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WEEKLY CALENDAR.

Weekly Calendar.

Apríl II.-Saturday.

High Water, Morn. I. 6 in. Even. I, 34 m.
Sun rises, V. 32 m.; sets VI. 23 m.

NATURAL HISTORY.-The melody of
birds now gradually swells upon the ear.
The throstle, perched on the leafless
bough of a lofty tree, charms us not only
with the sweetness but the variety of its
notes. This bold and pleasing songster,
from his high station, seems to command
the concert of the grove, while, in the
beautiful language of the poet :-
"The jay, the rook, the daw,
And each harsh pipe (discordant heard
alone),

Aid the full concert, while the stockdove breathes

A melancholy murmur through the whole."

The feathered visitors, who only repair hither to spend. the winter, have now taken their departure to more northerly regions. The fieldfares travel to Russia, Sweden, Norway, and even as far as Siberia. They do not arrive in France till December, when they assemble in large flocks of two or three thousand. The redwing, which frequents the same places, eats the same food, and is very similar in manners to the fieldfare, has also taken leave of this country for the season. Soon afterwards the woodcock wings its aërial flight to the countries bordering on the Baltic. In returning to our shores between October and December, they do not come in large flocks, but drop in singly, and sometimes in pairs. These birds take a day's rest, and then proceed to the very same haunts which they had left the preceding season. Some other birds, as the crane and the stork, formerly natives of this island, have quitted it entirely, since our cultivation and population have so rapidly increased.

April III.-Easter Sunday.

High Water. Morn. II. 3 m. Even. II. 27 m.
Full Moon, Morn. VI. 23 m.
Sunday Lessons, Morn. Exod. 12. Rom. 6. Even.
Exod. 14. Acts 2.

EASTER is styled by the fathers, the
highest of all festivals, the feast of feasts,
the
of festivals, and Dominica
queen
Gaudii, the joyous Sunday.

April IV.-Monday.

High Water, Morn. II. 52 m. Even. II. 11 m. CHRONOLOGY.-Queen Elizabeth dined at Deptford on board the Pelican, the ship in which Drake had circumnavigated the globe, and after dinner conferred on him the honour of knighthood. This celebrated

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ship was afterwards broken up; and a chair, made out of the relics, was presented to the university of Oxford. A far different, and more ignoble fate, has befallen the vessels employed in the explo ratory voyages of the immortal Cook. The Resolution, according to the statement of Mr. Barrow, is converted into a smuggling whaler, under the colours of France. The Discovery, we saw only a few months since, lying off Deptford, converted into a hulk for the reception of convicts!

"To what base uses, Horatio, may we come at last!"

1774.

Died, the celebrated Oliver Goldsmith, author of the "Vicar of Wakefield," and many other works. Ireland has the honour of giving birth to this popular writer, but, whether he was born at Roscommon, Ferns, or Elphin, is uncertain. With great powers of wit, and much learning, Goldsmith could neither be called wise nor happy: simple, honest, humane, and generous, in the extreme; he was also irritable, passionate, peevish, and querulous.

April V.-Tuesday.

High Water, Morn. III.32 m. Even. III. 50 m.

EASTER HOLIDAYS.-During the Monday, says a contemporary writer, a determined holiday-maker contrives, by the aid of a little, or not a little stimulus; to be happy in a tolerably exemplary manmer. On the Tuesday, he fancies himself happy to-day, because he felt himself so yesterday. On the Wednesday, he cannot tell what has come to him-but every ten minutes he wishes himself at home.

On the Thursday, he finds out the secret, he is heartily sick of doing nothing, but is ashamed to confess it: and then, what is the use of going to work before his money is spent? On Friday, he swears he is a fool, for throwing away a great part of a quarter's saving, without having any thing to show for it. And on Saturday, he comes, (it is to be hoped,) to the wise conclusion, that there is nothing like playing, drinking, and working, each in moderation and

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and serenely, the beautiful Laura, illustrious by her virtues, and immortalized in the verses of Petrarch.

1803.-Colonel Montgomery was killed by captain Macnamara, in a duel, at Chalk-farm. Colonel M. was an accomplished gentleman, and his death was much lamented in the upper circles.

April VII.-Thursday.

