CHARACTER OF NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE, BY JUDGE HARDINGE. THE learned judge in expressing to the grand jury of Brecon, at the late assizes, his hope, that they would address his Majesty on his magnanimous conduct towards Spain, thus truly spoke of the tyrant of the Continent :— island into a frightful desert. On the same feet. The lava inundated and swept away the town of Ursulina, its plantations, country houses and cottages adjacent, as well as the farm-houses, throughout its course. It, as usual, gave timely notice of its approach, and most of the inhabitants fled; some few, however, remained in the vicinity of it too long, endeavouring to save their furniture and effects, and were scalded by flashes of steam, which, without injuring their clothes, took off not only their skin but their flesh. About sixty persons were thus miserably scalded, some of whom died on the spot, or in a few days after. Numbers of cattle shared the same fate. The Judge and principal inhabitants left the island very early. The consternation and anxiety were for some days so great among the people, that even their domestic concerns were abandoned, and, amidst plenty they were in danger of starving. Supplies of ready baked bread were sent froin hence to their relief, and large boats were dispatched to bring away the inhabitants, who had lost their dwellings. In short, the island, heretofore rich in cattle, corn, and wine, is nearly ruined, and a scene of greater desolation and distress has seldom been witnessed in any country. We recommend a particular inquiry into the above event to our countrymen; and shall be happy to communicate any authentic observations made upon it. Inquiries of this kind are not only interesting to natural philosophers, but to navigators also. Minutes made describing them, should note the hour of the day, state of the weather, and other pecial circumstances. shape, the pestilence not only of the legiti "Shew me his picture! let me see his eyes! He was the ally of Spain-he was debtor to REVOLUTION AND RESOLUTION AT GREINA GREEN: Or, the fickle Goddess fixed as Fute. In Panorama, Vol. IV. p. 1038, may be seen some account of the inost venerable the High Priest of this village sacred to Hymen. Late advices from thence acquaint us that the same revolutionary spirit, which overturns empires, has transposed the scene of hymneneal union from Gretna Green to the adjoining hamlet of Springfield, lately built by Sir J. Maxwell. It seems that the present landlady of the chief inn, called Gretna Hall, (the ancient temple sacred to the rites and institutions of the hand-uniting deity; and where the same learned practitioner has ac quitted himself to the delight of all comers, for more than half a century,) has taken some objection, (but of what nature, it is past the wit of man to devise,) against the long-established ceremonies which have rendered Gretna famous. She has therefore issued a lated his personal appearance a somewhat too closely to certain of the soi-disant religious orders of Popery, we mean particularly that of the brotherhood of Elias, alias the barefooted Carmelites: as report affirms, that he has for sometime past been observed to approach the threshold of the sacred fane with scarcely shoe or sole. That he adopted the true Highland custom of great frugality in the article of breeches we knew; but that he should now, after the surprizing and prodigious run of luck he has had for so many years, from true protestant customers, who sought his aid against sundry human weaknesses and frailties, incline to such conformity to any of the superstitions of the of Babylon, we must acknowledge, fills us with alternately prevalent grief and astonishment, each of them far, very far-" too big for utterance." Let this failing of so great a character be recorded among the marvels of our times, and stand as a warning to all zealous Protestants, however invincible they may prohibitory order, which has of late been suppose their principles to be, lest they most rigidly enforced: "That no young also swerve from the steadiness of their protravelling couples, driving up the avenue in imfession, and lest Tendimus in Latium be moderate haste, should be received under her written on them. Toof."-The consequence has been, that the We are not, however, altogether without whole conjugal run of business from the hope, that the motives of this exemplary cha English road has been to Springfield, where racter may in this instance have been inistwo (miserable, say some) public houses, the understood, as we know there are those who King's Head, and the Maxwell Arins, hold have misunderstood the orthography he thinks out their opposition signals of reception: to proper to adopt, and have criticised it unmerthese the post boys of the Bush Inn, and the cifully, without having the sense to perceive Coffee-house at Carlisle, drive, in support of that it is a New System of Writing the adverse interests. Centrically opposite to both English Language, which Mr. Paisley has dwells Joseph Paisley, the well-known Priest long been intent on introducing, for the of Hymen, employing his time and talents improvement of this degenerate generation. in the mysteries of his sacred profession A Aristotle himself, as well as Mr. Paisley, has man named David Long presumptuously set been subject to the misfortune of being malup against him, professionally, a short ume treated by ignorant commentators, although since, in hope of sharing in the emoluments they indeed assumed all the airs of deeplyof this ritual; but this David Long though practised Grecians: but we would have these he vapours as if he were somebody, and af- wonderous Hellenists to know-if they be capa fects to prefix at full length the imposing title ble of so much knowledge-that their