Uchatius. The latest explosive material consists ofing is to surpass in size that of the International Exthe flour of starch, which, boiled in a peculiar way with nitric acid, possesses a far greater projective force than the gunpowder in ordinary use. It has also the great advantage of not fouling the piece to any appreciable extent, and, from the nature of the materials used, is produced at a far cheaper rate. Another point in its composition which recommends it especially for fortresses and magazines is the facility with which the ingredients are mixed together, thus rendering it possible to keep them separate until wanted for actual use. In this state the powder is non-explosive. The experiments now in course of progress in Vienna and Berlin are said to leave little doubt as to its general adoption in the Austrian and Prussian armies. TRUE love is based on a sound personal esteem-not on a gay and dashing freak of imagination. True love is the ripe fruit only of an admiration for another's excellent qualities, and once established, lasts forever, amid storms or sunshine, joys and sorrows, augmented by the one perhaps, but never diminished by the other. That's just the difference, and it will pay you to remember it. A SUMMER EVENING. Ir is a pleasant hour! how full of balm The sighing air-how soft the evening light! My heart to peace: I yearn with reverend feet The spirit-thrill so potent-mild and sweet, Pierce this poor trembling frame, while His great breath Pours through the shadowy corridors of Life; INCREASE OF PAUPERISM.-On the 1st day of January last the number of paupers in receipt of relief in England and Wales was 945,269, being an increase of 53,401, or 6 per cent, as compared with the corresponding period of 1861. In the number of adult able-bodied paupers relieved the increase was much higher, it being equal to 11.3 per cent. The highest absolute increase is in Lancashire, where the number of able-bodied adult paupers was 7322 more than in the year before-an increase of 58.5 In Warwickshire the number had increased by 2868, or 68.5 per cent; in the West Riding of Yorkshire by 3616, or 54 per cent. In the small county of Westmoreland an addition of only 265 paupers represents an increase of 85.5 per cent, the highest rates in the returns. per cent. THE mind has a certain vegetative power, which can not be wholly idle. If it is not laid out and cultivated into a beautiful garden, it will of itself shoot up in weeds. hibition at South-Kensington; and when we consider that the vast space will be constantly filled with objects marking the progress of invention, enterprise, and skill, a noble field of promise opens to our contemplation. The Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, M. Rouher, has informed the managers of the undertaking that the Emperor looks forward with the greatest satisfaction to the attainment of their purpose, and that, in order to remove any obstacle to the success of an enterprise of such a national importance and utility, full authorization is granted them to import and reëxport, free of duty, all goods for exposition in the palace, which goods will only have to pay the dues if sold in France, according to the tariffs existing at the time of sale. These exceptional immunities, M. Rouher observes, will, in his opinion, place beyond doubt the effectual achievement of the great object. In addition to this Imperial guarantee, the scheme is strengthened by a ready subscribtion of the entire capital required, amounting to six hundred thousand pounds, and also by the encouraging signs of genereral approval manifest in the applications for space. Already the area allotted to France and to several other Continental nations has been taken up, at a moderate rental payable in advance, and varying with the different characters of the objects to be displayed. British exhibitors will be represented by a committee of twelve members, who will act in a general committee, appointed by other countries, to organize the distribution of space, and frame a code of rules for universal observance. The interest taken in this enterprise by the Emperor, by Prince Napoleon, and by every political and social class in France, will extend to this country, where emulation has been freshly excited by the great display of productive power furnished by our neighbors in the present International Exhibition. VISIT TO THE EMPEROR OF A VETERAN.