one was speaking, pushing, defending his luggage against the porters, and uncertain what to do. Nor did the gendarme, who received us on the steps, show any disposition to assist us by givng us information. He confined his speaking to merely asking for our passports.

I at length quitted the boat with above half-a-dozen of porters, one carrying my portmanteau, one my sac de nuit, a third my great coat, and a fourth my umbrella,-while three or four more followed pestering me to give them something to carry; and, as I moved onward, I still kept a sharp eye upon my French baggage-bearers. Near the searching-house, I met a British looking man, who asked me in English if I came from the Paris hotel at Dover. This I afterwards found to be Mr. Maurice, the master of the hotel to which I was going. He sent off a young man with me, and said the baggage would be perfectly safe. I still, how ever, kept now and then looking behind with some apprehension. Had I then known the French honesty in these points I should have been quite at my

ease.

I had long neglected my French, and I was very rusty in it. I resolved, how ever, to use it on every occasion. But that language sinks so many letters in pronunciation, while the natives speak this shortened dialect with such rapidity, that it is extremely difficult for a foreigner at first to follow them. In vain I said doucement, doucement, parlez doucement. They all hurried on as fast as ever, and I was still left in the lurch. The French pronunciation may be said to be a short-hand with respect to the spelling.

I soon found the inconvenience of not being able to understand them. It was in vain I contrived to ask a question. They seem by no means to be a quick people in conceiving your meaning. In this point I found them far inferior to our own people. I did, however, generally succeed in making them comprehend me; but, from their short-hand pronunciation, I could not understand them. I was therefore at a great loss, and, at first not a little uncomfortable.

On reaching the hotel I was left to shift for myself. I found my way to the box office, and I contrived to ascertain,

that, as I was a passenger all through, I might, if I chose, set off that evening at seven. I did choose this, and now I became anxious to recover my passport in time.

THE RIGHT HON. GEORGE PONSONBY.

Died on the 8th Aug. in Curzon street, the right honourable George Ponsonby, many years an ornament of the Irish and British Houses of Parliament; and, since the death of Mr. Fox, the ostensible leader of the old Whig party.

Mr. Ponsonby was the younger son of the right honourable John Ponsonby, speaker of the Irish House of Commons, brother of the late Earl of Besborough, by lady Elizabeth Cavendish, daughter of William, third Duke of Devonshire. Called at an early age to the bar, and possessing, for his rank, but a slender fortune, he was appointed counsel to the commissioners of the revenue, with the emoluments of which he was satisfied-spending a considerable portion of his time in rural retirement; but a change of ministry, which divested him of his place, roused him into activity, and laid the foundation of his political life.

In the same year he became a leading member in the Irish House of Commons, and at the bar. His professional practice opened the road to riches, while the necessary exertions subdued a constitutional indolence, which might otherwise have settled into habit. Thus his removal from place, at first contemplated as an evil, eventually proved a good; and put him at once in possession of healthful spirits, fame, and fortune. Always acting in concert with the party of his noble relative, the Duke of Devonshire, he was, on the change of administration in 1806, appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland, which office he resigned in 1807; and, on Lord Grey's removal to the Upper House, he suc· ceeded him as nominal leader of the opposition in the House of Commons. His time having been for the greater part previously spent in Ireland, and his mind occupied with Irish interests, this period may be considered as the commencement of his political career as a British

senator.

Like the Great Lord Chatham, he died in the service of his country-being seized with a fit a few minutes after he had spoken in debate. He died on the

eighth day afterwards; his second son having arrived express from Ireland only a few minutes after his death.

Mr. Ponsonby was one of those very estimable characters who fill a private station in the most amiable and exemplary manner, and a public one with propriety and integrity. His talents were more useful than splendid; more suited to the arrangement of affairs, and the detail of business, and the tranquil investigation of truth, than capable of obtaining a command over the under standing of others, of dazzling by their brilliancy, or controlling by their powers. He was, in truth, an honest, sincere, steady man; and his eloquence was naturally adapted to the level tenor of his mind. He never aspired to the lofty splendor of a Sheridan; and was incapable of the quick conception and rapid elocution of a Fox. The ardent spirit of his own party so far ran beyond bim in their attacks, that they almost forgot they fought under his colours; to whom, therefore, he was rather a point d'appui after the battle, than a leader in the field.

