The progress was so great, our foreign neighbours prognosticated that, ere long, they would rival us on the course; and certainly they have made most rapid strides, for, in 1840, the Duke of Orleans won the Goodwood Cup ;* and last year, though less successful, the French horses made a tolerable appearance. Hitherto, however, we read of no feats by Frenchmen on French horses, compared to the many wellknown and well-authenticated performances on the English turf.

Early in May, 183-, I left that excellent hôtellerie, the Bristol, Place Vendome, accompanied by a sporting young Frenchman, in his buggy Anglais-a high, gaudy-coloured vehicle, with arms emblazoned on the panels, huge lamps and harness, that would have done for my Lord Mayor's turn-out on the 9th November. Proceeding to the race-course, we crossed the Pont de Jena, a fine bridge, consisting of five handsome arches, built to commemorate the famous battle over the Prussians on the 14th October, 1806. It nearly escaped being blown up by the Prussians in 1814; and it is here but due to the Duke of Wellington to say, that it was to his interference that this, and other monuments in Paris, were respected, during its occupation by the allies. We then reached the arena for the sports. The Champ de Mars is an immense oblong space, between the Ecole Militaire and the River Seine, of 2,700 feet by 1,320. It is flanked by ditches faced with stone, has four rows of trees on each side, and is entered by five gates. The sloping embankments, extending nearly its whole length, were formed by the population of Paris, of both sexes, and all ranks, in 1790, for the celebrated Fête de la Fédération, which took place on the 14th July, when an altar, called l'Autel de la Patrie, was erected in the centre, and Louis XVI., seated in a superb amphitheatre, in front of the Ecole Militaire, made oath to maintain the new constitution. More than 60,000 persons were constantly at work, until the embankments were completed. This embankment is sufficiently lofty to allow spectators to obtain a view of the fêtes, reviews, races, &c., which are frequently carried on in the field. Here Napoleon held the famous Champ de Mai, before the battle of Waterloo. The course was marked out by posts and cords, the centre being open to the public. Here was high life and low life-the royal cortége, the barouche and four, the light dennet, the heavy calèche, the hack cab, the gaudy omnibus, and equestrians as plentiful as blackberries. As the sport, however, was far too insignificant to merit record here, I proceed to say a few words, generally, upon the state of the turf in France.

Races take place annually, in May and September, in the Champ de Mars, at Chantilly, and at Versailles. The principal prizes are awarded by the French Jockey Club, also called the Société d'Encouragement pour l'Amelioration de la Race des Chevaux en France. This club, whose house is at the corner of the Rue Grange Batelière, consists of about 300 members, and was first founded at Mr. Byron's Tivoli Gardens, in 1833. The May races, in the Champ de Mars, take place on three separate days, four prizes being run for each day, to the aggregate amount of 20,400 francs, besides considerable sweepstakes, subscribed for by the French Jockey Club. In September there are four days' racing, and the prizes are partly given by the

With an English horse, however.-ED.

arrondissement, and partly by the King and Prince Royal. Their aggregate amount is more than 35,000 francs.

With the exception of Paris, Versailles, and Chantilly, which may rank with our Epsom, Doncaster, and Ascot, there are no races in France worth mentioning. It is true that, at Boulogne, there are two prizes of 1,000 francs, but they are confined to horses bred in the northern division of France. The Duke of Orleans also gives 1,000 francs for a hurdle-race, open to all horses; and, as a matter of course, always carried away by an English horse. Added to this, of the racing studs we shall briefly say, that the Duke of Orleans's establishment at Meudon and Chantilly (originally formed there by the Duke de Grammont), that of Monsieur Fasquel, at the latter, under the superintendence of George Edwards, and that of Monsieur Auguste Lupin, and Monsieur Achille Fould, at St. Germain en Laye, under the nanagement of Mr. Turner, are excellent.

There is a horse-market on the Boulevard de l'Hôpital, originally established on the Boulevard des Capucines, in 1604, by Henry IV., and transferred to the above spot in 1642. It is, however, principally for cart-horses. Here there is what is called an essai, formed of an artificial hill, in a semicircular form, with a steep ascent and descent, for the purpose of trying the skill and strength of draught horses, previous to purchase.

(To be continued.)

DESTRUCTION OF GAME BY ARSENIC.

