The interest which we take in this subject, and the fertility of Dr. Bevan's work in interesting facts, has induced us to extend this article to a great length. And if we are now compelled to leave the consideration of it by the necessary economy of our space, we turn to other topics with a very unsatisfied feeling. There are numerous points which fill the mind with that intelligent surprise so delightful to the observer, that we have not even alluded to, and those which have been mentioned are very far from being exhausted. However, the pleasure of reading and reviewing Dr. Bevan, like all other pleasures, must have an end, and we must conclude with one-only one-more extract. It relates to the collection and disposal of pollen-the farina of flowers, which serves for the food of the larvæ. The whole process puts the bee in a most respectable grade in the order of intelligent beings.

The bees may frequently be observed to roll their bodies on the flower, and then brushing off the pollen which adheres to them, with their feet, form it into two masses, which they dispose of in the usual way. In very dry weather, when probably the particles of pollen cannot be made to cohere, I have often seen them return home so completely enveloped by it, as to give them the appearance of a different species of bee. The anther-dust thus collected, is conveyed to the interior of the hive, and there brushed off by the collector or her companions. Reaumur and others have observed, that bees prefer the morning for collecting this substance, most probably that the dew may assist them in the moulding of their little balls. "I have seen them abroad," says Reaumur, "gathering farina before it was light;" they continue thus occupied till about ten o'clock.

"Brush'd from each anther's crown, the mealy gold,

With morning dew, the light fang'd artists mould,
Fill with the foodful load their hollow'd thigh,

And to their nurslings bear the rich supply."-Evans.

This is their practice during the warmer months; but in April and May, and at the settlement of a recent swarm, they carry pollen throughout the day; but even in these instances, the collection is made in places most likely to furnish the requisite moisture for moulding the pellets, namely, in shady and sometimes in very distant places.

When a bee has completed her loading, she returns to the hive, part of her cargo is instantly devoured by the nursing-bees, to be regurgitated for the use of the larvæ, and another part is stored in cells for future exigencies, in the following manner. The bee, while seeking a fit cell for her freight, makes a noise with her wings, as if to summon her fellow citizens around her; she then fixes her two middle and her two hind legs upon the edge of the cell which she has selected, and curving her body, seizes the farina with her fore legs, and makes it drop into the cell: thus freed from her burthen, she hurries off to collect again. Another bee immediately packs the pollen, and kneads and works it down into the bottom of the cell, probably mixing a little honey with it, judging from the moist state in which she leaves it; an air-tight coating of varnish finishes this storing of pollen.

It is at length ascertained that the bee never visits more than one species of flower on the same journey. This pollen is of a capsular structure, and the particles of pollen from different flowers would not aggregate conveniently. Thus also is the multiplication of hybrid plants prevented.

Our parting recommendation is, that every body who loves to read an instructive and entertaining book should buy the Honey-bee. The inhabitant of the metropolis, however, should be warned, that the perusal of it will hugely dispose him to the possession of a hive, and that this is a taste that cannot be commodiously gratified either in the Strand or Oxford-street.

DIARY

FOR THE MONTH OF APRIL.

IT is lamentable to observe the number of good stories that are daily maimed, mangled, and spoilt in the telling. Lord Holland has quoted in the House of Peers, an excellent old Joe illustrative of the true principle of retaliation, but has almost destroyed it by the clumsiness of his phrasing. It reads as if translated into the language of dulness:

"He remembered to have read in a Spanish jest book, a story, stating that in a certain district, persons were obliged to go armed, and be attended with dogs, in order to preserve themselves from wolves, and other beasts of prey. On some particular occasion a person killed one of those dogs with his spear, and being brought before the alcalde, he was asked why he had not used the butt end, instead of the point of the spear? For this plain reason,' he replied, 'because the dog ran at me with his mouth, and not with his tail."

For, "for this plain reason," and all that stiff stuff, read, "So I would," replied the fellow, "if he had run at me with his tail.” The better version, however, of the story is, that the dog-slayer was an English serjeant, armed with his halberd, and that his reprover was a lady of sentiment. "Ah, you cruel wretch, why did not you strike the pretty dumb creature with the bottom of your halberd ?". "So I would, ma'am, if he had run at me with his tail." That particularly wise man of the east, Doctor Gilchrist, has also just been murdering a story. Something or other, of course not the least in point, "reminded him of an old woman in the country, who put over her door, whiskey sold here to-day for three-pence a gill; to-morrow to be sold for nothing. Some simple clowns went in the next day, expecting to get the gill for nothing; but of course to-morrow never came." The origin of this is a common French pot-house jest. It is written over the door," pay to-day and good credit to-morrow." They say that a certain Irish judge, and illustrious debtor, on first going to France, and being gladdened with the promise of this notice, put up at an auberge by the road side, and stayed there six months, waiting for the day of credit, as his creditors had, for more years, done for that of pay.

