an acquaintance the most familiar. Hence have we ascertained some of the most important attributes of Electricity; its habits, if we may so speak, its predilections and propensities. There are substances with which the electric fluid, it has been discovered, is violently disposed to coalesce. There are others, again, with which it refuses to engage, even upon the most transitory terms of alliance. Metals belong to the first of these classes, and hence they are employed as the materials of Lightning Conductors. “Thunder Rods,' says the author of this very ingenious and very interesting little work,

Thunder or lightning rods are metallic bars attached to buildings for the purpose of presenting a medium of escape to the lightning; which, when it strikes a building, seizes on the best conducting medium, and most direct passage to the earth, and if these are not provided for it, its vengeance is terrible, and will be felt. The question whether balls or points should terminate the conductor, was once stoutly contested; points it was contended, attract the lightning from a greater distance, and, as it were, invite the approach of the storm cloud, which might otherwise pass by on the other side, or at least float over the spot harmlessly; but it was overlooked, or forgotten, that lightning exercises terrible powers on a blunted surface such as a ball, from the great difficulty opposed to its entrance by the resistance it finds under such circumstances, facts known to every electrician, while there is no such difficulty of entrance or exit with respect to a point.'-pp. 115, 116.

Such is the instrument which has been long used in this and many other countries, and which, notwithstanding various objections, has been found, when properly constructed, to answer the proposed end. It is most curious to find, however, that this very conductor or rod, which so many men of genius, learning, and ingenuity, have been at the pains to complete,-which in fact has been always regarded as one of the proudest trophies of science, was known and employed by a people of no more refined cultivation than the wild peasantry of Lombardy. The Abbè Berthollet, in his work on the Electricity of Meteors, describes a practice used on one of the bastions of the Castle of Duino, on the shores of the Adriatic, which has existed from time immemorial, and which is literally neither more nor less than the process that enabled Franklin to bring down lightning from the clouds. An iron staff, it seems, was erected on the bastion of this castle during the summer, and it was part of the duty of the sentinel, whenever a storm threatened, to raise an iron pointed halberd towards this staff. upon the approach of the halberd, sparks were emitted (which, to the scientific mind, would show that the staff was charged with electricity from a thunder cloud), then the sentinel made sure that a storm impended, and he tolled a bell which sent forth the tidings of danger to the surrounding country. Nothing can be more delightfully amiable than the paternal care of its subjects, which this interesting provision of the local government exemplified. The

If,

admonishing sound of the bell was obeyed like a preternatural signal from the depths of the firmament; shepherds were seen hurrying over the vallies, urging their flocks from the exposed fields to places of shelter. The fishing boats, with which the coast of the Adriatic was generally studded, forthwith began to crowd sail and make for the nearest port, whilst many a supplication was put up from many a gentle and devout heart on shore, before some hallowed shrine, for the safety of the little fleet.*

The inductions, then, of scientific research show, and the experience of an untutored race of men establish, the utility of metal conductors. But it must not be denied that objections have been strongly urged against them. The great defect of Mr. Murray's book is, that he has not noticed the arguments and speculations of adversaries at any thing like an adequate length. Professor Leslie, the most ingenious and erudite of them all, and at the same the most uncompromising, is scarcely mentioned in this volume. And yet, to our apprehension, the reasoning of the learned professor is by no means of the formidable quality that would make it a point of prudence, in an opponent, to decline a controversy with him. We have read his paper on Electrical Theories, published in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, about five years ago, with great pleasure. It is, however, a mere academical display-a brilliant chain of theories, and, as a piece of reasoning, perfectly suicidal. What, for example, can be more inconsistent than that the man, who declares every attempt to divert or dissipate the superabundant electricity collected in a cloud, with a view of preventing a

