the last King of Macedon; and a colossal statue of Diana. His Majesty has sent them to the Museum of the Louvre, and has presented to M. de St. Sauveur, in return, a magnificent dessert-service of Sevres porcelain. The following is a statement of the number of French merchant-vessels, on the first of January, of the years—

1830. 14.742

726

587

2

1831.

1832. 15,031

6

Vidocq has just obtained a patent for the manufacture of paper from which no writing or print, once impressed, can be effaced or altered. The Directors of the Stamp Office long ago offered a premium for the discovery of this paper.

The rail-road from Paris to the coast is agreed upon; but it is not decided whether it is to run to Dieppe or Havre.

Munchen-Gratz.-Munchen-Gratz, at which the Emperors of Austria and Russia have met, is a small town on the Iser, about forty miles to the north-east of Prague, on the high road from the latter city into the south of Prussia. Like Friedland, it has descended to the Clam Gallas family; and like that town, too, recalls the memory of the illustrious Wallenstein, who was buried in the chapel of the castle near Munchen-Gratz, after his assassination at Eger, in February, 1634. The bridge across the Iser at this place is above seventy feet long. The inhabitants, about 2700 in number, are employed in cotton manufactures.

The number of State Pensioners in France, on January 1, 1833, was 162,175, who are thus divided:-Pensioned peers, 128, receiving 1,564,000 francs; civil pensioners, 2493, receiving 1,733,400 fr.; pensioners of July, 1408, receiving 613,700 fr.; military pensioners, 127,011, receiving 46,603,221 fr.; ecclesiastical pensioners, 28,186, receiving 4,662,469 fr.; donataires, 2952, receiving 1,480,084 fr. Total, 162,175 pensioners, receiving 56,735,874 fr.

M. de Chateaubriand has published statistics of the victims of the first French revolution; from which it appears that the number of persons guillotined was 18,613; of which number, 2217 were females, and 13,635 were men of the middling and lower classes. In addition to those guillotined, M. Chateaubriand states that there were killed in La Vendée 940,748, including 22,000 children and 3400 women, whose deaths were occasioned by premature labour; and that the victims at Nantes, by orders of Carrier, were 10,224, and at Lyons 31,000; making a gross total of 1,000,585, without reckoning those massacred at Versailles, and in prisons at Paris, nor those who were shot at Marseilles, Toulon, and other parts of France.

RURAL ECONOMY.

It is a great point with persons having only small gardens, to know how to lay them out to the most advantage, so as to have a succession of flowers during the year, or, at least, during those months when the family are at home. In the vicinity of London it is an object to cultivate plants which look best in winter and spring, and to have such as will bear the smoke of cities. By proper management, flower-gardens, whether small or large, may be so contrived as to present a beautiful appearance at any season that it may be thought most desirable; all that is requisite is to know what month each plant flowers in, and how to arrange a garden so as to have some handsome plants in it suitable to each season. In arranging a small garden near London, so as to look well in the spring and autumn, the first thing to be considered is to plant it with a due proportion of handsome and bushy evergreens. The Balearic box, the different kinds of Holly, Laurel, Laurustinus, Acuba, &c., will afford ample variety. Where there is more space, yews, firs, and pines may be added, with red and white cedars, arbor vitæ, &c. In mild situations, some of the finer species of the pine and fir tribe will add much to the effect; the Auracaría imbricata and Cunninghamia lanceolata are particularly beautiful, and, though tender, will stand in the open air with a slight protection. Some very handsome pines and firs have lately been introduced, which are perfectly hardy. Pinus Douglasii is one of the handsomest and fastest-growing of these; but P. loxicis and P. Webbiana very nearly equal it in every respect. The last species is particularly handsome. Pinus cembra grows in a compact conelike shape, swelling out below, and tapering gracefully to a point, and Pinus halepensis, and P. longifolia are remarkable for the beauty and gracefulness of their fronds (leaves) and the general elegance of their appearance. Perhaps one of the finest collections of pine and fir trees in England is at Lord Grenville's at Dropmore. The trees are there all planted on fine turf, at sufficient distances from each other to allow each to display its peculiar mode of growth; each is properly named, and the appearance of the whole is extremely beautiful. But to return to the suburban garden-having planted it with a sufficient quantity of inconspicuous flowering evergreens, to prevent its having a bare and desolate appearance in winter, the next thing is to mix with them as many other shrubs, both evergreen and deciduous, but bearing brilliant-coloured flowers, as may be necessary to relieve the sombre hue of the darker and larger evergreens. The red or yellow berries of the holly and the mispelus, the coral-like seeds of the yew, the long white flower-sprigs of the laurel, and the elegant flowers of the laurustinus will lend their aid, but some bright flowers will be requisite. Rhododendrons, kalmias, and azaleas, will look well in winter, and blossom beautifully in spikes; and the Exmouth variety of the magnolia grandiflora, with its laurel-like leaf, and its large, white, magnificent, and sweet-scented flowers, will prove a powerful auxiliary. Some of the Magnolias flower in the autumn, but the Magnolia conspicua is one of the flowers of early spring. This beautiful tree is not an evergreen, and its flowers expand before its leaves, but when planted in a clump of evergreens, or backed by an evergreen hedge, and slightly sheltered from the frost during the night, it is one of the most splendid of flowering shrubs. The Rhododendron dauricum antrovirescens also flowers very early in the season, and is very pretty, though dwarf-growing; the autumn and spring mezereons, the spurge laurel, and all the other species of daphnes, are also very useful and beautiful winter and spring shrubs, with many others, that may be found in any nursery. The red and yellow-blossomed currants; the doubleblossomed furze; the Persian, common, and Siberian lilacs; the English and Scotch laburnums, the latter being incomparably the finest; the Wistarias, frutescens, and Consequana; the cytisus, purple and yellow; and many other beautiful plants, flower in spring, and by a due mixture of

