woollen, or flax, as well as cotton. The material, after being dried in the dark, is exposed to the light with a perforated screen of paper, by which the pattern is formed. Projectors are busy in many places upon the electric light, and some of them are erelong to succeed in producing it. It is one of those things which we must believe only on the soundest demonstration. And to conclude with a fact interesting to all who are interested in books; the Academy of Moral and Political Science of Paris have elected Mr. Macaulay one of their members, and the King of Prussia has made him a knight of his Order of Merit. From the Economist. GERMAN COMMERCE. THE new commercial treaty between Austria and Prussia is to come into force on the 1st of January, 1854, for the term of twelve years; but, immediately after its commencement, commissioners are to be appointed, who shall inquire into the possibility of increasing the facilities of intercourse by the further reduction or total repeal of duties, the object being to prepare the way for a perfect unity of customs even previous to the expiration of the present treaty. The right of becoming parties to this treaty is reserved by Prussia for all the German States that may be members of the Zollverein on January 1, 1854, or subsequently may become so. On the side of Austria the same right is reserved for her Italian territories. On the 23d instant Hanover published her new tariff, which is to come into force from the 1st of March, preparatory to the incorporation of the Hanoverian Steuerverein and the Prussian Zollverein on the 1st of January, 1854. By the same edict Hamburg has ceased to be a free harbor. solitary exception of Mecklenburg, there will be practically one Customs Union. There is now no difficulty in the way of reöpening the conferences for the renewal of the Zollverein with the accession of the Steuerverein; and it is easy to foresee that the States of the Darmstadt coalition will this time offer no unnecessary obstacles to their own readmission. By the agreement of Austria on the south with Prussia on the north, their own flank is turned, they are outmanoeuvred, and their adhesion becomes a matter of almost geographical necessity. PRINCIPLES AND EFFECTS NOT PATENTABLE. -The Supreme Court of the United States at its late session decided that principles, or a new power, or new results, cannot be patented, but only the processes by which the new result is obtained. Judge McLean, in announcing the opinion of a majority of the Court, said :— The word principle is used by elementary writers on patent subjects, and sometimes in adjudications of courts, with such a want of precision in its application as to mislead. It is admitted that a principle is not patentable. A principle in the abstract is a fundamental truth, an original cause, a motive; these cannot be patented, as no one can claim in either of them an exclusive right. Nor can an exclusive right exist to a new power, should one be discovered the agency of machinery a new steam power may in addition to those already known. Through be said to have been generated, but no one can appropriate this power exclusively to himsel under the patent laws. The same may be said of electricity, and of any other power in nature, which is alike open to all, and may be applied to useful purposes by the use of machinery. In all such cases the processes used to extract, modify, and concentrate natural agencies constitute the invention. The elements of the power exist; the invention is not in discovering them, Seldom has so comprehensive a treaty been but in applying them to the useful objects. concluded between any two powers as this Whether the machinery used be novel, or consist between Austria and Prussia, not only affect of the inventor is secured against all who use the of a new combination of parts known, the right ing import, export, and transit duties, but also same mechanical power, or one that shall be subinternal and coast navigation, railroad traffic, stantially the same. A patent is not good for an douane at the frontiers, and reciprocal protec-effect or the result of a certain process, as that tion to the subjects of both crowns at the hands of the consuls of either power; even a common coinage and identical weights and measures belong now to the number of possibly attainable acquisitions. It is the first real step towards German unity, or anything approaching to hearty and sincere coöperation, since the dark and melancholy days of Napoleon's tyranny. After the lapse of this year the whole centre of the continent of Europe will be united in one solidarite of commercial and fiscal regulations, if not of interests; from the plains of Lombardy on the south to the coasts of the Baltic and the North Sea, with the would prohibit all other persons from making the same thing by any means whatever. This, by creating monopolies, would discourage arts and manufactures against the avowed policy of the patent laws. A new property, discovered in matter, when practically applied in the construction of a useful article of commerce or manufacture, is patent able, but the process through which the new property is developed and applied must be stated mechanic to construct and apply the necessary with such precision as to enable an ordinary process. This is required by the patent laws of England and of the United States, in order that when the patent shall run out the public may know how to profit by the invention. From the Spectator. I discovered and named Prince of Wales Land. KENNEDY'S SECOND VOYAGE OF THE The journey extended over two degrees of PRINCE ALBERT.