Severe Winters. The Nord gives the following details on the subject of rigorous Winters: In 1709 the cold was excessive throughout the whole of Europe; the Adriatic was completely frozen over; a general and destructive famine prevailed; food of the first necessity was at exorbitant prices; at Paris bread made of oaten flour was served at the tables of the rich and of princes. Cattle perished from cold and hunger. The crops in the year following was very abundant. In 1784 the thermometer at St. Petersburg fell to 30° below zero centigrade (22° below zero Fahrenheit). On the 30th of December the glass fell to 183° below zero Reaumur (9° below zero Fahrenheit), and the ice at Brussels was 12 inches thick. In 1794 the cold was excessive, and the army of General Pichegru invaded Holland by crossing the Wahal on the ice. In 1812, a Winter rendered memorable from the disasters of the French army in Russia, the thermometer on the 26th of November marked 18° below zero Reaumur (8° 50′ below zero Fahrenheit). In 1820 the cold in Europe was very rigorous. On the 10th of January the thermometer at Berlin fell to 20° below zero C. (4° below zero F.), and at Brussels to 12° below zero C. (9° 50′ below zero F.) It was in this year that the Palace of the Prince of Orange was destroyed by fire. On the 25th of January, 1823, the thermometer at Brussels fell to 171° below zero Reaumur (6° 25′ below zero F). In 1845 the Winter was long and severe. The thermometer at Berlin fell to 19° below zero C. (2° 50′ below zero F.); Strasburg, 14° C. (6° above zero F.); Paris, 12° C. (9° 50' F.); and at Brussels it stood at 12° below zero Reaumur (5° below zero F). The Effect of the Frost on Iron. A practical man writes to the London Times on this subject, advancing very conclusive arguments against the idea that tyres of railway wheels which have broken lately, have done so in consequence of the strain arising from contraction. "The greatest variation of temperature in the atmosphere of this country, say between that of a hot summer's day to that of a cold winter's day, will not affect the length of malleable iron more than about one inch in 100 feet. This in a tyre nine feet long would be less than one-tenth of an inch; and, as the strain requisite to stretch malleable iron onetenth of an inch in 9 feet does not exceed five tons to the square inch, it follows that the force exerted by contraction alone is also under five tons per square inch. But the breaking strain of ordidary malleable iron is known to be over fifteen tons per square inch, and that of good tyre and axle iron over 25 tons; contraction alone is, therefore, not the cause of fractured tyres in frosty weather. It is a known fact that tyre iron of the very best quality has failed recently; also that a bar of good iron which, in an atmosphere of ordinary temperature, would bend up like leather, has broken off short with the single blow of a hammer on a frosty night. I, therefore, conclude that frost exercises a subtle influence on the quality of iron, reducing its tensile strength, and that the recent breakages were the result of this loss of cohesive power, and not from excessive contraction." NEW USE FOR APPLES.-It appears from the following statement, which we find in several of the Euglish journals, that the people of that country are threatened with a cider famine, STATISTICS OF FRANCE.-In the French em- not from the failure of the apples, although a pire, the annual number of male births is a partial crop, but because they are likely to be sixth greater than the births of females; but applied to a more profitable purpose (so far as the annual deaths of males surpass slightly the growers are cyncerned,) than in making a the deaths of the opposite sex, there being 65 household beverage. "It seems that the Mandeaths of females to 66 of males. From 1817 to chester calico dyers and printers have discov1853, the population increased steadily every ered apple juices supply a desideratum long year; but in 1854 and 1855 it diminished con- wanted in making fast colors for their printed siderably. The average annual increase, from cottons, and numbers of them have been into 1817 to 1857, was 159,018 inhabitants; or the Devonshire and the lower parts of Somerset810th part of the average population, calcula- shire, buying up all the apples they can get, ted at 33,410,000, up to 1857. If the same ra- and giving such a price for them as in the deartio should continue in the future, the popula- est years hitherto known has not been offered. tion will increase one-tenth in twenty years, We know one farmer in Devonshire who has a two-tenths in thirty-eight years, three-tenths large orchard, for the produce of which he in fifty-five years, and will not