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contents, and the ill-fated adventurer may share the fate of the unfortunate Pilater de Rozier.*

And why should man encounter such fearful risks for no rational object?-repeated failures have almost proved to a demonstration that no practical good can ever result from the science of aërostation; no approximation to any thing like management of balloons has ever yet been attained, nor have these splendid toys hitherto been rendered subservient to the benefit of mankind, unless, indeed, we allow that the art of war is one of the useful sciences.+

* The fate of Rozier and Romain is thus narrated in the Encyclopædia Britannica, under the article Aëronautics:-" Being anxious to return the visit under which Blanchard and Jeffries had paid to the French coast, by crossing the Channel again and descending in England, he transported his balloon, which was of a globular shape, and forty feet in diameter, to Boulogne; and after various delays, occasioned chiefly by adverse winds, he mounted on the 15th June, 1785, with his companion, M. Romain. From some vague idea of being better able to regulate the ascent of the balloon, he had most incautiously suspended below it a small smoke one of ten feet diameter; a combination to which may be imputed the disastrous issue. Scarcely a quarter of an hour had elapsed, when the whole apparatus, at the height of above three thousand feet, was observed to be on fire; and its scattered fragments, with the unfortunate voyagers, were precipitated to the ground. They fell near the sea-shore, about four miles from Boulogne, and were instantly killed by the tremendous crash, their bodies being found most dreadfully mangled.

The next fatal accident with balloons happened in Italy, several years later, when a Venetian nobleman and his lady, after having performed successfully various ascents, fell from a vast height, and perished on the spot. Dr. Darwin, in his Botanic Garden, thus alludes to this catastrophe:

"Fair mounts the light balloon by zephyr driven,
Parts the thin clouds, and sails along the heaven-
Higher, yet higher the expanding bubble flies,
Lights with quick flash, and bursts amid the skies-
Headlong he rushes through the affrighted air
With limbs distorted, and dishevel'd hair,

Whirls round and round."

+ At the battle of Fleurus a balloon was successfully used by the French, as appears by the following article:

"When the Revolution had roused the spirit of enterprise and invention in France, and science was made in every way subservient to the purposes of military power, an Aërostatic Institute was founded by the Committee of

The mariner who risks his life in circumnavigating the globe, or ventures upon that forlorn hope, the discovery of the North-west passage,* may have some

Public Safety, and the Royal Lodge of Mendon was chosen as a manufactory for the preparation of balloons, and of the apparatus necessary to accompany them to the armies, and a man of indefatigable assiduity and profound research was appointed Director.

"The corps of aëronauts destined to serve the army of the Republic, consisted of fifty courageous youths, trained at Mendon, where the balloons were prepared, the Entreprenant for the army of the north; the Celeste for the army of the Sambre and Maese; the Hercale and Intrepide for the army of the Rhine and Moselle.

"The whole management was enveloped in profound secrecy. There was a camp for the exercise of the artillery; but the whole was conducted by the Republic with the greatest privacy and precaution, the doors being shut against the public and all foreigners. Conde applied his thoughts to the invention of an aërostatic telegraph, which, without assistance of a great balloon, or an aërial correspondent, should be managed by a person standing on the ground, by cords; the apparatus being suspended to a small balloon of only twelve feet in diameter. Coutel, captain of the aëronautic corps, ascended with the Entreprenant balloon on the 26th of June, 1794, and conducted the wonderful and important service of reconnoitring the hostile armies at the battle of Fleurus, accompanied by an adjutant and a general. He ascended twice on that day, to observe, from an elevation of four hundred and forty yards, the position and manœuvres of the enemy. On each occasion he remained four hours in the air, and, by preconcerted signals with flags, carried on a correspondence with General Jourdan, commander of the French army. His intended ascent had been made known to the enemy, who, when the balloon began to take its flight, opened the fire of a battery against the aëronauts. The first volley was directed too low; one ball, nevertheless, passed between the balloon and the car, and so near that Coutel imagined it had struck it. When the subsequent discharges were made, the balloon had already reached such a degree of altitude as to be beyond the reach of cannon-shot, and the aëronauts saw the balls flying beneath the car. Arrived at their intended height, the observers, remote from danger, and undisturbed, viewed all the evolutions of their enemies, and from the peaceful regions of the air, commanded a distinct and comprehensive prospect of two formidable armies engaged in the work of death."

The most useful purpose to which balloons might be applied was pointed out in the Liverpool Mercury of January 23, 1824, in the following letter to the Editor :

"SIR,-In the projected attempt to explore the Arctic Regions, when, as is probable, the parties will be locked up for so considerable a space of

rational motive for his enterprize; he may be cheered amidst danger by the reflection that the risks to which he is exposed may contribute to the comfort and convenience of his fellow creatures, by promoting the extension of commerce, and the advancement of literature, science, and those arts which enhance the charms of social life. In the hour of danger he is not, like the aëronaut, bereft of the consolation of human society; he has companions who can sympathize in his sufferings, aid him with their counsel, and cooperate with him in surmounting the perils with which he is beset.

