long white beard, which he cherished as a mark of mourning for his decapitated master, Charles the First, adds a wild and singular character to his strongly-marked features. This semibarbarian, as much a stranger to mercy as to fear, was a fit instrument for a despotic court, and stood high in the good graces of that polite and merry monarch, Charles the Second. The Young Pretender, from a picture in the collection of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, is by far the most pleasing and spirited likeness we ever saw of that unfortunate prince. He is drawn in the Highland costume; and there is something extremely graceful and gentlemanly in his free and degagé air. The physiognomist, however, will easily discern traces of that hereditary imbecility which characterised the unhappy family of the Stuarts, and was lamentably conspicuous in its last representative, whom Sir Walter Scott and Mr Hogg have chosen to exalt into a hero. We have left ourselves little room to notice particularly the chivalrous Montrose, the great and good Duke of Argyle, and Caroline, the benevolent queen of George II., which are all interesting and characteristic portraits. The engraving of the heads is not open to much observation, as they are all by the same hand, and display an uniformity of excellence seldom to be met with in a work of this description. They are executed by that eminent chalk engraver, Mr Robert Cooper, who by a judicious mixture of dot and line has produced, in the specimens before us, an extraordinary union of free dom and delicacy. The biographical notices which accompany the portraits are written with great neatness and impartiality; and the work may rank altogether among the most use ful and elegant publications of the present day.

The Wellington Statue.-As, for want of a better subject, the above has

VOL. XIV. PART II.

occupied no small share of the public attention, it will perhaps be expected that we should express some opinion as to its merits and defects; both of which indispensable claims to general regard, it seems to be gifted with, in a most extraordinary degree. There is not a part about it that has not been demonstrated to be every thing that it ought and that it ought not to be. If we are to believe all that we are told about it, this egregious statue is at once the finest and the most foolish thing that ever was erected; the most distinguished ornament and the most striking disgrace belonging to the metropolis. Until lately the sublime and the ridiculous were considered to be at least a step apart; but now it is discovered. that they have consented to meet and shake hands in the person of this statue, which is, in fact, neither more nor less than

"The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.".

We would willingly have left it in this condition, letting " time and the hour" do their appropriate work upon it, and award to the artist and the work their respective deserts. But if we do So, it may seem that we are disposed to blink the question, leaving both parties in the dark as to our opinion on this (as it seems to us) not very important affair. We shall therefore briefly state our views, at the imminent risk of scandalizing both parties, and making "Tories think us a Whig, and Whigs a Tory." In the first place, then, we do, in fact, see as many beauties as defects in this work; but we do not see beauties and defects in it that are necessarily incompatible with each other. That the original of this statue is one of the noblest works of art that have descended to us from antiquity, and that the present copy of it is most admirably executed, there can be no doubt whatever, in the minds of impartial judges; and, as it seems to us, there

can be as little doubt that the work is most inappropriately placed in its present situation, as it regards the purposes for which it is placed there. We shall not stay to inquire whether this statue represents Ajax, Achilles, or Alexander; partly because it is not important to know, but chiefly because it is impossible now to discover. It is sufficient for us that it is not the Duke of Wellington, who, if any one, it ought to have been. If it was not to be the Duke, it might just as well, if not better, have been Napoleon himself. But positively to call this statue Achilles, simply because the parties so calling it think it suits them that it should be so called, is a piece of unjustifiable, not to say impudent dogmatism; and argues that the same persons would, under different circumstances, have been just as likely to call it Apollo, Apollyon, or Adam, according as it might have uited their purpose.

The cant that has been canted rela

tive to the indecorum of placing a naked figure in a public way, is among the vilest cants by which we have been visited for some time past, and need be noticed only to be laughed at. To object to the nakedness of the figure in question, on the score of its not being appropriate to the subject or the times sought to be commemorated by it, would have shewn only ignorance and bad taste; but to object to it on the score of indecency, betrays no little share of impudent hypocrisy. But it is quite consistent where it is found, viz. in the very Journals that printed the whole of the evidence on the Queen's trial! Finally, we would advise the public to look at this statue with as little reference as possible to the purposes and views with which it has been erected; and to regard it simply as a noble work of art, (which it unquestionably is,) and a splendid ornament to the finest part of the British metropolis.

