cover no blemish, and as the seller, eager (for reasons well known to himself) to conclude a hasty bargain, readily abated even his first moderate demand, our traveller became the purchaser of a horse, in which his skill could discern no blemish, at a very cheap rate. On the next morning he set out on his journey. His horse had excellent paces; and the first few miles, while the road was well frequented, our traveller spent in congratulating himself on his good fortune. On Finchley Common, and at a place where the road run down one slight ascent and up another, the traveller met a clergyman driving a one-horse chaise. There was nobody within sight: and the horse, by his manœuvre, plainly intimated what had been the profession of his first master. Instead of passing the onehorse chaise, he laid his counter close up to it, and stopt it, having no doubt that his rider would take so fair an opportunity of exercising his vocation. The clergyman, under the same mistake, produced his purse unasked, and assured the inoffensive and surprised horseman, that it was unnecessary to draw his pistol. The traveller rallied his horse, with apologies to the venerable member of the Church whom he had unwillingly affrighted, and pursued his journey. The horse next made the same suspicious approach to a coach, from the windows of which a blunderbuss was levelled, with denunciations of death and destruction to our countryman, though sackless, as he expressed it, of all offence in deed or word. In a word-after his life had been once or twice endangered by the suspicions to which his horse's conduct gave rise, and his liberty as often threatened by peace-officers, who were disposed to apprehend him as the notorious highwayman who had formerly ridden the horse in question, he found himself obliged to part with the inauspicious animal for a mere trifle; and to purchase, at a pretty dear rate, a horse of less external figure and action, but of better moral habits. Thus have we in some measure paralleled the remarkable circumstances which seemed at first so startling to credibility. We sincerely hope, however, that these symptoms of flant immorality will not extend lves among the lower tribes of creation. We are now on our guard, dog of Islington and his master.— The case of a fall from a horse has THE HONOURABLE HENRY ERSKINE. [THE following eloquent, elegant, most feeling, and characteristic Sketch of the late Honourable Henry Erskine is from the pen of Mr Jeffrey. It has appeared in the Edinposition well deserves to be embodied in a burgh Newspapers: but so beautiful a comless perishable publication. EDITOR.] THE HONOURABLE HENRY ERSKINE died, at his seat of Ammondell, Linlithgowshire, on the 8th October, in the 71st year of his age; he was second son of the late Henry David Earl of Buchan. Mr Erskine was called to the Scottish bar, of which he was long the brightest ornament, in the year 1768, and was for several years Dean of the Faculty of Advocates: he was twice appointed Lord Advocate, in 1782 and in 1806, under the Rockingham and the Grenville administrations. During the years 1806 and 1807, he sat in Parliament for the Dunbar and Dumfries district of boroughs. In his long and splendid career at the bar, Mr Erskine was distinguished not only by the peculiar brilliancy of his wit, and the gracefulness, ease, and vivacity of his eloquence, but by the still rarer power of keeping those seducing qualities in perfect subordination to his judgment. By their assistance he could not only make the most repulsive subjects agreeable, but the most abstruse, easy and intelligible. In his profession, indeed, all his wit was argument, and each of his delightful illustrations a material step in his reasonings. To himself it seemed always as if they were recommended rather for their use than their beauty. And unquestionably they often enabled him to state a fine argument, or a nice distinction, not only in a more striking and pleasing way, but actually with greater precision than could have been attained by the severer forms of reasoning. In this extraordinary talent, as well as in the charming facility of his eloquence, and the constant radiance of good humour and gayety which encircled his manner in debate, he had no rival in his own times, and has yet had no successor.-That part of eloquence is now mute-that honour in abeyance. As a politician, he was eminently distinguished for the two great virtues of inflexible steadiness to his principles, and invariable gentleness and urbanity in his manner of asserting them. Such, indeed, was the habitual sweetness of his temper, and the fascination of his manners, that though placed by his rank and talent in the obnoxious station of a leader of opposition at a period when political animosities were carried to a lamentable height, no individual, it is believed, was ever known to speak or to think of him with any thing approaching to personal hostility. In return, it may be said, with equal correctness, that though baffled in some of his pursuits, and not quite handsomely disappointed of some of the honours to which his claim was universally admitted, he never allowed the slightest shade of discontent to rest upon his mind, nor the least drop of bitterness to mingle with his blood. He was so utterly incapable of rencour, that even the rancorous felt that he ought not to be made its victim. He possessed, in an eminent degree, that deep sense of revealed religion, and that zealous attachment to the Presbyterian establishment, which had long been hereditary in his family. His habits were always strictly moral and temperate, and in the latter part of his life even abstemious. Though the life and the ornament of every society into which he entered, he was always most happy and most delightful at home, where the buoyancy of his spirits and the kindness of his heart found all that they required of exercise or enjoyment; and though without taste for expensive pleasures in his own person, he was ever most indulgent and munificent to his children, and