For the thousand and first time, we are constrained to repeat that "there is nothing new under the Sun." We have given one illustration of this truth, and shall now add another. A few years ago a small instrument, which had been evidently used for surgical purposes, was dug out of the ruins of Herculaneum. The instrument was admirably calculated for its supposed purposes: a Frenchman who had seen it, or had heard it described, was tempted to introduce into the surgical profession an implement, as he thought, fabricated on the same plan. But this new instrument, which he proposed as an original invention, differed in material particulars from the old one, and it failed altogether in practice. In this defective state, it fell into the hands of the justly celebrated artist, Mr. Weiss, of the Strand. Applying his judgment and experience to the matter, he ultimately produced an improved instrument of the same kind. The reader, perhaps, will think his credulity to be sadly taxed, when he is called on to believe that Mr. Weiss's improved instrument is identical as to its plan, with the instrument which was dug from Herculaneum. Mr. Weiss, it must be observed, never knew of the latter; and the first intimation which he had of the identity of plan, was given by Dr. James Johnson, a learned and excellent physician, who recently saw the Roman instrument at Naples, and to whom we are indebted for this curious anecdote. Our ancestors, it must be allowed, had some "wisdom " after all.

storm, to be invalid and of no effect, should yet recommend copper conductors to be appended to powder magazines, and ribands of the same metal to be attached to the masts of vessels and extended to the keel? Professor Leslie, in the paper alluded to, observes, "It never can be proved that thunder rods have produced beneficial effects, but several instances may be cited where they have afforded no sort of protection." The answer to this statement is satisfactorily given by Mr. Murray. He says

'More than nine-tenths of the conductors attached to buildings in Great Britain are worse than useless, nay, act a false character, and tend to invite destruction on the buildings they are meant to protect and defend. Such conductors are always formed of iron, a very inferior conducting material, and worse than all, they are mostly corroded through with rust, the consequence of oxidation; now metallic oxydes are not conductors; and since it appears clear from the experiments of Coloumb and Biot, that electricity penetrates the surface to an inappreciable depth, its conducting character by such superficial oxidation is utterly destroyed, while the point may still operate partially and imperfectly as a point. Besides, we shall find these conductors, as they are called, often dislocated, sometimes linked together, and at other times fastened to the wall by iron clamps or staples, and finally, instead of entering the earth, the extremities are left to dangle several feet above the surface, as if we wished the lightning to raze the building from the foundation. Iron is every way objectionable as the material for a conducting rod, or to form any part of it.'pp. 117, 118.

No human invention can withstand the prejudicial effects of bad materials and unskilful execution. The great providential blessing of vaccination, was nigh a premature condemnation in consequence of the ignorance or neglect of many who undertook to practise it. 'Let it be remembered,' says Mr. Murray, a few pages afterwards, 'that the number of tolerable lightning rods in the three kingdoms is extremely limited, and we have personally inspected the greater number of them.'-(p. 125). We think Mr. Murray's evidence quite satisfactory as to the point, that the failure of lightning rods is owing entirely to the deficiency of their formation, The plan of construction which he proposes for general adoption must be given

in his own words.

The conductor we recommend is composed of four softened copper wires, formed into a fasciculus by copper rings; these wires are separated at the top, and bent from the centre outwards, at about an angle of 45° with the horizon, they are elevated several feet above the highest part of the building, and are threaded through wedges of wood; at about two feet from the surface of the ground they glance off at an angle, and terminate below the surface in the moist subsoil; the wires should diverge here, to allow the more ready diffusion and form an escape for the lightning; this may be called the root of the conductor. The following plan, we think, will completely obviate the necessity of having a gilded summit, and may be conceived an interesting application of the principle of voltaic electricity-Let the wires below ground in contact with mois

ture pass through a cylinder of zinc, before they diverge to form the root, the copper wires will in this case always remain free from any oxidation. The diameter of each wire we recommend to be one-fifth of an inch, which would give a circumference of three-fifths to each wire, and an aggregate conducting superficies of two and two-fifths inches. In this arrangement we have four points, and each point its respective stem; a pointed conductor only acts as one point irrespective entirely of the size of its stem, while multiplied points act in the ratio of their numbers.'-pp. 122, 123.