Greek Reverend to his name, yet has not been able will not avail them in parsing Mr. Paisley's to supersede the authorities and to nullify the sentences: and as to what they affect to call advantages, which a long continuance of pos- erudition-he bids it defiance. That his session confers on the hitherto immortal Jo-system, when perfected, will have its beauseph. Fortune, notwithstanding all her ca- ties, is abundantly manifest from a short prices, and blind though she be, as some as-specimen, that we shall subjoin, in the form sert who have seen her, yet is not so neglect ful of former favourites as to withdraw her bounties from one who has been indescribably serviceable to greater numbers of her votaries than any other minister in the British Isles. Fortune therefore reserves all ladies of fortune for Father Paisley; and if David Long does now and then clumsily rivet the indissoluble chain, it is only on such applicants as Fortune does not acknowledge. We refer to our former article for a description of the habits, abilities, and qualifications, of the ve.nerable, useful, and worthy Father Paisley: but are sorry to learn that he has lately assimi of a certificate, which form, as our readers have been heretofore instructed, is not a studied composition, but wholly immediate off hand, or, as the learned say-prore natâ. "This to sartfay all persons who may be concerned, that on-from the parish of in Eng and, from the parish of land, and both comes before me declay red themselves to be single persons, and hereby now married by the forme of the Kirk of Scotland and agreible to the Church of England; and therefore givine under my hande this 23d day of June, 1808. F 2 Jos. PAISLEY." ON SPONTANEOUS IGNITION: WITH EX PERIMENTS. 【Abstracted from a Paper on Maddering Cotton Thread, and Dyeing the Adrianople Red, by J. M. Haussman. Annales de Chimie. Vol. XLVIII. p. 233.] know that we might enumerate many substances which, alone, are harmless, but, being brought into actual contact with others, and so remaining for any length of time, are capable of bursting out into flames. Those who are not in the habits of such inquiries, we would merely remind of what they hear or sce, almost every summer, in the instances of hay stacked in great quantities while too green. This, in small parcels, would be safe; but in masses sufficiently large to deny access of external air, is dangerous, and not THE recent calamity at Covent Garden Theatre, has led to various conjectures as to its cause. Whether it was occasioned by carelessness in carrying about candles, or in leav-seldom destructive. The frequent instances of ing them burning, by forgetfulness, which are cotton mills being burnt, without any extoo commonly the origin of such misfortunes,plicable cause, have led us to guess, that, they or whether by accidental communication with some flying spark, has engaged much inquiry. We have hinted at the possibility of another cause, supposing it to have begun in the Mechanist's work-room, and as very few persons are aware of the great number of articles that, in certain states, or in combination, or connection with others, are capable of spontaneous ignition, and as this subject is of great practical importance, we take the present opportunity of introducing it, and recommending it to special attention. It is well known that certain experiments on this subject have long been exhibited among philosophical amusements: The kneading of iron filings with water, will produce considerable heat, in a short time, and under favourable circumstances, the explosion, which is a sort of volcano in miniature, will follow in 2 few hours. There are liquids, which, by commixture, burst instantly into flame, and we have seen turpentine varnish yield dangerous fumes on the accession of nitric acid: the more dangerous because highly volatile. Some years ago, very mischievous tricks were played in the public streets, by boys, who dropped liquids on the cotton garments of women, by which they were speedily set in a blaze, We recollect to have read of a frigate burnt at Petersburgh, by the unusually heated rays of the sun falling on the mast: the composition which the mast was payed with took fire: and this spread to the vessel. The cause being deemed worthy of inquiry, various experiments were instituted by order of the Czarina then reigning to prove the fact. In Panorama, Vol. III. p. 385, accounts from Petersburgh state, that mats which had been oiled, took fire from the great intensity of the sun's beams and in p. 165 of the present volume may be seen an instance which appears to be of a similar kind, in the entire destruction of the theatre at Konigsburgh. On this subject too particular details are not without danger of being misapplied by the malicious, and more frequently still by the wanton and inconsiderate. Practical chemists may, in some instances at least, have been fired from spontaneous ignition: and we take this opportunity of inserting a history of such effects, and of experiments made to illustrate them. This may shew the necessity for more caution than has bitherto been used, in a great number of processes, connected with our manufactures. We shall be happy to think, that our article may in any instance prove preventive of such a dreadful calamity as a conflagration; which is never more destructive than when it originates in causes not. suspected, and in places deemed perfectly secure. "In order to see whether red (dyed) cotton, which was not sufficiently fixed, might be rendered so by impregnating it with a mixture of an alkaline solution of alumine and boiled linseed oil, containing an excess of the oil, drying it, and then boiling it a very long while in bran water, I mixed the alkaline solution of alumine in the proportion of an eighth, a twelfth, and a sixteenth