How to "hold" a Horse.-Many a horse has been stolen by its holder; to remedy which, in some cases, we might adopt the plan of the Icelanders. "Two gentlemen, for instance, are riding together, without attendants; and wishing to alight for the purpose of visiting some object at a distance from the road, they tie the head of one horse to the tail of another, and the head of the latter to the tail of the former. In this state, it is utterly impossible that they can move either backwards or forwards, one pulling one way, the other the other; and therefore, if disposed to move at all, it will be only in a circle, and even then there must be an agreement to turn their heads the same way."-Barrow.

Heating. The late Emperor Francis, (of Austria,) wittily observed one day that he believed it required as much talent to warm a room as to rule a kingdom.

War.-A recent tourist observes: "In surveying the Field of Waterloo, a person of the most unthinking mind can scarcely fail to be struck with the horrible nature of war, and to feel astonishment that men who call themselves 'civilized,' should meet together for the purpose of slaughtering each other by thousands and tens of thousands!" It is, doubtless, this reflection that keeps all Europe at peace at the present moment.

Snow is consumed at Naples in immense quantities, and is a great luxury in so warm a climate. It is obtained during the winter from the Apennines, and is carefully preserved in deep caves. There are many of these depositaries in the mountain which rises behind Castella Mare, and from them is brought, in large boats, much of the snow used at Naples. The sale of water cooled with snow forms no unimportant branch of the trade of the lemonade-seller. Ice could not be procured in quantities adequate to the consumption, but the hardened snow forms an excellent substitute.-Rambles by a Lover of the Picturesque.

The Hungarian Ladies are passionately fond of dancing. A lady told Mr. Paget that, in her dancing times, she well remembered that she never said her prayers for her "daily bread," without adding " and plenty of partners at the next ball, I beseech thee.'

Topaz.-In the Leyden Muscum of Natural History, is an immense topaz, from Ceylon, weighing twelve pounds, and valued at a vast sum.

Colours have been found to absorb odours as they do heat, according to their intensity. Thus, a black coat absorbs odour more than a white one, and is, therefore, a less desirable habiliment in cases of epidemic.--Foreign Journal.

Buying Wine.--In Florence, beneath the windows of some of the palaces, are little doors, at which people knock as at a post-office in England, and hand their flasks to be filled, just as they would fetch a pint of beer at a public-house with us. This seems a petty traffic for the owner of a palace; but a similar practice obtained amongst the Romans, as at Pompeii, where some of the principal private houses had shops attached to them for the sale of wine, and other agricultural produce! The flasks are cased in a little basket, and resemble the oil-flasks.--Rambles by a Lover of the Picturesque.

Colonization.-You colonize the lands of the savage with the Anglo-Saxon-you civilize that portion of the earth; but is the savage civilized? He is exterminated! You accumulate machinery-you increase the total of wealth: but what becomes of the labour you displace? One generation is sacrificed to the next. You diffuse knowledge-and the world seems to grow brighter; but Discontent at Poverty replaces Ignorance happy with its crust. Every improvement, every advancement in civilization, injures some to benefit others, and either cherishes the want of to-day, or prepares the revolution of to-morrow.-Stephen Montague.

Death from the Bite of a Shark.-Capt. Lumsden, while bathing at Arracan, in September last, had a leg bitten off by a shark, and very soon afterwards the unfortunate officer was a corpse.

A Cool Hand.-Robespierre, in making out the list of his victims, for the guillotine, wrote down the name of Jean Lambert Tallien, with a slow hand, that shaped each letter with a stern distinctness; saying-" that one head is my necessity!"

Cats. In Lombardy, cats are called by chirping as to a dog, and their tails are generally cut off.

Salutation.-Little girls of the lower class in Italy say addio to each other in the street. Felicissima notte is, perhaps, the prettiest version of Good Night. In some parts of Italy, it is the practice, when a man hears his companion sneeze, to say Eoviva, or felicità, or alla sua salute, or prosit. A similar practice obtains in Switzerland and Germany, but it is now considered mauvais ton: amongst the peasantry of Ireland the same custom prevails, and is not, indeed, unknown in England. This habit of salutation is interesting from its antiquity, having existed from the time of Aristotle.

