young men. He wore the scarlet military cap, embroidered round the sides, and surmounted by a rich gold tassel, the long bullion of which hung like a fringe over its crown. A cloak of sky blue cloth, with strait embroidered collar, almost concealed his under dress, a light cloth jacket, buttoned tight up to the chin, his gold-laced white kerseymere trousers, and boots, with spurs. On his left breast shone a most beautiful diamond star. His sabre and belt were European, as also his saddle and bridle. For a moment I could scarcely place faith in my sight, so changed was this haughty monarch "of the sea and earth" from what I had seen him some years back, moving in the full awfulness of Asiatic majesty. The waving plumes of a multitude of shattars, or running footmen, then screened him from the gaze of his subjects; he was borne on by his horse at a movement almost motionless, his eyes were fixed, countenance pale, gloomy, and most melancholy; and now I beheld the same powerful sovereign decked out in a flippant uniform, very similar to that of a light cavalry officer, with florid complexion, active inquisitive gaze, and beard clipped almost to the chin. I must say, Sultan Mahmood seemed to enjoy his emancipation from all the thraldoms of pomp and ceremony. In about half an hour the Sultan returned, and every part of the procession was managed without the slightest noise or confusion. Though, I imagine, the Sultan must have moments of great uneasiness regarding his personal safety, he does not hesitate to move amongst the crowded streets, or apparently shun occasions when attempts might be made on his life.

Persons who, by a long sojourn in Constantinople, have acquired a considerable and more than superficial knowledge of Turkish affairs, assert, that the late changes and ameliorations, instead of retarding, will accelerate the downfall of the Ottoman Government. The spirit of the people has been broken, and both national and religious feelings humbled and outraged. It is an arduous undertaking for a monarch endowed even with great wisdom and resolution to reform a nation, particularly a nation professing the Mohammedan faith; yet I should say, that much has apparently been effected in Constantinople; and, judging superficially, we would deem it the capital of a prosperous and vigorous government. The public buildings are undergoing general repair, old edifices are removing to be erected anew, and every where there is a certain stir denoting activity. Yet these signs of improvements are only observable in Constantinople, whilst the provinces are oppressed, misruled, and absolutely defenceless. If the system pursued by the Sultan does not produce the results anticipated by many, even to the regeneration of his people, certainly the body of the nation has been relieved from the insolence and lawless habits of the Janisaries; and those predatory bands of horsemen, the Dehlees and Hytees, no longer pillage and desolate the country. Criminals are now with facility seized and punished, and for years the Turkish empire has not been so tranquil, or so secure for foreigners, travellers, or merchants.-United Service Journal.

CHILDHOOD AND HIS VISITERS.
Once on a time when sunny May

Was kissing at the April showers,
I saw fair Childhood hard at play
Upon a bank of blushing flowers;
Happy, he knew not whence or how;

And smiling,--who could choose but love him?
For not more glad than Childhood's brow,
Was the blue heaven that breathed above him.

Old Time, in most appalling wrath,

That valley's green repose invaded; The brooks grew dry upon his path,

The birds were mute, the lilies faded; But Time so swiftly winged his flight In haste a Grecian tomb to batter, That Childhood watched his paper kite, And knew just nothing of the matter. With curling lip, and glancing eye,

Guilt gazed upon the scene a minute, But Childhood's glance of purity, Had such a holy spell within it, That the dark demon to the air Spread forth again his baffled pinion, And hid his envy and despair,

Self tortured, in his own dominion.

Then stepped a gloomy phantom up,
Pale, cypress crowned, Night's awful daughter,
And proffered him a fearful cup,

Full to the brim with water;

Poor Childhood bade her tell her name,
And when the beldame muttered "Sorrow,"
He said "Don't interrupt my game,
I'll taste it, if I must, to-morrow."

The Muse of Pindus thither came,

And wooed him with the softest numbers
That ever scattered wealth and fame,
Upon a youthful poet's slumbers;
Though sweet the music of the lay,

To Childhood it was all a riddle,
And, "Oh," he cried, "do send away,
That noisy woman with the fiddle."

Then Wisdom stole his bat and ball,
And taught him, with most sage endeavor,
Why bubbles rise and acorns fall,

And why no toy may last for ever;
She talked of all the wondrous laws,
Which Nature's open book discloses,
And Childhood ere she made a pause,
Was fast asleep among the roses.

