las, even with his iron will, was unable to | suppress the official corruption among his people; then, can the present czar, in five

MISCELLANIES.

see the serpents in a pile! He pointed out to me something elevated in the middle of the savanna, or swamp, which looked like a bundle of arms. One of the company then said: "This is certainly one of the assemblages of serpents which heap themselves on each other after a violent tempest; I have heard of these, but have never seen any; let us proceed cautiously, and not go too near.' We were within twenty paces of it; the terror of our horses prevented our nearer approach, to which none of us were inclined. On a sudden, the pyramid mass became agitated; horrible hissings issued from it. Thousands of serpents, rolled spirally on each other, shot forth out of their circle their hideous heads, and presented their enormous darts and fiery eyes to us. I own I was one of the first to draw back; but when I saw this formidable phalanx remaining at its post, appearing to be more disposed to defend itself than to attack us, I rode around in order to view its order of battle, which faced the enemy on every side. I then sought what could be the design of this numerous assemblage, and I concluded that this species of serpents dreaded some enemy, which might be the great serpent, or cayman; and that they reunited themselves after seeing this enemy, in order to resist in a mass."-London paper.

to the Minister of Russia, though, as you may believe, without producing any results. The Emperor makes no account of it, and the Pope king is not bound by his word. The objects sold to the Emperor of Russia are as follows: 21 primitive vases, 14 with black varnish; 138 Etruscan vases of the primitive style; 10 Rithon; 35 Aretini; 35 Nola vases; 24 Cumæ vases; 35 vases of Rome and Magna Græcia; 23 candlesticks-bronzes; 4 trophies; 7 pieces of arms; 3 ditto; 6 candelabra; 20 looking-glasses; 14 different objects; 22 vases; 14 pieces of sculpture. Statues, busts, sarcophagi, an object in gold, 79. All this for the precise sum of 150,000 scudi; 734 pieces, which, as each constitutes a portion of a complete collection, destroys the peculiar value of the entire museum. Amongst the statues, it is asserted, are the Nine Muses, which are much superior to those of the Vatican.-Letter from Rome.

WILL OF THE LATE DUCHESS OF KENT.-The will of her royal highness the Duchess of Kent was proved in the principal registry on the third of this month by the Prince-Consort, the sole executor. This will, emanating from so distinguished a personage as the mother of her Majesty, will, we (Illustrated News) are assured, be read with great interest by THE CAMPANA MUSEUM AT ROME.-The celebrat- all classes. Under this conviction we give the doced museum which was collected by the Marchese ument entire: "This is the last will and testament Campana with so much artistic and scientific intelli- of me, Victoria Marie Louise, Duchess of Kent and gence, and with a passion which has never been ex- Strathern. I hereby revoke all other wills and coceeded, has been divided, lotted out, and sold. One dicils made by me at any time heretofore. I give, of the most interesting features of this splendid mu- devise, and bequeath to my dearly-beloved daughseum was that it was a continuous monumental his-ter, her Majesty Queen Victoria, all my real and pertory of art-a history at the same time through sonal estate whatsoever and wheresoever whereof I thirty centuries of the civilization of Italy and the may be seized, possessed, interested in, or entitled world. It has been, therefore the special object of un'o at the time of my decease, to hold the same Campana to preserve it in all its entirety, and seve- unto my said daughter, her successors, and assigns ral advantageous offers have been made for the pur- absolutely. I appoint my dearly-beloved son-in-law chase of portions of the collection, which were, and nephew, his royal highness Albert of Saxe-Cohowever, refused. Thus, the British government burg and Gotha, Prince-Consort, sole executor. In made an offer, I am informed, of £30,000 for a part, witness whereof I have hereto set my hand this 20th and the French government offered 3,000,000 francs day of March, 1860.-VICTORIA." Signed and defor a selection of the articles of the museum, both clared by her royal highness the Duchess of Kent of which were declined when the museum was and Strathern as and for her last will and testament the property of Campana. At this political crisis, in the presence of us, who, in her presence, (all being however, when money is wanted for oppression, the present at the same,) at her request, and in the prePapal government, into whose hands the collection sence of each other, have subscribed our names as has passed, from circumstances well known to the witnesses.-G. Couper, principal equerry to her world, has permitted the Emperor of Russia to make royal highness the Duchess of Kent, Frogmore; a selection of the gems of the museum, for 150,000 Ramsay H. Couper, clerk in the War-office, residing Roman scudi. At the moment the contract was being in Frogmore." The will of her late royal highness drawn up, an offer arrived from another government, exhibits a perfect specimen of beautiful penmanship. I believe the French, for the purchase of the entire It is written in a style of remarkable neatness and museum at the price of 7,000,000 francs; but the perspicuity, and is so exceedingly brief as merely to Emperor of Russia has carried the day, and has been occupy a portion only of one side of foolscap paper. permitted to rifle the collection of its gems, giving The personalty was sworn under £30,000. 150,000 scudi as hush-money-for to speak of such a sum as the value of the articles would be absurd. The Papal government, by such an act, has not only done an injury to Italy by thus destroying its monumental story-has not only consulted badly for its pecuniary interests by selling articles of inappreciable value for a mess of pottage, but has broken faith with Campana. When the Marchese Campana gave up the collection, under the unhappy circumstances so well known, a verbal notice was given to him, I am assured, by the Minister of Finance, the Cardinal Secretary of State, and the Pope, that the colection should be preserved entire and kept in the country. He has, therefore, made a protest against the sale both to the Papal government and