-A few days back an old man, aged eighty-three, wearing the cross of the Legion of Honor and the St. Helena medal, called at the Palace of Fontainebleau, and asked to see the Emperor. The cross attached to his breast served as his passport, and he was taken to his Ma jesty, who coming forward to meet the old soldier, shook his hand with cordiality. The veteran who thus presented himself was the fusileer Coluche, who, in 1809, crossed his bayonet before the Emperor Napoleon I., saying: "No one can pass; not even if you were the Little Corporal himself." Coluche then belonged to the Seventeenth Regiment of the line, and the cross he wears is the one which he received from the Emperor Napoleon's own hands The old man, who is still hale, is in a comfortable position, and his only object in going to the palace was to pay a visit to the Imperial family. When about to leave the Emperor, he said, almost with familiarity: "And Madame the Empress; can I not pay my respects to her ?" The Emperor sent for the Empress, and said on her arriving, "Here is a good old man, who will not go away without seeing you," at the same time explaining who the old sol dier was. The Empress addressed some kind words to the old man, and on his asking where was the "little one," replied that he was out for a walk. The veteran then went away delighted with his visit. PERMANENT EXHIBITION IN PARIS.-Near the railway station at Auteuil there is now springing up another palace of universal industry, which will be opened in the summer of 1863, and which will re- WHY should Africa rightly be considered to rank main an institution of the French capital. The build- ! first of the continents? Because it bears the palm. THE COURT.-Her Majesty the Queen, the Princesses, and the younger Princes, will, upon their return from Scotland, proceed on the first of September abroad. Her Majesty will pay a strictly pri. vate visit to the King of the Belgians for two or three days, and will subsequently pass some weeks in seclusion at the Castle of Rheinhardtsbrunn, near Gotha, which her brother-in-law, the Duke of SaxeCoburg and Gotha, has placed at her disposal. Her Majesty will travel in the strictest incognito, under the title of the Duchess of Lancaster. The Prince of Wales will join Her Majesty a few days after her arrival, and after spending some time with the Queen, will proceed upon a visit to His Royal High ness's sister, the Crown Princess of Prussia. As naturally no festivity could take place upon that occasion, His Royal Highness's birthday (when he comes of age) will not be celebrated by the royal family, and His Royal Highness will remain abroad beyond that day with his sister and brother-in-law. -Times, July 31st. That when the legislature is silent it is no part of the duty of the judges to seek in moral and religious considerations, no doubt highly respectable but without any root in civil law, for prohibitions which that law does not contain. For the above reasons the court orders the Mayor who refused to celebrate the marriage of M. de Brou Laurière, the priest, with Mademoiselle Elizabeth Fressanges, to proceed at once to perform the ceremony, and to register the contract in due form. A curious reason against the doctrine sanctioned by the above sensible judgment was cited by the public minister as having been used by a great judge-M. Portalis. I think, said that magistrate, of the power which priests exercise over women in the confessional, and consider how dangerous it would be to the peace of families if "a dissolute and unprincipled priest" should be enabled to exercise that power with a view of getting a wife for himself. Such considerations may possibly be thought to militate against the system of auricular confession, but not even the great name of Portalis can persuade any body that they contain any shadow of legal argument. Daily News, Paris. THE PRINCE CONSORT'S MAUSOLEUM AT FROGMORE. -The mausoleum now in course of erection, consists of a central cell, with four transepts branching north, south, east, and west, with a porch adjoining the western transept, according to a description which has reached us. The whole floor is supported by brick vaults of massive work, which at the same time form chambers, with loopholes for the purposes of ventilation and the prevention of damp ris ing to the superstructure. They are entered by a small flight of stone steps. The central cell will be lighted by three light semicircular headed windows in the clerestory, which will be externally decorated with Aberdeen granite shafts and heads. The copper roof of the central cell (which is on the octago ASSYRIAN HISTORY.-It is astonishing to what a degree of accuracy the students of ancient Assyrian and Babylonian history have arrived since the deciphering of the arrow-head inscriptions upon the monuments of these ancient empires. In the study of the annals of these far remote nations, as recorded in the Bible and some of the early Greek historians, we thought we were doing well if we could fix upon the century before Christ, when Cyrus entered Babylon, or when Sennacherib and Darius and Xerxes flourished. But now so acute have Oriental philologists become, that events which took place eight hundred years before the Christian era are fixed in their period when they occurred within three years. A warm dispute is now going on in London between Sir Henry Rawlinson, the most distinguished scholar in cuneiform writing and Assyrian history, and Mr. Hinckes, another leading Oriental ist, in which the latter charges Sir Henry with hav-nal plan) rises from the wall to the apex with a flat ing "gone astray" in placing an event in the year 721 B.C., instead of 718 B.0. Another point in dis pute between these two learned men is "the interval between the accession of Jehu and the capture of Samaria," where they slightly differ. It is an interesting fact connected with these discoveries, that the results of the chronological investigations coin-windows similar to those in the clerestory of the cide so remarkably with the Scripture chronology. The names of the Assyrian sovereigns and the events of their history, as recorded upon the tablets rescued from the mounds and tumuli of Nineveh and other ancient cities, are wonderfully in accord ance with the Bible records. THE MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS IN FRANCE.