1826.] 
with confidence, that a balloon may, with- 
out difficulty, be impelled in an horizontal 
direction, at any required point of eleva- 
tion ; at the distance, for example, of two 
or three hundred yards from. the earth’s 
surface —and that wishing to take ‘a sail in 
the air,’ may gratify his inclination (if con- 
fined within the limits just mentioned), 
without incurring any greater risk than that 
te wish he would be subjected should he 
choose to ‘swim in a gondola. * 
_ Egyptian Antiquity. — Chevalier Dro- 
vetti has presented to the king of France a 
remarkable monument of antiquity, which 
he found at Sais in Egypt. It consists of 
single piece of rose-coloured granite, 
eight feet three inches (French) in height, 
five feet one inch in breadth, and four feet 
eight inches in depth. The sides are all 
‘ornamented with hieroglyphics, which M. 
Champollion Figeac expounds to mean, 
Ist. that this stone was dedicated to Neith, 
the tutelar goddess of the city of Sais; 
2dly. that in the niche or opening in the 
front of this sanctuary was encaged and fed 
her living symbol, a vulture ; 3dly. that the 
stone was consecrated by the Amasis. 
Net-se, the son of Neith, who is the Amasis 
of the 26th Egyptian dynasty, a native of 
‘Sais, and the same who, after a reign of 
forty years, was vanquished by Cambyses. 
This makes the date of the monument 
between 530 and 570 years before the Cliris- 
‘tian era. 
Russia. — The agricultural society of 
Moscow, over which Prince Galitzin pre- 
sides, and to which the late Emperor 
Alexander gave a considerable grant of 
land near Moscow, for the purpose of esta- 
Political Occurrences. 
blishing a farm, is going on very pros- 
perously. It has already collected in its 
school above eighty pupils from various 
parts of Russia, even from Kamskatcha ; 
and the journel of its proceedings has been 
so much in demand, that it has been found 
necessary to reprint the volume for the first 
two years. ‘ 
Idol.— Captain Coe, commander of the 
squadron in the East- Indies, has presented 
to the Cambridge University an alabaster 
statue of a Burmese idol, taken from the 
sacred grove near Aya, and two religious 
books beautifully executed on the palmyra 
leaf, to which none but the Burmese priests 
are permitted to have access. 
Navigation of Rivers.—A. M. Lagnel 
has constructed a machine which is at pre- 
sent at work on the Rhone, by which he 
contrives to tow vessels against the stream 
at the rate of three quarters of a Jeague in 
the hour; the ordinary rate of vessels 
towed by horses being two leagues and a 
half, or three leagues a day. He has pre- 
sented a model of this machine, on the 
scale of an inch to a foot, to the French 
Academy of Sciences. 
Discovery of a new Island.—In July last 
the Pollux Dutch sloop of war, Captain 
Eeg, discovered a new and well-peopled 
island in the Pacific, to which the name of 
Nederlandich Island was given. Its lati- 
tude and longitude laid down at 7° 10’ S. 
and 177’ 33’ 16” FE. from Greenwich. The 
natives were athletic and fierce, great 
thieves ; and, from their shewing no symp- 
toms of fear when muskets were dis- 
charged, evidently unacquainted with the 
effects of fire arms, 
POLITICAL OCCURRENCES, &c. 
— 
The present month, though barren in 
ag pentary debates, has been very fruit- 
ul with respect to the electidheering spirit 
that has pervaded it. From the 8th, no- 
thing of consequence has occurred either in 
or out of Parliament (whose session 
though prolific in peint of acts has been 
somewhat destitute of importance), but the 
noise, tumult and party violence of London 
and provincial elections. To begin as in 
duty bound with the metropolis, after a 
severe struggle, Messicurs Thompson, 
Waithman, Wood and Ward, have been re- 
turned members for theCity, to the exclusion 
of the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor 
(Venables). At Southwark a contest still 
more severe has taken place, which however 
has terminated, contrary to expectation, in 
e re-election of Sir Robert Wilson, of 
Spanish and continental celebrity. One 
circumstance occurred during this election, 
which may serve to convey an idea of the 
excitement requisite to stir up the public 
mind on occasions of this nature. The ce- 
ated Lavalette was every day exhibited, 
alion, on the hustings, in order that 
not one of the achievements of Sir Robert 
in the cause of liberty should be overlooked. 
This clap-trap, we understand, was got up 
by means of his managing Committee, at 
least, so says report. Throughout the coun- 
try peace, if we except Preston, has been 
hitherto tolerably well preserved. Here 
Cobbett, the indefatigable plebeian Cobbett, 
has'been ruling in all his plenitude of inso- 
lence and vulgarity. Not only has he con- 
trived with his usual adroit felicity to turn 
all his staunchest admirers into enemies ; 
but, after going through the whole vocabu- 
lary of Billingsgate, and bespattering Mes- 
sieurs Wood, Stanley and Barrie, with the 
mud showers of his abuse, has fairly given 
his Committee the slip, and bolted for afew 
days (to usea sporting term) from the Pres- 
ton course. At Ilchester, Hunt has ren- 
dered himself equally notorious; but, by 
displaying greater command of temper, and 
giving in more shrewdly, as it were to local 
prejudices, has rendered himself no contemp- 
tible opponent of Sir T. Lethbridge. ‘At 
Re: -party-spirit has been carried to an 
-unus excess: the inhabitants of this bo- 
02 
