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galvanic communication is effected by an intervening rod, surfaces of articles with gold and silver, we will briefly exhaving screws attached to it for the convenience of mani-plain what we may term the chief triumph of the art-the pulating. Into the cell containing the copper, water and production of solid articles in the precious metals. crystals of sulphate of copper are put; and into the zinc cell, water and pulverised sal-ammoniac. To prepare the plate for the deposition, the parts not required to be coated with the metallic film must be protected from the action of the fluid; and this is done by covering them with sealing-wax dissolved in spirits of wine. The galvanic action goes on, gradually depositing on the exposed parts of the plate a film of copper; and when this is of sufficient thickness, the plate is withdrawn, and the film removed. But the fac-simile, although correct, is in relief, and to be of use, a copy in intaglio must be produced; and this is at once obtained by submitting the relief to the same process as the original plate, of which the new deposition of copper is an exact fac-simile. Mr Smee, however, has made public a very beautiful and still more striking process for obtaining copper-plate engravings without the use of an engraved copy at all. He proposed to draw the required design on a smooth copper-plate, with a pigment or varnish insoluble in water, and then to expose the plate to the galvanic action; when, the film of copper being deposited on all the parts not varnished, a copy in intaglio would be produced. Casts of seals, medals, &c. can be obtained in copper by this method.' To prepare the articles for deposition, the mode of rubbing or covering their external surfaces with black-lead, discovered by Mr Murray, must be adopted; for the copper having what may be called an affinity for the black-lead, easily deposits itself on any surface covered with it. Articles so prepared can be copied in great numbers at a small expense.

For obtaining duplicates for printing from wood-engravings, the electrotype is employed. The engraving, after being black-leaded, is bound round the edges with a strip of tinfoil, and suspended, and kept perpendicularly in the fluid. Copies of plaster casts are easily taken, as also of wax models, by means of the same process. But perhaps the most beautiful exemplification of the process is seen in the case by which natural organised substances are covered with a thin film of copper. The leaf or branch to be operated upon is covered, by means of a soft brush, with the black-lead, and suspended in the fluid. Butterflies and moths are also easily covered; shrub-flowers are extremely beautiful, with thin delicate fibres fully and clearly developed on their metallic covering. Mr Smee thus writes of them: The beauty of electro-coppered leaves, branches, and similar objects, is surprising. I have a case of these specimens placed on a black ground, which no one would take to be productions of art. In the same room with them are a couple of these cases in which Ward has taught us to grow in this smoky metropolis some of the most interesting botanical specimens. In these cases are contained varieties of fairy-formed adiantums, verdant lycopodiums, brilliant orchidea, rigid cacti, and other plants, all growing in their natural luxuriance. The electro-coppered leaves, however, are beautiful when placed by the side of the productions of this miniature paradise; and when I state that the numerous hairs covering the leaves of a melostoma, and even the delicate hairs of the salvia, are all perfectly covered, the botanist must at once admit that these specimens have rather the minuteness of nature than the imperfections of art.' In plating articles with the precious metals, the weight of metal deposited is found by weighing the article previous to insertion in the liquid, and again after receiving the deposition, when the difference is the weight of metal. For silver, the article is suspended in a solution of the cyanide of potassium and silver; and for gold, the cyanide of potassium and gold. The articles now plated with silver are very numerousforks, spoons, salvers, &c. The solution of silver is kept charged with sheets of pure silver suspended in the vessels; from which the metal is dissolved as fast as it is deposited, leaving finally a lace-like piece of silver of extremely delicate and beautiful fibres. In coating articles of value with a film of gold the same process is gone through, but of course on a much smaller scale. The solution is supplied with the precious metal by placing a small strip of pure gold round the vessel. Small articles, such as watch-chains, buttons, &c. that can be suspended on a wire, are inserted in the solution, and gilt in a remarkably short space of time. A writer in the Penny Magazine' states that he saw 'ten gross of coat buttons strung upon a wire, and all perfectly gilt, by an immersion of less than one minute.' Having now glanced at the methods of plating the external

