The organ is reported to be decidedly deficient in this reply, that it was either snuff-brown or olive-green, Mr Milne's grandfather, on the mother's side, had a deficiency in the power of perceiving colours, but could distinguish forms and distance easily. On one occasion, this gentleman was desirous that his wife should purchase a beautiful green gown. She brought several patterns to him, but could never find one which came up to his views of the colour in question. One day he observed a lady passing on the street, and pointed out her gown to his wife, as the colour that he wished her to get; when she expressed her astonishment, and assured him that the colour was a mixed brown, which he had all along mistaken for a green. It was not known till then that he was deficient in the power of perceiving colours. Neither Mr Milne's father, mother, nor uncle, on the mother's side, were deficient in this respect; so that the imperfection passed over one generation. In himself and his two brothers, however, it appeared in a decided manner; while in his sisters, four in number, no trace of it is to be found, as they distinguish colours easily. Mr Spankie, a cousin once removed, has a similar defect. Mr Milne is rather near-sighted, but never could find glasses to aid his defect. He rather excels in distinguishing forms and proportions; and although he cannot discover game upon the ground, from the faintness of his perception of colours, yet he is fond of shooting, and, when a boy, was rather an expert marksman, when the birds were fairly visible to him in the air. He sees them, however, only in the skylight; and on one occasion, when a large covey of partridges rose within ten or twelve yards of him, the back ground being a field of Swedish turnips, he could not perceive a single bird. His eye is decidedly convex to a considerable degree. Mr Milne's defect was discovered in rather a curious manner. He was bound apprentice to a draper, and continued in his service for three years and a half. During two years he fell into considerable mistakes about colours, but this was attributed to inexperience and ignorance of the names of the tints merely. At length, however, in selling a piece of olive corduroy for breeches, the purchaser requested strings to tie them with; and Mr Milne was proceeding to cut off what he considered as the best match, when the person stopped him, and requested strings of the same colour as the cloth. Mr Milne begged him to point out a colour to please himself, and he selected of course a green string. When he was gone, Mr Milne was so confident that he himself was right, and the purchaser wrong, in the colour that he had chosen, that he cut off a piece of the string which he intended to give, and a piece of that which had been selected, and carried both home, with a piece of the cloth also, and showed them to his mother. She then told him that his ribbon was a bright scarlet, and the other a grass-green. His masters would not believe in any natural defect in his power of perceiving colours; and it was only after many mistakes, and some vituperation, that he was permitted to resign the business, and to betake himself to another, that of a brassfounder, to which he had a natural disposition, for he had used the turning-loom in constructing playthings when a mere boy. As to the different colours, he knows blues and yellows, certainly; but he cannot distinguish browns, greens, and reds. A brown and green he cannot discriminate or name when apart; but when together, he sees a difference between them. Blue and pink, when about the same shade, and seen in daylight, appear to him the colour of the sky, which he calls blue; but seen in candlelight, the pink appears like a dirty buff, and the blue retains the appearance which it had in daylight. The grass appears to him more like an orange than any other coloured object with which he is acquainted. Indigo, violet, and purple, appear only different shades of one colour, darker or lighter, but not differing in their bases. He never mistakes black and white objects: he distinguishes easily between a black and a blue, and is able even to tell whether a black be a good or a bad one. In the rainbow he perceives only the yellow and the blue distinctly. He sees that there are other tints in it, but what they are he cannot distinguish, and is quite unable to name them. In daylight, crimson appears like blue or purple, but in candlelight it seems a bright red. When in Glasgow, his greatcoat was carried off from the travellers' room by mistake, and on inquiring of the waiter what had become of it, the question was naturally put, what was the colour of the coat? Mr Milne was quite puzzled by the interrogatory; and although he had worn it for a year, he could only next the fact; to do which we must go back not very far-to the period when Canada, by the possession of a legislature, may be said to have become a country. In 1791, then, we have the division of the country from Lower Canada, and a governor appointed; fifteen years posterior, or in 1806, the population of the country was estimated at (I quote Martin) 70,718 souls; in 1811, at 77,000; so that we may safely fix the American part of the population, of all descrip PARTICULARS REGARDING CANADA. [By Mr R., a settler, recently in Edinburgh, and the author of the article, in a former number, "Who should go to Canada?"]tions, at the present day, to be under 100,000, or WITH the hope of yet adding something to the true about a fourth of the present inhabitants. Now, the light in which Canada should appear to the anxious stock from which this seed has sprung are New Engeye of the emigrant, and of assisting him to the con-, land loyalists, or such persons as, during the war with clusions which necessity may demand he should form, America, adhered to Great Britain, and took shelter I venture to make some further remarks on its cha- in Canada; or out-and-out Americans, as they were racter, and on those features which most directly force before and after the declaration of independence. From themselves upon the attention, by the prominency of such people, without, until the last very few years, their nature, as of public interest. the influx of wealth or influence to refine and inspirit, and without the existence, it may be said, and truly, of a standard higher than their own by which to compare, whether moral, religious, or social, is it to be expected that that deference paid to rank, or supe riority of whatever description, in an old country, by people accustomed to its distinctions and influences almost as a habit, is suddenly to be created in a new one by their mere appearance, and for the first time? and are forms of society to be understood by those who never knew them, or their breach punished when the injury committed is unintentional ? exists in every country, but it is only the rudeness of malice that should offend; and that in Upper Canada is much too often applied to a manly independence, somewhat vulgarly, but in the majority of this par. ticular part of the population not insolently, asserted. The remaining three-fourths are therefore direct from Great Britain and Ireland, within the last twenty years, or their progeny; consequently, their feelings, manners, and customs, are those of their native country, with the addition of that spirit of independence which the value of labour creates, and in some cases of Americanisms in language, which man in his imitative nature is so apt to acquire. The re Rudeness Let us then begin with the roads, which in all countries are of the greatest importance. In Upper Canada, they are, except when turning the head of a lake or the bend of a river, uniformly straight