VIII. If William Fingland will send us a stamped envelope, we shall have pleasure in forwarding it to him. а In Who was Amphitryon? - Amphitryon was Theban prince, son of Alcæus and Hipponome, and was promised the crown, and his daughter Alcmena in marriage, by Electryon, king of Mycena, if he would revenge the death of his sons who were killed in a battle by the Teleboans. his absence Jupiter, who was enamoured of Alcmena borrowed the features of Amphitryon, and introduced himself to Electryon's daughter as her husband returned victorious; and Alcmena became preguant of Hercules by Jupiter. HUGH WYATT. Who was Jugurtha?-Jugurtha was the illegitimate son of Manastabal, the brother of Micipsa, who were sons of Masinissa, king of Numidia. Micipsa, who had inherited his father's kingdom, educated his nephew with his two sons, Adherbal and Hiempsal; but, as Jugurtha was of an aspiring disposition, he sent him with a body of troops to the assistance of Scipio, who was besieging Numantia. Jugurtha showed himself brave and active, and gained the esteem of the Roman general. Micipsa appointed him successor to his kingdom with his two sons; but the kindness of the father proved fatal to the children. Jugurtha destroyed Hiempsal, stripped Adherbal of his possessions, and obliged him to fly to Rome for safety. The senators listened to his complaints, but the gold of Jugurtha prevailed among them; and the suppliant monarch. forsaken in his distress, perished by the snares of his enemy. Metellus was at length sent against Jugurtha, and his firmness and success soon reduced the crafty Numidian, and compelled him to retire among his savage neighbours for support. Marius and Sylla succeeded Metellus, and fought with equal advantage. Jugurtha, who had claimed assistance from his father-in-law, Bocchus, King of Gætulia, was betrayed by him and delivered into the hands of Sylla, after carrying on a war of five vears' duration. He was exposed to the view of the Roman people, and dragged in chains to adorn the triumph of Marius; and afterwards put in prison, in which he died of hunger. The name and wars of Jugurtha are immortalised by the pen of Sallust, B.C. 106. HUGH WYATT. Answers also received from 8. G. WILLIS, TOM BROWN, and AN OLD SUBSCRIBER. How to cure the toothache?-If the pain arise fron a decaying of the outward surface of the tooth, whereby the dental nerve is exposed to contact with the external atmospheric air, a plug of lint steeped either in chloroform, oil of cloves, or oil of thyme, when inserted into the cavity of the tooth will be found to give considerable relief. If the pressure occasioned by putting the plug into the tooth he found to increase the pain, make a mixture of chloroform and camphor, with a small quantity of laudanum, and carefully smear the whole of the tooth, inside and outside, with it, by means of a camel-hair pencil. This very seldom fails. If, however, the pain arise from a small abscess forming at the root of the tooth a poultice of a roasted fig applied to the gum may give relief, but generally the only cure is to have the tooth drawn. Finally, if the pain arise from a nervous affection, it will generally be felt over the whole side of the face, along the teeth and gums. This disease is termed neuralgia, and the best cure for it is to keep warm, and take some doses of quinine. One word of advice, however: Never get a tooth drawn till you cannot absolutely help it; try and endure the pain, and keep in your possession an humble yet useful servant. Best exercise to strengthen the muscles of the arms?— The best means to develop the muscular strength of the arms are Indian clubs, dumb-bells, and gymnastic exercises on parallel bars. Indian clubs are decidedly the best; dumb-bells tend more to expand the chest, and should not be used of too Why are the Ides of March so called?-The Ides or Idus, with the Romans, were the fifteenth days of March, May, July, and October. In other months it was the thirteenth, owing to the variation of the nones. These days were sacred to Jupiter (to whom a sheep was sacrificed), also to different deities. The Ides of March, on account of Cæsar's death, was an ater dies, and was called parricidium. The senate was not allowed to sit on that day. What is an Interregnum?-An Interregnum is a time in which a throne is vacant between the death or abdication of a king and the accession of his successor, as the interregnum between Romulus and Numa Pompilius. The meaning of the word metachronism is an error in chronology by placing an event after its real time. R. FLETCHER. What is the Habeas Corpus Act?