from their knowledge of law, as from their habit of regarding both sides of a question. The help of a lawyer is wanted by a testator, not so much to put his wishes into legal language, as to make him fix and define what his wishes really are. Instances without end of this obscurity may be found in opening the books of reports. A man gives 30001, for the benefit of "his poor relations." Can any thing be more vague? What relations does he mean? how near must they be to him? for all persons living are relations to each other, as descendants from Adam. Again, what is to be the measure of their poverty. An income which is riches to one man, is poverty to another. Who is to be the judge? No doubt, all this man's relations thought themselves poor enough to be entitled to some share of the legacy. Take another case. A testator gives a legacy to "his brother Lancelot's family." Lancelot was living at the testator's death, with a wife and eight children. To whom was this legacy payable: to Lancelot himself, to his wife, or to his children? or was it to be divided among them all? or was Lancelot to have the interest for his life, and was the principal to be divided after his death? In both these cases, it was not the testator's ignorance of law that caused the difficulty, it was his want of common sense. Our object, however, in these remarks, is not to frighten our readers from making their own Wills, but to point out the difficulties they have to contend with, and to persuade them not to underrate those difficulties. We also hope to give some few short rules for the composition of Wills, which may be of assistance, not only to the parties themselves, but to those, who, acting as advisers in other capacities, are often called upon by a dying man to assist him in the disposition of his property. We allude to Clergymen and Medical men; both of whom, but the former especially, are often applied to by the humbler sort of those they visit for assistance of this nature; and who have often expressed their regret at feeling themselves, in spite of their superior education, hardly better qualified for the task than those who apply to them. We do not pretend to prescribe in difficult cases: those who are nice about the disposition of their property must send for their attorney, or risk the consequences: we cannot do more than suggest hints for framing bequests of a simple nature, such as alone a testator ought to trust himself to make without professional advice. § 2. ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY. OUR first step must be, to give our readers some idea of the difference between real and personal property: for Wills differ very much, both in the forms they must undergo, and the meaning which will be put on their language, according as they relate to the one or the other of these two sorts of property. All property which can be enjoyed by mankind, falls under one of these two classes: it is either real property, or personal property. Land, and every thing connected with or issuing out of land, as houses, lakes, canals, fisheries, rents, rights of way, rights of common, &c., &c., form real property: every thing else imaginable is personal property. And even land, and the things connected with it, are real property only to those who have a freehold interest in it: that is, only to those to whom it belongs for their lives, or for the lives of others, or to descend to their children, or to descend to all their heirs however remote. When you hear of a man being a freeholder, it means that he has a house, or land, or something connected with land, in one of these four modes. If he holds a house or land for a term of years only, or at the will of his landlord, he is not a freeholder, and his property in the house or land is not real property. The real property in the house or land belongs to the landlord; and the tenant has merely a right of occupation for a certain period, which the law regards as personal property. Thus, if a farmer is about to make his Will, and wishes to dispose of his farm, he must consider whether it belongs to him absolutely, or whether he has it on a lease for lives, or on a lease for years, or at will. If he has it absolutely, or on a lease for lives, it is real property: if for years, or at will, personal property only. It is plain that, for one person who is the owner of any real property, there are hundreds who have personal property belonging to them. There is scarcely any one, however poor, who has not some personal property to dispose of, while the owners of freehold lands and houses are few in comparison, and those generally of the richer sort. For this reason, and because Wills of real property are much more difficult to frame, and require much more knowledge of law, than Wills of personal property, we shall confine ourselves entirely to the latter sort of Wills, and shall not venture to give any instructions for the disposition of real property, beyond one remark, which we cannot forbear making, because the wishes