cond class 61 feet by 21 feet 9 inches. The whole of the saloons are 8 feet 3 inches high, and surrounded by sleeping berths, of which there are 26 with single beds, and 113 containing two, giving 252 berths. This large number is exclusive of the accommodation which could be prepared on the numerous sofas. The fourth deck is appropriated for the reception of cargo, of which 1,200 tons will be carried, in addition to 1,000 tons of coal. The engines and boilers occupy 80 feet in the middle of the vessel. The engine-room and the cooking establishment are in this part. There are three boilers, heated by 24 fires, which will contain 200 tons of water. There are four engines of 250 horse power each, the cylinders of which are 7 feet 4 inches in diameter. The chimney is 39 feet high, and 8 feet in diameter. She is fitted with 6 masts, the highest of which is 74 feet above deck. The quantity of canvas carried will be about 1,700 square yards; she will be fitted with the patent wire rigging; the hull is divided into four water-tight compartments; and the quantity of coal consumed will be about 60 tons per day; up. wards of 1,500 tons of iron have been used in her construction and that of the engines and boilers; the draught of water, when laden, will be 16 feet, and the displacement about 3,200 tons, in addition to which she will be propelled by the screw instead of paddles; so that the whole vessel may be regarded as a great experiment of iron v. wood; screw v. paddle; and immense v. moderate length. She will also be fitted with very powerful pumps, which can throw off seven thousand gallons of water per minute. It is estimated that her total cost will be about 100,000l.

GARDENING HINTS.

THE plants which now require attention preparatory to another season are pelargoniums. There is little skill required in growing a pelargonium, but there is some little art required to produce them in that style of excellence which is characteristic of the plants exhibited at the Chiswick and other horticultural fêtes. Few persons in the country can form any idea of the magnificence of the specimens grown by Messrs Cock, Catleugh, Gaines, and others. It must be admitted that there are plenty of gardeners who can produce luxuriant specimens, but we have but few cultivators who can procure a head of bloom commensurate with the size of the plants. The reason of this is that in our desire to grow large plants we lose sight of an important physiological law,-namely, that whatever conduces to luxuriant growth is unfavourable to the production of flowers, and vice versa; and hence prize cultivators never allow their plants to become gross and luxuriant in the season, but by potting

them in poor soil, and supplying them moderately with water, keep them in a healthy state. The effect of such treatment is the production of a great quantity of active roots, and the storing up of sap in a highly elaborated state, which, being brought into action by the increased light and heat of spring, is expended in the production of flowers instead of branches. For this reason it may be laid down as a rule of culture, that strong autumn-growing plants will not produce a fine head of bloom the following season, neither can any stimulus in the way of liquid manure induce them to do so.

This is the theory of the cultivation of the pelargonium, as exemplified in the management of the best cultivators. To apply it to practice-the plants that have done flowering must be turned out of the house and placed in the full sun, under a south wall, to ripen their wood previously to being cut down, and it willbe well at the same time, if seed is not desired, to remove the whole of the flower stems, but retaining as much of the foliage as possible. In cutting the plants down the amateur must be governed by circumstances, such as the sized plants he wants in the coming season, and the convenience he has at hand for large specimens. As a general rule I should never recommend the growth of large specimens; small ones in 32 or 24 sized pots are far more interesting, and there is quite as much merit in producing them of that as of a larger size; that is, if they are grown as plants ought to be, with the branches depending over the side, and hiding the greater part of the pot. After the plants are cut down they must be placed in a shady place until the forwardest young shoots are one inch long, at which time they must be shaken out and repotted into small pots, using sandy loam and peat only, and placing the plants in a close, cold frame until they begin to grow again; after which they must be fully exposed to the weather until the approach of frost renders it necessary to house them for the winter.-Gardeners' Chronicle.

MARRIAGE OF THE LATE DUKE OF SUSSEX TO LADY AUGUSTA MURRAY.

His late Royal Highness was married in 1793 to Lady Augusta Murray. Before the usual church ceremony was performed, the following contract or promise was given by the Royal Duke :

"On my knees, before God our Creator, I, Augustus Frederick, promise thee, Augusta Murray, and swear on the Bible, as I hope for salvation in the world to come, that I will take thee, Augusta Murray, for my wife, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish till death do us part,

to love but thee only and none other; and may God forget me if I ever forget thee. The Lord's name be praised! So bless me, so bless us, O God! And with my handwriting do I, Augustus Frederick, this sign, March 21, 1793, at Rome, and put my seal to it and my name.

