"It is impossible that at this distance I can direct and manage the education of my daughters; but it costs me many an anxious hour. The ornamental part of education, though necessary, is secondary, and I wish to see their minds enlarged by a true knowledge of good and evil, that they may be able to enjoy the one, if it be happily their lot, and submit contentedly to any fortune rather than descend to the other. How do you feel since you were blockaded ? Nothing certainly can be more presumptuous than that decree of Bonaparte's, or more unjust than the seizure of property in neutral countries. I shall have great pleasure in being sponsor to Sir Willam Blackett's child; and if it be a son, and he will make him a sailor, I desire my little Sarah will begin to teach him his compass, that he may know how to steer his course in the world, which very few people do." INQUISITION IN ITALY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. DROWNING was the mode of death to which the Protestants were doomed, either because it was less cruel and odious than committing them to the flames, or because it accorded with the customs of Venice. But if the autos da fe of the queen of the Adriatic were less barbarous than those of Spain, the solitude and silence with which they were accompanied was calculated to excite the deepest horror. At the dead hour of midnight the prisoner was taken from his cell, and put into gondola or Venetian boat, attended only, beside the sailors, by a single priest, to act as confessor. He was rowed out into the sea beyond the Two Castles, where another boat was in waiting. A plank was then laid across the two gondolas, upon which the prisoner, having his body chained, and a heavy stone affixed to his feet, was placed; and, on a signal given, the gondolas retiring from one another, he was precipitated into the deep.-Dr. M'Crie's History. The Gatherer. "I am but a Gatherer and disposer of other men's stuff."- Wolton. MASQUERADE CARD. SOON after the erection of the Pantheon in Oxford-street, a masquerade was given there, at which Dr. Angelo was present. On that day he had dined with Sheridan, who, (his character being settled to be a mountebank conjuror) supplied the doctor with the following card to distribute to the crowd: "A Conjuror. Just arrived in the Haymarket, from the very extremity of Hammersmith (where he has spent a number of years in a two-pair-of-stairs lodging,) a most noted and extraordinary conjuror, having visited above nine different parishes in the space of a fortnight, and had the honour of exhibiting before most of the churchwardens between Knightsbridge and Brentford. It is not in the power of words (unless some new language were invented for the purpose,) to describe the extraordinary feats he performs. He takes a glass of wire (provided it be good,) and, though you should fill it up to the very brim, he will drink it off-with the greatest ease and satisfaction. He makes no scruple of eating a plate of cold ham and chicken, if it be supper time before the face of the whole company. Any gentleman or lady may lend him five or six guineas, which he puts into his pocket-and never returns If he can help it. He takes a common pocket handkerchief out of his pocket, rumples it in his hand, blows his nose, and returns it into his pocket again, with the most astonishing composure. When gentlemen are talking on any subject on which there appears a difference of opinion, he joins in the conversation, or Any nobleman, gentleman, or lady, may holds his tongue-just as it happens. look him full in the face, and see whe ther they know him or not. In short, it would appear quite incredible to enumeand the unprecedented wonders he perrate the unheard-of qualities he possesses, forms; and all for his own private emolument, and for no other motive or consideration whatever!" This was in mediately despatched to the printers in Wardour-street, and five hundred copies pressed, and ready by twelve at night, were composed and struck off, dried, which was considered a great effort of the press in those days. Angelo's Reminiscences. BOOKS. IT is uncertain (says an American writer) what is the number of books now extant in all languages. I have used a library of 250,000 volumes, which contained no duplicate, and it was so perfect, that it was difficult to ask for an author not to be found in it. The largest library in Europe contains near 400,000 volumes, duplicates not included; and perhaps it may be about right to estimate the whole number of printed books in the world at 500,000. This being the case, America furnishes about one-seventeenth of the means necessary for extending learning to the utmost, and about one-thirteenth of what the city of Paris alone affords. Another comparison will show her poverty in a manner equally striking. Germany contains 30,000,000 of people, who have 2,000,000 of books in public libraries for their instruction, exclusive of those of the sovereign princes, which are always accessible to scholars. America contains 10,000,000 of people, who have 150,000 books for the same purpose; but the 2,000,000 in Germany are more read than the 150,000 in America. THE BEGGAR'S OPERA Is indeed a child of many fathers; but its incredible success was supposed to be owing to the squibs that it played off against the court. Many of them, though let off by Gay, who was a disappointed