of testators have been so often frustrated by their ignorance of a very simple point. If you bequeath a ring, or a sum of money, or any personal property, to A. B. without saying any thing more, A. B. will take your legacy absolutely and for ever, and may do with it what he pleases, as you no doubt intended he should. If you intended otherwise, you would most likely have said, “I give it to A. B. to be enjoyed during his life, and afterwards to go to C. D." Here, therefore, the law agrees with the common sense of testators. But if you bequeath a freehold house, or farm, or any real property, to A. B., without saying any thing more, A. B. will take this bequest only for his life, and not absolutely; and, at his death, the house or farm will not pass by his Will, or go to his children or heirs, but will come back to the person who then happens to be your heir. Here the law often disappoints the common sense of testators; and, if therefore you wish the house or farm to go to A. B. absolutely, in the same manner as the ring, or the money, you must bequeath it "to A. B. and his heirs." This is all we shall allow ourselves to say about real property; and whatever future papers may appear on this subject, must be understood to apply to Wills of personal property alone. W. [To be continued.] Ir is the best and longest lesson, to learn how to die; and of surest use: which alone if we take not out, it were better not to have lived. Oh vain studies of men, how to walk through Rome streets all day in the shade; how to square circles, how to correct mis-written copies, to fetch points of idle skill; whilst the main care of life and death up old words from forgetfulness, and a thousand other like is neglected.-BISHOP HALL. WHEN we think of death, a thousand sins, which we have trode as worms beneath our feet, rise up against us flaming serpents.-SIR WALTER SCOTT. We are too apt to misjudge the dispensations of Providence, when we wish them with our own wishes.-SKELTON. NOTES FROM A TRAVELLER'S SCRAP BOOK. No. I. A NIGHT AT ST. BERNARD'S. It was early in August, and it may have been rather too late in the day, when I stept out of the Eagle Inn at Martigny, in full expectation of reaching, long ere the sun went down, the far-famed Hospice of the Great St. Bernard. To see this celebrated spot, or rather, to see and to fondle the celebrated Dogs*, had been a long-cherished hope, to which a thousand romantic ideas were attached. The distance from Martigny to the Great St. Bernard is about thirty miles. We had not advanced far in the deep ravine between the terraced rocks, through which the road lies, before the sun had made it little better than a furnace; I felt a lassitude, weariness, and thirst, at first distressing, then agonizing; at the sight of every fresh spring, which ever and anon crossed our path, hastening downwards into the foaming Drance beneath, I took out my folded leather three-cornered cup, and drank heartily. This was perceived by the Guide, who cautioned me that all the springs on this eastern side of the defile were strongly impregnated with lead, and that if I continued to drink of them, I should never reach the Hospice alive. With my parched lips and throat, to be told not to drink, when, such was the roar of the torrent on all sides, I could scarcely hear the guide speak, seemed nonsense, and I observed, that, as there was no poison in the glacier torrent of the Drance, which was tumbling and foaming and thundering along its rocky bed, surely I might drink of that stream without danger? To this he assented, remarking that it was one of the few glacier torrents of which it was safe to drink; but he knew at the same time that, from the depth of its channel, it would be next to impossible for me to get sufficiently near to drink of it. The road, till noon, ran along that side of the ravine which exposed us to the full glare of the morning sun; after noon, it took a turn over the torrent, and, consequently, so long as there was any sun shining, we had it. Another inconvenience was, that the road was one continued ascent, becoming sensibly steeper at every quarter of a mile, till even the larches disappear, a certain sign of the height in the mountain pass to which we had attained. We were still six miles from the Hospice; six miles of steep and rugged road, amidst huge fragments of rocks scattered on all sides in the little plains among which the road winds its way. Here vegetation entirely ceases; on all sides is desolation and a desert. If a plant happens to take root during the few sunny days that shine out upon this land of fogs, the avalanches, the frost-riven rocks that are incessantly falling from the heights, dislodge from its temporary bed every thing that grows, and carry it down to the depths of the dell, where it is again covered in another year by new wrecks and ruins. partook, indeed, of the magical; not a minute before, we were cheerless, half frozen, miserable, destitute travellers, making our painful way to an unknown asylum, through