sands, of miles. It has never been described with any care, and, extraordinary as it is, has excited very little attention. The trees are scattered loosely and at intervals over the desert all the way from Cairo to Suez, a distance of 86 miles. No theory of their silicification or their appearance where they are found has ever been attempted. The late Dr Malcolmson found fragments of the wood imbedded in the conglomerate which contains the Egyptian jaspers, and threw it out as possible that they and the gravel of the desert, consisting almost entirely of jaspers, might possibly be the result of abrasion or denudation. This threw the difficulty only one step further back; besides this, that the appearance of the forest is at variance with the theory. No agates or gravel appeared around; the trees seemed to have been petrified as they lay; they looked "like a forest felled by mighty winds." A further mystery was this: they lay on the surface of bare drift-sand and gravel, and reposing on limestone rocks of the most recent tertiary formation-the texture and colour of the imbedded oyster shells were as fresh and pure as if brought not six weeks from the sea.-Dr Buist.

LIEBIG'S PATENT MANURES.-In making manure according to the invention, carbonate of soda or of potash, or both, are fused in a reverberatory furnace, such as is used in the manufacture of soda-ash, with carbonate or phosphate of lime (and with such fused compounds other ingredients are mixed), so as to produce manures; and such composition, when cold, being ground into powder by edge stones, or other convenient machinery, the same is to be applied to land as manure. And in order to apply such manure with precision, the analysis and weight of the previous crop ought to be known with exactness, so as to return to the land the mineral elements in the weight and proportion in which they have been removed by the crop.

Two compounds are first prepared, one or other of which is the basis of all manures, which is described as the first and second preparations.

The first preparation is formed by fusing together two, or two and a half parts of carbonate of lime, with one part of potash of commerce (containing on an average sixty carbonate of potash, ten sulphate of potash, and ten chloride of potassium, or common salt, in the hundred parts), or with one part of carbonate of soda and potash, mixed in equal parts.

The second preparation is formed by fusing together one part of phosphate of lime, one part of potash of commerce, and one part of soda ash.

Both preparations are ground to powder; other salts or ingredients in the state of powder are added to these preparations, and mixed together, or those not of a volatile consistency may be added when the preparations are in a state of fusion, so that the manure may represent as nearly as possible the composition of the ashes of the preceding crop. This is assuming that the land is in a high state of cultivation; but if it be desired to grow a particular crop on land not in a high state of cultivation, then the manure would be applied in the first instance suitable to the coming crop, and then, in subsequent cases, the manure prepared according to the invention would, as herein described, be applied to restore to the land what has been taken therefrom by the preceding crop.

Preparation of Manure for Land which has had a Wheat crop grown on, and removed therefrom.-Take of the first preparation six parts by weight, and of the second prepaparation one part, and mix with them two parts of gypsum -one part of calcined bones-silicate of potash (containing six parts of silica), and one part of phosphate of magnesia and ammonia.

And such manure is also applicable to be used after growing barley, oats, and plants of a similar character.

Preparation of Manure for Land which has had a crop of Beans grown thereon, and removed therefrom.-Take fourteen parts by weight of the first preparation; two parts of the second preparation, and mix them with one part of common salt, (chloride of sodium)-a quantity of silicate of potash, (containing two parts of silica,)—two parts of gypsum, and one part of phosphate of magnesia and ammonia.

And such manure is also applicable for land on which peas, or other plants of a similar character, have been grown and removed.