a liberal benefactor to all who depended on his bounty. He finally retired from the exercise of that profession, the highest honours of which he had at least deserved, about the year 1812, and spent the remainder of his days in domestic retirement at that beautiful villa which had been formed by his own taste, and in the improvement and adornment of which he found his latest occupation. Passing, then, at once from all the bustle and excitement of a public life to a scene of comparative inactivity, he never felt one moment of ennui or dejection, but retained unimpaired, till within a day or two of his death, not only all his intellectual activity and social affections, but, when not under the immediate affliction of a painful and incurable disease, all that gayety of spirit, and all that playful and kindly sympathy with innocent enjoyment, which made him the idol of the young, and the object of cordial attachment and unenvying admiration to his friends of all ages. A scene more solemn never Hermit chose Impurpled with its bloom. On either side, O'er Beauty's quiet home! Yet, not exiled Even at the mountain's foot; like dew it lay On the relenting sternness of the Rocks; The black and sullen entrances of Caves Dropp'd wild-flowers at her bidding; e'er it reached Her ear, the tumult of the Cataract Was pleasant music; but her perfect bliss Came from the clear blue sky, and from the clouds That slept eternal in their depth of rest. I closed mine eye, that undisturbed by sense The far-withdrawing Vision, and a blank shone. Gladly had all the Woods revealed their depths To the Spirit glimmering on their topmost boughs; And the far Mountains that by day appear A light was in my Cottage-I beheld An emblem seemed of Innocence in Heaven! LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. AT Down, in Perthshire, it was lately observed, that common Flour Paste has the effect of rendering cast iron quite soft, and similar to plumbago. Dr Thomson supposes, that the acid developed by the sourness of the paste produces this remarkable effect; and he informs us, that muriate of magnesia produces a similar effect. In the numerous experiments which have lately been made on the strength of iron cables, it has been observed, that a very great degree of heat was generated at the time of fracture. It is said, however, that this effect is not constantly produced. The generation of the heat appears to arise from the lateral contraction of the iron, in consequence of the longitudinal force. The fibres or particles of the iron must necessarily approach each other in a lateral direction, and therefore the same effect is produced as in the sudden condensation of iron, or the condensation produced by the blows of a hammer. M. Guichardier, hat-maker in Paris, has substituted with success the hair of the sea otter and the common otter, in place of the hair of the castor, which has long been becoming scarce. We understand that M. Simonde di Sismondi, the celebrated author of the History of the Italian Republics, has written the article Political Economy, and other articles, for the Edinburgh Encyclopædia, conducted by Dr Brewster. M. de Sismondi is at present occupied in correcting the press of the five last volumes of his great work on the History of the Italian Republics. Chlorine.-Dr Ure of Glasgow has lately finished a very elaborate series of experiments on the controversial subject of chlorine. Their principal object was to ascertain whether water, or its elements, existed in and could be extracted from muriate of ammonia. He has perfectly succeeded in obtaining water from the dry and recently sublimed salt, by methods quite unexceptionable. The vapour of such muriate of ammonia being transmitted through laminæ of pure silver, copper, and iron, ignited in glass tubes, water and hydrogen were copiously evolved, while the pure metals were converted into metallic muriates. This fact is decisive, in the Doctor's opinion, of the great chemical controversy relative to chlorine and muriatic acid, and seems clearly to establish the former theory of Berthollet and Lavoisier, in opposition to that more lately advanced by Sir H. Davy with such apparent cogency of argument as to have led almost all the chemists of Europe to embrace his opinion. The details of the experiments have been communicated some time since to a distinguished member of the Royal Society, and will be speedily laid before the VOL. II. public. This decomposition of the salt by the metals, at an elevated temperature, is, analogous to the decomposition of potash in ignited gun-barrels, by Gay-Lussac and Thenard. Safety Lamp.-Sir Humphry Davy has made a further discovery in regard to combustion, which will prove a very great improvement to his safety lamp. He thus describes it in a letter to the Rev. J. Hodgson of Heworth :-" I have succeeded in producing a light perfectly safe and economical, which is most brilliant in atmospheres in which the flame of the safety-lamp is extinguished, and which burns in every mixture of carburetted hydrogen gas that is respirable. It consists of a slender metallic tissue of platinum, which is hung in the top of the interior of the common lamp of wire gauze, or in that of the twilled lamp. It costs from 6d. to 1s. and is imperishable. This tissue, when the common lamp is introduced into an explosive atmo, here, becomes red hot, and continues to burn the gas in contact with it as long as the air is respirable; when the atmosphere again becomes explosive, the flame is relighted. I can now burn any inflammable vapour, either with or without flame, at pleasure, and make the wire consume it either with red or white heat. I was led to this result by discovering slow combustions without flame, and at last I found a metal which made these harmless combustions visible." Dr Remnant of Plymouth has published a remedy for the bite of a mad dog, which, he says, has been proved by the first medical men of the age, and has stood the test for the last thirty years, though perhaps but partially known