I had prepared the foregoing observations as an editorial introduction to a narrative of the ascent of Mr. William Wyndham Sadler in his balloon from Bolton, in Lancashire,

time, would it not add to their amusement, and pass many a tedious hour if they employed themselves in constructing balloons, and, at favourable opportunities, launch them in the air. Some of them might possibly be picked up, either on the Continent of Europe or America, and intelligence conveyed to their friends of their situation and prospects of success. This appears to me probable, or, at any rate, more likely to succeed than com. mitting the intelligence to so fragile a vessel as a bottle, in an element equally uncertain as the air."

The number of the newspaper containing this brief communication was forwarded to Captain Parry, whose reply, published in the Mercury of August 13, 1824, was as follows:

"TO MR. EGERTON SMITH.

"Hecla, Davis's Straits, July 1, 1824. SIR,-Nothing but the extreme hurry of business in which I was involved for some time previously to my leaving town, could have prevented my anckowledging the receipt of your obliging communication of the 3d of April, together with the number of the Liverpool Mercury, accompanying it.

"I now beg to offer you my best thanks for your kindness and attention, and to assure you, that in consequence of your hint, I did all in my power to profit by the suggestion contained in the notice to which you allude, but regret to add that, owing to some difficulty in the execution, and in obtaining the requisite materials before I left England, I have been under the necessity of giving up the plan on the present occasion. I am, Sir, your faithful and obedient servant, "W. PARRY."

on the 28th of September, 1824, and the ink with which they were written was scarcely dry when the melancholy intelligence of the dreadful accident which terminated the life of that enterprizing young aëronaut reached Liverpool, where it produced a deep and general sensation, as Mr. Sadler was highly respected by a very numerous circle of friends, who, soon after his decease, evinced the sincerity of their sympathy by a liberal subscription for his widow and family thus suddenly bereft of their support.

As I was returning home reflecting upon the sad fate of a gentleman whom I had shaken by the hand only a few hours previous to the dreadful catastrophe to which he so prematurely fell a victim, my attention was suddenly and painfully arrested by a scene, which, unfortunately for our national character, is of lamentable frequency in this country. A miserable emaciated horse, whose bones almost protruded through its shrivelled skin, was vainly struggling to extricate the wheels of a heavily laden cart out of a deep rut in the lane through which I had to pass; while the inhuman driver, so far from seconding the efforts of the poor beast by his personal exertions, was unmercifully flogging it, and beating it about the head with the butt end of his whip. Disgusted by the cruelty of the ruffian, I hastened to expostulate with him, or, if that should be ineffectual, to use force to prevent further persecution of his victim, when the poor creature, completely exhausted with efforts far beyond its strength, and with the blows of its inhuman master, sunk to the earth, and with a convulsive shudder expired. After taking down the number of the cart, the name of the driver, and assuring him that his conduct should not go unpunished, 1 hastened from the scene and reached home in a frame of mind which may be more easily conceived than described.

Wearied and disgusted with what I had recently

heard and seen, in the hope of changing the painful current of my reflections, I took up the first book that was at hand. By a singular coincidence, which a few centuries back would have gone far to prove that the faith reposed in an appeal to the Sortes Virgilianæ* was not a weak and groundless superstition, I opened

*The following anecdote on the subject of this species of augury is taken from a work called "Parentalia, or Memoirs of the Family of the Wrens."— "When King Charles I. was at Oxford, during the Civil wars, he went one day to see the public library, where he was shewed, amongst other books, a Virgil, nobly printed and exquisitely bound. Lord Falkland, to divert the King, would have his Majesty make trial of his fortunes by the Sortes Virgiliana, whereupon the King opening the book, the period that happened to come up was this

'At bello audacis populi vexatus et armis,

Finibus extorris, complexu avulsus Iuli,

Auxilium inploret, videatque indig na suorum
Funera: nec, quum se sub leges pacis iniquæ
Tradiderit, regno aut optata luce fruatur:
Sed cadat ante diem, mediâque inhumatus arenâ.'

Virgil, Eneid iv.

"Of which the subjoined is Dryden's translation :—
'Yet let a race untam'd, and haughty foes,
His peaceful entrance with dire arms oppose;
Oppress'd with numbers in the unequal field,
His men discourag'd and himself expell'd,
Let him for succour sue from place to place,
Torn from his subjects, and his son's embrace;
First let him see his friends in battle slain,
And their untimely fate lament in vain :
And when at length the cruel war shall cease,
On hard conditions may he buy his peace.
Nor let him then enjoy supreme command,
But fall untimely by some hostile hand,

And lie unbury'd on the barren sand.'

"Lord Falkland observing the King was concerned at this accident, would likewise try his fortune in the same manner, hoping he might fall upon some passage that would have no relation to his case, and thereby divert the King's thoughts from any impression the other might have upon him; but the place he stumbled upon was as much suited to his destiny as the other had been to the King's, being the lamentation of Evander for the untimely death of his son Pallas (Æneid II.) for this Lord's eldest son, a young man of an amiable character, had been slain in the first battle of Newbury."

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