High Water, Morn. IV. 53 m.-Even. V. 16 m.

CHRONOLOGY.-1779. As Miss Reay was coming out of Covent-garden theatre, a clergyman, named Hackman, stepped up to her, and, without the least previous menace, or address, instantly shot her dead with a pistol. Jealousy is supposed to have been the cause: Hackman suffered on the 19th of the month..

1807.-Died, at Paris, aged seventy, the celebrated astronomer Lalande.

April VIII.-Friday.

High Water, Morn. V. 39 m.-Even. VI. 6 m.

GARDEN.-Transplant Cos and Silesia lettuces; sow cresses, mustard, rape, and turnips; plant pot and sweet herbs; sow ten-week stocks, and mignionette.

CHRONOLOGY.-1364. John, king of France, died, in the Savoy-palace, Strand, London.

SHERIDAN. Just about the time that Mr. Sheridan took his house in Savillerow, he happened to meet lord Guilford in the street, to whom he mentioned his change of residence, and also stated a change in his habits." Now, my dear lord," said Sheridan, " every thing is carried on in my house with the greatest regularity every thing, in short, goes like clockwork."-"Ah," replied lord Guilford, "tick, tick, tick, I suppose."

LIST OF WORKS PUBLISHED.

-

Crope's Musical Festival at York, September, 1823, royal 4to. 21. 2s.-Oliver's English Grammar, 8vo. 12s.-Don Esteban, 3 vols.post, 8vo. ll. 7s.-The Weaver's Boy, a Tale; and other Poems, by Chauncy Hare Townsend, second edition of his poems, fc. 6s.Carey's Astronomy, 8vo. 6s. Scenes of Palestine, 12mo. 5s. Every-day Occurrences, 2 vols. 8vo. crown, 145. White's Compendium of British Peerage, 12mo. 7s.— History of France, 3 vols. 8vo. 21. 2s.-Perceval's History of Italy, 2 vols. 8vo. 17. 10s. -Galignani's Paris Guide, 18mo. 12s.-The Pictures, &c. .cr. 8vo. 9s.-Taylor's Key to the Knowledge of Nature, 8vo. 18s.-Benson's Hulsean Lectures for 1822, 8vo. 12s.Diable Diplomati, 8vo. 6s.-Parnell on the Penal Catholic Laws, 8vo. 5s. 6d.-Sheridan's Songs of Greece, 8vo. 13s.-Seaton's Church in the Wilderness, 2 vols. 12mo. 11s. 6d.-Bacchus in Tuscany, by Leigh Hunt, fc. 75.-Buckingham's Arab Tribes,

4to. 31. 13s. 6d.-Graves on Calvinistic Predestination, 8vo. 12s.- Journal of an Exile, 2 vols. post, 8vo. 18s.-Introduction to Dr. Parry's Posthumous Works, 8vo. 10s.

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LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS.

UNDER this head we purpose to enrich the pages of the Circulator with a series of notices intended to illustrate the march of science, and the diffusion of useful knowledge in the public institutions of the metropolis.

Those admirable establishments for the education of the poorer classes, first introduced by Dr. Birkbeck, will especially claim our attention, and a complete digest of their proceedings will be regularly fur

nished.

The London Institution, from its commanding position, will first claim our at

VOL. I.

tention, and as its theatre has been taken as a model for the construction of other public lecture rooms, it has been thought advisable to furnish a graphic illustration of its interior.

This institution was founded in 1804 for the diffusion of literature and science, and it consists of nearly two thousand proprietors. The library contains nearly 30,000 volumes, and courses of lectures have already been delivered in rapid succession by sir James Edward Smith, Dr. Crotch, Messrs. Phillips and Partington, the marchese Spinetta, Dr. Birkbeck, and professors Millington and Brande. The latter of these gentlemen delivered the first of a series of discourses on the science of elec

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tricity on Wednesday last, and to this we shall now call our reader's attention.

The professor commenced by observing, that his object in the preceding lectures had been to make his auditory acquainted with the various phenomena of light and heat; and that he should then beg leave to direct their attention to phenomena of a still more striking nature, exhibited in the science of electricity. The nature of attraction and repulsion would first claim their attention, and to exhibit these, he should merely employ a glass tube in connection with a light pendulous body.

