joy myself without fear of surprise. Not but that Soult was a great general. Soult was a wonderful man in his way. Soult. would assemble a hundred thousand men at a certain point on a certain day, but when he had got them there, he did not know what in the world to do with them,'

The Duke would not be drawn into comparisons disparaging foreign armies, and exalting our own at their expense. George the Fourth asked him whether the British cavalry was not the finest in the world. 'The French are very good, Sire.' Unsatisfied with this answer, the King rejoined: 'But ours is better, Duke?' 'The French are very good, Sire,' was again the Duke's dry response. No vulgar vaunt of superiority could be obtained from him.-The Examiner.

175. EDWARD VI.

Edward VI., the only son of Henry VIII. who survived him, was born at Hampton Court, October 12, 1537. His mother, Queen Jane Seymour, died on the twelfth day after giving him. birth. The child had three stepmothers in succession after this; but he was probably not much an object of attention with any of them. Sir John Hayward, who has written the history of his life and reign with great fulness, says that he 'was brought up among nurses until he arrived to the age of six years.' He was then committed to the care of Dr. (afterwards Sir Anthony) Cooke, and Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Cheke, the former of whom appears to have undertaken his instruction in philosophy and divinity, the latter in Greek and Latin. The prince made great proficiency under these able masters. Henry VIII. died at his palace at Westminster early in the morning of Friday, January 28, 1547; but it is remarkable that no announcement of his decease appears to have been made till Monday, the 31st, although the Parliament met and transacted business on the intervening Saturday. Edward, who was at Hatfield when the event happened, was brought thence in the first instance to the residence of his sister Elizabeth at Enfield, and from that place, on the 31st, to the Tower at London, where he was proclaimed the same day. The council now opened the will of the late king (executed on December 30 preceding), by which it was found' that he had (according to the powers granted him by the Acts

28 Hen. VIII. ch. 7, and 35 Hen. VIII. ch. 1) appointed sixteen persons, under the name of executors, to exercise the powers of the Government during the minority of his son. One of these, the king's maternal uncle, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, was immediately elected by the rest their president, and either received from them in this character, or assumed of his own authority, the titles of Governor of his Majesty, Lord Protector of all his realms, and Lieutenant-General of all his armies. He was also created Duke of Somerset, and soon after took to himself the office of Lord High Treasurer, and was further honoured by being made Earl Marshal for life. About the same time his brother, Sir Thomas Seymour, was created Baron Seymour of Sudley, and appointed Lord High Admiral.-Penny Cyclopædia.

176. A TALISMAN.

While R. Houdin was staying with the chieftain Bou-Allem, a Marabout looked with supreme disgust on his tricks. When the séance was over, the Marabout said: 'I now believe in your supernatural power,—you are a real sorcerer, so I hope you will not fear to repeat a trick you performed at your theatre.' Then producing a pair of pistols from under his burnous, he said: 'Come, choose one of these pistols, we will load it and I will fire at you. You have nothing to fear, since you are invulnerable.' Houdin hardly knew how to escape; and the Marabout smiled malignantly at his triumph. BouAllem, who knew that Houdin's tricks were the result of address, was very angry; but Houdin would not be beaten. Turning to the Marabout, he said that he had left his talisman at Algiers, but that he would, for all that, allow him to fire at him the next morning. During the night he made his preparations, and the pistols were loaded with all due solemnity, the Marabout putting in the powder, Houdin the balls. The Marabout fired; and the ball appeared between the wizard's. teeth. Then taking up the other pistol, Houdin fired at a newly whitewashed wall: immediately a large stain of blood appeared on it. The Marabout was overwhelmed-at that: moment he doubted everything, even the Prophet.

177. TABLE DELICACIES IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS.

Bills of fare vary very much, even in Greenland. I have inquired of Petersen, and he tells me that the Greenland Esquimaux (there are many Greenlanders of Danish origin) are not agreed as to which of their animals afford the most delicious food; some of them prefer reindeer venison, others think more favourably of young dog. A Danish captain, who had acquired the taste, provided some for his guests, and they praised his mutton! After dinner he sent for the skin of the animal, which was no other than a large red dog. This occurred in Greenland, where his Danish guests had resided for many years, far removed from European mutton. Baked puppy is a real delicacy all over Polynesia; at the Sandwich Islands I was once invited to a feast, and had to feign disappointment as well as I could, when told that puppy was so extremely scarce it could not be procured in time, and therefore sucking-pig was substituted.-Capt. M'Clintock's Voyage of the Fox.

