but to be further convinced, he made the experiment of The Count was persuaded that he had found his niece: speaking to her in Polish. On hearing the accents of her native tongue, Rosalia burst into tears, and, throwing herself into the Count's arms, exclaimed, "Ah! I understand you: that is the way my mother used to speak to me. The Count had no longer any doubt: he pressed the child to his heart, exclaiming," Rosalia! Rosalia! you are Judicial Anecdote.-At a trial in the Supreme Court, my niece, the daughter of my beloved sister! Then, turnwhen a perplexing case had been obstinately argued and ing to the laundress, whom surprise had rendered motionunnecessarily protracted, the chief justice said to the asso- less and silent, Worthy woman," said he," be still the ciate on his left hand, "Brother A-n, I wish you mother of your Rosalia; you shall not be separated from would charge the jury in this case, for I feel prejudiced her. Since you made her one of your family when she against one of the parties." "And I," replied Judge was a destitute orphan, your family shall belong to her's P-m, "am in the same situation." Then, if you in her prosperity. And now let us begin to share with please, I am just the man,' said the late Judge Thacher, you." With these words, he put a purse of gold into her for I am prejudiced against both." hands, and that very day provided lodgings for her and

her children at the Hotel Grange Batelliere. Soon after | lovely Madonnas, or in raising them toward heaven with head on a Welsh halfpenny. I then stepped back to he left Paris for Poland, whither Rosalia's second mother the swimming tenderness of an expiring Cleopatra. These former place, and returned again with five more mob and the whole family also went. The children of the two movements are introduced into every character, and to make my offering to the heir apparent, who stood laundress were educated under the eyes of the Count with at every step of the representation, succeeding each other his father's left hand, the right being occupied by the greatest care. The boys, who were sent to the Uni- at times with unceasing rapidity. If ever Mademoiselle Resident. Next, my two companions were intro versity of Wilna, afterwards joined the Polish army, Sontag visits London, the frequenters of the King's Thea- with nearly the same forms, except that their offe and became aids-de-camp to Prince Poniatowski. The tre will not be long in remarking this singular limitation were less, and that the emperor did not speak to the daughters received handsome portions, and were married of power in a lady, who, I doubt not, will, nevertheless, Bishop Heber's Journal. to Polish gentlemen. As to the Countess Rosalia, she be received with enthusiasm. Such loveliness as hers is married her cousin, Count Rezewonski; and opulence and sure of reigning supreme in that house, the emporium of felicity spread their golden wings over her destiny. The gallantry and fashion. good Madame Bertot still lived with the Countess, who called her always her mother.

MADEMOISELLE SONTAG.

(From the Athenæum.)

This person has been so much talked of, that the following extracts from a paper on her person and accomplishments, in the Atheneum, will probably be well received by our readers. It is in the course of a tour on the Continent that the writer sees the object of the sketch :The company assembled at the opera, on the occasion of the appearance of Mademoiselle, formed a striking coup d'ail for Berlin. The boxes boasted of all that is choisi in society.

"On the following evening, the same enthusiasm and ardour prevailed at the representation of the Barbiere' of Rossini. The part of Rosina seems to have been written expressly for Mademoiselle Sontag. She is unequalled in that character, and leaves even Foder behind her. The Germans are perfectly enraptured with their charming country woman-the more so as her private character is spotless, and her conduct perfectly lady-like. Exposed, by being placed on the stage, not so much to temptations (which real virtue can withstand in any station of life,) but to calumny and illiberal reflections, Mademoiselle Sontag, being without any female relatives of consequence, has selected, it is said, from amongst her acquaintances, a lady of the strictest morality, the widow of a superior officer, to whom she allows a very liberal pecuniary consideration, to be constantly with her on all occasions, and in every place."

VANITY OF HUMAN GREATNESS.

SKETCH OF THE PRESENT STATE OF THE ISLA
OF SARDINIA.

BY CAPTAIN WILLIAM HENRY SMITH.

The history of Sardinia is involved in much obscur Contiguous to the hostile powers of Rome and Carti it frequently, like all feeble states, changed masters; a in later times, the Venetians and the Saracens, the Span and the French, have contended for its sovereign appears that the Sards are yet, in many respects, in mitive state; their agricultural instruments have gone no improvement since the days of their subjecte Rome; population has also been at a stand; the only partially cultivated; their intercourse with other tions hardly merits the name of commerce; and so tentedly indolent are they, that no bounty, no stimsly can arouse them to greater exertion.