* latitude and ten of longitude-72°, 74° north latitude, 90° to 100° west longitude. THE principal feature of this volume is a Mr. Kennedy's residence in America has winter beyond the Arctic circle, and a foot given to his style somewhat of the forced journey of some eleven hundred miles over vivacity which distinguishes the penman of land and frozen seas in the spring, which in the New World. Yet his narrative really that region is equivalent to winter. The ex- makes the hardships and merit of the advenpeditions in search of Franklin, fitted out by turous journey appear less than they must government, have been directed to explore the have been. In Europe, a man who should seas and islands to the westward or the lands undertake to walk a thousand miles in two and channels to the northward of Barrow's months, in the fine weather, would look upon Strait. It appears to have been considered by it as a feat. In this Arctic journey, six men Lady Franklin and her friends, that the land and five dogs dragged or carried amongst them on the south side of the Strait might perchance about two thousand pounds' weight (which, furnish some traces of Sir John and his hardy however, continually diminished by conband, and that it ought to be thoroughly ex- sumption), slept in snow-houses, encamping plored. The first expedition undertaken for five or six nights upon frozen seas, almost through her personal exertions and influence dependent upon their own stores for their had that end in view, but did not succeed, means of subsistence, and went without fire apparently from some dissatisfaction in the when they halted for a day to recruit. Yet crew. With affectionate pertinacity, Lady it is only when something extraordinary Franklin was not discouraged by the Prince happens that we hear of any difficulty-such Albert's return, but resolved to despatch that as snow-storms, snow-blindness, frost-bites, little fairy yacht of ninety tons a second time. or scurvy-and then as a fact, not as a Mr. Kennedy, who appears to have had expe- complaint; while a misadventure becomes a rience of northern regions in Canada and the matter of mirth. Hudson's Bay Territory, was appointed to the The gale of Saturday (28th February) concommand; and M. Bellot, a young French naval officer, joined the expedition as volun- tinuing during three days, we were of necessity compelled to remain in camp. During a short teer, and acted as lieutenant. interval on the 2d of March, the weather apNot much of interest, beyond that of a com-pearing to get more moderate, we were enabled mon northern voyage, occurred till their to return for what cargo had been left behind arrival in Prince Regent's Inlet, where they during our former trip. It was taken onward as wintered in Batty's Bay. The vessel was too far as we dared, and we returned to the camp small and the crew too few in number to ad- against a wind so keen that no face escaped mit of the varied amusements and literary being frost-bitten- the strong wind in this inundertakings which serve to employ the time stance being the cause, rather than the degree in the larger expeditions. Their only diver- of temperature, for this was comparatively modOn the morning of the 3d, a lull of an sion was an organ, the gift of Prince Albert; erate. but they were so fully occupied in preparing hour or so enticed us to bundle up and lash our for their overland excursion and forming depots sleigh. No sooner had we done this and proceeded a short distance than the gale came on along their proposed route, that time can with redoubled fury; in consequence of which scarcely be said to have hung heavy on their hands. On the 25th of February they started we had to hasten back to our snow retreat, and were glad enough to have been still so near a from head-quarters; but such were the ob- shelter when caught by it, as we had much diffistacles from the weather, especially snow-culty in keeping on our feet from the violence of storms, that they did not arrive at Fury Beach the whirling eddies, that came sweeping along till the 5th of March, having been detained an exposed headland near us. Such was the for a whole week in an encampment of snow-force of the wind, that column after column of houses. It was the latter end of March before whirling spray was raised by it out of a continuthey were able to take their grand departure, ous lane of water, more than a mile broad, which and they did not return to the ship till the the present gale had opened out along the coast, 30th of May. During their peregrinations at the distance of only a few yards from our As these successive colthey had explored three sides of North Som- present encampment. erset, and a large portion of the block of lands umns were lifted out of the water, they were beyond it, whose coast Captain Ommaney had borne onward with a speed scarcely less rapid than the "wings of the wind" itself. Whilst detained here we narrowly escaped being buried by an infant avalanche. A hardened mass of snow of several tons in weight having been disengaged from the summit of the cliff above us by the sweeping winds, came rolling down with a noise that told fearfully of its approach. In its descent A Short Narrative of the Second Voyage of the Prince Albert in Search of Sir John Franklin. By William Kennedy, Commanding the Expedition. Published by Dalton. † Spectator, 1851. Snow's " Voyage of the Prince Albert." it carried along with it several fragments of rock that lay in its path; and at length, being able to advance no farther, lodged itself within a few yards of our present dwelling, after ploughing up a bed for itself in the hard-packed snow before it, and doing us no other harm than scattering a few harmless masses of snow about the base of our encampment; which brought forth the words from one of our party, "Come, boys, let us run," to the no small merriment of the rest. This is a picture of rest on an Arctic tramp. Wednesday, 13th [April.]