London, they met an individual on whom Mr W. gazed stedfastly, but did not speak to him. They passed, and he then exclaimed, "That is a scoundrel; he got for his wife the woman I ought to have married." What it was that at times disturbed him, it is not in the power of the writer to reveal. Though intimate with him for years, no explanation was ever volunteered. His liberal nature and unimpeachable integrity, as they gained him the affectionate regards of a large circle of friends, might have been expected to secure him from the hostility of every one. But that he had enemies, bitter and most terrible enemies, the following narrative, committed to paper immediately after the circumstance and conversation it describes, will clearly demonstrate. On Thursday, Dec. 21, 1821, A. and B., who had long been on friendly terms with Mr W., went to dine at the Burton Alehouse, in Henrietta street. While there they recollected that Mr W. lived in the neighbourhood (he then lodged, I think, in Southampton street), and thought he would like to join them. They sent a waiter to invite him to do so. Mr W. had visited Macclesfield a short time before, and to cause him some ludicrous surprise, as well as to make him come more speedily, they ordered the man to say that two gentlemen from Macclesfield desired to see him. The waiter went, but returned with the answer that "Mr W. was out for the evening." On leaving the tavern, the companions resolved, as he was to dine in company with them on the following Monday, to play off a further joke on their friend. They called at his residence, and finding that he was still from home, left a message for him that two gentlemen from Macclesfield had called to see him, and would do themselves the pleasure of waiting on him again, at seven o'clock on the evening of Monday. They expected that this would cause him to leave the party with whom he was to dine, at the hour named, and they proposed to drink his health in his absence, and then send a servant after him, with a note to state what had been done, and to announce that the two gentlemen from Macclesfield awaited his return, to thank them for the honour they had conferred. Monday came, the party dined together, and Mr W. was present, but did not withdraw, as A. and B., or A. at least, thought he would. In the course of the evening, B. spoke to Mr W. about Macclesfield, but nothing remarkable occurred till the party had nearly left the dining room, and A. and B. found themselves alone. It was then that B. told A. he had a most extraordinary communication to make respecting Mr W. They were, however, interrupted, and no opportunity offered for making it that evening, but on the following Thursday they again met, and B. gave the following statement : The revelation I have to offer will cause you great surprise. On the day after we called on W., and left word that two gentlemen from Macclesfield would wait on him again, I received a note from him couched in these terms : "Dear B.,-For God's sake let me have a quarter of an hour's conversation with you, at your own house before you go to dinner, on a matter of VITAL importance to me. Your half distracted, "W. H. W. "P.S. Pray mention this to no human being." The word "vital," B. continued, had three lines drawn under it. I confess I thought that he had detected us, and was playing off a counter trick. I, however, returned the following answer : "Dear W.,-I am afraid to flatter myself that you jest in your otherwise alarming letter. "You will find me at home at four o'clock. Yours, "B." I almost expected, when I went home, to find him laughing and dancing in the drawing room; but on looking at him I saw that he was much disturbed. He spoke with a faltering voice, and altogether his aspect indicated the severest distress. "How can I," he exclaimed, "how can I tell you what I have to say? After some pause he proceeded :- "I am reduced to such a situation that I have no alternative but to put an end to my existence or to leave the country. Can you, and will you, assist me with the means of doing the latter?" I told him that I knew he was accustomed to view some things in a very peculiar light, and begged of him to impart what he had on his mind to some of his friends, with the expectation that they would convince him that neither of the steps which he contemplated was necessary. This he declared it was useless to do. His case was one in which argument could be of no avail. He said he must quit the country, though the idea of leaving his connexions in England gave him great pain. I endeavoured to draw from him his secret, that I might advise him upon it, but in vain, He begged of me to ask no questions, and declared that he would answer none, but demanded of me whether I could and would enable him to go abroad? I, at length, said, "I can and I will, if it be necessary." I then made a new attempt to draw from him the cause of his distress, but to no purpose. Suddenly a thought flashed across my mind that there might possibly be some connexion between his present conduct and our prank of Thursday. I was about to leave the appartment to procure the cash he wanted, but