Chapter II: Part 2

The invention of it, in this kingdom, or at least its introduction into our courts, is probably of high antiquity, being mentioned in the time of Edward I., as a mode well known and of common usage. At present it is seldom required, except on the removal of the master of the Mint from his office. Upon a memorial praying for a trial of the Pix by this officer, a summons issues to certain members of the privy council to meet on a day fixed. The Lord Chancellor also directs a precept to the wardens of the Goldsmith's company, requiring them to nominate a competent number of able freemen of their company, skilful to judge of, and to present the defaults of the coin, if such be found, to be of a jury. When the court is formed, twelve of these persons are sworn, who are directed by the president to examine whether the moneys were made according to the indenture, and standard trial pieces, and within the remedies. But in 1754, Lord Chancellor Talbot directed the jury to express precisely how much the money was within the remedies; and the practice which he thus enjoined is still continued. The Pix, or box containing the coins to be examined, is then delivered to the jury, who retire to the court room of the Duchy of Lancaster, whither the Pix is removed, together with the weights of the Exchequer and Mint, and where the scales used on this occasion are suspended; the beam of which is so delicate, that it will turn with _six grains_, when loaded with the whole of those weights, to the amount of 48 lbs. 8 oz. in each scale. The Pix is then opened, and the money which had been taken out of each delivery, and enclosed in a parcel under the seals of the warden, master, and comptroller of the Mint, is given to the foreman, who reads aloud the endorsement, and compares it with the account which lies before him; he then delivers the parcel to one of the jury, who opens it and examines whether its contents agree with the endorsement. When all the parcels have been opened, and found right, the moneys contained in them are mixed together in wooden bowls, and afterwards weighed. Out of the said moneys so mingled, the jury take a certain number of each species of coin, to the amount of one pound for the assay by fire. And the indented trial pieces of gold and silver, of the dates specified in the indenture, being produced by the proper officer, a sufficient quantity is cut from either of them, for the purpose of comparing with it the pound weight of gold or silver which is to be tried by the usual methods of assay. The jury then return their verdict, stating how much the coins examined have varied from the weight and fineness required, and whether the variations exceed or fall short of the remedies which are allowed; and according to the terms of the verdict, the master's quietus is either granted or withheld.

_Note_.--The _remedies_ are an allowance of one sixth of a carat, or forty grains, in the pound weight of gold, and of two pennyweights in that of silver, considered either as to fineness or weight, or both of them taken together; the moneyers are, however, at this time so expert, that these quantities are much greater than are necessary.

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SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY

_Society of Civil Engineers_.

A charter of incorporation has just received the royal signature, constituting an institution of Civil Engineers, and naming Mr. Telford its president. The objects of such institution, as recited in the charter, are, "The general advancement of mechanical science, and more particularly for promoting the acquisition of that species of knowledge which constitutes the profession of a civil engineer; being the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man, as the means of production and of traffic in states, both for external and internal trade, as applied in the construction of roads, bridges, aqueducts, canals, river navigation, and docks, for internal intercourse and exchange; and in the construction of ports, harbours, moles, breakwaters, and light-houses, and in the art of navigation by artificial power, for the purposes of commerce; and in the construction and adaptation of machinery, and in the drainage of cities and towns."

_Toads as Ant-eaters_.

In the autumn of last year, a pit, wherein I grew melons, was so much infested with ants, as to threaten the destruction of the whole crop; which they did, first by perforating the skin, and afterwards eating their way into the fruit; and, after making several unsuccessful experiments to destroy them, it occurred to me that I had seen the toad feed on them. I accordingly put about half a dozen toads into the pit, and, in the course of a few days, scarcely an ant was to be found.--_Corresp. Gard. Mag._

_Laying out Part of the Calton Hill as Pleasure-Ground_.

We observe with pleasure plans advertised for in the Edinburgh newspapers, for this purpose. There is no city in Britain which presents greater facilities for public walks and gardens than Edinburgh, notwithstanding the immense injury which it has sustained in a picturesque point of view by the earthen mound, and the mean buildings which cover great part of the bottom and sides of the valley of the North Loch. That valley ought to have been laid out in terraces, some open, or covered with glazed verandas, for winter use, and others shaded by trees for summer walking. The great art in laying out walks for recreation and ease on sloping surfaces, is so to direct them as not to render them more fatiguing than straight walks on level ground. But the grand subject of improvement at Edinburgh, in the way of planting in the public walks, is the hill of Arthur's Seat, which, planted and built on, might be rendered one of the most unique scenes in Europe.--_Gard. Mag._

_Vegetables._

Watering gives vegetables long exposed a fresher colour, and a more attractive appearance; but repeated waterings are highly pernicious, as they neutralize the natural juices of some, render others bitter, and make all others vapid or disagreeable.--_Ibid._