lines, and, by legal allowance, twenty-two yards in breadth. Their actual travelling state varies with the nature of the soil and seasons of the year. Where clay prevails, and a continuance of rainy weather succeeds the breaking up of the winter, for a month or six weeks they are really execrable; in the fall of the year, for about the same period, they are nearly as bad: so that every one of common foresight and prudence arranges for the transport of his goods or grain, as the case may be, either before or after such visitations. maining nine months, comprising the three of winter and six of summer, afford on the old lines of road very fair travelling; the latter season being, with trifling exceptions, generally warm and dry, so as to allow of a man driving his own horses with a heavy load thirty and odd miles per day. I have frequently ridden fifty miles for two days consecutively on the same horse, without the animal suffering the least distress, or refusing his food. To travellers and persons able to afford the expense, I recommend their seeing the country on horseback; first, on the score of independence and It would be out of place here to do more than notice expedition, and, secondly, on that of comfort. We the remarks of Mr Sherriff in his work on Canada, all know the effect of bad weather, or bad lodging, or lately published. But as on this subject, as in most bad company, upon the spirits, and how very much things relating to the country, he has done the people our estimate of a country takes its tone from the state in my opinion much less than justice, I cannot reof our animal nature at the time. It is therefore in-frain from expressing my belief, that, in his laudable cumbent on all who desire to do justice to the pro-anxiety to disabuse the minds of emigrants of the novince, to put themselves in those positions, which, without blinding them to the asperities of its cha. racter, shall yet leave the mind at liberty to exercise its judgment, uninfluenced by their shocks; and verily those of a waggon, with an apology for springs, are neither few nor easily borne. On the old lines of road, a tavern is met with almost every three or five miles; and in the new parts of the country, the traveller's horse will always carry him to his dinner, and lodging for the night, let the state of the roads be what it may. A Canadian inn naturally occupies a place of interest in the minds of all, whether travellers new to the province or its older inhabitants. Their number to the uninitiated is really surprising; but when it is considered, that, just in proportion to distance of mar. kets and roughness of roads must be the uncertainty of transport, the circumstance is easily accounted for. tion of the country being a paradise, and labour and words, for much uncertainty exists, and the discreOf the state of prices and labour I would say a few pancy in the statements of persons who have seen the country has done nothing to relieve it. They partake in most cases of the character of the cularly, will produce such a discordance between their rather than that the means fall so short. The manners of a particular class of the population of the province, being those either native or recently imported from the States, will strike the European at first as being repulsive, rude, and disrespectful. But let us examine first the cause of this appearance, and It is asserted with truth, "that all countries in their situation of colonies, owing their advancement to an just to the extent and regularity of that immigration." immigration of capital and labour, must be progressive Of themselves at least, while in an infant state, they can improve but slowly, in perhaps the ratio of their own natural increase, apart from external aid. But when, in addition to an already fixed population, like pens to be an annual acquisition of from 10 to 40,000 that of Upper Canada, of nearly 400,000, there hapsouls, it may easily be conceived how the markets must be influenced-influenced after much care on the part of the local government, in the end beneficially, but in the meantime productive of fluctuation in prices, both of commodities and labour to a mischievous extent. I think to this cause, more than to any other, must be attributed those contradictory accounts which every day produces, and which lay down as a standard that rate of prices and wages of labour which the mere traveller has picked up by the wayside, and whieh he has assumed (because prevalent at the moment) to be uniform facts to be acted on. But the reverse is the truth: not only are prices irregular for service labour (in contradistinction to mechanical), but no one place is a standard at any time for the whole country by many, many degrees; the places last settled and ris ing paying the highest, and, through the intermediate steps to the reverse, having every description of difference. to the farm labourer, to stick his legs under another man's table until he has saved enough and seen enough to set up for himself; meaning thereby, that no consideration should induce him to buy land or speculate in any way until he has provided, by service and con. duct, means and information on which to act with advantage. THE ART OF PAPER-MAKING. THE origin of the art of paper-making is involved in considerable obscurity; but from the closest investiMen of liberal and comprehensive minds will see gations into the subject by antiquaries, it would apthat the abuse levelled at those who hold out the advan-pear that it was known and practised in China upwards tageous prospects of emigrants, is in nowise merited. of two thousand years ago. From China it is said to The colony is in the strength and vigour of youth; it have found its way into Persia, from Persia to Arabia, has nature so strong within it, and climate so generally and from Arabia to Spain, into which it was introfavourable to our countrymen, as to be able to bear duced by the Moors. From Spain, a knowledge of much more calumny than falls to its lot. But while, the art spread to France about the year 1260, to Geron the one hand, the people of Canada may safely many in 1312, and it is known to have been in Engleave its merits to work their own way in the strength land in the year 1320. of their truth, I would advise my countrymen, whom distress obliges to seek refuge abroad, to examine for themselves the foundation on which those merits rest to sift the sand from the rock, and be, after the truth even is ascertained, careful that their constitution of mind and body are in accordance. In a question of such vital importance as expatriation, the surface must be penetrated, and each use his judgment in the appreciation of the soil underneath. Roads may be bad, inns uncomfortable, letters miscarry; but these are trifles to the question of the soundness of heart on which hinge the prosperity of the colony, and the removal of those as well as other evils. It is certain that I do look upon the colony not only as sound in heart, but rising with a rapidity, and reforming its abuses with a judgment, as great as the latter is correct. The Chinese made their paper of silk or bamboo reduced to a pulp; the Arabs did not follow this practice, but formed their paper of cotton; and the Spaniards were the first who tried the process with linen substances. In the present day the greater part of writing and printing papers in this and other countries is manufactured from linen rags, cut down, and reduced with water to a pulp. Papers of a coarser fabric are made from old ropes, cotton waste, and other vegetable matter; lately we saw a remarkably fine specimen of brown packing paper made from the refuse of mangel wurzel. The rags forming the