Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

VARIETIES..

than 500 years in that part of India, and considers it as a consequence of one of the early Mahomedan invasions of Gu zerat. He supposes that the Jarejahs resorted to it upon the subjugation of their territories by the early Mahomedan invaders, in order to avoid the necessity of bestowing their daughters upon them in marriage,and quotes some recent anecdotes which render the explanation not at all improbable.

The following is the subject of the Cambridge Hulsean Prize Dissertation for the present year: "In what respects the Law is a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ."

THE HULKS.

The public have long been accustomed to hear of prisoners being sent to work on board the hulks, but as, perhaps, a very imperfect idea is generally entertained respecting them, a little information may not be unacceptable on the subject. The hulks are large vessels without masts, which have been line-of-battle ships, or frigates, fitted up for the reception of male convicts sentenced to be transported. These floating prisons are securely moored near a dock-yard or arsenal, so that the labour of the convicts may be applied to the public service. There are usually about 3000 men thus employed at Sheerness, Chatham, Woolwich, Deptford, and Portsmouth, which are the principal stations. One ship, the Bellerophon, at Sheerness, is appropriated exclusively for the reception of boys, not exceeding sixteen years of age, most of whom are taught various trades, such as shoemaking, tailors' work, bookbinding, &c.

On the arrival of the convicts at the hulks, from the different gaols after the termination of the sessions or assizes, they are immediately stripped and washed, clothed in coarse grey jackets and breeches, and two irons placed on one of the legs, to which degradation every one must submit, let his previous rank have been what it may. They are then sent out in gangs of a certain number to work on shore, guarded by soldiers. A strict account is kept of the labour performed by each gang, there being a scale by which it is calculated, and out of each shilling earned for the government by the convict, he is entitled to a penny, which is carried to his credit; but of this he receives only one third part weekly, the remainder being left to accumulate until the expiration of the term which he is doomed to serve; thus it sometimes happens that a man who has been six or seven years on board the hulks, on his discharge, put in possession of ten or twelve pounds, and is

43

also supplied with an additional sum of money to defray his travelling expenses home. The strictest discipline is main tained, and extreme cleanliness enforced in the vessels. The diet daily allowed is a pound and a quarter of bread, a quart of thick gruel morning and evening; on four days of the week a piece of meat weighing 14 ounces before it is cooked, and on the other three days, in lieu of meat, a quarter of a pound of cheese; also an allowance of small beer; and on certain occasions, when work peculiarly tion of strong beer is served out: nowhere fatiguing and laborious is required, a pordoes good behaviour meet its reward more than at the hulks. Those whose behaviour is exemplary are favoured by their term of punishment being shortened, or their irons lightened, or promotion to little offices, which relieves from severer labour.

Besides those who are retained to serve out their term of transportation in this country, thousands are every year sent to New South Wales; four ships, containing about eight or nine hundred, have recently taken their departure. Amongst those who are actually transported beyond the seas, such are invariably selected as are known to be old offenders, and those who appear to be incorrigible.

SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANIES.

GAS FROM BONES.

The olifant gas from bones givés a most beautiful flame, and without being expensive, as the bones from which it is made, when burnt to carbon in a close vessel, are excellent in cleansing all vegetable substances from impurities, particularly oils, which are entirely deprived of rancidity, by a mixture of the powder from bones. Oils at 2s. per gallon may be rendered equally bright and pure with those at 8s. by this process. Two pounds weight of beef bones emitted a gas, which burned with a fine flame, equal to the light of six candles, for two hours; and the carbon was sufficient to purify two gallons of oil.

Government has resolved upon another expedition to Africa to explore the course of the Niger. Captain Laing, who was at Sierra Leone under sir Charles M'Carthy, who was killed by the Ashantees, is to be

at the head of it. It is understood that he is to have two secretaries and sixteen

men.

SUGAR FROM THE BEET-ROOT.

