Original Anecdotes, Literary News, Chit Chat, Incidents, &c. Everything in London depends upon the choice of season. Irving, flung up into vogue by the extreme idleness of the time at which he was recognized among the cobwebs and grim physiognomies of the Caledonian Chapel, would have been unheard of but for the closing of Parliament, the theatres, the Law Courts, and all other places detrimental to preaching and puritanism. The "intellectual, and imaginative" world would never have hazarded the abrasion of a shinbone, or the loss of a shoe, in the crush of cross streets, but for the fatal abundance of time that afflicts it from July to November. The return of "something to do," has, therefore, extinguished the orator; and the humblest record of the wonders and absurdities of this mighty metropolis that tempts the passers by, at two-pence a number, would now disdain to allude to the performances of the Rev. E. Irving. Thurtell's affair was not less prosperous in its tempus. From the latter end of February, through the merry months of spring, and the merrier months of summer, Thurtell would have been tried without a whisper outside the walls of the Court, and hung with no other consideration than that which the Ordinary and the Hangman give to the family of Cut-throats. It is to be told, in vindication of the monstrous and disgusting interest that gath ered round this villain and his associates, that the populace had nothing else to talk of; and in addition, that the newspapers had nothing else to publish. All was tranquil everywhere through the land. Every man, from Inverness to Scilly, was eating and drinking, walking and sleeping, more majorum; the old firm of tumult was broken up; Cobbett was splitting straw for bonnets; Hunt was roasting corn for coffee; Manchester cried not forth and Sheffield and Birmingham were hammering away with equal patience and pleasantness; in short, the newspapers, deprived of their natural nutriment, were like mice in an exhausted receiver, they gasped, and must have, in nine instances out of ten, gasped their last, but for the sudden intelligence from Hertfordshire. The histories a thousandfold of the frightful atrocity itself, the added histories of everything human, bestial, inanimate, that could be connected with it; the crowding down to the trial; the visages of the criminals lithographed in all directions; the shilling a-piece for a peep into Gill's-hill Cottage: the sale of the horse and gig; the sofa and the supper-table that became sacred to this insane curiosity; and lastly, the exhi bition of those moveables at the suburb theatres, which exulted in dividing those reliques of the transaction; were all accountable in the same way the prevailing famine of public subjects. Yet some of this interest was pushed within the confines of idiotism. What are we to say to the foolery that bought locks of the murderer's hair for fond remembrance, to the tender solicitations for his snuff-box and shoe-strings, or, last and greatest, to the purchase, at ten-times its worth, of the pistol, rusted with blood? This is the rabidness of a curiosity that deserves the cat-o'-ninetails. If ever there was a murder, merciless, cold-blooded, and brutal, it was this murder-if ever there was a villain who deserved to be expunged from the earth as a disgrace and horror to his species, it was this murderer; and yet it was round this savage and sanguinary villain that those foolish affectations of sensibility were displayed. No language can be too strong for the horror of this crime, and no contempt too bitter for the miserable sympathy that attempted to turn him into a victim or a hero. (Blackwood's Magazine.) MARRIAGES IN INDIA. India is a mart for every thing, and has long been a receptacle for such ladies as could not find husbands at home, or whose connexions in that country are respectable. European ladies were formerly in high repute, and from the fact of being born in Europe, unconnected with accomplishments or other fascinating qualities, were sure to get husbands of some rank; men who longed after domestic happiness, would not, of course, wish to see children of a mixed breed destined to inherit their property, and carry their name to posterity. The number of European women too was small, so that, like every other scarce article, they became highly valuable. At this time men of the highest rank in India often married women who had moved in a very humble sphere at home. However, the case is somewhat altered; European ladies have become more numerous; people are not so ready to tie the matrimonial knot on account of their Anglo descent, and many of them, at present in Calcutta, have got a very indifferent train of lovers. This change in people's inclinations may be ascribed to various causes the most prominent among which, is this of the numbers who came out, all could not be immaculate either in virtue or temper; and from the matrimonial unhappiness which would naturally ensue, the value of such connexions became depreciated. Persons who saw an unpleasant result, in some instances grew timid for fear of incurring a similar evil, and preferred being contented bachelors to the risk of being miserable husbands.