661] Varieties: Critical, Literary, and Historical. [662 nity, and are handed up in life, by their wantonness of this kind, in an exemplary father's friends, from one station to manner, and forbid the use of highanother in the service, until they are en- pressure engines such as this in steamabled to provide for themselves. As a boats, as a security to passengers, and proof of this emanation of genuine phi- as a protection to a navigating power so lanthropy, amongst this gallant race of essential in opposing the current of men, the following circumstance may be rivers. In this Magazine a foreign properly brought forward. correspondent has suggested the appliNot many years past, an unknown cation of a greater and a safer power benefactor gave three hundred pounds than steam, which is worthy of attention; per annum, to be divided among thirty and, in the use of steam itself, the fears sea-officers' widows. In order to ap- of the public inay removed by empreciate the merit of the competitors, ploying the steam-engine in a separate each who applies brings in a list of her vessel, with which to tow that which is children, and how they are provided for. laden with passengers or goods. Our We have with pleasure remarked, readers, too, cannot have forgotten, that that there is scarcely the name of one we lately submitted to them the project male, among the numerous offspring of of a TEAM or HORSE BOAT, the machinery thirty mothers, but what has some pro- of which may be worked by horses as in vision in the navy, and is, at least, in a common horse-mill; while the keep the right road to an honourable com- of the horses amounts, it is said, to less petence.-Europ. Mag. than the expence of the fuel in a steamboat. Madame STAFL is said to have sold her Memoirs of M. Neckar to an association of English, French, and German editors, for 4000l.; the work is to appear in the three languages at one time. An unfortunate accident befel a STEAMBOAT within the month at Norwich, which has damped the ardour of many friends to their general introduction. We have taken some pains to enquire into the circumstances, and we find no Dr. DRAKE, the elegant author of the ground of alarm, or any just ground of Literary Hours, has a new work in the objection to steam-boats generally, more than might be taken against culinary Times; including the biography of the press, entitled, Shakspeare and his fires, or lamps, or candles, from their poet, criticisms on occasionally setting houses on fire and writings, a disquisition on the object of his genius and burning persons to death; or against his sonnets, a new chronology of his stage-coaches, which are so often fatally overset; or against horses, which kill plays, and a history of the manners, cusabove a thousand persons in England toms and amusements, superstitions, annually; or to ships and boats, which poetry, and elegant literature, of his age. are cause of the death of tens of thousands We learn from the last London Mediin every year. Multitudes of the most cal Journal, that Datura Stramonium has powerful steam-engines are in daily use been exhibited with success in the form in every part of Great Britain, yet how of tincture, in asthmatic and catarrhal seldom are they a cause of any fatal catas- cases, by Mr. WARD, of Sloane-street; trophe. In this new application of them, and it merits notice, that Dr. MARCET an accident may be likely to result from has found an extract of Stramonium effiinexperience; and in this instance, at cacious in a very violent case of sciatica Norwich, the conductors of the boat and tic douloureux. are reported to be exceedingly blameable. In the same Medical Journal, Mr. It appears there was an opposition steam- BEECH, a chemist of Manchester, on the boat, and, in order that one might go important subject of gas-lights, states, off in high style, and run a-head of the that the oil of bitumen, or coal-tar, is other, the regulating valve was so fasten- considered by those who make and burn ed down that, when the danger became apparent, it could not be raised, and an explosion of the confined steam was inevitable. A law should punish proven gas, as waste; but, if coal-tar be mixed with dry saw-dust, spent logwood, or fustic, to the consistence of paste, and the samme remain until the water be drained 663] Varieties: Critical, Literary, and Historical [664 off, 2cwt. of the mass put into the retort, the county of Stafford, do hereby certify instead of coals, will produce more gas, and declare, that a few years ago, in and be less offensive, than the same working in a certain coal-pit belonging weight of cannel coal: and the process to the Right Honourable Viscount may be repeated till the whole of the tar is consumed into gas. This, he says, will not only be a saving of about one half the expence of coals, but will add to cleanliness and neatness, as the residuum is well known to have a very offensive odour. Dudley and Ward, at which is called the Pieces in the parish of Tipton aforesaid, and on cleaving or breaking the stratum of coal called the stone coal, which is about four feet thick, and in that situation lies about fifty yards from the earth's Early in the ensuing month will be surface-we discovered a living reptile, published, a Narrative of a Voyage to of the snake or adder kind, lying coiled Hudson's Bay, in the national ship up, imbedded in