It is stated that beet-root sugar is still manufactured in France, and that a joint stock company has been recently formed in the department of Jura for its more effi

cient fabrication. M. Chaptal contends that beet-root sugar differs in no degree whatever from sugar made from the cane, either in colour, taste, weight, or crystallization.

It is said that a piece of lime, the size of a walnut, put into the water in which potatoes are boiling, will render the heaviest light and farinaceous.

The stomach pump was successfully employed lately at Chester, in saving a man who had, at one draught, drank a pint of raw gin.

The centuria myriocephala, a favourite food of the Crimean sheep, is supposed to give that beautiful grey colour to the wool of the lambs, which is prized both in Turkey and Tartary as an ornament of the calpack, or cap, worn by Tartar gentlemen instead of the turban.

PRESERVATIVE FROM FIRE.

In pursuance of an order of the Bavarian government, the machines, decoration frames, wings, and, in short, every thing made of wood in the new theatre of Munich, is about to be covered with a newly invented varnish, which is capable of resisting the action of fire and water.

DUDLEY ENCRINITES.

A very rare and magnificent variety of the stone lily, or lily encrinus, has recently been discovered in the lime forma tion, at Dudley, which far surpasses any other fossil of this kind hitherto known, and is now in the collection of Mr. Payton of that place.

NEW RAZOR-STROP.

Take a strip of buff leather, rubbed over with a composition of oil and virgin wax; then hammer it upon an anvil, for the purpose of closing the pores, and rendering the surface smooth; glue the strop upon a slip of wood, with a piece of woollen cloth at the back, for the purpose of cleaning the razor before stropping. This strop is said to be more efficacious in sharpening a razor than any other, and to improve by use.

THE THEATRES.

IN conformity with the practice of our contemporaries, we had prepared a formal comment on the Christmas pantomimes; but, as more consonant with the plan of the "Circulator," we prefer contenting our selves with observing, that though neither Harlequin and the Talking Bird, nor the revival of The Dragon of Wantley, are remarkably brilliant or ingenious, they are vivacious enough to excite laughter,

and meet the mirthful disposition of the holiday folks, and consequently qualified to answer the principal purposes of pantomimic exhibition. At Covent Garden, while the knight of the magic sword has been frisking and sporting, at the expense of the suffering clown and pantaloon, the impassioned talents of KEMBLE

and MRS. SLOMAN have been exercised in Biron and Isabella; the striking and original powers of FAWCETT have been displayed in Touchstone. The sweet simplicity of MISS M. TREE in Rosalind, and the repetition of A Woman never Vexed, has kept open a new field for the employment of the truly histrionic abilities of MR. BENNETT, MR. COOPER, and Miss CHESTER.

At Drury Lane, the charming vociferation of SAPIO, in Prince Orlando, and of MISS STEPHENS, in Floretta, (vide The Cabinet) have been relieved by the revival of a tragedy of MASSINGER. His Fatal Dowry is a piece the plot and business of which have so long been made known to the public, through the medium of its counterpart, Rowe's Fair Penitent, that it would scarcely admit of our going into a minute detail of its fable and con

duct.

This drama came originally from the creative hand of a real master,-lived awhile in fair and deserved repute,—died, at least to the stage, was, afterwards, partially resuscitated by a more polished, if not so bold a master, and now enjoys a renewed existence, by the aid of a more modern artist, who rather may be said to have awakened it from its dormant state, than to have breathed into its risen frame any spirit of his own; to have added to the vigour and animation of its native stamina, or to the flavour of its pristine fruit. Rowe, whose genius, indisputably, was more poetic than dramatic, and whose verse was more mellifluous than poetic, adopting description where the subject demanded representation, gave a comparative flatness to scenes and situations, that, in MASSINGER's tragedy, were held up to the eyes of the spectators, and, by the potency of action, produced on the soul an impression which " pure descrip

tion" could never effect. In the wellwrought original, we see the impediment offered to the interment of the deceased marshal by his creditors-the sitting of the court-the filial devotion of a son, who proffers the sacrifice of his own personal liberty, for the redemption of a father's sacred remains;-these things, witnessed by the external sense, agitate the mind, and penetrate the inmost soul ; and, though all the other incidents are not equally close and connected, they produce

