may rely, states also, that the same fate constantly befals numberless bees, flies, and other insects.Fossil Shells. In Denmark, Sleswig, and Holstein, Dr. Forchammer has found at considerable elevations fossil shells of precisely the same species with those now existing in the German Ocean. A submarine forest (said to be of fir) has also been found nine feet below high-water mark between the island of Romoe and the shores of Sleswig. Temperature of the Globe. Humboldt's observations as to the increased temperature of the earth at great depths have lately been confirmed by M. Arago, who has measured the temperature of an Artesian well bored at Grenelle. He found the rate of increase to be, one degree of the centigrade thermometer for every thirty-one metres.Hyheosaurus. A considerable portion of the vertebral column of this newly discovered fossil reptile has recently been obtained by Dr. G. Mantell from a quarry in Tilgate forest. The specimen consists of upwards of twenty vertebrææ, principally lumbar and caudal. The first caudal vertebræ has chevron bones, resembling those of the crocodile, but from the general character of the bones, the tail must have been wide transversely, and not in a vertical direction as in the crocodile.

ASTRONOMY.-The Astronomical Society has closed its session, the last paper read being one on the non-existence of the star called 24 Virginis. Although not of general interest, the papers of this society have been considered of sufficient importance to warrant the government in incurring the expense of publishing them, which is about to be done.

ZOOLOGY.-Premiums. The Zoological Society have offered premiums, to be continued annually, of gold medals, or an equivalent in money, I. For the importation of a pair of musk oxen; or a specimen of the hippopotamus; or a pair of the ornythorynchus paradoxus. II. For the importation of a pair of Indian pheasants of a species not already alive in this country. III. For breeding the greatest number of curassows in the year 1837. IV. For breeding the best specimens of Indian fowls in the year 1837. V. For breeding the most rare and interesting quadruped in 1837. VI. For the best essay on the care and treatment of the genus Felis in confinement.- -The Gardens of the Society would seem to be more attractive than ever. The number of visitors during one month was 24,000. The live animals possessed by the society are, of mammalia 306 specimens; of birds, 702; of reptiles, 17.Luminosity of the Sea. The number of facts collected upon this subject renders it desirable that a revision of them should be made. The luminous appearance is produced by many species of medusæ, and in some instances by testaceous molluscæ, although it is very rare in the latter. The immediate organ for the production of the light in the cleodora, is a small glandular sac, perhaps analogous to the kidney in higher animals, and this secretion is probably a compensation for that of the renal glands.Singular Serpent. The Calcutta Medical Society has recently had submitted to it, drawings and descriptions of a new species of venomous serpent found in the Sunderbunds, and in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. It is twelve feet long, and belongs to the genus Naja. Dr. Cautur has some specimens in his possession, which are regularly fed with other snakes, and drink water; proving the error committed by naturalists, who state that serpents do not imbibe fluids. The poison is of the consistence of milk, and is pellucid.—Caterpillars. Dr. Richardson read at the Entomological Society a paper on the caterpillar, which proves so destructive to the orchards of Kent; illustrating his statements by specimens and drawings. This paper should be printed in the Kentish papers, that those who are most affected by these insects might profit by Dr. R.'s observations.

STATISTICS.-Miners. The most valuable paper produced at the Statistical Society, during the month, was one on the diseases and ages of the miners and labourers in the mines of Cornwall. The older labourers are much more healthy than the miners, although their ages average nearly ten years more.

The miners, from the labour of ascending the numberless ladders used in the mines, are subjected to attacks of bronchitis and other diseases--an evil which calls loudly for remedy by the adoption of some mechanical contrivance to obviate the necessity for such violent and injurious muscular exertion. The Transactions of this society promise to be of a more valuable nature than those of societies in general, from the great number of useful details which they must present.