-Huggins's Sketches in India. POMPEII. It is mentioned that some of the most recent excavations at Pompeii have been rewarded by very interesting discoveries. MIMICRY. There is a sort of raillery, I will not call it wit, but merriment and buffoonery, which is mimicry. The most successful mimic in the world is always the most absurd fellow, and an ape is infinitely his superior. His profession is to imitate and ridicule those natural defects and deformities, for which no man is the least accountable, and in the imitation of which he makes himself for the time as disagreeable and shocking as those he mimics. THE APPROACH OF SUMMER. Pure elevated minds receive more pleasure from the genial warmth, the cloudless sunshine, and soft zephyrs in fine weather, than from any sensual gratification. In spite of the auxiliary bottle and seacoal fire, the masculine sex are apt to droop in a gloomy day, and no domestic amusement for the fair can so exhilirate their spirits as a walk with pleasant companions amidst rural scenery in a bright July morn. An admirable writer confesses, "I have often, in a splenetic fit, wished myself a dormouse during the winter, and I never see one of those animals snugly wrapt in his fur, and completely happy in himself, but I contemplate him with envy beneath the dignity of a philosopher. If the art of flying were brought to perfection, the use I should make of it would be to attend the sun round the globe, and pursue the spring through every sign of the Zodiac. This love of warmth makes the heart glad at the return of Summer. How delightful is the face of nature at this season, when the earth puts forth her plants and flowers, clothed with green, and diversified with ten thousand dyes! How pleasant is it to inhale such fresh and charming odours as fill every living creature with delight!" INFLUENCE OF SOUNDS ON THE ELEPHANT AND LION. circular tympanum radiate from its centre to its circumference, and are of equal length; but Sir E. Home has found that in the elephant, where the tympanum is oval, they are of different lengths, like the radii from the focus of an eclipse. He considers that the human ear is adapted for musical sounds by the equality of the radii, and he of is opinion that the long fibres in the tympanum of the elephant enable it to hear.very minute sounds, which it is known to do. A pianoforte having been sent on purpose to Exeter Change, the higher notes hardly attracted the elephant's notice, but the low ones roused his attention. The effect of the higher notes of the pianoforte upon the great lion in Exeter Change was only to excite his attention, which was very great. He remained silent and motionless. But no sooner were the flat notes sounded, than he sprang up, attempted to break loose, lashed his tail, and seemed so furious and enraged as to frighten the female spectators. This was attended with the deepest yells, which ceased with the music. Sir E. Home has found this inequality of the fibres in neat-cattle, the horse, deer, the hare, and the cat.. IRON FOUND IN BOGOTA, IN AMERICA. Humboldt lately communicated to the French Academy of Sciences an extract of a letter from M. Boussingault, at Santa Fé de Bogota, in which that traveller states, that he found in the Cordillera of Santa Rosa, between Timja and Bogota, many masses of very ductile native iron, some of which weighed about 30 quintals. MAIZE GRAIN REMARKABLY RETENTIVE OF THE POWER OF GERMINATING. It is worthy of notice, that the maize which is found in the graves of the Peruvians, who lived before the arrival of Europeans in that country, is still so fresh, that, when planted, it grows well, and yields seed. EFFECTS OF AN EARTHQUAKE ON It is a remarkable circumstance, that, since the great earthquake of 1687, no wheat will grow on the coast of Peru. In some places, indeed, a little is raised; but it is very unproductive. Rice, on the contrary, yields a great return. Before the earthquake, one grain of wheat yielded 200 grains. EGGS OF INSECTS. on Divine Providence instructs the insects in a most remarkable manner to deposit their eggs, not only in safety from their numerous enemies, but also in situations where a sufficient quantity of food is on the spot to support and nourish the larva immediately breaking the shell. The gnat, (musquito) the ephemera, the phryganea, the libellulu, hover over the water all day to drop their eggs, which are hatched in the water, and continue there all the time they are in the larva form. The mass formed by the gnat resembles a little vessel set afloat by the insect; each egg is in the form of a keel, and curiously connected together. The gnat lays but one egg at a time, which she deposits in the water in a very