pressed, their property had no longer any necessary and damaging ostentation. But owner, and therefore reverted to the State in her behavior to us has not the less cooled whose territories it was situated"! This is and alienated our friendly feelings, while her aggression the first. Again, Austria has in- conduct and that of her satraps to their own stigated the Grand Duke of Tuscany to de- subjects has disgusted the nation to a degree mand the recall of an attaché to the Sardinian to which it is not easy to give adequate embassy at Florence-which attaché had expression. She may rest assured that if been previously accepted and received; and she forces a quarrel on our gallant ally we this not as a courteous request, but in a shall stand by him with unhesitating resolurude and insulting manner. Diplomatic in- tion; and though we seek no fresh work, tercourse, therefore, naturally and necessa-yet if she forces a quarrel on us, we shall be rily ceased between the two Courts; and the slower to lay it down than to take it up. matter might have rested there and no great Our tendencies and wishes are pacific; our mischief or disturbance have ensued. But policy is that of non-interference: our dethere is more behind. Not content with testation of oppression and cruelty does not having caused a quarrel between two friendly go the length of volunteering a crusade States, the Austrian Government proceeds to against it; but if she deludes herself for one thrust itself into the dispute as a principal; instant with the hope that we shall permit her and Count Buol, it is said, has intimated to to bully or assail Piedmont any more than we the Sardinian Minister at Vienna, that as permitted Russia to bully and assail the SulTuscany has acted by Imperial direction, his tan, most certainly she never hugged a morè Imperial Majesty regards the matter as one groundless or fatal fancy. If she is bent personal to himself, and if the dispute be upon hastening that war of principles and not adjusted within a specified time, "will nationalities which it has been our most sedtake measures accordingly." If this com- ulous effort to avoid and to postpone, she munication really took place, we can only may do so to-morrow, -a few more instansay that anything so unwarrantable in sub-ces of interference and arrogance will comstance and so insolent in form has rarely disgraced the diplomatic intercourse of civilized States. The language of Prince Menzichoff at Constantinople, so sternly avenged, offers the nearest parallel in recent times. plete the work; — but with her will rest all the responsibility, as on her will fall all the ruin and nearly all the loss. We warn her to pause and draw back while it is yet possible to do so. A few months more, and Russia may probably be at the mercy of the Allies, and what will Austria, isolated, bankrupt, and abhorred, do then? We deprecate with all earnestness the extension of the war at the moment when a satisfactory peace seems neither improbable nor distant; We cannot for a moment doubt that the French and British Governments will act with becoming promptitude and vigor in this affair, and will intimate to the Court of Vienna without loss of time that the King of Sardinia is our close, loyal, and cordial ally, and that the alliance shall not be for him a - but of this much we are certain that the source of danger, but a shield of protection English Government will meet with the utand a sword of strength. Whatever may most determination any attempt of Austria have been the feelings of the English people to wreak her spite upon Sardinia, and that or the language of the English press, the if it were possible the Government should be conduct of the English Government towards slack in doing so, the people would speak Austria throughout the last difficult years their sentiments in a mode which would has been faithful and enduring in the ex- leave Ministers no option in the matter; treme. They have borne much and forborne and moreover, that if the war of freedom and long. Far from seeking cause of quarrel, nationality against despotism and oppression they have avoided such with a long-suffering should be forced upon us, the British nation care which has cost them much popularity. will rush into it with a zeal, an enthusiasm, Not only have they religiously abstained and an unanimous resolve which will amaze from using the advantage which encour- both their rulers and their foes, and which agement to the discontented nations under all the probable prudence and the possible Austrian sway might have yielded them, but lukewarmness of the governing classes will they have discouraged any popular move- be utterly powerless to restrain. ment in those countries with perhaps un ་ Scientific men, and all who are occupied in the practical development of the useful arts, are at this moment deeply interested in the discovery of the new metal, extracted from clay and termed aluminium. This metal was known as far back as 1827; though most of the attempts to produce it date from 1845; but the process of extraction was so imperfectly known, that the few specimens in the laboratories were regarded simply as curiosities, of no practical value. At length the problem has been solved by M. Henri Sainte Claire Deville, a young French chemist, assisted by two young chemists, Messrs. Tissier. The process of extraction has been perfected by him to such a degree that the new metal has already passed from the domain of Science to that of Industry. We need only visit the galleries of the " Exposition Universalle" to see a beautiful chronometer and various other articles of aluminium manufactured in the establishment of M. Christofle. The metal of which they are composed was produced by the Messrs. Tissier. unaffected by water or acids, with the exception of the chlorhydric. Its solvents, the last-named of soda and potash, which decompose it by setacids excepted, are the concentrated solutions ting free the hydrogen. It surpasses all metals as a conductor of electricity, and on this account as well as by reason of its durability it will become invaluable for telegraphic purposes. It melts at a heat between that required to fuse zinc and copper, and is easily cast and run in moulds. a At first it was supposed that it would be impossible to alloy aluminium with any other metal; but the recent experiments of Messrs. Tissier prove that it forms alloys with silver, zinc, and tin. These alloys are fusible in greater or less degree; but all melt at a lower temperature than the aluminium. The alloy with copper, which M. Deville succeeded in making while engaged in some experiments immediately after his first discovery, is extremely hard and brittle; it scratches glass, and can be fractured