreat, when Mme de Staël came to
+release him from the ambuscade into which he had fallen. She retained
+him near the door, and there was a grave conversation on the English
+constitution. Mme de Staël could not reconcile the idea of political
+liberty, with the prevalence of servile forms remaining in the
+individual relationships of a society so jealous of that liberty as
+England.
+
+'"Language and aristocratic customs do not annoy people living in a
+country that is really free," said the Duke. "We use these unimportant
+formulć in compliment to the past, and preserve our ceremonies as we
+keep a memorial, even when it has lost its primitive destination."
+
+'"But is it true," asked Mme de Staël, "that your lord chancellor
+speaks to the king on his bended knee during the opening address or
+sitting of parliament?"
+
+'"Yes; quite true."
+
+'"How _does_ he do it?"
+
+'"He speaks to him kneeling, as I have told you."
+
+'"But how?"
+
+'"Must I shew you? You _will_ have it!" answered the Duke; and he
+threw himself at the feet of our Corinna.
+
+'"I wish everybody could see him," cried Mme de Staël.
+
+'And everybody there did applaud with one accord. I would not answer
+for the same unanimity of approbation among the same people after they
+had reached the foot of the staircase.
+
+'Everybody went away, only I stayed two hours with the mistress of the
+house and M. Schlegel, whose anger against the abbé did not wear out.
+These two hours Mme de Staël's conversation enchanted me, proving how
+much there is to attach us in one who can live at one and the same
+time so near and yet so far above the world.... I might pass many
+evenings in recounting in detail the conversation of this evening.
+There is more than matter for a book in a two hours' talk with Mme de
+Staël. I had better go to bed, that I may be able to tell you
+to-morrow all I can only leave you to guess at now.'[3]
+
+And now we come to a later period, and Mme Sophie Gay shall give place
+to her lively and clever daughter Delphine, Mme Emile Girardin.
+
+'Parisian society,' she writes, 'now, in 1839, offers the strangest
+aspect that ever was seen--a mixture of luxury and rudeness, English
+propriety and French negligence, political absurdities and
+revolutionary terrors, of which it is hard to form a just conception.
+The luxury of the salons is truly Eastern, not only the salons,
+indeed, but the anterooms: an anteroom in a handsome hotel is more
+richly adorned than the most beautiful drawing-room of the provincial
+prefecture. There, footmen more or less powdered--for there are rebels
+who choose to wear so little powder, that you would rather take them
+for millers, in livery, than for servants of the anteroom--these
+self-styled powdered lackeys offer you a great book, bound in velvet,
+with the corners bronzed and gilt, in which you are asked to write
+your name. If the lady of the house is visible, you are pompously
+ushered into the sanctuary--that is to say, into the second salon or
+parlour, or closet, or _atelier_, whichever best assorts with the
+pretensions of the lady. A dog darts upon you, barks, makes a show of
+biting you; he is quieted, submits, and regains his purple cushion,
+growling. Dogs are very much in fashion: together with the fire,
+flowers, an old aunt, and two toadies, they make up part of the living
+accompaniments of a genteel salon. As you are an elegant person, of
+course you are ill-dressed: your coat is dusty, your boots speckled
+with mud, your hair uncombed, you exhale a strong odour of tobacco. At
+first glance, such things seem rather disagreeable, common, and
+inelegant. No such thing: this is exactly the most fashionable style
+we have; it seems to say: "I have just dismounted from the finest
+horse in Paris. I am a man of fashion, of that distinguished position
+in society, that I can go in a morning to call on a duchess, _dressed
+like a highwayman_."
+
+'On the other hand, the mistress of the house is charming. One must do
+women the justice to say, that they never take a pride in ugliness;
+that they never make elegance to consist in appearing to the greatest
+possible disadvantage. The woman whom you are visiting, then, is
+dressed in the best taste. A beautiful lace cap covers her light hair;
+she wears a soft figured Gros do Naples; her stockings are of
+exquisite fineness; her shoes irreproachable (we doubt not they bear
+the mark of either Gros or Müller); her Valenciennes cuffs are
+irresistible: everything betokens care and fastidious nicety. The
+freshness of her appearance is a satire on the negligence of yours.
+One cannot comprehend why this elegant woman should have prepared
+herself in so costly a manner to receive this man; and in the evening,
+really the contrast is greater still. Young men no longer wear
+stockings when they go into a party; yet they dare not just yet
+present themselves in boots; and therefore they come in _brodequins_,
+like students. We are in the age of the _juste-milieu_; and this is
+appropriate enough. The _brodequin_ is in its right place half-way
+between shoes and boots. These ill-dressed men are surrounded by women
+blazing in jewels and diamonds, coronets and diadems. It is impossible
+to believe that such differently dressed beings can be of the same
+country and station in society; and yet they are all talking and
+chirping together: and what conversation! what a conflict of subjects!
+what an inexplicable picture of forethought and thoughtlessness! or
+rather of apathy!
+
+'"And do you also believe in a revolution, M. de P----?" inquires a
+charming princess, spreading out her fan.
+
+'"Certainly, madame; and I hope we shall have one sooner than some may
+think."
+
+'"What! monsieur--you make me tremble."
+
+'"Can you, then, be afraid of a revolution which will bring about what
+you wish for?"
+
+'"No; but we shall have some cruel moments to pass through."
+
+'"Some may; but not everybody."
+
+'"Bah! revolutions make no selection; and then, when once the scaffold
+is set up"----
+
+'"How fast you travel, madame: in our day we shall never bear with
+scaffolds. The days of Terror will never return!"
+
+'"I think with M. de P----," chimes in a young dandy, playing with a
+Chinese ape on the table: "I rather look for civil war."
+
+'"I do not expect it; we have not energy enough for a civil war." ...
+
+'"But you will have household assassinations, probably, if that will
+be any comfort."
+
+'"And then, the pillage of Paris!"
+
+'"Pillage!"
+
+'"Certainly." And every one cries:
+
+'"Oh, well, if there is pillage, I will be in it."
+
+'"I shall come to your house, madame," says one. "I shall carry away
+this beautiful vase."
+
+'"And I, the plate."
+
+'"And I, the charming portrait."
+
+'"I have no fixed idea yet. I shall come to your house to-morrow,
+madame, to choose," &c.
+
+'"All this will be very amusing; and yet, when the day comes, I shall
+not be sorry to be in Italy."
+
+'"Well, let us set out, then."
+
+'"Not yet, but soon. I will warn you when it is best to go." And so
+they talk on of all these horrible things, half buried under canopies
+of _lampas_, surrounded by flowers, by the light of thousands of
+wax-candles burning in golden lustres; and these women, who foresee
+such great catastrophes--tragical events, which may divide them from
+all they love, from parents, from friends--have beautiful dresses,
+with trimmings from England, and make the prettiest little gestures
+while speaking. It is because in France vanity is so deeply rooted
+that it leads to indifference. Presumption stands in lieu of courage.
+They believe in disasters, but only for others: they never seem to
+expect them for themselves.'
+
+So much for national character. If all this be a truthful picture, and
+really we see no reason for doubt, it does but add another to the many
+proofs of the springing elasticity of that element of light-hearted
+short-sightedness which is so proverbially characteristic of the
+French. But we will say no more, for our paper has already exceeded
+the limits we had assigned to it; and the things that _are_ must ever
+prevail in our pages over those that have been.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] Perhaps the reader of the above will partake our own feeling of
+surprise at one circumstance which it records. How happened it, that
+the accomplished lady of a Parisian salon could not shield her chief
+guest, and all her guests, from the impertinence of one among them? To
+us this seems incomprehensible, and excites our suspicion that Mme de
+Staël could not have been among those mistresses of the science of
+tact, of whom elsewhere Mme Gay speaks. The whole charm of the evening
+was here allowed to be spoiled.
+
+
+
+
+THE OLD CASTLES AND MANSIONS OF SCOTLAND.
+
+
+The father of mental philosophy, Aristotle, begins his work on ethics
+by telling us, that nothing exists without some theory or reason
+attached to it. The following out of this view leads to
+classification--that great engine of knowledge. We see things at first
+in isolated individuality or confused masses. Investigation teaches us
+to separate them into groups, which have some common and important
+principle of unity, though each individual of the group may be
+different from the others in detail. Thus we arrive at the great
+classifications of natural science, with which every one is more or
+less familiar. But the works of men have their classification too, for
+in human effort like causes produce like effects. Most people know
+what schools of poetry, painting, and music are. In architecture, we
+know, too, that there are great divisions--such as classic and Gothic.
+But many have yet to learn how far classification may go; and it is a
+new feature to have the peculiar national architecture of Scotland
+separated from that of England, and its peculiarities traced to
+interesting national events and habits. The common observer is apt to
+think that all buildings are much alike, or that each is alone in its
+peculiarities. Before classification can take place, there must be a
+collection and comparison of leading characteristics; and this is not
+easily accomplished with the edifices scattered over a whole country.
+It may be said that it was never done for Scotland, until Mr Billings
+completed his great series of engravings of the baronial and
+ecclesiastical antiquities of Scotland.
+
+Taking the former--the baronial--for our text, we find ourselves now
+for the first time in a condition to discover the leading features of
+the Scottish school of architecture, and to connect it with the
+history of Scotland. We know that until the wars of Wallace and Bruce,
+the two countries, England and Scotland, could scarcely be said to be
+entirely separated; at all events, they did not stand in open
+hostility to each other. Endless animosities, however, naturally
+followed a war in which the one country tried to enslave the other,
+and where the weaker only escaped annihilation by a desperate
+struggle. It is not unnatural, therefore, to expect that the habits of
+the two countries diverged from each other as time passed on; and this
+process is very distinctly shewn in the character of the edifices used
+by the barons and lairds of Scotland. A very few of the oldest
+strongholds resemble those of the same period in England. The English
+baronial castle of the thirteenth century generally consisted of
+several massive square or round towers, broad at the base, and
+tapering upwards, arranged at distances from each other, so that lofty
+embattled walls or curtains stood between them, making a ground-plan
+of which the towers formed the angles. The doors and windows were
+generally in the Gothic or pointed style of architecture, and the
+vaulted chambers were frequently of the same. There are not above
+three or four such edifices in Scotland. The most complete, perhaps,
+is the old part of Caerlaverock, in Dumfriesshire; another fine
+specimen is Dirleton, in East Lothian; and to these may be added
+Bothwell, in Clydesdale, and Kildrummie, in Aberdeenshire.
+
+This style was long followed in England. It is known as the baronial,
+and architects in all parts of the country, when building a modern
+mansion in the castellated manner, have invariably followed it. It is
+easy to see, however, that it was early abandoned in Scotland, the
+people not taking their forms of architecture from a nation with which
+they had no connection but that of hostility. The first species of
+national baronial architecture to which they resorted was a very
+simple one, characteristic of an impoverished people. It consisted of
+little more than four stone walls, forming what in fortification is
+called a blockhouse. The walls were extremely thick, with few
+apertures, and these suspiciously small. But these old towers or keeps
+were not without some scientific preparations for defence. In the more
+ancient baronial castles, the large square or round towers at the
+angles served to flank the walls or curtains between them; that is,
+supposing an enemy to be approaching the main gate, he could be
+attacked on either side from the towers at the angles. To serve the
+same purpose, the Scottish keeps had small bastions or turrets at the
+corners, which, projecting over the wall, flanked it on each face. The
+simple expedient here adopted is at the root of all the complex
+devices of fortification. The main thing is just to build a strong
+edifice, and then, by flanking outworks, to prevent an enemy from
+getting up to it. In other respects, these square towers were scarcely
+to be considered peculiarly Scottish. They are to be found in all
+parts of the world--along the Wall of China; in the Russian steppes;
+in Italy, where they are sometimes remains of republican Rome; and in
+Central India. They constitute, in fact, the most primitive form of a
+fortified house.
+
+When we come a century or two later, the difference between the
+English and Scottish styles becomes more distinct and interesting.
+Almost every one is acquainted with that beautiful style of building
+called in England the Tudor or Elizabethan, with its decorated
+chimneys, its ornamented gables, and large oriel or bow windows. It is
+not well suited for defence, and denotes a rich country, where private
+warfare has decayed. This class of edifice is rarely, if at all, to be
+found north of the border; but much as it is to be admired, a
+contemporary style sprang up in Scotland entirely distinct from it,
+yet, in our opinion, quite fitted to rival it in interest and beauty.
+It was derived, in some measure, from Flanders, but chiefly from
+France. The Scots naturally looked to their friends as an example,
+rather than to their enemies. Many of the Scottish gentry made their
+fortunes in the French service, and when they came home, naturally
+desired to imitate, on such a scale as they could afford, the châteaux
+of their allies and patrons. The state of the country, too, made it a
+more suitable pattern than the Tudor style. France was still a country
+of feudal warfare--so was Scotland; and it was necessary in both to
+have defence associated with ornament. The chief peculiarity of this
+new style was, the quantity of sharp-topped turrets, which form a sort
+of crest to the many details of the lower parts of the buildings.
+These are not solely ornamental; they succeeded the bastions of the
+old square towers, and served the same purpose. Among the secondary
+peculiarities of these buildings, may be counted an extremely rich and
+profuse ornamentation of the upper parts--probably the only portions
+out of the way of mischief. Indeed, the edifice is sometimes a mere
+square block for two or three storeys, while it is crowned, as it
+were, with a rich group of turrets and minarets, gables, window-tops,
+ornamented chimneys, and gilded vanes. In many instances, the great
+square block of older days received this fantastic French termination
+at a later time--as, for instance, the famous castle of Glammis, in
+Strathmore.
+
+It almost appears as if this style, which has its own peculiar
+beauties, had been adopted out of a national antagonism to the
+contemporary style in England. The Tudor architecture has always a
+horizontal tendency, spreading itself out in broad open screens or
+wall-plates, diversified by occasional angular eminences--as, for
+instance, in the tops of the decorated windows. But in the
+Gallo-Scottish style everything tends to the perpendicular, not only
+in the long, narrow shapes of the buildings themselves, and their
+tall, spiral turrets, but in the many decorations which incrust them.
+This decoration has an extremely rich look, from the quantity of
+breaks, and the absence of bare wall or long straight lines. Thus, to
+save the uniform plainness of the straight gable-line, it is broken
+into small gradations called 'crow-steps.' Every one who looks at old
+houses in Scotland must be familiar with this feature, and must have
+noticed its picturesqueness. It appears to have been derived from the
+Flemish houses, where, however, the steps or terraces are much larger,
+and not so effective, since, instead of merely breaking and enriching
+the line of the gable, they break it up, as it were, into separate
+pieces.
+
+The Scottish style has not, indeed, slavishly adopted any foreign
+model. It is, as we have remarked, chiefly adopted from the French;
+but it has characteristics and beauties of its own. No one, we
+believe, had any conception of their extent and variety, until they
+were brought to light by the artistic labours of Mr Billings. In some
+instances, to bring out the full effect of the ornamental parts of
+these buildings without overloading his picture with the more cumbrous
+plain stone-work, he brings forward, by some artistic manoeuvre, the
+crest of the building, as if the spectator saw it from a scaffold or a
+balloon level with the highest storey. The effect of the rich
+Oriental-looking mass of decoration thus concentrated is extremely
+striking, and one is apt to ask, if it is possible that the country so
+often characterised as bare, cold, and impoverished, could have
+produced these gorgeous edifices. Their number and distribution
+through the most remote parts of the land are equally remarkable.
+Among Mr Billings's specimens, we have, in the southern part of
+Scotland, Pinkie, near Musselburgh; Auchans and Kelburn, in Ayrshire;
+Newark, on the Clyde; Airth and Argyle's Lodging, in Stirling. Going
+northward, we come to Elcho and Glammis, and to Muchalls and Crathes,
+in Kincardineshire. It is remarkable, that the further north we go,
+the French style becomes more conspicuous and complete. Many of the
+finest specimens are to be found in Aberdeenshire. Fyvie Castle, which
+was built for a Scottish chancellor--Seton, Earl of Dunfermline--is
+almost a complete French château of the sixteenth century, such as the
+traveller may have seen in sunny Guienne or Anjou; and there it stands
+transplanted, like an exotic, among the bleak hills of the north. It
+is only natural to find in connection with such a circumstance, that
+Seton received his education in France, and passed a considerable part
+of his life there. Whether from such an example or not, the
+Aberdeenshire lairds seem to have been all ambitious of possessing
+French châteaux; and thus in the county of primitive rock, where there
+is certainly little else to remind us of French habits or ideas, we
+have some admirable specimens of that foreign architectural school in
+Castle Fraser, Craigievar, Midmar, Tolquhon, Dalpersie, and Udny.
+Nearer Inverness, we have Balveny, Castle-Stewart, and Cawdor.
+
+The same foreign influence is exhibited in our street architecture,
+some specimens of which are engraved in the work to which we have
+referred.[4] Every one knows that the lofty Scottish edifices with
+common stairs--houses built above each other, in fact--give our large
+towns a character totally different from those of England; but it is
+equally clear that the practice was derived from France, where it is
+still in full observance literally among all classes, since the
+different social grades occupy separate floors of the same edifices.
+In the _coup d'état_ of 1851, it will be remembered, that in making
+the arrests of the leading men supposed to be inimical to Louis
+Napoleon, one of the difficulties--as the affair took place at
+midnight--was to know the floors in which they lived; for these great
+statesmen and generals inhabited houses with common stairs.
+
+We have here discussed one special feature of Mr Billings's work, on
+account of the remarks which it suggests; but it is only right to
+mention, before parting with it, that it contains engravings of every
+thing that is remarkable in the ancient architecture of Scotland,
+whether it be called civil and baronial or ecclesiastical. Certainly,
+the remains of antiquity in North Britain were never previously so
+amply and completely illustrated. Nor is it without reason, that some
+contemporary critics have maintained this to be the most entire
+collection of the sort which any nation possesses. The chief merits of
+the views consist in their accuracy and effect. They are wonderfully
+clear and minute, so that every detail of the least importance is
+brought out as distinctly as in a model, while this is accomplished
+without sacrifice of their artistic effect as pictures.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[4] Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland. By William
+Burn and W. Billings. 4 vols. 4to. Blackwoods, Edinburgh.
+
+
+
+
+AMERICAN HONOUR.
+
+
+About seventy-five years ago, there was at Charleston, in South
+Carolina, a family consisting of several members. It belonged to the
+middle class--that is to say, contained barristers, bankers,
+merchants, solicitors, and so on--all of them animated, at least so
+far as appears, by a high sense of honour and integrity. But noble
+sentiments are no certain guarantee against poverty. One of the
+members of the family in question became embarrassed, borrowed L.1000
+of one of his relatives, but was soon after seized with paralysis,
+and, having kept his bed five years, died, leaving behind him a widow
+with several children. He could bequeath them no property, instead of
+which they received as their inheritance high principles, and a strong
+affection for the memory of their father. The widow also was, in this
+respect, perfectly in harmony with her sons. By dint, therefore, of
+prudence, industry, and economy, they amassed among them the sum of
+L.400, which they rigidly appropriated to the repayment of a part of
+their father's debt. The old man had, indeed, called them together
+around his death-bed, and told them that, instead of a fortune, he
+left them a duty to perform; and that if it could not be accomplished
+in one generation, it must be handed down from father to son, until
+the descendants of the B----s had paid every farthing to the
+descendants of the S----s.
+
+While matters stood in this predicament, the creditor part of the
+family removed to England, and the debtors remained at Charleston,
+struggling with difficulties and embarrassments, which not only
+disabled them from paying the paternal debt, but kept them perpetually
+in honourable poverty. Of course, the wish to pay in such minds
+survived the ability. It would have been to them an enjoyment of a
+high order to hunt out their relatives in England, and place in their
+hands the owing L.600. This pleasure, which they were destined never
+to taste, often formed the subject of conversation around their
+fireside; and the children, as they grew up, were initiated into the
+mystery of the L.600.
+
+But that generation passed away, and another succeeded to the
+liability; not that there existed any liability in law, for though a
+deed had been executed, it had lapsed in the course of time, so that
+there was really no obligation but that which was the strongest of
+all--an uneradicable sense of right. Often and often did the B----s of
+Charleston meet and consult together on this famous debt, which every
+one wished, but no one could afford, to pay. The sons were married,
+and had children whom it was incumbent on them to support; the
+daughters had married, too, but their husbands possibly did not
+acquire with their wives the chivalrous sense of duty which possessed
+the breast of every member, male and female, of the B. family, and
+inspired them with a wish to do justice when fortune permitted.
+
+It would be infinitely agreeable to collect and peruse the letters and
+records of consultations which passed or took place between the
+members of this family on the subject of the L.600. These documents
+would form the materials of one of the most delightful romances in the
+world--the romance of honour, which never dies in some families, but
+is transmitted from generation to generation like a treasure above all
+price. When this brief notice is read in Charleston, it may possibly
+lead to the collection of these materials, which, with the proper
+names of all the persons engaged, should, we think, be laid before the
+world as a pleasing record of hereditary nobility of sentiment.
+
+After the lapse of many years, a widow and her three nephews found
+themselves in possession of the necessary means for paying the family
+debt. Three-quarters of a century had elapsed. The children and the
+children's children of the original borrower had passed away; but the
+honour of the B. family had been transmitted intact to the fourth
+generation, and a search was immediately commenced to discover the
+creditors in England. This, however, as may well be supposed, was no
+easy task. The members of the S. family had multiplied and separated,
+married and intermarried, become poor and wealthy, distinguished and
+obscure by turns, changed their topographical as well as their social
+position, and disappeared entirely from the spot they had occupied on
+their first arrival from America.
+
+But honour is indefatigable, and by degrees a letter reached a person
+in Kensington, who happened to possess some knowledge of a lady of the
+S. family, married to a solicitor practising with great success and
+distinction in London. When the letter came to hand, she at first
+doubted whether it might not be a sort of grave hoax, intended to
+excite expectation for the pleasure of witnessing its disappointment.
+However, the English solicitor, accustomed to the incidents of life,
+thought there would at least be no harm in replying to the letter from
+Charleston, and discovering in this way the real state of the affair.
+
+Some delay necessarily occurred, especially as the B. family in
+America were old world sort of people, accustomed to transact business
+slowly and methodically, and with due attention to the minutest
+points. But at length a reply came, in which the writer observed, that
+if a deed of release were drawn up, signed by all the parties
+concerned in England, and transmitted to America, the L.600 should
+immediately be forwarded for distribution among the members of the S.
+family. Some demur now arose. Some of the persons concerned growing
+prudent as the chances of recovering the money appeared to multiply,
+thought it would be wrong to send the deed of release before the money
+had been received. But the solicitor had not learned, in the practice
+of his profession, to form so low an estimate of human nature. He
+considered confidence in this case to be synonymous with prudence, and
+at anyrate resolved to take upon himself the entire responsibility of
+complying with the wishes of the Americans. He accordingly drew up the
+necessary document, got it signed by as many as participated in his
+views, and sent it across the Atlantic, without the slightest doubt or
+hesitation. There had been something in the rough, blunt honesty of Mr
+B----'s letter that inspired in the man of law the utmost reliance on
+his faith, though during the interval which elapsed between the
+transmission of the deed and the reception of an answer from the
+States, several of his friends exhibited a disposition to make
+themselves merry at the expense of his chivalry. But when we consider
+all the particulars of the case, we can hardly fail to perceive that
+he ran no risk whatever; for even if the debt had not legally lapsed,
+the people who had retained it in their memory through three
+generations--who had from father to son practised strict economy in
+order to relieve themselves from the burden--who had, with much
+difficulty and some expense, sought out the heirs of their creditor in
+a distant country, could scarcely be suspected of any inclination to
+finish off with a fraud at last.
+
+Still, if there was honour on one side, there was enlarged confidence
+on the other; and in the course of a few months, the American mail
+brought to London the famous L.600 due since before the War of
+Independence. The business now was to divide and distribute it. Of
+course, each of the creditors was loud in expressions of admiration of
+the honour of the B. family, whose representative, while forwarding
+the money, asked with much simplicity to have a few old English
+newspapers sent out to him by way of acknowledgment. For his own part,
+however, he experienced a strong desire to behold some of the persons
+to whom he had thus paid a debt of the last century; and he gave a
+warm and pressing invitation to any of them, to come out and stay as
+long as they thought proper at his house in Charleston. Had the
+invitation been accepted, we cannot doubt that Brother Jonathan would
+have acted as hospitably in the character of host as he behaved
+honourably in that of debtor. It would have been a pleasure, we might
+indeed say a distinction, to live under the same roof with such a man,
+whose very name carries us back to the primitive times of the colony,
+when Charleston was a city of the British Empire, and English laws,
+manners, habits, and feelings regulated the proceedings and relations
+of its inhabitants. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the London
+solicitor will some day drop in quietly upon his friend in Charleston,
+to smoke a cigar, and discuss old times with him. He will in that case
+probably fancy himself chatting with a contemporary of Rip Van Winkle.
+Doubtless there are thousands of such men in the States, where
+frequently everything that is estimable in the English character is
+cultivated with assiduity.
+
+How the property was distributed among the S. family in England, we
+need not say. Each surviving individual had his or her share. The
+solicitor was only connected with them by marriage; but with good old
+English ideas of uprightness and integrity, he was fully able to
+appreciate the Charleston lawyer's sentiments. He would have done
+exactly the same himself under similar circumstances; and therefore,
+had the sum been tens of thousands instead of hundreds, it could not
+be said to have fallen into bad hands. Whether the transaction above
+noticed has led or not to a continued correspondence between the
+families, we are unable to say; but we think the creditors in England
+would naturally have felt a pleasure in exchanging intelligence from
+time to time with their worthy debtors in Charleston. These things,
+however, are private, and therefore we do not intend to trench upon
+them.
+
+
+
+
+THE PARLOUR AQUARIUM.
+
+
+It is not many years since Mr Ward first drew the attention of
+botanists to the cultivation of plants in closely-glazed cases; but
+the most sanguine dreams of the discoverer could not then have
+foretold the many useful purposes to which the Wardian Case has become
+applicable, nor the important influence which it was destined to
+obtain in promoting the pleasant pursuits of gardening and botany. The
+Wardian Case has been instrumental in diffusing a love of these
+pursuits among all classes of society. It has opened up to those whose
+pursuits confine them within the limits of the city's smoke-cloud, a
+means whereby they may obtain 'a peep at nature, if they can no more.'
+Far removed from green fields and leafy woods, they may, for instance,
+enjoy their leisure mornings in watching one of the most beautiful
+phenomena of vegetable development--the evolution of the circinate
+fronds of the fern; a plant in every respect associated with elegance
+and beauty. This kind of gardening has, therefore, become of late
+years one of the most fashionable, while at the same time one of the
+most pleasant sources of domestic amusement.
+
+An interesting companion to the Wardian Case has lately been presented
+in the Aquatic Plant Case, or Parlour Aquarium, due to the ingenuity
+of Mr Warington, and which has for its object, as its name indicates,
+the cultivation of aquatic or water plants. It may be described as a
+combination of the Wardian Case and the gold-fish globe, the object
+being to illustrate the mutual dependence of animal and vegetable
+life. Mr Warington has lately detailed his experiments. 'The small
+gold-fish were placed in a glass-receiver of about twelve gallons'
+capacity, having a cover of thin muslin stretched over a stout copper
+wire, bent into a circle, placed over its mouth, so as to exclude as
+much as possible the sooty dust of the London atmosphere, without, at
+the same time, impeding the free passage of the atmospheric air. This
+receiver was about half-filled with ordinary spring-water, and
+supplied at the bottom with sand and mud, together with loose stones
+of limestone tufa from Matlock, and of sandstone: these were arranged
+so that the fish could get below.... A small plant of _Vallisneria
+spiralis_ was introduced, its roots being inserted in the mud and
+sand, and covered by one of the loose stones, so as to retain the
+plant in its position.... The materials being thus arranged, all
+appeared to go on well for a short time, until circumstances occurred
+which indicated that another and very material agent was required to
+perfect the adjustment.' The decaying leaves of the vallisneria
+produced a slime which began to affect the fish injuriously: this it
+was necessary to get quit of. Mr Warington introduced five or six
+snails (_Limnea stagnalis_), 'which soon removed the nuisance, and
+restored the fish to a healthy state; thus perfecting the balance
+between the animal and vegetable inhabitants, and enabling both to
+perform their functions with health and energy. So luxuriant was the
+growth of the vallisneria under these circumstances, that by the
+autumn the one solitary plant originally introduced had thrown out
+very numerous offshoots and suckers, thus multiplying to the extent of
+upwards of thirty-five strong plants, and these threw up their long
+spiral flower-stems in all directions, so that at one time more than
+forty blossoms were counted lying on the surface of the water. The
+fish have been lively, bright in colour, and appear very healthy; and
+the snails also--judging from the enormous quantities of gelatinous
+masses of eggs which they have deposited on all parts of the receiver,
+as well as on the fragments of stone--appear to thrive wonderfully,
+affording a large quantity of food to the fish in the form of the
+young snails, which are devoured as soon as they exhibit signs of
+vitality and locomotion, and before their shell has become hardened.'
+
+In remarking upon the result of his experiments, Mr Warington
+observes: 'Thus we have that admirable balance sustained between the
+animal and vegetable kingdoms, and that in a liquid element. The fish,
+in its respiration, consumes the oxygen held in solution by the water
+as atmospheric air, furnishes carbonic acid, feeds on the insects and
+young snails, and excretes material well adapted as a rich food to the
+plant, and well fitted for its luxuriant growth. The plant, by its
+respiration, consumes the carbonic acid produced by the fish,
+appropriating the carbon to the construction of its tissues and
+fibres, and liberates the oxygen in its gaseous state to sustain the
+healthy functions of the animal life; at the same time that it feeds
+on the rejected matter, which has fulfilled its purposes in the
+nourishment of the fish and snail, and preserves the water constantly
+in a clean and healthy condition. While the slimy snail, finding its
+proper nutriment in the decomposing vegetable matter and minute
+confervoid growth, prevents their accumulation by removing them; and
+by its vital powers converts what would otherwise act as a poison into
+a rich and fruitful nutriment, again to constitute a pabulum for the
+vegetable growth, while it also acts the important part of a purveyor
+to its finny neighbours.'[5] This perfect adjustment in the economy of
+the animal and vegetable kingdoms, whereby the vital functions of each
+are permanently maintained, is one of the most beautiful phenomena of
+organic nature.
+
+The Parlour Aquarium affords valuable, we might say invaluable,
+facilities to the naturalist in the prosecution of his researches. The
+botanist can now conveniently watch the development of aquatic plants
+under conditions _not_ unnatural, throughout the entire period of
+their existence, from their germination to the production of flowers
+and the perfection of seeds; and we are in hopes that much of the
+obscurity that invests many aquatic vegetables will in consequence be
+cleared up. The zoologist is perhaps even more indebted to the
+invention. The habits, not only of the fishes, but of the mollusca,
+can be accurately studied under natural conditions, and many important
+facts of their history ascertained and illustrated. The water-beetles
+and other aquatic insects will also come in for a share of attention.
+
+In concluding his paper in the _Garden Companion_ (i. p. 7), Mr
+Warington states, that he is at present attempting a similar
+arrangement with a confined portion of sea-water, employing some of
+the green sea-weeds as the vegetable members of the circle, and the
+common winkle or whelk to represent the water-snails. In a Report of
+the Yorkshire Naturalist's Club, November 5, 1851,[6] we observe it
+stated, that Mr Charlesworth read an extract from a letter from a
+gentleman in America, detailing some successful experiments on keeping
+marine molluscs alive in sea-water for months; but our inquiries have
+not been successful in eliciting any further information on the
+subject.
+
+Experiments of our own have led to the conclusion, that some families
+of aquatic plants are altogether unsuitable for the Parlour
+Aquarium--such as, potamogeton, chara, &c., which very soon
+communicate a putrescent odour to the water in which they are grown,
+rendering it highly disagreeable in a sitting-room.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[5] _Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society_, iii, 52.
+
+[6] _Naturalist_, vol. i. 239.
+
+
+
+
+A WEDDING DINNER.
+
+
+The English are often reproached with love of good cheer, and
+certainly if foreigners were to judge of us from the manner in which
+we celebrate our Christmas, we cannot wonder at their supposing
+'biftik' to be necessary to our happiness. But high feasting has not
+in any age been confined to the English, and perhaps the following
+account, translated from an old chronicle, of a wedding-dinner given
+by the Milanese, in 1336, to our Duke of Clarence, son of Edward III.,
+may prove not unamusing or unsuggestive.
