be broiled, they tear it to pieces. Each eats as much as he can, then sleeps; he awakes and eats again, until the whole is devoured. He then remains in a state of inaction, until hunger compels him to seek for fresh prey."

What is Taste?-Blair defines taste as the power of receiving pleasure from the beauties of nature and art. La Harpe describes it as a knowledge of the beautiful and of truth, and as a sense of what is right.

Egyptian Science.-Sesostris, according to ancient historians, caused a topographical map of Egypt to be drawn, and copies of it were circulated amongst the Egyptians and Syrians. We are not aware that any copy of it is extant.

A Life-preserving Coffin! The American papers mention that "one of the most remarkable specimens of mechanical ingenuity exhibited at the American Institute, was a life-preserving coffin! The object of this new coffin is to prevent the hazard of burying a person alive; and for this purpose the coffin is fitted with springs and levers inside, which, on the slightest motion of the person within, will instantly throw up the coffin lid."

Theatrical Decorations.-The decorative portion of theatrical representation was, at an early period, an object of the highest interest and attention. The first artists did not think it below the dignity of their art to apply their time and talents to such purposes. San Gallo was employed in the decorations of the Clizia. Perugino, Francia Bigio, and Ghirlandajo, in those of the Mandragola. Jovius states that these latter were so admirable, that Leo X had them removed to Rome at his own expense. Rome, however, surpassed Florence. The other parts of Italy, Milan, Venice, Bologna, were scarcely inferior. It is not very generally known that Salvator Rosa was delighted to use his powerful pencil in giving additional effect to the "Bellissimi e bizarissime commedie al improviso," which were relished exceedingly by the Florentines in the Casino di San Marco, which that munificent patron of the arts, the Cardinald Leopold de Medici, had lent for a theatre. At Rome Salvator again used his pencil for the came purpose, hastily embodying upon his sanvas some of those reminiscences of his "Giro," among the Abruzzi mountains, which formed the prominent character of his after genius.

Truth called into Court.-The Denbigh Estedfodd, or meeting of bards, was opened with the following proclamation:-" The truth against the world. In the year 1828, when the sun is on the point of the autumnal equinox, in the forenoon of the 11th of September, this gorsedd, duly proclaimed, is opened in the Castle of Den

bigh, in Gwynedd, with invitation to all, where no naked weapon is lawful, to pronounce judgment on all works of genius submitted to them in the eye of the sun and the face of the light.-The truth against the world!"

Literary Discovery.-A Latin play on the story of Richard the Third, and antecedent to Shakspere, has been discovered in the library of Emanuel College, Cambridge. It is in the hands of the Shakspere Society.

M. Beranger-The students of Paris requested the poet Beranger to preside over the inauguration of the statue of Molière, an Monday week. He declined, and wrote to them-"My character, my tastes, and my habits, have always kept me away from public solemnities, where I should find myself ill at ease, and unable to utter a single word. Persuade," he added, "those generous young men to leave in his cornerwhich, thank heaven, is not the gloomy corner of the misanthropist-the old philosopher and song-writer, still faithful to his convictions and his sympathies. The dreams which he still makes there will prove, he hopes, to your generation, which will so long survive him, that to his last moments he was occupied with the happiness and glory of his country."

Water Drinking.-People go to Harrowgate, and Buxton, and Bath, and the devil knows where, to drink the waters, and they return full of admiration at their surpassing efficacy. Now, these waters contain next to nothing of purgative medicine; but they are taken readily, regularly, and in such quantities as to produce the desired effect. You must persevere in this plan.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Some extraordinary and interesting papers by Mr Boccius, on the Science of Breeding Fish, with most curious particulars of the habits of the finny race, will immediately appear.

X.-The heart is placed in the centre of the thorax or chest, its apex advancing towards the left side. Most persons think it is placed to the left. The palpitation is caused by the extension and contraction of its body in receiving the blood from the veins and ejecting it again by muscular power through the arteries.

L.M.S. will be attended to next week. His last observation we do not clearly understand. "No Grumbler's" good-natured hint will be respectfully borne in mind.

IfT. X. did not send his vamped up, hackneyed trans

lation from Marmontel as an original article, why did he send it at all? He evidently meant to pass it off for his own, and finds, doubtless, not for the first time, that he has made a fool of himself. We have preserved the letter of W. E. N., and hoped, long before this, to have heard from the writer.

