Part 4

When will the French nation be able to afford a Thurtell--a man who could turn his pistol round in his _friend's_ brains; not in any insane paroxysm of jealousy, or hatred, or revenge, but merely to ascertain _satisfactorily_ that he had completely effected his business--who could then walk in to his supper of pork chops, with the same composure as if he had come from giving a feed of oats to his horse--a clever and acute man, too, without any stupid insensibility of mind--a man who, when seized and put on his trial, gets off by heart a long and eloquent speech, full of the most solemn and false asseverations of his innocence; not that he clung with desperate eagerness to the hope of escaping, but that, as there was a chance, it was prudent not to throw it away--who, when condemned displayed neither terror nor indifference, neither exquisite sensibility nor sullen brutality, and at the last swung out of life from the gallows with the settled air of a man who feels he has lost the game at which he played, and that he may as well pay the stake calmly? There was a true British composure about the unutterable atrocity of this villain--murderer he was, and a most detestable murderer too--but his character belongs to our country as fully as that of our heroes. Hunt and Probert were pitiful wretches, fit for the Bicêtre. Doubtless the agony of Hunt's feelings until his reprieve came, would, if properly divided into chapters, make a good romance.--_Blackwood's Mag._

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PETROLEUM.

Petroleum wells supply the whole Burman empire with oil for lamps, and also for smearing timber, to protect it against insects, and particularly the white ant. Its consumption for burning is stated to be universal, until its price reaches that of sesamum oil, the only other kind used for lamps. The wells, which occupy a space of about sixteen square miles, vary in depth from two hundred to two hundred and fifty feet; the shaft is square, not more than four feet each side, and is formed by sinking a frame of wood. The oil, on coming up, is about the temperature of ninety degrees of Fahrenheit. It is thrown into a large cistern, in the bottom of which are small apertures for the aqueous part to drain off, when the oil is left for some time to thicken. It is then put into large earthen jars, placed in rude carts drawn by oxen, and carried to the banks of the river, from whence it is sent by water-carriage to every part of the empire. By the number and burden of the boats employed in this trade, and the number of voyages they are supposed to make in the course of a year, the exportation from the wells is estimated to amount to 17,568,000 _vis_, of twenty-six pounds and a half each. Thirty _vis_ a-year is reckoned to be the average consumption of a family of five persons and a half; and about two-thirds of the oil are supposed to be employed for burning.--_Crawfurd's Embassy to Ava._

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SIGNS OF THE TIMES.

Think how the dog, fond and faithful creature as he is, from being the most docile and obedient of all animals, is made the most dangerous, if he become mad; so men acquire a frightful and not less monstrous power when they are in a state of moral insanity, and break loose from their social and religious obligations. Remember too how rapidly the plague of diseased opinions is communicated, and that if it once gain head, it is as difficult to be stopt as a conflagration or a flood.--_Southey._

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SOFT MUSIC.

The effect of soft music is to produce pleasure or pain, according to the state of the hearer. Thus, while a musician has been known to be _cured_ by a concert in his chamber, the celebrated sentimental air of the "_Ranz des Vaches_" has also been known to have the opposite effect of _killing_ a Swiss. Indeed, the extraordinary effect produced by it upon Swiss troops has caused it to be forbidden, under _pain of death_, to be played to them.

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THE GATHERER.

A snapper up of unconsidered trifles. SHAKSPEARE.

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BEETLES

Are unsightly insects--yet how many of them have been spared by the recollection of Shakspeare's beautiful lines--

--The poor beetle, that we tread upon. In corporal suffering finds a pang as great As when a giant dies.

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SNAILS.

Snails, though in England they cannot be mentioned as an article of food without exciting disgust, are esteemed in many places abroad a delicacy even for the tables of the great. In Paris they are sold in the market; they are much esteemed in Italy, and are of so much consequence in Venice that they are attended and fattened with as much care as poultry are in England.

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THE BITER BIT.

Zeno, the philosopher, believed in an inevitable destiny, and acknowledged but one God. His servant availed himself of this doctrine one day while being beaten for a theft, by exclaiming, "Was I not destined to rob?" "Yes," replied Zeno, "and to be corrected also."

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PRIDE.

Theophile, the French poet, dedicated a book to James I. of England, in the hope of being personally introduced to that monarch, but being disappointed in this expectation he wrote the following lines on the subject:--

"Si Jacques Roi de grand savoir N'a pas trouvé bon de me voir, En voici la cause infallible; C'est que ravi de mon ecrit Il cout que j'etois tout esprit Et par consequent invisible."

A.B.M

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LONGEVITY.

The English have two instances on record of remarkable longevity, that of Henry Jenkins, a Yorkshire fisherman, who died 1670, aged 169; and Thomas Parr, who died 1635, aged 152. The Russians appear to be the longest lived of any people, as a proof of this the following article from _La Clinique_, a Parisian medical journal, will be sufficient:-- "Last year (1828) 604 individuals died between 100 and 105 years old; 145 between 105 and 110; 104 between 110 and 115; 46 between 115 and 120; 16 between 125 and 130; 4 between 130 and 135; 1 at the age of 137; and 1 at 160."

J.F.C.

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SIR WILLIAM WALWORTH.

In St. Michael's Church, Crooked-lane, there is a handsome monument to the memory of Sir William Walworth, with this inscription:--

Here under lies a man of fame, William Walworth called by name, Fishmonger he was in lifetime here, And twice Lord Mayor, as in books appear, Who with courage stout and manly might, Slew Wat Tyler in King Richard's sight, And for which act done, and heere intent The king made him a knight incontinent, And gave him arms as here may see, To declare his fact and chivalrie. He left his life the year of our God, Thirteen hundred fourscore and three odd.

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Collins was never a lover, and never married. His odes, with all their exquisite fancy and splendid imagery, have not much interest in their subjects, and no pathos derived from feeling or passion. He is reported to have been once in love; and as the lady was a day older than himself, he used to say jestingly, that "he came into the world _a day after the fair_."

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