years of professional practice, it would appear he scarcely ever finds it necessary to repeat himself. This you will say is imaginative fecundity with a vengeance. If you proceed to interrogate me on the merit or style of these extemporaneous effusions, I fear I can answer nothing satisfactory. As to matter, they are the most monstrous and matchless combinations of narrative, out-Munchausening Munchausen always new, always jangling against each other; and, all I can add is, fit to be laughed at for their very unfitness to any thing else. But you should hear this man tell them. There is the whole charm. You should listen to him as he sits at his ease with his whisky-punch before him, and his friends around him, and his face in its unclouded meridian, without a muscle wincing, as the fluent words quietly pour out for ever, and choke every one else with convulsions of mirth. Let your fancy so far assist me as to get him thus present, and I proceed, as the best mode of illustration, to relate one-though by no means one of the best of his stories. I select it for its brevity. It would begin thus: Arrah, come now-(turning to a grave guest)—this will never do, father Cokoran-maister, sir, maister-or maybe you'd be for an oyster? We'll get them there; an' I pray God there may'nt be such a story to tell o' them as the night last week that the gauger was here. I was in town that day, an' bought just as fine a hundred as ever was seen; Dick put them down on the dairy floor to keep them cool; and here we sat as we are now, God bless us all, after dinner, when we heard such a screeching an' hubbub as rang through the house, an' brought us out to see what was the matter. Into the dairy we went-an' I'll tell it happened. The rats came in, you you how see, in the dark, an' were for being curious about the oysters; an' one of the oysters that was as curious an' just as cute as any of the rats, opened himself a little to take a peep about the dairy; an' when a rat put in his fore foot to have a crook at the oyster, faith it held him as fast as it could; which not being to the rat's mind, nathing could make up to the passion he gat into, an' the noise he made. We staid some time looking on, an' then went out for a dog to worry the rat; an' as we had to go thro' the yard to the dog, we were for stepping down stairs quietly, when-what you think?-By the life of O'Pharaoh, Sir, we were forced to stand aside, an' give way to a hundred rats at least, that were come from borrowing a crow-bar from the forge, an' they had it between them, walking up stairs in a body to break open the oyster an' deliver their namesake from his hands." I shall add no comment upon this fanciful narrative, further than to say, that it strikes me to be quite as good as the three hundred rats of which Mr. Hogg has made memorable use in his last Novel. SONG. IT is not for your eagle eye, That, Ulric, I love thee. It is not for your marble brow, It is not for your lordly birth, Not for your honied words :- Dear Ulric, than love thee? 36 ATHENEUM VOL. 2. 2d series. THE (282) LOUIS XVIII. AND CHARLES X. HE French physicians predicted as far back as May last, that if the weather was hot, the King could not get over the summer. His legs had been a mass of corruption; but in June, instead of acute, the pains became chronic, and he was in a state of continual lethargy. To give the appearance of his being much better in health than he was, he was prevailed on to take his drives as usual; but though he travelled over the pavement at the rate of twelve or fourteen miles an hour, the shaking had no effect on his lethargy, and it was very rarely that he uttered a syllable from leaving the chateau to returning to it. At intervals the sense of pain roused his dormant faculties, and he was capable of transacting business for a few minutes; but so impatient of contradiction was he, that he dismissed, without ceremony, even those to whom he had been longest attached, the companions of his exile and his friends in adversity. Of this number were the Dukes de Blacas and La Chatre,—the former, for having presumed to offer an opinion differing from that of his Majesty on a very trifling point, was dismissed from service, and, to gild the pill of disgrace, appointed Ambassador to Naples; the latter, presuming on the very long intimacy, the affectionate attachment that had always subsisted between them, and the long and valuable services he had rendered his Majesty, conjured the King to abandon the project of the lowering the rate of interest of the public funds, as contrary to public opinion. The King made no answer; but on the Duke going the next morning to attend as First Gentleman of the Chamber, the Usher in waiting would not let him pass, and told him that his Majesty had no farther occasion for his services. The poor old Duke was thunderstruck; he retired to Meudon to pour out his sorrows in the bosom of his old friend the Duke de Castries; but the shock was too great for the consolation of friendship to heal the wound: as he was eating an egg at breakfast he fell down in an apoplectic fit, lingered a few days, and expired. On the King being told of it, he merely said, "He was a good man and a faithful servant." The King treated M. de Chateaubriand in the same manner, and on the same account. At nine o'clock on Sunday morning, the minister was totally unacquainted with his fate; at eleven, on going to the Chateau, he was stopped, and told he would, on returning home, find the reason why he was not admitted. These acts, so totally at variance with all our ideas of the forms of polished life, and especially of a Court which sacrifices more to exterior forms than any other, are only to be attributed to the extreme irritation occasioned by a state of continual bodily suffering. About this time caries of the spine spread itself. The King was now obliged to be strapped in his chair; and it was evident that he could not suffer much longer. As the malcontents had long calculated on the royal demise for an insurrection, it was thought advisable to take every means of concealing the state of his Majesty's health; and for this purpose the censorship of the journals was revived, so that no intelligence of the kind could reach the Provinces. And as his decease was shortly anticipated, the genius of M. de Villele suggested the idea of making the principal changes necessarily