Preparation of Manure for Land on which Turnips have been grown, and removed therefrom.-Take twelve

THE CHINESE.-When the first Europeans visited China, says Mr Barrow, they were astonished to find an universal toleration of religious opinions-to observe Lamas and Tao-tzes, Jews, and Persians, and Mahomedans, living quietly together, and each following his own creed without molestation, while most of the countries in Europe were all that time torn in pieces by religious schisms, and man was labouring with enthusiastic fury to destroy his fellowcreatures in honour of his Creator, for a slight difference of opinion in matters of no real importance, or even for a different acceptation of a word. In China, every one was allowed to think as he pleased, and to choose his own religion. The horrid massacre of the Protestants in Paris had terrified all Europe. China knew nothing of internal commotions, but such as were sometimes occasioned by a partial scarcity of grain. The art of improving vegetables by particular modes of culture was just beginning to be known in Europe. All China at that time was comparatively a garden. When the king of France introduced the luxury of silk stockings, which about eighteen years afterwards was adopted by Elizabeth of England, the peasantry of the middle provinces of China were clothed in silks from head to foot. At this period, few or none of the little elegancies or conveniences of life were known in Europethe ladies' toilet had few essences to gratify the sense of smell, or to beautify for a time the complexion. The scissors, needles, pen-knives, and other little appendages, were then unknown, and rude and ill-polished skewers usurped the place of pins. In China, the ladies had their needle-work, their paint-boxes, their trinkets of ivory, of silver, in fillagree, of mother-of-pearl, and of tortoise-shell. Even the calendar, at this time so defective in Europe, that Pope Gregory was urged to the bold undertaking of leaping over or annihilating ten days, was found to be in China a national concern, and the particular care of government. Decimal arithmetic, a new and useful discovery of the seventeenth century in Europe, was found to be the only system of arithmetic in China. In a word, when the nobility of England were sleeping on straw, a peasant of China had his mat and his pillow, and the man in office enjoyed his silken mattress.

EXERCISE YOUR OWN TALENTS.-There is a class of persons who interest themselves so far in the condition of the labouring-classes, as to bring forward sad instances of suffering, and then to say, "Our rich men should look to these things." This kind of benevolence delights to bring together, in startling contrast, the condition of different classes, and then to indulge in much moral reflection. Now, riches are very potent in their way; but a great heart is often more wanted than a full purse. Do not let

us accustom our minds to throw the burden of good works on the shoulders of any particular class. God has not given a monopoly of benevolence to the rich.-The Claims of Labour.

RONGE AND CZERSKI, THE GERMAN REFORMERS.--Ronge's external appearance is sufficient to prepossess in his favour. Without presenting any thing imposing in form or bearing, there is a combination of force and self-possession, with benevolence, openness, and honesty, in the expression of his countenance, which wins all who approach him. His beautiful black hair, one of the grounds of heresy against him, flows in luxuriant tresses around his noble forehead. He was born 16th October 1813, at Bishop's Walden, a hamlet in Silesia; his father was a small farmer, and from his ninth to his twelfth year the future reformer was occupied in herding his father's cattle. He received the rudiments of his education at the school of his native village, and soon showed such proficiency, that he was sent to the University of Breslau in 1836, where he spent the greater part of three years as a student of theology, and in 1839 he entered the seminary of priests at Breslau. Here he first conceived a dislike for the peculiar tenets in which he was educated, and afterwards, on becoming a parish priest, he set himself to oppose them by all means in his power. From the obscure village of Grottkan, he wrote those celebrated letters against the Catholic faith, which have now stirred up the greater part of Germany.

John Czerski was born at Werlubien, a village near Neuenburg. Though his parents were in poor circumstances, yet he received a good education, and studied theology at Posen. On becoming a priest, his mind became filled with scruples and objections to the faith and practice of his church, and to show his disapproval of celibacy, he publicly acknowledged as his wife a female of the place. Czerski's external appearance is not so prepossessing at first sight as Ronge's, but a farther intimacy leads to many noble points in his disposition. Dignity and decision form the basis of his character, and his grave aspect seems to express the consciousness of his high vocation. The creed of Czerski is supposed to be more scriptural and evangelical than that of his brother reformer, who has given lately indications of belonging to the rationalist party.

