commissioners, who were not such gabbling, goose-headed gentlemen as have since appeared among their successors, would not allow reckless extravagance, if proved, to excuse villainous fraud, and back to Newgate Mr Perrott was sent. Further inquiries showed that he had given money to Mrs Ferne, and that the mysterious parcel, sealed with three seals, had contained bank notes.

Perrott, under these circumstances, petitioned the Lord Keeper, impudently complaining of the illegality of his detention. Effrontery, however, failed, as suavity had previously done, and his petition was dismissed.

Several other equally audacious attempts he made to get released, and among others brought an action against the commissioners for false imprisonment. Those who violate all law to despoil others, invariably act as if all laws were designed to protect them.

The various stories which he told of the manner in which he had got rid of the property were not believed, even when they could not be disproved. One morning Mr Hewitt, who was one of Perrott's assignees, saw a woman leaning on the terrace of Lincoln's-inn garden, with an air so disconsolate and forlorn that he could not refrain from inquiring the cause of her distress. She said she had been a servant to one Mrs Ferne, who had turned her away. This person, whose name was Mary Harris, thus singularly encountered, subsequently gave important evidence. She had seen bank notes to the amount of 4,000l. in the hands of her late employer, and had often heard Perrot and her mistress say how they would live when he got his discharge. Once, in particular, Mrs Ferne told the bankrupt that the house of Sir John Smith, Bart., in Queen square, was to be sold, upon which Perrott said, "My dear, have you a mind for it?" She said, "Yes, if I can get it for 800l. or 900l. ;" to which he answered, "My life, if you have a mind for it I should like it above all places in the world." In consequence of this she actually made a bidding for the baronet's house. Mrs Ferne's residence was searched by the officers of Sir John Fielding, and the halves of a number of bank notes were found. Eventually it was proved that the money found on Perrott and Ferne was the produce of the bankrupt's estate, and he was convicted and received sentence of death.

When he was told the death-warrant was come down he manifested little emotion, but piously exclaimed, "The will of God be done." He was visited, at his own request, on the day before that fixed for his execution, by his assignees, to whom, however, he refused to give satisfactory answers on the state of his affairs.

It was ordered that he should suffer in Smithfield. On the morning of his execution he confessed the justice of his sentence, acknowledged the injury he had done to his benefactor, Mr Whitton, and asked his forgiveness. He was anxious that his body should be buried in the church of the place where he was born. He requested that the time allowed for the last preparations might be lengthened at the chapel, and shortened at the place of execution. In consequence, he was permitted to remain in chapel from eight o'clock till a quarter before ten. The next half hour he spent in taking leave of his fellow prisoners and in having his irons removed, and at a quarter-past ten he appeared, pale and trembling, at the door of the press-yard, and was immediately put into the fatal cart. On finding himself under the gallows he expressed extreme horror and despair, but when the ordinary approached to offer him the consolations of religion in his dying moments, he found him anxiously asking "where his hearse was?" and he was not satisfied till he learned that it was close at hand. After that he joined in prayer, and at eleven o'clock the cart was drawn away, and the wretched culprit passed into "the world unknown."

Little can fairly be said in favour of such a man. He was unquestionably a villain who deserved condign punishment. Still it may be said of him that he "fell on evil times." Had the bankrupt of four score years ago lived now, can any one suppose he would have been hanged in Smithfield? True, he had made away with other people's property to a great extent, but how many villains of late years have done the same, and been allowed to pass very quietly through the Bankruptcy or Insolvent Debtors' Court. Perrott had got hold of 25,000. that did not belong to him, but what was that to the 140,000l. said to have been received by Bromley, the highly respectable solicitor? Why, it does not equal the amount of debts from which Mathews, the celebrated comedian, has been relieved. A multitude of other names at the fit season we may have to mention equally entitled to distinction. Could Perrott have postponed his operations till our time, he would perhaps have had two or three hearings, and have been sent about his business. A fool of a commissioner might have been highly entertained with the items of expenditure, and deemed it a fine opportunity to show his gallantry, when it appeared that of the bankrupt's incumbrances 5,500l. had been incurred through attachment to the fair sex, by praising his "liberality." When it came out that he had spent within a moderate period 720%. on clothes, hats, wigs, &c., and 720/