basis of nearly all the best English and Scotch papers are imported in bags from Bremen and Hamburg, also from different ports in the Mediterranean. These rags are sorted of various qualities, and from their appearance they seem to have composed the garments of It is considered by some at first sight as an evil the females in those countries whence they are dethat the poor man, in consequence of the average rived. The rags composing the paper on which the value of land in not remote districts being so high as present Journal is printed are imported from Bremen twelve shillings and sixpence per acre, is debarred and Hamburg, to which place they have been brought from immediate purchase; but I believe it to be the by travelling Jew merchants and others from most reverse; and that my own countrymen think so, I parts in the north of Europe. English rags are ge have had ample experience. And let every man con-nerally less substantial in fabric, and sell at a much sider what a new country is, what its habits, what lower price than those of the above places; they con the prices, what the uses he has to make of it, and sequently make a paper weaker in fabric, and this how he is to learn those usages with the few previous insubstantiality is sometimes farther increased by the opportunities that have been offered him in this coun- admixture of cotton and other inferior substances. try, if any at all! It is well for Mr Sherriff to see Until comparatively recent times, all kinds of paper this and that, or other practical and educated man; were made by a tedious and expensive process. The but the application to the farm labourer or manufac- rags being reduced to a pulp, the matter was lifted in turing operative, is nonsense. Just let us suppose sieves by the hands of a workman, sheet after sheet, that a man and his wife got land cheap-say for no- a practice now entirely disused except in coarse and thing what is the first year to produce? Is the use some descriptions of writing paper. The greater part of the axe to come by instinct-the chopping, the of writing, and almost the whole of printing papers burning, and the logging, are they to be intuitive? manufactured in Great Britain, are now made by maWhy, the Americans themselves, the smartest men chines, according to a method invented by the Messrs at finding out value I know, have almost passed it into Fourdrinier, who may be considered the Arkwrights a proverb, that the first year of men such as I speak of paper-making, and which is as follows:of is valueless almost at that particular work, while they will give any price to them as ditchers, plough. men, and stock and dairy managers. No, no; if the poor be advised, they will bring their labour to the best market, and learn their future business in the employ of those who will teach them at the same time that they feed and pay them. After the rags have arrived in the premises, the first operation is that of picking and sorting them into different heaps, according to the quality of the paper intended to be made from them. They are then cut into small pieces of as equal a size as possible, being four or five inches square. This is done by the hand, by large broad knives fixed in a board or table, like Of the distress experienced for the first year by that in a joiner's workshop. The back of the knife emigrants, especially on arrival, much, nay, all, is is towards the cutter, and is placed in a sloping posiowing to the utter impossibility on the part of the co- tion backwards from the heel to the point. This opelonists to calculate its amount. It may be easily ration, as well as the previous ones, is executed by seen that a country like Upper Canada may afford re- women, and cutting a hundred weight is reckoned a lief and instantaneous employment to 20,000 souls, fair day's work. After being cut, the rags are put which, in the absence of any data on which to make into the dusting machine, a large circular wire sieve, preparation, may fail in doing so satisfactorily to which being made to revolve rapidly, effectually twice or thrice the number. His Excellency Sir John cleanses the rags from any dust or loose matter adherColborne, who intended to submit to the British go- ing to them. After this they are put into troughs and vernment a plan and guarantee for the provision of boiled for a certain time (according to the size of the an annual immigration of 100,000 souls, I have no boiler), both to cleanse them more thoroughly, and to doubt, was as much guided in its construction by con- soften them; and from thence they are lifted with a siderations of the evils of its irregularity, as the ulti- copper grape, and carried in boxes to the first washmate benefit to the colony and the mother country, ing-machine. The latter consists of a large oblong by the magnitude of the proposed number, and the stone trough, into which, during the process of maprecaution of effective organisation or preparation.nufacturing, a continued stream of clear water is alEven as it is, if common activity, and inclination to lowed to run, and being permitted to escape at the same abide by any work which shall afford food and shelter time by a different outlet, it is kept in a manner and moderate wages, till a footing be gained-if such always fresh and pure. On one side of the trough is be shown and felt, the emigrant will not find his merits erected the machine, which, as it serves the purpose suffered to remain long hid under a bushel, or his la- both of washing and grinding the rags, is termed by bour at a discount. But let him lay it to account, the operatives the breaking-in engine. It is of very that in those years in which immigration has very simple construction, consisting of a roller revolving much exceeded expectation, there will be to him more by machinery horizontally over the surface of a closely distress, and that that distress will continue till ca- and sharply-grooved plate, by which the rags are pital has been stirred into employ, to take advantage torn in shreds. The continued gush of water into of the surplus labour. The public works, and the one end of the trough keeps the contents continually annual provision of the local government, as well as revolving, while at the bottom are placed agitators for the general liberality of the people, preclude any thing preventing any part subsiding to the bottom; and like the misery we daily see and have detailed to us thus the whole is gradually and equally reduced to a in the newspapers in this country; so that fears of sort of pulp. After being sufficiently ground and want need never intrude except when entailed by loss washed in this manner, which occupies about an hour of character and misconduct. For the last three or and a half, the stuff is passed down by boxes comfour years there has been nothing of the kind that I municating with the trough to the bleaching-boxes, have heard, for capital has rather exceeded labour each of which is formed to hold a hundredweight of than otherwise; nor do I apprehend, except in ex- rags after being reduced to the state described. And traordinary influxes, that such will occur again, for we ought perhaps before to have mentioned, that the every year not only developes the powers, but increases rags being all exactly weighed when dry, and previthe capabilities, of the colony, so much as to make the ous to being subjected to any process whatever, the maintenance of 50,000 persons of greater ease now proper quantity of stuff is afterwards easily regulated than ten years ago it could have done to half that in passing from one department to another. It has number. I cordially agree with Cobbett in his advice been found that a quantity of stuff, which