The Disbanding,

A MILITARY TALE,

How many things by season season'd are, To their right use and true perfection. The next day, when the boys had had more time to think of it, faces grew yet blanker. What worse evils, Humphrey, can stare a man in countenance, who has not a sixpence of his own, and has passed his life in a regiment, than the penury of half-pay and the separation from every friend he has in the world.' True, true,' cried I, and poor S would feel that. I wonder how I came not to request you to induce him to be of your party here.'

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I could not help feeling an interest in the rascals; and
I told them honestly what I foresaw. They took the
hint, said they believed I was right, desired to enlist
for the first battalion, and we procured permission for
them to do so,

They did,' said I, and R- gallant fellow as he was, seized one of them himself, when he led the

men on."

He

crew to join. On the night of the fifth day, the unfortunate Spaniard was seized in his bed, and thrown over board. A few days more brought the ship to port. The father and friends of young Fitzstephen received him with joy, and in a short time bestowed a sufficient capi I assure you, Humphrey, it was bitter work, though At last the day of our fate arrived, we were distal to enable him to commence business. Security had we tried to make light of it, and had been long expect- banded in the barrack square, and our second battalion now lulled every sense of danger, and he sought the ing it. They gave us but short warning, too. When was extinct. We had resolved, however, to close the hand of the daughter of one of his neighbors. His pro we met on parade, after the colonel had told us the con- scene by dining together after the ceremony. The mess-posals were accepted, and the day appointed which was tents of the order, we all endeavored to laugh the thing room, in which many a joyous hour had flown in thought- to crown his hitherto successful villany; when one of off; but every joke fell desperately flat, and only made less merriment, was decorated for the occasion. The the sailors, who had been with him on the voyage to the matter worse. It was very little better at mess, walls were covered, for the last time, with blazonry of Spain, was taken ill, and finding himself on the point though that soul of good humor and cheer, old D. the memorable days of our Peninsular services. At the of death, sent for the father, and communicated a full in capacity of treasurer, insisted upon the necessity of head hung those colors, in tatters, which we had re- account of the horrid deed his son had committed. The our finishing the remains of a pipe before the evil day;ceived in 1804, on the formation of the battalion. Be- father, though struck speechless with astonishment and because, as he said, it would be beneath our dignity sides many glorious occasions on which they had been horror, at length shook off the feelings of the parent, and reputation for good fellowship to bargain with the unfurled in the field, they had accompanied us, you may and exclaimed, "Justice shall take its course." wine merchant about taking back any remnant, any thing remember, Ravelin, where colors are rarely borne. At immediately caused his son to be seized, with the rest less than untouched pipes. So it was resolved to get the assault of Rodrigo, poor R- - who afterwards of the crew, and cast into prison. They all confessed through it—but the wine had not its usual flavor with fell at Badajos, ordered them to be carried forward with their crime. A criminal prosecution was commenced; any of us. us, as we were, according to the arrangement for the and in a few days a small town in the west of Ireland attack, to move no farther than the fausse braye in the beheld a sight scarcely paralleled in the history of manditch; but when we did afterwards, contrary to the kind, a father sitting in judgment on his son ! condemnoriginal intention, advance to the breach itself, they of ing him to die as a sacrifice to public justice !-A father course went with us.' consigning his only son to an ignominious death, and tearing away all the bonds of paternal affection, where the laws of God and man were violated, and justice demanded the blow!-A father with his own lips pronouncing the sentence that left him childless, and at once blasted for ever the honor of an ancient and noble family! "Were any other than your wretched father the judge," said the virtuous magistrate, "I might have dropped a tear over my child's misfortunes, and solicited his life, though stained with murder: but you must die. These are the last drops which shall quench the spark of nature, and if you dare hope, implore that heaven may not shut the gates of mercy on the destroyer of his fellow-creature. The fellow citizens of the inflexible magistrate, who revered his virtues and pitied his misfortunes, saw with astonishment the fortitude with which he yielded to the cruel necessity, and heard him doom his son to a public and ignominious death. The relatives of the unhappy culprit surrounded the father--they conjured him by all the ties of affection, of nature, and of compassion, to spare his son. His poor wretched mother flew in distraction to the heads of her own family, and conjured them for the honor of their house, to rescue her from the ignominy the death of her son must bring upon their name. The citizens felt compassion for the father, affection for the man; every no bler feeling was roused, and they privately determined to rescue the young man from prison during the night, under the conviction that Fitzstephen, having already paid the tribute to justice and to his honor, would se cretly rejoice at the preservation of the life of his son. But they little knew the heart of this noble magistrate. By some accident their determination reached his ear; he instantly removed his son from the prison to his own house, which he surrounded with the officers of justice. In the morning he partook with his son the elements of the holy communion. After giving and receiving mu tual forgiveness, the pious father said, "You have little time to live, my son; let the concern of your soul employ the few moments. Take the last embrace of your unhappy father." They clung together for some time; then parted for ever. The son was hung at the door of his father, a dreadful monument of the vengeance of heaven, and an instance of the rigorous exercise of justice, that leaves every thing of the kind in modern times at an immeasurable distance. The father immediately resigned his office, and after his death, which speedily followed that of his son, the citizens fixed over the door of the house a death's head and cross bones, carved in black marble, to perpetuate the remembrance of this inexorable act of justice.

