not with

and imaged without that mathematical train- of M. Michel Chasles, antiquaries and ing and knowledge which Sir William Ham-scholars, whose dealings are ilton lacked and disparaged. That incapac- demonstrative but with contingent and probity for affairs, and that ignorance of men, able matter, have usually been as easy which Sir William Hamilton attributed to dupes as any other class of men. The mathematicians, belong to them rather as oscillations of literary and historic criticism students and abstract thinkers than as are a patent exhibition of the two opposite students of a particular subject dealing with extravagances of credulity and incredulity abstractions of a special order. He has which Sir William Hamilton held to be the failed to prove, what in the nature of things special vice of mathematical training. The scarcely admits of rigid proof, and therefore poems of Rowley, the tragedy of Vortigern, should not have been asserted, that they the works of Ossian, the island of Formosa, are at once the most unreasonably sceptical the upas-tree of Java, and the drinking-horn and the most childishly credulous of men. of Hardicanute, are a few of many instances There have been non-mathematical system- which prevent the helmet of Mambrino and builders as extravagant as M. Comte, upon the stone discovered by Mr. Pickwick, on whose mathematics, by the way, though he which Bill Stumps had traced his mark, from was stronger in that than in any special being set down as extravagant caricatures. science, Arago threw contempt. In spite

dome on that evening, "If the King survives a danger which threatens him at present, he will live these thirty years.' The duke entreated the King to grant this physician an audience, and repeated what the old gentleman had been saying. His Majesty, with unusual asperity and hastiness, replied, "He is an old fool for telling you such things, and you are a young one if you believe him." The duke's rejoinder given was respectful and sensible: "Sire, one may not believe such things, but one may fear them." Bayle, however, has endeavoured to shake the credit of this whole story. The same day, as the King and Queen were walking through an apartment of the palace, the King stopped to speak with somebody present. The Queen stopping at the same time, he said to her as by a spirit of involuntary prophesy, “Go on, go on, Madame the Regent." A few nights before the catastrophe the Queen dreamed that all the jewels in her crown were changed into pearls and that she was told pearls were significative of tears.

NOTES ON REMARKABLE OMENS. - All omens are not indiscriminately worthy of observation, but they are at the same time not to be systematically despised. They should neither shake our fortitude nor diminish our confidence in a great ruling power. Small incidents have sometimes preluded great events; nor is there any direct superstition in noticing these apparent forerunners, though there may be much superstition in being too deeply moved by them. When William the Norman was landing on the Sussex coast his foot slipped, and he fell to the ground. One of his soldiers gave the incident a very courtly turn by crying out loudly, "Joy to you, sir! You have already taken possession of England!" A short time after, when the same prince was arming himself for the battle of Hastings, he perceived that in his hurry he had put on his coat of mail the lower side uppermost; but instead of showing any symptoms of superstitious discouragement, he cheerfully said to his attendants, " By this I prognosticate that my dukedom is turned into a kingdom." A Another night she started and cried most singular chain of circumstances preceded out in her sleep, and waked the King, who, askthe assassination of that excellent monarch Hen- ing her what was the matter, she answered, "I ry IV. of France. In the morning of the day on have had a frightful dream; but I know that which he was murdered by Ravaillac, Friday, dreams are mere illusions."' "I was always of May 14, 1520, he was excessively pensive. In the same opinion," said Henry; "however, tell the hope of composing his spirits, he threw him- me what your dream was.' "I dreamed," self on his bed, but was unable to rest. Thrice continued she, "that you were stabbed with a he rose, and thrice he fell on his knees in prayer. knife under the short ribs." "Thank God," Soon after, repairing to the presence-chamber, added the King, "it was but a dream." On his attendants endeavoured to divert the melan- the morning of the fatal day his Majesty was, as choly which preyed so deeply on his mind. Be- we have before observed, unusually low. More ing naturally amiable and cheerful, he tried to than once he said to those about him, "Somefall in with the well-meant pleasantry of his no- thing or other hangs very heavy on my heart." bles, and attempted to smile, but concluded thus: Before he entered his carriage he took leave of "We have laughed enough for Friday; there the Queen no fewer than three times, and had will be weeping on Sunday." His Queen, not passed through many streets ere Ravaillac Marguerite de Medicis, had been crowned but gave him that fatal thrust which deprived the day before. La Brosse, a physician, is by France of one of the most generous and humane some reported to have said to the Duke de Ven-sovereigns she ever had. Dub. Univ. Mag.