candidate for court favour, were charged by Pope, whose wit ignited into a fiercer fire. The song of Peachum, the thieftaker, as written by Gay, was less severe, until Pope altered the two last lines: The priest calls the lawyer a cheat, The lawyer be-knaves the divine, And the statesman because he's so great, Thinks his trade is as honest as mine. These stood in Gay's manuscript And there's many arrive to be great, By a trade not more honest than mine. Again, Pope wrote the still more audacious verses in the song of Macheath, after his being taken Since laws were made for every degree, prises within the sphere of its operations the whole of the western parts of the metropolis and its vicinity, and has, since its first institution in 1818, in Suffolk-street, Charing-Cross, assisted upwards of 20,000 poor afflicted persons. Its Dispensary is at present in Villiersstreet. Charing Cross has been selected as the site of the hospital, on account of its proximity to the river, to extensive manufactories and places of dangerous employment, and to traffic of every description, fatally hazardous to human health, and sometimes to existence, where the most severe and alarming casualties are continually occurring, and where from the remoteness of this district from all the present existing hospitals, an infirmary has so long been required. We are glad to see their Graces of Northumberland in the contributions to the building fund; and whatever may have been said about the proposed National Gallery at Charing Cross, we are satisfied there are few persons who will not waive its importance to the consideration of suffering humanity. TEMPEK. THE great Duke of Marlborough was as remarkable for good temper as for good conduct and bravery. Being one day overtaken with a shower, as he was riding, he called to his servant for his great coat, which the man not immediately bringing, nor giving any answer, he repeated his order; upon which the fellow muttered, buckled it ?" "I suppose you'll stay till I have unThe duke instead of being angry, said coolly to a gentleman who was with him, 66 Now, I would not be of that fellow's temper for all the world." No. 296.] OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1828. [PRICE 2d. Bird's-Eye View of an Abattoir, or French Slaughter-House. WE recollect hearing a celebrated Pythagorean assert, that his first resolution to abstain from animal food originated in his having witnessed, through the open door of a slaughter-house, a butcher in the act of killing a calf;* and our sensibilities have been not unfrequently shocked by the barbarous exhibition of butchers pulling in lambs to the slaughter." Compassion for these infirmities, or the "public health," has, however, induced a benevolent individual to step forward with a plan for the correction of such inhuman nuisances, and, putting sensibility out of the question, it is worthy of serious attention. Every one that has been to Paris must (unless he deserves Sterne's pity) have noticed the cleanliness of the butchers' shops in every street of that city. The meat is there hung before clean white cloths, the scales and brass weights are highly polished, and the passengers are not annoyed by the disgusting exposure of unclean joints at the entrance doors. There is no driving of cattle through the streets, and, consequently, the scampering alarm of ladies of a certain age, and the mischievous fun of the idle, are prevented. On inquiry, this will be traced to the excellent plan adopted, seventeen years since, by the direction of the French government; viz. the construction of Five Abattoirs, or Public Slaughter-houses, at different extremities of the city, one of which, that of Roule, is represented in the annexed engraving. Previous to our entering into the description of this building, it may be not incurious to quote a few observations on the subject, from the pen of Bruyere. "The name of Butchery," says he, is generally given to establishments where many butchers slaughter the animals intended for consumption, prepare the meat, and expose it for sale. With the ancients, the slaughter-house and the place of sale were separate. In ancient Rome, there were formed, for the purchase and sale of oxen, companies, or colleges of Butchers, who confided to their substitutes the care of slaughtering the animals, and of preparing them for the use of the public. These butchers, at first spread over different parts of the town, were afterwards collected in one quarter, where other provisions were sold. Under the reign of Nero, the great market, or butchery, was one of the most magnificent ornaments of the city, and the memory Our Pythagorean disciple has kept his resolution; for which, unlike many men who give no reason for their eccentricity, he has published Twenty-two: neither does he takes gravy with his potatoes," as a sage Quarterly Reviewer would infer. some of it has been transmitted to posterity by Each Abattoir of Paris contains two or four corps of slaughter-rooms, each composed of two buildings, separated by a court. The slaughter-rooms, formed by partition-walls of free-stone, have each sixteen feet three inches in width, and thirty-two feet six inches in length, from centre to centre of pilaster, and each of them has two entrances; one from the court, by which the animal is introduced, and one from the exterior for the removal