of salting a round of beef in ten minutes. It also possesses one great advantage over all other means of salting meat-that of regulating the degree of saltness, and adapting it to the palate of the curer. There is no doubt, judging from the utility and extreme simplicity of Mr Carson's instrument, that it will be adopted by householders in general, and be considered invaluable by farmers who cure provisions, butchers, innkeepers, emigrants, and par ticularly residents in tropical climates. did serious injury to the painting by employing Stephano Pozzi to add a more general covering to the figures. We see it, therefore, under many disadvantages: the damp of two centuries and a half, the smoke of the candles and incense, and the neglect which it has evidently experienced, have obscured its effect, and impaired the brightness of its original colouring. The accidental explosion of the powder magazine in the Castle of St Angelo, in 1797, which shook the buildings to their foundations, is said to have seriously injured all the frescos in the Vatican. The Gatherer. The New Houses of Parliament.-The Commissioners have issued a public invitation to artists, in various departments, to send in specimens of works that may aid in the decoration of the Houses of Parlia ment-statues in bronze and marble of British Sovereigns and other illustrious personages-stained glass windows, with figures or heraldic devices relating to the Royal Families of England-carved wood, consisting of designs for doors and panels THE DEAD JUDGED.-The Egyptians passed solemn judgment on their dead. The assembly of the judges met on the side of a lake, which they crossed in a boat; he who sat at the helm was called, in the Egyptian language, Charon; hence the Greek mythological fiction of that redoubted personage. They only permitted the rites of burial after a scrutinizing examination into the character of the deceased. On those who were deemed worthy of interment by the judges of the State, panegyrics were pronounced, which referred to their personal merit; and afterwards the people besought the Gods to receive them into the assembly of the Just, and to admit them to partake of ever--specimens of fresco painting, and of lasting felicity. From this scrutiny not even kings were exempt; and this portion of the custom was imitated by the Israelites, as we read in Scripture that bad sovereigns were not interred in the monu ments of their ancestors.-Fry. MICHAEL ANGELO'S "LAST JUDGMENT." -It is a remarkable fact in the history of the picture, that it narrowly escaped destruction in the lifetime of the great artist. Paul IV took offence at the nudity of the figures, and wished the whole to be destroyed. On hearing of the Pope's objection, Michael Angelo said, "Tell the Pope that this is but a small affair, and easily to be remedied; let him reform the world, and the pictures will reform themselves." The Pope, however, employed Daniele da Volterra to cover the most prominent figures with drapery, an office which procured for him the epithet Brachettone, or the breeches-maker. Michael Angelo submitted to the Pope's will, but revenged himself on Messer Biagio, of Siena, the master of the ceremonies, who first suggested the indelicacy of the figures. He introduced him in the right angle of the picture, standing in hell, as Midas, with ass's ears, and his body surrounded by a serpent. Biagio complained to the Pope, who requested that it might be altered: but M. Angelo declared that it was impossible; for though his holiness was able to effect his release from purgatory, he had no power over hell. In the last century, Clement XII, thought that the process of Daniele da Volterra had not been carried far enough, and in his fastidious scruples paintings executed in any other method free from a shining surface-arabesque paintings, and heraldic decorations in gold and colour, the designs to be executed in water colour, tempera, oil, or encausticornamental metal work for screens, railings, grates, and ornamental pavements. The whole to be delivered by the first week in March next year. Uncommonly Thin.-When the Duke de Choiseul, a remarkable meagre man, came to London to negotiate a peace, Charles Townshend being asked whether the French Government had sent the preliminaries of a treaty, answered "he did not know, but they had sent the outline of an ambassador." Flattering Preference.-Two natives of the Marquesas Islands have been carried to France. The story runs, that on the voyage one of their fellow passengers asked them which they liked best, the French or the English? "The English," answered the man, smacking his lips, "they are the FATTEST.' "And a great deal more TENDER," chimed in the woman, with a grin that exhibited two rows of pointed teeth, as sharp as a crocodile's. Sharp work for the Clergy.-A document drawn up at the Council of Elvira, A.D. 305, article 28, prohibits bishops receiving any emoluments or free-will offerings from those who are not members of the church. Art. 48 prohibits those who are baptized from putting money into the basin, lest it should be supposed that the priests had received pay for that which ought to have been done gratuitously. Consoling-Very!