in its original state would have amounted to one hundredweight of rags, is found most suitable for bleaching. The bleaching-liquer consists simply of a strong solution of lime. After bleaching for twelve hours, the stuff is again put into a washing-machine, for the purpose of cleans. ing it thoroughly from the bleaching liquor. This process is exactly similar to that previously described, the only difference being, that in the latter the roller (which is in both regulated by a screw) is brought closer to the horizontal plate above described, and thus reduces the stuff to a finer quality. It is here also that the size-the addition or the want of which, as is well known, constitutes the chief difference be tween paper for the reception of ink and the other sorts-is added to the stuff, with the exception of that intended for the finer sorts of writing-paper, which is all sized by the hand (called tub-sizing) after being manufactured. From the second washing-machine the stuff is passed 'down to a large tun, like a brewer's vat, called the stuff-chest; being merely a reservoir for holding the liquid, which now bears the closest resemblance to soured or curdled milk, preparatory to being let into the machine where it is made into paper. In the bottom of it are agitators, which keep the liquid continually mixing, and thus preserving it in an uniform degree of thickness. From the chest the stuff is let out by a sluice into a pipe, which leads it to one end of the machine, by which it is converted into paper; the opening whence it finally issues corresponding exactly in breadth to the machine. The quantity and thickness of the stuff admitted into the latter is regu lated according to the kind of paper to be made, and this must be entrusted solely to the experience of the workman. The first part of the machinery upon which the stuff comes is a brass wire-cloth, of so fine a texture that there are seventy wires in the inch. It is woven, we understand, exactly in the same manner as linen. This wire-cloth may be described as a sort of belt without any break in it, which is kept continually revolving, but in such a way that the upper side, upon which the stuff is received, preserves a flat and hori zontal surface. After passing between a pair of rollers, where it delivers the stuff, it is led backwards again under the frame, and so goes on in a continuous revolution. Upon the upper surface of the wire are placed moveable sides, which, by being approached to, or drawn back from each other, regulate the breadth of the sheet to be manufactured; so that it can be made either the whole breadth of the wire-cloth, or otherwise, at pleasure. By an ingenious contrivance, too, an agitating horizontal motion, similar to that given to the sieve of a pair of fanners, is communicated to the wire-cloth on receiving the stuff, by which it is more equally distributed over the surface, and renders the paper of a uniform strength and thickness. The first pair of rollers through which the stuff passes, are called the couching rollers. The under roller is simply cast-iron, while the upper one is rolled round with woollen cloth of a peculiar texture, manufactured for the purpose. It is upon this upper one that the stuff is delivered; and there are men stationed behind, where the wire leaves the rollers, with small sponges to lick it up from the wire and fix it to the roller when the machinery is first set a-going, after which it adheres of itself. In going through these rollers, the stuff only undergoes a slight degree of compression; and it will be evident, from their different kinds of surfaces, that it can only be pressed smooth on one side. To render both sides alike, therefore, what may now be called the sheet is transferred to another pair of rollers of the very same description, where the process is simply reversed by the rough side of the paper being pressed by the cast-iron roller. These last rollers are considerably closer than the first, and thus render the sheet more dry and firm. It often happens, when the sheet is passing from these rollers to the others that succeed them, that it breaks, and adheres to the woollen roller; in which event, should the broken parts be carried round on the sur face of the roller, they would inevitably injure the part of the sheet which follows. In order to avert this casualty, there is affixed lengthwise along the upper surface of the roller, a large knife, resembling in breadth and sharpness a common scythe, the edge of which, being placed in a sloping manner, like the blades of a wright's plane, is brought so close to the roller, as effectually to shave off any substance that may chance to adhere to it. This instrument is called the "doctor," and is found of the utmost utility. After passing through one or two other pairs of rollers besides those just described, the sheet is passed on to the drying cylinders, of which there are two. They are hollow, and heated by steam introduced through pipes at each end of their axis. By various ingenious contrivances, there are ready means for letting off the extra steam, as well as for throwing out the water that gathers within the cylinder. The latter object is accomplished by means of an instrument shaped like a corkscrew, and is wrought by the machinery. The first of these cylinders is of a cooler temperature than the one behind it, in order that the paper may be dried gradually. When either of them are too hot, it is at once seen by the shrivelling of the paper, when the temperature is immediately lowered by letting out the steam. From the last cylinder the sheet is forthwith transferred, after passing through an intervening pair of rollers to smooth it after drying, to the reeling frame, upon which it is wound, and the pro-jured by the rain, she makes them almost even with cess is complete the paper fit for immediate use. It has taken us some time to detail the different operations of this beautiful and extraordinary machine, although the whole process is gone through almost with the speed of thought. Some idea of its expedition may be gathered from the fact, that, when working paper of the full breadth of the machine, a quantity of stuff equivalent to six and twenty feet of what is called common demi paper, is let into it in the course of the minute! The whole machine is not more than twelve or thirteen feet in length, into one end of which we see a white liquid resembling butter-milk running in, and from the other comes forth a finished fabric, now become almost as important to mankind, in its various uses, as the art of printing itself; and without which, indeed, the latter art would lose its chief value. It is to be observed that no break or stop takes place during the process, unless what may happen from accidents. The whole goes on continuously and uninterruptedly, with scarcely the smallest exertion of manual labour. When we behold so great a triumph of mechanical art, one may almost be pardoned for doubting whether the wonderful machine jocularly hinted at by the Author of Waverley, where undressed flax is put in at one end and comes out at the other in the shape of finished ruffled shirts, washed, dressed, and all, be altogether chimerical! the ground, and higher up than the runs, which serve The mole is never known to work for food near the place which she has fixed upon for her abode. Another remarkable fact attending this invention She labours to procure it about two hours in the morn. remains to be added, namely, that the sheet of paper ing, and as many in the evening, and then returns to can be made of any given length-fifty miles at a her home or resting-place, which is so constructed stretch, if such an article were