For our own parts, we have been led to the consideration of this subject, from knowing, as we do, how great and how general is the fear which the season of thunder inspires, and consequently how vastly it would contribute to the ease and comfort of many thousands, could they be assured that a certain guarantee against the calamities which they dread, was attainable. We think, that upon matters touching the convenience and personal safety of the public, the government of this country is exceedingly remiss; and this negligence is the more to be wondered at, since the law for a long time has considered the crime of taking money or property from the person of a man, to be most heinously aggravated by the culprit, if he put the party in fear of his life. We trust that the time is near when the legislature, perhaps from having nothing more weighty to engage its deliberations, will turn its serious attention to many points in the domestic condition of the people, which at present it would be almost deemed a condescension in them to consider. Whose business, whose duty is it but that of such a national tribunal, having no limit to its power or to its facilities of investigation, to ascertain whether or not a dreadful apprehension, almost universal amongst the people, may be superseded? What object can be more worthy of the ambition of a true patriot, than to make his fellow countrymen secure from an acknowledged danger, and then make them feel that they are so.

From the consideration of the temporary utility of lightning rods, Mr. Murray advances to a theory of general and permanent application. He thinks that by the multiplicity of those instruments, the climate of this country, in seasons which are unfavourable to vegetation, may be very powerfully acted on, and the virulent influence which it exercises so as to occasion the premature destruction of the growing plant, be rendered unavailing. We are developing, not supporting, Mr. Murray's speculation. His reasoning, however, deserves the praise of ingenuity. The hop plant, he says, for instance, has no enemy so formidable as the aphis, or fly; but the aphis is attracted to its victim only by a morbid condition of the plant itself, that condition being the result of an untoward state of the atmosphere. Copper wires, attached here and there to the hop-poles, will, in Mr. Murray's judgment, effect a world of good; and for aught we know, a hop grower, who has a due sense of the precariousness of his crop, may, less beneficially for himself, indulge his taste for novelty in other things

than taking to copper wires. The great subject which Mr. Murray has in this work propounded for the public consideration, deserves a more large and elaborate discussion than he has given it. We know of no one that could attempt to supply the deficiency of which we complain, with a better chance of success, than Mr. Murray himself.

ABT. III.-A View of the Court of Chancery. By the Honourable William Long Wellesley. 8vo. pp. 178. London: James Ridgway. 1830. WE have nothing whatever to do with the personal character of Mr. Wellesley, or the course of conduct pursued by him with respect to his immediate family and relations. He, himself, admits that the world has been taught to indulge in strong prejudices against him; whether justly or wrongfully, time, he assures us, will demonstrate.

It is the very existence of these prejudices against him, that warns us to ponder on his case, because there is no occasion on which bad and destructive principles have a better chance of being established, than when they are employed for the purpose of mortifying or ruining an object of popular odium.

We suppose that there are few in this country at present, who require to be told that Mr. Wellesley, the surviving parent of his three infant children, was, by operation of law, deprived of their presence; that they were formally separated from him, placed in the custody of comparative strangers, and that he himself was enjoined to refrain from their society, except upon conditions to which, we think, no parent ought to submit. We care not who Mr. Wellesley is, or who the parties are to whom his paternal character was violently transferred. But we say this, that the broad statement which we have now made, is the description of a more monstrous act of domestic cruelty.

The Chancellor is either right or wrong in displacing Mr. Wellesley from the guardianship of his children. If he be wrong, then there is no sign whereby the thoughts of man can be removed from his breast, which can sufficiently express the guilt of such an act. If he be right, if it be wholesome that a father in any case shall humbly qualify in the Court of Chancery for the function of a parent before he is allowed to exercise it, then we say that the great mass of the community is grossly injured, since it is deprived of the benefit of such an ordeal. Wicked and demoralising parents may abound, children of tender years are in jeopardy for their innocence for the present, and for their sense of morality for the rest of their lives, in consequence of the corrupting intercourse of their parents. Does the Chancellor step in to invalidate the rights of the wicked father, and to consign the children to more virtuous guardianship? No such thing. The condition on which the Chancellor sympathises with the offspring is, that they