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0.32122 with a probable error of 0.03684 By Declination of do., 0 .35719 0.03562

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In attempting to determine the parallax of stars of the first and second magnitude, M. Peters founds his researches on all the parallaxes which have been

determined with sufficient precision. He finds that there are thirty-five stars, whose parallaxes, whether absolute or relative, are determined with a degree of precision sufficient for his purpose; but he excludes 61 Cygni and Groombridge 1830, as having a great proper motion. The general result at which he arrives is, "that the mean parallax of stars of the second magnitude is + 0" 116, and that the probable error of this determination is only 0" 014." By combining this value with the table of relative distances in page 527, he obtains the results in the following table given by M. Struve :— No. of Julian years

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Distances expressed in radii of the Earth's orbit.

in which light traverses these distances. 15.5

19.6

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28.0

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This table exhibits to us grand truths, which, we may venture to say, neither Newton nor La Place ever contemplated as within the range of human intellect. But even these are surpassed in interest by the determination of the actual velocity with which our own solar system, our sidereal home, is wheeling its ethereal round, guided by

*Bessel makes it 0".348 0".010.

+ M. Struve makes it 0'.261 0.025.

Taking the mean of five values of it by Lindenau, Struve, and Preuss, do. do., and Peters, we have 0".091 0.010. M. Peters makes it 0′′.106 as a final determina

tion.

The magnitudes 1.5 and 2.5 are stars of intermediate magnitude, between those of the first and second and the second and third magnitudes.

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"Here, then," says M. F. W. . G. Struve, we have the splendid result of the united studies of MM. Argelander, O. Struve, and Peters, grounded atories of Dorpat, Abo, and Pulkova, and which on observations made at the three (Russian) observis expressed in the following thesis: The motion of the solar system in space is directed to a point of the celestial vault situated on the right line which joins the two stars π and u Herculis, at a quarter of the apparent distance of these stars, reckoning from a Herculis. The velocity of this motion is such that the sun, with all the bodies which depend upon it, advances annually in the above direction 1.623 times the radius of the earth's orbit, or 33,550,000 geographical miles. The possible error of this last number amounts to 1,733,000 geographical miles, or to a seventh of the whole value. We may then wager 400,000 to 1 that the sun has a proper progressive motion, and 1 to 1 that it is comprised between the limits of thirty-eight and twentynine millions of geographical miles."". "-p. 108.

That is, taking 95 millions of English miles as the mean radius of the earth's orbit, we have 95 X 1.623 = 154.185 millions of miles, and, consequently,

The velocity of the Solar System,

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The sun and all his planets, primary and secondary, are therefore now in rapid motion round an invisible focus. To that now dark and mysterious centre, from which no ray, however feeble, shines, we may in another age point our telescopes-detecting, perchance, the great luminary which controls our system, and bounds its path-into that vast orbit which man during the whole cycle of his race may never be allowed to round. If the buried relics of primeval life have taught us how brie! has been our tenure of this terrestrial paradise compared

with its occupancy by the brutes that perish, the sidereal truths which we have been expounding impress upon us the no less humbling lesson, that from the birth of man to the extinction of his race, the system to which he belongs will have described but an infinitesimal arc of that immeasurable circle in which it is destined to revolve. It is as if the traveller or naturalist, equipped for the survey of nature's beauties and wonders, had been limited only to a Sabbath's journey. Some mountain tops might rise to his view as he creeps along, and some peaks might disappear beyond the horizon which he leaves behind; but had the first man surveyed the constellation Hercules, to which our system is advancing, it would have seemed to him as remote as it will appear to the last of our race.