— Still snowing, and the weather very thick; which, added to our snow-blindness, compelled us to camp at two P. M., after making a very inconsiderable distance from our last encampment. 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th. After several abortive attempts to make head against the storm, found ourselves compelled to remain where we were. Although the loss of so much valuable time was a subject of much regret to us all, the relief from exposure to the glare of the snow was of great benefit to those affected with snow-blindness. the old stores of the Fury (at Fury Beach), which we found not only in the best preservation, but much superior in quality, after thirty years of exposure to the weather, to some of our own stores, and those supplied to the other Arctic expeditions. This high state of preservation, I cannot help attributing in some measure to the strength and thickness of the tins, in which the preserved meats, vegetables, and soups had been placed. The flour had all caked in passed through a sieve before it was fit for the solid lumps, which had to be reground and cook's hands. In other respects it was fresh and sweet as ever, and supplied us with a stock of excellent biscuit. From the Examiner, 19th March. SELF-CRIMINATION. WE had not the opportunity last week of noticing Lord Brougham's able argument for the abolition of the absurd rule of evidence, protecting a witness against self-crimination. No doubt there was a time when this law served a high purpose, more than atoning for its inconveniences in other respects. It was bar to torture, when fears might have been entertained of its revival, or of resort to it upon extraordinary occasion. The application of the question was rendered impossible by the maxim, Nemo se ipsum tenetur inculpare. During this detention, and, indeed, on all other occasions of a similar nature throughout the journey, we restricted ourselves to one meal a day, and, to save fuel, ate our biscuit or pem-a mican with snow or ice instead of water; and by this means were enabled to make twenty-five days' provision and fuel last thirty-five. The luxury of a cup of hot tea — and it was a luxury which we would not have exchanged for the wealth of But that use, however excellent in its time, Ophir was reserved for our marching-days. has long passed away, and the rule has surThe flame of a gill and a half of spirits of wine vived its only virtue. Latterly it has been was sufficient to boil a pint of tea for each of our defended on the plea of its humanity to the party; and this quantity was duly measured out offender, for whom a law is demanded by lawwith the most scrupulous exactitude every morn-yers, like the law, in sporting phrase, accorded ing and evening for breakfast and tea, except- to game or to the fox, which is not to be put ing of course the banian days of our detention. to death except by the hounds, after a chase The thermometer at noon indicated +22 ; a conducted according to certain rules. Detecttemperature which, to our sensations, was abso-ing a culprit out of his own mouth has been lutely oppressive. One of our dogs, through regarded by lawyers as knocking a fox on the over-exertion combined with the unusual heat, head is looked upon by squires, or as shooting fainted in his traces, and lay gasping for breath a pheasant sitting, or a hare in its form, is to for a quarter of an hour, but after recovering a sportsman. Law is claimed for these creawent on as merrily as ever. These faithful creatures as for culprits, who must not be made to tures were perfect treasures to us throughout criminate themselves. The absurdity of this the journey. They were all suffering like our- rule was thus ably exposed by Lord Brougham : selves from snow-blindness, but did not in the least relax their exertions on this account. The Esquimaux dog is, in fact, the camel of these Northern deserts; the faithful attendant of man, and the sharer of his labors and privations. When a witness was produced in court, for what purpose was he produced? For the purpose of investigating the truth in the trial of the issue between the parties, or in the trial of the guilt or innocence of the parties. It was for the sake of The travellers were greatly assisted by the truth to further the ends of justice, and to obtain depots of provisions left by former expeditions from his testimony a knowledge of the truth, at Cape Walker and along the coast of Re-that the witness was called. Well, then, how gent's Inlet, especially the early one of Sir James Ross. The articles were in capital condition-better, in fact, than the later provisions. This Mr. Kennedy attributes to the cases; we should rather ascribe it to the