Sleep on, sleep on!-Oh Manhood's dreams,
Are all of earthly pain or pleasure,
Of Glory's toils, Ambition's schemes,

Of cherished love, or hoarded treasure:
But to the couch where Childhood lies,
A more delicious trance is given,
Lit up by rays from Seraph eyes,
And glimpses of remembered heaven!

JUST JUDGMENT.

A GOOD JUDGE, AND A GOOD JURY.

It is of most essential importance to the due administration of justice that juries should be sensible of their own dignity; and, when occasion requires, that they should not implicitly and servilely bow to the opinion of any judge, however high he may be held in estimation. An instance of the beneficial result of a jury asserting, in a respectful manner, the privilege of having an opinion of their own, occurred not very long ago.

Two men were indicted for a burglary: after the counsel for the prosecution had opened, the amia

ble and learned judge who presided, addressing the jury, said, "Gentlemen, there does not appear to me any probability that a case of burglary can be made out against the prisoners, it is, therefore, needless to occupy your time any further." The jury having, however, conferred for a short time, the foreman replied, "With perfect deference to your lordship's opinion, we should rather prefer hearing the evidence." To this his lordship readily assented: the case went on, and the guilt of the prisoners was proved beyond the possibility of a doubt. After the verdict was returned, the learned judge said, "Well, gentlemen of the jury, I will not say that you are better lawyers than I am, but I am quite sure that in the present instance you have proved yourselves to be better judges."

THE SEA OTTER.

The fur of the sea otter is thick and long, and of a beautiful shining black color, but it is sometimes, though rarely, of a silvery hue; the legs are thick and short; the toes joined by a web; the hind feet are like those of a seal. The total length from the nose to the tail is four feet two inches; the tail is flat, thirteen inches long, and pointed at the extremity. The largest sized animals of this species weigh about eighty pounds.

The sea otter is a remarkably harmless animal, and most affectionately fond of its young; they have been known to pine to death for the loss of their offspring, and even to die on the spot from whence they have been taken away. Before the young can swim, the old animals carry them in their paws, and support them in the water lying upon their backs.

The sea otter can swim in various positions-on its back, sides, and even perpendicularly, and are excessively sportive in the water. It frequents shallow pools which abound in sea weeds, and feeds on crabs, lobsters, and other marine animals. They breed but once a year, and only produce but one at a time, which the female suckles and attends with great assiduity for nearly a year.

Vast numbers of these animals inhabit the coasts of Kamtschatka, and numerous islands contiguous to it, as well as the opposite coasts of America; they are also found on the larger South American islands. Their skins are of great value, and have long formed a considerable article of export from Russia. They dispose of them to the Chinese at the rate of seventy or a hundred rubles each, and receive in return some of their most valuable commodities.

ACCOUNT OF THE BEE-EATER OF SELBORNE,

HAMPSHIRE.

We had in this village, more than twenty years ago, an idiot boy, whom I well remember, who, from a child, showed a strong propensity for bees:

they were his food, his amusement, his sole object; and as people of this cast have seldom more than one point in view, so this lad exerted all his few faculties on this one pursuit. In the winter he dosed away his time, within his father's house, by the fireside, in a kind of torpid state, seldom departing from the chimney-corner; but in the summer he was all alert, and in quest of his game in the fields and on sunny banks. Honey bees, humble bees, and wasps, were his prey, wherever he found them: he had no apprehensions from their stings, but would seize them nudis manibus, and at once disarm them of their weapons, and suck their bodies for the sake of their honey-bags. Sometimes he would fill his bosom between his shirt and his skin with a number of these captives; and sometimes would confine them in bottles. He was a very merops apiaster, or bee-bird, and very injurious to men that kept bees; for he would slide into their bee-gardens, and, sitting down before the stools, would rap with his finger on the hives, and so take the bees as they came out. He has been known to overturn hives for the sake of honey, of which he was passionately fond. Where metheglin was making, he would linger round the tubs and vessels, begging a draught of what he called bee-wine. As he ran about, he used to make a humming noise with his lips, resembling the buzzing of bees. This lad was lean and sallow, and of a cadaverous complexion; and, except in his favorite pursuit, in which he was wonderfully adroit, discovered no manner of understanding. Had his capacity been better, and directed to the same object, he had perhaps abated much of our wonder at the feats of a more modern exhibiter of bees; and we may justly say of him now,

"Thou,

Had thy presiding star propitious shone,
Shouldst Wildman be."

When a tall youth, he was removed from hence to a distant village, where he died, as I understand, before he arrived at manhood.-Rev. Gilbert White.

