Or her evil genius, Miss Black, followed the direction which the apparition had taken. Several persons approached from a turn in the shrubbery, carrying some one on a hand-barrow. mond appeared from the midst of them, and in an agony of remorse exclaimed," If he dies, I am a murderer." The young men having drank at Mr Cornelius O'Shane's more than was consistent with "the sobriety of reason, were returning from the Black Islands, and afraid of being late, were gallopping hard, when, at a narrow part of the road, they were stopped by some cars. Their impatience, and the tyrannical temper of Marcus, led to a scuffle, which unhappily terminated in Ormond's pistol going off accidentally, and lodging a ball in the breast of Moriarty Carroll, one of the drivers. After much opposition on the part of Lady O'Shane, with whom Ormond had never been a favourite, the wounded man was allowed to remain for the night in the gardener's lodge. mond never quitted his bedside; and his horror and anxiety during that terrible night are very naturally des cribed. Or "To his alarmed and inexperienced eyes the danger seemed even greater than it really was, and several times he thought his patient expiring when he was only faint from loss of blood. The moments when Ormond was occupied in assisting him were the least painful. It was when he had nothing left to do, when he had leisure to think, that he was most miserable; then the agony of suspense, and the horror of remorse, were felt, till feeling was exhausted; and he would sit motionless and stupified till he was wakened again from this suspension of thought and sensation by some moan of the poor man, or some delirious startings." From this racking state of fear and self-condemnation he was somewhat relieved by the sympathy of the wounded man himself. "Toward morning the wounded man lay easier; and as Ormond was stooping over his bed to see whether he was asleep, Moriarty opened his eyes, and fixing them on Ormond, said, in broken sentences, but so as very distinctly to be heard.-' Don't be in such trouble about the likes of meI'll do very well, you'll see-and even suppose I wouldn't-not a friend I have shall ever prosecute-I'll charge 'em not-so be asy for you're a good heart-and the pistol went off unknownst to you-I'm sure was no malice-let that be your comfort It might happen to any man, let alone gen VOL. I. tleman-Don't take on so--and think of young Mr Harry sitting up the night with me?-Oh! if you'd go now and settle yourself yonder on the other bed, sir-I'd be a great dale asier, and I don't doubt but I'd get a taste of sleep myself while now, wid you standing over or forenent me, I can't close an eye for thinking of you, Mr Harry.' Ormond immediately threw himself upon the other bed, that he might relieve Moriarty from the sight of him. The good nature and generosity of this poor fellow increased Ormond's keen sense of remorse. sleeping, for him it was impossible; whenever his ideas began to fall into that sort of confusion which precedes sleep, suddenly he felt as if his heart was struck or twinged, and he started with the recollection that some dreadful thing had happened, and wakened to the sense of guilt and all its horrors. Moriarty, now lying perfectly quiet and motionless, and Ormond not hearing that he had breathed his last. A cold trehim breathe, he was struck with the dread mor came over Ormond," &c. As to The agitation of Miss Annaly, on seeing Ormond in so frightful a situation the preceding evening, had alarmed the suspicions of Sir Ulick, who determined to have Ormond sent froin Castle Hermitage; while he so managed as to appear willing to retain him at the hazard of even separating from Lady O'Shane, and thus to induce the generous youth to banish himself from the family to prevent such a catastrophe. In this exigency, Ormond naturally turned his thoughts to Cornelius O'Shane, who had always shewn him particular kindness. He wrote to him a statement of all that had happened, and received an invitation full of cordiality, mingled with some indignation at this sudden change in his cousin's behaviour. His reception is very characteristic of the primitive manners and single-hearted generosity of this eccentric monarch of the Black Islands. "Welcome, Prince, my adopted son; welcome to Corny castle-palace, I would have said, only for the constituted authorities of the post-office, that might take exceptions, and not be sending me my letters right. As I am neither bishop nor arch, I have, in their blind eyes or conceptions, no right-Lord help them to a temporal palace. Be that as it may, come you in with me, here into the big room-and see! there's the bed in the corner for your first object, my boy, your wounded chap-And I'll visit his wound, and fix it and him the first thing for ye, the minute he comes up.' His Majesty pointed to a bed in the corner of a large apartment, whose beautiful painted ceiling and cornice, and fine chimney-piece 4 M with caryatides of white marble, ill accorded "He had with his own hands made a violin and a rat-trap, and had made the best coat, and the best pair of shoes, and the best pair of boots, and the best hat, and had knit the best pair of stockings, and had made the best dunghill, in his dominions; and had made a quarter of a yard of fine lace, and had painted a panorama. In one respect, however, he differed essentially from the Stoics; against whose affected contempt of pain, we find him thus ingeniously reasoning, when tortured with the gout. "In the middle of the night our hero was wakened by a loud bellowing. It was only King Corny in a paroxysm of the gout. Pray now,' said he to Harry, who however, to Prince Harry's happiness. He sometimes inquired from King Corny, with a certain degree