TIME-GUN AT EDINBURGH CASTLE. It is expected that before the close of the present month the audible time signal at Edinburgh Castle will be brought into daily operation. The time-gun is established in connection with the time-ball on the Calton-hill, which was set up some years ago as a time signal for the benefit of the city of Edinburgh and also for the port of Leith. It was found, however, that frequently the signal was invisible through fog or haze, and Mr. Hewat, a merchant in Edinburgh, some time ago suggested that the signal, which is worked from the Observatory on the Calton-hill, should be connected by means of an electric wire with a gun on the Castle battery, which should be discharged simul

taneously with the fall of the time-ball. The sug- A FRENCH VETERAN.-The oldest General in gestion is now being carried into execution. A gun France is just dead-namely, the Baron de Bruno, has been granted by government for the purpose, who had reached the age of ninety-five. He was but otherwise the expense of putting up and main-born at Pondicherry, and brought to France by his taining the signal has been undertaken by the citi- uncle, M. Law, of Lauriston, and placed in the Artilzens, and a subscription has been commenced in or- lery School at Douai. When the Revolution broke der to constitute a fund for the purpose. The appa- out he was suspected of Royalism, and only escaped ratus is in course of construction by Messrs. Ritchie, the scaffold by entering the Legion of La Nièvre. Edinburgh, and one part of it is to consist of a single He made the campaigns of 1793-5; served in the strand of electric wire suspended from the Calton- army of the Alps in 1796; in Italy and Switzerland hill to the Castle in one stretch of 1400 yards, and in 1797-8; in 1806 he became aid-de-camp to which, being elevated about 100 to 120 feet above Louis, King of Holland, who in 1808 made him a the level of Princes-street, will be quite invisible to General of Division, and Master of the Horse. After the eye. The directory map of Edinburgh and the fall of Louis, the Baron returned to France, and Leith, about to be published for 1861-62, will be served in the campaigns of 1811-12. He was of the marked with a series of circles showing the exact avant-garde of the King of Naples during the fatal time that will elapse between the discharge and the retreat, when the latter had five horses killed under sound of the gun reaching any point upon the map. him; and he was one of the Sacred Battalion The institution of this ordnance signal in connec- charged to watch over the life of the emperor. He tion with the time ball at the Calton-hill Observawas a prisoner in Hungary in 1813-14. He comtory is looked forward to with great interest, and manded a brigade of light cavalry at Waterloo, and, should the experiment prove successful it will prob- says the Moniteur de l'Armée, "it was this brigade ably lead to its adoption elsewhere.-London Star. which destroyed the famous column of English dragoons that had traversed like a whirlwind a portion of the French army." Baron de Bruno retired in 1833. He leaves one son a General in the army, and another Inspector General of Finance.

