organs, or to some want of deli-the sound.' It results from this experiment, that in the ears of persons who have a false voice, there is an inequality of strength; and the means of remedying this defect in children, is to ascertain by a similar mode, which ear is the weakest. When this has been discovered, nothing better can be done, in my opinion,' says Dr. Vandermonde, than to stop up the other as much as possible, and to take advantage of that valuable opportunity of frequently exercising the weak ear, but in cacy or tension; in consequence of which, as they receive unequal impressions, we necessarily hear false sounds, and the voice, which endeavours to imitate them, becomes itself false. On this subject Dr. Vandermonde made a very simple experiment, which he relates in his Essay on improving the human Mind, and which may be repeated on children who pronounce with a false voice, in order that a remedy may be applied at that tender when the organs are still susceptible of modification. age "The experiment, as he describes it, is as follows: I made choice,' says he, of a clear day, and having fixed on a spacious apartment, I took up my station in a place judged most convenient for my experiments. I then stopped one of the ears of the child who was to be the subject of them, and made her recede from me, till she no longer heard the sound of a repeating watch which I held in my hand, or at least until the sound of the bell produced a very weak impression on her organs of hearing. I then 'desired her to remain in that place, and immediately going up to her unstopped her ear, and stopped the other, taking care to cause her to shut her mouth, lest the sound should be communi'cated to the ear through the eu'stachian tube. I then returned 'to my station, and making my watch again strike, the child was quite surprised to find that she heard tolerably well; upon which I made a sign to her to recede f again till she could scarcely hear such a manner as not to fatigue it. 'The one thus made to labour alone 'will be strengthened, while the other will always retain the same 'force. The child's ear should 'from time to time be unstopped, in order to make it sing, and to 'discover whether both ears have 'the same degree of sensibility.' This natural defect may be then corrected, and any person may be made to acquire a true voice, provided the means pointed out by Dr. Vandermonde be early employed. "Persons who have a false voice, in consequence of some inequality in the ears, may be compared to those who squint; that is to say, who, in order to see an object distinctly, do not turn equally towards it the axis of both eyes, because they have not the same visual powers. It is probable that the former, if they had early accustomed themselves to make use of only one ear, would hear distinctly different sounds, which they would have imitated, and would not have contracted a false voice." FRENCH FRENCH DEFINITIONS of REVOLUTIONARY CANT PHRASES. [From DUPRE'S LEXICOGRAPHIA NEOLOGICA GALLICA.] A-BAS, interj. Down with him! down with it! A favourite expression with the French during the revolution, and much used by the mobs of Paris. It is a word of proscription, a signal of political anathema, which marks in a striking manner the fickleness of the French character; since they have called out à-bas! against all persons at different times, the idol of the evening being the object of their execration the next morning. (A-bas M. Veto! Down with M. Veto!-A-bas Tallien! Down with Tallien!-4-bus Petion! Down with Petion!-A-bas le directoire! Down with the directory! - A-bas les rois! Down with kings!-A-bas les saints! Down with the saints! -4-bas les impies! Down with the impious wretches-A-bas les athées! Down with the atheists!A-bas les sans-culottes! Down with the sans-culottes!" Institut aérostatique, s. m. aërostatic institution. This was first established by the committee of public safety at the palace of Meudon, and is conducted with great secrecy. The company of aeronauts consists of fifty enterprising young men who are constantly in practice. Balloons are by this institution prepared for the different armies, and have their appropriate names; that employed at the battle of Fleurus on the 26th of June 1794 is called the Entreprenant. An aeronaut and two officers of rank ascended in it twice, and by their signals made with flags contributed to the success of the day (or rather successive days), which was of the greatest consequence to the republican arms. When the labours of the aërostatic institution shall have attained to a degree of general utility and perfection, the transactions, it has been said, will be published; at present the French public know but little of what is doing. The greatest improvement the institution has hitherto made, has been to add a kind of telegraph falling below the gondola, and suspended from it, consisting of eight cylinders of black taffeta, which form the signals by opening and shutting, and appear like so many paper lanterns. This simple apparatus' forms two hundred and sixty-five changes, and has been found sufficient for the purposes of correspondence. The principal engineer has had in contemplation the construction of a telegraphic balloon which might be worked on terra firma, by means of strings communicating with the cylinders before mentioned, at the height of twelve feet from the ground." Attaché, s. m. a servant. Mon attaché is now generally used in France instead of mon valet de chambre, mon laquais, mon garçon. &c. (Le ministre public de France fit son entrée à Gênes, précédé de deux attachés, portant habit de citoyen et la cocarde nationale tricolore au chapeau, &c. The public minister of France made his entry into Genoa, preceded by two serrants, dressed in the habit of a citizen, having the three-coloured national cockade in his hat, &c.)" "Brissotiner, v. a. to brissotine; to empty the pockets or purse after the the manner of Brissot. Brissot was driven from Paris for some tricks of youth, and sought an asylum in London, where he gained a proficiency in an art which he was admirably qualified to distinguish himself by, whether in financial or literary matters. "He began his brilliant career by the publication of a treatise on genteel frauds (sur l'honnêteté des voleries). He did not confine his doctrine to barren arguments à priori, but instructed the public by weighty proofs of unanswerable and lucrative experience. This obtained for him the honour of having his name applied to feats of skill and address in the