"About noon, Rob commanded the armed party to halt, and to lie couched in the heather where it was thickest.'Do you and your son,' he said to the oldest Lowlander, go boldly over the hill. You will see beneath you, in a glen on the other side, your master's cattle feeding, it may be, with others; gather your own together, taking care to disturb no one else, and drive them to this place. If any one speak to, or threaten you, tell them that I am here, at the head of twenty men.'-' But what if they abuse us, or kill us?' said the Lowland peasant, by no means delighted at finding the embassy imposed on him and his son. If they do you any wrong,' said Rob, I will never forgive them as long as I live.' The Lowlander was by no means content with this security, but did not think it safe to dispute Rob's injunctions.

"He and his son climbed the hill, therefore, found a deep valley, where there grazed, as Rob had predicted, a large herd of cattle. They cautiously selected those which their master had lost, and took measures to drive them over the hill. As soon as they began to remove them, they were surprised by hearing cries and screams; and looking around in fear and trembling, they saw a woman, seeming to have started out of the earth, who flyted at them, that is, scolded them, in Gaelic. When they contrived, however, in the best Gaelic they could muster, to deliver the message Rob Roy told them, she became silent, and disappeared without offering them any further annoyance. The chief heard their story on their return, and spoke with great complacency of the art which he possessed of putting such things to rights without any unpleasant bustle.".

The Note Book.

THE EXPANSION OF SOLIDS.

Dr. Arnott, in the part of his valuable work upon the Elements of Physics, just published, exemplifies by the following cases the expansive properties of solids. He says "A cannon-ball, when heated, cannot be made to enter an opening, through which when cold it passes readily.

"A glass stopper sticking fast in the neck of a bottle often may be released by surrounding the neck with a cloth taken out of warm water, or by immersing the bottle in the water up to the neck the binding ring is thus heated and expanded sooner than the stopper, and so becomes slack or loose upon it.

Pipes for conveying hot water, steam, hot air, &c., if of considerable length, must have joinings that allow a degree of shortening and lengthening, otherwise a change of temperature may destroy them. An incompetent person undertook to warm a large manufactory by steam from one boiler. He laid a rigid main pipe along a passage, and opened lateral branches through holes into the several apartments, but on his first admitting the steam, the expansion of the main pipe tore it away from all its branches.

"In an iron railing, a gate which during a cold day may be loose and easily shut or opened, in a warm day may stick, owing to there being greater expansion of it and of the neighbouring railing, than of the earth on which they are placed. Thus also the centre of the arch of an iron bridge is higher in warm than in cold weather; while, on the contrary, in a suspension or chain bridge, the centre is lowered.

"The iron pillars now so much used to support the front walls of houses of which the ground stories serve as shops with spacious windows, in warm weather really lift up the wall which rests upon them, and in cold weather allow it again to sink or subside-in a degree considerably greater than if the wall were brick from top to bottom.

"In some situations (as lately was seen in the beautiful steeple of Bow Church, in London), where the stones of a building are held together by clamps or bars of iron, with their ends bent into them, the expansion in summer of these clamps will force the stones apart sufficiently for dust or sandy particles to lodge between them: and then, on the return of winter, the stones not being at liberty to close as before, will cause the ends of the shortened clamps to be drawn out, and the effect increasing with each revolving year, the structure will at last be loosened and may fall."

THE DISCOVERY OF THE TELESCOPE..

This valuable optical instrument, says Dr. Arnott, "is said to have been accidentally discovered by the children of a Dutch spectacle-maker, while they were playing with their father's work; but it was turned to no use until Galileo, led by science, fell upon it again, and with the knowledge of its worth, obtained from it the most sublime results. If ever human heart throbbed with delight, it must have been when Galileo first directed his optic tube to the heavens, and through it contemplated so many glorious objects which no human eye before had seen!-asVenus,

our beautiful morning and evening star, appearing not a circle, but a crescent like our moon in her quarters-as the satellites of Jupiter-the rings of Saturn myriads of stars until then invisible to man; and in a word, when he beheld the undoubted proofs of the true system of the universe, as his genius had before conceived it, uniting the greatest simplicity with its unspeakable grandeur.

