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. 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 source of danger, but a shield of protection and a sword of strength. Whatever may have been the feelings of the English people or the language of the English press, the conduct of the English Government towards Austria throughout the last difficult years has been faithful and enduring in the extreme. They have borne much and forborne long. Far from seeking cause of quarrel, they have avoided such with a long-suffering care which has cost them much popularity. Not only have they religiously abstained from using the advantage which encouragement to the discontented nations under Austrian sway might have yielded them, but they have discouraged any popular movement in those countries with perhaps un - 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; but of this much we are certain that the English Government will meet with the ut most determination any attempt of Austria to wreak her spite upon Sardinia, and that if it were possible the Government should be slack in doing so, the people would speak their sentiments in a mode which would leave Ministers no option in the matter; and moreover, that if the war of freedom and nationality against despotism and oppression should be forced upon us, the British nation will rush into it with a zeal, an enthusiasm, and an unanimous resolve which will amaze both their rulers and their foes, and which all the probable prudence and the possible lukewarmness of the governing classes will be utterly powerless to restrain. 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. Aluminium is more fusible than silver, and almost as white. It is unaffected by the air at whatever temperature; and unattackable by all acids, except the chlorhydric. When melted and increased in density by hammering or passing it under the roller, it acquires a bluish tint like that of platinum. Ductile and malleable as silver, it is capable, like that of metal, of being drawn out into wire, or beaten into leaves of extreme 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 as 1, being 7.21; while that of aluminium, compared in the same manner, is only 2.56. Thus aluminium, whose extreme lightness, judging 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 unaffected by water or acids, with the oxception 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 well as by reason of its durability it will become as a conductor of electricity, and on this account 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 mak ing 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 en titles 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 more importance than the material used. We instance, for example, delicate balances for minute weights, watch movements, and surveying and astronomical instruments. Being unoxydable, and therefore incapable of affecting injuriously the animal economy, it will undoubtedly be used extensively in the manufacture of surgical instruments. Although it may not equal silver in brilliancy, it possesses the advantage 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. But the above are by no means the only uses to which aluminium can be applied. As soon as the improved processes of its manufacture, by increasing its production, proportionately lower 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, because a pound of aluminium will be thrice the | en, under the superintendence of Messrs. Tissier, bulk of the same weight of copper, and three times the number of culinary utensils can be made from it. We are gratified to learn that numerous experiments, having for their object the abridging and improving the processes in use for the extraction of aluminium, are now being pursued in various parts of France, and especially at Rou THE HIDDEN PATH. By Marion Harland. (Low & Co.) THIS is an improvement upon the author's last story of" Alone," reviewed by us on its appearance. There is more pith and consistency in the plot, and very much less fine writing-fewer provincialisms, both of thought and expression. 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." The story, however, is not devoid of interest, and it is, we repeat, a great improvement upon the last. Athenæum. "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. On the 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. The first impression it made was, not only that it went far towards showing, by proof almost direct, that Sir Philip with the co-operation of Messrs. Malétra, Christofle, Chanu, Davy, &c. Let us all pray that their labors may be crowned with success; and that science will justify the confidence which industry has reposed in her, that the new metal will be furnished in sufficient abundance to supply the demands and necessities of common life. ces." 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? Emergent Venus from the Sea? "T is she! 'tis she! or else some more divine Enlighten'd substance. Mark how from the shrine Of holy saints she paces on, The chafed air with fumes of paradise?' but must feel that Milton's soul was deep-dyed 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? Female of sex it seems, That so bedeck'd, ornate, and gay, Of Tarsus, bound for the isles With all her bravery on, and tackle trim, Both passages are redolent of the same voluptuous beauty, and seem to issue from one and the same gorgeous imagination. A DESULTORY READER. |
