"Bourbon, who was eager in the pursuit of the French, saw him as he passed. Heaven stopped him to receive from the dying lips of Bayart a reproach more terrible than all that the king and parliament had hurled against him. "Ah, Captain Bayart," said he, placing his foot on the ground, "I have always loved you for your great prowess and loyalty, and am greatly grieved to see you in this state!" The worthy chevalier gathering together his spirits, replied in a firm voice," My Lord, I thank you; but it is not for me, who die a good man, serving my king, that your pity is necessary, it is for you who carry arms against your prince, your country, and your faith!" Charles de Bourbon, without answering, mounted his horse, and rode to stifle his remorse in the pursuit of Bonnivet.

The good chevalier remained alone, thinking only of his soul, and after having received the holy viaticum, he began in an intelligible voice this prayer: "Lord God, unworthy as I am, I have confidence in the promise that thou hast made, to receive with mercy the greatest sinner, if his heart shall have returned to Thee. Alas! my Creator and Redeemer, if I have grievously offended Thee during my life, I feel the most lively repentance. I well know that though I should have but bread and water for a thousand years, it would not suffice to enter into Paradise, if, through thy great and infinite goodness, thou didst not please to receive me there. My Father and my Saviour, I beg Thee to forget the faults I have committed, and to listen to me in thy great mercy: pardon me according to the merits of the Holy Passion of thy Son Jesus He could not finish:

his first exclamation, when he was wounded, was the name of Jesus, and in articulating that name, the good chevalier sans peur et sans reproche, breathed his last sigh, the 30th of April, 1524, about six o'clock in the evening.

As soon as he was dead, the gentlemen who were left to protect him, carried him, according to the orders they had received from Pescaire, into the church of the neighbouring town, where a service was performed over him, in which the principal Spanish officers and a part of the army assisted. His body was afterwards given to Jacques Joffrey, his faithful servant, with a safe conduct to carry it into France. In its passage through the territories of Savoy, the Duke rendered it the same honours as would have been given to the remains of a prince of the blood. When it arrived in Dauphiné, the regrets and tears which the news of his death had caused, were renewed with the most lively expression of sorrow. Never in the memory of man had the province exhibited so vehement and universal a grief as that which for many months followed the death of the good chevalier. Prelates and their clergy, nobles and peasants, rich and poor, seemed each to have lost a father or a child.

'His relations and friends went to receive the corpse on the frontier, and carried it from the church to within half a league of Grenoble. There they found the clergy, the parliament, the Cour des Comptes, and an immense concourse of people.

"They accompanied the convoy to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, where for a day and night, services were celebrated with as much grandeur and pomp as if Bayart had been, not the governor, but the sovereign of Dauphine. The good chevalier in dying had directed that his body should be buried at Grenion, in the tomb of his father and mother; but his assembled relations judged it more fit for his station as Lieutenant-General of the

country, to bury him in the Convent of the Minimes de la plaine-lezGrenoble, of which his uncle, the Bishop Laurent Alleman, was the founder. His body, therefore, was carried thither with the same ceremony with which its entrance into the city had been honoured, and placéd under a simple stone, which, in default of any other epitaph, received not even his name.'-pp. 474-478.

This is a highly amusing volume, and we shall be glad to see it followed, as we believe it is intended to be, by the Memoirs of the other great ornaments of chivalry. Unfortunately, however, the life of Bayart was, from the first few years of his career, passed almost entirely in active warfare, and war must always be the same when carried on between kingdoms, whether the times be more or less refined. It would have delighted us to see such a man as the bon chevalier more alone in the picture, defending the cause of virtue and truth with his strong right arm, and appearing as their champion when they were comparatively deserted by all others. But he is here one of a crowd, and the cause for which he fought righteous only by chance. His loyalty and valour were always glowing, but we see no determination to truth and holiness, independent of common soldier-like bravery. He was, however, a man of considerable worth as well as courage, and his life contains many admirable instances of noble self-denial, as well as fortitude and resolution. The shadow even of chivalry has now long passed away, and we are little accustomed to meet with men like Bayart, and the other distinguished chevaliers. They were raised for the age in which they lived. Their humanity shone brightly amid much barbarity; but we should be sorry to see the times come when warriors could be again regarded with the honour they once received, be their supposed humanity great as that of the chevalier sans peur et sans reproche.