As the leader of a great political party, no man was ever more free from party spirit: he was, in feeling and principle, the very man contemplated by those who consider a systematic opposition a necessary safeguard to the constitutional rights and liberties of England. The ingenuousness of his mind, the kindness of his heart, and the placability of his manners, conciliated his opponents, and assuaged all those feelings which defeat excites; and, if his triumphs were not more numerous, it was because the candour and generosity of his mind disdained to take advantage of his adversaries, whenever he thought them right. Where that was the case, all party feeling vanished before his political integrity; and, on many critical occasions, he gave his adversaries the support of his learning and talents. No. bly disdaining all selfish views, he was here no longer the leader of a party: he showed himself the resolute, fixed, and unalterable, friend of constitutional freedom.

He was in his 63d year, having been born the 5th of March, 1755: by his wife, Lady Mary Ponsonby, sister of the late Earl of Lanesborough, who survives him, he has left one son and one daughter, who is married to the honour.

able F. Prittie, brother of Lord Dunally.

Spenser.

IN Tod's Life of Spenser, in which there is to be found much valuable information regarding the studies and pursuits of this great man, and the state of English literature at that period, there is a curious letter of Spenser's friend, Harvey, in which he recommends to the author of the Faery Queen the study of Petrarch. "Think upon Petrarche, and perhappes it will advaunce the wings of your imagination a degree higher-at least if any thing can be added to the loftiness of his conceite, whom gentle Mistress Rosalind once reported to have all the intelligences at commandment, and another time christened him Signor Pegaso." The gentle Mistress Rosalind, here mentioned, was a lady to whom Spenser were early attached. It shows the poetical conversations with which he and his mistress must have entertained themselves, alluding, as Tod says, to the pleasant days that were gone and past,-for the lady deserted Signor Pegaso, and married his rival. In July 1580, Spenser was, by the influence of the Earl of Leicester and Sir Philip Sydney, appointed secretary to Lord Grey, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He afterwards received, on his return to England, a grant of a considerable property in the county of Cork from Queen Elizabeth. His residence, every spot around which is classical ground, is described by Smith in his Natural and Civil History of the County of Cork. The castle was then nearly level with the ground. It must have been a noble situation: a plain almost surrounded by mountains, with a lake in the middle; and the river Mulla so often mentioned by Spenser, running through his grounds. In this romantic retreat he was visited by the noble and injured Sir Walter Releigh, himself an accomplished scholar, and poet, under whose encouragement he committed his Faery Queen to the press.

CHINA

The following statistical account of this immense empire may perhaps at the present moment excite some interest:Extent of empire in sq. miles, 1,297,990 The same in acres, 830,719,360

Number of inhabitants, Revenues in sterling,

The revenues amount to 8 1-2d. a year each; so that as the British revenue stood in 1815, before the abolition of the income-tax, one person in England paid as much as 180 in China.

Industry in China is, nevertheless, carried to the highest degree; and there are not to be found in China either idle persons or beggars. Every small piece of ground is cultivated, and produces something useful; and all sorts of grain are planted, not sowed, by which more seed is saved than would supply all the inhabitants of Britain and Ireland.

In that country every one labours, and even rocks are covered with earth, and made to produce. The sides of mountains are cultivated, and irrigation is very general, and conducted with great art and care. Cloth and paper are made from various vegetables, which in Europe are thrown aside as useless.

In one word, they neither waste time, nor space, nor materials, and pay scarcely any taxes; nevertheless they are so poor, that is, they enjoy so few of the necessaries of life, that the law permits the stifling of new born children, when the parents have not the means of bringing them up.

This account is said to be from the best authorities, and affords abundance of materials for thinking to our speculative economists; but if any thing were wanting to complete the strange result of such a population and so much industry, it is, that the Chinese despise all other nations, but most of all commercial ones, and that they have always as much as possible insisted on having gold or silver in exchange for what they sell to strangers.

Lord Amherst and suite arrived at Canton on the 1st of January. The failure of the embassy is known to have arisen from the demand of the Chinese of the abject ceremony of prostration, which lord Amherst resisted, not only on general principles of national dignity, but on the precedent established by Lord Macartney. The embassy, though not admitted to the emperor's presence, was, however, treated in its way back with great and indeed unexampled at

The last despatches from captain Maxwell of the Alceste frigate at Canton, communicate very important geographical information. It appears, that after the ships under his direction quitted the gulf of Pe-tche-lie, they stood across the gulf of Leatong, saw the great wall winding up one side of the steep mountains and descending the other, down into the gulf, and instead of meeting with the eastern coast of Corea, in the situation assigned it in the several charts, they fell in with an archipelago, consisting of at least one thousand islands, amongst which were the most commodious and magnificent harbours: and the real coast of the Corean, peninsula, they found situate at least 120 miles farther to the eastward. Captain Maxwell from hence proceeded with the other ships to the Leiou-Kieou islands, where they met with an harbour eqaually as capacious as that of Port Mahon, in Minorca, experiencing from the poor but kind hearted inhabitants of those places the most friendly reception.