THE THEATRES.

situations of great force and pathos, and the language, if not refined, is pregnant with fire, and enriched with just and moving sentiment. MASSINGER was a student of nature, and, in this production, has evinced as strong proofs of the profit he derived from his instructress, as, perhaps, in any thing that came from his rude, but generally faithful pen. The fervid energy, however, which in the Fatal Dowry, as it sprung from his enkindled imagination, is vigorously preserved to the last speech of the final scene, cannot, in the alteration now presented to us, be said to exist beyond the close of the fourth act. The liberty used in the present change of the catastrophe is decidedly for the worse. The powerful interest that, till the arrival of the last act, appeals to the heart's deepest and dearest feelings, then begins to sink into a degree of langour: instead of the warmlyimagined and highly-worked climax of the author, we have a comparatively tame denouement—a denouement by which both divine and poetical justice is violated --and cannot wonder at the partial'disappointment, at least, universally felt by the audience. In fairness to the fame of MASSINGER, the piece, as now represented, should have been announced as an alteration from the author. The freedom indulged by Rowe, in the superstructure he raised on the site and plan of the respected dramatist of the AUGUSTAN age of Elizabeth, forms no excuse for the present non-avowal of changes by which the piece materially suffers, and the reputation of the writer is deteriorated. We, however, as a set-off against this injustice, are will ing to allow all the praise due to the retrenchments of the superfluous speeches, and the refinement of some that were of too coarse a texture, to satisfy the delicacy of modern ears. Some of the overstrained, the more than unnecessary conceits and metaphors are judiciously removed; and, in the points of ease and smoothness, many of the improved passages might pass for the growth of the present day.

These are our opinions of The Fatal Dowry, and of the alterations under which it is now courting public favour. Of the performance, viewing it generally, we have not much to say. That MACREADY and WALLACK are transcendently excellent-the first, in the judgment and vividness with which he enters into and depicts the poet's meaning, and the second, in the finely-spirited manner in which he developes the sentiments he has to deliver-every candid judge will acknowledge but MRS. WEST, with fewer opportunities of exhibiting her respectable talents, appears with but a diminished

45

lustre; and the other parts of the representation, though not marked with any obtrusive defects, are far from discovering merits that particularly demand our commendation.

Diary of Occurrences.

Jan. 4.-SIGNS OF THE TIMES. -A sub. scription commenced for keeping open a beautiful view of St. Bride's steeple. Really we are becoming a most luxurious people: only think of 70001. being about to be expended for the gratification of the visual organ with a fine piece of architecture! But this is far from being the extent of our refinements. A magnificent Quay is projected for accommodating us with an undisturbed view of the river, without annoyance from carmen and errand boys. The streets are macadamizing, that our ears may not be grated with the rattling of carriages-the chimneys are to consume their own smoke-subways are proposed for the subterranean transit of dustmen, fish people, and other disagreeable looking persons:-even the illustrious and ignoble dead have become too offensive, and a Necropolis is suggested for the removal of our catacombs far beyond the smell of our nostrils! Numerous watercarriers have long been employed to lay the rebellious dust in hot weather, and who can tell but ere long we shall have the pavement every morning sprinkled with rosewater for the regale of our olfactory nerves! It is all very good certainly; we are an opulent nation, and might spend our surplus wealth in worse pursuits than in cleansing and embellishing the finest city in the world. The bishop of London-blessed be his name! has subscribed twenty guineas for the St. Bride's affair.

Only eleven persons executed last year at the Old Bailey, supposed to be a smaller number than ever known.

A project on foot at Edinburgh for forming a joint stock company, for the purpose of erecting houses for indigent persons, and letting them at moderate rents, the rent to be taken in monthly or weekly payments.

