ten years after put a period to his life; though not before he had beheld the loss of almost the whole principality of Aquitain, which was occasioned by this expedition and his want of health. The prince, his lords, and their followers, being quartered in Valladolid, Don Pedro set out for Seville, under pretence of raising money to re-pay the prince the expense he had incurred by this expedition; the news of whose success had occasioned great triumph to be made in England, particularly in the king's chamber and the city of London, where the lord mayor and aldermen erected triumphal arches. In France unfeigned sorrow sat on every brow, for the loss of so many of their bravest countrymen, who had been induced to join the English prince, in this expedition for the loss of so many of their bravest countrymen in the battle proved a corrosive in the minds of those who wished well to the honour and interests of France. The prince, after waiting till the beginning of July, found Don Pedro as unjust and dishonourable as, by report, he had been cruel. The followers of the prince had already found themselves hardly able to endure the infectious air of Spain, and from his own ill state of health it was impracticable to compel Don Pedro to be just. The King of Majorica, and many hundreds of the prince's men, being ill, they set out on their return to France, where he was received in triumph, and met by his beautiful princess, and by his eldest son Edward, then about three years of age. Pedro was again dethroned and slain by the bastard Henry, who again became King of Castile. The prince, to defray the debt incurred by the Spanish expedition, raised a foriage, or tax on chimnies, throughout all his principality of Aquitain, which occasioned strong remonstrances, general discontent, and at length a general insurrection. Every fire was to pay a frank, and the rich to have answered for the poor; this occasioned much jangling in the beginning of 1369. In the 44th of Edward III. viz. 1371, all the Barons of Gascoigne and Poictou fell from their allegiance to the English interest."-Such were the effects of espousing the cause of Don Pedro, and meddling in the concerns of another people in the 14th century. PUNCH. Punch, says one etymologist, is corrupted from paunch; it is the character in a puppet-show which answers to the fat fool of the old comedy. Punch, says another etymologist, is corrupted from the Italian polichinello, and is the arch Neapolitan valet of the Italian theatre. Which is in the right? CHARACTERS. An historic character, says a German professor, should consist of two parts, the prosography, or description of the person, and the ethopea, or description of the mind and manners. The following portrait, by Sarrasin, of Albert Wallenstein, unites both kinds of delineation, "Albert Wallenstein had a tall and vigorous body, a face rather majestic than agreeable. He was naturally very sober, slept little, and bore with alacrity hunger, labour, and fatigue. The attacks of gout and of old age he repeatedly overcame by temperance and exercise. He had a great and bold, but a restless and uneasy spirit, speaking little, thinking and writing much. In war he was valiant and discreet, skilful in raising and in subsisting soldiers, anxious about glory, and fond of composing his own dispatches. He was a severe punisher, a prodigal rewarder of his soldiers; but in both judicious. Firm in misfortune, civil in necessity, haughty in prosperity, he was envious of another's glory, and of his own jealous. Implacable in his hatred, cruel in his revenge, hasty in his anger; he loved magnificence, ostentation, and novelty. Apparently extravagant, he did nothing without a purpose. Full of pretences about the public cause, he attended carefully to his personal for tune and advancement. A contemner of religion, he made it subservient to his policy. He sought to appear disinterested, but was alive to the designs of others, and skilled in concealing his own. He was singularly impenetrable; because he used the mask of frankness before the public, and railed at dissimulation, of which he made a frequent use.” The French critics cite as a masterpiece of character-drawing Bossuet's sketch of Cromwell, in his Funeral Oration of the Queen of England. Surely the French critics overrate Bossuet in this, as in many other instances: the style is abstract without condensation, too pictureless and vague for oratory; nor does it exhibit a hitting likeness. In Cowley's Discourse concerning the Go. vernment of Oliver Cromwell, a much more eloquent and precise character occurs of that usurper. ORIGINAL ORIGINAL POETRY. WRITTEN IN THE ALCOVE OF RICHARD POTTS, ESQ. TRIANGLE, HACKNEY. HA ACKNEY'D in life's dull joys and No novelty to hackney'd age remains, Too much of solitude the country yields, Midst forests, parks, and wide extended fields, Where splendid seats may boast their miles of range, Here I sit snug "within a walk of Change," While near this spot two neighbouring villas stand, Like good Samaritans on either hand, scene, A neighbour's better than a belt or skreen. Here city smoak and country air contend, Yet" Rus in Urbe" proves of wealth the friend. Nor let me scorn the villa's humble scope, Since wealth's the stimulus to active hope, That golden hope which from the city springs, The mart of merchants, or the court of kings, Here gold in effigy hangs o'er my head, White golden blossoms the liburnums shed; There in that little pool the gold fish glitters, Emblem of floating wealth and moneygetters, Odd fishes found'ring in life's troubled FOR THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: An Ode written in 1775, and translated from the German of Frederic Leopold, Count Stolberg. Rise: a free people waits to hail thy ray. The glories of thy beam. He climbs, he climbs aloof, and gilds the hills; A rosier radiance dances on the trees; Sparkling the silver brook To the dim valley scuds. Now thou art bright, fair stream; but once we Blood in thy waves, and corses in thy bed, saw And grappling warriors choak'd Blood of the horses