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testimony to the efficiency of Zopissa for arresting the decay of stone, it will be seen we have reason for expressing surprise that the material has not been brought into universal use. Its value for maritime and military purposes appears to be extraordinary. Opticians and opera-goers know the worth of the new metal, aluminium, owing to its two qualities of non-oxidation and great lightness. A double opera-glass might be made of Zopissa paper, so light that the glass would be the heaviest part, so strong as to be proof against any but intentional injury, and at a cost which would leave aluminium nowhere. Again, for cisterns, pipes, or reservoirs of water; not only can these be made of this material at a third of the price of iron, but the chemical action that is always going on in metal containing water would be obviated, and the great trouble of the winter frost in London and other large towns, the fracture of the water-pipes, would be rendered a thing of the past; owing not so much to the great strength as to the non-conducting quality of pipes made of this cheap material. Space would fail us to tell of the objects to which it might be satisfactorily applied. For vessels it may be made to combine the lightness of timber with the resistance of iron armor.

For shoes it is at once light and durable. For cartridge cases it presents to the manufacturer of small arms, and, indeed, to the artillerist in any branch, exactly that of which he is in search. From "The Art Journal."

A MECHANICAL "TELL-TALE."-Many attempts have been made to devise a tell-tale to show whether a watchman has gone his rounds faithfully during the night; but not many have succeeded. Among the latest and best is the one now in use at the Penitentiary, Lausanne, invented by Mr. Cauderoy, which effects its object by electricity. A disk of paper, divided into twelve hours, is set in movement by clockwork. A number of electro-magnets are fixed in front of the disk, and these are connected in the usual way with buttons or keys placed in different parts of the building. These buttons indicate stations on the watchman's round, and he is expected to push each one as he passes it. The push excites the electro-magnet, and releases a pricker, which starts forward and makes a hole in the paper disk. This disk may be placed in any part of the building; in the inspector's office or governor's room; consequently, any neglect or evasion on the part of the watchman is immediately detected.

ART.

THE Long Gallery of the Louvre has lately made the acquisition of a religious picture by Borgognone, whose name was one of the few of the masters belonging to the school of the Italian Renaissance not represented in the mu

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CHURCH DECORATION.-One of the chief objects which the supporters of International Exhibitions, local picture-galleries, and kindred institutions have endeavored to promote, has been the creation of an artistic taste among the masses of the people, the repression of that love of coarse and obtrusive decoration which disfigures our buildings and our houses just as much as the "loud" dressing of a certain section of society marks the absence of refinement on the part of those who adopt it. And, to some extent, good results have followed their labors. The aspect of the ordinary English home of the present day presents a decided improvement on the past. Even among the poorest of our population the neatly-framed photograph or chromo-lithograph meets us where once the staring and irreverent German print, with its superabundance of color, was wont to be hung; while among the wealthier members of society the change effected has given rise to the production of suits of furniture on avowedly artistic principles, such as those designed by Mr. Pugin, the eminent architect. the mere utilitarian, like Mr. Ayrton, there is, of course, something preposterous in allowing such humble domestic questions as the choice of carpets, curtains, and wall-paper to be governed by the rules of the artist, and yet there can be little question that as our houses are places of constant abode, not mere resting-places for the moment, such an attention to detail must conduce to the development of a correct taste in higher matters. The child, for instance, who is brought up in a house where all such points are disregarded, where the functions of the eye and ear are never considered in the home-rule of the parent, where the provision of food and raiment and the early forcing of a new candidate for the labor-market are the only things thought of, can scarcely be expected either to secure such enjoyment in afterlife, or to contribute so materially to the pleasures

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of others, as the child who is educated on higher principles, and who sees art around him even in the little things of daily life. In a word, then, the recognition of Art in the homes of the people is a thing to be labored for and striven after, and we know of no one, except the purely religious teacher, who conveys more direct benefit to his fellows than the man who brings to bear on the masses the ennobling and humanizing influences of the love of the beautiful.