necessary, and did the that she is instantly made aware of any danger. This size of the reel admit of it. From a paragraph, in-effect is produced by forming the upper runs in a sort deed, which not long since appeared in the public of circle, so as to communicate a vibration when any prints, noticing a commission lately sent to a paper- thing passes over them. The mole then takes alarm, maker to manufacture and send ten miles of a parti- and escapes by one of her safety runs. cular sort, it seems not at all improbable that orders may soon come to be generally given and executed on such terms. The reeling process is not behind any other depart. ment for ingenuity. It is a double reel, moveable upon an axis, and so contrived that when one reel has received the proper quantity of paper, the empty one is turned round into its place. The reeling process thus goes on uninterruptedly, while the operatives cut the paper upon the full reel into the suitable lengths and breadth, and thus have it ready for again receiving another complement. The method for ascertaining when the usual stated quantity has been put upon one reel, is by a signal given by a small machine, not bigger than a watch, the mechanism of which is connected with the reel. By hands on the dial-plate, too, it can be seen when the half, quarter, and so forth, of the reelful has been wound on, so that any given quantity of paper, and no more, may thus, when required, be cut off. The mole is not often seen on the surface of the earth. I once, however, caught one, and turned it loose upon a lawn, the turf of which was on a bed of strong gravel, and particularly hard and dry. Notwithstanding these disadvantages, the mole contrived to bury itself almost in an instant, working into the hardly be called feet) so fast, that the ground seemed earth by means of her snout and fins (for they can to yield to her mere pressure. The power of smelling in the mole is very acute; and worms, which last she pursues eagerly, but not and various kinds of insects: she will also eat frogs, but will not touch a toad, if ever so hungry. A mole was tried with eggs and oysters, but refused to eat either. They will, however, eat fruit, and, Buffon says, acorns. If two moles are shut up together without food, the strongest will devour the weakest, even to the bones: nothing but the skin is left, which they never eat, and which, when one has killed the other, is always seen to be ripped up along the belly. It was found that ten or twelve hours was the longest time they could live without food. This fact seems to prove that the mole is not torpid in frosty weather, which Linnæus asserted she was. It is known that, in such seasons, worms, ants, and the larvæ of cock chaffers and beetles, penetrate deep into the ground. It is probable, therefore, that the runs of the mole made in search of food are regulated, as to their depth, by the habits of the grubs on which she feeds. One would suppose, from the texture of its fur, which is particu. larly short and thick, that the mole is not very susceptible of cold. Indeed, its whole formation is admirably adapted to its mode of life. It has been said that the mole, when the ground which it frequents is flooded, will climb up trees. This, however, seems to be unnecessary, as I have seen it swim with perfect ease, which indeed Le Court had also observed. PRECAUTIONS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF GASLIGHTS. (From a useful work called Practical Ob. servations on Gas-Lighting. By J. O. N. Rutter.)Children should never be permitted to touch the stopcocks nor any other part of gas-fittings, nor should servants be too much depended on, until it is ascertained they fully understand turning the gas off and on; and they must be very dull indeed if they cannot comprehend that process in less than a week. It is a safe plan to turn off the main-cock at night; but when gas is kept burning in a bedroom or nursery, of course that is impracticable. The pressure, however, on the fittings, generally, might be diminished by turning off so much of the main-cock as only to allow sufficient gas to enter by it for one or two burners, as may be required. It is important that attention should be paid to the quantity of gas admitted to the burner. Whenever there is any smoke or other effluvia aris. ing from well-purified gas, it implies unnecessary waste, and is the result of ignorance or of carelessness. If the escape of the gas at the stopcock be properly regulated, the whole of it enters into combustion, and the products pass off in a state of vapour. On the prin ciple of economy, therefore, as well as of comfort and cleanliness, it is desirable to attend to this particular. An accidental escape of gas, whether it arise from a fractured service-pipe, an imperfect joint, or a stopcock carelessly left open, can scarcely pass unnoticed for many minutes, excepting it be in a cellar or closet from which fresh air is carefully excluded. If the ventilated, either by a window, a grating, or a chimescape occur in a room which is ever so imperfectly ney, some time will elapse before the air becomes suf ficiently vitiated by the gas to render the mixture explosive. Whenever an escape is indicated by a When the paper has been cut off the reel, it is carried to the finishing-house. Here it is first pressed, generally by a force-pump water-press. It is then carefully examined, and all the dirty or broken sheets picked out and put aside. It is afterwards assorted into quires and reams, and pressed over again; after which the parcels are ready for receiving the stamp of the exciseman. The fine writing-paper is hot-pressed informed him that, in swimming rivers, they habitually strong smell of gas in any part of the house, the first by placing a metal plate heated by steam betwixt tisfy M. St Hilaire on this point, he contrived the thing that should be done is to open the doors and every sixty or seventy sheets. A glazed pasteboard is put betwixt each sheet. After being taken out, it is carefully cut round the edges with an instrument used by bookbinders, called a plough, and put up into separate reams. The best writing-papers are, we believe, made in Kent, a district in which the water is pure, or free of particles of iron, which, when they occur, mark the sheets with brown spots. Good printing papers are now made in all parts of Great Britain. Of late years great improvements have taken place in this branch of the manufacture, and we now rarely see a volume printed on bad paper. Paper-making in Scotland is of a comparatively modern date; but in the present day the printing-papers made in this part of the United Kingdom compete with any manufactured in the south. One of the chief seats of the Scottish paper manufacture is on the river Esk, in Mid-Lothian; and it is at mills in this quarter that the paper for our Journal and other publications is manufactured. MOLES. Le Court, who assisted M. St Hilaire in his observations, and who appears to have been a sort of philsophical mole-catcher, was surprised when the naturalist expressed a doubt as to the mole seeing. He guide themselves by their sight: but in order to safollowing experiment with him :-They made two openings in a dry tiled drain, at one of which several moles were successively introduced. Le Court took his stand at the other. If he stood quite still, the mole soon came out and escaped; but if, at the mo ment in which she showed herself at the hole, he moved only his thumb, she stopped and turned back. By repeating this as often as she re-appeared, the mole was kept imprisoned in the drain. There has been a very general idea amongst our mole-catchers, that if the smallest drop of blood is taken