of North America. By Sir Charles Lyell, F.R.S. Two Volumes. Mur

ray.

Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, Author of the "Sylva," &c. A new Edition, revised and enlarged, with numerous addi ional Notes. Colburn.

Lives of the Princesses of England from the Norman Conquest. By Mary Ann Everet Green, Etitor of the "Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies." Two Vols., post 8vo. Colburn.

The Physical Atlas: A Series of Maps and Illustrations of the Geogra phical Distribution of Natural Phenomena; embracing, I. Geology; II. Hydrography; III. Meteorology; IV. Natural History. By Alexander Keith Johnston F.R.G.S., F.G.S., Geographer at Edinburgh in Ordinary to Her Majesty. With the Co-operation and Assis'ance of men eminent in the different Departments of Science. Blackwoods.

The Physical Atlas of Natural Phenomena. By Alexander Keith Johnston, F.R.G.S., F.G.S., Geographer at Edinburgh in Ordinary to Her Majesty. Reduced from the Edition in Imperial Folio for the Use of Colleges, Acudemies, and Families. In one Vol., imp. 4to. Blackwoods.

Chemistry of the Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. Illustrated with Engravings on Wood. Post 8vo. By Thomas Griffiths, Professor of Chemistry in the Medical Colle e of St. Bartholomew's Hospital.

Laveaux, Roiste, Bescherelle, &c., from the English Dictionaries of Johnson, Webster, Richardson, &c., and from the special Dictionaries and Works of both Languages. By A. Spiers, Professor of English at the National College of Bonaparte, (Paris.) at the National School of Civil Engineers, &c., and Author of the Study of English Poetry, and of the Manual of Commercial Terms in English and French, London: Whittaker and Co.

PROPOSED OR ANNOUNCED FOR PUBLICATION: A new Edition of the Bibliotheca Clericalis; a Guide to Authors, Preachers. Students, and Literary Men. Twenty four Monthly Parts. Darling.

A Series of Editions of the Greek and Latin Classics, to be issued under the general Title of Bibliotheca Classica. Edited by various Hands, under the Direction of George Long, Esq., M.A., late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; classical Lecturer at Brighton College; and the Rev. Arthur John Macleane, M. A., Trinity College, Cambridge, and Principal of Brighton College. Whittaker and Co.

The entire Works of Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, and Lord High Chancellor of England. A new Edition, revised and elucidated; and enlarged by the addition of many Pieces not printed before. Collected and edited by Robert Leslie Ellis, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; James Spedding, M.A, of Trinity College, Cambridge; and Douglas Denon Heath, Esq, Barrister at Law, and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Longmans.

The Discourses and Sayings of our Lord Jesus Christ, illustrated in a Series of Expositions. By John Brown, D.D., Author of "Expository Lectures on First Peter," &c., &c. In three large Vols. 8vo. Edinburgh: Oliphant.

The Life and Correspondence of the late Dr. Southey is to be completed in Six Volumes.

THE POLAR PLANT.-Major Alvord has discovered a singular plant of the Western Prairies, said to possess the peculiarity of pointing north and south,

and to which he has given the name of Silphium Laciniatum. No trace of iron has been discovered in the plant; but as it is full of resinous matter, Major Alvord sug

gests its polarity may be due to electric currents. Medical Times.

THE BERTHOLLETIA EXCELSA.Humboldt calls this tree "the most vigorous of the productions of the tropical world." He thus speaks of it :-"The Berthelletia Excelsa, (Juvia,) of the family of the Myrtacea, (and placed in Richard Schomburgh's proposed division of Lecythideæ,) was first described by Bonpland and myself in the Plantes équinoxiales.' This gigantic and mag.. nificent tree offers, in the perfect formation of its cocoa-like, round, thick, woody fruit, enclosing the three-cornered and also woody seed-vessels, the most remarkable example of high organic development. The Bertholletia grows in the forests of the Upper Orinoco, between the Padamo and the Ocamu, near the mountain of Mapaya, and also between the rivers Amaguaca and Gehette."Aspects of Nature, &c. (This plant, which forms vast forests on the banks of the Orinoco, is of very large dimensions. Its stem, averaging about two feet in diameter, is a hundred feet high, not branching till near the top, whence its boughs hang down in a graceful manner. The leaves are undivided, arranged alternately on the branches, about two feet long and five or six inches wide, and are of a brilliant green. The flowers are yellowish white. The fruit is a spherical case, about the size of a man's head, with four cells, in each of which are six or eight nuts; the shell rugged and furrowed. The seed is a firm oily almond, of a pure white colour. The Portuguese of Para carry on a large trade with these nuts, sending cargoes to French Guiana, whence they are shipped for Europe. The kernels yield a large quantity of oil, well suited for lamps. Humboldt, in another work says, that he and his fellow-traveller Bonpland found these nuts a great luxury when they were following the course of the Orinoco. They had been living three months on bad chocolate, rice boiled in water without butter, and mostly without salt, when they met with a store of Bertholletia nuts. It was June, and the Indians had just gathered in their harvest. The kernels were found delicious when fresh; but they are apt to become rancid on account of the great quantity of oil which they contain.)

