Mrs. Graham said she was afraid we had not sufficient ascending power to do so that day.

She then discharged some ballast from the safety-bag, but rather declined to accede to my request to discharge all its contents, which rendered its effect very slight, as we remained nearly in equilibrium.

Mrs. Graham, at my re

quest, then explained to me the management of the valve of the balloon. Shortly afterwards I asked her if my rising on my seat to take off my great coat would disturb the balance of the car; but upon her assuring me it would not, I did so, feeling it very warm.

"From that moment, in my opinion, we commenced our descent, although Mrs. Graham thought the contrary; but she was convinced of her error by paper being thrown out. At this period Mrs. Graham asked me if I did not feel considerable pain in my ears; and upon my assuring her of the contrary, she said' I was possessed of very strong nerves. however soon experienced it to a very severe degree.

I

"The balloon at this moment commenced twirling round like a top, in its continued descent, when Mrs. Graham asked me if it was disagreeable, saying it was occasioned by our having entered a different current of air. I replied that I did not much admire it, but that I felt no giddiness from it.

Mrs. Graham then threw out the grapple on one side, and the safety-bag on the other, the rope of which latter was so short that it kept dangling about half a yard below the car; a circumstance which appeared much to dissatisfy her. She then asked whether it would make me giddy to look down from the car and observe what the grappling iron was doing. I immediately did so, and replied it had no effect upon me.

She next inquired if I remembered her informing me the balloon would be converted into a parachute, and requested me to observe it was then in that state.

I then saw her mount upon her seat and lay hold of the ropes which fastened the car to the bal

"Ut fieri quod aves hac possit luce verendum est, Nam neque par votis vis levitatis adest."

Hæc effata, salutarem tamen, haud mora, saccum
Ejecto partim pulvere cauta levat.

Parcius hoc facis, omnem adeo saccum ejice," clamo.
Dædala declinat, certa negare, caput.

Ergo nil agitur, stabili globus aëre pendet,
Libratumque æquo pondere servat iter.
Edocet interea optantem me Dædala valvas
Claudere quid præstet, quidque aperire globi.
Sed, largus toto ut manat de corpore sudor,
Grande malum chlamydis deposuisse volo
Sollicitus si stare queam, neque pondera turbem :
Illa metus pellit: sto, chlamydemque levo.

'Hinc, cæptum est," aio, "descendere." Dædala censet Esse aliter factum chartula missa probat.

:

"Aëre percussas violari an percipis aures

Nervosque intendi ?" quod rogat illa, nego.

'O te nervorum felicem et roboris," inquit: Nec longum atque aures perdoluere mihi.

Tum globus ad gyros ceu turbo volubilis actus
Indicat in flatus se cecidisse novos.

Ingratum sane, sed et est quod acerbius esset,
Nec mihi tentatur mobilitate caput.

Anchora tum jacitur dextra, de parte sinistra
Injusto saccus pondera fune trahens.

66

Nec placet hoc comiti: Qui pendeat anchora, serva "Icare, sique potes, despice," tristis ait.

Despicio, et nulla tollens vertigine voltus

Quæ vidi refero ex ordine, quidque queam.

Tum me discipulum appellat, revocansque magistra
Quæ prius edocuit, nunc meminisse jubet :
Labentes convexa etenim dum protegit umbra,
Præcipitem lapsum temperat ipse globus.
Funibus interea, currus queis pendet in alto,
Stans sella palmas applicat illa duas ;

loon. She desired me to do the same, observing we were coming down rather faster than she wished. I followed her advice, although deliberately, observing that we were at so great a distance from the earth that I could not yet distinguish one object from another; but I had scarcely put myself in the position required, when I felt the car strike with the utmost violence on the ground, and overturn, the balloon itself touching the earth, and dragging us about thirty yards, until it rose again.

By the violence of the shock I was thrown head foremost out of the car at the height of about eighteen feet, but I contrived to fall upon my hands, and escaped uninjured.

