"The balloon, which left Hastings at about twenty minutes past one in the afternoon, retained a southeasterly course till about twelve miles from the English shore. The wind then carried them southward. When somewhat short of mid-channel the balloon was almost becalmed, and took a low level, so that by means of a speaking-trumpet the occupiers of the car could converse with the crews of some fishing boats which appeared beneath them. On getting farther from the English coast the balloon again got into a current setting to the southeast. The gas at this period became much expanded by the action of the sun's rays, and the balloon acended to a height of 4,000 feet. The safety-valve at the bottom of the balloon then began to act, owing to the great expansion of the gas, and the escape which ensued caused a gradual descent, till the appendages to the guide-line, styled by Mr. Green the compensating weight,' came upon the surface of the water, whereby the downward progress was checked, owing to the diminished weight depending upon the machine. Before arriving at this point, the aeronauts had enjoyed a magnificent view of the English coast, extending from Dungeness Point to Beachy Head is tall and commanding, his gesture, softness to our readers, in relation to this strange and amiability of expression almost inexpli- voyage:cable. Upon my approaching him the Emir held out a very large, bony, and deep brown hand to me, which, when I grasped, he turned to lead me to the sofa and the seats prepared at the head of the room. The commandant and three or four of his officers entered the room with us, and we all sat down; Lady Londonderry and my daughter Adelaide opposite the Emir, while I occupied the place on the sofa by the chief-the officers and the commandant sit ting on the other side. The question of dialogue now became somewhat embarrassing. The captain, who knew Algerian, and acted as interpreter, spoke excessively low and very indistinct, and it was very difficult for me to understand him at first. However, I launched forth, commencing by expressing the deep and universal interest the British empire took in the Emir's warlike deeds, and in his fate, and the regret universally felt at his being still retained a prisoner of war, &c. His replies were couched in similar phrases of civility. At length the old warrior expressed to me, through the interpreter, his great desire to see and converse with the President of the Republic, and he inquired, knowing that I had been on terms of friendship with the prince, whether I could manage to get this accomplished. I told him I did not believe I had any interest with the French Government, and that, however desirous the President might be to meet so brave a captive's wishes, still the Government and the Chambers had mainly the power and means to carry out that which he desired. The Emir then said he should like me to accompany him, and to go together to Louis Napoleon. I replied that I should be very glad to do any thing I could, but that I believed this would be impossible, adding, however, that I had an innate confidence in Louis Napoleon-that I would lay my life upon his honor-and that if a boon could be granted I thought Lady Londonderry and myself would be likely to secure it. The Emir then addressed some flattering remarks to Lady Londonderry, after which a slave entered with a tray of tea-cups and saucers, each cup holding a few table-spoonfuls, of which we partook. In complaisance, now, as the dialogue could not be prolonged, I thought it proper to rise and take our leave." Mr. GREEN the well known aëronaut, has latterly made the passage across the English Channel by balloon, in company with the Duke of Brunswick. The details of the expedition are given in full in the English Journals, and appear to have excited a great degree of attention, We subjoin as much as we think will be of interest the long line of coast glowing in the vivid rays of a resplendent sun. When about twenty miles from the French coast they obtained a view of a portion of the shores of France. "At length the land appeared so near at hand that the grapnell was lowered. The · shore was found to have been left by the ebbing of the tide, and the sands were observed to be of great extent. Two men were seen walking upon the sands, and as the balloon passed over them, with its guideline trailing behind, one of them caught at it, and was immediately seen to be dashed violently upon the earth. The rope got under the feet of his companion, who forthwith performed a complete somersault in the air, and was speedily placed hors de combat. The unfortunate pair, however, were eventually seen to regain their legs, doubtless convinced of the fallacy of endeavoring to catch a balloon. "The land in the vicinity of the shore, was observed by Mr. Green to be of an unfor the purpose of a descent; he, therefore, dulating character, apparently ill adapted proceeded onward till he surmounted a lofty hill, the summit of which he cleared at an elevation of about fifty feet. He then descended rapidly. In the valley appeared a village, from which scores of people were speedily seen to emerge. The Duke laid hold of his speaking-trumpet, and shouted directions to the peasantry how to act. The balloon reached the earth almost without a shock, and abundance of assistance being promptly rendered the aerial visitor was soon made fast, and the Duke and Mr. Green alighted, finding themselves in the fields near Neufchatel, about ten miles southwest of Boulogne. A railway station appeared half a mile off, situate on the Boulogne and Amiens Railway. His Highness proceeded at once to the station, and almost immediately took his seat in a train en route for Paris; while Mr. Green, having discharged his gas, got the balloon packed up, and proceeded therewith in a cart to Boulogne, where he arrived at about ten o'clock at night." A French correspondent gives fearful accounts of the extent of gambling this 'Well, I may as well put it on to be sure,' says he, will you please to hand it up? A thousand thanks! It is so unusual in Paris to see a man of this kind drunk, that I never suspected him of being any thing but eccentric, until we came to a neighboring street, where there were a number of carriages waiting at a party, among