freedom, which we all, without thinking ourselves blameable, use in this country. Did he ever say that the French Revolution was a glorious event-that the victory at Genappes was exhilarating to the friends of freedom-that the allied. powers acted culpably in meddling with the affairs of France for the sake of restoring the Bourbons-and that the members of that illustrious House are not a bit wiser than many other people, and none of them to be put in comparison with the great prince Napoleon? These, and many things like these, might be. said either publicly or privately in London, without being censured. But an Englishman, who should say such things in Paris, must know that they would give offence, and ought to be punished for his presumption; if he was not aware of the chance there was of their giving offence, he must be a fool, and ought to be despised for his folly. We proceed for the present, chiefly on supposition, not having had an opportunity of making ourselves sufficiently acquainted with this interesting business. But before we go to press again, we will look carefully into it, and shall be happy if we can contribute any thing to the justi fication of the nobleman who is implicated in it. Indeed, his letter to Lord Liverpool will then be regularly before us as a subject of criticism; and let us hope the minister's reply also, in defence of the well-known candour and moderation of the English whigs. The Prussians, the other day, seemed to feel no wish to enjoy the good opinion of the Parisians: most of our countrymen in France have however uniformly appeared desirous to cultivate their good opinion; so that we were hurt at the idea of the French Minister of Police having it in his power to tell the world that he had been forced to send a British subject of distinction out of the French territory for misconduct.

Lord Kimaird severely reprobates the close confinement of Sir Robert Wilson and his two coadjutors, and calls the mode of examining them by interrogatories a torture: he should have recollected, or, if he is ignorant of the facts, should have informed himself, that our own police magistrates and justices of the peace, uniformly deny freedom of access to a prisoner, previous to his final commitment for any the most trifling felony, wherever they conceive that the interests of justice would be advanced by such a prohibition. And with respect to the examination by interrogatory, is it necessary his lordship should be reminded that this method universally prevails, wherever the Civil Law forms the basis of the municipal jurisprudence of a country, which is much more the case in France than in Eng

land; and that even here it is a mode of procedure daily resorted to by the courts of equity, and by those ecclesiastical, and maritime tribunals, whose processes can be traced to the same origin?

His Lordship says of his friend Mr. Bruce, that, "generous "minds, in all times and in all countries, will sufficiently ap"preciate the motives of his conduct." On this compliment, we have only one observation to make, namely, that it is very fortunate for Mr. Bruce and his companions, that the criminal code of France is a great deal milder than our own. In this case it admits only of an imprisonment of from two to five years; but, in a similar case with us, the accused would most certainly upon their conviction, have been sentenced as principal Traitors, (for in High Treason our law knows of no accessaries) to be hung, drawn, and quartered. Nay, had the only person throughout the whole transaction, whose motives and conduct deserve either admiration or compassion, been proceeded against at all, for her share in the rescue of a condemned Traitor, our Judges would have pronounced no lighter sentence upon her than that, "she should be drawn "(on a hurdle) to the place of execution, there to be hanged by "the neck till dead." Within these five and twenty years she would have been sentenced to be burnt alive! We repeat then, that instead of complaining of the hardship of their case, Lord Kinnaird's friends may consider themselves extremely fortunate in the choice which they have made of a country, for the display of their new system of Knight-errantry. We assert without fear of contradiction, that there is not another country in the world in which their punishment would have been so light.

Here then we close, for the present, our remarks upon a letter that has occupied much of the public attention. We cannot, however, do it without expressing our most serious apprehensions, that the strong disposition displayed by our countrymen, both at home and abroad, unduly to interfere with the internal arrangements of other countries, has already operated in exciting a jealousy in foreign powers, highly prejudicial to our political and commercial interests. In France and Spain this is notoriously the case; and, as the feeling is gradually diffusing itself over other parts of the Continent, it is difficult to say where the evil will stop, unless the disposition which has given rise to it be speedily checked, as now in France, by the strong arm of the Law. To a commercial country, like ours, it may be injurious

beyond all calculation. We rejoice, therefore, that the Protestant Society has publicly announced its intentions of declining all further interference with the concerns of their brethren in France, who seem neither to have asked, nor accepted, their proffered assistance. We cannot help observing that their sending circular letters to parts of France, in which no molestation whatever had been offered to the free exercise of the rights of Conscience, was, to say the least of it, very indecorous. For the Ministers of the Three Denominations of Dissenters as a body, we have a high respect, but we are not without suspicion that the gross misrepresentations by which we ourselves were at first deceived, may have led them to act without that circumspection that should constantly have guided them in the delicate task they undertook.