In the contemplation of the infinite in number We and in magnitude, the mind ever fails us. stand appalled before the mighty spectre of boundless space, and faltering reason sinks under the load of its bursting conceptions. But placed, as we are, on the great locomotive of our system, destined surely to complete at least one round of its ethereal course, and learning that we can make no apparent advance on our sidereal journey, we pant with new ardor for that distant bourn which we constantly approach without the possibility of reaching it. In feeling this disappointment, and patiently bearing it, let us endeavor to realize the great truth from which it flows. It cannot occupy our mind without exalting and improving it. It cannot take its place among our acquirements without hallowing and enobling them. Though now but a truth to be received, it may yet become a principle of action, and though now veiled by a cloud, it may yet be a lamp to our feet and a light to our ways. Whom God made after His own image, he will not retain in perpetual darkness. What man's reason has made known, man will be permitted to see and to understand. "He that bindeth the sweet influences of the Pleiades, and looseth the bands of Orion, and quieteth Arcturus with his sons," will in His own time "discover deep things out of darkness," and "reveal the ordinances of heaven."

other day that the practice of confession was gaining ground in Protestant parishes. Forewarned is forearmed; and where the bane is discovered, it may be well to throw in an antidote in the shape of a copy of the Count de Lasteyrie's History.—Exam-.

iner.

MR. TENNYSON'S POEM.-When Lord North corrected Burke for a false quantity in vectigal, (the quotation was in support of economy,) the great orator promptly acknowledged his error by repeating the line correctly, and thanking the minister for the opportunity of urging it again upon the house. We are going to follow Mr. Burke's example, and repeat more correctly a very fine passage misquoted last week from Mr. Tennyson's poem, and rendered quite unintelligible. It is that where the princess reveals the change which love has wrought in her. -Examiner.

"From mine arms she rose

Glowing all over noble shame; and all
Her falser self slipt from her like a robe,
And left her woman; lovelier in her mood
Than in her mould that other, when she came
From barren deeps to conquer all with love,
And down the streaming crystal dropt, and she
Far-fleeted by the purple island-sides,
Naked, a double light in air and wave,
To meet her Graces, where they decked her out
For worship without end; nor end of mine,
Stateliest, for thee!"

THE MODEL MAID-OF-ALL-WORK.-Her age is 14. Her arms are bare, and her feet slipshod. Her curls are rarely out of paper. She sports a clean apron on the Sunday, about tea-time. It is a mystery where she sleeps; some say the kitchen, in one of the large drawers; and others declare she known for positive whether she ever goes to bed at has a turn-up bed in the hall-clock: but it is not all. She has a wonderful affection for the cat. Everything that is missed, or lost, or broken, or not eaten, she gives unhesitatingly to him. She is not fond of the drawing-room, but has a good-natured partiality for the garret, who sings funny songs, and gives her occasionally an order for the play. She takes her dinner whilst washing the dishes, and never gets her breakfast till all the floors have done with the one teapot. She tries very hard to answer five bells at once, and in despair answers none. She always forgets the mustard, and prefers blowing the fire with her mouth instead of the bellows. Her

hands will not bear minute inspection; and no won

The History of Auricular Confession, religiously, morally, and politically considered, among Ancient and Modern Nations. By Count C. P. de Lastey-der, for she is cleaning boots, or washing, or cooking dinners, all day long. She carries coals in a rie, translated under the author's especial sanction, by Charles Cocks, B. L. Two vols. Bent- dustpan, hands bread on a fork, and wipes plates She is abused by everybody, and ley. never gets a holiday. She only knows it is Sunday by the lodgers stopping in bed later than usual, and having twice as many dinners to cook. She is never

with her apron.

THIS is a clever translation of a book which has been generally read, and with curiosity and interest, in Paris. There is more of the show than the re-allowed to go out, excepting to fetch beer or tobacco. ality of learning in it, and the author writes as from She hears complaints without a murmur, and listens a brief; but his intention is presented with consid- to jokes without a smile. She gets £6 a year, and erable power, and, in every imaginable evidence of is expected to wait on about 20 persons, to do the detestable tendency in the practice of Confession, work of five servants, to love all the children in the with relation to religion, morality, or history, the house, and to be honest for the money. It is not subject may be said to be exhausted in his two vol-known what becomes of the Model Maid-of-all-work We shall be glad to find them obtain read-in her old age. It is believed, however, that she ers, thinking their object on the whole a good one. sinks into the charwoman at the age of 20. LandA competent authority informed the public the ladies, be gentle to her!-Punch.

umes.

