MAB'S CROSS. A LEGEND OF LANCASHIRE. (For the Mirror.) COME forth, come forth-ye vassals all, And on they troop, both squire and knight, To dare the Saracen to fight, The Infidel to bow. Weep, Lady Mabel, weep no more, Again shall Bradchaigh's banner float, While slowly crept the lagging hours. Did the hoarse stag-hounds' bark foretell; That wending to the woods away, Sir William sought the forest dell. He comes not-came not,-wherefore tell,The bravest of that gallant band. They told her that Sir William fell. And long the silent tear did flow, That once was ruler in that Hall! And she is now Sir Osmund's bride, It was a summer holiday, Bright on old Haigh the sunbeams shine; But Mabel's thoughts are far away, With her dead lord, in Palestine. To 'scape awhile from goading thought, She calls the weary wanderer near, Her alms the poor and wretched sought, And bless'd her bouuty with a tear. Among them stands a Palmer grey, Lonely and travel-toil'd was he; A wanderer for many a day, From regions o'er the billowy sea. He ask'd not alms, he only pray'd, A message for her ear to bring; And Mabel, trembling and afraid, Saw on his hand a silver ring. The ring-it was Sir William's token, The voice, thrilled to her heart with pain ;"Mabel!"-the magic word was spoken, Bradchaigh returns to thee again!" Now from the tower his banner flies, And gladness in each bosom swells. For broken faith, these legends say. Her peace of mind again to bring, And where yon mouldering cross is seen, Go seek their tomb, an effigy,— Of cold grey stone two forms recline; Their names alone you there may see,Such dark oblivion waits on time !* Kirton-Lindsey. ANNE R OLD ENGLISH WASSAIL SONG. In the ancient play of Kynge Johan, recently published by the Camden Society, from a MS. discovered among the municipal papers of the town of Ipswich, the following curious relic occurs. It is probably the oldest Wassail song in our language, and was of course unknown to Ritson, who (Ancient Songs, vol. i. xlvii. edit. 1829,) gives a sort of dissertation on Wassail and drinking songs. Kynge Johan was the production of John Bale, Bishop of Ossory, and the M.S. which is in his autograph, may be referred to the middle of the sixteenth century. The song is as follows:- Wassayle wassayle, out of the mylke payle, H. E. B. The incidents of the foregoing tale are to be found in an old tradition of Lancashire, which further states, that "Sir William pursued Sir Osmund Neville, and slew him at a place called Newton, in single combat." Returning in safety, he lived with his lady at Haigh Hall to a good old age. They lie buried in the chancel of All Saints, Wigan, where, carved on the tomb, their effigies still exist, the rarest of the monumental antiquities in that ancient edifice. • • The Lady Mabel's hurt spirit was too sorely wounded to be at rest. For the purpose of what was then deemed an expiation of her unintentional offence, she performed a weekly penance, going barefooted from Haigh, to a place outside the wails at Wigan, where a stone cross was erected, which bears to this day the name of "Mab's Cross.' 19 MOTION AFTER DEATH. A WORK of great interest to the medical profession, is about to issue from the press. It consists of a complete course of Lectures on Medicine, by one of the most celebrated physicians and popular lecturers of the metropolis; Dr. Elliotson. Hitherto his lectures have been known to his professional brethren only through the medium of imperfect reports in the medical journals; but, thanks to Mr. Butler, the enterprising medical bookseller and publisher, they are at length about to appear, for the first time, in a dress corresponding with their merit. The editing of the work has been confined to Dr. Rogers; a gentleman everyway qualified to do it justice. Having had an opportunity of inspecting the work in sheets, we have made some extracts, which we think likely to prove of general interest to our readers. The following relate to that malignant pestilence, Cholera Morbus. "After death from Cholera, one very remarkable phenomenon presented itself; which was, that the temperature of the body was higher than during life. Another very remarkable circumstance, was a twitching of the different muscles of the body, after the person was completely dead. The fingers, the toes, and every part of the face, were seen to move. Observations of this description were made on two persons;the one a Caffre, and the other a Malay. The former died twenty hours after the first seizure; the complaint baffling the most powerful remedies. In fifteen minutes after he expired, the fingers of the left hand were observed to move; then the muscles of the left arm were contracted in a convulsive manner; and similar motions were slowly propagated to the muscles of the chest. The muscles of the calves of the legs contracted in like manner; bundles of their fibres being drawn together in a tremulous knot. The muscles of the inside of the lower extremities were forcibly contracted, in a vermicular manner. The muscles of the face and lower jaw were similarly affected; and, finally, those of the right arm, and right side of the chest. These motions increased in extent and activity for ten minutes; after which they gradually declined, and ceased twenty minutes after they began. "With regard to the Malay, about fifteen minutes after he expired, the toes began to move in various directions; and the feet were made to approach each other. Muscular contractions were speedily propagated up. wards, along the limbs; which were turned slowly inward, so as to approach each other, and again outward ;-the whole of the lower extremities moving on the heels, as on pivots. These motions proceeded upwards;-producing a