+
+Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, was the widower of Elizabeth of
+Ulster, and his second wife, Zolante, was the sister of Giovanni
+Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan. The latter nuptials were celebrated
+at Milan with great pomp. The most illustrious personages were invited
+from every part of Europe; tournaments, balls, and other diversions,
+occupied the guests, who were all furnished with splendid apartments,
+till the whole company being assembled, Giovanni Galeazzo conducted
+the newly-married couple from the church to his palace. In one immense
+hall were laid out a hundred tables for the most distinguished guests,
+including the mightiest princes in Italy, the most beautiful women,
+and the most celebrated characters of the age; among whom we must not
+omit to mention Francesco Petrarca. Other tables were placed in the
+adjoining apartments. Seneschals, in the most sumptuous dresses,
+brought in the massive dishes of gold and silver. The cup-bearers
+performed their duties on horseback, galloping round the hall and
+handing the choicest wines in costly vases of gold, silver, or
+crystal. This custom of servants waiting at table on horseback appears
+singular in our time, but it serves to give an idea of the splendour
+of other days and the enormous size of the apartments. It also tends
+to explain why most of the noble mansions still extant from the time
+of which we speak, instead of a staircase, have a gradual ascent of
+bricks, generally leading to a hall of large dimensions. And
+frequently we see evident tokens that flights of steps have been
+substituted in later times.
+
+The banquet consisted of eighteen courses; and between each course
+presents of various kinds were offered to the bridegroom, or
+distributed by him; so that before the dinner had ended, Lionel had
+presented every individual around him with some article of value,
+besides 600 richly embroidered garments which he had given to the
+mimes and players engaged for the occasion.
+
+Here follows a formal account of the dinner, but we must economise our
+space. The first course consisted of young pigs, gilded, with flames
+issuing from their mouths; the second, of hares and pike, likewise
+gilded; the third, of gilded veal and trout; the fourth, of
+partridges, quails, and fish, all gilded; the fifth, of ducks, small
+birds, and fish, all gilded; the sixth, of beef, capons with
+garlic-sauce, and sturgeon; the seventh, of veal and capons with
+lemon-sauce; the eighth, of beef-pies, with cheese and sugar, and
+eel-pies with sugar and spices; the ninth, of meats, fowl and fish in
+jelly (potted, we presume); the tenth, of gilded meats and lamprey;
+the eleventh, of roast kid, birds, and fish; the twelfth, of hares and
+venison, and fish with vinegar and sugar; the thirteenth, of beef and
+deer, with lemon and sugar; the fourteenth, of fowls, capons, and
+tench, covered with red and green foil; the fifteenth, of pigeons,
+small birds, beans, salt tongues, and carp; the sixteenth, of rabbits,
+peacocks, and eels roasted with lemon; the seventeenth, of sour milk
+and cheese; and the eighteenth, of fruits of the rarest and most
+expensive kinds.
+
+At each of these courses the duke received a separate gift--beginning
+with a pair of _leopards_, with velvet collars and gilded buckles.
+Then followed numberless braces of pointers, greyhounds, setters, and
+falcons, all with trappings and ornaments of silk, gold, and pearls;
+dozens of breastplates, helmets, lances, shields, saddles, and
+complete suits of armour, enriched with silver, gold, and velvet;
+numerous pieces of cloth of gold and satin; horses by half-dozens,
+with saddles and trappings highly ornamented; twelve beautiful
+milk-white oxen; 'a vest and cowl embroidered with pearls,
+representing various flowers; a baronial mantle and cowl lined with
+ermine, and richly embroidered with pearls; a large ewer of massive
+silver, four waistbands of wrought silver (now called filigrane); a
+clump of diamonds and rubies, with a pearl of immense value in the
+centre; and a variety of specimens of the choicest wines and most
+elegant confectionary.'
+
+In those times, there was little refinement of taste, and the culinary
+art was probably in its infancy. Hence we find the dishes in quality
+and number rather suited to satisfy the appetites of huntsmen than the
+delicate palate of a courtier of our day. Sugar and spices were used
+in profusion, perhaps because they were scarce and expensive, rather
+than on account of their flavour. Fowls were coloured red or green;
+while meat, and such other solid eatables as could only be boiled or
+roasted, were gilt all over. The expense of such an entertainment must
+have been immense; and when we add, that the value of most of the
+gifts was vastly greater than at present, and that, besides the
+presents to the bridegroom, Giovanni Galeazzo gave away 150 beautiful
+horses, and his kinsman, Bernabo, jewels and golden coins to a large
+amount, the whole sum disbursed on this occasion would appear so
+enormous as to make one doubt whether a petty sovereign could really
+afford such ostentatious prodigality. But when we consider that the
+flourishing state of the commerce of Italy attracted thither all the
+wealth of Europe, we are no longer surprised at an expenditure which,
+however great, might at that time have been borne not by a reigning
+duke of Milan or Florence alone, but even by many citizens of the
+various Italian republics.
+
+During the repast, an innumerable crowd of jesters, mimes, and
+trick-players of all sorts, amused the company with their gambols; and
+such was the noise produced by trumpets, drums, and other martial
+instruments, by the vociferation of the performers and the applause of
+the spectators, that no single voice could be heard; and a
+contemporary historian compares it to the wild roar of a tempestuous
+sea.
+
+
+
+
+SAVINGS-BANKS IN RUSSIA.
+
+
+Until the year 1825, no kind of savings-bank existed in Russia. The
+farmers and peasants, residing for the most part in remote and
+scattered habitations, were accustomed to keep their little store of
+money in common earthen-pots buried in the ground, whence it was not
+unfrequently stolen. It also often happened that, owing to the sudden
+illness or death of the owner, the place of concealment was unknown to
+any one; thus the savings were lost, and much family trouble and
+difficulty arose. In March 1825, a truly patriotic young merchant,
+Frederick Hagedom, junior, of Libau, in Courland, perceived the
+advantage of savings-banks in other countries of Europe, and the
+disadvantages of the system pursued by his poor countrymen. He
+resolved, therefore, to institute a savings-bank in Libau. The
+patronage of the governor-general was obtained, and one of the
+magistrates of the town appointed superintendent: Frederick Hagedom
+and two other gentlemen were chosen directors. The public of the town
+soon testified their approbation of the good work, by bringing in
+their silver rubles and copper kopecks at the appointed hours--namely,
+from five to seven every Saturday evening, and at two periods of the
+year daily--from the 1st to the 12th of June and December. The
+peasants, however, did not display the same alacrity and confidence as
+indeed was to be expected. Their kind benefactor perceiving this,
+wrote and circulated a short pamphlet in the Lettish language of the
+country, explaining the intention, object, and advantages of the new
+savings-bank. This convinced the ignorant country-people that their
+old way of keeping their money, even if safe, was not profitable. The
+pastors of the village churches also took occasion to speak to their
+people on the subject, being persuaded, like the benevolent founders
+of the savings-bank, that it was a plan which could not fail to
+improve the moral and religious character of the peasantry. These
+exertions did not fail to produce the desired effect.
+
+To accommodate the country-people who came from a distance, it was
+soon found advisable to open the savings-bank for their attendance
+daily from twelve to one--the Saturday evenings being reserved for the
+inhabitants of the town. All classes now became desirous of taking
+advantage of the savings-bank, and brought in silver rubles and
+kopecks, instead of keeping them hoarded and useless.
+
+A sum under five rubles receives no interest--is merely saved and
+kept--which is, however, no slight benefit to the poor peasant. Above
+that sum, 4 percent, interest is paid. The owner is at liberty to
+withdraw the principal at will. The tables published in 1845, after
+twenty years' existence, afford a most satisfactory and interesting
+result. The increase of members who partake of the benefits has
+steadily advanced. One-third of the number are inhabitants of Libau,
+the remainder are from the country. A very important gain was also
+perceived to arise from the system: a large portion of the silver
+rubles and Albert-dollars paid in, had evidently been for many years
+kept entirely out of circulation, buried in pots in the earth, and
+consequently in such a condition, that it was often necessary to have
+the coin carefully cleaned, before it was fit to be sent out into
+circulation again. Besides the pecuniary advantage, the improvement in
+the character of the people has been remarkable. The savings-bank has
+strengthened in a singular degree the love of order, industry, and
+temperance. How many cheerful hopes and anticipations are connected
+with savings! It has been ascertained, both in England and France,
+that since the establishment of savings-banks in those countries, no
+criminal has ever been found to have been a member of one. How true a
+benefactor to his country has the young merchant Hagedom proved
+himself to be! May he live long to direct the savings-bank of his
+native town of Libau! And, to conclude with the words of the last
+report of the institution: 'May a gracious Providence continue to
+prosper this first and oldest institution of the kind in the empire of
+Russia, and preserve this institution, so highly beneficial to the
+economical and moral state of the people, in its full prosperity, to
+future generations!'[7]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[7] Communicated by a lady, as translated from a pamphlet published in
+Russia.
+
+
+
+CALORIC SHIPS
+
+
+The idea of substituting a new and superior motive-power for steam
+will no doubt strike many minds as extravagant, if not chimerical. We
+have been so accustomed to regard steam-power as the _ne plus ultra_
+of attainment in subjecting the modified forces of nature to the
+service of man, that a discovery which promises to supersede this
+agency will have to contend with the most formidable preconceptions as
+well as with gigantic interests. Nevertheless, it may now be predicted
+with confidence, that we are on the eve of another great revolution,
+produced by the application of an agent more economical and
+incalculably safer than steam. A few years hence we shall hear of the
+'wonders of caloric' instead of the 'wonders of steam.' To the
+question: 'How did you cross the Atlantic?' the reply will be: 'By
+caloric of course!' On Saturday, I visited the manufactory, and had
+the privilege of inspecting Ericsson's caloric engine of 60
+horse-power, while it was in operation. It consists of two pairs of
+cylinders, the working pistons of which are 72 inches in diameter. Its
+great peculiarities consist in its very large cylinders and pistons,
+working with very low pressure, and in the absence of boilers or
+heaters, there being no other fires employed than those in small
+grates under the bottoms of the working cylinders. During the eight
+months that this test-engine has been in operation, not a cent has
+been expended for repairs or accidents. The leading principle of the
+calorie engine consists in producing motive-power by the employment of
+the expansive force of atmospheric air instead of that of steam; the
+force being produced by compression of the air in one part of the
+machine, and by its dilatation by the application of heat in another
+part. This dilatation, however, is not effected by continuous
+application of combustibles, but by a peculiar process of transfer, by
+which the caloric is made to operate over and over again--namely, the
+heat of the air escaping from the working cylinder at each successive
+stroke of the engine, is transferred to the cold compressed air,
+entering the same; so that, in fact, a continued application of fuel
+is only necessary in order to make good the losses of heat occasioned
+by the unavoidable eradiation of the heated parts of the machine. The
+obvious advantages of this great improvement are the great saving of
+fuel and labour in the management of the engine, and its perfect
+safety. A ship carrying the amount of coal that the Atlantic steamers
+now take for a single trip, could cross and recross the Atlantic twice
+without taking in coal; and the voyage to China or to California could
+be easily accomplished by a caloric ship without the necessity of
+stopping at any port to take in fuel. Anthracite coal being far the
+best fuel for this new engine, we shall no longer have to purchase
+bituminous coal in England for return-trips. On the contrary, England
+will find it advantageous to come to us for our anthracite. A slow
+radiating fire without flame is what is required, and this is best
+supplied by our anthracite. The _Ericsson_ will be ready for sea by
+October next, and her owners intend to take passengers at a reduced
+price, in consequence of the reduced expenses under the new
+principle.--_Boston Transcript._
+
+
+
+
+VIOLETS:
+
+SENT IN A TINY BOX.
+
+
+    Let them lie--ah, let them lie!
+      Plucked flowers--dead to-morrow;
+    Lift the lid up quietly,
+    As you'd lift the mystery
+      Of a buried sorrow.
+
+    Let them lie--the fragrant things,
+      All their souls thus giving;
+    Let no breeze's ambient wings
+    And no useless water-springs
+      Mock them into living.
+
+    They have lived--they live no more;
+      Nothing can requite them
+    For the gentle life they bore,
+    And up-yielded in full store
+      While it did delight them.
+
+    Yet, I ween, flower-corses fair!
+      'Twas a joyful yielding,
+    Like some soul heroic, rare,
+    That leaps bodiless forth in air
+      For its loved one's shielding.
+
+    Surely, ye were glad to die
+      In the hand that slew ye,
+    Glad to leave the open sky,
+    And the airs that wandered by,
+      And the bees that knew ye;
+
+    Giving up a small earth-place
+      And a day of blooming,
+    Here to lie in narrow space,
+    Smiling in this smileless face
+      With such sweet perfuming.
+
+    O ye little violets dead!
+      Coffined from all gazes,
+    We will also smile, and shed
+    Out of heart-flowers withered
+      Perfume of sweet praises.
+
+    And as ye, for this poor sake,
+      Love with life are buying,
+    So, I doubt not, ONE will make
+    All our gathered flowers to take
+      Richer scent through dying.
+
+
+
+
+CHINESE LAUNDRY IN CALIFORNIA.
+
+
+What a truly industrious people they are! At work, cheerfully and
+briskly, at ten o'clock at night. Huge piles of linen and
+under-clothing disposed in baskets about the room, near the different
+ironers. Those at work dampening and ironing--peculiar processes both.
+A bowl of water is standing at the ironer's side, as in ordinary
+laundries, but used very differently. Instead of dipping the fingers
+in the water, and then snapping them over the clothes, the operator
+puts his head in the bowl, fills his mouth with water, and then blows
+so that the water comes from his mouth _in a mist_, resembling the
+emission of steam from an escape-pipe, at the same time so directing
+his head that the mist is scattered all over the piece he is about to
+iron. He then seizes his flat iron. This invention beats the 'Yankees'
+all to bits. It is a vessel resembling a small, deep, metallic
+wash-basin, having a highly-polished flat bottom, and a fire
+continually burning in it. Thus they keep the iron hot, without
+running to the fire every five minutes and spitting on the iron to
+ascertain by the 'sizzle' if it be ready to use. This ironing machine
+has a long handle, and is propelled without danger of burning the
+fingers by the slipping of the 'ironing rag.' Ladies who use the
+ordinary flat irons will appreciate the improvement.--_Marysville
+(California) Herald._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Printed and Published by W. and R. CHAMBERS, High Street, Edinburgh.
+Also sold by W. S. ORR, Amen Corner, London; D. N. CHAMBERS, 55 West
+Nile Street, Glasgow; and J. M'GLASHAN, 50 Upper Sackville Street,
+Dublin.--Advertisements for Monthly Parts are requested to be sent to
+MAXWELL & Co., 31 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, London, to whom all
+applications respecting their insertion must be made.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 445, by Various
+
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+
+Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 445, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 445
+       Volume 18, New Series, July 10, 1852
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: William Chambers
+          Robert Chambers
+
+Release Date: March 11, 2007 [EBook #20797]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. Shiffer and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h1>CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL</h1>
+
+<h2><a name="Contents" id="Contents">CONTENTS</a></h2>
+
+<div class="contents">
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+<a href="#ECONOMY_IN_DISTRIBUTION"><b>ECONOMY IN DISTRIBUTION.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#THE_VENDETTA"><b>THE VENDETTA.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#WRECK-CHART_AND_LIFE-BOATS"><b>WRECK-CHART AND LIFE-BOATS.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#THE_SALONS_OF_PARIS"><b>THE SALONS OF PARIS.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#THE_OLD_CASTLES_AND_MANSIONS_OF_SCOTLAND"><b>THE OLD CASTLES AND MANSIONS OF SCOTLAND.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#AMERICAN_HONOUR"><b>AMERICAN HONOUR.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#THE_PARLOUR_AQUARIUM"><b>THE PARLOUR AQUARIUM.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#A_WEDDING_DINNER"><b>A WEDDING DINNER.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#SAVINGS-BANKS_IN_RUSSIA"><b>SAVINGS-BANKS IN RUSSIA.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CALORIC_SHIPS"><b>CALORIC SHIPS.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#VIOLETS"><b>VIOLETS.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHINESE_LAUNDRY_IN_CALIFORNIA"><b>CHINESE LAUNDRY IN CALIFORNIA.</b></a><br />
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[pg 17]</a></span></p>
+
+<img src="images/banner.png"
+          width="100%"
+          alt="Banner: Chambers' Edinburgh Journal" />
+
+<h4>CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S
+INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &amp;c.</h4>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<table width="100%"
+        summary="Volume, Date and Price">
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><b><span class="sc">No.</span> 445.&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="sc">New Series.</span></b></td>
+<td align="left"><b>SATURDAY, JULY 10, 1852.</b></td>
+<td align="right"><b><span class="sc">Price</span> 1&frac12;<i>d</i>.</b></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<h2><a name="ECONOMY_IN_DISTRIBUTION" id="ECONOMY_IN_DISTRIBUTION"></a>ECONOMY IN DISTRIBUTION.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">We</span> had lately occasion to proceed by an omnibus from a country town to
+a station on a railway, by which we were to return to the city where
+we have our customary abode. On arriving at the station, we learned
+that we should have to wait an hour for an <i>up</i> train, the omnibus
+being timed in relation to a <i>down</i> one, which was about to pass. Had
+this arrangement been the only one readily practicable, in the case,
+we should have felt it necessary to submit uncomplainingly to the loss
+of our hour; but it really was not so. We had come in one of three
+omnibuses, none of which had more than two or three passengers. Why
+should not one have come at this hour with <i>down</i> passengers, and
+another come an hour later with <i>up</i> ones, thus by the same trouble
+giving more accommodation? We found that the three omnibuses are run
+by so many hotels, and that an arrangement for general convenience was
+impossible, as it might have interfered with the hotel business. On
+the continent, the government would have ordered matters otherwise:
+with us, the genius of <i>laissez faire</i> permits them to be as we
+describe.</p>
+
+<p>It is in the same part of the country that a system exists amongst
+bakers, which we described many years ago in these pages. There are
+three towns, triangularly arranged, about ten miles from each other.
+One or more bakers in each has a van, in which he sends bread every
+day to the other two. As there is no witchcraft in the making of
+bread, it might be as well for the inhabitants of each town to be
+supplied by the bakers of their own place exclusively, and then the
+expense of the carriage would be saved. Such, however, is the keenness
+of competition in the case, that each baker strives to get supporters
+in the neighbouring towns, and willingly pays for van, horse, and
+driver in order to retain their custom. We presume each van goes
+thirty miles a day, and that there is not much less than 2000 miles of
+this unprofitable travelling weekly in connection with the three
+towns.</p>
+
+<p>Any one who has a sincere respect for the principle of untrammelled
+industry, must lament to see these its abuses or drawbacks. But our
+commercial world is full of such anomalies. The cause is readily
+traced in the excessive number of persons engaged in the various
+trades. Not many years ago, the number of bakers in a town known to
+us, of the same size as one of those above referred to, was fourteen,
+while everybody acknowledged that four might have sufficed. In such
+circumstances, it is not wonderful that expedients like that of the
+van are resorted to, notwithstanding that it can only diminish the
+aggregate of profit derived by an already starving trade.</p>
+
+<p>Few persons who walk along a street of nicely-decorated and apparently
+well-stocked shops, have the slightest conception of the hollowness of
+many of the appearances. The reality has been tested in part by the
+income-tax inquisition, which shews a surprising number of
+respectable-looking shops not reaching that degree of profit which
+brings the owner within the scope of the exaction. It may be that some
+men who are liable, contrive to make themselves appear as not so; but
+this cannot be to such an extent as greatly to affect the general
+fact. In the assessing of the tax, no result comes out oftener than
+one of this kind: Receipts for the year, L.2200; estimated profit at
+15 per cent., L.330; deductions for rent of shop, taxes, shopmen's
+wages, and bad debts, L.193; leaving, as net profit, L.137. The
+commissioners are left to wonder how the trader can support his family
+in a decent manner upon so small a return, till they reflect that
+possibly a son brings in a little as a shopman, or a daughter as a
+day-governess; or that possibly an old female relative lives with the
+family, and throws her little income into the general stock. It is,
+after all, a fact capable of the clearest demonstration, that a vast
+number of shopkeepers' families maintain decent appearances upon an
+income below that enjoyed by many artisans&mdash;what goes, in the one
+case, for the decent appearances, being enjoyed in substantial
+comforts in the other, or else misapplied, to the degradation of body
+and mind.</p>
+
+<p>The evil primarily lies in an erroneous distribution of industry.
+Where twenty men offer themselves to do a duty to society for which
+three are sufficient, it cannot be good for any party; whereas, were
+the extra seventeen to apply themselves to other departments of the
+labour required for all, it would be better times for the whole
+twenty. The light, easy, and pleasant occupations are those most apt
+to be beset by superfluous hands. Shopkeeping is generally easy, and
+often pleasant; hence the excessive number of individuals applying
+themselves to it. In the difficulties of the case, conspicuousness of
+situation, extravagant decoration, and abundant advertising, are
+resorted to, as means of obtaining a preference. Many, to help out
+profits, resort to tricks and cheating. The expense thus incurred,
+above what is necessary, in distributing certain goods, must be
+enormous. To bring most articles to the hands of the consumer should
+be a simple business. Every member of the public must feel that his
+clothes will be as good, coming from a wareroom on a third floor at
+L.30 a year, as from a flashy corner shop which costs L.300. He will
+feel that to make him buy a new hat when he needs one, it is not
+necessary that an advertising van should be continually rumbling along
+the streets. His tea and sugar from the nearest grocer cannot be any
+better because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[pg 18]</a></span> of there being fifty other grocers within two miles of
+his residence, and forty of these not required. Yet, by reason of the
+great competition in nearly all trades, these vast expenses, which do
+nothing for the public, are continually incurred. Means misapplied are
+means lost. The community is just so much the poorer. And we must
+pronounce the superfluous shopkeepers, those who live by the rents of
+fine shops, and those who are concerned in the business of advertising
+beyond what is strictly necessary for the information of the public,
+as incumbrances on the industry of the country.</p>
+
+<p>One unfortunate concomitant of competition is, that it prompts in the
+individual trader an idea which places him in a false position towards
+the general interest. It is the general interest that all things fit
+for use should be abundant; but when a man is concerned in producing
+any of those things, he sees it to be for his immediate interest that
+they should be scarce, because what he has to sell will then bring a
+greater price. It is the general interest that all useful things
+should be produced and distributed as cheaply as possible; but each
+individual producer and distributer feels that the dearer they are, it
+is the better for him. It is thus that a trade comes to regard itself
+as something detached from the community; that a man also views his
+peculiar trading interest as a first principle, to which everything
+else must give way. It might, indeed, be easily shewn, that whatever
+is good for the whole community, must be in the long-run beneficial to
+each member. He either cannot look far enough for that, or he feels
+himself unable to dispense with the immediate benefit from that which
+is bad for the public. In short, each trade considers the world as
+living for it, not it as living for the world&mdash;a mistake so monstrous,
+that there is little reason to wonder at the enormous misexpenditure
+to which it gives rise.</p>
+
+<p>The idea essentially connected with these false positions, that
+<i>because</i> there are certain persons in a trade in a particular place,
+they <i>ought</i> to be there, and that the primary consideration regarding
+them is how to enable them to continue living by that trade&mdash;as if
+they were fixed there by some decree of Providence&mdash;is one of the most
+perverse and difficult to deal with in political economy. The
+assertion of any principle ruling to the contrary purpose, seems to
+the multitude of superficial thinkers as a kind of cruelty to the
+persons, the severity of the natural law being, by an easy slide of
+thought, laid to the charge of the mere philosopher who detects and
+announces its operation. In reality, those are the cruel people who
+would contentedly see a great number of their fellow-creatures going
+on from year to year in a misery, which, being brought upon themselves
+by ignorance, and the want of a right spirit of enterprise, can only
+be banished or lessened by their being rightly informed, and induced
+to enter upon a proper course.</p>
+
+<p>If there were a right knowledge and just views of these subjects
+diffused through the community, a man would be ashamed to enter upon a
+business in which a sufficient number of persons was already engaged,
+knowing that he was thereby trifling with his time and fortunes, and
+perhaps encouraging in himself a love of ease, or some other desire
+which he was not entitled to gratify. He would rather go to some new
+country, where he might eat in rough independence the rewards of an
+actual toil. What is really required, however, is not that men should
+leave their own country, but enter upon such pursuits there as may
+preserve an equal instead of an unequal distribution of industry
+throughout the various fields in which there is something to be done
+for the general advantage. Distribution should be less a favourite
+department, and production more so. With more producers and fewer
+distributers, the waste we have endeavoured to describe would be so
+far saved, and there would be fewer miserable people on the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Even amidst all the delusions which prevail upon the subject, it is
+curious to observe that there is a strong current towards a
+rectification of what is amiss. The interests of the individual, which
+produce so much fallacy, after all bring a correction. The active,
+original-minded tradesman, seeing that, with an ordinary share of the
+entire business of his department, he can scarcely make bread and
+butter, bethinks him of setting up a leviathan shop, in which he may
+serve the whole town with mercery at a comparatively small profit to
+himself, looking to large and frequent returns for his remuneration.
+The public, with all its sentimentalisms, never fails to take the
+article, quality being equal, at the lowest price, and accordingly the
+leviathan dealer thrives, while nearly all the small dealers are
+extirpated. Now this is a course of things which produces partial
+inconveniences; but its general effect is good. It lessens the cost of
+distribution for the consumer, and it decides many to take to new and
+more hopeful courses, who otherwise might cling to a branch of
+business that had become nearly sapless. Underselling generally has
+the same results. When in a trade in which distribution usually costs
+43 per cent., one man announces himself as willing to lessen this by
+15 or 20 per cent., his conduct is apt to appear unbrotherly and
+selfish to the rest; but the fact is, that for goods of any kind to
+cost 43 per cent., in mere distribution, is a monstrosity; and he who
+can in any measure lessen that cost, will be regarded by the community
+as acting in the spirit of a just economy, and as deserving of their
+gratitude. These may be considered as the rude struggles of
+competition towards a righting of its own evils. The public sees two
+selfishnesses working in the case, and it naturally patronises that
+which subserves its own interest.</p>
+
+<p>The waste arising from an over-costly system of distribution, will
+probably lead to other correctives of even a more sweeping kind than
+that of underselling, or the setting up of leviathan shops. For the
+greater number of the articles required for daily use, men begin to
+find that a simple co-operative arrangement is sufficient. A certain
+number agree to combine in order to obtain articles at wholesale
+prices; after which a clerk, shopman, and porter suffice to distribute
+them. They thus save, in many trades, as much as 15 per cent. So far
+from their being under any peculiar disadvantage as to the quality of
+the articles, they are rather safer than usual in that respect; and
+indeed a freedom from the danger of getting adulterated or inferior
+goods is one of the recommendations of the system. It would probably
+extend more rapidly, were it not for the difficulties attending the
+law of partnership, which, however, will in all likelihood be speedily
+removed.</p>
+
+<p>We make these remarks on distribution mainly in the hope of saving
+individuals from entering upon a career in which, not being truly
+useful to their fellow-creatures, they have little to expect of good
+for themselves. At present, shopkeeping is limited by what an able
+writer of the day calls the <i>bankruptcy check</i>;<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> that is, men go
+into it, and remain in it, while they can just barely sustain
+themselves, not regarding that they do not and cannot thrive, and that
+they are only adding to a mass of idleness already burdensome to the
+community. What we desire is, to see men so far enlightened in the
+principles of economy, that they will be at least less apt to rush
+into fields where their help is not wanted. We wish to assist in
+creating a public opinion on this subject, which, fixing on
+shopkeeping in such circumstances the odium of a masked idleness, will
+tend to send the undecided into courses of real<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[pg 19]</a></span> activity and
+serviceableness; thus securing their own good by the only plan which
+can be safely depended upon&mdash;that of first securing the good of the
+entire community.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Mr F. O. Ward.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="THE_VENDETTA" id="THE_VENDETTA"></a>THE VENDETTA.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> the morning, we were off the coast of Sardinia, steaming rapidly
+along for the Straits of Bonifacio. The night had been tranquil, and
+the morning was more tranquil still; but no one who knew the
+capricious Mediterranean felt confident of continued fair weather.
+However, at sea the mind takes little thought for the morrow, or even
+for the afternoon; and as we sat in the warm shade of the awning,
+looking out to the purple horizon in the east, or to the rocky and
+varied coast to the west, I felt, and if the countenance be not
+treacherous, all felt that it was good even for landsmen to be moving
+over waters uncrisped except by the active paddles, beneath a sky all
+radiant with light. My companions were chiefly Levant merchants, or
+sallow East Indians; for I was on board the French packet <i>Le Caire</i>,
+on its way from Alexandria, of Egypt, to Marseille.</p>
+
+<p>I had several times passed the Straits, each time with renewed
+pleasure and admiration. It would be difficult to imagine a scene more
+wild and peculiar. After rounding the huge rock of
+Tavolara&mdash;apparently a promontory running boldly out into the sea, but
+in reality an island, we are at once at the mouth of the Straits. The
+mountains of Corsica, generally enveloped in clouds, rise above the
+horizon ahead, and near at hand a thousand rocks and islands of
+various dimensions appear to choke up the passage. The narrow southern
+channel, always selected by day, is intricate, and would be dangerous
+to strangers; and indeed the whole of the Straits are considered so
+difficult, that the fact of Nelson, without previous experience,
+having taken his fleet through, is cited even by French sailors as a
+prodigy.</p>
+
+<p>On one of the rocky points of the Sardinian coast, I observed the
+ruins of a building, but so deceptive is distance, I could not at
+first determine whether it had been a fortress or a cottage. I asked
+one of the officers for his telescope; and being still in doubt,
+questioned him as I returned it. He smiled and said: 'For the last
+five or six years, I have never passed through the Straits by day
+without having had to relate the story connected with that ruin. It
+has become a habit with me to do so; and if you had not spoken, I
+should have been compelled, under penalty of passing a restless night,
+to have let out my narrative at dinner. You will go down to your berth
+presently; for see how the smoke is weighed down by the heavy
+atmosphere upon the deck, and how it rolls like a snake along the
+waters! What you fancy to be merely a local head-wind blowing through
+the Straits, is a mistral tormenting the whole Gulf of Lions. We shall
+be tossing about presently in a manner unpleasant to landsmen; and
+when you are safely housed, I will come and beguile a little time by
+relating a true story of a Corsican Vendetta.'</p>
+
+<p>The prophecy was correct. In less than a quarter of an hour, <i>Le
+Caire</i> was pitching through the last narrows against as violent a gale
+as I ever felt. It was like a wall of moving air. The shores, rocks,
+and islands were now concealed by driving mist; and as the sea widened
+before us, it was covered with white-crested waves. Before I went
+below, a cluster of sails ahead was pointed out as the English fleet;
+and it was surmised that it would be compelled to repeat Nelson's
+man&oelig;uvre, as Sardinia and Corsica form a dangerous lee-shore.
+However, the atmosphere thickened rapidly; and we soon lost sight of
+all objects but the waves amidst which we rolled, and the phantom-like
+shores of Corsica.</p>
+
+<p>The officer joined me, and kept his promise. By constant practice, he
+had acquired some skill in the art of telling at least this one story;
+and I regret that I do not remember his exact words. However, the
+following is the substance of his narrative:&mdash;Giustiniani and
+Bartuccio were inhabitants of the little town of Santa Maddalena,
+situated on the Corsican side of the Straits. They were both sons of
+respectable parents, and were united from an early age in the bonds of
+friendship. When they grew up, Giustiniani became clerk in a very
+humble mercantile establishment; whilst Bartuccio, more fortunate,
+obtained a good place in the custom-house. They continued on excellent
+terms till the age of about twenty-one years, when an incident
+occurred, that by making rivals of them, made them enemies.</p>
+
+<p>Giustiniani had occasion to visit the city of Ajaccio, and set out in
+company with a small party mounted upon mules. Bartuccio went with him
+to the crest of the hill, where they parted after an affectionate
+embrace. The journey was fortunately performed; in about a month
+Giustiniani was on his way back, and reached without incident, just as
+night set in, a desolate ravine within a few leagues of Santa
+Maddalena. Here a terrific storm of wind and rain broke upon the
+party, which missed the track, and finally dispersed; some seeking
+shelter in the lee of the rocks, others pushing right and left in
+search of the path, or of some hospitable habitation. Giustiniani
+wandered for more than an hour, until he descended towards the plain,
+and, attracted by a light, succeeded at length in reaching a little
+cottage having a garden planted with trees. The lightning had now
+begun to play, and shewed him the white walls of the cottage streaming
+with rain, and the drenched foliage that surrounded it. Guided by the
+rapidly succeeding gleams, he was enabled to find the garden gate,
+where, there being no bell, he remained for some time shouting in
+vain. The light still beamed gently through one of the upper windows,
+and seemed to tell of a comfortable interior and cosy inmates.
