gently transferred from one element to an- | gyll, where, undisturbed by consonants, he other-it was thus left in the aëriform position it had been planned to occupy. During the operations we have detailed there were, of course, made by the spectators of both sexes a variety of observations of more or less wisdom, of which our limits will only allow us historically to record a single sample. "Dear me !" said an old gentleman, as the tube when it first swung across the Straits was in perspective seen approaching the platform on which he sat, and which was immediately in front of the awful chasm between Britannia and Anglesey Tower, "they have surely been and made it too SHORT; they must put a bit ON!" As soon, however, as, veering round, it approached him broadside foremost, he whispered, "I'm quite sure it's too LONG; they'll have to cut a piece off!" A lady said to her companion, " Mr. Stephenson appeared dreadfully excited during the passage! Didn't you observe how he kept continually stretching out his arms, raising them up and then sinking them down in this way?" (suiting her words to the actions by which the speed of the voyage had calmly been regulated). "But no wonder he was so agitated!" The Company's servants were engaged until long after sunset in securing and placing in safety the various materials, &c., that had been in requisition during the day, and it was not till past midnight that, over-tired, they managed one after another to retire to rest. had soundly slept, to behold in sunshine and in solitude that which during a weary period of gestation had been either mysteriously moving in his brain, or like a vision-sometimes of good omen and sometimes of badhad by night as well as by day occasionally been flitting across his mind. Without, however, presuming to divine, from the rising fumes of a cigar, the various subjects of his ruminations, we will merely confess that, on looking up from our boat, as it glided away, at the aerial gallery he was contemplating, we were astonished to find ourselves very much in the frail predicament of mind of the old gentleman of yesterday whose emotions we so accurately delineated for when the tube was lying on the Carnarvon shore we certainly fancied that it looked too heavy and too high for its object, whereas it now appeared almost too light and too low in short, it had assumed the simple appearance which, in principle, it had been designed to bear-that of a rectangular hollow beam; and although it had in fact annulled the awful chasm between the Anglesey and Britannia Towers, nevertheless, by exactly measuring it, it now appeared considerably to have increased it! Moreover, in viewing this low narrow passage-only 15 feet by 30-which, without cuneiform support, was strecthing half across the Menai Straits-(it has been quaintly observed by Mr. Latimer Clark, in the clever pamphlet named at the head of this article, that if this single joint of the tube could be On the following morning, after we had bid- placed on its tiny end in St. Paul's Churchden adieu to the hospitable inmates of a small yard, it would reach 107 feet higher than the wooden habitation, beneath the Anglesey cross)-it seemed surprising to us that by Tower, in which we had been very kindly re- any arrangement of materials it could possibly ceived, we had occasion to pass near to a be made strong enough to support even itself, stand which had purposely been constructed much less heavily-laden trains of passengers in a peculiarly advantageous position, to en- and goods, flying through it, and actually passable the Directors of the Chester and Holy-ing each other in the air, at railway speed. head Railway to witness the operation. Upon the centre bench of this platform-the ground far around which was partially covered with bits of orange-peel, greasy papers that had contained sandwiches, and other scraps, indicative of an intellectual feast that was over, --we observed, reclining entirely by himself, a person in the easy garb of a gentleman, who appeared to be in the exquisite enjoyment of a cigar, whose white smoke in long expirations was periodically exuding from his lips, as with unaverted eyes he sat indolently gazing at the aerial gallery before him. It was the father looking at his new-born child! He had strolled down from Llanfairpwllgwyn And the more we called reason and reflection to our assistance, the more incomprehensible did the mystery practically appear; for the plate-iron of which this aerial gallery is composed is literally not so thick as the lid, sides, and bottom which, by heartless contract, are required for an elm coffin 6 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 2 feet deep, of strength merely sufficient to carry the corpse of an emaciated, friendless pauper from the workhouse to his grave! The covering of this iron passage, 1841 feet in length, is literally not thicker than the hide of the elephant! Lastly, it is scarcely thicker than the bark of the "good old En glish" oak; and if this noble sovereign, not- | withstanding the "heart" and interior substance of which it boasts, is, even in the wellprotected park in which it has been born and bred, often prostrated by the storm, how difficult is it to conceive that an attenuated aërial hollow beam, no thicker than its mere rind, should by human science be constituted strong enough to withstand, besides the weights rushing through it, the natural gales and artificial squalls of wind to which throughout its immense length, and at its fearful height, it is permanently to be exposed! IV. RAISING THE TUBES. Hydraulic Press. Although the tube, resting at each end upon the ledge or shelf that had been prepared for it, had been deposited high enough to allow an ordinary boat to row under it, yet the heaviest job still remained that of raising it about 100 feet to its final restingplace. This operation, which might be compared to lifting the Burlington Arcade to the top of St. James's Church-supposing always that the said church arose out of very deep, rapid water-was, as we have already stated, to be performed by the slow but irresistible agency of hydraulic power; and as one