We will suppose a vase to be required in gold: a delicate wax model, containing all the figures in relief to be on the surface, is first prepared; from this wax model a leaden mould is produced, and from this a brass model or pattern is cast; on which the engraver finishes the designed parts more fully, and from this finished pattern a mould in an elastic substance is obtained, composed in some instances of glue. This, by its elasticity, allows the mould to be separated easily from the parts of the pattern which are undercut; and it is used to provide a model in wax, suet, and phosphorus, on which a film of copper is laid by the galvanic agency. The wax forming originally a foundation for the copper, is again used as a foundation for the more precious metal. It is melted from the inside of the copper deposit, and the copper shell left has in its interior an exact fac-simile of the original design. The copper mould is next introduced to the solution of cyanide of potassium and gold, the exterior being protected by the resisting medium. The gold is gradually deposited equally over the raised and depressed portions of the mould; and the process is allowed to go on till sufficient thickness is obtained, when the whole is withdrawn, and the outside film of copper melted off by the action of an acid, leaving a solid and pure vase of gold. The gold and silver, whether of solid or superficial deposit, after coming from the solution, have a dull dead appearance; and to obviate this, the articles undergo the operation of burnishing. To prove that in solid deposit the particles are as closely united as if they had passed through the melting-pot, they give a clear sonorous ring when struck on an anvil with a hammer.

SONNET.

BY CALDER CAMPBELL.
WHENE'ER I feel this rare excess of health
Thrill suddenly throughout my frame, as now,
Forgetting hoary hair and furrowed brow,
I turn a braggart of my fancied wealth

Of stalwart strength and life. I seek the glow
Of sunshine, singing; gather (not by stealth,
But with an honest boldness) fruits that grow
Out of my reach at other times; and offer
The sweets I taste to others-letting go
Sickness and its entailments from my mind;
And, like the miser near his rifled coffer,
Unconscious that it holds no more his pelf,

I glory in delusion-till I find

Some old-recurring pang recall me to myself!

NEWSPAPERS.

I am sure that every person will be willing, as I am, to acknowledge, in the most ample terms, the information, the instruction, and amusement derived from the public press.-Lord Lyndhurst. The newspaper is the chronicle of civilisation, the common reservoir into which every stream pours its living waters, and at which every man may come and drink; it is the newspaper which gives to liberty practical life, its perpetual vigilance, its unrelaxing activity. The newspaper is a daily and sleepless watchman, that reports to you every danger which menaces the institutions of your country, and its interests at home and abroad. The newspaper informs legislation of the public opinion, and it informs people of the acts of legislation; thus keeping up that constant sympathy, that good understanding between people and legislators, which conduces to the maintenance of order, and prevents the stern necessity for revolution.-Sir E. L. Bulwer.

INCORRECTNESS OF CONVERSATIONAL LANGUAGE.

The influence which common parlance exerts on the acquisition of correct notions on scientific subjects has often an unfortunate tendency. Thus, when we say in dull weather, 'The day is heavy 'The air is thick and heavy,' it is not generally supposed that the air is really lighter than on a fine day; but the fall of the barometer indicates that this is the fact.-Isaiah Deek.

Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, High Street, Edinburgh. Also sold by D. CHAMBERS, 20 Argyle Street, Glasgow; W. 8. ORR, 147 Strand, London; and J. M'GLASHAN, 21 D'Olier Street, Dublin.-Printed by W. and R. CHAMBERS, Edinburgh.

EDINBURGH

JOURNAL

CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,''CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.

No. 263. NEW SERIES.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 1849.

SCOTCH CAUTION.

