none the less because the hair is grey, and that question but that the Master's finding is right. But "sorrow seems half his immortality."-Capt. Medwin.

THE BURMESE THRONE.-The celebrated Burmese Throne, or Rath, belonging to Mr. Batty, of Astley's Theatre, left that establishment, drawn by the team of enormous camels en route for Liverpool. The novelty of such an equipage attracted a vast crowd, which increased as it progressed. The animals becoming alarmed at the shouts of the people when in Parliament-street, started off at full gallop, the camel-drivers having much difficulty in keeping up with them. Opposite the Horse Guards the foremost animals fell down, and the entire team rolled over them, the Burmese throne narrowly escaping destruction. After a time the unwieldy creatures were extricated, and reached the railway at Euston square without further mishap.

LONGEVITY. A Trieste journal records the death of Luca Brissiac, an old soldier, at the age of 116 years, having enjoyed good health to the last. Of his life our authority says:-" He was born at Trieste, and baptized at San Guisto in 1731, according to the baptismal certificate, which we ourselves have examined, and which the old fellow was wont to show to the incredulous. He served in the Seven Years' War, and had seen Maria Theresa in Vienna, whom he could only describe as "a fat lady, attired in black." This was all he could tell us of the once famous Empress of Germany. He served as a soldier for ninety-six years; and for about forty years he "played the apostle," as he said, having been chosen from amongst the most aged for the office more scriptural than savoury-ot washing the feet of the rest. Such was his simple career."

a question arises, whether, under the circumstances of the case, the status of Thomas, and William, his son, is not such as to incapacitate William, the grandson, from taking lands by descent from the testatrix. The argument in that view was founded upon the two treaties of this country with the United States, of September, 1783, and November, 1794. I am clear that there is nothing in either of these treaties to affect the rights of William the grandson. The treaty of 1783 empowered British-born subjects, then residing in America, to become American citizens; it did not empower British subjects who af terwards should go to reside there, to become such citizens. "Doe v. Mulcaster" (8 Barn and Cr.) is a case in point. Thomas Willock never was in America until 1784, and therefore he was not a sub. ject of that treaty of 1783. The treaty of 1794 was in the nature of a local act, and Thomas Willock did not reside in the locality. The correctness, then, of the Master's conclusion must depend upon the statutes of the 7th Anne, chap. 5, 4th George II., chap. 21, 13th George III., chap. 21, and 3d James I., chap. 4. Thomas Willock went to America in 1784, and his son and grandson were born there : the son, therefore, not being born within the King's allegiance, his capacity must depend upon the 7th Anne and 4th George II. By the third section of the former statute it is declared "that the children of all natural born subjects, born out of the alle giance of Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, shall be deemed, adjudged, and taken to be natural born subjects to all intents, constructions, and pur. poses whatsoever." The statute of the 4th George II., chap. 21, explaining that of Anne, requires "That the fathers of such children shall be natural born subjects at the time of the birth of such children respectively." The only question up to this LAND.-An important case was lately decided in the point of the case would be, whether in 1788, at the Court of Chancery in England, which may have time of the birth of William, the son, Thomas, had its interest to our readers, respecting the right of ceased to be a natural born subject of Great Britain. Americans to inherit property in England. The Judg-chap. 21, provides, That all persons born out of As to William, the grandson, the 13th George III., ment was given by Sir J. Wigram. In this case a the allegiance, &c., whose fathers were, or should reference had been directed to the Master to inquire by virtue of the statutes 7th Anne and 4th George who was the heir at-law of Ann Taylor, the testatrix in the cause, living at the time of her death. ., be entitled to the rights and privileges of natural The Master found that the testatrix was the daughter born subjects, should be deemed natural born sub of one William Willock, who died in 1773. In 1839 jects." From the words of the last act, it is clear the testatrix died without issue. The testatrix had that the capacity of William, the grandson, to ina sister Elizabeth, who married one Butler, and had herit depends upon the question whether William, issue Thomas D. Butler, one of the claimants; and the son, at the time of his birth, was entitled to the a sister Alice, who married one Sause, and died in rights and privileges of a natural born subject by 1772, leaving a daughter, Fauny Eglington. The virtue of the statutes of 7th Anne and 4th George testatrix had also a brother, Thomas Willock, who. The inquiry as to the capacity of William, the died in 1833, leaving a son, William Willock, who grandson, must be answered by transferring the inwas born in 1778, was married in 1823, and died inquiry to the capacity of William, the son, under 1835, leaving a son, William Willock. Thomas Willock left also a second son, J. T. Willock, and a daughter Catherine, who was one of the plaintiffs in the cause. The Master found that W. Willock, the grandson of Thomas, was the heir at law of the testatrix at the time of her death. By the report, it appeared that in 1784, Thomas Willock, a British born subject, had gone to reside in the United States, and in the same year had taken the oath of alle giance to that Government, by the terms of which he renounced and abjured his allegiance to any other State or Government whatsoever. The parties excepting to the Master's report were the descendants of testatrix's sisters and J. T. Willock, the second son of Thomas Willock. The case having been argued for several previous days,