_Mortar._

The use of lime in mortar, is to fill up the hollow spaces or vacuities between the grains of sand, and to cement them together, thereby forming a kind of artificial stone. To add any more lime than is sufficient to fill up these spaces, seems to be useless, and to add much more must weaken the mortar; but, if too little lime be used, there will be cavities left between some of the grains of sand, and the mortar will consequently be short or brittle: therefore, when we cannot ascertain the best proportions of lime and sand, it is better to use too much lime than too little.--_Ibid._

_Treatment of Gold and Silver Fish._

These beautiful objects of the animal kingdom, though long ago introduced into Europe from China, their native country, seldom breed in such numbers as they might be expected to do. It has been lately discovered that in ponds heated by waste water discharged from steam factories, the gold and silver fish breed abundantly. From this circumstance, it has been suggested, that, as heating hothouses by warm water is now so generally adopted, a portion of this, led occasionally into a garden basin, would keep the water in such a temperament as would not only always be agreeable to the fish, but promote their breeding.--_Ibid._

_Climate._

Professor Schow, of Copenhagen, has lately read a paper "On the supposed Changes in the Climate of the different parts of the Earth, during the period of Human History," from which, as far as it has appeared in our language, it seems to be his opinion, that, on a general view, climates are the same now as in ancient times. The identity of the climate of Palestine, now and during antiquity, is thus beautifully made out:--"It will be convenient to begin with Palestine, the Bible being the oldest, or one of the oldest of books; and, although great uncertainty exists about the determination of the plants which are mentioned in it, yet two of them do not admit of any doubt, (and these are sufficient for the determination of the climate of Palestine, in former times,) viz. the date-tree and the vine. The date-tree was frequent, and principally in the southernmost part of the country. Jericho was called Palm-town. The people had palm branches in their hands. Deborah's palm-tree is mentioned between Rama and Bethel. Pliny mentions the palm-tree as being frequent in Judea, and principally about Jericho. Tacitus and Josephus speak likewise of woods of palm-trees, as well as Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and Theophrastus. Among the Hebrew coins, those with date-trees are by no means rare, and the tree is easily recognised, as it is figured with its fruit. The vine, also, was one of the plants most cultivated in Palestine, and not merely for the grapes, but really for the preparation of wine. The feast of the tabernacle of the Jews was a feast on account of the wine harvest. From a passage where the cultivation of the vine is mentioned, in the Valley of Engeddy, it is evident that the vine not only grew in the northernmost mountainous part of the country, but also in its southern lower part. Besides these, there are other ancient testimonies in favour of the vine. This plant, indeed, sometimes occurs on the same coin with the date palm. The date-tree, in order to bring its fruit to perfection, requires a mean temperature of 78 deg. Fahr. The vine, on the other hand, cannot be cultivated to any extent if the mean temperature be above 72 deg. Fahr. Such, then, must have been the temperature of Palestine, in former ages; and by all that is known of its present climate, the mean temperature seems to be the same now. Nor has the time of harvest undergone any change. Snow and ice, which were known, though rarely, in ancient times, are occasionally met with now and at present, as in former times. The inhabitants make use of artificial heat to warm themselves."--_Dr. Brewster's Journal_.

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SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

NUISANCES OF SOCIETY.

It is quite true that the largest part of conversation turns upon eating and drinking, the weather, the vices and follies of our neighbours, and a thousand other trifles that lead not to dispute; and it must be admitted that it is bad companionship to be eternally canvassing the greater interests of life, and forcing upon society opinions upon things in general. There are, indeed, themes in plenty which belong to the neutral ground of debate; but it is very pitiable that they should so ill bear repetition. All the world, if they dared avow as much, are heartily tired of them. Like cursing and swearing, they are merely unmeaning expletives to supply the lack of sense, to gain time, and to give a man the satisfaction of sometimes hearing his own voice. With all the assistance of cards, music, dancing, and champagne, society is at best but a dreary business, and it requires no little animal spirits to undergo the infliction with decency. Are you admitted on terms of familiarity to the domestic hearth of your friend, that privilege confers on you the opportunity of becoming intimately acquainted with the faults of his servants, and (what is worse) with the merits of his children.

