Duchess ran to a window, and beheld with the eye of jealousy the Baron and M. de Ferriolles alight."

The lecturer next proceeded to offer some remarks on the grammars and dictionaries generally used in teaching the French language. "An immense number of French grammars have already been published in this country, and every month produces a new one; but notwithstanding the ostentatious pretensions of some, and the quackish titles of others, I do not find they are better, or even so good, as those that are now commonly used by the generality of teachers, I mean Hamel's, Levizac's, and Wanostrocht's, and were I to express my humble opinion on the merit of these three last mentioned works, I should say that an excellent grammar might be compiled by combining the simple plan of Hamel's with the grammatical knowledge of Levizac's, and the familiar exercises of Wanostrocht's. After all, it matters little what grammar a master uses. An efficient instructor should be able to supply the place of the grammar, and indeed to give a great deal of explanation that is not found in it. As to the dictionaries, there is nothing that calls more loudly for improvement. I do not hesitate to assert that there good English and French, or French and English dictionary extant. Boyer's Dictionary is very defective, Levizac's, in spite of its improvements, is bad enough, and Nugent's is the worst of all. They are not only very deficient in examples of French idioms, and behind the present state of the French language as relates to the more modern and newly-established modes of expression, but of the words in the most common use, some are altogether omitted, others are translated in such a manner as to mislead entirely the French student."

not one

Here the lecturer adduced many examples in proof of the justice of his charge. We regret that our limits will not allow us to follow the lecturer in his remarks on the different modes of teaching the French language, and especially on the system called the Hamiltonian. He illustrated the utility of exercises on Homonymous words by relating an adventure which occurred to Mr. Reynolds, the dramatist, and in which he cut rather an awkward figure. An account of the scene, which took place at Dessein's Hotel, at Calais, is extracted from that portion of his diary which describes his excursion to the continent, when about seventeen years of age, on some business for his father:-" Wanting to walk on the Pier," says Mr. Reynolds, "I asked the garçon, who spoke English very tolerably, the French for it. He, thinking as Milord Anglais, I could mean nothing but peer, a lord, 'replied pair. Away I then went, and passing over the market-place and draw-bridge, stumbled on the pier, without having had occasion to inquire my way to it by the garçon's novel appellation-there I remained, strutting my half hour, till dinner time. At the table d'hôte, the Commandant of the troops of the town sat next to me, and among other officers and gentlemen at the table, were the President of the Council at Ratisbon, a Russian Count, and several Prussians; in all amounting to about twenty, not one of whom (as it appeared to me) spoke a word of English. I thought I could never please a Frenchman so much as by praising his town: "Monsieur," I said condescendingly to the Commandant, "J'ai vu votre pair," meaning I have seen your pier; but which he naturally understood, I have seen your father. This address from a perfect stranger surprised him. "Il est beau et grand, Monsieur," I continued. The Commandant examined me from head to foot with an astonishment that imparted to me an almost equal share. I saw there was a mistake, and I attempted to explain, by pronouncing very articulately, Oui, Monsieur, j'ai vu votre pair-votre pair, sur le hâvre." "Eh bien, Monsieur," replied the Commandant, "Et que vous a-t-il dit? (What did he say to you?) I was astounded, and looking round the room for the keeper of the supposed madman, I discovered that the eyes of the whole company were upon me. "Monsieur," I cried, again attempting to explain, with as much deliberation and precision, and in as good French as I could command"Monsieur, est-il possible que vous résidiez ici et que vous ne connaissiez pas votre pair-votre pair-si long!" This speech only increased the incomprehensibility of the whole conversation; and the Commandant beginning, in rather haut en bas terms, to demand an explanation, like all cowards, when driven into a corner, I became desperate. Messieurs," I cried, somewhat boisterously, "Il faut que vous connaissiez votre pair! le pair de votre ville, qui est fait de pierre, et a la tête de bois.' This was the coup de grâce to all decorum; every Frenchman abandoned himself to his laughter, till the room fairly shook with their shouts, and even the Commandant himself could not help joining them. "Allow me, Sir," said a May, 1835.-vol. II. NO. X.

20

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gentleman whom I had not previously observed" My dear Sir," interrupted 1, you are an Englishman, pray, pray explain." Sir," he replied, "you have just told this gentleman, pointing to the Commandant, that his father is the father of the whole town, that he is made of stone, and has a wooden head!" I was paralyzed. "Tell me," I cried, as if my life depended on an answer" what is the French for pier 2" "Jetée," he replied. I had scarcely sense enough left to assist the Englishman in his good-natured attempts to unravel the error. succeeded, however, and then commenced, in French, an explanation to the officers. At this moment, the waiter informed me that the St. Omer diligence was about to depart. I rushed from the scene of my disgrace, and stepped into the vehicle, just as the termination of the Englishman's recital exploded an additional éclat de rire at my expense."