double itself never before received more than £250, and yet before the lapse of 146 years. There is one he has sold it this year to a Manchester man birth to 34,066 inhabitants, and 0.84 deaths for £360. There can be no doubt that the disthat is to say, 100 births to 84 deaths. There covery will create quite a revolution in the apis one death ond 1.20 births to 41,050 inhabi-ple trade; and we may add that it will give an tants, or 100 deaths to 120 births. An application has been made to the Commissioners for the London Exhibition of 1862 for permission to exhibit "specimens illustrative of the seven ages in the life of a bug." impetus to the cultivation of this hardy fruit." The anticipated cost of the railroads already in progress in India, is $250,000,000. The English Governmeut guarantees 5 per cent. dividends. The Origin of Coal Oil. issippi, Tennessee and Kentucky-furnished 22,899 men. The loss from this force by disease, and death caused by disease, was 4,315, or more than one-fifth-a very considerable difference in favor of northern troops. THE BRITISH NATIONAL DEBT.-On March 31, it was as follows: At a meeting of the Manchester Geological Society, Mr. E. W. Binney, F. R. S., F. G. S., read a paper on "Dorin Holland Moss," in which he discussed at length the origin of coal oil. * * After considering and rejecting other explanations of the origin of the coal oil, Mr. Binney says: "These circumstances led to the conclusion that it is produced by the de-2 per cents,......£2,981,038 | 314 per cents,.....£2,630,769 4 per cents,...... 418,300 312 per cents,...... 240,746 composition of the upper bed of peat, where per cents,........779,258,542 | 5 per cents,......... 423,603 it is overlaid by the sand." -making a total of £785,961,998, on which the annual interest payable amounts to £23,579,340. Mr. Dickinson, F. G. S., said that it was not at all uncommon to observe mineral pitch or petroleum oozing from a stratum of coal in our pits, distillation having taken place in the bed where external heat could have no influence. Mr. Binney stated that "Petroleum or rock oil is found in various parts of the world-in the Burman empire, on the banks of the Irawaddi, are powerful springs of it; it is abundant in Persia; it occurs in Barbadoes; at Tegernsee, in Bavaria; in Auvergne, near Claremont; in Switzerland, near Neufchatel; at Amiano, in Italy; and in Sicily; and near the volcanic isles of Cape de Verde the sea is sometimes covered with it." 234 4 In the course of the last financial year the debt had been reduced £838,153, chiefly by stock being transferred for the purpose of annuities (but there was £48,855 stock transferred for redemption of land tax.) The terminable annuities in existence (for lives or terms of years) are stated to amount to £1,346,944, but there are also the naval and military pension annuity of £585,740 purchased by the Bank of England in 1823, and expiring in 1867; the annuity of £116,000 created by the £16,000,000 loan of 1855 (Crimean ties created in the reign of George III, £46,256. war) expiring in 1865, and the Tontine annui It will be remembered that Dr. Stevens' explanation of the origin of the coal oils was, that the coal or other carbonaceous deposit is decomposed by the operation of natural forces, INFLUENCE OF EXTREME COLD UPON SEEDS.producing results similar to those which occur Some experiments have been made this year when coal is distilled in a retort for the artifi- by Prof. Elie Wartmann, of Geneva, Switzercial manufacture of oil. Some difference of land, on the influence of extreme cold upon opinion was expressed by the members of the the seeds of plants. Nine varieties of seeds, Manchester Society, in regard to the necessity some of them tropical, were selected. They of external heat to effect the decomposition of were placed in hermetically sealed tubes, and coal. Some geologists believe that the decom-submitted to a cold as severe as science can position takes place spontaneously from the natural disposition of the elements of organic compounds to fall asunder.