1817.]

Theory of High Tides-Philosophical Transactions.

A writer in an Irish publication suggests the following explanation of the phænomenon of tides of unusual height without any apparent adequate cause, instead of the theory which ascribes them to the relative positions of the moon and earth. "If," says he, "from the extremities of any given portion of this habitable globe, two strong winds should continue to blow for any considerable time in opposite directions, (for instance, one to the north, and another to the south,) it is manifest, that the part of the atmosphere which is contained in the intermediate space, must, by this long continued subduction of its matter, be much lessened in density and weight, and of course, the earth or water immediately beneath it sustains a relatively smaller degree of pressure than usual. Now, the quantity of air withdrawn by these contrary winds must add to the weight of the atmosphere in those places towards which it has been carried. Suppose it, therefore, to press with this additional weight on that part of the ocean on which it rests, much water will, of course, recede from thence to that portion of the sea which had been lightened of so much of its incumbent atmosphere. It will be impelled hither from two distinct points, by two contrary impulses, viz. from north and south. If this event should happen about the time of high tide, the swell of the sea will be enormous. On this theory, it is obvious, that the mercury in the barometer ought to sink at the time and place of these unusually high tides; for, the air, lessened of its weight and pressure, becomes unable to support it at its average height. Accordingly, at the time of those prodigious tides which in November, 1812, inundated Belfast, Westminster, &c.; the mercury stood lower in the barometer than had been known during the preceding twenty years. Succeeding storms in such cases may be expected; the reflux of the air into that of the atmosphere which had been stripped of so great a portion of its elastic matter, must be rapid in the extreme, and of course generates tempests and whirlwind. That contrary currents of air frequently prevail in the atmosphere at the same time and place, is manifest from the rapid carry of the clouds, which are often seen moving towards diametrically opposite points of the heavens.

The Second Part of the Philosophical

* In Belfast, &c. the high tide alluded to was succeeded by a tremendous storm.

527

Transactions of the Royal Society o London, for 1816, has just appeared, and contains the following papers:

An Essay towards the Calculus of Functions; part 2. By C. Babbage, esq.

Experiments and Observations to prove that the beneficial Effects of many Medicines are produced through the medium of the Circulating Blood, more particularly that of the Colchicum autumnale upon the Gout. By Sir Everard Home, bart.

An Appendix to a Paper on the Effects of
Everard Home, bart.
the Colchicum autumnale on Gout. By Sir

Wollaston, M. D.
On the Cutting Diamond. By W. H.

of Native Iron in Brasil. By A. F. Mor-
An Account of the Discovery of a Mass

nay, esq.

On Ice found in the Bottoms of Rivers. By T. A. Knight, esq.

On the Action of detached Leaves of Plants. By T. A. Knight, esq.

On the Manufacture of the Sulphate of Magnesia at Monte della Guardia, near Geпоз. By H. Holland, M. D.

On the Formation of Fat in the Intestine of the Tadpole, and on the use of the Yolk in the formation of the Embryo in the Egg. By Sir Everard Home, bart.

in Fishes and Quadrupeds, as ascertained by
On the Structure of the Crystalline Lens
Brewster, LL.D.
its action on Polarized Light. By David

Some further Account of the Fossil Remains of an Animal, of which a Description was given to the Society in 1814. By Sir Everard Home, bart.

Further Observations on the Feet of Animals whose progressive Motion can be carried on against Gravity. By Sir Everard Home, bart.

A new Demonstration of the Binomial

Theorem. By Thomas Knight, esq.

On the Fluents of Irrational Functions.

By Edward French Bromhead, esq.

FRANCE.

The public education has not been reorganized, but remains nearly upon the old footing, with this difference, that instead of a grand-master there is now at its head a committee of six members. These are as intent as the grand-master under Buonaparte's system, on placing the whole education of the youth of the capital at the discretion of the four colleges of Paris. In that city there are numerous private seminaries, some of which contain upwards of one hundred pupils. The committee would compel all these to send their pupils for instruc-. tion to one of the four colleges, so as to confine the lessons in the private institutions to the mere repetition of what has been learned at the college. This

528

Stamp Duty in France-French Academy.

despotic system, prescribed by an imperial decree, always experienced strong opposition; and as if to render it still more odious, the directors of the private seminaries are required to pay a considerable tax for each scholar, whether sent to the college or not. It amounts, I believe to thirty francs per head. Unfortunately this impost constitutes a great part of the revenues of the university, and it will therefore be difficult to correct the grievance.

An equally obnoxious abuse is practised by the fiscal department in regard to the stamp duty. What a prodigious sum is derived from newspaper stamps is well known; but this is no great hardship as the proprietors of those publications are paid in advance, and therefore know exactly how many stamps they require. Not content with this, the government in Buonaparte's time, found this mode of raising money so convenient, that it commanded all public announcements to be stamped, not excepting booksellers' hand-bills, though these are the only medium through which publishers can advertise their works. At the post-office there were persons solely employed in examining all the printed announcements which passed through this channel, and woe to him who sent in one without stamp. On the return of the king, two booksellers wrote to complain of this extortion, but to no purpose. The Chamber of Deputies took the stamp-duty under their protection, and this oppressive tax was still farther extended. The government now requires that all journals, including those of several sheets shall have a stamp upon each sheet; so that the poor booksellers are obliged to incur a considerable expence without the certainty of being ever in demnified for it. Thus, for example, Millin's Magasin encyclopedique, which has never received the smallest support from the ruling powers, and has been continued for above twelve years, will be subject like the rest to this tax; but as it has a very small number of purchasers, and cannot possibly support the additional duty, this useful publication will probably be dropped at the expiration of the present year. The government indeed is obliged to resort to every means of raising money; but it is urged that luxuries should be taxed as in England, instead of the book-trade which was before far from flourishing. For merly the Dutch only reprinted books published in France; now all Brabant is full of pirates, who make prize of every

[Jan. I,

interesting work the moment it appears in France. If a publication possess ge neral interest, it will besides be reprinted in Germany, and England. Hence the Paris bookseller is shy of undertakings of magnitude, though the French language and literature are far more extensively diffused than at any former period.

