The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 583 by Various
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Various >> The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 583
Heroic liars, such as the Baron or Major, are a godly race; but those
who practise the sin in a small way, and keep fibbing about trifles are
a despicable crew, and should be held by the heels, and soused head
down-most in a firkin of small beer.
Men who are, or who fancy themselves to be good singers, are great
bores. The airs which they assume in company are most insufferable. If
asked for a song, they affect, with an aspect of the most hypocritical
humility, that really they cannot sing--that their voice is out of
order--that they are hoarse, and so forth; the fellows all the while
being most anxious to show forth, only wanting to be pressed, in order
to enhance their own importance, and stimulate the curiosity of the
company. Nor is this the worst of the case; for no sooner do they
perpetrate one song, than they volunteer a dozen, interlarding the
intervals between their performances with pedantic disquisitions on
music, and flooring every man who ventures to hazard an opinion on
the subject. These people, whether amateur or professional, must be
extinguished; and the best way to accomplish their overthrow, and
reduce them to their native insignificance, is, in the first instance,
to take them at their word, and not urge them to sing. By so doing, they
immediately take the pet, and sport mum for the rest of the evening.
The same remarks apply to musical people in general, whether in the
shape of fiddlers, fluters, horn blowers, thumpers on the pianoforte,
&c. These individuals can think of nothing else but their favourite
pursuit, and imagine all the world to be equally interested in it. Take
a musician off music, and he is the most ignorant of animals. A good
story in illustration of this is told about Madame Catalani. Being at a
large party in Vienna, where Goethe was present, she was much surprised
at the great respect with which that illustrious man was treated.
On inquiring his name, she was informed it was the celebrated Goethe.
"Celebrated!" said the siren; "what music did he ever compose? Why,
I never heard of him!"
An absurd prejudice prevails among many people against the skate. If
this fish is hung up and dried for a day or two, then cut in slices,
done on the gridiron, and eaten with butter, it is most delicious.
N.B. The female skate is more delicate than the male.
Persons who indulge in conundrums, charades &c. are invariably poor
creatures; as are those who have a knack at finding out such trifles.
The same remark applies to punsters. It is difficult for a man of
sterling talent to perpetrate a pun, or to solve an enigma. On the
latter account, Oedipus must have been an ass.
A fact.--Nine-tenths of the catsup which is sold in the shops is a vile
compound of liver and the roan of fish, seasoned with vinegar, pepper,
and other condiments. If you wish the article genuine, you must procure
mushrooms, and make it yourself.
* * * * *
FERDINAND VII. OF SPAIN.
There is no court in Europe about which so little is known as that of
Madrid, and certainly no European sovereign whose character and habits
have been so studiously misrepresented as those of Ferdinand. The first
time we beheld this monarch, we could scarcely credit the evidence of
our senses. Walking in the gardens of the Retiro, at the time crowded
with company, we encountered a portly old gentleman, quite unattended,
habited in a plain, blue coat and nankeen trousers. This was Ferdinand,
_El Rey absoluto_, whom, in our mind's eye, we had long sketched
with the dark pencil of a Murillo. On a countenance that we expected
to have seen marked by all the dark and fiery passions of a Caesar
Borgia, we beheld an expression of _bonhomie_--a total absence of
hauteur, still less of ferocity; in fact, so totally different was he
in appearance from all that we had preconceived, that it was with
some difficulty we could persuade ourselves that our cicerone was not
practising upon our credulity. So much, then, for the notion, that he
never trusts himself out of his palace without being surrounded by
a formidable guard. Perhaps no monarch is oftener seen without, or
evinces less fear for his personal safety, than the tyrant Ferdinand.
By men of all parties, at Madrid, he is spoken of as a man not naturally
vicious, but equally prone to good or evil, according to the direction
impressed upon him towards either of these two ends, arising from a wily
indolence of character, that, conscious of its own inability, throws
itself on another. Leave him, say they, but the name of king, his
secretaries, his valets, and his favourite amusements,--give him his
Havanna cigars, (a lot of which he sends daily to the officer of the
guard,)--and he would willingly consent to any change that might be
proposed to him. The faults or the vices of Ferdinand are owing to his
neglected and defective education; no care was taken to prepare him for
his high station.
