A prince seeing a goat in his field, gave orders to his vassal to drive it away; the latter having broken its leg with a blow of a stone, wrapped it up in a piece of cloth. The animal returning to his master, went too near the chimney, and set fire to the bandage: the pain which this occasioned made him run away over a field of wheat belonging to the house, to which the flame was communicated, and the wheat was soon consumed. The cause was tried, and the prince who had given the order was obliged to pay all the damages.

A sportsman having fired at a fox, which, in escaping, dispersed a flock of geese; the latter, in their noisy flight, frightened a horse,

which threw and killed its rider. The relations of the deceased cited. the master of the horse before the old men he easily justified himself by stating the cause which had rendered his horse ungovernable: the master of the geese was then summoned, who proved in his turn that the sportsman had been the cause of this misfortune, and consequently the latter was condemned to pay the fine.

Almost all causes are tried in a similar manner by national assemblies held in a wood, and presided over by princes, and according to a code of ancient customs, which are become laws sacred in the eyes of the Circassians.

The priests do not form a separate class in Circassia. In their youth they have been seen to shed their blood in battle, and the approach of the enemy still calls them to arms. They officiate with bare heads, clothed in a Bourka; and standing before the cross, they commence by the propitiatory sacrifice of a sheep or a goat-in great solemnities the victim is an ox: before sacrificing it, the old man, with one of the small tapers attached to the foot of the cross, burns some of the hair of the victim on the spot where the blow is to be struck, and pours some Bouza on its head. Several young people, chiefly slaves, stand behind him, bearing cups filled with this liquor, and slices of unleavened bread stuffed with cheese. After the sacrifice, the old man takes one of these cups and some bread to make an offering to the Supreme

Being: he then blesses them, and gives them to the eldest of the society, who eats and drinks of them. The young people present him with some more, of which he makes an offering to Merissa, and which he gives to another old man. The same ceremony is repeated to all the divinities, to whom different prayers are addressed. After having concluded them, the minister fixes, according to his own pleasure, a day for another meeting, which generally takes place once a week-either Saturday, Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday, and never on any of the three other days: he also gives notice of the effects which have been lost or found; but the latter are seldom heard of, for the Circassians are fond of keeping them. Finally, the flesh of the victim serves as a repast, to which are added some other provisions brought by each

family, and the whole is generally concluded with dances, games, and races the head of the victim is consecrated to the Creator, and

placed on the branch of a tree, or on a perch at a small distance from the cross: its skin belongs to the officiating priest.

The Noutakhaïtsi Circassian women have oval faces, and generally large features; their eyes, usually black, are fine; and they hold them in high estimation, considering them as one of their most powerful weapons; they are surmounted by eyebrows which are strongly marked, whose thickness they diminish by plucking out the hairs. Their bust, which as I have already stated, is wanting in its chief ornament among the girls, is extraordinarily slight and flexible: on the other hand, with many women the lower part of the body is very large, which is considered a great beauty among the orientals, but which I thought a deformity in some of them. We cannot deny that those who are well proporsioned have much nobility of carriage and voluptuousness. Their costume, besides, especially that of the married women, is very pretty. But to admire them, they must only be seen at home; for when

they go out, their slow step, and the air of nonchalance expressed in all their movements, shock the eyes of an European accustomed to the vivacity and elegant tournure of our ladies. Even the long hair, which we like to see flowing over the bosom and shoulders of a Circassian; the veil, which they fold with the art inspired in all countries by the wish to please; the robe which having confined the waist, opens to exhibit the charvar, which has also its attractions, become ridiculously embarrassing when a Circassian leaves her sofa. They are, in general, intelligent; their imagination is lively, and susceptible of strong passions; they love glory, and are proud of that which is acquired by their husbands in battle. All the Circassian ladies have the itch*, but it is of a very mild description, and is called the prince's itch.

* Addition in the Russian edition.

CHARLES PEARCE CHAPMAN, of Cornhill, zinc manufacturer, for improvements in printing silks, calicoes, and other fabrics.

James Helliwell, of Salford, Lancashire, dyer, for an improved process, whereby the texture of cotton, and certain other fabrics and materials, may be rendered impervious to

water.

Humphrey Jefferies, of Birmingham, goldsmith and jeweller, for his invention of certain improvements in buttons.

