Notes On Literature Science And Art.

civilisation and art—to claim admiration for much that they despised , and a broader , more tolerant , and more genial interpretation of nature ancl life than they would have allowed . " Mr . Thomas Hutchinson , in his Ten Years' Wanderings among the Ethiopians , ivith Sketches of the Manners and Customs of the Civilized aud Uncivilized Tribes , from Senegal to Gaboon , gives the

following account of " a reprisal execution" which he witnessed at Bonny , by getting ashore soon in the morning , and secreting himself about the place where he heard it was about to take place . We quote this horrid tale to show what work there is for us in the

world if ( as every true Mason must ) we wish to leave the world better than we found it . Even supposing , for charity ' s sake , that Mr . Hutchinson was mistaken with regard to the cannibalism of the poor degraded people ( though we are afraid he was not ) , there yet remains proofs of bloodthirstiness more becoming tigers than the human race . But to our tale : — "As I looked through the slit in the Avail on tho space between my place of concealment and the

ju-ju house , I observed no change from its appearance the evening before . No gibbet , nor axe , nor gallows , nor rope—no kind of preparation , nothing significant of death , save the skulls in the pillars of ju-ju house , that seemed leering at me with an expression at once strange and vacant . It would have been a relief in the awful stillness of the place to have heard something of what I had read of the preparations for an execution in Liverpool or London—of the hammering

suggestive of driving nails into scaffold , drop , or coffin—of a crowd gathering round the place before early dawn—and of the solemn tolling of the boll that chimed another soul into eternity . Everything seemed as if nothing beyond the routine of daily like Avere to take place . Could it be that I had been misinformed—that the ceremony was adjourned to another time , or was to he carried out elsewhere ? No . A distant murmur of gabbling voices was heard

approaching nearer and nearer , till , passing the corner house on my left , I saw a group of negroes . An indiscriminate crowd of all ages ancl both sexes , so huddled together that no person whom I could particularly distinguish as either executioner or culprit was visible amongst them . But above their clattering talk came the sound of a clanking chain that made me shudder . They stopped in the middle of the square opposite the ju-ju houseancl ceased

, talking . One commanding voice uttered a single word , and clown they sat upon the grass , forming a circle round two figures , standing upright in the centre— -the executioner and the man about to be killed . The former was remarkable only by the black skull-cup which he had on him , ancl by a common cutlass ivhich he held in hand . Tho latter had chains round his neck , his wrists , and his ankles . There was no sign of fear or cowardice about him—no

¦ seeming consciousness of the dreadful fate before him—no evidence , even upon his face , of that dogged stubbornness which is said to be exhibited hy some persons about to undergo an ignominious death . Save that he stood upright , one would scarcely have known that he was alive . Amongst the spectators , too , there was a silent impassiveness which was appalling . Not a word , nor gesture , nor glance of sympathy , that could make me believe I looked at beings who liad a vestige of humanity amongst them . As the ju-ju butcher

stepped backed and measured his distance to make an effectual swoop at his victim ' s neck the man moved not a muscle , but stood as if he were unconscious—till—chop ! the first blow felled him to the ground . The noise of a chopper falling on meat is familiar to most people . No other sound was here—none from the man , not a whisper nor a murmur from thoso who were seated about ! I was nearly crying out in mental agony , and the sound of that first stroke will haunt my ears to my ding day . How I wished

y some one to talk or scream , to destroy the impression of that fearful hough , and the still more awful silence that followed it . Again the weapon was raised to continue the decapitation—another blow as she man lay prostrate , ancl then a sound broke the silence ! But , oh , Father of Mercy ! of what a kind was that noise—a gurgle ancl gasp accompanying the dying sjiasvn of the struck-down man . Once more the weapon was lifted— I saw the blood flow in gory horror down the blade to the butcher ' s hand , and there it was

visible in God ' s bright sunshine to the whole host of heaven . Not a word had yet been uttered by the crowd . More chopping and cleaving , and the head , severed from . tho body , was put , by the ju-ju executioner , into a calabash , which was carried off by one of his women to he cooked . He then repeated another calabastic word , perhaps the same as at first , and directly all who were seated rose up , whilst he walked away . A yell , such as reminded me of a company of tigers , arose from the multitude—cutlasses were

flourished as they crowded round the body ofthe dead man—sounds of cutting and chopping arose amidst tiie clamour of the voices , and I began to question myself whether , if I were on the other side of the river Styx , I should see what I was looking at here through