In a letter I received, a short time since, from a friend in Sussex, he mentioned the lamentable decrease of game of every description in his neighbourhood for the last three or four seasons, but more especially amongst the partridges, and attributed this defalcation not only to the abominable and useless state of the new game laws, but, more especially, to the pernicious practice amongst the farmers of employing a solution of arsenic in preparing wheat, previous to its being used as seed. The object in preparing seed-wheat with arsenic is to destroy the wire-worm, with which some soils naturally abound more than others; and where the land is allowed to remain down for more than one year in turf (frequently the case in Sussex), these destructive insects are known to increase to a much greater extent, than when the clover stumps are ploughed up for a wheat crop after the first year, and the ova of the insect are not allowed to remain long enough in the ground to arrive at maturity. Of the destructive effects of arsenic, when thus employed, there cannot be the shadow of a doubt; and some persons have even gone so far as to declare, that the small quantity used in the manufacture of shot is capable of producing bad results, and that game does not keep near so long which has been killed by the common, as by the patent silver shot, in making which not so large a portion of arsenic is used. Whether this is the case or not, I leave to those more learned in chemistry than I am to expound; but it is a well-known fact, that many of the cockneys (generally pretty

good judges of gastronomy), will on no account purchase one head of game from their poulterer, that has been shot, but prefer encouraging theft and dishonesty, by selecting and preferring that which has been snared and netted by poachers. But, to return to my first subject, surely some means ought to be adopted by our country gentlemen to prevent this most horrible practice from becoming general, or in a few years there will be an end of all our sports and pastimes in the field; and what with teetotalism, and such chimeras, the annihilation of our game by arsenic, the wholesale destruction of our inland fisheries, both public and private, by the application of the refuse of gas, and other deleterious rubbish, as manure (which, during the late awful rains, has been washed into the pools and rivers), and our hounds and horses being smashed to atoms by the railroads, we shall, indeed, in a few short years, realize, to the fullest extent, the opinion formed of us by Napoleon; and what was once the only real sporting country in the world, will be metamorphosed into a horde of engineers, contractors, corn-dealers, and purveyors of foxes' skins and tame bred pheasants.

ACTEON.

THE PLEASURE VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD.

THE following communication, addressed to the Editor by a brother of Mr. Benjamin Boyd, the gentleman who has undertaken this most gallant and national adventure, will explain its present condition and purpose. We announced Mr. Boyd's intention in our number for April last. Circumstances, however, occurred, which retarded his sailing until the present month. May his voyage be crowned with all success; and may he return triumphant, after gathering another wreath of fame for the flag of his country, to be once more the pride and pleasure of all those who are fortunate enough to be numbered among his friends.

"MY DEAR SIR,-The Wanderer, with the wanderers, after being wind-bound for upwards of a month at Plymouth, has at last got off. She weighed anchor twice to make a start, but the wind always chopped round to its old quarters of west and south-west, and obliged them to seek shelter within the Breakwater, where, thank God, they laid snug during the heavy gales, of which, of late, we have had so many. The third attempt was more successful; a friend wrote me, saying that, on Tuesday, the 14th instant, about eleven o'clock, she was tacking out of Plymouth Sound, and had disappeared many miles beyond the Breakwater, and going down Channel rapidly before I left.'

"Not having heard from any one on board since then, I hope she is now nearing her first resting-place, namely, Cadiz.

"The last time I saw my brother, he was still determined to accomplish his long pilgrimage,' D. V., in the same order he mentioned it to you. Had he altered his plans, I think he would have dropped me a yarn to that effect. The only alterations in his arrangements are, that his friend, Captain Bushly, R.N., accompanies him in command

of the yacht; and an experienced officer, of the Hudson Bay Company, as chief of the vessel. It will be difficult to name the port where a letter will catch them; therefore, if you will favour me with any letters you may have, I'll make a point to send them the best way, at least in the same manner that I'll risk my own. Madeira will be the next place after Spain, I suspect; then Rio. Depend upon receiving every information which I can furnish you with. "Believe me, dear sir, yours very sincerely, "ED. LENNOX BOYD.

"Reform Club, 18th Dec., 1841.

"P.S. Mr. Brierly, and all the gentlemen you mentioned formerly, have stuck to her, and joined heart and soul in the expedition; and, as old Dibdin said—

'Mischance may she ever avoid.'"

GUNNERY.

BY WILLIAM GREENER, AUTHOR OF THE "GUN," ETC. ETC.