178. AN ENGLISH OPINION OF FRENCH SOLDIERS.

The soldiers of no other nation, perhaps, would so readily have submitted to the privations which those of France were called upon to bear; but it was found at last that they did not differ so materially from other people, but that there was a limit to their endurance. In other respects, however, the French are peculiarly suited to make good soldiers: they possess high courage; great personal activity and mental resources : sobriety, which keeps them easily within the bounds of discipline; a buoyancy of spirits, that makes them undergo fatigue and bear privations without complaining; a stock of vanity, that enables them to keep up their spirits; and an inordinate love of fame, which leads them to undertake the most daring enterprises. A long course of uninterrupted successes had led the French troops to consider themselves invincible; and so indeed they had been found by all who had hitherto attempted to resist them. Such were the troops with whom the victor of Assaye, with the 'shopkeeper' army of England, was about to dispute the palm of victory.—Mil. Life of Wellington, by Jackson and Scott.

179. THE CELTIC LANGUAGE.

Adam spoke Irish in Eden, and wooed Eve in Welsh, and scolded her in Gaelic when driven forth, and taught Cain Breton and Abel Cornish. In some form or another the Celtic was the primitive language, which the confusion of Babel split up into Chinese, Hebrew, Sanscrit, and Dutch. At all events the Celtic was the primitive language of Europe. This at least is the doctrine of certain Celtomanes. No, says another class of philologists, equally possessed by a theory that Gothic was the primitive language of Europe, to which the Celtic may be referred. Political animosities have entered into a question which should be decided without passion, and which belongs to the impartial decision of literature. It was with this view that

M. de Belloquet has long occupied himself with inquiries into Celtic origins, and the result is the appearance of the first part of an important work which cannot fail to interest scholars, Ethnogénie Gauloise. This first part is confined to the linguistic, or comparison of languages. By-and-by it is hoped he will publish the physiological portion, or the study of the physical characters peculiar to different peoples; and finally the ethnological portion, which shall indicate the manners, the customs belonging to each race.-The Critic.

180. THE BOMBARDMENT OF MILAN IN 1849.

On the 22nd April an intrepid body of defenders, five in number, a band of noble spirits, of those who knew how to die, led on by Lucien Manora, marched upon the gate Tosa, which was defended by two thousand soldiers and six cannon. With a boldness that danger heightened, they threw themselves upon the Austrians, put them to flight, and seized upon this gate, where they established themselves as victors. Soon after the auxiliary columns, seconded by the courage of the inhabitants of the city, succeeded in opening by main force the gate of Como.

After this double success of the Milanese, Radetzki was no longer master of Milan. His troops, detached at the gates and upon the bastions, were about to be surrounded and taken in detail. He found himself in his turn hemmed in by the insurrection. He learned successively by his emissaries the rising of

all the towns of Lombardy; the Piedmontese could in a few marches unite their strength to that of the population. There remained for him nothing now but to concentrate his army, rally all the detachments, all the garrisons of the towns, ascertain the citadels still remaining in his power, and choose his field of battle. With the eye of a skilful general he hesitated no longer, and took the resolution of beating a retreat. At the approach of night he wished to disguise this retreat by the redoubled fire of his artillery. Sixty pieces vomited upon the city destruction and death. The setting fire to several isolated houses, situated at the extremity of the faubourgs threw a sinister light. All at once an immense column of flame rose from the midst of the castle. The Austrians had piled up in the great court masses of straw and hay, vehicles and furniture, to burn their dead, and make the gloomy proofs of their defeat imperceptible. The fire which flashed from a thousand guns seemed to form round Milan a circle of flame. The alarm bell sounded with redoubled peals in the fifty spires of the city. The multiplied roars of the cannon were reverberated by the echoes. It was a scene of sublime horror, of which one of the combatants, mounted on a turret, has made himself the painter and historian.

The Austrians hoped to profit by the terror and disorder into which Milan was thrown by this bombardment, these burnings, this frightful spectacle, to file off secretly along the bastions, and hide their last manœuvres. But the exasperated tirailleurs, not allowing themselves to be disturbed either by fire or sound, harassed them without ceasing. Multiplied obstacles raised in their path stayed the troops on the march. They had to drag along with them the artillery, the wounded, the families of the employés, and the unhappy persons taken as hostages. The retreat from Milan lasted eight hours, the army leaving at every step corpses and prisoners behind it.-Translated from Garnier-Pagès.

181. AN ADVENTURE WITH ROBBERS.

A traveller in Mexico, whose name was Taylor, started one morning at sunrise from the cold comfortless inn where he had slept the night before. A few hours' riding brought him to a small town, where he was glad to rest himself, and breakfast.