ITALY.

It is a general opinion, that the atmosphere of Italy is clearer than that of France or England, and therefore much better fitted for astronomical observations. But this opinion, in regard to the so called garden of Europe, the soidissant terrestrial paradise, is false.Pond, the astronomer royal, says that it is not a country for practical astronomy, and that the climate of England is much more advantageous, and has more clear days. The prevailing wind in Italy is the south, which brings rain in winter, and fog in summer. Even Naples does not possess an astronomical climate. In the winter season, rains like those of the tropical regions deluge the country for ten or twelve weeks; and in summer, the air exhibits all the silvery and pearly hues known to the painter. If we look at the landscapes of the Italian school, we at once obtain a conception of the atmosphere of Italy. Florence has been celebrated for its fine climate and clear sky. Those who have made this observation, probably never heard of the proverb, "Qu'on ne comprend pas qu'en

y peut vivre en éte et n'y pas mourir en hiver. Even Genoa, the climate of which is so much admired, is named the Urinale dell' Italia. Astronomical instruments suffer there from moisture more in a few months than in France in as many years.

Brocchi, a distinguished Italian naturalist, has discovered, in the neighbourhood of Veletri, columnar basalt, resting upon a bed of pumice, which contains bones of quadrupeds.

General Count Camillo Borgia has lately returned to Naples from Africa, after having been engaged in antiquarian researches for nearly two years in the neighbourhood of Tunis. He established such an interest with the Bey and his ministers, as to obtain an unqualified permission to examine the antiquities of that country. He caused considerable excavations in various places; especially on the site of the ancient Carthage, and at Utica; and the general result of his labours has been, that, along the coast, and in the interior, he has examined the ruins of more than 200 cities and towns, and made copies and drawings of 400 ancient inscriptions and remains, hitherto unpublished and unknown. Among the inscriptions are son e which appear to be in the ancient Punic language. The most important of the public buildings which have been discovered, is a Temple at Utica, containing 80 columns of oriental granite, and a statue of the goddes Flora. He is at present employed in arranging his materials, and preparing the result of his discoveries for the press.

A Miser starved to death.-Friday the 16th, Mr. Omer, of Great Castle Street, Oxford Market, not having seen James Alexander, a man who rented the back garret in his house, for several days, broke open the door of his room, and found him quite dead. The officers searched the place, and in a remote corner found bills, &c. to the amount of 12000, which will all fall to a distant relation at Edinburgh. The deceased was by trade a journeyman carpenter, and had worked for Messrs. Nichols and Ralph, in Well Street, for near twenty years. About twelve years ago they fined him a guinea for being detected stealing the workmen's victuals from a cupboard appropriated to their use; on that occasion he would have hung

Chatham, July 1. In the paper on dry-rot, which you were good enough to insert in your Magazine for May,* I have traced out what I consider to be the cause of that pro

cess.

I now beg your insertion of the following plan to prevent it. As I consider all methods for curing timber al, ready infected futile, I shall proceed to show how timber may be procured, so as to be able to resist its attacks.

I take the felling of timber at an improper season to be the predisposing cause, the presence of the water and of heat the operating and stimilating causes of the process. At that time of the year that timber is felled it is now full of the sap and peculiar juices; it is in the full vigour of vegetation; turgid with the abundance of its various juices, the vessels are distended to their utmost capacity, and the tree is less solid than at any other time of the year. It is cut down in this state; a quantity of its juices flow out, but a much larger quantity is reretained in its vessels, and these are not to be expelled. Long, very long seasoning after the usual method, is requi site to deprive them of their vegetative powers, and when that is effected, the timber is neither so strong nor durable as that felled in the autumn or winter. Mr. Knight has shown that winter-felled timber is more dense than that which is cut in the spring, or early part of sum-" mer. He cut two oak poles from the same stool, the one in May, the other after leaf-fall; these were dried for six weeks by a fire; he then found that the specific gravity of the winter-felled to be 0,679, that of the spring-felled 0,609. Here, then, is a decisive proof of the superior quality of winter felled-timber.

* See Analectic Magazine for September 1817, p. 261.