FORCE OF HABIT.-Then you may perceive too well what is habit, and how, once bound in its thousand imperceptible threads, you remain tied in spite of you to what you detest. These threads, though they escape the eye, are, nevertheless, tough; pliable and supple as they seem to be, you may break through one, but underneath you find two; it is a double, nay triple, net. Who can know its thickness? I read once in an old story what is really touching, and very significant. It was about a woman, a wandering princess, who, after many sufferings, found for her asylum a deserted palace, in the midst of a forest. She felt happy in reposing there, and remaining some time: she went to and fro from one large empty room to another, without meeting with any obstacle; she thought herself alone and free. All the doors were open. Only at the hall-door, no one having passed through since herself, the spider had woven his web in the sun, a thin, light, and almost invisible network; a feeble obstacle, which the princess, who wishes at last to go out, thinks she can remove without any difficulty. She raises the web; but there is another behind it, which she also raises without trouble. The second concealed a third; that she must also raise :-strange! there are four.-No, five! or rather six-and more beyond. Alas! how will she get rid of so many? She is already tired. No matter! she perseveres; by taking breath a little she may continue. But the web continues too, and is ever renewed with a malicious obstinacy. What is she to do? She is overcome with fatigue and perspiration; her arms fall by her sides. At last, exhausted as she is, she sits down on the ground, on that insurmountable threshold;she looks mournfully at the aerial obstacle fluttering in the wind, lightly and triumphantly.-Poor princess! poor fly! now you are caught! But why did you stay in that fairy dwelling, and give the spider time to spin his web?— Michelet.

Proceedings of Societies.

ROYAL SCOTTISH SOCIETY OF ARTS. 9th Feb.-1. Descrip ion of a New Clock, impelled by a combination of Gravitation and Electro-Magnetism. Invented by Mr Alexander Bryson.

In this clock the common pendulum is used. It is kept vibrating, in equal arcs, by a small falling bar, or detent, which is raised every alternate second by the attraction induced in a soft electro-magnet. The magnetism is excited by constant batteries placed in the bottom of the clockcase, which may be kept in action for any desirable period, and when changed it is not necessary to stop the clock; as before the spent battery is out of action, the other, which

is newly charged, is in full operation. The wheel-work, showing minutes and seconds, is moved by the gravitating bar or detent immediately on its being attracted by the electro-magnet. When this clock is made to show minutes and seconds only, as in observatory clocks, it consists of two wheels only, and when it is made to show hours, three wheels are necessary. The contact-breaker is suspended on knife-edges immediately above the pendulum bob, having a gold concentric arc, on which press two very slight gold springs. In this arc is inserted a piece of ivory, which breaks the current, and permits the falling bar or detent to fall on the pendulum so as to keep up its vibration. By the method of coincidences, it was stated, the penduluin was found to keep its motion with the utmost steadiness, as compared with a compensation mercurial pendulum beating seconds.

Referred to a committee.

2. On the Causes of Hurricanes in the West Indies, with illustrative Diagrams. By Robert Lawson, Esq., AssistantSurgeon, 47th Regiment.

In this paper Mr Lawson gives further instances, both from personal and recorded experience, of hurricanes in the West Indies, exhibiting phenomena not conformable to the laws of Hare, Espy, Reid, or Redfield; and, while adopting as true many points insisted on by these eminent observers, endeavours to prove the dependence of those mighty convulsions on the moon's influence, and other more recondite influences, which seem to have escaped all observers in this field of inquiry except the indefatigable Howard.

3. Description of an Improved Method of Manufacturing Pyroxilic Spirit (Wood Naphtha of Commerce,) Pyroligneous Acid, and other products, from the destructive distillation of Wood. By Captain George Dacres Paterson, 4 Melville Place, Edinburgh.