The commission court at Dublin opened on Saturday last. Mr. justice Moore, in his charge to the grand jury, took a view of the charge against Mr. O'Connell, and referred to the case of sir Francis Burdett, as one by which they should be guided in the present instance. The jury, after retiring for four hours, ignored the bill of indictment against Mr. O'Connell.

9.-The Message of the president of the United States to Congress arrives in

town, containing a most flattering picture of the rapid advance of that part of the world. Indeed, all nations-republicans and monarchical-seem at the present moment in a rapid state of progression. The people of the United States seem to be as eager for joint stock companies as the population of this country are. One New York paper contains a list of twentyeight projected concerns, the capital to be set apart for which is about ten millions of dollars. Mr. Adams is likely to succeed Mr. Monro in the presidentship.

Sad news for the Gourmand.-The

state of the winds has been such for some

time past, that fish have been generally scarce and consequently dear. This morning, "Cod all alive O!" were remarkably so, four moderately sized fish being sold at Billingsgate for the moderate sum of seven guineas.

During the king of Bavaria's recent sojournment in Austria, his majesty accepted an invitation of prince Esterhazy to join a hunting party, when 462 wild boars were killed. In what a precious state of barbarism and desolation the imperial philosopher's dominion must be to contain so many boars.

The Glasgow weavers have resumed their work at an advance of wages equal to 2s. or 2s. 6d. per week. The spinners still hold out,

LUNATICS.-Some German astronomers fancy, that on the surface of the moon they have distinctly seen houses, towns, and high roads. It would have been more convincing had they felt them. The same great philosophers announce the complexion of the lunar inhabitants to be

red.

[blocks in formation]

read of the Black Sea, the Strait of Dar danelles, the Gulf of Venice; the Seine, the Rhone, the Po, the Danube, and other great rivers, being frequently frozen, which now either never happens, or only at long intervals. To what can this be owing? If the poles of the earth were changing their position it might be explained, but astronomers do not apprize us of such a circumstance. We must conclude then that it is merely accidental :—indeed, it ought not to be forgotten, though the last and present winters have been uncommonly mild, the preceding winter, of 1822, was rather severe, and the Thames filled with ice. The winter of 1814 was also a hard one, the quantity of snow being so great, that Government was obliged to interfere to open a passage on the roads for the mail; in short, we think the mildness of the weather an ordinary occurrence, and not at all to be wondered at. Looking back for the last half century, we read of similar temperate seasons, of the butterfly being seen flying in December, of the in orchards, &c. trees budding, and birds' nests being found

Five thousand chests of good Congou and Souchong tea were lately sold in Hol India company compels us to pay 10s. land at 1s. 6d. per pound; while the East

or 12s. What a shame!

The emperor of Russia has addressed a rescript to the minister of ecclesiastical affairs, charging him to exercise the most rigorous surveillance over all publications that touch on religion or public instruc÷ tion, in order to prevent any from being published that have not received the sanc tion of the synod. M. D. Corbiere, the French minister of the interior, has, it is said, suppressed all the schools of mutual instruction in that country.

Weekly Calendar. January XV.-Saturday. High Water, Morn. X. 52 m.-Aft. XI. 26 m. Sun rises, VII. 52 m.; sets IV. 8 m. Duke of Gloucester born.

A. D.

ANNIVERSARY CHRONOLOGY. 1559, queen Elizabeth crowned at Westminster.-1795, the prince of Orange, stadtholder of the United Provinces, and his family, in consequence of the successes of the French, were obliged to leave the Hague and effect their escape to England, where they arrived on the 21st of the same month.

Work to be done on the Farm.-Plough fallows for beans and peas. If frosty, carry out dung, plant and repair quicksethedges, and clean ditches and watercourses. Kill and eure bacon; hang beef

WEEKLY CALENDAR.

Tuesday.

High Water, Morn. I. 25 m. Aft. 1. 50 m.

and hams. Thrash barley for malting, January XVIII. ST. PETERbeast will eat the straw. Turn ewes with lamb to turnips, if you have any. Feed your bees, if weak. Plough barley fal lows second time. House your weanling calves and foals. Dress your meadows, cut and spread ant-hills: feed pigeons, and lop forest-trees.