"The Galilean telescope was simply a large object-glass to collect much light, with a small concave eye-glass placed so as to intercept the converging rays before they reached their focus, and to change their convergency into the parallelism which the eye could command."

COBBETT'S ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN.

The following extracts from the seventh number of this amusing and instructive work, will, we are sure, be read with in

terest.

"I began my young marriage days in and near Philadelphia. At one of those times to which I have just alluded, in the middle of the burning hot month of July, I was greatly afraid of fatal consequences to my wife for want of sleep, she not having, after the great danger was over, had any sleep for more than 48 hours. All great cities, in hot countries, are, I believe, full of dogs; and they, in the very hot weather, keep up, during the night, a horrible barking and fighting and howling. Upon the particular occasion to which I am adverting, they made a noise so terrible and so unremitted, that it was next to impossible that even a person in full health and free from pain, should obtain a minute's sleep. I was, about nine in the evening, sitting by the bed: 'I do think,' said she, that I could go to sleep now, if it were not for the dogs.' Down stairs I went, and out I sallied, in my shirt and trowsers, and without shoes and stockings; and, going to a heap of stones lying beside the road, set to work upon the dogs, going backward and forward, and keeping them at 2 or 300 yards distance from the house. I walked thus the whole night, barefooted, lest the noise of my shoes might possibly reach her ears; and I remember that the bricks of the causeway were, even in the night, so hot as to be disagreeable to my feet. My exertions produced the desired effect: a sleep of several hours was the consequence; and, at eight o'clock in the morning, off went I to a day's business, which was to end at six in the evening.

"Women are all patriots of the soil; and when her neighbours used to ask my wife, whether all English husbands were like hers, she boldly answered in the

affirmative. I had business to occupy the whole of my time, Sundays and weekdays, except sleeping hours; but I used to inake time to assist her in the taking care of her baby, and in all sorts of things. Get up, light her fire, boil her tea-kettle, carry her up warm water in cold weather, take the child while she dressed herself and got the breakfast ready, then breakfast, get her in water and wood for the day, then dress myself neatly, and sally forth to my business. The moment that it was over I used to hasten back to her again; and I no more thought of spending a moment away from her, unless business compelled me, than I thought of quitting the country and going to sea. The thunder and lightning is tremendous in America, compared with what it is in England. My wife was, at one time, very much afraid of thunder and lightning; and as is the feeling of all such women, and, indeed, all men too, she wanted company, and particularly her husband, in those times of danger. I knew well, of course, that my presence would not diminish the danger; but, be I at what I might, if within reach of home, I used to quit my business and hasten to her, the moment I perceived a thunder storm approaching. Scores of miles have I, first and last, run on this errand, in the streets of Philadelphia ! The Frenchmen, who were my scholars, used to laugh at me exceedingly on this account; and sometimes, when I was making an appointment with them, they would say, with a smile and a bow, * Sauve la tonnere toujours, Monsieur Cobbett.'

"I never dangled about at the heels of my wife; seldom, very seldom, ever walked out, as it is called, with her; I never 'went a walking in the whole course of my life; never went to walk without having some.object in view other than the walk; and, as I never could walk at a slow pace, it would have been hard work for her to keep up with me; so that, in the nearly forty years of our married life, we have not walked out together, perhaps, twenty times. I hate a dangler, who is more like a footman than a husband.”

NEWSPAPERS.

From the Noctes of Blackwood. North.-Newspapers generally speaking are conducted with extraordinary talent. I'll be shot if Junius, were he alive now, would set the world on the rave, as he did some half century ago. Many of the London daily scribes write as well as ever he did, and some better; witness Dr. Gifford and Dr. Maginn, in that incom

parable paper the Standard or Laabrum; and hundreds, not greatly inferior to Junius, write in the same sort of cutting trenchant style of that celebrated assassin. Times, Chronicle, Globe, Examiner, Herald, Sun, Atlas, Spectator, one of the most able, honest, and independent of all the Weeklies, are frequently distinguished by most admirable writing; and the Morning Journal, though often rather lengthy, and sometimes unnecessarily warm, constantly exhibits specimens of most powerful composition. The Morning Post, too, instead of being what it once was, a mere record of fashionable movements, is a political paper now, full, for the most part of a truly British spirit, expressed with truly British talent. If Zeta be really hanged, the editor of the Morning Journal should let him alone; if he be really unhanged, he ought to give the able editor of the Morning Journal a good hiding.