+Giustiniani exerted his utmost strength of voice, and presently there
+was a movement in the lighted chamber&mdash;a form came to the window; and,
+after some delay, the door of the house was opened, and a voice asked
+who demanded admittance at that hour, and in such weather. Our
+traveller explained, and was soon let in by a quiet-looking old
+gentleman, who took him up stairs into a little library, where a good
+wood-fire was blazing. A young girl of remarkable beauty rose as he
+entered, and received him with cordial hospitality. Acquaintance was
+soon made. Giustiniani told his little story, and learned that his
+host was M. Albert Brivard, a retired medical officer, who, with his
+daughter Marie, had selected this out-of-the-way place for economy's
+sake.</p>
+
+<p>According to my informant, Giustiniani at once fell in love with the
+beautiful Marie, to such an extent that he could scarcely partake of
+the supper offered him. Perhaps his abstinence arose from other
+reasons&mdash;love being in reality a hungry passion in its early
+stage&mdash;for next day the young man was ill of a fever, and incapable of
+continuing his journey. M. Brivard and his daughter attended him
+kindly; and as he seemed to become worse towards evening, sent a
+messenger to Maddalena. The consequence was, that on the following
+morning Bartuccio arrived in a great state of alarm and anxiety; but
+fate did not permit him again to meet his friend with that whole and
+undivided passion of friendship in his breast with which he had
+quitted him a month before. Giustiniani was asleep when he entered the
+house, and he was received by Marie. In his excited state of mind, he
+was apt for new impressions, and half an hour's conversation seems not
+only to have filled him with love, but to have excited the same
+feeling in the breast of the gentle girl. It would have been more
+romantic, perhaps, had Marie been tenderly impressed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[pg 20]</a></span> by poor
+Giustiniani when he arrived at night, travel-stained and drenched with
+rain, in the first fit of a fever; 'but woman,' said the sagacious
+narrator, as he received a tumbler of grog from the steward, 'is a
+mystery'&mdash;an opinion I am not inclined to confute.</p>
+
+<p>In a few days, Giustiniani was well enough to return to his home,
+which he reached in a gloomy and dissatisfied state of mind. He had
+already observed that Bartuccio, who rode over every day professedly
+to see him, felt in reality ill at ease in his company, spoke no
+longer with copious familiarity, and left him in a few minutes,
+professing to be obliged to return to his duty. From his bed, however,
+he could hear him for some time after laughing and talking with Marie
+in the garden; and he felt, without knowing it, all the pangs of
+jealousy: not that he believed his friend would interfere and dispute
+with him the possession of the gem which he had discovered, and over
+which he internally claimed a right of property, but he was oppressed
+with an uneasy sentiment of future ill, and tormented with a
+diffidence as to his own powers of pleasing, that made him say adieu
+to Marie and her father with cold gratitude&mdash;that seemed afterwards to
+them, and to him when reflection came, sheer ingratitude.</p>
+
+<p>When he had completely recovered his strength, he recovered also to, a
+certain extent his serenity of mind. Bartuccio was often with him, and
+never mentioned the subject of Marie. One day, therefore, in a state
+of mingled hope and love, he resolved to pay a visit to his kind host;
+and set out on foot. The day was sunny; the landscape, though rugged,
+beautiful with light; a balmy breeze played gently on his cheek. The
+intoxication of returning strength filled him with confidence and joy.
+He met the old doctor herborising a little way from his house, and
+saluted him so cordially, that a hearty shake of the hand was added to
+the cold bow with which he was at first received. Giustiniani
+understood a little of botany, and pleased the old man by his
+questions and remarks. They walked slowly towards the house together.
+When they reached it, M. Brivard quietly remarked: 'You will find my
+daughter in the garden,' and went in with the treasures he had
+collected. The young man's heart bounded with joy. Now was the time.
+He would throw himself at once at Marie's feet, confess the turbulent
+passion she had excited, and receive from her lips his sentence of
+happiness, or&mdash;&mdash; No, he would not consider the alternative; and with
+bounding step and eager eye, he ran over the garden, beneath the
+orange and the myrtle trees, until he reached a little arbour at the
+other extremity.</p>
+
+<p>What he saw might well plunge him at once into despair. Marie had just
+heard and approved the love of Bartuccio, who had clasped her, not
+unwilling, to his breast. Their moment of joy was brief, for in
+another instant Bartuccio was on the ground, with Giustiniani's knee
+upon his breast, and a bright poniard glittered in the air. 'Spare
+him&mdash;spare him!' cried the unfortunate girl, sinking on her knees. The
+accepted lover struggled in vain in the grasp of his frenzied rival,
+who, however, forbore to strike. 'Swear, Marie,' he said, 'by your
+mother's memory, that you will not marry him for five years, and I
+will give him a respite for so long.' She swore with earnestness; and
+the next moment, Giustiniani had broken through the hedge, and was
+rushing franticly towards Santa Maddalena.</p>
+
+<p>When he recovered from his confusion, Bartuccio, who, from his
+physical inferiority, had been reduced to a passive part in this
+scene, endeavoured to persuade Marie that she had taken an absurd
+oath, which she was not bound to abide by; but M. Brivard, though he
+had approved his daughter's choice, knew well the Corsican character,
+and decreed that for the present at least all talk of marriage should
+be set aside. In vain Bartuccio pleaded the rights of an accepted
+lover. The old man became more obstinate, and not only insisted that
+his daughter should abide by her promise, but hinted that if any
+attempt were made to oppose his decision, he would at once leave the
+country.</p>
+
+<p>As may well be imagined, Bartuccio returned to the city with feelings
+of bitter hatred against his former friend; and it is probable that
+wounded pride worked upon him as violently as disappointed passion. He
+was heard by several persons to utter vows of vengeance&mdash;rarely
+meaningless in that uncivilised island&mdash;and few were surprised when
+next day the news spread that Giustiniani had disappeared. Public
+opinion at once pointed to Bartuccio as the murderer. He was arrested,
+and a careful investigation was instituted; but nothing either to
+exculpate or inculpate him transpired, and after some months of
+imprisonment, he was liberated.</p>
+
+<p>Five years elapsed. During the first half of the period, Bartuccio was
+coldly received by both M. Brivard and his daughter, although he
+strenuously protested his innocence. Time, however, worked in his
+favour, and he at length assumed the position of a betrothed lover, so
+that no one was surprised when, at the expiration of the appointed
+time, the marriage took place. Many wondered indeed why, since
+Giustiniani had disappeared, and was probably dead, any regard was
+paid to the extorted promise; whilst all augured well of the union
+which was preceded by so signal an instance of good faith. The
+observant, indeed, noticed that throughout the ceremony Bartuccio was
+absent and uneasy&mdash;looking round anxiously over the crowd assembled
+from time to time. 'He is afraid to see the ghost of Giustiniani,'
+whispered an imprudent bystander. The bridegroom caught the last word,
+and starting as if he had received a stab, cried: 'Where, where?' No
+one answered; and the ceremony proceeded in ominous gloom.</p>
+
+<p>Next day, Bartuccio and his young wife, accompanied by M. Brivard,
+left Santa Maddalena without saying whither they were going; and the
+good people of the town made many strange surmises on the subject. In
+a week or so, however, a vessel being wrecked in the Straits,
+furnished fresh matter of conversation; and all these circumstances
+became utterly forgotten, except by a few. 'But this drama was as yet
+crowned by no catastrophe,' said the officer, 'and all laws of harmony
+would be violated if it ended here.' 'Are you, then, inventing?'
+inquired I. 'Not at all,' he replied; 'but destiny is a greater
+tragedian than Shakspeare, and prepares <i>d&eacute;nouements</i> with superior
+skill.' I listened with increased interest.</p>
+
+<p>The day after the departure of the married couple, a small boat with a
+shoulder-of-mutton sail left the little harbour of Santa Maddalena a
+couple of hours before sunset, and with a smart breeze on its quarter,
+went bravely out across the Straits. Some folks who were accustomed to
+see this man&oelig;uvre had, it is true, shouted out to the only man on
+board, warning him that rough weather was promised; but he paid no
+heed, and continued on his way. If I were writing a romance, if,
+indeed, I had any reasonable space, I would keep up the excitement of
+curiosity for some time, describe a variety of terrific adventures
+unknown to seamen, and wonderful escapes comprehensible only by
+landsmen, and thus make a subordinate hero of the bold navigator. But
+I must be content to inform the reader, that he was Paolo, a servant
+of Giustiniani's mother, who had lived in perfect retirement since her
+son's disappearance, professing to have no news of him. In reality,
+however, she knew perfectly well that he had retired to Sardinia, and
+after remaining in the interior some time, had established himself in
+the little cottage, the ruins of which had attracted my attention. The
+reason for his retirement, which he afterwards gave, was that he might
+be enabled to resist the temptation to avenge himself on Bartuccio,
+and, if possible, conquer his love for Marie. He no longer entertained
+any hope of possessing her himself; but he thought that at least<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[pg 21]</a></span> she
+would grow weary of waiting for the passage of five years, and would
+marry a stranger&mdash;a consummation sufficiently satisfactory, he
+thought, to restore to him his peace of mind. Once a month at least he
+received, through the medium of the faithful Paolo, assistance and
+news from his mother; and to his infinite discomfiture learned, as
+time proceeded, that his enemy, whilom his friend, was to be made
+happy at last. His rage knew no bounds at this; and several times he
+was on the point of returning to Santa Maddalena, to do the deed of
+vengeance from which he had hitherto refrained. However, he resolved
+to await the expiration of the five years.</p>
+
+<p>Paolo arrived in safety at the cottage some time after dark, and
+communicated the intelligence both of the marriage and the departure
+of the family. To a certain extent, both he and the mother of
+Giustiniani approved the projects of vengeance entertained by the
+latter, but thought that the honour of the family was sufficiently
+cleared by what was evidently a flight. Paolo was disappointed and
+puzzled by the manner of the unfortunate recluse. Instead of bursting
+out into furious denunciations, he became as pale as ashes, and then
+hiding his face in his hands, wept aloud. His agony continued for more
+than an hour; after which he raised his head, and exhibited a serene
+brow to the astonished servitor. 'Let us return to Santa Maddalena,'
+he said; and they accordingly departed, leaving the cottage a prey to
+the storms, which soon reduced it to ruins, and will probably erelong
+sweep away every trace.</p>
+
+<p>Giustiniani reached his mother's house unperceived, and spent many
+hours in close conversation with his delighted parent. He did not,
+however, shew himself in the town, but departed on the track of the
+fugitives the very next day. He traced them to Ajaccio, thence to
+Marseille, to Nice, back to Marseille, to Paris, but there he lost the
+clue. Several months passed in this way; his money was all spent, and
+he was compelled to accept a situation in the counting-house of a
+merchant of the Marais, and to give up the chase and the working out
+of the catastrophe he had planned for his Vendetta.</p>
+
+<p>A couple of years afterwards, Giustiniani had occasion to go to one of
+the towns of the north of France&mdash;Lille, I believe. In its
+neighbourhood, as my narrator told me&mdash;and on him I throw the whole
+responsibility, if there seem anything improbable in what is to
+come&mdash;the young man was once more overtaken by a storm, and compelled
+to seek refuge in a cottage, which the gleams of the lightning
+revealed to him. This time he was on foot, and after knocking at the
+door, was admitted at once by a young woman, who seemed to have been
+waiting in the passage for his arrival. She was about to throw herself
+into his arms, when suddenly she started back, and exclaimed: 'It is
+not he!' Taking up a candle, which she had placed on the floor, she
+cast its light on her own face and that of the stranger, who had
+remained immovable, as if petrified by the sound of her voice.
+'Madam,' said he, brought to himself by this action, 'I am a stranger
+in these parts, overtaken by the storm, and I beg an hour's
+hospitality.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are welcome, sir,' replied Marie, the wife of Bartuccio, for it
+was she; but she did not at the moment recognise the unfortunate man
+who stood before her.</p>
+
+<p>They were soon in a comfortable room, where was M. Brivard, now
+somewhat broken by age, and a cradle, in which slept a handsome boy
+about a year old. Giustiniani, after the interchange of a few
+words&mdash;perhaps in order to avoid undergoing too close an examination
+of his countenance&mdash;bent over the cradle to peruse the features of the
+child; and the pillow was afterwards found wet with tears. By an
+involuntary motion, he clutched at the place where the poniard was
+wont to be, and then sat down upon a chair that stood in a dim corner.
+A few minutes afterwards, Bartuccio came joyously into the room,
+embraced his wife, asked her if she was cold, for she trembled very
+much&mdash;spoke civilly to the stranger, and began to throw off his wet
+cloak and coat. At this moment the tall form of Giustiniani rose like
+a phantom in the corner, and passions, which he himself had thought
+smothered, worked through his worn countenance. Brivard saw and now
+understood, and was nailed to his chair by unspeakable terror, whilst
+Bartuccio gaily called for his slippers. Suddenly Marie, who had
+watched every motion of the stranger, and, with the vivid intuition of
+wife and mother, had understood what part was hers to play, rushed to
+the cradle, seized the sleeping child, and without saying a word,
+placed it in Giustiniani's arms. The strong-passioned man looked
+amazed, yet not displeased, and, after a moment's hesitation, sank on
+his knees, and embraced the babe, that, awaking, curled its little
+arms round his head&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>A tremendous crash aloft interrupted the well-prepared peroration of
+the narrator; and, to say the truth, I was not sorry that a sail was
+carried away, and one of our boats stove in at this precise moment,
+for I had heard quite enough to enable me to guess the conclusion of
+the history of this harmless Vendetta.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="WRECK-CHART_AND_LIFE-BOATS" id="WRECK-CHART_AND_LIFE-BOATS"></a>WRECK-CHART AND LIFE-BOATS.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Many</span> of our readers are probably aware that Prince Albert, in his
+capacity of president of the Society of Arts, Manufactures, and
+Commerce, suggested that lectures should be delivered on the results
+of the different classes of the Great Exhibition, by gentlemen
+peculiarly qualified by their several professions and pursuits. This
+suggestion has been admirably carried out; but we propose at present
+to direct attention only to one of the twenty-four lectures in
+question&mdash;namely, that on life-boats, by Captain Washington, R. N.;
+our individual calling in early life having been such as to enable us
+to understand thoroughly the technical details, and judge of the
+accuracy of the views and opinions propounded by the gallant and
+intelligent lecturer.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>First, we will speak of the wreck-chart of the British islands
+prefixed to the lecture. Round the entire coast is a prodigious number
+of <i>black dots</i>, of two kinds&mdash;one a simple round dot, and the other
+having a line drawn through it. They all point out the locality of
+shipwrecks during the year 1850, and the latter dot shews the wreck to
+have been total. The English coasts are most thickly dotted, but this
+is to be expected from the greater proportion of shipping; next in the
+scale is Ireland, and then Scotland, which has comparatively few black
+dots, the densest portion being on the west coast, from Ayr to Largs,
+where we count eleven, nine indicating total wrecks. In the Firth of
+Forth there are but three, one total. A sprinkling of dots is seen
+among the Eastern Hebrides, but not so many as one would expect.
+Turning to England, we count about forty-five wrecks in the Bristol
+Channel alone, by far the greater number being total. On the Goodwill
+Sands there are fourteen, all total but one. On the Gunfleet Sands
+there are nine, four total. They are numerous on the Norfolk and
+Lincolnshire coasts, especially off Yarmouth and the Washway. On the
+Welsh coast, particularly around Beaumaris, Holyhead, &amp;c., the number
+is very great. In the firth leading to Liverpool, we count no less
+than twenty-one, of which twelve are total. On the north coast of
+England the numbers are appalling. Off Hartlepool are fifteen, eight
+being total. Off Sunderland are twelve, all total but three. Off
+Newcastle are fifteen, eight total. Ah, that fearful, iron-bound coast
+of Northumberland! We have hugged it close in calm weather, with a
+fair breeze, and the views we caught of its shores made us shudder to
+think of what would befall a vessel on a stormy night and the shore
+alee. The following is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[pg 22]</a></span> awful summary of 1850:&mdash;'The wrecks of
+British and foreign vessels on the coasts and in the seas of the
+United Kingdom were 681. Of these, 277 were total wrecks; sunk by
+leaks or collisions, 84; stranded and damaged so as to require to
+discharge cargo, 304; abandoned, 16. Total wrecks, &amp;c., 681; total
+lives lost, 784.'</p>
+
+<p>Certain peculiar marks on this chart indicate the spots where
+life-boats are kept. In the vicinity of Liverpool we count no less
+than seven, and not one too many; but in many parts of the coast,
+where numerous wrecks occur, there are none. In all England there are
+eighty life-boats; in Ireland, eight; in Scotland, eight. A most
+portentous note on the chart informs us, that '<i>about one-half of the
+boats are unserviceable!</i>' Think of Scotland, with its rocky seaboard
+of 1500 miles: only eight life-boats, and some of these 'quite
+unserviceable!' The boats at St Andrews, Aberdeen, and Montrose, have
+saved eighty-three lives; and the rockets at eight stations,
+sixty-seven lives. 'Orkney and Shetland are without any provision for
+saving life; and with the exception of Port Logan, in Wigtonshire,
+where there is a mortar, the whole of the west coast of Scotland, from
+Cape Wrath to Solway Firth&mdash;an extent of 900 miles, without including
+islands&mdash;is in the same state.' With regard to the chief distribution
+of English life-boats, there is one to every eight miles on the
+Northumberland coast; one to every ten miles in Durham and Yorkshire;
+one to fifteen miles in Lincolnshire; and one to five miles in Norfolk
+and Suffolk&mdash;a fact which, the lecturer well observes, is highly
+creditable to the county associations of the two last counties. But
+'from Falmouth round the Land's End, by Trevose Head to Hartland
+Point, an extent of 150 miles of the most exposed sea-coast in
+England, there is not one really efficient life-boat.' On the Welsh
+coasts are twelve boats, some very defective. At the five Liverpool
+stations are nine good boats, 'liberally supported by the dock
+trustees, and having permanent boats' crews.' These Liverpool boats
+have, during the last eleven years, assisted 269 vessels, and brought
+ashore 1128 persons. As to the Isle of Man, situated in the track of
+an enormous traffic, with shores frequently studded with wrecks, we
+are told that there is not a single life-boat; for the four boats
+established there by Sir William Hillary, Baronet, 'have been allowed
+to fall into decay, and hardly a vestige of them remains!' The paltry
+eight life-boats for the whole Irish coast of 1400 miles are stated to
+be likewise inefficient.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, it appears to us that the present number of efficient
+life-boats is not more than one-fourth of what ought to be constantly
+kept ready for immediate service. Only think of the amount of wrecks
+occurring occasionally in a single gale: On the 13th January 1843, not
+less than 103 vessels were lost on the British coasts. In 1846, nearly
+forty vessels were driven ashore in Hartlepool Bay alone. In the month
+of March 1850, the wrecks on our coasts were 134; in the gale of the
+25th and 26th September 1851, the number wrecked, stranded, or damaged
+by collision, was 117; and in January of the present year, the number
+was 120. The above are the numbers actually ascertained; but it is
+well known that <i>Lloyd's List</i> is an imperfect register, although at
+present the best existing.</p>
+
+<p>A secondary mode of communicating with a stranded vessel is by firing
+rockets with a line attached to them, by which means a hawser may be
+drawn from the ship and fastened to the shore. Mortars are likewise
+used for the same purpose; the latter plan having been invented by
+Sergeant Bell, and first tried in 1792. Bell's plan was very greatly
+improved by Captain Manby; and all the mortars now in use for the
+purpose are called after him. Mr Dennett, of the Isle of Wight, first
+introduced the rocket-plan in 1825. Rockets or mortars, or both, are
+kept at most of the coast-guard stations; but in numerous cases were
+found worthless on trial, owing to the lines breaking, or the rockets
+being old and badly made. Nevertheless, at twenty-two stations, 214
+lives have been saved by them. The evil is, that neither rockets nor
+mortars are of any use unless the wreck lies within a short distance
+of the shore; for the maximum range attained is only 350 yards, and in
+the teeth of a violent wind, often not above 200 to 300 yards. If a
+ship, therefore, is stranded on a low shelving shore, she is almost
+certain to be beyond the range of the life-rocket or of Manby's
+mortar. The main reliance, therefore, is the life-boat, and to it we
+return.</p>
+
+<p>The Duke of Northumberland recently offered a reward for the best
+model of a life-boat. This offer was responded to by English, French,
+Dutch, German, and American boat-builders; and the amazing number of
+280 models and plans was sent in. About fifty of the best of these
+were contributed by the duke to the Great Exhibition; and he had also
+a report and plans and drawings of them printed, of which he
+distributed 1300 copies throughout the world. Baron Dupin, chairman of
+the Jury of Class VIII., thus summed up the award of the jury
+concerning them:&mdash;'These models figure among the most valuable
+productions in our Great Exhibition, and furnish an example of
+liberality in the cause of humanity and practical science never
+surpassed, if ever equalled. Such are the motives from which we have
+judged his Grace the Duke of Northumberland worthy of receiving the
+Council Medal.'</p>
+
+<p>The inventor of life-boats, as is well known, was Henry Greathead, of
+South Shields, in 1789. His boat was 30 feet long, with 10 feet
+breadth of beam, 3&frac14; feet depth of waist, stem and stern alike
+nearly 6 feet high, and pulled ten oars (double-banked.) A cork lining
+went fore and aft 12 inches thick, on the inside of the boat, from the
+floor to the thwarts; and outside was a cork fender, 16 inches deep, 4
+inches wide, and 21 feet long. 'She could not free herself of water,
+nor self-right in the event of being upset.' She was launched in 1790,
+and in the year 1802, the inventor was rewarded by the Society of Arts
+with its gold medal and fifty guineas; and parliament voted him
+L.1200, 'in acknowledgment of the utility of his invention.' Many
+presumed improvements and modifications of the original boat have been
+effected, with more or less success. James Beeching, a Yarmouth
+boat-builder, has carried off the prize offered by the duke, and we
+may therefore suppose his was the best of the models submitted.
+Captain Washington thus describes Beeching's model sent to the
+Exhibition: 'It may be seen from the model of that boat, that from her
+form she would both pull and sail well in all weathers; would have
+great stability, and be a good sea-boat. She has moderately small
+internal capacity under the level of the thwarts for holding water,
+and ample means for freeing herself readily of any water that might be
+shipped; she is ballasted by means of water admitted into a tank or
+well at the bottom after she is afloat; and by means of that ballast
+and raised air-cases at the extremities, she would right herself in
+the event of being upset. It will thus be seen, that this model
+combines most of the qualities required in a life-boat; and the boat
+which has since been built after it, and is now stationed at Ramsgate,
+is said to answer her purpose admirably.'</p>
+
+<p>M. Lahure, of Havre, sent a full-sized boat of <i>iron</i>; and Mr Francis,
+of New York, also sent a model life-boat of corrugated galvanised
+iron. Captain Washington thinks, that if metal is used at all, it
+should be copper in preference to any other. For our own part, we can
+only say, that we have helped to build boats, though not life-boats,
+and we have helped likewise to man boats, but we should like to have
+good sound timber beneath our feet in preference to any metal
+whatever; and we should prefer cork for the floating substance to
+air-tight cases, or copper tubing, or any of the other contrivances
+that have been adopted to give buoyancy to a swamped boat. Air-cases
+are very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[pg 23]</a></span> liable to leak, or may be stove in by the sea, or be crushed
+by coming in contact with the wreck or rocks, but cork can never be
+injured. And as to metal air-cases, it was found on opening the sides
+of a life-boat at Woolwich Dockyard, that her copper tubes, supposed
+to be air-tight, were corroded into holes; for copper will corrode
+when in contact with sea-water, especially when alternately wet or
+dry, as is the case in life-boats.</p>
+
+<p>We cannot here follow Captain Washington through his critical and
+technical details, but we think it right to express our strong
+suspicion, that the much-lauded <i>self-righting</i> power of certain new
+life-boats is obtained only at the cost of greater liability to upset.
+Doubtless a boat can be made to right herself after a capsize, but
+this really seems to us something like locking the stable-door when
+the steed is stolen; for even if she rights the very instant after
+upsetting, three-fourths of the crew are almost certain to perish. We
+think it far more important to construct a boat that will hardly
+capsize at all, than to build one that will right itself <i>after</i>
+capsizing; for we repeat our opinion, that the latter boat will prove
+liable to upset just in proportion to her capability of self-righting.</p>
+
+<p>Many fatal accidents have happened to life-boats; and the details of
+some mentioned by the lecturer are peculiar and interesting. On the
+coast of Northumberland, in 1810, one of Greathead's boats, after
+saving several crews of fishing-cobles, was returning to the shore,
+when a heavy sea overwhelmed her, and by its sheer weight and force
+broke her in two, and the whole of the crew, thirty-four in number,
+perished. In 1820, Greathead's original life-boat, after saving the
+crew of the ship <i>Grafton</i>, at Shields, struck on a rock, and swamped;
+nevertheless, the brave old boat&mdash;although she had not the boasted
+power of self-righting&mdash;preserved her centre of gravity, and brought
+both crews to land. At Scarborough, in 1836, the life-boat, in going
+out to a vessel, turned completely end over end, 'shutting up one of
+the crew inside, where he remained in safety, getting fresh air
+through the tubes in the bottom, and was taken out when the boat
+drifted, bottom upwards, on the beach: ten lives were lost.' In 1841,
+the life-boat at Blyth, Northumberland, capsized, and ten men were
+drowned. At Robin Hood's Bay, Yorkshire, in 1843, the life-boat
+capsized, three men remaining under her bottom, while others got upon
+it. The accident was seen from the shore, and five men put off in a
+coble, fitted with air-cases like a life-boat; but she almost
+immediately turned end over end, and two men were drowned. The
+life-boat herself drifted ashore, and the three men under her bottom
+were saved. In all, twelve lives were lost. But the most lamentable
+disaster that ever befell a life-boat was at South Shields, on
+December 4, 1849, when twenty-four men, all pilots, went off to rescue
+the crew of the <i>Betsy</i>, stranded on Herd Sand. 'The boat had reached
+the wreck, and was lying alongside with her head to the eastward, with
+a rope fast to the quarter, but the bow-fast not secured. The
+shipwrecked men were about to descend into the life-boat, when a heavy
+knot of sea, recoiling from the bow of the vessel, caught the bow of
+the boat and turned her up on end, throwing the whole crew and the
+water into the stern-sheets. The bow-fast not holding, the boat drove
+in this position astern of the vessel, when the ebb-tide, running
+rapidly into her stern, the boat completely turned end over end, and
+went on shore bottom up. On this occasion, twenty out of
+twenty-four&mdash;or double the proper crew&mdash;were drowned under the boat.
+On seeing the accident, two other life-boats immediately dashed off
+from North and South Shields, saved four of the men, and rescued the
+crew of the <i>Betsy</i>.' It is added, that the life-boats have been in
+constant use at Shields since Greathead first launched his boat there
+in 1790, and excepting the above accident, no life has ever been lost
+in them, or from want of them. Between 1841 and 1849, they saved 466
+lives. But good is frequently educed from evil, and it was this very
+disaster at Shields that induced the Duke of Northumberland to offer a
+premium for the best life-boat; and his Grace has now, with princely
+liberality, undertaken to place a well-built life-boat at each of the
+most exposed points of the coast of his own county, with rockets or
+mortars at every intermediate station.</p>
+
+<p>As to dimensions, the existing life-boats are of three classes: from
+20 to 25 feet long, from 25 to 30 feet, and from 30 to 36 feet. Some
+are only 18 feet long, and on thinly-inhabited coasts are the best, as
+unless a regular crew is provided, it is often difficult to man a
+large boat&mdash;at least efficiently. The largest boats are used at
+Caistor and Corton, in Norfolk, and are 40 to 45 feet long, weigh from
+four to five tons, and cost L.200 to L.250 each. They are said to be
+admirable vessels of the kind, and well manned. The 36 feet boat is
+used at Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Deal, &amp;c., and always goes off under
+sail. The 30 feet boat is used at Liverpool, Shields, Dundee, &amp;c.; and
+one of those at Liverpool brought sixty people ashore on one occasion.
+Some of the models sent to the Exhibition were of boats that did not
+weigh more than half a ton; but we fully agree with the lecturer, that
+a boat so light as that would never be able to pull out to sea in a
+head-wind. A life-boat ought to possess a certain weight, or momentum,
+or it will be driven back by the winds, or sucked back by the sea,
+like a feather.</p>
+
+<p>It is exceedingly desirable that all life-boats should have regularly
+trained crews, for an ordinary sailor or fisherman is by no means
+competent to do properly the duty of a life-boatman. The cockswain,
+especially should be well trained.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Washington remarks, that 'a careful examination of the returns
+of wrecks by the Coast-guard officers, forcibly impresses on the mind
+the painful conviction, that the greater part of the casualties that
+occur are not occasioned by stress of weather, but that they are
+mainly attributable to causes within control, and to which a remedy
+might be applied.' This has long been our own opinion, and we have
+again and again expressed it. 'Wherever the boats have been looked
+after, and the crews well trained, as at Liverpool, Shields, and on
+the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk, the most signal success has
+rewarded their exertions. The first step is to insure a safe and
+powerful life-boat, and this, we feel confident, has been
+accomplished; the next is to build a sufficient number of such boats,
+place them where required, organise and train the crews, and provide
+for their supervision and maintenance.... There seems no reason why a
+very few years should not see a life-boat stationed at each of the
+exposed points on the most frequented parts of the coasts of the
+United Kingdom; by means of which&mdash;with the blessing of Divine
+Providence upon the endeavours of those who undertake the work&mdash;the
+best results to the cause of humanity may confidently be anticipated.'</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Published by Bogue, Fleet Street.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="THE_SALONS_OF_PARIS" id="THE_SALONS_OF_PARIS"></a>THE SALONS OF PARIS.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">News</span> has just reached us from Paris of the death of Madame Sophie Gay.
+She was a writer of the half-historical, half-sentimental school of
+French fiction, of which Madame de Genlis, the Duchess d'Abrantes, and
+Madame de Souza were specimens more or less worthy; but in ease and
+grace, Madame Gay was superior to all we have mentioned. It is, in our
+minds, very affecting to witness the last lights of the ancient salons
+of Paris dropping out one by one. M<sup>me</sup> Gay has herself, in a single
+volume published in 1837, entitled <i>Salons C&eacute;l&egrave;bres</i>, left us a very
+beautiful picture of them as they were in their prime. We have
+translated&mdash;abridging, however, as we went&mdash;the opening chapters of
+this work, and may add a notice of more modern salons, as given by the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[pg 24]</a></span>lively pen of M<sup>me</sup> Emile de Girardin&mdash;<i>n&eacute;e</i> Delphine Gay&mdash;daughter
+of M<sup>me</sup> Sophie. The reader will judge whether the fashionable
+Frenchmen and Frenchwomen have really profited much by the storms and
+tempests that have gone over their heads. To be sure, M<sup>me</sup> de
+Girardin's pictures were given twelve years ago; but we believe they
+would require little change, at least up to the conclusion of the
+Orleans reign in 1848. The volume from which these last extracts are
+made, is entitled <i>Lettres Parisiennes</i>. It has all the wit and talent
+of the cleverest of fashionable Frenchwomen. The tone is sometimes
+extremely good&mdash;better than we were led to expect; but the picture it
+presents is about as mournful a one as pictures of French frivolity
+usually are. We will, however, leave them to make their own
+impression. First, then, for M<sup>me</sup> Sophie Gay and the ancient <i>salons</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Now that the empire of the salons, she observes, has passed away with
+that of women, it would be difficult to convey to our youthful France
+an idea of the influence which certain of these were wont to exercise,
+in state affairs and in the choice of men in power. To have a salon is
+far from an easy thing; a crowd of people may, and do every day, give
+concerts and balls in their gilded apartments, and yet they may never
+have salons. Essential conditions are required which can rarely be
+found in conjunction. The most important of all is the talent and
+character of the lady who does the honours. Without being old, she
+must have passed the age in which a woman is chiefly spoken of for her
+prettiness or her dress, and be at that point of time when a woman's
+mind may rule over the self-love of a man more than her youthful
+attractions enabled her to rule over his heart.</p>
+
+<p>Rank and fortune were important items, not quite indispensable,
+however; for M<sup>me</sup> du Deffand was poor, and M<sup>me</sup> Geoffrin was the
+wife of a manufacturer. In the salons of these two women edicts were
+framed, and academicians reared; but the questions discussed there
+were not nearly of the importance of those to which M<sup>me</sup> de Sta&euml;l's
+salon gave rise. It was essential that the mistress of the house
+should have a decided and superior taste in a variety of ways; also a
+total absence of those little, envious feelings which might have
+tended to exclude the fashionable woman or successful author. She must
+know how to bear enemies in her presence, to place talents according
+to their worth, to shew the tiresome the way to the door&mdash;things which
+require address and courage.</p>
+
+<p>The salon of M<sup>me</sup> de Sta&euml;l, during three different periods of her
+life, took considerable modification from the changes of the time; but
+it was always the same in power, if not in brilliancy.</p>
+
+<p>Under the first Revolution, it was the scene of most momentous
+deliberations. Barnave, Talleyrand, Lameth, Dupont, Boissy d'Anglas,
+Portalis, Ch&eacute;nier, R&oelig;derer, and Benjamin Constant, discussed at the
+place of familiar meeting many a half-formed decree, and many
+important state nominations. The only member of the Directory who
+visited there was Barras; and it was a common saying, that every visit
+cost him a good deed; for M<sup>me</sup> de Sta&euml;l never slackened in her
+intercessions for the victims of the tribunals. She infused courage
+into the hearts of those who were pleaders for them. Through her
+means, Talleyrand was recalled, and even named minister of foreign
+affairs. 'He wanted some help,' she said, 'in order to arrive at
+power, but none to enable him to keep it when gained.' Her sagacity
+was at fault, if she persuaded herself that the returned
+emigrant-priest would bring harmony into public counsels. On these
+evenings, pregnant with deeds both evil and good, it was said that
+some very foul conspiracies were concocted, and some of these were
+directly imputed to M<sup>me</sup> de Sta&euml;l; but she earnestly denied the
+truth of such surmises. Her salon, not herself, was guilty. Most
+generously did she exert herself in behalf of those who suffered after
+such conspiracies; but some one was heard to say: 'She is a good
+woman, but would push any of her friends into the water for the
+delight of fishing them up again with her own tackle.'</p>
+
+<p>When the Consulate was established, M<sup>me</sup> de Sta&euml;l's salon empire was
+watched by the rising influence of the day with a jealous eye. It was
+certainly a turbulent scene. Very bitter were the complaints of the
+men of the Revolution. They had risked so much; they had fought so
+courageously for liberty! They saw the disorders of the time, but they
+could not bear to lose all the fruits of their toil; and Garat and
+Andrieux, Daunon and Benjamin Constant, urged on by the eloquence of
+M<sup>me</sup> de Sta&euml;l, framed powerful appeals on these occasions for the
+morrow. Bonaparte could not tolerate this. His power was too recently
+gained&mdash;his projects too unripe. In vain did the friends of M<sup>me</sup> de
+Sta&euml;l say, that a <i>salon</i> could never be dangerous to a rule like his.