[blocks in formation]

ANNIVERSARY CHRONOLOGY.-A. D. 1556, the emperor Charles V., after disturbing Europe half a century by his wars and ambition, resigned the crown of Spain and other dominions to his son Philip, reserving nothing for himself but a small annual pension: he chose for the place of his retreat St. Juste, near Placentia, in Spain. In his retirement he amused himself with constructing time-pieces, and tried to make two watches that would keep time together. Not succeeding in this object, he reflected, says Robertson, how vain had been the great effort of his reign, to make all mankind think alike on matters of religion, when he could not contrive two little machines to move in

accordance.

1793. Expired, Edward Gibbon, author of the “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," great part of which was written at Lausanne, in Switzerland. Mr. Gibbon was born at Putney, in Surrey, in 1737.

January XVII. ST. ANTHONY.-
Monday....

High Water, Morn. 0. 30 m.-Aft. 0. 69 m.
Sun rises, VII. 50 m.; sets IV. 10 m.

St. Anthony, the patriarch of monks, was born at Coma, in the year 251; and, living the austere and abstemious life of a recluse, he arrived at the great age of 105 years, and is said to have died on this day, A. D. 356. Anthony was particularly solicitous about animals, to which a whimsical picture, by Salvator Rosa, represents him preaching. He regarded all created things worthy of protection, and from his practices probably arose the custom of blessings, still passed on animals at Rome. On this day, 1792, died George Horne, the exemplary bishop of Norwich, and author of the "Commentary on the Psalms." His Female Character, drawn with exquisite ability, is much admired; and in that sketch he has paid a just tribute of respect to the fair sex, whose mild virtues contribute so essentially to the happiness of mankind.

47

St. Peter is considered to have been the first catholic bishop, and is said, metaphorically, to keep the key of heaven. Hence many churches dedicated to this saint have a vane on their steeples, surmounted with a key, as St. Peter's in Cornhill, London, and others. Commonly a cock is the figure used for the wind-vane, and this, according to Du Cange, was originally devised as an emblem of clerical vigilance.

1719. Died sir Samuel Garth, an excellent poet and physician, and author of an admirable satire, called the "Dis pensary."

January XIX.-Wednesday. High Water, Morn. II.13 m.-Aft. II. 37 m. New Moon, Morn. 111. 43 m.

GARDEN.-Sow marrowfats and salmon radishes. If weather continue mild, plant cabbage-plants. Transplant cabbages, carrots, parsnips, and leeks for seed. Prune apple-trees, and repair decayed espaliers.

ANNIVERSARY CHRONOLOGY.-A. D. 1728, died William Congreve, author of several poems and comedies replete with wit, but too indelicate for modest ears. He also wrote the tragedy of "The Mourning Bride."

January XX-Thursday,

High Water, Morn. 11. 53 m.-Aft. III. 9. m.
Sun rises, VII. 46 m.; sets, IV. 14 m.

This being the vigil of St. Agnes, it used to be customary with virgins to use many charms, in order to dream of the man they should marry, to which Ben Jonson alludes:

And on sweet St. Agnes' night,

Please you with the promised sight, Some of husbands, some of lovers, Which our empty dream discovers. St. Agnes was a Roman virgin, who suffered martyrdom in the tenth persecution of the emperor Dioclesian, in the year 306. She was only thirteen years of age at the time of her death.

On this day, 1779, died David Garrick, the celebrated actor, at his house in the Adelphi, London. Garrick entirely changed the style of acting, and in lieu of the pompous and unnatural voice, gesture, and action which prevailed, substituted the expression and manner of real life. He was born at the Angel-Inn, Hereford, where his father, a captain in the army, was on a recruiting party.

1790. The great philanthropist, John Howard, died at Cherson, in New Russia.

« НазадПродовжити »