of the meat. Each slaughter-room is sup plied with water, and a sink placed a little below the level of the pavement. "A rack wheel and pullies are fixed against the wall for lifting the animal, and a framing composed of two pieces placed horizontally, at the height of six feet ten inches, fixed in the wall at one end, and carried at the other by a cross piece. From this framing seven or eight oxen may be suspended by the means of I movable rails; and iron brackets fixed against the wall, serve to support the calves and sheep. These slaughterrooms, as well as the court of communication, are built of stone, the joints being carefully stopped with a mastic of iron filings, that no offensive matter may lodge therein. The ceilings are plastered for the greater cleanliness. Small openfngs are made at the bottom of the doors for the circulation of air; and the roofs have a projection of about nine feet nine inches beyond the exterior walls, affording the double advantage of guaranteeing the slaughter-rooms from the heat of the sun, and protecting the butchers from the weather while working in the courtyard. "Ox-Stalls and Sheep-Pens.-The days on which the animals arrive at Paris, are seldom the days on which they are killed. It is therefore necessary to have places to receive them. These buildings, of the most simple form and construction, have about twenty-nine feet three inches in width, on the inside. Large stone arches supply the place of girders, and support the joists of the flooring of the upper rooms. A second range of arches supplies the place of principals for the roof, and receives the purlines. The upper floor is partitioned into as many divisions as there are slaughter-rooms, that each butcher may secure his own forage; and each building is supplied with a very large cistern. For the translation of the preceding description of the French Abattoirs, and for the introduction of the plan generally to the British public, we are indebted to Mr. Hakewill, the architect, known in the literary world as the author of a "Picturesque Tour in Italy."-The nuisances of the cattle-market at Smithfield, and the slaughter-houses of London, are grievances of long standing, but they were specially noticed in the Times newspaper of June 9, and September 1, of last year; in the communication of the latter date, the London system is there briefly stated, The writer dwells with much emphasis on the cruel practices of many drovers, whom he describes as 66 more brutal than the beasts they drive." "From fatigue and ill usage," says he, "their fevered blood must be in a state little short of putrefaction; and their flesh must be as far removed as possible from that healthy state in which alone it ought to become the food of the meanest of the people; yet, from such meat, are the tables of the rich and luxurious supplied." After describing the questionable salubrity of those neighbourhoods in which slaughter-houses are congregated, he proposes the following amended plan for the supply of meat to the metropolis. "Instead of the single market of Smithfield, I would suggest four markets, two on the north, and two on the south side of London, at the eastern and western points, perhaps no better stations could be found for them than in the neighbourhood of Kilburn and Hackney, Wim bledon and Blackheath, where the several great roads afford easy and immediate access to the town and in the midst of abundant pastures, where the cattle, if purchased at a distance, may at least be fed at hand. "In imitation of the excellent and humane institution of the Abattoirs of Paris, I would propose, for the much greater size of London, ten instead of five of these slaughter houses. These should be erected towards the extremities of the town, to avoid as much as possible, the necessity of the cattle being driven through the streets. On the north side of London: 1st, in the neighbourhood of the Edgeware-road; 2nd, near Tavistock-square, on the edge of the New Road; 3rd, about Haberdasher's Alms Houses, near the Great North Road; and 4th, in some place near Bethnal Green. On the south side of London; 5th, between Westminster and Waterloo Bridges; 6th, in the open square near the Obelisk; 7th, at Bermondsey, near the Kent Road; and 8th, between Rotherhithe and Deptford. While on the north-east of the town, a 9th would be needed about Stepney, between the Mile End and Commercial Road; and a 10th at the west end of the town of Chelsea, between the King's and Putney Roads." It appears by an extract from Stowe's London, that, according to the Fourth Act of Henry VII., cap. 3., butchers, carrying on this part of their trade within the city of London, are amenable to the fines therein imposed, and exercise their trades against its provisions. Since the publication of the above let ters, a public meeting has been held on the question, and a committee formed, preparatory to its being submitted to the consideration of Parliament. Mr. Hakewill proposes to adopt the French plan, of which he gives the following estimate, and mode of employing the buildings: "The average quantity of ground employed for an Abattoir, is about six acres. The value of which, if freehold, will be (in ground, not offering any particular advantages to builders,) about £1,200. This space would give accommodation to fifty slaughter-rooms, a tripery and melting-house. The estimate |