The orchestra, consisting of about double the number of performers that compose the orchestra of the King's The Sards are of a middle stature and well shaped, Theatre in London, struck up the magnificent overture to dark eyes and coarse black hair; except in the moun Winter's new opera, entitled The Interrupted Sacrifice,' At eight I went, accompanied by Mr. Elliot, with where fresh complexions and blue eyes are also met which was divinely executed. When the uproar which nearly the same formalities as at Lucknow, except that In the Campinado they are more swarthy than in the the much-applauded overture excited had ceased, all eyes we were on elephants, instead of palanqueens, and that di Sopra, whilst a large mouth and thick lips give and eye-glasses were at once directed towards the stage, the procession was, perhaps, less splendid, and the beg- more Celtic appearance. They have strong intele watching with impatience for the appearance of the idol gars both less numerous and far less vociferous and faculties, though uncultivated, and an enthusiastic sta of the night. At last, Mirrha entered, and every hand importunate. We were received with presented arms ment to their country; indeed, nowhere can the leve was instantly in motion. The star-the comet-the at- by the troops of the palace, drawn up within the the "natale solum" be stronger; hence they are not i traction-the Henriette Sontag, Koniglich Kammersan- barbican, and proceeded, still on our elephants, through to that dispersion of families, and consequent relaxat gesin, of whom poets, sonnet writers, newspaper compilers, the noblest gateway and vestibule I ever saw. It domestic affections, so general, either from choice prose composers, and travellers, have made so much of, consists not merely of a splendid Gothic arch in the centre cessity, in more populous dominions. They are ad stood before us. Her beauty dazzled me-her singing of the great gate-tower, but, after that, of a long vaulted hospitable, with a pleasing frankness of addres: pleased and disappointed me. She is slender, rather petite aisle, like that of a Gothic cathedral, with a small, open, though active when excited, are extremely i and mignonne. Her countenance, like that of Canova's octagonal court in its centre, all of granite, and all finely general. Their good qualities are counterba nymph, is full of sweetness and heavenly radiancy, which carved with inscriptions from the Koran, and with flowers. cunning, dissimulation, and an insatiable this belongs more to the bean ideal than to mortal reality. I This ended in a ruinous and exceedingly dirty stable yard, venge,-vices that tend to foster implacable anima would say that her foot is the prettiest thing imaginable, where we were received by Captain Grant, as the Mogul's families, and occasion those numerous murders wa if her hands were not prettier still. She is faultless as to officer on guard, and by a number of elderly men, with grace the island. Their mode of gratifying veng teeth, which the sweetest smile imaginable, for ever ho- large gold-headed canes, the usual ensign of office here, not by open challenge, or what we should deem a vering round her mouth, sets off at every warble in all and one of which Mr. Elliot also carried. We were now defiance, but by lying in wait, often for entire ca their glory. Her chevelure, between auburn and blonde, told to dismount, and proceed on foot, a task which the some secluded spot, until the object of their hatred p is magnificent; and, to conclude with the most essential late rains made inconvenient to my gown and cassock, and by, affords them the opportunity of a shot, which s part, the quality of her voice is, beyond measure, pleas- thin shoes, and during which we were pestered by a fresh rally fatal. As they are accustomed to the gua ing, and she possesses great and remarkable facility; yet swarm of miserable beggars, the wives and children of the very early age, they are capital marksmen; and ocea with all these attributes, she is not a first-rate opera singer; stable servants. After this we passed another richly. principal amusements of the country is the "ti lacks judgment, is indiscriminate in the introduction of carved, but ruinous and dirty, gateway, where our guides, mira," or firing at a small piece of money called " ornaments, knows no method, and belongs to no school. withdrawing a canvas screen, called out, in a sort of harsh rese," which, after some practice, they are seldom Of all these negative qualifications, the first only it will chant, "Lo, the ornament of the world! Lo, the asy. to miss. This exercise is encouraged and prom not be in her power to alter. Nature has refused to her lum of the nations! King of Kings! The Emperor the elders, with the avowed object of qualifying the the two principal requisites towards forming a first-rate Akbar Shah! Just, fortunate, victorious!" We saw, in and habits of their youth for the vindictive principi opera performer-expression both of countenance and in fact, a very handsome and striking court, about as big as which they are afterwards so strongly imbued, the tone of her voice, and a commanding person. Made- that at All Souls, with low, but richly-ornamented build-instances have occurred in which a generous sym moiselle Sontag can never attempt the grandiose style; ings. Opposite to us was a beautiful open pavilion of been awakened in favour of a fallen enemy. The she cannot depict strong passions, and is as much the re- white marble, richly carved, flanked by rose-bushes and ness to revenge, which is thus incited, is the cause verse of Pasta or Pizaroni, as any singer can well be. fountains, and some tapestry and striped curtains hanging hordes of banditti who infest the mountainous parts She is, in fact, a pretty thing, a pretty singer, a pretty in festoons about it, within which was a crowd of people, island, and who were, until lately, so numerous, th bijou, and nothing more. Madame Catalani was quite and the poor old descendant of Tamerlane seated in the admitted as a matter of course, that there must" correct when she said, that "Elle est la premiere dans son midst of them. Mr. Elliot here bowed three times very viventi" wherever woods, hills, and grottos prem genre-mais son genre n'est pas le premier." It is im-low, in which we followed his example. This ceremony The nobles and citizens generally adopt the p possible not to agree with this description. My own dis was performed twice as we advanced up the steps of the fashions of Italy in their dress, but the "gense appointment at her performance, however, was not very pavilion, the heralds each time repeating the same ex- or country gentlemen, as well as the "mus considerable after all: for I could have listened to her pressions about their master's greatness. We then stood upper class of farmers, and all the peasantry, are warblings, and looked at her beautiful person, for ever. in a row on the right hand side of the throne, which is larly marked in their various habiliments. In the But my expectations had been raised too high; I expected sort of marble bedstead, richly ornamented with gildings, pinado they wear skins; in the Gallura, coarse clo a cantatrice di primo cartello, and I found only an agree- and raised on two or three steps. Mr. Elliot then stepped orbacci: and in the vicinity of Bosa, tanned leather forwards, and, with joined hands, in the usual Eastern minding one strongly of the argument which was way, announced, in a low voice, to the emperor, who I Cicero to clear his client:-" If the splendour of the was. I then advanced, bowed three times again, and purple had been insufficient to tempt him, was t offered a nuzzur of fifty-one gold mohurs in an embroi- that the Sard goatskins should have more power?" dered purse, laid on my handkerchief, in the way prac-est e peddes," or pelisse of undressed sheep or gost tised by the baboos in Calcutta. This was received and the noted "mastruca" of Tully must be nearly as laid on one side, and I remained standing for a few minutes, in the Campidano now, as in the time of the R while the usual court questions about my health, my tra- but the practice is not universal of inverting the " vels, when I left Calcutta, &c. were asked. I had thus an cia," or fleece, inside in winter; being mostly wor opportunity of seeing the old gentleman more plainly. the wool outside; if we except some white skins, He has a pale, thin, but handsome face, with an aquiline with peculiar care, cut in the form of a long jacket, nose, and a long white beard. His complexion is little, the seams covered with blue ribbons, which are used if at all, darker than that of an European. His hands gala dress. are very fair and delicate, and he had some valuable-look- The dress of the females is more picturesque; they ing rings on them. His hands and face were all I saw of greatly attached to etiquette. him, for the morning being cold, he was so wrapped up The females following the example of the mer, th in shawls, that he reminded me extremely of the Druid's of the highest rank usually adopt the Italian fas