It has become a settled point that the people of Scotland are remarkable for a cold and cautious temper. Has it never occurred to any of the multitudes who receive and repeat this doctrine, that it is strangely at issue with a vast proportion of the facts known regarding the Scottish people? We make no apology for briefly discussing the subject, because it is manifestly a curious circumstance that a people should generally act in contradiction of one of their most notable attributes. A potent English monarch had, at the close of the thirteenth century, by craft and force completely established a right of dominion over this poor little northern country. A private gentleman rose in rebellion. The people for years supported him in a guerilla warfare, which scarcely was blessed with a hope of success. Wallace at length came to the end that might have been expected. He was put to death by the ungenerous usurper. Within two years, one of the claimants of the crown, who might have continued to be a great lord under Edward, is found taking up the same dangerous game. In the whole series of transactions which followed, down to the battle of Bannockburn, there is a show of almost every quality on the part of Bruce and the Scots except caution. That battle itself would have never happened, if Bruce had not been a romantic knight rather than a politic king, for it was obviously impolitic for a leader with thirty thousand troops to meet an enemy with a hundred thousand in the open field.

PRICE 14d.

seems as a simple reckless child in comparison. Where was Scottish caution on the day of Pinkie fight? In the connection of the affairs of Elizabeth and Mary, on which side lay the astuteness, and on which the impul siveness? Were the Walsinghams, the Wottons, and the Burleighs, a set of frank heedless Englishmen, allowing themselves to be tricked by the cold calculating ministers of the beauteous queen of Scots ?

The national attribute is brought into a strong light in the affair of the Covenant. The king, with England at his back, attempts little changes in the ecclesiastical arrangements of Scotland. In the month of May 1639, this cold-blooded people present themselves in arms on Dunse Law, to bide the worst which that great monarch could bring against them. England had by that time some grievances of her own to bear; but it was the cautious Scotch who first took to pike and gun for the good cause. The affair ends for the meantime in a capitulation; but next year, on a fine day in the month of August, this cool-headed people, once more in arms, are seen crossing the Tweed at Coldstream, in order to fight Charles on his own ground. Their whole conduct throughout the civil war is the oddest possible for a cautious people. After all they had suffered from Charles, twenty thousand of them followed the poor Duke of Hamilton to Uttoxeter, with a vain hope of redeeming their unhappy monarch from the bondage of the sectaries. Not content with thus knocking their heads against Cromwell, they must, two years after, defy him and republican England for the sake of Charles II. Their attack on Oliver at Dunbar, their march to Worcester, are most extraordinary doings for a people eaten up by the spirit of selfish calculation. Never certainly was caution more whimsically shown, or more inappropriately rewarded.

Throughout the almost incessant wars, external and internal, in which the Scotch were engaged for two hundred years after this period, there is no trace of a Fabian policy: all is headlong ardour. A pretty young French queen, wishing to make a diversion against the It was the fate of Scotland in the next reign to be king of England, with whom her husband was at war, put under a church establishment which represented sends a ring to the king of Scotland, with a request the opinions of only a handful of the people, but which that he would ride three miles into English ground for was supported by a powerful and merciless government. her sake. The Scottish monarch, though a married The peasantry of a single county rose in rebellion, and man above forty years of age, immediately invaded fell in scores under the bullets of Dalyell. The peasantry England under this call. In a few weeks, while resting of another county, some years later, exposed themwith his army on a Northumbrian hill, he saw an selves in the same way to the sabres of Claverhouse. English army deploying over a bridge to fight him. AA thousand of these calculating people were offered politic man would have attacked it when half over, and beaten it. James was too gallant to take any such advantage. In the consequent battle, he lost his life, along with the flower of his nobility and people. One is astonished at the utter want of caution and consideration in the whole of this affair; yet it did not serve as a lesson. The son of this gallant king sent an army against England in nearly similar circumstances, and on its coming to the destruction which was to be expected, he died of grief. In all of these collisions, the English leaders appear as the wary men. Scotland

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liberty if they would say God save the king'-the alternative being Barbadoes and Maryland. Strange for a cautious people, they refused, and the cold strand of Orkney was strewed with their corpses before the year was out. What a series of strange proceedings for such a people, those conventicles which they would attend, gentles as well as commons, though ruinous fines stared them in the face, and no man knew but Claverhouse might be behind the next hill with his dragoons! The scores of men who, for conscience' sake, sang their last psalms under the gibbet in the Grassmarket, how

strange to think of them as specimens of a nation who, while allowed to have tolerably clear heads, are yet set down as generally distinguished by frigid hearts!