(Signed) "AUGUSTUS FREDERICK." The lady gave a similar paper, duly signed, and headed by the following lines in the handwriting of his Royal High

ness:

"As this paper is to contain the mutual promise of marriage between Augustus Frederick and Augusta Murray, our mutual names must be put herein, and both kept in my possession. It is a promise neither of us can break, and is made before God our Creator and All-merciful Father."

DOCTORS BEWARE!*

THE publication before us is not a mere argument-it is a statement of facts. Not content with defending their own practices the writers carry the war into the enemy's country, and with a degree of spirit, supported by a strong column of cases, which it will require a demonstration and careful accumulation of evidence on the part of their opponents to repel.

We have no interest in the question-no private or especial interest we mean; for who among the host of men, aware of a hundredth part of "all the ills which flesh is heir to," can say that he has no interest in the question, whether when he is sick he shall be dealt with in a way which, with great pain or annoyance, promises restoration to health, or be subjected to extreme misery and revolting treatment, at last to end in permanent decrepitude or death!

The book is dedicated to the Marquis of Anglesey, who is mentioned as one of the patients having largely profited from this hydropathic treatment at the new establishment at Malvern; and Messrs Wilson and Gully say they have to "hail the accession to the principles and practice of the Water Cure, of such men as Mr Herbert Mayo, the senior surgeon of the Middlesex hospital, Mr Courtney, surgeon, R. N., Dr Smethurst, Dr Johnson, Sir Charles Scudemore, and Dr Freeman." They dwell on the reluctances to admit important changes in the medical art, and illustrate this by quoting Lord Wharncliffe on the treatment which Lady Mary Montague experienced in the last half century for subjecting her own child to inocu lation. They say

"Let her biographer and descendant Lord Wharncliffe speak on this point: Lady Mary protested that in the four or five years imme

'Danger of the Cold Water Cure.'

diately succeeding her arrival at home, she seldom passed a day without repenting of her patriotic undertaking; and she vowed she never would have attempted it, if she had foreseen the vexation, the persecution, and even the obloquy, it brought upon her. The clamour raised against the practice, and The faculty all rose in arms to a man, foreof course against her, were beyond belief. telling failure and the most disastrous consequences; the clergy descanted from their pulpits on the impiety of thus seeking to take events out of the hands of Providence; and the common people were taught to hoot at her as an unnatural mother, who had risked the lives of her own children. We now read in grave medical biography, that the discovery was instantly hailed, and the method profession. Very likely they left this readopted by the principal members of the corded: for whenever an invention or a project, and the same may be said of persons, has made its way so well by itself as to establish a certain reputation, most people are sure to find out that they always patronized it from the beginning, and a happy gift of forgetfulness enables many to believe their own assertion. But what said Lady Mary of the actual fact and time? Why, "that the four great physicians deputed by government to watch the progress of her daughter's inoculation, betrayed not only such incredulity as to its success, but such an unwilling

ness to have it succeed, such an evident spirit of rancour and malignity, that she never cared to leave the child alone with them one second, lest it should in some secret way suffer from their interference." So that it would appear that whilst the professional masses rose in arms, the great physicians of the day were open to the suspicion of tampering with a child's safety, in order to back a prejudice against a treatment of which they nounced with all the virulence of unreasoned had no experience, and which they deopinions and unfounded reports. Precisely the case of the great physicians to which add some surgeons-of this day with reference to the Water cure! great by courtesy of language, but not great enough in fact of candour and magnanimity to be trusted with a patient in the crisis of the water treatment.'"

A Dr Silvester, who is opposed to the new mode of treatment, speaks of a case in which the patient, finding boils come out on his person, came home from the Rhine. Then Dr Silvester says

"Every effort was made to restore the debilitated constitution of the patient; but in vain."