Improvement in Steam-Boats.We have been favoured by a correspondent, says the Scotsman, with an account of an improvement in the mode of constructing the paddles of steamboats, for which the inventor, Mr John Gladstone, millwright and civil engineer, Castle Douglas, has taken out a patent. In steam-boats, at present, the paddles, which are placed on the circumference of a wheel, have two

disadvantages; 1. They strike the water obliquely in descending and ascending, and hence a part of the force is last; 2. As only two or three floatboards are immersed at once, the pressure is applied only to a small portion of water, which is forced out of its place, and a part of the power is dissipated in removing it. On this account the paddle-wheels require to be very broad. In Mr Gladstone's plan, these defects

are obviated as follows: Instead of the usual paddle-wheel at each side of the ship, there is a cast-metal wheel, made of frame work, of considerable breadth, and having iron studs or knobs distriThis is near the head of the vessel; another castiron wheel of the same breadth and diameter, but without studs, is placed near the stern. Two endless chains, kept parallel to one another by ironrods, pass over these two wheels, and to these chains the floatboards or paddles are fastened, so as to stand out perpendicularly from the line formed by the extended chains. Thus, instead of the paddles being in a circular line round a wheel, they are in two horizontal lines passing along the side of the ship, but turning round a wheel at each end. The rods, and edges of the floatboards which connect the chains, catch upon the studs placed over the surface of the fore wheel, and prevent the chains from slipping. The lower line of floatboards which passes backwards, is under the water, and propels the vessel; the upper line is above it. The author proposes, however, to have the chains not stretched between the wheels, but slack, so that the under part bending down a foot or two by its weight will take hold of the water, though the wheels are entirely above the surface. By this means the floatboards do not strike the water till they are almost exactly perpendicular to its surface, and the loss of power from the oblique action of those boards is obviated. Again, instead of two or three floats acting upon a small portion of water, and throwing it off in spray and foam, there is a line of fifteen or twenty floats passing along the side of the ship, all immersed in the water at once, and acting upon a body of the fluid, too large to be displaced. To this it may be added, that when a wave passes along a steam-boat's side at present, the

buted over its surface.

paddle-wheel is for some seconds totally immersed in the water, and for some seconds raised totally above it; but in this plan a certain number of the paddles will always be immersed in the water, and the propelling power will never be for a moment withdrawn. The paddle-wheels, according to Mr Gladstone's method, will obviously admit of being narrower than those now in use.

Such are the advantages which this improvement seems to promise on a first view, from which, however, a small deduction must be made for the following circumstances: First, the machinery is rendered more cumbrous and complex, and of course more liable to derangement: Secondly, there will be some loss of power from the great friction in the working of the chain upon the wheels: And thirdly, if the chain is kept slack, as proposed, it will be exposed to sudden jerks, which may often snap it in two, unless very heavy. We make these remarks in a friendly feeling to the artist, whose plan is very ingenious, and holds out advantages, which certainly entitle it to a fair trial. The trial can easily be made, as the additional apparatus may be readily adapted to any steam-boat now in use; and by running her to a certain distance in the two modes, the value of the improvement can be accurately ascertained.

Improvement in the Road from Edinburgh to London.-A Parliamentary Committee has published a report on a proposed new line of communication for the mails between Edinburgh and the north of England. The line was surveyed by Mr Telford, upon whose report, accompanied by a plan and sections, the Committee proceeded. In this plan it is proposed, that the London mail, instead of passing along the coast by Berwick and Dunbar, as at present, should come by Wooler, Coldstream, and Lauder, quitting the east

road at Morpeth. But as this interior line of road is at present very imperfect, it has been surveyed anew. By avoiding hills in some cases, following more gentle declivities in others, and by alterations and improvements of various kinds, the distance between Morpeth and Edinburgh will be shortened four miles and a half; and the ascent, which is often so great as one in eight or ten at present, will be made no where to exceed one in twenty-one or twentytwo. These improvements are of such extent that more than one-half of the road will be new, but the new line rarely deviates more than a mile from the old. The expense is estimated at L.65,800, or, with the addition of ten per cent. for unforeseen contingencies, L. 72,400. We have already stated, that by these changes the new road will be four miles and a half shorter than the Coldstream road; but it will be nineteen miles shorter than the Berwick road, by which the London mail is at present conveyed to Edinburgh. In consequence of this shortening of the distance and improvement in the level, the Committee think the London mail might reach Edinburgh three hours sooner than at present, or at a quarter past six." The letters might be sorted, and in a course of delivery at the post-office and to the letter-carriers in the course of an hour, that is, at a quarter past seven. The same time might be saved in returning to Newcastle, so that letters for the London post would, without inconvenience, be received till eleven o'clock," thus allowing four hours of interval between the delivery of the letters, and the closing of the London mail, and enabling the answer to a letter to reach London twenty-four hours sooner than at present.

