XXII. J'n'en dis pas davantage, &c., &c. XXII. "So now no more I'll tell you Mironton, mironton, mirontaine- After all, there is something irresistibly serio-comic in these details, and an Englishman can afford to laugh at the little domestic arrangements with which the valiant soldiers are described as solacing themselves, after performing the last rites of sepulture, and singing the praises of Malbrook. This song has an additional interest, from the fact that it was a great favourite with Napoleon; and it is said that, when mounting his horse to go to battle, he was in the habit of humming "Malbrook s'en va-t-en guerre." But he sang it in no spirit of mean disparagement. The soul of the great captain knew too well how to honour and appreciate a kindred spirit. Talking, a short time before his death, with the Count de las Casas, the conversation happened to turn on Marlborough, of whom he spoke in terms of eulogy and respect; and then, remembering his favourite chanson, he smiled, and said "Voilà pourtant ce que c'est que le ridicule; il stigmatise tout jusqu' a la victoire;" upon which he hummed the first couplet for the last time in his life. The amatory songs of the French are beyond all number, and their character and merits take an equally wide range. Some of them are sportive, fluent, and graceful; while others, and they comprise a very large average, are mediocre enough, and often too licentious for our better tastes; but what can you expect when one year brings forth a hundred thousand songs. Here is a little ballad, which is in great estimation amongst the Parisians; though I cannot say it is faultless, still it is thoroughly French. The air is a sweet one, and said to have been composed by Lulli; and it has gained additional celebrity in consequence of the charming variations written to it by Boyeldieu. Now, Anthony, I will give you a song with a moral in it, as I think I hear you protest that there is very little of that sort of thing in "Au clair de la lune.” This has, in my opinion, grace, sprightliness, and point in it, and smacks of the style of our own unrivalled lyrist. Alas! who shall touch his lyre when the hand of the master is cold in the grave! VOYAGE DE L'AMOUR ET DU TEMPS. I. A voyager passant sa vie, II. De l'autre côté, sur la plage, III. L'Amour gaiment pousse au rivage, Il dit et redit dans ses chants: IV. Mais tout à coup l'Amour se lasse; LOVE AND TIME. I. Old Time one day, while on his way, In journeying through the world for ever, A deep and swiftly rolling river. II. Thus while he cried across the tide, In a light skiff that Love was steering. "Full often have young maids, alas! III. Love seized his oar, and for the shore, Close to whereOldTime stands complaining. His light skiff o'er the waters dancing; And thus he chaunts, while still advancing, "Mark you well, each lad and lass, Love alone can make Time pass." IV. But Young Love's strength gives way at length, And cries "Poor child, your tired and ailing. 'Be wise and learn, each lad and lass So much for love songs. And now in conclusion you shall have something that is an over-true picture of the life of many a young Parisian-gay, poor, and reckless-taking the world as it comes; to-day sipping his café au lait, and sing. ing his song amongst the "Enfans de Caveau," or at the "Societé des Lapins," or "des Oiseaux;" to-morrow shooting an archbishop from behind the barricades, or dancing in midnight orgies in the Luxembourg or the Louvre. The verses are good, and such as Beranger might own to without a blush, though they are not his. VII. Un grand homme a dit dans son livre, VII. All is good, as some wise writer says, And just take time and things as they come. Now, dear Anthony, there is philosophy as well as fun in this ballad, and it is a Frenchman's view of life thoroughly; he will go singing through the world as long as he has a sous in his pocket; and while he has a song and his eau sucré you cannot utterly break his spirit. As one of their own writers has said— "Quand on chante, si l'on n'est pas heureux on croit l'être, et c'est beaucoup." Let us, too, do them justice. If they can all sing, a great many of them can do more. In all the arts and sciences that civilize life and advance humanity, they hold places as high as any other. They are polite, hospitable, and goodnatured-agreeable companions, and by no means bad friends. And I would now part with them in all amity, with the sincere hope that the day is not far distant when they shall enjoy the blessings of a stable constitution, a rational liberty, and a fraternization that will aim at something more fraternal than cutting each other's throats. To Anthony Poplar, Esq. Ever your's, dear_Anthony, JONATHAN FREKE SLINGSBY. SECOND SCIENTIFIC BALLOON ASCENT OF MM. BARRAL AND BIXIO. HAVING given in our last number a brief notice of the scientific aerial voyage made by MM. Barral and Bixio from the garden of the Observatory of Paris, and commented on the circumstances which rendered it abortive, and well nigh brought a serious disaster on these enterprising savans, some account of another attempt, with a like object, since made by the same individuals, will not be unacceptable to our readers. In our last number we showed the extreme imprudence committed in venturing to traverse the upper regions of the air without that experience in the management of an agent of transport so peculiar, which would have given some guarantee for their safety. The balloon selected for that occasion, if the word selected can be properly used, was a worn-out, threadbare