hitherto been most impotent. The Roman Catholic religion may, and probably will be, purified from the superstitions incrusting it, but whether reformed or not it will ever be the religion of the great majority of Italians. Though terribly shaken by skepticism, Italy is a far more Christian country than France. Thus, although the monastic institutions no longer exist, the Government of Italy cannot, must not, and will not allow the country to be without a State religion. For better or worse the Papacy has been associated with Italy for fifteen hundred sterling, but not the debt of Venetia, is fully two hundred millions sterling, an enormous sum for a young nation. The great business, therefore, for Italy, is to effect a reduction of her expenses within the narrowest limits. Bankruptcy and high taxation are the Scylla and Charybdis between which the Italian Government will have to steer, and if they can navigate the State vessel between these dangers, they will deserve well of their country. But the people must be prepared to pay higher taxes than those now imposed. It may be a hard lesson to learn practically, but liberty is a lux-years. Shaken by many disasters, Pius ury that must be paid for. At present Italians are lightly taxed, for while our taxation averages £2 18s. per head annually, that in Italy is only about £1. In comparison with the Venetian question, now happily solved, that of Rome sinks into insignificance. The Venetian provinces will add largely to the strength of the monarchy, but the desire to possess Rome, however legitimate it may be, is after all but a sentiment. Such at least is the impression conveyed to the writer by Florentines. The cry for Rome as the capital of Italy was the result in a great measure of the temporal power of the Pope backed by Austria and the French occupation. Were the question of transferring the capital to Rome brought now before the Italian Parliament, it is most doubtful whether it would be carried. Restore Rome to her former condition, when she was the capital of a mighty nation; fill her streets and lone Campagna with a stirring population, and she would be the legitimate metropolis of Italy; but in her present state, smitten during a large portion of the year with malaria, she is not fitted for metropolitan dignity. That a reconciliation between Rome and Italy, Papacy and patriotism, is essential to the welfare of Victor Emmanuel and his dominions is undeniable. For however much young Italy may rail against the Sacred College, she is still Roman Catholic at heart. Italians may and do despise their priests, but although often living without them, they will not, if possible, close their eyes on this world without their presence. The writer heard and saw much of the efforts made by Evangelical communities in Tuscany to Protestantize the people, but they have IX. will perhaps be now inclined to take the counsel of Napoleon III. The recognition by Austria of Victor Emmanuel must necessarily cause the Pope to feel the force of events, and if not entirely dead to common sense he will yield to these and consent to those under his feeble reign being Italianized. The decree of the first Napoleon with reference to the Papacy in his day, possesses at this juncture considerable interest. It appears in the nineteenth volume of his Correspondence recently published, and runs thus: "I have given orders to bring affairs at Conceiving that when Rome to an issue. Charlemagne, Emperor of the French and several countships to the Bishops of Rome, our august predecessor, made a donation of he gave them as fiefs only, and for the good of his dominions, but that Rome remained a portion of his empire; that since his time this union of spiritual and temporal power has been often and still is a cause of dispute, and influence of the one to sustain the pretensions has repeatedly led the Pontiff's to employ the of the other, and that consequently spiritual interests and the affairs of Heaven, which cannot change, are confounded with earthly things, which fluctuate with circumstances and political revolutions, we decree that the Papal States shall form a part of the French Empire." As the spiritual head of the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope's power is enormous, and in this capacity, Pius IX. may be, at one and the same time, a patriot and a mighty agent for good. It will, indeed, be highly gratifying to see the country of Cæsar and of Cicero settling down after so many misfortunes under a constitution closely resembling our own, and believing that the capital of that country will continue to be Flor- "Godi Firenze poi che sei si grande without paying the octroi on it. The want of pence that vexes public men presses heavily on the municipality of Florence, and the consequence is that the taxes on provisions are excessive. The writer has seen a small basket of diminutive birds-unfortunately, all small birds in Italy are killed for the kitchen-stopped at one of the gates and made to pay toll. Thus meat, which, without the octroi, may be purchased at 5d. and 6d. a pound, in the