This communication contained a description of the manufacture of Pyroxilic Spirit and Pyrolignite of Lime, with various improvements, the principal of which consisted in a new manner of stifling the charcoal, so as to free it from the noxious gases, and in the distillation which is conducted on the principle of distillation in vacuo. The arrangements were stated to effect great saving in fuel and labour. The vacuum is formed by steam, and by a simple arrangement the condensed vapour is entirely drained off from the still prior to the supply of liquor being forced up from the charging back. A simple apparatus was described for guiding the workman as to the different strength of the liquor; and a plan of a rectifier, by which the essential oil is more easily separated from the spirit, was also given, by which means, and others farther described, the Pyroxilic Spirit, it was stated, could be procured in great purity.

Fine Arts.

ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION. We resume our Catalogue raisonée, with a glance at the pictures in the North Octagon.

195. A Peasant Girl, near Rome. J. Ballantyne. This artist is rapidly improving in ease and simplicity of touch. This forms a very pleasing portrait.

200. On the Thames, near Blackwall. R. Norie. A lively and well managed landscape.

201. Fleurs Castle. G. Simson. Stiff castles and lawns are difficult to be brought within the rules of tasteful landscape—but except that green rather predominates, this is a good picture.

207. Abbey Craig, Stirling. J. F. Williams. Α good view, but the colouring rather muddy.

212. Fruit Girl. W. Crawford. A tasteful picture with delicacy of touch, and a good deal of expression. 128. Druidical Stones, Isle of Arran. H. Macculloch. A bold sketch dashed apparently off at a sitting, by this clever artist.

219. Old Mill, Perthshire. Macneil Mackleay. A laboured landscape, but somewhat stiff.

In

220. Glen in the Ochil Hills. R. K. Greville. This is a soft and beautiful picture. The trees are perfect portraits, and the rocks and foliage, and all the accessories of the scene are in perfect keeping with nature. fact, the eye of the botanist is here evident as well as the delicate touch of the artist. For these reasons we would recommend this picture to the attention of young students of landscape painting. There is nothing in art

or fancy which can be substituted for actual natureindeed fancy is but the reflected and blended images of nature. Compare the principal tree in this picture with that in its near neighbour, No. 231, of J. W. Turner. To what growing plant on earth does this latter bear any resemblance? It is like nothing in nature but a peacock's feather, deprived of its brilliant eye. Nor let us be misunderstood as hypercritical. There is an admirable lesson to artists in Sir Walter Scott's Life, by Lockhart. When that poet was busy preparing himself to write Marmion, his friend Morrit, whose guest he then was, discovered him one day in a hollow glen near the ruins of a castle, busily occupied in noting down every shrub and plant which grew there. On Morrit's expressing his surprise at this minute scrutiny, Sir Walter Scott remarked "that in nature no two scenes are exactly alike, and that whoever copied truly what was before his eyes, would possess the same variety in his descriptions, and exhibit apparently an imagination as boundless as the range of nature in the scenes he recorded; whereas, whoever trusted to imagination would soon find his own mind circumscribed and contracted to a few favourite images, and the repetition of these would sooner or later produce that very monotony and barrenness which had always haunted descriptive poetry in the hands of any but the patient worshippers of truth."

224. A Shepherd Boy. J. D. Marshall. A soft and simply touched picture.

231. Mercury and Argus. J. M. W. Turner. We have twice alluded to this picture already. To be estimated at all it must be viewed at a distance, and looked at for a long while-still we cannot find out a bit of nature in it.

238. The Bandit's Outlook. J. D. Marshall. As far as a single figure goes, a well painted little picture.

250. Cottage on South Esk. J. Stein. A pleasing landscape.

270. The Arrest of William Tell. W. Simson. A large picture containing several good groups and interesting figures, but the time of action in the story has not been well chosen with a view to pictorial effect.

274. The Enterkin Leadhills. G. Harvey. We never tire looking on this picture. It appears as perfect as could be wished. Carry the eye from the dark pool beneath the shelving bracken-covered rocks of the foreground, up to the sunny knolls, with the sheep fast nibbling the green sward, in the middle ground; and the mountain streamlet wimpling through the dell; and then to the summit, where a glimpse of the blue misty sky is visible, and it is nearly as refreshing as a ramble over the real scene. It is exactly nature-but nature idea

lised.