AMERICANS INHERITING PROPERTY IN ENG

His Honor now delivered judgment. According to the pedigree, which is not disputed, there is no

those statutes.

The first question arises as to the disqualifications expressed in the second section of the 4th George II., chap. 21. Those qualifications are three: they extend, first, to children whose fathers, at the time of their birth, were or should be attainted of high treason by judgment, outlawry, or otherwise: secondly, to children whose fathers, at the time of their birth, were, or should be liable to the penalties of high treason or felony, in case of their returning to this kingdom without the license of the Crown; and thirdly, children whose fathers, at the time of their birth, were or should be in the actual service of any foreign prince or state at enmity with the Crown. The first and third disqualifications gave rise to no question, for no such attaind er or foreign service bas been shown in this case. With respect to the second disqualification, I think it was well argued, on

the part of the grandson, that the words of the se- WHAT ARE NEBULE-As respects the idea cond section as to returning into the kingdom with- conveyed by the word nebulæ, it seems not easy out license clearly point to a well known class of to draw any distinct and serviceable line of demaroffences; and the fact that such a distinct class of of- cation between objects optically and physically fences did exist and subject the offenders to the pe- (i. e., apparently and really) nebulous. We have nalties of treason or felony, is a sufficient reason in no knowledge of any natural limit, in either direc my opinion to induce any court of justice to restrain tion, to the real size and lustre of those self-lumithe words of the statute within those limits. No nous bodies we call stars. Masses of luminous construction of a statute could be more improbable matter, as large as mountains or planets, if congrethan one which requires a court of justice to deter gated by millions, at the vast distance of a nebula, mine incidentally, that a person was actually guilty would affect our sight, armed with any conceivable of treason or felony in the absence of that party. amount of telescopic power we can hope to attain, An argument, however, of another kind was resort- individually, no more than the undistinguishable ed to; it was said that Thomas, in the circumstances particles of a cloud of dust on a sunny day, or found by the Master, had abjured his allegiance, and than the constituent aqueous spherules of an actual before the birth of William, his son, had become by cloud or fog, from which the term in question his own acts an American citizen, and had ceased derives its origin. It is between discrete and altogether to be a British subject. After giving this concrete forms of matter only that any true argument the fullest consideration, I think that it is physical line can be drawn between a multitude of fallacious. The privileges conferred by the statutes distinctly separated bodies, whether greater or less, in question upon the children of subjects born out of constituting a system, and continuous, solid, liquid, the King's allegiance, are the privileges of the chil- or gaseous matter, constituting a whole, or individren and not of the fathers, and are conferred upon dual. No one has yet considered, or is likely, Sir the children for the benefit of the state itself; though John Herschel presumes, to consider, a nebula as a I do not say that if the parents are disqualified by solid or liquid body (in our sense of the words), their own acts the children may not lose the privi- variously luminous in its different parts. leges conferred upon them by these statutes. But