Having

gained my feet, I had the great grief of seeing Mrs. Graham fall from the car from a much higher distance than I had fell; and from the apparently lifeless manner in which she lay I was at first fearful she was killed. I immediately proceeded to her, and found she had fallen on her head, and was quite insensible. Mr. Amor, the farmer on whose grounds we had fallen, with a number of his people, soon came to my assistance, when the unfortunate lady was conveyed to the residence of that gentleman, Converse Farm, in the parish of Doddinghurst, near the town of Brentwood, Essex, where she still remains.

I instantly desired medical assistance might be sent for, and she was soon attended upon by Mr. Barlow, a surgeon of the neighbourhood, whose opinion at this moment is, that there is a serious concussion of the brain, and injury within the abdomen, but, notwithstanding her great danger, he does not despair of her life. Since about five o'clock, when the fall took place, until now I have been staying beside her, and it is only within half an hour that she appears commencing the recovery of her senses. I wish you would inform Mr. Graham, from me, how distressed I am at what has happened; and should he not have heard of the accident, I must beg of you to prepare him by degrees for this sorrowful event.

"The balloon, with my great coat, hat, telescope, &c., is gone I know not where. I saw it rise to a great height after Mrs. Graham had fallen from the car."

Et terram queritur citius properare.

Prehensos

Sto funes tractans ipse ducemque sequens,

Terram equidem, neque enim rerum discrimina certis
Ulla oculis parent, jam procul esse ratus,
Sed, vixdum stanti, en subito ruit impete currus,
Et multo eversus verbere pulsat humum.
Ac terram tetigitque globus, tactamque reliquit
Nos secum abreptos, quo velit aura, ferens.

Ipse pedes mox ter senos evectus in altum
Impatiens tantæ vis rapidique mali

Præcipitor violens curru excutiorque; cadentem
Protentæ illæsum sustinuere manus.

Stans comitem quæro in cælos jam evectior, ecce,
Labitur impingens Dædala prona caput.
"Dædala, tu moreris," clamo, sensuque carentem
Excipio accurrens; subvenit hospes Amor
Cum famulis præsens, atque in sua tecta receptam
Curat et assidua sedulitate fovet.

Accerso medicum, hunc unum vicinia laudat,
Qui, rite explorans, qualia passa jacet,
Concussi et cæcos cerebri laterisque labores,
Vitæ ejus, sperans vivere posse, timet.

Ipse laboranti assideo jam quatuor horas,
Ac tandem miseræ mens, modo visa, redit.

Hac me infelici dic ægre ferre marito,

Sive opus est pandens singula cautus adi.

Illa chlamys mea nescio quo, tubus ille, galerus,
Omnia, cum rapto rapta abiere globo.

THE LADIES' PETITION.

The Humble Petition and Remonstrance of the Maids, Wives, and Widows of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to the Bachelors, Husbands, and Widowers of the same, sorrowfully showeth how

To you Lords of Creation, in great tribulation

And awful depression of spirits,

We write, after weeping and scarce one wink sleeping,
Till our eyes are as red as a ferret's.

The points that most grieve us are these-that

you

leave us

To run to your hunts and your clubs ;

And your thoughts never roam to your spouses at home, But dwell with your foals and your cubs.

Then at Bachelor dinners, you ungallant sinners,

You sit like a parcel of logs ;

And you talk about nought, as you swallow your port,

But your nasty great horses and dogs!

Then those vile politicians, with broils and seditions
Come teazing, its monstrous provoking!

How we wish that John Russell, who makes all this bustle,
In the Red Sea's abysses were choking!

Ev'ry man turns Freemason,-enough 'tis to craze one
To think of such hateful societies,

Where nothing we know (though you swear 'tisn't so)

But eating, and drinking, and riot is!

(By the way those same Masons are quite past all patience, One might as well question a stone!

But unless they declare what it is that they swear,
We'll set up a Lodge of our own.

And we'll have a grand Mistress to rule o'er the Sisters,
And a terrible law shall be pass'd,

Not a word to discover, to even a lover,

And we will keep a secret at last!