of the presses used is said not only to be the largest in the world, but the most powerful machine that has ever been constructed, we will venture to offer to those of our readers who may never have reflected upon the subject, a brief, homely explanation of the simple hydrostatic principle upon which that most astonishing engine, the hydraulic press invented by Bramah, is constructed. If the whole of the fresh water behind the lock-gates of a canal communicating directly with, say the German Ocean, were to be suddenly withdrawn, it is evident that the sea-side of the gates would receive water-pressure, and the other side none. Now if a second set of gates were to be inserted in the salt-water at a short distance, say one foot, in front of the old ones-(the water between both sets of gates remaining at the same sea-level as before)-many, and perhaps most people, would believe that the pressure of the German Ocean against the new gates would of course relieve, if not entirely remove, the pressure against the old ones-just as a barrier before the entrance of a theatre most certainly relieves those between it and the door from the pressure of the mob without. This opinion, however, is fallacious; for, supposing that the new gates were by machinery to be firmly closed, the foot of saltwater included between them and the old gates would not only continue to press exactly as heavily against the latter as the whole German Ocean had previously done, but by simultaneously inflicting the same amount of pressure against the inside of the new gates as the ocean was inflicting on their outide, the pressure of this imprisoned single oot of water would so accurately counterpoise that of the whole wide, free ocean, that if the machinery which had closed the new gates were suddenly to be removed, they (the new gates) would be found, as it were, vertically to float between the two equal pressures! But anomalous as this theory may appear, it is beautifully demonstrated by the wellknown fact, that if water be poured into a glass syphon, of which one leg is, say an inch in diameter, and the other, say a foot, the smaller quantity will exactly counterbalance the greater, and the water will consequently, in both legs, rise precisely to the same level; and this would be the case if one leg of the syphon were as large as the German Ocean, and the other as small as the distance between the two sets of lock gates we have just described-indeed it is evident that, if a hole were to be bored through the bottom of the new gates, a syphon would instantly be formed, of which the ocean would be one leg and the foot of included salt-water the other. Now Bramah, on reflection, clearly perceived that from this simple principle in nature a most important mechanical power might be obtained; for if, say five ounces of water in a small tube can be made to counterbalance, say a hundred thousand ounces of water in a large one, it is evident that by the mere substitution in the bottom of the larger tube of a flat solid substance instead of the water, a pressure upon the body so inserted of very nearly a hundred thousand ounces would be inflicted by the application of only five ounces!-and-as this pressure would of course be proportionately increased by increasing the height, or in other words the weight of water in the smaller tubeBramah therefore further reasoned that, if, instead of adding to the quantity of water in the smaller tube, the fluid therein were to be ejected downward by a force-pump, the pressure upward in the larger tube would proportionately be most enormously increased; and a fortiori, as, in lieu of the oldfashioned forcing-pump, the power of steam has lately been exerted, our readers will, we believe, at once percieve that, if the instrument which holds the water could but be made strong enough, the pressure which | fixed in the upper region of the Britannia might be inflicted within it by a few gallons Tower, 148 feet above the level of its base, of water might almost be illimitable. and about 45 feet above that to which the bridge is to be raised. The principle of the hydraulic press having been above faintly explained, the power and dimensions of the extraordinary engine of this nature, which has been constructed by Messrs. Easton and Amos, of Southwark, for raising the Britannia tubes, may be thus briefly described. The cylinder, or large tube, of the syphon, which is 9 feet 4 inches in length, 4 feet 10 inches in diameter, and which is made of cast iron 11 inches thick, weighs 16 tons The piston, termed the Ram, which, pressed upward by the water, works within it, is 20 inches in diameter. The whole machine complete weighs upward of 40 tons. The force-pump barrel communicates with a slender tube or passage about the size of a lady's smallest finger, which, like the touchhole of a cannon, is drilled through the metallic side of the cylinder; and thus, although the syphonic principle really exists, nothing appears to the eye but a sturdy cast-iron cylinder of about the length of a 24 lb. cannon, having the thickness of metal of a 13inch mortar. From the above trifling data it will be evident that, leaving friction and the weight of the ram out of the question, the lifting power of this machine must exceed the force applied to the force-pump in the same proportion that 1 inch diameter bears to a diameter of 20 inches-which in figures amounts to about 354 to 1; and as the two 40-horse steam engines which are to be applied to the touch-hole for compressing the water in the smaller tube would, it has been calculated by Mr. Latimer Clark, be sufficient to force the fluid more than five times as high as the top of Snowdon, or 5000 feet higher than the summit of Mount Blanc, our readers have only to increase the force in this proportion to become sensible of the extraordinary power which the hydraulic press of the Britannia Bridge is capable of exerting for the purpose of raising its tubes. In short, the power is to the weight of the tubes as follows: Around the neck of the iron ram or piston, which protrudes 8 inches above the top of this cylinder, there is affixed a strong horizontal iron