LONDON: Published by JOHN MORTIMER, Adelaide Street, Trafalgar Square; and sold by all Booksellers and Newsmen. Printed by REYNELL and WEIGHT, Little Pulteney street, and at the Royal Polytechnic Institution.

Original Communications.

THE EDMONTON UNION. So much has been said on the uses and abuses of the Poor Law Unions, that perhaps it may not be unacceptable to many readers of the 'Mirror' to receive a little evidence on the subject. To state particular facts ought to give offence to no one ; to form opinions and to draw general conclusions is a task or a duty which may be left to others.

We lately took an opportunity of visiting the Edmonton Union. The house was erected in 1841-2, by Messrs Scott and Moffatt. It is of considerable magnitude and commanding aspect It has been raised in a fine, open situation, on a clayey and gravelly soil. It stands on five acres of land, of which nearly three have been successfully brought into cultivation by Mr Barroclough, the present master of the establishment. However great the misfortunes of its inmates in other days, their friends must be in no small degree consoled to find so comfortable a haven prepared to receive their shattered barks after the storm.

We were permitted to inspect all parts of the establishment, and the sight was in no small degree gratifying, from the order, cleanliness, and regard for the comfort of the inmates which everywhere seemed apparent.

The provisions are good, and the allow ance we should consider ample. Without affecting any stoical indifference to the luxuries of life, we must say we hardly pity the man who in an ordinary way can hope for no richer fare. The bread, the meat, and the oatmeal, were all of superior quality.

On inquiry we found it was the practice of the house to ring up the paupers at a quarter before seven in the morning. Prayers are read at seven o'clock. Three efficient meals are provided-breakfast, dinner, and supper. At seven in the evening the inmates are again assembled to hear prayers, after which the bed rooms are opened and they may retire to rest as soon as they please. They are, however, not required to withdraw immediately, but generally avail themselves of the privilege with little delay. For the most part all are in bed by eight o'clock, at which hour the fires are put out and the lights extinguished.

The building, it will be seen from the accompanying woodcut, is in the Elizabethan style. It seems to afford every requisite accommodation; of course we render but imperfect justice to the grounds, which, while they present many agreeable objects to the eye, offer the means of furnishing varieties of healthful exercise. Those who are in health culti

vate parts of it, and a large crop of excellent potatoes was raised from the soil in the last summer, while a good supply of winter greens remained in the ground.

From many parts of the country complaints have been made of the dietary, and of the Union system, as if the object of those who have the poor in charge was to render the workhouse not an asylum for sorrow but a scene of punishment for crime. To terrify those without, that they may dread to come within its walls, and to torture those within, that they may be impatient to make their escape, would seem in some instances to have been the study of the parochial authorities. In this establishment there was no appearance of anything of the kind. As much consideration was manifested for the well-being of the inmates as could be shown with due regard to the interests of the rate-payers. Excessive indulgence would be monstrous injustice in itself, and self-destructive in its consequences, for if such an establishment were known to be so decidedly preferable to what the industrious poor could hope to realize for themselves, as to make the labourer ambitious of gaining a place in it, the number of the paupers would be so largely increased that their comforts must be speedily diminished. In the Edmonton Union, as already stated, work seems to be provided in the garden for the able bodied inmates. We have not heard that shirt-making, or any branch of industry, on which the humble parishioners may be supposed to depend, has been introduced. All is quiet, and health and content seemed to prevail. The classification is dictated by good sense, and one wise and humane regulation deserves especial notice. The aged and infirm are permitted to promenade the fine grounds in fair weather during the whole of the day, being kept apart from the young and the dissolute, who might annoy or disturb them.

Every friend to humanity must rejoice if the laws for the relief of the poor could be rendered more perfect. That starvation or something closely approaching it, and cruel oppressions have been experienced in several of the Union houses, can hardly be doubted. It is, however, in proof that under judicious management much may be done to mitigate the sufferings of the unfortunate, and perhaps, on a view of the whole, the impartial observer will, at last, be driven to the old say"For forms of government let fools contest, Whatever's best administered is best."

