humor and spirit. There was a kind of supports that view of the very effrontery of mimic altar, dressed, and a sort of mock virtue. This dear and unrivalled baronetsolemnity maintained. The essential part who was, later in life, cruelly fined and inof the rite lay in pairing off the ladies and prisoned in the Queen's Bench for a naughty gentlemen; a duty which the high-priest little story àpropos of her Majesty of all the was held to perform with exquisite tact and Russias-can point us out other noble figknowledge of the court atmosphere; but it ures whose beaux yeux the queen delights was remarked that he usually allotted her to honor. There is De Coigny, tall, gracemajesty to himself. Suddenly the mystic ful, insinuating; De Vaudreuil, the highword is pronounced. "Descampativos!" priest; the Count d'Artois, who would have Clap hands! and hi presto! the noble com- been good-looking, if he could only have pany have fled, are utterly invisible, swal- been got to keep his mouth shut; and the lowed up in those intricate walks and bos- brave Fersen. Our own countryman, Lord quets, bound under heaviest fulminations Whitworth-for whose hand three noble not to re-appear for some hours. This ques- ladies of the highest rank did bid thereaftionable diversion scandalized that easily ter in money and jewels-was greatly fascandalized people, the people of Paris. vored on account of his fine person and True, his majesty was there by way of con- stately presence. Our ambassador, le Duc jugal chaperon, shambling with his ungainly de Dorset, was noticed prodigiously; and limbs away down the walks with an allotted years after, when the "descampativos" had partner, but it is to be feared that this show found a bloody atonement, used to take out, of decency did not satisfy those who looked with a regretful fondness, an old letter-case on from afar off, and to whose ears whispers full of little notes and hasty billets, from of the gambols were borne upon the gale. which the scent had not yet passed away, We, who look backward, can have no rea- and would read them over with our baronet. sonable doubt but that these were most in- They were harmless little despatches-mainly discreet games. The queen had all the fool- commissions for English purchases, needles hardiness of virtue, and, it must be conceded, and the like-sent the night before he would all the coarseness which the rubbing of be setting out. The Honorable Hugh Conskirts with the Dubarrys and those of her way, a very personable man, and one of six cloth in a daily familiarity would induce. gigantic brethren, was similarly distinThat living in an atmosphere of unwhole-guished. But, says this incorrigible old some allusion, and of jest and earnest all scandal chiffonnier, "IF ever there was one based on that one gross basis, as a thing to-mark, I say IF-and do not for a moment be accepted and perfectly understood, must misunderstand me-but still, on the remote have brushed away the fine delicate bloom hypothesis that there was what we may lying on the surface. Here seems to be the pleasantly-ha, ha !-call a slight discoloratrue key to her character. tion in the peach, why I should say-stoop

Gossip Wraxall has us again by the but-down-Vaudreuil was the man!" ton-hole, in a corner at one of these brilliant assemblies.

All this while it was literally raining, hailing pamphlets. They came down in a piti"See that plain, faded, worn-out youth, less pestilent storm, and choked the streets. but with a fine figure? That is Dillon le There was a craze—a frantic mania for this Beau. Whisper shape of writing: and these vile broadsheets, Listeners' cheeks shrink inwards with an each running over with horrid songs and terinhaling motion almost like a whistle.

"

"Hush, my dear sir! Only the other night, at a ball, her majesty became faint and tired. Only feel how my heart palpitates,' she remarked to his gracious majesty; who did feel. Does it not, count ? she said to Beau Dillon, also standing by, and actually, my dear sir-stoop downput that spark's hand on her side."

How exactly that story of the baronet

rible lampoons, had but one aim—the luckless Marie Antoinette. They were printed on the coarsest paper, and were sold for a few sous in the open streets. So came forth the Historical Essays on the Life of Marie Antoinette of Austria! Followed by The She-Iscariot of France, printed at Versailles, Hôtel des Courtisanes! The Life of Louis XVI.: London, at the printing-press of Saint James! Lives of Orleans-of Everybody.

In the first, the queen is made to unfold her own adventures, and the she-Iscariot relates her failings with a startling candor.

a gloomy despair and gaunt spectres of all the succeeding horrors might well have cowed the bravest heart; and we hear him praising the best Burgundy he ever tasted. In the last act, the night before the curtain fell, in that taking his son upon his knee, and in that final coming down of the curtain, he did indeed rise above his nature, and play his part grandly; yet something will whisper that it is not so hard for these more insensible natures so to play their parts. In that awful scene, so pathetically described by his heroic confessor, where there is a grandeur and dignity of soul which could not have been predicted from his previous character, there break out little turns and caprices which jar upon the general effect, and point back again to the older weaknesses. Alas! that the famous "Son of Saint Louis, ascend to Heaven!" should rest upon a foundation of clouds! The faithful confessor is very doubtful over it; so it must recede into that questionable limbo where repose "The guard dies, but surrenders never!" of Cambronne; the shrieks of "Vive la République!" from the sinking Vengeur; the Waterloo duke's order to his Guards; and their melodramatic but repudiated “Tags.”