a small hollow cell Rosamond; containing some account of within the said solid coal, which might the north-eastern coast of America, and be about 20 tons in weight. The reptile of the tribes inhabiting that remote when discovered visibly moved, and soon region; illustrated with plates, by Lieut. afterwards crept out of the hole; but did EDW. CHAPPELL, of the British navy. not live longer than ten minutes on being The journal of CAPTAIN TUCKEY holds exposed to the air. The hollow in which out no encouragement to prosecute the it lay was split or cloven in two by means researches into that part of Africa which of an iron wedge; and was rather moist he visited. Beyond the determination at the bottom, but had no visible water. of a geographical problem, there is, it is It was nearly the size of a common teasaid, not a single benefit to be derived. saucer; and the reptile was about nine The inhabitants are represented as of inches long, of a darkish ashy colour, and the lowest scale of human beings, and a little speckled." have nothing to offer in exchange. The It is to be regretted that men of genius soil is hard and sterile: from the river should ever mistake the path in which Congo to the extremity of the progress nature has qualified them to walk with into the interior, a distance of 30 miles, grace and freedom. This appears to it was observed that the ravines only have been the case with Mr. MATURIN, were covered with a thick mould; the whose abilities, splendid as they unrest of the ground was rocky and full of doubtedly are, seem fitted rather for the stones. The scientific gentlemen, it is displays of poetic enchantment, and the added, employed in the expedition, felt reveries of a magnificent imagination, no interest in exploring this desert re- than for the portraiture of dramatic subgion, beyond what arose from the mere stantialities, or the creation of natural circumstance of their treading upon character. MANUEL is a beautiful and ground which till then had never been highly-coloured poem, of which the controd by any European. Intelligence has ceptions are vigorous, and the language is been received that Major Peddie, who eloquent; but which, we apprehend, commanded the other expedition, which was intended to penetrate from Senegal through the deserts to the banks of the Niger, has also fallen a victim to the climate. He died before he had reached the banks of the river, and was succeeded in the command by Lieut. Campbell, who, we understand, proceeded to carry into execution the object of the expedition. Two lizards were lately discovered in a chalk-bed in Suffolk, sixty feet below the surface, and the publication of this fact has given rise to the following affidavit-"We, William Mills and John Fisher, both of the parish of Tipton in will scarcely become a theatrical favorite. in FAMILIES by DR. SIMS. Take as many gallons of water as wil! fill the third of the bathing tub you intend to use. To this add about as much common sea salt as there is water; it the water be boiling at the time of using 665] Varieties: Critical, Literary, and Historical. RHEUMATISM. [666 it, the whole will be immediately dissolved; if not, some of the salt will re- Light infusions of ginger alone, taken main granulated at the bottom at first, twice or thrice a-day, have been found but will be gradually dissolved after- very efficacious by the French surgeons wards. This bath will keep good any in rheumatic affections. The pains are number of years, and is not expensive in rendered at first more excruciatingthe end. Nervous, weak persons, for then follows copious perspiration and whom bracing is requisite, often cannot relief, bear a bath of common water-nay, Exhibition of the sOCIETY OF PAINTERS even of sea water; but they will always IN OIL AND WATER COLOURS. bear this without injury. It may be employed in the midst of frost and snow hibition presents fresh claims to pubEvery succeeding year of this exwithout danger of catching cold. Per lic patronage. The list of its mem sons come out of it with a glow on their bers comprises many, who by their talent skin, and very agreeable sensations. A and industry are not only highly creditasponge or towel may also be wetted with ble to the Society, but who cast around the brine, and used all over the body the British school of art some of its choiwhere the bathing-tub cannot. cest honours. In the department of his The admirers of elegant disquisition, torical painting it is decidedly inferior to and chaste and lively humour, have re- the Royal Academy or Royal Institution; cently been favoured by two very plea- but in landscape painting it may claim a sant volumes, published under the title superiority over any annual exhibition in of The Round Table.' This work, London or in Paris. The pencil of TURconsisting of essays printed under the NER, of CALLCOTT, and of a few others, same denomination in the Examiner, are adorn and ennoble the walls of the instinow collected together and given to the tutions boasting a royal name, but the reworld with additions and improvements. maining productions in this branch of the The title of Round Table' originated art are imbecile and inferior, and in numin the agreement of a knot of friends, to ber far exceed their more meritorious supply a series of essays on literature and companions; whilst in the exhibition of manners, for the