It was in the spirit of party that he embroidered a petticoat for the
Holy Virgin, solely with the view of pleasing and cajoling the clergy;
for, in his heart, Ferdinand is rather a devotee to pleasure than
religion. In his habits he is remarkably domesticated; he rises at
an early hour, and passes the greater part of the day in his wife's
apartment, of whom he is passionately fond. The queen unites to a very
graceful figure an interesting expression of countenance, that sometimes
wears an appearance of sadness. Such is Ferdinand of Spain, whose actual
demise will disclose scenes that at present almost set political
calculation at defiance.
Ferdinand has been married four times:--1st, To Marie Antoinette,
daughter of the King of the Two Sicilies; 2ndly, To his neice, the
Infanta of Portugal, Maria Isabella; 3rdly, To the Princess Maria
Josepha-Amelia, daughter of Prince Maximilian of Saxony; and, lastly,
to his present queen, Maria Carletta, daughter of the late King of
Naples.--_Metropolitan_.
* * * * *
NOTES OF A READER.
* * * * *
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF EMIGRATION TO BRITISH AMERICA.
One of the disadvantages of emigration is the separation of friends for
ever. Time and distance no doubt gradually obliterate from our mind the
most endearing recollections; but, under untoward circumstances, which
will at times cross the path of every mortal in the most favourable
situations, the emigrant's, and particularly the female emigrant's,
breast must be "stung with the thoughts of home," on comparing the many
conveniences and comforts, and society, which they enjoyed in their
fatherland, and which cannot be within their reach in their newly
adopted country for many years to come, and perhaps not within the
period of their lives. Unavailing wishes that they were back to their
own country have been expressed by many, who looked with dread on the
hardships they had to encounter at their first settlement. The labour
required to clear a forest of gigantic trees is appaling to a man who
has nothing to depend on but the physical strength of his own body; and
if its powers have been impaired by low living, arising from a want of
employment previous to the period of his emigration, and if he have a
wife and large family depending on him for support, that labour must be
exercised at the outset to a painful degree. All the shelter he can
expect in the first winter of his sojourn is in a house of trees
piled together, and his wooden furniture must consist of the rudest
construction, blocked out of the timber which he himself has cut down.
Though the air is clear and bracing, the intensity of the cold in winter
is far beyond what he can conceive, and the heat in summer is so great
for a short period as to blister the skin, if left exposed to the
influence of the sun's rays. The diversity of temperature in the seasons
causes an additional expense in the provision of clothes for the winter.
Musquitoes swarm on every new settlement, and annoy every one by their
stinging and raising inflamed spots over the body. Rubbing strong
vinegar over the parts is said to alleviate the pain. Fires of wet
chips, lighted at the doors of the cabins, will prevent the ingress of
these troublesome insects. When a clearance has been made the musquitoes
are not so troublesome. They dwell chiefly in the woods, and in the
vicinity of swamps, and come out in hot weather. A small, black fly
annoys also very much, by settling among the hair in the morning and
evening. Sleep is completely driven away when they make an attack, and
they produce the most uneasy sensation.
The state of the roads prevents a constant or rapid communication
between places; and in a new country, where coin as the circulating
medium is scarce, and barter exists as the medium of exchange,
difficulties are often encountered in disposing of the surplus stock of
agricultural produce. The intrusion of wild animals is an evil which
ought not to be overlooked as affecting a new settler. If the cattle and
sheep are not penned up at night, they may be partly destroyed by the
ferocity of the bears. Bears, however, are not numerous. But squirrels
and racoons, of which there are plenty, may destroy the corn crops
materially, particularly in any season that is unfavourable to the
formation of beech masts and nuts. Mice and rats eat the seed of the
Indian corn after it is in the ground, so that two or three successive
sowings are sometimes necessary.