the little slit in the wall of my hiding place ?—A crowd of human vultures gloating over the headless corse of a murdered brother negro—boys and girls walking away from the crowd , holding- pi ' sces of bleeding flesh in their hands , while the dripping life-fluid -narked their road as they went along ; and one women snapping from the hands of another—both of them raising their voices in clamoura part of the body of that poor man , in whom the breath of life was vi not a quarter of an hour ago ! The whole of the

gourous body was at last divided , ancl nothing left behind hut the blood . The intestines were taken away to be given to an iguana—the Bonnyman ' s tutelary guardian . But the blood was still here , in glistening pools , though no more notice was taken of it by the gradually dispersing crowd , than if it- were a thing as common in that town as Heaven ' s bright dew is elsewhere .

Dr . Karl Scherger , in the first volume of his Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate " Novara , " gives an account of the vine disease in Maderia , ivhich will be interesting to those of our readers who like a glass of good wine , wi * h ripe grapes for dessert , as who does not ? The doctor says : — " Though the ield of the vine had been decreasingyear after

y , year , for a considerable time , yet the actual vine disease only made its appearance in 1852 , when the leaves ancl fruit ivere covered with a kind of fungus ( O'idium Tuclceri ) like a white dust . The Portuguese Government sent a commission for the purpose of investigating the causes of the calamity . The report is not decisive on the point , whether the fungus is the real cause or only a symptom of the diseasenor does it offer advice as to how it he checked .

, any may Dr . Hermann Schacht , who resided during a period of eighteen months in the island , and has published a valuable treatise , states that the vine-disease appears there in the same form as in Germany , even as regards the season , which is soon after the blossom disappears . At first the young leaf is covered with a whitish matter , chiefly on its lower side ; it then assumes a crumpled appearance , becomes spotted , and at last decays . The young diseased grape

likewise becomes covered with a white dust , at first partially , ancl then entirely , the green skin by degrees assuming a brown colour , the grape increasing at the same time in size , until it is as large as a currant , or a small cherry , when it becomes black , ancl perishes together with its diseased - . stock . In this decayed condition the grapes remain on the vine till late in the Autumn . Dr . Schacht was successful in arresting the progress of the disease in its earlier stagesby washing all parts of the plant with a solution ; consisting

, of one part of glue to sixteen parts of water ; an operation which had heen likewise performed with good effect in the Royal hothouses of Sans-souci in Prussia . He rubbed the leaves ancl grape infected by the fungus with this solution , and , where possible , clipped the grapes in it . The solution very soon dried , and gave grapes ancl leaves a glossy appearance . All that had once been

operated upon in this way remained in a healthy condition , and even those affected by tho fungus recovered beneath the crust , the operation thus seeming to afford protection against the fungus . The practice of strewing the plant over with powdered sulphur , which was so much lauded , seems to be of little use . At Tenerifi ' e , Dr . Schacht found the fungus widely spread , notwithstanding the application of sulphur . Keeping the grape close upon the ground is also recommended as a protection against the disease , having

proved very successful in the south . The pecuniary loss sustained since the first appearance of the malady amounted in the autumn of 1853 to 1 , 137 , 990 Spanish piastres ( £ 190 , 000 ) , and after having waited in vain a period of five years , for a better state of things , the impoverished landowners entirely gave up cultivating the vine . A traveller who chances now to visit Madeira can scarcely believe that but a few years ago the greater portion of tho island was covered with the plant . The cause of its disappearance must ,

however , not be ascribed entirely to the disease , but partly also to the utter neglect of its culture in favour of that of other products , so much so , that of late is was scarcely possible to procure a sufficient quantity of grapes for invalids to whom they were medicinally prescribed . Moreover , the sugar plantations , ivhich annual ! y increase in extent , have contributed to the destruction of the vines as the former require irrigation , which causes the roots of the latter to rot in the humid ground . " >

Mr . James Hannay , in his recently-collected Fssays from the Quarterly Review , says : —" For a long time it was an established tradition in literature that the 'life' of a man of letters must necessarily he a dull hook . How the theory originated—in what hour of dejection some melancholy writer broached it—we have not been able to learn . But nothing is more certain than its success , ancl , what is more , that it had practical effects on biography . The

dearth of ' incidents' was supposed to be the fatal element in the history of the class , ancl had become a 'trite' remark among biographers when Mason undertook his Memoirs of Gray . Mason himself ( who was no common man ) evidently felt the benumbing