The

Even flames are

the parent may do acts short of this, subjecting him- gaseous, or (to speak more properly) the cloudy form of matter, has rather suggested itself to the self to penalties or forfeiture, but if the question is, imagination of those who have speculated on this whether, by the act of the father, the child shall lose subject; for we must bear in mind that a cloud is his privileges, it is not enough to show that the father not a gas, but a mixture of gasiform with solid or has done an act which may possibly have a given fluid matter, or both, in a state of extreme subdieffect; it must be shown that the acts of the father vision. It is certainly conceivable that a continuactually had that effect which the argument ascribes ous transparent liquid or gaseous medium may be to them, and without that the rights of the children luminous throughout its whole substance; but it will be unaffected by the acts of the father. No will be found, Sir John Herschel apprehends, on a thing is more certain than that natural born subjects cannot get rid of their allegiance by any such careful examination of every case apparently in point, that nature furnishes no example of such a acts as the Master has found to have been done by thing within the limits of direct experience. Ig Thomas. I do not deny that Thomas may have subnited liquids (as glass, for example, or melted jected himself to pains and penalties, but the question is upon the rights and privileges of the chil-nitre, &c.) are demonstrably, only superficially luminous. Were it otherwise, their apparent indren; and whilst the obligation of allegiance remains upon the father, the rights and privileges of tensity of illumination would be proportioned to the children will not be affected by the acts relied the depth of melted matter, which is not the case upon. I am not now called upon to say how far the Air, however intensely heated (if perfectly free acts of the Legislature of this country can make a from dust), gives out no light. man, born out of the allegiance, a subject against more than surmised to owe their light to solid or his will; all I am called upon to decide is, that a fluid materials existing in them as such, and in a man, entitled under the statutes in question to such state of ignition. The flame of mixed oxygen and rights, cannot be deprived of them by such acts of hydrogen can hardly be doubted to owe what little his father as have been relied upon. The statute of light it possesses to intermixed impurities; and in 3d James I., chap. 4, sections 22 and 23, no doubt the flames of carbonaceous matters, and others, creates an offence; but in the absence of attainder, where metals or phosphorus are burned, and judgment, or outlawry the case falls under the fore- fixed oxides are generated, the intensity of the going observations. This appears to me to dispose light bears an evident proportion to the fixity of of the question as between the descendants of the the ignited molecules-on whose surfaces, it may testatrix's sisters and William, the grandson. But be presumed to originate by some unknown elec it was contended on the part of J. T. Willock, that he tric or other process.-Sir John Herschell. was to be preferred to the grandson on the ground NATURE OF SPOTS ON THE SUN.-On the solar that the latter had not qualified himself by receiving the sacrament, taking the oaths, and subscribing the envelope, of whose fluid nature there can be ro declarations within the five years, as prescribed by doubt, we clearly perceive, by our telescopes, an the statute. These acts were not done within the intermixture (without blending or mutual dilution) five years; but it does appear to me impossible to of two distinct substances or states of matter; the read that act and not to see that some reasonable one luminous, the other not so; and the phenomena time must be allowed before the party is required to of the spots and pores tend directly to the concludo these acts. It certainly is not meant that the sion that the non-luminous portions are gaseous, party should do them before the title has accrued by however they may leave the nature of the lumithe death of the ancestor. It is within the meaning nous doubtful: they suggest the idea of radiant of Lord Coke that where a party is entitled to cer- matter floating in a non-radiant medium, showing tain rights he has time allowed him to do the requi- a tendency to separate itself by subsidence, after site acts to perfect his title. Being of opinion that the manner of snow in air, or precipitates in a the Master was right in his conclusion, the excep-liquid of slightly inferior density.—Sir John Her tions must be overruled, with costs. schell.

AN ACCOMPLISHED SOMNAMBULIST.-A curious¦ nent at that time. Viotti, I remember, was abcircumstance has been related by a highly-bene- surdly ordered out of the country, and Kelly, ficed member of the Roman Catholic Church. In who was a manager in the Opera House, officially the college where he was educated was a young announced from the stage, that Madame Catalani seminarist who habitually walked in his sleep; and her husband Valabreque, were not objects of and while in a state of somnambulism, used to sit suspicion to the government. I was surprised at down to his desk and compose the most eloquent the vigor of Madame Catalani, and how little she sermons; scrupulously erasing, effacing, or inter- was altered since I saw her at Derby, in 1828. I lining, whenever an incorrect expression had fallen paid her a compliment upon her good looks. from his pen. Though his eyes were apparently "Ah," said she, "I'm grown old and ugly." I fixed upon the paper when he wrote, it was clear would not allow it. "Why, man," she said, "I'm that they exercised no optical functions; for he sixty-six ?" She has lost none of that commanding wrote just as well when an opaque substance was expression which gave her such dignity on the interposed between them and the sheet of the pa- stage. She is without a wrinkle, and appears to be per. Sometimes an attempt was made to remove no more than forty. Her breadth of chest is still the paper, in the idea that he would write upon remarkable; it was this that endowed her with the the desk beneath. But it was observed that he finest voice that ever sang. Her speaking voice and instantly discerned the change, and sought another dramatic air are still charming and not in the least sheet of paper, as nearly as possible resembling impaired.-Gardiner's Sights in Italy. the former one. At other times a blank sheet of