city costs 8d. and 9d.; veal is even higher; fowls are the same price as the latter, and are sold by weight; fish is 11d. a pound; butter 14d.; eggs 8d. a dozen; and bread a little lower than in England. Wine of the country may be had at all prices, from 3d. a bottle to 3s.; some of the best qualities are still sold at the city palaces of the proprietors of the vineyards. Women servants, by no means good, are generally paid twenty francs a month; men servants, who are much better, thirty to fifty francs. The hire of an open or close carriage is four hundred to five hundred francs a month exclusive of the coachman's buona mano, and that of a carriage to attend an evening party five to six francs. A very good dinner may be had at the Restaurant de Paris for four francs, wine included, and if you are partial to the Italian cuisine, you will find an amazing choice of dishes at the Luna, one of the oldest trattorias in Italy. Two great drawbacks, amounting to positive nuisances, attend dining at the Florence restaurants: one, the flower - girls, or rather women, by no means prepossessing, who "Disturb your repose, with pecuniary views, Flinging flowers on your plates, and then bawling for sous; the other, smoking in the dining roomall Florentines, as soon as they have eaten their dinner, being in the habit of smoking vigorously. You may avoid both these annoyances by dining at Doney's, but as this establishment is radiant with gilding, mirrors, and expensive upholstery, you must pay accord In the midst of the fruitful Val d'Arno, every pore of which sends forth luxurious supplies for the wants of man, you would naturally expect provisions to be moderate in price and so they would be if allowed to pass free into the city. But, at all the gates, the officers of the octroi sit at the receipt of custom, and you would find it extremely difficult to intro-ingly. duce any comestible within the town Inferno, canto xxvi. This price list, you will say, is by no means encouraging to those who wish to pass a winter in Florence, and are not blessed with a plethoric purse. The capital of Italy is indeed now nearly, if not quite, as expensive as Paris; and Paterfamilias with a modest income, and sons and daughters still on hand, must not expect to live cheaply in that city. But if indifferent to gay society, operas, theatres, and concerts, a family may enjoy many of the advantages of Florence by living at Pistoia. This pleasant old town is charmingly situated at the base of the Apennines, twenty-three miles west of Florence, which rise amphitheatrically on the north, east, and south, forming the celebrated Seravalle district, where Salvator Rosa found subjects for many of his finest works. The slopes of these mountains are dotted with lovely villas, some of which may be rented at very moderate prices. Among these is Celli, about four miles from Pistoia, where, released from the responsibilities and anxieties accompanying the high oflice of Lord Chancellor of England, Lord Westbury lives; and, if all Chancellors could look forward to such a resting place as this a'ter their labors, they could hardly miss happiness if blessed with the "mens sana in corpore sano." For a more lovely place than Celli is not to be found in fair Italy. The grounds extend for many miles on the slopes of the purple Apennines, which rise grandly behind the villa, sheltering it and the adjoining pleasure gardens from the north wind. Here are camellias of tree-like proportions, some a blaze of scarlet flames; and the shrubs are of the most varied and beautiful descriptions. Near Pistoia, too, lives Sir James Hudson; and other Englishmen might be named who have taken up their residence in this locality. It was the writer's good fortune to spend some time in a villa here with a friend, and from him the following prices of provisions at Pistoia have been derived. Beef and mutton 5d. a pound, veal 8d., fowls 6d., eggs 6d. a dozen, butter 1s., potatoes 1d. Servants one third less than at Florence. Popular Science Review. AEROLITES. BY TOWNSHEND M. HALL, F.G.S. METEORIC Stones, or aërolites, as they are generally called (from two Greek words, aer and lithos, signifying "air stones"), may be defined as solid masses, consisting principally of pure iron, nickel, and several other metals, sometimes containing also an admixture of augite, olivine, and hornblende, which, from time to time, at irregular intervals, have fallen upon the surface of the earth from above. Other designations, such as "fireballs and thunderbolts," have been popularly applied to these celestial masses, the former denoting their usual fiery appearance, while the latter has reference to the extreme suddenness of their descent. Like Shooting stars, also, although they are not accompanied by the fall of any solid matter upon the earth, are generally placed in this same category, since they are supposed to be aerolites which pass (comparatively speaking) very near our earth, and are visible from it by night; at the same time their distance from us, varying as it does from four to two hundred and forty miles