A dinner of ceremony is a funeral without a legacy; an assembly is a mob, and a ball a compound of glare, tinsel, noise, and dust. However amusing in their freshness, after a few repetitions, they are only rendered endurable by the prospect of some collateral gain, or the gratification of personal vanity. To exhibit the beauty of a young wife, or the diamonds of an old one; to be able to say the best thing that is uttered; to sport a red ribbon or a Waterloo medal in their first novelty; to carry a point with a great man, or to borrow money from a rich one, may pass off an evening very well, with those who happen to be interested in such speculations; but, these things apart, the arrantest trifler in the circle must get weary at last, and be heartily rejoiced when the conclusion of the season spares him all further reiteration of the mill-horse operation. It is this insipidity of society that forces so many of its members upon desperate adventures of gallantry, and upon deep play. Any thing, every thing is good to escape from the languor and listlessness of a converse from which whatever interests is banished. Many a woman loses her character, and many a man incurs a verdict of ruinous damages, in the simple search of that rarest of all rare things in society--a sensation. Neither is the matter much mended, if, barring the insipidity of bon-ton company, you plunge into the formal gravity of the middle classes, or into the noisy, empty mirth of the lower. The man of sense and feeling, wherever he goes, will find himself in a minority, in which few will speak his language or comprehend his ideas. He will seldom return to his home without a weary sense of the "stale, flat, and unprofitable" nothings he has been compelled to entertain in his intercourse with the world,--without the recollection of some outrage on his independence, some dogmatism that he dared not question, some impertinence that he dared not confute. With his ears ringing with blue-stocking literature, threadbare sophistries, forms erected into important principles, mediocrity elevated into consideration, and the pre-eminence of the vain, the ignorant, and the contemptible, he will shut himself up in his solitude, and say with the Englishman at Paris _Je m'ennuis tres bien ici_. Against the recurrence of these annoyances, day after day renewed, what nerves can hold out? As life advances, time becomes precious, every moment is counted, every enjoyment is computed; and while the effort necessary for pleasing and being pleased becomes greater, the motive for making that exertion grows less. When the sources of physical gratification are dried up, and the illusions of life are dissipated, there remains nothing for enjoyment but a tranquil fireside, and the mastery of our own ideas and of our own habits in the privacy of home. But then, to enjoy these, you must not have a methodist wife, and you must have a porter who can lie with a good grace, a fellow who could say "not at home," though death himself knocked at the door. Neither should you read the newspapers, nor walk the streets. The times are long gone by since "wisdom cried out there." Folly, impertinence, sheer impertinence, has exclusive possession of the king's highway; and a dog with a tin-kettle at tail has as good a chance as the wretch who dares to tread the pavement without partaking of the ruling insanity. Oh! Mr. Brougham, Mr. Brougham! your schoolmaster has a great deal yet to do: pray heaven his rods and his fools' caps may hold out!--_New Month. Mag._

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TO "BEAUTY."

The morn is up! wake, Beauty, wake!
The flower is on the lea,
The blackbird sings within the brake,
The thrush is on the tree;
Forth to the balmy fields repair,
And let the breezes mild
Lift from thy brow the falling hair,
And fan my little child--
Yet if thy step be 'mid the dews,
Beauty! be sure to change your shoes!

'Tis noon! the butterfly springs up,
High from her couch of rest,
And scorns the little blue-bell cup
Which all night long she press'd.
Away! we'll seek the walnut's shade,
And pass the sunny hour,
The bee within the rose is laid,
And veils him in the flower;
Mark not the lustre of his wing,
Beauty! be careful of his sting!

'Tis eve! but the retiring ray
A halo deigns to cast
Round scenes on which it shone all day,
And gilds them to the last:
Thus, ere thine eyelids close in sleep,
Let Memory deign to flee
Far o'er the mountain and the deep,
To cast one beam on me!
Yes, Beauty! 'tis mine inmost prayer--
But don't forget to curl your hair!

_Blackwood's Mag._

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GOG AND MAGOG.--(_A Fragment._)

Pensively and profoundly was I meditating, seated one evening upon a stone bench in Guildhall, when, as the gathering gloom invested the solemn faces of Gog and Magog, rendering them mysteriously dim and indistinct, methought I saw them slowly shut their eyes, nod their heads, fall asleep, and actually begin to snore. Never did I hear any thing more sonorously grand and awful than that portentous inbreathing of Gog and Magog, resounding through the Gothic vastness of Guildhall; but, behold! how omnipotent is the dreaming imagination! I myself had been dozing; the sound of my own nose, transferred by a metonymy of the fancy to the nostrils of those wooden idols, had become, as it were, the living apotheosis of a snore, which had subdued me by its sublimity. Most fortunate was it that I awoke; for, on attentively inspecting the faces of the figures, I saw them working and writhing with all the contortions of the Pythoness or the Sibyl, labouring in the very throes of inspiration, struggling with the advent of the prophetical afflatus. At length their lips parted, when, in a low, solemn voice, that thrilled through the dark, deserted, and silent hall, they poured forth alternately the following vaticinal strain, each starting and trembling as he concluded:--

"From Bank, Change, Mansion-house, Guildhall,
Throgmorton, and Threadneedle,
From London-stone, and London wall,
When City housewife's wheedle
To Brunswick, Russell, Bedford Squares,
And Portland-place, their spouses,
Anxious to give themselves great airs
Of fashion in great houses,
Then Gog shall start, and Magog shall
Tremble upon his pedestal."