Meanwhile, the old heavy berline of the monarchy rambles on nearer and nearer to the edge. The causes of the final toppling over, furnish a trite theme to every schoolboy and mutual improvement class. All through these premonitory growlings of the populace, the same fat, unwieldy figure, the good-hearted, round-cheeked, onion-headed, and generally inefficient "countryman king" is conspicuous shambling on from one limb to the other. Angry parliaments come to wait on him, and he is fetched out from his forge and his files and his locks and his keys, reputed to be the worst in Paris, and confronts them all, grimed and heated, a royal smith. He made a progress down to Cherbourg to see the works, and was delighted with his expedition. Long afterwards, his parrot question was said to be "Ever been at Cherbourg?" a negative answer being received with such disfavor, that adroit courtiers soon found out they must actually make the journey. If he fancied a dish specially at dinner, the bonhomme would give orders that what was left should be kept for supper. It was ingeniously circulated that the heat of In our time there is no need for apprehenthe forge must naturally induce thirst, and sion of indecorous irregularity like this of that he thus became immoderately addicted the old French Court. Our gentle youths, to what was called "Tockaï" and Cham- whose peculiar province it is to carry on the pagne a taste which was, of course, encour- business of loving, go to their work in a aged for their own ends by the frightful careless and phlegmatic fashion that raises "gang" of Guiennes, Polignacs, and other our indignation. The young generous blood conspirators who surrounded him. The she--warm burning current that carried forIscariot used to make him drunk, for pur- ward your old-fashioned spirited lover-has poses of her own. Still, through all these drained away into something poor, thin, collegends runs a tone of indulgence for the full- orless. He is utterly unimpassioned. Enfaced, fatuous bonhomme. Even the discon-thusiasm is sadly plebeian. A relish of the tented see him as we now see him, well-mean- ludicrous reaching beyond the proportions ing and good-natured. of the dawn of a simper, becomes indecent Which of us, child or man, does not know mirth. Any derangement in the direction by heart the whole scenery, incidents, and of those gentler moods-pity, charity, symdecorations of that five-act tragedy, the Rev-pathy-trench perilously on vulgarity. A olution? The fighting in the streets, the Bastile, the Swiss in the Tuileries, the fishwomen, Tennis-court, flight to Varennes, and what not? Through it all, we see the heavy figure, stolid, impassive, weak, and wellmeaning, to the last. We peep in at that frightful scene, the little room in the village, where the berline party, captured and discomfited, are huddled together; and where

state of eternal quietude is most becoming. Verbal superfluity has been already pruned down to the extremest verge, consistent with intelligibility. It has cometo be a vast Slough of Despond, a barren dead level of inexpression. There reigns a conventional monotstrange expression, "a deep no-meaning," ony, a waste of sameness; and Mr. Carlyle's finds at last a happy and comprehensible embodiment.

SCIENCE AND ARTS FOR JUNE. an outside coat of paint is or is not the best NOTWITHSTANDING all the excitement and protection; and further, more regard should distraction offered by races, picture-galleries, be paid than at present to the quality and exhibitions, and excursions, many a quiet arrangement of building-materials, and the worker has done something towards ad- way in which they are placed in a building, vancement of science within the past five since it is known that damp scarcely peneweeks, so that our learned and scientific so- trates stone when placed quarry-wise; that cieties are bringing their sessions to a close, is, as it stood in the parent rock, but peneand thinking about holidays. The Geograph-trates easily when the stone is placed in other icals-who, by the way, are not quiet work-positions. As regards the decoration of arers-have given one of their gold medals to Captain Speke, and the other to Mr. Stuart, both well known as enterprising explorers, the one of Africa, the other of Australia. The excitement occasioned by the gorilla has grown into a controversy, which will have to be settled by anatomists working patiently and thoughtfully in their study. The brain is the special point at issue. Mr. Lockhart Clarke is examining it, with a view to elucidate metaphysical theory, and has lately succeeded in preparing a section for microscopic observation and comparison of the spinal cord of the human fœtus at the age of three months.

chitecture, photography is now made to contribute thereto, by what a Parisian artist calls photosculpture. Only get a proper model, and by an ingenious contrivance, the sculptor may so reflect it on his block of marble, as to be able to insure a perfect facsimile of the original.