The public meeting of the Academie Francaise on the festival of St. Louis, was remarkable on various accounts. In the first place it was the day on which the Academy revived the ancient practice of assemblage on that anniversary, and in the next the solemn admis. sion of the celebrated Desère as a member of the Academy, took place on this occasion. Fontanes, who under Buonaparte had raised himself from a mere man of letters to be a senator, count, and grand-master of the university, filled the chair as the then president at this meeting, which was attended by a numerous auditory of the higher classes. He had not foreseen the perplexing situation in which he thus placed himself. According to the usual custom Desèze pronounced a eulogy on his predecessor, the venerable Ducis, who, as all the world knows, was the only poet besides Delille, that invariably refused the presents and honours proffered by Buonaparte, and never could be induced to praise the upstart. When Desèze related how Ducis animated with generous pride declared, that he would rather dispense with all the gifts of fortune, nay, even sacrifice liberty and life itself, than praise the oppressor of his country, the hall rung with unanimous applause. Fontanes felt how severe a stroke this applause was for himself. He was discomposed, and it was easy to perceive that he knew not whether to clap with the rest or not. Chateaubriand too was somewhat embarrassed, but probably only on account of his friend Fontanes, and feigned to be asleep. Some other academicians also who had vied with each other in their cringing adulation of Buonaparte felt deeply humbled. But when Desèze drew in its true colours a picture of the horrible reign of the oppressor of mankind, Fontanes-be, who in all his public speeches had been ac customed to creep in the dust before Buonaparte, also paid the tribute of ap plause. Upon him as president devolved the duty of answering the new member, and he performed it with his usual eloquence. The speech of Desèze was long and rather confused; indeed be never was a great orator, but only a good

Indifference to Religion in France.

530

French Literary Intelligence, &c.

Ireland, from Taylor's 1

8

and among the works is: Notice descriptive sur l'Angleterre, l'Ecosse et l'Irlande, in three volumes, 8vo. written no doubt for the use of those officers who so

kindly meditated a visit to the British

shores some years ago.

Dr. Nestler, professor of the School of Pharmacy at Strasburgh, has published a Monography of the genus of plants, calied by naturalists Potentillæ, in 4to. He describes sixty eight species, which is ten more than are contained in Persoon's

Synopsis. The book is accompanied by twelve plates, representing twenty species either new or never yet delineated in any botanical work.

M. Didot, senior, is proceeding with his stereotype 8vo. editions of the French classics, of which twenty-five volumes have already appeared. To these he will speedily add Les Provinciales de Pascal, 2 vols. and Les Œuvres, complètes de Molière, 7 vols.

M. Leo has printed a stereotype edition of the New Testament, as translated M. de Sacy, not as a mercantile speculation, but with a view to extend the circulation of the sacred volume among all the classes of society, either by selling it at the lowest possible price, or by gratuitous distribution, by means of the voluntary contributions which have assisted him in the undertaking.

The library of the late M. de l'Isle de Sales, a member of the Institute, is advertised for public sale in one lot. It consists of nearly 40,000 volumes, most of them handsomely bound, which the deceased owner had been half a century in collecting. The historical department is considered as unique; those of literature and the arts and sciences are extremely valuable, and the collection includes a great number of most interesting manuscripts.

The French papers inform us that Messrs. Tyrwhitt and Hayter, have been employed to unrol by means of a new process the Herculaneum MS.S. belong ing to the Institute of France, and that Messrs. Visconti, Quatremère de Quincy, Boissonade and Raoul Rochette have been appointed to superintend and assist in the operation.

The French, it seems, like ourselves,

[Jan. 1,

find it necessary to exert their ingenuity
to devise new branches of traffic, and to
seek markets for those commodities with
which they are overstocked. A projector
speculating on the amorous propensities
of our countrymen, holds out to them the
following piquant advertisement, which
is literally extracted from Calignani's
Messenger, (a Paris paper printed in
English) of the 9th November last:-
"L'INDICATEUR, No. * rue de *********
has the honour of informing English
Gentlemen, that if they desire any young
French Lady, either for marriage, or to
keep company and do the honours of the
house, that they can address themselves
as above. He will receive whatever de-
mands may be made either in writing or
verbally, and will send in the provinces
or to England the Lady or Ladies of the
description desired."-As we have no
reason to believe that there is any
scarcity of females in the British Islands,
and have considerable doubts whether
young French com-
the introduction of “
panions" would tend either to mend our
morals or improve the breed, we respect-
fully submit to our government the po-
licy of protecting native produce, by a
heavy duty on the importation of these
frail outlandish commodities.

SWITZERLAND.

Two expert mechanics, the brothers Geyser of La Chaux de Fond, have lately exhibited at Lausanne, and Zurich, a clock-work which combines the most ingenious invention with the greatest exExamine it ever so atterior neatness. tentively, watch ever so closely its motion which seems to take place without any moving power, or scrutinize the machinery altogether in an uncovered state, still you cannot discover the impelling power, and are tempted to consider it as a perpetual motion. This work consists of a brass wheel two feet in diameter, round the circumference of which are attached thirty-nine tubes of the same metal: one half of these tubes are constantly in a horizontal, and the other half in a perpendicular direction; while the wheel itself revolves once in an hour, and possesses a surplus power capable of moving a small seconds clock. Hitherto no person has been able to divine the moving principle of this work, which from the facility of seeing through it does not seem calculated to receive any.