LITERATURE.-The Royal Society of Literature at its last meeting was occupied by a paper on the discoveries of Mr. G. Finlay, in Attica, with a view to the further elucidation of the topography of the Denii and twelve Cecropian cities.The pension of Mrs. Somerville has been augmented by £100 a-year; and Lady Morgan and Miss Mitford have had pensions given to them. Not the strongest advocate for the abolition of the pension list can object to such rewards being conferred upon these writers.Welsh Literature is likely to receive important iilustrations from the efforts of a society for the publication of ancient Welsh MSS. about to be formed. Many curious bardic and historical remains, now in a state of obscurity, are proposed to be published, the first to be the Mabinogian, or ancient legendary tales of the Welsh, which is to be accompanied by an English translation.Foreign literature is becoming rapidly popular among the middle classes; N. F. Zaba, a Pole, has been delivering lectures on his native literature, to crowded audiences, at two of the largest literary institutions of the metropolis.

GEOGRAPHY.-Bruce. Major Bruce, at the late meetings of the Institute of British Architects, has exhibited a number of drawings by his celebrated relative, of various buildings in the neighbourhood of Algiers and the surrounding country, together with some unpublished letters and papers of that enterprising traveller.-Australia. Two young lieutenants, by name Grey and Lushington, have volunteered to explore a portion of the coast and interior of Australia, at present little known; they have set sail and are expected to be engaged two years. Africa. A Monsieur Bertrand Boccandé is about to start for Senegambia, Guinea, and Congo, for the collection of objects of natural history. Dr. Smith has just completed a journey having the same object in view, and the collection he has made comprises nearly 180 skins of new or rare quadrupeds; 3379 skins of birds; 23 tortoises, mostly new species; several boxes of insects, and 799 geological specimens.

OBITUARY.

WILLIAM IV.

WILLIAM HENRY, the third son of George the Third, was born on the 21st of August, 1765. He is described as having been small in his childhood, but intelligent and engaging in his manners, with a manliness of temper which probably influenced his father in placing him in the naval service. At the age of thirteen the prince was entered as a midshipman on board the Prince George, a ninety-eight gun-ship, commanded by Admiral Digby. The king declared that his son should win his promotion in the same way as the most friendless in the fleet; and the prince was accordingly placed on the same footing with all his fellow reefers. He had soon an opportunity of seeing service. An armament under Rodney, of which the Prince George formed a part, sailed from Spithead in December 1779; and, on the 8th of the following month, captured the whole of a Spanish convoy, consisting of a sixty-four gun ship (afterwards named the Prince William), and a great number of armed vessels and transports. Eight days afterwards the memorable engagement

took place with the Spanish fleet, commanded by Don Juan de Langara; a conflict which ended in the capture or destruction of the whole of the enemy's ships, and rendered abortive the expedition which the French and Spaniards had jointly projected against our West India settlements.

Prince William, during the remainder of his time as a midshipman, was chiefly in the West Indies and on the North American station; and while on the latter he succeeded in gratifying his desire for active service by removing into the Warwick, commanded by Lord Keith; and he was on board this frigate, when its commander (Sept. 11, 1782) captured L'Aigle a large French frigate, La Sophie of twenty-two guns, and the Terrier sloop of war at the mouth of the Delaware river. It was on this station and about the date lastmentioned that he first became acquainted with Lord Hood, and through him with Nelson, to whom he was introduced on board the Barfleur.

In June, 1783, Lord Hood's squadron returned to England, and in the summer of 1785, the prince, having served the regular time as a midshipman, and having undergone the usual examination, was appointed third lieutenant of the Hebe frigate. In February, 1786, he was appointed first lieutenant of the Pegasus of twenty-eight guns; and on the 10th of April in the same year (passing over the intermediate step of commander), he received his commission as captain of that frigate, in which he immediately afterwards sailed for Nova Scotia. He soon afterwards proceeded to the Leeward Island station, where he remained for some months under the orders of Nelson, then captain of the Boreas frigate. While in this situation his royal highness supported Nelson in his measures for correcting the abuses which existed in the dockyard at Antigua, and also in the transactions of contractors, prize-agents, &c. A strong and lasting friendship sprang up between them. Of Prince William's talents as a sea-captain, we have the honourable testimony of Nelson himself, who says, "His royal highness keeps up the strictest discipline in his ship, and, without paying him any compliment, she is one of the finest ordered frigates I have seen."