The two rebellions in behalf of the exiled House of Stuart will of course appear as notable illustrations of this national torpor of feeling. In 1745, the Scotch Jacobites came out in thousands to the open field, braving for their principles loss of life and possessions; while the English Jacobites, equally engaged, remain quietly at home, and read of Prince Charlie's progress in the newspapers. Even of the Welsh, hotheaded as they are reputed to be, not a man draws his sword. It is pleasant for a Scotchman to think of eighty of his 'cautious' countrymen getting themselves hanged at Carlisle, Preston, and Kennington Common, for daring to rank themselves up against King George and his army; many of them declaring, too, with their last breath, that, if it were to do over again, they would do it. The affair of 1745 was almost the only occurrence for a century after the accession of the House of Hanover that forcibly attracted the attention of the English to Scotland; and strange to say, it presents this so-called cautious people in an attitude purely romantic, audacious, and unwise.

After ages of war and civil broils, the Scotch bethought themselves, at the close of the seventeenth century, of applying their energies to commerce. The first ventures of so cautious a people one would have expected to be on an exceedingly moderate scale in proportion to their resources. All the circumstances ought to have been marked by prudence and forethought. What was the actual fact?-a plan of extraordinary boldness, for an entrepôt at Darien, involving a capital of four hundred thousand pounds, being about half of the whole circulating medium in the country. The total destruction of their expeditions, and the perdition of their money, bear strong witness indeed to the national attribute! About that time, who was the Scotsman most conspicuous in England?-was he a paragon of caution? It was William Paterson, who projected the Bank of England-one of the most adventurous beings perhaps that ever breathed. Twenty years later, France was thrown into an extraordinary ferment by a new bank, on which came to be engrafted a scheme for colonising Louisiana. The projector was a foreigner, a daring schemer in monetary matters. So successfully did he impart his enthusiasm to others, that people of all ranks flocked to convert their actual capital into his paper. A stranger entering the Rue Quinquempoix at that crisis would have found a hunchback making a good livelihood by letting out his back as an extempore desk on which the transfers of an imaginary stock were negotiated. If introduced at court, he would have found the son of the projector admitted to the circle of noble youths who were privileged to join in the dances of the young king. Strange to say, the man who produced the universal madness in Paris, to be followed by an equally universal ruin, was a member of that nation so celebrated for its cautious calculations: it was John Law, a native of Edinburgh. Banking, it will be said, has been conducted cautiously and successfully in Scotland. Not so fast. The success of Scotch banking arose in reality from a feature of incaution, a large issue of notes. But for the smallness of the country, allowing each man to know something of another's affairs, and the general probity of the men engaged in banking, an issue of notes so much beyond the means of their ready and immediate withdrawal would have been attended by the greatest danger. It has, in fact, been an adventurous system all along, one in which credit has been stretched to an extent which we rarely see exampled in larger countries. Nor has it been uniformly successful. There are a few counties in Scotland, the proprietary of which has been perhaps as much changed in consequence of misadventures in banking, as Fermanagh was by the Cromwellian settlement. The extreme case was that of Douglas, Heron, and Company's bank, established in 1769, ruined in 1772. They