Bilbocquet-In 1585, Henry III. of France diverted himself, while passing through the streets of Paris, by playing with a "bilbocquet," a cup and ball. The dukes d'Epernon and de Joyeuse accompanied him in his childish frolic, which, by this example, became so general, that gentlemen, pages, lackeys, and all sorts of people, great and small, made the management of the "bilbocquet" a serious and perpetual study. The same king traversed his capital with a basket hanging by a girdle from his neck, out of which peeped the heads of half a dozen puppies.

A Soldier's Age.-Napoleon, in his Italian successes, took a Hungarian battalion prisoners. The colonel, an old man, complained bitterly of the French mode of fighting-by rapid and desultory attacks, on the flank, the rear, the lines of communication, &c., concluding by saying, " that he fought in the army of Maria Theresa."

"You must be old?" said Napoleon. "Yes, I am either sixty or seventy."

"Why, colonel, you have certainly lived long enough to know how to count years a little more closely?"

"General," said the Hungarian, "I reckon my money, my shirts, and my horses; but as for my years, I know that nobody will want to steal them, and that I shall never lose one of them!"

Gardens in Ships. To sow in the temperate zone, and reap between the tropics, is a somewhat singular thing. Yet it is constantly done; for our great East India ships, in imitation of the Dutch, who first introduced the practice, have small salad gardens in flat wooden boxes on their poops, where the seed, acted upon by a heat increasing daily, shoots up in a surprisingly rapid manner. In these gardens the number of crops in a year are more numerous than in any spot on earth, for the gardeners, if so minded, can command almost any temperature.

PEDRO GONZALEZ DE MENDOZA, the Grand Cardinal of Spain, invited Columbus to a banquet, where he assigned him the most honorable place at table, and had him served with the ceremonies which in those punctilious times, were observed towards sovereigns. At this repast is said to have occurred the well known anecdote of the egg. A shallow courtier present, impatient of the honors paid to Columbus, and meanly jealous of him as a foreigner, abruptly asked him whether he thought that, in case he had not discovered the Indies, there were not other men who would have been capable of the enterprise. To this Columbus made no immediate reply, but, taking an egg, invited the company to make it stand upon one end. Every one attempted it, but in vain, whereupon he struck it upon the table so as to break the end, and left it standing on the broken part; illustrating, in this simple manner, that when he had once shown the way to the New World, nothing was easier than to follow it. This anecdote rests on the authority of the Italian historian, Benzoni. It has been condemned as trivial, but the simplicity of the reproof constituted its severity, and was characteristic of the practical sagacity of Columbus. The universal popularity of the anecdote is a proof of its merit.-Irving's Life of Columbus.

The celebrated Hogarth published an etching, illustrative of this anecdote. We give a copy of it above.

IRON STEAM-BOATS.

Vessels constructed of sheet-iron have been sometimes tried in England, but it does not appear that any essential advantage was gained by the

change, as the use of metal for wood has never extended beyond the first experiments, except for track-boats on canals, where the lightness of the structure seems to have recommended its adoption in some cases. In warm climates, however, the case is different; the superiority of iron over wood is there evinced in many essential circumstances, and it is so decided, that, in the course of time, it must cause a total revolution in ship-building for these countries. The great changes, from excessive drought to heavy rains, which take place in hot climates, have a powerful effect in destroying the joinings and frame-work of the best built ships, as well as in wasting their timber. Sometimes, during wet seasons, the rains pour down for days together, till the whole decks and frame of the vessel are soaked with moisture; the sun immediately after breaks out with a strong cloudless heat, and the planks, which had been swelled with wet, now shrink from the penetrating drought, till their joints separate from each other, and leave large gaps and seams. During the next heavy shower, perhaps, these give free entrance to rain, and the cabins below are frequently deluged, in such cases, like an open shed. This takes place particularly on the coast of Guinea, but it is felt to a painful extent by all coasting vessels in tropical climates. This, however, is not the only inconvenience: wood, it is well known, is a bad conductor of heat, so that whatever warmth is generated within a wooden vessel, is likely to remain there, and even to increase, within certain limits, so long as the cause continues to operate. The breath of the sailors, therefore, when they sleep below decks, and the heat communicated through the planks by the vertical sun, frequently make the hold of ship in warm cli