which we began to make such havoc by bumping wildly about, that I soon understood what was the matter with my friend, and awoke him, with some difficulty from a sound sleep. I then got the ladies out, and said to him in what I considered a highly impressive manner, tempered with a gentle amiability, 'Now, my friend, you are drunk, and I am not going to pay you any thing. You had better go home and keep out of trouble!' Not in the least affected by this softening address, he immediately cast his arms and legs into the air all at once, as nobody but a throat, and tore my coat, whereupon I hit him, according to the custom of my country, and he tumbled into a confectioner's doorway. Other coachmen came up, and the confectioner came out. Monsieur is a foreigner,' said he, on hearing the merits of the case; it is late, and these men make the course, and make complaint to Monsieur common cause. My advice is, pay him for le Prefet. winter in the beau monde of Paris. The old games of whist, Boston, &c., are all supplanted by écarté and the bac carat; and it is not unusual to reckon the losses of an even-Frenchman could, clutched roughly at my ing among friends by the tens of thousands. As is quite natural where the appetite for gaming has become so strong, various instances of cheatery have come to light. One especially, implicating a member of the diplomatic body, created a great deal of scandal. He had substituted a "marked pack" in lieu of one of the packs supplied by the host, and was detected by a servant. The losses on that occasion had amounted to some ten thousand dollars. The diplomat proved to be a well-mannered vagrant, pro-answer-got none-every day for three fessing to be consul for New-Grenada. The ball and gayeties of the carême at Paris are represented as very brilliant; and the chit-chat of Paris is filled with the scandal that has grown out of this "breaking in" upon Lent. While talking of Paris matters we may as well set down this good story of cab-regulation in the French capital. It is from DICKENS's Household Words, and we can vouch by our own experience, for its justice in every particular :— He will do justice.' With a very bad grace I paid for the course, and went home breathing vengeance. I relieved my mind by writing to M. le Prefet before I went to bed-waited three weeks for an weeks anathematized France. Early one mi-morning at the expiration of that time, appoared the coachman, with a beard, and in an old blouse, looking very miserable. He had been in prison ever since, and was now sent to repay the money I had paid him, and get a receipt for it. He had also brought an official paper stating that he was deprived of his number, and that unless I chose to accept his apology and sign that recommendation for its being restored to him, (which I was not asked to do,) he was thenceforth incapable of driving any public carriage. I considered it right to take the money, but of course I signed the paper, and gave him some breakfast. He told my servant that he had been summoned to the prefect's office; that they had said to him, 'Now two hundred and so-and-so, this letter of complaint has been received against you. Attend while it is read. If you deny the charge, and oblige us to demand the writer's presence, you will take the greater consequences if it is proved. If you admit the charge at once, and save that trouble, you will take the lesser consequences. Well, it was all true,' said the cabman with a shrug, so I took the three weeks, and here I am.'" Coming out of the theatre one night, with two ladies, I found it raining heavily. The weather had been beautiful, and we had intended to walk home, but this sudden change obliged me to seek a hackneycoach. I found one in the Place of the Palais Royal, and was so glad to get it for it was the only coach there that I did not observe when I called the driver that he had no hat on, but was sitting on his box, in the rain, bare-headed. I remarked this peculiarity as I was handing the ladies in, and asked him where his hat 'Oh,' he said very coolly, 'it's inside.' 'And why don't you put it on then was. When shall we hope for any such security |turesque journal of travel, differs from the against insolence and extortion among the pleasant essays of a home-volume. barbarians who throng our docks and railway stations? At the last advices, preparations on a mammoth scale, were making for a great Parisian fête in the month of May. A part of the object has doubtless been to decoy a large number of the visitors from the World's Fair; and surely, no people in the world know better how to make such fêtes attractive. No such scene or fête as that afforded by the Place de la Concorde, and the Champs Elysées, is to be found in the universe; nor are there anywhere better extemporizers of statuary and fireworks than the artisans of Paris. A hint or two in reference to the coming show is thrown out in a recent letter from Mr. FRY to the Tribune : "In the front of the Madeleine will be We have already commended those daguerreotypes of nature which SATTLER calls Kosmorama. The Eastern sky in them has all the softness, and blue, and blandness, and distance of heaven; and the sun shines aslant the ruins of Egypt, as warmly and truly as in a June dream, under trees. As for the Academy, there are pleasant faces to be looked at, and landscapes that make one live his summer d'avance; and a hundred other things that will brighten one's love for beauty, and make him the better for the love. In Science, what we have especially to notice is the initiatory step of Professor PAGE, in turning magnetism loose upon a Railway. The Washington Republic, dating from the city where the experiment was made, gives this notice of the new en deavor : 66 placed immense statues of Charity, Hope, and Faith, and vases with flowers. On the Arch of Triumph will be placed a colossal chariot of Victory, after the mode designed Saturday, Professor PAGE's Electro-MagOwing to the announcement that, on for the completion of the work. The round netic Locomotive would have a preliminary point of the Elysian Fields will present a trial on the railroad, a large number of perstatue of Napoleon, formerly designed for the Invalides. Around it will be statues of sons, including many of scientific