At three minutes after four o'clock in the afternoon of Saturday, the 27th ult., the two observers having taken their places in the car in the garden of the Observatory, the cords were disengaged and the ascent commenced. A strong wind blowing from the west, the balloon was carried obliquely, and the car caught in a tree, by which the movement was stopped for a moment. One of the barometers and the thermometer with the blackened bulb, were here broken.

This incident, however, was quickly terminated by the discharge of ballast,

upon which the balloon disengaged itself and rose.

The ascent was at first slow, and directed towards the east, but upon throwing out ballast it became more rapid.

In the following table is given the series of observations of the barometer and thermometer, and the heights collected from them, as taken during the ascent and descent, from the time the balloon quitted the ground of the Observatory to the moment of its return to the earth:

Soon after the balloon rose from the ground, the observers found themselves surrounded by a thin mist, which did not, however, prevent them from seeing the earth. At the moment of the fifth observation, they observed detached clouds floating beneath them, but not thick enough to prevent them from seeing the city of Paris.

At the moment of the sixth observation, they were completely enveloped in the clo cloud, and ceased to see the earth. The cloud here had the appearance of a common dense fog upon the earth.

The ascent became evidently slow

at the moment of the eighth observation; and at the tenth observation ceased altogether, the balloon rising and falling alternately between the heights of 1,800 and 1,900 feet.

At the commencement of the ascent, the balloon was imperfectly filled, a large space being allowed for the expansion the gas would necessarily undergo in rising to a great elevation. The sleeve provided for the escape of the gas, already described, remained quite flat, by the action of the atmospheric pressure upon it, so that, although no valve was placed in it, the gas was completely shut into the balloon, At the moment of the tenth observation, however, when the balloon became stationary, the gas had not only expanded so as completely to fill the balloon, but had also distended the sleeve, and was seen issuing from the inferior orifice like a stream of whitish smoke, and its odour was distinetly perceptible. But it quickly appeared that this was not the only orifice from which the gas escaped. This unfortunate balloon encountered another accident similar to that which happened on the former ascent; and the voyagers observed, not without some anxiety, that a rent, about four feet in length, had taken place in the lower part, from which the gas was escaping.

It might well be supposed that, in the face of such an incident, MM. Barral and Bixio would have descended. This, however, was not the case. On the contrary, finding that their voyage must necessarily be abridged, and resolving to profit as far as possible by it, they, immediately on the discovery of the incident just mentioned, threw out a quantity of ballast, and the balloon, thus lightened, recovered its buoyancy, and spite of the escape of gas, again ascended.

At this time they seemed to be approaching near the superior limit of the cloud through which they had been passing, for the disk of the sun became imperfectly visible.

At twenty-five minutes past four, the moment of the eleventh observation, being twenty-two minutes after the time they started, they attained another station, where the barometer again oscillated, showing that the ascending motion ceased. They were between the heights of 19,400 and 20,700 feet.

During the last five minutes the cold was extreme, and they found themselves involved in a cloud of icicles, consisting of spicula having the form of hexagonal prisms, with rectangular ends. These needles accumulated in immense quantities in the folds of their clothing, and covered the paper of their memorandum-books. It was remarked that their accumulation only took place when the balloon ascended. When it was stationary, the deposition of icicles was inconsiderable; and when, for a moment, in its oscillation, it had descended, there was no deposition.

From these circumstances the observers inferred that the icicles composing the cloud round them were in a state of equilibrium. If they had been falling, they would have been deposited when the balloon was stationary, and even when it descended, provided the fall of the icicles were more rapid than that of the balloon.

It was observed that these spicula, in falling on their memorandum-books, produced a sort of crepitation. At this moment observations were made on the thermometers provided for showing the effects of radiation, or rather, upon the only two of these thermometers which remained, that which had the blackened reservoir having been broken. The thermometer having the clean glass reservoir then showed the temperature at 23° 5'; and that which was covered with a silvered envelope showed the temperature at 15° 8'.

More ballast was then cast out, and a further ascent effected, when a remarkable and most interesting phenomenon presented itself. They were evidently approaching the upper strata of the mass of clouds through which they had ascended, for the sun, hitherto invisible, now appeared like a disk of dead silver, such as it is sometimes seen through a thin cloud in winter. On turning their view downwards, they were somewhat startled by the appearance of another sun, of nearly equal brilliancy, which was placed in the same vertical plane with the real sun; but just as much below a horizontal plane passing through the car, as the real sun was above it. In short, this phantom sun appeared exactly as an image of the sun would have done, reflected from a vast mirror spread under the car of the balloon.

This phenomenon, combined with what has been just before described as to the prismatic form of the icy spicula, furnished at once an explanation of the hypotheses advanced by Marriotte, Babinet, Brabais, and others, to explain parhelia, paraselene, and other optical appearances presented by the clouds. It was evident that the phantom sun which presented itself below them was nothing but the reflection of the real sun on the upper ends of the prismatic spicula.

