626 
spring ; and many buildings were waiting for 
new bricks, so that great quantities have 
been removed from the kilns to the buildings 
in carts, quite HOT and smoking: the spec- 
tacle certainly was novel—it is the best 
proof of staple trades and prosperity—for it 
gives life to all others. 
We are unacquainted with the merits or 
demerits of Mr. Burridge’s methods-—they 
are in our opinion worthy of scrutiny ; and 
we shall be glad of any means of ascertaining 
the particulars as soon as possible; and, if 
the result be satisfactory, should hope it is 
not too late for its introduction into the 
buildings now rising in all quarters. 
Captain Clifford, of his Majesty’s ship. 
Euryalus, has brought with him to Eng- 
land the celebrated manuscript upon Papy- 
rus of a portion of Homer’s Iliad, belong- 
ing to W.J. Bankes, Esq. M.p., for the 
University of Cambridge. This manu- 
script was discovered in the island of Ele- 
phantina, in Upper Egypt, by a French 
gentleman. It is written in what are 
termed Uncial letters, of the most beauti- 
ful form, and may probably be ascribed to 
the age of the Ptolemies. The most re- 
markable feature connected with this an- 
cient and invaluable manuscript is, that 
there are accents, which must have been 
added by a later hand. It contains only 
the last Book. 
FOREIGN. 
FRANCE. 
Famars (nearValenciennes).— The search 
for antiquities in this place is going on very 
successfully. Two bath-rooms, of beautiful 
construction, have lately been discovered— 
the bottom and sides of marble, and the 
‘walls of stueco, of a colour upon which 
time has made no impression. The descent 
is down two steps of marble: 
A pillar of Roman masonry has also been 
discovered, seven feet below the soil; and 
two fine bronze vases, elegantly formed, 
filled with Roman medals of silver, of the 
year 700, These vases are entire, and in 
fine preservation—one weighing 34 lbs., the 
other 23 Ibs.; the largest contained 4,765 
medals, and the other 3,480. They are in 
better preservation than any that have as 
yet been found. There are a small number 
of the consularies of Augustus, Otho, &c. 
up ‘to Constantine the Great: these latter 
are as brilliant as if they had but just 
issued from the treasury; which leads one 
‘to presume, that the vases were deposited 
in the time of, or soon after, that emperor— 
at the commencement of the 4th century. 
The following statement shews the num- 
ber of the French Clergy, on the Ist Jan. 
1825:— Archbishops and Bishops, 75; 
Vicars-general, 287 ; Titular Canons, 725; 
Honorary Canons, 1,255; Rectors, 2,828 ; 
_ Curates, 22,225; Vicars, 5,396; Priests of 
parishes, authorized to preach and receive 
confessions, 1,850; Priests employed as 
Governors, or Professors in Seminaries, 
Supplementary ‘y Varieties. 
876. The number of Ecclesiastical pupils 
in the Seminaries amounts to 4,044; and 
the Nuns to 19,271. Total, 58,832. The 
candidates for the priesthood, if this num- 
ber be taken as an average, being sufficient, 
according to the ordinary duration of human 
life, to maintain a complement of more 
than 150,000 priests. 
GERMANY. 
A Natural Eolian Lyre.—Near Tryberg, 
in the grand duchy of Baden, there is a 
chasm in a mountain, not only remarkable 
for the romantic nature of the scene, but for 
the extraordinary sounds which occasionally 
issue from it. This latter peculiarity was 
first observed at the end of the seventeenth 
century, by some soldiers stationed on the ad - 
joining heights, who heard melodious tones 
resounding from the tops of some fir trees 
which grow beside a water-fall in a neigh- 
bouring wood. The current of air, aseend- 
ing and descending through the chasm, re- 
ceives a counter impulse from an abrupt 
angle of rock, and acting on the tops of the 
trees and shrubs, forms a natural Eolian 
Harp, the tones of which are accompanied 
by the gurgling of the neighbouring water- 
fall. The religious spirit, which was the 
prevailing characteristic of the age, led the 
soldiers to regard this phenomenon as the 
result of supernatural agency. On approach- 
ing the spot whence the music issued, they 
found affixed to the tallest group of fir 
trees a wooden image of the Virgin, holding 
the infant Jesus in her arms. This image 
was fixed up in the year 1680, by Frederick 
Schwab, a citizen of Tryberg, as a memorial 
of his having been cured of leprosy by the 
water ofthe mountain spring. The soldiers, 
however, conjectured that the image had 
been brought thither by angels, and that 
the aerial music which had attracted them 
to the spot, was the singing of a celestial 
choir in praise of the mother of God. They 
placed a tin capsule over the image, and in- 
scribed upon it the following words :— 
Sancta Maria, patrona militum, ora pronobis. 
Near the image was placed a box for the 
reception of offerings, which soon became 
sufficiently numerous to defray the expense 
of areas a wooden chapel on the spot. 
ITALY. 
Two new frescos have just been dis- 
covered at Pompeii, which are most re- 
markable for the correctness of their de- 
sign, and for the excellence of their colour- 
ing. They represent Briseis taken from 
Achilles, and the nuptials of Thetis and 
Peleus, These pictures still remain in the 
place in which they were found. > 
The project of uniting the Lakes of Ge- 
neva and Neufchatel is again talked of. 
They are separated by a distance of about 
three leagues. The Lake of Geneva com- 
municates by the Rhone with the Mediter- 
ranean—that of Neufchatel by the Thicle, 
the Aer, and the Rhine, with the Atlantic. 
The junction of the two seas will require a 
canal of three leagues in length, and some 
works to render several parts of the ‘Rhone 
navigable. 
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