THE ROBIN RED BREAST. THE Red Breast trig, on yonder twig, Is chanting pensively; By nature drest, in scarlet vest, He flies about, in hopes, no doubt, Our bounty he may share; But see he comes to pick the crumbs thunder," (cried Jannes)-What have we got here? Edit. O! a poem which lately came into my hands, and is said to have been written a good many years ago, by a very ingenious lady, but is believed never to have been published. Some of the allusions are obscure, and I think the copy which I have (probably the sixth or seventh_through a succession of female hands, each adding some new slip of the pen) is not very accurately given. There is a word left out in one place altogether. But with these allowances, it is a lively performance, and as it will afford work to my friend Punctum to expiscate the true readings, I shall e'en print it as it stands: Would like to hear it read? "By you all means," replied Jannes, "what is the subject? Edit. It is a lamentation over the Minuet; and if you please, gentlemen, we shall close our present conversation with it, but if you have any amusement in this kind of trifling, we can decameron it together some other day." -To this our friends assented, and having assisted us to huddle up our disordered papers, left us to repose, we had read them, THE DEATH OF THE MINUET. after Now cease the exulting strain, And mingle notes far other than of mirth, E'en with the song that greets the new-born year, And hails the day that gave a monarch birth, That self-same day, whose chariot wheels have roll'd Through many a circling year, with glorious toil, Up to the axles in refulgent gold, And crape, and gems, and silk, and flowers, and foil. That self-same Sun no longer dares For ever, at his lordly call, And Ball each frolic hour may bring No more the well taught feet shall tread The beau of other times will mourn way, And turns the corner with remembered care. Not so his partner: from her tangl'd train Like great Alcides, in its fatal folds. Such pains, such pleasures, now alike are o'er, And beaus and etiquette shall soon exist no more. In their stead, behold advancing Where's the feather in the hat? And where three quarters of their faces chin, We know not where they end, or where begin. Mark the pair, whom fav'ring fortune At the envied top shall place, To vouchsafe a little space; Not the graceful to wave in, Or the silken robe expand, All superfluous motion waving, Her downcast eyes the modest beauty To see if feet perform their duty, With more than human patience wait, Be mine to trace the minuet's fate, And wreaths of smoke involve the skies, I heard them curse our heavy heel, To the dense air the curse adhesive clung, be sung. What cause untimely urg'd the Minuet's fate? Did wars subvert the manners of the state? To grinding organs and the dancing bear. Then it sicken'd, then it droop'd: Go to the Devil and shake yourself. CURIOUS ACCOUNT OF AN INUNDATION OF THE RHINE. [IN our Number for August 1819, we gave an account of the two last eruptions of Mount Etna, from the pen of a very intelligent correspondent who was an eye-witness. The same gentleman favoured us, some time ago, with an account of another terrible phenomenon of quite an opposite nature, of which, in his early life, he was also a witness, and one of the sufferers from it. We owe him an apology for having omitted the insertion of so interesting a relation much longer than we ought to have done, but we trust, that he will not, on that account, refuse to send us occasionally the history of any curious events which may have occurred to him in the course of his varied life.] DURING some part of my youth, my father resided at Mülheim in Germany, a pretty little town on the right bank of the Rhine, about three miles from Cologne, which is situated on the opposite side higher up, and where the river makes an elbow. In 1783, or 1784, (I do not recollect ex It may not be irrelevant to notice, that this great bridge is not composed of one solid sheet, but of large shoals of ice and hardened snow, which float down the stream, accumulate, and are heaped up upon each other until the passage is stopped by its own pressure. People are so accustomed to this, that no sooner does any part stand still, than they begin to traverse the bridge of ice, and set to work upon it, well knowing that nothing can prevent its consolidation for a time at least, or should it break loose again, sufficient warning is given by the cracking of the ice, which produces a report like the discharge of cannon. The ice there may be from ten to twenty-five feet thick, but this, from the mode of its formation, must, of course, be very irregular. When, for the first time I saw, many years afterwards, the large field of lava which you are obliged to cross with much difficulty on the top of Mount Etna, before you come to the last steep ascent leading to the principal crater, the similarity of appear ance between this and the vast fields of ice on the Rhine struck me very forcibly, with this difference, that the one is black, and the other white, and beautifully glittering when the sun shines. I have since seen the same comparison made by another writer, but do not recollect where. But to return. When the ice comes thus to a flood, the river, of course, still flows underneath. Now it happened, in the year I am writing of, that a sudden thaw came on in Switzerland, where the Rhine takes its rise, by which means immense floods of water came down, caused by the melting of the snow in the mountains, which alone would have done great damage; but, in addition to this, the frost continued on the lower parts of the river, and the crust of ice having continually gained strength and solidity during six