-This Act (31 Car. II., c. 2) was passed A.D. 1679. It did not introduce any new principle, but confirmed and rendered more available a remedy which had long existed. It prevented the illegal and indefinite imprisonment to which persons obnoxious to the government could be subjected. By its provisions, 1. All persons, except those charged with treason or felony, could demand from one of the judges a writ of Habeas Corpus, directing the jailer to bring him before him, so that the validity of his detention might be tested. 2. All persons charged with treason or felony must be tried at the next sessions after commitment, or else admitted to bail; and if not tried at the second sessions, they must be discharged. 3. No person could be re-committed for the same offence. 4. No person was to be imprisoned beyond sea. 5. Heavy penalties were imposed on those who violated the provisions of the Act.E. PEWTRESS. Curtis's Chronological Outlines. Between whom was the battle of Narva fought, and at what date? - The battle of Narva was fought between the Swedes, under King Charles XII., and the Russians, under Peter the Great, in the year 1704. When were watches first used?-About the year 1577, in the reign of Elizabeth. They were invented at Nurenburg, in Franconia, in Germany. S. G. WILLS. When was Magna Charta signed?-Magna Charta was signed by King John, 19th of June, 1215, at Runnymede, near Staines. It either granted or secured very important liberties and privileges to every order of men in the kingdom-to the clergy, to the barons, and to the people. 1. The privileges granted to the clergy in the preceding February are confirmed by the Great Charter. These were as follows:-the king relinquished for ever that important prerogative for which his father and all his ancestors had zealously contended, yielding to them the free election on all vacancies, reserving only the power to issue a congé d'élire, and to subjoin a confirmation of the election; and declaring that if either of these were withheld, the choice should, nevertheless, be deemed just and valid. 2. The barons were relieved of the chief grievances to which they had been subject by the crown. The "reliefs" of heirs of the tenants in chief, succeeding to an inheritance, were limited to a certain sum, according to the rank of the tenant; the guardians in chivalry were restrained from wasting the lands of their wards; heirs were to be married without disparagement; and widows secured from The next clause was compulsory marriages. still more important, It enacted that no "scutage" or "aid" should be imposed without the consent of the great council of the kingdom, except in the three feudal cases of the king's ransom. the knighting of his eldest son, and the marriage of his eldest daughter; and it provided that the prelates, earls. and greater barons should be summoned to this great council, each by a particular writ, and all other tenants in chief by a genera' summons of the sheriff. All the privileges and immunities, granted to the tenants in chief, were extended to the inferior vassals. The franchises of the City of London and all other cities and boroughs were declared inviolable; and aids in like manner were not to be required of them, except by the consent of the great council. One weight and one measure were extended throughout the kingdom. The freedom of commerce was granted to alien merchants. The Court of Common Pleas was to be stationary, instead of following the king's person. But the essential clauses" of Magna Charta, as Mr. Hallam has well observed, are those "which protect the personal liberty and property of all freemen, by giving security from arbitrary imprisɔnment and arbitrary spoilation." "No freemen shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseized of his freehold, or liberties, or free customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any otherwise destroyed; nor will we pass upon him, nor send upon him, but by lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or de'ay to any man justice or right." These last are the words of the 4th chapter of Henry III's Charter, which is the existing law. They differ only slightly from those in John's Charter.-Student's Hume. E. PEWTRESS. Colour Changes.