-The directors of the new railway of Frankfort-on-the-Oder have resolved to keep at every station a quantity of bandages and medicines, in order that in case of accident relief may be promptly given. Cast-iron Buildings.-Letters from M. Gutzlaff state that the art of constructing buildings in cast-iron has been known for centuries in China. He has found a pagoda entirely composed of cast-iron. It is covered with bas-reliefs and inscriptions, which, from their forms, characters, and dates, show that they are as old as the dynasty of Tang, which was upon the throne as far back as from the fifth to the tenth century of the Christian era. It is in the shape of an octagonal pyramid, is forty feet in height, and eight feet in diameter at the base. It has seven stories, each containing extremely curious his torical pictures. M. Gutzlaff represents this monument as being strikingly elegant, and surpassing in this respect everything of the kind he had previously seen in China. A Widow's Duty.-The Carriers of New Caledonia, like the people of Hindostan, used till lately to burn their dead; a ceremony in which the widow of the deceased, though not sacrificed as in the latter country, was compelled to continue beating with her hands upon the breast of the corpse while it slowly consumed on the funeral pile, in which cruel duty she was often severely scorched.—Simpson. Mexican Tennis. - The Mexicans had one singular law in their play with the ball. In the walls of the court where they played, certain stones like millstones were fixed, with a hole in the middle just large enough to let the ball pass through, and whoever drove it through won the cloak of the lookers on. They therefore took to their heels to save their cloaks, and others pursued to catch them, which was a new sort of amusement.- Omniana. Louis Philippe's Collection of Portraits. The catalogue of the engravings in the Royal Library, Paris, made out to the 1st January, 1841, contains 1,895 by Rembrandt, and 2,498 by Callot. The portraits, from the earliest period down to that of the Count de Paris, amount to 90,565. Of Henri IV there are 300 portraits; of Napoleon, 433; and of Louis XIV, 531. Paris Theatricals.-There were produced in 1842, at the different theatres of Paris, 191 new pieces. Anecdote. Cardinal Mazarin was dictating one day a letter to his secretary. The latter, overcome with incessant work, fell asleep, and the cardinal continued dictating, while pacing up and down his study; when he had come to the conclusion he turned towards his secretary say ing, "End as usual." He then perceived that the first lines of the letter only were written. The cardinal was very partial to the secretary, and treated him as a father. To awake him, he gave him a box on the ear; the secretary, in a fury, returned the blow. The cardinal, without showing the least emotion, said coolly, "Now, sir, as we we are both wide awake, let us proceed with our letter." A Hard Cough.-A friend having visited Curran one morning, and perceived that he coughed with difficulty, told him so, on which Curran said, "It is strange that I should, for I have been practising all night." A Hissed Actor.-The French Revolution affords illustration of the worst human passions. When the wretched Collot d'Herbois was tossed up in the storm to the summit of power, he projected razing the city of Lyons, and massacring its inhabitants-he had even the heart to commence and continue this conspiracy against human nature: the ostensible crime was royalism, but the secret motive is said to have been personal vengeance. A wretched actor, d'Herbois had been hissed off the theatre at Lyons, and to avenge that ignominy he had meditated over this monstrous crime. TO CORRESPONDENTS. Neavias-Our remarks in a former number had reference but to one other language. We think Neavias must have forgotten himself when he said that "with some the same difference prevails.". Never has the word λóyos, or yw, intentionally been pronounced long. It is a mistake not to be committed by any person who has gone through the 'Accidence.' Where the distinction in the quantity of syllables is so very marked, as it is in the Greek (which, of all languages, is the most accurate), it must necessarily be preserved. Neavias, if he wishes to preserve a reputation for scholarship, ought to look over the alphabet before he again ventures to write Greek, for Eyo (as his letter has it) will nowhere pass current for 'Eyw. A. A.-To silver Brass, &c.