able songstress.

Mademoiselle Sontag's voice is a soprano of a pleasing, clear, and sonorous timbre. She can reach the high E without screaming. The flexibility of her organ has seduced her into that peculiar style of singing, which made Madame Catalani the wonder of musical Europe for a few years, but which disables the performer from ever being a scientific singer. It is this quality of the voice, united to the personal gifts so profusely lavished by nature on this favourite daughter of hers, that brought Mademoiselle Sontag forward as a miracle on the German stage, and made her at once, without any perliminary step, a precocious prima donna, at the age of seventeen.

Her unalterable sweet face is the same under the inence of pleasing as afflicting passfons; and the extent the expression of her large beautiful eyes consists in ng them with the bashfulness of one of Carlo Dolce's

a

B

E

ist those of the country adhere to the costume of their | bably arise from such a scheme was all he had in view. tive conditions, designated as follows:

The Dama, or lady of the first rank; Signora-lady of the second rank; Nostrada-wife of a lawyer or physician; Contradina principale-wife of a farmer; Arteggiana-wife of a tradesman; Contadina rustica-wife of a peasant.

owns, the Genoese white veil forms part of the cosof most women, as only those of the upper order onnets. On births, marriages, and religious festie female peasantry appear in 66 gran tenuta," with loured clothes, decorated with all their trinkets, and mg, when collected in numbers, a very picturesque I superstitions bear a close analogy to those of Iread Scotland; indeed, many of them are precisely e: some of their customs are curious.

le.

a

dings occasion great rejoicings, and are more rele for ceremony than solemnity. When a farmer Jampidano wishes to marry, he presents himself in ing, accompanied by a few confidential friends, at of the Stazio," or house where his sweetheart A gentle tap is the signal of their arrival, when ier politely demands their business at that hour. al figurative answer is, that they are in search of b, cilchemu una pecora palduta." The father n the same style, and affecting not to be aware of ject, introduces his daughters in succession,-askthe presentation of each, "Is this it ?"-taking t the one, who is the object of the lover's search, the last. If the suitor is favourably received, the is immediately entered into, and "segnali," or are reciprocally exchanged. A week before the take place, as all the goods and chattels in the the young couple must be quite new, the removal roperty and provisions to their abode forms a proof considerable interest; the friends of both parties g in their finest attire, accompanied by the best of the "launedda." The marriage is celebrated ride's parish, after the bans have been published Accessive weeks; and, previous to removing to residence, the bride and bridegroom partake of ent, out of the same plate, at her father's house. eing at their future home, which, as in the days nal, is decorated with garlands of flowers, the sprinkle salt and wheat over them, and the day s with a banquet.

The people, under the austerity of a rigid and unsocial
government, deprived of their usual diversions, were eager
for the novelty of a public spectacle, and the place being
at no great distance from Rome, a vast conflux of men and
women, old and young, crowded together. The conse-
quence was, that the building, overloaded with spectators,
gave way at once. All who were under the roof, besides
a prodigious multitude that stood round the place, were
crushed in the ruins. The condition of those who perished
instantly was the happiest. They escaped the pangs of
death, while the maimed and lacerated lingered in tor-
ment, beholding, as long as day-light lasted, their wives
pierced to the heart by their shrieks and groans.
and children in equal agony, and, during the night,
lamity so fatal was soon known round the country. Crowds
lamented his brother, another his near relation, children
from all quarters went to view the melancholy scene. One
Such as by their avocations had been led a different way,
wept for their parents, and almost all for their friends.
were given up for lost. The real sufferers were still un-
known, and, in that dreadful state of suspense, every bosom
panted with doubt and fear.