POLITICS OF THE WORLD.

THE close kin that exists between the principle

THE session of parliament reöpened on 3d Feb. of (so called) protection and the practice of pillage with Lord George Bentinck's demonstration in was very naïvely betrayed in Lord G. Bentinck's favor of protection and the sugar colonies. The speech, in the close of which, to set things right in the West Indies, to put down slavery, and to champion was curiously placed; since he is no longer the head of the protectionists, nor was he put up the Spanish bondholders, he coolly proWould it not be cheap, he the chosen advocate of the West Indians. He is posed to seize Cuba! at odds with the country party, by whom, it And certainly the prime cost would be should appear, he has been discarded; and, between simply that of honor, honesty, and faith; and the him and the West Indians there are serious differ-secondary expenses probably only those of an For example, the West Indians ask European war, for the powers of the continent would not be very likely to submit quietly to the example of England's filching a Spanish posses

ences.

asked.

sion.

changes in the navigation-laws, which he opposes; they demand extensive immigration, and though he does not oppose that measure, he throws upon it the discredit of his disbelief in its utility. The proposal indicates both the morality of His "protection," and the statesmanship of Lord main object was to show that the free-trade measures which have emanated from Downing street George Bentinck, who, whenever he comes into of late have failed in their object; and the West power, will do so on the principle of seizing Cuba Indies only formed an incidental section in his as a cheap and easy solution of the West India He made a suggestion for the suppression question;-not to mention the collateral advantage of cutting the American trade in two-and at of slave-trading, which has the merit of boldness; making minced meat of things, parties especially, Spain owes this country £45,000,000, secured on Lord George is a matchless master, superior even Cuba: Lord George would enforce payment of the to Sir Robert Peel. Such a prodigy, considering money; in default of payment seize Cuba, and establish freedom of labor in that island. There the age we live in, do we consider this proposal of would at least be a vigor and a degree of efficacy without a transcript of it from the columns of the Lord George Bentinck, that we cannot be satisfied in that plan, that are altogether missed in the blockade of the African coast.

case.

Times:

"He had read in the Times an extract from an United States paper, in which it was stated, that if the United States did not possess herself of Cuba, Great Britain would, and that England had a greater States had to Mexico, because a sum of £45,000,claim by one hundredfold to Cuba than the United 000 was due to British subjects upon Spanish bonds, and Cuba was hypothecated for the payment of that debt. And why did the Americans think that Great Britain would like to have possession of Cuba? Because they knew she could never put down the slave trade so long as it was carried on at Cuba in its present form. He would therefore say at once, let them take possession of Cuba, and settle the question altogether; let them distrain upon it for the just debt due, and too long asked in vain, from the Spanish government. (Hear, hear.) They would put an end to the slave trade if they could emancipate the slaves of Cuba. If the people of this country thought it right to spend £150,000,000 in putting down slavery, and ruining our colonies besides, would it not be cheap policy to put an end to slavery forever by seizing Cuba?