But while the home may thus be brought within the domain of art, it is in the Church more especially that we naturally look for its highest development. As the Archbishop of Canterbury remarked at the Royal Academy banquet some two years ago, the Church has ever been the friend and patron of the painter, has furnished him with his noblest subjects, and has consecrated to holy uses his highest efforts. And yet in not a few cases, at the present time, where the æsthetic is ostensibly cultivated, and where large sums of money are annually spent, we fail altogether to obtain that which we desiderate, and have in its place that most objectionable of all forms of decoration-glare. Color of the most gaudy style throughout the building leads the eye at last to a chancel in which there is an utter absence of taste, and where we find what the ecclesiastical penny-a-liner terms a "perfect blaze of light," as if a blaze were not manifestly a token of gross imperfection. An altar vested in a covering of many colors, without the delicate gradations of the rainbow-tints to soften them to the eye, is in such places laden either actually, or by means of ledges and other contrivances, with a mass of candles of all sizes and shapes, which must be offensive to the taste of any educated person, and can only satisfy the purveyor thereof, who doubtless is of the same mind as an ecclesiastical furnisher who once expressed to us a wish that the Privy Council would issue a judgment against candles, and not simply against the two symbolical altar-lights, on the ground that it would largely increase his trade. Nor does the "glare" end here. Unhappily there is consistency in the surroundings, only it is of the wrong sort. The "blaze of light," which becomes so trying to the eye that it is not a little likely to produce defective vision the next morning, is accompanied by a still more offensive "blaze of sound" from the choir and the organist, whose performances degenerate into noise, while even the music they execute is in perfect keeping with the way in which it is sung and played. That we are not speaking without due cause, a visit to some prominent London churches, where such a system-totally different, be it observed, from the true artistic Ritualism to be found elsewhereprevails, will convince any of our readers. have, in fact, often witnessed this painful exhibition of that very vulgarity which is so loudly condemned when it is met with in the streets in the perons of a vulgarly dressed man or woman, and

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which at Oxford is directly personified at Commemoration by the man in the red tie. The cure for such evils is obvious. As a rule, the laity hold the purse strings, and our honest advice to them is to stop all supplies in cases where such base practices prevail. Decorations let us have by all means, and of the best; but "glare" let us avoid, whether in our churches or our homes. To man it is offensive. To God it is-an insult.— London Choir.

VARIETIES.

Sew

MR. SEWARD-A CORRECTION.-Mr. ard's death occurred just as we were going to press with our last number, and deeming the event too important to be ignored in our pages, we selected the obituary notice of the Tribune as much the most complete and satisfactory that up to that time had appeared. It is not surprising that a notice prepared under such circumstances as those which meet the demands of the daily press should contain minor errors; but a correspondent, whose position and reputation entitle him to be heard, points out some mistakes which seriously impair the value of the article, and which ought not to go uncorrected. We print the letter below, but without committing ourselves to an endorsement of its statements and especially of its inferences:

NEW-YORK, Oct. 29, 1872.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ECLECTIC:

In your number for November you have an article on Gov. Seward copied from the Tribune, which contains so many falsehoods that I am induced, by my regard for your publication, to call your attention to it. I was elected a member of our Legislature in November 1830, and I served in 1831 in the Assembly. In the fall of that year, I was elected to the Senate and served there four years, namely, during 1832, '33, '34 and '35.

Seward was elected to the Senate in 1830, and served there 1831, '32, '33 and '34, so that I was in the Legislature all the time he was, and three years in the same body with him, and I therefore speak from personal knowledge.

The article says, "during his administration" "imprisonment for debt was abolished." His "administration" did not begin till 1839, and the act to abolish imprisonment was passed in 1831.

The article says, "He sustained Gen. Jackson in his defense of the Union against Nullification." The report and resolutions on that subject were brought into the Senate by Gov. Talmadge, from a joint committee, of which I was a member. Their adoption was vehemently opposed by six Senators, Seward being one of them, and the debate, in which he took a part, lasted from a Monday morning till the following Friday, when the report was adopted, Seward voting against it. The article says "The career of Mr. Seward in the Assembly concluded with an address of the minority to the people in defense of the Whig position."

Mr. S. never was a Member of the Assembly.
The article says, speaking of his election to

the Senate at the age of 29, "Mr. Seward fell naturally into the position of leader of the opposition."

The opposition consisted of seven men, among whom were Albert H. Tracy, of Buffalo, and John Maynard, of Utica, and it was not till their terms expired, two or three years after, that he became leader of the opposition.