-Here are some of the best we know: Dissolve about ten grains, a good pinch, of iodide of potassium, sometimes called hydriodate of potash, in pure water-i. e. distilled water; put the solution aside in a wine-glass or phial. Get a chemist to dissolve for you (the operation is not easy) two grains of corrosive sublimate in an ounce of distilled water. He will label it "poison," of course. When this solution is prepared and given into your possession, do not let it out of sight for a single instant, and any portion which may not have been used in your experiment throw away. By adding a solution of iodide of potassium and solution of corrosive sublimate to each other in various proportions, you will get some of the strangest changes of colour imaginable. The tints rapidly vary from all shades, beginning with canary yellow, up to the most lovely carnation; and the formation of each separate colour takes place not irregularly, but in festooned garlands, as if some invisible fairy amused herself by throwing flower garlands into the liquid. Presently, if either of the solutions be added beyond the limit of certain proportions, the mixture suddenly becomes colourless. This beautiful experiment is of more value than that of furnishing a means of chemical amusement. It illustrates to those who are unacquainted with chemistry the method followed by chemists in speaking so confidently as they do about the presence of this or that thing. The beautiful play of colours just supposed to have been produced by mixture of the two agents, iodide of potassium and corrosive sublimate (bichloride of mercury), is yielded by no other agents; consequently, if a certain unknown liquid yields the above tints, as particularised, when tested with iodide of potassium, it is an unknown liquid no longer-it contains corrosive sublimate, or bichloride of mercury. The latter substance is a frightful poison, far more violent than arsenic, but less to be dreaded, notwithstanding-1. For the reason that arsenic is devoid of taste, whereas sublimate has a powerful taste (dip the end of a straw in your solution and taste it), and therefore can hardly be administered by a murderer to his victim; 2. Because there is an antidote for sublimate in the shape of white of egg, mingled with water, which curdles it, and renders it innocuous, whereas there is practically no antidote to arsenic. Again, take a piece of copper-say a cent. or any copper coin-drop a little vinegar upon it, allow the vinegar to remain for a few moments, then finally immerse the coin in some water contained in a wine-glass. However pure the water might have been previously to this operation, it will now be charged more or less with copper. Perhaps the non-chemical experimentalist, unaccustomed to testing, had better make a tolerably strong solution of copper, by taking out the copper coin, smearing it with vinegar, and re-immersing it several times following. Instead of vinegar, aquafortis may be used, and with quicker effect, though vinegar will answer every purpose. Pour in a little solution of prussiate of potash into a portion of the copper solution, and a mahoganyred colour will be evolved. Into a second portion of the copper solution pour in a little hartshorn, and mark the lovely blue colour which is generated. No metal in creation, other than copper, when dissolved and the solution treated by prussiate of potash and hartshorn, successively can yield by the first a mahogany-red or brown colour, by the second a blue colour. Which facts being duly committed to mind, the reader will perceive the method of determining the presence of copper. Usually hartshorn is quite suflicient to the end in question, without the use of prussiate of potash or any other testing. Here is another:- To change Iron apparently into Copper.--If a piece of iron or steel-the blade of a knife, for example -be immersed in a solution of copper, the copper is deposited in the metallic condition upon the iron or steel, and creates the notion in the mind of the observer unacquainted with chemical science, that the result is a case of transmutation. It has no pretensions to be regarded in that light; it is merely the deposition of one metal upon the surface of another. Should you desire to surprise a friend by this sort of transmutation, and surprise him effectually, it will be necessary to operate on a somewhat stronger solution of copper than the one just mentioned. You had better dissolve a drachm of blue vitriol (which is a salt of copper) in a pint of water, which will be enough to furnish a good bath, capacious enough to dip a knife blade into. Depositions of copper will speedily take place, and in a few minutes the iron knife will apparently be transmuted into copper. Copper is a very poisonous metal: it frequently gets into articles of both food and drink, where its presence is highly undesirable. Wherever present in the soluble form, it admits of being discovered by one of the methods indicated above. If the solution be at all strong, the mere immersion of an iron knife blade, well freed from grease, into the liquid, will sufficiently indicate the presence of copper, without having recourse to any further test. ANSWERS REQUIRED. May an attorney's clerk (if qualified) pass an examination for the purpose of becoming an attorney without having been articled? F. J. STAPLES. What varnish is used to varnish coloured photographs? The best book on the