A ca

The Liver.

ENCROACHMENTS OF THE SEA.

(Cotinued from our former papers.)

extract from a paper read before the Wernerian Society, Our readers will peruse, with pleasure, the following on the 8th ult. entitled, " Remarks on the Wasting Effects of the Sea on the Shore of Cheshire, between the rivers The ruins were no sooner removed, than the crowd Mersey and Dee, by Robert Steevenson, Esq., Civil Enrushed in to examine the place. They gathered the gineer." It will probably occur to our readers, as it did dead bodies; they clasped them in their arms; they im- to us, that we have here no mention of the ancient buryprinted kisses, and often mistook the person. Disfigured ing-ground said to have been discovered by the gentlemen faces, parity of age, and similitude of form and features, who have lately been surveying the neighbourhood of occasioned great confusion. Claims were made, a tender contest followed, and errors were acknowledged. Wallasey. The number of killed or maimed was not less than 50,000. The Senate provided by a decree, that, for the future, no man, whose fortune was under 400,000 sesterces, should presume to exhibit a spectacle of gladiators, and that till the foundation was examined, no amphitheatre should be erected. Atillius, the builder, was condemned to banishthis occasion; they threw open their doors, they ordered ment. The grandees of Rome displayed their humanity on medicines to be distributed, and the physicians attended with assiduity in every quarter. The city of Rome rewhen after a battle, bravely fought, the sick and wounded called, in that juncture, an image of ancient manners, were received with open arms, and relieved by the generosity of their country.-From Tacitus.

INTERESTING LOVE LETTER.
(From an American paper.)

In the inland and more visible hand of Providence, I have been prevented from the foreland, or northern shore, between these rivers,

preserve

Extract from Mr. Stevenson's paper. "On a former occasion I had the hogour to make a few observations, which appeared in the zu volume of the Society's Memoirs, regarding the encroachment of the sea upon the land generally. The present notice refers only to that portion of the coast which lies between the rivers this quarter my attention, with that of Mr. Nimmo, civil Mersey and Dee, extending to about seven miles. To engineer, had been professionally directed in the course of last month. In our perambulatory survey we were accomLiverpool, along the Cheshire shore, and its connecting panied by Sir John Tobin and William Laird, Esq., of sand banks, between Wallasey Pool, in the Mersey, and Dawpool, in the river Dee. Within these estuaries the shores may be described as abrupt, consisting of red clay and marl, containing many land or boulder stones, of the cubic contents of several tons, and very many of a My dear E.-By the relentless intervention of the in- much smaller size, diminishing to coarse gravel. But 1 villages, the customs differ in some respects: or there repairs to the house of his mistress with precipitating myself at your feet, for the entire absolution which I am now to notice, is chiefly low ground, and, to four intimate friends and relations, who of the collectaneous calumny, which has been so slan- a great extent, is under the level of the highest tides. ent name, given on such occasions, almost entire, derously conglomerated upon the unblotted and unsophisti. The beach, or ebb, extends from three hundred to four alled" paralymphos." The father gives them cated face of my stainless reputation, and with which I have hundred yards seaward, and, towards low-water mark, admittance, and begs them to be seated; a pro- most mountainous, colossal, and herculanean difficulties it consists of bluish-coloured marl, with peat or moss been so maliciously circumvallated, that I apprehend the exposes a section of red clay; but, towards high-water, ilence ensues, until an elder of known probity, in perfectly disincarcerating myself from the criminous overlaid by sand. This beach, at about half-tide level, for the purpose, inquires the meaning of seeing so ood people at his friend's house, which is followed machinations in which I have been so unmercifully im- presents a curious and highly interesting spectacle of the xplanation on the part of the youth. Conditionsured, that I was fearfully apprehensive that I was most remains of a submarine forest. The numerous roots of agreed upon, and the whole is confirmed by the inextricably involved. But, ah! most superhuman fair trees which have not been washed away by the sea, or man taking the hand of the fair one, and sealing one-I have been so unutterably bedazzled by the lumi- carried off by the neighbouring inhabitants, for firewood, tract with an affectionate kiss: he then seats him- nous emanations and sunlike effulgence of your charms, are in a very decayed state. The trees seem to have been her side, and each of his friends salutes the bride have been superinduced upon my character, I am again practice of felling timber, and the roots are seen ramifying that notwithstanding the acrimonious criminations which cut off, about two feet from the ground, after the usual epositing, at the same time, a small piece of money induced to obtrude myself into your presence. Do not, from their respective stumps in all diretions, and dipping sosom. This "cujugnu," or betrothing, generally for a moment, doubt the moveless stability and fathomless towards the clay sub-soil. They seem to have varied in lace in the presence of the rector and another priest, profundity of my love; for the flammiferous monocular size, from 18 to 30 inches in diameter; and, when cut with er additional validity on it; the engagement, hownot binding in the eye of the law, but can, at any autocrat of day shall cease to irradiate the umbrageous re- a knife, appear to be oak. Several of the boles or trunks e dissolved by mutual consent, or even by the wish cess of the forest; the translucent queen of night shall cease have also been left upon the ground; and, being partly girl alone. The nuptials frequently do not take to perambulate the diaphinous and stelliferous concavity immersed in the sand and clay, are now in such a decomor three or four years after, when the damsel is of the cerulean heavens; the horisonous boation of hea-posed state, that, when dug into with a common spade, the plight of those ladies who love their lords, peals; the forky corruscation of heaven shall discontinue measuring about three-fourths of an inch in length, and ven's horrific artillery, shall cease to bellow forth its terrific great numbers of the shell-fish, called pholas candida, though it does not altogether quadrate with our to blaze forth its sulphureous igneous fulgor from the ig. two inches in breadth, were found, apparently in a healthy f purity, is not deemed at all immoral by them. nivimous clouds, before my love shall be extinguished. re are other prevailing customs more honoured in Could the manifestation of the keenest remorse, or the elevate me one millionth of an inch in your favour, I would exhibition of the most compunctious pangs of conscience,