-The Tri bunal of Perigueux has decided that a priest may lawfully marry in France. The grounds of the judgment (given in spite of the furious speech of the public minister) are so cogent that I can not conceive the possibility of their being overruled by the court of higher jurisdiction to which the case will certainly be carried. The Perigueux court, in few but conclusive words, says that the Code Napoleon regards marriage as a purely civil contract, which all citizens not expressly interdicted are capable of making; that there is nothing in French law to prohibit a Catholic priest from marrying-nothing to show that by entering into holy orders he loses his quality or rights as a citizen. That the organic law on public worship of Germinal year X is as silent as the code upon this important point. pitch in the manner of an Italian campanile, and will be surmounted with a gilt cross. Under this roof will be the sarcophagus for the remains of the Prince Consort. The reclining statue of the Prince will be executed by Baron Marochetti. The four transepts are square on plan, are lighted by central cell, and will have pedimented copper roofs. The porch, which will be entered by a flight of stone steps, will be lighted with circular-headed three light windows, with shafts and heads of Guernsey granite, and the front will be supported by monolithic granite columns, similar to those already finished in the mausoleum of the Duchess of Kent. The whole of the exterior will be decorated with Aberdeen and Guernsey granite, and with red Mansfield and various stones. The interior will be in different colored marbles and stone. The building is in the Italian style, stands upon a base of concrete, six feet in thickness, is to be seventy feet in length, will be about the same hight, and will be adorned by several statues.-Builder. THE SEX OF EGGS.-M. Genin lately addressed the Academie des Sciences on the subject of "The Sex of Eggs." He affirms that he is now able, after having studied the subject for upwards of three years, to state with assurance that all eggs containing the germ of males have wrinkles on their smaller ends, while female eggs are smooth at the extremities. CAPTAIN JOHN ERICSSON, a fine portrait of whom embellished our August number, is hard at work turning out the mighty engines of war. The follow ing, from the Scientific American, shows what he is about: "Captain Ericsson has made a contract with the Government to construct two large iron-plated ships, which he believes will be the fastest and best seaboats, the most completely invulnerable, and the most formidable for attack, either at long range or in close quarter as rams, of any ships in the world. "They will bear a general resemblance to the Monitor, with such modifications as have been suggested by experience. One of them is to be three hundred and twenty feet in length, and the other three hundred and forty-one, with fifty feet beam. The vertical sides are six feet in depth, and are to be protected with iron armor plating ten and a half inches in thickness, backed with four feet solid oak. "The turrets are to be absolutely invulnerable. The contract provides that they shall be two feet in thickness, that the contractor has leave to reduce the thickness, provided he can satisfy the department that less will be sufficient. A target has been constructed of thickness less than two feet and forwarded to Washington for trial, but Captain Dahlgren, who has been sending his eleven-inch balls through a target like the side of the Warrior with thirty pounds of powder-making a clean hole at every shot-says that there is no use of firing at this target of Ericsson's until the fifteen-inch guns are finished. The turrets will be made of sufficient thickness to withstand the force of the four hundred and twenty-five-pounders with the maximum charges of the big guns. "The vessels are to be furnished with more powerful engines than any now afloat. Each ship will have two engines of one hundred inches diameter of cylinder, with four feet stroke, to make seventy revolutions a minute, with boiler surface of thirty-five thousand feet, and one thousand one hundred and eighty feet of grate surface. The boilers are of the upright water tubular pattern-a modification of Martin's. The propellers are Ericsson's patent, twen. ty-one and a half feet in diameter and thirty feet pitch. The contractors