"Opposite to them, Humphrey, hung the new colors which we received on our landing from Spain. We had hoped that they too would have lost their freshness like the old ones. There was no servility now in forcing the Why, I did take upon me to ask him for you, Hum-colonel into the chair, and he felt the compliment justly. phrey, but I could not prevail upon him. His pride As we moved into the room for the last time, and the and irritability grew stronger as the day approached. It band struck up our regimental march, a chord of symseemed as if he looked upon the question as an insult, pathy was touched within us. But I hate these idle reif you asked him where he meant to settle. He had, collections-let's have done with them. I shall tell you and perhaps wished to have, no other home but the only of the close. The cloth was removed; the first regiment-you know he had never left it since he joined toast, standing and in silence, was- The memory of in ninety-eight: it was literally turning him out on the the second battalion.' We had a stripling in the corps wide world, and yet he swore he would never join an- who fancied himself a poet. He had joined us too late other corps. Poor fellow! we did not mind his irritabi- to share in the days of our triumphs, but he loved the lity. Somehow or other, every one of the old hands regiment with all the enthusiasm of a boy, and he would seemed to display some new good quality as they were strive to celebrate its glories. He had a song for the about to be separated. There was but one individual to occasion, and it was sung by another of the lads after whom our hearts did not draw more closely than ever. the toast. I have a copy of it for thee, Humphrey.' You remember how actively Mr. F. used to do duty at the depot in England, when any thing was going on out of it. He was now all martial ardor. It was very hard there was to be no more fighting; should not be sorry, though, of the opportunity of visiting his little Irish property; and his friend, Lord Somebody, would get him placed on full pay again as soon as he pleased.' We had some difficulty to tolerate the jackanapes; but we did. We had nothing in common with him, nor he with us.

But the worst of the business was the farewell visits to the married people. I shall never forget the scene at R 's lodgings. I went in to shake hands with Mrs. R- before she set off. She was looking agi tated and careworn, and wretchedly ill, yet obliged to exert herself, with an aching head, in preparation for the journey. Amidst all the confusion of packing, there were the children, fretful and troublesome, and ever in the way. R- himself was walking about the room, with his hands in his pockets, laboring to put a cheerful air upon what was inevitable; now whistling Erin-gobragh, now talking, while every expression of his counterance belied him of the satisfaction of retiring to a neat little box in the county of Carlow.' You and I know what that means well enough, Ravelin, and so did poor Mrs. Rtoo, or there's no truth in physiog nomy. I got the business over, you will believe, as fast as I could. But you can fancy more than one such picture as this, without my prosing over the business."

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Yes, yes,' said I, I can indeed,--but how did the men receive the news?'

Yon flag, that once triumphant waved
O'er old Rodrigo's walls,
And thence the Gallic eagle scared,
Now sadly drooping falls:
Yet while the pride of British arms
And British prowess lives,
Those Dragon Banners ne'er shall want
The meed that valor gives.
Around those tatter'd standards once
Firm as their island oak,
A gallant band at El Bodon

The hostile torrent broke.
O'er are those triumphs, past the hours
That flew 'midst festive birth,
And gone, for ever gone, the days
That gave our pleasures birth.
And must indeed the social tie
Which each to other drew,
And balmy friendship's hallow'd bands
Must they be broken too?-
Well, let us meet the unwelcome hour,
Since fate will have it so,
Calm, and collected, and resign'd,
As oft we 've met the fo.'

The Modern Brutus.

In the year 1526, James Lynch Fitzstephen, a merchant, who was at that time Mayor of Galway, in IreWhy, variously; most of them were pleased, for land, sent his only son as commander of one of his ships you know novelty is every thing to a soldier, and joy at to Bilboa, for a cargo of wine. The credit which he freedom was the first feeling, particularly with those en- possessed was taken advantage of by the son, who setitled to pensions; but to do them justice, they were all creted the money with which he had been intrusted for striving to show some little additional token of respect the purchase of the cargo; and the Spaniard who supto their officers, as the time drew nearer. Thoughtless plied him on this occasion, sent his nephew with him to creatures; I well knew there were few who would not Ireland to receive the debt, and establish a farther corvery shortly give their ears to be back again. Some I respondence. The young men, who were nearly of the did put out a hand to save. We had a dozen or two of same age, sailed together with that apparent confidence the old Peninsular men, whose characters I completely and satisfaction which congenial pursuits generally occaunderstood; brave as Roman legionaries, and, under sion among mankind. The ship proceeded on her voythe restraints of discipline, not bad members of the age, and as every day brought them nearer the place of community; but whose natural carelessness of right and destination, and the discovery of the fraud of young wrong had not been improved by the license of cam-Fitzstephen, he conceived, the diabolical resolution of paigning I knew they we turned loose, they murdering his friend; a project in which, by promises would fall into crime, and disgrace, and punishment; and threats, he brought the greatest part of the ship's

Anecdote of Goethe.

