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The Marquis de Voyer d'Argenson kept, for many years, Madamoiselle Jehan, an actress, at Ormeo,

in Touraine, his country seat. She died, and as Christian burial was not then al

lowed to players, the Marquis had her body burnt, and reduced to ashes, in a case of amyanthe (asbestos). As he was a great lover of chemistry, the idea then occurred to him of subjecting the ashes to the operation of heat. By this means a small quantity of glass was produced, which be sent to his jeweller, with directions to make two rings, which was accordingly done. One of those rings was in the possession of the late M. de la Borde, Chamberlain to Louis XVI. It appeared of common green glass.

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WALKER AND RUSSELL'S NEW SYS

TEM OF ARITHMETIC.

This day is published, price 3s. bound,

I. A NEW SYSTEM OF ARITHMETIC on a Plan entirely original, calculated to abridge the labour of the Tutor very considerably, and facilitate the progress of the Pupil. By. J. WALKER:

2. AN EXPOSITION of the SYSTEM is printed, and sold at 2s. sealed up; which will be delivered only to Schoolmasters or Teachers, who apply personally, or by letter addressed to the publisher.

3. WALKER'S NEW CIPHERING BOOK, on the same System. Part I. containing the foolscap 4to. price 3s. Simple Rules; neatly printed in Script, on fine

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4. WALKER'S NEW CIPHERING BOOK.

Part II, containing the Compound Rules. Printed uniformly with the above, price 4s.

London: Published by J. SOUTER, at the School Library, 73, St. Paul's Church Yard. Of whom may be had,

1. AN ANALYSIS of PENMANSHIP; or NEW BRITISH PENMAN. Containing Rules and Observations on the Formation of each Letter; together with a Projection of the Text Alphabet, and some Specimens of Writing. For the Use of Schools, and young Persons. Dedicated to W. Thomson, Esq. W. M. By. J.

HILL, W.M. Master of the Academy, Brent

ford Butts. Oblong 8vo. half-bound, 5.

2. The PROJECTION of the Text Alphabet, separate. By the same. 4to. 1s:

3. A VARIETY of NEW COPY SLIPS, lish authors; each sufficient to fill a page in the comprising Select Sentences from the best EngCopy-Book, so that the Pupil cannot copy his own writing and each will he found to conver

some useful information. BY J. HILL.

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GREAT men and great events give celebrity to places in themselves insignificant.

Stratford on Avon had been an obscure and neglected village but for the accidental circumstance of its having been the birth-place of Shakspeare.Waterloo was a place scarcely ever heard of in England until the decisive battle of the 18th of June, 1815, gave it an immortality equal to Marathon, Thermopyla, Cressy, Agincourt, Blen heim, or Austerlitz; St. Helena had merely been considered as a barren rock had it not been the residence of the most illustrious of exiles-Napoleon Bonaparte: and Longwood would have perhaps been still considered as a farm-house, or at least as a country residence for a deputy governor of the island, had it not been the house in which Napoleon passed the last few years of a life the most fruitful in

events.

We have already given the tomb of Napoleon, and we now present our VOL. I.

readers with a view of Longwood, the house in which he died: Longwood, formerly a farm belonging to the East India Company, and afterwards the country residence of the Deputy Governor, is situated on one of the highest parts of the island of St. Helena, pretty near the west. It possesses no peculiar attractions either of natural beauty of situation, or architectural merit in its construction-its whole history is comprised in its being the last residence of Napoleon, and the place where one of the most extraordinary individuals that the world has produced breathed his last, and quitted a world of which his ambition was to be the sole master.

It will no doubt be recollected by many of our readers that the British Government sent out the materials of a new wooden house to St. Helena, which bad been constructed in England, on a large scale, and in a style of corresponding splendour, but that Napoleon refused to occupy it. D'd

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Man is said to be a social animal, and, as an instance of it, we take all occasions and pretences of forming ourselves into those little nocturnal assemblies, which are commonly known by the name of Clubs. When a set of men find themselves agree in any particular, though never so trivial, they establish themselves into a kind of fraternity, and meet once or twice a week upon the account of such a fantastic resemblance. I knew a considerable market town, in which there was a Club of fat men, that did not come together (as you may well suppose) to entertain one another with sprightliness and wit, but to keep one another in countenance. The room where the Club met was something of the largest, and had two entrances, the one by a door of a moderate size, and the other by a pair of folding doors. If a candidate for this corpulent club could make his entrance through the first, he was looked upon as unqualified, but if he stuck in the passage, and could not force his way through it, the folding doors were immediately thrown open for his reception, and he was saluted as a brother. I have heard that this club, though it consisted but of fifteen persons, weighed above three tons.

In opposition to this society, there sprung up another, composed of scarecrows and skeletons, who being very meagre and envious, did all they could to thwart the designs of their bulky brethren, whom they represented as men of dangerous principles; till at length they worked them out of the favour of the people, and consequently out of the magistracy. These factions tore the corporation in pieces for several years, till at length they came to

this accommodation; that the two bailiffs of the town should be annually chosen out of the two clubs; by which means the principal magistrates were coupled like rabbits, one fat and one lean.

