scles as have been parand the suspension of the ged by excess of activity. by a series of muscular ch the action of each instudied and brought into ions as well as the forms are as near as possible

key's views, and this his rongly recommend this s or friends of the unof this frequent malady, principles on which it is and practical, and satisfied ate of the author in the s a guarantee of its suthe various systems of pirics who, foreign to ted their success in the 1 curvature of the spine.

an entirely new, practical, troduction to the French I. By GEORGE CRANE ÉGREL.

the authors set out in publishing the present ble nature. The first, adual manner in which f the language is unpossibility of anticipain that its capabilities ully tested, by working machinery with which plish the end proposed, ing over the work, nd there a salient point, g that superficial ace subject, so frequently o fancy "that they can of which, in truth, they o enable them to expose - its principles. The hope, that the nothingmay induce many who a the elegant and now guage of which it treats, portion of the work; an show at a glance both the strictly philosophie system, and thus proof a method of teaching, Is greatly to shorten the of youth, and relieves their tediousness, aug. ratio, both the amount ne knowledge obtained." nary lessons which are

us likely to be more useful than the theoretical introductions to each section, which are too abstract and technical to have much beneficial effect on the mind of a child. This objection, at the same time, will not detract from the merit or utility of the work to the practical teacher, who, while he is engaged in teaching the young idea how to shoot, or, at least, to shoot at, the difficult idioms and niceties of the French tongue, will find that he is unconsciously indoctrinating himself in the philosophy of French grammar.

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Steill's Pictorial Geography.

Mr. Steill, in this elementary work, is as explicit and as effective as he is in his noted "Pictorial Spelling Book," and Reading Assistant." Besides the advantage of wood-cuts illustrative of important features, there is another of equally great importance-a clear and unaffected style, suited to the capacities of those whom he addresses-the young. The illustrations are fair, and the subjects illustrated bespeak Mr. Steill's tact in leaving impressions on the mind of the scholar. The historical remarks interspersed throughout this little volume are valuable to the tyro, and will tend to lead his mind to works in which each respective subject is more elaborately treated.

As a specimen both of the style of composition, and of the character of the engravings, we extract

"LUDLOW, -on the Teme, 142 miles N W., is the great thoroughfare into Wales. It is

an ancient town, which has occasionally been the residence of royalty; it has the remains of a castle, where all business relating to the principality of Wales was usually transacted. This castle was evidently one of great strength and grandeur; it stands on a wooded rock, overlooking the river, which defends it on that side, while on the other it is partly surrounded by a moat cut out of the rocks: it was also

defended by towers at proper distances. Though now in a ruined condition, it adorns the town, and around it there are a number of favourite public walks. Population 5,064. It returns two members of Parliament."

"BARNES,-a village W. S. W. on the banks of the Thames. St. Mary's Church is a very ancient structure; and as its demolition is likely to take place, a representation of it is here given. On the south wall is a stone tablet, dedicated to the me She mory of Edward Rose, a New retired citizen of London, who left £20 to the poor of Barnes, for the purchase of an acre of land, on condition e that this tablet should be kept up, with rose trees planted round it.-Population, 1461."

Adults may peruse this interesting little work as well as the young, and be greatly benefited by the perusal.

Miscellaneous.

The Model of Venice.-A few months ago we called the attention of our readers to this beautiful and interestiug specimen of artistic excellence. It is now with regret that we record the fate of that lovely model, and the harassing condition in which the enterprising proprietor has been plunged. It is about nine months since Mr. Illius first exhibited his model to the London public, which unfortunately is the close of the sight-going season, and, therefore, involved him in serious difficulties. An appeal appeared in the Times, and one in the Herald, soliciting the public to support Mr. Illius; that the model was starving for want of means to make it known; and that it was well entitled to a visit from all. This appeal would have had its desired effect, but the executors of the late proprietor of the hall distrained the model, have placed it in a damp cellar, and thus deprived Mr. Illius of the only means he had of paying them; and thereby likely to tend to the utter ruin of two respectable foreign families. Mr. Illius is still at the Egyptian Hall. It has been hinted to us that a subscription is about to be set on foot for the benefit of these unfortunate families.

"Revolt of the Harem."-The Nazarene and the Moorish ladies." Gentlemen of England, who live at home at ease," little dream of the overhauling and pulling about to which the traveller may be sub

jected by the fair sex-the black as well as white beauties of Africa. Mr. Hay gives an odd account of his treatment. He had found his way into a Moorish palace, and was prying about to see what he could pick up for his meditated book, unobserved, as he thought, when in a moment he found himself in a very extraordinary situationGulliver was not more closely examined in Lilliput or Brobdignag. We give his own words:-"I turned to rejoin the master of the house, when a door, through the chinks of which all my movements must have been watched, was thrown open, and out rushed the Houris, black, white, halfcaste, fat, thin, old, and young! It was impossible for me to escape, and had I made a precipitate movement, I should have become liable to the worst of imputations; so I stood stock still, and was quickly arrested by the powerful paws of a jetblack dame dame, and then commenced a general scrutiny of my person. 'Look,' said one, I told you the Nazarenes had a mouth, and a nose, and ears, just like Mohamedans!' 'See,' said another, taking up my hand; one, two, three, four, five;exactly the same number!' But what are these? screamed a third, who had laid hold of the skirts of my coat; "does he hide his tails here?' And he laughs, too!' they exclaimed. From this, indeed, I could no longer refrain, although I was becoming seriously uneasy, lest my absence should be discovered by the great man; for I was now in the midst of the most forbidden

