the steam-engine, while the polisher had a horizontal motion given by the same means these two motions were the most apparent, but there were others, into the consideration of which we could not enter sufficiently briefly. The grinding-tool was made of iron, turned to the required shape in his lordship's workshop; it was then cut by grooves into octagonal-shaped pieces on the surface, and holes bored through it in different places to allow sand and water to run from the upper surface between it and the speculum: the supply of sand and water was constantly kept up. The entire weight of the grinder was not allowed to rest on the speculum; it was partly counterpoised by a weight hung to an attached lever. It required six weeks to grind it to a fair surface. The polishing generally requires only six hours. The same tool that grinds it is, for the purpose of polishing, covered over with pitch, on which crocus is spread: nothing else is necessary. The division of the tool into small parts on the surface by grooves is requisite for producing a good shape. If an even surface of pitch were used, the heat that is produced by the friction making the pitch soft, it would accumulate in some places more than others, and so destroy the right shape; but, when the surface is divided into those small portions, the pitch cannot be pushed to any distance from its original position, and, of course, the surface must be constantly true. In the view of the tower of the workshop there is seen a long pole running up from the top. On the summit of this is a little crossbar, to which is attached a small dial of a watch. It is directly under this that the speculum was polished. The body of the tower serves as a tube, and the dial is reflected in the speculum below; the polishing is continued until the picture produced is absolutely perfect. When this process is finished, the speculum is ready for the tube; and such a tube as is prepared for it! a company of soldiers might go through their manoeuvres in it. It is fifty-two feet long, and seven in diameter. It was built in a long gallery, over a range of outhouses, and this had to be thrown down to take the leviathan away. It is made of wood, and hooped with iron. The mechanism by which it is suspended and moved is the result of deep calculation, and is not the least meritorious of Lord Rosse's works. When we see this enormous instrument moved about and regulated by one man's arm, and placed in its position with more ease and certainty than a hand-instrument can be, we will then appreciate the plan and the mind that conceived it. We could not at all enter into a detailed account of the several pieces of the machinery: they would require a diligent study. The chief means employed is a large cast-iron hinge, which is attached to the bottom of the tube, and which allows it either to be elevated or depressed, or turned from side to side. This hinge is supported on and fixed into solid masonwork in the ground, and keeps one end of the tube stationary. The walls which support the machinery -a sketch of one of which we give-are built exactly in the meridional line, so that the telescope, lying between them, only takes in objects as they pass this line. They can be kept in the field of view for half an hour on each side of the meridian. The speculum is six feet in diameter, with a focal distance of fifty-two feet; its power of magnifying may be judged of by the fact, that a portion of the moon, the size of a common house, can be visible. Before being placed in the tube, it was fastened to what is called an equilibrium bed, a support made of triangular pieces of iron which have a motion among themselves, and so disposed that they adapt themselves to every change of state of the speculum produced by variation of temperature and other causes, and so prevent warping and its consequences. The iron pieces are lined with frieze and pitch. His lordship has also erected an equatorial instrument. It is eighteen inches in diameter, the largest ever made, and, by its peculiar mechanism, the truest ever used. Sir James South laid out $35,000 in erecting one, and had to break it up afterward because it did not answer. Lord Rosse has been entirely successful. This instrument alone is a wonderful piece of work; but, taken in connection with all the rest, it is truly marvelous how much and how well one man has done. Lord Rosse's pleasure-grounds are most elegantly and tastefully laid out. A large lake has been added to the other beauties of the place, and has given his lordship an opportunity of trying his skill as an engineer; the water for the lake being supplied from a distant part of a WALL FOR THE MACHINERY OF THE GREAT TELESCOPE. river which runs through the demesne. As the bed of the river was low near where the lake was intended to be, an aqueduct was cut communicating with the river high up its source, and when it was brought to the required situation, a tunnel was sunk under the original bed of the river, and thus one stream runs over the other, both supplied by the same source. The tunnel answers its purpose completely. There is also a wire bridge of light and elegant appearance, suspended over the river close to the castle, which is likewise the produce of his lordship's workshop. We have been tempted into a longer paper than we at first anticipated, and still We we have left a great deal unsaid. could with pleasure have given a more detailed account of his lordship's laborsof his difficulties and successes in overcoming them-but these things would fill a volume, and would be obviously ill-adapted to a place like this. It would be an injustice to the Countess of Rosse were this short notice of the demesne concluded without acknowledging the debt the people of Parsonstown owe to her. She has with most exquisite taste improved and made delightful the grounds about the castle, and freely opened them for their accommodation. She has made the town the residence of all who can command the means, and the envy of those who cannot. She has raised the tone of its society; but she has done what reflects much more credit on her mind; she has taken the