278. Portrait of a Gentleman. S. Mackenzie. A well painted portrait.

280. The Knitter. R. T. Ross. A good deal of character and expression here.

284. Going to the Fair. R. K. Greville. A small picture, which requires a near inspection, but it will well repay the trouble. It is delicately and beautifully touched off, with much of nature in it.

291. Entrance to Strathearn. Macneil Macleay. A laboured picture, but we desiderate ease and more of the soft blending of tints.

292. Reading the Bible. T. Faed. Force of effect and a bold brush here.

296. Bothwell Castle. H. Macculloch. The soft receding landscape and the shadow on the water, are given with a truth and beauty which cannot be surpassed; the foreground is also rich and well conceived; but we think too minutely laboured. A little more massing and generalizing of objects would have produced a finer effect on the whole.

297. A Dutch East Indiaman. R. Leitch. A well managed and faithfully depicted sea piece.

302. Happy as a King. W. Collins. A parcel of

joyous urchins swinging on a gate. The human figures form the best part of the picture.

306. St Jacques Dieppe. W. A. Wilson. A soft and pleasing view.

314. Bamborough Castle. R. K. Greville. A sea view by this indefatigable artist-soft and pleasing, but not equal to some of his other pictures we have alluded

to.

166. Scene from Gil Blas. T. M. Joy. A picture in the large room, omitted in last notice, and well deserving inspection. There is much spirit and good drawing in the piece. Though the subject has this great fault, that it expresses no particular or marked incident or action.

Literature.

Scott's Sketches from Scripture History.

A posthumous volume by the late Mr William Scott, author of the Harmony between Religion and Phrenology, a work combating Mr Combe's "Constitution of Man" on phrenological principles. We are rather partial to religious writing by laymen, as we generally get from them, if not much that is absolutely new, at least old matter freshened in the modes of expression. Boulden's Essays are marked instances of this, and although not of merit equal to them, Mr Scott's sketches are pleasing, earnest, and improving.

Life and Character of Gerhard Tersteegen.

The "life and character" of Tersteegen occupy but a small portion of the book, the greater part of which is taken up with selections from his life and writings. His life, however, is, as in the case of all earnest spirits, to be found in these, and therefore the brevity of his biographer is of less moment. Gerhard Tersteegen was the countryman of Heinrich Stilling, but preceded him in the pilgrimage of life. Equally pious as Stilling, he has none of his quaintness or literary ability, but for purely religious reading, his works are of a superior order.

Lowe's Edinburgh Magazine.

This periodical is decidedly improving. Amongst other able articles, the present number contains a good one, entitled, Carlyle and Guizot on Cromwell. If, however, the writer would see Mr Carlyle's claims as a historian thoroughly discussed, we refer him to a paper by Dr Vaughan, in last number of the British Quarterly Review.

Englishwoman's Family Library.

This library commences with Mrs Ellis' " Women of England," and is principally, or entirely, to consist of the other works of that esteemed authoress. The four treatises addressed to her countrywomen, by Mrs Ellis, have already passed the ordeal of public opinion so favourably, as to preclude criticism now; and at present we have only to say, that the "Library" editions are portable, elegant, and cheap. The re-issue of these works reminds one of the variety of publications which have recently issued from the press on the subject of female duty-would it not be well to take up the counter-topic of male obligation? The men-the Husbands, Fathers, and the Sons of England, would embrace a class quite as destitute of instruction as its Women, Wives, Mothers, or Daughters, can be.

Fisher's Gallery of Scripture Engravings. Part I.-V.

The plates in this gallery we have seen before, but their beauty and extreme cheapness puts it out of our power to make any complaint, as, if got up originally for this work, they must have been sold at six times the price. The letter-press descriptions are by Dr Kitto, and, as a matter of course, are ably done, but we must be excused for saying that, if we wanted biblical literature for its own sake, we would rather have pictures to illustrate Dr Kitto's text, than have Dr Kitto's text illustrating pictures even by masters new or old.