The Olympic Theatre, at Vicenza, was built by Palladio, (who was a native of that city,) as a model of the ancient theatres; and you immediately observe that the stage is much better adapted for the limited number of actors who appeared on it at an early period of theatrical representation, than for the imposing assemblages which often crowd the modern boards. Opposite the stage, or proscenium, is a semi-circle for the spectators, with seats rising one above another. The apartments, or rather scenes, behind the proscenium, are stationary, being formed of wood. These and a passage between them are contrived so as to appear of immense depth, although remarkably shallow. On the floor, between the stage and spectators, is the orchestra, somewhat as in modern theatres; and around the whole place are arranged a number of statues à la classique. Only two per formances ever took place in this theatre, which has now a very neglected appearance, both within and without.-Rambles by a Lover of the Picturesque.

Amoy, the celebrated port of China recently captured by the British, is in the province of Fo-kien, and has a very spacious and secure harbour. It is the emporium of the commerce of China; but the district in which it is situated is one of the most barren in the empire, and not only yields nothing for exportation, but is dependent even for the neces saries of life on the neighbouring island of Formosa, which has been described as the granary of the eastern coast of China. Notwithstanding this serious disadvantage, the merchants of Amoy are among the most wealthy and enterprising in the Chinese empire; they have formed connexions all along the coast, and have established commercial houses in many parts of the eastern Archipelago. This port has not always been closed against European vessels. According to the records of the East-India Company, "the king of Tywam, on taking Amoy, In 1675, issued a proclamation inviting both Chinese and foreign merchants to trade thither, exempting them from payment of all duties for three years. Many vessels, in consequence, resorted to the port, but the exemp tion was speedily revoked. In 1681, the town was taken by the Tartars, but Europeans were still allowed to trade thither, and continued to do so until 1734, when the exactions of the Mandarins deterred them from continuing so unprofitable an intercourse; and when an English ship went there ten years after, the Chinese could not be induced to trade with her, and she was compelled to proceed to Bengal for a cargo. The ship Amherst visited Amoy in 1832, with no better success it appears, however, that the obstacles to her trading all proceeded from the authorities, and not from the people, by whom our countrymen were received in the most friendly manner; an instance of misgovernment, unfortunately by no means rare in China.

Cashmere Shawls.—Sometimes, a year is spent in making a single Cashmere shawl; and in the best and most elaborate kinds, it is considered enough if the weavers execute an inch and a half in a day. Of course, the ordinary shawls are made with much greater expedition.

Chinese Soldiers must be little better than mere puppets; their paper helmets, wadded gowns, quilted petticoats, and clumsy satin boots, exhibiting nothing of the aspect of war.

London: Published for the Proprietors, by W. BRITTAIN, Paternoster Row. Edinburgh: JOHN MENZIES. Glasgow: D. BRYCE.

Printed by J. Rider, 14, Bartholomew Close.

'CHINESE ARMS.

RECENT events in the East have given to every thing connected with that quarter of the globe, an interest which makes even the smallest facts seem matters of the deepest consequence, and the slightest rumours, intelligence of the most vital import. Without entering into the question of the position and prospects of our troops in India and China, we believe we shall have the thanks of our readers for presenting them with some account of the weapons and military accoutrements in use among a large portion of our enemies in the East; by which some judgment may

VOL. III.

be formed of the state of warfare on their side, and the probabilities of success on ours.

The group of Chinese arms and military implements, which we have engraved, will be regarded with increased attention, from the fact of their having formed a part of the collection destroyed by the late fire at the Tower, and the knowledge that they were a portion of the spoils taken at the capture of Chusan. The two garments included in the group still form part of the Tower collection, and will be found in the eastern vestibule of the Horse Armoury. We must not forget to mention that the whole of them were presented to the Board of Ordnance by J. Gilman,

P

Esq.; having, we believe, been received from a son of that gentleman, who is serving in China.

Nothing can more strikingly illustrate the state of barbarism in which the Chinese are at present existing, than the group of weapons and war implements before us. The majority of them are of the kind commonly used in England in the time of our Norman kings; and, in addition to their obsoleteness of form, the material of all is so vile, that when bent across the knee they have no power of recovering from the strain. The arms of the gun kind are also the most antiquated of their class. While the rest of the world have adopted, in succession, the improvements of the wheel-lock, the snap-hance, the fire-lock, and the percussion-lock, the Chinese retain the old-fashioned hand-gun,* and match-lock, weapons in use here in the times of our Edwards and Henries. Their manufacture is as primitive as their form: the barrels, instead of being bored, as with us, are beat out upon a maundril, and the clumsy lock has not even the simple contrivance of a screw to hold the match in its cleft.