But

Shepherd.-He's aiblins no fit. what's the meanin? o' that? North. Confound me, James, if I know.

Shepherd.-Mr. Southey, though I'm thinkin', does not deny tawlent to the daily or weekly Press; he anathemateeses their pernicious principles.

North True. But does he not greatly exaggerate the evil? Most pernicious principles some of them do, with a truly wicked pertinacity, disseminate; but those which love and spread truth, though perhaps fewer in number, are greater in power; and even were it not so, truth is stronger than falsehood, and will ultimately prevail against her, and that, too, at no remote time. Besides, I do not know of any newspaper that is devoted to the sole worship of falsehood. We must allow some, nay even great differences of opinion in men's minds, even on the most solemn and most sacred subjects; we ought not to think every thing wicked which our understanding or conscience cannot embrace; as there is sometimes found by ourselves, to our own dismay, much bad in our good, so if we look with clear, bright, unjaundiced eyes, we may often see much good in their bad; nay, not unfrequently we shall then see, that what we were too willing to think utterly bad, because it was in the broad sheet of an enemy, is entirely good, and feel, not without compunction and selfreproach,

"Fas est ab hoste doceri."

Useful Hints.

Composition for rendering Leather water-proof.-Take of rosin 16lbs., of

tallow 5lbs., which are to be boiled together in one gallon of linseed oil, until the rosin is perfectly dissolved and mixed with the tallow and oil; to this add one pound and a half of spirits of turpentine, in which has been previously dissolved about an ounce and a half of caoutchouc, commonly called Indian rubber. This composition is suited for rubbing into the soles of boots and shoes, and will render them perfectly waterproof; but for the upper leathers of such articles, and for harness and other leather, the following composition is proposed :-take of neatsfoot oil one gallon, of tallow 6lbs., of hogs-lard 11lbs., and of bees-wax half-apound; which being boiled together until perfectly mixed, must be allowed to cool, and after its having become cold, add to the composition three pounds of spirits of turpentine, in which three ounces of caoutchouc has been dissolved.

Grease Spots.-The following method of removing grease and oil spots from silk and other articles, without injury to the colours, is given in the "Journal des Connaissances Usuelles :". -Take the yolk of an egg and put a little of it on the spot, then place over it a piece of white linen and wet it with boiling wa ter; rub the linen with the hand, and repeat the process three or four times, at each time applying fresh boiling water; the linen is to be then removed, and the part thus treated is to be washed with clean cold water.-New Mon.

Composition for washing the branches of fruit-trees.-Mix one pound of flour of brimstone in three gallons of gas water, adding soft soap sufficient to make the liquid adhere to the buds and branches. The mixture is made over the fire without danger. It is applied in the month of March, and has been used under glass on the most delicate trees, without doing them any injury. A considerable number of trees may be completely washed over in one day by a single person.-Ib. Anecdotiana.

WILLIAM RUFUS, King of England,

SIR WALTER TYRREL, his Bow-bearer,

Be quick, knave !-Exit Atten.)-Pshaw!
How this foolish dream hath scared me!
By the face of Holy Luke, my flesh
Quivers like the galled flank of a
Jaded destrier!-Ha!

Enter Sir Walter Tyrrel.
Tyrrel. What would your Grace?
Rufus. Tyrrel, I would hunt to-day. My
blood

Is fevered: I would cool it i' the shades
O' the New Forest. Hast thou prepared
My arbalest? The last bolts

Were too heavy i' the head: I liked them not.
Tyrrel. I have, my liege. Not a woodsman
From this to Tweed, hath such a store
As those within your Grace's quiver.
Rufus. 'Tis well.

(The Attendant returns with the
jerkin and bugle horn.)
106