each than in the observance.

sing, on meeting, is an indispensible custom amongst all ranks, first by saluting each cheek, and then to mouth this ceremony, which is transmitted from cients, did not escape the lash of Martial.

immediately commence

"Pouring forth tears at such a lavish rate, That were the world on fire, they might drown The wrath of heaven, and quench the mighty ruin." FALL OF A ROMAN THEATRE. the next consulship, which was that of Marcus Li- Geographical Pun.-A traveller being at a coffee-house = and Lucius Calpurnius, and unforeseen disaster (no with some gentlemen, was drawing largely on the crebegan than ended) laid a scene of ruin equal to the dulity of the company. Where did you say all these of the most destructive war. A man of the name wonders happened, Sir ?" asked a gentleman present. lius, the son of a freed man, undertook, at Fidena," I can't exactly say." replied the traveller," but someld an amphitheatre for the exhibition of gladiators. where in Europe-Russia, I think." "I should rather foundation was slight, and the superstructure not think It-a-ly," returned his opponent.-American paper. ently braced, the work of a man who had neither the This has been, to our recollection, a standing bore of wealth, nor the ambition to make himself of con- to the minor punsters for the last score years.--Edits. ence in a municipal town. The profit that might pro- Merc.

state.

shore, now upwards of twenty feet under full tide, having These proofs of the former state of this ebb for region of these large forest trees, were rendered still more been once dry land, to a considerable extent beyond the evident, by the occurrence of large masses of green stone, which, at a former period, had been imbedded in the firm ground here, and especially on the shore within the river Dee. It may further deserve notice, that the inhabitants of this district have traditional rhyme, expressive of the former wooded state of this coast, where not a tree is now to be seen, namely, "From Helbre Isle to Birkenhead a squirrel may hop from tree to tree;" that is, from the Dee to the Mersey, now presenting a submarine forest.

As these evidences of great changes upon the state and former appearances of the land were highly interesting to the party, and intimately connected with the professional inquiries of myself and colleague, it seemed desirable to get them, if possible, corroborated by oral testimony. Sir John Tobin, accordingly, very obligingly took measures

though a matter of little importance, has, it appears,
attracted the attention of the French, as well as that of
ourselves, since it was first noticed.-Yours, &c.
April 10, 1828.

TO THE EDITOR.

ALEX. MILLER.

for examining the oldest people in the neighbourhood, as
to their recollection of the former state of these shores.
In particular, Thomas Barclay, aged 93, "all but two
months," by profession a mason and measurer of country
work; Henry Youd, labourer, aged 86; and John Crook-
son, labourer, aged 80, were examined. Barclay stated
that he had been employed at the erection of the Leasowe
landward lighthouse, in the year 1764; that there were
SIR,-Never having given the study of natural philoso-
then two lighthouses near the shore, for a leading direc-phy much of my time, it is with much humility I venture
tion to shipping through the proper channel to Liverpool; at an explanation or elucidation of the causes of the phe-
and that the seaward light became uninhabitable, by its nomenon of the two cards.
being surrounded by the sea. A new light was then built,
upon Bidstone-hill; and the present Leasowe lighthouse,
formerly the landward light, which he had assisted in
building, became the sea-light. He could not determine
upon the distance between the two original lights, but was
certain that it must have been several hundred yards; that
he knows that, in the course of thirty years, the shore of
the Leasowe lost, by measurement, eleven Cheshire roods,
We are told that atmospheric air presses on all things
or eighty-eight yards; and verily believes that, since heat, I believe, (for I quote from an unretentive memory) a
knew this shore, it has lost upwards of half a mile of firm
ground. To the correctness of these statements, the other
two aged men gave ample testimony, Henry Youd hav-
ing also worked at the lighthouse.

In my opinion, the difficulty to raise the upper card rests in the pressure of atmospheric air on its upper surface from above, together with the resistance interposed by the lower card opposing a barrier to the action, or elasticity of the air from below.

ratio of 15lb. to the square inch; can it be expected, then,
that a puff through a pigmy tube can lift the upper card
with its pressure of atmospheric air?

