A YANKEE MESSAGE TO THE BRITISH I was once strolling on the beautiful prairies, and perceived in my path, a little in advance, a tall, giunt Yankee. He stood erect, leaning on his rifle, watching my approach. As I never met anything but the utmost civility and attention on my rambles, I went up to him with my usual confidence. On approaching, he addressed me as follows:- Well, captin, how are you?'-'Very well,' replied I; 'how does the world wag with you ?'I have a duty to perform, captin,' he replied.-Fire away, and do your duty,' rejoined I, wondering what duty my stalwart Yankee friend had to perform- Well, captin,' he continued, you are not at all starched up, as I thought all Britishers were. You wear tow breeches, and don't think more of yourself than any of us. Moreover, I see you carry a large jar the other day, and I know you have lots of dollars. Well, then, it is my duty to ask you to take a drink. With all my heart,' returned I; and we repaired to my friend's log-house. After a social glass and sundry shaking of hands, my Yankee friend told me his history. I fit in Mexico,' said he. I likewise fit the Injuns in Californy, and have had a good deal of experience in savage warfare. My name is Captin Ezekiah Conelin Brum, and I think you are the best Yankee Britisher I ever seed. Now, then, captin, I have a proposal to make to the British Government; but, before I tell it you, I'll explain what made me fust think of it. When I returned from fitting the Injuns in Californy, I read in the papers the accounts of your fitting the Injuns at the Cape of Good Hope. Well, I wanted to find out all about it, so I sent to England, by a relation of mine who is mate of a liner, for a British infantry musket, with all the fixins. About six weeks ago it arrived here, and here it is, captain' (going to a corner, and bringing out a regulation musket). Well, captin, did ever you see such a clumsy varment in all your born days? Now, captin, look out of the doorway, do you see that blased stump? It is seven feet high, and broader than any man. It's exactly one hundred and fifty yards from my door. I have fired that clumsy varment at the stump till my head ached, and my shoulder was quite sore, and have hardly hit it once. Now, then, captin, look'ee here' (taking up his seven-barrelled, revolving rifle, and letting fly one barrel after the other). 'I guess you will find seven bullets in the blased stump. I will, however, stick seven playing cards on the stump, in different places, and if you choose will hit them all. You are very skilful,' I exclaimed. There are plenty more quite as skilful as me,' he responded; but, captin, let me ask you, would you At me with that machine, bag'net and all, against my rifle at one hundred and fifty yards?—No, thank you,' I hastily answered, I had rather not.'-Would you like to be one of two, or three, or even six, with bag'net fixed and all?' urged he.-No,' I replied, certainly not. You would have the best chance by far.'-Now, then, comes my offer to the British Government. Will you make it to them from me?'-'No,' replied I. 'If I made the finest offer in the world to the British Government, the chances are they would not read it. If they did, they would only sneer at me, and call me officious and impertinent, and very likely put a black mark against my name. I cannot therefore present your offer; but I will put it in print, if you like, and the public can judge of its merits. Well, then, my offer to the British Government is as follows:-I, Ezekiah Conclin Brum, have learned by the papers that the last war at the Cape of Good Hope cost ten million dollars (two millions sterling) to the British Government; and that it is likely the present war will cost quite as much, and be a protracted affair. I, Ezekiah Conelin Brum, have a high opinion of the bravery of the British soldiers, but a very contemptuous opinion of their arms. I, Ezekiah Conclin Brum, From Atlantic and Transatlantic Sketches Afloat and Ashore. By Captain Mackinnon, R.N. will undertake to enlist five thousand Yankee marksmen, each armed with a seven-barrelled revolving rifle, or any better weapon that may turn up, and kill or disperse all the Injuns on the British territory at the Cape of Good Hope, within six months of our landing there; conditionally, that the survivors are paid the sum of five million dollars on the extirpation of the Injuns and settlement of peace; thus saving half the expense, and great numbers of British soldiers. In course, the British Government must send us over in their brass-bottomed sarpents. This will be easy, as we can stow very close, having little or no baggage,'— You think your five thousand marksmen' could do it in six months,' said I.