issued notes like a snow-drift, and gave large quantities of them out to individuals to be put into circulation in different parts of the country, and accounted for at certain periods. These notes used to come back for payment at the central office, before their various circulators had accounted for them. Anybody with a coat on his back and a little brass on his forehead could get a bill discounted with Douglas, Heron, and Company. It is told that there was a back-going farmer about the Pentland Hills, who, having exhausted all his friends and neighbours, and being reduced to desperation, was told that money was to be got almost without ceremony at a house in the Canongate. He came with a bill for L.50, accepted by one of his ploughmen, and had the money in his hand as quickly as if it had been only change for a guinea. He packed it slowly up in his pocket, strode to the door, and there turning coolly about, said pretty audibly, Faith, billies, this canna gang on lang!" The damage to the shareholders, who were of all classes, was dreadful. Sir Walter Scott speaks with a bitter grudge of the loss incurred by his father through Douglas, Heron, and Company's bank; yet we observe the old gentleman stands in the list for only L.500 of stock. Mr Islay Campbell, the most successful advocate of his time, told a friend that it would have been better for him never to have made one penny by his profession, than to have made a venture in that bank. Some men paid quotas of loss every now and then during the greater part of their lives; and, as we are assured only a very few years have elapsed since the books were finally wound up, it is not improbable that in some instances the sufferings from Douglas, Heron, and Company's bank extended through three generations.

Any one living in Scotland at the present day, and looking round him with the eye of a man of the world, would be at no loss, we believe, to discover such examples of things done under false calculations, or no calculations at all, as would leave him a good deal at a loss to account for the character which the people have acquired on the score of caution. He would not see what are called 'fast men' in great numbers; but of heedless speculators and half-crazy projectors he would find no lack. However strange it may sound in an English ear, there are plenty of rash and thoughtless people in Scotland. We really must claim to have our fair proportion of folly as well as our neighbours. Only inquire into family histories: where is there one without its wayward member, who is continually coming back upon them ruined and undone, to be once more set up in the world, or once more and finally shipped off for the colonies? Ask in the share-market-look into the Gazette-inspect the shipping list at Glasgow. Hopes you will everywhere find as rife as fears. On all sides ruin bears its part beside success. One does not hear much now-a-days of such a spirit among religious people as that which fills the history of the sixteenth and seventeenth century with wonders. Yet only in 1843, about a third part of the established clergy of Scotland abandoned their livings on a point of conscience. Other people, ourselves amongst the number, are at a loss to understand their reasons: opposite partisans try to extenuate the matter in various ways. In plain truth, whatever might be the merits of the prompting cause, it was an astonishing example of self-sacrifice, one which any people might be proud to have in their history, and which, we venture to say, the whole nation will yet be proud to see there. We strongly recommend the particulars to the consideration of those who regard the Scotch as wholly made up of cold and selfish calculation.

We might go on to ask if the most eminent Scotsmen of past times have been noted for caution. Was Bruce a cautious man when he exposed himself to the attack of Sir Henry Bohun at Bannockburn? Was John Knox a cautious man?-he of whom Morton said, as he saw him laid in the grave, 'There lies one who never feared the face of man!' Was Mon

trose cautious at Kilsyth, or Dundee at Killiecrankie? Was Fletcher of Salton cautious when he killed Dare at Torquay? Burns proclaims in his verse that prudent cautious self-control is wisdom's root;' but, himself, 'o'er fast for thought, o'er hot for rule,' could never practise the maxim. Scott looked a prudent man till near the end of his days, when it was found that not a son of the Muses in their most reckless times had acted more inconsiderately than he. A hardy ardour and enthusiasm seems to belong to the whole of the great men of our country. Caution is the last peculiarity which a biographer would attribute to them.

