the proprietor. That gentleman at last called his men together, told them it was very certain that the devil never appeared to any body who had not deserved to be so terrified, and that as he would keep no rogues about him, he was resolved to discharge the first man that saw the devil again. The remedy was as efficient as if he had turned a stream of holy water into the mine. POETRY. S. M. S. W EPODE. HAT pow'r beyond all pow'rs elate, Sustains this universal frame? 'Tis not nature, 'tis not fate, "QUIS DESIDERIO." CAN shame repress the starting tear, Ah, wherefore fled this goodly light, For he indeed lamented lies, By all the great, and good, and wise, What if 'twere thine to move the heart, Till that inexorable God ΤΟ ΑΝΝΑ, A Rondeau. B. T Then at summer's first dawn, And to please you, put forth all my bloom. were full, For over-flowing coffers enrich ev'ry scull. He liv'd a gay life, between eating and drinking, And of this and his money for ever was thinking. In this was his genius, his fame, and his merit. If our Falstaff did opposite virtues inherit, Those virtues that live in an amiable breast, His friend, my Lord Townsend", must tell you the rest. ODE TO THE LIVER. From the first Number of the Liverpool Mercury. Writers on the etymology of the word Liverpool are accustomed to reject the tradition of the existence of a species of bird denominated the Liver, as entirely fabulous. For this there is certainly no sufficient reason. Livia was undoubtedly the Latin denomination of a wild bird, whether a wood-pigeon or a water fowl, is extremely doubtful, from the short description of it in Pliny. It was exactly the same as the reduas of the Greeks, and in both lan guages it probably derived its name from its swarthy or livid colour. The similarity of its Greek denomination to that of the nas it or pelican, induces me to believe that Pliny uses the word columba in its most extensive sense: from the nature of Greek appellatives may be concluded that the λns was as large, or larger, than the Texas-It is worthy of remark, that Liviopolis, the name of a town situated on the shores of the Euxine, the coast of which abounded with the bird Livia, and which name is generally derived from the Empress Livia, bears great similarity to the word Liverpool.-From the constant interchange of the letters band v in the Greek and Latin languages, I have ventured to suppose the root of the word Liver to have been the same as that of Liber, free; and I have therefore styled the Liver the bird of Freedom. ODE. O, BIRD of freedom, that of yore, Fond of his stoney bed, Till there the steps of man were heard, And sails upon the stream appear'd,Thy pinions then, outspread, Bore thee upon the winds sublime, To seek, o'er distant waves, some solitary clime. 'Twas thine, what time the morning beam To skim the refluent wave; "Twas thine the storm to brave; Shrieking, thou heard'st his voice, and fled Fearful of nought but man's vile race, thy native place. Yet, but the fisher's matted sail, Caught then thy startled sight: A shelter for the night. Hadst thou remained with him awhile, His rude, yet strenuous hand, had taught these banks to smile. Not yet the castle's feudal pride, Nor were his toils with love unblest, • Marquis Townsend, who died a few days Love strew'd his sea-weed couch, and claspt his sea-worn breast. f Ó, Liver-bird, hadst thou remain’d, Ne'er had that humble swain complain'd, Of slavery's direful woes : But thou wert flown,-when on the shore, Its deep foundations stain'd with gore, The Poictier-turret rose. Then blasts of trumpets, clash of spears, And victor-shouts were heard, and wails of widows' tears. 'Twas then, the second Henry's band, O Liver-bird, hadst thou not flown, Who swell'd thy stream with blood! When Rupert's courser crush'd the slain, And feeble age implored, and mothers shriek'd in vain. "Twas ere that direful day, a star Shone o'er the western waves afar, With hesitating light: New mountains then their summits rear'd, A world, a new born world appear'd, Slow rising on the sight! In those vast regions of the west, Hadst thou, O Liver, built thy close-secluded nest? Ah, no!-not thee, Tlascala knew, Not Hayti's listless race,- These knew thee not, or thou hadst fled, Soon as his sanguine sails the greedy bigot spread. Yet when the gentler arts were seen, Laments her wasting wealth, and unextended sail! Return, O Liver !-Freedom's bird! On this thy native flood? Return! the groans of trade-borne slaves FOREIGN LITERATURE. IN the summer of 1809, a Russian officer of the name Hedenstroem, discovered a land in the Frozen O cean, which he named New Siberia. The part he explored he calls the coast of St. Nicholas. Buth natural history and geography will be enriched by this discovery. The interment of Christ, pointed in fresco by Daniel de Volterra, has been removed from the wall of the church of the trinity, on the mount at Rome, and transferred to a canvas, by Palmaroli. It is to be carried to Paris. At a meeting of the Italian academy in January, 1810, a method of preventing the effect of Congreve's rockets was described by Mons. Hess, of Zurich. Tobacco being scarcely to be obtained in Norway, the dried leaves of the cherry-tree are employed there as a substitute, and are said to answer the purpose completely. A new mode of making phospho rus in the large way, has been late ly adopted by Mons. Curaudau, o Paris. He mixes one hundred part of calcined bones, thirty of potash twenty of sulphur, and fifteen of vegetable charcoal, and distils the mixture in a stone retort by a strong heat. The phosphorus comes over in general, a little contaminated with sulphur; but, as a mixture of this substance is requisite in making phosphoric matches, it is equally good for this purpose. A musician of Avallon, in France, has discovered a method of impart ing to all kinds of wind instruments made of wood that perfection of tone, which is not usually acquired but by several years constant use; and also of rendering this perfection permanent, which it is not in com ion. A French manufacturer of screws, who asserts that he makes them of superior quality to any that come from England, recommends them