of anxiety, whither his daughter Dora had gone, and when she was likely to return. She had gone to the Continent of Ireland to her aunt's by the mother's side, Miss O'Faley, to get the advantage of a dancing-master; but that Ormond might cherish no feelings towards her which might give him pain in future, Corny informed him, that in consequence of a foolish vow which he had made, over a punch-bowl, ten years before her birth, she was engaged to White Connal of Glynn. The portrait of Miss O'Faley is painted in so lively colours, and, if a little overwrought, is at least so amusing a caricature, that we should be strongly tempted to present it to our readers, did our limits permit. This strange composition of oddities, half French, half Irish, soon arrived, for the first time, at the palace of the Black Islands, with her charge Dora, who had improved, under her care, entirely to her satisfaction. Dora was stood beside his bed, now that I've a moment's ease,-did you ever hear of the exceedingly pretty, though not reguStoics that the book-men talk of, and can larly handsome; smart, lively, and, you tell me what good any one of them ever as the beaux in the neighbourhood got by making it a point to make no noise, thought, remarkable elegant. when they'd be punished or racked with short, she was just the thing to be pains of body or mind? Why, I will tell the belle and coquette of the Black you all they got all they got was, no pity; Islands; the alternate scorn and fami -who would give them pity that did not require it? I could bleed to death in a bath liarity with which she treated her adas well as the best of them, if I chose it; mirers, and the interest and curiosity or chew a bullet, if I set my teeth to it, she excited by sometimes taking de with any man in a regiment but where's lightful pains to attract, and then ca the use? Nature knows best, and she says, priciously repelling, succeeded, as roar! And he roared-for another twinge Miss O'Faley observed, admirably.' seized him," &c. Ormond, notwithstanding the friendly caution of King Corny and his own resolution to regard Dora as a married woman, was soon inspired with a feeling towards this fair princess, which, if not absolutely love, was at least a little incompatible with his resolution. Neither Miss O'Faley nor Dora was much inclined to the alliance with White Connal, who, though rich, was selfish, mean, and vulgar. Ormond was a favourite of the aunt, and not disagreeable to the niece. Mademoiselle (as Miss O'Faley was generally called) had formed a scheme for marrying Dora privately to Ormond, before White Connal should come to claim her. Still King Corny was true to his word.-Connal appeared sooner than was expect ed, and in spite of all her French Among other good effects which Ormond's remorse for wounding Moriarty had produced on his mind, it had induced him to form a resolution never to drink till he lost command of reason. This resolution had nearly brought him into disgrace with his royal patron, the second day after his arrival in the Black Islands; but their temporary misunderstanding only led them to know and love one another the more-and his Majesty bound himself by an oath never to insist on his drinking more than he chose. That the newly-created Prince might not be another Lackland, King Corny solemnly invested him in the possession of one of the prettiest farms in the Black Islands as his principality. Something was still wanting, intrigue, and Irish acuteness, and varieties of resource, Mademoiselle's plan was likely to be defeated, when, to the great satisfaction of all concerned, White Connal broke his neck. Every obstacle seemed now to be removed Corny himself would have been delighted to see his daughter united to Ormond-but White Connal had a brother, to whom, if he was now alive, King Cornelius imagined his unfortunate promise to extend. In consequence of a message from his majesty, the brother, designated Black Connal, soon appeared in the shape of a dashing officer of the Irish brigade. His French habits and manners were quite delightful to Mademoiselle; and though Dora was at first hurt by his polite indifference, the vanity of making such a conquest, the hope of the unrestrained gayety and freedom which her aunt assured her French wives enjoyed, and above all, the confidence with which Connal had the address to inspire her in the sincerity of his affection, induced her at length to consent to the fulfilment of her father's rash promise; and after a considerable struggle between love and vanity, she was married to this Frenchified coxcomb, and set off with her husband and Mademoiselle to Paris. When the kind-hearted Corny saw that Ormond could not be his son-inlaw and heir, he resolved that he should no longer lose his time in the Black Islands; and though he would have been happy to have kept him while he lived, and had no one now to supply the blank which his absence must make, he had generously undertaken to procure a commission for him in the army, for which he had already lodged money in the bank. Things are in this train, when this generous monarch is killed by the bursting of a fowling-piece. No death (in fiction) ever disappointed or vexed us so much as this, particularly as we see no great end which it serves in the narrative. It gives Miss Edgeworth an opportunity, indeed, of describing an Irish wake and funeral; but we should have liked better to see King Corny living to a mature old age, enjoying the happiness of seeing his dear prince succeed to an ample fortune, united with the lovely and accomplished Miss Annaly, and finally, succeeding his generous patron in the sovereignty of the Black Islands. We have not time, though we are now in the humour, for taking notice of