fields of snow and among mountains of ice. Now we stood in a spacious hall, lighted up to its most distant corners by a magnificent fire, pile upon pile of wood crackling and flaming, and betokening from its ample hearth the kind, and abounding, and considerate hospitality that prevailed in this noble institution. A table of ample dimensions was prepared for a liberal meal; glasses glittered over its whole surface; thirty or forty bottles of wine stood by the side of as many plates, and about a score of English gentlemen rose from their seats to congratulate us on our safe arrival, and to announce that now we had arrived, the supper would be served. Upon this we retired to our several sleeping apartments, to which the monks themselves conducted us, to make such preparation as a few minutes would permit. Here, again, was new matter for astonishment. In the apartment we were to occupy was a flaming wood-fire, abundance of hot water, a regular English four-post full-sized bedstead, with scarlet moreen hangings, a capital feather-bed, and every other comfort that we could desire in our own bedat our own English dwelling. I was literally astounded; wherever we turned, we saw around us in this house, placed as it is among eternal snows in the loftiest Alps, comforts, nay, luxuries, literally English, which we had not met with even in the first-rate hotels of Paris, or in the well-furnished hotels of the German cities. room When we rejoined the party, we found a multitude of hot dishes smoking on the table, and our appearance was the signal for each to be seated. I appeal to all who have supped at the Grand St. Bernard, whether they ever met with a better selected variety of viands, than they met with at this hospitable board. There was great variety; dishes suited to every taste, to every conscience; meats and vegetables in abundance; but no ostentation, no profusion; enough and to spare appeared to be the rule of the house. Much care and foresight are required to provide all this abundance in due season, and to preserve and husband it in such a wilderness as that in which the Hospice is placed. The whole of the necessaries and the luxuries of life which were spread before us; the wood for the fires; the fodder for the cattle; weighty articles and bulky; are all brought on the backs of mules, from distant vallies and the still more distant plains of Italy. I have travelled far and wide on the Continent, and have eaten fruit in every city, and in most of the towns of Italy; at Florence, Lucca, Pisa, Genoa, and Naples, and can safely say, that never on the Continent did I eat peaches, and nectarines, and grapes, superior in flavour to those of which I that night partook at the Hospice of St. The sight of all this ruin, together with the rapidly- Bernard, nor did I ever meet with a person more desirous increasing coldness of the air, and the certainty that for to please, or more affable and intelligent, than the indithe six remaining miles not even a log-hut would be met vidual to whom the care of strangers was at that time with, urged me to renewed efforts, especially when I conintrusted. About half-past ten o'clock, we retired to sidered what my chief companion might endure in mind our several rooms. The fatigues of the day had preand body, if we were overtaken by night amidst such fear- pared me fully to enjoy the clean and excellent bed which ful and desolate scenery. Having wrapped her well round was provided for me. In the morning, the fire was with an ample dreadnought travelling-cloak, I roused my-burning bright in my room, and I felt that the keen self to renewed exertions by my endeavours to cheer her. snow. At length the sun set; when that disappeared, night presently followed, and darkness began to gather very gloomily around us. Fortunately, however, our road now lay no longer altogether among the black and gloomy rocks, but among masses and fields of white and glistening After a few minutes' silence, the voice of the guide was heard ;—" Cheer up," he said, "turn one corner more, and then the Hospice." Onward we went, with right merry hearts, and, turning the snow-covered rock, immediately in front of us appeared the building, dimly seen, but apparently of vast dimensions; lights appearing in various windows of its extensive front. Before we reached the building, several figures, bearing lights, issued from the front entrance, and the noble dogs, coming up quietly and gently to our sides, wagged their tails and brushed our sides, giving us, in their way, a hearty welcome. By this time we were surrounded by the Monks themselves, and most kindly welcomed. They led us to the door, aided the party in dismounting, and ushered us into a noble hall, where, shivering, weary, hungry, and exhausted, as we all were, every thing for our comfort was immediately spread before us. The sudden contrast of the last minute * See Saturday Magazine, Vol. II., p. 177. mountain air had given me a good appetite. A noble breakfast was ready in the cheerful