and upwards, is in most instances too great to allow of their being drawn down by the attractive power possessed by the earth. comets and eclipses, these celestial phenomena in former times were universally regarded with feelings of the greatest awe and superstition; and in Eastern countries especially, where the fall of a meteoric stone was supposed to be the immediate precursor of some important public event, or national calamity, the precise date of each descent was carefully recorded. In China, for example, such reports reach back to the year 644 before our era; and M. Biot has found in the astronomical section of some of the most ancient annals of that empire, sixteen falls of aerolites, recorded as having taken place between the years 644 B.C. and 333 after Thus, with scenery of great beauty Christ, while the Greek and Roman auimmediately around, easy railway com- thors mention only four such occurrences munication with the capital-the trains, during the same period. Even now, in which run frequently, occupying one this age of science and universal knowlhour in the journey-existence here, as edge, aërolites can scarcely be regarded the writer can vouch by personal experi- without a certain degree of dread. Inence, may be rendered most enjoyable.deed, four or five cases have occurred in which persons have been killed by them; in another instance, several villages in India were set on fire by the fall of a meteoric stone; and it is by no means a pleasant subject for reflection that such a catastrophe might happen anywhere, at any moment, especially when we remember that these stones, although not quite incandescent, are always, more or less, in a heated state; and sometimes so hot that even after the lapse of six hours they could not be touched with impunity. The first fall of meteoric stones on record appears to have taken place about the year 654 B.C., when, according to a passage in Livy, a shower of stones fell on the Alban hill, not far distant from Rome. The next in chronological order is mentioned by several writers, such as Diogenes of Apollonia, Plutarch, and Pliny, and described by them as a great stone, the size of two millstones, and equal in weight to a full wagon - load. It fell about the year 467 B.C., at Egos Potamos, on the Hellespont, and even up to the days of Pliny, four centuries after its fall, it continued to be an object of curiosity and speculation. After the close of the first century we fail to obtain any account or notice of this stone; but although it has been lost sight of for upwards of eighteen hundred years, the eminent Humboldt says, in one of his works, that notwithstanding all previous failures to re-discover it, he does not wholly relinquish the hope that, even after such a considerable lapse of time, this Thracian meteoric mass, which it would be so difficult to destroy, may be found again, especially since the region in which it fell has now become so easy of access to European travellers. The next descent of any particular importance took place at Ensisheim in Alsace, where an aërolite fell on November 7th, 1492, just at the time when the Emperor Maximilian, then King of the Romans, happened to be on the point of engaging with the French army. It was preserved as a relic in the Cathedral at Ensisheim, until the beginning of the French revolution, when it was conveyed to the Public Library of Colmar, and it is still preserved there among the treas ures. In later years the shower of aerolites which fell in April, 1803, at L'Aigle, in NEW SERIES-Vol. V., No. 1. Normandy, may well rank as the most extraordinary descent upon record. A large fire ball had been observed a few moments previously, in the neighborhood of Caen and Alençon, where the sky was perfectly clear and cloudless. At L'Aigle no appearance of light was visible, and the fire-ball assumed instead the form of a small black cloud, consisting of vapor, which suddenly broke up with a violent explosion, followed several times by a peculiar rattling noise. The stones at the time of their descent were hot, but not red, and smoked visibly. The number which were afterwards collected within an elliptical area measuring from six to seven miles in length, by three in breadth, has been variously estimated at from two to three thousand. They ranged in weight from two drachms up to seventeen and a half pounds. The French Government immediately deputed M. Biot, the celebrated naturalist and philosopher, to proceed to the spot, for the express purpose of collecting authentic facts concerning a phenomenon which, until that time, had almost universally been treated as an instance of popular superstition and credulity. His conclusive report was the means of putting an end to all skepticism on the subject, and since that date the reality-not merely the possibility-of such occurrences has no longer been contested. Leaving out, for the present, innumerable foreign instances, which might be quoted, we must now glance rapidly at a few of the most noticeable examples of the fall of meteoric stones which have taken place in England. The