Compare these figures with the following ing steamers, against 135,259 tons belongtable of foreign stocks:

English
Freuch
Other flags

82 per cent.

16

2 66

shipping employed in 1858 in the direct | busy buying up the bonds of the railway trade between England and France was and they are hurrying an Act through the English, and 28 per cent. French, 3 per corrupt local Legislature entitling the bondcent. being under foreign flags, the propor- holders on foreclosure to become owners of tions in 1867 were:the property. And as they have still control of the line it will not be difficult for them to furnish occasions for foreclosure. How such tactics are to be resisted with the Legislature and judges which New York State possesses, it is impossible to see. The worst of the matter is, that by this new device the ring obtains a new legal cover, against which an appeal to the Supreine Court would hardly avail. So long as there were judgments of the New York Courts to be reversed, there was some hope; but the Supreme Court will be slow to nullify the Act of a State Legislature clearly within

The Board of trade has thus made out its point as to the preponderance of British shipping. The transformation cannot have taken place without causes which are well worth inquiring into. Shipping at any rate is not one of the trades in which there is any suspicion that we have not been holding our own against the foreigner.

THE LAST DEVICE OF THE ERIE RING. -the bounds of its authority. If the Supreme The statement that the Erie ring have resorted to a new device for robbing the shareholders of their property will cause no surprise. It was evident, when the shareholders here formed a committee for their protection, that there would be no limit to the chicanery and fraud that would be practised against them; and we have always entertained serious doubts as to the ultimate success of the shareholders. It would appear that they can have little chance against the new scheme. The ring it seems have been

Court finds that it can give justice, it will only be under some general and far-fetched power of the Constitution. By pushing matters to extremity, however, the shareholders may force the better class of Americans to act strenuously against an evil which impairs so seriously the foreign credit of every State and corporation in the Union. Nor will it be for the interest of the Supreme Government if its Court of Law deny justice to litigants whose rights are so clear and so conspicuous before the world.

THE FIRST TRAFFIC RETURNS OF THE SUEZ CANAL. The Suez Canal Company are to be commended, the Economist thinks, for their publication of the receipts from the undertaking. It is only common justice to all concerned that the progress made in the development of the enterprise should be regularly exhibited. Whatever expectations may be disappointed by the results realized, the attempt at concealment | would be the worst possible policy. We say this in spite of the apparent smallness of the return. Up to the 31st of January last, when the Canal had been open for traffic rather more than two months, the receipts had been 567,872f., or £22,714, which, at the outside, is at the rate of £136,284 per annum. Of course, such a rate of traffic would never do, and would hardly justify the opening of the Canal at all. Still, it is evident, that the first month or two, and even more, could be only tentative-that time would be required to make the utility of the Canal duly felt, and enable capitalists to provide ships for the new route; and the figures, therefore, are no test of what the traffic will be when a fair start has been made. We cannot see that that traffic, for a long time to come, will be so large as shareholders and the public were led to ex

pect; but we should regret if the present figure were not rapidly improved, and at least as much received as will pay working expenses.

COURT PLAISTER. It is so easy says the Scientific Review to make this article, and so difficult to purchase it genuine, that the process should be known in every household. Soak bruised isinglass in a little warm water for twenty-four hours; then evaporate nearly all the water by gentle heat, dissolve the residue in a little proof spirits of wine, and strain the whole through a piece of open linen. The strained mass should be a stiff jelly when cool. Now, extend a piece of silk on a wooden frame, and fix it tight with tacks or packthread. Melt the jelly, and apply it to the silk thinly and evenly with a badger hair brush. A second coating must be applied when the first has dried. When both are dry, cover the whole surface with two or three coatings of balsam of Peru, applied in the same way. Plaister thus made is very pliable, and never breaks.