How, then, comes it that the Scotch, with such a history, obtain such a character? We cannot undertake to solve the mystery to universal satisfaction; but we see a few peeps of daylight through it. The Scotch, in the ordinary affairs of life, exhibit a tolerably clear intellect; they do not rush into acts and situations with the precipitancy of the Irish. But there is nothing extraordinary about them in this respect. The English, however, whose judgment on the point is the subject of debate, see their neighbours in two limited aspects. They either see the northern adventurer plodding his way among a people richer than himself, and anxious to make up by prudence for his original want of means; or they themselves come as mercantile travellers into Scotland, seeking to press off all sorts of English goods upon such shopkeepers as they think trustworthy. The Scotch trader has to be on the defensive both against the trading sharpness of the English, and against taking an over-quantity of their goods, all of which he knows must be paid for. He therefore presents a somewhat hard | and slow manner to the empressement of his visitor. The Scotch are accordingly, as a nation, judged by the English from a few specimens, who are either unfair representatives of the mass, or are presented in circumstances so peculiar, that their actual character is not represented. It is like judging the people of Italy from the wandering image-venders, or the people of France from the conduct of the actors in the Théâtre Français. It gets, however, a specious sort of sanction from the fact, that the Scotch do bear themselves with something like an average degree of prudence amongst the nations; and so it passes. The English, meanwhile, have no more idea of the style of living and dealing pursued by the bulk of the Scotch people, than they have of the ménage of an Esquimaux, or perhaps less. The many who live in an open-handed and elegant manner, the still greater number who live in comfort, the generous charities supported in the large towns, the sacrifices made by the poorest under the influence of their higher sentiments, remain totally unknown, and therefore enter not into the account. If these remarks do not explain the mystery, then we despair of it, and must leave it as a problem to be solved by wiser heads than ours. R. C.

AN ENGLISH WORKMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS IN 1848.

SECOND AND CONCLUDING ARTICLE.

AFTER the Revolution, business of all kinds seemed to have received a decided check. Work at M. Jolly's was not resumed for more than a week, and then only on short time. Thousands walked the streets without any employment at all, excepting planting trees of liberty, which they did at every possible place, amid great firing of guns and other rejoicings. M. Vachette, my landlord, was one who suffered much from the late changes, for he had been employed by the royal saddler and harness-maker. To compensate him in part for his loss, he had been chosen by his comrades as corporal in his company of the National Guard. Although feeling sorely the pressure of the times, he managed to save a small weekly sum towards his uniform. He was a gay thoughtless being enough, with sparkling black eyes, and a black bushy beard, and a devoted admirer of republican principles as advocated by Vergniaud,

Bailly, Roland, Brissot, and other Girondins, and so ably contended for now by Lamartine. He saw with pain the wide spread of Communism. His wife, a woman of good education, and much natural talent, seemed in a continual melancholy, as if under some foreboding fear that she could not contend with.

About this time my friend George, finding his hopes of obtaining employment in Paris at an end, was compelled reluctantly to quit the bosom of his family, and to go to sea once more. James Bargues, his brother, who was a man of excellent disposition, and a sincere lover of his species, had for his abilities been chosen secretary of one of the most violent democratic clubs, and was himself imbued with a corresponding quantity of their enthusiasm and folly.

The first act of the Parisian workmen was, by threats held out to their employers, to expel all the English employed in Paris; and indeed, as I afterwards found, this was pretty general throughout France. The only excuse I can find for this conduct, was the misery and destitution they were suffering themselves. This gave rise to much bitterness of feeling on the part of my countrymen, and not without cause. It was a sad blow for the keepers of English houses in Paris, as they were nearly all obliged to close their shops and follow their customers.

My own work continued very slack for some time after the Revolution; but I had the pleasure of observing that the branch of the business in which I was employed gradually increased, which I attributed to the superiority of the English method over the French. Accordingly, as the spring advanced, I found full employment, occasionally even working five quarters in the day, though trade in general was extremely dull. Still no symptoms appeared of the wretchedness of the majority of the working-classes. The people, everywhere decently clad, laughed, looked happy, and sang their songs with that gaieté du cœur for which the Parisian stands unrivalled.