earliest which appears on record descended in Devonshire, near Sir George Chudleigh's house at Stretchleigh, in the parish of Ermington, about twelve miles from Plymouth. The circumstance is thus related by Westcote, one of the quaint old Devonshire historians: "In some part of this manor (Stretchleigh) there fell from above-I cannot say from heaven-a stone of twenty-three pounds weight, with a great and fearful noise in falling; first it was heard like unto thunder, or rather to be thought the report of some great ordnance, cannon, or culverin; and as it descended, so did the noise lessen, at last when it came to the earth, to the height of the report of a peternel, or pistol. It was for matter like unto a stone singed, or half burned for lime, but 7 being larger described by a richer wit, I will resulted from exhalations ascending from forbear to enlarge on it." This the earth becoming condensed to such a degree as to render them solid. The "richer wit" here alluded to, theory was in after years revived by was in all probability the author of a Kepler, the astronomer, who excluded pamphlet published at the time, which fire-balls and shooting stars from the further describes this aerolite as having domain of astronomy; because, according fallen on January 10th, 1623, in an orch- to his views, they were simply "meteors ard, near some men who were planting arising from the exhalations of the earth trees. It was buried in the ground three and blending with the higher ether." feet deep, and its dimensions were 3 Others, like Aristotle, considered that feet long, 2 wide, and 1 thick. The they were masses of metal raised either pamphlet also states that pieces broken by hurricanes, or projected by some volfrom off it were in the possession of many cano beyond the limits of the earth's atof the neighboring gentry. We may traction, so becoming inflamed and conhere remark that no specimen of this verted, for a time, into star-like bodies. stone is at present known to be in exist- Thirdly, a solar origin; this, however, ence, and that although living in the was freely derided by Pliny, and several county where it fell, we have hitherto others, among whom we may mention failed in tracing any of the fragments Diogenes of Apollonia, already alluded here referred to. A few years later, in to as one of the chroniclers of the aëroAugust, 1628, several meteoric stones, lite of Egos Potamos. He thus argues: weighing from one to twenty-four pounds," Stars that are invisible, and consequentfell at Hatford, in Berkshire; and in the ly have no name, move in space together month of May, 1680, several are said to with those that are visible. . . These have fallen in the neighborhood of Lon-invisible stars frequently fall to the earth don. and are extinguished, as the stony star which fell burning at Egos Potamos." This last opinion, it will be seen, coincides, as far as it goes, almost exactly with the most modern views on the subject. The total number of aërolitic descents, which up to this present time have been observed to take place in Great Britain and Ireland, is twenty, of which four occurred in Scotland, and four in Ireland. The largest and most noticeable of all these fell on December 13th, 1795, near Wold Cottage, in the parish of Thwing, East Riding of Yorkshire. Its descent was witnessed by two persons; and when the stone was dug up, it was found to have penetrated through no less than eighteen inches of soil and hard chalk. It originally weighed about 56 lbs., but that portion of it preserved in the British Museum is stated in the official catalogue to weigh 47 lbs. 9 oz. 53 grains-just double the weight of the Devonshire acrolite. When we come to inquire into the various opinions which have been held in different ages respecting the origin of aerolites, and the power which causes their descent, we must go back to the times of the ancient Greeks, and we find that those of their philosophers who had directed their attention to the subject had four theories to account for this singular phenomenon. Some thought that meteoric stones had a telluric origin, and As some of the Greeks derived the origin of meteorites from the sun (probably from the fact of their sometimes falling during bright sunshine), so we find, at the end of the seventeenth century, it was believed by a great many that they fell from the moon. This conjecture appears to have been first hazarded by an Italian philosopher, named Paola Maria Terzago, whose attention was specially directed to this subject on the occasion of a meteoric stone falling at Milan in 1660, and killing a Franciscan monk. Olbers, however, was the first to treat this theory in a scientific manner, and soon after the fall of an aërolite at Sienna, in the year 1794, he began to examine the question by the aid of the most abstruse mathematics, and after several years' labor he succeeded in showing that, in order to reach our earth, a stone would require to start from the moon at an initial velocity of 8292 feet per second; then proceeding downwards with increas ing speed, it would arrive on the earth |