From The Pall Mall Gazette.
AMERICAN ANNEXATION.

their energy. The precedent - if only the Dominicans are aware of its nature-is still less of an encouragement to the inhabitants to come and be civilized.

Ir seems highly probable that before long we shall have to congratulate the United States on the acquisition of a new territory. On the whole, we can only look on in We may safely wish them joy of their bar- wonder, and endeavour to give the authorigain. If they suppose that they will really ties of the United States credit for some add to their reputation and importance by more intelligible policy than is apparent on appropriating an insignificant island (for its the surface. The apparent absurdity of the area is not above one-third of this notori- scheme is in one sense the most significant ously insignificant country) and 150,000 thing about it. It looks as if the American semi-barbarous negroes, we can have no people were once more beginning to feel jealousy on the subject. The antecedents the passion for annexation stirring within of the country do not appear to be very them. For some years past they have had Promising. Its history, so far as it has a matters of a very difficult kind to settle; inis chiefly a record of confused stead of annexing they have been strugsquabbling with its Haytian neighbours. It gling to keep their territory together, and is probable that very few even of those they have incurred so huge a debt in the omniscient beings, the competitors for Civil process as would seem calculated to steady Service appointments, could give a distinct them for some time to come. But it seems answer to the questions - What was the that, as soon as they have time to look battle of Carreras? Between whom was it round and begin to feel the burden a little fought? Who were the conquerors, and lighter upon their shoulders, they immediwhat effect did the victory produce upon ately have a return of the old appetite. the constitution of the Dominican Republic? Hitherto it has been satisfied with rather We must decline to give any distinct answer insignificant morsels. They have bought a ourselves. There is supposed, as we learn, vast region of ice and rock somewhere near to be a President, with a Senate and a the North Pole; and now they seem to be House of Representatives, and a Supreme making overtures to a disorderly gang of Court; but the succession to offices seems negroes in the West Indies. Perhaps as to be generally decided by the population their strength returns their appetites will rising en masse, slaying the existing holders, grow keener still. They will begin to feel and distributing the proceeds among them-a hankering after that ideal empire of Yanselves. The religion is said to be the Ro-kee imaginations, bounded on the north by man Catholic, with a judicious infusion of the Aurora Borealis, and on the south by negro superstitions. There is not any par- the Day of Judgment. They feel the anticular trade or commerce, except that Mr. cient impulse to widen their borders, though Carlyles's friend Quashee is presumed to it is satisfied at present by such trifling raise an occasional pumpkin for his own morsels. The fathers of the Republic consumption. The manners and customs doubted whether Louisiana could be acwe may suppose to be in the condition de- quired without a breach of the Constitution. scribed by the proverbial naval officer. Now, it is hard to set any bounds to AmeriThe state of the island seems to be one can aspirations. St. Domingo and Alaska, of permanent anarchy tempered by occa- considered as outlying farms, would be usesional insurrection. It is hardly to be sup-less and unprofitable pieces of property; posed that the admission of this very simple-minded population will do much to improve the general tone of public opinion in America. The new territory will be scarcely calculated to take a place side by side with Massachusetts or New York; and, considered as a practical illustration of the advantage of negro suffrage, it seems scarcely judicious in the ruling party to drag it from its natural obscurity. Neither can we suppose that the annexation is proposed from a benevolent desire of civilizing the inhabitants. The United States have quite enough on hand in that department, and the successes hitherto obtained in the civilization of the Red Indian are not so marked as to encourage an extension of

but, perhaps, they are regarded with a prophetic eye which sees the gaps now intervening filled up, and endows them, though valueless in themselves, with a certain aesthetic propriety as rounding off and completing the national estate. When an aspiring landowner buys a distant bit of inferior property, we may guess that he is looking forward to the day when he will deal for the intervening region, and bring the whole estate within an unbroken ring fence. And so, perhaps, General Grant or Mr. Fish sees in vision the day when British Columbia will fall in on one side and Cuba on the other, and the now isolated regions be connected more directly with the main body of the national possessions. We, of course, have

