15,000l. a year. For eels we gave the Dutch about 5000/. a year. These fisheries are calculated to give employment to not less than 10,000 seamen.

Even the oyster fishery supplies the market of the metropolis with an article of nutritious food for eight months in the year; and if cultivated with the same care in the neighbourhood of Chichester, Portsmouth, Southampton, Plymouth, the coasts of Wales, and among the Hebrides, as it is at Colchester, Milton, Feversham, &c. there is not a town in Great Britain, which might not be as abundantly supplied with oysters as the London market.

THE UPAS, OR POISON TREE.

THIS tree, which is one of the largest in the forests of Java, is called by the natives Antshar. It belongs to the 21st class of Linnæus. The stem rises cylindrical, perpendicular, and completely naked to the height of sixty, seventy, or eighty feet that part of it nearest the ground, in one of the largest trees, measured upwards of ten feet in the diameter, and at the part where the stem becomes regularly round, about three feet; after it has arrived at the above-mentioned heights, it sends off a few stout branches, which spreading horizontally with several irregular curves, divide into smaller branches, forming a kind of crown.

The leaves are alternate, oblong, heart-shaped, with a waving margin, their upper surface smooth, the lower rather rough and reticulate. The male and female flowers are produced on the same branch, at no great distance from each other, the seed is an ovate nut with one shell.

The bark is whitish, slightly bursting longitudinally, it is in old trees nearly an inch thick near the ground, and being wounded yields plentifully the poisonous juice, which is frothy, of a yellowish colour, resembling milk in consistence, its surface becoming brown on exposure to air.

The Antshar is found only in the largest forests, in a fertile, not very elevated soil: it is on all sides surrounded by shrubs and plants, and young trees were observed spontaneously growing from seeds which had fallen from the parent

tree.

It may be approached and ascended like other common trees, for nothing is to be apprehended, except when it

is felled, or largely wounded, by which a large portion of its juice is disengaged, the effluvia of which mixing with the atmosphere, produces heat and itching in the eyes, and sometimes cutaneous eruptions.

The poisonous juice is procured by puncturing the true bark, which in a large tree will yield a tea-cupful in a very short time. The Javanese prepare this by mixing it with various spices, but this process does not appear to increase its poisonous property, for the simple unprepared juice will produce mortal effects in the same time.

From the result of many experiments, it appeared that dogs punctured with darts envenomed with the juice of the Antshar died between twelve and thirty minutes after the insertion of the poison.

In an

Birds were killed between five and eight minutes. experiment made upon a buffalo, he survived the insertion of the poison two hours and ten minutes.

Fortunately, no opportunity has lately offered to enable us to speak of its effects upon the human frame; for though the Javanese possess poisoned cresses and other weapons, it does not appear that they are used in war, as the wounds lately inflicted on our soldiers in Java were cured without difficulty. Analogy, however, will leave us in no doubt of its mortal effects; we have also the testimony of Rumphius, a respectable Dutch author, who tells us, that the inhabitants of Merepe used poisoned darts in their attack upon Amboyna in 1650, he says, “ the poison of these darts touching the warm blood is instantly carried through the whole body, so that it may be felt in all the veins, causing an excessive burning, and violent burning of the head, which is followed by fainting and death.

BRITISH HEROISM.

IN Staffordshire is the mast of a vessel erected in the field, adjacent to Corbyn's-hall, in the parish of King's Swinfords near Dudley; and on a brass plate, at the bottom of it, is placed the following inscription:

"Mizen Mast of the Three Sisters, Merchant Vessel, Luke Crosby, Master.

"Reader! you here behold a Mast, marked with the honourable scars of brave resistance, made by my Commander

with six guns and eight men, against a French frigate of 20 guns, and 140 men, who, after a battle of almost three hours, retreated with disgrace. I stand here a monument to the memory of the man who thus gloriously vindicated the honour of his country, and preserved the property of his employers."

During the engagement the colours of the little vessel were shot down; when, supposing she had struck, the French gave a loud shout, exclaiming," they have struck! they have struck!" On which Crosby snatched up the flag, and waving it over his head, said, "No, but we hav'n't: at 'em again, my brave lads!" After a very well-directed fire, which did great execution among the French, the Three Sisters ran close under the ribs of the frigate, and escaped with little injury.

I believe there are few more striking instances, if one, of British intrepidity, or of French cowardice, upon record; the disgrace of the latter would, on this occasion, have been completed, but the small size of our little vessel precluded her from making the frigate a prisoner, which she certainly would have done, had she not sailed away fairly beaten off.