Our authors proceed

"Few words! but quite sufficient to convey to our minds, who know a trifle about the minutiæ of drug treatment, a long list of irritating stimulants applied to the internal organs to restore the debilitated constitution.' What mercury, what quinine, what opium and camphor, what ammonia, and what wine is there not implied in this restoration of the debilitated constitution!' But this 'blazon may not be' to the uninitiated. The

object being to connect the death of the patient with the Water cure, this deponent' dwelleth only on the boils and the fatal termination, and 'saith not' of the intervening treatment. Yet some suspicion seems to have crossed his mind, that something besides the water may have contributed to the fatal event: why else does he finish his bald record of the case with this significant query :"The patient sank a victim, shall I say, to the water cure?'

"No! we answer, you shall not. Nor you, nor any other practiser of drug medication have the right to cast upon the Water cure the mischief which that medication inflicts upon the patient whose system is labouring to rid itself of internal disease. Had the pa

tient remained where he was on the Rhine, avoided stimulants, and kept the boils constantly moistened with lint pledgets wetted with cold water, we should have beheld a very different termination of his case. But if, whilst the systematic efforts at relief are at their height, a patient thinks fit to undergo all the worry and turmoil of some four hundred miles travelling; and if at the end of his journey he is submitted to all manner of internal stimulation and irritation, under the plea of restoring a debilitated constitution,' it strikes us that we have at least an equal, if not a better right to say, 'the patient sank a victim, shall we say, to the drug treatment?

PEACE FOR WALES AND JUSTICE
FOR IRELAND.

From day to day astounding tales
Arrive from Ireland and from Wales

Portending future slaughters.
How shall we silence these great guns?—
Compel O'Connell and his sons

To wed Rebecca and her daughters.

The Gatherer.

Ennis Legends. - Paddy O'Brien will point to the particular crag upon which a beautiful foal was reposing, when that indescribable monster called the Mochteedee, rose from the deep, scaled the cliff, and would have devoured the foal but for its dam, "who made a rush at the cratur, and kicked him clane into the say." Nor will he fail pointing out where, under the troubled sea, lies the ill-fated island of Kylestaffeen, waiting for its disenchantment "barring a little bit of it called the Munasthir, or Temple, on which the sea breaks every day in the year." The legend goes on to record that once in every seven years the island, with its fine city, rises for a single moment to the surface of the ocean, and then if any one can throw but a handful of earth upon it without so much as drawing his breath, the spell will be broken, and Kylestaffeen re-established in its pristine glory. O'Brien will tell you that the women of the city (often seen under the

clear waters) are dark and beautiful, and wear red mantles; and he will also tell you that he has a friend who saw a person who told him he knew another person who declared most solemnly he had seen both the men and women of the city walking in the streets.-Correspondent in the Athenæum.

General Perofski.-The description given by Shakspeare, not Mr William, but Sir Richmond Shakspeare, of a Russian general is rather startling. He pictures General Perofski-"A man like a snake (a slender figure in green uniform), of black complexion, yellow eyes, and a coat covered with ducats."

cession of James I), there were only 1 marState of the English Peerage.-In 1603 (acquis, 16 earls, 2 viscounts, and 40 barons in the English peerage-total 59; while in 1843 (reign of Victoria), there are 3 princes, 27 dukes, 33 marquises, 169 earls, 39 viscounts, and 157 barons-total 428.

Westminster School.-It is stated that the

Right Rev. Dr Carey, Bishop of St Asaph, has lately placed in the hands of trustees the sum of 20,000/. for the benefit, after the death of his Lordship and Mrs Carey, of students elected from Westminster to Christ Church, Oxford.

16

A Veto.-"Pa," said an interesting juvenile to an indulgent sire, "Pa, haven't I got a veto as well as the President?' "No, my child.” "Yes, I have, Pa; my fifth toe is a V-toe, I reckon." "Thomas, take that boy to his mother-he's ruined!' -New York paper.

