Foreign Notices : — JRussia. 4, 1 



kindly sent us by Mr. M'Nab of the Experimental Garden, Inverleith. Mr. 

 White is an ironmonger in Haddington, and uses these stoves for heating 

 public buildings, dwelling-houses, and plant structures. When Mr. M'Nab 

 called on him, he found one of his stoves in a pit, and another in a vinery ; 

 and the general impression on Mr. M'Nab's mind is, that the stove is ad- 

 mirably adapted for horticultural purposes, where coke or cinders can be pro- 

 cured as fuel ; for, like Kirkwood's stove, and Arnott's, it will not succeed 

 with any kind of fuel that will run or cake. We have written to Mr. White 

 for a sketch of his stove, and the prices of different sizes ; and in the mean 

 time we conclude with the following quotation from Mr. M'Nab's paper. 



" Of late years I have visited most of the stoves and green-houses of emi- 

 nence in this country, where I had an opportunity of witnessing all the varieties 

 of heating by steam, hot water, and flues ; and in all the waste of fuel is 

 considerable, notwithstanding that every new method tries to vie with the 

 preceding in saving of fuel. In all, the expense of apparatus is great ; and 

 the apparatus is often so comphcated, that its management must only be in- 

 trusted to very careful individuals ; whereas, Mr. White's apparatus is not 

 expensive, and the management can be wholly intrusted to female servants or 

 boys, as there is no possibility of its going wrong, or of the fire going out 

 before all the coke is consumed. The consumption of coke entirely depends 

 on the quantity of air allowed to enter. Large stoves will be found very ad- 

 vantageous to those houses intended for the growth of tropical orchideous 

 plants ; and the smaller stoves, from their simplicity and cheapness of fuel, 

 and trifling cost of erection, will be foun d highly desirable to those individuals 

 wishing small green-houses for their own amusement." — J. M'Nab. Edin- 

 burgh, Sept. 10. 1839. 



A Carriage Talking-Tube, as a substitute for the common checkstring, is a 

 very great improvement, especially for invalids. It may be described as 

 merely a tubular string, which, by applying the lips at one end, may be spoken 

 through to the coachman, who holds the other end in his hand. It is made 

 chiefly of India rubber, was invented in Paris, and is manufactured in London 

 by Carson and Fink, in Bond Street. 



Degradation, as an Element of Punishment. — There appears to me to be 

 an essential, almost obvious, yet much overlooked error, in annexing unneces- 

 sary degradation to punishment, which cannot be too strongly pointed out and 

 deprecated. It is vice that degrades ; and though punishment, as presup- 

 posing past vice and present subjection, is, by the prejudices rather than the 

 reason of mankind, considered degrading also ; yet, being of the nature of an 

 atonement, it ought not, abstractly, to wear this aspect (any more than the 

 payment of a just debt, or other compensation for wrong inflicted) ; and in the 

 case of our children, and others in whom we are really interested, it does not 

 wear it ; the natural impulse and principle of kind and judicious parents being 

 not to aggravate the infliction of punishment bj' disdain, but, on the con- 

 trary, to prove, by concurring care and kindness, that it is awarded on prin- 

 ciple, and not in passion. (^Australiana, by Capt. Maconochie.) Thanks to the 

 enlightened and benevolent individual who gave utterance to this sentiment, the 

 mere hearing of which does the heart good. Would that it were universally 

 believed and acted on, not only in the case of governments and their subjects, 

 but in that of masters and servants or apprentices. — Cond. 



Art. II. Foreign Notices. 

 RUSSIA. 



Cronstadt, October, 1839. — How often do I muse, recollecting your beau* 

 tiful gardens in England, which hardly acknowledge the chilling blasts of 

 winter ; whose evergreens cheat one into the idea of eternal spring ! How 

 different here ! My trees have lost almost ail their leaves ; all my hardiest 

 vegetables are crowded into the back of my green-houses ; my broccoli packed 