beam 6 feet 9 inches in length, resembling the wooden yoke used by milkmaids for carrying their pails, from the extremities of which there hang two enormous iron chains, composed of eight or nine flat links or plates, each 7 inches broad, 1 inch thick, and 6 feet in length, firmly bolted together. These chains (which, in order to lift the tube to its destination, are required to be each 145 feet long, weigh no less than 100 tons-which is more than double the weight of the equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington, lately erected in Hyde Park-commonly regarded as one of the heaviest lifts ever effected; and certainly, when from the giddy region of the Britannia Tower, in which this hydraulic machinery, like the nest of an eagle, has been deposited, the stranger, after looking down upon the enormous weight of iron not only to be supported, but to be raised, compares the whole mass with the diameter of the little touch-hole immediately before him, through which the lifting-power has to pass-and when he reflects that the whole process can, with the greatest ease, be regulated and controlled by a single man, it is impossible to help feeling deeply grateful to the Divine Power for an invention which, at first sight, has more the appearance of magic than of art. As soon as all adjustments were prepared, and the boiler was sufficiently heated, the great piston, under the influence of severe pressure upon the water beneath it, began slowly, like a schoolboy's "jack-in-the-box," to emerge from the cylinder, and, apparently regardless of the enormous weight that oppressed his shoulders, he continued steadily to rise, until in about thirty minutes he lifted the tube 6 feet, and, as he could raise it no higher, the huge chains beneath were immediately secured by a powerful vice or "clams" at the foot of the press. By letting off the water, which of course relieved the pressure beneath the piston, it descended, by its own gravity, to the point from which it had started, where the chains being again affixed to its yoke an operation which requires about half an hour-it again by the vitality of steam, lifted its weight another six feet; and, as the other end of the tube was simultaneously treated in a similar way, the whole was pro From the British Quarterly Review. RABELAIS-HIS LIFE AND GENIUS. The Works of Francis Rabelais. Translated from the French by SIR THOMAS URQUHART and MOTTEUX; with Explanatory Notes by DUCHAT, OZELL, and others. A New Edition, revised, and with additional Notes. London: Bohn. 1849. 2 vols. unnecessary learning such were the rules imposed upon the Franciscan friars by the will of their founder; and whatever relaxations in these rules time may have introduc IN 1530, Luther, now an elderly man, had already accomplished more than half his great work, and the young Frenchman, Calvin, was just beginning his career as a theologian, when an erratic fellow-country-ed, enough of their spirit remained to preman of the latter, a vagabond monk or priest, that had long been at a loss what to do with himself, came to Montpellier, and was matriculated at the university there as a student of medicine, by the name of Francis Rabelais. He must have seemed somewhat of an old fellow to be commencing a new course of study, for he was then in his forty-eighth year-that is to say, exactly as old as Luther, and about twenty-six years older than Calvin. But it was by no means uncommon at that time to see men that had been bred in the church, cast adrift to seek, late in life, for new ties and occupations. Many were the strange waifs that the Reformation had washed afloat upon society; nor of all these was there one whose severance from the papal wreck should have been less a matter of surprise than that of Rabelais. Born in 1483, at the small town of Chinon, in Touraine, where his father, who was an innkeeper, owned or rented a farm adjacent to a convent of Benedictine monks, Rabelais had been destined for the church from his boyhood; and after receiving the usual modicum of education, and fulfilling the usual novitiate, he had at last, in his twenty-ninth year (1511), been admitted into priest's orders as a member of a fraternity of Franciscan or Mendicant Gray Friars, established at Fontenay-le-Comte, in Lower Poitou. A position less suitable for a man of his tastes | and temperament could not possibly have been found. To wear a coarse gray cloak and hood, to go barefooted, and live on fish and other meagre diet, to cherish an humble and abject demeanor, and to abstain from all serve for the order its traditional character as the most ascetic and beggarly in the church. In any convent whatever, Rabelais would have been an unruly subject; but in a convent of Franciscans he was discord incarnate. His conventual offences were numerous. In the first place, it appears, he was by far too studious in his habits for a Franciscan; he, and another brother, named Peter Amy, would persist, among other things, in learning Greek together, and in corresponding with eminent Greek scholars, such as the celebrated Budæus-of all which it was clear to the friars that no good could come. Further, there was good reason, after the promulgation of the Lutheran heresy, to believe that brother Rabelais was by no means an orthodox catholic in his views of that movement, if, indeed, he was not in secret a disciple of Luther. But, worse than all, as we guess, he was of a disposition altogether intractable and uncomfortable, “un prêtre," as his friend Budæus hinted, "d'un caractère bien difficile et morose ;" an earlier Swift, in short, for bitterness and satiric humor. It is nowise necessary to add to these traits, as some do, the imputation of personal lewdness, in order to complete our picture of a man that would be likely to keep a community of Gray Friars in a state of hot water. Suffice it that, during thirteen years, he was, somehow or other, the most unpopular man in the monastery. At last, this dislike of his brother monks to him showed itself in a somewhat serious fashion. In 1524, in consequence of some formidable breach of rule—a profane practical jest, tradition says, that |