In December, 1787, the prince returned to England, after an absence of a year and a half, and was appointed to command the Andromeda frigate, in which he again sailed for the West Indies. On his arrival at Port Royal he received the congratulations of the House of Assembly, who presented to him an elegant star, ornamented with diamonds, as a testimony of their sense of his naval talents and of the particular attention that he had paid to the duties of a profession which was the support and defence of every part of the British empire.

On the 19th of May, 1789, his royal highness was created duke of Clarence and St. Andrew's, in the kingdom of Great Britain, and earl of Munster, in Ireland. In 1790 he was nominated to the command of the Valiant, of seventy-four guns; and on the 3rd December, the same year, advanced to the rank of rear-admiral of the Red, and at length, on the death of Sir Peter Parker, in December 1811, he succeeded that veteran officer as admiral of the fleet.

His duties in active service were now ended; and from the period of his appointment in 1811, he was only once more in actual command at sea; and that was on the occasion of Louis the Eighteenth's return to France in the April of 1814, when he was chosen to escort him across the channel. He had frequently solicited active employment in his profession; but he met with no success in his endeavours to resume his profession.

We now advert in the due course of our brief narrative to a chapter in the late king's history which will throw a shadow over his memory as a private man, which cannot fail to dim the otherwise brilliant glory of his name. We allude to his liaison with the fascinating Mrs. Jordan. Excuses may be made by some of his late majesty's apologists for the moral failures of a person moving in a rank subjected by law to painful restrictions on his marriage, and if we had merely to record the fact of a long connexion with a talented and

accomplished lady like Mrs. Jordan, all would be well; but the close of that unfortunate actress's life was too sad and tragical to allow of our omitting the recital, however discreditable it may be to the character of him, who has since so well earned the love and esteem of the English nation. In the year 1790 the duke of Clarence first saw that lady "whom to see was to admire;" and he was at once smitten and captivated by her charms. She was at that time supposed to be the wife of a Mr. Ford; but the notion was incorrect, for on the duke's offer of protection, she made the offer of her hand in marriage to her more humble suitor; but it was coolly declined. She embraced the alternative offered by the royal sailor, and during twenty years devoted herself to his interests and domestic pleasures, and became the mother of a numerous and fine family.

The conduct of the duke and Mrs. Jordan, in what may with little impropriety be called their conjugal state, was worthy of the highest praise. She, by constant exertion in their profession, materially increased an income which was by no means ample; and their habits and course of life were exceedingly retired and domestic. Their parental duties were performed with exemplary assiduity and prudence; and although none of the Fitzclarences have distinguished themselves either as public characters or men of letters, their mental endowments and amiable dispositions are a sufficient proof of the care bestowed on their education. The year 1810 is the date of the separation of the duke of Clarence and Mrs. Jordan,-an event totally unexpected on the part of the latter. What may have been the motives that induced her royal protector to take this step we know not; and we feel little disposed to embrace the opinion that he was led to it by the hope of relieving his pecuniary embarrassments by marriage, for he was not married till nearly ten years after the dissolution of his connexion with Mrs. Jordan. The duke conveyed his intentions to her while at Cheltenham by letter, and desired a farewell meeting with her at Maidenhead. After struggling with heart-broken anguish through the character of Nell in the Mayor of Garrett, she was put into her travelling carriage to keep her appointment with the royal duke. The following extracts from her correspondence will, perhaps, throw some little light on a subject, which has not yet been sufficiently explained. We take them from Mr. Boaden's life of the admirable actress, who was the victim of an act grounded on expediency but quite opposed to principle. In a letter written by Mrs. Jordan to a friend, a few days afterwards, she says, "My mind is beginning to feel somewhat reconciled to the shock and surprise it has lately received; for could you or the world believe that we never had, for twenty years, the semblance of a quarrel? But this is so well known in our domestic circle that the astonishment is the greater! MONEY, money, my good friend, or the want of it, has, I am convinced, made HIM at this moment the most wretched of men; but, having done wrong, he does not like to retract. But with all his excellent qualities, his domestic virtues, his love for his lovely children, what must he not at this moment suffer! His distresses should have been relieved before, but this entre nous. And now, my