The advantages, on the other hand, which emigrants may enjoy in our
American colonies are numerous and important. The first and great
advantage is constant employment, whether labour be required for
the improvement of their own land, or that of an employer. Constant
employment bestows vigour on the bodily frame, and contentment to the
mind. Labour, it is true, is not so high priced in Canada as it was when
labourers were scarcer, but still an able-bodied agricultural labourer
can get 2s. 6d. a-day, and skilful mechanics as much as 5s. and their
victuals. The soil being quite new and fresh, it is naturally fertile,
and it will give a good return for the labour bestowed upon it, and,
of course, the exercise of superior skill and industry will produce
extraordinary results. The climate in summer, too, being so very
superior to this country, that many products of the soil may be obtained
there with little trouble, which cost much trouble and expense here. Not
only the ordinary grains can be grown to perfection, but maize, garden
vegetable produce, and fruits of all kinds, grow luxuriantly. It is
found, however, that the grafted trees from this country thrive much
better, and produce more and better fruits, than the natural trees of
the country. Abundance of provisions, then, for the largest families may
be always obtained in our American colonies during the whole year. This
assurance of abundance not only produces contentment of mind, but endues
that spirit of independence which forms a valuable ingredient in a manly
character. All accounts agree in the happy and contented state in which
the emigrants are found, even in the midst of toil. Ample future
provision for the family soothes the mind of the emigrant in the hour
of dissolution. Not a trifling advantage consists in the absence of all
vexatious imposts or burdens. There are no stamp-duties. Taxes there
must be in all civilized communities, but there they are "trifles light
as air." One dollar per hundred acres of land is about the annual amount
of taxation to an emigrant. Besides all that, he may make his own malt,
brew his own beer, make his own candles and sugar, raise his own
tobacco, and tan his own leather, without dread of being exchequered.
And last, though not least, of these advantages, is the almost unlimited
space which lies open for settlements. For many generations yet unborn,
good land and constant employment will await the arrival of the emigrant
in the forest lands of our American colonies. These advantages
counterbalance the evils of a new country, but, combining the former
with the latter, emigrants should check the ardour of enthusiasm. They
must consider that perseverance alone will insure success. They must
make up their mind to work ere they can prosper. If they wish to possess
land of their own, they must take money with them to give in exchange
for that land. Having obtained the land which they desired to possess,
they must consent to endure hardships before they can obtain even a
shelter, and they must wait with patience the returning seasons before
they can reap the fruits of their industry. All these considerations
cannot be too strongly urged on the mind of the emigrant, for if they
are not expected and guarded against, disappointment and vexation
will assuredly ensue. "It is a matter of the first importance," says
Mr. M'Gregor, "for a man living in the United Kingdom, to consider,
before he determines on expatriation, whether he can, by industry and
integrity, obtain a tolerably comfortable livelihood in the country of
his nativity; whether, in order to secure to his family the certain
means of subsistence, he can willingly part with his friends, and leave
scenes that must have been dear to his heart from childhood; and
whether, in order to attain to independence, he can reconcile himself to
suffer the inconveniency of a sea voyage, and the fatigue of removing
with his family from the port where he disembarks in America, to the
spot of ground in the forest on which he may fix for the theatre of
his future operations; whether he can reconcile himself for two or
three years, to endure many privations to which he had hitherto been
unaccustomed, and to the hard labour of levelling and burning the
forest, and raising crops from a soil with natural obstructions, which
require much industry to remove. If, after making up his mind to all
these considerations, he resolves on emigrating, he will not be
disappointed in realizing in America any reasonable prospect he may have
entertained in Europe. These difficulties are, indeed, such as would
often stagger the resolution of most emigrants, if they had not before
them, in every part of America, examples of men who must have encountered
and have overcome equally, if not more disheartening hardships, before
they attained a state of comfortable affluence."--_Quart. Journ. Agr._
* * * * *
THE SILK MANUFACTURE.
The principal branches of this manufacture consist in the dyeing,
winding, warping, throwing, and weaving. The first needs no explanation;
the winding is the process between the throwing and the weaving. After
the silk is thrown it is dyed, and then wound off preparatory to the
loom. The warping is stretching the parallel threads on the loom,
preparatory to weaving.
_Throwing_ silk, is twisting two threads into one for the purpose
of weaving. The single thread, as wound off from the cocoon, is
designated the raw silk.
There are two descriptions of thrown silk. One is called _tram_,
and consists of two threads simply twisted together. This description of
thrown silk is used in the shuttle or transverse threads of a piece of
silk on the loom. The other variety of thrown silk is called
_organzine_. In this, the single threads are first twisted up,
previous to their being twisted together. This is used for the warp, or
parallel threads upon the loom.