WHATEVER Americans have done toward fostering and cultivating a native literature, at all worthy of the name, has been done in a comparatively recent period. The colonists were necessarily more engaged in levelling forests and panthers, than in serving the Muses in academic shades; and the few polemical treatises, historical tracts, and rhyming couplets, which the 'natives' allowed them leisure to manufacture, were mostly of too local or temporary an interest to be perpetuated, and they are now almost forgotten or seldom referred to. There were among the pilgrims,' and their children, a Winthrop, a Mather, a Bradford, a Prince, and a Hutchinson, to commemorate the adventurous progress of those hardy and high-minded men who became the founders of a nation; a Roger Williams, a Cotton, and many others, to beat "the drum ecclesiastic," and chronicle the dogmatical and pugnacious theology so peculiar to that age; and a Broadstreet, a Wolcott, a Trumbull, to invade the realms of imagination, and perpetrate dull rhymes on prosy subjects; but all these are only preserved as curiosities on the shelves of historical societies, or occasionally quoted for the same purpose by a chronological collector of national jingles. ith the exception of the political writings of Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, already mentioned, the works of Franklin and the State Papers of Washington, the durable part of American literature, if there be any such, belongs to the last 30 years.

The veteran Noah Webster, who died two years since, at the age of eighty-five, was the first to propose a law for the recognition and protection of literary property in the United States. This was soon after the national independence was accomplished. Webster was the author of several useful works on education, besides historical and political papers, which were recently collected. His elementary spelling-book is used in every part of the country, and has been the chief cause of that uniformity of pronunciation in widely distant places, which has been often remarked by travellers. His great American Dictionary of the English Language,' the product of thirty years' labour, was reprinted in England, and by good authorities pronounced the most comprehensive and useful one extant. It is now the general standard in the United States, and in various abridged forms is found in nearly all the schools and private libraries. Webster was much respected as a true benefactor of his country; at his funeral some hundred young ladies, from schools in the place, walked to his grave with a long procession of citizens, and heard there an eloquent eulogy on his virtues.

James Fennimore Cooper, the novelist, now resides at the family seat at Cooperstown, New York, the Templeton' of the Pioneers.' He has written in all, twenty-one novels; a naval history, the American Democrat,' and some occasional essays. His early works, the Spy, the Pilot, etc. were first published by Charles Wiley, at New York, 1818-19. His novels, especially the earlier ones, were always eagerly sought for by his countrymen. The first editions of some of the latter ones have consisted of 10,000 copies. Nearly all of them have been translated into French, German, and Italian, and some of them into Russian and other languages, and are very popular on the Continent.

Washington Irving is at present minister of the United States at the court of Spain. At home, he has a picturesque retreat on the banks of the Hudson. His writings are too well known in Europe to need comment. Two or three years since he contributed a series of papers to the magazine, which is named from his own veritable and facetious Knickerbocker.' No American writer is more admired by his countrymen, and none more respected and beloved by those who know him in private life.

The lamented Channing died in 1842, at the age of sixtytwo. He was a grandson of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence; was educated at Harvard, and for many years was minister of a church in Boston. His essays on Milton, Buonparte, and Fenelon, have been admired by tens of thousands in both hemispheres; and his numerous tracts against slavery, and on behalf of the labouring classes, place him in the foremost rank of true philanthropists. He had planned larger and more important works for the improvement of society-but his health was always feeble, and death prematurely reached him.

Edward Everett, the present American minister to Great Britain, is distinguished as an accomplished scholar, a graceful and eloquent public speaker, and an able states

man.