The article speaks of him as the "champion of many beneficent measures-of the abolition of imprisonment for debt," &c.

This measure originated in the Assembly, was reported from a committee of which I was a member, and Silas M. Stillwell was the chairman, and met with no opposition anywhere.

But the most remarkable feature of the whole article is this. It was evidently written to conciliate the votes of Seward's friends for Greeley's

election.

Before Lincoln's election, Greeley had openly quarreled with Seward and Weed, or, as he proclaimed it, "had dissolved partnership with them." And in 1860, Seward came so near being nominated for the Presidency that it was undoubtedly owing to the volunteered opposition of Greeley that Lincoln was nominated. Yet this article says, "Yet one who in the National Convention received 173 votes had certainly a right to aspire to the coveted office. But other considerations, which subsequent events have fully justified, rendered imperative the nomination of Mr. Lincoln," thus slurring over and justifying the opposition of Mr. Greeley, to which Mr. Seward owed his defeat.

So there are other topics on which the article is equally false; such, for instance, as his being the champion of our common-school system-his being an early friend of the Erie Railway-his being one of the chief promoters of our present efficient militia system, etc., etc."

A PERSONAL GLIMPSE OF THE GREAT NA

POLEON.-Napoleon advanced clumsily, wearing a simple blue uniform, and with his little hat under his arm. Varnhagen shall describe him in his own words: "His bearing expressed the struggle between a will that strives after something and contempt for those who must help him to attain it. He would doubtless have been pleased to make a favorable impression, and yet it seemed hardly worth the trouble of attempting. It would cost him trouble; for truly he had not the gift by

nature. Hence carelessness and constraint alternated in his manner, or were sometimes combined in restlessness and dissatisfaction. He first turned to the Austrian Embassy, which formed one extremity of the semicircle. The results of the unfortunate fête gave rise to many questions and observations. The Emperor wished to appear sympathizing; he even used a phrase or two expressive of emotion. But he could not at all succeed in this tone, and dropped it almost immediately. His manner was less gracious to the Russian Ambassador Kurakin, and in the course of his further progress round the half-circle, some sight or some thought must have violently irritated him; for he flew into frightful anger, stormed out horribly against one of those present, (a by no means important personage, and whose

very name I have forgotten,) was discontented with every answer made to him, kept asking fresh questions, scolded and threatened, and held the poor man a considerable time in the tortures of abasement. The witnesses who stood nearest and beheld the scene, not without anxiety lest their own turn should come next, declared afterward that there had not been the least ground for such fury, and that the Emperor had only sought a pretext for venting his ill-humor. They said, moreover, that he was in the habit of intentionally selecting some such poor wight for the purpose, in order that all the others might be cowed, and any thing like a feeling of defiance toward himself crushed into submission. As he passed onward he endeavored to converse with more moderation, but his bad humor made itself felt through all. He spoke brusquely, hastily, flinging down his words, uttered the most indifferent things with passionate rapidity, and even when he wished to speak kindly it sounded, nevertheless, as though he were angry. I have hardly heard so rough and untamed a voice as his. His eyes were deepset, usually fixed on the ground, and glanced only by fits and starts sharply and rapidly over those present. When he smiled, only his mouth and part of his cheeks smiled; the forehead and eyes remained immovably gloomy. If as I have sometimes seen on subsequent occasions-he forced these latter to smile also, his countenance wore a still more distorted expression. This combination of smiling and sternness had something about it frightfully repulsive. I know not what to think of the people who found this face charming,' and were captivated by his amiability! His features, while possessing undeniable plastic beauty, were cold and hard as marble, strangers to trustfulness, incapable of cordiality. What he said was, whenever I heard him speak, trivial both in matter and expression, without mind, without wit, without power, nay even at times absolutely vulgar and absurd. Faber, in his Notices sur l'Intérieur de la France, has spoken in full detail about the questions which Napoleon was accustomed to ask on various occasions, and which have been so often unjustly lauded as showing knowledge and sagacity. I had not then read Faber's book,, but later I found every thing I had myself seen and heard confirmed in it. The Emperor's catechising not seldom resembled the proceeding of a school-boy, who, not being sure of his lesson, keeps repeating to himself under his breath what he fears he may otherwise forget at the moment it is wanted. This, indeed, is lite