It will easily be seen that with troops opposed to us, armed with no better weapons than those before us, and whose whole system of warfare partakes of the clumsiness and the antiquity of their arms, conquest in a fair field is a matter of no great difficulty. Indeed, this fact is pretty well admitted by the Chinese themselves, who, therefore, exert their chief dexterity in obtaining by artifice what they are unable to compass by conquest. One of the maxims most strongly inculcated by their tacticians is that "Rash and arrogant soldiers must be defeated;" so that "extreme caution and love of craft form the chief virtue of their strategy; and to treat with a Chinese general in the expectation of his fulfilling his engagements, would be altogether a miscalculation."

We will now describe the articles one by one, as they stand in the Engraving.

Fig. 1, is a Helmet of polished iron. The pipe on the top is for a plume, of silk or horse-hair, according to the rank of the wearer.

Fig. 2, is a Pike, with bridle-cutter, an arm long exploded in European armies.

Fig. 3, a Military Fork. It is furnished with a kind of rude cymbals, intended probably by their clatter to frighten the horses of a mounted enemy.

Fig. 4, is a Glaive, one of the most common weapons among the Chinese at the present day, and used in this country as early as the time of William the Conqueror.

Fig. 5. Sword. The mountings of brass; the hilt covered with silk braid.

Fig. 6. A Hand-gun with three barrels. It is mounted on a short wooden staff, has no lock, and is exploded by holding a lighted match to the touch-hole, which has no pan or cover of any sort.

Fig. 7. Matchlock Musquet. On the stock will be seen the pouch for the match, which passes out of one corner of the pouch, and is pressed into the cleft of the serpentine: the whole apparatus of the most rude and antiquated description. Fig. 8. Is a War Drum. The sides of this instrument are formed of wooden staves, rudely put together and studded with nails. The red figures painted on the parchment seem to be a kind of dragon. The drum is an important instrument in Chinese warfare, as it is used for sounding the charge in battle. "Whoever," says the Chinese war code," hears the Drum and does not advance; or the Gong, and does not retire, shall lose his head."

As we have already stated, the arms enumerated above were destroyed in the late fire at the Tower: and what is very singular, the drawing from which our Engraving is

The forces employed against us in the north of India

also use this arm.

+ Davis's History of the Chinese.

taken was only completed on the day preceding the con flagration. The military dresses, which were preserved by having been placed in a cabinet in the Horse Armoury,* are two in number. The larger one is a kind of armour, of padded work, worn by officers of a superior rank. On the breast and back are embroidered the favorite badge of the Chinese, the Dragon. The other garment is the one in common use among the soldiery, being a jacket of blue linen cloth trimmed with red; and is worn over a long blue petticoat of similar materials.

We must not forget to mention that the bow is still very extensively employed in the Chinese army; and, indeed, considering the very low state of their arms of the gun kind, this may well be considered their most efficient

weapon.

Our space will not permit us to give a lengthened account of the principles and practice of Chinese warfare; but we trust that the slight sketch we have offered of the military implements in use among the Celestials, will tend to assure our readers that the war in "the far east" is not likely to be either long in its continuance, or disastrous in its results.

THE SPANISH PATRIOT.
ARISE, arise, Fernando! the beacon fire burns high,
Its gleam is o'er the woods, and reddens all the sky;
The war-trump sends its clangor forth, and rouses all the vale;
And freedom's valiant sons are up, and mustering in the dale.
Arise! Spain calls her warriors forth to gird the battle-brand,
To free her from the cursed gripe of the rude foeman's hand;
The bridegroom's left his blooming bride, the priest hath left
his cell,
The father and his dearest ones have ta'en a long farewell.
The foe is nearing;-now we see the snow-white chargers
prance;