HEAT AND COLD. We find the body capable of resisting a temperature sufficient to decompose dead matter. Animals, as well as man, have been exposed to a degree of heat exceeding that

of boiling water, and without injury; when at the same time a thermometer placed under the tongue has indicated an elevation of a few degrees only above the natural standard. The power of resistance is but of short duration; for the nervous influence is exhausted by so extraordinary a demand. Chemical agents come into play, and matter is resolved into lifeless form. As regards cold, the same law prevails, the limits are the same. However great the power may be of resisting it, as soon as the nervous energy is exhausted, the system is subject to injury. I have witnessed the effect of cold too long endured upon the little postilions, who are barbarously exposed to it in the winter season, at St. Petersburg. The lads bear it for a time, as they sit on their horses, clapping their hands, and singing to keep up their courage; but this fails them by degrees, and finally, benumbed, they fall from their saddles in a state of torpor which nothing but rolling them in the snow will overcome. There is seldom a fête given at St. Petersburg, in the extreme cold weather, that occurrences of this sort are not recorded. In very cold nights the sentries are frequently frozen to death, if not relieved at short intervals. As long as nervous excitement can be kept up, the resistance of cold is very great. General Piroffsky informed me that in the expedition to Khiva, notwithstanding the intenseness of the cold, the soldiers marched along singing, with the breasts of their coats open, but only as long as they were flushed with the hopes of suc

cess.

It

Where there is nothing to excite, and where exposure to the cold takes place only under the common routine of parade, its depressing defects are lamentably felt by those long exposed to it. In the time of the Grand Duke Constantine, a regiment of horse was marched from Stelna to St. Petersburg, a distance of twelve miles and upwards. He marched at their head at a foot-pace all the way. He had well wadded himself, and smeared his face over with oil. was the gratification of a whim to expose the soldiers to a great degree of cold. They arrived at the square before the palace, and were dismissed to their barracks. The following day one-third of the regiment was in hospital, attacked by nervous fever, of which many died. There was no stimulus of necessity in this case; but the moral feeling aggravated the physical suffering.-Sir G. Lefevre's Apology for the Nerves.

The burden of my dying prayer,

Now in thine arms I see; And, sick on earth of seeing more, I hasten home, my GoD to' adore Through all eternity.

NORFOLK AND NORWICH BIBLE SOCIETY. A grant of 100 Bibles has been made for the bed-rooms of the hotels and principal inns of Norwich, which have been gladly and gratefully received, and are likely to be silent monitors at evening to many who have forgotten God in the day. The total grants have been 318 copies.

A very interesting Report has been furnished by the Agent employed under the superintendence of the Yarmouth Committee to visit vessels in that port. He has distributed 827 copies. He has made nearly 4,000 visits to vessels, and met with almost every variety of character and creed. He believes sailors to be an improved class of men. He says that about nine out of every ten can read, and about eight out of every ten have a Bible or Testament. The fishermen are a somewhat different class: not above two out of every ten can read, and perhaps not more than one out of every ten has a Bible. The Yorkshire and Cromer fishermen are most advanced. As the former never fish or discharge fish on the Sabbath, the Agent united with them in Divine Service on board their boats every Sunday morning. Of the foreigners, the French are most careless: they shrug their shoulders, and will not listen. He went, during Lent, to a Maltese vessel, but was threatened, and ordered on shore by the mate, who acted as priest, though the men seemed anxious to look at the books. On one vessel the master and others refused the Bible, and asked for Paine's "Age of Reason." However, on further conversation, the Agent expounded the 107th Psalm, obtained leave to pray, and sold three Bibles. On an Irish vessel the Roman Catholic captain complained of our translation-upheld the priests and refused the Bible; but the Agent at last sold three Bibles, and persuaded all the crew to attend a Bethel Meeting on a Scotch vessel that evening. Who can say what good such visits may effect! Bible Society Reporter.

AUSTRIA: INSPRUCK.-The new constitution of the empire allows the exercise of Protestant worship; and some time since a chapel was opened at Vienna. But that liberty having been extorted from the Austrian government by the progress of toleration, is displeasing to the Romish Church, which still opposes as much as possible any new con

cessions to the Protestants. At Inspruck, the capital of the Tyrol, it was recently decided to build a place of worship. Immediately great excitement prevailed amongst the Romish clergy, and that part of the population connected with the School of the Jesuits. The rector applied to the municipal council, entreating them to oppose the measure, though it was in consistency with the new charter. The council refused to accede to this absurd request. The clergy then sought to excite the minds of the people; declaring, that if a Protestant church should pollute the soil of the Tyrol, there would be an end of the Roman Catholic religion; and the Archduke John passing through Dolf, a deputation from the clergy requested an audience, and conjured him to use his influence to protect Catholicism, and to prevent the erection of the church.-Evangelical Christendom.