A NEW TUNNEL THROUGH THE ALPS-A Piedmontese commission has just been charged to examine the question of a tunnel through the Alps which separate Italy from Switzerland. Different plans have been laid before it, passing by the Saint Gothard, the Lukmanier, the Splugen, the Bernardino, and the Septimer. The commission will have to decide through which of the above mountains the tunnel can be most easily and most advantageously cut. The Lukmanier appears to promise the greatest facilities, as it is lower than any of the others, but as a set-off, the line of railway to be connected with the tunnel through that mountain would be 154 ki.

THE CHAPEL ROYAL IN THE SAVOY.-The ancient Chapel Royal in the Savoy, which is in connection with the Duchy of Lancaster, has been opened by two services, at the first of which the Archbishop of Canterbury preached. The restoration of the church is in every way complete. The beautiful heraldic devices on the ceiling have been brought out with great effect, and are perhaps the finest specimen of such works of art in the kingdom. For a long series of years they were hidden under repeated coats of whitewash, but in 1843 Mr. John Cochrane, a bookseller in the Strand, having been appointed chapel warden, brought his antiquarian knowledge to bear on the neglected ceiling. His exertions were rewarded by the discovery of those exquisite devices which, from the south to the center, are those of the houses of York and Lancaster, while those from the center to the north repre-lometres (five eighths of a mile each) in length, while sent various incidents connected with the cross and passion of the Saviour. Two new panels and several pipes have been added to the organ. One or two modern monuments at the south end, which were injured by the fire, have been restored." All the ancient monuments at the north end were uninjured.

THE NEW RHINE BRIDGE.-The inauguration of the bridge of Kehl, connecting the Strasburg and Baden railways, took place on the 6th inst., as announced. A train arrived at Strasburg from Paris the preceding evening with the persons invited, and the next morning, at nine, another train proceeded to the bridge with the guests. After crossing the bridge the train stopped, and the company alighting examined the works in every part. The train afterwards returned to Strasburg, where a grand banquet was given in the evening, at the Hotel de Paris. The dinner lasted nearly three hours, and at the dessert toasts were proposed to the health of the GrandDuke of Baden, the Emperor Napoleon, and to the intimate alliance of France and Germany. Speeches were delivered by M. Perdonnet, on the side of France, and by the Minister of Baden on the side of Germany. Next day a grand fete was to be given

at Baden.

if it were to pass through the Saint Gothard it would only be 133, and through the Splugen 120. The two lines by the Saint Gothard and the Lukmanier are each estimated at a cost of ninety millions of francs, and that by the Splugen at one hundred millions. If, in the examination of the question, the only object were to put Italy simply in communication with Central Switzerland and Basle, the Saint Gothard would certainly have the preference, but if this line is to open an easy road to Germany and Belgium, Genoa and Turin will advocate the line of Lukmanier, and Milan that of the Saint Gothard.

VERY interesting and important discoveries in Egyptian antiquities have recently been made at Memphis, under the direction of M. Manette. Upon a limestone slab were found the names of sixty-three kings anterior to the construction of the Pyramids. The temple of Edfon, the oldest and best preserved in the whole world, has been exhumed, and it is so magnificent as to excite the astonishment of all who have seen it.

OBSTINACY OF THE SEA-HORSE.-The walrus is an obstinate animal, and does not fly on the approach of man; on the contrary, forming themselves into a body, they go and meet him, and resist any attempt THERE is no such thing as an easy-chair for a dis-on his part to proceed. When a company of travelcontented man. ers meet these animals on the shore, they are forced

to fight their way through them; and if the walruses | where a note, written in German under the signa are pelted with stones, they gnaw them with their ture, has become both visible and legible, while teeth, but afterwards attack the men with redoubled there is not a trace of it left on the original. M. Fifury, rending the air with the most tremendous guier, who mentions this circumstance in the Presse, growling. These animals seem to be fully aware of explains it as follows: During the photographic the effect of united resistance and attack, and also process, the brilliant and polished parts of the parchof the utility of keeping in masses and ranks; for ment reflect light much better than those where the should any one of them attempt to retreat, those in ink has been deposited. However colorless it may his rear fall upon and compel him to keep in the appear, the ink has not lost its anti-photographic ranks, or kill him. Sometimes it happens that, when qualities, opposed to the photogenic ones of the one walrus attempts to stop another, who is retreat- parchment; and, thanks to this opposition, black ing, they all begin to suspect each other of being in- characters may be obtained on the sensitive surface, clined to fly, and, in that case, the contest often be-in return for much paler ones on the original."comes universal. When two are fighting with one, Galignari. the others come to the aid of the weaker side. While they are thus fighting on the land, others that are in the water raise their heads, and look on for a time, till they also become enraged, swim to shore, and join in the combat.-Cassell's Illustrated Natural History.