It is far too Cromwell-like a project for our ministers; they had nothing but a cento of small compromises. With the West Indies, "three courses" seem open to the statesman-to maintain a degree of exclusive protection, which should neutralize the advantage that slavery possesses in the competition with free-labor; to fit the West Indies for the struggle of competition, by securing to them supplies of free-labor equal to those secured for the slave-countries; to abandon the suppression of the slave-trade, resting the emancipation of the negro on his civilization in the West Indies. Ministers compromise all such courses. They will not establish thorough free-trade, either for the West Indies or the Metropolitan Kingdom, but keep up restraints or distinctive duties in distilleries and breweries; they will allow immigration, but only from certain quarters; they will not give up the African squadron, yet the chancellor of the exchequer admits that they cannot be consistent in opposing the institution of slavery by excluding its produce. They propound a set of small measures-inquiry, because it is superero"Lord G. Bentinck said the case of Cuba stood gatory and useless; the limited use of molasses upon its own merits, and upon the debt of £45,for distillation; a change in the navigation-laws;000,000 due to British subjects from the Spanish the advance of £200,000 towards the expenses of immigration; postponement of the repayment of an old loan, and a charitable aid to Tobago for damage inflicted by the elements. There is to be no free trade, no unrestricted immigration, no adherence to anti-slavery plans, no abandonment of anti-slavery plans. Sir Charles Wood is only clear on one point-that free-trade against the West Indies is good for the English revenue. These small compromises indicate vacillation and weakness.-Spectator, 5 Feb.

"The chancellor of the exchequer.-But would you seize the Brazils as well?

government. Then, depend upon it, when Great Britain possessed the Havannah, as once she did, in 1762, when she held it for about a year, and then exchanged it for the Floridas, and when she would cut the trade of America in two, no more boasts would be heard of what the United States could do, such as that which was not long ago uttered by one of her military officers who declared that they never would be satisfied until Uncle Sam had set his right foot upon British Canada and his left upon California, embrace the whole of the eastern seaboard, and throw his leg, like a freeman, over the whole continent of South America to Cape Horn, with

Cuba for a cabbage-garden. That was the course which should be taken to put an end to slavery and slave-trading, and that having been done, there would be no difficulty in the British planter going to the coast of Africa and obtaining, not by purchase, not by war, but by the inducement of freedom and good wages, any number of Africans he might require for the cultivation of the soil."

a distress.

bury; at the little tale in one of the letters in the Times, of an Irish lad who on being rescued from actual starvation "struck" for higher wages; at Mr. John O'Connell's dramatic display in Conciliation hall. In all this, and in every other phase of Irish society, there are the characteristics of the stage. Everything is valued according to its outThis would be but a beginning of the foreign is a stage, the men and women ward appearance, in front: the whole of Ireland on it merely policy of the protectionists. The figure of the players. There is the laborer, who does no real Hercules must be traced ex pede and upon the work, nor anything else but “ come on." There principle justifying the seizure of Cuba the repudi- is the farmer, who is nothing but "a farmer" by ating states of the American Union would be con- title, for he does not till the land, nor let it, nor quered and made our own. It is well for Ausgive it up to his landlord: but he too "comes on," tria, in the event of a Bentinck ministry, that she to be virtuous, wronged, and indignant, and to talk has got out of the debt of England by a shabby of his "rights." There is the Ribandman, the compromise; but Greece may yet be sold up under ruffian or villain of the piece; who on the stage, The opposite poles of policy just now and in Ireland, stalks about in broad day-light, are obviously free-trade and free-booting; unre- wields his gun, shoots on a given cue, and walks stricted commerce on the one side, and unrestricted off without the slightest obstruction from chorus rapine on the other. A Bentinck ministry would or populace. There are the police, who give vahoist the black flag of the buccaneer.-Examiner. riety to the costume and the incidents. The landlord is "the tyrant lord of the manor," so familiar to English opera-the gentleman who is a landlord in the playbills only, and not in habit or practice; whose real business is only to amuse himself, to antagonize the man who does the heavy business and the wronged farmer, and to be shot at the end of the piece. There is the patriot, for the high tragic part. There is the priest, majestic, arbitrary, sonorous, ascetic; whose office it is to sing bass songs, or write letters from St. Jarlath's about things in general, but having nothing to do with the current business; copious in sustained “white notes" or white lies, in ponderous roulades or more ponderous billingsgate. Most ably supported, the action of the drama goes on; but, like the opera on the stage, it has no tangible results. The peasant digs nothing, and nothing cultivates. The landlord has no property, except the "properties" lent him by the property-man. The "sumptuous banquet" is empty dishes; the "flowing bowl" is empty. The only tangible produce is "the money taken at the doors"—of Conciliation hall; but that suffices not to disguise the wretchedness behind the scenes. The whole company is on the parish. Of course, "No money to be returned!”