dear friend, do not hear the duke of Clarence unfairly abused. He has done wrong, and he is suffering from it. But as far as he has it left in his own power, he is doing every thing kind and noble, even to distressing himself." In another letter she says: "The constant kindness and attention I meet with from the duke, in every respect but personal interviews (and which depends as much on my feelings as his), has in a great measure restored me to my former health and spirits. Among many noble traits of goodness he has lately added one more, that of exonerating me from my promise of not returning to my profession. This he has done under the idea of its benefitting my health and adding to my pleasures and comforts; and though it is very uncertain whether I shall ever avail myself of this kindness, yet you, if you choose, are at liberty to make it known, whether publicly or privately." In a third letter, dated 7th December, she says: "I lose not a moment in letting

you know that the duke of Clarence has concluded and settled on me and his children the most liberal and generous provision; and I trust every thing will sink into oblivion."

Mrs. Jordan for some short time resumed her histrionic labours in London; but her gradually increasing embarrassments, owing, in great part, to the misfortunes or extravagance of some members of her own family, obliged her to retire to the continent. She lived a short time at Boulogne, and visited Brussels, where she played during the time when so many English were resident there:-she finally settled at St. Cloud, where she died (aged fifty-six) neglected and in poverty, in July 1816. Mr. Boaden has attempted to prove that this unfortunate woman did not die in want and was not neglected either by her children or by their royal father. The biographer makes out a very weak case at best; and besides, we have had access to information from her own family, which in our opinion quite sets at rest any question respecting the propriety of the duke's conduct. But the subject is too painful to pursue; and we proceed with our narrative.

On the 11th of July, 1818, the duke of Clarence married Adelaide Louisa Theresa Caroline Amelia, daughter of the duke of Saxe Meinengen, who had been strongly recommended to him by his mother, Queen Charlotte, on account of her amiable qualities and domestic virtues. Parliament having on this occasion granted an addition of only 6,000l. to the duke's income, the royal pair, thinking their allowance was too limited to enable them to support their dignity in this country, went to reside at Hanover. They returned to England in the end of the year 1819. In the end of the following year the duchess became the mother of a seven months' child, the Princess Elizabeth, who died in her infancy. On three other occasions-twice in 1819 and again in 1821-the duchess had the misfortune to be prematurely confined.

On the death of his brother, the duke of York, in 1827, the duke of Clarence, having become heir presumptive to the crown, obtained an additional parliamentary grant, which raised his income to nearly 40,000l. per annum. In the course of the same year, during Mr. Canning's administration, he was appointed Lord High Admiral. He performed the duties of his office with great zeal and activity; but, when the duke of Wellington became prime minister, objections were made to the expense of his official visits to the different naval establishments of the kingdom, and he consequently thought fit to resign his post.

In 1829, when the Wellington administration saw the folly of resisting public opinion and brought in measures for the relief of the Catholics, the duke of Clarence took a decided part and stood forward in its defence with a zeal and impressive eloquence which struck all persons with surprise and admiration. The following extract from his speech on the Associations-Suppression bill will show that we have not spoken too highly of his powers of advocacy :-it produced a great impression and much facilitated the passing of the measure into a law. The royal duke thus addressed the bench of bishops :

"I trust that in the interval between the passing of the bill which we are to consider to-night and the announcement of those measures by which the noble duke purposes to effect this most desirable object, the right reverend prelates will apply themselves seriously, deliberately, and without the admixture of any unseemly passion or prejudice, to the consideration of the condition in which we are now placed, and what would be the result of its continuance. I trust that in this deliberation they will call to mind that they are the appointed ministers of peace. I trust they will also call to their recollection what might be the situation of Great Britain if those events which are every day taking place upon the continent of Europe should by any possibility give rise to such difficulties as would involve us in another war. I would ask the right reverend prelates whether they can conscientiously bring themselves to oppose a measure which may place us in a situation to avoid all hostility in