RECOVERY OF AN ANCIENT GUN FROM THE THAMES. -While an anchor was being dragged recently, near the Blythe Sand, in the Thames, a very old cannon of antique form, and greatly exceeding in length those used at the present day, was picked up. It is said that for nearly two hundred years the fishermen on the river have been sufferers by losing their nets on the spot where the gun was picked up, it having presented an obstruction which, from generation to generation of fishermen, has always been called "The Wreck." It was found in nine fathoms of water, in a part much frequented by trawlers, and was much corroded and partly covered with old

nets.

GLASS CASKS.-A new kind of cask has just been invented which is replacing, it is said, in the South of France, those now made of wood. They are made of glass, and of different sizes to contain from five to one hundred litres. Among the advantages they possess may be mentioned that they are proof against all leakage and evaporation, and keep the liquid placed in them fresh and pure to the last. They are stronger, when kept stationary, than the wooden casks, having in the experiments made withstood a pressure which shattered the ordinary casks to pieces.

HUMBOLDT AS A COURTIER.-His connection with the Court was the snare, the vexation, and humiliation of Humboldt's life. The wise always knew it must be so; the world now knows that it was so. The King and Court were not to blame for this. It was honorable to the King to honor intellectual achievement in Humboldt; and he paid his homage as well as he could. If the philosopher did not assert the value of his own leisure and quiet, how was any body in a different position in life to understand it? Savans and philosophers understand it; but princes can not. I know that when Humboldt came over in the King's train, to the baptism of the Prince of Wales, the scientific and literary men who met him were concerned and humbled at the specta cle. That grand and noble head was out of place in a courtier train; the philosopher's time was not his own, nor his freedom to go and come. He who was at the head of the realm of knowledge was discrowned in the presence of political royalty; his thoughts were subject to the beck and call of another; his will was not his own; and his ribbons and stars were but counterfeit decorations in his case.-Once a Week.

SPOTS ON THE SUN.-There are now five distinct clusters of spots traveling the disk of the sun, visible through an ordinary and slightly-smoked telescope. During the hot summer of 1807 it is recorded that there were many of great magnitude; and during the cold and wet summer of 1823 there were none; but then in the cold and backward seaso 8 of 1836 and 1837 these spots appeared frequently, as they have done throughout the present cold and stormy WOMAN'S WIT.-There is a quality infinitely more weather. To suppose, therefore, that these remarkintoxicating to the female mind than knowledgeable excavations exercise any influence on our atthis is wit, the most captivating, but the most dread-mosphere is a popular fallacy, or at any rate premaed of all talents; the most dangerous to those who have it, and the most feared by those who have it not. A woman who possesses this quality has received a most dangerous present, perhaps not less so than beauty itself; especially if it be not sheathed in a temper peculiarly inoffensive, chastised by a most correct judgment, and restrained by more prudence than falls to the common lot Those who actually possess this rare talent can not be too abstinent in the use of it. It often makes admirers, but it never makes friends.-Hannah More.

PHOTOGRAPHS OF DEFACED WRITING. A facsimile of a Ms. has been reproduced photographically by M. Silvy. It was the "Sforza Manuscript." Not only is the copy more legible than the original, but certain passages which could not be deciphered on the old parchment have been actually revived; and this is particularly visible on the last page,

ture.

A DAY TOO LATE.-La Fontaine was so absent as to call and visit a friend whose funeral he had attended. He was much surprised at first; but recollecting himself, said: "It is true enough, for I was there."

A SIMILE.-The old Duke of Cumberland was one night playing at hazard at Beaufort House, with a great heap of gold before him, when somebody said "he looked like the prodigal son and the fatted calf, both."

HOW TO RISE EARLY IN THE MORNING.-"I do wish I could be cured of lying in bed so late in the morning," said a lazy husband, lounging upon his pillow. "Well, I will try the water cure," said his wife, pouring a pitcherfull on him.