strongly for fastening the soles of boots and shoes. He asserts, that they occasion a saving of three fourths, from the great durability of the shoes; and that their heads imbed themselves in the leather, so as to make no noise in walking. Mons. Alphonsus Wee, of Paris, professes to have discovered a vegetable fluid ink, which never lets fall any sediment, or loses in the slightest degree its fluidity; never occasions iron moulds, or injures linen or clothes that may be soiled with it; and never becomes yellow by age. Sonnini says he has long used it, and that it really possesses all these valuable qualities. Augsburg and its neighbourhood have long been celebrated for their beer. This is said to be owing to their putting into every cask a small bag of the root of avens, or herb bennet. Last May, the Emperor Napoléon published a decree, by which he offers a reward of one million of franks (near forty thousand guineas) to the inventor of the best machine for BELFAST MAG. NO. XXXVIII. spinning flax, of whatever country The time for the invention is not limited. The celebrated chemist, Professor Proust, having extracted from the juice of grapes a concrete sugar; and Mous. Fouques having found means of whitening it, and giving it the colour and solidity, though not the sparkling appearance, of sugar from the cane; a reward of 100,000 franks, (near four thousand guineas) has been conferred on the former, and of 40,000 franks (near fifteen hundred guineas,) on the latter. This improvement is no doubt of considerable importance in the present state of France; but the French themselves confess, that two pounds and a quarter of grape sugar will not go farther than one pound of that from the cane. The free society of arts of the department of the Sarthe has offered prizes for the cultivation of Jerusalem artichokes and mangel wurzel, not less than an acre of each. The Jerusalem artichoke is said to beparticularly advantageous as winter food for sheep of the Merino breed. They are best given in the proportion of two pounds to one of dry fodder. The produce of a field that would feed a thousand sheep would not feed more than three hundred if cultivated with lucerne. Cows, hogs, and horses, eat the root as well as sheep. The stocks are good fuel when dry, or may be given to cattle when green. The plant is liable to no injury from drought or frost, from insect or disease. A very promising prospectus was announced the beginning of last year, at Paris, of an "Instructive collection of all the theoretical and practical truths hitherto discovered in natural history, natural philoso phy, chemistry, physic, surgery, agriculture, arts, trades, and domestic economy, subjected to fresh Gg examinations, verified by new observations, and confirmed by new experiments." With this work are to be given upwards of a hundred and fifty thousand plates, many of them coloured, representing with accuracy all the mineral substances that can be delineated, all known plants and animals, all the machines, inventions, instruments, and tools hitherto contrived, either in France or other countries, and portraits of persons who have distinguished themselves in the arts or sciences. It is to be the joint work of a great number of literary men and artists of the various parts of Europe; and is to be composed in four separate languages, French, English, Italian, and German, by new methods, the object of which is to render its execution equally prompt and perfect, and to enable persons of the smallest fortunes to become masters of this useful collection at a trifling expense. A second volume of the Entomologie Helvétique, the first of which was published in 1798, by Mons. de Clairville, has appeared. Two volumes of the Medical Consultations of P. J. Barthez, Consulting Physician to Bonaparte, have been published since his death. The subjects are forty. Under the suspicious title of Studies on the Theory of the Future, or Considerations on the Marvels and Myteries of Nature, with respect to Man's future Destiny, have been published at Paris, two volumes of metaphysics, which have a great deal of merit. A History of the Revolutions of Persia during the eighteenth century, preceded by a brief account of the most remarkable events in that Empire from its foundation, by Cyrus, by Ch. Picault, is said to be a good work. A History of the American War of Independence, by Mr. C. Botta, in 4 vols. 8vo. is much commended for its style, and for its impartiality. The author has certainly much advantage in belonging to none of the nations engaged in that war; but how far his work may be affected by its issuing from a Parisian press we know not. In the memoirs of the royal academy of sciences of Munich for 1808, are some valuable papers. Among these may be noticed an Essay on the Moral Education of the Greeks, by Mons. Frederick Jakobs. The author ascribes to the Greeks a great superiority to the moderns for the morality of their conduct; and observing, that their system of educa tion had an eminently moral ten dency, he examines the sources from which their youth imbibed their moral principles, and the means by which they cherished and matured the sentiments of their early education. A fossil in the vicinity of Erding, in Bavaria, has been discovered by Com mandant Petzl. This fossil, known by the name of alm or alben, is in thick strata, under a thin coat of mould; and if the ground be ploughed too deep, so as to mix this with the mould, it will be several years before it will produce a good crop. From the examination of Mons. Petzl it appears to be a calcareous carbonat, which he would place between fossil meal and chalk, and considers as a true calcareous tufa in a state of efflorescence. (It would be strange however, if a pure carbonat of lime should be thus injurious. From the discovery of Mr. Tennant we should presume, that it is contaminated with magnesia; and we hope it will be more accurately examined by some abler chemist.) Mous. Petzl has also discovered the radi ated sulphat of barytes, or Bolog nian spar, in some beds of marle, near Amberg. On the direction and inclination of the strata of the primitive mountains in the north of Europe, |