And between the foliage-depths, the shining helmets glance:
One deadly volley pour we in-then close upon their rear,
And teach their craven hearts the might of patriots' arm to fear.
The 'ashes of a ruined pile' mark where our dwellings stood;
The river as it rolls along bears down a purple flood;
The father's hoary head hath fallen upon his own hearth-stone;
The sighing of the evening breeze hath borne our maidens'

ENGLISH MINSTRELSY. In our days, when the practice of music is part of an ordinary education, and the richest stores of poetry are within the reach of all; it is interesting to look back to the times, when the acquirements of music and song constituted a profession that possessed an almost incredible importance in the eyes of our ancestors, and exercised an extremely beneficial influence upon the minds and habits of a simple but warlike people. At a remote period,

A notion having gone abroad, that the whole of the Tower Armouries have been destroyed, we take this opportunity of correcting the error. The Grand Storehouse, which only was burnt, contained chiefly serviceable arms for the troops. The Horse Armoury and Queen Elizabeth's Armoury, where the ancient armour and other antiquities are stored, are far distant from the scene of devastation, and consequently quite uninjured by the disaster.

when a powerful tribe first began to enjoy the rudiments of property, and to experience the advantages of even the rudest approach to social comfort, oral tales and bardic fictions were the only enjoyments, not altogether of a sensual or physical character, within their reach; and the avidity with which such entertainments were sought, gave existence to a class of men, whose rough verses and unpolished melody have been the means of leading the way to those refinements in poetry and music, which, in combination, form one of the most delightful sources of pleasure in our advanced and highly polished state of society. It may, therefore, be interesting to give a hasty retrospective glance at the progressive advancement of minstrelsy.

The Gael have from the most remote times paid extraordinary reverence to their bards; and to such an extent did this feeling amount, that the office of Priest became united with that of bard; whilst the Druids, probably from a consciousness of how intimately connected poetry was with their mysterious power over the people, taught their laws to the neophytes amongst their priesthood in a metrical form only, and strictly forbade the acquirement of that species of knowledge under any other shape than mystic rhymes. Amongst the Northmen, we also find bards assuming a high position; the word Scald, which means a smoother or polisher of language, being a term evidently of eminent honour with them.

Although we have not so precise and particular a description of the social position of bards amongst the ancient Britons, yet there is an historical occurrence related by Geoffrey of Monmouth, which shows that they were capable of enjoying music, which utterly uncivilized nations are not, and paid considerable respect to its professors. When Britain was first invaded by the Saxons, Colgrin, the son of Ella, who was elected leader of the Saxons instead of Hengist, was beleaguered in York by the Britons under the command of king Arthur; and so well had the siege been maintained by the warlike natives, that it was feared Colgrin would be totally defeated. In this emergency, Baldulph, the brother of Colgrin, resolved upon acquainting him, if possible, that reinforcements were momentarily expected from Germany; and accordingly, attiring himself as a minstrel, he took his harp in his hand, and going through the British trenches, performing as a harper, he succeeded in making himself known to the Saxon centinels, by whom he was drawn over the wall as soon as night lent the assistance of its darkness. It appears quite evident from this, that the minstrel was held in high estimation amongst the Britons; as the Saxon would naturally adopt that disguise, which, by commanding most respect, would expose him to the least risk of detection. Alfred obtained access to the Danish camp by a similar stratagem; and at a later period, a Danish king (Anlaff) entered the camp of king Athelstan, in the disguise of a minstrel; but he was not so successful as Alfred, for his secret was accidentally discovered by a soldier of the English army.

The Irish also, who were probably identical with the ancient Britons, brought minstrelsy to such perfection, that Giraldus Cambrensis, who went to that country with king John, and who was not at all friendly to the natives, describes their music as extremely sweet and delightful. It would appear that the bards employed considerable influence in Ireland, which they used for political objects, for the Anglo-Normans forbade their presence within the English pale; and there is now in Lambeth Palace an Anglo-Norman statute, which directs the arrest of all Irish harpers found within the pale "avec les instrumens de leur ministralicie." Queen Elizabeth having been well aware of the untiring exertions of the harpers to excite the Irish against England, issued orders to "hang the harpers,"

whenever they were found coming within those districts of the country which were settled by the English.