most lively interest in the poor, and is constantly improving and changing in order to afford them work. The lake was commenced solely to give them employment, and since then, hundreds have been daily hired to do what but for beneficence might well remain undone. The consequence of this conduct is, that she is universally esteemed and looked up to, and that her town is almost entirely free from the discontent and distress that are so rife in other places. The people are quiet and contented, and well disposed, and are as much indebted to the good sense that produced all this, as the world is to the talent that has astonished and is so likely to benefit it. The town of Birr, or Parsonstown, is the prettiest inland town in Ireland. There are more private families living here than in any other town of the same size. There are public libraries and a mechanics' institute; first-rate markets, and everything that money can purchase. In fact, we think the town likely to progress rapidly, and we wish it God-speed. A THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE. MID events like those recorded in our last article, which, humiliating though they be, partake largely of the ludicrous, others occurred of a more serious nature. Robberies in the streets were of daily occurrence, in consequence of the immense sums, in paper, which people carried about them. Assassinations were also frequent. One case in particular fixed the attention of the whole of France, not only on account of the enormity of the offense, but of the rank and high connections of the criminal. son. The Count d'Horn, a younger brother of the Prince d'Horn, and related to the noble families of D'Aremberg, De Ligne, and De Montmorency, was a young man of dissipated character, and unprincipled as he was extravagant. In connection with two other young men as reckless as himself-named Mille, a Piedmontese captain, and one Destampes, or Lestang, a Fleming -he formed a design to rob a very rich broker, who was known, unfortunately for himself, to carry great sums about his perThe count pretended a desire to purchase of him a number of shares in the Company of the Indies, and for that purpose appointed to meet him in a cabaret, or low public-house, in the neighborhood of the Place Vendôme. The unsuspecting broker was punctual to his appointment; SO were the count and his two associates, whom he introduced as his particular friends. After a few moments' conversation, the count suddenly sprang upon his victim, and stabbed him three times in the breast with a poniard. The man fell heavily to the ground; and, while the count was employed in rifling his portfolio of bonds in the Mississippi and Indian schemes, to the amount of one hundred thousand crowns, Mille, the Piedmontese, stabbed the unfortunate broker again and again, to make sure of his death. But the broker did not fall without a struggle, and his cries brought the people of the cabaret to his assistance. Lestang, the other assassin, who had been set to keep watch at a staircase, sprang from a window and escaped; but Mille and the Count d'Horn were seized in the very act. This crime, committed in open day, and in so public a place as a cabaret, filled Paris with consternation. The trial of the assassins commenced on the following day; and the evidence being so clear, they were both found guilty, and condemned to be broken alive on the wheel. The noble relatives of the Count d'Horn absolutely blocked up the ante-chambers of the regent, praying for mercy on the misguided youth, and alleging that he was insane. The regent avoided them as long as possible, being determined that, in a case so atrocious, justice should take its course. But the importunity of these influential suitors was not to be overcome so silently; and they at last forced themselves into the presence of the regent, and prayed him to save their house the shame of a public execution. They hinted that the Princes d'Horn were allied to the illustrious family of Orleans; and added, that the regent himself would be disgraced if a kinsman of his should die by the hands of a common executioner. The regent, to his credit, was proof against all their solicitations, and replied to their last argument in the words of Corneille : “Le crime fait la honte, et non pas l'échafaud:" adding, that whatever shame there might be in the punishment, he would very willingly share with the other relatives. Day after day they renewed their entreaties, but always with the same result. At last they thought, if they could interest the Duke de St. Simon in their favor-a man for whom the regent felt sincere esteem -they might succeed in their object. The duke, a thorough aristocrat, was as shocked as they were that a noble assassin should die by the same death as a plebeian felon, and represented to the regent the impolicy of making enemies of so numerous, wealthy, and powerful a family. He urged, too, that in Germany, where the family of D'Aremberg had large possessions, it was the law, that no relative of a person broken on the wheel could succeed to any public office or employ until a whole generation had passed away. For this reason, he thought that the punishment of the guilty count might be transmuted into beheading, which was considered all over Europe as much less infamous. The regent was moved by this argument, and was about to consent, when Law, who felt peculiarly interested in the fate of the murdered man, confirmed him in his former resolution to let the law take its course. The relatives of D'Horn were now reduced to the last extremity. The Prince de Robec Montmorency, despairing of other methods, found means to penetrate into the dungeon of the criminal, and offering him a cup of poison, implored him to save them from disgrace. The Count d'Horn turned away his head, and refused to take it. Montmorency pressed him once more; and losing all patience at his continued refusal, turned on his heel, and exclaiming, "Die, then, as thou wilt, meanspirited wretch! thou art fit only to perish by the hands of the hangman!" left him to his fate. D'Horn himself petitioned the regent that he might be