dyed thy azure stream, Fall tyrants, tyrants fall! Hair of the dying stuck. At the rock's foot the nation-curber lay, Nor hell nor man gave heed. His conscious eye The brandish'd spear for death. But ah! the young heroic Henry fell; Their fallen, their beloved; Not one of all the slavish crew escap'd. Like to the fallow leaves which storm-winds strow, Their corses far and wide Lay weltering in the field; Welcome not now where health or pity dwell. WHY dost thou linger thus, O morning sun? The harmless herd gazed, and forbore to taste ; Do the cool waves of ocean stay thy way? Why dost thou linger thus, Sun of our day of fame? The silent tenants of the boughs forbore; Only the vulture drank, With 12 The music of war, In thundering triumph are mingled on high, His steadier wing is pois'd. Fierce glow'd the noon; the sweat of heroes bath'd The trampled grass; and breezes of the wood The sons of freedom cede ; name Stolberg-behind them rode Vehement, as down the rock the floody Rhine Speedy, as tigers spring, They struck the startled foe. The Stolbergs fought and sank: but they achiev'd The lovely bloody death in freedom's cause. Time was, their grandsire wept a burning tear To exhale not quite in vain. Sunk was the sun of day; with roseate wing Herman and Tell, Luther and Klopstock, lean'd, To the pale twilight wistful look'd the foe, shame; They fled; wide o'er the field With dreeping swords we followed might and main; They hop'd the mantle of the night would hide; When o'er the firs arose Angry and full the moon. Night of destruction! awful though thy deeds Be dear and holy to a nation freed! Thy song of triumph in our cities rolls, Germania, thou art free! Germania, free! Exalt thy wreathed brow: Proud as thy Brocken, when the light of dawn Reddens its forehead, while the mountains round Still in wan twilight sleep, And darkness shrouds the vale. Welcome great century of liberty, Thou fairest daughter of slow-teeming Time! With pangs unwont she bare, But hail'd her mighty child: Trembling she took thee with maternal arm; Glad shudders shook her frame; she kist thy front, And from her quivering lip Prophetic accents broke: "Daughter, thou takest awaythy mother'sgrief; Thou hast avenged thy weeping sister's shame; Each to the yawning tomb Went with unwilling step; Each in her youth had hop'd to wield thy sword, And hold thy balance, dread retributress. Bold is thy rolling eye, And strong thy tender hand, And soon beside thy cradle shall be heard The tunes of warfare, and the clash of arms; Hearken thou shalt with smiles, As on thy mother's breast I see thee quickly grow with giant step, I ON THE STYLE OF DR. JOHNSON, OWN I like not Johnson's turgid style, PATENTS 20 PATENTS LATELY ENROLLED. MR. JOSEPH BRAMAI's, (of Pimlico,) for Improvements in Main and other Pipes, and applying the Water to other useful purposes.-Dated October 31, 1812. WE E have already noticed the great powers of Mr. BRAMAH's pressing machine, and the present patent has been taken out to enable Mr. B. to apply his principle to a variety of useful purposes. It is evident that Mr. B. has possessed himself of an enormous power, equal or superior to that of steam; and it seems capable of applications as much more extensive than that agent, as the degree in which the principle of elasticity in ga zeous fluids is of more extensive application than the mere elasticity of aqueous vapours. Mr. Bramah rests the claims of this patent solely on the new and beneficial effects he may produce by sundry new methods of conducting, applying, and employing water; in the hy drostatic application of water, on his late patent hydro-mechanical principle, to a variety of new purposes, and for the production of such new and beneficial effects as the said new system of mechanics hath not heretofore been applied to produce. Instead of using, in all cases, the simple cylinder and piston as his grand operator, he proposes to use a compound apparatus, consisting of a plurality of hollow cylinders so fitted and equipped as to slide, water and air tight, one within an other, exactly on the principle of an opera-glass, or common hand telescope, and by which principle of construction he is enabled to make machines for raising and lowering with great expedition the most ponderous or trifling weights to a prodigious height, either by the injection of water, air, or any other solid or elastic fluid. By this new application of fluid pressure, he is enabled to construct machinery for any purpose whatever, where expeditious elevation and depres sion are required, as signals at sea, ma. ́chines for hoisting lights, beacons, telegraphs, &c. &c. By the help of the above-mentioned hydro-mechanical application, and the introduction of a new principle of floodgates, cleansing sluices, and new methods of constructing canals, aqueducts, floatdocks, harbours, and other species of open water-works, he is enabled to pduce many important effects, and to accomplish a variety of new objects. And lastly, he is enabled to transfer the effects of the motion of the tide, water-falls, or any other stationed, elementary, or other force, from the place where he can collect it, to any distance, for the establishment of general and collective depôts, or magazines of power, to be retailed out for any known purpose that may be required. He next proposes to introduce a method of supply that will obviate the ruinous competitorship which now exists among the fire insurance companies, and totally to prevent FIRES, so as to render fire-insurance unnecessary and to give the public a constant supply of water at all points, and to a commanding altitude. Instead of continuing the use of nine sets of mains and pipes, belonging to the nine London companies, he proposes to introduce one single principal main only, down the middle of every street, forming transverse and other junctions universally with each other, like the thoroughfare streets themselves throughout the whole circuit or extent of service, so as to form no more collectively than one universal cavity or channel for the water's circulation