-Sartin,' he replied; 'we should be ekal to thirty thousand troops with such tarnal, stiff, clumsy consarns, as them reg'lation muskets is. We should do it slick right away.'-'Suppose you were successful,' I rejoined, what would you and your Yankee marksmen do afterwards !'- Do arterwards?' echoed he; why, many would settle in the country, and show them how to go ahead.'-' And,' added I, turn it into a republic before long.'-'In course, that is sure to follow afore long, whether we go or stay. is, captin; this here gold in Australy will bring on a republic there, while you Britishers are dreaming about it.'Good-by, Captain Ezekiah Conclin Brum,' I exclaimed, as I shook hands heartily at parting. I will print your proposal. It will have the advantage of novelty, at any rate. Good by, captain. Wont you take a chaw? But mind you write, and tell me all about it.' But I tell 'ee what it A DROP OF RAIN. ARE we poetically inclined in our combinations, there is not a drop from which imagination may not extract beauty and melody, by pursuing it into the labyrinth of some bosky dell' or dark umbrageous nook, only lighted up by the yellow eyes of the primrose; or we may convert it into a little crystal bark, suffering our fancies to float upon it adown some gurgling rivulet, under a canopy of boughs, and between banks of flowers, nodding, like Narcissus, at their own image in the water, and so, sailing along in the moonlight to the accompaniment of its own music, we may realise Coleridge's 'Hidden brook In the leafy month of June, That to the sleeping woods all night By patience and perseverance the leaf of the mulberrytree becomes satin; the rain which we shake from our feet may be metamorphosed into that leaf, and ultimately revisit them in the form of silk stockings. By anticipating the silent elaborations of nature, and following up her processes, we may substantiate the dreams of those poets and Oriental writers who tell of roses, jonquils, and violets, falling from the sky, for almost every one of the globules of rain may be a future flower. Absorbed by the thirsty roots, it may be converted into sap, and, working its way into the flower-stalk, may, in process of time, assume the form of petals, turning their fragrant lips upwards to bless the sky whence they originally descended. Or, are we disposed to contemplate the shower with a more exalted anticipation, we have but to recollect that all flesh is grass, and the inevitable converse of the proposition, that all grass is destined to become flesh, either animal or human, and straightway the rain becomes instinct with vitality, and we may follow each drop through its vegetable existence as pasture into the ribs of some future prize ox; or into the sparkling eye of its proprietor, some unborn Mr Coke or Lord Somerville, standing proudly by its side; or into the heart of a Milton, the blood of a Hampden, or the brain of a Bacon. Thus in a passing shower may we unconsciously be pelted with the component parts of bulls and sheep, poets, patriots, and philosophers-a fantastical speculation, perhaps, but it is better than shivering at the end of an alley in Holborn, without thinking of anything, or flattening one's nose against the pane of a coffee-house window in splenetic vacancy.-Horace Smith. UNIVERSITY REFORMS. ble personage is the son and minister of hell! And now he comes from his cell to his chair, that he may once more ceptions of pain, horror, revenge, perdition, upon which the monotonous meditations of his cloister are employed. The dark ideas that haunt his imagination, night and day, stoop the wing to this hour, in which the implements of anguish are to bring forth shrieks and groans, such as shall give new vividness to the fading impressions of misery which he delights to revolve. How idle then is the hope entertained by the shuddering culprit, when, as brought up from his dungeon, he rapidly peruses each reverend visage in expectation of descrying on one, or upon another, the traces of reason and mercy! It is for this very purpose, and no other-it is to sigh, to shrink, to writhe, to shriek-that he has been dragged to the dim chamber of the Holy Office; he stands where he stands, because the men who sit to mock him with forms of law have need each in a special manner, of the spectacle of his misery. Does the history of Popish tyranny bear out or does it refute our descriptions? Let them stand or be condemned by an appeal to records that are open to every eye.