Dulwich College.-Alleyn gave no less than 8,870l. for his estate at Dulwichmore than 40,000/., of our present money! This entitled him to be called a glorious vagabond."

THIEVES ARE MADMEN.

(For the Mirror.)

A THIEF is an odious character, but when we look at the course of law in England the sanity of a man who is guilty of what is commonly called thieving may fairly be doubted.

The robber on the highway perils life and limb for a watch and a purse, and thinks himself in great luck if he gain a prize worth 100%.

Let the same person apply his mind to business in a more sensible way, and without risk, in the character of a friend or legal adviser, he may appropriate to himself 100,000l.

We continually see ruffians and scoundrels, who have plundered their confiding neighbours, who have stripped unconscious infancy and helpless age, brought before commissioners as insolvents or bankrupts, and after a little scolding allowed to walk off and commence a new career of fraud. The villains who have figured in the Courts of Bankruptcy and Insolvent Debtors within ten years of this date deserve a Newgate

Calender to themselves.

In the last week the public prints have given a report of the proceedings in the case of a "highly respectable solicitor," Mr William Bromley, of Gray's inn. He has been called highly respectable, and we have no wish to deny that he is so, lest that law which allows the miscreants we have described (but to whom we have not likened Mr William Bromley) to go off scott free, should discover that we ought to be punished for a libel. We shall, therefore,

only mention a few facts.

The debts on Mr William Bromley's estate have been estimated at 120,000l.

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Money," it was stated, "had been paid off on mortgages which the bankrupt had pretended to advance to other parties, and till the last quarter he had paid the interest as if the mortgages existed, although he had never advanced a farthing."

In this way the unfortunate creditors lost their property. For a time they received interest, as did the rifled dupes at some of the pretended charitable institutions, and then found that their principal had vanished for ever.

Thus thousands and thousands of pounds have been confiscated, and now the debts "in re William Bromley, of Gray's inn, solicitor," are "estimated at 120,000l."

When the case was called on Mr William Bromley was not present, and for this he was reproved when at length he thought fit to appear, and told that even if he were in ill health he ought to attend the early part of the meeting.

That was severe; but if, instead of ap. pearing in the Bankruptcy Court for debts estimated at 120,000l., Mr William Brom

ley had been charged at the Old Bailey with stealing a leg of mutton value 5s., his ill health would not have saved him from being dragged to the bar the moment his case came on, and probably at the end of a couple of hours he would have been sentenced to long banishment.

Such being the case-since the laws of England are so severe on thieving, what man in his sound senses would be disho. nest? He must be of wretchedly weak intellect who would rob on the highway or steal in a dwelling-house to expose himself for a mere trifle to the horrors of a gaol or transportation, when by merely borrowing or running in debt to the amount of 120,000l. he may have the honour of handling much larger sums of other people's money; he may enjoy the luxury of seeing whole families ruined, children destitute and parents in despair, and still be only a bankrupt or an insolvent, anon to stand before the world again, if such his profession, a highly respectable solicitor.

THE extravagant fancies indulged in Catholic countries seemed excessively ridiculous to plain, jog-trot Protestants. M. Saint Hilaire, the traveller, has given some curious instances of it. In one place, travelling in Brazil, he brings before us a cross, which had been erected, as he learned from an inscription on its base, at the request or command of a number of unhappy souls, temporarily escaped from purgatory, who on that spot fluttered in the form of doves round the horse of a traveller, and expressed their desires in human voice!

This is pretty well; but perhaps, in these mesmerizing days, the story of Sister Germaine, as related by him, will be more interesting. In the comarcas of Sabará and Villa Rica, he had heard much of a female named Germaine, whose ecstacies had given her great celebrity. About the year 1808 she was attacked by a hysterical affection, accompanied by violent convulsions. She was at first exorcised; but her condition degenerated from bad to worse. At the period of my visit, she had been for a long time reduced to so extreme a state of weakness, that she was no longer able to rise from her bed, and subsisted upon a regimen which would scarcely have supported the life of a new-born infant, and it was almost always necessary to use considerable persuasion to decide her to eat at all. Every one admitted that the manners of Germaine had always been pure, her conduct irreproachable. During the progress of her disorder, her devotion had daily assumed a more enthusiastic character. Fridays and Saturdays she fasted entirely; at first, her mother oppposed this prac