ART. III.-Chemical Re-Agents, or Tests; and their Application in Analysing Waters, Earths, Soils, Metalliferous Ores, Metallic Alloys. &c. &c. Originally by F. Accum; improved and brought down to the present state of Chemical Science. By WILLIAM MAUGHAM, Surgeon, Lecturer on Chemistry and Materia Medica, &c. &c. pp. 452. 12mo. London: Tilt. 1828.

THE extensive ramifications of chemical agency through every department of nature and of art, render some knowledge of its principles extremely interesting, if not indispensable, to almost every individual. In the air, in the earth, in the waters, chemical changes are in continual fluctuation, and are manifested in the various phenomena of the weather; the germination, growth, and final decay of vegetables; and in every mouthful we eat or drink, and every breath which we draw. As it regards the arts, on the other hand, chemistry may be looked upon as a magnificent Pharos erected by

the ingenuity of man in the sanctuary of the operations of nature, in order to throw a light over all their details. In this point of view, chemistry is not confined to the elucidation of what is already known, or to the improvement of what is already practised. It daily creates new arts; and within a few years there were pointed out by its means new methods of bleaching cloths; of manufacturing ammoniacal salt, alum, and copperas; of de-composing sea salt for the purpose of extracting soda; of enriching the art of dyeing with new mordants; of forming salt-petre and refining it of composing gunpowder by methods the most certain and expeditious; of reducing the tanning of hides to its genuine principles, and greatly abridging its operations; of improving the extraction and the working of metals; of simplifying the distillation of vinous spirits; of economizing the means of producing and diffusing heat; of establishing the combustion of oil and of gas, and thereby illuminating our streets and our habitations upon new principles; and of furnishing us with expedients to soar aloft in the air, and to consult nature three or four thousand fathoms above the surface of the earth.

Previous to the recent progress of chemistry in reducing the numerous operations of industry to general principles, the arts and manufactures were in some degree the appanage of certain nations, and the property of a few individuals; the most impenetrable secrecy covered every process with the veil of mystery; forms and practices were transmitted as an inheritance from one generation to another. Chemistry has revealed every thing: it has rendered the arts the patrimony of all; and within a short period we have seen the nations by whom this science has been cultivated, enriching themselves by discovering and even improving upon the secret manufactures of their neighbours. The preparations of lead, copper, and mercury, the works in iron, the fabrication of acids and alkalies, the manufacture of stuffs, the printing of colours upon cloths, the composition of crystals, of baked earths, of porcelains, and numerous other arts, have all been unveiled, and are now common property. In this manner, within the last thirty or forty years, has chemistry created numerous branches of industry, improved a still greater number, and made public almost all the processes of the arts.

While we admit, however, that chemistry has rendered such important services-while we hope that it will perform still greater, when its researches, enlightened by the progress of science, shall be more particularly devoted to the details of individual processes,we must also admit that the term Chemistry is but too frequently applied to a spurious sort of knowledge, and Chemist to empirics who cannot explain their own processes. Trusting to such, manufacturers have sometimes ruined their fortunes and reputations.

The manufacturer, indeed, ought to be extremely cautious in regulating his conduct, or in grounding his speculations on the

petty results of the laboratory, or on specious but delusive estimates. Innovations, how advantageous soever they appear, should not be introduced into manufactures, except with the greatest circumspection. Before what exists is changed-before what prospers is altered-before a course of operations is deranged under the idea of improving them, experience ought to have decided the superior advantages of the projected change, and the process should have received the sanction of practice, and even the approbation of the consumers or purchasers. If these prudent and indispensable precautions, which the theorist is pleased to term obstinacy, prejudice, and ignorance, be neglected, the fairest establishment may soon be ruined. The manufacturer wavers for some time in doubt, darkness, and uncertainty; and after expensive trials, he is glad to return to his original method, and to re-establish his reputation on its former basis.