+'It is not a salon,' said he; 'it is a club.' It was, in fact, the
+antagonism between mind and physical force. The First Consul had said
+before, of the orators of the Tribune: 'I have no time to answer these
+refractory speechifiers: they <i>do</i> nothing but perplex all things;
+they must be silenced.' And one great point of attack was M<sup>me</sup> de
+Sta&euml;l's salon. It was necessary she should abdicate her throne. A
+sentence of banishment condemned the brilliant lady to lay down the
+sceptre. Exiled to Geneva, surrounded by friends, sharing her father's
+lot, occupied with her daughter's education, she had, it may be
+thought, plenty of objects: she was unquestionably the first literary
+woman in Europe, too, and as such, Geneva was as her salon, where she
+received the homage of royalty and talent. Yet, a true Frenchwoman,
+unable to bear separation from the peculiar atmosphere in which she
+had been reared, she pined after it&mdash;pined still more for the friends
+who visited her only to be partakers of her exile; and so she passed
+the whole period of the Napoleon dynasty.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, in the interval between the banishment of M<sup>me</sup> de Sta&euml;l
+and her return, the most captivating mistress of a Paris salon appears
+to have been M<sup>me</sup> de Beaumont. She was the daughter of M. de
+Montmorin, the minister of foreign affairs, who had immediately
+followed Necker. She married early, and not happily. She lived with
+her father, separated from her husband, and was intrusted to
+transcribe some of the very important correspondence between Mirabeau
+and the court. In the Reign of Terror, her father, and it is thought
+others of her family, fell by the guillotine; but she herself was
+spared, even against her will. She retired for awhile into the
+country, visiting among her friends, who did all they could to console
+her. She was the object of the strongest attachment on the part of
+Ch&acirc;teaubriand, Joubert, Fontanes, Mol&eacute;, and many others; and when,
+once more, quiet and order were restored, even at the sacrifice of
+much of liberty, she came to Paris again. Her old friends rallied
+about her, her spirits seemed to revive for awhile, and her salon was
+for a year or two a scene of remarkable enjoyment. One who truly
+appreciated her, and who was worthy to be himself the centre of a
+social circle&mdash;M. Joubert, the author of some beautiful thoughts on
+literature and divers other subjects&mdash;thus tenderly commemorates the
+evenings to which we have alluded: 'Peaceful society! where none of
+those disuniting pretensions which spoil enjoyment could come; where
+acknowledged talent was not divorced from good temper; where praise
+was given to whatever was praiseworthy; where nothing was thought of
+but what was really attractive. Peaceful society! whose scattered
+members can never unite again without speaking of her who was the
+connecting link that brought them all together.'</p>
+
+<p>To our minds, there seems something unique and infinitely touching in
+this bursting out, though but for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[pg 25]</a></span> a short time, of the slumbering
+fires of an older society, from underneath the heaps of hard and alien
+material which had gone far to extinguish every spark of gentleness
+and refinement. The relics of families&mdash;their hearts still bleeding
+from their wounds&mdash;came to forget, if possible, the terrible past, and
+indulge their quiet hopes for the future. Very soon, indeed, the dream
+was dispelled; the tyranny proved to some unbearable; and some it
+vanquished in their highest part&mdash;their inward conscience&mdash;making them
+subservient when they might have shunned the danger altogether. But
+while the quiet interval lasted, it was like an Indian summer,
+prolonging the intellectual and tasteful beauty which was soon to be
+overwhelmed by the vulgar splendours of the Empire.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest loss this circle could have had was the first. M<sup>me</sup> de
+Beaumont died at Rome in 1804&mdash;attended only by Ch&acirc;teaubriand&mdash;who has
+given an account of the closing scene in his memoirs, and thenceforth
+it does not appear that the same society reassembled.</p>
+
+<p>But another and third edition of the salon, under M<sup>me</sup> de Sta&euml;l, was
+witnessed at the Restoration. Hitherto we have sketched from M<sup>me</sup>
+Sophie Gay's pictures. At this period, she declares herself unable to
+bear the mortification of mingling with the public of Paris: she could
+not see the Cossacks without shuddering. She shut herself up in her
+house, and knew what passed only through the kindness of friends, who
+wrote narratives for her amusement of any remarkable incidents they
+might note. Among these communications, M<sup>me</sup> Sophie Gay has
+preserved one from the Marquis de Custine, and she has given it as a
+faithful picture of one of the last of M<sup>me</sup> de Sta&euml;l's soir&eacute;es in
+Paris.</p>
+
+<p>'I am just returned, and will not go to bed without telling you what
+has most amused me&mdash;not that <i>amused</i> is the right word, for M<sup>me</sup> de
+Sta&euml;l's salon is more than a scene of amusement: it is a glass in
+which is reflected the history of the time. What we see and hear there
+is more instructive than books, more exciting than many comedies....</p>
+
+<p>'You know that the Duke of Wellington was to visit her this evening
+for the first time. I went in good time; she was not yet in the room:
+several others were also waiting&mdash;such as the Abb&eacute; de Pradt, Benjamin
+Constant, La Fayette. They were conversing; I remained in one corner,
+as if listening to them.... At length M<sup>me</sup> de Sta&euml;l came in. "I am
+late," she said; "but it is not my fault. I was invited to dine
+at&mdash;&mdash;, and was obliged to go." A great many of the guests were come:
+all were looking for the hero of the evening&mdash;we had seen him only as
+part of a show, now we wanted to hear him converse. At length he
+entered. The nobleness of his figure and simplicity of his manners
+produced a most agreeable impression on us. His pride, as it ought,
+has nearly the grace of timidity. M<sup>me</sup> de Sta&euml;l, impressed by a
+style and manner so little like that of our countrymen, said: "He
+carries his glory as if it were a nothing." Then, by a quick recall of
+patriotism, she whispered in my ear: "One must admit, however, that
+nature never made a great man at less expense." It seemed to me that
+the whole man was portrayed in these brief remarks.</p>
+
+<p>'You would suppose, after this <i>d&eacute;but</i>, that we had a very pleasant
+evening: you shall judge. The Duke had not reached the end of the
+salon, when the Abb&eacute; de Pradt fastened on him, and actually forced him
+to listen for at least three-quarters of an hour, while he expressed
+his ideas&mdash;the ideas of the Abb&eacute; de Pradt!&mdash;upon military tactics.
+Conceive the wrath of M<sup>me</sup> de Sta&euml;l, and the annoyance of everybody
+there! M. Schlegel said, that he could fancy he was listening to that
+rhetorician who pronounced a discourse on the art of war to Hannibal.</p>
+
+<p>'This remark did not make amends for the nuisance of hearing in good
+French what we all knew before, when what we wanted was to listen to
+new things, in a foreign accent. Among the very few words which the
+English general was allowed to put in, I caught one sentence which
+struck me. While the abb&eacute; took breath, or coughed, the warrior had
+just time to tell us, that the most awful day in the life of a
+commander is that in which he has gained a battle; because, before
+having passed a night on the ground, and being assured on the morrow
+of the departure of the enemy, the conqueror cannot even know whether
+he is not conquered.</p>
+
+<p>'Everything has its cost in this world, and if every man told us his
+secret, we should see that the most dazzling triumphs are paid for at
+their full price. However that may be, I thought there was sense and
+good taste in the Duke's remark. It seemed as if he tried to make us
+forgive him for exciting our curiosity so much.</p>
+
+<p>'Many people went away discouraged by the bad manners of M. de Pradt.
+The hero himself was thinking of a retreat, when M<sup>me</sup> de Sta&euml;l came
+to release him from the ambuscade into which he had fallen. She
+retained him near the door, and there was a grave conversation on the
+English constitution. M<sup>me</sup> de Sta&euml;l could not reconcile the idea of
+political liberty, with the prevalence of servile forms remaining in
+the individual relationships of a society so jealous of that liberty
+as England.</p>
+
+<p>'"Language and aristocratic customs do not annoy people living in a
+country that is really free," said the Duke. "We use these unimportant
+formul&aelig; in compliment to the past, and preserve our ceremonies as we
+keep a memorial, even when it has lost its primitive destination."</p>
+
+<p>'"But is it true," asked M<sup>me</sup> de Sta&euml;l, "that your lord chancellor
+speaks to the king on his bended knee during the opening address or
+sitting of parliament?"</p>
+
+<p>'"Yes; quite true."</p>
+
+<p>'"How <i>does</i> he do it?"</p>
+
+<p>'"He speaks to him kneeling, as I have told you."</p>
+
+<p>'"But how?"</p>
+
+<p>'"Must I shew you? You <i>will</i> have it!" answered the Duke; and he
+threw himself at the feet of our Corinna.</p>
+
+<p>'"I wish everybody could see him," cried M<sup>me</sup> de Sta&euml;l.</p>
+
+<p>'And everybody there did applaud with one accord. I would not answer
+for the same unanimity of approbation among the same people after they
+had reached the foot of the staircase.</p>
+
+<p>'Everybody went away, only I stayed two hours with the mistress of the
+house and M. Schlegel, whose anger against the abb&eacute; did not wear out.
+These two hours M<sup>me</sup> de Sta&euml;l's conversation enchanted me, proving
+how much there is to attach us in one who can live at one and the same
+time so near and yet so far above the world.... I might pass many
+evenings in recounting in detail the conversation of this evening.
+There is more than matter for a book in a two hours' talk with M<sup>me</sup> de
+Sta&euml;l. I had better go to bed, that I may be able to tell you
+to-morrow all I can only leave you to guess at now.'<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>And now we come to a later period, and M<sup>me</sup> Sophie Gay shall give
+place to her lively and clever daughter Delphine, M<sup>me</sup> Emile
+Girardin.</p>
+
+<p>'Parisian society,' she writes, 'now, in 1839, offers the strangest
+aspect that ever was seen&mdash;a mixture of luxury and rudeness, English
+propriety and French negligence, political absurdities and
+revolutionary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[pg 26]</a></span> terrors, of which it is hard to form a just conception.
+The luxury of the salons is truly Eastern, not only the salons,
+indeed, but the anterooms: an anteroom in a handsome hotel is more
+richly adorned than the most beautiful drawing-room of the provincial
+prefecture. There, footmen more or less powdered&mdash;for there are rebels
+who choose to wear so little powder, that you would rather take them
+for millers, in livery, than for servants of the anteroom&mdash;these
+self-styled powdered lackeys offer you a great book, bound in velvet,
+with the corners bronzed and gilt, in which you are asked to write
+your name. If the lady of the house is visible, you are pompously
+ushered into the sanctuary&mdash;that is to say, into the second salon or
+parlour, or closet, or <i>atelier</i>, whichever best assorts with the
+pretensions of the lady. A dog darts upon you, barks, makes a show of
+biting you; he is quieted, submits, and regains his purple cushion,
+growling. Dogs are very much in fashion: together with the fire,
+flowers, an old aunt, and two toadies, they make up part of the living
+accompaniments of a genteel salon. As you are an elegant person, of
+course you are ill-dressed: your coat is dusty, your boots speckled
+with mud, your hair uncombed, you exhale a strong odour of tobacco. At
+first glance, such things seem rather disagreeable, common, and
+inelegant. No such thing: this is exactly the most fashionable style
+we have; it seems to say: "I have just dismounted from the finest
+horse in Paris. I am a man of fashion, of that distinguished position
+in society, that I can go in a morning to call on a duchess, <i>dressed
+like a highwayman</i>."</p>
+
+<p>'On the other hand, the mistress of the house is charming. One must do
+women the justice to say, that they never take a pride in ugliness;
+that they never make elegance to consist in appearing to the greatest
+possible disadvantage. The woman whom you are visiting, then, is
+dressed in the best taste. A beautiful lace cap covers her light hair;
+she wears a soft figured Gros do Naples; her stockings are of
+exquisite fineness; her shoes irreproachable (we doubt not they bear
+the mark of either Gros or M&uuml;ller); her Valenciennes cuffs are
+irresistible: everything betokens care and fastidious nicety. The
+freshness of her appearance is a satire on the negligence of yours.
+One cannot comprehend why this elegant woman should have prepared
+herself in so costly a manner to receive this man; and in the evening,
+really the contrast is greater still. Young men no longer wear
+stockings when they go into a party; yet they dare not just yet
+present themselves in boots; and therefore they come in <i>brodequins</i>,
+like students. We are in the age of the <i>juste-milieu</i>; and this is
+appropriate enough. The <i>brodequin</i> is in its right place half-way
+between shoes and boots. These ill-dressed men are surrounded by women
+blazing in jewels and diamonds, coronets and diadems. It is impossible
+to believe that such differently dressed beings can be of the same
+country and station in society; and yet they are all talking and
+chirping together: and what conversation! what a conflict of subjects!
+what an inexplicable picture of forethought and thoughtlessness! or
+rather of apathy!</p>
+
+<p>'"And do you also believe in a revolution, M. de P&mdash;&mdash;?" inquires a
+charming princess, spreading out her fan.</p>
+
+<p>'"Certainly, madame; and I hope we shall have one sooner than some may
+think."</p>
+
+<p>'"What! monsieur&mdash;you make me tremble."</p>
+
+<p>'"Can you, then, be afraid of a revolution which will bring about what
+you wish for?"</p>
+
+<p>'"No; but we shall have some cruel moments to pass through."</p>
+
+<p>'"Some may; but not everybody."</p>
+
+<p>'"Bah! revolutions make no selection; and then, when once the scaffold
+is set up"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'"How fast you travel, madame: in our day we shall never bear with
+scaffolds. The days of Terror will never return!"</p>
+
+<p>'"I think with M. de P&mdash;&mdash;," chimes in a young dandy, playing with a
+Chinese ape on the table: "I rather look for civil war."</p>
+
+<p>'"I do not expect it; we have not energy enough for a civil war." ...</p>
+
+<p>'"But you will have household assassinations, probably, if that will
+be any comfort."</p>
+
+<p>'"And then, the pillage of Paris!"</p>
+
+<p>'"Pillage!"</p>
+
+<p>'"Certainly." And every one cries:</p>
+
+<p>'"Oh, well, if there is pillage, I will be in it."</p>
+
+<p>'"I shall come to your house, madame," says one. "I shall carry away
+this beautiful vase."</p>
+
+<p>'"And I, the plate."</p>
+
+<p>'"And I, the charming portrait."</p>
+
+<p>'"I have no fixed idea yet. I shall come to your house to-morrow,
+madame, to choose," &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>'"All this will be very amusing; and yet, when the day comes, I shall
+not be sorry to be in Italy."</p>
+
+<p>'"Well, let us set out, then."</p>
+
+<p>'"Not yet, but soon. I will warn you when it is best to go." And so
+they talk on of all these horrible things, half buried under canopies
+of <i>lampas</i>, surrounded by flowers, by the light of thousands of
+wax-candles burning in golden lustres; and these women, who foresee
+such great catastrophes&mdash;tragical events, which may divide them from
+all they love, from parents, from friends&mdash;have beautiful dresses,
+with trimmings from England, and make the prettiest little gestures
+while speaking. It is because in France vanity is so deeply rooted
+that it leads to indifference. Presumption stands in lieu of courage.
+They believe in disasters, but only for others: they never seem to
+expect them for themselves.'</p>
+
+<p>So much for national character. If all this be a truthful picture, and
+really we see no reason for doubt, it does but add another to the many
+proofs of the springing elasticity of that element of light-hearted
+short-sightedness which is so proverbially characteristic of the
+French. But we will say no more, for our paper has already exceeded
+the limits we had assigned to it; and the things that <i>are</i> must ever
+prevail in our pages over those that have been.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Perhaps the reader of the above will partake our own
+feeling of surprise at one circumstance which it records. How happened
+it, that the accomplished lady of a Parisian salon could not shield
+her chief guest, and all her guests, from the impertinence of one
+among them? To us this seems incomprehensible, and excites our
+suspicion that M<sup>me</sup> de Sta&euml;l could not have been among those
+mistresses of the science of tact, of whom elsewhere M<sup>me</sup> Gay
+speaks. The whole charm of the evening was here allowed to be
+spoiled.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="THE_OLD_CASTLES_AND_MANSIONS_OF_SCOTLAND" id="THE_OLD_CASTLES_AND_MANSIONS_OF_SCOTLAND"></a>THE OLD CASTLES AND MANSIONS OF SCOTLAND.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> father of mental philosophy, Aristotle, begins his work on ethics
+by telling us, that nothing exists without some theory or reason
+attached to it. The following out of this view leads to
+classification&mdash;that great engine of knowledge. We see things at first
+in isolated individuality or confused masses. Investigation teaches us
+to separate them into groups, which have some common and important
+principle of unity, though each individual of the group may be
+different from the others in detail. Thus we arrive at the great
+classifications of natural science, with which every one is more or
+less familiar. But the works of men have their classification too, for
+in human effort like causes produce like effects. Most people know
+what schools of poetry, painting, and music are. In architecture, we
+know, too, that there are great divisions&mdash;such as classic and Gothic.
+But many have yet to learn how far classification may go; and it is a
+new feature to have the peculiar national architecture of Scotland
+separated from that of England, and its peculiarities traced to
+interesting national events and habits. The common observer is apt to
+think that all buildings are much alike, or that each is alone in its
+peculiarities. Before classification can take place, there must be a
+collection and comparison of leading characteristics;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[pg 27]</a></span> and this is not
+easily accomplished with the edifices scattered over a whole country.
+It may be said that it was never done for Scotland, until Mr Billings
+completed his great series of engravings of the baronial and
+ecclesiastical antiquities of Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>Taking the former&mdash;the baronial&mdash;for our text, we find ourselves now
+for the first time in a condition to discover the leading features of
+the Scottish school of architecture, and to connect it with the
+history of Scotland. We know that until the wars of Wallace and Bruce,
+the two countries, England and Scotland, could scarcely be said to be
+entirely separated; at all events, they did not stand in open
+hostility to each other. Endless animosities, however, naturally
+followed a war in which the one country tried to enslave the other,
+and where the weaker only escaped annihilation by a desperate
+struggle. It is not unnatural, therefore, to expect that the habits of
+the two countries diverged from each other as time passed on; and this
+process is very distinctly shewn in the character of the edifices used
+by the barons and lairds of Scotland. A very few of the oldest
+strongholds resemble those of the same period in England. The English
+baronial castle of the thirteenth century generally consisted of
+several massive square or round towers, broad at the base, and
+tapering upwards, arranged at distances from each other, so that lofty
+embattled walls or curtains stood between them, making a ground-plan
+of which the towers formed the angles. The doors and windows were
+generally in the Gothic or pointed style of architecture, and the
+vaulted chambers were frequently of the same. There are not above
+three or four such edifices in Scotland. The most complete, perhaps,
+is the old part of Caerlaverock, in Dumfriesshire; another fine
+specimen is Dirleton, in East Lothian; and to these may be added
+Bothwell, in Clydesdale, and Kildrummie, in Aberdeenshire.</p>
+
+<p>This style was long followed in England. It is known as the baronial,
+and architects in all parts of the country, when building a modern
+mansion in the castellated manner, have invariably followed it. It is
+easy to see, however, that it was early abandoned in Scotland, the
+people not taking their forms of architecture from a nation with which
+they had no connection but that of hostility. The first species of
+national baronial architecture to which they resorted was a very
+simple one, characteristic of an impoverished people. It consisted of
+little more than four stone walls, forming what in fortification is
+called a blockhouse. The walls were extremely thick, with few
+apertures, and these suspiciously small. But these old towers or keeps
+were not without some scientific preparations for defence. In the more
+ancient baronial castles, the large square or round towers at the
+angles served to flank the walls or curtains between them; that is,
+supposing an enemy to be approaching the main gate, he could be
+attacked on either side from the towers at the angles. To serve the
+same purpose, the Scottish keeps had small bastions or turrets at the
+corners, which, projecting over the wall, flanked it on each face. The
+simple expedient here adopted is at the root of all the complex
+devices of fortification. The main thing is just to build a strong
+edifice, and then, by flanking outworks, to prevent an enemy from
+getting up to it. In other respects, these square towers were scarcely
+to be considered peculiarly Scottish. They are to be found in all
+parts of the world&mdash;along the Wall of China; in the Russian steppes;
+in Italy, where they are sometimes remains of republican Rome; and in
+Central India. They constitute, in fact, the most primitive form of a
+fortified house.</p>
+
+<p>When we come a century or two later, the difference between the
+English and Scottish styles becomes more distinct and interesting.
+Almost every one is acquainted with that beautiful style of building
+called in England the Tudor or Elizabethan, with its decorated
+chimneys, its ornamented gables, and large oriel or bow windows. It is
+not well suited for defence, and denotes a rich country, where private
+warfare has decayed. This class of edifice is rarely, if at all, to be
+found north of the border; but much as it is to be admired, a
+contemporary style sprang up in Scotland entirely distinct from it,
+yet, in our opinion, quite fitted to rival it in interest and beauty.
+It was derived, in some measure, from Flanders, but chiefly from
+France. The Scots naturally looked to their friends as an example,
+rather than to their enemies. Many of the Scottish gentry made their
+fortunes in the French service, and when they came home, naturally
+desired to imitate, on such a scale as they could afford, the ch&acirc;teaux
+of their allies and patrons. The state of the country, too, made it a
+more suitable pattern than the Tudor style. France was still a country
+of feudal warfare&mdash;so was Scotland; and it was necessary in both to
+have defence associated with ornament. The chief peculiarity of this
+new style was, the quantity of sharp-topped turrets, which form a sort
+of crest to the many details of the lower parts of the buildings.
+These are not solely ornamental; they succeeded the bastions of the
+old square towers, and served the same purpose. Among the secondary
+peculiarities of these buildings, may be counted an extremely rich and
+profuse ornamentation of the upper parts&mdash;probably the only portions
+out of the way of mischief. Indeed, the edifice is sometimes a mere
+square block for two or three storeys, while it is crowned, as it
+were, with a rich group of turrets and minarets, gables, window-tops,
+ornamented chimneys, and gilded vanes. In many instances, the great
+square block of older days received this fantastic French termination
+at a later time&mdash;as, for instance, the famous castle of Glammis, in
+Strathmore.</p>
+
+<p>It almost appears as if this style, which has its own peculiar
+beauties, had been adopted out of a national antagonism to the
+contemporary style in England. The Tudor architecture has always a
+horizontal tendency, spreading itself out in broad open screens or
+wall-plates, diversified by occasional angular eminences&mdash;as, for
+instance, in the tops of the decorated windows. But in the
+Gallo-Scottish style everything tends to the perpendicular, not only
+in the long, narrow shapes of the buildings themselves, and their
+tall, spiral turrets, but in the many decorations which incrust them.
+This decoration has an extremely rich look, from the quantity of
+breaks, and the absence of bare wall or long straight lines. Thus, to
+save the uniform plainness of the straight gable-line, it is broken
+into small gradations called 'crow-steps.' Every one who looks at old
+houses in Scotland must be familiar with this feature, and must have
+noticed its picturesqueness. It appears to have been derived from the
+Flemish houses, where, however, the steps or terraces are much larger,
+and not so effective, since, instead of merely breaking and enriching
+the line of the gable, they break it up, as it were, into separate
+pieces.</p>
+
+<p>The Scottish style has not, indeed, slavishly adopted any foreign
+model. It is, as we have remarked, chiefly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[pg 28]</a></span> adopted from the French;
+but it has characteristics and beauties of its own. No one, we
+believe, had any conception of their extent and variety, until they
+were brought to light by the artistic labours of Mr Billings. In some
+instances, to bring out the full effect of the ornamental parts of
+these buildings without overloading his picture with the more cumbrous
+plain stone-work, he brings forward, by some artistic man&oelig;uvre, the
+crest of the building, as if the spectator saw it from a scaffold or a
+balloon level with the highest storey. The effect of the rich
+Oriental-looking mass of decoration thus concentrated is extremely
+striking, and one is apt to ask, if it is possible that the country so
+often characterised as bare, cold, and impoverished, could have
+produced these gorgeous edifices. Their number and distribution
+through the most remote parts of the land are equally remarkable.
+Among Mr Billings's specimens, we have, in the southern part of
+Scotland, Pinkie, near Musselburgh; Auchans and Kelburn, in Ayrshire;
+Newark, on the Clyde; Airth and Argyle's Lodging, in Stirling. Going
+northward, we come to Elcho and Glammis, and to Muchalls and Crathes,
+in Kincardineshire. It is remarkable, that the further north we go,
+the French style becomes more conspicuous and complete. Many of the
+finest specimens are to be found in Aberdeenshire. Fyvie Castle, which
+was built for a Scottish chancellor&mdash;Seton, Earl of Dunfermline&mdash;is
+almost a complete French ch&acirc;teau of the sixteenth century, such as the
+traveller may have seen in sunny Guienne or Anjou; and there it stands
+transplanted, like an exotic, among the bleak hills of the north. It
+is only natural to find in connection with such a circumstance, that
+Seton received his education in France, and passed a considerable part
+of his life there. Whether from such an example or not, the
+Aberdeenshire lairds seem to have been all ambitious of possessing
+French ch&acirc;teaux; and thus in the county of primitive rock, where there
+is certainly little else to remind us of French habits or ideas, we
+have some admirable specimens of that foreign architectural school in
+Castle Fraser, Craigievar, Midmar, Tolquhon, Dalpersie, and Udny.
+Nearer Inverness, we have Balveny, Castle-Stewart, and Cawdor.</p>
+
+<p>The same foreign influence is exhibited in our street architecture,
+some specimens of which are engraved in the work to which we have
+referred.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> Every one knows that the lofty Scottish edifices with
+common stairs&mdash;houses built above each other, in fact&mdash;give our large
+towns a character totally different from those of England; but it is
+equally clear that the practice was derived from France, where it is
+still in full observance literally among all classes, since the
+different social grades occupy separate floors of the same edifices.
+In the <i>coup d'&eacute;tat</i> of 1851, it will be remembered, that in making
+the arrests of the leading men supposed to be inimical to Louis
+Napoleon, one of the difficulties&mdash;as the affair took place at
+midnight&mdash;was to know the floors in which they lived; for these great
+statesmen and generals inhabited houses with common stairs.</p>
+
+<p>We have here discussed one special feature of Mr Billings's work, on
+account of the remarks which it suggests; but it is only right to
+mention, before parting with it, that it contains engravings of every
+thing that is remarkable in the ancient architecture of Scotland,
+whether it be called civil and baronial or ecclesiastical. Certainly,
+the remains of antiquity in North Britain were never previously so
+amply and completely illustrated. Nor is it without reason, that some
+contemporary critics have maintained this to be the most entire
+collection of the sort which any nation possesses. The chief merits of
+the views consist in their accuracy and effect. They are wonderfully
+clear and minute, so that every detail of the least importance is
+brought out as distinctly as in a model, while this is accomplished
+without sacrifice of their artistic effect as pictures.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland. By
+William Burn and W. Billings. 4 vols. 4to. Blackwoods, Edinburgh.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="AMERICAN_HONOUR" id="AMERICAN_HONOUR"></a>AMERICAN HONOUR.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">About</span> seventy-five years ago, there was at Charleston, in South
+Carolina, a family consisting of several members. It belonged to the
+middle class&mdash;that is to say, contained barristers, bankers,
+merchants, solicitors, and so on&mdash;all of them animated, at least so
+far as appears, by a high sense of honour and integrity. But noble
+sentiments are no certain guarantee against poverty. One of the
+members of the family in question became embarrassed, borrowed L.1000
+of one of his relatives, but was soon after seized with paralysis,
+and, having kept his bed five years, died, leaving behind him a widow
+with several children. He could bequeath them no property, instead of
+which they received as their inheritance high principles, and a strong
+affection for the memory of their father. The widow also was, in this
+respect, perfectly in harmony with her sons. By dint, therefore, of
+prudence, industry, and economy, they amassed among them the sum of
+L.400, which they rigidly appropriated to the repayment of a part of
+their father's debt. The old man had, indeed, called them together
+around his death-bed, and told them that, instead of a fortune, he
+left them a duty to perform; and that if it could not be accomplished
+in one generation, it must be handed down from father to son, until
+the descendants of the B&mdash;&mdash;s had paid every farthing to the
+descendants of the S&mdash;&mdash;s.</p>
+
+<p>While matters stood in this predicament, the creditor part of the
+family removed to England, and the debtors remained at Charleston,
+struggling with difficulties and embarrassments, which not only
+disabled them from paying the paternal debt, but kept them perpetually
+in honourable poverty. Of course, the wish to pay in such minds
+survived the ability. It would have been to them an enjoyment of a
+high order to hunt out their relatives in England, and place in their
+hands the owing L.600. This pleasure, which they were destined never
+to taste, often formed the subject of conversation around their
+fireside; and the children, as they grew up, were initiated into the
+mystery of the L.600.</p>
+
+<p>But that generation passed away, and another succeeded to the
+liability; not that there existed any liability in law, for though a
+deed had been executed, it had lapsed in the course of time, so that
+there was really no obligation but that which was the strongest of
+all&mdash;an uneradicable sense of right. Often and often did the B&mdash;&mdash;s of
+Charleston meet and consult together on this famous debt, which every
+one wished, but no one could afford, to pay. The sons were married,
+and had children whom it was incumbent on them to support; the
+daughters had married, too, but their husbands possibly did not
+acquire with their wives the chivalrous sense of duty which possessed
+the breast of every member, male and female, of the B. family, and
+inspired them with a wish to do justice when fortune permitted.</p>
+
+<p>It would be infinitely agreeable to collect and peruse the letters and
+records of consultations which passed or took place between the
+members of this family on the subject of the L.600. These documents
+would form the materials of one of the most delightful romances in the
+world&mdash;the romance of honour, which never dies in some families, but
+is transmitted from generation to generation like a treasure above all
+price. When this brief notice is read in Charleston, it may possibly
+lead to the collection of these materials, which, with the proper
+names of all the persons engaged, should, we think, be laid before the
+world as a pleasing record of hereditary nobility of sentiment.</p>
+
+<p>After the lapse of many years, a widow and her three nephews found
+themselves in possession of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[pg 29]</a></span> necessary means for paying the family
+debt. Three-quarters of a century had elapsed. The children and the
+children's children of the original borrower had passed away; but the
+honour of the B. family had been transmitted intact to the fourth
+generation, and a search was immediately commenced to discover the
+creditors in England. This, however, as may well be supposed, was no
+easy task. The members of the S. family had multiplied and separated,
+married and intermarried, become poor and wealthy, distinguished and
+obscure by turns, changed their topographical as well as their social
+position, and disappeared entirely from the spot they had occupied on
+their first arrival from America.</p>
+
+<p>But honour is indefatigable, and by degrees a letter reached a person
+in Kensington, who happened to possess some knowledge of a lady of the
+S. family, married to a solicitor practising with great success and
+distinction in London. When the letter came to hand, she at first
+doubted whether it might not be a sort of grave hoax, intended to
+excite expectation for the pleasure of witnessing its disappointment.