quivering in the muscles. In five minutes the upper limbs began to be similarly affected. The fingers were extended, and often rigidly bent inwards; and pronation and supination of the hand were steadily, though slowly, performed. The same quiverings were observed as in the lower limbs, and extended to the muscles of the chest and back. The muscles of the face moved; and the head was observed to shake, The total duration of these appearances was half an hour. By moving or pricking the arms or limbs, these contractions were rendered stronger, and were again renewed when they had ceased. "I have noticed the temperature rise before death; and still more after it. I may also mention that, in a case in which there was very great blueness of the skin, no sooner had the patient expired, than the blueness diminished; and, in an hour, there was nothing of the colour to be seen. There was a twitching of the muscles after death; so that one finger would be drawn in, and then another; and the lower jaw would move up and down; and you might see a quivering of the muscles of the lower limbs." Our readers will no doubt he reminded, by the foregoing details, of those motions produced in bodies recently dead, by the agency of galvanism. We shall add a few more particulars respecting this fearful dis ease. "It was thought, in India, that the natives suffered from it more than the Europeans. Thousands of natives perished near Bombay; while of the Europeans, who had good food, and good clothing, only six were affected. It was found to attack those who had the worst diet, were the worst clothed, and were worst off in all respects. It was found to prevail at all temperatures and all seasons; in healthy and in unhealthy sitnations; both in dry and in moist places. It prevailed in spite of the monsoons; and not only in every direction of the wind, but likewise in all hydrometric states of the atmosphere. There was great doubt whether it was contagious or not. Some thought it proceeded where there was no communication, just as well as where there was. It was found to stop suddenly, without any apparent reason, and then to go on again. It was said to have broken out in the Mauritius, three thousand miles from a place where it had prevailed; but it was after a vessel had arrived from that spot. It turned, at last, towards Europe; and proceeded, pursuing a north-westerly direction, till it reached this country. The particulars observed here and on the Continent, perfectly agree with those observed in Îndia;namely, that the poor have been affected much more than the rich; and that those who are the worst fed, clothed, and lodged, have all suffered in the greatest degree. We have a striking example of this, when we were sure to suffer; and this has been observed with regard to other diseases. However well persons may be off, yet if their body be enfeebled by drinking, they are rendered increasingly liable to the disease." From the French. contrast its ravages in London, with those it made in Paris. Here the greater part of the people are well-fed ;-better fed than in any other part of the world. They eat more flesh; and that flesh is of such a quality, as is scarcely to be found in any other country. Besides this, they are better clothed, and more comfortable; and instead THE ORIGIN OF FINGER-NAPKINS. of trashy wines, they have good sound ale and porter, and malt-liquor of all kinds. But in Paris the air is bad; the people have very little water; and the water, for the purposes of consumption, is very bad. The inhabitants are crowded together (I know not how many familes in a house) with little ventilation. The streets are narrow; and, together with this, the houses are dirty. The people live on what we, Englishmen, consider to be "trash ;" not roast-beef and mutton; but all sorts of dishes made up of bread and vegetables, with a little meat boiled in water to colour it, or to give it a flavour; and they drink, not good beer, but thin wine; and we all know that this disease has committed infinitely greater ravages there, than it has here. "With regard to the fatality of the disease, it was observed, in India, that much good was done by medical treatment. It is said that, at Bombay, there were fifteen thousand nine hundred cases. Of these one thousand two hundred took no medicine; and all died; but where medicine was employed, the deaths were much reduced. With respect to the treatment in this country, I cannot but think that if all the patients had been left alone, the mortality would have been the same as it has been. If all the persons attacked with cholera had been put into warm beds, made comfortable, and left alone, although many would have died who have been saved,-yet, on the whole, I think the mortality would not have been greater than after all that has been done. No doubt many poor creatures have died uncomfortably, who would have died tranquilly if nothing had been done for them. I tried two or three kinds of treatment. It was found vain to attempt to warm patients by hot air applied externally; and I got two of them to breathe hot air. I had a tube passed through boiling water; so that they might inhale hot air; but they both died." We conclude with a fact for the Temperance-Society. "It was well ascertained in London, that not only those who were badly off, and in bad health from some other disease, but those who were in the habit of drinking spirits, were very liable to the disease. I do not know that such an observation was made in India; but I presume that drunkards suffered there, as well as here. In Europe, however, it is an undoubted fact, that that portion of the lower order who had everything calculated to keep them in good health, but who indulged in