These prisms assumed a polar arrangement, their lengths or axes being all vertical, and, consequently, their upper ends horizontal. These ends being intensely polished, formed by their combination a vast mirror, from which the image of the sun was re

flected.

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The explanation of parhelia supplied by the supposition of such icy prisms in a cloud, was founded upon the principle that the reflection takes place, not from their ends, but from their sides. It was assumed that the rays from the sun incident upon the sides of such prisms, were reflected to the eye of the observer, and produced an image of the sun in position determined by the relative position of the sun, the cloud, and the observer. The difference, therefore, between the phenomenon presented to the observers in the balloon, and that exhibited to the observers on the earth, arose from the fact, that the reflection took place in one case from the horizontal ends of the crystals, and in the other from their vertical sides. In the one case, the sun and its image were in directions forming equal angles above and below a horizontal plane passing through the observer; in the other, the sun and its image were both in the heavens, but one before and the other behind the observer.

This spectacle continued to be observed for more than ten minutes, and was again observed in the same position in their descent.

It was now thirty-two minutes past four, the thermometer showing nine and a-half degrees below the freezing point. They were rapidly approaching the superior limit of the cloud, an opening being apparent through which they perceived the azure of the hea

vens.

Polariscopic observations were made, which gave results similar to those obtained in the last ascent, showing that the light transmitted, as well as that reflected by the clouds, was completely unpolarised; while on the contrary, the light proceeding from the clear blue firmament was strongly polarised. Ballast was again thrown out, and a further ascent effected. At forty-five minutes past four, the moment of the twelfth observation, they reached the height of 21,366 feet, the thermometer showing the temperature at thirty-one degrees below Zero, and therefore sixty-three degrees below the freezing point.

Here they attained another station,

the descent of the barometer being again suspended.

Disregarding the danger which must inevitably ensue from the escape of gas by the rupture of the balloon, they made another effort to attain an increased elevation, throwing out all the ballast except one or two sandbags, which were reserved as necessary to break their fall on reaching the earth. In fine, at the moment of the thirteenth observation, being ten minutes before five o'clock, they had risen to 23,000 feet, the greatest elevation they were destined to attain.

The thermometers at this moment ceased to give indications, the mercury falling in nearly all of them into the bulbs. They had not been graduated for the purpose of showing a temperature so low, and it was inferred that at this moment the temperature could not have been more than one degree above the freezing-point of mercury.

The hands and feet of the voyagers were benumbed by this intense cold, but no other inconvenience ensued; respiration was perfectly free, and there were neither pains in the ears nor bleeding at the nose. There was, therefore, no physiological indication of having approached that limit at which the vital functions might not continue uninterrupted.

This experiment, therefore, supplies no data from which we can infer what the obstacles may be which will limit the future range of observers in the atmosphere. What will impose a limit on their ascent? Will it be the intensity of the cold or the absence of the pressure of the air which will arrest the functions? Will it be the balloon which will cease to have buoyancy or the observer who will be incapable of accompanying it? Of these questions we have at present no certain solution.

On arriving at this height only eight pounds of ballast remained, which it was judged prudent to preserve for the purpose of breaking their fall on ap proaching the ground. They hoped, however, to be able to remain some time at this great elevation to extend their observations; but although they closed the sleeve to check the escape of the gas, the rush from the rupture already mentioned was so considerable that the balloon began almost immediately to descend.

The elevation which was attained was very nearly the same as that which had been formerly attained by M. GayLussac, in his celebrated scientific ascent, and with that exception was the highest to which a human observer has ever reached.

One of the circumstances most remarkable attending the present ascent was, that the cold was manifested not gradually but suddenly, and that, within the last two thousand feet of the ascent, the law by which the fall of temperature was regulated, was suddenly disturbed at the moment that the observers were plunged into the atmosphere of icicles which the cloud transported with it.

Thus we find in the preceding table that at the moment of the eleventh observation, when their height was nearly 21,000 feet, the temperature was 13°, being nineteen degrees below the freezing point, while at the height of 21,366 feet the temperature fell to 31° below Zero, and a further fall to 38° below Zero took place in the next 1600 feet. It is certain that this rigorous cold is not an essential condition of the height to which the observers had ascended, since when Gay-Lussac rose to the same height, the thermometer fell to only 15°. So great a difference as 53° between the two observations shows the great effect produced by the icy cloud which in the present case covered the firmament.

We have stated that the balloon entered this cloud at the elevation of 6,500 feet, and that it had not quite reached its upper surface at the height of 23,000 feet. It follows, therefore, that the thickness of that cloud must have been more than 16,500 feet, or upwards of three miles.

It was within two minutes of five o'clock when the balloon, having floated for some minutes at its greatest elevation, began rapidly to fall. The rent in the lower part, already mentioned, had augmented, and gas escaped in great quantities.