It is to the Normans, however, that we are indebted for our middle age poetry, and for the grace and beauty which have been implanted upon the sturdy unbending vigour of the Saxon rhymes. The Normans are stated to have brought the metrical lays to maturity before the poets of Provence spread their charmingly fanciful compositions over the courts of Europe; and taught the common and general use of those ideal embellishments, which at a more advanced period threatened to usurp altogether the place of natural pathos. If the age of the Troubadours had not been one when the profession of arms being so general always kept the strongest mental attributes in full requirement, it is to be feared that strange and childish fancies would at length come to be brought into general use and adoption. But whilst the Provençal lays were triumphant at court, the rough popular rhymes retained, with much of the barbarous character of their origin, much also of its peculiar strength of thought and expression. The next era in poetry was ushered in by the poems of Geoffrey Chaucer, which displayed a remarkable concentration of all that was good in the extremely imperfect attempts of those who preceded him, and at the same time indicated an improved and enlarged scope of thinking, combined with a graphic power, which up to that time had been totally unheard of. Since the works of Chaucer were written, up to the days of Pope, the progress of the English language and of English poetry was steady and continuous; and we see now, that the classic energy o Milton, the wondrous diversity of Shakspeare, the simple grace of Goldsmith, the magniloquent force of Johnson, the wild sublimity of Byron, and the characteristic fertility of Scott, all find an adaptation in the improved, and we had almost said, perfect character of modern English lingual capabilities.

We cannot conclude this hasty glance at English minstrelsy, without noticing a remarkable instance of a great public service said to be rendered to England by the celebrated bard Blondel, in the reign of Richard I.; and the style of the writer from whom we give an extract, is so quaint that it would lose much of its interest by a translation into more modern phraseology. The following account of this incident is thus related in Favine's Theatre of Honour and Knighthood, translated from the French, Lond. 1623:

"The Englishmen were more than a whole yeare without hearing any tydings of their king, or in what place he was kept prisoner. He had trained up in his court a rymer or minstrel, called Blondel de Nesle, who (saith the manuscript of old Poesies, and an auncient manuscript French Chronicle), being so long without the sight of his lord, his life seemed

wearisome to him, and he became confounded with melancholy. but none could tell in what countrey he arrived. WhereKnowne it was, that he came backe from the Holy Land; upon this Blondel, resolving to make search for him in many countreys, but he would hear some news of him, after expence of divers dayes in travaile, he came to a towne by good hap neere to the castell where his maister king Richard was kept. Of his host he demanded to whom the castell appertained, and the host told him that it belonged to the Duke of Austria. Then he inquired whether there were any prisoners therein detained or no, for alwayes he made such secret questionings wherever he came. And the host made answer there was only one prisoner, but he knew not what he was, and yet he had bin detained there more than the space of one yeare. When Blondel heard this, he wrought such means that he became acquainted with them of the castell, as minstrels doe easily win acquaintance any where; but see the king he could not, neither understand that it was he. One day he sat directly before a window of the castell, where

king Richard was kept prisoner, and began to sing a song in French, which king Richard and Blondel had some time composed together. When king Richard heard the song, he knew it was Blondel that sung it; and when Blondel paused at half of the song, the king began the other half, and completed it. Thus Blondel won knowledge of the king his maister, and returning home into England, made the barons of countrie acquainted where the king was." G.

ANOTHER CHAPTER OF BLUNDERS.* PRINTERS' Errata are a very numerous class of blunders, and drolleries, too, when we remember what havoc a single letter may make. We recollect the question, in the Banks' Committee Evidence before Parliament-" How many nos(t)es were in circulation at that time?" Now and then, an accident turns out well: as, when the printer of Vincent Wing's Almanack told his boy, peevishly, to insert "anything" in the weather column of August"Snow in harvest," if he liked: he did so, the prediction was realized, and the almanack-maker's fortune secured. Touching literal errors: a gentleman wrote to his country servant, telling him to take a card to a friend, and invite him to dinner; but the varlet read cart, and accordingly took that ungentlemanly vehicle across the country for the bidden one; and the blunder broke up the acquaintance. We remember a piece of drollery in O'Connor's Chronicles of Eri: in the preface, the reader is told that the original MSS. on skin rolls were burnt in an accidental fire many hundred years before; and in the work itself the curious are informed that the originals may be seen at the publishers'!