He was for several years a member of the National Congress, and afterwards was for three successive terms Governor of Massachusetts, his native State. He is said to

be an accurate Greek scholar. His translation of the Greek Grammar of Buttman was used at the institution where he was educated-the venerable Harvard,' as it is called by its sons; and two centuries of existence in a 'young country' may warrant the term. Mr Everett's literary and historical discourses and orations on various public occasions were collected in a volume a few years since. His literary acquirements are extensive, and few public men have obtained, more generally, the respect of all parties.

Daniel Webster, the ex-senator and secretary of state, is frequently confounded in England with Noah Webster, the philologist. Mr Webster has long held a prominent rank among American statesmen. His style of oratory is massive, clear, and forcible, appealing to reason and good sense, rather than to feeling and passion; and it is much aided by his remarkably impressive and commanding personal appearance. His speeches and forensic arguments (for he is also eminent at the bar) have been collected in three volumes, and justly place him in a high literary rank, as well as that of a statesman. Many of them are on og casional and local topics, but the "eighth edition" on the title-page exhibits some sign of their general interest, and enduring vitality.

George Bancroft, the historian, resides in Boston. He was the first to put into English some of the historical treatises of the German Professor Heeren. His "History of the United States" has been prepared with elaborate care, from original authorities and unpublished documents; and the style, though perhaps rather stately and Gibbonish, is worthy of the subject. As yet it has only narrated the colonial history: the revolution and later times remain to be described; and it may be said, that then, for the first time, will the American history have been fairly and authentically told.

Jared Sparks, the able and industrious editor of numerous important contributions to American history and biography, is now Professor of History in Harvard University. Dr Sparks has published altogether, chiefly from materials before unedited, more than sixty different volumes, several of which are original biographies. The twelve volumes of Washington's writings were selected from 200 folio volumes of manuscripts.

William H. Prescott, the historian of Ferdinand and Isabella," is a resident of Boston. His father, an eminent and highly respected jurist, died a few weeks since; his grandfather was a leading officer of the American army at Bunker Hill, in 1775. Thus it appears the impression of many in England, that the historian and the eminent banker of Lombard Street are the same perso, is somewhat erroneous. While engaged on his first work, Mr Prescott was almost entirely deprived of the use of his eyes; so that all of the laborious reference to materials, and the actual writing of the book, was by dictation to an amanuensis. Indeed all his reading and literary labours, since the age of twenty, have been done in this way-a remarkable instance of patient and successful perseverance. From this affliction he has now happily recovered, or nearly so. He is still a young man, on the sunny side of thirty-five, and a fine specimen, physically as well as mentally, of a New England gentleman. He is understood to be now engaged on the History of the Conquest of Peru. English critics have united in placing him in the first rank of me

dern historians.

John L. Stephens, the enterprising and intelligent traveller in Yucatan and the East, is a native and resident in New York, where he was educated for the bar. The anonymous publication of his first work, on Arabia Petræa, &c., as already mentioned, was at once remarkably successful. Many who would have shrunk from mo e learned and drier descriptions, were for the first time made familiar, by his pleasant and sensible pages, with the actual condition and everyday life of the land of Ishmael and of Pharaoh. His persevering and adventurous researches in Yucatan have been more elaborately presented, and have made the world familiar with the gigantic and wonderful remains of a former age. No traveller, probably, in modern times, has had a larger number of readers.-American Facts.

EDINBURGH: Printed by ANDREW JACK (of No. 29 Gilmore Place) at No. 36 Niddry Street, and published at No. 58 Princes Street, by WILLIAM AITCHISON SUTHERLAND of No. 1 Windsor Street, and JAMES KNOX of No. 7 Henderson Row, all in the City and County of Edinburgh.

EDINBURGH: SUTHERLAND and KNOX, 58 Princes Street, and sold by Houlston and Stoneman, Paternoster Row, London: W. Blackwood, Glasgow: L. Smith, Aberdeen: and may be had by order of every Bookseller in the United Kingdom.

Edinburgh, Saturday, March 7, 1846.