attainDuroc, Lannes, Beauharnais, Ney, Dessaix, house, manifesting a marked interest in the ments, were in attendance near the stationand Kléber. The avenue of the Elysian Fields will be decorated with eighteen stasuccess of the experiment. A report that tues, with a socle of eighteen feet. These sions in the minds of many that there was an accident had occurred excited apprehenwill be of Corneille, Jacquart, Papin, Jean Goujon, Molière, Jeanne D'Arc, Turenne, However, this state of feeling was someto be either a postponement or a failure. Poussin, Turgot, Bayard, Jean Bart, Dugay, what relieved by the appearance of ProfesTrouin, Duguesclin, Catinat, Condité, Richelieu, Mathieu Molé, Seguier. The colon- who informed the spectators that two of the sor PAGE himself on the platform of his ear, nade of the legislative palace will be com-cells in the middle of the battery which he pleted by two vast circular wings, after the façade of St. Peter's. Above will be groups. On the Concord Bridge which runs from the Chamber to the Place, will be the fireworks. A temple of Neptune will be constructed, and honor done to the genius of Navigation. A steam-engine will cause a cascade. A stand will be built on the Quai D'Orsay to hold 20,000 persons. The Place will be splendidly decorated, and new improve ments in lighting up will afford à sans pareil." currence, he said, which had not before was about to employ had exploded-an octaken place in the course of his two years' experiments; but that in order that the disappointed, the locomotive would nevercompany which had assembled might not be theless shortly move. Like the sun, which cloud, this brief announcement brightened at that moment emerged from a dark rainthe countenances of all who heard it, and, much to their satisfaction, in the course of five minutes the car came forth from its shed, moving steadily, and wending its way on the rails for several hundred yards, then paused and backed to another track, and again moved forward in the direction of Baltimore. "We had no means of ascertaining its speed, but should judge that it was at the which, for an experimental trip, with a rate of about five or six miles per hour, crippled battery, was doing remarkably well, we think. Indeed, we have hardly a doubt, from what Professor PAGE has already accomplished, that he will ere long attain the successful application of electro-magnetic power to vessels and railway trains now propelled by steam. "It was a novel spectacle to witness a car smoothly and quietly emerging from its place of shelter, with none of its machinery visible, and travelling over the rails without the usual accompaniments of the puffing steam, the glowing furnace, the dense volume of black smoke, and the clashing of heavy enginery, and occasionally emitting a bright flash under the car-the miniature lightning of this wonderful invention. Having gone out some distance on the road, the locomotive then returned as noiselessly as it went, when it was again safely housed. "Whatever doubts may be entertained as to Professor PAGE's ultimate success, it should be remembered that his present efforts have already compassed much more than those expended in the first experiments with steam as a motive power, during an equal period of time." THE BOOK WORLD. It is stated in the London papers that Mr. THACKERAY, well known among us by his Vanity Fair, and Pendennis, is about to commence a series of lectures upon the comic writers of the present century. The same paper states, on what appears to be good authority, that Mr. THACKERAY has in contemplation a visit to this country. He will doubtless be received with much of that kind of flattering, though troublesome (to a sensitive man) notice, which has attended his companions in the British field of letters. THACKERAY is a vigorous writer, and in his way, worthy of all honor. He knows, as well as any living writer, how to point a satire ; indeed irony is his forte: but in satirizing he is too apt to run to extremes, and to make such monsters of womankind as his BECCY SHARPE. He is a man more familiar with the conventionalities of social life than Mr. DICKENS; and being such, he has a clique of club-men to cry bravo to all his performances: but while he preserves this superiority, he is inferior to him in all that makes the wholeness of a heart, and that sympathizes with whatever is wretched in the great staple of humanity. Mr. CHARLES SCRIBNER has published the past week, a valuable, because simple and practical, work upon fruits, and fruit trees in America. It is written by Mr. BARRY, the proprietor of extensive nurseries in Western New-York, and the first gentleman in this country who turned public attention to the French dwarf-trees, and to their proper training. The book is illustrated with drawings well calculated to assist the fruit-grower, and it should be in the hands of all who have a patch of land, or who love good fruits. The Athenæum and other journals of London, have given very favorable notice to our countryman's work upon the Nile-called Nile-Notes. Although we are not among those who recognize the importance or the necessity of receiving British imprimatur to establish the excellence of an American work, still we cannot but regard this favorable mention as highly flattering to Mr. form, than of his intention to invest them with truthfulness and simplicity; otherwise the subject is lost amid the superabundance of literary labor, and the author takes the place of his hero in the mind, if not in the estimation, of the reader. It is not, how THERE is that in the biography of a great man, which, if the narration goes no further than a simple statement of facts connected with his history, becomes acceptable to ev-ever, meant to be implied that biographical ery intelligent reader who would know how he who is honored among men lived and moved in the world around him. To render such history really useful and valuable, it should show less of the skill of the writer in giving his materials the most attractive writing should be free from comment; the task of the biographer is to make his subject a guide or a warning to others; he is an instructor, and should therefore be allowed free scope for the indulgence of such observations as may be deduced from the |