tice; but when Germaine declared that, during those two days, it was utterly impossible for her to take any nourishment, she was allowed to have her own way. To indulge her devotion for the Virgin, she caused herself to be transported to the Serra de Piedade, where there is a chapel erected under the auspices of Our Lady of Pity, and she obtained from her spiritual director permission to remain in this asy. lum. In this retreat, meditating one day on the mystery of the passion, she fell into a kind of ecstacy; her arms grew stiff and were extended in the form of a cross; her feet were disposed in the same attitude; and in this position she remained during forty-eight hours. This, for years afterwards, was weekly repeated. She relapsed into her ecstatic attitude on Thursday or Friday night, and continued in a sort of trance until Saturday evening, or Sunday, without receiving the slightest nourish ment, without speech or movement.

Thousands of persons of all ranks crowded to behold what was declared to be a miracle; Sister Germaine was regarded as a Saint, and two surgeons of the province communicated an additional impulse to the veneration of the people by declaring, in a written document, that her situation was supernatural. This declaration remained in manuscript; but was widely circulated, and numerous copies of it were taken. Dr Gomide, an able physician educated at Edinburgh, thought it necessary to refute the declaration of the two surgeons; and in 1814 published at Rio de Janeiro (but without his name) a small pamphlet, replete with science and logic, in which he proves, by a multitude of authorities, that the ecstacies of Germaine were merely the effects of catalepsy.

The public was now divided in opinion; but crowds continued to ascend the Serra, to admire the prodigy operated there. Father Cypriano da Santissima Trinidade, the late bishop of Marianna, a prudent enlightened man, sensible of the inconveniences which might arise from the numerous assemblies collected by Sister Germaine upon the mountain, and desirous of discrediting the pretended miracle, from which there resulted at least as much scandal as edification, prohibited the celebration of mass at La Piedade, under pretence that permission had never been obtained from the king. Many persons offered Germaine an asylum in their houses; but she gave the preference to her confessor, a grave, middle-aged man, who resided in the vicinity of the mountain. The devotees were greatly afflicted at the prohibition of the bishop of Marianna: but they did not sleep; they solicited from the king himself permission to celebrate mass in the chapel of the Serra, and it was granted them. Germaine was now trans

ported a second time to the summit of the mountain; her confessor occasionally as❤ cended thither for the celebration of mass; and the concourse of pilgrims and curious persons was weekly renewed.

"A short time previous to my visit," says M. Saint Hilaire, "a new prodigy began to manifest itself. Every Tuesday she experienced an ecstacy of several hours; her arms quitted their natural position, and assumed the figure of a cross behind her back. In the course of my conversation with her confessor, he told me that for some time he was unable to explain this phenomenon, until he at length recollected that on this day it was customary to propose to the meditations of the faithful the sufferings of Christ bound. The disinterestedness and charity of this priest had been described to me in glowing colours. I had a long conversation with him, and found him a person not altogether destitute of education. He spoke of his penitent without enthusiasm; professed to desire that enlightened men should study her condition; and almost the only reproach he uttered against Dr Gomide was, that he had written his book without having seen the holy woman. If what this priest related to me of the ascendency he possessed over Germaine be not exaggerated, the partisans of animal magnetism would probably derive from it strong arguments in support of their system. He, in fact, assured me that in the midst of the most fearful convulsions, it was always sufficient for him to touch the patient to restore her to perfect tranquillity. During her periodical ecstacies, when her limbs were so stiff that it would have been easier to break than bend them, her confessor, according to his own account, had only to touch her arm, in order to give it whatever position he thought proper. However this may be, it is certain that having commanded her to receive the sacrament, during one of these ecstatic trances, she rose with a convulsive movement from the bed on which she had been carried to the church, and kneeling down, with her arms crossed, received the consecrated wafer; since which time she has always communicated during her ecstacies. At the same time, her confessor spoke with extreme simplicity of his empire over the pretended saint; attributed it wholly to her docility and veneration for the sacerdotal character; and added, that any other priest would have been able to produce the same effects. With all that confidence which the magnetisers require in their adepts, he observed, that so complete is the obedience of the poor girl, that, should I command her to abstain from food during a whole week, she would not hesitate to comply. was also persuaded, that she would have suffered no inconvenience from the expe

He