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PART III. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. Foreign Notices. 

 FRANCE. 



Two Poodles from Milan. — Sir, Two very remarkable savans now 

 divide the attention of the French public with the romantic tragedy of 

 Hernani by Victor Hugo, and I transmit to you a description of them which 

 I received a few days ago : — 



" They are poodles from Milan, where they have received their edu- 

 cation ; the elder, named Fido, is white, with some black patches on his 

 head and back, and the younger, who is called Bianco, is also white, but 

 with red spots. Fido is a grave and serious personage, walks with dignity 

 round the circle assembled to see him, and appears much absorbed in 

 reflection. Bianco is young and giddy, but full of talent when he chooses 

 to apply it. Owing to his more sedate disposition, Fido, however, is 

 called upon to act the principal part of the exhibition : a word is dictated 

 to him from the Greek, Latin, Italian, German, French, or English lan- 

 guage, and selected from a vocabulary where fifty words in each tongue 

 are inscribed, and which altogether make three hundred diiferent com- 

 binations. An alphabet is placed before Fido, and from it he takes the 

 letters which compose the given word, and lays them in their proper order 

 at the feet of his master. On one occasion he was told to spell the word 

 Heaven, and he quickly placed the letters till he came to the second e, 

 he stood for an instant as if puzzled, but in a moment after he took the e 

 out of the first syllable, and put it into the second. His attainments in 

 orthography, however, are not so surprising as those in arithmetic ; he 

 practises the four rules with extraordinary facility, arranges the double 

 ciphers as he did the double vowels in the word heaven, and rarely makes 

 an error. When such does occur, his more thoughtless companion is called 

 in to rectify it, which he invariably does with the greatest quickness, but 

 as he had rather play than work, and pulls Fido by the ears to make him 

 as idle as himself, he is quickly dismissed. One day the steady Fido spelt 

 the word Jupiter with a b, instead of a p, after the manner of the Ger- 

 mans ; Bianco was summoned to his aid, who, after contemplating the word, 

 pushed out the b with his nose, and seizing a p between his teeth, put it 

 into the vacancy. Fido is remarkable for the modest firmness with which 

 he insists upon his correctness when he feels convinced of it himself; for a 

 lady having struck a repeating watch in his ear, he selected an 8 for the 

 hour, and a 6 for the three quarters. The company present, and his 

 master, called out to him he was wrong ; he reviewed his numbers, and 

 stood still, his master insisted, and he again examined his ciphers, after 

 which he went quietly, but not in the least abashed, into the middle of the 

 carpet, and looked at his audience; the watch was then sounded again, 

 and it was found to have struck two at every quarter, and Fido received the 

 plaudits which followed with as gentle a demeanour as he had borne the 

 accusation of error. 



" One occupation seems to bring the giddy Bianco to the gravity oi the 