Lead in a Stomach.-At the destruction of the Eddystone Lighthouse by fire, Dec. 4, 1755, while one of the men was looking up with the utmost attention to see the direction and success of the water thrown, a quantity of lead, dissolved by the heat of the flames, suddenly rushed like a torrent from the roof, and fell not only on the man's head, face, and shoulders, but over his clothes; and a part of it made its way through his shirt-collar, and very much burnt his neck and shoulder; from this moment he had a violent internal sensation, and imagined that a quantity of this lead had passed down his throat. His name was Henry Hall, and though aged 94 years, being of a good constitution, he was remarkably active, considering his time of life. He had invariably told the surgeon who attended him (Dr Spry of Plymouth) that if he would do anything effectual to his recovery, he must relieve his stomach from the lead, which he was sure was within him. The reality of the assertion seemed incredible to Dr Spry. The man did not show any symptoms of being much worse, or of amendment, till the sixth day, when he was thought to be better. He constantly took his medicines, and swal lowed many things, both liquid and solid, till the tenth and eleventh days, after

which he suddenly grew worse; and on the twelfth, being seized with cold sweats and spasms, he expired. On opening the stomach, Dr Spry found therein a piece of solid lead of a flat oval form, which weighed seven ounces and five drachms. Thunder-storm.-The Sherborne Mercury' gives an account of violent thunder which visited that neighbourhood on the 13th. The effects of the storm were most destructively felt at Marnhull. Several labourers engaged in the fields, haymaking, had taken shelter from the storm under a tree with a waggon load of hay, and were struck by the electric fluid. One of them was killed on the spot, another struck blind, and four, with one woman, very seriously injured. The waggon and hay were entirely consumed, and the whole ground torn up as though a plough had passed through it. The storm was accompanied by a fall of hailstones of an extraordinary size.

International Copyright Question.-From one of the strongholds of the piracy has come out an accession to the army of reformers. One of the leading houses of publication in Brussels, Messrs Famar and Co., has petitioned for the abolition of literary piracy; and announced its determination to have no other competition with French publishers than that which aims at the relative perfection of the original works produced in the respective countries.

Murder prompted by Painting.-The discovery of painting in oil colours led to a most cruel murder. Dominica Beccafumi imparted the secret to Andrea del Caslagno, who, eager to be the sole possessor of such a treasure, assassinated his friend and benefactor. On his death-bed the horrors of guilt overtook him; he made a public confession of his crime.-Arts and Artists.

First English Races.-James VI was the first who established public races; at Gortenly, in Yorkshire, Croydon, near London, and Theobalds, on Enfield Chase, were the usual race-courses. The usual weight of the jockies was ten stone. The prize was in most cases a bell, at first of wood, but subsequently of silver; hence the origin of the phrase "bearing away the bell."

Sharp Sight.-An American describing the prevalence of duelling, summed up with, "They even fight with daggers in a room pitch dark!" "Is it possible?" was the reply. "Possible, sir?" returned the Yankee, "why I have seen them."

A fellow in Kentucky with a railway imagination, wants to know how long it will be before they open the equinoctial line.

Mr J. B. S. Morritt, of Rokeby park, Yorkshire, died on the 12th inst. after a lingering illness, in the 72nd year of his age. He was one of the earliest and most

error.

It is all very well for high classical scholars to scorn

the trammels of modern verse, but those who condescend to bend to contemporary prejudices ought not to let such words as "things" and "skins" pass for rhymes. Chalk and cheese will perhaps next be used as such. Our poetical friend seems like Mathews's Frenchman, who was so extremely delighted with the rhymes of the old song which, according to him, began thus:

"A cobbler there was, and he lived in a stall, Which served for parlour and kitchen and Neavias.—In answer to his question we reply, that everything else."

we think there is no doubt that the vowels in the language accented short would, if correctly enunciated, be pronounced short also. The reason why the vowel is not generally pronounced short in such dissyllables as lapis, õpus, is because there is a difficulty in pronouncing without seeming to slur it over. In scanning Iambics, the commencing syllable of lapis would be pronounced like the French word le; but such a pronunciation is not practicable in reading the language. As to the difference between legit and legit, the present and perfect tenses of the verb lego, if it be necessary to make a distinction between the words in reading them, the present tense would correctly be read le-git (led-git), and the perfect le-git. But in prose, it may always be gathered from the context whether the present or past tense be intended, and in poetry it is selfevident, therefore there seems to us to be but little occasion for interfering with the customary pronunciation. The practice of distinctly marking the short syllable by calling it lappis, oppus, is one which is very unusual amongst scholars. our part we never remember to have heard dissyllables, commencing with a short vowel, like lapis, õpus, pronounced otherwise than lay-pis, o-pus, except by some few (very few) youthful students, who affected a nicety and singularity of pronunciation which their limited attainments warranted.

For