A minor poet had addressed some verses to one of the reigning family, which contained some most exagge rated compliments. In criticising the production, the old poet reinarked, that there was "too much sugar in the composition. Princes are pleased at sugar-plums being given to them, but they do not like being pelted with sugar-loaves."

Medical Skill.

Chivac, a physician of considerable reputation, being very ill, was exceedingly attentive to the state of his pulse, and in a moment of confusion exclaimed, “They have called me too late, this mun cannot recover."

2242

SCIENCE.

Emprovements of Steam Engines.

question, is light a substance, remains undecided.
At a future period we shall examine the facts and
arguments which have been produced on both sides
ledge are often mutually unanswerable.
the question, which in the present state of our know.
When two

The last part of the London Journal of Arts contains a particular description of the improve-pices of lump sugar are rubbed against each other ments made in the Steam Engine by Mr. Perkins: in the dark, light is emitted or when a similar and we have heard the opinions of persons of lump is melted in the dark, by placing it on a hot great mechanical and philosophical experience so coal, a similar appearance presents itself Light is strongly in their praise, that we cannot doubt the necessary for plants: when a plant is deprived of production of powerful effects by these principles light, as in bleaching sal ds, sea kale, &c. by garand their application. One of the chief features deners, its color is lost, and instead of a beauteous of the new machine is the diminution of bulk: green, a sickly yellow tint serves in its stead one of ten horse power occupies a space of only The six feet by eight; and even a quintuple force, it French gardeners call these sickly plants etiolated, is stated, might be given within the same dimen- discovered that the gas which is now employed for as if they grew by star-light. It has been lately sions. Another feature of importance is that of the purposes of illumination, (carbonated hydrogen) lessening the consumption of fuel; and another is and which is almost always present in coal-mines, (but this has frequently been claimed before, in has the curions property of preserving the green deed in all the other systems) the prevention of tints of plants unimpaired after all light has been danger from explosion, by generating the steam according to novel process. This last invention been discovered growing in such situations, whose withdrawn from them, various plants have lately consists of safety bulb introduced into the steampipe, and calculated to explode at one-half or one green color was quite as perfect as of those growing third the pressure which would effect the machine. in the light. The generation and condensation of the steam is so simultaneous that the piston can work at the rate of 150 strokes per minute.

London and Sheffield Cutlery.

When the town of Sheffield first became famous for the manufacture of cutlery, a very curious knife, calculated for a variety of uses, was executed with great care, and sent to the Cutler's Company in London. On one of the blades were engraved the following challenge:

THE RETICULE.

Women Longer Lived than Men.

of the male or female sex live the longest. If wo"It has been much disputed whether individuals men are most exposed to domestic disease, men are most liable to suffer from the dangers of war, the risk of commerce, the fury of the elements, and Sheffield made both haft and blade; other external injuries; and also. are more addicted London for thy life show me such another knife. life. to those irregularities and excesses which shorten The London cutlers, to show that they were not On the other hand, it is to be observed, as inferior to their more nothern brethern, finish-ly in high life, that it is more fashionable to be adverse to the longevity of females, particular ed, and sent down to Sheffield, a penknife, con- delicate than robust; whereas, if good health were taining only one well-tempered blade, in which considered to be an accomplishment, and as neceswas a cavity, and in the cavity a piece of straw, sary for a woman as any showy accomplishment, the fresh and unsinged. Some lines on the blade, mentioning this fact, induced the Sheffield cutlers point, we shall first state what philosoph rs say recase would soon be altered, In discuss ng this to break it, when they found the straw, and un-garding it, and shal then ascertain how far their doctrines are verified by facts.

able to account for the manner in which it was done, or to imitate it, they confessed themselves surpassed in ingenuity.-Percy Anecdotes, Part 37.

On Light.

Hail Holy Light! offspring of heaven, first-born,
Or of the eternal co-eternal beam-
Bright effluence of bright essence increate,
Whose fountain who shall tell?

