280 LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC. 



gentleman whom I had not previously observed — '* My dear Sir," interrupted I, 

 " you are an p]nglishman, pray, pray explain." " Sir," he replied, " you have 

 just told this gentleman, pointing to the Commandant, that his father is the father 

 of the whole town, that he is made of stone, and has a wooden head !" I was 

 paralyzed. " Tell me," I cried, as if my life depended on an answer — " what is 

 the French for pier .*" " Jetee" he replied. I had scarcely sense enough left to 

 assist the Englishman in his good-natured attempts to unravel the error. He 

 succeeded, however, and then commenced, in French, an explanation to the officers. 

 At this moment, the waiter informed me that the St. Omer diligence was about to 

 depart. I rushed from the scene of my disgrace, and stepped into the vehicle, 

 just as the termination of the Englishman's recital exploded an additional eclat de 

 rire at my expense." 



After some further remarks on the Hamiltonian system of teaching languages 

 in fifty lessons, the lecturer concluded with observing that, " if Mr. Hamilton (or 

 any one who teaches on the same plan) had the good fortune to fulfil that which 

 their system promises, young and old, pupils and masters, would be eager to learn 

 a secret of such virtue, and that this method would then be adopted by all — but 

 unfortunately, there is no rail-road yet to the acquirement of the French language, 

 and until it has been practically demonstrated that the power of steam can be 

 applied to the acceleration of improvement in the mental faculties, other professors 

 will continue to follow their own system, varying it according to the age, abilities, 

 and application of the pupil, and introducing all those modifications that may be 

 deemed necessary. They will continue to teach without fixing any limit to their 

 instruction, because they are persuaded that the acquisition of knowledge can only 

 be obtained by labour. Let us then be persuaded by fact and expeiience. All 

 those who have learned languages, and have desired to know them thoroughly, that 

 is, to speak and write them with grammatical purity, were obliged to labour hard, 

 and all those who wish to learn them in this manner, must labour hard also. A 

 fair method of teaching on the part of the master, assiduity and application on the 

 pait of the pupil, may accelerate this desirable end, but will never be able to convey 

 the power to go beyond the bounds which the Author of Nature has assigned to the 

 human intellect. Let every man, who is desirous of knowledge, be persuaded of 

 this incontestable truth, and then he will neither be disappointed in his pursuits, 

 nor become the victim of his own credulity. 



BIRMINGHAM MECHANICS' INSTITUTION. 



We have received from a correspondent the last Annual Report of the Birming- 

 ham Mechanics' Institution, and are glad to perceive that it is advancing in public 

 estimation as well as in utility. In this Institution a weekly lecture is delivered 

 on some subject connected with physical or moral science ; — with the arts, history, 

 or literature — classes are open four evenings in each week for the study of writing, 

 arithmetic, mathematics, drawing, and the Latin and French languages— and the 

 books, in a library of about 1100 volumes, cireulate freely among the subscribers. 



The lectures, partly by gratuitous and partly by stipendiary lecturers, during the 

 last year, have been on the following subjects : — Electricity, Pneumatics, Mental 

 Arithmetic, Geology, Insect Transformations, Linear Perspective, Botany, 

 Rowley Rag, Gravi;ation, the Human Voice, Architecture, Education (by Mr. 

 John Smith, of Liverpool), the Study of Languages, a Course of Twelve Lectures 

 on Chemistry (by Mr. Woolrich, the Lecturer to the Medical School of Birming- 

 ham), the Properties of the Atmos])here, the Temperature of the Earth, Tem- 

 perance and Temperance Societies (by J. S. Buckingham, Esq. M. P.), Elocution 

 and Oratory, three Lectures (by Mr. Chas. Pemberton), a highly-interesting 

 gratuitous Exhibition and Elucidation of the Hydro-Oxygen Microscope, by Mr. 

 Carter. 



Vigorous efforts are making to raise funds for the erection of a Hall, or building 

 for the entire purposes of the Institution, which, the Committee conceive — and we 

 think justly — will greatly conduce to the prosperity of the Institution. Among 

 the contributors to this fund, we are pleased to discover the names of the Rev. 

 T. J. I^aw, the respectable Chancellor of the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, 

 the Members for the borough of Birmingham, and several gentlemen who are 