vehicle, having scarcely strength enough to hold itself together; the consequence of which was, that when it rose into the more rarified strata, it burst in two places, letting the voy agers fall to the earth with a frightful rapidity. Nothing could have saved them but the most admirable self-possession and courage. Two mistakes committed on that occasion were forcibly pointed out by all who heard and read the narrative of their expedition-first, that of venturing in a frail and inefficient vehicle; and secondly, that of refusing to be accompanied by a practised aeronaut. It will scarcely be credited, after the disaster which they had so narrowly escaped, that they should again repeat both these errors. On the present occasion they actually selected the very same worn-out, threadbare, frail vehicle, and chose the same individual to superintend its preparation and inflation. The result, as will be seen, was pretty nearly what might have been expected; and, although the present voyage was not quite so abortive as the last, the adventurous voyagers failed to realise their programme, and encountered the same incident. It is understood that overtures were made to one or more of the persons who have recently been engaged in making balloon ascents in Paris as a spectacle. It so happened that there was an unusual choice of those persons, as within the last few weeks three or four balloons per week ascended from different places in and near the French metropolis. The aeronauts who were applied to, however, declined the proposition, unless they were allowed to accompany the savans in person. These conditions being refused, MM. Barral and Bixio were thrown back upon M. Dupuis-Delcourt, who supplied the balloon and superintended it on the former occasion. It was agreed that this balloon should be patched and refitted, and that, to give it greater buoyancy, instead of inflating it with the common carburetted hydrogen fabricated by the gas companies, pure hydrogen gas should be made on the spot for it. All the necessary preparations being made, it was resolved that the ascent should take place on the morning of Friday, the 26th ult.; but the weather proving unfavourable, the ascent was postponed to the next day. The balfoon had been taken to the Observatory, however, and the necessary apparatus for the production of pure hydrogen gas established in the gar den. On the morning of Saturday, the 27th, the sun rose in unclouded splendour, and everything portended favourably for the day. Orders were immediately given for the inflation, which was accordingly commenced at 6 A.M., but was not completed until 1 P.M. In the meanwhile, however, the firmament became overcast with a dense pluviose cloud, and rain fell in torrents. Everything indicated a tempestuous afternoon. Under these circumstances, grave doubts were raised as to whether the ascent should take place; but to this the intrepid and adventurous savans responded, that so far from seeing in the atmospheric condition causes for the postponement of the intended measure, they discovered more reasons than ever for its prosecution. What was the object of the project? Was it not to penetrate into the region of the clouds, and to obtain a close view of the stupendous apparatus in which the tempest and the tornado, the thunder, the lightning, and the rain, are elaborated; to dis cover the pencil with which the rainbow is painted, and the torch with which the meteor is lighted; and if there were grounds for hoping that circumstances might arise which would not only place them in the midst of the theatre of this vast machinery, but that they might have the good fortune to witness it actually at work, to catch, so to speak, nature in the fact, flagranti delicto, was not this to be regarded as a still stronger incentive to the execution of their design rather than a reason for its postponement? These considerations prevailed, and in spite of the state of the heavens the ascent was resolved on. To the inferior orifice of the balloon was attached a cylindrical sleeve of silk, about thirty feet in length, which was left open to let the gas freely escape during the ascent, so as to prevent, as was supposed, the balloon from being ruptured by any failure of the valve. The car was suspended at about thirteen feet below the end of this sleeve, and consequently about forty. three feet below the balloon. The instruments were suspended round an iron ring, which was attached to the usual wooden hoop to which the car is attached. The form of this iron ring was such that the instruments were placed in the most convenient position for the observers. These instruments were as follows: First-Two siphon barometers, gra duated on the tubes, in which the superior maniscus was only to be observed, the position of the inferior maniscus being given by a table constructed from direct observations made in the Laboratory. To each of these barometers a centigrade thermometer was attached. Secondly-Three thermometers, to which arbitrary scales were attached, the signification of the numbers of which were known only to M. Regnault, who constructed them. These were fixed to a metallic plate at a distance of about two inches asunder. The tube of the first was, as usual, left clean; that of the second was blackened with smoke; and that of the third was covered with a cylinder of polished silver, which also covered a portion of the tube. The bulbs of all these were cylinders, whose diameters were small compared with their length. Imme. diately below the reservoirs on the |