ITALY. A powerful reaction has taken place in almost every state, leaving but faint traces of those ameliorations which recent events had introduced. This statement holds good, without a primary reference to the propagation of the Gospel. The Austrians have entered Tuscany, and there suppressed, or abandoned to the prelates of the Romish Church to suppress, the evangelical work which seemed to be taking root. Copies of the sacred writings have been seized, and the presses which issued them silenced. In Piedmont, still under a liberal government, the circulation of the Scriptures is permitted to a certain extent; but the clergy, supported by foreign influence, have begun to launch the thunders of excommunication against those who distribute them. The Bishop of Saluces, in particular, wages war on the Bible; and two colporteurs, engaged in vending them from village to village, meet with great difficulties. At Milan, opposition is not yet openly manifested. Peculiarities attending the position of the Austrians in Lombardy will probably avert it for the present; at least, the depot for Bibles established at Milan is still in existence. Finally, at Lucca, whose celebrated baths are an attraction to numerous strangers, a recent act has created a great sensation amongst the English, while it proves how religious liberty has been compromised in Tuscany. The prefect of Lucca, without any trial,

or even previous inquiry, issued an edict, ordering a superior officer of the British marines, Captain Pakenham, who had resided there for the last seven years, to quit the department within three days. This order applied equally to his wife. The only offence which provoked this arbitrary and barbarous decree, was that the English officer had offered a religious tract, published in Tuscany, to a paralytic at the hospital. All the English residents, indignant at this conduct, immediately dispatched a protest to the English ambassador at Florence.-Evangelical Christendom.

THE SABBATH ALLIANCE.-This Association, fully alive to the importance of making the most of the time previous to the meeting of Parliament, is carrying on its labours with undiminished energy. A small tract has been prepared, entitled "The Sabbath in the Post-office," for wide circulation, previous to the getting up of petitions to Parliament. One hundred thousand of this tract have been already put into circulation in Scotland, and orders from England have been executed to the extent of two hundred thousand more. An address to the friends of the Sabbath throughout Scotland, containing a form of petition to the House of Commons, and a memorial to the Queen, has been dispatched to every minister of the Gospel, and is also about to be addressed to a large number of influential laymen in every part of the country. Funds to meet such a movement are being contributed. Mr. John Hope, W. S., has again, in the most generous manner, presented the Alliance with £100, to be devoted expressly to the question with which it is at present occupied; and a few equally liberal friends who will not allow their names to be mentioned, have placed a similar sum in the treasurer's hands.-Witness.

DR. ACHILLI.-The two gentlemen who proceeded to Rome as a deputation to inquire into the cause of Dr. Achilli's imprisonment, arrived in that city on the 21st Nov. They have since had satisfactory interviews with M. de Corcelles and General Barraguay d'Hilliers, and an investigation into the matter has been

made at Viterbo, which has resulted in the most complete proof of Dr. Achilli's innocence. We understand that the Roman authorities have now admitted that Dr. Achilli was imprisoned for his peculiar opinions, and that all other things alleged against him were utterly without foundation. A gentleman known to the deputation, visited the Doctor in prison, and expresses himself as having been amazed at the perfect calm and tranquillity he manifested, adding, that had there been no other evidence, Dr. Achilli's own countenance when he was informed of the charges against him was enough to convince any one of his innocence. This information will doubtless be very gratifying to all who take an interest in this disgraceful instance of persecution on the part of the Papal authorities at Rome.

THE LETTISH BIBLE.-The following interesting statement may here be cited as a contribution to the history of the printing of the first edition of the Lettish Bible. John Fischer, a Livonian General Superintendent, was the first to complete, with the assistance of many of the clergy, both of Livonia and Courland, the translation of the entire Bible into the Lettish tongue, in the year 1689; the printing of which he undertook at Riga, at a private printing-office, which, with the Royal permission, he had established at his own cost. King Charles XI. gave for this work 7,500 dollars, for which 1,500 Bibles were struck off. For so considerable an undertaking, it was necessary to order the requisite paper from France. The ship in which the paper was forwarded as a portion of the cargo, fell into the hands of a pirate, a Turk. On his inquiring what was intended to be done with such a quantity of paper, he received for reply, that it was destined for the printing of an edition of the Holy Scriptures at Riga; whereupon he was seized with such terror, that he not only gave up the paper, but also the vessel, together with the crew and cargo. Upon this paper the first edition of the Lettish Bible was printed.

1. MRS. ISABELLA WILSON was born at Hill-top, near St. John's Chapel, Weardale, County of Durham. She was the

daughter of Mr. John Gibson, who occasionally accompanied Mr. Wesley in his dangerous journeys over the bleak moun