ingenious and simple manner, she stretches her legs out and crosses them, thus forming an angle to receive and hold the first egg: a second egg is soon placed next the first; then a third, and so on, till the base is capable of supporting itself; these, as they come to maturity, sink deeper. The spawn of this insect is somewhat above an inch long, and one-eighth of an inch in di ameter, and tied by a little stem or stalk to some stick or stone. Sometimes they are laid in a single, and sometimes in a doudle spiral line; sometimes transversely. Many of the moths cover their offspring with a thick bed of hair, which they gather from their own body; while others cover them with a glutinous composition, which, when hard, protects them from moisture, rain, and cold. The gall flies, it has been observed, know how to open the nerves of the leaves, to deposit their eggs in a place which afterwards serves them for a lodging and a magazine of food. The solitary bees and wasps prepare a habitation for their little ones in the earth, placing there a proper quantity of food for them, when they proceed from the egg. The voracious spider is careful of its eggs; the wolf spider carries them on its back in a little bag of its silk. Algiers. The country round the warlike city of Algiers is very mountainous, having regions; but the hills and vallies are beausnow on the tops and sides in the higher tifully ornamented with trees, and all the flats are in high cultivation. The city stands on the point of the Mole Head; the buildings are mostly of white stone, angularly shaped; there are batterries, with heavy brass guns, all round towards the sea, and a light-house nearly as high as the Monument in London, with an immense luminary on the summit; a half-moon battery of 120 guns protects the entrance into the Mole. In the inner Mole or harbour, we can distinctly see the masts of several frigates and small cruizers. Soon after we anchored in the bay, the captain of the port came on board; he is a fine manlylooking personage, with a long bushy grey beard, an immense long red turban, long red trowsers or wrappers, and a blue coat jacket richly embroidered with gold braidand wrists; he wore no stockings, his sliping on the shoulders, backs, elbows and pers were of thin blue leather, with strings or buckles.-Ext. of a letter dated 18th Apr. FROM THE GERMAN-For a Catch. CASSINI, that uncommon man, In vain Heaven's azure depth doth scan, The reason's plain-he pores, and thinks. His wine like you and me. We know far better; we can sit Astronomers midst wine and wit Without or toil or trouble; And then, when through our glass we pore, New stars we see ne'er seen before; And hark ye, friend, I'll tell thee more, We see each old star double. (Lond. Lit. Gaz.) Hatching Chickens-Capt. Parry's Déjeuné. Hatching Chickens by Steam is no joke: I have seen it done, and it is doing in a room over Mr. Bullock's Mexican Exhibition. There are hundreds of eggs, not only of hens, ducks, and other domestic poultry, but of emus* and other strange birds, in the common course of incubation. The apparatus is very simple. The eggs are deposited in trays on straw, and kept at a temperature of about 101, the natural temperature being about 104. In three weeks, the usual period for hens, the chickens burst the shell, and seem as healthy and lively as when produced by the common process. Other birds and fowls follow the same rule as to time. But the most extraordinary part of this exhibition is an invention to show or demonstrate the whole progress of hatching from day to day, from the first deposition of the egg to the final development and ejection of the animal. This consists of a series of twenty-one illuminated vessels, in each of which an egg is exposed, opened, from the first to the twenty-first day, and viewed through a glass. Thus the entire operation and secret of nature is rendered palpable to the sense. You see the yolk thicken; by the third day it displays whitish annular rings; by the fifth there is a red speck and a curious formation of slight red fibres the future heart and blood-vessels of the bird; by the eighth or ninth these assume more perfect forms, and a black speck indicates the eye, which, in a few days more, is placed in the head above the beak; all these, and all the other parts, feathers, &c. gradually form, till at last, about the nineteenth day, the remainder of the yolk is drawn into the body by the navel, and the perfect animal subsists thereon till it is enabled to burst its shell. This it effects very ingeniously. But I must often revisit this striking exhibition, which throws a wonderful light upon one of the least understood matters in the whole circle of natural science. I have only at present to add, that the first indication * These require seven weeks and six days incu bation. of vital function takes place, as nearly as possible, about the seventy-second hour, when a quivering, like an electric spark, is