propagated to the contrary, that he has been at perfect liberty during the whole period of his stay in Paraguay. He was latterly getting opulent, which appears to have been the real cause of his dismissal. He quite regrets his departure, if we are to believe the language of his epistle. "In order," he says, "to put an end to the melancholy suppositions which you and all my friends must naturally have made relative to my existence during the nine years of my detention in Paraguay, I must tell you, that I have passed as happy a life as could be expected by one deprived of all communication with his country, his family, and his friends. The practice of medicine has always afforded me the means of subsistence; but as this did not entirely occupy my time, I employed myself, from disposition and necessity, in agriculture, which has given me infinite enjoyments. At the same time I had established a manufactory of brandy and liqueurs, and likewise a carpenter's and a blacksmith's shop, which not only defrayed the expenses of my agricultural establishment, but yielded some profits from the work performed for private individuals. In this manner I had acquired the means of living with the greatest comfort. On the 12th of May, 1829, without any preliminary, the authorities of Santiago communicated to me the order of the Supreme Director to leave the country. This intimation was a mixture of justice and wrong, which I cannot yet account for in a positive manner. In short, driven about from the 12th of May, 1829, to 2d of February, 1831-that is, during twenty months and twenty days-I at length passed the Parana with all the honours of war. This second epoch of my life in Paraguay has been real punish ment to me. I had never given any one cause of complaint,--I had endeavoured to gain the esteem of all. Even the Supreme Dictator, from my arrival in the republic until the 12th of May, 1829, had allowed me the greatest liberty, and the heads of the department in which I was domiciliated treated me with kindness. At last, as every thing has an end, the director definitively decreed my departure from Paraguay, and has done it in the most generous manner. I am at liberty, and soon hope to embrace you." Optical deception.-Upon the Liverpool and Manchester rail-road, when the carriages are proceeding at the rate of fourteen or fifteen miles an hour, the rail, as well as the trees and houses on each side, seem to the eye of the traveller to move in a contrary direction; but when the speed is doubled, though the trees and houses still appear to preserve their contrary progress, the iron rail on the road seems to move in the direction of the carriages, and as it were to emulate their velocity. This is the effect of an optical deception. The rails have, at certain distances, slight irregularities in their junction with each other, which, when the velocity is moderate, are sufficient to arrest the eye in passing, and to give them an appearance, while they are passed, of receding in a contrary direction. But when the speed is greatly increased, these irregularities are no longer discernible; there is nothing seen upon the rails to shew that any particular part is passed by, and the whole seems to move with the carriages, whereas the trees and houses are still sufficiently defined objects, and still seem to have been passed by as before. Philosopher Walker.-It is with much regret we learn that the daughter of the late Adam Walker, a man who rendered so many services to his country, whose life indeed is truly said to have been one continued and devoted effort to increase the intelligence, and advance the interests, and improve the condition of the human species, is now a widow, with a son and daughter wholly unprovided for, and is left exposed to the want of the common necessaries of existence. Assuredly some provision ought to be made for the descendants of an individual, who has deserved at least fully as well of his counrry as most of the great sinecurists by whose pensions it is burthened. Mr. Roscoe. The literary world has recently lost one of the most distinguished, as well as the most venerable of its members, in Mr. Roscoe, who was long known to the public as an elegant historian, and an honest patriot. He had reached his 80th year, and died on Thursday, the 30th of June, at his house in Lodge-lane, Liverpool. We are given to understand that the life and correspondence of Mr. Roscoe are already in preparation for the press by some of the members of his family. These, together with his miscellaneous works on a variety of important subjects, will be printed uniformly with an octavo edition of the Lives of Lorenzo and Leo X. The correspondence, we understand, embraces a period of nearly sixty years, during which this celebrated writer was in the habit of communicating with the most distinguished characters of the age, both literary and political. Steam Carriages.-There is little doubt that these vehicles will soon be brought to a degree of perfection, which will enable them to be applied to the purposes of conveyance both of goods and passengers on the high road. Messrs. Heaton, of Birmingham, have recently obtained a patent for such a combination of contrivances, which are already separately known, as makes their steam carriages better calculated to overcome the inequalities of roads than any other now in use. They may be turned round the sharpest corner with as much ease as a stage coach. In order to prevent the loss of speed caused upon rail-roads by ascents, Messrs. Vignoles and Ericson have added a third rail in the centre of the road, proportioned to the requisite distance, in which rail there are teeth that catch a central wheel contrived for the purpose of assisting the vehicle up the inclined plane. Church Patronage.-The Duke of Buccleugh inherits no fewer than thirty patronages in Scotland. The following is a list of the parishes whose ecclesiastical livings are at his disposal :-Dalkeith, Kirknewtown, Inveresk, Hawick, Wiltown, St. Boswell's, Melrose, Middlebie, Dornock, Hoddam, Kirkmichael, Langholm, Canobie, Castletown, Ewes, Westerkirk, Eskdale Muir, Terregles, Kirkmachoe, Kirkbean, Colvend, Lochrutton, Penport, Keir, Glencairn, Tynron, Kirkconnel, Durrisdeer, Morton, Sanquhar. Joan of Arc.