guarantee a speed of sixteen knots per hour-nearly nineteen miles. "The armament will consist of fifteen-inch guns, and will probably equal in destructive power that of any French or English ship. It is, however, as rams that these vessels will be the most formidable. Where the plates of the sides meet at the bow they form an iron wedge, twenty-one inches thick at the base, and terminating in a sharp edge. This wedge is sustained by the plates behind it, ten and a half inches in thickness, six feet in depth, and extending the whole length of the vessel, forming the most powerful butting instrument that it is possible to conceive of. Captain Ericsson says, 'It will split an iceberg." a hare at first going out in the morning; when persons sneezed at rising in the morning before they had put on their shoes, they thought themselves compelled to go to bed again, in order to avert impending evils; others held the thumb of the left hand fast in the right when troubled with the hiecough; and, during the chanting or reading of the Gospel, the superstitious held their chin with the right hand, each for similar reasons to the above. When Charles the First resided at the University of Oxford, in 1642, he told one of the freshmen that as he was hawking in Scotland, he rode into a quarry and found a covey of partridges falling upon a hawk. And the monarch added, "I will swear upon the book that it is true." Several persons have a custom, after eating a boiled egg, to crush the shell in their hands; this was done in the fear that witches should write or prick their names on the shell, and thereby the hen would be bewitched. Our ancestors had also stated times for cutting the hair and paring the nails, in order to preserve good fortune. WEBSTER'S BELIEF. The following inscription was, in brief, Mr. Webster's confession of faith, or testimony in favor of Christianity. It was dictated by Mr. Webster, a fortnight before his death, and may now be read on his monument: "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." that drawn from the witness of the Universe, in comparison with the apparent insignificance of this globe, has sometimes shaken my reason for the faith which is in me; but my heart has always assured and reassured me that the Gospel of Jesus Christ must be a Divine Reality. The Sermon on the Mount can not be a merely human man proves it. DANIEL WEBSTER, THE amount of value of books exported from England, during the first half of the current year, was £202,000, against £188,000 in the corresponding period of last year. In the year 1860, 9496 books were published in Germany; in 1861, 9398. Of these, 1892 related to theology; 396 to jurisprudence; 908 to belles-lettres; 518 to history; 838 to education; 512 to natural science; 449 to the fine arts, and 435 to medicine. WELL KEPT BUTTER." In 1814," says the Jour nal de l'Aisne, "a woman of Cassy, being surprised by the Cossacks, concealed a crock of fresh butter O-MENS AND WOMEN'S IDEAS.-In the reign of which she did not want them to have in a field near Charles the First, the ladies and effeminate men, as her house. After the departure of the foreign visScott calls them, were in the habit of making divi-itors she endeavored to find the exact spot in which nations on the falling of salt, or the spilling of wine. When an unfortunate stumble, or the capering of a horse threw its rider, the time of the occurrence was carefully noted, and corresponding hours were regarded as dangerous to the party; those who met with an accident in the course of the day, were in the habit of endeavoring to recollect whether they had stumbled at the threshold, or had met a cat or the butter was concealed, but did not succeed, and after a while the whole matter was forgotten. Recently some workmen digging the foundations of a house came upon the pot in question, and on opening what they expected to be a treasure discovered the butter as white and firm as when buried fortyeight years hefore. Since exposure to the air it has, however, acquired an extremely rank taste.” A NEW COLLEge at Beirut.-Rev. Daniel Bliss, missionary of the American Board at Suk el Ghurb, Syria, for the last seven years, is to be connected with a new college to be founded in Beirut. He is now on his way to this country to make arrangements for the enterprise, though aid will not probably be solicited from this country while the war continues. Mr. Bliss graduated at Amherst College in 1851, and distinguished himself during the Syrian massacres by personal sacrifice and fearlessness. attention to the matter. There is little doubt that the proposal will be taken into consideration by the Italian Cabinet. From an examination of his work there is reason to regard the plan as not merely possible, but even easy. The port of Varano, thus carried out, would indeed be one of the most magnificent in the world, and a debt of gratitude would be due to the enterprising person who first suggested it.-Morning Post. THE COMTE DE CHAMBORD IN THE HOUSE OF COMBREAD 1800 YEARS OLD.-An important archæo-MONS.