+However, the English solicitor, accustomed to the incidents of life,
+thought there would at least be no harm in replying to the letter from
+Charleston, and discovering in this way the real state of the affair.</p>
+
+<p>Some delay necessarily occurred, especially as the B. family in
+America were old world sort of people, accustomed to transact business
+slowly and methodically, and with due attention to the minutest
+points. But at length a reply came, in which the writer observed, that
+if a deed of release were drawn up, signed by all the parties
+concerned in England, and transmitted to America, the L.600 should
+immediately be forwarded for distribution among the members of the S.
+family. Some demur now arose. Some of the persons concerned growing
+prudent as the chances of recovering the money appeared to multiply,
+thought it would be wrong to send the deed of release before the money
+had been received. But the solicitor had not learned, in the practice
+of his profession, to form so low an estimate of human nature. He
+considered confidence in this case to be synonymous with prudence, and
+at anyrate resolved to take upon himself the entire responsibility of
+complying with the wishes of the Americans. He accordingly drew up the
+necessary document, got it signed by as many as participated in his
+views, and sent it across the Atlantic, without the slightest doubt or
+hesitation. There had been something in the rough, blunt honesty of Mr
+B&mdash;&mdash;'s letter that inspired in the man of law the utmost reliance on
+his faith, though during the interval which elapsed between the
+transmission of the deed and the reception of an answer from the
+States, several of his friends exhibited a disposition to make
+themselves merry at the expense of his chivalry. But when we consider
+all the particulars of the case, we can hardly fail to perceive that
+he ran no risk whatever; for even if the debt had not legally lapsed,
+the people who had retained it in their memory through three
+generations&mdash;who had from father to son practised strict economy in
+order to relieve themselves from the burden&mdash;who had, with much
+difficulty and some expense, sought out the heirs of their creditor in
+a distant country, could scarcely be suspected of any inclination to
+finish off with a fraud at last.</p>
+
+<p>Still, if there was honour on one side, there was enlarged confidence
+on the other; and in the course of a few months, the American mail
+brought to London the famous L.600 due since before the War of
+Independence. The business now was to divide and distribute it. Of
+course, each of the creditors was loud in expressions of admiration of
+the honour of the B. family, whose representative, while forwarding
+the money, asked with much simplicity to have a few old English
+newspapers sent out to him by way of acknowledgment. For his own part,
+however, he experienced a strong desire to behold some of the persons
+to whom he had thus paid a debt of the last century; and he gave a
+warm and pressing invitation to any of them, to come out and stay as
+long as they thought proper at his house in Charleston. Had the
+invitation been accepted, we cannot doubt that Brother Jonathan would
+have acted as hospitably in the character of host as he behaved
+honourably in that of debtor. It would have been a pleasure, we might
+indeed say a distinction, to live under the same roof with such a man,
+whose very name carries us back to the primitive times of the colony,
+when Charleston was a city of the British Empire, and English laws,
+manners, habits, and feelings regulated the proceedings and relations
+of its inhabitants. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the London
+solicitor will some day drop in quietly upon his friend in Charleston,
+to smoke a cigar, and discuss old times with him. He will in that case
+probably fancy himself chatting with a contemporary of Rip Van Winkle.
+Doubtless there are thousands of such men in the States, where
+frequently everything that is estimable in the English character is
+cultivated with assiduity.</p>
+
+<p>How the property was distributed among the S. family in England, we
+need not say. Each surviving individual had his or her share. The
+solicitor was only connected with them by marriage; but with good old
+English ideas of uprightness and integrity, he was fully able to
+appreciate the Charleston lawyer's sentiments. He would have done
+exactly the same himself under similar circumstances; and therefore,
+had the sum been tens of thousands instead of hundreds, it could not
+be said to have fallen into bad hands. Whether the transaction above
+noticed has led or not to a continued correspondence between the
+families, we are unable to say; but we think the creditors in England
+would naturally have felt a pleasure in exchanging intelligence from
+time to time with their worthy debtors in Charleston. These things,
+however, are private, and therefore we do not intend to trench upon
+them.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="THE_PARLOUR_AQUARIUM" id="THE_PARLOUR_AQUARIUM"></a>THE PARLOUR AQUARIUM.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> is not many years since Mr Ward first drew the attention of
+botanists to the cultivation of plants in closely-glazed cases; but
+the most sanguine dreams of the discoverer could not then have
+foretold the many useful purposes to which the Wardian Case has become
+applicable, nor the important influence which it was destined to
+obtain in promoting the pleasant pursuits of gardening and botany. The
+Wardian Case has been instrumental in diffusing a love of these
+pursuits among all classes of society. It has opened up to those whose
+pursuits confine them within the limits of the city's smoke-cloud, a
+means whereby they may obtain 'a peep at nature, if they can no more.'
+Far removed from green fields and leafy woods, they may, for instance,
+enjoy their leisure mornings in watching one of the most beautiful
+phenomena of vegetable development&mdash;the evolution of the circinate
+fronds of the fern; a plant in every respect associated with elegance
+and beauty. This kind of gardening has, therefore, become of late
+years one of the most fashionable, while at the same time one of the
+most pleasant sources of domestic amusement.</p>
+
+<p>An interesting companion to the Wardian Case has lately been presented
+in the Aquatic Plant Case, or Parlour Aquarium, due to the ingenuity
+of Mr Warington, and which has for its object, as its name indicates,
+the cultivation of aquatic or water plants. It may be described as a
+combination of the Wardian Case and the gold-fish globe, the object
+being to illustrate the mutual dependence of animal and vegetable
+life. Mr Warington has lately detailed his experiments. 'The small
+gold-fish were placed in a glass-receiver of about twelve gallons'
+capacity, having a cover of thin muslin stretched over a stout copper
+wire, bent into a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[pg 30]</a></span> circle, placed over its mouth, so as to exclude as
+much as possible the sooty dust of the London atmosphere, without, at
+the same time, impeding the free passage of the atmospheric air. This
+receiver was about half-filled with ordinary spring-water, and
+supplied at the bottom with sand and mud, together with loose stones
+of limestone tufa from Matlock, and of sandstone: these were arranged
+so that the fish could get below.... A small plant of <i>Vallisneria
+spiralis</i> was introduced, its roots being inserted in the mud and
+sand, and covered by one of the loose stones, so as to retain the
+plant in its position.... The materials being thus arranged, all
+appeared to go on well for a short time, until circumstances occurred
+which indicated that another and very material agent was required to
+perfect the adjustment.' The decaying leaves of the vallisneria
+produced a slime which began to affect the fish injuriously: this it
+was necessary to get quit of. Mr Warington introduced five or six
+snails (<i>Limnea stagnalis</i>), 'which soon removed the nuisance, and
+restored the fish to a healthy state; thus perfecting the balance
+between the animal and vegetable inhabitants, and enabling both to
+perform their functions with health and energy. So luxuriant was the
+growth of the vallisneria under these circumstances, that by the
+autumn the one solitary plant originally introduced had thrown out
+very numerous offshoots and suckers, thus multiplying to the extent of
+upwards of thirty-five strong plants, and these threw up their long
+spiral flower-stems in all directions, so that at one time more than
+forty blossoms were counted lying on the surface of the water. The
+fish have been lively, bright in colour, and appear very healthy; and
+the snails also&mdash;judging from the enormous quantities of gelatinous
+masses of eggs which they have deposited on all parts of the receiver,
+as well as on the fragments of stone&mdash;appear to thrive wonderfully,
+affording a large quantity of food to the fish in the form of the
+young snails, which are devoured as soon as they exhibit signs of
+vitality and locomotion, and before their shell has become hardened.'</p>
+
+<p>In remarking upon the result of his experiments, Mr Warington
+observes: 'Thus we have that admirable balance sustained between the
+animal and vegetable kingdoms, and that in a liquid element. The fish,
+in its respiration, consumes the oxygen held in solution by the water
+as atmospheric air, furnishes carbonic acid, feeds on the insects and
+young snails, and excretes material well adapted as a rich food to the
+plant, and well fitted for its luxuriant growth. The plant, by its
+respiration, consumes the carbonic acid produced by the fish,
+appropriating the carbon to the construction of its tissues and
+fibres, and liberates the oxygen in its gaseous state to sustain the
+healthy functions of the animal life; at the same time that it feeds
+on the rejected matter, which has fulfilled its purposes in the
+nourishment of the fish and snail, and preserves the water constantly
+in a clean and healthy condition. While the slimy snail, finding its
+proper nutriment in the decomposing vegetable matter and minute
+confervoid growth, prevents their accumulation by removing them; and
+by its vital powers converts what would otherwise act as a poison into
+a rich and fruitful nutriment, again to constitute a pabulum for the
+vegetable growth, while it also acts the important part of a purveyor
+to its finny neighbours.'<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> This perfect adjustment in the economy of
+the animal and vegetable kingdoms, whereby the vital functions of each
+are permanently maintained, is one of the most beautiful phenomena of
+organic nature.</p>
+
+<p>The Parlour Aquarium affords valuable, we might say invaluable,
+facilities to the naturalist in the prosecution of his researches. The
+botanist can now conveniently watch the development of aquatic plants
+under conditions <i>not</i> unnatural, throughout the entire period of
+their existence, from their germination to the production of flowers
+and the perfection of seeds; and we are in hopes that much of the
+obscurity that invests many aquatic vegetables will in consequence be
+cleared up. The zoologist is perhaps even more indebted to the
+invention. The habits, not only of the fishes, but of the mollusca,
+can be accurately studied under natural conditions, and many important
+facts of their history ascertained and illustrated. The water-beetles
+and other aquatic insects will also come in for a share of attention.</p>
+
+<p>In concluding his paper in the <i>Garden Companion</i> (i. p. 7), Mr
+Warington states, that he is at present attempting a similar
+arrangement with a confined portion of sea-water, employing some of
+the green sea-weeds as the vegetable members of the circle, and the
+common winkle or whelk to represent the water-snails. In a Report of
+the Yorkshire Naturalist's Club, November 5, 1851,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> we observe it
+stated, that Mr Charlesworth read an extract from a letter from a
+gentleman in America, detailing some successful experiments on keeping
+marine molluscs alive in sea-water for months; but our inquiries have
+not been successful in eliciting any further information on the
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>Experiments of our own have led to the conclusion, that some families
+of aquatic plants are altogether unsuitable for the Parlour
+Aquarium&mdash;such as, potamogeton, chara, &amp;c., which very soon
+communicate a putrescent odour to the water in which they are grown,
+rendering it highly disagreeable in a sitting-room.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society</i>, iii, 52.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>Naturalist</i>, vol. i. 239.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="A_WEDDING_DINNER" id="A_WEDDING_DINNER"></a>A WEDDING DINNER.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> English are often reproached with love of good cheer, and
+certainly if foreigners were to judge of us from the manner in which
+we celebrate our Christmas, we cannot wonder at their supposing
+'biftik' to be necessary to our happiness. But high feasting has not
+in any age been confined to the English, and perhaps the following
+account, translated from an old chronicle, of a wedding-dinner given
+by the Milanese, in 1336, to our Duke of Clarence, son of Edward III.,
+may prove not unamusing or unsuggestive.</p>
+
+<p>Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, was the widower of Elizabeth of
+Ulster, and his second wife, Zolante, was the sister of Giovanni
+Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan. The latter nuptials were celebrated
+at Milan with great pomp. The most illustrious personages were invited
+from every part of Europe; tournaments, balls, and other diversions,
+occupied the guests, who were all furnished with splendid apartments,
+till the whole company being assembled, Giovanni Galeazzo conducted
+the newly-married couple from the church to his palace. In one immense
+hall were laid out a hundred tables for the most distinguished guests,
+including the mightiest princes in Italy, the most beautiful women,
+and the most celebrated characters of the age; among whom we must not
+omit to mention Francesco Petrarca. Other tables were placed in the
+adjoining apartments. Seneschals, in the most sumptuous dresses,
+brought in the massive dishes of gold and silver. The cup-bearers
+performed their duties on horseback, galloping round the hall and
+handing the choicest wines in costly vases of gold, silver, or
+crystal. This custom of servants waiting at table on horseback appears
+singular in our time, but it serves to give an idea of the splendour
+of other days and the enormous size of the apartments. It also tends
+to explain why most of the noble mansions still extant from the time
+of which we speak, instead of a staircase, have a gradual ascent of
+bricks, generally leading to a hall of large dimensions. And
+frequently we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[pg 31]</a></span> see evident tokens that flights of steps have been
+substituted in later times.</p>
+
+<p>The banquet consisted of eighteen courses; and between each course
+presents of various kinds were offered to the bridegroom, or
+distributed by him; so that before the dinner had ended, Lionel had
+presented every individual around him with some article of value,
+besides 600 richly embroidered garments which he had given to the
+mimes and players engaged for the occasion.</p>
+
+<p>Here follows a formal account of the dinner, but we must economise our
+space. The first course consisted of young pigs, gilded, with flames
+issuing from their mouths; the second, of hares and pike, likewise
+gilded; the third, of gilded veal and trout; the fourth, of
+partridges, quails, and fish, all gilded; the fifth, of ducks, small
+birds, and fish, all gilded; the sixth, of beef, capons with
+garlic-sauce, and sturgeon; the seventh, of veal and capons with
+lemon-sauce; the eighth, of beef-pies, with cheese and sugar, and
+eel-pies with sugar and spices; the ninth, of meats, fowl and fish in
+jelly (potted, we presume); the tenth, of gilded meats and lamprey;
+the eleventh, of roast kid, birds, and fish; the twelfth, of hares and
+venison, and fish with vinegar and sugar; the thirteenth, of beef and
+deer, with lemon and sugar; the fourteenth, of fowls, capons, and
+tench, covered with red and green foil; the fifteenth, of pigeons,
+small birds, beans, salt tongues, and carp; the sixteenth, of rabbits,
+peacocks, and eels roasted with lemon; the seventeenth, of sour milk
+and cheese; and the eighteenth, of fruits of the rarest and most
+expensive kinds.</p>
+
+<p>At each of these courses the duke received a separate gift&mdash;beginning
+with a pair of <i>leopards</i>, with velvet collars and gilded buckles.
+Then followed numberless braces of pointers, greyhounds, setters, and
+falcons, all with trappings and ornaments of silk, gold, and pearls;
+dozens of breastplates, helmets, lances, shields, saddles, and
+complete suits of armour, enriched with silver, gold, and velvet;
+numerous pieces of cloth of gold and satin; horses by half-dozens,
+with saddles and trappings highly ornamented; twelve beautiful
+milk-white oxen; 'a vest and cowl embroidered with pearls,
+representing various flowers; a baronial mantle and cowl lined with
+ermine, and richly embroidered with pearls; a large ewer of massive
+silver, four waistbands of wrought silver (now called filigrane); a
+clump of diamonds and rubies, with a pearl of immense value in the
+centre; and a variety of specimens of the choicest wines and most
+elegant confectionary.'</p>
+
+<p>In those times, there was little refinement of taste, and the culinary
+art was probably in its infancy. Hence we find the dishes in quality
+and number rather suited to satisfy the appetites of huntsmen than the
+delicate palate of a courtier of our day. Sugar and spices were used
+in profusion, perhaps because they were scarce and expensive, rather
+than on account of their flavour. Fowls were coloured red or green;
+while meat, and such other solid eatables as could only be boiled or
+roasted, were gilt all over. The expense of such an entertainment must
+have been immense; and when we add, that the value of most of the
+gifts was vastly greater than at present, and that, besides the
+presents to the bridegroom, Giovanni Galeazzo gave away 150 beautiful
+horses, and his kinsman, Bernabo, jewels and golden coins to a large
+amount, the whole sum disbursed on this occasion would appear so
+enormous as to make one doubt whether a petty sovereign could really
+afford such ostentatious prodigality. But when we consider that the
+flourishing state of the commerce of Italy attracted thither all the
+wealth of Europe, we are no longer surprised at an expenditure which,
+however great, might at that time have been borne not by a reigning
+duke of Milan or Florence alone, but even by many citizens of the
+various Italian republics.</p>
+
+<p>During the repast, an innumerable crowd of jesters, mimes, and
+trick-players of all sorts, amused the company with their gambols; and
+such was the noise produced by trumpets, drums, and other martial
+instruments, by the vociferation of the performers and the applause of
+the spectators, that no single voice could be heard; and a
+contemporary historian compares it to the wild roar of a tempestuous
+sea.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="SAVINGS-BANKS_IN_RUSSIA" id="SAVINGS-BANKS_IN_RUSSIA"></a>SAVINGS-BANKS IN RUSSIA.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Until</span> the year 1825, no kind of savings-bank existed in Russia. The
+farmers and peasants, residing for the most part in remote and
+scattered habitations, were accustomed to keep their little store of
+money in common earthen-pots buried in the ground, whence it was not
+unfrequently stolen. It also often happened that, owing to the sudden
+illness or death of the owner, the place of concealment was unknown to
+any one; thus the savings were lost, and much family trouble and
+difficulty arose. In March 1825, a truly patriotic young merchant,
+Frederick Hagedom, junior, of Libau, in Courland, perceived the
+advantage of savings-banks in other countries of Europe, and the
+disadvantages of the system pursued by his poor countrymen. He
+resolved, therefore, to institute a savings-bank in Libau. The
+patronage of the governor-general was obtained, and one of the
+magistrates of the town appointed superintendent: Frederick Hagedom
+and two other gentlemen were chosen directors. The public of the town
+soon testified their approbation of the good work, by bringing in
+their silver rubles and copper kopecks at the appointed hours&mdash;namely,
+from five to seven every Saturday evening, and at two periods of the
+year daily&mdash;from the 1st to the 12th of June and December. The
+peasants, however, did not display the same alacrity and confidence as
+indeed was to be expected. Their kind benefactor perceiving this,
+wrote and circulated a short pamphlet in the Lettish language of the
+country, explaining the intention, object, and advantages of the new
+savings-bank. This convinced the ignorant country-people that their
+old way of keeping their money, even if safe, was not profitable. The
+pastors of the village churches also took occasion to speak to their
+people on the subject, being persuaded, like the benevolent founders
+of the savings-bank, that it was a plan which could not fail to
+improve the moral and religious character of the peasantry. These
+exertions did not fail to produce the desired effect.</p>
+
+<p>To accommodate the country-people who came from a distance, it was
+soon found advisable to open the savings-bank for their attendance
+daily from twelve to one&mdash;the Saturday evenings being reserved for the
+inhabitants of the town. All classes now became desirous of taking
+advantage of the savings-bank, and brought in silver rubles and
+kopecks, instead of keeping them hoarded and useless.</p>
+
+<p>A sum under five rubles receives no interest&mdash;is merely saved and
+kept&mdash;which is, however, no slight benefit to the poor peasant. Above
+that sum, 4 percent, interest is paid. The owner is at liberty to
+withdraw the principal at will. The tables published in 1845, after
+twenty years' existence, afford a most satisfactory and interesting
+result. The increase of members who partake of the benefits has
+steadily advanced. One-third of the number are inhabitants of Libau,
+the remainder are from the country. A very important gain was also
+perceived to arise from the system: a large portion of the silver
+rubles and Albert-dollars paid in, had evidently been for many years
+kept entirely out of circulation, buried in pots in the earth, and
+consequently in such a condition, that it was often necessary to have
+the coin carefully cleaned, before it was fit to be sent out into
+circulation again. Besides the pecuniary advantage, the improvement in
+the character of the people has been remarkable. The savings-bank has
+strengthened in a singular degree the love of order, industry, and
+temperance. How many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[pg 32]</a></span> cheerful hopes and anticipations are connected
+with savings! It has been ascertained, both in England and France,
+that since the establishment of savings-banks in those countries, no
+criminal has ever been found to have been a member of one. How true a
+benefactor to his country has the young merchant Hagedom proved
+himself to be! May he live long to direct the savings-bank of his
+native town of Libau! And, to conclude with the words of the last
+report of the institution: 'May a gracious Providence continue to
+prosper this first and oldest institution of the kind in the empire of
+Russia, and preserve this institution, so highly beneficial to the
+economical and moral state of the people, in its full prosperity, to
+future generations!'<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Communicated by a lady, as translated from a pamphlet
+published in Russia.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CALORIC_SHIPS" id="CALORIC_SHIPS"></a>CALORIC SHIPS.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>The idea of substituting a new and superior motive-power for steam
+will no doubt strike many minds as extravagant, if not chimerical. We
+have been so accustomed to regard steam-power as the <i>ne plus ultra</i>
+of attainment in subjecting the modified forces of nature to the
+service of man, that a discovery which promises to supersede this
+agency will have to contend with the most formidable preconceptions as
+well as with gigantic interests. Nevertheless, it may now be predicted
+with confidence, that we are on the eve of another great revolution,
+produced by the application of an agent more economical and
+incalculably safer than steam. A few years hence we shall hear of the
+'wonders of caloric' instead of the 'wonders of steam.' To the
+question: 'How did you cross the Atlantic?' the reply will be: 'By
+caloric of course!' On Saturday, I visited the manufactory, and had
+the privilege of inspecting Ericsson's caloric engine of 60
+horse-power, while it was in operation. It consists of two pairs of
+cylinders, the working pistons of which are 72 inches in diameter. Its
+great peculiarities consist in its very large cylinders and pistons,
+working with very low pressure, and in the absence of boilers or
+heaters, there being no other fires employed than those in small
+grates under the bottoms of the working cylinders. During the eight
+months that this test-engine has been in operation, not a cent has
+been expended for repairs or accidents. The leading principle of the
+calorie engine consists in producing motive-power by the employment of
+the expansive force of atmospheric air instead of that of steam; the
+force being produced by compression of the air in one part of the
+machine, and by its dilatation by the application of heat in another
+part. This dilatation, however, is not effected by continuous
+application of combustibles, but by a peculiar process of transfer, by
+which the caloric is made to operate over and over again&mdash;namely, the
+heat of the air escaping from the working cylinder at each successive
+stroke of the engine, is transferred to the cold compressed air,
+entering the same; so that, in fact, a continued application of fuel
+is only necessary in order to make good the losses of heat occasioned
+by the unavoidable eradiation of the heated parts of the machine. The
+obvious advantages of this great improvement are the great saving of
+fuel and labour in the management of the engine, and its perfect
+safety. A ship carrying the amount of coal that the Atlantic steamers
+now take for a single trip, could cross and recross the Atlantic twice
+without taking in coal; and the voyage to China or to California could
+be easily accomplished by a caloric ship without the necessity of
+stopping at any port to take in fuel. Anthracite coal being far the
+best fuel for this new engine, we shall no longer have to purchase
+bituminous coal in England for return-trips. On the contrary, England
+will find it advantageous to come to us for our anthracite. A slow
+radiating fire without flame is what is required, and this is best
+supplied by our anthracite. The <i>Ericsson</i> will be ready for sea by
+October next, and her owners intend to take passengers at a reduced
+price, in consequence of the reduced expenses under the new
+principle.&mdash;<i>Boston Transcript.</i></p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="VIOLETS" id="VIOLETS"></a>VIOLETS:</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<h4>SENT IN A TINY BOX.</h4>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Let</span> them lie&mdash;ah, let them lie!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Plucked flowers&mdash;dead to-morrow;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lift the lid up quietly,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As you'd lift the mystery<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Of a buried sorrow.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Let them lie&mdash;the fragrant things,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">All their souls thus giving;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let no breeze's ambient wings<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And no useless water-springs<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Mock them into living.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">They have lived&mdash;they live no more;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Nothing can requite them<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For the gentle life they bore,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And up-yielded in full store<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">While it did delight them.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Yet, I ween, flower-corses fair!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">'Twas a joyful yielding,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like some soul heroic, rare,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That leaps bodiless forth in air<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">For its loved one's shielding.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Surely, ye were glad to die<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">In the hand that slew ye,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Glad to leave the open sky,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the airs that wandered by,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And the bees that knew ye;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Giving up a small earth-place<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And a day of blooming,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Here to lie in narrow space,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Smiling in this smileless face<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">With such sweet perfuming.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">O ye little violets dead!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Coffined from all gazes,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We will also smile, and shed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Out of heart-flowers withered<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Perfume of sweet praises.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And as ye, for this poor sake,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Love with life are buying,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So, I doubt not, <span class="smcap">One</span> will make<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All our gathered flowers to take<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Richer scent through dying.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHINESE_LAUNDRY_IN_CALIFORNIA" id="CHINESE_LAUNDRY_IN_CALIFORNIA"></a>CHINESE LAUNDRY IN CALIFORNIA.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>What a truly industrious people they are! At work, cheerfully and
+briskly, at ten o'clock at night. Huge piles of linen and
+under-clothing disposed in baskets about the room, near the different
+ironers. Those at work dampening and ironing&mdash;peculiar processes both.
+A bowl of water is standing at the ironer's side, as in ordinary
+laundries, but used very differently. Instead of dipping the fingers
+in the water, and then snapping them over the clothes, the operator
+puts his head in the bowl, fills his mouth with water, and then blows
+so that the water comes from his mouth <i>in a mist</i>, resembling the
+emission of steam from an escape-pipe, at the same time so directing
+his head that the mist is scattered all over the piece he is about to
+iron. He then seizes his flat iron. This invention beats the 'Yankees'
+all to bits. It is a vessel resembling a small, deep, metallic
+wash-basin, having a highly-polished flat bottom, and a fire
+continually burning in it. Thus they keep the iron hot, without
+running to the fire every five minutes and spitting on the iron to
+ascertain by the 'sizzle' if it be ready to use. This ironing machine
+has a long handle, and is propelled without danger of burning the
+fingers by the slipping of the 'ironing rag.' Ladies who use the
+ordinary flat irons will appreciate the improvement.&mdash;<i>Marysville
+(California) Herald.</i></p>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<p>Printed and Published by W. and R. <span class="smcap">Chambers</span>, High Street, Edinburgh.
+Also sold by W. S. <span class="smcap">Orr</span>, Amen Corner, London; D. N. <span class="smcap">Chambers</span>, 55 West
+Nile Street, Glasgow; and J. <span class="smcap">M'Glashan</span>, 50 Upper Sackville Street,
+Dublin.&mdash;Advertisements for Monthly Parts are requested to be sent to
+<span class="smcap">Maxwell</span> &amp; Co., 31 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, London, to whom all
+applications respecting their insertion must be made.</p>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 445, by Various
+
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+Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 445, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 445
+       Volume 18, New Series, July 10, 1852
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: William Chambers
+          Robert Chambers
+
+Release Date: March 11, 2007 [EBook #20797]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. Shiffer and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
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+
+
+
+                     CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL
+
+  CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S
+  INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.
+
+
+  No. 445. NEW SERIES.   SATURDAY, JULY 10, 1852.   PRICE 1-1/2_d._
+
+
+
+
+ECONOMY IN DISTRIBUTION.
+
+
+We had lately occasion to proceed by an omnibus from a country town to
+a station on a railway, by which we were to return to the city where
+we have our customary abode. On arriving at the station, we learned
+that we should have to wait an hour for an _up_ train, the omnibus
+being timed in relation to a _down_ one, which was about to pass. Had
+this arrangement been the only one readily practicable, in the case,
+we should have felt it necessary to submit uncomplainingly to the loss
+of our hour; but it really was not so. We had come in one of three
+omnibuses, none of which had more than two or three passengers. Why
+should not one have come at this hour with _down_ passengers, and
+another come an hour later with _up_ ones, thus by the same trouble
+giving more accommodation? We found that the three omnibuses are run
+by so many hotels, and that an arrangement for general convenience was
+impossible, as it might have interfered with the hotel business. On
+the continent, the government would have ordered matters otherwise:
+with us, the genius of _laissez faire_ permits them to be as we
+describe.
+
+It is in the same part of the country that a system exists amongst
+bakers, which we described many years ago in these pages. There are
+three towns, triangularly arranged, about ten miles from each other.
+One or more bakers in each has a van, in which he sends bread every
+day to the other two. As there is no witchcraft in the making of
+bread, it might be as well for the inhabitants of each town to be
+supplied by the bakers of their own place exclusively, and then the
+expense of the carriage would be saved. Such, however, is the keenness
+of competition in the case, that each baker strives to get supporters
+in the neighbouring towns, and willingly pays for van, horse, and
+driver in order to retain their custom. We presume each van goes
+thirty miles a day, and that there is not much less than 2000 miles of
+this unprofitable travelling weekly in connection with the three
+towns.
+
+Any one who has a sincere respect for the principle of untrammelled
+industry, must lament to see these its abuses or drawbacks. But our
+commercial world is full of such anomalies. The cause is readily
+traced in the excessive number of persons engaged in the various
+trades. Not many years ago, the number of bakers in a town known to
+us, of the same size as one of those above referred to, was fourteen,
+while everybody acknowledged that four might have sufficed. In such
+circumstances, it is not wonderful that expedients like that of the
+van are resorted to, notwithstanding that it can only diminish the
+aggregate of profit derived by an already starving trade.
+
+Few persons who walk along a street of nicely-decorated and apparently
+well-stocked shops, have the slightest conception of the hollowness of
+many of the appearances. The reality has been tested in part by the
+income-tax inquisition, which shews a surprising number of
+respectable-looking shops not reaching that degree of profit which
+brings the owner within the scope of the exaction. It may be that some
+men who are liable, contrive to make themselves appear as not so; but
+this cannot be to such an extent as greatly to affect the general
+fact. In the assessing of the tax, no result comes out oftener than
+one of this kind: Receipts for the year, L.2200; estimated profit at
+15 per cent., L.330; deductions for rent of shop, taxes, shopmen's
+wages, and bad debts, L.193; leaving, as net profit, L.137. The
+commissioners are left to wonder how the trader can support his family
+in a decent manner upon so small a return, till they reflect that
+possibly a son brings in a little as a shopman, or a daughter as a
+day-governess; or that possibly an old female relative lives with the
+family, and throws her little income into the general stock. It is,
+after all, a fact capable of the clearest demonstration, that a vast
+number of shopkeepers' families maintain decent appearances upon an
+income below that enjoyed by many artisans--what goes, in the one
+case, for the decent appearances, being enjoyed in substantial
+comforts in the other, or else misapplied, to the degradation of body
+and mind.
+
+The evil primarily lies in an erroneous distribution of industry.
+Where twenty men offer themselves to do a duty to society for which
+three are sufficient, it cannot be good for any party; whereas, were
+the extra seventeen to apply themselves to other departments of the
+labour required for all, it would be better times for the whole
+twenty. The light, easy, and pleasant occupations are those most apt
+to be beset by superfluous hands. Shopkeeping is generally easy, and
+often pleasant; hence the excessive number of individuals applying
+themselves to it. In the difficulties of the case, conspicuousness of
+situation, extravagant decoration, and abundant advertising, are
+resorted to, as means of obtaining a preference. Many, to help out
+profits, resort to tricks and cheating. The expense thus incurred,
+above what is necessary, in distributing certain goods, must be
+enormous. To bring most articles to the hands of the consumer should
+be a simple business. Every member of the public must feel that his
+clothes will be as good, coming from a wareroom on a third floor at
+L.30 a year, as from a flashy corner shop which costs L.300. He will
+feel that to make him buy a new hat when he needs one, it is not
+necessary that an advertising van should be continually rumbling along
+the streets. His tea and sugar from the nearest grocer cannot be any
+better because of there being fifty other grocers within two miles of
+his residence, and forty of these not required. Yet, by reason of the
+great competition in nearly all trades, these vast expenses, which do
+nothing for the public, are continually incurred. Means misapplied are
+means lost. The community is just so much the poorer. And we must
+pronounce the superfluous shopkeepers, those who live by the rents of
+fine shops, and those who are concerned in the business of advertising
+beyond what is strictly necessary for the information of the public,
+as incumbrances on the industry of the country.