-A most remarkable monument has lately been discovered at Orleans. It is no other than the greater part of the turrets of the old bridge that formed so distinguished a scene in that interesting episode of the history of France, of which Joan of Arc was the heroine. Bees. By the successful mode in which Mr. Nutt manages his bees, he contrives to obtain from one hive, in the course of five years, nearly eight hundred pounds of honey, clear of all charges. His plan is not only thus productive beyond all others, but he never loses a bee, unless by natural demise or mere accident. There is no swarm ing, no tinkling of the pan. The insects have abundance of room, and are constantly employed during the gathering season. We hope that he may be induced to favour the public with the particulars of his mode of management; indeed he owes it to the winged nations, for whose welfare he has so long and so fortunately laboured. New Motive Power.-A letter was recently read at the Academy of Sciences in Paris, in which the writer asserted that he had discovered a new moving power, resulting from a combination of two chemical agents with a certain mechanical principle, which is applicable to every species of labour, and particularly to locomotion on public roads. He does not give any further explanations, waiting, we suppose, for the perfection of his patent. Etruscan Antiquities.-It is said that Sir William Gell has recently made some valuable discoveries of Etruscan antiquities, anterior to the Roman era, which he is engaged in preparing for publication. Prize Essay.-The Medico-Botanical Society of London have resolved that their gold medal should be offered for the best essay in the English, French, German or Latin language, on the question, "What is the vegetable substance which could be employed with success in the cure of Hydrophobia?"-and that their silver medal should be offered for the best essay "On the medicinal qualities and uses of any indigenous plant which is not yet sufficiently known, or on new uses and applications of any other indigenous plants," provided that such essays possess sufficient merit, that they should be received till the close of the present year, and that the medals should be bestowed at the next anniversary. Sour Beer.-Most housekeepers must have found a difficulty in preserving their beer from turning sour in summer weather. Upon the supposition that acidity is produced by the introduction of too much atmospheric air into the cask, through the vent hole, a little invention has been suggested, which seems capable of counteracting that evil. Instead of opening the vent to the air, it is placed in communication with a copper ball filled with carbonic acid gas. The ball is screwed into the cask: and it has a small cock, which is opened as soon as the beer ceases to run through the brass cock below, and admits a quantity of the gas; this gas pressing on the liquid, not only causes it to run out with facility, but also impregnates it with a gas such as we may observe in the manufacture of soda water. TO CORRESPONDENTS. We can assure the author of the Welsh Tales that we expected to meet in his work not much more than the ordinary share of nonsense. We have been indeed surprized to find so much of that common quality in his letter. He cannot deliberately suppose that our object was to injure him. He is an old reviewer, he says; if so, we presume that he judges of us from what he would have done himself under similar circumstances. The Rev. Mr. Potter has addressed us in almost a similar tone; as if indeed we never can pass judgment upon any literary work without being influenced by personal motives. We have not the honour of the reverend gentleman's acquaintance; and, until we saw his book, never heard even of his name. How then is it possible that we should be liable to the charge which he, rather angrily, brings against us? To M. M. we answer, that the question of Church Reform is one which we shall take leave to treat in our own way. We shall be glad, however, to profit of his suggestions. Upon the same subject we must inform Londinensis that his threats of denouncement have no effect whatever upon the editor of this journal. A public prosecution indeed! The Age of the Inquisition has passed, and let him take care whether he may not be only hastening to pull down the house about his own ears! Achonry, see of, 483 Agapoe; or, the Sacred Love Pledge. By Albers, Dr., (see Cholera) Aikin, Dr., (see Select Works of the Bri- Alibeg the Tempter. A Tale Wild and Anatomy of Society, the, by J. A. St. John, 265-the author one of the disciples of Architecture of Birds, 566 Armstrong, J. B., (see his Journal of Tra- vels in the seat of War, during the last At Home and Abroad; or, Memoirs of 128-character of, 128, 129-extract Authorship; a Tale. By a New-Englander Azani, a visit to, 25 B. BADDELEY, Mrs., 504 Basire, the correspondence of Isaac, D.D., Beattie, William, (see Journal of a Resi- Bedouins in London, 472 Beechey, Sir W., (see the Exhibition of Beer, sour, 610 Bees, 609 Bellamy, Georgiana, life of, 503 Bernays, A., (see Familiar German Exer- A. (see German Poetical Antho- logy) Beverley, R. M., Esq., (see his Letter to Bird, James, (see Framlingham) Book of the Seasons; or the Calendar of Bonpland, M., 607 Botanical Miscellany, The; containing 2 s recommend themselves by their novelty, 325 Campbell, Mr., 607 Canterbury, Archbishop of, his tithe com- Carey, Lucius (see Destiny) Carr, Thomas Swinburn, (see A Lecture Carriages, Steam, 609 Centlivre, Mis., life of, 498 Chaffin, Rev. William, (see Nichols's Illus- Chalon, Mr. Edward, (see the Exhibition Cheap engravings, 314 Cholera Morbus-return of-an address to -- character of, ib.-our climate unfavour- Cholera Morbus, the, 313, 474, 607 Church, reform of, 79 Church establishment, founded in error, Church in Ireland-first fruits-return to 490 |