Throwing of silk was an important branch of manufacture in this country,
until the duties were reduced in 1826. Since that period it has
declined. The manufacture of thrown silk is chiefly carried on at
Macclesfield, Congleton, and in the West of England. As silk can be
thrown more cheaply in foreign countries than it can be in England,
there has been a difference between the throwsters and the weavers of
Coventry and Spitalfields, the latter having requested the protecting
duty against foreign thrown silk to be reduced, to the manifest injury
of the former.
It may be as well to explain to the reader the weights which are used
in the silk trade. The weight of silk is estimated by _deniers_, an
old Italian weight, of which twenty-four are equal to an ounce, used
only in the silk trade, in the same manner as the weight called a _carat_
is employed by those who deal in diamonds, and other precious stones.
It is the custom to reel off, upon an engine established in the silk
trade, a measure of four hundred ells of tram or organzine, (which are
both double threads,) and the weight of this quantity establishes the
fineness or coarseness of the silk. Four hundred ells of the finest
Italian tram will weigh eighteen deniers; and although this silk will
occasionally run so coarse as to weigh forty deniers, the qualities
mostly in use vary in weight from eighteen to thirty deniers. The China
and Bengal silk varies from thirty-five to eighty deniers in its weight.
Turkey silk, the importation of which has lately much increased, and
which is worked up in the single thread on account of the coarseness of
the texture, varies from thirty to fifty deniers; which, as the others
are weighed in the tram or double thread, will be in the proportion of
sixty to one hundred deniers.
Silk is the staple manufacture of France, and has always received the
fostering protection of the government. The raw material is the produce
of the country; and, as the growers of silk are not permitted to export
it, it is purchased by the manufacturers at a much cheaper rate than it
can be procured by us. The value of the raw silk yearly produced in
France is estimated at about three millions and a half sterling--the
produce of manufacture at about two millions and a half; so that the
silk trade of France is to be valued, on the whole, at about six
millions sterling.
This is the estimate which is made by the acknowledgment of the French
government; but there is every reason to suppose that it is much more
considerable. This is certain;--that it is of the greatest value to that
nation, and has received such protection, and, in consequence, is in
that flourishing condition, that, at present, no other country can
compete with it.--_Metropolitan_.
* * * * *
RECENT VISIT TO THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.
Mr. Fergusson in his notes made during a Visit to the United States and
Canada in 1831, says: after breakfast I took leave of my friend, and
walked on for the Falls, leaving the stage, in which I had secured a
place, to follow. The day was delightful, and as I ascended the steep
hill from Queenston, I overtook a soldier of the 79th in charge of the
baggage wagons, leaning on his musket, and wrapt in admiration of the
surrounding scenery, "_It's mair like Scotland, sir, than ony thing
I've seen sin' I left it_," was the poor fellow's remark, and truly
it was far from misapplied, making due allowance for difference of
scale. The country from Queenston to the Falls is well settled, and
finely diversified by farms, orchards and open forest. The soil is
perhaps light, but in some places of a stronger description, and
all apparently fertile, desirable land. A very beautiful property,
originally laid out by the ill-fated Duke of Richmond, and subsequently
possessed by Sir Peregrine Maitland, adjoins the Road. The house, which
is in the cottage style, of wood, seems large and commodious. This
estate is in a very favourable situation, and has been lately sold
for 2,000l.; it contains about 450 acres of good, useful land. The
distance from Queenston to Niagara is about seven miles, and I sauntered
on the whole way, the coach not overtaking me. About four miles from
the Falls, the sound came upon my ear like the murmur of Old Ocean on
a rugged strand. In certain states of the atmosphere and the wind this
is heard at a much greater distance. The noise gradually increased,
and by and by the spray was seen rising in columns above the trees.
A splendid and extensive establishment was soon after recognised as
Forsyth's hotel, and, under feelings far more intense than common
curiosity, I hurried forward to a point, where Niagara in all its glory
came in view. From the increasing facility of migrating now-a-days even
from one end of the world to another, Niagara has lost somewhat of that
mysterious halo with which it was wont to be enveloped; but still it
must ever be Niagara. The most eloquent descriptions, I should think,
must prove inadequate to convey a just conception of the scene. Nor can
the pencil, I imagine, ever do it justice. A cataract may be said, as
regards the painter's art, to differ from all other objects in nature.