20th February.

337

MONTHLY REGISTER

OF

ARTS, SCIENCES, AND LITERATURE.

The Conductors of the AUGUSTAN REVIEW request scientific and literary men, and also Editors and Publishers, to favor them with authentic information relative to inventions, discoveries, and improvements in Arts and Sciences; Notices of works preparing for publication, and of those recently published; which will be thankfully received and communicated to the public in the subsequent Number, if sent to the publisher (post paid) before the 20th of the month.

I.

INVENTIONS, DISCOVERIES, AND IMPROVEMENTS, IN

ARTS AND SCIENCES.

Fire-damp.

SUCH has been the rapidity, and we hope the efficacy, of inventions for preventing the recurrence of those fatal accidents which have so frequently happened of late in Coal Mines, (See our Vol. 1. p. 855), from this cause, that we have been induced to extract the following article from No. 12. of the Phil. Mag. in order to afford our readers a connected view of the whole; fully persuaded that our endeavours to give greater publicity to that paper are perfectly coincident with the views of the learned and philanthropic Editor of that work.

"The friends of humanity will rejoice that means have at length been devised, which promise effectual security against the recurrence of those dreadful explosions of fire-damp in coal-mines, which have occurred so often within these few years.

In a recent volume of the Philosophical Transactions an account is given of Dr. Clanny's lamp contrived for this purpose. We need not here repeat the nature of the construction. It is but justice to say, that it was very ingenious, and with proper care and management seemed calculated to answer the desired end:

nor could we allow the objections that have been urged against it, on the score of complexity, to have such force as to prevent its adoption-if more simple and equally efficacious means had not since been devised.

"At a late meeting of the Literary and Philosophical Society at Newcastle, a paper was read, describing a new lamp invented by Dr. Murray of Edinburgh, intended to prevent explosions. It is described as a close lamp furnished with a flexible tube reaching to the floor of the mine (See Aug. Rev. No. ix.)—on the principle that the inflammable gas, being lighter than the atmospheric air, will be found to occupy the higher station; but in fact, the firedamp is often disengaged from below; which is a sufficient objection (were there no other) to the use of this lamp.

"Another lamp invented by W. Brandling, Esq. was also examined by the Society, which, if there were now any necessity, might be used for exploring dangerous places with safety. The azote disengaged by the combustion is drawn out by double bellows connected with the top; and fresh air in consequence rushes in through a flexible tube attached to the bottom of the lamp, and of sufficient length to reach a current of pure air.

"In our last we gave a brief account of Sir H. Davy's safelamp, (See Aug. Rev. No. ix.) and in our present number we have been enabled to lay his communication to the Royal Society, in an entire state, before our readers--a circumstance that will prove gratifying to several correspondents, who had expressed great anxiety to have such information on the subject as might enable them to apply it to practice.

"We have been favored with a description of another safe. lamp, also inserted in the present number, invented by a Mr. Stephenson, of Killingworth Colliery. In principle it is somewhat similar to Sir H. Davy's, and, considered as the invention of a mau of humble pretensions, has considerable merit, though much inferior in construction to Sir Humphry's. It is rather a curious coincidence, that two lamps at all approximating each other in the means resorted to for obtaining the desired object, should have been brought forward by different inventors; for we have every reason to believe that Mr. Stephenson's as well as Sir H. Davy's invention was perfectly original. The experiments with Mr. Stephenson's lamp are, to a certain extent, satisfactory; but, if we have rightly understood the communication of our correspondent, the absolute safety of the lamp was not proved by them; for pure fire-damp appears to have been thrown into it, which we know does extinguish flame; whereas an explosive mixture should have been thrown in.

"We have seen Sir Humphry's lamp. He has succeeded in bringing it to a state of absolute security. This we saw proved by a variety of experiments, in which the most explosive mixtures