+
+One unfortunate concomitant of competition is, that it prompts in the
+individual trader an idea which places him in a false position towards
+the general interest. It is the general interest that all things fit
+for use should be abundant; but when a man is concerned in producing
+any of those things, he sees it to be for his immediate interest that
+they should be scarce, because what he has to sell will then bring a
+greater price. It is the general interest that all useful things
+should be produced and distributed as cheaply as possible; but each
+individual producer and distributer feels that the dearer they are, it
+is the better for him. It is thus that a trade comes to regard itself
+as something detached from the community; that a man also views his
+peculiar trading interest as a first principle, to which everything
+else must give way. It might, indeed, be easily shewn, that whatever
+is good for the whole community, must be in the long-run beneficial to
+each member. He either cannot look far enough for that, or he feels
+himself unable to dispense with the immediate benefit from that which
+is bad for the public. In short, each trade considers the world as
+living for it, not it as living for the world--a mistake so monstrous,
+that there is little reason to wonder at the enormous misexpenditure
+to which it gives rise.
+
+The idea essentially connected with these false positions, that
+_because_ there are certain persons in a trade in a particular place,
+they _ought_ to be there, and that the primary consideration regarding
+them is how to enable them to continue living by that trade--as if
+they were fixed there by some decree of Providence--is one of the most
+perverse and difficult to deal with in political economy. The
+assertion of any principle ruling to the contrary purpose, seems to
+the multitude of superficial thinkers as a kind of cruelty to the
+persons, the severity of the natural law being, by an easy slide of
+thought, laid to the charge of the mere philosopher who detects and
+announces its operation. In reality, those are the cruel people who
+would contentedly see a great number of their fellow-creatures going
+on from year to year in a misery, which, being brought upon themselves
+by ignorance, and the want of a right spirit of enterprise, can only
+be banished or lessened by their being rightly informed, and induced
+to enter upon a proper course.
+
+If there were a right knowledge and just views of these subjects
+diffused through the community, a man would be ashamed to enter upon a
+business in which a sufficient number of persons was already engaged,
+knowing that he was thereby trifling with his time and fortunes, and
+perhaps encouraging in himself a love of ease, or some other desire
+which he was not entitled to gratify. He would rather go to some new
+country, where he might eat in rough independence the rewards of an
+actual toil. What is really required, however, is not that men should
+leave their own country, but enter upon such pursuits there as may
+preserve an equal instead of an unequal distribution of industry
+throughout the various fields in which there is something to be done
+for the general advantage. Distribution should be less a favourite
+department, and production more so. With more producers and fewer
+distributers, the waste we have endeavoured to describe would be so
+far saved, and there would be fewer miserable people on the earth.
+
+Even amidst all the delusions which prevail upon the subject, it is
+curious to observe that there is a strong current towards a
+rectification of what is amiss. The interests of the individual, which
+produce so much fallacy, after all bring a correction. The active,
+original-minded tradesman, seeing that, with an ordinary share of the
+entire business of his department, he can scarcely make bread and
+butter, bethinks him of setting up a leviathan shop, in which he may
+serve the whole town with mercery at a comparatively small profit to
+himself, looking to large and frequent returns for his remuneration.
+The public, with all its sentimentalisms, never fails to take the
+article, quality being equal, at the lowest price, and accordingly the
+leviathan dealer thrives, while nearly all the small dealers are
+extirpated. Now this is a course of things which produces partial
+inconveniences; but its general effect is good. It lessens the cost of
+distribution for the consumer, and it decides many to take to new and
+more hopeful courses, who otherwise might cling to a branch of
+business that had become nearly sapless. Underselling generally has
+the same results. When in a trade in which distribution usually costs
+43 per cent., one man announces himself as willing to lessen this by
+15 or 20 per cent., his conduct is apt to appear unbrotherly and
+selfish to the rest; but the fact is, that for goods of any kind to
+cost 43 per cent., in mere distribution, is a monstrosity; and he who
+can in any measure lessen that cost, will be regarded by the community
+as acting in the spirit of a just economy, and as deserving of their
+gratitude. These may be considered as the rude struggles of
+competition towards a righting of its own evils. The public sees two
+selfishnesses working in the case, and it naturally patronises that
+which subserves its own interest.
+
+The waste arising from an over-costly system of distribution, will
+probably lead to other correctives of even a more sweeping kind than
+that of underselling, or the setting up of leviathan shops. For the
+greater number of the articles required for daily use, men begin to
+find that a simple co-operative arrangement is sufficient. A certain
+number agree to combine in order to obtain articles at wholesale
+prices; after which a clerk, shopman, and porter suffice to distribute
+them. They thus save, in many trades, as much as 15 per cent. So far
+from their being under any peculiar disadvantage as to the quality of
+the articles, they are rather safer than usual in that respect; and
+indeed a freedom from the danger of getting adulterated or inferior
+goods is one of the recommendations of the system. It would probably
+extend more rapidly, were it not for the difficulties attending the
+law of partnership, which, however, will in all likelihood be speedily
+removed.
+
+We make these remarks on distribution mainly in the hope of saving
+individuals from entering upon a career in which, not being truly
+useful to their fellow-creatures, they have little to expect of good
+for themselves. At present, shopkeeping is limited by what an able
+writer of the day calls the _bankruptcy check_;[1] that is, men go
+into it, and remain in it, while they can just barely sustain
+themselves, not regarding that they do not and cannot thrive, and that
+they are only adding to a mass of idleness already burdensome to the
+community. What we desire is, to see men so far enlightened in the
+principles of economy, that they will be at least less apt to rush
+into fields where their help is not wanted. We wish to assist in
+creating a public opinion on this subject, which, fixing on
+shopkeeping in such circumstances the odium of a masked idleness, will
+tend to send the undecided into courses of real activity and
+serviceableness; thus securing their own good by the only plan which
+can be safely depended upon--that of first securing the good of the
+entire community.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Mr F. O. Ward.
+
+
+
+
+THE VENDETTA.
+
+
+In the morning, we were off the coast of Sardinia, steaming rapidly
+along for the Straits of Bonifacio. The night had been tranquil, and
+the morning was more tranquil still; but no one who knew the
+capricious Mediterranean felt confident of continued fair weather.
+However, at sea the mind takes little thought for the morrow, or even
+for the afternoon; and as we sat in the warm shade of the awning,
+looking out to the purple horizon in the east, or to the rocky and
+varied coast to the west, I felt, and if the countenance be not
+treacherous, all felt that it was good even for landsmen to be moving
+over waters uncrisped except by the active paddles, beneath a sky all
+radiant with light. My companions were chiefly Levant merchants, or
+sallow East Indians; for I was on board the French packet _Le Caire_,
+on its way from Alexandria, of Egypt, to Marseille.
+
+I had several times passed the Straits, each time with renewed
+pleasure and admiration. It would be difficult to imagine a
+scene more wild and peculiar. After rounding the huge rock of
+Tavolara--apparently a promontory running boldly out into the sea, but
+in reality an island, we are at once at the mouth of the Straits. The
+mountains of Corsica, generally enveloped in clouds, rise above the
+horizon ahead, and near at hand a thousand rocks and islands of
+various dimensions appear to choke up the passage. The narrow southern
+channel, always selected by day, is intricate, and would be dangerous
+to strangers; and indeed the whole of the Straits are considered so
+difficult, that the fact of Nelson, without previous experience,
+having taken his fleet through, is cited even by French sailors as a
+prodigy.
+
+On one of the rocky points of the Sardinian coast, I observed the
+ruins of a building, but so deceptive is distance, I could not at
+first determine whether it had been a fortress or a cottage. I asked
+one of the officers for his telescope; and being still in doubt,
+questioned him as I returned it. He smiled and said: 'For the last
+five or six years, I have never passed through the Straits by day
+without having had to relate the story connected with that ruin. It
+has become a habit with me to do so; and if you had not spoken, I
+should have been compelled, under penalty of passing a restless night,
+to have let out my narrative at dinner. You will go down to your berth
+presently; for see how the smoke is weighed down by the heavy
+atmosphere upon the deck, and how it rolls like a snake along the
+waters! What you fancy to be merely a local head-wind blowing through
+the Straits, is a mistral tormenting the whole Gulf of Lions. We shall
+be tossing about presently in a manner unpleasant to landsmen; and
+when you are safely housed, I will come and beguile a little time by
+relating a true story of a Corsican Vendetta.'
+
+The prophecy was correct. In less than a quarter of an hour, _Le
+Caire_ was pitching through the last narrows against as violent a gale
+as I ever felt. It was like a wall of moving air. The shores, rocks,
+and islands were now concealed by driving mist; and as the sea widened
+before us, it was covered with white-crested waves. Before I went
+below, a cluster of sails ahead was pointed out as the English fleet;
+and it was surmised that it would be compelled to repeat Nelson's
+manoeuvre, as Sardinia and Corsica form a dangerous lee-shore.
+However, the atmosphere thickened rapidly; and we soon lost sight of
+all objects but the waves amidst which we rolled, and the phantom-like
+shores of Corsica.
+
+The officer joined me, and kept his promise. By constant practice, he
+had acquired some skill in the art of telling at least this one story;
+and I regret that I do not remember his exact words. However, the
+following is the substance of his narrative:--Giustiniani and
+Bartuccio were inhabitants of the little town of Santa Maddalena,
+situated on the Corsican side of the Straits. They were both sons of
+respectable parents, and were united from an early age in the bonds of
+friendship. When they grew up, Giustiniani became clerk in a very
+humble mercantile establishment; whilst Bartuccio, more fortunate,
+obtained a good place in the custom-house. They continued on excellent
+terms till the age of about twenty-one years, when an incident
+occurred, that by making rivals of them, made them enemies.
+
+Giustiniani had occasion to visit the city of Ajaccio, and set out in
+company with a small party mounted upon mules. Bartuccio went with him
+to the crest of the hill, where they parted after an affectionate
+embrace. The journey was fortunately performed; in about a month
+Giustiniani was on his way back, and reached without incident, just as
+night set in, a desolate ravine within a few leagues of Santa
+Maddalena. Here a terrific storm of wind and rain broke upon the
+party, which missed the track, and finally dispersed; some seeking
+shelter in the lee of the rocks, others pushing right and left in
+search of the path, or of some hospitable habitation. Giustiniani
+wandered for more than an hour, until he descended towards the plain,
+and, attracted by a light, succeeded at length in reaching a little
+cottage having a garden planted with trees. The lightning had now
+begun to play, and shewed him the white walls of the cottage streaming
+with rain, and the drenched foliage that surrounded it. Guided by the
+rapidly succeeding gleams, he was enabled to find the garden gate,
+where, there being no bell, he remained for some time shouting in
+vain. The light still beamed gently through one of the upper windows,
+and seemed to tell of a comfortable interior and cosy inmates.
+Giustiniani exerted his utmost strength of voice, and presently there
+was a movement in the lighted chamber--a form came to the window; and,
+after some delay, the door of the house was opened, and a voice asked
+who demanded admittance at that hour, and in such weather. Our
+traveller explained, and was soon let in by a quiet-looking old
+gentleman, who took him up stairs into a little library, where a good
+wood-fire was blazing. A young girl of remarkable beauty rose as he
+entered, and received him with cordial hospitality. Acquaintance was
+soon made. Giustiniani told his little story, and learned that his
+host was M. Albert Brivard, a retired medical officer, who, with his
+daughter Marie, had selected this out-of-the-way place for economy's
+sake.
+
+According to my informant, Giustiniani at once fell in love with the
+beautiful Marie, to such an extent that he could scarcely partake of
+the supper offered him. Perhaps his abstinence arose from other
+reasons--love being in reality a hungry passion in its early
+stage--for next day the young man was ill of a fever, and incapable of
+continuing his journey. M. Brivard and his daughter attended him
+kindly; and as he seemed to become worse towards evening, sent a
+messenger to Maddalena. The consequence was, that on the following
+morning Bartuccio arrived in a great state of alarm and anxiety; but
+fate did not permit him again to meet his friend with that whole and
+undivided passion of friendship in his breast with which he had
+quitted him a month before. Giustiniani was asleep when he entered the
+house, and he was received by Marie. In his excited state of mind, he
+was apt for new impressions, and half an hour's conversation seems not
+only to have filled him with love, but to have excited the same
+feeling in the breast of the gentle girl. It would have been more
+romantic, perhaps, had Marie been tenderly impressed by poor
+Giustiniani when he arrived at night, travel-stained and drenched with
+rain, in the first fit of a fever; 'but woman,' said the sagacious
+narrator, as he received a tumbler of grog from the steward, 'is a
+mystery'--an opinion I am not inclined to confute.
+
+In a few days, Giustiniani was well enough to return to his home,
+which he reached in a gloomy and dissatisfied state of mind. He had
+already observed that Bartuccio, who rode over every day professedly
+to see him, felt in reality ill at ease in his company, spoke no
+longer with copious familiarity, and left him in a few minutes,
+professing to be obliged to return to his duty. From his bed, however,
+he could hear him for some time after laughing and talking with Marie
+in the garden; and he felt, without knowing it, all the pangs of
+jealousy: not that he believed his friend would interfere and dispute
+with him the possession of the gem which he had discovered, and over
+which he internally claimed a right of property, but he was oppressed
+with an uneasy sentiment of future ill, and tormented with a
+diffidence as to his own powers of pleasing, that made him say adieu
+to Marie and her father with cold gratitude--that seemed afterwards to
+them, and to him when reflection came, sheer ingratitude.
+
+When he had completely recovered his strength, he recovered also to, a
+certain extent his serenity of mind. Bartuccio was often with him, and
+never mentioned the subject of Marie. One day, therefore, in a state
+of mingled hope and love, he resolved to pay a visit to his kind host;
+and set out on foot. The day was sunny; the landscape, though rugged,
+beautiful with light; a balmy breeze played gently on his cheek. The
+intoxication of returning strength filled him with confidence and joy.
+He met the old doctor herborising a little way from his house, and
+saluted him so cordially, that a hearty shake of the hand was added to
+the cold bow with which he was at first received. Giustiniani
+understood a little of botany, and pleased the old man by his
+questions and remarks. They walked slowly towards the house together.
+When they reached it, M. Brivard quietly remarked: 'You will find my
+daughter in the garden,' and went in with the treasures he had
+collected. The young man's heart bounded with joy. Now was the time.
+He would throw himself at once at Marie's feet, confess the turbulent
+passion she had excited, and receive from her lips his sentence of
+happiness, or---- No, he would not consider the alternative; and with
+bounding step and eager eye, he ran over the garden, beneath the
+orange and the myrtle trees, until he reached a little arbour at the
+other extremity.
+
+What he saw might well plunge him at once into despair. Marie had just
+heard and approved the love of Bartuccio, who had clasped her, not
+unwilling, to his breast. Their moment of joy was brief, for in
+another instant Bartuccio was on the ground, with Giustiniani's knee
+upon his breast, and a bright poniard glittered in the air. 'Spare
+him--spare him!' cried the unfortunate girl, sinking on her knees. The
+accepted lover struggled in vain in the grasp of his frenzied rival,
+who, however, forbore to strike. 'Swear, Marie,' he said, 'by your
+mother's memory, that you will not marry him for five years, and I
+will give him a respite for so long.' She swore with earnestness; and
+the next moment, Giustiniani had broken through the hedge, and was
+rushing franticly towards Santa Maddalena.
+
+When he recovered from his confusion, Bartuccio, who, from his
+physical inferiority, had been reduced to a passive part in this
+scene, endeavoured to persuade Marie that she had taken an absurd
+oath, which she was not bound to abide by; but M. Brivard, though he
+had approved his daughter's choice, knew well the Corsican character,
+and decreed that for the present at least all talk of marriage should
+be set aside. In vain Bartuccio pleaded the rights of an accepted
+lover. The old man became more obstinate, and not only insisted that
+his daughter should abide by her promise, but hinted that if any
+attempt were made to oppose his decision, he would at once leave the
+country.
+
+As may well be imagined, Bartuccio returned to the city with feelings
+of bitter hatred against his former friend; and it is probable that
+wounded pride worked upon him as violently as disappointed passion. He
+was heard by several persons to utter vows of vengeance--rarely
+meaningless in that uncivilised island--and few were surprised when
+next day the news spread that Giustiniani had disappeared. Public
+opinion at once pointed to Bartuccio as the murderer. He was arrested,
+and a careful investigation was instituted; but nothing either to
+exculpate or inculpate him transpired, and after some months of
+imprisonment, he was liberated.
+
+Five years elapsed. During the first half of the period, Bartuccio was
+coldly received by both M. Brivard and his daughter, although he
+strenuously protested his innocence. Time, however, worked in his
+favour, and he at length assumed the position of a betrothed lover, so
+that no one was surprised when, at the expiration of the appointed
+time, the marriage took place. Many wondered indeed why, since
+Giustiniani had disappeared, and was probably dead, any regard was
+paid to the extorted promise; whilst all augured well of the union
+which was preceded by so signal an instance of good faith. The
+observant, indeed, noticed that throughout the ceremony Bartuccio was
+absent and uneasy--looking round anxiously over the crowd assembled
+from time to time. 'He is afraid to see the ghost of Giustiniani,'
+whispered an imprudent bystander. The bridegroom caught the last word,
+and starting as if he had received a stab, cried: 'Where, where?' No
+one answered; and the ceremony proceeded in ominous gloom.
+
+Next day, Bartuccio and his young wife, accompanied by M. Brivard,
+left Santa Maddalena without saying whither they were going; and the
+good people of the town made many strange surmises on the subject. In
+a week or so, however, a vessel being wrecked in the Straits,
+furnished fresh matter of conversation; and all these circumstances
+became utterly forgotten, except by a few. 'But this drama was as yet
+crowned by no catastrophe,' said the officer, 'and all laws of harmony
+would be violated if it ended here.' 'Are you, then, inventing?'
+inquired I. 'Not at all,' he replied; 'but destiny is a greater
+tragedian than Shakspeare, and prepares _denouements_ with superior
+skill.' I listened with increased interest.
+
+The day after the departure of the married couple, a small boat with a
+shoulder-of-mutton sail left the little harbour of Santa Maddalena a
+couple of hours before sunset, and with a smart breeze on its quarter,
+went bravely out across the Straits. Some folks who were accustomed to
+see this manoeuvre had, it is true, shouted out to the only man on
+board, warning him that rough weather was promised; but he paid no
+heed, and continued on his way. If I were writing a romance, if,
+indeed, I had any reasonable space, I would keep up the excitement of
+curiosity for some time, describe a variety of terrific adventures
+unknown to seamen, and wonderful escapes comprehensible only by
+landsmen, and thus make a subordinate hero of the bold navigator. But
+I must be content to inform the reader, that he was Paolo, a servant
+of Giustiniani's mother, who had lived in perfect retirement since her
+son's disappearance, professing to have no news of him. In reality,
+however, she knew perfectly well that he had retired to Sardinia, and
+after remaining in the interior some time, had established himself in
+the little cottage, the ruins of which had attracted my attention. The
+reason for his retirement, which he afterwards gave, was that he might
+be enabled to resist the temptation to avenge himself on Bartuccio,
+and, if possible, conquer his love for Marie. He no longer entertained
+any hope of possessing her himself; but he thought that at least she
+would grow weary of waiting for the passage of five years, and would
+marry a stranger--a consummation sufficiently satisfactory, he
+thought, to restore to him his peace of mind. Once a month at least he
+received, through the medium of the faithful Paolo, assistance and
+news from his mother; and to his infinite discomfiture learned, as
+time proceeded, that his enemy, whilom his friend, was to be made
+happy at last. His rage knew no bounds at this; and several times he
+was on the point of returning to Santa Maddalena, to do the deed of
+vengeance from which he had hitherto refrained. However, he resolved
+to await the expiration of the five years.
+
+Paolo arrived in safety at the cottage some time after dark, and
+communicated the intelligence both of the marriage and the departure
+of the family. To a certain extent, both he and the mother of
+Giustiniani approved the projects of vengeance entertained by the
+latter, but thought that the honour of the family was sufficiently
+cleared by what was evidently a flight. Paolo was disappointed and
+puzzled by the manner of the unfortunate recluse. Instead of bursting
+out into furious denunciations, he became as pale as ashes, and then
+hiding his face in his hands, wept aloud. His agony continued for more
+than an hour; after which he raised his head, and exhibited a serene
+brow to the astonished servitor. 'Let us return to Santa Maddalena,'
+he said; and they accordingly departed, leaving the cottage a prey to
+the storms, which soon reduced it to ruins, and will probably erelong
+sweep away every trace.
+
+Giustiniani reached his mother's house unperceived, and spent many
+hours in close conversation with his delighted parent. He did not,
+however, shew himself in the town, but departed on the track of the
+fugitives the very next day. He traced them to Ajaccio, thence to
+Marseille, to Nice, back to Marseille, to Paris, but there he lost the
+clue. Several months passed in this way; his money was all spent, and
+he was compelled to accept a situation in the counting-house of a
+merchant of the Marais, and to give up the chase and the working out
+of the catastrophe he had planned for his Vendetta.
+
+A couple of years afterwards, Giustiniani had occasion to go to one of
+the towns of the north of France--Lille, I believe. In its
+neighbourhood, as my narrator told me--and on him I throw the whole
+responsibility, if there seem anything improbable in what is to
+come--the young man was once more overtaken by a storm, and compelled
+to seek refuge in a cottage, which the gleams of the lightning
+revealed to him. This time he was on foot, and after knocking at the
+door, was admitted at once by a young woman, who seemed to have been
+waiting in the passage for his arrival. She was about to throw herself
+into his arms, when suddenly she started back, and exclaimed: 'It is
+not he!' Taking up a candle, which she had placed on the floor, she
+cast its light on her own face and that of the stranger, who had
+remained immovable, as if petrified by the sound of her voice.
+'Madam,' said he, brought to himself by this action, 'I am a stranger
+in these parts, overtaken by the storm, and I beg an hour's
+hospitality.'
+
+'You are welcome, sir,' replied Marie, the wife of Bartuccio, for it
+was she; but she did not at the moment recognise the unfortunate man
+who stood before her.
+
+They were soon in a comfortable room, where was M. Brivard, now
+somewhat broken by age, and a cradle, in which slept a handsome boy
+about a year old. Giustiniani, after the interchange of a few
+words--perhaps in order to avoid undergoing too close an examination
+of his countenance--bent over the cradle to peruse the features of the
+child; and the pillow was afterwards found wet with tears. By an
+involuntary motion, he clutched at the place where the poniard was
+wont to be, and then sat down upon a chair that stood in a dim corner.
+A few minutes afterwards, Bartuccio came joyously into the room,
+embraced his wife, asked her if she was cold, for she trembled very
+much--spoke civilly to the stranger, and began to throw off his wet
+cloak and coat. At this moment the tall form of Giustiniani rose like
+a phantom in the corner, and passions, which he himself had thought
+smothered, worked through his worn countenance. Brivard saw and now
+understood, and was nailed to his chair by unspeakable terror, whilst
+Bartuccio gaily called for his slippers. Suddenly Marie, who had
+watched every motion of the stranger, and, with the vivid intuition of
+wife and mother, had understood what part was hers to play, rushed to
+the cradle, seized the sleeping child, and without saying a word,
+placed it in Giustiniani's arms. The strong-passioned man looked
+amazed, yet not displeased, and, after a moment's hesitation, sank on
+his knees, and embraced the babe, that, awaking, curled its little
+arms round his head----
+
+A tremendous crash aloft interrupted the well-prepared peroration of
+the narrator; and, to say the truth, I was not sorry that a sail was
+carried away, and one of our boats stove in at this precise moment,
+for I had heard quite enough to enable me to guess the conclusion of
+the history of this harmless Vendetta.
+
+
+
+
+WRECK-CHART AND LIFE-BOATS.
+
+
+Many of our readers are probably aware that Prince Albert, in his
+capacity of president of the Society of Arts, Manufactures, and
+Commerce, suggested that lectures should be delivered on the results
+of the different classes of the Great Exhibition, by gentlemen
+peculiarly qualified by their several professions and pursuits. This
+suggestion has been admirably carried out; but we propose at present
+to direct attention only to one of the twenty-four lectures in
+question--namely, that on life-boats, by Captain Washington, R. N.;
+our individual calling in early life having been such as to enable us
+to understand thoroughly the technical details, and judge of the
+accuracy of the views and opinions propounded by the gallant and
+intelligent lecturer.[2]
+
+First, we will speak of the wreck-chart of the British islands
+prefixed to the lecture. Round the entire coast is a prodigious number
+of _black dots_, of two kinds--one a simple round dot, and the other
+having a line drawn through it. They all point out the locality of
+shipwrecks during the year 1850, and the latter dot shews the wreck to
+have been total. The English coasts are most thickly dotted, but this
+is to be expected from the greater proportion of shipping; next in the
+scale is Ireland, and then Scotland, which has comparatively few black
+dots, the densest portion being on the west coast, from Ayr to Largs,
+where we count eleven, nine indicating total wrecks. In the Firth of
+Forth there are but three, one total. A sprinkling of dots is seen
+among the Eastern Hebrides, but not so many as one would expect.
+Turning to England, we count about forty-five wrecks in the Bristol
+Channel alone, by far the greater number being total. On the Goodwill
+Sands there are fourteen, all total but one. On the Gunfleet Sands
+there are nine, four total. They are numerous on the Norfolk and
+Lincolnshire coasts, especially off Yarmouth and the Washway. On the
+Welsh coast, particularly around Beaumaris, Holyhead, &c., the number
+is very great. In the firth leading to Liverpool, we count no less
+than twenty-one, of which twelve are total. On the north coast of
+England the numbers are appalling. Off Hartlepool are fifteen, eight
+being total. Off Sunderland are twelve, all total but three. Off
+Newcastle are fifteen, eight total. Ah, that fearful, iron-bound coast
+of Northumberland! We have hugged it close in calm weather, with a
+fair breeze, and the views we caught of its shores made us shudder to
+think of what would befall a vessel on a stormy night and the shore
+alee. The following is the awful summary of 1850:--'The wrecks of
+British and foreign vessels on the coasts and in the seas of the
+United Kingdom were 681. Of these, 277 were total wrecks; sunk by
+leaks or collisions, 84; stranded and damaged so as to require to
+discharge cargo, 304; abandoned, 16. Total wrecks, &c., 681; total
+lives lost, 784.'
+
+Certain peculiar marks on this chart indicate the spots where
+life-boats are kept. In the vicinity of Liverpool we count no less
+than seven, and not one too many; but in many parts of the coast,
+where numerous wrecks occur, there are none. In all England there are
+eighty life-boats; in Ireland, eight; in Scotland, eight. A most
+portentous note on the chart informs us, that '_about one-half of the
+boats are unserviceable!_' Think of Scotland, with its rocky seaboard
+of 1500 miles: only eight life-boats, and some of these 'quite
+unserviceable!' The boats at St Andrews, Aberdeen, and Montrose, have
+saved eighty-three lives; and the rockets at eight stations,
+sixty-seven lives. 'Orkney and Shetland are without any provision for
+saving life; and with the exception of Port Logan, in Wigtonshire,
+where there is a mortar, the whole of the west coast of Scotland, from
+Cape Wrath to Solway Firth--an extent of 900 miles, without including
+islands--is in the same state.' With regard to the chief distribution
+of English life-boats, there is one to every eight miles on the
+Northumberland coast; one to every ten miles in Durham and Yorkshire;
+one to fifteen miles in Lincolnshire; and one to five miles in Norfolk
+and Suffolk--a fact which, the lecturer well observes, is highly
+creditable to the county associations of the two last counties. But
+'from Falmouth round the Land's End, by Trevose Head to Hartland
+Point, an extent of 150 miles of the most exposed sea-coast in
+England, there is not one really efficient life-boat.' On the Welsh
+coasts are twelve boats, some very defective. At the five Liverpool
+stations are nine good boats, 'liberally supported by the dock
+trustees, and having permanent boats' crews.' These Liverpool boats
+have, during the last eleven years, assisted 269 vessels, and brought
+ashore 1128 persons. As to the Isle of Man, situated in the track of
+an enormous traffic, with shores frequently studded with wrecks, we
+are told that there is not a single life-boat; for the four boats
+established there by Sir William Hillary, Baronet, 'have been allowed
+to fall into decay, and hardly a vestige of them remains!' The paltry
+eight life-boats for the whole Irish coast of 1400 miles are stated to
+be likewise inefficient.
+
+On the whole, it appears to us that the present number of efficient
+life-boats is not more than one-fourth of what ought to be constantly
+kept ready for immediate service. Only think of the amount of wrecks
+occurring occasionally in a single gale: On the 13th January 1843, not
+less than 103 vessels were lost on the British coasts. In 1846, nearly
+forty vessels were driven ashore in Hartlepool Bay alone. In the month
+of March 1850, the wrecks on our coasts were 134; in the gale of the
+25th and 26th September 1851, the number wrecked, stranded, or damaged
+by collision, was 117; and in January of the present year, the number
+was 120. The above are the numbers actually ascertained; but it is
+well known that _Lloyd's List_ is an imperfect register, although at
+present the best existing.
+
+A secondary mode of communicating with a stranded vessel is by firing
+rockets with a line attached to them, by which means a hawser may be
+drawn from the ship and fastened to the shore. Mortars are likewise
+used for the same purpose; the latter plan having been invented by
+Sergeant Bell, and first tried in 1792. Bell's plan was very greatly
+improved by Captain Manby; and all the mortars now in use for the
+purpose are called after him. Mr Dennett, of the Isle of Wight, first
+introduced the rocket-plan in 1825. Rockets or mortars, or both, are
+kept at most of the coast-guard stations; but in numerous cases were
+found worthless on trial, owing to the lines breaking, or the rockets
+being old and badly made. Nevertheless, at twenty-two stations, 214
+lives have been saved by them. The evil is, that neither rockets nor
+mortars are of any use unless the wreck lies within a short distance
+of the shore; for the maximum range attained is only 350 yards, and in
+the teeth of a violent wind, often not above 200 to 300 yards. If a
+ship, therefore, is stranded on a low shelving shore, she is almost
+certain to be beyond the range of the life-rocket or of Manby's
+mortar. The main reliance, therefore, is the life-boat, and to it we
+return.
+
+The Duke of Northumberland recently offered a reward for the best
+model of a life-boat. This offer was responded to by English, French,
+Dutch, German, and American boat-builders; and the amazing number of
+280 models and plans was sent in. About fifty of the best of these
+were contributed by the duke to the Great Exhibition; and he had also
+a report and plans and drawings of them printed, of which he
+distributed 1300 copies throughout the world. Baron Dupin, chairman of
+the Jury of Class VIII., thus summed up the award of the jury
+concerning them:--'These models figure among the most valuable
+productions in our Great Exhibition, and furnish an example of
+liberality in the cause of humanity and practical science never
+surpassed, if ever equalled. Such are the motives from which we have
+judged his Grace the Duke of Northumberland worthy of receiving the
+Council Medal.'
+
+The inventor of life-boats, as is well known, was Henry Greathead, of
+South Shields, in 1789. His boat was 30 feet long, with 10 feet
+breadth of beam, 3-1/4 feet depth of waist, stem and stern alike
+nearly 6 feet high, and pulled ten oars (double-banked.) A cork lining
+went fore and aft 12 inches thick, on the inside of the boat, from the
+floor to the thwarts; and outside was a cork fender, 16 inches deep, 4
+inches wide, and 21 feet long. 'She could not free herself of water,
+nor self-right in the event of being upset.' She was launched in 1790,
+and in the year 1802, the inventor was rewarded by the Society of Arts
+with its gold medal and fifty guineas; and parliament voted him
+L.1200, 'in acknowledgment of the utility of his invention.' Many
+presumed improvements and modifications of the original boat have been
+effected, with more or less success. James Beeching, a Yarmouth
+boat-builder, has carried off the prize offered by the duke, and we
+may therefore suppose his was the best of the models submitted.
+Captain Washington thus describes Beeching's model sent to the
+Exhibition: 'It may be seen from the model of that boat, that from her
+form she would both pull and sail well in all weathers; would have
+great stability, and be a good sea-boat. She has moderately small
+internal capacity under the level of the thwarts for holding water,
+and ample means for freeing herself readily of any water that might be
+shipped; she is ballasted by means of water admitted into a tank or
+well at the bottom after she is afloat; and by means of that ballast
+and raised air-cases at the extremities, she would right herself in
+the event of being upset. It will thus be seen, that this model
+combines most of the qualities required in a life-boat; and the boat
+which has since been built after it, and is now stationed at Ramsgate,
+is said to answer her purpose admirably.'