--Scientific American. Northern and Southern Troops. produce. Some remained fifteen days in a mixture of snow and salt; some were plunged in a bath of liquid sulphuric acid, rendered extremely cold by artificial means. On the 5th of April they were all sown in pots placed in the open air. They all germinated, and those which had undergone the rigors of frigidity, produced plants as robust as those which had not been submitted to this test. Comparing the northern soldier with the southern, we believe the former will stand the effects of the climate for a short campaign of a year or more better than the latter, and though There is a factory near Breslau, Silesia, the popular belief is different to this view, the statistics of our war with Mexico fully sustain for converting fine leaves into a kind of cotton or wool. Blankets, jackets, stockings, and it, and the published opinion of no less an authority than Dr. Nott. of Mobile, in the South-other articles of dress, are manufactured from ern Journal of Medicine and Pharmacy, for Jan- this wool, and sold extensively in Vienna. uary, 1847, confirms it. On April 8th, 1848, the Secretary of War A man that hath no virtue in himself, made a report to the U. S. Senate, of the loss-ever envieth virtue in others, for men's minds es of the volunteer forces employed in Mexico. will either feed upon their own good or upon From this it appears that seven northern states others' evil; and who wanteth the one will -Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Penn- prey upon the other, sylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois-furnished, in the course of that war, 22,573 men.Of this force, the total loss from disease was 2,931-less than one eighth of the whole. Nine slave states-Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Miss Knowedge cannot be acquired without pains and application. It is troublesome, and like deep digging for pure water; but when once you come to the springs, they rise up and meet you. THE HOME. Love of Country and of Home. There is a land, of every land the pride, Hearthstone Conversations. To-day, this individual one, cold, wet, tempestuous, is, perhaps, as unpleasant as any of those that lie in the unrevealed calendar of the winter now sternly before us. And how many eyes are looking out upon it, and with what varied emotions are the contemplations of those who look stirred? To some it may appear but a type of the condition of things in our country, so late in the summer of its prosperity, now swept with the blasts of faction and confusion. To others, moody and foreboding by nature, the day, with its sullen sky, fierce breath and shiverings is but a reflex of what, to them, has been the most of life. How few, comparatively, seem to have any true idea of the uses and blessing of such days. So rare are they that we would go a long distance to see the face of a mother, who, in view of the uncomfortableness of every thing without, says to herself, "Now husband and children can find no pretext of business or pleasure to be out of doors; so we shall have a delightful day, all to ourselves in the house." We are thinking now of those who live in farm-houses, where the weather, more than in any other, compels the occasional ingathering of the whole family circle. Such a wife and mother, one who having the thought has also the tact to bring out to useful ends and in agreeable variety the knowledge, wit, humor and sportiveness of the entire group of those who claim her daily care and love, is verily a jewel without price. Conversations by the hearth-stone where were celebrated the marriage loves of those whose blended lives have long been as one heart-beat; where children have grown to be an honor and wealth of which the early time scarce dreamed, how can they be but as "apples of gold in pictures of silver," chaste, beautiful, elevating. And how much more so ought this to be the case on those days when the circumstances of the external world houses them in closer union of thought, feeling and occupation? There is something in the aspect of such a day as this that should bring the members of a family into more sacred relations to each other. The thoughts, turned from things without, have a tendency to dwell upon the interior life, and opportunity to discover the less obvious, but often most valuable phases of character and gifts of those who, too frequently walk, unknown, in the same daily paths with ourselves. Then there is the reflection that few who ever think at all can always escape, that the day comes, and the storm, which will seperate, for all the hereafter of this beautiful or this bleak world those now so closely knit in household loves. Mother, wife, sister, make one more resolve, and, with faith that it can be done, try to make the uncomfortableness of the days of the season whose joys must be mostly within doors, if had at all, your opportunity for such conversation as shall instruct and amuse the young, cheer the aged, and invigorate and beautify the characters of all those whom God, in his providence has gathered around the same hearth-stone. There is nothing in what has befallen or befalls you, my friends, which justifies impatience or peevishness. God is inscrutable, you, that there is a bright light always on the but not wrong. Remember, if the cloud is over other side; that the time is coming, either in The Suitors. BY GEORGE P. MORRIS. Wealth sought