in England, if at all. It was discovered in Germany; and in Dr R.'s travels through, and stay in that country, (which was some years) he was frequently a witness of its success on dogs, and other animals that had been bitten by mad dogs. He never saw it tried upon the human species, but was credibly informed by professional gentlemen of the highest respectability, who had tried it upon man with the same success, that it never failed as a preventive. It has always been administered as soon as possible after the animal had been bitten. The recipe is as follows:"When a dog or other animal is bitten by a mad dog, let the following be given him as soon as possible-brass filings, one dram, with white bean meal (calavanceries), in milk or milk broth, well stirred together The beans are to be burnt brown like coffee, and ground in a coffee-mill, or if finely bruised will do." The same quantity is sufficient for the human subject, and no repetition is necessary, as one dose has by experience been always proved an effectual preventive. N A life-boat, upon an entire new principle, has been completed by Messrs Dodds and Shotton, boat-builders, Sunderland, under the direction of John Davidson, Esq. of Bishopwearmouth. She draws only 10 or 11 inches of water when her crew is on board, not more than 2 feet 10 inches when filled with water, and is capable of carrying with safety 50 persons. An experiment was tried a few days ago to prove her buoyant properties. In the presence of numerous spectators she was immersed in the sea from off the pier, and, unassisted, ridded herself of the cargo of water in less than 40 seconds, by means of apertures through the bottom. No cork is used in her construction. Count Sickingen determines that the strength of Swedish and British iron is to each other as follows:-British iron, 348-88; Swedish iron, 549.25. M. Theodore de Saussure has published the result of a number of experiments to determine the relative proportion of carbonic acid in the atmosphere during summer and winter. His method was to fill a large glass globe with the air to be examined, and to put into it a quantity of barytes water. The carbonic acid in the air was determined by the quantity of carbonate of barytes formed. In winter 10,000 parts of air in volume gave a mean of 4-79 parts of carbonic acid gas in 10,000 measures of air. In summer 10,000 measures of air gave a mean of 7.13 parts of carbonic acid in 10,000 measures of air. gas M. Dorion has pointed out a very simple mode of clarifying the syrup of the sugarcane: he merely throws into the boiling juice a certain quantity of the bark of the pyramidal ash in powder. WORKS PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION. LONDON. WE have just seen the Fifth Edition of Dr Thomson's System of Chemistry. It is in four large volumes octavo, and is therefore more condensed than the former edition. The whole of this admirable work is in a manner re-written, and the arrangement is in many respects greatly improved. This distinguished chemist very properly regrets the new nomenclatural innovations of Berzelius, Gay-Lussac, and Davy; and where new discoveries have called for new terms, these he has formed according to the laws laid down by Lavoisier and his associates. Every new chemical fact is accurately detailed, and all the general chemical views worthy of notice are explained with wonderful clearness and conciseness. deed we have no hesitation in affirming, that this edition of Dr Thomson's celebrated work is the best arranged, and the most complete and philosophical Chemical System ever published in Great Britain; and that, in the acuteness of its general views, its originality and extent of information, and accuracy of detail, it far exceeds the most celebrated Chemical Systems of France, Germany, and Sweden. The French clementary and systematic works have always been considered as the best in Europe. In The lovers of poetry will rejoice to hear, that Lord Byron's fertile muse has produced a fourth canto of Childe Harold. It has just been received in London, and is expected to appear next month. The Characteristic Sketch, by Professor Engel, entitled, "Laurence Stark, or the Hamburgh Merchant," and declared by some of the German critics to be the most perfect novel in their language, is, we learn, about to appear in an English translation, with an Outline of the Life of its Author. In the press, Travels through Denmark, Sweden, and Lapland; with a Description of the City of St Petersburgh, during the Tyranny of the Emperor Paul; by E. D. Clarke, LL.D.; being the third and last part of the author's Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa; handsomely printed in 4to, with numerous engravings of views, maps, &c. Speedily will be published, a General View of the Domestic and Foreign Possessions of the Crown; the Laws, Commerce, Revenues, Offices, and other Establishments, Military as well as Civil; by John Adolphus, F.S.A. (author of "the History of England, from the Accession of King George III. to the Conclusion of Peace in the Year 1783,") 4 vols 8vo. In the press, Narrative of a Residence in Japan, in the years 1811, 1812, and 1813, with Observations on the Country and People of Japan, by Captain H. Golownin of the Russian Navy. Dr Turton is printing, in a portable form, a Conchological Dictionary of the British Islands. Mr C. Feist will soon publish the Wreath of Solitude and other Poems, in one vol. A Reply will speedily be published to the Rev. Mr Matthias's Inquiry into the Doctrines of the Reformation, or a convincing and conclusive Confutation of Calvinism. A Narrative is printing of Discoveries in Africa, by Mr Burkhardt. He has for some years been travelling in the countries south of Egypt, in the disguise of an Arab, and by the name of Shekh Ibrahim, under the auspices of the African Association. He is still, it is said, prosecuting his discoveries, and entertains sanguine hopes of being able to reach Tombuctoo, from the east, and proceed from that city to the western coast. |