"When merchant, banker, broker, shake
In Crockford's club their elbow,
And for St. James's clock forsake
The chiming of thy bell, Bow:
When Batson's, Garraway's, and John's,
At night show empty boxes,
While cits are playing dice with dons,
Or ogling opera doxies;
Then Gog shall start, and Magog shall
Tremble upon his pedestal."

"When city dames give routs and reels,
And ape high-titled prancers,
When City misses dance quadrilles,
Or waltz with whisker'd Lancers;
When City gold is quickly spent
In trinkets, feasts, and raiment,
And none suspend their merriment
Until they all stop payment,
Then Gog shall start, and Magog shall
Tremble upon his pedestal."

I was reflecting what dire calamities would fall upon the doomed City, since the era of luxury, corruption, and desertion, thus denounced, had now manifestly arrived, and Gog and Magog were actually starting and trembling upon their pedestals, when the hall-keeper, shaking me by the shoulder, exclaimed--"Come, Sir, you musn't be sleeping here all night! Bundle out, if you please, for I am just going to shut the great gates!"--_New Monthly Mag._

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THE GATHERER.

A snapper up of unconsidered trifles.--SHAKSPEARE.

MODERN SALAMANDER.

An experiment to ascertain the degree of heat it is possible for a man to bear, was made a few days ago at the New Tivoli, at Paris, in the presence of a company of about 200 persons. The man on whom this experiment was made is a Spaniard of Andalusia, named Martenez, aged 43. A cylindrical oven, constructed in the shape of a dome, had been heated for four hours, by a very powerful fire. At ten minutes past eight, the Spaniard, having on large pantaloons of red flannel, a thick cloak also of flannel, and a large felt, after the fashion of straw hats, went into the oven, where he remained, seated on a foot-stool, during fourteen minutes, exposed to a heat of from 45 to 50 degrees, of a metallic thermometer, the gradation of which did not go higher than 50. He sang a Spanish song while a fowl was roasted by his side. At his coming out of the oven, the physicians found that his pulse beat 134 pulsations a minute, though it was but 72 at his going in, The oven being healed anew for a second experiment, the Spaniard re-entered and seated himself in the same attitude; at three quarters past eight, ate the fowl, and drank a bottle of wine to the health of the spectators. At coming out his pulse was 176, and the thermometer indicated a heat of 110 degrees of Reaumur. Finally, for the third and last experiment, which almost immediately followed the second, he was stretched on a plank, surrounded with lighted candles, and thus put into the oven, the mouth of which was closed this time. He was there nearly five minutes, when all the spectators cried out, "Enough, enough," and anxiously hastened to take him out. A noxious and suffocating vapour of tallow filled the inside of the oven, and all the candles were extinguished and melted. The Spaniard, whose pulse was 200 at coming out of this gulf of heat, immediately threw himself into a cold bath, and in two or three minutes after was on his feet safe and sound.

WILL OF MR. WILLIAM HICKINGTON,

_Proved in the Deanery Court of York, 1772._

This is my last Will,
I insist on it still,
So sneer on and welcome
And e'en laugh your fill.
I, William Hickington,
Poet of Pocklington,
Do give and bequeathe,
As free as I breathe,
To thee, Mary Jaram,
The queen of my haram,
My cash and cattle,
With every chattel,
To have and to hold,
Come heat or come cold,
Sans hindrance or strife,
(Tho' thou art _not_ my wife,)
As witness my hand,
Just here as I stand,
This 12th of July,
In the year seventy ----

Signed, &c. W. HICKINGTON.

J. W. F. B.

REGENT'S PUNCH.

The receipt for this "nectarious drink" is as follows:--Three bottles of champagne, a bottle of hock, a bottle of curacoa, a quart of brandy, a pint of rum, two bottles of Madeira, two bottles of seltzer water, four pounds of bloom raisins, Seville oranges, lemons, white sugarcandy, and, instead of water, green tea. The whole to be highly iced.

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The Supplement, containing a fine Portrait of CAPTAIN CLAPPERTON, Memoir, &c. and a Title-Page, Preface, and copious Index to Vol XI., is now published. It extends beyond the usual quantity, the Memoir is of original interest, and the price is (in the present instance only) unavoidably advanced to Fourpence.

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_Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset House,) London; Published by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic; and Sold by all Newsmen and Booksellers._

End of Project Gutenberg's The Mirror, 1828.07.05, Issue No. 321, by Various