J. M.

P.S.-There are many other considerations connected with this phenomenon; but to go minutely into them would be too voluminous an undertaking: the action, similar to that of a boy's sucker, and the relief from the pressure on the upper card, by the escape of the injected air out of the cavity through or between the lips or edges of the cards, are two essential features in the operation of the phenomenon.

We know that a heavy plate of metal can, with facility, "As to the present state of things, the party alluded to were eye witnesses of the tides on the 16th, 17th, and 18th be raised when under water, even though at a great of February, 1828, having exhibited a very alarming ex-depth from the surface; but, were two plates of metal ample of the encroachments of the sea upon the Leasowe fixed one on the other at some depth under water, the shore. At high-water it came over the bank, and ran in lower plate having an aperture in its centre, I think a stream of about half a mile in breadth, surrounded the lighthouse, and continued its course through the low much force would be required, if applied through the apergrounds towards Wallasey Pool, on the Mersey, thereby ture, to raise the upper from its posture, or reclination on forming a new channel, and threatening to lay several the lower plate: of course, it is owing to the pressure of thousands of acres of rich arable and pasture lands into water from above, and lack of aid from the elasticity of the state of a permanent salt lake. The present Leasowe water below the upper plate, that creates the opposition to lighthouse, which, in 1764, was considered far above the reach of the sea, upon the 17th February last, was thus the upper plate being raised. Throwing out this hint, surrounded by salt water, and must soon be abandoned and leaving abler philosophers than myself to dive deeper unless some very extensive works be undertaken for the into the inquiry, I remain yours, &c. defence of the beach, the whole of the interior lands of the Leasowe being considerably under the level of highwater of spring-tides. This coast, with its sand-banks in the offing, its submarine forest, and the evidence of living witnesses as to the encroachment of the sea upon the firm ground, is altogether highly interesting to the geological and scientific inquirer. The remains of forests in the bed of the ocean occur in several parts of the British coast, particularly off Lincoln; on the banks of the Tay, near Flisk; at Skiel, in the mainland of Orkney, and in other places, noticed in the transactions of this society, and are strong proofs of the encroachment of the sea upon the land. However difficult, therefore, it may be to reconcile the varied appearance in nature, regarding the sea having Children's Shoes.-Children's shoes ought to be made at one time occupied a higher level than at present, yet its large and easy. Their feet are rapidly expanding; conseencroachment, as a general and almost universal principle, quently shoes, which, at present, just fit, will pinch in a seems to be beyond doubt in the present day. Since I had month. Hence are produced doubling of the toes, painful last the honour of addressing the society on this subject, corns, curving of the nails into the quick, and, often, headopportunities have been afforded me of making many ache and general disorder. Shoes for daily wear should additional observations on the British shores, and of per- never be thin: such shoes do nor protect the feet in walksonally extending these to almost every port on the Con- ing; and, instead of encouraging a firm, manly step, give tinent, between the Texel and the Garonne. I have also, rise to a timid, hobbling gait, which is extremely uncouth. through the obliging communication of friends, been ena-Roberton, on the Management of Children. bled to extend my inquiries to other quarters of the globe; and I am now prepared to state, that, with a few comparatively trifling exceptions, the sea appears to be universally gaining upon the land, tending to confirm the theory, that debris, arising from the general degradation of the land, being deposited in the bed of the minor seas, is the cause of their present tendency to overflow their banks.

Correspondence.

SINGULAR EXPERIMENT.

TO THE EDITOR.

The Housewife.

Patent Mangle. By the advertisement of Bullman and
Son, it will be seen that their neat and compact Patent
Mangle is on sale at the Mercury-office, Lord-street,
where the mode of using it will be explained.

Barometer

METEOROLOGICAL DIARY. [From the Liverpool Courier.] Extreme, Thermo-Extreme State of during meter 8 heat du- the Wind Night. morning ring Day. at noon.

30 14 37 0

4

5

29 92 37 0
29 53

6 29 50

7 29 40
8 29 24

SIR,-Since the publication of my letter in the Kaleidoscope of Monday last, I have received a communication from Mr. M. Faraday, of the Royal Institution, London, in which he informs me that there is a full explanation of the cause of the curious phenomenon with the tube and cards, in the Quarterly Journal of Science, published on the 1st of April last. To those of your correspondents who have been engaged in the investigation, and who may feel interested in this experiment, this notice may prove satisfactory. The solution (which is by Mr. Faraday) will be found at page 168 of the Quarterly Journal, and agrees exactly in principle with that given in the Kaleidoscope of this week. This experiment, 5 stormy.

Remarks

at noon.

39 0 43 O 51 0 N. Fair.
41 0 47 0 N.W. Cloudy.
40 0 47 0 N.N.E. Fair.
38 0 40 0 46 0 N.W. Rain.
37 0 40 O 46 O N. Fair.
38 0 43 O 48 0 E.N.E. Fair.
37 0 40 0 47 0 E S.E. Cloudy.