He

After some further remarks on the Hamiltonian system of teaching languages in fifty lessons, the lecturer concluded with observing that, "if Mr. Hamilton (or any one who teaches on the same plan) had the good fortune to fulfil that which their system promises, young and old, pupils and masters, would be eager to learn a secret of such virtue, and that this method would then be adopted by all—but unfortunately, there is no rail-road yet to the acquirement of the French language, and until it has been practically demonstrated that the power of steam can be applied to the acceleration of improvement in the mental faculties, other professors will continue to follow their own system, varying it according to the age, abilities, and application of the pupil, and introducing all those modifications that may be deemed necessary. They will continue to teach without fixing any limit to their instruction, because they are persuaded that the acquisition of knowledge can only be obtained by labour. Let us then be persuaded by fact and experience. All those who have learned languages, and have desired to know them thoroughly, that is, to speak and write them with grammatical purity, were obliged to labour hard, and all those who wish to learn them in this manner, must labour hard also. A fair method of teaching on the part of the master, assiduity and application on the part of the pupil, may accelerate this desirable end, but will never be able to convey the power to go beyond the bounds which the Author of Nature has assigned to the human intellect. Let every man, who is desirous of knowledge, be persuaded of this incontestable truth, and then he will neither be disappointed in his pursuits, nor become the victim of his own credulity.

BIRMINGHAM MECHANICS' INSTITUTION.

We have received from a correspondent the last Annual Report of the Birmingham Mechanics' Institution, and are glad to perceive that it is advancing in public estimation as well as in utility. In this Institution a weekly lecture is delivered on some subject connected with physical or moral science;-with the arts, history, or literature-classes are open four evenings in each week for the study of writing, arithmetic, mathematics, drawing, and the Latin and French languages-and the books, in a library of about 1100 volumes, circulate freely among the subscribers.

The lectures, partly by gratuitous and partly by stipendiary lecturers, during the last year, have been on the following subjects:-Electricity, Pneumatics, Mental Arithmetic, Geology, Insect Transformations, Linear Perspective, Botany, Rowley Rag, Gravitation, the Human Voice, Architecture, Education (by Mr. John Smith, of Liverpool), the Study of Languages, a Course of Twelve Lectures on Chemistry (by Mr. Woolrich, the Lecturer to the Medical School of Birmingham), the Properties of the Atmosphere, the Temperature of the Earth, Temperance and Temperance Societies (by J. S. Buckingham, Esq. M. P.), Elocution and Oratory, three Lectures (by Mr. Chas. Pemberton), a highly-interesting gratuitous Exhibition and Elucidation of the Hydro-Oxygen Microscope, by Mr. Carter.

Vigorous efforts are making to raise funds for the erection of a Hall, or building for the entire purposes of the Institution, which, the Committee conceive-and we think justly-will greatly conduce to the prosperity of the Institution. Among the contributors to this fund, we are pleased to discover the names of the Rev. T. J. Law, the respectable Chancellor of the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, the Members for the borough of Birmingham, and several gentlemen who are

familiar to us, and highly esteemed in that town. The President for the current year is Sir E. Eardley Wilmot, M. P.

The Report concludes thus:- "Such then is your position as to the regular action of the Institution. The classes more than ever satisfactorily conducted; the library gradually increasing, and its utility recognized; and the lectures as well in prospect as in retrospect,-for utility and interest, equal, or superior to those of any former period.

"Your Committee also consider the pecuniary affairs of the Institution to be in a sound and healthy state. Enjoying a much larger income than usual from subscriptions and check receipts during the past year, a small portion only has been applied to the gradual reduction of the remaining debts outstanding, and the remainder has been liberally, and they trust, judiciously expended in the purchase of those intellectual advantages to which they have adverted; and this expenditure has reacted, and if the anticipations of your Committee be not falsified by coming events, will continue to react, by inducing the rapid increase of the list of Members; so that the Mechanics' Institution of Birmingham may continue to advance in prosperity, and to extend its useful action,-may take rank in the public eye, amongst the most valuable establishments of the town,-and claim, from its magnitude and importance, as well as from the excellence of its conduct,-the admiration and the willing aid, as well as the cordial approbation of the inhabitants of this town and neighbourhood, of every rank and of every shade of opinion; taking its full share in the great work of the development of the powers of the human mind,—urging on the approach of the period, when shall be realized the aspirations of the purest and soundest philanthropy,-'The SAME Education, and THE BEST, for ALL CLASSES."