On the 16th of April, there was a great Communist demonstration; the rappel was beating in all quarters of Paris. The day passed without any particular disturbance; but it caused trade, which was slowly reviving, again to languish. I found every such popular demonstration followed by a corresponding depression in business; for the rich, alarmed by the constant marching of immense bodies of men, beating their eternal drums, were rapidly leaving Paris, thus rendering employment still more scarce, and the masses still more discontented. To provide for the wants of the working-classes, the Ateliers Nationaux were instituted, which, to my thinking, was a fatal mistake on the part of the government, as a complete system of organisation was at once framed, which, as was afterwards shown, was fully taken advantage of.

On the 20th took place the Festival of Fraternity, which exhibited no extraordinary feature besides the astonishing length of the line of troops which passed in review before the members of the Provisional Government. It was generally believed after this fête that trade would revive; but those who thus fondly hoped, were doomed to disappointment. Trade in all branches, instead of getting better, got worse. Thousands of discontented and hungry men roamed through the streets, by their threatening appearance making bad worse. I was particularly struck with the appearance of poor James Bargues and his wife, whom I had not seen for some time past. Although in their dress there was an evident struggle between pride and poverty, and no tale of distress came from their lips, yet their pale and famished looks told how much they had suffered. On this occasion the conversation naturally turned to the existing state of things in Paris, and rather a hot discussion ensued between the two brothers-in-law, James contending that the men now at the head of affairs had betrayed the trust reposed in them, and that nothing but their expulsion would save France from ruin. The other threw

the whole blame on the Communists, who, by their con- my wife, directing her to sell to the best advantage our stant émeutes, had ruined the trade of Paris. It ended household goods at home, and likewise a small business by M. Vachette commanding James to leave the room, which had formed the chief support of my family. It which he did, never again to cross the threshold. I was with great reluctance that I informed Monsieur and was much grieved, on account of the two sisters, that Madame Vachette of my intention to leave them, as they politics should thus part friends, and different opinions had treated me with uniform kindness, and I knew my engender such bitter feelings. money, trifling as it was, was now an object with them. Upon further consideration, seeing the difficulties my wife would have to encounter on her journey with four young children, I thought it would be better for me to ask a week's holiday, and fetch them from England myself. A week previous to my intended departure, which I had fixed for Sunday the 25th of June, as it was the last Sunday I should spend in the Battignolles, I went, in company with my landlord and his wife, to Versailles, M. Vachette having an uncle residing there. On the previous night he had brought home his new uniform, and now for the first time put it on. He had, in common with most Frenchmen, a smart military air, and, with the help of some padding, made really a handsome figure. So to Versailles we went, and spent the day most comfortably, all little imagining how the next Sunday would pass.

As summer approached, the weather became delightful. I had heard and read of sunny France. Her poets had apostrophised her bright blue skies, and sung in raptures of her corn-fields and vineyards: I found the picture not overdrawn. The sky was bright and beautifully clear for many weeks together. From the absence of smoke, there was a particular freshness in the air, by which the intense heat of the sun was much relieved. The Boulevards now swarmed with people, especially on Sundays, which here is a kind of feteday, instead of being set apart for religious observance. Jugglers, tumblers, and showmen lined the path; bands of music sounded in the air; while all kinds of vehicles crowded along the road. In the evening, the cafés were filled with company, thousands being seated outside in the cool of the evening, enjoying the soothing fragrance of the cigar and sipping their coffee, and the ladies their sugared water. The Boulevards outside of Paris were, if possible, more gay. From the numerous cafés, ballrooms, and summer-gardens, the sound of song and revelry met the ear, instead of the more decent tolling of the Sabbath-bell.

On the 15th of May Paris was again thrown into a state of ferment by the attack of the Communists on the National Assembly. Some of my shopmates I knew to be adherents of Barbés, Blanqui, and the other Communists; and I noticed their absence on this particular morning. The drum beat the rappel, and again shops were shut, and the streets filled with military. I hastened down to the hall of the National Assembly, the front of which was guarded by a troop of dragoons, while immense numbers of the Garde Nationale were hastening down the quais.