The human face and figure, the rich and varied landscape, the animal
and vegetable world, may with sufficient propriety be delineated _at
rest_, but quiescence forms no feature here. The ceaseless roar, the
spray mounting like clouds of smoke from the giant limekiln, and the
enormous sheet of water which rolls into the abyss, can only be felt
and understood by repeated visits to the scene. My attention was for a
time distracted by the rapids which are extremely interesting, and with
any other neighbour than the Falls would excite the highest admiration
and wonder. After some time spent in contemplation, I proceeded to my
friends, where a kind and comfortable home awaited me. Mr. C. possesses
a residence which is certainly one of the most romantic domiciles in the
world. The house stands on a small lawn upon a point overhanging the
rapids, and about half a mile above the Horse-Shoe Fall. The garden is
behind, washed by a fine branch of the river, which encircles a wild and
thickly wooded island, and on every side new and interesting prospects
appear. The river is a mile across, and of great depth, and, for the
same distance above the Falls, is one sheet of foam. We sauntered down
in the evening to the river side, and the rapids lost nothing by a
closer inspection. My bedroom looked directly upon them; I could watch
the smoke of the Fall, as I lay on my pillow; and with the wild roar of
the cataract sounding in my ears, I closed my first day at Niagara. The
following morning proved fine, and we devoted the forenoon, of course,
to the Falls. Lake Erie had just broken up, and the icebergs came
crushing down the rapids, in a way highly interesting. My friends being
quite at home in all the mazes of the river side, conducted me by a wild
and rugged route to the edge of the Table-rock, when, upon emerging from
a tangled brake, I beheld the Horse-shoe or great British Fall, pouring
down its volume of ice and water, at the distance of a few feet from
where we stood. The rock felt to me as though it vibrated, and a large
mass did in fact lately give way, soon after a party had retired from
the precarious stance. It is limestone, full of ugly fissures and rents.
A narrow wooden staircase conducts adventurous travellers to the bottom
of the Fall, where a sort of entrance is generally effected to a short
distance under the sheet, and for which performance a certificate in due
form is served out. The stair was at this time under repair, and the
accumulation of ice below perfectly reconciled me to wave pretensions
to such slippery honours. At some distance below the Fall, and opposite
to the American staircase, there is a ferry, to which a safe and most
romantic carriage-road has been lately formed, out of the solid rock,
at no small labour and expense. When a similar accommodation shall
have been provided upon the American side, it is expected to prove a
lucrative concern, but at the present foot-passengers only can be landed
in the States. The little skiff had just put off, with a party from the
Canada shores, and got involved in streams of ice, in a way somewhat
hazardous, and which rendered it impossible for the boatmen to return.
The scene from the ferry is indeed magnificent, the Horseshoe, the
American Fall, and Goat Island being all in view, with the great pool or
basin eddying in fearful and endless turmoil. In the evening I walked
up the river side towards the village of Chippeway, to visit a natural
curiosity upon Mr. C.'s estate. A spring surcharged with sulphuretted
hydrogen gas rises within a few paces of the river. A small building is
erected over it, and when a candle is applied to a tube in a barrel,
which encloses the spring, a brilliant and powerful light is evolved.
Close adjoining are the remains of extensive mills burnt by the
Americans during last war. The water privilege is great, and machinery
to any extent might be kept in play.--_Quart. Journ. of Agriculture._
* * * * *
THE GATHERER.
* * * * *
_Dramatis Personae._--The stages and theatres of the Greeks and
Romans were so immense, that the actors, to be heard, were obliged to
have recourse to metallic masks, contrived with tremendous mouths, in
order to augment the natural sound of the voice. This mask was called by
the Latins _persona_, from _personare_ (to sound through); and
delineations of such masks as were used in each piece were generally
prefixed to it,(as we now prefix the names of the characters in our
modern plays), as appears from the _Vatican Terence_. Hence
_dramatis personae_ (masks of the drama); which words, after masks
ceased to be used, were understood to mean _persons of the drama_.