of boiled linseed oil. With this mixture I impregnated a few hanks of dyed cotton, which, after being left to dry a whole summer's day in the open air, were laid on a rash-bottomed chair, that stood in the window of my closet. Finding myself indisposed that day, I went to bed at seven o'clock. My children went into my closet for some papers, an hour after I had left it, and perceived no heat or swell in the cotton, to indicate a commencement of burning. All the workmen had gone to bed, and were fast asleep, when one of the watchmen of the bleaching ground, seeing a great light in my closet, gave the alarm of fire, and roused us all between twelve and one o'clock. My sons, knowing that I was not able to get out of bed, and unwilling to lose time in searching for the key, broke open the door of the closet, which was in a detached, uninhabited building. They went in, notwithstanding the thick smoke and insupportablesmell of the oily combustion; and found the chair with the cotton burning so furiously, that the flames rose to the ceiling, and had alreadly cracked the glass, and set fire to the window-frame. They at once presumed, that this commencement of a fire could proceed only from the spontaneous inflammation of the cotton impregnated with boiled oil, since no one ever went into the closet with a lighted pipe, or any thing else burning. "As I found, that several persons belonging to the manufactory did not credit this explanation, I again impregnated a few dozen hanks of some old cotton, that had not been well dyed, in the same manner as I had done the cotton that was burned. These I set to dry in a similar manner in the open air; and as it threatened to rain, ordered them to be hung upon a line under a penthouse, directing onc of the watchmen to look at it every quarter of an hour during the night, and throw it into a bucket of water, as soon as he perceived it begin to heat. But this man could not be lieve the possibility of the cotton's taking fire of itself, as he afterward confessed to me, and walked through the manufactory without once looking at the penthouse. At length however be returned to lie down, and found by the great light he saw, that what I had foretold, in case he was negligent, had taken place. Finding the cotton as well as the line was burned, he took the bucket of water to extinguish the posts, which were already on fire. and iron filings kneaded with water. 2. That of boiled linseed oil by highly concentrated nitric acid. 3. That of phosphorus by atmospheric air, as well as in pure oxigen gas, placed for this purpose on a china saucer over boiling water, in order to separate its particles by fusion without having recourse to ubbing it. 4. That of phosphurated hydrogen gas by the contact of the atmosphere, an imitation of the Jack-with-a-lantern. 5. The combustion of pyrophorus, thrown into the open air, and into pure oxigen gas. 6. The reduction of roasted bran, put hot into a coarse bag, to an ignited coally mass by the action of the atmospheric air. "I was not ignorant, that essential or volatile oils become resinous, and that drying oils boiled with metallic oxides grow thick and even hard by their combination with oxigen: and this was the reason why my hanks of cotton, impregnated with a mixture of boiled linseed oil, were exposed a whole day to the air, hung separately on poles: but I supposed they were then saturated with oxigen, and consequently incapable of occasioning the least accident. I felt myself so secure in this respect, that I have several times dried a great deal of oiled cotton in hot rooms; and it was owing to chance alone, that it was. never put together, till the moment when it was washed in order to be dyed. ther this cotton will take fire sooner than that which is impregnated with a mixture of the alkaline solution of alumine and boiled lin seed oil in the same proportions." "Though these two accidents did not at all surprise me, I could the less forgive myself for the first, as, in order to prevent similar "I must not omit to observe likewise, that accidents, I had made some experiments on among the cotton I had burned, there was spontaneous combustions at a public-house some both times, that had been impregnated fifteen years before. On that occasion I had with the mixture of weak lixivium of carbo spoken of the probability of fires being occa- nate of soda and boiled linseed oil in the prosioned by heated substances, or substances that portion of an eighth, a twelfth, and a sixhave a tendency to heat, and which are thought-teenth part. It remains to be proved, whe lessly put in places capable of being set on fire. The substances I mentioned to those of the company, who were not sufficiently acquainted with the phenomena of spontaneous combustion, were roasted coffee and chocolate nuts; fermented plants; ointments made with metallic oxides put hot into wooden barrels; bales of raw cotton, as well as wgollen yarn or cloth packed up warm, and even linen when ironed, and put away in drawers while hot; and lastly substances of every kind impregnated with boiling oil, as silk or cotton. I showed them besides, that in all circumstances where the oxigen of the atmosphere is rapidly attracted and absorbed by any cause, the caloric or heat, which serves as a base to the oxigen, and gives it the properties of a ga, is given out in such abundance, that, if the absorbing substance be capable of taking fire, or surrounded by inflammable matters, spontaneous combustion will take place. "To confirm what I had said of the theory of these sorts of combustions to those present, who were not familiar with chemical operations, I performed the following experiments. 