-Clean the article to be silvered by scouring it with a small quantity of very fine sand mixed with a little diluted nitric acid. Wash the whole off with clean water. Prepare the following powder :-Dissolve silver in nitric acid; when dissolved, put some pieces of copper into the solution, the silver will be precipitated in a metallic powder. Take 20 grains of this powder, and mix it with acidulous tartrite of potash and common salt, each two drachms, and half a drachm of alum. When you use the powder, moisten it, and rub it for a short period on the cleaned surface of the metal. This will coat it with silver. It may afterwards be polished with leather. LONDON: Published by CUNNINGHAM and MORTIMER, Adelaide Street, Trafalgar Square; and Sold by all Booksellers and Newsmen. Printed by C. REYNELL, 16 Little Pulteney street, and at the Royal Polytechnic Institution. Original Communications. ISABELLA OF BAVARIA. AMONG those who at the close of the four teenth century stood prominently forward in the ranks of pomp and pleasure, was Isabella of Bavaria. She was the daughter of Duke Clement, and married to King Charles the Sixth of France. He was young, brave, and chivalrous, and much attached to Isabella. Her beauty and vivacity charmed the young monarch, and a long and joyous life lay before him, when an event occurred, threatening in itself and most dismal in its consequences. The king had been somewhat indisposed, and his manner had been deemed strange, when, on 3rd of August, 1392, his conduct became more extraordinary than ever. 66 Having drawn up his troops," says the 'Pictorial History of France," "in battle array, and armed himself at all points, he made a promenade, apparently without any object in view, to a lazar established in the middle of a wood for the reception of deceased persons, at a short distance from the city. There a man of grim aspect, but half dressed, and wearing a loose cloth coat or frock, started from among the trees, and seizing the king's bridle, 'Pass no further, noble king,' he exclaimed, 'you are betrayed.' Charles manifested alarm. His hands fell on the saddle, and he gloomily moved on without speaking. The man had disappeared. On leaving the wood they entered on a sandy plain, and the royal cavalcade solemnly advanced; when one of the men-at-arms, rendered drowsy by the heat of the sun, accidentally dropped his lance. It fell on the king's helmet, which a page carried before him. The noise of the shock, shaken as the king's nerves were, overthrew his mind altogether. Raising himself furiously in his stirrups, he drew his sword, and exclaiming treason!' killed the involuntary offender on the spot, and then attacked all who were near him, galloping, and striking right and left, till at length he sunk exhausted in the arms of his guards. He had become a maniac." He recovered his senses on the third day, but his health was often interrupted, and a second accident rendered his case hopeless. We are told "there was a grand celebration of the second marriage of a German lady in the suite of Queen Isabella, at which Charles was present, disguised as a satyr, with four lords all chained together. To render the representation faithful to mythological tradition, they were dressed in a sort of cloth swathing, smeared with pitch and resin, and dotted with locks of wool. The king's brother, approaching with some of his friends, applied a flambeau to one of them, to make the ladies laugh. In a moment the whole were en veloped in flames, and the danger was the greater from their being chained. Charles alone was saved from the consequence of this freak by the Duchess of Berry, who had recognised him, and who, forbidding him to move, threw herself upon him, and covered him with her mantle till assistance could be obtained. The relapse which followed was terrible. He no longer wished to be a king or a husband. He threw away his arms, tore the fleurs-de-lis from his clothes, and obliterated them from his plate. The sight of his queen, whom he had fondly loved before, threw him into a fury." If Isabella was affected at the melancholy condition to which her husband was reduced, she was not long before she found consolation. The king's brother, the Duke of Orleans, was a man of pleasure, the husband of a celebrated beauty, Valentina of Milan, a princess whose gentleness and worth are recorded to have been equal to her charms. She soothed the unhappy monarch, and he seemed to wish no one else to approach him. While generous charity moved her to comfort the benighted Charles, the Duke of Orleans and the Queen, exercising all the powers of the monarch, ran a career of extravagance and dissipation that scandalized all France. The most bitter reproaches were breathed against Isabella. It was said the money extorted from the people was spent by the Queen and her paramour in heartless luxury in fêtes at the Louvre, unmindful of the deplorable situation of the King. An Augustine monk named James Legrand had the boldness, when preaching in the Queen's presence, to reprove the monstrous excesses with which she was charged, and that in such unsparing terms, that one of her officers, indignant at the affront offered to his mistress, threatened to throw the priest into the Seine. The menace was treated with contempt, and the preacher continued his labours, while, fired by his example, the occupants of other pulpits, took a similar course. gant statements were put forth of the expenses incurred at Paris and Vincennes, and as one instance of it the assailants of Isabella declared that she and her attendants wore head-dresses so enormously tall that they could not pass through the doorways of the palace without bowing their heads. Extrava The consequences of misconduct so gross were