Thomas Robert Sewell, of Carrington, lace manufacturer, for certain improvements in machinery for bobbin-net.

James Cropper, lace manufacturer, and Thomas Brown Milnes, of Lenton Works, in the county of Nottingham, bleacher, for improvements in machinery for manufacturing lace or net, commonly called bobbin-net lace.

William Wainwright Potts, of Burslem, Stafford, for an improved method of producing patterns in one or more colours to be transferred to earthenware, porcelain, china, glass, and other similar substances.

Thomas Parkin, of Dudley, in the county of Worcester, for improvements in sleepers or bearers applicable to rail-roads.

Bennett Woodcroft, of Ardwick, Lancashire, for improvements in printing calicoes and other fabrics, whether manufactured of cotton, silk, wool, or linen, or of all or any two or three of those materials.

Alexander Gordon, of Fludyerstreet, Westminster, and James Deville, of the Strand, lamp manufacturer, for improvements in the production, maintenance, direction,

or distribution of lights, parts of which improvements are applicable to other purposes.

Richard Witty, of Stoke-uponTrent, in the county of Stafford, civil engineer, for an improved method of arranging and combining certain materials used in constructing houses, bridges, and other buildings, whereby superior strength and durability will be obtained.

James Radley, of Oldham, Lancashire, for improvements in the construction of guages for indicating the expansive pressure of steam, or other elastic vapours of gases used expansively as a medium of power.

Miles Berry, of Chancery-lane, civil engineer and mechanical draftsman, for improvements in power looms for weaving, being a communication from a foreigner residing abroad.

Nathaniel Partridge, of Elm Cottage, near Stroud, Gloucester, for a certain composition paste, or materials, as an anti-attrition, applicable to wheels and machinery generally.

Robert William Sievier, of Henrietta-street, Cavendish-square, for an improved water-proof cloth or fabric, made either elastic or non-elastic, applicable to various useful purposes, and for an improved manufacture of water-proof hats or caps.

Nathaniel Partridge, of Elm Cottage, near Stroud, Gloucestershire, for improvements in mixing and preparing oil paints, whereby a saving of ingredients commonly used, will be effected.

John Samuel Dawes, of Birmingham, iron master, for improvements in the manufacture of iron by the application of certain known materials, and for improvements in preparing such materials, and for the

recovery of certain products in the process of manufacturing iron.

Jeremiah Horsfall and James Kenyon, both of Addingham, Yorkshire, cotton-spinners, for improvements in engines used for carding cotton, wool, and other fibrous sub

stances.

John Bertie, of Basford, Nottinghamshire, lace-maker, for im provements in machinery for making bobbin-net lace, for the purpose of producing ornamental net or lace of various kinds.

John Houldsworth, of Glasgow, cotton-spinner, for certain improve ments applicable to drawing and slabbing frames, used in the manufacture of cotton and other fibrous substances, being a communication from a foreigner residing abroad.

Lightly Sampson, of Manchester, chemist, for an improvement in the preparation of certain colours to be used for printing cotton and other fabrics.

Frederick Hempel, of Prainenburg, in Prussia, Doctor of Chemistry, now residing in Great Portland-street, for improvements in oxidizing certain animal or vegetable substances, and for separating the several and different parts of such substances, and to render them by means of different operations, not only separately, but also in combination with other materials, capable of producing useful articles.

Daniel Dewhurst, of Preston; faxspinner, and Thomas Hope, Joseph Hope, and Isaac Hope, all of Manchester, for new and improved machinery for preparing flax and hemp, and for spinning flax, hemp, cotton; silk, and other fibrous substances.

William Carpmael, of Crawfordstreet, for improvements in locomotive steam-carriages, part of which are also applicable to steam-engines and boilers in general, being a communication from a foreigner residing abroad.

Robert Griffiths, of Birmingham, for improvements in machinery for making rivets, screw-blanks and bolts.

William Coles, of Charing-cross,

for improvements applicable to locomotive carriages.

John Osbaldeston, of Blackburn, for an improved method of making a metal heald or healds for the weaving of silk, woollen, worsted, cotton, ör any other fibrous substances.

Ovid Topham, of Whitecrossstreet, St. Luke's, engineer, for improvements in dressing, starching, cleaning, and drying lace or net, known by the trade by the term of getting-up lace or net.

