DYING TREES IN KENSINGTON GARDENS. 261 



present different densities, and are situated at unequal dis- 

 tances from the centre; some will be accelerated, others 

 retarded; they will rub against each other, and grind away 

 those portions which have the weakest cohesion." The 

 fragments thus worn off will, "at the end of sufficient 

 time, girdle with a complete ring the central star." At 

 this stage the fragments become real meteors, and then 

 perform all the meteoric functions excepting the seed-car- 

 rying of Sir W. Thomson. 



It would be an easy task to demolish these speculations, 

 though not within the space of one of my letters. A glance 

 at the date of this paper, and the state of Paris and the 

 French mind at the time, may, to some extent, explain 

 the melancholy relish with which the Parisian philosopher 

 works out his doleful speculations. Had the French army 

 marched vigorously to Berlin, I doubt whether this paper 

 would ever have found its way into the " Comptes Eendus." 

 After the fall of Paris, and the wholesale capitulation of 

 the French armies, it was but natural that a patriotic 

 Frenchman, howsoever strong his philosophy, should spec- 

 ulate on the collapse of all the stars, and the general wind- 

 ing- up of the universe. 



THE DYING TREES IN KENSINGTON GARDENS. 



A GREAT many trees have lately been cut down in Ken- 

 sington Gardens; and the subject was brought before the 

 House of Commons at the latter part of its last session. 

 In reply to Mr. Ritchie's question, Mr. Adam, the then 

 First Commissioner of Works, made explanations which, 

 so far as they go, are satisfactory but the distance is very 

 small. He states that all who have watched the trees must 

 have seen that their decay "has become rapid and decided 

 in the last two years," that when the vote for the parks 

 came on many "were either dead or hopelessly dying," 

 that in the more thickly planted portions of the gardens 

 the trees were dead and dying by hundreds, owing to the 