consequent on a new reign, during the old one; so that when Charles X. came to the throne, there could be no discontents from dismissing one set of men to make place for others, and those in office would be grateful at keeping their places; while all the odium, if any, of the changes would rest with the old King, who had made them: hence the very numerous changes in the Council of State, the Prefects, &c. &c. &c. This was a deep stroke of policy in M. de Villele, which, it is believed, has secured him the entire confidence of Charles X. The King's health gradually declined, yet it was thought good policy to 1 produce him as usual on State occasions, so that neither the regular receptions of his own Court nor of the foreign ministers were ever suspended. He even held his regular leveé on the 7th instant for the reception of the diplomatic corps. Although he was then in a dying state, he was strapped in his wheel chair to prevent his falling forward, his head sunk entirely on his breast, and his chin concealed in the blue riband of the Order of the Holy Ghost; his hat, fringed with white feathers, lying on his lap, and his hand upon it. For a few minutes be appeared to be asleep; at length he gave tokens of existence, and the Baron Lalive, conductor of the Ambassadors, named them according to the order in which they stood in the circle, and each advanced to salute his Majesty. At two or three of the first names the King muttered something, but unintelligibly; he then relapsed into the lethargic state, and the Ambassadors withdrew. At this leveé the Count d'Artois appeared in perfect health, vigorous and active, as if he were not above forty or fifty years of age. could It was now evident that the King not survive many days; his florid complexion appeared to be owing to art, and the decay of nature seemed approaching the last crisis; the suppuration of the wounds became suspended; the animation of the lower extremities was gone; and the spark of life was only prolonged by a surgical operation to which he was very unwilling to submit. His Majesty's attachments were few; and out of sight out of mind was rather a part of his character. M. de Cazes was a long time his favourite; he used to call him his Son; he could not pass a day without seeing him: but when the Duke de Berry was murdered, and De Cazes's enemies attributed it to his favouring the Liberaux too much, preposterous as the charge was, the King, on finding a loud outcry against his favourite, abandoned him. M. de Villele seemed latterly to possess his unbounded confidence; and on the marriage of the Minister's daughter, the King presented the bride with one hundred thousand francs. It is stated that, on his deathbed, he refused to see the children of the Duchess de Berry : it is known that the King was not fond of them, and this is attributed to circumstances almost too ridiculous to be related. On St. Louis's Day, in 1822, when the children were brought to him, he asked the little Princess to sit on his lap; she refused: on being asked by the Duchess (her mother) why she would not sit on the King's lap, she said she did not like it, because the King smelled. The other anecdote is equally frivolous as a motive of dislike: the King asked the little Duke of Bourdeaux, a few months since, if he would like to be a king?" No, Sir," was the reply." Why, my child, would you not like to be a king ?""Because I like to run about." The boy fancying, from the only specimen. he saw, that the inability to walk was one of the attributes of royalty. The character of his Majesty, will, of course, be variously drawn-it may be summed up in a few words: He was neither cruel nor ambitious; all he wanted was peace and tranquillity; his long and painful state of suffering prevented his paying the attention to business that was requisite: equally inconstant in his likes and dislikes, he evidently possessed few or none of those higher affections which identify souls with each other; and it might be said of him as Goldsmith said of Garrick He threw off his friends as a huntsman his pack, For he knew, when he pleased, he could whistle them back. Charles X. on succeeding to the Throne, has promised to observe the charter and the institutions of the State, as his brother had done. This, certainly, is not promising much, for many and frequent were the infractions of the charter by Louis XVIII. Indeed, the charter, got up in a hurry, betrays all the haste and incompleteness of its origin: as an organic constitution, it is extremely imperfect; the lacunæ are numerous, and those attempted to be filled up have not been filled up in the most desirable manner. This is not to be attributed entirely to the want of liberality in Louis XVIII. but to the ceaseless efforts of the Buonapartists and Republicans to sow dissensions, inspire From the conduct of the Count d'Artois, it was supposed he was strongly inclined to ultra-royalist prin 2 ciples and absolute power. This arose from the necessity which heirs apparent generally feel of forming a party, which must necessarily differ in political principle from that of the Court, or it would cease to be one. Now there were only two extremes to choose from, the liberals, or what is called the pure royalists. That the Count d'Artois should not prefer the party of the revolution, can be easily imagined; therefore he had no alternative but taking the other course, which was more consonant with his principles, his habits, and the position in which he was placed. But this may be said for the Count d'Artois, that he always disapproved of the excesses of his own party, and if he pardoned them, it was? from a noble feeling-that of never for getting the services of an old friend, and which induced him to forgive slight or temporary errors. In this point Charles X. differs widely from Louis XVIII.: his affections are strong, and constant as they are strong; he will make few political changes, save to recompense the zeal, fidelity, and constant friendship of the companions of his exile; and that he is no friend to absolute power, will be evident from the suppression of the censorship, which will be taken off almost immediately. His mind is not so cultivated by study as that of the late King; but whatever superiority Louis XVIII. had over him in that respect, it was more than counterbalanced by that ha bitual suffering, which paralysed the understanding and affected the judginent. 