the other faults of this de lightful tale. We shall only observe, that Miss Edgeworth, in this tale, comes forward sometimes too ostentatiously in propria persona as a moral teacher, and seems even willing to institute a comparison to her own advantage between her mode of pourtraying characters, and that of other novelists. Thus, towards the conclusion of the third chapter, she tells us, "Most heroes are born perfect,-so at least their biographers, or rather their panegyrists, would have us believe. Our hero is far from this happy lot; the readers of his story are in no danger of being wearied at first setting out, with the list of his merits and accomplishments, nor will they be awed or discouraged by the exhibition of virtue above the common standard of humanity, beyond the hope of imitation," &c. We can understand the moral of representing her hero's ima gination as so heated, by the perusal of Tom Jones, that he was determined to distinguish himself as an accomplished libertine, and of saving him the infamy of ruining a lovely and innocent girl, only by the discovery that she was the lover of his faithful Moriarty. But really Miss Edgeworth's description of the dissipation and gayety of Parisian society would have satisfied us of its temptations without her hero, (whose mind had now been fortified by a strong attachment to a most deserving object,-by the society of a most exemplary and accomplished clergyman,-and by a long course of study under that worthy gentleman's direction) being brought to the verge of a criminal intimacy with the married daughter of his generous and beloved benefactor. There are several marvellous incidents too, which violently stagger belief, particularly the sudden appearance of Moriarty Carroll at Paris, at the very moment when it was necessary to save Ormond from ruin. But we forbear to indulge in the ungrateful task of pointing out blemishes where there is so much to admire. If the extracts which we have given, have produced on our readers the effect which we intended, they will fly with eagerness to the perusal of this tale, which, in the varied and interesting delineation of character, is inferior to none of Miss Edgeworth's productions. LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. THE scientific world will rejoice to learn, that one of the most philosophical chemists of modern times, Dr Thomas Thomson, has been elected to the chemical chair in the University of Glasgow. His varied knowledge, minute as extensive, his philosophical views, and singular talent for elucidating the most abstract points,-have long marked him out as eminently qualified for a situation like that to which he has been just called. His election, honourable as it is to himself, will, there is little doubt, prove one of the most valuable acts of the learned body to which he now belongs, whether it be regarded with reference to the general interests of physical science, or to the numerous manufactures of Scotland. We most cordially trust, that Dr Thomson will long continue to discharge the duties of his chair, with satisfaction to himself and advantage to society. We are happy to announce, that Profes sor Leslie is at present engaged in a series of experiments with some new instruments of his invention, which will throw much new and important light on meteorology. Sir Humphrey Davy states, that flame is gaseous matter heated so highly as to be luminous, and that to a degree of temper ature beyond the white heat of solid bodies, as is shown by the circumstance, that air not luminous will communicate this degree of heat. When an attempt is made to pass flame through a very fine mesh of wiregauze at the common temperature, the gauze cools each portion of the elastic matter that passes through it, so as to reduce its temperature below that degree at which it is luminous, and the diminution of temperature must be proportional to the smallness of the mesh and the mass of the metal. Dr E. D. Clarke, in a letter to Dr Thomson, says, that in using the gas blow-pipe, two precautions are necessary :-First, as a precaution for his safety, the operator, before igniting the gas, should apply his ear to the apparatus (gently turning the stopcock of the jet at the same time), and listen, to determine, by the bubbling noise of the oil, whether it be actually within the safety cylinder. The oil may be drawn into the reservoir, whenever the piston is used, if the stop-cock below the piston be not kept carefully shut, before the handle is raised. If there have been a partial detonation in the safety cylinder, as sometimes happens when the gas is nearly expended, this precaution is doubly necessary, to ascertain whether the oil have not been driven into the reservoir, when an explosion of the whole apparatus would be extremely probable. Using this precaution, the diameter of the jet may be so enlarged as to equal 1-25th of an inch. Second, if, with this diam eter, the heat of the flame be not sufficient About this time Dr Wollaston arrived in Cambridge, and was present at some experiments, in company with the Dean of Carlisle and our professor of chemistry. Dr Wollaston brought with him some pure barytes. It was immediately observed, that with this newly-prepared barytes, there was no possibility of obtaining any metallic appear. ance. The barytes deliquesced before the ignited gas, and drops of a liquid caustic matter fell from it. Hence it became evident, that the failure here, and at the Royal Institution, might be attributed to the same cause, namely, the impurity of the barytes, which proved to be, in fact, a hydrate; and its reduction to the metallic state before the ignited gas was thereby rendered impracticable." Dr Clarke has lately made the following experiments : EXPER. I. Corundum.