To our copy of the Report are appended some letters on the subject, which have appeared in the Birmingham Journal, signed "W. H. S.," from which we present the following extracts :

"I hear and read assertions and statements of facts, produced to show that the great bulk of the population, in the most civilized countries, are oppressed by existing circumstances, deficient in those means of enjoyment, which ought, under wise arrangements, to be attainable by every human being;-that their condition is, in short, far inferior to what it ought to be, speaking as philanthropists,—what it might be, speaking as statists, and in reference to our national resources. I may be told that I am querulous and fanciful; that the condition of the population generally, of these kingdoms for instance, has, in fact, greatly improved during the last half century; that the working classes were never better, never so well taught, fed, clothed, and housed, as at present. It may be so, and I believe it is so, but the improvement is comparatively trivial, and the complaints continue. Men have not their due, and they are, and ought to be, discontented. The prevalent discontent, in truth, properly considered, so far from being an evil to be deprecated, is one of the most favourable signs of the times. How is it,' asks an able periodical writer, 'that the mechanic of the present day is at the same time better off and more dissatisfied than were the operatives of past generations? He has more knowledge, more mind-he WANTS more. He believes that more is to be had, and, eventually, he will have it. Very silly it is to lecture him out of his craving. It is nature's provision for the progress of society. You cannot stay the change-why should you ?'"

*

"These anticipations are now very generally entertained, and these opinions indulged by the soundest and most reflective political economists. * * degree and mode of physical amelioration to be desired varies according to the varying impressions of the several individuals, but in the means all agree. EDU CATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION, is the universal cry. Education-full, free, and equal, without distinction of class or caste."

*

The

"The people,' observes Mr. Chandos Leigh, 'cannot know too much, but they may easily know too little.'* There is is in this short sentence a terseness and a

The following is an extract of a letter from Chandos Leigh, Esq. to the Vice-President of the Mechanics' Institution, dated "Stoneleigh Abbey, Dec. 16, 1834. "No man is more favourable to Mechanics' Institutions than myself, and I trust they will be established throughout the kingdom. To use the beautiful language of Robert Hall: 'They are the expedients for forming a sound and virtuous population. If there be any truth in the figure by which society is compared to a pyramid, it is on them its stability chiefly depends. The elaborate ornaments at the top will be a wretched compensation for

condensity which give it the character of an aphorism. It is marked by a frankness and a boldness worthy of the English gentleman; the man of wealth whose acres are counted by thousands; the lord of estates whose unbroken circuit is measured by miles. And shall a man holding so large a stake in the country fearlessly avow his conviction that from knowledge diffused with measureless liberality, no evil need be feared, but that it is the ground of the most lively hope? And shall the leaders of a sagacious and active commercial manufacturing community, with prudish coyness, coldly hesitate their doubts of the safety of diffused intelligence, look on indifferently, or prefer to remain ignorant of the proceedings of the institution, an allusion to which called forth the burst of zealous philanthropy just quoted? "When the value and capacity of the human mind are considered, how monstrous seems the absurdity, how culpable the waste, of suffering that inestimable gift of the Creator, which causes its possessor to rank but a little lower than the angels,' to be disregarded-such a mine of wealth to lie unworked-such a treasure to be hidden in a napkin, instead of being put out to profitable usury by action and cultivation! Who would not laugh at the prodigal stolidity of the man who, having the command of a machine with power to move mountains, should employ it only in drawing of corks and polishing of boots? But such folly were but a type of that which would forbid and impede, or would wilfully neglect to assist in the improvement of the minds of men and of women!"

"Of all the powers put into action for the attainment of the great end, to which I alluded at the close of my last letter, namely the intellectual improvement of the people; and many persons would be surprised were they conscious of the total under-current of thought and reflection already excited by the people, but unobservedly by the careless eye;-of all these acting powers, I say, none are so well organized, -so well calculated to be effective, as Mechanics' Institutions."

"Yet are they not the originators of the spirit of inquiry, of the excited thirst for knowledge which exhibit themselves on every side, but the agents to guide that spirit, the benign mediums for satisfying that thirst. It was finely said by Lord Brougham, when he first moved the establishment of these Institutions :-'The question is not now, whether the people shall have knowledge or not: but whether the knowledge obtained shall be such as will be useful.'

"Mechanics' Institutions claim to be considered the guides and directors to useful knowledge; they are the regulators, the safety-valves, the governors of the great intellectual machinery, the million-mind-power-engines, which circumstances will call into action. The advance of intellectual improvement, it is true, 'cometh not with observation;' that is, those who are indifferent to it, may continue for a time unconscious of its progress. The impetus given by the energetic mind of Lord Brougham, though not generally seconded by persons eminent for wealth and station, still, however, continues in wholesome activity. New Institutions are continually being announced. The philanthropist may lament over their comparatively slow progress; and the admirer of antiquity, the slave of precedent, the blind laudator temporis acti may sneer at their small visible effects. But both are in error. The seed is sown, and will duly spring into life; and its fruit will be for the healing of the nations.