Having passed through the cloud with great rapidity, the descent becoming dangerous, all the disposable articles of any weight, except the instruments of observation themselves, and the last bags of ballast were thrown out; the blankets, the fur-boots, the provisions, wine, &c., were all flung overboard to moderate the descent. The danger of their situation did not, however, prevent the savans from com.

pleting their observations, and disposing of the instruments so as to protect them from fracture when the balloon should strike the earth.

When they emerged from the lower surface of the cloud, and saw the earth obscurely beneath them through the mist which prevailed, they threw out an anchor, suspended from a very long cord, so that it must touch the ground when the balloon would be still at a considerable elevation. They became sensible of the moment that this took place by the check given to the descent, the effect being the same as if as much ballast had been thrown over as is equal to the weight of the anchor. When their descent was again manifested, they threw out the last bags of sand. Meanwhile the wind carried the balloon parallel to the ground at a considerable speed. The anchor sweeping along the ground, at length caught in the roof of a cottage, forming part of a hamlet, and brought the balloon to rest. It happened, however, unfortunately, that a labourer employed in mending the roads being near, and imagining that the aeronauts did not desire to descend, de. liberately cut the cable to which the anchor was attached, and sent the balloon again upwards to a height of two or three hundred feet. It soon, however, descended, and the cord from which the anchor had been cut swept the ground. Some peasants who were employed at the place seized the cord and brought the aerostat to rest. Finally the disembarkment was effected without further accident either to the aeronauts or the instruments.

We have stated that among the instruments taken up in the car were two flasks for the collection of air at different altitudes. When at the greatest elevation they attempted to fill these flasks, but, in endeavouring to open the stop-cock of one of them, it was broken from the numbness of their fingers. The other, however, was successfully filled. This was also destined to be lost by a provoking and vulgar acci.

dent after the descent.

The observers descended near the hamlet of Peux, in the arrondissement of Colommiers, in the department of the Scine and Marne, and not far from the Paris and Strasbourg Railway. country cart was provided to transport them, with their instruments, to the nearest railway station. In doing this

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the horse fell, and the only remaining flask of air, as well as one of the barometers, was broken by the shock.

The interval which elapsed between the moment of their departure from the Observatory and the moment at which they disembarked, was an hour and twenty-seven minutes, in which time they passed over a curve whose base measured on the ground was fortytwo miles, its highest point being twenty-three thousand feet. A programme of the observations and experiments, to

be made at successive elevations, and in certain foreseen contingencies, had been prepared for them by MM. Arago and Regnault, but the accidental rupture of the balloon rendered it impossible to realise this, and the enterprise was, to a certain extent, again abortive; nevertheless, some of the facts and phenomena which were observed, and which we have explained in the present article, will be regarded with profound interest by all physical inquirers.

We have occasionally, in the pages of this magazine, noticed various measures introduced or passed by the legislature, which, in their design or results, were likely to be productive of great political and social changes. Some of these measures have been the great dividing watchwords of the several parties contending for the government of the empire; others, and not the least important, those which silently operate on the improvement of our fellow-man, in his domestic and civic relations. And we have thus endeavoured at once to influence opinion, and to present to our readers "a brief abstract and chronicle of the times." In pursuance of this plan, we shall now proceed to state in detail the establishment, the object, and policy, and working of the Incumbered Estates Court, and the share which it may probably assert in the future progress of Ireland.

In the early periods of our history the mercantile classes exercised very little influence on the spirit of legislation the warlike barons, the large landed proprietors, engrossed all power, and, with a natural and excusable jealousy, endeavoured to perpetuate their power, by perpetuating in their families the property from which their power was almost wholly derived. Hence sprung the law of entail, and that which secured the freehold from being sold for payment of debts; and hence, too, the frequency and complexity of family settlements and intricate wills, giving but a limited dominion over estates to persons, as the

legal phrase termed them, in esse, and clogging those unborn with fetters and charges greatly restricting the utility of their interest in the descended inheritance. In the progress of time it was slowly discerned how unjust was the operation of these jealous precautions of the landed aristocracy. Creditors were frequently defrauded. The death of even an honest debtor allowed an entailed estate to descend to the next proprietor or heir in tail, freed from his ancestors', perhaps his parents' debts, and he again repeated the system of doubly spending his estate, squandering the income of which he could not be deprived, and the sums procured from the trusting confidence of his creditors. It was a very slight step to prevent the recurrence of this injustice, that by legal fictions, and not by the legislature, estates tail were allowed to be barred or defeated by some intricate legal machinery, and that a judgment-creditor was, by the generosity of those early law-makers, permitted to get into possession of the rents and profits of half the debtor's landed property; and that in Ireland, by a stretch of judicial authority, the absolute estates of a deceased debtor were liable to be sold to satisfy the demands of creditors by judgment. The reasonable demands of simple contract-creditors, who were frequently the most numerous and deserving class of creditors, to be paid by sale of their deceased debtors' estates, were long disregarded; and it was not until the year 1833 that fee-simple or freehold estates were made liable, by