paper was substituted by the bystanders for the THE GENEVA PROFESSORS.-Dr. Malan is near one on which he had been writing; in which case, seventy and looks considerably older-his snow on reading over, as it were, his composition, he white hair falling on his shoulders, but the glance was sure to place the corrections, suggested by the of his eye and his general manners are those of a perusal, at precisely the same intervals they would man of sixty. He speaks English fluently, and has have occupied in the original sheet of manuscript. a very clear, melodious voice, and rare skill in singThis young priest, moreover, was an able musician; ing-as I can personally testify. His missionary and was seen to compose several pieces of music tours among Roman Catholics, as described by himwhile in a state of somnambulism, drawing the self, are most interesting. As a popular preacher lines of the music paper for the purpose with a and speaker in his own way, it is not probable that ruler and pen and ink, and filling the spaces with many excel him. his notes with the utmost precision, besides a careful adaptation of the words, in vocal pieces. On one occasion the somnambulist dreamed that he sprang into a river to save a drowning child; and, on his bed, he was seen to imitate the movement of swimming. Seizing the pillow, he appeared to snatch it from the waves and lay it on the shore. The night was intensely cold; and so severely did he appear affected by the imaginary chill of the river, as to tremble in every limb; and his state of cold and exhaustion, when roused, was so alarming, that it was judged necessary to admin. ister wine and other restoratives.-Poyntz's World of Wonders.

Prof. Gaussen is about fifty-seven, but youthful for that age; his face very intelligent and of a most pleasant expression, with nothing French in his features. If the impressions, which I received, are those which are usually made by him on strangers; few men are so winning; rarely have I so regretted the obstacles to a free, fraternal conversation, which are interposed by comparative ignorance of each other's language. Of his work on Theopneusty, so peculiar for its originality and acuteness, I need not here speak.

Dr. Merle D'Aubigne must be six feet two, and of large frame. His countenance is massive in its features, his complexion dark, and the engravingprefixed to the American reprint of his History of the Reformation would be generally deemed a flattery. As a resemblance, it is of little value. I understood him to say in answer to a friend accompanying me, that he had as yet made but little progress in the 5th volume, in consequence of other engagements.

A VISIT TO MADAME CATALANI.-We called upon Madame Catalani, who leaves her palazzo, on the side of the mountains, in the winter months, to reside with her son Malabreque, in Florence, She presently made her appearance with that vivacity and captivating manner which so much delighted us in England. After a short conversa STEAM PLOW.-A French paper, "La Semaine," tion with Madame OI spoke to her in announces the invention of a steam plow, or rather English, coupling my name with that of Mrs. Lo- a mode of digging by means of steam, from which raine Smith, of Leicestershire, at whose house I great results are anticipated. The inventor is a spent a week with her 36 years ago. The incident young medical man, named Baraff. The paper directly flashed across her mind, and with obvious states that one of two horse power was in operation pleasure, she began to recount the honors paid her at the residence of the maker, who was constructing on that occasion, especially a banquet at Mr. Po- another of double that power. The machine prochin's, of Barkby. She retains her English, and ceeds along the field, and digs the ground with the was pleased to talk to me in my own language. I greatest precision. Two beams, furnished with five observed that it was forty years since I first heard her at the Opera in London. She instantly replied, "Thirty-nine. I was in Portugal in 1807, and though the war was raging, I ventured to make my way to England through France. When at Paris I was denied a passport. However, I got in- THE RAILWAY KING.-According to the "Cartroduced to Talleyrand, and by the aid of a hand- lisle Journal," my lord, the railway king," has reful of gold, I was put into a government boat, and ceived the degree of doctor of philosophy from one ordered to lie down to avoid being shot; and, won- of the German universities." Doctor of philosophy! derful to relate, I got over in safety, with my little But it may not be so very inappropriate; Manfred boy seven months old." Great suspicion was at- calls philosophy-" of all our vanities the motliest." tached to foreigners, who arrived from the Conti--Jerrold's Newspaper.

mattocks each, act successively upon the soil, loosening it to the depth of 12 or 15 inches, and pounding it as small as compost. By using only one of the beams, a tillage of the usual depth can be effected.