I was standing nearly opposite the Chambers when Lamartine and Ledru - Rollin left the Assembly on horseback. A thousand voices cried, Vive Lamartine!' and a few, Vive Ledru - Rollin!' Many pressed forward to shake the former by the hand. I, wishing to have that honour, pressed forward with the rest, and grasping his hand a little too tightly I fear, cried at the top of my voice, 'Vive Lamartine!" I felt as if it was something to have shaken hands with the then greatest man in all France.

The fête of Concord followed quickly afterwards: it was a most splendid affair, but failed to produce the contentment which was expected of it. As for myself, I had no great reason to complain: my work still increased, and I fondly hoped that I might be allowed to remain many years in the land of my adoption; my master was kind and indulgent, using me more as an equal that was in partnership with him than as a workman employed by him; my shopmates were courteous and obliging; the climate I felt to be delightful; all public places were free; and the manners of the people such as made me blush for the ignorance and rudeness of my own.

My prospects in business being so cheering, I resolved to purchase a little home, and send for my family. I immediately began to put this resolution into effect, and, living frugally and working hard for the next five or six weeks, purchased at every opportunity such articles of household furniture as I judged would be most serviceable. Amongst these were a bed mattress and bedstead, a rather stylish chest of drawers with a marble top, a table, some chairs, and a looking-glass. The articles, as I bought them, were placed in a room which I had taken in the Rue Faubourg St Martin. It was with some degree of pride and satisfaction that I looked round my little apartment, longing for the time when I should behold my wife and children once more comfortably settled beside me. I had meanwhile written to

I had noticed every evening, on leaving my work, bands of idle fellows loitering about the Portes St Martin and St Denis. These mobs the military were called out several times to disperse; and it was no unusual thing to find both horse and foot at the Porte St Martin as I was returning from work.

On the evening of Friday the 23d, as I was preparing to leave work, I was alarmed by the noise of a sharp firing in the street. I quickly dressed, and ran out. All was confusion and alarm. Rebellion again had reared its hydra head, and the fair city of Paris was about to become an immense slaughter-house. A barricade had been formed at the Porte St Martin, before which several of the Garde Nationale had already fallen.

As I had no wish this time to take any share in the movement, I avoided the Boulevard by taking bystreets, until I reached the Rue de la Chaussée d'Antin. The rappel was now beating in every quarter, and the Garde Nationale mustering in great numbers. Armed men passed me every moment; but of which party it was impossible to judge, as thousands of the Garde Nationale were without uniforms. I rushed across the Boulevard, and then up Rue de la Chaussée d'Antin to Rue Clichy. I passed through the barrier of that name, and reached my lodgings in Rue de l'Ecluse in safety. I had not been at home many minutes, when M. Vachette, who worked in the Rue St Honoré, entered. The rappel now sounded loudly in the Battignolles. I helped my landlord to equip, belted on his sword and cartridge-box, and handed him his gun from the corner in which it was usually kept. He shook me by the hand, kissed his wife, and then departed.

I endeavoured to calm the agitation of Madame Vachette, by assuring her that it was nothing but an ordinary émeute, of which several had lately taken place. So, wishing madame good-night, I took my lamp, and retired to my chamber.

At daybreak I was awoke by something jarring my window, which, from the heat of the weather, I had left unfastened. Suddenly it shook again, and the boom of cannon struck my ear. I sprang from my bed, and threw back my window. The first streaks of day had just began to crimson the eastern sky. A sharp, quick knocking at my door, and the voice of my landlady calling me, drew me from the window. I threw on some articles of clothing, and admitted her. With pale and quivering lips she besought me to make some inquiries as to the cause of the firing. I promised her I would, and went out with that intention.

On ascending the hill of Montmartre, which stands at the distance of a short walk from the Battignolles, and commands a fine view of Paris, I saw the white smoke of the combat already curling above the houses. The discharges of artillery became every moment more fre

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