them a brilliant display of flowers may be produced. When the space will admit, hawthorns may be introduced, both for their flowers in spring, and their berries in autumn. It is, perhaps, not generally known that there are no less than seventy species of thorns which will grow well in the open air in this country. Of these the tansy-leaved and the sweet-scented, both having downy pale green leaves, are very handsome; one of them bears a large yellow, and the other a large scarlet haw. The common pink hawthorn is well known, as is the cockspur; River's scarlet is extremely beautiful. Crætagus lucida, or the shining thorn, has a deep green glossy leaf, something like that of a pear or apple tree. Mr. Beckford, when laying out the grounds at Fonthill, planted a thornery, in which he included all the sorts then known, but it is now gone to decay, as well as all the other parts of the grounds of that once fine place. The design, however, is worthy of imitation, where there is space sufficient for the trees to grow.

Waste of Corn in Agriculture.-It is estimated, that only one-third of the seed-corn sown on the best land grows; the other two-thirds are destroyed. The number of cultivated acres in Great Britain and Ireland amounts to 47,000,000; 30,000,000 of which are under the plough. Twofifths of the latter, or 12,000,000 acres, are annually under the cereal crops. The average allowance of seed for the three kinds of corn may be stated at four bushels and two-thirds per acre. The quantity of seed annually sown thus amounts to 7,000,000 quarters. If two-thirds of this quantity are rendered unproductive by some agency which has hitherto been uncontrolled, then 4,666,666 quarters of corn are annually wasted! The quantity thus lamentably wasted would support more than 1,000,000 of human beings.— Quarterly Journal of Agriculture.

USEFUL ARTS.

National Gallery of Practical Science.-Akin with the salutary results that must necessarily be produced by competitive exhibitions of the useful arts, another great feature of the intellectual progress of the age to feelings more consonant with a great manufacturing community, in which the applications of science constitute the main-spring of vitality and prosperity, are those which must be produced by exhibitions, of which popular demonstrations of the objects of practical science constitute the leading feature, whether by making acquainted with the wonders of the microscopic or the heavenly world, tracing the chemist through the very elaborate, and almost magic, changes of his science, or familiarizing with those sources of the gigantic strength of our country to which we are indebted for our present proud superiority over every other nation on the earth. Amongst such exhibitions, the National Gallery of Practical Science unquestionably stands forth the most prominent; and from the very interesting nature and great variety of its objects, extending, as they do, to all purposes of utility and comfort in life, there is little doubt, not only of its continuing to meet with the highest degree of public support, but that it will revolutionize the present age to feelings of sterner and more apposite character than has distinguished any preceding.

It is truly indicative of the growth of these feelings that they are rapidly diffusing their taste throughout the whole community. The crowds that may be seen surrounding our print-shops, not devoted to survey the licentious or vulgar prints which have been considered, and too truly, the characteristic of the taste of the lower orders of the English people,-but to view and criticise the highest efforts of the art, shows that the taste for the fine arts is most rapidly extending. The crowds which surround those itinerant astronomers who ply with their telescopes at all parts of the metropolis, or

who, by the same media, are making themselves acquainted with the wonders of the microscopic world, are at the same time a criterion that the taste for science is becoming equally extensive. In our walks through London, we have wondered as we witnessed the many real objects of scientific merit that are to be met with in those exhibitions which are, at their price, devoted especially to the amusement ot the lowest orders: we have there met with some of the finest specimens of modelling in wax, beautifully illustrative of the elaborate structure of the various portions of the human frame, and even specimens of the art of embalming, not exceeded in our largest and most costly collections. Even exhibitions of models of machinery, and demonstrations of chemical and electrical science, are taking the place of the mummeries of our most vulgar fairs.

The growth of such a taste is most pleasing, in whatever light it may be viewed. Its immediate tendency is the encouragement of pursuits, and the fosterment of tastes, enabling every one to fulfil better his relative, as well as individual, station in society. The shrine of science can perform more miracles than the most holy-sainted shrine; before it the conflicting passions -the depraved and enervating desires-of man fall. The industrious artizan, who can regale his mind with these intellectual tastes, has little time to devote to sedition, or inclination to pursue illegal combinations; whilst in his endeavours, by habits of increased industry and sobriety, to foster these tastes, he cannot be led astray by the political or religious incendiary; there is no fear of his becoming an anarch or an infidel. To descant on the individual, as well as relative, benefits that might be derived from familiarity with scientific objects, would be to recall from the grave the thousands who lie there, whose lives might have been prolonged had the balm of science been applied. We recognize the deficiency of such, as well in the sacrifices to mistakes in the exhibitions of domestic medicine, or in other casualties of poison or accident, as in the many innocent individuals sacrificed to their country's sanguinary laws; for it were, indeed, too easy to invoke the manes of many thus immolated upon the altar of popular ignorance.