mates so insufferably hot, that it is almost suffocation to remain in it; and though there are contrivances (called windsails) which are used to send down a current of cool air, the heat and effluvia are still injurious to health. The same warmth, however, which is hurtful to mankind, makes the hold of these vessels a favorite shelter for all the noxious vermin of hot climates: scorpions, centipedes, rats, cockroaches, and all abominations, delight in their recesses. Henry Martin, a well known and benevolent chaplain of the East India Company, who made a short passage in one of the native vessels, could compare it to nothing, on this account, but a sepulchre, full of every thing unclean and poisonous. The unpacking of boxes which have been any time on board of such craft is sometimes a work of great danger, and a person has to stand by with a sharp instrument to prick the scorpions to death. The vermin are sometimes killed by introducing a tube from a steam-boiler, and filling the hold (which is well closed down in the meantime) with hot steam; this kills them, and boils them down to a pulp; but the vessel requires much cleaning afterwards. The chief cause of the preference shown by such vermin to the holds of ships, is the heat generated in the confined atmosphere, which the non-conducting properties of their wooden sides do not allow to escape. All this would be avoided by having vessels constructed of iron; that metal is so complete a conductor, that the heat generated within the hold would be transmitted instantly through the sides of the ship, and abstracted by the cool seawater; so that the interior air of the vessel, instead of being kept at a suffocating heat, would never become warmer than the surrounding water. This result is not mere matter of conjecture or speculation; the experiment has been tried in steam-vessels on the Ganges, and found to answer perfectly; and it is also now under trial in the case of the steam-boat which went out with Mr. Lander to explore the river Niger, and its eastern tributary, the Quorra. Accounts have been received from this interesting expedition, which dwell particularly on the advantages derived from the coolness of their metal steam-vessel, and its capability of resisting the effects of a tropical climate. Indeed, had it not been for this invention, it seems likely that the heat generated by steam-engines would have been a powerful bar to the employment of that power in warm climates, at least in vessels coasting along the hot sultry shores and rivers, where the health of European seamen already suffers sufficiently from the temperature. It is singular to consider how science enables mankind to defy the extremes both of heat and cold, and to carry on their enterprises in safety, under the pole or the equator. When ships were sent to make discoveries near the pole, they were lined with nonconductors, cork and double planking, in order to preserve within them all the heat that was generated either by the people or by the necessary fires; while, under the equator, on the other hand, where the heat is in excess, ships are made entirely of a conducting substance, in order to carry away the heat as fast as it is generated.

The

and like an exhalation vanished, not leaving a wreck behind. From a true and particular account of this ice palace, drawn up by Kraft, an imperial academician, and published at St. Petersburgh the year after its erection, it appears, that seven years before, an ice castle had been built on the river Neva; but the ice bent under the weight of the edifice and of the soldiers who garrisoned it. To avoid a similar defect in the foundation, it was resolved, on the occasion of the marriage of Prince Galitzin, in 1740, to erect a palace of e on terra firma; and a site was chosen between the imperial winter palace and the admiralty, one of the lords of the bedchamber being appointed to superintend the works. The palace was constructed of blocks of ice, from two to three feet thick, cut out of the winter covering of the Neva; these being properly adjusted, water was poured between them, which acted as cement, consolidating the whole into one immense mass of ice. The length of the edifice was fifty-six feet, its breadth seventeen feet and a half, and its height twenty-one. It was constructed according to the strictest rules of art; and was adorned with a portico, columns, and statues. It consisted of a single story, the front of which was provided with a door and fourteen windows; the frames of the latter, as well as the panes, being all formed of ice. sides of the doors and of the windows were painted in imitation of green marble. On each side of the door was a dolphin, from the mouths of which, by means of naphtha, volumes of flame were emitted in the evening. Next to them were two mortars, equal to eighty pounders, from which many bombs were thrown, a quarter of a pound of powder being used for each charge. On each side of the mortars stood three cannons, equal to three pounders, mounted upon carriages, and with wheels, which were often used. In the presence of a number of persons attached to the court, a bullet was driven through a board two inches thick, at the distance of sixty paces, by one of these cannons, a quarter of a pound of powder being also used for a charge. The interior of the edifice had no ceiling, and consisted of a lobby and two large apartments, one on each side, which were well furnished, and painted in the most elegant manner, though formed merely of ice. Tables, chairs, statues, looking-glasses, candlesticks, watches, and other ornaments, besides tea-dishes, tumblers, wine-glasses, and even plates with provisons in one apartment, also formed of ice, and painted of their natural colors; while in the other were to be seen a state bed, with curtains, bed, pillows, and bed clothes, two pair of slippers, and two night caps of the same cold material. Behind the cannon, the mortars, and the dolphins, stretched a low balustrade. On each side of the building was a small entrance. Here were pots with flowers and orange trees, partly formed of ice, and partly natural, on which birds sat. Beyond these were erected two icy pyramids. On the right of one of them stood an elephant, which was hollow, and so contrived as to throw out burning naphtha; while a person within it, by means of a tube, imitated the natural cries of the animal. On the left of the other pyramid was seen the never-failing concomitant of all princely dwellings in Russia, a banya, or bath, apparently formed of balks, which is said to have been sometimes heated, and even to have been appropriated to use.