The writer of these letters, we understand, is Mr. W. Hawkes Smith, the Vice-President of the Institution. We have before us the MS. copy of a lecture lately delivered by this gentleman, "On the Tendency and Prospects of Mechanics' Institutions," in which his views, both general and individual, are freely developed. It is our intention in our next number to offer some connected extracts from this lecture, which, in our opinion, contains some valuable reflections, accompanied by useful practical observations.

the want of solidity in the lower part of the structure. These are not the times in which it is safe for a nation to repose in the lap of ignorance.'

"I am one of those who always considered the intelligence of the working people to be much undervalued by the prejudices of some and the pride of others. This intelligence, overruling times and circumstances, often shoots up by the native force of the seminal principle; but when aided and assisted by such institutions as yours, will unceasingly, in time, bring forth the richest fruits.

"I do not think the people can know too much, but they can easily know too little; and a half-reasoning multitude, when their passions are excited, is one of the most dreadful, moral scourges ever inflicted on humanity.

"Let me congratulate you on having such a liberal and well-informed President as Sir E. E. Wilmot at the head of your institution. That that institution may go forward in harmonious accordance with the 'spirit of the age' is my sincere wish,"

NEW PATENT.-RECLINING CYLINDER BEDSTEAD.

To assuage the pangs of physical suffering, and to soothe the weary hours of bodily debility, are among the nobler efforts of humanity; and to mitigate the trials of the sick chamber, and to lessen the gloom that hangs about the bed of the invalid is, assuredly, to become a benefactor to society. The important and invaluable contrivance, denominated the reclining cylinder bedstead, for which a patent has been recently, obtained and which, on the point of adoption in St. George's Hospital, London, has been minutely inspected and most cordially approved by written testimonials, by the whole of his Majesty's physicians and surgeons, and the most eminent practitioners in the metropolis, is one amidst the many brilliant evidences of that astonishing progress in mechanical science for which the present age is remarkable. The inventor, Mr. James Cherry, of Coventry, has devoted himself with the most unwearied assiduity to the construction and ultimate perfection of his design, and this extraordinary piece of mechanism, elegant in appearance, and of the utmost simplicity in its arrangements, stands forward as a proof of the singular patience and ingenuity of this gifted individual. For the information of our professional readers, and the satisfaction of the invalid, we subjoin a description of an article which may, truly, be characterised as one of "comfort to the sick, of convenience to the nurse, and of refined luxury to the convalescent:-"

The sacking is attached to two cylinders running lengthwise, one on each side of the bed; these cylinders contain several springs upon the chronometer principle, which propel them upon the axles outwards, or right and left from the centre of the bed. The sacking, when the bed is not in use, is always at full stretch; but when it receives the weight of the body, the springs relax, and the bedding is sunk to a concave of twelve inches; the feathers encompassing the patient and relieving the back from the pressure which is imparted to the sides; together with the undulating motion of the springs by which the bedding is sustained, impart a sensation of entire comfort and ease. In the opinion of the faculty, this individual feature presents an effectual preventive of sloughing in the back, that dreadful and often fatal consequence of a long continuance in the recumbent posture. The invalid, however helpless he may be, may be placed in any required position, either for his own comfort, or for surgical operation; for example, the body can be raised to any degree; the lower limbs placed on a double inclined plane, a point essential in the the reduction of fractures; the feet elevated to assist in replacing a dislocated knee-pan, &c. &c.

By this fortunate invention, the torture which many patients experience from being lifted out of bed, and exposed to the atmosphere while the bed is re-making, or other necessary changes effecting, will be utterly obviated, and the expensive attendance of assistants precluded. One person can, in the space of two minutes, and without trouble or exertion, complete an entire change of beddingthe bed under the patient, bolsters, pillows, &c. all may be swept upon the floor, and replaced by others, and this arrangement is made without inconvenience to the patient, nor is he in this, or any of the other changes, once touched or exposed to sight or cold.

The bedstead is also convertible into an easy chair, and can be restored to its horizontal without disturbing the patient or deranging the bed clothes; the bedrest and pan are brought into use upon a new and most easy principle; the latter is closed by an air-tight, self-acting valve, and all its operations are conducted without the least noise or jarring from the machinery, which is entirely concealed when the bed is made up.

In concluding our brief, and we admit imperfect sketch of this inestimable invention, we may add, that "the revolving cylinder bedstead is an elegant structure, in the newest French style, with scroll back and canopy top, that it is not only applicable to cases of sickness, but available for ordinary use, imparting, from its peculiar construction, much greater comfort, with a mere mattress, than is derived from a bed of the softest down when laid upon a bedstead of the general description; in short, it fully justifies the patronage of the most eminent of the faculty, possessing every conceivable convenience, unimpaired by a single objection."