-Among those who listened to the notable delogical discovery has just been made at Pompeii, of a mill with a great quantity of corn in excellent preservation, and an oven with eighty-one loaves, arranged in rows, and but slightly affected by the heat of the lava, having been protected by a quantity of ashes which had covered the iron door fitted to the mouth of the oven. These loaves have all been got out entire; a large iron shovel for introducing loaves into the oven has also been found on the spot, with a remnant of its wooden handle. Galignani. ASBESTOS PAPER.-The repeal of the paper duty has caused a vast number of likely and unlikely materials to be employed in the manufacture of this necessary of civilized life. The curious mineral, asbestos, the long and flexible flax-like fibers of which used formerly to be woven into incombustible cloth, is the most recent ingredient used in paper-making. Mr. Audesluys, the proprietor of considerable deposits of asbestos near Baltimore, has introduced asbestos paper in America with some success. From a specimen before us, it would seem well adapted for coarse purposes, owing to its very low price, but it is somewhat friable, although not more so than the commoner kinds of straw paper. The mineral is present to the extent of about thirty per cent, and communicates to the paper a not unpleas ant satin-like aspect. It burns with a flame, leaving a white incombustible residue, which with careful management retains the form of the original sheet. Characters written on the paper with ordinary black ink are still legible after burning. Owing to the friability which the presence of this mineral communicates to paper, it would not probably be a useful ingredient in any except low-priced common paper, although it is not impossible that its peculiar property of resisting heat might be of use under some circumstances. PROPOSED HARBOR IN ITALY.-There has been published at Naples a book, small in extent and modest in form, but very ambitious as regards the vastness of its conceptions. It proposes to convert into a military and mercantile harbor the lake of Varano, situated at the foot of the Garganu, on the Adriatic. This lake is thirty-two miles in circumference, has a mean depth of thirty feet, and is protected against the north winds by the Garganic Apennines. A low dike, seven miles in length, separates the lake from the sea, and the opening up, which might be accomplished with ease, of two mouths at the extremities-a work of no great expense-would give to Italy, and to the whole world engaged in navigation, the largest and most secure harbor that can possibly be imagined. This great conception is due to the Neapolitan Councilor of State, Signor Guiseppe Aurelio Lauria, who has not neglected to invite the Italian Government, according to his statements, to devote the necessary bate of Friday last in the House of Commons was the exiled heir of the ancient royalty of France. From one of the privileged seats set apart for strangers of distinction, the Comte de Chambord witnessed the free play of that parliamentary system whereby every item of expenditure in the name of the Crown, and every act and omission of the Minister of the day, is searchingly questioned, and unre servedly approved or condemned. As the disinherited chief of a once powerful dynasty marked the candor of the popular tribune's criticism, the stirless attention with which every word was waited for, and the gravity with which each successive portion of the Premier's defense was weighed in the balance of legislative opinion, what memories of the evil fortune of his house must have been present to the mind of Henri V., as his faithful adherents call him whenever they dare! Because the King spurned the restraints of such a system his kingdom was parted from him, and his posterity have ever since been doomed to wander as outcasts in other lands. The representative system, in no unworthy form, had existed in France for many years; and, had it been preserved in purity and vigor under the Bourbons, it would have averted their fall, and saved the land from many sorrows. But the Minister of Charles X. hated Constitutionalism, and plotted its overthrow.-Daily News, Aug. 4th. IMPROVEMENT IN GUNPOWDER.-A new gunpowder was tried at the late Frankfort Shooting Feast, apparently with success. Its merits are, a lower price, a less weight, a more effectual action than the general powder; to which a more important merit is added-that after thirty shots it left the barrel as clean as it was before firing. Its color is yellowish brown; it is granular, and looks like decayed wood ground small. The inventor is a Prussian artillery captain in Spandau, and his invention is being tested by the Prussian Government. NEW MOTIVE POWER.