in all directions. From this general main branch, he proposes to supply all his smaller ramifi cations for every purpose; and by the introduction of a number of capacious airvessels, or loaded pistons acting up and down in cylinders, in the vicinity of his engines, he will cause a heavy pressure upon the water in the said mains aud pipes to be constantly kept up, equal to the pressure of any number of atmo spheres; and which pressure he will regulate by safety valves, placed either in the said air vessels or cylinders, in the loaded pistons themselves, or in any other parts of the main and pipes. The said collective main with then constitute a great and universal depôt, or magazine of hydrostatic force, sufficient to become the primum mobile of any ma chinery, or for any other hydrostatic operation; which force he can draw off and retail for any purpose of local machinery, in the same manner as water for domestic and other uses. He proposes also to have the water always on, and his mains and pipes constantly capable of influx and reflux at all points, subject to the controul of stopcocks, valyes, &c. for repairs, &c. He proposes also, in all his public works, to introduce an especial main with its ramifications for hydro-mechanical purposes only, and another for water. In this case he will cause the spent water issuing from the hydrostatic machinery to be conveyed by pipes into the domestic main for domestic use, allowing such a portion of the unspent hydrostatic pressure to be continued in the domestic duct, as will be amply sufficient to raise the water up to any altitude. And both mains being constructed with air-vessels, he can, if necessary, render the pressure in them equal; and both of them may be charged either by the same machinery at the fountain head, or by distinct and separate engines. He illustrates this by stating, that he is in the habit of applying water, without any difficulty in his hydrostatic machinery, under a pressure capable of supporting an altitude of more than 20,000 feet; and he thinks this fact will demonstrate the utility and extent of the principle applied in this way. By this accumulated magazine of power, he conceives he shall be enabled to drive machinery of every description, for any purpose, and of any magnitude, as grinding, turning, sawing, pressing, stamping, grasping, raising weights and goods, and for every purpose whatever, in any situation to which he can convey a small pipe. To prevent the bad effects of rust in his iron materials, he proposes to line all his iron cylinders, and to cover his iron pistons with sheet copper, or brass, by a process very similar to the method used by opticians in making their brass tubes for sliding telescopes. The compound apparatus for elevating and depressing weights, or other objects, on the principle of the opera-glass, he performs by tubes, as above, and causes them to slide within one another, air and water tight. By these elevators he can, with very great expedition, hoist and lower any light weight to any required altitude without danger. For instance, he can cause five hundred tubes, of five feet in length, to slide one within another. A bottom is fixed to the external tube, which being joined to, and communicating with a copious vessel of condensed air, when the stop-cock is opened, and the condensed air admitted into the bottom of this system of tubes, its expansive force will slide them all out in succession, till each of them reaches its stop, the exterior tube standing on its bottom, which being securely fixed, be comes the base of the machine. When all these tubes have been sided out to their ultimate bounds, the aggregate alti tude will be 5X500-2,500 feet, a height that can be attained in a few seconds. This improvement will be of great utility in a variety of applications; thus lights of any description, signals, telegraphs, &c. &c. can be hoisted to an immense altitude, and lowered with surprising expedition. He can also, he says, construct apparatus on this principle, that will prevent ships from sinking even if their bottoms be lost: he can raise or destroy wrecks: and for military purposes he can remove or destroy bridges, walls, towers, gates, trees, or any other obstacle, with expedition. Goods, and every kind of light, or the most ponderous weights, can also be raised and lowered to and from warehouses of any description, with safety and expedition, without either rope, chain, pulley, or any crane-apparatus like those now used. Ships may be launched, lifted upon land, hoisted in docks or building-slips for repairs, or the most stubborn planks and timbers bent into any curve; masts may be taken out or put in, and innumerable other processes accomplished in ship-builders' yards, by apparatus on this principle. Mr. Bramah next proposes to construct canals, docks, harbours, or any other water-works, so that they can be easily cleansed and cleared of all their mud, at a very trifling expense. And by a particular shape and manner of construction, to render them capable of having caused in them (by the application of machinery between the extremities of any length of level) artificial currents in reverse directions, so that vessels of any description can be made to float without sails, wind, tide, towage, or oars, and with any velocity required. And he proposes also to apply his hydromechanical works in canals, so as to lift and lower vessels from one level to ano ther without locks. It is impossible to follow Mr. B. through the prolixity of his details on these subjects, particularly as he is totally ignorant of the mechanism of the English language, and of perspicuity of style. The specification is written more in the manner of a quack puff, than of a scientific exposition of some very ingenious and important applications of a powerful agent in mechanics. While however we regret that Mr. B. had no friend at hand to exhibit his specification in language intelligible to Englishmen, we recommend the objects and principles of this patent to the notice of our readers, as one of the most important, and |