Every one has heard of the club, or rather the confederacy, of the Kings. This grand alliance was formed a little after the return of King Charles the Second, and admitted into it men of all qualities and professions, provided they agreed in the surname of King, which, as they imagined, sufficiently declared the owners of it to be altogether untainted with republican and antimonarchical principles.

A christian name has likewise been often used as a badge of distinction, and made the occasion of a club.That of the George, which used to meet at the sign of the George on St. George's Day, and swear "Before George," is still fresh in every one's memory.

In the beginning of the last century there were in several parts of this city what they call Street Clubs, in which the chief inhabitants of the street conversed together every night.

The Hum-Drum Club was made up of very honest gentlemen of peaceable dispositions, that used to sit together, smoke their pipes, and say nothing till midnight. The Mum Club was an institution of the same nature, and as great an enemy to noise.

After these two innocent societies, I cannot forbear mentioning a very mischievous one that was formed in the reign of King Charles the Second: I mean the Club of Duellists, in which none was to be admitted that had not fought his man. The president of it was said to have killed half a dozen in single combat; and as for the other members they took their seats according to the number of their slain.There was likewise a side table, for such as had only drawn blood, and shewn a laudable ambition of taking the first opportunity to qualify themselves for the first table. This club, consisting only of men of honour, did not continue long, most of the members of it being put to the sword, or hanged, a little time after its institution. I. H.

Select Biography.

MICHAEL BRUCE. Doubtless there are many of our readers who have never before heard the name mentioned which we have

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"Thou happy soul, and can it be "That these

"Are all that must remain of thee?"

I have felt keenly the force of this beautiful burst of heartfelt lamenta tion, after reading again and again the very small volume which contains his poems, and the few epistolary remnants of his elegant mind, which have been collected by the industry of those who possess taste and sensibility enough for so pleasing yet melancholy a task.

The biography of Bruce is soon discussed. He was born in Kinross, a town in Fifeshire, and the humble cottage where he first drew breath I have in earlier and happier days often passed. His parents were quite in the lower walk of life, and altogether unable to command the pecuniary means of aiding their son in his wishes to cultivate those talents fully, which began at an early period of life to develope themselves. Genuine worth and real modesty generally accompany each other; and painful indeed is it to reflect that their path through life should so often be unnoticed and unknown," when the sheer impudence of the shallow and assuming will so frequently carry them triumphantly onwards. Comparatively few were the friends of Michael Bruce. He went through a course of study but very little above what was common enough in the North even to those in the humblest station: but his mind was of no common order. Possessed of an imagination as elevated as it was correct, and a judgment sound as it was strong, he availed himself fully of whatever advantages he possessed; but alas! for the mind that is cast in a finer mould than or. dinary, a man of genius is very often the envy of those who, do what they may, are destined never to rise above mediocrity; but they know not the annoyances which far more than counterbalance its advanages. What can compensate for the morbid sensibility which compels

them to view with disgust the commonplace events, and the common-place personages, with which they continually come in contact? What can the most splendid genius bestow as an equivalent for the agonizing wretchedness of the disappointment, the neglect, perhaps the sarcasm of the worthless and unfeeling-matters which to minds differently constituted would be nothing, but to them are overwhelming and distracting to a degree that is

almost inconceivable? Under this torturing but indescribable state of feeling did poor Chatterton flee to that tremendous resource of despair-suicide; and a similar lot was Kirke White's, as he writhed under the inhuman and causeless malice of a cold-blooded reviewer, with such an acuteness of misery as to hasten his progress to a premature grave.

The subject of our brief memoir had his disappointments, and we know how deeply he felt them. The struggle of existence was too much for him-the heart knoweth its own bitterness--his health was, at the most interesting time of life, observed to decline gradually, but surely-consumption, with her wan, livid look and hectic flush, had marked him for her victim; and having drank but very slightly, and with much distaste, of the cup of life, it fell from his lip, and was " as water spilt upon the ground, which cannot be gathered up again."

"Heaven gives its favourites an early death," as some poet says; and to such an one as our hero, the pale horse and his rider must have come in any character but that of the King of Terrors. Bruce's death-bed must have been a scene of singular and deep interest. There was indeed the fainting and the weakness of humanity; but there were also the deep, strong consolations of religion to cheer him. His soul had indeed (like the ark of Noah) floated over the waters of Desolation, but it rested at length on the ararat of Comfort, and the rainbow of Hope was distinctly visible to his eye of faith, ere it closed for ever on all terrestrial objects.

The extract subjoined is part of a beautiful poem which he composed shortly before his death, as he reclined on the banks of Lochleven, his mind enfeebled by misfortune, and his frame shattered by the disease which put a period to his woes, and introduced his unshackled spirit to scenes more congenial with its pure and lofty aspirations.

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