hall where we had supped the previous evening. Breakfast being ended, our intelligent friend led the way to a cabinet of Roman coins and antiquities, found in the ruins of a small temple that once stood near this spot; from whence we repaired to the site of the temple itself. No sooner, however, had we fairly passed through the front door, than we were enveloped in clouds: a fog we called it, but such a fog! We could distinguish no object whatever at four yards' distance. Upon turning a sharp rock, which lay at right angles to our path, we disturbed, and almost trod upon, a noble eagle; up he sprung, with a whiz and a scream; before we recovered from our surprise, he had cleaved through the clouds, and was perhaps soaring with expanded wing in the full light of the glorious sun. We proceeded to the ruins, but previous visiters had already carried off almost every morsel of brick and marble that had ever belonged to them. Returning to the Hospice, we visited the chapel, in search of the alms-box, and as we had been treated like princes, I do hope, that none of us acted like beggars, or dropped into the box a less sum than was due to the hospitality with which we had been treated. There was, however, no one in the chapel but ourselves; we might, therefore, have left it without giving a sou, or the Hospice altogether, without entering the chapel, or making the slightest acknowledgement. But here were no servants to fee, no bills to pay; the accommodation and fare inferior in nothing to those supplied by the first hotels in Europe, such as to leave nothing to be asked for; and all this accompanied with the most polite attention, and the least possible appearance of providing. Such are the arrangements at the justlyfamed Hospice of the Great St. Bernard, and such is the willing testimony that a grateful traveller pays, for the kindness he once there received. But I have tarried long on this mountain-pass, and must prepare to descend from it, not, however, without taking leave, and again caressing our four-footed favourites. One, who had of himself saved several lives, was especially pointed out as invaluable, from his superior sagacity and courage. Immense were the obligations that travellers owed to this noble animal, and wonderful and pleasing were the anecdotes recorded of him. His three companions had also their meed of praise; but they were younger, and had not seen so much service. After long delay, and much petting and patting and caressing, we at length took final leave of these powerful, sagacious, gentle, and interesting dogs; their subsequent fate is melancholy. Within four months from the day we parted from them, they were carried down into the deepest depths of an awful ravine, and buried many hundred feet deep, by an unlooked-for and desolating snow avalanche, which was set in motion by a drift wind. One of them, which had not advanced so far in the defile as the rest, was saved; the others were never again seen nor heard of. Scarcely any occurrence could have created greater consternation at the Hospice than this melancholy event; it was in some respects irreparable, for such at the time was the dangerous state of the passes, that it was impossible to call in their two or three remaining dogs from Martigny and Sion. Even when they arrived, considerable time must elapse before their sagacity could be sufficiently exercised to enable them to track the footsteps of man beneath the snow, which, falling for days and weeks together, obliterated every path. As easy would it be to steer a ship through the densest fogs, with neither sun, moon, nor stars visible for weeks together, as for any one to find their way across this moun tain in the snow-storms. Yet will these animals track their way with sagacity and certainty, under the most trying diffi culties. Mountains may fall, as they did on this occasion, or a sudden change of wind raise in an instant whirlwinds of snow, or hurl down an avalanche, and the faithful guides may themselves be overwhelmed with destruction; but these are casualties, and it is surprising that the dogs escape as they do, since they are every day engaged in the same peril ous work;-treading ravines, and passing under overhanging masses of snow, where no foot but their own durst venture within perhaps a mile of the spot, and where one single bark would bring down mountain-masses to their certain destruction. On the previous evening, we had not observed a small low stone building, about a mile below the summit of the pass. On our return, seeing a large window open, but strongly grated, I looked in, and saw lying on the floor, extended at full length, three dead bodies. One, the freshest of the three, had been laying there about nine months; he was an Italian, apparently a muleteer, and as that is rather a swarthy tribe, I could perceive no difference in the complexion between the dead specimen and the living race. The others were darker still; they had been lying there, one of them two, the other nearly three years; the