John Warwick, of Three Kingscourt, Lombard-street, for an improved lock and key, being a communication from a foreigner residing abroad.

Henry Booth, of Liverpool; for his invention of an improved method of attaching railway carriages together, for the purpose of obtaining steadiness and smoothness of motion.

Pierre Erard, of Great Marlborough-street, for improvements on harps.

John Bailie; of Great Suffolk-street Southwark, and John Paterson, of Mincing-lane, for improvements in propelling of vessels and other floating bodies by means of steam or other power.

Thomas Howell, Bristol, for improvements in musical instruments.

Nicholas Troughton, of Broadstreet, London, for improvements in the process of obtaining copper from copper ores.

John Thomas Betts, of Smithfieldbars, for improvements in the process of preparing spirituous liquors in the making of brandy, being a conmunication from a foreigner residing abroad.

John Heatlicoat, of Tiverton; lace manufacture, for a method of weaving or manufacturing divers kinds of goods and wares, and for machines or machinery applicable thereto.

John Filmore Kingston, for a new rotary engine.

William Bulnois, the younger, for an improved combination or arrangement of springs for carriages.

Stephen Reed, for a method or invention of two improved hooks;

and an improved bow for corves, baskets, buckets, and other vessels which are conveyed, either loaded or empty, from one level to another, by being suspended and let down or drawn up, more especially for such corves, baskets, buckets, and other vessels as are used for the purpose of letting down their contents to a lower level, or of raising the same to a higher elevation, in mines, pits, wells, shafts, quarries, collieries, warehouses, factories, buildings, dock-yards; also in and about ships, boats, and vessels, and the tackling thereof, and other works; and, in general, in all works and cases where cranes, common hooks, and bows are now used.

John Baring, for certain improve ments in machinery, or apparatus for combing or brushing and separating wool. Communicated by a foreigner residing abroad.

Frederick Edward Harvey, for certain improvements in the process and machinery for manufacturing metallic tubes, and also in the process or machinery for forging or rolling metal for other purposes.

Edmund Ashworth and James Greenough, for certain improvements in the machinery used in preparing and spinning cotton, silk, wool, and other fibrous material.

Henry Adcock, for certain improvements in the loading and unloading of ships, brigs, schooners, and other vessels, especially applicable to the unloading of those vessels called colliers, which usually discharge their cargoes in that part of the River Thames, called the Pool, near London.

Alexander Massie, Robert Morton, William Ranwell, and Ebenezer Ranwell, for certain improvements in the construction of paddles, or paddle-wheels for propelling of vessels, which improvements are also applicable to the construction of waterwheels for mills.

Samuel Fenton, for an improvement or improvements in the construction of locks and latches for doors, gates, and other useful purposes.

Frederick Herbert Maberly, for improved machinery for raking, scraping, and sweeping roads or streets.

John Howard Kyan, for a new mode of preserving certain vegetable substances from decay. To extend only to his Majesty's colonies and plantations abroad.

Andrew Smith, for certain improvements in engines for exerting power for driving machinery, and for raising and lowering heavy bodies.

Charles Schafhautl, for an improved steam generator.

Joshua Procter Westhead, for an improved method of cutting caoutchouc, or India-rubber, leather, hides, and similar substances, so as to render them applicable to various useful purposes.

Michael Hodge Simpson, for certain improvements in machinery or apparatus for heckling or combing and preparing hemp, flax, tow, and other vegetable fibrous substances and also waste silk. Communicated by a foreigner residing abroad.

Joseph Lidel, for certain improvements in piano-fortes. Communicated by a foreigner residing abroad.

William Bucknall, for improvements in machinery for propelling vessels, and for water-wheels.

Frederick Chaplin, for an improvement in tanning hides and skins of certain descriptions.

Henry Martinson Robinson, for improvements in certain descriptions of lamps.

John Barsham, for improvements in the manufacture of oxalic acids, and salacetecella.

Francois Peyre, jun., for certain improvements in the means of economising fuel in ships' hearths, or cooking apparatus, and of obtaining distilled water from sea-water, which improvements apply to generating steam. Communicated by a foreigner residing abroad.

Clinton Gray Gilroy, for certain improvements in machinery for weaving plain and figured fabrics.

William Gilyard Scarth, and Robert