With these views, it is with feelings of the highest satisfaction that we record the very successful results of this exhibition, a fact thoroughly demonstrated by the very great support which it meets with from the public. It is impossible for us to pretend to an enumeration of objects so promiscuous or extensive as it embraces,-from the steam-gun, destined to deprive war of its horrors, by rendering it an object too expensive even for the most powerful king to play at, down to the more peaceful subject of bee-management, which, under the improved and very valuable system of Mr. Nutt, has gladdened the heart of many a peasant, and augmented the comforts of many a British hearth. We are presented with a series of the most interesting experiments in magnetism and electro-magnetism, developing the identity of these matters, and raising the very probable opinion that these are but peculiar modifications of one series of emanations, constituting the great agent by which all nature is animated, invigorated, and kept in being. To the man of science these form, unquestionably, the most interesting part of the exhibition; and in this respect it supplies a hiatus of communication long wanted in the world of science, familiarizing the different cultivators with the discoveries in philosophy as they are progressively developed, and thus enabling them to obtain, at the small charge of exhibition, information difficult of attainment even to those possessed of the most recent published details. The popular observer, as well as the juvenile mind, may be gratified by the applications of science in its infinitude of details, presenting varied objects for every intellectual taste, as excited by the displays of models of steam-boats in operation, chemical experiments, optical illusions, &c.

To such objects it is impossible but to express our most cordial assent. To the proprietors the reflection must be most gratifying of having put themselves at the head of the public taste. The exhibition was an object which grew out of public feeling, and it is conducted upon the surface of

public opinion; but a strict adherence to these principles cannot be too strongly impressed, that the details shall, in every essential, fulfil the objects of the establishment. Whilst, as a school of science, it becomes the regenerator of the public mind, we doubt not but it will become the foster parent of many other local institutions, and a nursery for men of science to become future teachers on these subjects-a want which such an institution will necessarily bring into being.

Steam Carriages on Common Roads.-It has been very generally believed, particularly among horse-coach proprietors, that the public would be prejudiced against this new mode of conveyance; and in entering into arrangements for running steam-carriages, this objection has been raised as a reason for reducing the premium required by the patentees, it being stated that steam-carriages would run for a length of time at a loss before the public would venture regularly to travel on common roads by steam. Sir Charles Dance, at the time of running between Gloucester and Cheltenham, had never discovered that such a prejudice existed, but that the contrary was really the case, every one appearing anxious to become a passenger. This point has, however, been further set at rest, by the same carriage having run for eight successive days from Wellington-street, over Waterloo Bridge, to Greenwich three times a-day, starting regularly at eleven, half-past twelve, and two o'clock each day, a distance, in the whole, of about 250 miles, at an average running of ten miles per hour.

:

In order to call forth as little opposition as possible, from the coachmen and their attendant imps, at the same time to shew that the public mind is by no means against the introduction of steam-carriages, Sir Charles Dance determined not to run for the ordinary charge, but the coach was advertised to run for two shillings and sixpence each person, to or from Greenwich, or the sum of four shillings to those who were desirous of going and returning by such a course it was evident that curiosity would be the principal motive for going with the carriage. We are informed, that, on an average, fourteen persons accompanied the carriage each trip. Such has been the interest displayed, that crowds of persons lined the road; and at either end of the journey, so dense were the crowds, that but for the command over the engine, and the accuracy of the driving, some serious accident must inevitably have occurred. In some of the journeys, the steam-coach was accompanied by many of our most scientific men, amongst others Mr. Telford, Mr. Macneill, and others of our best engineers, who expressed themselves so much gratified with the success of Sir Charles Dance, that they have determined on running the carriage a journey between London and Birmingham, the more fully to demonstrate the practicability of using the power of steam on common roads; and the carriage has been taken off the Greenwich road for this purpose.

We have very carefully examined the steam-carriage, and observed the ease of its running, and believe that, when Messrs. Maudslay and Field shall have completed a carriage, it may be expected to run on an average fifteen miles an hour, with light weights. It should be understood, that the present carriage was not built by these talented engineers, but that the boiler only is of their manufacture; nor can they venture to use its full power on the engines, as many parts of the carriage are not equal to bear the strain, whilst other parts are too strong and heavy; it may therefore be said, that the carriage, in having performed so much under all the circumstances, has the more positively proved the possibility of bringing this mode of conveyance into general application. We hope, in our next, to lay before our readers the result of the journey to Birmingham. We would here observe, that the boiler, on the lightness and strength of which every thing depends, has, after running several hundred miles, proved itself most effective, and may be considered as a very successful invention. The Brighton road was divided into five stages of rather more than ten