clothes of this last were fast falling to decay; the skin of his face, and the apparent hardness of his muscles, reminded me of old tanned ox hide, for the sole of shoes, stamped or punched out so as to resemble human features. The features of all were discernible, and I should judge distinctly recognisable, more especially those of the Italian. These bodies had been discovered by the dogs under the snow, and not having been inquired for, and being unknown, they were laid out to be claimed, dressed precisely as when found. So great is the degree of cold in these high regions, that bodies placed here never decay. In time they dry up like mummies, but that is the only change they undergo; here, however, they remain, till they can no longer be recognised by their features or their clothes, and if not then claimed they are buried. E. D. R. LONDON: JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND. PUBLISHED IN WEEKLY NUMBERS, PRICE ONE PENNY, AND IN MONTHLY PARTS, PRICE SIXPENCE, AND Sold by all Booksellers and Newsvenders in the Kingdom. ORGENERAL Magazine. PRICE ON ONE PENNY. UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. MANUFACTURES, MUMMIES, &c. THE ancient Egyptians had made considerable progress in several manufactures, to a degree which is really surprising. Their linen manufacture had a perfection equal to our own; for in many of their painted figures we find the garments represented quite transparent; and among the foldings of the mummies, Belzoni observed cloth as fine as our common muslin, very strong, and of an even texture*. It Mr. Basil Montagu, in his Thoughts on Laughter, states the case of a party, against whom an action was brought in 1821, for infringing a patent, defending himself in the following remarkable manner. The question was, whether the plantiff's mode of weaving canvass was' new or not. A witness declared, that it was known and practised more than two thousand years ago! And he proved his words by referring to the cere-cloth of an Egyptian mummy of acknowledged antiquity. The anecdote is given more fully in the Saturday Magazine, Vol. I. p. 223. VOL. IV. may be worth stating here, that round the mummy of Horsiesi, supposed to be upwards of three thousand years old, which was lately opened, and now lies at the College of Surgeons, were found pieces of linen of seven different degrees of texture; varying from that of sail-cloth to muslin; and in colour, from a deep brown to a pale delicate yellow : some of the pieces bore evident marks of having been anciently darned. The weight of the linen alone amounted to thirty-one pounds. The Egyptians had also the art of tanning leather, and staining it with various colours, as we do morocco; and they knew the method of embossing it. They were skilful in making glass, some of which was of a beautiful black. Pliny proves from this, that glass-making was very anciently practised. Besides enamelling, 120 whole, they mourned seventy days in Egypt, according to the words of Moses. the art of gilding was in great perfection among Jacob, we are to understand him as meaning the them, and they could beat gold nearly as thin as forty days of his continuing in the salt of nitre, it is done in the present day. They knew, also, how without including the thirty days passed in performto cast bronze and copper, and to form the lattering the above-mentioned ceremonies; so that, in the into sheets; and they had a metallic composition not unlike our lead. Carved works were very common; and the art of varnishing, and baking the varnish on clay, was so complete, that travellers have doubted whether it could be successfully imitated at present. They also possessed skill in painting, and in the blending of colours, some of which, on the walls of the temples and the lids of the mummy-cases, have a brilliancy and apparent freshness, which betoken | no small skill in their composition. It is always valuable and interesting to perceive ancient customs, as handed down by general historians, illustrating the inspired records of Holy Writ. The passages alluded to are curious, and obviously refer to the point before us: And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians, to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel. And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those Indeed, the more we read and reflect on the works which are embalmed; and the Egyptians mourned for him of the early Egyptians, the more we are astonished. threescore and ten days.