I now paused, and, fixing my eyes steadily on him, said— "Before I comply with your request I have one question to ask." "I will answer none," was his reply. Upon this I placed my back against the door, and retorted on him in a peremptory tone "You must not leave this room till you have given an answer to one question." He seemed struck by the determination of my manner, and, after some hesitation, desired to know on what subject I wished to interrogate him? "Tell me," said I, "if that which disturbs you was communicated to you yesterday?" "It was," he replied. "Did you hear of it before you went home at night?" He wildly asked- -" Why do you askwhy, why? No, it was not told to me before I went home at bed-time." I now, continued B., felt convinced of that which before I had, I know not why, suspected, and I went on to say-" W., you must yet answer me a third question:Does that which has moved you arise out of anything that you were told about two gentlemen from Macclesfield?" On being thus addressed, he ran up to me with an air of wildness not to be described, seized my coat, and impetuously exclaimed "Good God! what do you mean? it was!" Yes, I then told him to be calm; and added, "it was I and A. called, and by way of a joke left that message." He looked greatly amazed; a crowd of thoughts seemed running through his mind, and being scarcely able to stand, he threw himself on the sofa in great disorder, completely overcome by his feelings, and remained for some time incapable of speech. What he could have imagined, or what may be the cause of conduct so extraordinary, I cannot guess. In the course of our conversation he assured me, in the most positive manner, that he was not leaving the country in consequence of any thing that could be thought dishonourable; and that he was not flying from the officers of justice, or seeking to avoid danger of that sort. How singular the accident! Had he applied to any one else, excited as he was, he might have carried his point without being questioned, and have been, through a joke, an exile to his country for life. No person in existence but yourself could have prevented his flight by supplying the requisite information, and it might not have occurred to you to put those questions which I happened to ask." The writer knew Mr W. for many years subsequently, but no explanation of this strange affair was ever given. Beyond the annoyance of the moment he is not aware that Mr W. in any way suffered through it, but consequences more serious than those which seemed likely to grow out of it have seldom been seen in real life as the result of what was meant to be a perfectly friendly and harmless joke. It was thought prudent never to make the incident a topic of conversation. Silence has been observed for more than twenty years, but the grave having closed over the lamented individual whom it concerned, the incident is no longer deemed a secret. AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. LETTER IV. THE soil serves very important purposes. In the first place it gives mechanical support to the developed plant; secondly, it forms a fruitful reservoir of food for the plant; and thirdly, protects the germinating seed from the light at a period when the chemical rays would be injurious. The soil consists of organic and inorganic matter. The first consists of the decayed and decaying vegetables which have previously tenanted the spot, or have been transported there. decayed portion is termed humus. It serves not only as a support, but also, during its formation, gives off water and carbonic acid to the plant with which it is in contact. The inorganic portions consist of numerous metallic salts and oxides, derived principally from the various rocks in the neighbourhood. The Throughout the great field of nature a continual succession of important changes is taking place -not merely in organic bodies, but also in inorganic matter. Thus, the vast rock which for centuries has reared its head, apparently undiminished in size, is day by day gradually yielding portions of its mighty bulk, for the purpose of renewing the soils in the neighbourhood. Many causes produce the gradual disintegration of rocks. Thus, in winter, the water which has found its way into the smallest crevices becomes frozen, and during expansion exerts a power sufficient to drive asunder the largest masses. In the heat of summer also, the expansion of water produces a similar effect. masses thus broken off are acted upon by moisture and atmospheric air; and although the various substances are, in the first instance, insoluble in water, yet, in time, decomposition takes place, and, instead of the insoluble silicates, we have formed soluble carbonates of the various alkaline bases; and thus the rock itself in time is taken up by the plant in solution. After the various soluble salts have been dissolved, The and either taken up by the plant, or washed away, nothing is left but a fine powder, consisting of silica and humus, with undecayed woody fibre. The quality, both mechanical and chemical, of the different soils depends very much upon the relative amount of the organic and inorganic materials, and also of the peculiar salt present in abundance. The following table, taken from the celebrated work of Sprengal, the German physiologist, gives an analysis of three soils, and will serve as a sample of the composition of soils in general. 