On the other hand, though cautious prudence is commendable, yet we must blame the obstinacy of the manufacturer who rejects, without examination, all the improvements of recent discovery; he who does not endeavour to keep pace with the arts will soon be left behind, his productions will gradually come to be disliked,--he can no longer afford to compete in lowness of price with the adopters of chemical improvement, though, instead of imitating them, he has recourse to censuring their new processes as dangerous innovations.

ages;

As a consequence of such fatal blindness, we have recently witnessed the decay and ruin of establishments which had flourished for and from the same cause we daily witness chemical manufactures emigrating from city to city, and from nation to nation. The manufacturer, it would appear, is therefore placed between two rocks-blind credulity on the one side, tempting him to risk his fortune in hazardous speculations; obstinate mistrust on the other, inciting him to undermine the foundation of his establishment by preventing the introduction of genuine improvements. True wisdom, accordingly, will consist in bestowing due attention on all discoveries, and in making trial of every thing that has the sanction of experience, or the testimony of respectable professional men in its favour.*

The little work before us is well calculated to aid those who are connected with any species of chemical operations, in coming to just practical decisions on a great number of important questions of daily occurrence. It furnishes tests of easy application to detect impurities and adulterations, as well as the per centages of any material, such as pot-ash or soda, in the compound or crude articles of commerce. By the application of the knowledge here afforded, the manufacturer may often make profitable bargains, or be prevented from laying in a worthless supply of materials, and the

VOL. X.

Foureray, Chimie appliquéc aux Ants.

merchant may in the same way turn the chemistry of tests to the most important advantages. In certain departments of the excise also, a work of easy reference like this must greatly facilitate the investigation of the value or genuineness of goods, and be the means of leading to just decisions, in cases where considerable property as well as respectability of character is involved.

Upon another subject highly important to all-that of poisons and poisoning, little can be effected in the way of discovery without an intimate and accurate knowledge of chemical tests; and we cannot select from a more interesting portion of the volume as a specimen of the improvements introduced by Mr. Maugham from recent discovery. We accordingly look up for the most powerful and instantaneous of all poisons, the Prussic acid; but to our utter astonishment we can find no trace of its common appellation, of its more recent name of hydrocyanic acid. Of its compounds we find a few in the contents, but not in the index; but the old and new names are jumbled together with careless negligence. Prussic acid we must therefore abandon, and try whether we may not be more successful with oxalic acid; but though we find a chapter thus headed, it only exhibits the acid as a test for other substances, and no process is given by which itself may be detected. doubt we may infer, that as it forms a good test for lime, reciprocally, lime may be supposed to furnish a test for this acid, though such inferences will not always hold, and in the hands of a young chemist might lead to serious error. Arsenic, he could not possibly omit, though we are by no means satisfied or pleased with the mode in which the tests for this metallic poison are exhibited, as we have to consult four or five places, all distant and dissevered from one another, before we can obtain all the information which the author has thought fit to give us on the subject. From these disjecta membra we shall now quote.

No

The test, (sulphate of copper and ammonia, or, ammoniacal sulphate of copper), which is of a very fine azure blue colour, has long been applied for discovering arsenic, when contained in a liquid. It produces with it a yellowish green precipitate, which, after being separated from the supernatant fluid, dried, and tested with the black flux, yields metallic arsenic. The precipitate is not soluble in water, nor in a solution of arsenious acid, unless added largely in excess; but it is soluble in liquid ammonia, and in nitric and most other acids. The test is now considered as very objectionable, as it has been proved, by Dr. Christeson, to produce a greenish precipitate, with certain animal and vegetable infusions which do not contain arsenic. On the other hand, when arsenious acid has been added, in a small quantity, to tea, porter, and other mixed fluids, this test occasions no precipitate, the arsenite of copper being soluble in tannin, and in some other vegetable as well as animal principles. Examples :--

Into half a wine-glassfull of distilled water, let fall a few drops of the solution of arsenious acid, and add to it a few drops of solution of sulphate of copper and ammonia, a yellowish or pea-green precipitate will ensue,