-The new power invented by Mr. Lenoir, for which a medal has been awarded at the International Exhibition, has, it is said, been teur Universel. The new system-a model of which tried with success in the printing-office of the Moniis on view in the machinery department of the International Exhibition-consists of the expansion of air by gas, lighted by means of electricity. AN Indian philosopher, being asked what were, in his opinion, the two most beautiful things of the universe, answered: "The starry heavens above our heads, and the feeling of duty in our hearts." MISERY assails riches as lightning does the highest towers; or as a tree that is heavy laden with fruit breaks its own boughs, so do riches destroy the virtue of their possessor. BEAUTIFUL TRIBUTE.—N. P. Willis, Esq., of the Home Journal, still wields a tender and touching poetic pen, of which the following, in the last number of his journal, is ample proof, and worthy of permanent record: "Mrs. Grinnell, wife of Hon. Joseph Grinnell, who died recently at New-Bedford, Mass., and had kept, last year, her fiftieth wedding day, had lived a very varied but most uniformly beloved life. Born in the sect of the Quakers, she had always preserved their exceeding simplicity and directness of character and manner-traits which were seen in much more advantageous contrast by the eminent positions she was called upon to occupy. Her travels in Europe, and her husband's successive terms in Congress, endeared her to many of the most distinguished on both sides of the water; and what she was in her own hospitable home, all know who have had the happiness of seeing her in that abode of comfort. With no children of her own, the family of her niece and adopted daughter, Mrs. N. P. Willis, became the nearest and dearest to her affectionate heart; and by them her untiring love and devotion will be tearfully and tenderly remembered. Her death is everywhere sadly felt; but, if it were not for the feeling which we have ventured to express in the following lines, the grief of those who had called her mother' would overshadow their hearts like a cloud difficult to dispel: "She is not lost to us! The weary heart, O'ercome beneath its burden, prayed for rest; "N. P. W." LEAD PIPES.-The action of water on lead has not unfrequently led to very unpleasant results. J. R. Nichols, an American chemist of some standing, calls attention to the fact, that leaden pipes are most acted upon by the water flowing through them when they are bent at an acute angle. Whether this is due to a change in the structure of the lead, or to the mechanical action of the water at the point where it is made to turn, is not certain. The evidence, however, is satisfactory, that the lead is more rapidly corroded at these bends than in any other part. The public should, therefore, see that the plumber twists the pipes supplying houses as little as possible; and that where a turn is absolutely necessary he should be instructed to make it as gradual as the circumstances of the situation admit, at all times avoiding acute angles. THE Order of Jesuits now numbers 7231 members, namely: 2203 French Jesuits; 1635 Italian Jesuits; 740 Spanish or Portuguese; 563 German; 542 Belgian; 349 Austrian; 265 English; 240 North-American; 220 South-American, 136 Gallician; and 126 Irish. The Italian Jesuits are distributed as follows: Naples, 463; Rome, 462; Turin, 277; Sicily, 267; and Venetia, 226. The French Jesuits belong to three provinces, namely, 1053 to the province of Paris; 626 to the province of Lyons; and 524 to that of Toulouse. DON'T WRITE THERE.-" Don't write there," said one to a lad who was writing with a diamond pin on a pane of glass in the window of a hotel. Why not?" was the reply. "Because you can't rub it out." There are others things which men should not do, because they can not rub them out. A heart is aching for sympathy, and a cold, perhaps a heartless word is spoken. The impression may be more durable than that of the diamond upon the glass. The inscription on the glass may be destroyed by the fracture of the glass, but the impression on the heart may last for ever. On many a mind and many a heart there are sad inscriptions, deeply engraved, which no effort can erase. We should be careful what we write on the minds of others. A BITER BIT. - Madame de Stael was a pitiless talker. Some gentleman, who wished to teach her a lesson, introduced a person to her, who they said was a very learned man. The blue-stocking received him graciously; but eager to produce an impression, began to talk away, and asked a thousand questions, so engrossed with herself that she did not notice that her visitor made no reply. When the visit was over, the gentleman asked Corinne how she liked her friend. "A most wonderful man!" was the reply; "what wit and learning!" Here the laugh came in-the visitor was deaf and dumb. IN Pompeii the excavations are zealously carried on under a new Piedmontese contractor. The old accumulation of volcanic ashes, which had been thrown round the town in the direction of the sea, is now being removed and sent by the little railway to the field outside the town, beyond the Amphitheater. In the latest excavations in a house in the A MAN never so beautifully shows his own strength immediate vicinity of the cassino of Signor dell'' as when he respects woman's softness. |