From the Spectator, 29 Jan.
IRELAND A STAGE.

ACTUAL life in Ireland seems to be conducted on the principle of burlesque. That principle consists in picking out the incongruities which lurk in any handling of a serious subject, and converting them into the main subject of the composition. So, in Ireland, the grave purposes of existence are neglected, and the follies or counterfeits of society become the business of life. In other countries, industry is engaged in earning subsistence; learning, in the advancement of knowledge; patriotism, in the struggle for improved government; commerce, in the extension of material wealth. In Ireland, industry is only exercised pro forma, and the earning of subsistence is far from being a primary object; learning busies itself in the promotion of ignorance; the people invest their money in anything rather than in commerce-rather than do that, they will sink it in repeal rents, in impracticable railways, or hoard it; and the better the government the worse it is abused by the collective patriotism. Lord Clarendon being one of the best viceroys that Ireland ever saw, it follows almost as a matter of course that the professed if not recognized leader" Vivat Regina !" "Hurrah for Repeal!" of "the Irish party" pronounces him the "most The court of justice used to be a fine scene for injurious" viceroy. Among the active politicians poetic eloquence and low comedy: the culprit was whom Ireland suffers to represent her political so-led off by his friends the gaolers to join his friends ciety there is a perfect consistency of unreality: the witnesses in the green-room. But Lord Clarfigment is uniformly preferred to fact, falsehood endon and the special commission are spoiling that stands for truth; good influences are used for bad stock scene, and threaten to spoil the whole piece ends-pious obedience, for example, becomes use- in course of time; much to the indignation of ful in the promotion of murder; and the popular those who maintain this "legitimate drama.” leaders, by a sweet harmony in their discord, for they are personally divided by endless factious feuds, coöperate to promote the greatest misery of the greatest number.

WOULD that we could omit Ireland from our survey of passing affairs! It is a subject that presents every element of disgust-triteness, revolting crime, misery, and perversity. This week, three Irish bishops have been writing-the reader Look at Archbishop knows what that means. The Bishop of Ardagh M'Hale's rhodomontade in answer to Lord Shrews-entertains the Repeal Association with a set vituper

The usual state of society in Ireland is like nothing so much as a gigantic burlesque on the libretto of a tragic opera.

ative attack on Lord Clarendon, as an arbitrary, uncandid, and "injurious" viceroy. The Bishop of Derry, like a cricket-player, challenges "all England"—to a scolding-match. John Archbishop of Tuam has broken his discreet silence, but in a loquacity almost as discreet: instead of answering Lord Shrewsbury, he says nothing in an immense mass of virulent verbiage: called upon to repudiate or prohibit the priestly incentives to murder, he makes no response, but pours forth a torrent of abuse.

A third trait of the lawlessness is the resistance offered by Mr. Waldron, a magistrate, to a party of men who besieged the gates of his property to execute a process of law. It is an old tale in Ireland, but scarcely less marvellous in its recurrence to this day.