-Isaac Taylor. HUMAN AFFECTIONS. National expediency of the broadest and most compre-realise, in a palpable, visible, and audible form, those conhensive character, solemnly weighing the past and the present, the intentions and institutions of founders on the one side, and the services which these public bodies are capable of rendering to the nation on the other, are the sole standard of rational reform. It is not the literal revival of the past which is needed: but neither is it the realising of a speculative ideal. Oxford, as it is, is the true basis and starting-point of the academical reformer. And supremely does it behove him to possess a deep insight into the nature and essence of our universities, to be thoroughly impregnated with their proper spirit, and to seek their improvement in the temper of a man who burns to remove blemishes from the object of his reverential affection. For conspicuous as are the shortcomings of the English universities, their excellencies are of the highest order. Where else is the training of the young carried on under influences so varied and harmonious, so well calculated to be truly educating of what is noblest and best in man? The youth of England are reared in them amidst living memorials which present to the eye of the imagination, in undying freshness and antiquity, the continuous life and the greatness of their country. The dead and the living address the young together; and combine in moulding the characters and sentiments of successive generations. The splendour of the architecture, speaking with the voices of many ages; the munificence of founders, attesting the magnanimous liberality of England's ancestors; the solemu cloisters, the gothic halls, the venerable chapels, the intermixture of different ages, the surviving fame of literary greatness, the union of subordination with independence in college life, inculcating the manly self-reliance with the love of order which honour the British people, the intermingling of the flower of its aristocracy with the scions of the great professions, the gentlemanly tone of social feeling and social habits,-in a word, the spirit of religion with the spirit of antiquity and the spirit of modern life; where else can powers of influencing, so rich, so inspiriting, and so genial, be found training up the young in a discipline worthy of a great and civilised people? To violate or extinguish any of these influences, would be to commit treason against England. To innovate, in an uncongenial and unsympathising spirit, would be to mar and ruin, not to reform. To feel profoundly how much this mighty organisation is capable of accomplishing; to maintain it in perpetual youth; and to invigorate it with the ameliorations which wisdom suggests, is the task and the glory of the university reformer.-Edinburgh Review. THE SMELL OF NEW PAINT. A bundle of old dry hay, wetted and spread about, presents a multifarious absorbing surface for this; especially if not on the floor only, but over pieces of furniture which allow circulation of air, as chairs laid upon their faces, &c. Large vessels of water, as trays and pans, are not uncommonly used, with good effect; but the multiplied surfaces of the loose hay give it great advantage. It must be kept wet, however, or at least damp, for the oily vapour does not seem to be readily absorbed unless the air is kept moist by evaporation. THE PRESIDENT OF THE INQUISITION. But what say we of the president of the court? to him must be allowed the praise of loftier motives. Not since sunset of yesterday has he tasted bread, or moistened his shrivelled bloodless lip! Watching and prayer, though they have not spent him, have wrought up the fever of his pulse to a tremulous height, almost reaching delirium. Yet his front is settled and calm, and his eye glazed; and how is his spirit abstracted from mortal connections! human sympathies are as remote from his soul as are the warmth, the fruits, and the pleasures of a sultry Syrian glen, from the glaciers and snow that incrust the summits of Lebanon. The communion of his soul is with the things of another world: alas! not the world of love and joy; but the gulf of misery. In every sense, this terri Now the truth is, brethren! so wholly are we framed for the eternal world, that we must make a heaven of earth before we can fully enjoy it; that is to say, we must ideally, and in the dreams of hope and fancy, invest this world with those very characteristics which are the exclusive property of the world to come-its abundance, its dignity, above all, its unfading permanence-before we can, with full content of heart, sit down to the feast it offers to sense and soul. God has so inwoven, in the innermost texture of our nature, the title and testimonies of the immortal | state for which he made us, that, mingled with the perishable elements of earth, it is even now for ever around us; it rises in all our dreams, it colours all our thoughts, it haunts us with longings we cannot repel; in our very vices it reveals itself, for they cannot charm us till they have more or less counterfeited it; and thus, not merely out of the mouths of babes