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rally true of a visit Napoleon had made a short time before to the great library, where on the staircase he already began to scream out about that classic passage in Josephus where he speaks of Jesus, and seemed really to have no other care at the moment than to exhibit his (apparently) newly-acquired bit of erudition. It absolutely appeared as though he had learned his questions

by heart. He once asked a man of some consequence from Northern Germany to what country he belonged, and when the gentleman named the place, close on the borders of Holland, Napoleon cried out, half defiantly, half delightedly, as he turned away, 'Ah, je sais bien! c'est du Nord, c'est de la Hollande! He did not come off so fortunately with Lacepède at the Natural History Collection. There he took the giraffe for a bird, and spoke of the long-necked beast as such to his wife, who, together with Lacepède, was in a state of consternation at the Emperor's mistake, so much so, that the latter, observing it, angrily broke off his discourse, and went away in excessive dudgeon. The pitiable eagerness with which Napoleon strove to gain admiration in the sphere of social conversation was often downright laughable. He was as unsuccessful in this attempt as-to our misfortune-he was successful in other things. He preferred to make wounding, or at least unpleasant, speeches; but even when he tried to say something different, he only reached trivial insignificance at the outside. For example, once at St. Cloud I myself heard him repeat twenty times to a whole row of ladies the same words, 'Il fait chaud.' It is true that some vigo. rous sayings are reported of him, and his orders were generally stern and brief. But even here the power is the chief thing, and the force of the words is due to the Emperor, not to the orator. Many ppy sallies which his courtiers were in the h of attributing to him rightfully belonged who respectfully gave up their intellecwhen it pleased His Majesty to et it. The gift of eloquence and agreeable expression which belonged to Alexander, Cæsar, and Friedrich could not co-exist with Napoleon's nature; the quality of his mind, and still more his temperament, forbade it. For this very reason, because he found himself totally unarmed on this sort of battle-ground, was Napoleon above all other men irritable and sensitive to a clever, sharp, or jesting word against himself. And a mocking song, a witty lampoon, could absolutely infuriate him.

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"No, it was not in the domains of intellect and fancy, nor by means of eloquent speech, that Napoleon Bonaparte attained his aims. He reached them by his surpassing pre-eminence as a General, and by the iron force of his will. His real greatness consists in these qualities; and it is not needful inventively to attribute any others to him, in order to make him out one of the most extraordinary men who ever lived.

"A divinity, if you will, but a Plutonian, sulphureous, dark divinity; subject at last-as all such are forever-to the superior powers of light. A gloomy, intrinsically unhappy soul. Nothing is clearer to me than that in the midst of his highest triumphs, the man-when we get a glimpse of him as above, beneath the velvet mantles bee-embroidered, and other historical stage properties-was not happy. And there needs no

[December, 1872.

enforcement of copy-book morality to tell us why."—Temple Bar.

THE CHANNEL PASSAGE.-Mr. Henry Bessegaged settling the details of a pair of vessels, esmer announces that Mr. E. J. Reed is busily enpecially adapted to the Channel service between England and France. These steamers are of larger dimensions than the famous Holyhead boats, but will only draw 7 feet of water, and will each be propelled by engines of 750 horsepower, and, consequently, with their small impower nominal, equal to 4,600 indicated horsemersed area of midship section, be capable of running with ease at a speed of 20 miles per saloon of 50 feet in length by 30 feet broad, and hour. They will be provided with a spacious with a height of 20 feet. At each end of the saloon there will be four private rooms for ladies and the same number for gentlemen, the whole being surmounted by a promenade deck of 70 dinary deck of the vessel. The whole of these feet in length, at a height of 7 feet above the orrooms and the raised promenade deck will be so powerful hydraulic apparatus govern and sustain constructed that a "steersman" can by means of the whole structure so completely and quietly that the passengers will not be subjected in the roughest weather to a greater amount of motion than is felt in an ordinary railway carriage; each all times accessible by a broad staircase free from of the rooms and the promenade deck will be at motion and of most easy ascent, so that passenlevel promenade deck, or, if the weather is ungers may enjoy the fresh sea breeze on the quiet,

favorable descend to the saloon below.

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