6

fruit, although it proved far inferior to what my fertile fancy had previously imagined. Indeed a less attractive posse of womankind I never beheld; for almost all these ladies were at a time of life when the fineness of the Moorish features had disappeared; and the only redeeming grace that remained to them, which is common, indeed, to all the white women of West Barbary, was the large gazelle eye. As to the admired en bon point of youth, it had been replaced by a gross fatness, which covered forms that were once perhaps of perfect symmetry. According to the taste of the Moor, a lady is in perfection when her charms are a load for a camel. One, however, of this motley circle deserved all my admiration as a Mauritanian Venus. This was a delicate-looking girl; her age, I thought, was sweet fifteen-the prime of womanhood in this precocious country; for their beauty seems to fade with their teens. Her complexion was very fair, her eyes dark hazel, to which the black border of 'Kohol' gave a languid expression. She had a coral-lipped mouth, round as a ring, as the Moorish ode describes the feature. Her black hair, braided with silver cords, waived in profusion over her shoulders. Her sylph-like figure was clothed in a pale green caftan, embroidered on the bosom and skirt in silver thread. This garment reached a little below her knees, and over it she wore an outer robe of light gauze, confined around the waist by a red zone of Fez silk. The sleeves of her caftan were wide and open near the wrist: showing at every turn an arm like alabaster, which was encircled by a plain but massive bracelet of Soodan gold; and her uncovered legs were seen from below the caftan clasped with chased silver; her feet were also bare, for in her sally with the rest she had for gotten her slippers; her feet, as well as her hands, were dyed with henna of a bright orange colour. Over her head she had thrown a light muslin kerchief-but in this sudden tumult her curiosity got the better of her national caution, and she stood before me quite unveiled. During the uproar occasioned by my intrusion, the youthful damsel was the only one silent; but now taking alarm from the noise of the rest, she half hid her pretty features, and cried in an anxious whisper, Hush! hush! hush! My father will hear; and then, oh! what will become of this young christian?' 'What do we care?' said a barrel of a woman, with eyes that rolled like gooseberries in a saucer, and whom I took to be the most favoured dame of this party-coloured assemblage, for her dress far surpassed that of all the rest in costliness. It was

the Christian's fault for daring toShe could not finish her speech, for the gruff voice of their lord was heard, 'What

is that noise? Where's the other Nazarene?' And then his heavy step came tramping nearer and nearer. Off scampered all the surrounding spirits, black, white, and grey, The little damsel was the last to move, and euidently with less apprehension than the rest. Veiling closely all her features except one dear eye, she said to me, in a quick whisper, Don,t be afraid, Nazarene. Tell my father it was all our fault; he is very good-natured, and you are so young.' I had by luck a rosebud at my breast. I answered by giving it to her with a thanking smile."

The Gatherer.

Tea and Coffee.Our favourite beverages, tea and coffee, had great opposition to encounter in their progress to greatness-of consumption. Tea was long denounced as "slow poison," and coffee was accused of producing dreadful diseases, Elizabeth Charlotte, duchess of Orleans, a hundred and twenty years ago, writes to one of her royal_correspondents, "I am very sorry, dear Louisa, to hear that you have begun to take coffee, for nothing in the world can be more prejudicial to health. Every day I see people who have been compelled to discontinue its use by the serious complaints which it has brought on. The princess of Hainault has died of it, and, after her death, they found the coffee collected in her stomach, where it had produced a hundred little ulcers.

Rabbit Catching.-Rabbits may easily be taken alive, by soaking their favourite food, parsley, in strong rum or brandy. A similar method is employed in catching small birds with steeped seed. They, like the rabbits, are so intoxicated by the spirit, that there is no difficulty in obtaining as many as you wish.

Return of Shipwrecks.-By Lloyd's returns, it appears that the annual loss to this country by shipwreck is 610 ships, £2,500,000 of property, and 1,500 lives.

Choice of an Executioner.-M. D'Arnhenbohr mentions a custom to have formerly existed in England which we have not read of elsewhere. In cases of high treason he states the executioner to have been commonly chosen by the family of the culprit who usually made him a present of an axe with a silver handle.