370 480 trace 80 610 92,980 trace 36 trace 58 800 2,225 1,450 | 100,000 | 100,000 100,000 NOTES OF A TOUR IN FINLAND (For the Mirror.) In 1826 an imported tendency of this sort towards liberty, and the expression of political sentiment, displayed itself in open rebellion among the veteran soldiers of the miltary colonies, and these have in consequence been since discontinued. Supposing that Russia should, therefore, ever so far forget her true interests as to wage a war of conquest against any of the larger powers of Europe, she might be liable to have her very strength converted into 96,721 weakness, for her soldiers being chiefly slaves, any Austrian or Prussian proclamation offering to the invaders liberty, 5 land, and adoption, could scarcely fail to find such an offer joyfully accepted. It would, indeed, be contrary to all the printrace ciples which govern human nature to suppose that an already-discontented army should, under such circumstances, prefer the slavery and snows of Russia, to liberty, land, and sunshine in a more southern climate. Were a traveller to judge of the Russian army by the choice regiments of guards which are pompously exhibited in their best habiliments in St Petersburg, an impression might be entertained of enormous military power; but the slovenly, uncouth-looking troops that are always to be seen lounging in the towns of the provinces, are as much calculated to undo that impression; and of such the army is chiefly composed. The imperial guards here, though perhaps scarcely equal in point of stature to the finest Austrian regiments, are much more fortunate in the colour of their uniform, and the effect of their dark-green jackets, faced with red, is both harmonious and military. The Emperor Paul's regiment, called the Paulonsky, is readily distinguished by the huge brass plates which front their caps, and these appear to have acted as targets during several campaigns, as many of them bear the honourable marks of ball practice. Through very many of these brazen fronts one ball has passed, through some of them two, and even three marks may occasionally be seen. In addition to these very striking proofs of service, Russian soldiers are generally loaded with medals to an extent that seems quite unnecessary to our English ideas; for it appears that, in addition to a badge for every successful campaign or personal act of valour, a medal is awarded to all soldiers of good character for each ten years of service. If the army of Russia amounts, as is stated, to seven or eight hundred thousand men, it is also proper to consider that even this array is not greater, in proportion to the amount of her population, than the armies of other countries of Europe, and is even smaller In light soils, silica abounds. In heavy, loamy soils, alumina predominates. To certain vegetables, such as the bulbous roots, the first soil is most adapted. Good potatoe soils have been found to consist of seven-eighths of sand. These descriptions of soils do not readily absorb or retain water—another grand desideratum in the growth of the potatoe. Wheat, on the contrary, requires an absorbent soil. Thus we have often found good wheat soil containing at least forty-five per cent. of clay, which is principally alumina. As the soil is principally obtained and is constantly renewed from the neighbouring rocks so its fer tility and nature must be powerfully influenced by the contiguous formations. Not only so, but also the nature of the substratum must interfere much with the fertility or unproductiveness of the superincumbent earth. Thus, a sandy soil may in some situations produce such plants as elsewhere a soil of the same chemical constitution would not rear, merely because the substratum retained water, and prevented the rapid filtration which is so common to sandy formations: also, a damp, clayey loam may be exceedingly fertile when placed on a sandy substratum. No man should take a farm, or purchase an estate, without knowing the nature of the substratum as well as of the superstrata. Engravings of Costumes.-In the collection of prints of Louis Philippe, the division allotted to the costumes of all nations contains 36,973 plates, 11,991 being costumes of France in different ages. when considered in reference to the vast extent of her territory, and the discordant materials she has to keep in subjection. To concentrate any very considerable army on a given point beyond her frontiers it would be necessary that a large proportion of the troops should march several thousand miles perhaps, thus leaving a clear field for insurrectionary movements in any discontented district behind them. However earnestly the ambition of Russia may look towards India, Great Britain will prove equal to its defence. Indeed, the possession of India by England is, if properly considered, not altogether a British question, but is a matter of