contents- -"cheap and nasty" was not a principle of general action thirty years ago. We had helped ourselves very liberally from did the objection to his giving this evidence cause a witness, said, "I cannot answer that question, for it will tend to criminate me." He felt bound to say, however, that until they were prepared to alter the law a great deal more, and to say that it should be part of their system to think the clause proposed by his noble and learned friend could by possibility become the law of the land. If it was the law that a person charged with picking a pocket had a right to say, "You are not to ask me such questions; I will answer nothing; prove the charge if you can ;" would it not be a strange anomaly if they evaded that law by calling the accused person as a witness in some other proceeding? He (the lord chancellor) was perfectly ready to concur with his noble and learned friend in any. reasonable inquiry as to whether the law ought to be altered-whether the rule of law, "Nemo tenetur seipsum inculpare," was or was not a correct principle; but he thought it would be impossible to consent to a clause enabling them to call upon a person to answer, as a witness, questions which, if a direct charge were made against him, he could not be called upon to answer. terial to enlighten the court-admitting that the truth was to be got at by the answer given to that question, he had a right to go further, and to assume that the truth could not be got at without an answer being given to that question. But the law said the witness was ex-interrogate prisoners upon charges, he did not empted from answering, because he said that the answer he might give might, peradventure, criminate himself. Assuming all the difficulties, anomalies, and uncertainties of the law-admitting for the present that the answer was right, "I will not answer that question because it is a question which may tend to criminate myself," "-he (Lord Brougham) would remind their lordships that the court was not to be satisfied that the question would criminate the witness. If the witness thought it would criminate him, that was enough; nay, if he said so, it was enough. The interest of the parties to the cause was put entirely out of view. They could not have their cause tried because a man on whom, by his own showing, suspicion rested, chose to say he would not give evidence. A man might be tried - his property, his liberty, his life, might be in jeopardy that which many men valued more than life, his reputation, might be at stake; a witness might be put into the box to swear away his estates, his liberty, his life, his character, and might have committed the most atrocious offences, yet that man so to be tried for the sake of his property, his liberty, his life, his character, was not suffered by the law, by the humanity and evenhanded justice of the law, to ask a question to ascertain whether the witness were a miscreant, utterly incredible, or were a person perfectly honest, honorable, trustworthy, and worthy of belief. And why? To protect the witness? No; it was said, no. witness was prevented from giving evidence, because people would not give evidence if they were to expose themselves to the risk of being detected and discovered. The evidence of a man who had committed an offence might be very valuable in a cause in other respects where he had no interest; it might be very fit to examine him for the ends of justice, but, at all events, if he were ever so untrustworthy and the more so the better for the argument-the stronger the reason for excluding that cross-examination the tendency and inevitable effect of which must be to destroy his evidence. The law abhorred the trial of collateral issues, but there was a worse thing than trying a collateral issue, and that was deciding without the issue being tried. The We must confess that we are not satisfied with Lord Cranworth's objection to Lord Brougham's proposal to abolish this preposterous rule of evidence. He entirely concurred in the feeling which had prompted his noble and learned friend to endeavor to devise some mode of getting out of that difficulty; for, in common, he was sure, with all who had been in the habit of attending courts of justice, or of taking part in the proceedings in such courts, he (the lord chancellor) had continually been shocked by the certainty that injustice was done, and truth was excluded, be Now, we cannot recognize the good sense of continuing this bad rule in the five cases out of six, of witnesses, because in the sixth case of a prisoner on trial, it would seem anomalous that the interrogation allowed in the other instances should not be permissible. It would surely be desirable to get rid of a rule adverse to the ends of justice in the examination of witnesses, though it may not be practicable to abolish it in the smaller class of cases of persons in the dock. But, after all, it is odd defending criminals against question as to enough that the law which so stickles for their offence, yet cominences its proceedings by asking them whether they are guilty, or not guilty; but of course with full license of mendacity in their reply. And, according to the old law, the prisoner was liable to severe pains if he refused to plead; so that the alternative of the law was either that he should criminate himself to the fullest extent, or resort to a lie in order that the proceedings for the discovery