In a preceding Diary, I have noticed M. Thibadeau's absurd story of Napoleon's having objected to the proposal that civil death should dissolve marriage, on the strange ground that such a circumstance would be an additional punishment, and that it would, therefore, be better to put the criminal to death at once, (the reasoning is imperial,) as in that case his wife might raise an altar of turf in her garden, and retire there to weep. Here is a letter which presents a pleasant practical illustration of the truth of this superfine sentimentality. It is written by a wife whose husband is transported; her name is omitted, because, for want of the law which Napoleon thought so severe on persons of fine sensibilities, she has been compelled to seek comfort in a capital felony. Had the honest man been hung instead

of transported, we wonder whether this fond creature would have solaced herself with a turf altar to his memory, and made a watering pot of her eyes.

Dear husband,

(Copy.)

Feb. 2nd, 1827.

I take this opportunity of addressing these few lines to you, hoping to find you in good health, as it leaves me at present, thank God for it-dear husband I am going to change my line of life and I hope it will be for the better I must tell you I am going to be married and hope you have no objection for you know you have not behaved to me as a husband ought to have done both you and your famely have used me very ill But every one knows that I never gave you any reason to ill treat me

I have been to the Overcears to ask theyre advice what I am to do and they told me I had better get another husband as I did not expect you would ever come home again. You need not fret about it nor make yourself in the least alarmed at what I say for I can ashure you it is true.

The Overcears of the Parish is going to give the man ten pounds to take me out of the Parish I have invited your Brother Robert to the wedend and I wish you was at home to make one among us-I shall tell you the mans name is William

You need not forget me for all that If you should ever come where I am I hope you will call and see me So I conclude and still remain your affectionate wife William CATHARINE

Gadameed Ship

Woollege

Kent.

Apropos of this subject, it is a curious fact that men stationed in light-houses are not permitted to have their wives with them, probably because it is apprehended that the trimming of the lamps would be neglected for the trimming of the husbands-and yet none but married men are to be found in these posts, which are greatly sought after by persons coveting a quiet life, and who, by a long course of curtain lectures, have been trained to watchfulness, and accustomed to sleepless nights. The wives of these monsters are unanimously of Buonaparte's opinion, that it would be better to kill the wretches at once, and to let them raise turf altars, and weep over them when they have nothing better to do in the garden.

9th. There has been a rumour, probably intended as a suggestion, that Mr. Canning is to have the premiership stripped of the church patronage. This idea has called forth the following elaborate and affecting simile in the leading article of The Times, which would draw tears from a stone. It is a prodigiously pathetic piece of writing, and places a patronageless premier in a most piteous point of view:

"The constituting a statesman to be a prime minister, and at the same time depriving him of an important part of his power and influence of the power and influence which others have enjoyed, we say not how properly, is like commissioning a dove to fly over sea and over land with the behests of his master, and at the same instant tearing from him one of his wings; the maimed sufferer falls at once impotent to the earth, and with whatever vigour and energy he may flutter and shake his other pinion, he cannot advance an inch. "Oh," if he could speak, would he exclaim, "Give me back my other wing-rob me not of a feather-and I will carry your orders, and procure the execution of your wishes, over all the world."

This is too much for mortal sensibility. It is too, too touching to think of poor lop-sided Mr. Canning hopping about the treasury

chambers like a jackdaw with a clipped wing, making awkward attempts to fly, and ca-ca-ing his discomfiture at his consequent ungainly tumbles. With a soul to soar to the church steeple, the unhappy fowl finds himself unequal to the altitude of an office stool; and with the spirit of an eagle he discovers that every abject cur which haunts Whitehall, is more than his match. "Oh," he exclaims, for he can speak, "give me back my other wing-rob me not of a black feather, and I will fetch and carry, aspire, chatter, pick, and poke, and perform the part of a daw over all the world.”

In the same number, The Times is wonderfully sublime on another subject. Some one said something uncivil to Mr. Plunkett in the House of Commons. The editor forthwith adumbrates the affair in this magnificent fashion.