the highest interest to the world at large, as the commerce of that country has long been freely open to all nations under our reciprocity treaties. All the frontier custom houses of Russia are said to be furnished with a list of prohibited books, as well as of proscribed individuals, who may not enter the country; and the latter list is alleged to have a perpetual tendency to increase from this ludicrous circumstance :-that the names of all the dead democrats and philosophers are still continued on the list along with those of the living, and even that of Voltaire is said still to occupy its place among the excluded. The slender beauties of Russian scenery offer few inducements for foreign travellers to visit the country; and the beauties of the "human face divine" are, if possible, still more rare, the features of the people being generally coarse and their complexions almost universally sallow. If the advent of the beautiful Princess of Galitzin to the circles of fashion in London has created an impression there that such beauty is of frequent occurrence in the empire it would be as incorrect a conclusion as to suppose that its females generally were as talented as the celebrated Princess Lieven. To any English lady, having prematurely lost the first freshness of her youthful beauty, Russia might be recommended as a country where persons of even a certain age might take rank at least ten years under what the vulgar parish registers testify against them. Whether it may arise from the severity of the climate, stove-heated apartments, or want of familiarity with the fresh air, I know not, but all persons agreed in stating that Russian ladies require (to judge by our English standard) the premature appearance of age. Indeed, an English gentleman, who has been many years resident in Russia, assured me that he would undertake to pass any English lady, who carried her age moderately well, as fifteen years younger than she really was. Among the more striking features of St Petersburg are, doubtless, its ice hills, vapour baths, and wooden pavements; of the first of these we were only able to see the skeleton inclined planes on which in winter sheets of ice are placed, and over these water is poured till the whole is converted into a solid mass. Then is the time, with a temperature below zero, for gentlemen to evince their gallantry by attaching themselves to the cars of the goddesses of the ice, while the ladies assume either courage or timidity, according as one or the other may be supposed to render them most attractive to their worshippers. As regards the vapour bath, the public one being the most favourable for seeing this national peculiarity in all its glory, I followed the valet de place into it, and the scene which there presented itself was sufficiently novel; on the sloping benches low rank were reclining at length in the not less than twenty or thirty persons of full enjoyment of vapour and soap-suds, for many had been carefully frothed over as though they were about to undergo the operation of being shaved. Within this and vapour were much more intense, but room there was another, where the heat I had not sufficient resolution to undergo the sweltering influence of its atmosphere. These baths are indulged in weekly by even the poorest of the Russians. Another peculiarity which strikes the eye here is the very long leather traces which intervene between the shaft horses of a carriage and the leaders, often amounting to a space of not less than ten or twelve feet. On one of the leading horses a juvenile postilion always sits, who, from his distance, might perhaps rather be considered as an avant courier of the party. This youth commonly endeavours to manage the horses by his voice rather than the whip, and the shouts which he gives on turning corners are rather startling. The showy luxury of driving four horses and using ridiculously long traces is, we were informed, according to the law of Russia, confined to the nobility, and a native slave merchant, however wealthy, would incur more than odium by doing so. In conclusion of these notes I shall take leave to repeat an anecdote founded on the unpronounceable nature of some of the Russian names:-An English gentleman at a dinner-party, wishing to take wine with a Russian nobleman who sat opposite to him, inquired the name of his next neighbour, who had also forgotten it, but told the inquirer that if he would sneeze twice and cough once the Russian would immediately know who he meant. The name was Ptchikoff, or something like it. C. GARDENING HINTS. FLOWER GARDEN.-Every week now tells more or less on the appearance of the flower gardens; leaves from above and worms from below, with short days and long cold nights, will keep people busy until the frost settles the business for the season. Mr Smith, of Ipswich, author of a treatise on cucumbers and on peach-trees, called in the other day, and told me that chalk lime will kill worms if it is first slacked, but that its caustic properties are destroyed if mixed with the water before it is slacked. His directions for using lime-water are very judicious: watch for a rainy day or two, which will bring the worms to the surface, then roll the ground well in the afternoon, and the worms will make fresh holes in the night; and next morning pour large quantities of lime-water all over the surface; the ground being firm by the rolling the greatest portion of the lime-water will find its way through the fresh worm-holes and kill every one of them that it reaches KITCHEN GARDEN.