ISll.i Literari/ and Philosophical Intdligence, 65' 
The Plays of James Shirley, now 
first collected with occasional notes, and 
& critical and biographical Memoir of the 
Author, are printing in six octavo volumes. 
The Vision of Peirs Plowman is in the 
press, printed from MSS. of higher an¬ 
tiquity than any which have yet been 
collated, and forming a text entirely dif¬ 
ferent from that of Crowley, together 
with a prefatory dissertation, paraphrase, 
glossary, and notes,by Thomas Dunham 
Wh ITAKER, D.D. F.S.A. &c. 
Mr. Osmond, of Piccadilly, has 
adopted a plan of bruising oats for the 
food of horses. It is ascertained from 
experience, in feeding horses with oats 
in a bruised state, that seven bushels of 
oats bruised are equal in nutriment to 
tight bushels whole; he recommends, 
therefore, that horse forage be composed 
of 35lb. of bruised oats and 7lb. of hay 
chaff, with some beans split, as occasion 
may require, making together 42lb. of 
food. He charges 2s. 6d. for bruising 
the oats, while he adds one-eighth to theiiv 
value. This practice is so rational that 
it deserves attention and patronage. 
Mr. J. A. SruMPFF, of Great Port- 
land-street, Mary-le-bone, has just com¬ 
pleted his scientific improvements of the 
Pedal Harp, by which a brilliancy of 
tone is produced hitherto unequalled. 
By an important alteration in the mecha¬ 
nical construction it is rendered less lia¬ 
ble to derangement than the patent Harp 
of -Eiard, of which it professes to be an 
improvement. 
Mr. Lawrence relates, in the British 
Farmer’s Magazine, an instance of a 
young woman being nearly destroyed by 
the trituration of a medicine in a brass 
mortar; and another of a poor boy being 
severely wounded by having an old gun 
put into his hands to scare birds. He 
mentions also the introduction of rosin, 
or some other material, into soap, as 
having a deleterious effect on the hands 
and arms in washing. 
Captain Manby has insured the cer¬ 
tainty of his guns being fired to the relief 
of ships in distress, wlien the severities 
of storm render it impossible to keep a 
match lighted, by using for this purpose 
hyper-oxymuriate of potash, whiC'' ^es 
by a smart blow. 
It is enquired why glass might not be 
blown with bellows?—And why, in making 
white lead, might not a mask with ;g]ass 
eyes bevvorn by theworkmerj? 
The late Lord Colville, of Culross, 
left among his papers, a journal of the 
MOiXTULY MAGf No. 2IS* 
weather, in his own hand-writing, which 
has marked the state of the thermometer 
three times every day for fifty years last 
past. 
Oil, very little, if at all, inferior to the 
best Italian, has been extracted in Ja» 
maica from cotton -seed. Many proprie¬ 
tors of sea-side land in Jamaica have ob¬ 
tained great profit by the manufacture 
of barilla, or marine alkali. The kali 
plant is indigenous to the soil, and 
grows with the greatest luxuriance wild. 
At Oxford, the Chancellor’s prize 
compositions have been adjudged as fol¬ 
lows :—Latin Essay, “ De Styli Cicero- 
niani in diversd materie varietaie.^^ Mr. 
Charles Bathurst, B.A. of Ch. Ch* 
-—English Essay, Funeral and Sepul¬ 
chral Honours.” Mr. Attfield, of 
Oriel College.—Latin verse, “ Hercu- 
laneim” Mr. Hughes, of Oriel College. 
—Sir Roger Newdigate’s prize : English 
verse, “ The Parthenon.” Mr. BurdoNj 
of Oriel College. 
RUSSIA. 
The Society of Friends to Russian Li¬ 
terature, opened its sittings at Peters- 
burgh, on the 26 th of March. It is com¬ 
posed of twenty-four members divided 
into four sections, each presided by one 
of the oldest members. The number of 
honorary members is at present thirty- 
four. The principal object of this insti» 
tution is to accelerate the progress of 
Russian literature; to oppose and cor¬ 
rect bad taste, even though favoured by 
distinguished talents; to purify the lan¬ 
guage, to banish foreign expressions and 
idioms, and to contribute to produce 
these effects by the publication of meri¬ 
torious works. Every fourth month as 
journal of the proceedings of this society 
will be published. 
DENMARK. 
A Danish paper states that the dread¬ 
ful whirlpool Maplestrom, situated to the 
westward of the coast of Lapland, has, 
within the last two years, increased its 
phenomenon. It now stands fifteen mi¬ 
nutes every fifth hour. Vessels at the' 
distance of eight or nine English miles 
are no longer safe, And its attractive 
force, when agitated by a storm, will 
even reach them, or the larger kind of 
animals at the distance of ten miles, and 
impetuously hurry them to certain de¬ 
struction in the guiph. Tw'O vessels 
bound from Norway to the Vigten Islands, 
having been driven last summer within 
nine miles of the Maplestrom, and ima¬ 
gining themselves secure, as its operation 
I was 