When the tube was excited by a piece of silk, and presented to a feather suspended by a thread of the same material, it was immediately acted upon by this subtle fluid and attracted, but when the feather became surcharged with the electric fluid it was repelled by the tube. On presenting the silk with which the tube had been rubbed, new phenomena however was found to occur: for the feather which, when surcharged with electricity, had been found to be repelled off the tube, was then attracted and drawn towards it. If, instead of taking a tube of glass, one of sulphur, resin, or sealing-wax, had been employed, the same phenomena of attraction and repulsion would have occurred; but these effects, as we shall presently show, may be traced to causes exactly the reverse of the preceding.

In order to bring these phenomena into a tangible and satisfactory form, it is necessary to employ an hypothesis.-We are obliged to suppose that a fluid pervades all nature-and pursuing this mode of illustration, it will be shown that this

fluid is equally diffused, and that in this state its presence is not perceptible to the senses; but when the tube is excited, the electric equilibrium is destroyed, the body rubbed becoming overcharged while the rubber is undercharged. The glass then is positive or plus, while the silk is negative or minus.

In order to determine the electrical state of any body, therefore, we have only to bring an electrified tube towards it, and if attraction follows, we say that it is in a negative state; but if the body is repelled, we conclude that it is plus or positive.

A simple and elegant mode of illustrating the nature of electrical excitation was then experimentally shown by the professor. A piece of heated paper was slightly acted upon by Indian rubber, and it became strongly electrical.

The above mode of accounting for the phenomena of attraction and repulsion, differs very materially from the hypothe sis adopted by the French savans. Franklin only admitted of one fluid, they, on the contrary, contend for the existence of both vitreous and resinous electricity; but it might readily be shown that any one body might be made to produce either of those electrical states by varying the exciting rubber: thus Mr. Canton found that a glass tube which produced positive electricity might be made to exhibit the opposite electrical state by merely grinding the surface of the glass.

After briefly adverting to the above facts, the lecturer proceeded to apply them to the construction of various portions of the electrical apparatus.

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LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS.`

-The machine, of which we furnish a diagram, may be thus constructed. A plate of glass made to revolve on metal axes is furnished with a pair of cushions or rubbers, from whence the electric fluid may be drawn by friction with the plate. A metallic conductor furnished with points is brought neatly in contact with the glass, and a constant supply of electricity may thus be drawn from its knobbed extremity.

The employment of electrometers was then adverted to, and the professor observed, that though those formed of pithballs, or suspended feathers, were well adapted for the coarser experiments in the seience, yet others of a much more delicate nature were essential to the due performance of the more delicate manipulations.

An electrometer formed of two gold leaves was then exhibited, a diagram of which, in its most perfect form, is annexed.

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licacy of the gold leaf electrometer prohibited its use in connection with the electrical machine, and on that account the quadrant electrometer, as shown in the cut beneath, was the most desirable for showing the electrical intensity of a prime conductor.

Two thin leaves of gold are in this case supported by a metal wire, which passing through a plug of silk in the centre of a glass tube, readily indicates the smallest portions of electricity by the divergence of the gold lamina.

In employing this electrometer it was shown, that frequent anomalies occurred with regard to the phenomena indicated. Thus it was found, that two plates of glass, when rubbed together, became electrical, but that these plates, after separation, would sometimes be positively, and at other times negatively, electrified.

It was then stated, that the extreme de

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The nature of electrical insulation was explained by reference to a bar of glass which would not take electrical sparks from the machine while a metal rod on the contrary readily received them, the first being a conductor the other a nonconductor.

The professor concluded his highly interesting lecture, of which our limits will permit but a very hasty sketch, by referring to the discharging electrometer, invented by Mr. Cuthbertson. This valuable instrument indicates the amount of electrical repulsion, by a balance armed by two balls, A F, and supported upon axes working in pivot-holes at the top of a glass pillar. If a body at C is to be influenced, a connection is made between the ball, I, and the machine by a chain, so that when the electrical repulsion becomes greater than the gravitating power of the ball F, it ascends. The opposite end of the balance then sinks, and coming in contact with the inflammable body, immediate ignition is the consequence.

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