history of Spain. Nor was science, under the reign of this far-famed monarch, confined to the palace, or limited to a few men of high rank and important charges under the government; it was also successfully cultivated by women in their retirement. The king had in his palace a young female slave named Lubna, who, besides being skilful in grammar, arithmetic, astronomy, and other sciences, composed very good verses, and wrote with singular beauty and elegance the different characters of the Arabic language, a reason why Al-Hakem employed her as his secretary for his private correspondence. Fatima, daughter of Zacarîa al-Khablarî, a servant of the royal household, wrote with the greatest perfec tion, and was continually occupied in copying out books for the king. Ayesha, daughter of Ahmed ben Mohammed ben Kâdîm of Cordova, was reckoned the most learned woman of her age; and, to use the words of Ibn Hayân, she was beautiful like a rising moon, fine and slender like a young aloe bending its head to the south breezes; if she ran, she looked like an antelope disappointing the sportsman by her rapid flight; and if occupied in study or meditation, her eyes resembled the soft and melting eyes of the gazelle, looking from the top of a rock upon the burning sands of the desert. She was a well of science, a mountain of discretion, an ocean of learning. All the learned of her time admired her poetical compositions, she wrote different casidas in honour of the princes who were her contemporaries, and made a beautiful collection of books upon all sciences. Mariam, daughter of Abou Yakoub al-Faisoli of Telves, taught music and poetry with the greatest success to the young ladies of the principal families of Seville, and many have issued from her school who have made the delight and enchantment of the harems of the princes and people of quality.'

"The library of this prince, called the library of Merwân, because it was situated in the palace of that name in Cordova, contained upwards of 60,000 volumes. It was kept with peculiar care and in the greatest order, the books being placed with distinction of matters and subjects, and all the rooms and book-cases adorned with beautiful and elegant inscriptions relating to the number of books and the sciences of which they treated. The catalogue, which consisted of forty four volumes in folio, contained the titles of the works, the names of the authors, the place of their abode, the year of their birth, and that of their death. He was also the first who founded a public library, after having acquired, at their weight in gold, the most rare and well-written books upon all subjects. Be. sides a great number of other colleges and academies, he instituted the famous aca

demy of Cordova, from whence have arisen so many men illustrious by their knowledge and learning.”

THE VROUCALACA.

THE Vampire, of which so much has been written, is the descendant of the Vroucalaca of Modern Greece. It is astonishing to what a height of absurdity ignorance, aided by superstition, has arrived. Tournefort relates, that in all the Archipelago the people firmly believed that it was only in the Greek church that excommunication preserved the body entire and unputrified. Some ascribed it to the force of the bishop's sentence-others thought that the devil entered into the body of the excommunicate, and reanimated him, so that he became an evil spirit incarnate. There was a prevalent superstition that the dead ate and drank in their graves, that they devoured their own flesh and burial-clothes for want of better food, and that all the viands and wine placed on the bier, and in fact consumed by the priests, were really the nourishment of the dead. From this point an easy transition would lead the excited dupes to believe in the demoniacal and hungry corpse sallying forth from the tomb, and satisfying at once its malignity and its appetite by preying on the flesh and blood of the living. Tournefort was present at the exhumation, impalement, and burning of a Vroucolaca in the island of Mycone, who was reported to have broken the windows and the bones, and drained the bottles and the veins of half the inhabitants of the island. For many days the people were in continual consternation, and numbers left their abodes and the island-masses were said-holy water showered about in torrents-the nine days were passed, and still the Vroucolaca was every night at fresh mischief-the tenth day mass was said in the chapel where the unfortunate corpse lay-but without avail, owing, as the priests afterwards pretended to discover, to the negli gence of not extracting the heart before the expulsory mass was said. Had the heart been first extracted and a mass instantly said, before the devil could have returned into possession, the people were convinced his Infernal Majesty's entry would have been barred, and the nuisance put an end to. The corpse was then exhumed, the town butcher took out the heart, and declared that the entrails were still warm. The putrid stench of the corpse obliged them to burn frankincense, which produced an amalgamation of fumes that laid hold of the people's senses, and helped to inflame their imaginations. Vroucolaca! Vroucolaca! echoed through the cloisters and aisles. The corpse was assailed with swords in all directions, till a

learned Albanian appeared and told the people they were all fools for using Christian swords, since the cross of the hilt had the effect of pinning the demon more firmly in the body, instead of expelling him, and that the only sword for the purpose was the straight Turkish scymetar. The people would not wait for the experiment, but, with one accord, determined on burning the body entire. This was accordingly done on the point of the island of St George; and the people then defied the devil to find a niche in which to quarter himself, and made songs in celebration of their triumph.