the bower of Beauty, The Useful and Beautiful. this world or the next, when that cloud will be swept away, and the fulness of God's light and wisdom poured around you. Everything which The tomb of Moses is unknown; but the has befallen you, whatever sorrow your heart traveler slakes his thirst at the well of Jacob. bleeds with, whatever pain you suffer, nothing The gorgeous palace of the wealthiest and is wanting but to see the light that actually ex-wisest of monarchs, with the silver and gold, ists, waiting to be revealed, and you will be and ivory, and even the greatest temple of Jesatisfied. If your life is dark, then walk by rusalem, hallowed by the visible glory of the faith, and God is pledged to keep you as safe deity himself, are gone; but Solomon's reseras if you could understand everything. He voirs are as perfect as ever. One of the anthat dwelleth in the secret place of the Most cient architectuary of the Holy city, not one High shall abide under the shadow of the stone is left upon another; but the pool of Almighty. Bethsada commands the pilgrim's reverence at the present day. The colums of Persepolis are mouldering into dust; but its cisterns and acqueducts remain to challenge our admiration. The golden house of Nero is a mass of ruins; but Aquis Claudia still pours into Rome its liquid stream. The temple of the sun at Tadmor in the wilderness, has fallen; but its fountains sparkle as freshly in his rays, as when thousands of worshippers thronged its lofty colonnades. It may be that London will share the same fate of Babylon, and nothing be left to mark its site, save mounds of crumbling brick work. The Thames will continue to flow as it does now. And if any work of art should still rise over the deep ocean of time, we may well believe that it will be neither a palace nor a temple, but some vast acqueduct or reservoir; and if any name shall flash through the midst of antiquity, it will probably be that of the man who in his day sought the happiness of his fellow-men rather than their glory, and linked his name to some great work of national utility and benevolence. This is the true glory which outlives all others, and shines with undying lustre from generation to generation; imparting to works some of its the ruin which overtakes the ordinary monuimmortality, and in some rescuing them from ments of historical tradition, or mere magnificence.-Edinburg Review. Love, pouting, took French leave! Old Time, the friend of Duty, Wealth vanished!-Last went rosy Health- That those who Duty slight for Wealth, Ah, no! Can never hope for Love! [Home Journal. Cold Uninviting Rooms. The following from one of Beecher's recent sermons, contains a good hint: "When you go into some men's houses you find the halls gloomy and forbidding. The old pyramids of Egypt are not so dark and bleak as the entrances to some dwellings. It seems to me as though the door ought to be the most attractive place in a house, so that on approach- SENSIBLE.-Jane Eyre says:-"I know that ing it one should feel assured that there was if women wish to escape the stigma of hushospitality within. And the hall should be band-seeking, they must act and look like cozy and warm. I hate narrow halls, I hate a marble or clay, cold, expressionless, bloodless; hall with bare walls, that seem to say, 'Starve! for every appearance of feeling, of joy, sorstarve! starve!' But the halls of many a row, friendliness, antipathy, admiration, dishouse are cold and barren and uninviting.-gust, are alike construed by the world into an And some people keep their parlor everlastingly in order, as if it were arranged for a funeral; and nobody goes into it without feeling as if he was at a funeral, except that the minister and the services are wanting. The carpet says, 'Do not touch me;' and every chair and sofa says, 'It is an impertinence to sit on me;' and every piece of furniture says, 'Let me alone;' and the whole room says, 'What are you doing here?' A man leads you through an inhospitable door and a disagreeable hall into a stiff parlor; and you say, If the people that live here are like these things, I do not want to have anything to do with them."" attempt to hook a husband. Never mind! well meaning women have their own consciences to comfort them after all. Do not, therefore, be too much afraid of showing yourself as you are, affectionate and good-hearted; do not too harshly repress sentiments and feelings excellent in themselves, because you fear that some puppy may fancy that you are letting them come out to fascinate him; do not condemn yourself to live only by halves, because if you showed too much animation, some pragmatical thing in breeches might take it into his pate to imagine that you designed to devote your life to his inanity." Life Constantly Narrowing. If the votaries of pleasure, on whom time hangs heavily, and who are devising expedients to relieve its tedium, could only comprehend the importance of life, and the vast issues involved in it, they would be startled effectually from their dreams. There is a depth of meaning in the following paragraph from the National Preacher : The narrow limits of the longest life is every day becoming narrower still. The story is told of an Italian State prisoner, who, after some week's confinement, became suddenly aware that his apartment was becoming small er. Abou Ben Adhem and the Angel. Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase) The angel wrote and vanished. The next night He watched, and saw with horror that a moveable iron wall was gradually encroaching on the space, and that as the movement came on, it must crush him to death, and he could calculate it to a day! But you have not that advantage. John Foster' yet more appropriately resembles our time to a sealed reservoir, from which issues daily a certain small quantity of water, and when the reservoir is exhausted, we must perish of thirst; but we have no means of sounding it to ascertain how much it originally contained, or whether thereing them utterance only, you will never know be even enough remaining for to-morrow." THINK. Thought engenders thought. Place one idea upon paper, another will follow, and still another, until you have written a page. You can not fathom your mind. There is a well of thought there which has no bottom. The more you draw from it, the more clear and fruitful it will be. If you neglect to think yourself, and use other people's thoughts, giv what you are capable of. At first your ideas may come in lumps-homely and shapelessbut no matter: time and perseverance will arrange and polish them. Learn to think, and you will learn to write; the more you think the better you will be enabled to express your ideas. WASHINGTON AND FRANKLIN.-It may be mentioned as a somewhat striking fact, and one, I believe, not hitherto adverted to, that the families of Washington and Franklin-the former the great leader of the American Revolution, the latter not second to any of his patriotic associates-were established in the same LOVE OF THE WONDERFUL.-What stronger central county of Northampton, and within a pleasure is there with mankind, or what do few miles of each other; the Washingtons, at they earlier learn or longer retain, than the Brighton and Sulgrave, belonging to the land-love of hearing and relating things strange and ed gentry of the country, and in the great civil incredible. How wonderful a thing is the love war supporting the royal side; the Franklins, of wondering and of raising wonder! 'Tis the at the village of Eaton, living on the produce delight of children to hear tales they shiver of a farm of thirty acres, and the earnings of at, and the vice of old men to abound in strange their trades as blacksmiths, and espousing-stories of times past. We come into the world some of them at least, and the father and uncle wondering at every thing; and when our wonof Benjamin Franklin among the number--the der about common things is over, we seek principles of non-conformists. Their respect- something new to wonder at. Our last scene ive emigrations, germs of great events in histo- is to tell wonders of our own, to all who will ry, took place that of John Washington, the believe them. And amid all this, 't is well if great grandfather of George, in 1567, to loyal truth comes off but moderately tainted. Virginia; that of Josiah Franklin, the father of Benjamin, about the year 1685, to the metropolis of Puritan New England.-Edward Everett. CHILDREN.-Hard be his fate who makes no childhood happy; it is so easy. It does not require wealth, or position, or fame; only a little kindness and the tact which it inspires. Give a child a chance to love, to play, to exercise his imagination and affections, and he will be happy. Give him the conditions of health -simple food, air, exercise, and a little variety in his occupations, and he will be happy, and expand in happiness. AN OLD MAN.-What I call an old man, is one who has a smooth shining crown and a fringe of scattered white hairs; seen in the streets on sunshiny days, stooping as he walks, bearing a cane, moving cautiously and slowly, telling old stories, smiling at present follies, living in a narrow world of dry habits; one that remains waking when others have dropped asleep, and keeps a little night-lamp flame of life burning year after year, if the lamp is not upset, and there is a careful hand held round it to prevent the puffs of wind from blowing the flame out. That's what I call an old man. -Holmes. |