The first discovery of a planet by our astronomers in India has just been made at the Madras observatory; but discoverers are of course proud of their achievement, and desire to name the new star Asia. The number of little planets is, however, now so great (nearly seventy) by reason of rapid discovery, that astronomers question the desirability of discovering also a mythological name for each of the little strangers as it presents itself for recognition; and are agreeing to name them as the islands in the Mississippi are named-No. 65, No. 66, and so on: a convenient arrangement, as it indicates at once their chronological order.-One of our astronomers, after careful comparison of the oldest with the most modern maps of the moon, concludes, from the change in appearance, that volcanic action is still going on in our satellite, and believes he can identify the alterations that have taken place within the past twenty years.-Mr. Hoek, of the observatory at Utrecht, has published a thin quarto containing the first part of his Astronomical Researches, in which he leads off with an important subject; namely, The Influence of the Earth's movements on the fun

On the question of iron versus wooden ships, a word of warning has been published by a Fellow of the Royal Society, with especial heed to the peculiarity that iron may, after all, prove to be the weakest material that could be used for ship-building. Instances of very rapid deterioration are well known to those who have paid attention to the subject, the most remarkable being that of an iron ship, which, after a year of service, returned to port with her sides so soft, through the action of sea-water, that the carpenter could stick his knife into the iron in sundry places, as into cheese! The conclusion drawn from this and other similar facts, is one which commends itself to the common sense of the millions who have to pay for the ships; to wit, that we "have a right to call for every imaginable precaution that science can afford, in order that the vast out-damental phenomena of the optical science lay may not result in a gigantic failure.”

The Manchester Architectural Association have discussed a paper on Chemistry in Relation to Building: a question to which architects and builders generally pay too little or no attention. It is desirable to know in what way different kinds of mortar and cement are affected by the atmosphere; what reactions take place therein; whether they require protection; and if so, whether

employed in astronomy.-Professor Durrand, of Porrentruy (Switzerland), is led to conclude, from a course of observations, that the tail of a comet is an appearance only, similar to that produced by the light of a lamp passing through a glass globe containing water into a darkened room, where the radiance represents the tail. On calculation, he finds that a nucleus with a refractive power ten times superior to that of

the History of Peoples: a subject highly interesting to ethnologists. It reminds us that ancient stone-weapons, similar to those recently discovered near Abbeville, as mentioned at the time in the Journal, have been met with at Reculver, on the coast of Kent. A considerable collection has now been made of these relics of primeval times, but one of the best attempts which we have yet seen towards discovering a real and suggestive significance in the specimens, is that made by Mr. Christy, as shown at the last soiree of the president of the Royal Society. In this instance, the stone axes and arrow-heads were correlated, or placed side by side, so as to show how people and tribes the most widely separated have been led to produce the same general form, and that the ancient British and Scandinavian axes are identical in shape with those actually in use among the natives of New Caledonia and the Society Islands. There is another advantage in this juxtaposition, seeing that the modern specimens brought from the last-named countries exhibit the highly ingenious method by which the stone weapon was fastened to its handle.

air, would produce the same appearance astute of Venice, contains a paper on the NatDonati's comet. On the other hand, and ural History of Languages as illustrative of taking into consideration the effect of magnetism on light and smoke, the tail may be regarded as an effect of magnetism on a vaporous substance.-A learned professor at Salamanca states, in a letter to a scientific periodical, that the so-called stone axes are plentiful in the country round about that city, and that they are not formed by art, but by lightning strokes falling on flints. The flints are shivered into numerous pieces, among which many are found of the shape now familiar to geologists and antiquaries as ancient weapons. The professor states further, that the reason why these weapons are found in old tombs, is because the Goths believed that to bury a number of the "socalled axe-heads" with a corpse, was the way to protect the tomb from lightning. Colonel Graham, one of the ablest scientific officers in the United States service, announces, that after a series of nearly ten thousand observations, he discovers that there is a lunar tidal wave on Lake Michigan: another confirmation of the theory of the moon's influence on the waters of the earth. The Meteorological Society of Paris have published a suggestion to editors of newspapers in France, which editors in other countries might advantageously comply with: it is, that in giving announcements of meteorological phenomena, or extraordinary high tides, instead of using the customary shall be passed to secure fair play to the fish expression "yesterday," or "on Tuesday last," or "last week," and so forth, they should give the precise date on which the phenomenon in question occurred, as, by means of the dates, students of meteorology will be able to correlate or co-ordinate the weather-facts of widely distant places.