from a mole, it occasions instant death. Le Court seems to account for this opinion in speaking of the fights which take place between the male moles, by saying, that if one is ever so slightly wounded in a vein near the ear, the wound is mortal. pre In order to ascertain the rate at which a mole moved, he put in practice the following curious experiment :He placed some slight sticks, with a little flag at the top of them, in the run of a mole, which he had viously ascertained, by tracing it, to be of considerable length, and along which the mole passed and repassed four times a-day in search of food. These sticks were placed at certain intervals in the run, so that if the mole touched them, the flag would instantly show it. He then introduced a horn at one extremity of the run, and blowing it loudly, frightened the animal; and she then went along the run at such a rate, moving the flags in her passage, that Le Court and his friends, who were stationed at intervals along the run to assist in the observation, considered that she went as fast as a horse could trot at its greatest speed. [From Jesse's Gleanings in Natural History.] THE mole-hills which we see in fields and meadows are thrown up by the mole probably during its search for food. Little was known of the natural history of this animal, till a French naturalist, M. St Hilaire, published lately some interesting particulars respecting it. The mole forms several under-ground passages, and the way she proceeds in doing this is as follows:-She first makes a run in various directions, by undermining the ground, and unites this and several others at Hunger in the mole is thought to be a more violent one point, making, however, some of them larger than feeling than fear, and its appetite is singularly vorathe others. M. St Hilaire says that she finishes by ar. cious. If it sees a bird near, it quits its hole-apranging them with the most perfect symmetry, plas- proaches as if to attack it; and if the bird pecks it, tering the sides with great care; and when completed, the mole retires towards its hole, and tempts the bird it may be called her encampment. In the centre of to follow. She then watches her opportunity-darts these works she establishes herself, and appropriates upon it-seizes it by the belly, which she tears open, a separate place to the reception of her young, which assisting herself for this purpose with her flaps, and, is in some respects differently constructed from her thrusting her head into it, devours it. She drinks as In order to render the respective habitations greedily as she eats. The mole does not, like the which she and her young occupy not liable to be in-mouse, lay up a store of food, as she preys on worms own. windows, so as to pass a current of air through all the tilated. It is best to be on the safe side, and to be too NOBODY WILL STEAL YEARS.-Napoleon, in his Italian campaign, took a Hungarian battalion prison ers. The colonel, an old man, complained bitterly of the French mode of fighting-by rapid and desultory attacks on the flank, the rear, the lines of communica tion, &c.-concluding by saying, "that he had fought in the army of Maria Theresa, in Germany, when battles used to be won in a regular systematic way." "You must be old ?" said Napoleon. "Yes; I am either sixty or seventy." "Why, colonel, you have certainly lived long enough to count years a little more closely!" "General," said the Hungarian, "I reckon my money, my shirts, and my horses; but as for my years, I know that nobody will want to steal them, and I shall not lose one of them!" ESCAPE INFERENTIAL.-An unpopular actor, being announced in the Dublin playbills to perform Richard the Third, was prevented by sudden indisposition. On this disappointment being communicated by the manager from the stage, a man in the pit sprang up, and, addressing the audience in a stentorian voice, cried, "Jantlemen, you may ate your apples!" LONDON: Published, with Permission of the Proprietors, by ORR Stereotyped by A. Kirkwood, Edinburgh. DINBURGA CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM CHAMBERS, AUTHOR OF "THE BOOK OF SCOTLAND," &c., AND BY ROBERT CHAMBERS, AUTHOR OF "TRADITIONS OF EDINBURGH," "PICTURE OF SCOTLAND," &c. No. 172. SATURDAY, MAY 16, 1835. PRICE THREE HALFPENCE. ODDITIES IN COSTUME. also to have a tendency to keep up many old fashions. the acts of this celebrated body would seem to me to WHILE the variableness of fashion has become abso- There is in Scotland a tribe of little withered old men, want much of their far-famed force, if the sergeantslutely proverbial, it is curious to observe how perennial or MENNIE, as the native phrase is, who hire them-at-arms were to lay by their buckles. No odd dresses, some little odds and ends of costume contrive to be, in selves to form a procession in front of the more dig- it is true, are to be seen in attendance upon any of connection with particular customs, and certain orders nified kind of funerals, and in dress and figure are the courts or assemblies of France or America; but, of the community. However expressly, for instance, altogether unlike any other class of mortals. They after all, buckles and acts of parliament are more a play may refer to transactions and characters of the wear small black velvet caps, shaped like those of homogeneous than many people may suppose. Talkpresent day, we invariably find that only the hero, jockies, old emaciated George-the-Second coats, and ing of dresses in America, does it not seem an absurd heroine, and other juvenile personages, conform to the black worsted stockings, thrust into buckled shoes. incongruity, when, in turning up the history of reigning modes. The old gentlemen, if there be any, Their faces have a mortified and miserable look, as if the war of independence, we see Washington, Lee, are always in wide-skirted and deep-cuffed coats, pe- they had mimicked away every particle of natural and Montgomery, depicted with exactly the same riwigs, and rolled hose, and the old ladies, especially joy from their compositions, and had nothing but the formal gentlemanlike military coats and powdered if they belong to the class of old maids, in hoops, pin- caput mortuum left behind. Withal they have an wigs, as those worn by Generals Howe and Gage, ners, and high-heeled shoes. It is certainly somewhat other-world sort of complexion, apparently put on as and other defenders of the sway of the British mostartling to find a medley of characters from the seven- part of their costume, and for which they no doubt narchy? It may be all very true that the colonists teenth and the nineteenth centuries presented, as a make a charge. Contemplate them in rear, and with were English gentlemen, or the descendants of such, fair specimen of society, in a mirror which pretends the wide square black skirts cutting the thin well- and that, from the intercourse which existed between to be so true-a beau in the fashion of the latest of defined legs at right angles, you might imagine them Britain and America before the war, the fashions of the Merchant's tailoring prints, perhaps threatened with a parcel of old-fashioned gravestones mounted on one country must have been regularly followed in the disinheritation by a gentleman who seems to have balusters, which had been sent out on a commis- other. But the incongruity lies between hair-powder walked out of one of the "embellishments" of the old sion to bring home the new denizen of the tomb. and republicanism. One cannot help thinking that copies of the Spectator, or a miss in the style of Al- These persons are certainly a distinct sept of the hu- dressed hair should have been one of the things repumack's, snubbed by an aunt