Journal above-mention- this modest but excellent society the great ed; but the plan was followed up only proportion of pictures in landscape painby two of them-Messrs. Hazlitt and ting, possess at least the merit of being Leigh Hunt. Assumed character, at well studied and well composed, and this time, is rather an incumbrance than most of them are of a very high and valuan advantage to popular dissertation; able character, both to the artists themand the ingenious lucubrations of these selves and to the arts of Britain. Warm, two gentlemen as now given to the world, however, as we are in our approbation of are relieved by dropping an expedient, the beautiful landscapes, to some of the which, from continual repetition, has be- few historical compositions which occur come vapid and tedious. The Round we must direct the primary notice of our Table' is, therefore, to be considered readers :simply as a brief collection of essays, rendered peculiarly attractive by the Hel. "We, Hermia,like two artificial gods, well-known fineness of tact of the two Have with our needles created both one flower, contributors, and the exquisite originality Both on one sampler." Mid. Night Dream. of mind, and breathing freedom displayed This is an elegant and masterly illusin their critical observations, especially tration of one of those beautiful images upon the poets; and,ve all, upon of Shakspeare, which unites the peculiarly Shakspeare. The view taken of men tender recollections of infancy, and the and manners,too, evinces the same polish- cemented feelings of maturer years. Two ed acumen; and there is little doubt but this small work will find a welcome place in the libraries of the polished and cultivated portion of British society. Eng. Mag. Vol. I. Hermia and Helena. JOSEPH Severn. sylph-like figures are seen, alike in form, alike in poetical and exalted character, occupied in creating " both one flower, both one sampler." A profusion of flowers are scattered around their embroidery, 667] Varieties: Critical, Literary, and Historical, [668 and the light coming in solely at one the part they bear in the general joy window, throws an equal and undivided occasioned by the result of this painful light on the two figures. A more con- trial. The figure of Daniel is very well genial union of painting and poetry we conceived and executed. The husband never saw; and we entreat Mr. Severn is a fine picture, of robust manhood, and (whose works till now have escaped our the wife exhibits the dark commanding observation) to pursue a path in which character of Jewish beauty in great perhe is well qualified to tread, and to occu- fection. The flesh of the legs of the py his pencil in embodying the scattered executioner, whose back is towards the and lovely passages of him, "who was spectators, is rather too smooth and not for an age, but for all time." glossy, but it is almost invidious to seek for faults in a performance abounding as this does in beauties both of design and execution. Latona, and the Lycian Peasants. J. CRISTALL. Is a very beautiful picture in oils, a style but latterly adopted by the painter. He An Essay is printing on Capacity and has however succeeded in maintaining Genius: endeavouring to prove that there his peculiar character of force and im- is no original mental superiority between portance. His figures remind one the most illiterate and the most learned strongly of the antique: a breadth of of mankind, and that no genius, whether muscle, and boldness of contour is ob- individual or national, is innate, but servable, which is rarely found in union solely produced by, and dependant on, with so much knowledge of landscape circumstances; followed by an enquiry painting. The goddess is seen clasping into the nature of ghosts and other apto her exhausted breast her two infants, pearances supposed to be supernatural. the surly and barbarous clowns not only Mr. HENRY RICHTER has presented refusing water to her parched lips, but purposely rendering it unfit and foul, the amateurs and professors of the fine The scenery is beautiful and romantic; collect to have seen, under the title of arts with as pleasing an essay as we rethe marshy spring covered with floating collect to have seen, under the title of vegetation is admirably managed, and Day-light, a recent Discovery in Painting." He has adopted the fiction of a dialogue between some modern critics and the ghosts of certain ancient painters, at an exhibition of their works, which and witness their transformation into frogs. is supported with great spirit and originality. The author is nevertheless more The Judgment of Daniel. BROKEDON. intelligent when he expresses his good This picture, the production of a gen- common sense on the subject of Art, than tleman, with whose works we have been when he wanders into the labyrinths of hitherto unacquainted, promises many the Kantean philosophy, the due comof the first requisites of an historical prehension of which evidently depends composition. The story is delightfully more on faith than on reason. Every and feelingly told. The grouping is picturesque and natural, and the colour-page, however, proves that Mr. Richter is a man of research and genius. ing and management of the subordinate A new edition of Philidor on Chess is parts perfectly just and happy. The Elders, who have been just detected in nearly