To provide funds for this undertaking, the Committee recommend an increase in the amount of the present tolls, arrangements for accumulating the present surplus revenue of Cold

stream Bridge, levying a moderate pontage on the new bridge to be erected at Morpeth, and the imposition of an additional penny of postage on each letter carried by the new mail to Edinburgh, and to all places between Edinburgh and Morpeth.

The Committee think that this change would not materially affect the income of the various trusts upon the Berwick road; and from the evidence of the Surveyor of the Post Office, they conclude that the separate mail upon that line of road would still maintain itself.

The following are extracts from the Report of a Committee appointed by the Town-Council of Edinburgh, to inquire into the nature of the proposed arrangement, and which has been approved by that body:

"Your Committee find, that the arrival of the mail from London by this road is proposed to be at a quarter past six P. M.; and that the letters then received would, it is said, be ready for delivery at the Post-Office at a quarter past seven; and that the mail would start again for London at midnight, and that letters would be received at the office until eleven P. M. There would thus be 34 hours between the delivery of the first and the receipt of the last letter at the Post-Office; and the time so afforded for a reply would form the whole of the exclusive advantage to the city of Edinburgh.

"Your Committee, first taking into consideration the ordinary business of this city, beg to observe, that none of much importance is transacted after three o'clock, and none whatever after half past seven or eight. P. M. Should the delivery of the London letters take place about the hour last mentioned, either the transactions to which they refer must be delayed until the next day, or an entirely different distribution of the hours appropriated to business from that which obtains at present must

be made. On the former supposition, such a delivery of letters would be useless; and the latter, it may be safely asserted, will not be considered by any person, intimately acquainted with the habits and pursuits of the people of Edinburgh, to be desirable.

"In conclusion, therefore, your Committee report, that the arrival of the London mail at a quarter past six will not be of such advantage to the community as to warrant the imposition of a higher rate of postage than the present one; and they recommend that the Member for the City be requested to oppose any clause for that purpose, which may be introduced into the Wooler Road Bill, of which notice has been given for the next Session of Parliament."

A Report of the Chamber of Commerce comes to the same conclusion, with the following additions:

"Your Committee (says this Report) have no hesitation in stating, that the advantage to Edinburgh by the proposed new line of road will be extremely trifling, and by no means commensurate to the annual expense of L.1500; and more so, as it appears to your Committee that a nearly equal advantage might be obtained by a very simple alteration in the mode of running the mail by the present road, and that at no additional expense what

ever.

"At present the mail from London to Edinburgh travels the distance in 49 hours, but from Edinburgh to London it takes 57 hours. This difference is occasioned chiefly by a stop of about six hours at York. Now, were there no longer stoppage at York in going to London than in coming to Edinburgh, and were the mail to travel with the same speed, in place of leaving the latter place at nine at night (about a quarter of an hour before the arrival of the mail from London,) the departure might be delayed till two or three o'clock in

the morning; thus allowing the possibility, in cases of great urgency, (and really the other plan promises little more,) of answering in five in place of six days. Nor would the advantage of this plan be confined to Edinburgh; the whole of the north of Scotland would participate in it, because the letters from the north for London would not, as now, be detained eight hours in Edinburgh, but could be brought forward at such an hour in the morning as to admit of an immediate dispatch by the London mail, and the north letters for Edinburgh would be delivered in the morning with the other letters."

Caledonian Canal. After a labour of nearly twenty years, and an expenditure of about L.900,000 on this great national undertaking, the country will feel a great degree of satisfaction in hearing of the completion of it. Considered in itself as a work of magnitude, it has not perhaps its equal in the world; and its importance in opening a communication between the eastern and western seas, thereby avoiding the dangerous navigation of the Pentland Frith or the Channel, will be highly valued by the mercantile and other classes, long after the expense will be forgotten. At 10 o'clock on Wednesday morning, the 24th September, the Lochness Steam Yacht, accompanied by two smacks, departed from the Locks of Muirtown on the first voyage through the Canal, amidst the loud and enthusiastic cheerings of a great concourse of people, and the firing of cannon. The morning was peculiarly favourable, although rather calm. There was scarcely a breath of wind to disperse the smoke, which ascended unbroken after the firing of the guns. The banks of the canal were crowded with spectators, a great number of whom accompanied the party from Muirtown Locks to the Bridge of Bught. The band of the Inverness-shire militia went on board at Dochgarroch Lock, and immediately