-GEN. L. 2, 3. And again, Among the ancient tombs, M. Champollion found at verse 26, So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten several highly-interesting drawings, supplying par-years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a ticulars of the progress of this extraordinary people coffin in Egypt. in the different professions, arts, and manufactures, of the modes they pursued in agriculture, in building; in trades, in military affairs, singing, music, and dancing; in the rearing of their cattle; in portraitpainting; in games, and exercises; in the administration of justice, and household economy; in historical and religious monuments; in navigation, and in zoology. MUMMIES, AND EMBALMING. WHEN any person died, says Diodorus, the whole of his family, and all his friends, quitted their usual habits, and put on mourning, abstaining, during the period of lamentation, from the bath, and from the use of wine and other luxuries. They seem to have had a notion, that the time would come when the soul would be re-united to the body on earth, and so they endeavoured to preserve the mortal frame as a fit residence for its future guest. The expense of the funerals was regulated by three different scales, which made them costly, moderate, or cheap. £250 sterling, it is supposed, would pay for the best style of embalming a body; the second charge about £60; and for the third method a trifling sum was demanded. Thus the various classes of people may generally be distinguished by the mode of their preservation. Among the Egyptians were a set of persons, who, like our undertakers, took upon themselves the whole service of the funeral for a stipulated amount. Proper officers were then employed to perform their respective parts. The duty of the first was to mark out how the dissection was to be made in the left flank for the purpose of embalming: this was exccuted by another officer with a sharp Ethiopian stone; and the task, as seeming to imply disrespect and cruelty towards the dead, was so hateful and degrading, as to oblige the dissector instantly to fly, as if he had committed a crime, those about pursuing and assailing him with stones:-a superstitious practice, by which they probably thought to compound with their consciences for an act considered sinful in itself. At the disappearance of the dissector, the embalmers came forward. They were a kind of caste, hereditary n Egypt, were held in high respect, looked upon as sacred, and permitted to have access to the temples, and to associate with the priests. They removed from the body of the deceased the parts most susceptible of decay, washing the rest with palm wine and filling it with myrrh, cinnamon, and various sorts of spices. After this the body was put into salt for about forty days. When Moses, therefore, says that forty days were employed in embalming After swathing the body in fine lawn bandages, glued together with a thin but powerful gum, they spread over it the richest perfumes. The precious trust was afterwards returned into the hands of the relations, so entirely preserved, that not only the figure and the lineaments of the face appeared unchanged, but even the eye-brows and eye-lashes were not disturbed. Thus some of the Egyptians kept the bodies of their ancestors in their houses, in open cases, or with glass before them, "not thinking it right that the features of their dead relations should be unknown or forgotten by their own kindred." For the preva lence of this strange custom at a certain period, there is the authority of Diodorus, who wrote about fifty years before the Christian æra: and Lucian (A. D. 150) mentions his having been present when mummies were placed on seats at table, as if they had been alive. It is fair to conclude, however, that the bodies, instead of remaining, in this way, above-ground, were generally swathed round in folds of cere-cloth, strongly saturated with asphaltum, or a bituminous pitch; that they were then deposited in a chest or coffin, according to the rank or wealth of the party, and consigned to the silent tomb. There is a considerable aifference in the appearance of the various cases or coffins which contain mummies. These were usually made of sycamore, unlike our sycamore; some of the large cases contain others within them, either of wood or painted plaster. The inner cases are sometimes fitted to the body, others are only covers to the body. Many of the outer cases are plain, others slightly ornamented, and some literally covered with well-painted figures. Of the latter description is that represented to the left of the reader in the Engraving in page 153 of this Volume. The original, which may be seen in the British Museum, (Eighth Room, Case 3,) was found by some Arabs in one of the fields of the dead at Sakara, near Cairo, and sent to England by Captain Lethieullier in 1722. The inscription, when read according to the principles of Dr. Young and Champollion, tells us, that the person whose body it originally contained, was named Arouni, or Arouini, the son of Sarsares, or Sarasaris; for as there are no vowels in the middle of the words, the names. cannot be determined with perfect exactness. He appears to have been of royal blood: for the inscription in the centre, begins with the words, “Royal Devotions to Phtah-Sokari," like the Papyrus of the Bubastite Princes, given in Champollion's Precis, pl. xv. The mummy with the gilt face, which is in the adjoining case, No. 2, appears not to have originally belonged to this coflin, although it was |