spirit-drinking, 66 THE Celts used to wipe their fingers on the COAL MINES. Formation, Working, and Ventilution. SEATED around the bright hearths of England, fed as they are with huge blocks of coal, how few of her merry people trouble themselves to imagine what depths have been delved, what labour has been undergone, what dark places of the earth have been routed and ransacked, to furnish their quiet homesteads with the warmth and blaze of this invaluable commodity. Presuming therefore to guide them through these gloomy abodes, and to acquaint them with the wonders of these subterranean caverns, we shall proceed to show how stratum heaped upon ponderous stratum is perforated by the skil fulness and activity of man, and how, in situatious so perilous, that little animated being contrives to live and move, and have his being. Coal is generally found to lie in that no sooner was it struck than it appeared to throw the whole mine into a regular state of mineral fermentation. The gas reared directly it was freed, going off like the report of a pistol, and bursting pieces of coal off the solid wall. The noise which the gas and water made in issuing from the coal was like a hundred thousand snakes hissing at each other. The working of such inflammable mines was no unalarming thing, but its terrors were thus counteracted. Two pits were first sunk, one was called the engine pit, and was employed for lifting up water and drainage: the other for the raising of coal. These pits were united with a headway at the bottom, and a hogshead was placed nearly at the top of the engine pit, with holes bored at the bottom of it. The water lifted up by the engine was then turned into this hogshead: it ran out again as it were from a cullender in all directions about the shaft, and thus created a regular water-blast: the air ascended the engine-shaft with the water, and returned rapidly up the upcast shaft. Having sunk to the bottom of the coal, the next object was to drive a way. gate in a right line to the outbreak of the coal in the crop: to ventilate it an air-course was cut in the side of the waygate, in the solid coal, about two feet high and about two feet wide, and the front was built up with bricks and mortar very tightly. The fresh air consequently went up the air-course and formed a current over the men; it blew on them, and mixing up with the gas, diluted it sufficiently to prevent its being explosive. At the outburst a little shaft was sunk eight or ten yards deep, and thus the ventilation of this formidable pit was completed. This was, in its day, a very fair expedient, hit upon at the spur of the moment: though it is one which would not suit many other cases. Better organized and more improved systems have now come into use, which we shall examine and explain. There are one or two technicalities which we beforehand elucidate. There are the terms "the upcast" and "the downcast-shaft:" the down-cast shaft is that by which the currents of atmospheric air are introduced into the mine: the upcast-shaft is that by which the vitiated current makes its exit. The air-course" is a general term, and means that the current of air is circula ting: the remaining thing is called "splitting the air" or dividing the current of air, which may be done to any extent. Up to the year 1760 a system was in vogue, which though good in some respects, was very faulty in others. Its great objection was that it ventilated very inadequately the pits, leaving the central part of the works, which was thence from called the dead waste," totally unventilated. This defect has now ceased. The western district is then supposed to discharge so much inflammable air as to seams varying from three to six feet in thick ness; these seams consist of different varieties of coal, the two principal of which are the bituminous, or caky coal, and slaty, or coal which does not cake. The bituminous coal moreover generates much greater quantities of carburetted hydrogen than the argillaceous coal. These seams or stratifications, instead of being smooth and continuous, are liable to great dislocations and interruptions. The number and extent of these dikes or slips affect in a great degree the generation of the carburetted hydrogen. In the operation of working the coal, there issues from it a continual sort of hissing noise, especially where it abounds with inflammable gas. The coal on being split is found to be very porous, which is the more easily perceived on its being magnified: in these pores the bitumen is secreted, and in those pores also it is supposed the gas is contained, either in a state of very high compression, or else in a liquid state, which contains a still greater quantity of gas in a smaller bulk. It is generally found that the quantities of gas are in proportion to the size and number of the cavities. The gas emitted in consequence of the porosity of the coal, the slip-dikes, or cracks in the strata act as tubes or pipes to collect and convey the extricated gas to different parts of the coal-field. These divisions of coal have also the name of backs, and these backs form magazines of gas of larger or smaller extent. In these places the coal is more easily separated than the solid coal, for approaching one of these backs, the pressure of the internal gas throws off by its sudden outburst a great portion of the coal adjoining it, but it is far more dangerous to the work men. Now the grand object of the superintendent of these works, is to preserve the lives and health of the workmen from the dreadful effects of these gaseous disruptions. The most serious attention is therefore to be 'paid to the proper ventilation of the mines. This is the most important feature of the whole. On this point