1. The inflammation of, a mixture of sulphur, JEWISH NAUTICAL FORtitude. [Communicated by one of the Parties.] About the year 1796, two or three Jews came over from Poland, for the purposes of trade, of which second-hand clothing formed. a considerable part. After having made their purchases, they shipped them on board a Prussian vessel, bound from London to Dantzick, and accompanied them for their better security. At the distance of thirty or forty leagues from the English coast, in a dark night, the vessel was ran on board of by a large ship, the shock of which was so violent, that the terrified captain and crew sought their safety by leaping on board the larger vessel, expecting their own to go down, leaving the Jews the only persons on board.→ The latter recovering in some degree from the consternation into which they were thrown on discoveing themselves abandoned by the crew, total y ignorant of navigation, and exposed to the mercy of the winds and waves, still had the satisfaction of finding that the ship was tight. A consultation was thereupon held, in which the most experienced of them suggested, that he had observed the point of the compass, and their course, on leaving the coast of Yarmouth, that if they could by any means put the ship about, and endeavour to retrace their course, that they should inevitably fall in again with the English coast. In this they succeeded; and, by the help of pilots, were brought in safety into the port of Yarmouth. There they were, to their great surprise, met by the original captain and crew, who gladly came on board, and resumed the direction of the vessel. These circumstances produced a considerable charge on the cargo, in which many persons were interested; and of which the Jews must have borne a considerable share They, however, thought it hard, to suffer in this way, after having been the means of preserving both ship and cargo, to the advantage of all concerned. But the captain was deaf to all accommodation, and refused them any remuneration for their trouble, and risk. The well known characters of Messrs. Benjamin and Abraham Goldsmid, in duced the Jews to lay this peculiar case before them and it appearing to these gentlemen, that there were sufficient grounds to claim a salvage of the ship and cargo, they resolved to defend and support the cause of their stranger brethren. A long and expensive process in the Admiralty Court was however prevented; and by the mediation of some mercantile friends with Messrs Goldsmid, it was agreed, that the sum of £300 should be allowed to these poor men, which they received with thankfulness, and their generous friends experienced that pleasure, which must ever be felt by those whose benevolent exertions are attended with equal success. : ANIMALS' FRIEND. intention of a noble Lord (which I named in a former letter), or of preventing any further loss of tiine to the public, and those miserable sufferers whose cause we wish to espouse. Daily instances evince that no time should be lost, or can be with impunity, after so much has been. To continue it is criminal, and may well deprive us of that share of mercy, we shall all of us so much want for ourselves. Something may be done," as Dr. Paley says (in his posthumous sermons), " by acts of tenderness and kindness, of help and compassion. Not a particle of this will be lost. It is all set down in the book of life, and happy are THEY, who have much there!"-Yours obediemily, A CONSTANT READER. 66 New Kent Road, Sept. 1808. THE GRACES IN LIGHT DRESSES: THE LADIES OF THE PRESENT DAY COMPARI.D. see, or to To the Editor of the Literary Punorama. Certainly, Mr. Editor, I shall not undertake to defend in the LITERARY PANORAMA, any approach to levity of manners, looseness of personal appearance, yet being able to recollect the time when the fashions were less analogous to the intentions of nature in the formation of the human figure, than they are at present, I cannot but compare the then prevalent modes with those which I now to the advantage of the latter. The ladies have lately, if I may give my opinion, approached much nearer to the character of the Graces, in their flowing draperies, than those who wore the stiff hoop, or the bustling straw petticoat. I beg leave, Sir, to vindicate this opinion from impropriety, by recalling to the minds of your readers, that originally the Graces of antiquity were clothed in light dresses, and that the custom of representing them unclothed is an innovation, and a departure from the true character of those goddesses, as well as from good taste, and propriety. We learn from Pausanias, that anciently the Graces were represented drest. But he adds, that he was not able to discover the reason or the time of their being pictured naked. This he says in his Beotica. To the Editor of the Literary Panorama. SIR-I should be very much obliged, by your having the goodness to say in your next A monument of antique painting confirms number, that if those philanthropic gen- the custom of dressing the Graces. The subtlemen, who have noticed the Animals'ject is a dance of those three goddesses.Friend Society, and wish for its establishment, would think proper to hold a meeting on the subject, I should most readily and even thankfully meet them. You know my address and can receive theirs. This would at least evince a readiness to begin so desirable an attainment: and the good effect would be secured of at least either meeting the For the memoirs of this gentleman, see Panorama, Vol. III. p. 1073. conse One of them holds a rose; the second a die; the third weaves a slender twig of myrtle: whoever attends will easily conceive the reason. The rose, and myrtle are crated to Venus; they are emblems of the delicate bloom of beauty. The Graces, it is well known, are peculiarly assigned to Venus. The die is a symbol of the sports of boys and maids; to denote that levity, which sits ill upon more advanced age, but is becoming to youth. |