2d, Half-past one, p.m. rain.
6th, Heavy rain during night.
7th, Heavy rain during night.

REMARKS FOR MARCH.

Monthly mean of atmospherical pressure, 29:88; mean temperature,-extreme during night, 40:24; eight, a.m. 44; noon, 47:24; extreme during day, 49:23; general mean, 45:9; prevailing winds, N.W.; highest temperature during month, 15th,-60; lowest ditto, 6th,-32. Summary thich,- 16 days fair, orain, cloudy, and

A BOY MISSING.

The parents of a missing boy have just called up in the greatest distress, under the following circumsta -On Monday se'nnight their son, aged thirteen home, and has not since been heard of. He was se day on one of the canal bridges. His complexion are light, and he has a large mole near the right e was dressed in a fustian jacket and trowsers, with a striped check brat, a Scotch cap, and laced half-boo His father, whose name is John Edwards, living a 64, Addison-street, would be most thankful to any who will give tidings of the fate of his son. The Beauties of Chess,

"Ludimus effigiem belli.”—VIDA.

C D E FGH
WHITE

To Correspondents.

COLONIAL DESPOTISM.-In our next we shall betw
or two of the Kaleidoscope upon Pringle's Poems,
which has been obligingly lent us for the purpose.
EAST AND WEST INDIA SUGAR.-The two paragr
which we have been favoured by a friend, na
in another part of our journal.
ANTIQUITIES OF Liverpool. We shall, next week,
our readers an original and interesting paper co
the history and antiquities of our native town
RECEPTION OF MR. COOPER BY A LONDON AUDIENCE
next week, unreservedly express our opinions
candid and uncourteous treatment to which th
American tragedian was lately subjected by a La
dience; or rather, we should say, by an intereste
pudent junto, who too often lead the public by the
matters of taste. We shall, at the same time, tra
article on the subject from a late Franklin Ga
taining Mr. Cooper's own account of this very dis
affair; we say disgraceful, because we have seen M
act, and we know him to be a good and effective se
The Traveller, No. VII. of this original series is ret
publication next week. It will be impossible to
arrangements respecting the publication suggested
without a personal interview. We think the sche
answer; but we fear it would improperly interfari
the vested rights of others.
Nimrod's verses have been received, and the con
C. and J. W. have been punctually attended to
The "Lover to his Mistress," in our next.
Printed, published, and sold. every Tuesday, by
and Co., at their General Printing Office, Lord-str

OR,

Literary and Scientific Mirror.

"UTILE DULCI."

lla Miscellany, from which all religious and political matters are excluded, contains a variety of original and selected Articles; comprehending LITERATURE, CRITICISM, MEN and IRS, AMUSEMENT, elegant EXTRACTS, POETRY, ANECDOTES, BIOGRAPHY, METEOROLOGY, the DRAMA, ARTS and SCIENCES, WIT and SATIRE, FASHIONS, NATURAL HISTORY, &c. forming sonae ANNUAL VOLUME, with an INDEX and TITLE-PAGE. Persons in any part of the Kingdom may obtain this Work from London through their respective Booksellers.

108.-Vol. VIII.

LIVERPOOL, TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 1828.

means of his kites, "beat up against the wind;" but
as the process for doing this is not explained, we
shall offer no opinion on the subject, but confine
ourselves to the general observation, that the perusal
of his book has inclined us to put implicit credit in

PRICE 3 d.

merely told of exhausted strength, which, like the struggles of the dying, became faint and more faint. The breeze lasted just long enough to carry us into a current which sets in between the Western Islands, and there, thinking we had no more need of it, it left us to jog on at

Scientific Notices. ending Notices of new Discoveries or Improvein Science or Art; including, occasionally, sinMedical Cases; Astronomical, Mechanical, Phical, Botanical, Meteorological, and Mineralogical nena, or singular Facts in Natural History what he asserts. He is certainly a clever scientific the rate of a knot and a half, or two knots an hour, with tion, &c.; Antiquities, &c.

MANAGEMENT OF KITES.

(Continued from our last.)

"Thus soaring-thus flying along-
Ethereal pleasures we find;
May kind Heav'n accept of our song,-
Who lends us the wings of the wind."

Pocock.

ocock's mode of manoeuvring his patent as to cause them to draw wheeled-carriages tall directions with the same wind, although

man, and there is no boasting, or exaggeration, in
his very amusing work.

this same current-the more leisurely that we might enjoy

the perfume of the orange trees. Various conjectures

were afloat about our coming to an anchor, and getting a After having ascertained the main fact, now few boxes from St. Michael's, and one youth, bolder than notorious to the whole country, that Mr. Pocock, the rest of us, ventured to express a hope of the kind to with his kites, has passed, on the road, gentlemen's the captain. Oh! you should have seen the writhing of carriages, and mail coaches, and that he has fol- his eyebrow, as he replied, "I wish you were St. Michael, lowed the windings of the road, avoiding houses, or any other saint that could get me out of this,-if you trees, and other obstacles; after knowing this, we did not do it, your saintship should swing at that yardare prepared to believe all that he stands publicly arm before you had time to cross yourself." pledged to in his book.