1 The King is healthy; he is in the full possession of all his faculties; he can see with his own eyes and judge for himself; and there is little doubt of France being happy and prosperous during his reign, for the rising spirit of rebellion is put down, and its elements dispersed.* * We give this interesting account as we have received it, knowing the ample means our Correspondent possesses of obtaining the best information, where he is not a personal observer, Where we might differ from him in opinion, we have refrained from urging our views, because we do not feel that we enjoy such good grounds whereon to form a judgment... Original Anecdotes, Literary News, Chit Chat, Incidents, &c on, whilst Mr. Jenner was resident in his house as a medical pupil. The son of Dr. Jenner has, since his decease, communicat Why the eyes of a portrait, which look directly at a spectator in front, do so also in any other position, has remained without an explanation until lately. Dr. Wollaston af-ed to the Royal Society his father's manuter considering the matter, observes, when two objects are seen on the ground at different distances from us, in the same direction, one appears, and must be represented to a picture, as exactly above the other, so that a vertical plane from the eye would pass through them; and since such line will be seen upright, however far we move to one side, it follows that the same object will still seem to be in a line with us, exactly as in the front view-seeming, as we move, to turn from their first direction. In portraits, the permanence of direction, with reference to the spectator, depends on the same principles. So the nose, drawn in front with its central line upright, continues directed to the spectator, though viewed obliquely; or, if the right side of the nose is represented, it must appear directed to the right of the spectator, in all situations. The temporary derangement of vision, which very commonly follows acidity or flatulency in the stomach, and as commonly precedes sick-headach, or else unusual sleepiness, in great numbers of persons (the writer amongst the number), has lately attracted the attention of Dr. Wollaston, who, with his wonted sagacity, has discovered that, usually, one half only, either to the right or to the left of each eye, is in these cases temporarily affected with blindness. From a careful consideration of the circumstances attending five cases of temporary half-blindness, which are detailed in the Philosophical Transactions just published, the doctor has been led to an important Sanatomical discovery, as to the semi-decussation of the optic nerves in the human subject; that is, instead of the entire optic nerves from the two opposite thalami of the brain, crossing each other, and proceeding entire to the eyes, on opposite sides, as has generally been supposed, that portion of nerve which proceeds from the right thalamas to the right side of the right eye, passes to its destination without interference; and, in a similar manner, the left thalamus supplies the left side of the left eye with one part of its fibres; whilst the remaining halves of both nerves, in passing over to the eyes of the opposite sides, intersect each other, either with or without intermixture of their fibres. On this principle, Dr. Wollaston most ingeniously explains how single vision is produced by two eyes-how infants are enabled to avoid squinting, &c. MIGRATION OF BIRDS. The migration of birds was a subject which, during many years, engaged the attention of the late celebrated Dr. Jenner, having been early in life stimulated to the inquiry by the investigation on this subject which the great John Hunter was carrying scripts on the subject, which have been printed in the Philosophical Transactions,-a recapitulation of which is as follows, viz.-First, Dr. Jenner adduces some arguments in support of migration, because of the fact itself not being generally admitted by naturalists of celebrity, and also against the hypothesis of a state of torpor, or what may be termed the hybernating system. He next shows, from repeated observations, that the swallow tribe, and many other birds that absent themselves at stated periods, return annually to the same spot to build their nests; and that any inference drawn from this fact, in support of a state or torpor, would be fallacious, upon physiological principles. In corroboration and continuation of the observations of John Hunter, Dr. Jenner shows, that certain periodical changes of the testes and ovaria are the exciting causes of migration,—and states many facts, his therto unnoticed, with respect to the cause which excites the migrating birds, at certain seasons of the year, to quit one country for another, viz. the enlargement of the testes of the male, and ovaria in the female, and the need of a country where they can, for a while, be better accommodated with succours for that infant brood than in that from which they depart. It is attempted to be shown by Dr. Jenner, that their departure from this country is not in consequence of any disagreeable change in the temperature of the air, or from a scarcity of their common food, but the result of the accomplishment of their errand, i. e. the incubation and rearing of their young, and the detumessence of the testes and ovaria; that successive arrivals of migrating birds are attributable to the progressive development of the generative system in the male and female; that progressive developments are wise provisions of the Creator; that premature arrivals and departures are frequently to be accounted for on the same principle; that the departure of the spring migrators is owing to a change in the testes and ovaria, the very opposite of that which took place in the spring; that the departure of the young birds is not guided by the parents, but the result of an unknown principle. In the second part of the doctor's paper some observations are made on the winter birds of passage:-that they quit their homes in this country, in the spring, in quest of a country better suited to their intended purpose than this; that they are actuated by the same impulse in quitting this country that causes the spring birds to come to it, and that want of food cannot be the inducement; that the emigration of the winter birds is less complete than that of the others, or spring migrators; that |