Good news is offered to old Izaak's disciples in the fact, that an attempt is making to propagate grayling in the Thames at Hampton; and in the promise that a law

which resort to British rivers to breed. This law, which is to be brought forward during the present session of Parliament, is one of the results of the recent commission of inquiry into our river-fisheries. Another result is that, except in the case of the fish which pay periodical visits to certain streams, A little pleasurable surprise has been ex- our rivers-so the commissioners say-are cited by the distribution, among learned so- tenanted by as many fish as can find subcieties in Europe, of a respectable quarto sistence therein: from which the conclusion volume, the first of a new series, from the is obvious, that comprehensive breedingobservatory at Athens. It is an encourag- schemes, much talked about of late, are ing sign of life from the long-slumbering likely to fail through deficiency of food. land of ancient classic fame; and the more The authorities in India are taking measso, as the contents of the book are well-writ-ures for the cultivation of tea, as well as of ten papers on the physical geography of cinchona, on the slopes of the Neilgherries, Greece. Any student who wishes to know something of the climate of Athens, and the phenomena of vegetation in Attica, has only to consult the work in question.-The last volume of Memorie published by the Insti

considering that, with proper care, the plantations in that locality are likely to be as successful as those in Assam and on the uplands of the Himalayas. Whatever adds to the industrial resources of our great east

ern empire must be deserving of encourage- | which has been noticed by recent travellers. ment; and when we consider the large in- Mr. Chapman who started from the Cape to crease in the supply of jute, lac, and oil-seeds travel direct to the Zambezi, could get no from thence since the Exhibition of 1851, we further than Ngami, and had to return chiefly see no reason to doubt that, in due time, we from want of water. His report to Sir George shall get as much of cotton, tea, and other Grey, the governor, is instructive on this parproductions as we are likely to want. The ticular. "The want of water," he says, "has reward will not be small to those who un-not been confined to one district, but in the dertake the work, for the present year's cot- whole country up to the Lake the fountains ton crop of the "Confederated States" sold have failed; and if the desiccation continues for £40,000,000. The palm-oil trade, more- a few years longer at the rate it has done over, affords a marked instance of increase, during the last four years, I fear we shall the supply from Western Africa now being only be able to reach Ngami during the worth £1,500,000 annually, to which amount rainy season. In going up, we had to dig it has advanced from a very small beginning at Koolie, Ghansi, and Gunigga; and other within about twenty years. By the end of large springs where, a few years ago, hun1862, India will have nearly three thousand dreds of elephants, rhinoceri, giraffes, and miles of railway completed, including the large herds of smaller game, drank during great trunk line from Calcutta to Delhi : one- the whole dry season, have now dried up so half of this amount will be open before the much that scarcely a kettle of water can be end of the present year. We are glad to got for Caffres. At Pietfontein, formerly a notice a growing disposition to employ na- large running stream, we had to dig for watives in the service of the line, because, as ter for our cattle on our return, even after, Mr. Money shows in his interesting book on the first rains had fallen. Tunobis in DamJava, conciliation and encouragement of araland, which was a fine running stream those born on the soil are essential to pros- when I first knew it, has been drying up so perity. Of nearly nineteen thousand func- fast, that now we have to wait in wells twenty tionaries on the Indian railways already feet deep until the water percolates to fill open, comprising station-masters, clerks, our vatjies." porters, and so forth, not more than one thousand one hundred and thirty-seven are Europeans.

A rumor has reached us from Northern Africa, that Dr. Vogel, the German traveller, has not only not been murdered, but is living as a sort of grand vizier or councillor in the service of the sultan of Wara, a town in the Wadai territory. Though well treated by the monarch, he is so closely watched as to prevent all chance of escape. We hope there is truth in the rumor: at any rate, we may expect to hear that Dr. Henglin, a fellow-countryman of the long-missing Vogel, who is following on his track, will endeavor to clear up the mystery.

From South Africa we have further confirmation of the remarkable fact; the gradual drying up of a large expanse of country,

Dr. Joseph Milligan's paper on Tasmania, read before the Society of Arts, contains interesting information on the climate and mineral and vegetable resources of that distant colony. English farmers, whose anxiety concerning weather is sometimes painful, will be able to appreciate the fact, that in Van Diemen's Land the grain-crops are reaped and stacked always in fine weather, while as regards the hay, all that the Tasmanian farmer has to do, is to watch that it does not become too dry. Formerly, the settler's clip of wool was left to rot on the ground; now the colony exports wool of good quality to the value of nearly £500,000 a year. The wheat exported in 1859 was worth £92,861: and the annual return from the colonial whale-fishery is £60,000. Of the aborigines, there were only about a dozen remaining at the end of 1859.

DURING the ten weeks preceding July 17,| one hundred and seventy public concerts were given in London.

THE Belgian government, with warm support from the British authorities, is forming a colony in the New Hebrides.