Patriotic Impudence.-Jack Wilkes, to insult Lord Bute, wrote and published a new dedication, which he wrote and published to an old play, "The Fall of Mortimer," in which Lord Bute was compared to that minion, and the Princess Dowager to the mother of Edward the Third. With characteristic effrontery, Wilkes one day accosted Mr. Jeremiah Dyson, the secre

tary to the Treasury, and asked him if he was going towards Downing Street; "because," added he, "a friend of mine has dedicated a play to Lord Bute, and it is usual to give dedicators something; I wish you would put his Lordship in mind of it." Severity of the Season.-Every year we hear that the climate of England is very different from what it was in former days. It may, however, be more than suspected that it was always variable, capricious, and uncertain. Horace Walpole, writing on this subject a century ago, reported on the current year what might do for 1844: "The spring has gone out of town for the season, and the summer has set in with its usual severity."

Shakespeare's Julius Cæsar.-That fine play in which Kemble used to be so inimitably great, and which has long been regarded as one of the noblest efforts of our great poet, was not always appreciated. Lee says, in the dedication of his "Lucius Junius Brutus," what seems to assert that it was ill-received, when first performed. Shakespeare's 'Brutus," he says, "with much adoe beat himself into the heads of a blockish age, so knotty were the oaks he had to deal with."

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Last notices of the dramatist Wycherley.A publication called "Weekly remarks on the most Material News, Foreign and Domestic," 1716, contained the following intelligence:-"December 31, 1714.-Mr. Wycherly, who has wrote several plays and poems, and, among others, the comedy called The Country Wife,' has lately taken one of twenty-four to himself, thinking it time to look toward heaven. January 7, 1715.-On Sunday morning, the first instant, about three of the clock, died Mr. Wycherley (whom we lately mentioned to be married), aged 75."

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England and France.-The Prince de Joinville's ridiculous brochure seems founded on the old notion that England and France can never be real friends. Strange as this may sound, Mr. Fox speaking of the commercial treaty concluded with France in 1787, went so far as to declare "that France and England were natural and unalterable enemies; that it was essential to the safety and independence of England to regard France with jealousy and distrust; and that to endeavour to maintain friendly intercourse with that kingdom, was equally vain and contrary to sound policy." (Tomline. vol. ii. p. 5.)

An Editor's Heroics.-Amaury Duval, in editing a history of the monuments of art collected by Denon, indulges in the following rapturous strain describing a morsel of papyrus: "We do not pretend to put this MS., however curious, in comparison with the never-dying glories of the youngest of the marshals of France, but we may safely

affirm, that it is very valuable; it was found in Egypt, in the hand of a mummy, whilst the French valour was spreading its renown quite round the globe, or rather was making fast, after having taken two whole turns round our planet; it was brought to France in the same vessel that had the honour to convey home the invincible 38th Regiment of Infantry, a band of heroes of whom the smallest fifer, perhaps even the doctor of the regiment, by a single frown, could have routed Cæsar and all his legions; and it was finally framed and glazed, and safely hung on the wall in M. Denon's study in Paris, the unconquered and unconquerable, the city of glory and of triumph." The city, it may be necessary to remark, thus spoken of was Paris; and this sublime tribute to its unconquerable fame was rendered in 1829, the preceding fifteen years having been twice occupied by victorious foreign armies!

On a piece of plate, got up by Messrs. Catchpole and Co., being presented to Mr. Bunn.

A piece of plate the lessee cheers,
Who well may of success be vain,
Rut still a Catchpole, it appears,

Must be employed for Drury Lane. Penny-wise and Pound-foolish.-Frederick ef Prussia, according to Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, expended £40,000 on the Opera House and its engagements, yet, says he, the same king when an opera is to be performed, will not allow £10 a night for wax candles, and the smoke that rises from the bad oil, and the horrid stench from the tallow make many of the audience sick.

A little Mother and a full grown Daughter. -The New Zealand Company's Report consists of 38 pages-the appendix to it

of 1140!

TRAFALGAR SQUARE.

It does not often happen that promise exceeds performance. Those however who look at the representations made when the plan of Trafalgar Square was first announced, will see that much more has been done than the public had any reason to expect.

Every one,however, regrets that exultation must stop short of the principal object in this noble area. The Nelson Pillar, of which we give a new view,is curtailed of its fair propor tions, and like Richard, "deformed, unfinished," stands a melancholy picture in the midst of a scene of extraordinary magnificence. Everything connected with its completion has gone wrong. The statue is a mean, unsightly object; the poor old pensioners, who No. 1219.]

fought with our great naval hero, after being tantalized with the promise of a feast, seem to have little chance of getting it, the lions which were to ornament the base are wanting, and the column seems altogether but to tell of "poorness of spirit, and poorness of purse.'

In this distressing situation of things, as we assisted one Russian autocrat to rebuild his ancient capital, another comes to help us to ornament London. We read in a contemporary print

"The emperor Nicholas, while driving by, saw the boarding, and asked the cause, one of his suite explained how it was, and the emperor at once put down his name for the amount requisite. Individual amiability goes far to make one forget the arbitrary acts of a sovereign; and the emperor, by this act, went further to gain popular opinion to his side in this country than if he had