beheaded; but Law, who exercised more influence over his mind than any other person, with the exception of the notorious Abbé Dubois, his tutor, insisted that he could not in justice succumb to the self-interested views of the D'Horns. The regent had from the first been of the same opinion; and, within six days after the commission of their crime, D'Horn and Mille were broken on the wheel in the Place de Grève. The other assassin, Lestang, was never apprehended. This prompt and severe justice was highly pleasing to the populace of Paris. Even M. de Quincampoix, as they called Law, came in for a share of their approbation, for having induced the regent to show no favor to a patrician. But the number of robberies and assassinations did not diminish; no sympathy was shown for rich jobbers when they were plundered. The general laxity of public morals, conspicuous enough before, was rendered still more so by its rapid pervasion of the middle classes, who had hitherto remained comparatively pure between the open vices of the class above and the hidden crimes of the class below them. The pernicious love of gambling diffused itself through society, and bore all public and nearly all private virtue before it. For a time, while confidence lasted, an impetus was given to trade which could not fail to be beneficial. In Paris especially the good results were felt. Strangers flocked into the capital from every part, bent not only upon making money, but on spending it. The Duchess of Orleans, mother of the regent, computes the increase of the population during this time, from the great influx of strangers from all parts of the world, at three hundred and five thousand souls. The housekeepers were obliged to make up beds in garrets, kitchens, and even stables, for the accommodation of lodgers; and the town was so full of carriages and vehicles of every description, that they were obliged, in the principal streets, to drive at a foot-pace for fear of accidents. The looms of the country worked with unusual activity to supply rich laces, silks, broad-cloth, and velvets, which being paid for in abundant paper, increased in price four-fold. Provisions shared the general advance. Bread, meat, and vegetables, were sold at prices greater than had ever before been known; while the wages of labor in exactly the same proportion. rose The artisan who formerly gained fifteen sous per diem now gained sixty. New houses were built in every direction; an illusory prosperity shone over the land, and so dazzled the eyes of the whole nation that none could see the dark cloud on the horizon announcing the storm that was too rapidly approaching. Law himself, the magician whose wand had wrought so surprising a change, shared, of course, in the general prosperity. His wife and daughter were courted by the highest nobility, and their alliance sought by the heirs of ducal and princely houses. He bought two splendid estates in different parts of France, and entered into a negotiation with the family of the Duke de Sully for the purchase of the marquisate of Rosny. His religion being an obstacle to his advancement, the regent promised, if he would publicly conform to the Catholic faith, to make him comptroller-general of the finances. Law, who had no more real religion than any other professed gambler, readily agreed, and was confirmed by the Abbé de Tencin in the cathedral of Melun, in presence of a great crowd of spectators. On the following day he was elected honorary church-warden of the parish of St. Roch, upon which occasion he made it a present of the sum of five hundred thousand livres. His charities, always magnificent, were not always so ostentatious. He gave away great sums privately, and no tale of real distress ever reached his ears in vain. He was by no means unduly elevated by his prosperity. If upon any occasion he showed any symptoms of haughtiness, it was to the cringing nobles who lavished their adulation upon him till it became fulsome. He often took pleasure in seeing how long he could make them dance attendance upon him for a single favor. LAUdo Britannos LAW AS ATLAS. troop of horse, as his permanent escort to clear the streets before him. It was remarked at this time that Paris had never before been so full of objects of elegance and luxury. Statues, pictures, and tapestries were imported in great quantities from foreign countries, and found a ready market. All those pretty trifles in the way of furniture and ornament, which the French excel in manufacturing, were no longer the exclusive playthings of the aristocracy, but were to be found in abundance in the houses of traders and the middle classes in general. Jewelry of the most costly description was brought to Paris as the most favorable mart; among the rest, the famous diamond bought by the regent, and called by his name, and which long adorned the crown of France. It was purchased for the sum of two millions of livres, under circumstances which show that the regent was not so great a gainer as some of his subjects by the impetus which trade had received. Thus the system continued to flourish till the commencement of the year 1720. The warnings of the parliament, that too great a creation of paper-money would, sooner or later, bring the country to bankruptcy, were disregarded. The regent, who knew nothing whatever of the phi Never was monarch more flattered than he was. All the small poets and littéra-losophy of finance, thought that a system teurs of the day poured floods of adulation upon him. According to them, he was the savior of the country, the tutelar divinity of France; wit was in all his words, goodness in all his looks, and wisdom in all his actions. So great a crowd followed his carriage whenever he went abroad, that the regent sent him a From a print in a Dutch collection of satirical prints relating to the Mississippi mania, entitled "Het groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid;" or, The great picture of Folly. The print of Law is calling in Hercules to aid him in supAtlas is styled, "L'Atlas actieux de Papier." porting the globe. Quoted in Wright's England under the House of Hanover. |