who looks as if she might man race, born generation after generation for this diated in the declaration of independence. Pomatum recollect the court of William and Mary. But old profession and no other, and incapable of being in- and loyalty ought to have been abjured together. The gentlemen and ladies like those of the real world would truded upon in their own peculiar walk, as it would French acted much more appropriately in their revonot tell upon the stage. An old-fashioned costume is be quite impossible for any ordinary citizen of the lution, when, under the influence of the new political at once necessary, we presume, to denote the ad- world to put on the required face, not to speak of legs. philosophy, it was thought necessary that the tresses vanced years of the wearer on the principle of the In this respect, they are as secure in the enjoyment of mankind should be left in their native luxuriance, inscription below the boy's drawing of a horse-and of their privileges as any incorporation, or as a bill- and a republic of legs was introduced by means of to aid that burlesque effect which the comic muse sticker was on one occasion, who, on hearing that he pantaloons. This last improvement, it may be reseems obliged to throw over age, in order to render it was about to have some rivals in trade, treated the marked, spread to England even during a time of war. an endurable subject of theatrical representation. intelligence with the most lofty contempt-" Sir," An equality of ranks by no means suited our old-faThere is also a traditionary costume of the stable- said he, "they have not the machinery." In so far shioned prejudices; but an equality of ankles was too yard, which seems equally certain of maintaining its as the new billstickers could not compete for want of agreeable to the majority to be resisted. True, a few existence. In prints about a hundred and fifty years a certain number of cross-beamed poles and brushes, old gentlemen still, like our friend Foggo (see article old, you see men airing and watering horses, by way so could not any ordinary men rival the mennie, for "The Meadow Walks"), reject the heresy, as they of enlivening the landscape, who wear exactly the want of the necessary mortification of aspect. Our consider it, of trousers, and scrupulously maintain the same long-bodied jerkins which may yet daily be ob- Scotch funeral-attendants, be it remarked, are not femoral vestment and silk stockings, with all other served in any meuse lane you happen to enter. The liable to the complaint which Sable makes in the establishments in church and state. These, however, people of those regions also adhere most scrupulously farce of the Funeral, to the effect that, the more must be held as only a small and worn-out party of to that species of the unnamed garment which is but- money he gave his men, the merrier they looked. super-ultra Tories, rather vain of their pins. True toned at the knee; said buttons being invariably The aspect is too fixed, is too indigenous and instinc- freedom, it must be allowed by every reflecting person, turned round to the front, as being there most liable tive, to be changed for any reason whatever. Sable, is only to be found in the flowing drapery which to be seen-for Jack Hostler is a good deal of a buck, we are confident, might have tried any extent of bri- reaches to the instep. and does not choose to hide the lantern in the corn bery with them, and still they would have been chest. There is furthermore a looseness of gaiter staunch. They might be legatees of the deceasedabout him, and a determination towards striped vests, they might be any thing-but nature would surmount that are equally peculiar. In all these matters he every temptation. Not a peg of their sorrow-screwed evidently acts upon some inherent impulse-some in- visages would they let down-at least till their duty stinct-something deep in the recesses of his nature. had been fairly performed. As for the mennie in their The whole race display a longitude of body and a bre- other moments, my imagination is quite at fault: there vity of limb, as marked, and as regular, as the same may be such a thing as smiling among them; but I peculiarities in certain orders of turnspits. Indeed, would rather suppose not. I am more inclined to supwe begin to doubt the truth of the Irishman's propo- pose, since they are never seen but in their professional sition, heretofore supposed undeniable, that for one to capacity, that they have no other than a professional be born in a stable does not constitute him a horse-existence-that, after their duty is done on any occafor nothing seems more clear than that to live long in a stableyard does produce an alteration in the proportions and outline of the human figure. View the veriest imp that ever combed a mane or held a bridle a creature who as yet is only lisping his first lessons in that fussy whistle which may be called another legendary accompaniment of the exercise of the currycomb. You may detect an incipient elongation of body and shortening of leg going on in his Flibbertigibbet-like person. The idiosyncrasy of the lane is already upon him. If he has a button at all, it shines prominently on the patilla. When he casts his coat, you see a length of back that astonishes you in one so young. And as he rolls along, does he not knock his knees and turn in his toes with the best of them. The costume connected with matters funereal seems sion, they exhale into nothingness, till called again The court and some of the public institutions are JUDICIAL TORTURE IN ENGLAND AND In the opinion of Sir Edward Coke, torture for con- 6 Tower, commanding that officer to examine Samuel In Scotland, the extortion of confession by this abominable means was a regular portion of the ju dicial powers. In his work on the Criminal Law of Scotland, Sir George Mackenzie has a whole chapter Of Torture, showing that the Privy Council, or the supreme judges, could only use the rack; how those were punished who inflicted torture unjustly; and who were the persons that the law exempted: and he insists that all lawyers were of opinion, that, even after sentence, criminals might be tortured for the discovery of their accomplices. The same view is taken by Lord Stair, a lawyer of liberal politics. The most conspicuous instrument of torture used in Scot. land was one called the boots, or, as it is usually spelled in old law books and warrants, the buits, which consisted of an oblong square box, firmly hooped with iron, and open at both ends, having loose plates in the inside, and which could be put upon the leg of the criminal or witness proposed to be examined. When the leg was insinuated into this instrument, wedges were put between the loose plates and the solid frame of the box, and while the executioner stood ready with a mallet in his hand, the judge re. peated his hitherto unavailing question. At every refusal of the prisoner to confess, the mallet descended with force upon one of the wedges, so as to squeeze the limb; and this was sometimes done so frequently, that not only the blood would flow, but the very mar row be pressed from the bone. We read that, in 1596, the son and daughter of a woman accused of witchcraft were put to the torture to make her confess: the former suffered fifty-seven strokes of the hammer in the boots, the mother remaining obdurate all that time. The torture of the daughter, who was only seven years old, was by pilniewinks; an instrument of which the exact nature is not now understood, though it may be safely supposed to have referred to the little fingers, as the word is still used in Scotland to describe that diminutive member. In the record of the same