what might be expected--humiliation and calamity. One of her knights, Bois-Bourdon, who was honoured with her attentions, was seized, tied up in a leathern sack, and thrown into the river. A reform of her household was demanded, and her jewels were taken from her to meet the expenses of the war then carrying on against England. Other treasures which she had concealed were discovered, and received a similar appropriation. Her lover, the Duke of Orleans, was assassinated by persons engaged for that. purpose by the Duke of Burgundy. He was known to be with the Queen, when a message was sent to him that the King, who had occasionally had intervals, wished to speak with him immediately. He mounted his mule, and followed by two esquires, one on horse, and four or five valets on foot, had reached the old Rue de Temple, and leisurely advanced, "singing and playing with his glove," when those who waited for him presented themselves. Believing that he was mistaken for some one else, he hastened to declare that he was the Duke of Orleans. "We know it, and you are the man we look for," was the reply. A violent blow from a battle-axe severed his left hand from the arm, and, says Monstrelet," so many rushed on him that he was struck off his mule, and his skull split so that his brains were spilt on the pavement." The unfortunate Valentina deeply lamented the fall of her lord, neglected as she had been, and claimed justice against the Duke of Burgundy, who had caused his death, but the interesting mourner died without obtaining it. This catastrophe did not abate Isabella's love of pleasure. She continued her vicious courses, an object of hatred and contempt, which from time to time exposed her to severe mortification. Her wretched existence closed in 1435. She died at Paris, abandoned by all. "Desertion," says the history quoted in the early part of this article, "may be said to have followed her to the grave." John Giffart, her counsellor, and Happart, her confessor, led the funeral procession. The corpse was followed by one German lady, and some young females belonging to her household. They placed the coffin in a small boat with four attendants, who conducted it to the isle St Denis; and the monks to whom, when dying, she had given her little coun try house at St Owen, got up for her, as well as they could, a service in their desolate abbey. ON THE ELECTRICITY OF THE THE immense mass of air and vapour sur- it has been detected by a luminous point, of a pale bluish colour, at the mast-heads of vessels, and on the spears of soldiers.* The free electricity of the atmosphere appears, from Williams's 'Climate of England,' and from recent experiments by Mr Price, to be essential to and influenced by. all growing vegetables. These, by thin leafless points, are constantly conveying the electricity down through their trunks. into the earth, a process which appears to be essential to the growth and fructification of the plant. How this electricity is produced in the atmosphere is a problemyet unsolved, as also its connexion with animal and vegetable life. It is not, however, this phenomenon that we propose to consider in our present article, but rather that splendid convulsion of the elements which, by its sudden and allpowerful force, will frequently level even the stoutest hearts to the condition of the "Poor Indian, whose untutored mind Sees God in clouds, and hears him in the wind." The electrical discharges comprehended under the general term lightning, differ materially in their effects, in reference to the danger which may be apprehended from the passage of the fluid. Thus, frequently in the evenings of sultry days we. have very brilliant discharges of the elec tric fluid, commonly called summer lightming, resulting from the approach of two clouds, oppositely charged, within what is termed the striking distance, the electric fluid then breaking through the resistance of the intervening air, effecting the equilibrium of the two clouds. The next condition, and that which more immediately demands our attention, is when the earth is included as one of the, boundary planes between which the elec tric fluid has to pass, that is, either it passes from the clouds to the earth, or vice versa, the former being much more frequent than the latter. It is this effect which we have now to consider, with a view to protect ourselves from the devastating results which sometimes attend its passage. We are indebted to the "immortal Franklin " for having pointed out a simple yet effica- ' cious plan, by which much of the injury likely to occur may be avoided. It unfortunately but too frequently happens, that that which every individual could have, few care to possess. This circumstance, combined with ignorance and prejudice, has contributed in a great degree to premost valuable safeguard. The lightning vent the universal employment of a conductor, in its simplest form, consists of in diameter, firmly fixed to the wall of the a rod of iron or copper, about half an inch appellations, as Castor and Pollux; by the French, This peculiar appearance has received different Feu de St Elm; by the Germans, Elmsfeuer. |