ready, with considerable improvetheir fruitless endeavour to vituperate ments, and an original portrait of the Susannah, are on the one hand of Daniel, author. the accompaniments are so characteristic that one expects every moment to see the deserved punishment befall the clowns, and on the other hand, the husband Mons. DomoN has discovered that exulting in the complete acquittal of his the bark of the pyramidal ash, in powinjured wife, and the intended victim der, thrown into the boiling juice of the herself in meek and grateful adoration, sugar-cane, effects its clarification; the turning her tear-swoln eye to that heaven planters of Guadaloupe had given hun which has befriended her innocence and 100,000 francs, and those of Martinique virtue. Her aged father, and the other a like sum, for communicating his dekindred of her house, evince strongly covery. €69] Varieties: Critical, Literary, and Historical. [670 We are reminded of the literary plea- table performance-but when we comsures of our youth in the appearance of pare it with the masterly and vehement a third volume of Mr. d'Israeli's Curi- version of Dryden, or even the inferior, osities of Literature. We remember no though harmonious and correct, translawork since their first appearance, that tion of Pitt-we are compelled to say, has gratified our palate to an equal de- that Dr. Symmons does not shine with gree. They did not consist of sirloin and the lustre we could wish to behold in all plum-pudding, but they presented a feast the works of so excellent a man, and of sweetmeats and delicacies, derived elegant a scholar. The House of from all seasons and countries, which Mourning, by Mr. JouN SCOTT, is a were capable of gratifying a literary epi- poem replete with rich, but gloomy, cure. The present volume sparkles less fancy, such as may be imagined to chawith that vivacity of manner, which, in racterise the efforts of a powerful imahis former works, has sometimes been gination, exercised upon a subject so ascribed to the author as a fault ;-in this afflicting as the premature death of a feature he seems to have corrected him- darling and blooming son. We might self, while, in his discrimination of sub- advance a few legitimate objections as jects, he has been quite as happy as in to metre and cadence, but sacred be the his former volumes. His entire table of accents of sorrow, and revered the deep contents is, in truth, a list of curiosities, and heavy sadness that breathes in the and no book ever answered better to its lines of him-who was a father. Of pretensions. The Historical Essay on Mr. P. BAYLEY's Idwal, we regret that Pantomimical Characters, on Charles the we cannot speak in terms calculated to First and his Queen, and on Licensers encourage the author in his design of of the Press, are peculiarly pleasing and publishing the poem, of which the preoriginal; the Anecdotes of Audley the sent is only a part. The verse is laMiser, of Felton, and of Tea and Coffee, boured, tame, and diffuse, abounding in are rare and curious; and the defences expletives, and deficient in the fire and of Defoe, and of the partizans of Mary energy, the vivida vis animi of poetic inStuart, are just and generous; while spiration. The Bower of Spring, by the every article is marked by the good taste author of "the Paradise of Coquettes," of its criticisms, by the propriety of its is a beautiful effort of imagination; the selection, and by the purity and elegance diction is peculiarly soft and splendid, of its style. Mr. d'Israeli has had many and the fancy of the reader is at once imitators, and he must expect to see warmed and dazzled by the glowing many others, but he will have few rivals loveliness of its conception and imagery. in this walk of literature. In this department we are called upon The grand desideratum of rendering with pleasure to notice a new producsea water potable, seems at length to be tion of the Nestor of modern poets, in attained by simple distillation. The an Epistle to the Emperor of China, on French chemists have been unable to his uncourtly and impolite Behaviour discover, in distilled sea water, any par- to the sublime Ambassador of Great ticle of salt or soda in any form; and, it is Britain, by Dr. JOHN WOLCOT (olim ascertained, that one cask of coals will Peter Pindar, esq.), who, at the age of serve to distil six casks of water. A fourscore, has recalled to memory the vessel going on a voyage of discovery by order of the French government, commanded by M. Freycinet, will only take fresh water for the first fortnight; but, instead thereof, coals, which will be but one-sixth of the tonnage; distilled sea water being perfectly as good as fresh To scourge a monarch of the East, water that has been a fortnight on board. A lord of Britain, and advent'rous knight." For mocking monarchs of the West, POEMS.-In Poetry, Dr. SYMMONS' An advertisement annexed announces a translation of the Aneis, from the magni- lyric epistle to Lord Amherst and Sir tude and difficulty of the attempt,claims our George Staunton, by the same venerable first consideration. It is, we grant,a respec- and inimitable bard.-Mon. Mag. age of the Lousiad. The motto indi cates the resurrection of the veteran poet, after a silence of several years :-"I, who dropp'd the Muse's quill, And long bad left the Aonian bill, Start from my slumbers with my wonted might; |