case, mention is made of caspitaws or caspicaws, and of tosots, as instruments of torture. Du ring the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, witches were tortured in various ways, by judges, clergymen, and private individuals; but our remarks are for the present confined to the instruments used in the higher courts, and on the more solemn judicial occasions. Perth to recommend himself to the favour of the Duke measure the atrocity of the means. We are indebur After the Restoration, when severe measures became necessary to support a government so opposed in every relation to the spirit of the Scottish people, the torture was used with a frequency unknown before, being applied in the examination of every prisoner who was suspected of possessing useful information. The gen. tle Hugh M Kail, while under trial for having accom panied the Pentland insurgents as a clergyman, in 1666, was put into the boot, with the view of eliciting what he might know concerning a suspected plot. TALE OF LITTLECOTE house. Eleven strokes were dealt to him, so as nearly to crush LITTLECOTE HOUSE, near Hungerford, in Berkshire, his limb to pieces, though the meek sufferer protested Under the threat of a renewal of his sufferings, stands in a low and lonely situation. On three sides before God, that he could say no more than he had and the assurance, ratified by a decree of court, that it is surrounded by a park that spreads over the ad. done, though all the joints in his body were in as great whatever he told should not be employed against any joining hill; on the fourth, by meadows which are torture as his poor leg. After all this suffering he was individual, this gentleman subsequently communi. watered by the river Kennet. Close on one side of the condemned to death. The boots were used almost cated a few particulars, by which he saved himself, house is a thick grove of lofty trees, along the verge exclusively for such purposes till towards the close of but which were used, without scruple, as an admi. of which runs one of the principal avenues to it through the reign of Charles II., when a new and equally efnicle of proof against the unfortunate Baillie of Jer. the park. It is an irregular building of great antificient instrument, which had the advantage of being viswood. Carstairs, however, received much approba-quity, and was probably erected about the time of the less brutal in appearance, was introduced by General tion from his party for his general conduct throughout termination of feudal warfare, when defence came no Dalyell, who had seen it used in Russia, during the the whole of these trying circumstances. He pos. longer to be an object in a country mansion. Many time when he was in the service of Alexis Michaelo- sessed at this time some secrets of great importance, circumstances, however, in the interior of the house, witsch. It was called the thumbikens, and consisted which had been entrusted to him by Fagel, the cele seem appropriate to feudal times. The hall is very of two pieces of iron, the upper of which could be brated Dutch minister, and a divulgence of which spacious, floored with stones, and lighted by large pressed downwards upon the lower by means of a would have not only saved him from every other transom windows, that are clothed with casements. screw, so as to squeeze the thumbs of the prisoner. question, but procured him some considerable benefits Its walls are hung with old military accoutrements, The first person upon whom it was tried was one from the government. From his concealing these. that have long been left a prey to rust. At one end William Spence, a servant of the unfortunate Earl of Fagel, as he himself assured Burnet, saw how faithfu! of the hall is a range of coats of mail and helmets, and Argyle, who had previously endured the boot, without Carstairs was, and this was the foundation of the there is on every side abundance of old-fashioned pis making the desired confessions respecting the concern extraordinary confidence afterwards reposed in him tols and guns, many of them with matchlocks. Immeof his master in the Rye-house Plot. This poor man, by William III., who made him virtually, if not no- diately below the cornice hangs a row of leathern jer. being found peculiarly obstinate, is said to have been minally, the viceroy of Scotland. kins, made in the form of a shirt, supposed to have put into a hair shirt, pricked, and kept from sleep for been worn as armour by the vassals. A large oak ta nine nights--and all this under the domestic superinble, reaching nearly from one end of the room to the tendence of a member of the Privy Council! Every other, might have feasted the whole neighbourhood, cther means having failed, the thumbikens were and an appendage to one end of it made it answer at brought into play; his thumbs were crushed beneath other times for the old game of shuffleboard. The the merciless instrument, and still he held out. It rest of the furniture is in a suitable style, particularly was only by the threat of a new application of the boot an arm-chair of cumbrous workmanship, constructed that he was finally brought to the terms of his inhu. of wood, curiously turned, with a high back and tri man persecutors. An act was at this time passed by angular seat, said to have been used by Judge Popthe Privy Council, stating, that "whereas there is ham in the reign of Elizabeth. The entrance into now a new invention and engine called the thumbikens, the hall is at one end by a low door, communicating which will be very effectual to the purpose and intent with a passage that leads from the outer door in the foresaid [that is, to force the confession of particulars front of the house to a quadrangle within; at the useful to the government], the lords do therefore or other, it opens upon a gloomy staircase, by which you' dain, that, when any person shall by their order be ascend to the first floor, and, passing the doors of put to the torture, the boots and thumbikens both be some bedchambers, enter a narrow gallery, which exapplied to them, as it shall be found it and convetends along the back front of the house from one end nient." to the other of it, and looks upon an old garden. This gallery is hung with portraits, chiefly in the Spanish dresses of the sixteenth century. In one of the bedchambers, which you pass in going towards the gallery, is a bedstead with blue furniture, which In giving an account of the efforts of the Earl of Archæologia, x. + Fountainhall's Decisions. A print, accurately representing it, is given in the Edinburgh Magazine, 1817. | It is worthy of remark, that, after the Revolution, when Carstairs had come into high power, the Privy Council, then composed of different persons, presented to him the identical instrument by which he had been so severely tortured a few years before. It is related that, being one day at court, the king said to him, "I have heard, Principal, that you were tortured with something they call thumbikens; pray what sort of an instrument of torture is it?" "I will show it yon," answered Carstairs, "the next time I have the honour to wait on your majesty." The Principal was as good as his word. "I must try them," said the king: "I must put in my thumbs here-now, Principal, turn the screw. Oh, not so gently-another turn-another-Stop! stop! no more-another turn, I am afraid, would make me confess any thing." It is curious to know that the addition of the thumbikens to the torturing apparatus of the Privy Council gave a shock to public feeling, and would have fixed some opprobrium upon the members of that allpowerful body, if they had not contrived thereby to gain a few confessions-success thus covering in some |