+
+M. Lahure, of Havre, sent a full-sized boat of _iron_; and Mr Francis,
+of New York, also sent a model life-boat of corrugated galvanised
+iron. Captain Washington thinks, that if metal is used at all, it
+should be copper in preference to any other. For our own part, we can
+only say, that we have helped to build boats, though not life-boats,
+and we have helped likewise to man boats, but we should like to have
+good sound timber beneath our feet in preference to any metal
+whatever; and we should prefer cork for the floating substance to
+air-tight cases, or copper tubing, or any of the other contrivances
+that have been adopted to give buoyancy to a swamped boat. Air-cases
+are very liable to leak, or may be stove in by the sea, or be crushed
+by coming in contact with the wreck or rocks, but cork can never be
+injured. And as to metal air-cases, it was found on opening the sides
+of a life-boat at Woolwich Dockyard, that her copper tubes, supposed
+to be air-tight, were corroded into holes; for copper will corrode
+when in contact with sea-water, especially when alternately wet or
+dry, as is the case in life-boats.
+
+We cannot here follow Captain Washington through his critical and
+technical details, but we think it right to express our strong
+suspicion, that the much-lauded _self-righting_ power of certain new
+life-boats is obtained only at the cost of greater liability to upset.
+Doubtless a boat can be made to right herself after a capsize, but
+this really seems to us something like locking the stable-door when
+the steed is stolen; for even if she rights the very instant after
+upsetting, three-fourths of the crew are almost certain to perish. We
+think it far more important to construct a boat that will hardly
+capsize at all, than to build one that will right itself _after_
+capsizing; for we repeat our opinion, that the latter boat will prove
+liable to upset just in proportion to her capability of self-righting.
+
+Many fatal accidents have happened to life-boats; and the details of
+some mentioned by the lecturer are peculiar and interesting. On the
+coast of Northumberland, in 1810, one of Greathead's boats, after
+saving several crews of fishing-cobles, was returning to the shore,
+when a heavy sea overwhelmed her, and by its sheer weight and force
+broke her in two, and the whole of the crew, thirty-four in number,
+perished. In 1820, Greathead's original life-boat, after saving the
+crew of the ship _Grafton_, at Shields, struck on a rock, and swamped;
+nevertheless, the brave old boat--although she had not the boasted
+power of self-righting--preserved her centre of gravity, and brought
+both crews to land. At Scarborough, in 1836, the life-boat, in going
+out to a vessel, turned completely end over end, 'shutting up one of
+the crew inside, where he remained in safety, getting fresh air
+through the tubes in the bottom, and was taken out when the boat
+drifted, bottom upwards, on the beach: ten lives were lost.' In 1841,
+the life-boat at Blyth, Northumberland, capsized, and ten men were
+drowned. At Robin Hood's Bay, Yorkshire, in 1843, the life-boat
+capsized, three men remaining under her bottom, while others got upon
+it. The accident was seen from the shore, and five men put off in a
+coble, fitted with air-cases like a life-boat; but she almost
+immediately turned end over end, and two men were drowned. The
+life-boat herself drifted ashore, and the three men under her bottom
+were saved. In all, twelve lives were lost. But the most lamentable
+disaster that ever befell a life-boat was at South Shields, on
+December 4, 1849, when twenty-four men, all pilots, went off to rescue
+the crew of the _Betsy_, stranded on Herd Sand. 'The boat had reached
+the wreck, and was lying alongside with her head to the eastward, with
+a rope fast to the quarter, but the bow-fast not secured. The
+shipwrecked men were about to descend into the life-boat, when a heavy
+knot of sea, recoiling from the bow of the vessel, caught the bow of
+the boat and turned her up on end, throwing the whole crew and the
+water into the stern-sheets. The bow-fast not holding, the boat drove
+in this position astern of the vessel, when the ebb-tide, running
+rapidly into her stern, the boat completely turned end over end, and
+went on shore bottom up. On this occasion, twenty out of
+twenty-four--or double the proper crew--were drowned under the boat.
+On seeing the accident, two other life-boats immediately dashed off
+from North and South Shields, saved four of the men, and rescued the
+crew of the _Betsy_.' It is added, that the life-boats have been in
+constant use at Shields since Greathead first launched his boat there
+in 1790, and excepting the above accident, no life has ever been lost
+in them, or from want of them. Between 1841 and 1849, they saved 466
+lives. But good is frequently educed from evil, and it was this very
+disaster at Shields that induced the Duke of Northumberland to offer a
+premium for the best life-boat; and his Grace has now, with princely
+liberality, undertaken to place a well-built life-boat at each of the
+most exposed points of the coast of his own county, with rockets or
+mortars at every intermediate station.
+
+As to dimensions, the existing life-boats are of three classes: from
+20 to 25 feet long, from 25 to 30 feet, and from 30 to 36 feet. Some
+are only 18 feet long, and on thinly-inhabited coasts are the best, as
+unless a regular crew is provided, it is often difficult to man a
+large boat--at least efficiently. The largest boats are used at
+Caistor and Corton, in Norfolk, and are 40 to 45 feet long, weigh from
+four to five tons, and cost L.200 to L.250 each. They are said to be
+admirable vessels of the kind, and well manned. The 36 feet boat is
+used at Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Deal, &c., and always goes off under
+sail. The 30 feet boat is used at Liverpool, Shields, Dundee, &c.; and
+one of those at Liverpool brought sixty people ashore on one occasion.
+Some of the models sent to the Exhibition were of boats that did not
+weigh more than half a ton; but we fully agree with the lecturer, that
+a boat so light as that would never be able to pull out to sea in a
+head-wind. A life-boat ought to possess a certain weight, or momentum,
+or it will be driven back by the winds, or sucked back by the sea,
+like a feather.
+
+It is exceedingly desirable that all life-boats should have regularly
+trained crews, for an ordinary sailor or fisherman is by no means
+competent to do properly the duty of a life-boatman. The cockswain,
+especially should be well trained.
+
+Captain Washington remarks, that 'a careful examination of the returns
+of wrecks by the Coast-guard officers, forcibly impresses on the mind
+the painful conviction, that the greater part of the casualties that
+occur are not occasioned by stress of weather, but that they are
+mainly attributable to causes within control, and to which a remedy
+might be applied.' This has long been our own opinion, and we have
+again and again expressed it. 'Wherever the boats have been looked
+after, and the crews well trained, as at Liverpool, Shields, and on
+the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk, the most signal success has
+rewarded their exertions. The first step is to insure a safe and
+powerful life-boat, and this, we feel confident, has been
+accomplished; the next is to build a sufficient number of such boats,
+place them where required, organise and train the crews, and provide
+for their supervision and maintenance.... There seems no reason why a
+very few years should not see a life-boat stationed at each of the
+exposed points on the most frequented parts of the coasts of the
+United Kingdom; by means of which--with the blessing of Divine
+Providence upon the endeavours of those who undertake the work--the
+best results to the cause of humanity may confidently be anticipated.'
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[2] Published by Bogue, Fleet Street.
+
+
+
+
+THE SALONS OF PARIS.
+
+
+News has just reached us from Paris of the death of Madame Sophie Gay.
+She was a writer of the half-historical, half-sentimental school of
+French fiction, of which Madame de Genlis, the Duchess d'Abrantes, and
+Madame de Souza were specimens more or less worthy; but in ease and
+grace, Madame Gay was superior to all we have mentioned. It is, in our
+minds, very affecting to witness the last lights of the ancient salons
+of Paris dropping out one by one. Mme Gay has herself, in a single
+volume published in 1837, entitled _Salons Celebres_, left us a very
+beautiful picture of them as they were in their prime. We have
+translated--abridging, however, as we went--the opening chapters of
+this work, and may add a notice of more modern salons, as given by the
+lively pen of Mme Emile de Girardin--_nee_ Delphine Gay--daughter of
+Mme Sophie. The reader will judge whether the fashionable Frenchmen
+and Frenchwomen have really profited much by the storms and tempests
+that have gone over their heads. To be sure, Mme de Girardin's
+pictures were given twelve years ago; but we believe they would
+require little change, at least up to the conclusion of the Orleans
+reign in 1848. The volume from which these last extracts are made, is
+entitled _Lettres Parisiennes_. It has all the wit and talent of the
+cleverest of fashionable Frenchwomen. The tone is sometimes extremely
+good--better than we were led to expect; but the picture it presents
+is about as mournful a one as pictures of French frivolity usually
+are. We will, however, leave them to make their own impression. First,
+then, for Mme Sophie Gay and the ancient _salons_.
+
+Now that the empire of the salons, she observes, has passed away with
+that of women, it would be difficult to convey to our youthful France
+an idea of the influence which certain of these were wont to exercise,
+in state affairs and in the choice of men in power. To have a salon is
+far from an easy thing; a crowd of people may, and do every day, give
+concerts and balls in their gilded apartments, and yet they may never
+have salons. Essential conditions are required which can rarely be
+found in conjunction. The most important of all is the talent and
+character of the lady who does the honours. Without being old, she
+must have passed the age in which a woman is chiefly spoken of for her
+prettiness or her dress, and be at that point of time when a woman's
+mind may rule over the self-love of a man more than her youthful
+attractions enabled her to rule over his heart.
+
+Rank and fortune were important items, not quite indispensable,
+however; for Mme du Deffand was poor, and Mme Geoffrin was the wife of
+a manufacturer. In the salons of these two women edicts were framed,
+and academicians reared; but the questions discussed there were not
+nearly of the importance of those to which Mme de Stael's salon gave
+rise. It was essential that the mistress of the house should have a
+decided and superior taste in a variety of ways; also a total absence
+of those little, envious feelings which might have tended to exclude
+the fashionable woman or successful author. She must know how to bear
+enemies in her presence, to place talents according to their worth, to
+shew the tiresome the way to the door--things which require address
+and courage.
+
+The salon of Mme de Stael, during three different periods of her life,
+took considerable modification from the changes of the time; but it
+was always the same in power, if not in brilliancy.
+
+Under the first Revolution, it was the scene of most momentous
+deliberations. Barnave, Talleyrand, Lameth, Dupont, Boissy d'Anglas,
+Portalis, Chenier, Roederer, and Benjamin Constant, discussed at the
+place of familiar meeting many a half-formed decree, and many
+important state nominations. The only member of the Directory who
+visited there was Barras; and it was a common saying, that every visit
+cost him a good deed; for Mme de Stael never slackened in her
+intercessions for the victims of the tribunals. She infused courage
+into the hearts of those who were pleaders for them. Through her
+means, Talleyrand was recalled, and even named minister of foreign
+affairs. 'He wanted some help,' she said, 'in order to arrive at
+power, but none to enable him to keep it when gained.' Her sagacity
+was at fault, if she persuaded herself that the returned
+emigrant-priest would bring harmony into public counsels. On these
+evenings, pregnant with deeds both evil and good, it was said that
+some very foul conspiracies were concocted, and some of these were
+directly imputed to Mme de Stael; but she earnestly denied the truth
+of such surmises. Her salon, not herself, was guilty. Most generously
+did she exert herself in behalf of those who suffered after such
+conspiracies; but some one was heard to say: 'She is a good woman, but
+would push any of her friends into the water for the delight of
+fishing them up again with her own tackle.'
+
+When the Consulate was established, Mme de Stael's salon empire was
+watched by the rising influence of the day with a jealous eye. It was
+certainly a turbulent scene. Very bitter were the complaints of the
+men of the Revolution. They had risked so much; they had fought so
+courageously for liberty! They saw the disorders of the time, but they
+could not bear to lose all the fruits of their toil; and Garat and
+Andrieux, Daunon and Benjamin Constant, urged on by the eloquence of
+Mme de Stael, framed powerful appeals on these occasions for the
+morrow. Bonaparte could not tolerate this. His power was too recently
+gained--his projects too unripe. In vain did the friends of Mme de
+Stael say, that a _salon_ could never be dangerous to a rule like his.
+'It is not a salon,' said he; 'it is a club.' It was, in fact, the
+antagonism between mind and physical force. The First Consul had said
+before, of the orators of the Tribune: 'I have no time to answer these
+refractory speechifiers: they _do_ nothing but perplex all things;
+they must be silenced.' And one great point of attack was Mme de
+Stael's salon. It was necessary she should abdicate her throne. A
+sentence of banishment condemned the brilliant lady to lay down the
+sceptre. Exiled to Geneva, surrounded by friends, sharing her father's
+lot, occupied with her daughter's education, she had, it may be
+thought, plenty of objects: she was unquestionably the first literary
+woman in Europe, too, and as such, Geneva was as her salon, where she
+received the homage of royalty and talent. Yet, a true Frenchwoman,
+unable to bear separation from the peculiar atmosphere in which she
+had been reared, she pined after it--pined still more for the friends
+who visited her only to be partakers of her exile; and so she passed
+the whole period of the Napoleon dynasty.
+
+Meanwhile, in the interval between the banishment of Mme de Stael and
+her return, the most captivating mistress of a Paris salon appears to
+have been Mme de Beaumont. She was the daughter of M. de Montmorin,
+the minister of foreign affairs, who had immediately followed Necker.
+She married early, and not happily. She lived with her father,
+separated from her husband, and was intrusted to transcribe some of
+the very important correspondence between Mirabeau and the court. In
+the Reign of Terror, her father, and it is thought others of her
+family, fell by the guillotine; but she herself was spared, even
+against her will. She retired for awhile into the country, visiting
+among her friends, who did all they could to console her. She was the
+object of the strongest attachment on the part of Chateaubriand,
+Joubert, Fontanes, Mole, and many others; and when, once more, quiet
+and order were restored, even at the sacrifice of much of liberty, she
+came to Paris again. Her old friends rallied about her, her spirits
+seemed to revive for awhile, and her salon was for a year or two a
+scene of remarkable enjoyment. One who truly appreciated her, and who
+was worthy to be himself the centre of a social circle--M. Joubert,
+the author of some beautiful thoughts on literature and divers other
+subjects--thus tenderly commemorates the evenings to which we have
+alluded: 'Peaceful society! where none of those disuniting pretensions
+which spoil enjoyment could come; where acknowledged talent was not
+divorced from good temper; where praise was given to whatever was
+praiseworthy; where nothing was thought of but what was really
+attractive. Peaceful society! whose scattered members can never unite
+again without speaking of her who was the connecting link that brought
+them all together.'
+
+To our minds, there seems something unique and infinitely touching in
+this bursting out, though but for a short time, of the slumbering
+fires of an older society, from underneath the heaps of hard and alien
+material which had gone far to extinguish every spark of gentleness
+and refinement. The relics of families--their hearts still bleeding
+from their wounds--came to forget, if possible, the terrible past, and
+indulge their quiet hopes for the future. Very soon, indeed, the dream
+was dispelled; the tyranny proved to some unbearable; and some it
+vanquished in their highest part--their inward conscience--making them
+subservient when they might have shunned the danger altogether. But
+while the quiet interval lasted, it was like an Indian summer,
+prolonging the intellectual and tasteful beauty which was soon to be
+overwhelmed by the vulgar splendours of the Empire.
+
+The greatest loss this circle could have had was the first. Mme de
+Beaumont died at Rome in 1804--attended only by Chateaubriand--who has
+given an account of the closing scene in his memoirs, and thenceforth
+it does not appear that the same society reassembled.
+
+But another and third edition of the salon, under Mme de Stael, was
+witnessed at the Restoration. Hitherto we have sketched from Mme
+Sophie Gay's pictures. At this period, she declares herself unable to
+bear the mortification of mingling with the public of Paris: she could
+not see the Cossacks without shuddering. She shut herself up in her
+house, and knew what passed only through the kindness of friends, who
+wrote narratives for her amusement of any remarkable incidents they
+might note. Among these communications, Mme Sophie Gay has preserved
+one from the Marquis de Custine, and she has given it as a faithful
+picture of one of the last of Mme de Stael's soirees in Paris.
+
+'I am just returned, and will not go to bed without telling you what
+has most amused me--not that _amused_ is the right word, for Mme de
+Stael's salon is more than a scene of amusement: it is a glass in
+which is reflected the history of the time. What we see and hear there
+is more instructive than books, more exciting than many comedies....
+
+'You know that the Duke of Wellington was to visit her this evening
+for the first time. I went in good time; she was not yet in the room:
+several others were also waiting--such as the Abbe de Pradt, Benjamin
+Constant, La Fayette. They were conversing; I remained in one corner,
+as if listening to them.... At length Mme de Stael came in. "I am
+late," she said; "but it is not my fault. I was invited to dine
+at----, and was obliged to go." A great many of the guests were come:
+all were looking for the hero of the evening--we had seen him only as
+part of a show, now we wanted to hear him converse. At length he
+entered. The nobleness of his figure and simplicity of his manners
+produced a most agreeable impression on us. His pride, as it ought,
+has nearly the grace of timidity. Mme de Stael, impressed by a style
+and manner so little like that of our countrymen, said: "He carries
+his glory as if it were a nothing." Then, by a quick recall of
+patriotism, she whispered in my ear: "One must admit, however, that
+nature never made a great man at less expense." It seemed to me that
+the whole man was portrayed in these brief remarks.
+
+'You would suppose, after this _debut_, that we had a very pleasant
+evening: you shall judge. The Duke had not reached the end of the
+salon, when the Abbe de Pradt fastened on him, and actually forced him
+to listen for at least three-quarters of an hour, while he expressed
+his ideas--the ideas of the Abbe de Pradt!--upon military tactics.
+Conceive the wrath of Mme de Stael, and the annoyance of everybody
+there! M. Schlegel said, that he could fancy he was listening to that
+rhetorician who pronounced a discourse on the art of war to Hannibal.
+
+'This remark did not make amends for the nuisance of hearing in good
+French what we all knew before, when what we wanted was to listen to
+new things, in a foreign accent. Among the very few words which the
+English general was allowed to put in, I caught one sentence which
+struck me. While the abbe took breath, or coughed, the warrior had
+just time to tell us, that the most awful day in the life of a
+commander is that in which he has gained a battle; because, before
+having passed a night on the ground, and being assured on the morrow
+of the departure of the enemy, the conqueror cannot even know whether
+he is not conquered.
+
+'Everything has its cost in this world, and if every man told us his
+secret, we should see that the most dazzling triumphs are paid for at
+their full price. However that may be, I thought there was sense and
+good taste in the Duke's remark. It seemed as if he tried to make us
+forgive him for exciting our curiosity so much.
+
+'Many people went away discouraged by the bad manners of M. de Pradt.
+The hero himself was thinking of a retreat, when Mme de Stael came to
+release him from the ambuscade into which he had fallen. She retained
+him near the door, and there was a grave conversation on the English
+constitution. Mme de Stael could not reconcile the idea of political
+liberty, with the prevalence of servile forms remaining in the
+individual relationships of a society so jealous of that liberty as
+England.
+
+'"Language and aristocratic customs do not annoy people living in a
+country that is really free," said the Duke. "We use these unimportant
+formulae in compliment to the past, and preserve our ceremonies as we
+keep a memorial, even when it has lost its primitive destination."
+
+'"But is it true," asked Mme de Stael, "that your lord chancellor
+speaks to the king on his bended knee during the opening address or
+sitting of parliament?"
+
+'"Yes; quite true."
+
+'"How _does_ he do it?"
+
+'"He speaks to him kneeling, as I have told you."
+
+'"But how?"
+
+'"Must I shew you? You _will_ have it!" answered the Duke; and he
+threw himself at the feet of our Corinna.
+
+'"I wish everybody could see him," cried Mme de Stael.
+
+'And everybody there did applaud with one accord. I would not answer
+for the same unanimity of approbation among the same people after they
+had reached the foot of the staircase.
+
+'Everybody went away, only I stayed two hours with the mistress of the
+house and M. Schlegel, whose anger against the abbe did not wear out.
+These two hours Mme de Stael's conversation enchanted me, proving how
+much there is to attach us in one who can live at one and the same
+time so near and yet so far above the world.... I might pass many
+evenings in recounting in detail the conversation of this evening.
+There is more than matter for a book in a two hours' talk with Mme de
+Stael. I had better go to bed, that I may be able to tell you
+to-morrow all I can only leave you to guess at now.'[3]
+
+And now we come to a later period, and Mme Sophie Gay shall give place
+to her lively and clever daughter Delphine, Mme Emile Girardin.
+
+'Parisian society,' she writes, 'now, in 1839, offers the strangest
+aspect that ever was seen--a mixture of luxury and rudeness, English
+propriety and French negligence, political absurdities and
+revolutionary terrors, of which it is hard to form a just conception.
+The luxury of the salons is truly Eastern, not only the salons,
+indeed, but the anterooms: an anteroom in a handsome hotel is more
+richly adorned than the most beautiful drawing-room of the provincial
+prefecture. There, footmen more or less powdered--for there are rebels
+who choose to wear so little powder, that you would rather take them
+for millers, in livery, than for servants of the anteroom--these
+self-styled powdered lackeys offer you a great book, bound in velvet,
+with the corners bronzed and gilt, in which you are asked to write
+your name. If the lady of the house is visible, you are pompously
+ushered into the sanctuary--that is to say, into the second salon or
+parlour, or closet, or _atelier_, whichever best assorts with the
+pretensions of the lady. A dog darts upon you, barks, makes a show of
+biting you; he is quieted, submits, and regains his purple cushion,
+growling. Dogs are very much in fashion: together with the fire,
+flowers, an old aunt, and two toadies, they make up part of the living
+accompaniments of a genteel salon. As you are an elegant person, of
+course you are ill-dressed: your coat is dusty, your boots speckled
+with mud, your hair uncombed, you exhale a strong odour of tobacco. At
+first glance, such things seem rather disagreeable, common, and
+inelegant. No such thing: this is exactly the most fashionable style
+we have; it seems to say: "I have just dismounted from the finest
+horse in Paris. I am a man of fashion, of that distinguished position
+in society, that I can go in a morning to call on a duchess, _dressed
+like a highwayman_."
+
+'On the other hand, the mistress of the house is charming. One must do
+women the justice to say, that they never take a pride in ugliness;
+that they never make elegance to consist in appearing to the greatest
+possible disadvantage. The woman whom you are visiting, then, is
+dressed in the best taste. A beautiful lace cap covers her light hair;
+she wears a soft figured Gros do Naples; her stockings are of
+exquisite fineness; her shoes irreproachable (we doubt not they bear
+the mark of either Gros or Mueller); her Valenciennes cuffs are
+irresistible: everything betokens care and fastidious nicety. The
+freshness of her appearance is a satire on the negligence of yours.
+One cannot comprehend why this elegant woman should have prepared
+herself in so costly a manner to receive this man; and in the evening,
+really the contrast is greater still. Young men no longer wear
+stockings when they go into a party; yet they dare not just yet
+present themselves in boots; and therefore they come in _brodequins_,
+like students. We are in the age of the _juste-milieu_; and this is
+appropriate enough. The _brodequin_ is in its right place half-way
+between shoes and boots. These ill-dressed men are surrounded by women
+blazing in jewels and diamonds, coronets and diadems. It is impossible
+to believe that such differently dressed beings can be of the same
+country and station in society; and yet they are all talking and
+chirping together: and what conversation! what a conflict of subjects!
+what an inexplicable picture of forethought and thoughtlessness! or
+rather of apathy!
+
+'"And do you also believe in a revolution, M. de P----?" inquires a
+charming princess, spreading out her fan.
+
+'"Certainly, madame; and I hope we shall have one sooner than some may
+think."
+
+'"What! monsieur--you make me tremble."
+
+'"Can you, then, be afraid of a revolution which will bring about what
+you wish for?"
+
+'"No; but we shall have some cruel moments to pass through."
+
+'"Some may; but not everybody."
+
+'"Bah! revolutions make no selection; and then, when once the scaffold
+is set up"----
+
+'"How fast you travel, madame: in our day we shall never bear with
+scaffolds. The days of Terror will never return!"
+
+'"I think with M. de P----," chimes in a young dandy, playing with a
+Chinese ape on the table: "I rather look for civil war."
+
+'"I do not expect it; we have not energy enough for a civil war." ...
+
+'"But you will have household assassinations, probably, if that will
+be any comfort."
+
+'"And then, the pillage of Paris!"
+
+'"Pillage!"
+
+'"Certainly." And every one cries:
+
+'"Oh, well, if there is pillage, I will be in it."
+
+'"I shall come to your house, madame," says one. "I shall carry away
+this beautiful vase."
+
+'"And I, the plate."
+
+'"And I, the charming portrait."
+
+'"I have no fixed idea yet. I shall come to your house to-morrow,
+madame, to choose," &c.
+
+'"All this will be very amusing; and yet, when the day comes, I shall
+not be sorry to be in Italy."
+
+'"Well, let us set out, then."
+
+'"Not yet, but soon. I will warn you when it is best to go." And so
+they talk on of all these horrible things, half buried under canopies
+of _lampas_, surrounded by flowers, by the light of thousands of
+wax-candles burning in golden lustres; and these women, who foresee
+such great catastrophes--tragical events, which may divide them from
+all they love, from parents, from friends--have beautiful dresses,
+with trimmings from England, and make the prettiest little gestures
+while speaking. It is because in France vanity is so deeply rooted
+that it leads to indifference. Presumption stands in lieu of courage.
+They believe in disasters, but only for others: they never seem to
+expect them for themselves.'
+
+So much for national character. If all this be a truthful picture, and
+really we see no reason for doubt, it does but add another to the many
+proofs of the springing elasticity of that element of light-hearted
+short-sightedness which is so proverbially characteristic of the
+French. But we will say no more, for our paper has already exceeded
+the limits we had assigned to it; and the things that _are_ must ever
+prevail in our pages over those that have been.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] Perhaps the reader of the above will partake our own feeling of
+surprise at one circumstance which it records. How happened it, that
+the accomplished lady of a Parisian salon could not shield her chief
+guest, and all her guests, from the impertinence of one among them? To
+us this seems incomprehensible, and excites our suspicion that Mme de
+Stael could not have been among those mistresses of the science of
+tact, of whom elsewhere Mme Gay speaks. The whole charm of the evening
+was here allowed to be spoiled.
+
+
+
+
+THE OLD CASTLES AND MANSIONS OF SCOTLAND.
+
+
+The father of mental philosophy, Aristotle, begins his work on ethics
+by telling us, that nothing exists without some theory or reason
+attached to it. The following out of this view leads to
+classification--that great engine of knowledge. We see things at first
+in isolated individuality or confused masses. Investigation teaches us
+to separate them into groups, which have some common and important
+principle of unity, though each individual of the group may be
+different from the others in detail. Thus we arrive at the great
+classifications of natural science, with which every one is more or
+less familiar. But the works of men have their classification too, for
+in human effort like causes produce like effects. Most people know
+what schools of poetry, painting, and music are. In architecture, we
+know, too, that there are great divisions--such as classic and Gothic.
+But many have yet to learn how far classification may go; and it is a
+new feature to have the peculiar national architecture of Scotland
+separated from that of England, and its peculiarities traced to
+interesting national events and habits. The common observer is apt to
+think that all buildings are much alike, or that each is alone in its
+peculiarities. Before classification can take place, there must be a
+collection and comparison of leading characteristics; and this is not
+easily accomplished with the edifices scattered over a whole country.
+It may be said that it was never done for Scotland, until Mr Billings
+completed his great series of engravings of the baronial and
+ecclesiastical antiquities of Scotland.
+
+Taking the former--the baronial--for our text, we find ourselves now
+for the first time in a condition to discover the leading features of
+the Scottish school of architecture, and to connect it with the
+history of Scotland. We know that until the wars of Wallace and Bruce,
+the two countries, England and Scotland, could scarcely be said to be
+entirely separated; at all events, they did not stand in open
+hostility to each other. Endless animosities, however, naturally
+followed a war in which the one country tried to enslave the other,
+and where the weaker only escaped annihilation by a desperate
+struggle. It is not unnatural, therefore, to expect that the habits of
+the two countries diverged from each other as time passed on; and this
+process is very distinctly shewn in the character of the edifices used
+by the barons and lairds of Scotland. A very few of the oldest
+strongholds resemble those of the same period in England. The English
+baronial castle of the thirteenth century generally consisted of
+several massive square or round towers, broad at the base, and
+tapering upwards, arranged at distances from each other, so that lofty
+embattled walls or curtains stood between them, making a ground-plan
+of which the towers formed the angles. The doors and windows were
+generally in the Gothic or pointed style of architecture, and the
+vaulted chambers were frequently of the same. There are not above
+three or four such edifices in Scotland. The most complete, perhaps,
+is the old part of Caerlaverock, in Dumfriesshire; another fine
+specimen is Dirleton, in East Lothian; and to these may be added
+Bothwell, in Clydesdale, and Kildrummie, in Aberdeenshire.
+
+This style was long followed in England. It is known as the baronial,
+and architects in all parts of the country, when building a modern
+mansion in the castellated manner, have invariably followed it. It is
+easy to see, however, that it was early abandoned in Scotland, the
+people not taking their forms of architecture from a nation with which
+they had no connection but that of hostility. The first species of
+national baronial architecture to which they resorted was a very
+simple one, characteristic of an impoverished people. It consisted of
+little more than four stone walls, forming what in fortification is
+called a blockhouse. The walls were extremely thick, with few
+apertures, and these suspiciously small. But these old towers or keeps
+were not without some scientific preparations for defence. In the more
+ancient baronial castles, the large square or round towers at the
+angles served to flank the walls or curtains between them; that is,
+supposing an enemy to be approaching the main gate, he could be
+attacked on either side from the towers at the angles. To serve the
+same purpose, the Scottish keeps had small bastions or turrets at the
+corners, which, projecting over the wall, flanked it on each face. The
+simple expedient here adopted is at the root of all the complex
+devices of fortification. The main thing is just to build a strong
+edifice, and then, by flanking outworks, to prevent an enemy from
+getting up to it. In other respects, these square towers were scarcely
+to be considered peculiarly Scottish. They are to be found in all
+parts of the world--along the Wall of China; in the Russian steppes;
+in Italy, where they are sometimes remains of republican Rome; and in
+Central India. They constitute, in fact, the most primitive form of a
+fortified house.
+
+When we come a century or two later, the difference between the
+English and Scottish styles becomes more distinct and interesting.
+Almost every one is acquainted with that beautiful style of building
+called in England the Tudor or Elizabethan, with its decorated
+chimneys, its ornamented gables, and large oriel or bow windows. It is
+not well suited for defence, and denotes a rich country, where private
+warfare has decayed. This class of edifice is rarely, if at all, to be
+found north of the border; but much as it is to be admired, a
+contemporary style sprang up in Scotland entirely distinct from it,
+yet, in our opinion, quite fitted to rival it in interest and beauty.
+It was derived, in some measure, from Flanders, but chiefly from
+France. The Scots naturally looked to their friends as an example,
+rather than to their enemies. Many of the Scottish gentry made their
+fortunes in the French service, and when they came home, naturally
+desired to imitate, on such a scale as they could afford, the chateaux
+of their allies and patrons. The state of the country, too, made it a
+more suitable pattern than the Tudor style. France was still a country
+of feudal warfare--so was Scotland; and it was necessary in both to
+have defence associated with ornament. The chief peculiarity of this
+new style was, the quantity of sharp-topped turrets, which form a sort
+of crest to the many details of the lower parts of the buildings.
+These are not solely ornamental; they succeeded the bastions of the
+old square towers, and served the same purpose. Among the secondary
+peculiarities of these buildings, may be counted an extremely rich and
+profuse ornamentation of the upper parts--probably the only portions
+out of the way of mischief. Indeed, the edifice is sometimes a mere
+square block for two or three storeys, while it is crowned, as it
+were, with a rich group of turrets and minarets, gables, window-tops,
+ornamented chimneys, and gilded vanes. In many instances, the great
+square block of older days received this fantastic French termination
+at a later time--as, for instance, the famous castle of Glammis, in
+Strathmore.
+
+It almost appears as if this style, which has its own peculiar
+beauties, had been adopted out of a national antagonism to the
+contemporary style in England. The Tudor architecture has always a
+horizontal tendency, spreading itself out in broad open screens or
+wall-plates, diversified by occasional angular eminences--as, for
+instance, in the tops of the decorated windows. But in the
+Gallo-Scottish style everything tends to the perpendicular, not only
+in the long, narrow shapes of the buildings themselves, and their
+tall, spiral turrets, but in the many decorations which incrust them.
+This decoration has an extremely rich look, from the quantity of
+breaks, and the absence of bare wall or long straight lines. Thus, to
+save the uniform plainness of the straight gable-line, it is broken
+into small gradations called 'crow-steps.' Every one who looks at old
+houses in Scotland must be familiar with this feature, and must have
+noticed its picturesqueness. It appears to have been derived from the
+Flemish houses, where, however, the steps or terraces are much larger,
+and not so effective, since, instead of merely breaking and enriching
+the line of the gable, they break it up, as it were, into separate
+pieces.
