gestions were now volunteered, and several attempts were made to reach him. One man went out in a boat as far as he dared to venture, and asked him if he would fasten a rope round his body, and trust to being drawn in by that. The poor fellow, however shook his head despondingly, as though he felt that he had not strength enough remaining to make himself secure to a rope. At length a boat was got ready—a life-boat, which had arrived from Buffalo-and was launched. Seeing the preparations, Avery unloosed his fastenings, with the intention of being ready to spring into the boat. Borne on by the rushing waters, and amid the breathless suspense of the spectators, the boat approached the raft. A thrill ran through the crowd-the boat lived in the angry wave-it struck the raft—a shout of joy rang forth from the shore, for it was believed that he was saved-when suddenly the hope that had been raised was again destroyed; a moment's confusion followed the collision, and in the next the victim was seen in the midst of the waters, separated from his frail support, and struggling for life. For a minute or two the poor fellow, striking out boldly, swam towards the island, and the cry echoed from shore to shore that he would yet be saved. But soon the fact became certain that he receded from the shore-his strength was evidently failing. Gradually he was borne back into the fiercest part of the current, slowly at first, then more rapidly. Swiftly and more swiftly he approached the brink of the fatal precipice, the waters had him at last their undisputed victim, and madly they whirled him on to death, as though enraged at his persevering efforts to escape their fury. A sickening feeling came over the spectators when, just on the brink of the precipice, the doomed man sprang up from the waters, clear from the surface, raising himself upright as a statue, his arms flung wildly aloft, and with a piercing shriek, that rang loudly above the mocking roar of the cataract, fell back again into the foaming waves, and was hurled over the brow of the fatal precipice. We have no heart for comment upon the melancholy and awful event. The fate of poor Avery will add another to the many fearful local incidents already related by the guides to the Falls, and for years his critical situation, his hard struggles, his fearful death, will be the theme of many a harrowing tale. And visitors to the mighty cataract will seek the scene of the terrible catastrophe with a shuddering curiosity, and the timid and imaginative will fancy, in the dusk of the evening, that they still hear above the waters' roar the fearful shriek that preceded the fatal plunge." ORIGIN OF THE AUTOCRAT'S HEADSHIP OVER THE RUSSIAN CHURCH. THE reduction of the hierarchy was achieved by a much more summary blow. It was the custom in Russia on all great public occasions, that the Czar should proclaim his submission to the Head of the Church before his assembled subjects, by holding the stirrup of the great Archimandrite, when he mounted his horse to lead the procession. Peter shook off this degrading submission by a practical allegory, which had nearly proved as fatal to the life, as it did to the rights of the haughty prelate. He one day gave secret instructions, that the quiet palfrey of the priest should be replaced by the most vicious horse in his own stables. Taking, then, his own usual submissive position, when the Archimandrite was in the act of mounting, he privately applied the rowell of a spur to the animal's flank, who instantly reared, and threw the affrighted prelate to the ground. At this moment Peter vaulted into the vacant saddle, and, marching on in triumph, proclaimed himself the Head of the church; a title which has never since been disputed. WELLINGTON IN MARSHAL NEY'S CASE. DURING Ney's trial, and when his counsel had appealed to the capitulation of Paris as protecting him, great efforts were made with foreign powers to save his life. Notes were addressed to all the foreign ambassadors then at Paris, and the intervention of the military chiefs, who concluded that convention, was in an especial manner invoked. Madame Ney applied for and obtained an interview with the Duke of Wellington on the subject, and in the most passionate manner invoked the protection of the 12th article. Madame,' answered the Duke, 'that capitulation was only intended to protect the inhabitants of Paris against the vengeance of the allied armies; and it is not obligatory except on the Powers which have ratified it, which Louis XVIII. has not done.' 'My lord,' replied Madame Ney, 'was not the taking possession of Paris in virtue of the capitulation, equivalent to a ratification?' 