observable. This is almost too minute for human sense, and vanishes momentarily yet it seems to be the beginning of life, the incipient of the nervous system. Captain Parry's déjeuné on board the Hecla on Tuesday, was a sight to be seen. There were assembled as many lions (independent of the Captain) as the acquaintance of the enter tainers and the showery morning allowed. A steam ship, a bulk ship, and the two discovery ships, were tied alongside of each other as the scene of action. Flags were over head, instead of being under feet as in the street pavements; and this the ladies considered to be a great novelty. But they seemed to be infinitely more amused in rummaging the officers' and sailors' births (not their being brought into existence, but the sea term for their sleeping holes,) and never was vessels more curiously inspected. There was hardly a female present who did not display great talents for a Discovery Expedition, and if their organs of appropriation were at all comparable, I am sure they might as well have remained on board the hulk, or stayed ready for the transport. The refreshment tables were spread between decks; and the early visitors, with appetites sharpened by voyaging on the Thames, cast many a longing and lingering look below, till the time arrived when the hatchways were thrown open, and the chickens were consequently attackable. Then there was a rush down a narrow stair inscribed "Way down;" and after the first mess was satisfied, they revisited the upper deck by another ladder, marked "Way up." Others succeeded them, and some danced and sang. Among the latter were Leete, Hawes, Terrail, Goodall, Paton, and Pasta; but Miss Stephens was not there, because the weather looked lowering. After a few hours spent in the most agreeable manner imaginable, every body was tired and came away. Sights of London-Sicilian Dwarf―The Ramahs-Pompeii. Some of the fair sex were however so enchanted, that they expressed their willingness to go even to the North Pole; but Captain Parry (it was whispered) declined entering into any female engagements previous to sailing on this voyage. Our little friend, Miss Chracami, is so beset with visitors, in consequence of our report, that it seems to have turned her little brain. Only think of a jilt and coquette of five pounds averdupois! This is literally the case, and the ingrate absolutely broke an engagement with us last Sunday. We would revenge ourselves, but as Swift says Who would be satirical Upon a thing so very small? Our great friend, the SwissGiantess, ycleped in the bills, "The beautiful Swiss," may be so to the lovers of loveliness on a large scale: more than enough for us. Her manners are wonderfully modest, considering her profession. Her beauty is of the heavy German cast; her limbs thickish or so but she is altogether well proportioned, about 23 years old, six feet five inches high, 24 stone weight, and can lift 3 cwt. with one hand! The great King of Prussia being dead some time, she has been allowed to leave the Continent; and may be seen, by the admirers of great curiosities, in Piccadilly. The Ramas!-One would think the population of the British Metropolis had turned Turks, and this was the season of the Ramadan; for we have the Diarama, Cosmorama, Panorama, Peristrephic-panorama, and Naturorama, all inviting the public to pay for a peep. I made my second visit to the Diorama the other day, which was clear and eligible for the purpose. This is really a charming illusion, by whatever means produced; by transparent colours, reflected lights, and the intervention of opaque or demi-opaque substances behind the pictures. The process is a triumph of art, and the curious will do well to see it before a change of scene takes place. The Valley of Sarnen, with its snow-topt mountains, its misty distances, its smiling slopes, its waters now lucent and 287 now clouded, its picturesque cottages, its pastoral herds, (and not that little trick of a flowing rill), is a beautiful subject for contemplation. It perfects the idea of Switzerland in the untravelled spectator. The other piece, the Chapel of the Trinity in Canterbury Cathedral, is a good companion to the landscape; differing in character, and being equally well executed. I have discovered by my peculiar instinct in not entirely plain surfaces-let who such matters, that these pictures are will gainsay me. In Paris, I observe, they have got a Diorama of the ruined Chapel of Holy-rood (as they call it, meaning, I I suppose, St. Anthony's). It is painted by Daguerre, and exhibited under varieties of moon and lamplight. The effect of the latter in the hands of a mourning female, and deposited on a tomb, is said to be very touching;-La mélancolie est friande, quoth old Montaigne, and the Parisians here confess it. Strand, represents an object of deep The Panorama of Pompeii, in the interest.-I do not mean from its having been buried so long. The cution are alike excellent. In one |