weeks, it neither gave way, nor was there room for this immense volume of water to pass underneath. The consequence was, that, a little above Cologne, where the Rhine makes an elbow, a new arm of the river, composed equally of ice and water, broke out, and took its direction towards our unfortunate town. We had hardly any warning. The alarm was given in the night; and, before noon the next day, almost all the mischief was done, with such impetuosity did this terrible flood come down. It would be difficult to describe the general terror which seized all the inhabitants. In a few hours, the water increased from twenty to thirty feet. House after house was swept away. People leapt from the first and second story windows (and this in the night) upon the moving ice, in hopes of saving their lives by being floated to dry land, or by scrambling, under imminent danger, from one shoal of ice to another, until they reached a place of safety. There was no other way of escaping; for, while families were endeavouring hastily (but in vain) to save at least part of their most precious valuables, the house was surrounded, and soon after disappeared. The use of boats was quite out of the question. In this manner 170 and odd houses were swept away, large brick and stone buildings, among which was that of my father, and a large church which stood near it. The steeple of this church was the means of saving the lives of a number of people, who had climbed to the top of it; not that its own strength could have withstood the furious clement, which nothing can resist, but providentially it happened so, that large masses of ice surrounded it in such a manner that the ice itself became its support, though it was afterwards obliged to be taken down, as it threatened to fall in from the injury it had received. Some of those, who, in despair, attempted to make their escape from it perished, while others fortunately succeeded, but the greatest number (60 or 70) who awaited their fate equally in despair, were saved two days afterwards, though nearly famished, among whom were two of my father's servants. The whole number of lives lost was comparatively small, I think it was not 80, but upwards of 70. When morning came the scene was truly awful and appalling. Nothing was to be seen but fields and moun tains of ice, where the day before houses and gardens had stood. We still saw the devastation going on. Wherever a stream of water and ice came against a building, there was a great crush, and it disappeared in an instant like a card-house. Nothing but the dust was seen rising from the spot. We saw a hen-house floating down on the ice entire, with the poultry in it, and a dog on the ice. Our terrors were not over, the greatest trial was yet to come. The town was now completely encompassed with moving ice and water, which continued to rise. The whole population was collected nearly on one spot in the higher part of the town, as it were on an island. The only thing that could save us was the breaking up of the main ice, but the crust which covered the main stream was still unmoved. It was calculated that if this state of things continued for one hour longer, we must inevitably all be swallowed up. Judge then what our situation must have been. There we stood all like one family looking on the desolating scene, and awaiting our fate in silent terror or resignation, without the possibility of any help except from above. No! not quite silent, for there was perhaps not a lip that did not offer up a fervent prayer to the Almighty, and in mercy he did hear them! Loud reports were soon heard like the discharge of cannon, (a sure sign to us,) which were followed by shouts of joy in all our misery. So true is it, that we are never so wretched but we may be more so! The great crust was now lifted up, and the water had vent. In a short time it fell, and this part of the danger ceased; but still our miseries were not yet over, for now we were threatened with another calamity-famine. The greatest part of the provisions was swept away; cattle, sheep, pigs, and all live stock, had perished. For the three succeeding weeks no conveyance could approach us, and only such people as ventured (and that, in the first instance, at the risk of their lives) to scramble over the ice on foot, who could, of course, not carry much. Public magazines were established, where all the provisions that remained, and the little which could be so brought to us, were thrown together into one general stock, and delivered out in daily rations, to rich and poor, in equal proportions, according to the numbers in a family. I well remember mounting guard at one of these magazines, being then a stout boy of 13 or 14, which was merely done for the sake of regularity, for little tumult was to be apprehended under such circumstances. Clothes were also wanting, particularly for the poorer sort of people, which were also received by little and little, in the same manner. At first it was curious to see half the people dressed in other men's clothes. The neighbouring countries behaved with the greatest humanity towards the poor sufferers, as soon as any tolerable communication could be opened. I might relate many individual interesting circumstances, but will not lengthen this letter too much. All this happened in February, I think, and lumps of ice were still found ly ing about in June. There was another church, in a higher part of the town, which had been much exposed, but not carried away. Some weeks after the great flood, a lump of ice was still found lying in the pulpit, (supported by other masses from below,) of such a size, that by no mode of human contrivance it appeared possible to have brought it in through any of the doors or windows. I have only related to you the misfortunes of one small town, but it is well known how much devastation was committed in that calamitous year along the whole banks of the Rhine, and yet such is the attachment of men to their native soil, that, soon after this event, people began to rebuild houses on the same spots where they had before been washed away. It is true, the gap which this new branch of the river had made was dammed up as soon as the great waters had subsided; but what security was there against another such scene from some different quarter? This observation, however, is very general. The inhabitants of Mount Etna and Vesuvius begin to rebuild houses, after an eruption, on the fresh lava, before it is even cold. LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. Wrought Iron Bridges.