by a blow of a hammer, like steel. The high price of aluminium at present entitles it to be ranked among the precious metals. Nevertheless, it has been employed in the useful arts for many purposes of a highly interesting character. Its unalterableness, its tenacity, and its lightness have made it indispensable in the manufacture of instruments of precision and exactness, in which the skill of the artisan and the value of the time and labor employed are of Aluminium is more fusible than silver, and more importance than the material used. We almost as white. It is unaffected by the air at instance, for example, delicate balances for miwhatever temperature; and unattackable by all nute weights, watch movements, and surveying acids, except the chlorhydric. When melted and astronomical instruments. Being unoxydaand increased in density by hammering or pass- ble, and therefore incapable of affecting injuriing it under the roller, it acquires a bluish tint ously the animal economy, it will undoubtedly like that of platinum. Ductile and malleable as be used extensively in the manufacture of sursilver, it is capable, like that of metal, of being gical instruments. Although it may not equal drawn out into wire, or beaten into leaves of ex-silver in brilliancy, it possesses the advantage treme tenuity. Its surprising lightness, however, is the property which constitutes its great value in the useful arts. Zinc, until now, has been the lightest of the metals in ordinary use; its specific gravity, taking water as a standard But the above are by no means the only uses as 1, being 7.21; while that of aluminium, to which aluminium can be applied. As soon as compared, in the same manner, is only 2.56. the improved processes of its manufacture, by Thus aluminium, whose extreme lightness, judg-increasing its production, proportionately lower ing from all previous analogies, would seem to indicate it as highly oxydable, ranks, on the other hand, in this respect, with silver and platinum; for, in common with these metals, it loses nothing of its substance when exposed to the most intense heat, and surpasses, moreover, silver in respect to its property of not being blackened or tarnished by the fumes of sulphur. It differs from copper and tin in being tasteless and inodorous; and all its alloys are perfectly innocuous. As if in contradiction of all previous experience, aluminium, in spite of its extreme lightness, has been found to be highly sonorous. Its tone is pure, and its vibrations are of extraordinary duration. It is as hard and tenacious as iron-especially after undergoing the process of hammering. As we have already remarked, aluminium is over silver of never tarnishing by exposure to the atmosphere; and this property alone will make it a formidable rival in the various departments of watch-making and jewelry. its cost, it will enter into competition with copper, and be universally preferred to it. On the one hand, there will be a metal, oxydable, nau seous to the taste and smell, all whose compounds are deleterious and poisonous; on the other hand, a metal, unchangeable, three times as light, tasteless, inodorous, and utterly harmless to the animal economy. The advantages of the new metal are positive and incontestible. Even at present, supposing that aluminium costs four times as much as silver, it is not in fact dearer; for a pound of aluminium contains four times the bulk of a pound of silver, and four times as many articles can be made out of it. If the anticipated facilities of production be realized, sooner or later, even no farther than to bring down the cost of aluminium to three times that of copper, pound for pound, it would really be no dearer than copper, ALUMINIUM. because a pound of aluminium will be thrice the | en, under the superintendence of Messrs. Tissier, THE HIDDEN PATH. By Marion Harland. (Low | Francis was the author, but that Garrick must THIS is an improvement upon the author's last story of" Alone," reviewed by us on its appear-Notes and Queries. ance. There is more pith and consistency in the WILLIAM BATES, Birmingham. plot, and very much less fine writing. provincialisms, both of thought and expression. - fewer The incidents of ordinary life are still treated too grandly. A lady never bursts into tears without its being announced as the "overflowing of the sympathetic fount." devoid of interest, and it is, we repeat, a great The story, however, is not improvement upon the last. Athenæum. - JUNIUS.-In Rush's Residence at the Court of London, Vol. I. p. 310, is preserved an anecdote relating to the authorship of Junius, which may be appropriately recorded in "N. & Q.," not only from its apparent importance, but as more likely in such an index rerum to meet the eye of any future investigator of this vexed question, than in the work from which I trans fer it. It is as follows: On the "Mr. Canning related an anecdote pertinent to the topic,, derived from the present king, when Prince of Wales. It was to the following effect: The late king was in the habit of going to the theatre once a week at the time Junius' Letters were appearing, and had a page in his service of the name of Ramus. This page always brought the play-bill in to the king at teatime, on the evenings when he went. evening before Sir Philip Francis sailed for India, Ramus handed to the king, at the same time when delivering the play-bill, a note from Garrick to Ramus, in which the former stated that there would be no more letters from Junius. This was found to be the very night on which Junius addressed his laconic note to Garrick, threatening him with vengeance. Sir Philip did embark for India next morning, and in point of fact the letters ceased to appear from that very day. The anecdote added that there lived with Sir Philip at the time a relation of Ramus, who sailed in the morning with him. The whole narrative excited much attention, and was new to most of the company. made was, not only that it went far towards The first impression it showing, by proof almost direct, that Sir Philip speak of plagiarism, but of "great resemblan- "What's that we see from far! the spring of day To add a nobler planet to the seven? T is she! 'tis she! or else some more divine shrine Of holy saints she paces on, Treading upon vermillion The chafed air with fumes of paradise? but must feel that Milton's soul was deep-dyed And amber, spicing with the beauty of Herrick's verse when he wrote descriptively, in the "Samson Agonistes,' of the approach of Dalila? "But who is this? what thing of sea or land? That so bedeck'd, ornate, and gay, Of Tarsus, bound for the isles With all her bravery on, and tackle trim, tuous beauty, and seem to issue from one and Notes and Queries. A DESULTORY READER. |