1822.] 
[439° J 
VARIETIES, LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL, 
Including Notices of Works in Hand, Domestic and Foreign. 
== 
T is little more than ten years since 
the Editor of this Magazine re- 
ceived a letter from his friend FULTON, 
in New York, to apprize him of the 
success of his first steam-packet be- 
tween that city and Albany. The 
substance of that letter was inserted in 
the Monthly Magazine for March 
1811; but, before it was printed, the 
Editor read. it to the late Earl Stan- 
hope, whose experiments on mechani- 
eal navigation had excited much at- 
tention. That nobleman, however, 
like the Douay professors in the case 
of the telescope, set about to demon- 
strate the impossibility of the thing, and 
convinced himself, if not his auditor, 
that. Fulton had misrepresented the 
fact. The letter however appeared, 
and the attention of our speculative 
mechanics being drawn to the subject, 
the American steam-hoat was not only 
soon. imitated in the rivers of Britain, 
but essentially improved by their skill 
and science. We have now, there- 
fore, more than one hundred steam- 
vessels plying-in various parts of the 
empire, not merely against the-cur- 
rents of our rivers,—so as to render 
‘parallel canals as ridiculous as_ the 
aqueducts of the ancients,—but per- 
forming their voyages, in the face of 
tides and winds, im the adjacent seas. 
Thus London and Edinburgh, London 
and Calais, Liverpool and Dublin, 
Holyhead and Dublin, Bristol and Li- 
yerpool, Brighton and Dieppe, are 
now connected by steam-vessels, 
which perform their voyages in mea- 
sured time ; but within the past month 
an iron vessel, of 280 tons burthen, 
has performed its first voyage from 
London to Paris direct, It reached 
Rouen in fifty-five hours, and proceed- 
ed from Rouen to Paris in a day and 
night, notwithstanding an accident in 
its tackle. We regard this as an 
eyent of great social importance to 
mankind, and record it with singular 
pleasure. It is the triumph of isolated 
genius over the inveterate prejudices 
of arrogant societies, all of whom have 
virulently opposed themselves to the 
improvements of our age; and, in no 
case have done more to accelerate 
them, than the rudest persons in the 
community. Thus, notwithstanding 
the royal associations of men of science, 
France alone has succeeded in esta- 
blishing but two or three steam-vessels. 
In Austria JEROME Bonaparte, almost 
unaided, has munificently expended 
100,0007. in vainly endeavouring to 
complete one to navigate the Danube. 
Only one has been esiablished on the 
Adriatic ; and, if one has been started 
on the Baltic, it is the speculation of a 
Scotchman. The lakes and rivers of 
North America are nevertheless filled 
with them, and we may soon expect 
to heay of their connecting the northern 
with the southern continent; and all 
parts of the latter by means of the vast 
rivers which penetrate the interior. 
The public are now awaiting with 
anxiety the results of Mr. Griffith’s 
patent for steam land-carriages, of the » 
progress and experiments on which 
we shall duly apprize our readers. 
Mr. P. W. Watson, of Hull, has 
been engaged in the vicinity of Lon- 
don, since the spring of 1820, in col- 
lecting materials for a Dendrologia 
Britannica, (trees and shrubs that will 
live in the open air of Britain during 
the whole year,) to be illustrated by 
original descriptions, and coloured 
plates from living plants. One hun- 
dred and ten coloured octayo draw- 
ings, by eminent artists, with occasional 
minute dissections, are already com- 
pleted, of such hardy trees and shrubs 
as have not (few excepted) been 
figured py recent reputable botanists. 
The great work of the Bible, Tes- 
tament, and Prayer-Book Lllustrations 
has heen delayed a month by the ne- 
cessity .of providing sufficient num- 
bers of the various editions. Two edi- 
tions are now ready, and the others 
will be completed so as to make a ge- 
neral delivery in the first ten days of 
July. Our readers are already ap- 
prized that the Bibles wiil be provided 
_with 264 engravings; Testaments with 
96; and Prayers with 72, at very tri- 
fling charges. 
Pusric MEN of our own Times is the 
title of a work which will appear in 
July, in three volumes, of the size of 
Debrett’s Peerage. It will include 
nearly three thousand biographies of 
living characters in all civilized na- 
tions, and in all walks of public life, 
and be ornamented with 150 copper- 
plate portraits, 
Poetical Criticism, being the third 
edition of Letters to Lord Byron, in- 
cluding the Letter to Mr. Campbell, 
and a Letter, now first published, to 
I. D’Israeli, 