Small tradesmen's bills not unfrequently have eccentric items here is a specimen, now first printed from the original MS., as Mr. Colburn has said of "family papers" not a whit more amusing:

Here we may remark, that a certain grade of shopkeepers never can cast up their own accounts correctly; you complain, and they plead they are "no scholards;' yet, in nine cases out of ten, the error, as in the above bill, is made upon their side. Is this innate or acquired cunning? Every one has heard of the farrier's bill-"To curing your horse till he died-£5 7s. 6d. ;" but comparatively few have read the following veritable copy of a bill passed at a village in Essex, to a gentleman who had left his horse at an inn, with directions that it should be baited for the night, and brought home the next morning. The man who brought the animal, brought also the account in question with him:

Now and then presents come greeting with curious orthography; as, "I have sent you a hair and a pare of dux." A City servant once wrote to his master, an alderman, with "Horned Sir," instead of "Honoured Sir."

shire, a letter addressed to a farmer, for the repayment of Not many months since, we received from Leicestersome money, containing this exquisite passage:-" Sir I Whoold Not Rote to you about it I have taen Nother Sitution and I Cant goo to ute tell you Cann Lett mee Is avery Good One Good House Good Butcher's Shop have that money I have som Efex to Take too the sitution Good Horckard 2 acers Lond to it. I remain, &c. Pleas to send mee ward Back By the Ritirn of Post."

The facete Thomas Hood has almost exhausted epistolary etourderie; but we believe that most of his speci

mens are fictitious. Not so, however, the following letter, intended to have been sent to the "Annoyance Jury," by the occupier of the house in the Strand, adjoining that in which the so-called "Bonassus" was exhibited some years since: "March 28, 1822.

"GENTLEMEN,-I Am sorry to trouble you but I Am so Anoyd By next Door Neighbour the Bouassus and with Beasts, that I cannot live in my House-for the stench of the Beast is So Great And their is only A Slight petition Betwixt the houses and the Beast are continually Breaking through in to my Diferent Rooms And I am always loosing my lodgers in Consequence of the Beast first A Monkey made Its way in My Bedroom next the Jackall came in to the Yard and this last week the people in My Second floor have been Alarmed in the Dead of the Night By Monkey Breaking through in to the Closset and are Going to leave in Consequence this being the third lodgers I have lost on account of the Beast And I have been letting my Second Floor at Half the Rent-And those men of Mr. James are Bawling the whole Day Against My Window-and contineally taking peoples attention from My Window And I am quite pestered with Rats and I Am Confident they came from the Exebition-And in Short the Ingury and Nuisance is So Great as almost Impossible to Describe But to be so Anoyd By such an Imposter I think is Very Hard-Gentlemen your Early Inquiry will

oblige your Servant―T. W—. N.B. And If I mention any thing to Mr. James He ondly Abuses me with the most Uncouth Language."

Anachronisms in painting are too numerous a herd of blunders for our columns; for they are to be found in the works of all masters and ages, even to our own time. Verrio's periwigged spectators of Christ healing the sick; Abraham about to shoot Isaac with a pistol; Rubens's queen-mother, cardinals, and Mercury; Velvet Brughel's Ethiopian king in a surplice, boots, and spurs; Belin's Virgin and Child listening to a violin; the marriage of Christ with St. Catharine of Sienna, with king David playing the harp; Albert Durer's flounced petticoated angel driving Adam and Eve from Paradise; Cigoli's Simeon at the circumcision, with "spectacles on nose;" the Virgin Mary helping herself to a cup of coffee from a chased coffee-pot; N. Poussin's Rebecca at the Well, with Grecian architecture in the back-ground; Paul Veronese's Benedictine fathers and Swiss soldiers; the red lobsters in the sea listening to the preaching of St. Anthony of Padua; St. Jerome, with a clock by his side; and Poussin's Deluge, with the boats: all these are too well known to be again detailed. Turn we to the moderns, and we find West, the President of the Royal Academy, representing Paris in a Roman, instead of Phrygian, dress; Wilkie's oysters in June, in the Chelsea Pensioners reading the Gazette of the Battle of Waterloo; and Lawrence's celebrated" sofa-portrait" of George the Fourth, seated before an open window; a very unlikely position for a gentleman turned sixty, who would there catch a stronger "crick in the neck" than that with which