"The lion of the forest, when lying under the semblance of disease or feebleness, has met with indignities from the meanest of the animal creation. We take no pains to bring home a parallel case to the imagination of our political readers; but if they will be themselves at the trouble of looking over last night's debate, on the presenting of a petition against the Catholics, and then examine in what manner Mr. Plunkett, the attorney-general for Ireland, was abused on account of his ministerial forbearance, and by whom,-they will, no doubt, begin to suspect that there are circumstances now on foot which may lead to the official paralysis of this great and powerful

Irishman."

Mr. Plunkett is not yet then, we are glad to learn, in the state of the lion in the fable, and certainly The Times is not playing the part of the ass, in this cumbrous and admirably inapplicable illustration. Those persons who wish to understand the character of Lord Eldon, and the principle, if we may so abuse the word, on which he shapes his course as a legislator, should study the following brief remark which he uttered in the spring-gun debate on the 6th, and which will serve as a key to his views on matters of jurisprudence.

"The Lord Chancellor said, IT WAS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS TO TAKE UPON THEMSELVES TO SAY WHAT WAS THE LAW UPON SUCH A

SUBJECT (i. e. the setting of spring-guns.) THE LAW MUST DEPEND ENTIRELY UPON ALL THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE."

The first proposition is, that it is dangerous for legislators who make and alter the laws, to say what the law is.

The second, that the law must depend upon the circumstances of the case, or in other words, that there is to be no distinct rule of law stated, but that judges are to make it according to the taste, fancy, or whim of the moment.

This speech, containing the very essence of the most fatal error in jurisprudence, was delivered in the first legislative assembly, by the highest judicial character in this country, and passed unnoticed and unrebuked!

It has hitherto been accounted a first maxim, a truism, that law should be a clear rule of command or prohibition known and intelligible to all; but Lord Eldon, like Moliere's quack, has changed all this; he avers that the law is to grow out of the circumstances of the. case; that when the man is shot by the spring-gun, it will be time MAY, 1827.

F

enough to inquire whether the engine was legally set, and he was legally killed or not. It is better to let it then depend on the circumstances, such as the character of the party killed, as for instance, was he a poacher, or the servant of the game preserver; obnoxious to, or regarded by the superior classes of the neighbourhood?

The doctrine we have quoted, furnishes a striking illustration of the chancellor's ideas of law, and shows on what grounds he advocates all that is vicious in our system, and resists every measure of wholesome reform.

On the same night, in a discussion on the game laws, he gave an example in an insignificant matter of the confusion which reigns in his mind on most subjects. The chancellor has as much logic as

a cow.

"The great increase of crime, (poaching,) said his lordship, was owing to the introduction of battues; and if their lordships did not find some means of destroying these battues, they might as well say that the moon shall not shine, as that there shall not be poachers."

It was by this method of reasoning that the Goodwin sands were laid to the account of Tenterdon church steeple. The battues have nothing whatever to do with the poaching, and one sufficiently grand battue would put an end to poaching altogether, by destroying all the game. The evil of which the chancellor should have spoken, is the excessive game preserving which allows of battues, or great massacres. The game is preserved till it swarms, and then it is slaughtered in swarms; but it is clearly not the massacre which provokes the poaching, but the temptation of the extraordinary abundance of game. The chancellor however thinks that the cause is the battue, because since there have been battues, there has been more poaching; just as the old man thought that Tenterdon steeple was the cause of the Goodwin's, because since the building of the steeple, the sands had increased-but if Lord Eldon inquires, he will find that the battues have been introduced only where game is preserved in superabundance, and resorted to in order to thin the unmanageable swarms of birds.

10th. It is pleasing to find our legislators imbued with sound principles of jurisprudence. It is satisfactory to the whole community to know that a nobleman is born to the privilege of making laws for them, who holds such a doctrine as that laid down last night by Lord Ellenborough in the House of Lords:

"The object of setting spring-guns," said that illustrious sage, was not personal injury to any one, but to deter from the commission of theft; and that object was as completely obtained by hitting an innocent man as a guilty one."

What a pity it is that this enlightened peer is not a chief justice, in which high office, so long and temperately filled by his amiable father, he might have given practical effect to this brilliant idea, generalizing it thus for common occasions:

but

"The object of punishment is not personal injury to any one, to deter from the commission of theft; and that object is as completely obtained by hanging an innocent man as a guilty one."

The Chronicle pleasantly suggests to Lord Ellenborough, the pro