ADAGES, SAID TO HAVE BEEN USED BY OLIVER CROMWELL.

CUNNING and deception help through one half of life, and deception and cunning through the other.

He who suddenly alters his conduct towards you, has either cheated you, or is willing to cheat you.

Never trust him whom thou hast once injured. If thou wilt not be deceived by an enemy, never trust a friend. Govern by fear.

When thou canst not revenge thyself, be silent, and dissemble.

The multitude is like a madman, it must be kept within the length of its chain.

Who has courage seldom lacks success; but all who succeed, have not courage.

Fortune has singled out many who know it not.

Subjects are like iron, which, unworked, falls to rust. A prince easily forgets the greatest service, but never the slightest injury.

He who through force of arms has raised himself to be ruler, must never lay them by.

It is sometimes prudent not to resent an injury, but one ought never to forget it.

He that lightens the burdens of an enslaved people, betrays his folly.

Fortunate is that man who has many friends; but more fortunate he that does not want them.

Injuries must be done at once; benefits conferred by degrees.

Love begins at home.

STORY OF MARINO FALIERI,

DOGE OF VENICE.

THE circumstances related in the following narrative, (from Sismondi's History of the Italian Republics,) are said to have furnished the Materials of Lord Byron's new tragedy. Marino Falieri, Doge of Venice, elected in 1354, a man of seventy-six years of age, was married to a young and beautiful woman, of whom he was extravagantly jealous. His suspicions were particularly excited by Michael Steno, one of the chiefs of the forty, or the Criminal Tribunal, whose attentions were, however, directed, not to the wife of the Doge, but one of the ladies of her household. At a public festival, on the last day of the Carnival, Falieri having observed some indecorum in the manners of this woman and Steno towards each other, ordered the latter to leave the assembly. Irritated by this command, Steno, following the first impulse of indignation, inscribed upon the ducal throne, in an adjoining apartment, two lines, reflecting upon the honour of the Doge, and the fidelity of his wife. To a man of Falieri's jealous disposition, this was an insult of a most deadly nature. He recognised Steno as its author, and making his complaint to the Avogadors, denounced the offender before them. He expected the council of Ten to avenge his injury with exemplary severity; but the Avogadors, instead of appealing to that tribunal, referred the cause to the forty themselves, of whom Steno was president. The impulse of resentment, the excitement of a festival, the licence authorized by a mask, which the culprit wore

at the time, all these circumstances were considered as extenuations of his fault, and Steno was only condemned to a month's imprisonment. The Doge, more irritated by this indulgence than by the original affront, extended his hatred and desire of vengeance, not only to the forty, who had so slightly chastised the offender, but to all the order of nobility, who had evinced so little interest in his cause. There always prevailed amongst the people of Venice a secret feeling of enmity towards that nobility, which had deprived the nation of its rights, and gained exclusive possession of the sovereignty. This animosity was redoubled by the insolence of some young patricians. They availed themselves of the impunity afforded them by powerful friends, to dishonour the families of the citizens, by the seduction of their wives and daughters, and to insult the fathers and husbands whom they had thus injured. Israel Bertuccio, a plebeian, the Chief of the Arsenal, had received an affront of this nature. He carried to the Doge his complaints against a gentleman of the house of Barbaro. Falieri, with many expressions of unavailing compassion, assured him that he never would obtain justice. "Have not I too," said he," received a similar insult, and has not the pretended punishment of the offender only added to my dishonour, and that of the ducal coronet?" These juridical accusations were soon succeeded by projects of vengeance. Bertuccio introduced the principal malcontents to the Doge, they held meetings for many successive nights in his presence, and in the ducal palace, and fifteen plebians pledged themselves, with Falieri, to overthrow the government. The conspirators agreed that each of them should gain over forty friends, and hold them in readiness for action the night of the 15th April 1355. But in order to ensure secrecy, it was resolved only to tell their associates that their assistance was required, to surprise and punish, by order of the government, the young nobiemen, whose profligacy had excited the indignation of the people. The alarm-bell of St. Mark's, which could only be rung by order of the Doge, was to be the signal for action.

The conspirators, however, were to admit no associates, but citizens distinguished by their hatred of the nobility, in order to secure the preservation of the secret which was thus partially confided to them. At the moment when the alarmbell sounded, they were to spread a rumour, that the Genoese