If our correspondent does not yet understand what y ingenious, is not altogether new. We we mean by saying that carriages may be moved in as an essay on the mode of causing kites, diametrically opposite directions with the same hipwreck, on a lee shore, to descend when-wind, we will tell him. If the wind blows from red, so that the grapnel, or anchor, at the the north, the carriages can proceed directly south fall where it will hold. This is done by side directly east, and directly west, or in any of the ich, by bringing the edge of the kite to the intermediate directions. This constitutes the great cessarily cause it to drop. and distinctive merit of Mr. Pocock's discovery; but cock's adaptation of the side lines, to steer as for his beating up against the wind, as we do not in the requisite direction, upon which the fully comprehend that part of the contrivance, we of his invention so materially depends, is shall for the present offer no opinion, as it is not our however, to great praise, as it must have custom to talk about what we do not understand. much perseverance, as well as ability, to to any thing approaching perfection. LTE at persons doubt that Mr. Pocock's united ald move a vessel through the water at all; Sman, who has two ideas in his head, must

hat a very slight impulse will move a dy, in a yielding medium like water; and, vessel is becalmed, if the kites have been

The Traveller.

[ORIGINAL]

NO. VII.

LETTERS OF A TRAVELLER.

We had looked upon the distant land, morning, noon, and night; our limners had sketched its appearance as the slowly shifting vessel altered its outlines, until we reached the far end, as you would call it, of the channel we were traversing between the Islands of St. Michael and Ter

ceira.

Then there came" a change-a total change." Our old friend, the north-easter, peered out upon us again, and lasted for three days. The muscles of the captain's face were gaining their former awful rigidity; but, the God of winds be praised, we had a happier destiny. Good cometh out of evil-so the wind driving us to the westward, where we ought to have kept at first, gave us the benefit of a westerly wind, which navigators know prevails almost nine months of the year in certain latitudes. The fine weather we had enjoyed had enabled us to rig jury masts and put the ship to rights; and we now came gallantly on, leaving about 450 miles of sea behind us in 48 hours.

It was about noon on the 23d December that the blue hills of Erin took off their nightcaps (a dense fog,) to ask what ship full of little living things called men might be passing at their feet. Gloomily and angrily they lowered MY DEAR FRIEND,-Cheerful everywhere and at all down upon us, and many a gust came from their chasms ly raised, and the wished-for wind prevails times are the first streaks of the morning light. I cannot, which spoke in no friendly tone. Had he been of the sus pper regions, the kites, which would move for my own part, think that any or all of the "thousand picious sort, the captain would have taken it as a gentle ge, with several persons in it, at the rate of ills that flesh is heir to," can so congeal the pulses of the hint to keep more upon his own coast; but on he went, r twenty miles an hour, would impel a vessel human heart as to render it callous to some sense of plea- John Bull like, fearing danger nothing, and thinking of * which, under such circumstances, would be sure, when "the glorious portals of the east" are opened it as little. He had pricked off his position on the chart, arable. A person who doubts this, must, as to usher in the god of day. No, it cannot be in the and we were to be at Liverpool in two days, that is, as before observed, be extremely ignorant, power of misfortune-of despair-or even of remorse it- near as he could guess within a foot or fourteen inches, as leed, cannot have made the proper use of his self, to stifle a feeling entwined with our very being as this an ancient friend of ours would say. The mate had orders he must have seen a heavily laden flat, of, is. However industriously we seek to change and pervert to keep her on the course given until he made the Small's s, from sixty to one hundred tons burden, our nature, we can never do so entirely. We have been Light. He was then to call the captain. About nine we accustomed from infancy to derive impressions of joy and were at supper, the mate having left the carpenter in d forward in a canal by one horse. respondent, who expresses his doubts respect happiness from the re-appearance of day, and we are too charge of the deck. The breeze was steady, but blowing * remark in the last Kaleidoscope, has mistaken much the creatures of habit to receive any other, let fresh. The steward was just setting the pig's cheek and re did say. He thus misquotes our words: languid fine ladies, fastidious fine gentlemen, or love-sick roasted potatoes on the table, when a rough voice shouted chambermaids say what they will to the contrary. Words down the companion, "A light on the starboard bow, iages may be drawn in diametrically opposite would feebly describe to you the balm it pours upon the Sir." The mate had already shown some signs of dislike Os with the wind." Whereas what we said soul of the worn and tired mariner, after a night of storm at our proximity to a coast the dangers of which he knew that they moved " in diametrically opposite and tempest. I am now bringing you back to my home-something too much of. The course the captain had set ious with the same wind." We wonder any ward bound voyage, after we had dismasted our vessel in was correct enough for the object intended, but the intiof common sense could so confound things as bearing down to a stranger in distress. The gale had mation now given, coming much earlier than was anticinstrue this into the ridiculous assertion, that moderated, and the morning came in unexpected bright-pated, aroused the mate's slumbering suspicions. The ites would draw a carriage right against the ness. The sun rode majestically, and in triumph, over knife held with murderous intention over the pig's cheek, 1. Mr. Pocock, indeed, says, that he can, by the broken masses of clouds, and the heaving of the sea-the fork about to impale the potato already jumping out