NOTHING is more astonishing than the arrangement of nature's laws; the deeper we dive into their mysteries, the more impressed we become with the mighty and unfathomable regulations of the world's great Architect, showing how ineffective and how futile are the plans formed, or based, on our own imagined knowledge. Even the greatest philosophers, who have devoted their attention to the nature and principles of gunpowder, have drawn deductions which are both limited and imperfect. Sir Humphrey Davy, and the celebrated Dr. Fyfe of Edinburgh, came to the conclusion, that gunpowder was strongest when reduced to the smallest granulation possible. This plausible theory has, ever since, been received as a law, for every manufacturer has adopted the principle and practice and we find them, up to this moment, contending that it is the strongest when thus manufactured. Their experiments are in keeping with Davy's, who arrived at his conclusion, from exploding a few hundred grains upon a glass palate. No doubt, the instantaneous explosion of the whole created a greater displacement of the atmospheric air than the same quantity which, being larger grained, did not explode so rapidly, though the latter was more continuous, and in this state far more fitted for giving an accelerated velocity to any projectile. The same experiment in the tube of a gun would show a different result; for the resistance of the air is increased by its being in the form of a column, and in this shape to be displaced in one direction only. Then how ridiculous to assert the superiority of an explosive agent founded on such an experiment as the first named. Gunpowder is only, or chiefly advantageous, while its force can be continued in explosion.

We should not always receive as fact that which comes from the philosopher, unless he be a practical experimentor, as well as a theoretical one. Dr. Hutton fell into the opposite extreme, and, by so doing, put a clog to improvement in military gunnery, which has so

crippled its energies, that "it has only moved with a crutch ever since," instead of advancing nimbly with the times. He told the artillerists-"no advantage was gained by using above a certain quantity of powder :-no advantage accrued from lessening or preventing the recoil of gunnery." In both conclusions he was essentially wrong; in the first he was misled by using only the very coarsest grained powder; in the second he was deceived by his limited experiments, for he only retarded the recoil of guns, instead of placing them firmly where recoil was impossible. It must be apparent, that a gun allowed to recoil one inch, has expended as much explosive force as it would by recoiling six feet; in both cases, the base from which the projection takes place is unsound. The action of the fluid generated by the explosion of fulminating compounds, is an excellent illustration of the injurious tendency of endeavouring to obtain above a certain modicum of velocity in explosive bodies. Many years ago, a series of experiments was tried at Woolwich, with gunpowder, of which the chlorate of potassa formed a component part, instead of the nitrate, and, strange as it may appear, it is no less true, that the balls, instead of being driven out of the gun, were split into numerous pieces, and cavities dug near the breech of the guns equal in depth to the diameter of their bore-thus destroying the gun in one or more explosions; and even the fragments of the balls were scarcely projected to any distance, and that without any force or precision. The explanation of this is not difficult; it is an unquestionable law of motion, that a certain period of time is necessary to communicate progression to any body whatever. Now, motion is given to the ball in a gun on that part of it which is in immediate contact with the explosive matter: there is a system of vibrations-waves of vibration-in metallic bodies; and it is necessary that the first wave shall have travelled through the whole mass before any movement can take place; an accelerative movement, then, is induced by an immense increase of these waves, conveying power until the highest rate of speed is attained. In the case where the balls were split-the velocity of the fluid the electric fluid, was so intense as to be totally ungovernable, and not to be withstood even by the hardest metals; the crystallization of the iron gave way, and lost its cohesion when acted upon by so wonderful an

agency.

But that which cannot be resisted by adamant, is neutralized by the æriform fluid-the atmosphere. A very simple experiment shows this. Lay a train of fulminating powder across a sheet of paper, and directly across this, at right angles, a train of gunpowder. Ignite the gunpowder, and it burns until it explodes the train of electricity (as it may strictly be termed), which instantly burns right and left, leaving the other portion of the powder undisturbed. Inflame one end of the detonating compound, and the explosion passes through the gunpowder, without igniting it. The cause is quite apparent. The rapidity of the fluid condenses the air so quickly, as both to remove the grains of powder liable to come in contact with the flame, and to form a wall of demarcation; for the condensed air will not convey heat quicker than it will sound; and, long before that can take place, the explosion is expended. It is possible to convey an explosive fluid of this nature through a vessel containing gunpowder, if it is so loose that the air can