Ricaut, in his history of the Greek church, relates, on the authority of a Candiote Caloyer, a history of a young man of the island of Milos, excommunicated for a crime committed in the Morea, and who was interred in a remote and unconsecrated ground. The islanders were terrified every night by the horrid apparitions and disorders attributed to the corpse which on opening the tomb was found, as usual, fresh and flowing with blood. The priests determined to dismember the corpse, and to boil it in wine-a profanation of the grape which, we suspect, the descendants of the priests of Lyæus would hardly in fact have executed, however they might urge the people to open their cellars for the pious occasion. The young man's relations begged for delay, in order to send to Constantinople for an absolution from the Patriarch. In the interim the corpse was placed in the church, and masses were said night and day for its repose. One day, as the Caloyer Sophronus was reading the service, a sudden crash was heard to issue from the bier, and on opening it the body was found mouldered and decomposed, exactly like a corpse deceased for seven years. The messenger arrived with the absolution, and on inquiry it was found that the Patriarch's signature had been affixed at the precise moment when the dissolution of the corpse produced the report in the coffin !

We can hardly read of such things with gravity, but they are the cause of serious annoyances to the poor relations of the deceased, who are by some accident the subjects of accusation. That will be seen from the above narrative.

In these extravagancies to this hour many believe. No doubt the general credulity enriches the few, which is the cause of the delusion being kept up from generation to generation.

A SCENE IN THE EAST. IN Mr Davis's lately published work, the Vizier Ali Khan,' the writer gives a striking picture of the situation in which his father was placed. Ali Khan was a

deposed Indian prince, who was permitted to reside at Benares, where he enjoyed a large pension, and was permitted to collect a vast number of retainers, and was well disposed to act the part of Akbar Khan. For a time he escaped suspicion, and when at length it was thought necessary to guard against his treacherous designs, Mr Cherry, the resident, who had been slow to credit anything to his prejudice, was treacherously assassinated, with some of his servants.

Mr Davis was at this period the judge at Benares. He had been active in suggesting the importance of taking steps to secure Ali Khan; and, after murdering Mr Cherry, to the house of Mr Davis the ruffians proceeded. He was at home, and had only time to escape, with his wife and children, to the terraced roof, having no weapon for his protection but a pike or spear.

"The pike," Mr Davis writes, "was one of those used by running footmen in India. It was of iron, plated with silver, in rings to give a firmer grasp, rather more than six feet in length, and had a long triangular blade of more than twenty inches, with sharp edges. Finding, when on the terrace, that the lowness of the parapet wall exposed them all to view, and that they were fired at by the insurgents from below, Mrs Davis was directed, with her two female servants and the children, to sit down near the centre of the terrace, while Mr Davis took his station on one knee at the trap-door of the stair, waiting for the expected attack. The perpendicular height of the stair was considerable, winding round a central stem. It was of a peculiar construction, supported by four wooden posts, open on all sides, and so narrow as to allow only a single armed man to ascend at a time. It opened at once to the terrace, exactly like a hatchway on board ship, having a light cover of painted canvas stretched on a wooden frame. This opening he allowed to remain uncovered, that he might see what approached from below. In a few minutes, hearing an assailant coming up, he prepared to receive him. When full in view, and within reach with his sword drawn, the ruffian stopped, seeing Mr Davis on his guard, and addressed him abusively. The only reply was, 'The troops are coming from camp;' and at the same time a lunge with the pike, which wounded him in the arm. The enemy disappeared, and Mr Davis resumed his former position, when presently he observed the room below filled with Vizier Ali's people, and heard some of them coming up stairs. At the first who appeared he again drove his spear, which the assailant avoided by warily withdrawing his person; but Mr Davis, being by the action fully exposed to