use of dumb-bells, and by by whom published? How to take rust off a steel-plate. How to make a galvanic battery? The necessary steps for entering the medical profession, and the expenses of an education at King's College, or other of the medical schools? The best book on Phrenology? The best means of catching pike? E. LUDLOW. What is the best book on natural history? Where can I buy a good cheap electrotyping apparatus, and how to use it? D. J. (Hastings.) How to obtain a midshipman's berth in the Roya Navy-also in the Merchant service-with A SUBSCRIBER. The price of a useful double-barrel gun, and the probable cost of outfit? best maker in London to get one? The lowest price for a camera? ADJUDICATION OF OUR PRIZE ESSAYS. HENRY V. Unavoidably, the adjudication on "Henry V., Shakespeare version." told in prose, has been postponed. An apology is due to the competitors, and we beg leave to offer it. We have a dozen essays, one of the least is the best; we have some ponderous MSS..-heavy enough-weighty, too, no doubt. but what a difference there is between "heavy" and weighty!'-and they tell us all about King Harry in the style of grave historians. Wm. W. Cullwick gives us Shakespeare's Henry V., excellently well told. We give him the prize without hesitation. But W. J. Malden is not to be forgotten. He does well-he writes with even more graphic force than Cullwick, but does not keep it up all through. Master C. wr tes at a good even pace in tone all the way, and that's how to win in the long run. We pass no criticism-except that which is passed in the above remarks-on the other competitors. but we give the names and addresses in our usual W. Robinson, aged 16; Manchester. FIREWORKS. The essays-only two (!) reach us-are both so very defective, that we decline to say anything about them; the writers must try us on some other subjects; if we touch the Fireworks we shall blow them up. ANCIENT CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS. All very good. GOOD! BETTER!! BEST!!! To the Essay of W. B. EASTWOOD we accord the honour of print in the present number; the rest have "honourable mention." J. S. Williams, aged 16. George W. H., aged 16; Toronto, Canada West. John William Parker, aged 15; Dores-street, Borough. Horace Handley O'Farrell. aged 13. John F. E. Dovastin, aged 13; Shrewsbury. OUR PRIZE ESSAYS FOR 1867. During the year, the following subjects will be open to competition : 1. The Rise and Progress of the Sunday School Movement; with remarks on the best Management of Sunday Schools. (Essays to be sent in not later than Feb. 1.) 2. Self-made Men. (Essays to be sent in not later than March 1.) 3. What the Poets have said about May. (Essays to be sent in not later than April 1.) 4. A Map of Europe at the beginning of 1867. (Essays to be sent in not later than June 1.) 5. A Visit to the Crystal Palace described. (Essays to be sent in not later than July 1.) 6. Dreams, all about them-how they are caused, what they mean, or whether they mean anything. (Essays to be sent in not later than August 1.) 7. What have I done with my holidays? (Essays to be sent in not later than Sept. 1.) 8. The True History of Guy Fawkes. (Essays to be sent in not later than Oct. 1) 9. King Charles the First-was he a Martyr? (Essays to be sent in not later than Nov. 1.) No competitor is eligible above the age of eighteen. Every Essay must be written plainly, and on one side of the paper only. The pages should be legibly numbered, and strongly fastened together at the left-hand corner. The name, address, and age of the writer must in all cases be given in full, and written distinctly on the first page of the Essay. A Prize of Books to the value of One Guinea will be presented to the successful competitor. Essays cannot be returned to the writers. LONDON 'PRENTICES. A ROMANCE OF THE DAYS OF BLUFF KING HAL. BY JOHN TILLOTSON, Author of "Stories of the War," "Crimson Pages," "Shot and Shell," "London 66 HOW ART THOU CALLED, AND WHAT IS THY DEGREE?" PROFITING by the disorder consequent man stopped and dismounting, gravely lifted upon the sudden discovery of the royal his plumed hat, and bowed low to the king. presence, Henry, and the horseman who had The stranger was a young man tall of stature saved his life, made their way to the more and well proportioned, with regular and handunfrequented parts of the city. In those some features, a profusion of nut-brown hair, days there led from the Cheap Cross to Wat- with beard and monstache of ample growth. ling Street an unpaved narrow lane, with tall His dress consisted of a short doublet, open and blackened houses on each side, whose in front, displaying a white shirt, embroidered overhanging stories made sunshine a thing of with gold. The doublet, after the fashion