-The continued fine weather has been very favourable to all operations in the kitchen garden, and also to the crops. The large crops of onions have been safely harvested, and look as if they would keep well. Potato-lifting time will be coming on by-and-by; but it is not a good plan to dig them up too early on light soils; neither is it safe to put off the work long on heavy lands, for if we should have unfavourable weather the ground is much damaged by the operation. Now that the farmers and gleaners have cleared the fields, and left little for the rats, they will begin to prowl about the garden and outhouses, and if you let them breed near you it is difficult to get rid of them. CROPS.-Except the usual course of salading, there is very little sowing to be done for some time; and as soon as the spring lettuces and late cauliflower plants are pricked or planted out, little more will be needed in the planting way for a long time, except among the market-gardeners, who will still plant out a large breadth of plants for late coleworts. If, therefore, a few endive plants are kept blanched, and the celery rows not let grow too long without moulding up, you may turn your attention to getting forward such work as will forward you in the spring. Your cropping book will tell you what plots want trenching, and to what depth: never trench twice the same depth. ORCHARD.-It is not too much to say that young fruit-trees should never rest more than two years without being taken up and replanted nearer the surface, till they are 12 or 15 years old. After they have attained to a medium state of growth, the intervals of transplanting may run to three or four years; this is much better than allowing them to run half wild in the first instance, and then use severe and unnatural means to correct them afterwards. Nonpareil and other tender apple-trees infected with canker, or otherwise unhealthy, may be improved by being taken up and replanted in fresh soil, using some turfy compost about their roots, their young growth pruned off two-thirds of its length, and firmly tied up to stakes till they get a fresh hold on the soil. Early autumn pruning is the life and soul of delicate fruittrees, not excepting even the peach. MULBERRY.-Lop off a straight branch, at least eight feet long, from a large tree in March, the nearer the trunk the better; clear away every little branch, and leave it quite bare; dig a hole four feet deep, plant the naked branch, and make it firm in the ground; leave around it a little basin of earth to hold water, and if the season be dry give it every morning a bucketful of water throughout the summer. In two years it will have made a good head and will bear fruit.-Gardeners' Chronicle. LOW FARES TO WOOLWICH. GREAT efforts are made from week to week to bring the ancient town of Woolwich the same thing, to enable the Londoners nearer to the capital, or what is almost to reach it more expeditiously and with less expense. An association called the Watermen's Company' lately announced an arrangement to have been made with the Blackwall Railway Company, by which passengers were conveyed from London in the first-class carriages of the latter, and in the saloon of the vessel, for 8d.; and in the second-class carriages, and the forecabin, for 6d., in half an hour! This change had no sooner been made public, than the Old Woolwich Boat Company announced that they would not allow their opponents to enjoy a monopoly of the traffic below bridge, and accordingly reduced the fare of their fast-sailing steamboats to 6d. and 4d. The facilities now afforded for going and returning are more than beginning to be felt at Woolwich. That town, which at no distant period cost a two hours' journey, and eighteenpence outside the stage, may be accomplished in a fourth of the time, under cover, for a third of the money, and even less. Building is going on very fast in the town and its vicinity, and dwelling-houses, churches, chapels, Catholic places of worship, public-houses and hotels spring up from day to day in every direction. However dingy the aspect of the old town, the attraction of its arsenal, dockyard, repository, military exercises and reviews, to say nothing of its counting almost weekly Royal personages and celebrated commanders among its visitors, exceed those of Greenwich, to which the Londoners have so long done homage, and Woolwich, it has been shown, can be now reached in half the time and at half the expense which it formerly cost to visit its sister holiday resort. Queen Mary's Chair.-A handsome old chair, covered with velvet, remains in the Lady's chapel in Winchester Cathedral, and is said to have been Queen Mary's seat at her marriage with Philip of Spain, which was solemnized there. |