+
+The Scottish style has not, indeed, slavishly adopted any foreign
+model. It is, as we have remarked, chiefly adopted from the French;
+but it has characteristics and beauties of its own. No one, we
+believe, had any conception of their extent and variety, until they
+were brought to light by the artistic labours of Mr Billings. In some
+instances, to bring out the full effect of the ornamental parts of
+these buildings without overloading his picture with the more cumbrous
+plain stone-work, he brings forward, by some artistic manoeuvre, the
+crest of the building, as if the spectator saw it from a scaffold or a
+balloon level with the highest storey. The effect of the rich
+Oriental-looking mass of decoration thus concentrated is extremely
+striking, and one is apt to ask, if it is possible that the country so
+often characterised as bare, cold, and impoverished, could have
+produced these gorgeous edifices. Their number and distribution
+through the most remote parts of the land are equally remarkable.
+Among Mr Billings's specimens, we have, in the southern part of
+Scotland, Pinkie, near Musselburgh; Auchans and Kelburn, in Ayrshire;
+Newark, on the Clyde; Airth and Argyle's Lodging, in Stirling. Going
+northward, we come to Elcho and Glammis, and to Muchalls and Crathes,
+in Kincardineshire. It is remarkable, that the further north we go,
+the French style becomes more conspicuous and complete. Many of the
+finest specimens are to be found in Aberdeenshire. Fyvie Castle, which
+was built for a Scottish chancellor--Seton, Earl of Dunfermline--is
+almost a complete French chateau of the sixteenth century, such as the
+traveller may have seen in sunny Guienne or Anjou; and there it stands
+transplanted, like an exotic, among the bleak hills of the north. It
+is only natural to find in connection with such a circumstance, that
+Seton received his education in France, and passed a considerable part
+of his life there. Whether from such an example or not, the
+Aberdeenshire lairds seem to have been all ambitious of possessing
+French chateaux; and thus in the county of primitive rock, where there
+is certainly little else to remind us of French habits or ideas, we
+have some admirable specimens of that foreign architectural school in
+Castle Fraser, Craigievar, Midmar, Tolquhon, Dalpersie, and Udny.
+Nearer Inverness, we have Balveny, Castle-Stewart, and Cawdor.
+
+The same foreign influence is exhibited in our street architecture,
+some specimens of which are engraved in the work to which we have
+referred.[4] Every one knows that the lofty Scottish edifices with
+common stairs--houses built above each other, in fact--give our large
+towns a character totally different from those of England; but it is
+equally clear that the practice was derived from France, where it is
+still in full observance literally among all classes, since the
+different social grades occupy separate floors of the same edifices.
+In the _coup d'etat_ of 1851, it will be remembered, that in making
+the arrests of the leading men supposed to be inimical to Louis
+Napoleon, one of the difficulties--as the affair took place at
+midnight--was to know the floors in which they lived; for these great
+statesmen and generals inhabited houses with common stairs.
+
+We have here discussed one special feature of Mr Billings's work, on
+account of the remarks which it suggests; but it is only right to
+mention, before parting with it, that it contains engravings of every
+thing that is remarkable in the ancient architecture of Scotland,
+whether it be called civil and baronial or ecclesiastical. Certainly,
+the remains of antiquity in North Britain were never previously so
+amply and completely illustrated. Nor is it without reason, that some
+contemporary critics have maintained this to be the most entire
+collection of the sort which any nation possesses. The chief merits of
+the views consist in their accuracy and effect. They are wonderfully
+clear and minute, so that every detail of the least importance is
+brought out as distinctly as in a model, while this is accomplished
+without sacrifice of their artistic effect as pictures.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[4] Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland. By William
+Burn and W. Billings. 4 vols. 4to. Blackwoods, Edinburgh.
+
+
+
+
+AMERICAN HONOUR.
+
+
+About seventy-five years ago, there was at Charleston, in South
+Carolina, a family consisting of several members. It belonged to the
+middle class--that is to say, contained barristers, bankers,
+merchants, solicitors, and so on--all of them animated, at least so
+far as appears, by a high sense of honour and integrity. But noble
+sentiments are no certain guarantee against poverty. One of the
+members of the family in question became embarrassed, borrowed L.1000
+of one of his relatives, but was soon after seized with paralysis,
+and, having kept his bed five years, died, leaving behind him a widow
+with several children. He could bequeath them no property, instead of
+which they received as their inheritance high principles, and a strong
+affection for the memory of their father. The widow also was, in this
+respect, perfectly in harmony with her sons. By dint, therefore, of
+prudence, industry, and economy, they amassed among them the sum of
+L.400, which they rigidly appropriated to the repayment of a part of
+their father's debt. The old man had, indeed, called them together
+around his death-bed, and told them that, instead of a fortune, he
+left them a duty to perform; and that if it could not be accomplished
+in one generation, it must be handed down from father to son, until
+the descendants of the B----s had paid every farthing to the
+descendants of the S----s.
+
+While matters stood in this predicament, the creditor part of the
+family removed to England, and the debtors remained at Charleston,
+struggling with difficulties and embarrassments, which not only
+disabled them from paying the paternal debt, but kept them perpetually
+in honourable poverty. Of course, the wish to pay in such minds
+survived the ability. It would have been to them an enjoyment of a
+high order to hunt out their relatives in England, and place in their
+hands the owing L.600. This pleasure, which they were destined never
+to taste, often formed the subject of conversation around their
+fireside; and the children, as they grew up, were initiated into the
+mystery of the L.600.
+
+But that generation passed away, and another succeeded to the
+liability; not that there existed any liability in law, for though a
+deed had been executed, it had lapsed in the course of time, so that
+there was really no obligation but that which was the strongest of
+all--an uneradicable sense of right. Often and often did the B----s of
+Charleston meet and consult together on this famous debt, which every
+one wished, but no one could afford, to pay. The sons were married,
+and had children whom it was incumbent on them to support; the
+daughters had married, too, but their husbands possibly did not
+acquire with their wives the chivalrous sense of duty which possessed
+the breast of every member, male and female, of the B. family, and
+inspired them with a wish to do justice when fortune permitted.
+
+It would be infinitely agreeable to collect and peruse the letters and
+records of consultations which passed or took place between the
+members of this family on the subject of the L.600. These documents
+would form the materials of one of the most delightful romances in the
+world--the romance of honour, which never dies in some families, but
+is transmitted from generation to generation like a treasure above all
+price. When this brief notice is read in Charleston, it may possibly
+lead to the collection of these materials, which, with the proper
+names of all the persons engaged, should, we think, be laid before the
+world as a pleasing record of hereditary nobility of sentiment.
+
+After the lapse of many years, a widow and her three nephews found
+themselves in possession of the necessary means for paying the family
+debt. Three-quarters of a century had elapsed. The children and the
+children's children of the original borrower had passed away; but the
+honour of the B. family had been transmitted intact to the fourth
+generation, and a search was immediately commenced to discover the
+creditors in England. This, however, as may well be supposed, was no
+easy task. The members of the S. family had multiplied and separated,
+married and intermarried, become poor and wealthy, distinguished and
+obscure by turns, changed their topographical as well as their social
+position, and disappeared entirely from the spot they had occupied on
+their first arrival from America.
+
+But honour is indefatigable, and by degrees a letter reached a person
+in Kensington, who happened to possess some knowledge of a lady of the
+S. family, married to a solicitor practising with great success and
+distinction in London. When the letter came to hand, she at first
+doubted whether it might not be a sort of grave hoax, intended to
+excite expectation for the pleasure of witnessing its disappointment.
+However, the English solicitor, accustomed to the incidents of life,
+thought there would at least be no harm in replying to the letter from
+Charleston, and discovering in this way the real state of the affair.
+
+Some delay necessarily occurred, especially as the B. family in
+America were old world sort of people, accustomed to transact business
+slowly and methodically, and with due attention to the minutest
+points. But at length a reply came, in which the writer observed, that
+if a deed of release were drawn up, signed by all the parties
+concerned in England, and transmitted to America, the L.600 should
+immediately be forwarded for distribution among the members of the S.
+family. Some demur now arose. Some of the persons concerned growing
+prudent as the chances of recovering the money appeared to multiply,
+thought it would be wrong to send the deed of release before the money
+had been received. But the solicitor had not learned, in the practice
+of his profession, to form so low an estimate of human nature. He
+considered confidence in this case to be synonymous with prudence, and
+at anyrate resolved to take upon himself the entire responsibility of
+complying with the wishes of the Americans. He accordingly drew up the
+necessary document, got it signed by as many as participated in his
+views, and sent it across the Atlantic, without the slightest doubt or
+hesitation. There had been something in the rough, blunt honesty of Mr
+B----'s letter that inspired in the man of law the utmost reliance on
+his faith, though during the interval which elapsed between the
+transmission of the deed and the reception of an answer from the
+States, several of his friends exhibited a disposition to make
+themselves merry at the expense of his chivalry. But when we consider
+all the particulars of the case, we can hardly fail to perceive that
+he ran no risk whatever; for even if the debt had not legally lapsed,
+the people who had retained it in their memory through three
+generations--who had from father to son practised strict economy in
+order to relieve themselves from the burden--who had, with much
+difficulty and some expense, sought out the heirs of their creditor in
+a distant country, could scarcely be suspected of any inclination to
+finish off with a fraud at last.
+
+Still, if there was honour on one side, there was enlarged confidence
+on the other; and in the course of a few months, the American mail
+brought to London the famous L.600 due since before the War of
+Independence. The business now was to divide and distribute it. Of
+course, each of the creditors was loud in expressions of admiration of
+the honour of the B. family, whose representative, while forwarding
+the money, asked with much simplicity to have a few old English
+newspapers sent out to him by way of acknowledgment. For his own part,
+however, he experienced a strong desire to behold some of the persons
+to whom he had thus paid a debt of the last century; and he gave a
+warm and pressing invitation to any of them, to come out and stay as
+long as they thought proper at his house in Charleston. Had the
+invitation been accepted, we cannot doubt that Brother Jonathan would
+have acted as hospitably in the character of host as he behaved
+honourably in that of debtor. It would have been a pleasure, we might
+indeed say a distinction, to live under the same roof with such a man,
+whose very name carries us back to the primitive times of the colony,
+when Charleston was a city of the British Empire, and English laws,
+manners, habits, and feelings regulated the proceedings and relations
+of its inhabitants. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the London
+solicitor will some day drop in quietly upon his friend in Charleston,
+to smoke a cigar, and discuss old times with him. He will in that case
+probably fancy himself chatting with a contemporary of Rip Van Winkle.
+Doubtless there are thousands of such men in the States, where
+frequently everything that is estimable in the English character is
+cultivated with assiduity.
+
+How the property was distributed among the S. family in England, we
+need not say. Each surviving individual had his or her share. The
+solicitor was only connected with them by marriage; but with good old
+English ideas of uprightness and integrity, he was fully able to
+appreciate the Charleston lawyer's sentiments. He would have done
+exactly the same himself under similar circumstances; and therefore,
+had the sum been tens of thousands instead of hundreds, it could not
+be said to have fallen into bad hands. Whether the transaction above
+noticed has led or not to a continued correspondence between the
+families, we are unable to say; but we think the creditors in England
+would naturally have felt a pleasure in exchanging intelligence from
+time to time with their worthy debtors in Charleston. These things,
+however, are private, and therefore we do not intend to trench upon
+them.
+
+
+
+
+THE PARLOUR AQUARIUM.
+
+
+It is not many years since Mr Ward first drew the attention of
+botanists to the cultivation of plants in closely-glazed cases; but
+the most sanguine dreams of the discoverer could not then have
+foretold the many useful purposes to which the Wardian Case has become
+applicable, nor the important influence which it was destined to
+obtain in promoting the pleasant pursuits of gardening and botany. The
+Wardian Case has been instrumental in diffusing a love of these
+pursuits among all classes of society. It has opened up to those whose
+pursuits confine them within the limits of the city's smoke-cloud, a
+means whereby they may obtain 'a peep at nature, if they can no more.'
+Far removed from green fields and leafy woods, they may, for instance,
+enjoy their leisure mornings in watching one of the most beautiful
+phenomena of vegetable development--the evolution of the circinate
+fronds of the fern; a plant in every respect associated with elegance
+and beauty. This kind of gardening has, therefore, become of late
+years one of the most fashionable, while at the same time one of the
+most pleasant sources of domestic amusement.
+
+An interesting companion to the Wardian Case has lately been presented
+in the Aquatic Plant Case, or Parlour Aquarium, due to the ingenuity
+of Mr Warington, and which has for its object, as its name indicates,
+the cultivation of aquatic or water plants. It may be described as a
+combination of the Wardian Case and the gold-fish globe, the object
+being to illustrate the mutual dependence of animal and vegetable
+life. Mr Warington has lately detailed his experiments. 'The small
+gold-fish were placed in a glass-receiver of about twelve gallons'
+capacity, having a cover of thin muslin stretched over a stout copper
+wire, bent into a circle, placed over its mouth, so as to exclude as
+much as possible the sooty dust of the London atmosphere, without, at
+the same time, impeding the free passage of the atmospheric air. This
+receiver was about half-filled with ordinary spring-water, and
+supplied at the bottom with sand and mud, together with loose stones
+of limestone tufa from Matlock, and of sandstone: these were arranged
+so that the fish could get below.... A small plant of _Vallisneria
+spiralis_ was introduced, its roots being inserted in the mud and
+sand, and covered by one of the loose stones, so as to retain the
+plant in its position.... The materials being thus arranged, all
+appeared to go on well for a short time, until circumstances occurred
+which indicated that another and very material agent was required to
+perfect the adjustment.' The decaying leaves of the vallisneria
+produced a slime which began to affect the fish injuriously: this it
+was necessary to get quit of. Mr Warington introduced five or six
+snails (_Limnea stagnalis_), 'which soon removed the nuisance, and
+restored the fish to a healthy state; thus perfecting the balance
+between the animal and vegetable inhabitants, and enabling both to
+perform their functions with health and energy. So luxuriant was the
+growth of the vallisneria under these circumstances, that by the
+autumn the one solitary plant originally introduced had thrown out
+very numerous offshoots and suckers, thus multiplying to the extent of
+upwards of thirty-five strong plants, and these threw up their long
+spiral flower-stems in all directions, so that at one time more than
+forty blossoms were counted lying on the surface of the water. The
+fish have been lively, bright in colour, and appear very healthy; and
+the snails also--judging from the enormous quantities of gelatinous
+masses of eggs which they have deposited on all parts of the receiver,
+as well as on the fragments of stone--appear to thrive wonderfully,
+affording a large quantity of food to the fish in the form of the
+young snails, which are devoured as soon as they exhibit signs of
+vitality and locomotion, and before their shell has become hardened.'
+
+In remarking upon the result of his experiments, Mr Warington
+observes: 'Thus we have that admirable balance sustained between the
+animal and vegetable kingdoms, and that in a liquid element. The fish,
+in its respiration, consumes the oxygen held in solution by the water
+as atmospheric air, furnishes carbonic acid, feeds on the insects and
+young snails, and excretes material well adapted as a rich food to the
+plant, and well fitted for its luxuriant growth. The plant, by its
+respiration, consumes the carbonic acid produced by the fish,
+appropriating the carbon to the construction of its tissues and
+fibres, and liberates the oxygen in its gaseous state to sustain the
+healthy functions of the animal life; at the same time that it feeds
+on the rejected matter, which has fulfilled its purposes in the
+nourishment of the fish and snail, and preserves the water constantly
+in a clean and healthy condition. While the slimy snail, finding its
+proper nutriment in the decomposing vegetable matter and minute
+confervoid growth, prevents their accumulation by removing them; and
+by its vital powers converts what would otherwise act as a poison into
+a rich and fruitful nutriment, again to constitute a pabulum for the
+vegetable growth, while it also acts the important part of a purveyor
+to its finny neighbours.'[5] This perfect adjustment in the economy of
+the animal and vegetable kingdoms, whereby the vital functions of each
+are permanently maintained, is one of the most beautiful phenomena of
+organic nature.
+
+The Parlour Aquarium affords valuable, we might say invaluable,
+facilities to the naturalist in the prosecution of his researches. The
+botanist can now conveniently watch the development of aquatic plants
+under conditions _not_ unnatural, throughout the entire period of
+their existence, from their germination to the production of flowers
+and the perfection of seeds; and we are in hopes that much of the
+obscurity that invests many aquatic vegetables will in consequence be
+cleared up. The zoologist is perhaps even more indebted to the
+invention. The habits, not only of the fishes, but of the mollusca,
+can be accurately studied under natural conditions, and many important
+facts of their history ascertained and illustrated. The water-beetles
+and other aquatic insects will also come in for a share of attention.
+
+In concluding his paper in the _Garden Companion_ (i. p. 7), Mr
+Warington states, that he is at present attempting a similar
+arrangement with a confined portion of sea-water, employing some of
+the green sea-weeds as the vegetable members of the circle, and the
+common winkle or whelk to represent the water-snails. In a Report of
+the Yorkshire Naturalist's Club, November 5, 1851,[6] we observe it
+stated, that Mr Charlesworth read an extract from a letter from a
+gentleman in America, detailing some successful experiments on keeping
+marine molluscs alive in sea-water for months; but our inquiries have
+not been successful in eliciting any further information on the
+subject.
+
+Experiments of our own have led to the conclusion, that some families
+of aquatic plants are altogether unsuitable for the Parlour
+Aquarium--such as, potamogeton, chara, &c., which very soon
+communicate a putrescent odour to the water in which they are grown,
+rendering it highly disagreeable in a sitting-room.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[5] _Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society_, iii, 52.
+
+[6] _Naturalist_, vol. i. 239.
+
+
+
+
+A WEDDING DINNER.
+
+
+The English are often reproached with love of good cheer, and
+certainly if foreigners were to judge of us from the manner in which
+we celebrate our Christmas, we cannot wonder at their supposing
+'biftik' to be necessary to our happiness. But high feasting has not
+in any age been confined to the English, and perhaps the following
+account, translated from an old chronicle, of a wedding-dinner given
+by the Milanese, in 1336, to our Duke of Clarence, son of Edward III.,
+may prove not unamusing or unsuggestive.
+
+Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, was the widower of Elizabeth of
+Ulster, and his second wife, Zolante, was the sister of Giovanni
+Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan. The latter nuptials were celebrated
+at Milan with great pomp. The most illustrious personages were invited
+from every part of Europe; tournaments, balls, and other diversions,
+occupied the guests, who were all furnished with splendid apartments,
+till the whole company being assembled, Giovanni Galeazzo conducted
+the newly-married couple from the church to his palace. In one immense
+hall were laid out a hundred tables for the most distinguished guests,
+including the mightiest princes in Italy, the most beautiful women,
+and the most celebrated characters of the age; among whom we must not
+omit to mention Francesco Petrarca. Other tables were placed in the
+adjoining apartments. Seneschals, in the most sumptuous dresses,
+brought in the massive dishes of gold and silver. The cup-bearers
+performed their duties on horseback, galloping round the hall and
+handing the choicest wines in costly vases of gold, silver, or
+crystal. This custom of servants waiting at table on horseback appears
+singular in our time, but it serves to give an idea of the splendour
+of other days and the enormous size of the apartments. It also tends
+to explain why most of the noble mansions still extant from the time
+of which we speak, instead of a staircase, have a gradual ascent of
+bricks, generally leading to a hall of large dimensions. And
+frequently we see evident tokens that flights of steps have been
+substituted in later times.
+
+The banquet consisted of eighteen courses; and between each course
+presents of various kinds were offered to the bridegroom, or
+distributed by him; so that before the dinner had ended, Lionel had
+presented every individual around him with some article of value,
+besides 600 richly embroidered garments which he had given to the
+mimes and players engaged for the occasion.
+
+Here follows a formal account of the dinner, but we must economise our
+space. The first course consisted of young pigs, gilded, with flames
+issuing from their mouths; the second, of hares and pike, likewise
+gilded; the third, of gilded veal and trout; the fourth, of
+partridges, quails, and fish, all gilded; the fifth, of ducks, small
+birds, and fish, all gilded; the sixth, of beef, capons with
+garlic-sauce, and sturgeon; the seventh, of veal and capons with
+lemon-sauce; the eighth, of beef-pies, with cheese and sugar, and
+eel-pies with sugar and spices; the ninth, of meats, fowl and fish in
+jelly (potted, we presume); the tenth, of gilded meats and lamprey;
+the eleventh, of roast kid, birds, and fish; the twelfth, of hares and
+venison, and fish with vinegar and sugar; the thirteenth, of beef and
+deer, with lemon and sugar; the fourteenth, of fowls, capons, and
+tench, covered with red and green foil; the fifteenth, of pigeons,
+small birds, beans, salt tongues, and carp; the sixteenth, of rabbits,
+peacocks, and eels roasted with lemon; the seventeenth, of sour milk
+and cheese; and the eighteenth, of fruits of the rarest and most
+expensive kinds.
+
+At each of these courses the duke received a separate gift--beginning
+with a pair of _leopards_, with velvet collars and gilded buckles.
+Then followed numberless braces of pointers, greyhounds, setters, and
+falcons, all with trappings and ornaments of silk, gold, and pearls;
+dozens of breastplates, helmets, lances, shields, saddles, and
+complete suits of armour, enriched with silver, gold, and velvet;
+numerous pieces of cloth of gold and satin; horses by half-dozens,
+with saddles and trappings highly ornamented; twelve beautiful
+milk-white oxen; 'a vest and cowl embroidered with pearls,
+representing various flowers; a baronial mantle and cowl lined with
+ermine, and richly embroidered with pearls; a large ewer of massive
+silver, four waistbands of wrought silver (now called filigrane); a
+clump of diamonds and rubies, with a pearl of immense value in the
+centre; and a variety of specimens of the choicest wines and most
+elegant confectionary.'
+
+In those times, there was little refinement of taste, and the culinary
+art was probably in its infancy. Hence we find the dishes in quality
+and number rather suited to satisfy the appetites of huntsmen than the
+delicate palate of a courtier of our day. Sugar and spices were used
+in profusion, perhaps because they were scarce and expensive, rather
+than on account of their flavour. Fowls were coloured red or green;
+while meat, and such other solid eatables as could only be boiled or
+roasted, were gilt all over. The expense of such an entertainment must
+have been immense; and when we add, that the value of most of the
+gifts was vastly greater than at present, and that, besides the
+presents to the bridegroom, Giovanni Galeazzo gave away 150 beautiful
+horses, and his kinsman, Bernabo, jewels and golden coins to a large
+amount, the whole sum disbursed on this occasion would appear so
+enormous as to make one doubt whether a petty sovereign could really
+afford such ostentatious prodigality. But when we consider that the
+flourishing state of the commerce of Italy attracted thither all the
+wealth of Europe, we are no longer surprised at an expenditure which,
+however great, might at that time have been borne not by a reigning
+duke of Milan or Florence alone, but even by many citizens of the
+various Italian republics.
+
+During the repast, an innumerable crowd of jesters, mimes, and
+trick-players of all sorts, amused the company with their gambols; and
+such was the noise produced by trumpets, drums, and other martial
+instruments, by the vociferation of the performers and the applause of
+the spectators, that no single voice could be heard; and a
+contemporary historian compares it to the wild roar of a tempestuous
+sea.
+
+
+
+
+SAVINGS-BANKS IN RUSSIA.
+
+
+Until the year 1825, no kind of savings-bank existed in Russia. The
+farmers and peasants, residing for the most part in remote and
+scattered habitations, were accustomed to keep their little store of
+money in common earthen-pots buried in the ground, whence it was not
+unfrequently stolen. It also often happened that, owing to the sudden
+illness or death of the owner, the place of concealment was unknown to
+any one; thus the savings were lost, and much family trouble and
+difficulty arose. In March 1825, a truly patriotic young merchant,
+Frederick Hagedom, junior, of Libau, in Courland, perceived the
+advantage of savings-banks in other countries of Europe, and the
+disadvantages of the system pursued by his poor countrymen. He
+resolved, therefore, to institute a savings-bank in Libau. The
+patronage of the governor-general was obtained, and one of the
+magistrates of the town appointed superintendent: Frederick Hagedom
+and two other gentlemen were chosen directors. The public of the town
+soon testified their approbation of the good work, by bringing in
+their silver rubles and copper kopecks at the appointed hours--namely,
+from five to seven every Saturday evening, and at two periods of the
+year daily--from the 1st to the 12th of June and December. The
+peasants, however, did not display the same alacrity and confidence as
+indeed was to be expected. Their kind benefactor perceiving this,
+wrote and circulated a short pamphlet in the Lettish language of the
+country, explaining the intention, object, and advantages of the new
+savings-bank. This convinced the ignorant country-people that their
+old way of keeping their money, even if safe, was not profitable. The
+pastors of the village churches also took occasion to speak to their
+people on the subject, being persuaded, like the benevolent founders
+of the savings-bank, that it was a plan which could not fail to
+improve the moral and religious character of the peasantry. These
+exertions did not fail to produce the desired effect.
+
+To accommodate the country-people who came from a distance, it was
+soon found advisable to open the savings-bank for their attendance
+daily from twelve to one--the Saturday evenings being reserved for the
+inhabitants of the town. All classes now became desirous of taking
+advantage of the savings-bank, and brought in silver rubles and
+kopecks, instead of keeping them hoarded and useless.
+
+A sum under five rubles receives no interest--is merely saved and
+kept--which is, however, no slight benefit to the poor peasant. Above
+that sum, 4 percent, interest is paid. The owner is at liberty to
+withdraw the principal at will. The tables published in 1845, after
+twenty years' existence, afford a most satisfactory and interesting
+result. The increase of members who partake of the benefits has
+steadily advanced. One-third of the number are inhabitants of Libau,
+the remainder are from the country. A very important gain was also
+perceived to arise from the system: a large portion of the silver
+rubles and Albert-dollars paid in, had evidently been for many years
+kept entirely out of circulation, buried in pots in the earth, and
+consequently in such a condition, that it was often necessary to have
+the coin carefully cleaned, before it was fit to be sent out into
+circulation again. Besides the pecuniary advantage, the improvement in
+the character of the people has been remarkable. The savings-bank has
+strengthened in a singular degree the love of order, industry, and
+temperance. How many cheerful hopes and anticipations are connected
+with savings! It has been ascertained, both in England and France,
+that since the establishment of savings-banks in those countries, no
+criminal has ever been found to have been a member of one. How true a
+benefactor to his country has the young merchant Hagedom proved
+himself to be! May he live long to direct the savings-bank of his
+native town of Libau! And, to conclude with the words of the last
+report of the institution: 'May a gracious Providence continue to
+prosper this first and oldest institution of the kind in the empire of
+Russia, and preserve this institution, so highly beneficial to the
+economical and moral state of the people, in its full prosperity, to
+future generations!'[7]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[7] Communicated by a lady, as translated from a pamphlet published in
+Russia.
+
+
+
+CALORIC SHIPS
+
+
+The idea of substituting a new and superior motive-power for steam
+will no doubt strike many minds as extravagant, if not chimerical. We
+have been so accustomed to regard steam-power as the _ne plus ultra_
+of attainment in subjecting the modified forces of nature to the
+service of man, that a discovery which promises to supersede this
+agency will have to contend with the most formidable preconceptions as
+well as with gigantic interests. Nevertheless, it may now be predicted
+with confidence, that we are on the eve of another great revolution,
+produced by the application of an agent more economical and
+incalculably safer than steam. A few years hence we shall hear of the
+'wonders of caloric' instead of the 'wonders of steam.' To the
+question: 'How did you cross the Atlantic?' the reply will be: 'By
+caloric of course!' On Saturday, I visited the manufactory, and had
+the privilege of inspecting Ericsson's caloric engine of 60
+horse-power, while it was in operation. It consists of two pairs of
+cylinders, the working pistons of which are 72 inches in diameter. Its
+great peculiarities consist in its very large cylinders and pistons,
+working with very low pressure, and in the absence of boilers or
+heaters, there being no other fires employed than those in small
+grates under the bottoms of the working cylinders. During the eight
+months that this test-engine has been in operation, not a cent has
+been expended for repairs or accidents. The leading principle of the
+calorie engine consists in producing motive-power by the employment of
+the expansive force of atmospheric air instead of that of steam; the
+force being produced by compression of the air in one part of the
+machine, and by its dilatation by the application of heat in another
+part. This dilatation, however, is not effected by continuous
+application of combustibles, but by a peculiar process of transfer, by
+which the caloric is made to operate over and over again--namely, the
+heat of the air escaping from the working cylinder at each successive
+stroke of the engine, is transferred to the cold compressed air,
+entering the same; so that, in fact, a continued application of fuel
+is only necessary in order to make good the losses of heat occasioned
+by the unavoidable eradiation of the heated parts of the machine. The
+obvious advantages of this great improvement are the great saving of
+fuel and labour in the management of the engine, and its perfect
+safety. A ship carrying the amount of coal that the Atlantic steamers
+now take for a single trip, could cross and recross the Atlantic twice
+without taking in coal; and the voyage to China or to California could
+be easily accomplished by a caloric ship without the necessity of
+stopping at any port to take in fuel. Anthracite coal being far the
+best fuel for this new engine, we shall no longer have to purchase
+bituminous coal in England for return-trips. On the contrary, England
+will find it advantageous to come to us for our anthracite. A slow
+radiating fire without flame is what is required, and this is best
+supplied by our anthracite. The _Ericsson_ will be ready for sea by
+October next, and her owners intend to take passengers at a reduced
+price, in consequence of the reduced expenses under the new
+principle.--_Boston Transcript._
+
+
+
+
+VIOLETS:
+
+SENT IN A TINY BOX.
+
+
+    Let them lie--ah, let them lie!
+      Plucked flowers--dead to-morrow;
+    Lift the lid up quietly,
+    As you'd lift the mystery
+      Of a buried sorrow.
+
+    Let them lie--the fragrant things,
+      All their souls thus giving;
+    Let no breeze's ambient wings
+    And no useless water-springs
+      Mock them into living.
+
+    They have lived--they live no more;
+      Nothing can requite them
+    For the gentle life they bore,
+    And up-yielded in full store
+      While it did delight them.
+
+    Yet, I ween, flower-corses fair!
+      'Twas a joyful yielding,
+    Like some soul heroic, rare,
+    That leaps bodiless forth in air
+      For its loved one's shielding.
+
+    Surely, ye were glad to die
+      In the hand that slew ye,
+    Glad to leave the open sky,
+    And the airs that wandered by,
+      And the bees that knew ye;
+
+    Giving up a small earth-place
+      And a day of blooming,
+    Here to lie in narrow space,
+    Smiling in this smileless face
+      With such sweet perfuming.
+
+    O ye little violets dead!
+      Coffined from all gazes,
+    We will also smile, and shed
+    Out of heart-flowers withered
+      Perfume of sweet praises.
+
+    And as ye, for this poor sake,
+      Love with life are buying,
+    So, I doubt not, ONE will make
+    All our gathered flowers to take
+      Richer scent through dying.
+
+
+
+
+CHINESE LAUNDRY IN CALIFORNIA.
+
+
+What a truly industrious people they are! At work, cheerfully and
+briskly, at ten o'clock at night. Huge piles of linen and
+under-clothing disposed in baskets about the room, near the different
+ironers. Those at work dampening and ironing--peculiar processes both.
+A bowl of water is standing at the ironer's side, as in ordinary
+laundries, but used very differently. Instead of dipping the fingers
+in the water, and then snapping them over the clothes, the operator
+puts his head in the bowl, fills his mouth with water, and then blows
+so that the water comes from his mouth _in a mist_, resembling the
+emission of steam from an escape-pipe, at the same time so directing
+his head that the mist is scattered all over the piece he is about to
+iron. He then seizes his flat iron. This invention beats the 'Yankees'
+all to bits. It is a vessel resembling a small, deep, metallic
+wash-basin, having a highly-polished flat bottom, and a fire
+continually burning in it. Thus they keep the iron hot, without
+running to the fire every five minutes and spitting on the iron to
+ascertain by the 'sizzle' if it be ready to use. This ironing machine
+has a long handle, and is propelled without danger of burning the
+fingers by the slipping of the 'ironing rag.' Ladies who use the
+ordinary flat irons will appreciate the improvement.--_Marysville
+(California) Herald._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Printed and Published by W. and R. CHAMBERS, High Street, Edinburgh.
+Also sold by W. S. ORR, Amen Corner, London; D. N. CHAMBERS, 55 West
+Nile Street, Glasgow; and J. M'GLASHAN, 50 Upper Sackville Street,
+Dublin.--Advertisements for Monthly Parts are requested to be sent to
+MAXWELL & Co., 31 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, London, to whom all
+applications respecting their insertion must be made.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 445, by Various
+
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