Read also the evidence of Garrigan, the approver, in the case of the men charged with shooting Mr. Bayley; he describes how the assassination was planned by the tenant Daly as an act of economy; the landlord was shot just as a beast of prey would In the midst of his farrago, the mitred incendi- be, to save the tenant from some loss; and the murary does not forget to beg. He pictures "a group derer was aided from the most friendly motives. As of nearly twenty persons whose misery might melt in America they have "husking frolics” and “buildthe soul of an alien calumniator, all crying out to ing bees," so in Ireland the neighborly creatures him for food for that one day's sustenance, and join in a "killing bee." In India the villagers joir shrieking with agony that they were now thrown to hunt down the tiger; in Ireland the object of on the world to starve." "He that offereth sac- that useful sport is the landlord. Garrigan thinks rifice out of the goods of the poor," says the arch- it worse, perhaps, to commit murder than to break bishop, "is as one that sacrificeth the son in a temperance pledge—he is not quite certain, but presence of his father." So says the man whom he thinks so. He would not murder any man, but we noticed last week sending 201. to the repeal he would murder any one to oblige a relative. fund. But that does not exhibit all the perversity" Would you shoot me?" asked the attorney for of the man Dr. M'Hale is a defaulter in the pay- the defence. "By Gor! sir, I would." It is a ment of the poor-rate in his district. Although matter of family politeness. Charity begins at life itself may depend on the amount collected for home; to a stranger, probably, Garrigan would the sustenance of the poor, Dr. M'Hale has never make a higher charge. contributed to the rate!

Of all the insane refusals to enforce the law in Ireland, this resistance to the poor-law seems to us the most wicked. Dr. M'Hale is not singular. In some districts the law is reported to be "inoperative." Passive submission to famine is the deliberate choice, unless England choose to step in once more. She may if she likes. The Irish repudiate everything English except alms.-Spectator, 29 January.

THE Irish news of the week exhibits certain traits of lawlessness so varied and so marked, that although they are as old as the hills they strike the mind with all the effect of novelty. Bishops, magistrates, farmers, and whiteboys, are conspiring to get up incidents, as if to oblige some Edgeworth or Lever with confirmatory materials.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop M'Hale is accused of a default in the paying of poor-ratesplaying Ananias towards the poor. The imputation is denied some part of the rates, it is said, have been paid. When? Since the charge was

made?

The concurrence of such cases throws some light on the state of society and the causes of crime. The condition of Ireland is so utterly anomalous, that curiosity is baffled in endeavoring to fix upon the cause. It is the priesthood, says one; the nonenforcement of law, says another; the unequal execution of laws-ignorance-popery-povertyEnglish misrule-a thousand things are named, now as causes, now as effects. Whatever the primary causes, the evil seems to be, that all the habits, customs, and feelings of society, tend to this lawless laxity. It is the custom to allow the law to go to waste, to live in squalor and disorder, to cheat the collector, to eject the tenant, to shoot Alcibiades would have been a Ribandman, a Walthe landlord; and custom is stronger than law. dron, a John of Tuam, he would have eaten potatoes and shot landlords.-Spectator, 5 Feb.

THE Dublin Evening Mail gives the following list of gentlemen in the commission of the peace who have attended the Cashel petty-sessions, with their liabilities—

"R. Long-father shot-himself twice fired at.
W. Murphy-father shot.

Samuel Cooper-brother shot.
Leonard Keating—nephew, Mr. Scully, shot.
E. Scully-cousin, Mr. Scully, shot.
Godfrey Taylor-cousin, Mr. Clarke, shot.
Wm. Roe-shot.

C. Clark-brother shot; a nephew, Mr. Roe,

Not to be too hard upon the notorious prelate, it must be confessed that the defrauding of the poorrate collector is not limited to the ecclesiastical classes. Among the reports of criminal trials, is the prosecution of a man for sheep-stealing: the prosecutor was a substantial farmer, with land, grain, and stock, in goodly store; he admitted that the prisoner had been an honest and a starving man; the starving man had been refused out-door relief; the man of substance, now prosecuting for AT Dublin, there was a stormy meeting of the the stolen sheep, had received it! Can any more Irish "Confederates;" the question of debate beludicrous and depraved perversion of the law being "Peace or war :" Mr. Smith O'Brien proposed imagined? Conceive its effect, too, as avowed in a set of resolutions to restore unanimity, and pledgsuch a case. ing the association to peace. Mr. Mitchell moved

shot."

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