and sucklings,' but, if you will receive it, out of the mouth of the voluptuary himself, has God ordained praise,' the praise of those undying enjoyments, in search of which the wretch has gone astray among shadows! Our miseries are still the sublime dis content of a being too mighty for the perishable world he RAILWAYS IN ENGLAND. There are now in England about 5000 miles of railway, worked by nearly 2000 locomotives, which in the course of a single year collectively travel over more than 32,000,000 of miles-amounting in three years to the distance from the earth to the sun, or as much as three and a half times round the world per day; and carrying in the course of a single year not less than 60,000,000 passengers and 20,000,000 tons of goods. The rails upon these lines-which exceed 24,000 miles in length, and would therefore gird the earth around with an iron band, weighing about 70lbs. per yard-have been raised from the mine, smelted, forged, and laid in the course of the last fifteen years; whilst in the construction of the ways 250,000,000 cubic yards, or not less than 350,000,000 tons of earth and rock have, in tunnel, embankment, and cutting, been moved to greater or less distances. MICHAEL FARADAY, D.C.L., F.R.S. ELECTRICITY is gaining character. A few years ago, lying in the mist of half-developed theory, it was popularly thought good for little else than philosophy in sport.' Now-a-days, we are daily becoming more familiar with its almost magical phenomena. Whether by the usefulness of the space-annihilating telegraph, as a curative agent, or from the exquisite beauty of the varied works of the electro-metallurgist, it is alike evident that it is a very practical and paying thing. These facts have contributed to direct a very large proportion of the experimental talent of the age to investigations in this and correlative sciences. We would therefore throw together a few memoranda concerning the rise and progress of their most learned exponent, Michael Faraday. This eminent philosopher and great chemist is another and most striking instance of the power of genius in the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties. The researches in electricity which commenced with no greater apparatus than an old bottle have widened until many of the mysterious affinities of light, heat, magnetism, and electricity, have been evolved and made apparent. The same subtle and comprehensive intelligence would not only try to show that they are all modifications of one great force, but, with a keener and narrowing glance, would grapple with and identify the all-pervading power of gravitation. Faraday was born in 1791, at Newington Butts, in London. His father was a poor blacksmith, who gave him an ordinary education, and apprenticed him, at the age of thirteen, to Mr Ribeau (or Riebau), a bookbinder in Blandford Street. He wrought at this craft until twentytwo years of age, but with little liking for it. His master seems to have looked with a somewhat indulgent eye on the vagaries of his apprentice in reading articles on electricity in encylopedias, instead of 'forwarding' them (to use the trade phrase), making models of electrical machines, and other things. At all events, he opened up the path of the embryo savant, by mentioning his doings to a customer, Mr Dance; of Manchester Street, who was one of the old members of the Royal Institution. That gentleman took Faraday to some of the last lectures which Sir Humphrey Davy delivered there. The result of this step, and the student's previous aspirations, will be best learned by quoting a letter from himself to Dr Paris, which appears in the Life of Davy: When I was a bookseller's apprentice, I was very fond of experiment, and very averse to trade. It happened that a member of the Royal Institution took me to hear some of Sir Humphrey Davy's lectures in Albemarle Street. I took notes, and afterwards wrote them out more fully in a quarto volume. My desire to escape from trade, which I thought vicious and selfish, and to enter into the service of science, which I imagined made its pursuers amiable and liberal, induced me at last to take the bold and simple step of writing to Sir Humphrey Davy, expressing my wishes, and a hope that, if an opportunity came in his way, he would forward my views; at the same time I sent the notes I had taken of his lectures. This took place at the end of 1812, and early in 1813 he requested to see me, and told me of the situa. tion of assistant in the laboratory of the Royal Institution, then just vacant. At the same time he thus gratified my desires as to scientific employment, he still advised me not to give up the prospects I had before me, telling me that science was a harsh mistress, and in a pecuniary point of view but poorly rewarding