view from below, was fired at by the assassins. The spear, by striking the wall, gave the assailant on the stairs an opportunity of seizing the blade end with both his hands; but the blade being triangular, with sharp edges, Mr Davis freed it in an instant, by dropping the iron shaft on the edge of the hatchway, and applying his whole weight to the extremity, as to a lever. The force with which it was jerked out of the enemy's gripe cut his hands very severely, as was subsequently observed from their bloody prints being left on the breakfast tablecloth below, where he had staunched them. There was blood likewise on the stairs, and some dropped about the floors of the rooms. Though the present assailant disappeared like his predecessor, the repeated firing from below was discouraging, and Mr Davis now thought it necessary to draw the hatch on, leaving such an opening at the edge as still admitted of his observing what was going on below. He saw them for some time looking inquisitively up, but not al. together liking the reception that there awaited them, one of the number went out to the verandah of the room, to see if they could get at Mr Davis from the outside, while no further attempt was made on the staircase."

In this awful situation did Mr Davis remain for an hour and a half, exposed every moment to some new attempt upon his life. The assailants, however, were eventually baffled. A body of soldiers arrived from General Erskine's camp, and the danger was at an end. Order was promptly restored, and Ali Khan made prisoner, who would seem to have been too leniently treated. He was removed to Fort William, and thence to Vellere, where ultimately his career was closed, not by the hands of the executioner, but by "the visitation of God."

CHEMICAL MANURE. METHOD OF MASHING-SUPERPHOSPHATE OF LIME.-Calcined bones are to be reduced by grinding to a very fine powder, and placed in an iron pan with an equal weight of water; mix the bone with the water until every portion is wet: while stirring empty at once into the pan sulphuric acid, 60 parts by weight to every 100 parts of bone; the acid should be poured in at once, and not in a thin stream. Stir it for about three minutes, and then throw it out of the pan. With four labourers and two pans you may mix two tons in one day, the larger the heap that is made the more perfect the decomposition; the heap remains intensely hot for a long time. It is necessary to spread the superphosphate out to the air for a few days, that it may become dry. The great me

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chanical difficulty of reducing unburnt bones to a very fine powder renders the formation of superphosphate of lime from them very difficult, but common bone-dust in a pure state may be decomposed by boiling it in a leaden pan with half its weight of sulphuric acid and twice its weight of water, which may afterwards be dried up with sawdust or clay-ashes. Now it may be asked, In what do the fertilizing qualities of bones consist? There seems still to be some doubt whether the phosphate of lime, or the gelatine, is the fertilizing substance in the bone. The following experiment will show that the animal matter in the bone merely acts by yielding, by slow decomposition, phosphate of lime in a state capable of being assimilated by plants; and to the phosphate of lime being in a similar state in guano, and not to the ammonia contained in it, may be attributed the powerful effects of this valuable manure. every 100 parts of large bones add 400 parts of water and 100 parts of muriatic acid; let it stand for four or five days, and then drain off the liquid, and add the same quantity of fresh water and acid four times; by this means the whole of the phosphate of lime will be dissolved in the liquid, and the bones will retain their original form; they must be repeatedly washed until the water ceases to taste acid, then dry them in an oven, and rub them to powder. Evaporate the whole of the liquid in which the mineral matter of the bone was dissolved until nothing but a dry paste remains; heat this to redness, rub it to a fine powder, and convert it into superphosphate of lime in the manner already described. Let two equal quantities of ground be sown with turnips, strain the seed and one of these two manures together, and the result will satisfy the most sceptical. Swedes are growing upon the light sands of Norfolk, in which four bushels of superphospate of lime per acre were used, and the crops excellent,-the superphosphate was formed from calcined bones which did not contain one half per cent. of carbon.

AN ALDERMAN'S ORTHOGRAPHY.

One of these turtle-eating men,
Not much excelling in his spelling,

When ridicule he meant to brave,
Said he was more PH. than N.

Meaning thereby, more phool than nave.

Precocity Futal.-It is proverbial that children remarkable for precocity of intellect or acquirements die prematurely. Boerhaave knew a boy who was a miracle of erudition, but scarcely attained his fifteenth year. Another learned youth, who passed night and day in study, died in his nineteenth year without any previous illness, merely of premature age.