of the truth might have their course. An auspicious commencement, truly, for such an end! Further, Lord Cranworth remarked: Although he (the lord chancellor) felt, with his noble and learned friend, that this was a matter which ought to be looked into, and although he regretted the discreditable scenes which were sometimes witnessed in courts of justice, he regarded with very considerable apprehension any system which would create a sort of rival dexterity among different judges as to examining a prisoner, and entrapping him into some admission that would implicate him. This was a mode of proceeding which every one who had attended foreign courts of justice must frequently have observed; but he thought it was a system more unpleasant to witness than the occasional escape from justice of persons accused under our laws. This seems to us to be arguing from the abuse against the use. The judicial office abroad is not of the dignity it is of in this country. And a corresponding difference of conduct and demeanor is found in the functionaries, especially in France, where the majority of judgeships rank far below the police magistracy of this country. But even with our neighbors, in the higher judicial stations, the scenes to which Lord Cranworth alludes are rare and exceptional; and, objectionable as they are, we cannot agree with the chancellor that the escape of guilt is preferable to exhibitions of judicial indecorum. And it is really not to the law, but to national temperament, that is to be referred the unseemly exhibitions in the interrogation of criminals in France; for the same cause that gives to discussions between our mercurial neighbors the appearance of a quarrel, accounts for the vehemence and passion of the bench, in extorting the self-betrayal of prisoners. It is not English law that would make the generality of French judges staid and demure, nor would French law make our bench eager, warm, and fiercely disputatious with the prisoner. M. DE BUCH. THE following is a translation of an affecting letter from the veteran Baron Alexander Humboldt to Sir Roderick Murchison- the original of which has been kindly communicated by Sir Roderick to us. It conveys intelligence which will be heard with great regret in the scientific world of England. - Mines. We were together in Italy, in Switzer- he was a man of noble soul. This beautifully-printed volume comprises, with one or two exceptions, all Mr. Downing's editorial papers in the Horticulturist, and is as important a contribution to the literature of rural taste as any of his previous works. After the completion of his "Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening," his "Cottage Residences," and his "Fruit and Fruit Trees of North America," which have done so much to impart a new charm to country life, and to beautify the face of the land, Downing devoted himself more to the details of rural reform. In the monthly numbers of his journal he gave his many readers hints on green-houses and flowerBerlin, March 4, 1853. gardens, the drapery of cottages, lawns, vineThat I should be destined I, an old man of yards, hedges and ornamental trees, country eighty-three-to announce to you, dear Sir churches and country school-houses-public Roderick, the saddest news that I could have to parks and cemeteries, and all other matters in convey;- to you for whom M. De Buch pro- which his cultivated taste detected the want of fessed a friendship so tender and to the many improvement. We consider these papers models admirers of his genius, his vast labors, and his in their way. Downing never dwells long enough noble character! Leopold De Buch was taken upon any topic to exhaust or to fatigue the reader. from us this morning by typhoid fever - -so He made his suggestions as they occurred to him violent in its attack that two days only of dan-in his rambles. His object was to point out how ger warned us. He was at my house so lately as the 26th [ult.], despite the snow and the distance between us talking geology with the most lively interest. That evening he went into society; and on Sunday and Monday (the 27th and 28th) he complained of a feverish attack, which he believed to be caused by a large chilblain swelling from which he had suffered for years. The inflammation required the application of leeches-but the pain and the fever increased. He was speechless for thirty-eight hours. . . . . He died surrounded by his friends -most of whom knew nothing of his danger till Wednesday evening, the 2nd of March. He and I were united by a friendship of sixtythree years; a friendship which never knew interruption. I found him, in 1791, in Werner's house in Freiberg, when I entered the School of a countryman should do justice to the land on which he lived, and make himself a home in conformity with the character of the landscape which surrounded him. We think this publication as opportune as it is valuable. The readers of the Horticulturist, familiar with these papers, will be pleased to have them in this shape, and thousands of others, attracted by Downing's reputation and his melancholy fate, will read them, and, we hope, attempt to carry out the excellent advice they contain. This collection is edited by Mr. George William Curtis, who has added a pleasing memoir of Mr. Downing. Miss Bremer's letter to Mr. Downing's friends, also printed in this volume, is a warm tribute to his character. N. Y. E. Post. |