The appearance of the ice palace, it is said, was remarkably splendid when lighted up in the evening with numerous candles. Amusing transparen

Many a row

Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed
With naphtha and asphaltus, yielding light
As from a sky. The hasty multitude

Admiring entered; and the work some praised,
And some the architect."

Crowds of visiters were continually seen around this fantastic and unique construction, which remained entire from the beginning of January almost to the middle of March. The glassy fabric then began to melt, and was soon afterwards broken into pieces, and the ruins were conveyed to the imperial icecellar. On the wisdom displayed in the construction of this costly emblem of mundane glory, the reader may make his own comment.

WARLIKE INSTRUMENTS OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

The only missile weapons of the New Zealanders (except stones, which they merely throw from the hand) are short spears, made of hard wood, or whalebone, and pointed at one extremity. These they are very dexterous, both in darting at a mark, and in receiving or turning aside with the blades of their battle-axes, which are the only shields they use, except the folds of their thick and flowing mats, which they raise on the left arm, and which are tough enough to impede the passage of a spear. They have other spears, however, varying from thirteen or fourteen to thirty feet in length, which they use as lances or bayonets. These, or rather

the shorter sort, are also sometimes called by English writers, Patoos, or Patoo-patoos. Lastly, they often carry an instrument somewhat like a serjeant's halberd, curiously carved, and adorned with bunches of parrot's feathers, tied round the top of it. This they call a Hennee. It is the instrument which is borne by the chief Tetoro in the representation of him prefixed to Captain Cruise's book; and also by Tooí, in our wood-cut, copied from the Missionary Register.

TOOTHACHE.

"When fevers burn and agues freeze us,
Rheumatics gnaw and colicks squeeze us,
Our neebors sympathize to ease us,
Wi' pitying moan-

But thou the hell o' a' diseases,

They mock our groan."

BURNS.

The toothache is rendered more distressing, if not more acute, by there being no commiseration for the wretchedness it occasions. The belief in this, and a keen recollection of bodily and mental sufferings, have produced the following little narrative:

Some years ago, a tremendous tooth, with three enormous prongs, confined me to my room, and irritated me to a state little short of distraction. With my head tied up in a bandana handkerchief, both hands on my afflicted jaw, I sat swaying my body to and fro, as if endeavoring to calm a fractious infant; at other times I stamped about like a lunatic, or plunged on my bed like a frog swimming. Being at length reduced to a state of exhaustion, I was anxious to retreat from all intercourse with the world; yet knock after knock at the door continued, as if only to increase my already excessive nervous irritability. Many of the persons I had no desire to see, but some were those interwoven with my professional pursuits, and I was compelled to be at home. I had to account for my disconsolate appearance to describe my tormenting pangs, till I was weary of speaking upon the subject. To all of my fervid descriptions, I received the cold remark, and the chilling advice, that it was only the toothache, and that I had better have it extracted. All this time, the salivary glands were pouring their fluids into my mouth, the gastric juices were wasting their powers, and I was in a paroxysm of excruciating anguish. It was astonishing how persons could calmly behold such a complication of miseries. Nothing could be eaten; slops became offensive; the sight of a spoon frightful; and a basin revolting as a perpetual blister. Even the air could not be taken!-it was too much for the petulance of my capricious tooth. On it raged, as if torments were its delight. In all my reading, I never met with any author but Burns who had a proper idea of the toothache. He wished his enemies to have it for a twelvemonth. Oh dear! He must be more or less than man who could endure this. He must despair and perish.

How true it is, that out of evil often some good will spring; for while I was enduring this thumbscrew on my gums-this gout in my jaw-this rack of nerves-this destroyer of brains-amid this desolation I acquired much useful information respecting the toothache. One friend informed me that half the suffering was occasioned by a nervous irritability; for, if I went to a dentist with a determination to have the tooth extracted, the moment I entered the door the tooth would cease to give me pain. He had proved it more than once.

Another friend smiled at my deplorable situation, and laughed at my desire to retain in my mouth such a thing, that had ceased to be a tooth; it was