those who devoted themselves to her service. He smiled at the notion of the superior moral feelings of philosophic men, and said he would leave me to the experience of a few years to set une right in that matter.' In March, 1813, Faraday received and entered upon his assistantship. His patron, not slow to perceive his peculiar merit, took a deep interest in his progress, and at the end of this same year, Sir Humphrey and his lady, with Faraday as amanuensis and professional companion, departed for France on a scientific visit to the volcanoes of Auvergne. Ruthless conqueror as he was, Napoleon respected and encouraged science-whether from real admiration of its professors, or from that policy which Sir Thomas Browne says would avoid the revengeful pen of succeeding ages,' may be questioned. While the most influential of the British nobility found it impossible to obtain leave to travel on the Continent, then embroiled in warfare, it was no sooner understood that the discoverer of the metallic bases of earths and alkalies wished such leave, than this was most readily granted. Accordingly, on the 13th October, the party embarked in a cartel for Morlaix, in Brittany. On the way the officials suspected the genuineness of their passports, and put them all into prison whilst these documents were forwarded to headquarters. This caused a detention of about a week, and the travellers did not arrive in Paris until the 27th October. Here and elsewhere Faraday enjoyed the invaluable advantage of being thrown into personal contact with all the most famous continental philosophers. In 1815, Davy returned to England, and his assistant to the duties of the laboratory-in which position he did not long remain. He was raised to his present office of Fullerian Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Institution; an appointment justified by an almost unrivalled talent in those paths of physical science to which his genius bent, and whose fruits have amply redeemed the promise given by his early, rapid, and brilliant career. His appearance in the Royal Institution we could not more graphically depict than in the language of the sprightly author of the 'Pen and Ink Sketches: We are always (at least I am) apt to associate high mental acquirements with a somewhat dignified deportment of person. Gravity would almost seem to be the handmaid of greatness, but they are not always combined; and certainly, so far as Mr Faraday is concerned, it seems to keep at a rather respectable distance. He had a pleasant countenance, lighted up by a pair of the most lively restless black eyes I ever saw in the head of man, or woman either. His hair, too, was jet black, curly, and parted in the very centre of his forehead; not giving him, as hair disposed in that manner sometimes does, a sleek, sheepish appearance, but a smart, jaunty, natty air. In person he was slender, and about the average height. It is a common mode of expression to say, that a man who is restless is upon wires;' in Faraday's case the allusion would be quite appropriate, for he was never still for half a minute together; and there was such a continual lively smile-not a smirk-on his lips, that it really was pleasant to look at him. He had the familiar nod and the cheerful recognition for every one, and seemed to feel a real anxiety to make every one about him comfortable; and, with all his splendid attainments, there was so much humility apparent, that his genius blazed ten times the brighter for his seeming unconsciousness of it. His style of lecturing is very brilliant; and I have heard those who had listened to that most practical and fascinating of scientific lecturers, the late Sir Humphrey Davy, say, that, in point of felicitous illustration, Faraday is hardly to be considered his inferior. His tone is musical and well-modulated, and I can scarcely imagine a higher mental treat than that offered by hearing Faraday lecture at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. There-behind the great lecturing-table, with his coat-sleeves turned back at the wrists, his eyes flashing with enthusiasm, as he discourses on his favourite topic to perhaps as brilliant an audience-whether personally or mentally considered-as any in the world, he stands one of the wonders of his own wonderful age, discoursing eloquently on the marvels which his own mind and hand have in part revealed. The recent (1816) discoveries of Mr Faraday with respect to the influence of magnetism on light, have conferred additional lustre on his name. I had the pleasure of hearing his lecture on that interesting topic, but was much struck with the change in his personal appearance since I first saw him. His face was paler, and his bright eyes were spectacled; his jet black hair, too (worn parted, as |