Were we to believe the inferences which have been drawn from the language of the immortal author of Paradise Lost. He saw the dificulties which have attended its investigation, with that ap, arently super-human eye with which he appeared always endowed, whether high towering o'er space," or "plunging into depth profound" The hardly less illustrious and for sweeter bard, of the "Seasons," has sung what Milton had before described so well:

Prime cheerer light-
Efflux divine-nature's resplendant robe—
Without whose vesting beauty, all were wrapt
In unessential gloom.

The phenomena of light, which these poets have so nobly celebrated, is too apparent to our sense, too all present, too common, for us not to be for a moanent struck with its beauty, or astonished at its wondrous nature. Various philosophers. distinguised for their abilities have investigated its properties with unwearied patience. But the success of their Jabors, however splendid, has certainly not been commensurate with the talents of the laborers employed in the research. All, therefore, still appears unsettled and though a Davy and a Brewster have attacked this unconfinable principle, yet still even the

The bodies of males in general, thongh not without some exceptions, are stronger, larger, and more active, than those of the females. In the hu man species, in particular, the male is commonly not only larger than the female, but his muscular fibres are firmer, and more compact and his, whole frame indicates superior s rength, and robustness of texture. Bnt as in women, the bones, the cartilages, softer, and less solid than those of men, they must the muscles, and every other part of the body is

buted to their being more exposed than the other sex to dangers and hardships, and to the inclemency of the seasons, from the times that they are able to go about by themselves.

"Dr. Price himself seems to concur in this idea, this difference, so unfavorable to males, is natural; as. in another part of his work, he questions whether and, after stating some facts, to corroborate his doubts, he infers from thence, that human life, in males, is more brittle than in females, only in consequence of adventi ious causes, or of some particular debility, that takes place in polished and luxurious societies, and especially in great towns.

been disputed, and is accounted for by the greater they have reached the age of sixty, that bas never "In regard to the greater mortality of males after softness of the female organs, which retards that hardness which is generally supposed to be the principal cause of death from old age.

Housewifery.

Method of taking Ironmoulds out of Cotton.Cottons of all kinds are apt to receive a dirty yellowish, or orange stain, from iron, which if allowed to remain, gradually corrodes the cloth and forms a hole. At first these stains are easily removed by means of muriatic acid, or any other diluted acid, (except vinegar); but, after they have remained for some time, acids have no efout the method of removing these moulds in such fect upon them. It may be acceptable to point

inveterate cases.

and it appears, from various facts well known to The iron in them is in the state of red' oxide: chemists, that the red oxide of iron has a much greater affinity for cotton cloth than the black oxide. The object in view, therefore, should be oxide; after which, muriatic acid will easily reto bring the iron in the mould to the state of black this; both of which in the present case answer move it. Now there are two methods of doing the mould with the yellow liquid formed by boilthe purpose completely. The first is to touch ing potash and sulphur in water, called hydrogu mould becomes immediately black, and the action reted sulphuret of potash by chemists. The The second method is to daub the mould over of diluted muriatic acid immediately effaces it, with ink so as to make it quite black. After this muriatic acid takes it out, as in the former case. I conceive that this is occasioned by the action of the nutgalls in the ink, which reduces the iron in the mould to the state of black oxide

The Hermes.

require more time in hardening to that degree which FINAL NOTICE-The last number of the Her

occasions death; neither are they generally so much
subjected, as men, to bedily exertions. Women, of
said, that those men who have a weakly appearance.
course, ought to live longer than men'; nay, it is
and who, in point of constitution, approach the near-
est to women, often live longer than those who are
more robust.

This doctrine is fully confirmed by experience;
for, by consulting the bills of mortality, it appears.
that not only after they have pa-sed a certain age,
but even from their birth, the probability of long
life is greater in women than in men.

Dr. Price conceives the reason why more males
are born than females. is. that there is some particu-
lar weakness or delicacy in the constitution of males,
which makes them more subject to mortality, and
which consequently renders it necessary that more of
them should be produced, in order to preserve in the
world. a due proportion between the two sexes.
this can hardly be admitted. The female is certain-
ly a finer machine than the male, and formed with
equal the male in strength; and the greater mortal-
much more art and contrivance,, but it does not
ity of the males, even in their youth, may be attri-

But

mes is before the Public. The reason for this sudden determination, as it would be thought by some not sufficiently cogent, and by others not true, it is deemed wholly inexpedient to state. The Editor retires from his work with a mixture of satisfaction and regret: satisfaction to surrender an employment which has infracted on more important duties, and regret that all the ends he aimed at have not been accomplished. He returns his best thanks to his subscribers and correspond ents, from the last of whom, he frankly acknowledges, he has occasionally received articles worthy the most popular journals. We review our la bors without remorse, convinced that not a word has dropped from our pen inconsistent with our avowed devotedness lo the cause of religion, and

at impartial judges will acquit us of every thing like spleen in our severest criticisms. It remains only to add, we retire in perfect charity with all

men.

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