we shall therefore engage the notice of the reader, and show how the combination of gas and water is overcome by one or two methods of ventilation. The first case gives us proof of a master-mind. The mines in question were more surcharged with gas than any ever known; when the coal was first struck, at a depth of 180 feet, it was highly charged with water, which flew out in all directions immediately. A large river which passed near the coal-pit was crossed by the outburst of the gas. From this the water boiled similarly to that of a steam-engine boiler, and if flame had been put to it would have spread over the river like what is commonly called setting the Thames on fire. If unquenched, a river thus ignited would burn for weeks and months. So terribly was this coal charged with gas, render the circulating current explosive; it is therefore discharged into the upcast-shaft, while the other current passes through the eastern division, which is supposed not to discharge so much inflammable air as to load the circulating current to the firing point, and is carried to the upcast-shaft. Such is the method which is characterized by the latest improvements, and which required no uncommon degree of sagacity and perseverance to finally accomplish and perfectuate. W. ARCHER. THE CHINESE MANDARIN & THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES. Translated from the Italian. In the early part of the reign of the Emperor Cam Hi the Great, a mandarin of the city of Canton, hearing a great noise in a neighbouring house, sent to inquire the cause of it, and was informed that the uproar was occasioned by a Dutch chaplain, a Danish missionary, and a jesuit, who were arguing with great vehemence. The mandarin requested the favour of their company, and ordering tea and sweetmeats to be set before them, begged to know the cause of such wrangling, so unbecoming their characters as teachers of religion. The jesuit replied, that to him, who was always in the right, nothing could be more painful than to argue with persons who were so perverse and obstinate as not to listen to reason; that, at first, he argued with the greatest coolness, but that, finally provoked by their perversity, he had lost all patience. The mandarin gently hinted the necessity of restraining argument by the rules of good breeding; remarked that, in China, men reasoned calmly; and requested to know the subject of their dispute. "I appeal to your excellency," replied the jesuit; these two gentlemen refused to submit to the decision of the Council of Trent."" I am surprised at that," said the mandarin; and turning to the two refractory disputants, addressed them thus:- It appears to me, gentlemen, that you ought to respect the opinion of a great assembly; I am quite ignorant of the Council of Trent, but the collective wisdom of many must be superior to that of an individual; nobody should be so presumptuous as to suppose that in his head alone dwells universal wisdomat least this is what our great Confucius teaches, and if you follow my advice you will submit to the Council of Trent." The Danish missionary readily admitted the force of the mandarin's reasoning, and informed him that he and the Dutch chaplain had adopted the opinions of various councils held before the Council of Trent. "Oh! if that is the case," said his excellency, "I beg your pardon,-" you may possibly be right." "Well, then, are you two of the same opinion, and against this poor jesuit ?""Not at all," exclaimed the Dutchinan, "he holds opinions as absurd and extravagant as the jesuit." I don't exactly understand you," replied the mandarin," are you not all three Christians? Have you not come here to teach the Christian religion? How is it that you are not unanimous in your opinions?"—" These two are mortal enemies," said the jesuit, "and yet they agree in opposing me; it is therefore evident, that the one or the other must be wrong, and that I alone am right.” "That does not follow, my friend,” returned the mandarin, "it is just possible that all three might be wrong. much like to hear you one by one." I should The jesuit delivered a long discourse, during which the other two exhibited, by their gestures, evident symptoms of compassion for his ignorance. The logic of the holy brother was completely thrown away on the good mandarin, who understood it not. After him the Dutchman took up the subject, and was regarded by his adversaries with pity and scorn. His reasoning, which, to himself, appeared as clear as any problem in mathematics, failed to enlighten the darkness of the mandarin's understanding. The Danish missionary was not more successful. The three disputants at length spoke together, and loaded each other with abuse. The honest mandarin could hardly pacify them, he urged the necessity of toleration towards each other's opinions, upon the same principle that it had been extended to all of them by the religion of his country. After leaving the house of the mandarin, the jesuit met a Dominican friar; he informed him that he had gained the victory, assuring him that truth would always triumph." If I had been there," replied the Dominican, "you should not have been victorious; I would have convicted you of falsehood and idolatry." The jesuit retorted, till, from words they came to blows. The mandarin, informed of their scandalous proceedings, committed them both to prison, An under-mandarin asked his excellency how long he wished to detain them in confinement?"Until they agree," was the answer. "Ah! then," said the under-mandarin, they must remain in prison for life-they never will forgive each other, I know them well."-"Let it be, then," concluded the good mandarin," until they pretend to be recon ciled." M. |