of mere report, with superannuated signboards the time, was made very broad at the shoulthat on a windy night creaked and groaned ders, exaggerating what nature had already in their crazy frames as though in mortal made fair and square. The sleeves were puffed agony. It was a lane through which few and slashed, and the doublet was girt at the people cared to pass after nightfall-the waist with a baldrick of gold and black. A watch shirked it; and now, on the Eve of St. dagger was suspended, in a gilded case, from John, when all London seemed at large, there this girdle. He had tight stockings, and a were but two lanterns in the whole length flat cap with a circle of feathers. Altogether of it. he was a proper-looking man, and had the Beneath one of these lanterns the horse- bearing of gentle birth. Certes," said Henry, "I owe my life to your good arm; and, by my troth, I have no cause to be ashamed of my deliverer. The rogue would have made my reign short, and himself a figure in our annals." "The knave was iguorant of your royal person, or he would have held his hand. He belongs to a loyal house. He is in the service of Sir Geoffrey Wansted, and has borne his badge for nearly a score of years." "Art thou of that noble house?" A shade passed over the features of the young man as he answered in the negative. "Nay, I would it were so," he added; "but had we not better hasten to the river? I hear the sound of footsteps." cr Surely, surely," the king answered, "a boat awaits me at Baynard's Castle, Do thou remount; it would call attention to us were we to change places." Obeying the command, the young man remounted, and Henry, walking by his side, conversed freely. "Your name, fair stranger ?" to your Highness-I must be shunned, and counted as an outcast, fit rather to company with the turnspit than to sit at the board of the well born." The king laughed. "Men," said he, "may win for themselves what they were not born to. Gentle deeds may surely rank with gentle birth. Thou hast the makings of a gentleman in thee, or my senses play me false. Come, be of good heart, man. On a king's word, you will yet win spurs, and wear them with the best and bravest." While he was yet speaking the tinkling of bells was heard, like that of the moriscans, and as they entered Thames Street a compauy was seen approaching, but not, as they supposed, of morris-dancers. It consisted of some three or four lacqueys bearing cressets, and followed by two gentlemen on gallant chargers, with a reverend divine of portly aspect bestriding a white mule, whose harness was decorated with a score of small silver bells that tinkled at every step, So unexpected had been the appearance of "I bear the name of Ambrose Quarter- this company to Quartermaine and his royal maine. The knave who attacked your High-companion, that it was impossible to avoid them; and one of the gentlemen, recognising Quartermaine, called out to him,— ness knows more of me than I know of myself. He says 1 bear that name; that my father was a travelling juggler associated with a band of gipsies." "Haply the rascal lies." "Much of his statement is confirmed by my patron, Sir Geoffrey. It was he who adopted me as his son about eighteen years ago." "Sir Geoffrey has no children?" "None living. A few months previous to the fortunate day for me when I was taken from the gipsy band, Sir Geoffrey lost both his wife and infant son in a storm off the French coast. Stricken down by the news of his loss, Sir Geoffrey's life was for a long time despaired of. When he recovered his health a settled melancholy came over him. Passing on his way to London through the gipsy camp, he saw me—my own father dead, and I the uncoveted legacy of the band. He pitied me, bought me for five rose nobles, and made me what I am." "Ay, and by my father's head, he has made of thee a proper gentleman." "Nay, sire, I can never claim that title. Were it known-all that I have detailed "What ho, there, Master Quartermaine! Dost thou not honour the supper at Sir Henry Keble's? Of all men in the world, one would say if report be true-thou shouldst be the last to be absent." "I may be there anon, Sir Michael, but I am in no mood for a revel." "Sad heart, sore heart," quoth the other in a half-mocking tone. "What hath goue wrong?" "Nothing." "And yet we sigh over nothing, and are heavy hearted ?" "I said not so, Sir Michael." "Mass," returned the other; "but it were a shame not to pledge fair Mistress Alice in a wine-cup to-night. I and Sir Miles are bent on doing it; and our good father here, Dr. Bell, will bless the cup.” "And taste it," said the other gentleman. "Misericorde," quoth the priest, "I am no wine-bibber, but I love the taste enow. Gluttony is the only sin tolerable in a clergyman." |