'That,' rejoined the duke, 'regards the king of France; apply to him.' Wellington expressed himself in the same terms to Marshal Ney, in answer to a letter addressed to him by the Marshal on the subject. The whole case rests on both sides on this brief dialogue: all the wit of man to the end of time can add nothing to their force. Strictly speaking, the Duke of Wellington was undoubtedly right; the capitulation bound him and had been observed by him; if the King of France violated it, that was the affair of that monarch and his ministers; and there was a peculiar delicacy in a victorious foreign general, in military possession of the capital, interfering with the administration of justice by the French government. In private, it is said, Wellington exerted himself much, though, unhappily, without effect, to save the life of his old antagonist in arms; but, in the face of the united opinion of the whole powers of Europe, he did not conceive himself at liberty to make any public demonstration in his favour. His situation was doubtless a delicate one, surrounded with difficulties on every side; but there is an instinct in the human heart paramount to reason, there is a wisdom in generosity which is often superior to that of expediency. Time will show whether it would not have been wiser to have listened to its voice, than to that of unrelenting justice on this occasion; and whether the throne of the Bourbons would not have been better inaugurated by a deed of generosity, which would have spoken to the heart of man through every succeeding age, than by the sacrifice of the greatest, though also, the most guilty, hero of the empire.” Alison's New Work. THE SOUL'S ENDLESS PROGRESS IN KNOWLEDGE. "Were man to live coeval with the sun, YOUNG. THE CZAR'S MUSEUM AT ST. PETERSBURGH. EVERY foreigner who comes to this place should visit the Academy of Sciences, which is the most extensive and curious in Europe. I am not going to give you a detail of its contents; but here, I believe, are to be seen the forms or skeletons of every kind of animal, fish, or bird, from the mammoth to the smallest insect, which ever burst into life, since the creation. In this temple of natural history, there is a vast collection of minerals, which Siberia alone was rich enough to supply: near them is a petrified tree, three feet in diameter, and an enormous tortoise, which has been conveyed hither on a fragment of the rock with which time had indentified it. One room contains the anatomical collection of the Dutch naturalist, Ruysch, purchased by Peter the Great; it was at that period the most considerable in Europe, but it is here only the nucleus of the present enormous mass. Peter, during his reign, gave orders to all, even the most distant points of his Empire, that every caprice of nature, in the human formation, should be preserved, and transmitted to this academy; rewards also were offered to ensure compliance; and as the system has been continued by his successors, whose dominions have been so widely extended, some idea may be formed of the endless variety of the subjects. Another compartment, destined to the reception of legitimate monsters, is filled with crocodiles, dolphins, whales, sword fishes, &c. Near the door of this room is the stuffed figure of a giant, seven feet and a half high, well proportioned; he was the Heyduc of Peter the Great, and came from Little Russia. A dwarf has been placed by his side, to render the contrast more striking. As all rights are comparative, it would seem that the rights of a despotic sovereign supersede all funeral rites. This dwarf and giant have, by an imperial mandate, been deprived of Christian burial, that their bodies may furnish a lesson of anatomy to the Russian professors. There is also an elephant of vast dimensions, mounted by his Indian conductor; but the most curious and novel object in the whole collection of fossils, is the skeleton of the mammoth, sole remaining victim of the Deluge. This gigantic animal was discovered on the ice of the White Sea, by a traveller ; its head is nearly perfect, and armed with two rows of teeth which appeared to be near six feet in length: the mammoth is taller than the elephant, and if we may judge by the frame, exceeds him in bulk. The Academy, grateful to its founder, preserves his effigy in wax, as large as life; it is clothed in his usual dress, and seated in a chair: his favourite English horse, and the two dogs which always followed his steps, whether at home or in the field, are stuffed with straw, and shown under a glass case. The country still seems to feel a great debt of gratitude to his memory; and the battle of Pultowa, in which this English horse is always introduced, forms the subject of many pictures in the imperial palaces. RAIKES. THE DEBASING INFLUENCE OF DRUNKENNESS. DURING the Anglo-French occupancy of Turkey-prior to the deadly struggles of the Crimea—a man was standing quietly at the door of the English Consulate, with a horse belonging to an officer of his regiment, when some drunken Frenchmen came reeling up the street. One of them kicked the horse, and caused it to rear violently, and not content with doing so, struck it violently on the head as he passed. Several French officers were close behind, and never offered to interfere; but one of them speaking to the soldier, exclaimed, "Why did not you cut the brigand over the head with your whip, when he struck your horse?' |