-Among our notices in a late Number, we quoted the particulars of a memorial presented to the French Institute, by M. Payett, architect, upon Wrought or Malleable Iron Bridges, which has attracted some notice; and we are happy to find that this country has taken the lead, in the construction of Wrought Iron Bridges, as, in one form or other, they have been executed several years since upon the rivers Tweed and Gala. Though these are only foot bridges, consisting of slender wires, and also of rods or bars of iron, some of which are upwards of 120 feet in the span, yet we understand that, three years since, Mr Stevenson, engincer, exeouted a model for a bridge of bar or Malleable Iron of 100 feet span for a piece of water at the seat of Airthrey Castle, and that the same engineer has also presented a plan to the Road Trustees, for a bridge of Malleable Iron, to cross the River Almond, for the improvement of the great north road between the city of Edinburgh and Queensferry. Every one knows that chain bridges have long existed both in China and America; they have also been projected for various parts of this kingdom, and two of them are now executing, one from a design of Mr Telford, engineer, which is to be 560 fect between the points of suspension, across the Straits of Menai, an arm of the sea between Caernarvonshire and the Island of Anglesea; the other, somewhat less in extent, is now executing on the River Tweed, a few miles above Berwick, by Captain Brown of the Royal Navy. We understand farther regarding chain bridges, that Mr Stevenson has made a design, which greatly simplifies the attachment of the chains to the abutments, and possesses several other advantages, of which an account is to be given in the "Edinburgh Philosphical Journal," to be published in the month of July next. form of the Princess. The arrangement of this part of the groupe admits of a most interesting display of her likeness and form, whilst it is strongly contrasted by the part beneath where the mortal remains are lain on a bier surrounded by some figures quite enveloped in solemn drapery, expressive of the deep lamentation of people from every quarter of the globe. Whilst blind mortals are seen weeping over the earthly remains, celestial beings accompany the pure spirit, which for corruptible has put on incorrup tion, and for mortal has put on immortali ty. The whole will shortly be ready for public inspection, and an engraving will be published of it, by Mr M. Wyatt. Bank Notes.-The Final Report of the Commissioners appointed for inquiring into the Mode of Preventing the Forgery of Bank Notes, "recommended for adoption by the Bank the plan brought forward by Messrs Applegathi and Cowper, which was originally submitted to the Directors a short time only before the appointment of this commission, and received immediate encouragement from them; and upon which some improvements have since been made. The directors have readily compli ed with this recommendation, and the necessary machines are in a state of great forwardness. Duplex Typograph.. -An ingenious mechanical invention has lately been complet ed, which opens a new and inexhaustible source of information to those who are afflicted by the privation of sight. It is called a Duplex Typograph, and enables the blind to receive and communicate ideas by means of letters, upon a principle adapted to the sense of feeling. Thus then has science discovered a new road to minds, from which she has hitherto been almost excluded. The apparatus is compact and portable, and the system so simple and intelligible, that it may be acquired by the blind in a very short space of time, and its application is instantly comprehended by others. The inventor is Mr J. Purkis, brother of a well known musical character, who, by the aid of a skilful oculist, obtained the blessings of sight, at the age of 3984 thirty, after having been blind from the 1873 time of his birth. On the same subject it 4102 is just to add, that Dr Edmund Fry has 1495 5698 printed a sheet, on which the letters are raised on the paper, and capable of being felt and read by the fingers' ends. English Universities. It appears by a Summary of the Members of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, in their Calendars for 1819 and 1820, that the following is the number : 1819. Oxford. 1820. Members of Convocation 1874 on the Books of Convocation on the Books 1819. Cambridge. Members of the Senate on the Boards of the Senate 1558 on the Boards 3953 1820. Cenotaph. The Cenotaph to the late Princess Charlotte is finished, with the exception of the figure of the infant, which is to be borne in the arms of one of the Angels which accompany the spiritual VOL. VI. Hydrogen Gas.-Mr Cooper has ascertained, that if hydrogen gas be breathed for a few moments, it has the curious effect of changing the voice. The effect is observed, on the person speaking immediate. 3M |