nothing to do but to look on as spectators. Whether the talked-of annexation of St. Domingo indicates such aspirations, or is merely due to some of the intricate mancuvres of Washington politicians, is a matter on which we can have no definite opinion. Such things are too deep for the penetration of the outside world. But it is worth while to watch the indications of a newly-roused passion for increase of territory. Such a disposition, especially while there are outstanding difficulties between ourselves and our cousins, might any day produce very awkward complications. The proposal to settle the Alabama grievance by a cession of British territory was absurd enough in itself, but may indicate to some extent the current of the national aspirations. The American people, we might have thought, would show their common sense by waiting quietly rather than attempting to force the market. They have already enormous tracts of waste territory which it will take generations rather than years to cover even with a thin population. They have the task of consolidating a huge and straggling empire, separated by wildernesses and mountain chains; they have the still more difficult task of eradicating the bitter antipathies left by the great civil war. In short, they have work enough on hand to occupy their whole energy and statesmanship for years to come. It seems to be a superfluous proceeding to plunge out of pure gaiety of heart into new acquisitions, and especially into acquisitions of so worthless a character. We generally attribute to them the power of taking a cool commercial view of transactions, and a disposition to test the value of a thing by the number of dollars it will fetch. But Americans have a romance of their own; every man of them seems to be more or less intoxicated when he thinks of the future of his country, and sees in imagination its frontier slowly moving onwards till it includes the whole of the New World within its limits.

--

nection with us, we could, of course, do nothing but acquiesce with the best grace in our power. Meanwhile, this policy of gathering up scraps here and there- of gathering barbarous negroes or simple wastes of territory into the fold is not calculated to raise our opinion of the policy involved. An attempt to attract Canada might at least imply a recognition of the advantages of recognizing ties of blood and similarity of character as a basis of union. But when we see a nation running about to pick up any stray fragments of land that happen to be in the market, without regard to the character of their inhabitants, if there are inhabitants, we cannot feel much admiration for the peculiar tendencies of its ambition.

From The Pall Mall Gazette.

THE CREDIT OF THE UNITED STATES. THERE is no subject upon which the many Americans who are at once shrewd and honourable men of business express themselves with so much bitterness as the state of the credit of the United States in the European money markets. The United States ought, they say, if financial facts and past financial action are to be the tests of solvency, to rank among the most solvent bodies politic in the world. The Federation, they urge, has never repudiated, and has never given the faintest sign of an intention to do so. The ignorant persons who suppose that it has done so probably confound the temporary but real inability to pay of Pennsylvania, and the temporary but deliberate dishonesty of Mississippi (then a raw and wild western slave State), with repudiation on the part of a Government which has no more connection with either of them than has the British Chancellor of the Exchequer with the directors of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway. The United States further have never had a When that passion brings their interests, deficit once in all their history; their presreal or imaginary, into conflict with our ent surplus is enormous and recurrent ; their own, it will be time enough to discuss the accounts are clear, well tested, and reguproper policy to pursue. The time may, larly rendered. Yet, if the price of their of course, come when the United States will stocks in the European price-lists is the cover America as the waters cover the criterion of credit, how does American credit Canada may fall within the sphere of stand? It is better than that of those Eastthe gravitation which has already attracted ern European Governments which borrow these outlying dependencies. There are and spend with equal recklessness. It is some deeply-seated tendencies against which better than that of Spain and Greece, which it is in vain to fight by any ingenious do not make a pretence of paying their political devices; and if it should ever ap- debts. It is rather better than that of Italy pear that our colonists were deliberately and Austria, which, besides having chronic inclined to be absorbed in their gigantic deficits, have lately taken to confiscating neighbour rather than to continue their con- part of their creditors' interests under the

sea.