-If, during the fusion of this substance, it be allowed to fall, while hot, upon a deal board, it will become coated over with a film of carbon, exhibiting the highest pseudo-metallic lus tre, which however disappears upon the action of the file. The same happens in the fusion of rock crystal, of pure alumine, magnesia, and many other refractory bodies. The appearance of this pseudo-metallic lustre might deceive any person; but it is distinguished from reguline lustre in this circumstance, that the file removes it. EXPER. II. Crystallized Phosphate of Lime, found near Bovey in Devonshire. No decrepitation. Phosphorescence. Fuses into a black shining slag; depositing on iron forceps a cupreous-coloured powder. Scintillation-reddish coloured flame. Upon filing the slag we observed a globule of white metal, resembling silver, which does not alter by exposure to air. EXPER. III. Crystals deposited during the fusion of Wood Tin.-In many recent experiments for the reduction of wood tin to the metallic state, when fused, per se, before the ignited gas, we have observed a deposite of white shining vitreous crystals in quadrangular tables, the nature of which has not been ascertained. These crystals are formed upon the white oxide which results from the combustion of the metal. EXFER. IV. Hydrogen Gas prepared by the action of zinc on water with muriatic acid, when condensed alone in the reservoir of the gas blow-pipe, and ignited, was found to have heat enough for the fusion of platinum foil, and for the combustion of iron wire. EXPER. V. Protoxide of Chromium.Mixed with oil it was easily fused, and white fumes were disengaged, but the metal did not appear to be revived by this pro cess. EXPER. VI. Metalloidal Oxide of Manganese. Admitted of easy fusion. Afterwards the file disclosed a metal white as silver, on which the teeth of the instrument were visible. This metal proved to be a conductor of electricity. EXPER. VII. Alloy of Platinum and Gold. When fused in equal parts by bulk, a bead was obtained so highly malleable, that it was extended by a hammer without separation at the edges. Colour nearly the same as gold. When two parts of platinum were fused with one of gold, the alloy prov ed brittle. Ancient Coal Mines.-A Dublin paper gives the following account of the ancient coal-mines lately discovered at the Giant's Causeway;" There were five pits of Coal opened in Port Ganneye, west of the Giant's Causeway; the westernmost of which is 244 feet above the level of the sea at half tide, and from thence to the top of the precipice 44 feet. In Port Noffer, east of the Giant's Causeway, there were two pits; the westernmost 199 feet from the level of the sea, and from the pit to the top 70 feet. The distance from the first altitude taken at Port Ganneye to that in Port Noffer, is 80 perches. The people, who found the coal with difficulty, and in some places with great danger, threw off the pillars to get at it, and could not pursue it farther than cleared, as they had no method of supporting the vast mass above it.The stratum of coal dips into the land in a southerly direction; and, from the altitudes taken, it appears that it lowers as it approaches to the east. -Several trials at different places have been made to find coal, but none worth following, except under columnar basalt, above which is a stratum of irregular whin-stone, then basalt pillars at the top. The depth of the good seams of coal is from three to five feet; the upper coal, on which the pillars rest, is a soft mossy coal; the wooden coal is in the centre, and the best and more solid at the bottom of the pit. The blocks of wooden coal lie nearly horizontal, in an east and west direction across the face or the promontory. One of those blocks is so large in the east pit, Port Ganneye, that four men with two crow-irons could not turn it out. The land from the precipice to the southward falls considerably.' Meteorology.-At Tunbridge Wells, on the night of Wednesday, the 30th of July, about half after eleven o'clock, appeared a beautiful parasalene, or mock moon. It was at the distance of about 25 degrees south of the moon, and was highly coloured with red and yellow, and at length had the addition of a projecting and tapering band of light, extending in the direction of the halonic radius. The phenomenon lasted about three minutes. The sky was full of the cirrus or curlcloud, and the wanecloud passed over in fine veils, here and there dispersed in wavy bars. A change had been conspicuous in the clouds to-day. The long lines of cirrus extending to either horizon, large well-defined twain-clouds to leeward, and waneclouds in the intermediate region of the atmosphere, formed a character of the sky contrasted to the rapid production of rainclouds and showers which had gone on almost every day for a week before.-The barometer was stationary nearly all day, and till midnight, at 29-43. Explosion on board a Coal Vessel.-On Friday night, July 4, as a master of a Scotch sloop lying in the Tyne, and just laded with coals, was going to bed, his candle unfortunately ignited a quantity of gas which had collected in the cabin, and produced a slight explosion, by which his face and hands were much burnt, and the curtains of his bed set on fire, but they were soon extinguished; another person was also, we understand, much burned. What renders this circumstance the more curious is, the coals were by no means fresh from the pit. Coal in Russia.-An attempt to raise coal is now about to be made in Russia, under the immediate patronage of the Emperor. The spot fixed upon for this purpose is in the vicinity of Tula, celebrated for its extensive iron-works. Tula is the capital of the government of that name, distant from |