like way, called after him (brissotiner) brissotining, with the further eulogium of having proved himself an adept in the art of knavery (avoir bien mérité de la coquinerie.)" "Carmagnole, s. f. a patriotic dance and song so called. It owes its rise to the violence which broke out amongst the people, occasioned by the late king's right of veto, the massacre of the Swiss, and the knights of the poniard. It was called the carmagnole of the royalists, that is to say, a dance and song made to incense the royalists. "It is since become a common phrase in familiar speech. (On dit que nous dansons la carmagnole partout sur la même air; pour dire, que les armes des carmagnols ont du succès partout. It is said that we dance the carmagnole every where to the same tune; which implies that the carmagnols have every where the same success.) Carmagnole was the name at first given to the particular tune and dance before mentioned; afterwards to a particular kind of coat, and to the soldiers who wore it, or who sung the song: lastly, the reports made in the national convention by the framers of them. "The word carmagnole is probably borrowed from the name of a town so called in Piedmont, from whence came a number of diminutive fellows who served in the capacity of lacqueys in Paris, and, as is usual, were called after the name of the place from whence they came. "This song is remarkable because it has given the name of car. magnol to the republican part of the French nation." "Disetteux, euse, adj. famished; starving; having a scarcity of food. This adjective, which has been marked in the dictionaries heretofore as obsolete or seldom used, has been but too much employed during the late dearth of four successive years. (Une année disetteuse, a year of famine.) "It is remarkable that though the substantive disette is used to imply a famine, the adjective disetteur, formed from it, has been always used as an expression of ridicule, and to mean a poor needy devil; or in a compassionate sense, for a distressed person. Furetière has said: The academicians, so far from rendering the French language rich and copious, havestarred and impoverished it (l'ont rendu disetteuse)." “S'Embrancher, v. recip. to interweave; to entwine itself. This verb was formerly used only in an active sense, but is now become a reciprocal verb. (Cette question s'embranche avec une foule d'autres : this question interweaves itself with a number of others.) A metaphor taken from the interweaving, or entwining of the branches of trees, whether by art or nature. This verb is new." The The WESTPHALIAN SECRET TRIBUNALS. [From RENDER'S TOUR through GERMANY.] "Trenerally known in the year HESE are first mentioned as free counts, 'frey-grafen,' who 1220, and reported to have been in force to the year 1665. They were never formally abrogated, but lost their influence by degrees, as the sword of justice was wielded by vigorous hands. The Westphalian secret tribunals were at first only designed for that country alone, and had no jurisdiction whatever elsewhere. The extent of their power was limited on the west by the Rhine, on the east by the Weser, on the north by Friesland, and on the south by the " Westerwald,' i.e. the western forest, and Hesse." "The emperor being supreme judge of all secular courts of judicature in Germany, was also the sole institutor and chief of all tribunals. "Free counties, being certain districts comprehending several parishes, where the judges and counsellors of the secret ban administered justice, conformably to the territorial statutes. A free county contained several tribunals subject to the control of one master of the chair, stuhlherr.' These masters of the chair, who commonly were secular or ecclesiastical princes, held their appointment by the will. of the emperor, which they forfeited by deciding in matters not within their jurisdiction, or on deviating from the laws of the free tribunals. They appointed the were presidents of particular tribunals of the secret ban. They were presented by the masters of their chair to the emperor for confirmation, who were made responsible for them, upon which they were invested with the royal ban, and obliged to swear fealty and obedience to the head of the empire. The latter also could punish the free counts, or deprive them of their office; occupy the seat of a free count in the tribunals, decide in matters of appeal brought before him, inspect and reform the tribunals, and appoint the free knights, i. e. frey-schoffen; but this was confined to the territory of Westphalia,' "The number of these free knights, belonging to each tribunal, never was less than seven, nor did it amount to more than eleven. Seven free knights, at least, were required to compose a plenary court, i.e. vollgericht,' in which the final sentence was pronounced. Knights of other tribunals were indeed permitted to be present on these occasions as visitors, but were not allowed to give their vote. On their reception they promised upon oath, to give intor mation to the secret tribunal of every thing coming under its jurisdiction, perceived by themselves or reported to them by creditable persons, and not to suffer any thing created created betwixt heaven and earth to divert them from the execution of their duty. They also bound themselves to promote the interest of the sacred Roman empire, and to invade the possessions of the masters of the chair, and of the free courts, only on legal grounds. After having taken this oath, they were not permitted to reveal, even to their confessors, the secrets of the tribunal; and on transgressing this law, though only in the most trifling point, they were hanged without mercy. They pronounced judgment according to the statutes of the Westphalian secret tribunal, and executed it conformably to the decrees of the free courts. They knew each other by certain secret signs. "The original constitution of the secret tribunals did, however, not long continue in force; all sorts of abandoned characters being admitted. The number of free knights allowed to every tribunal was originally limited to eleven, but in a short time many of them amounted to sixty or seventy, who even were not possessed of an inch of landed property in Westphaly, and were induced by self-interest, ambition, and revenge, or some other disgraceful motive, to join the association. The meetingplaces of the members of the secret tribunals degenerated into haunts of sanguinary banditti, who indiscriminately assassinated the innocent with the guilty. The masters of the chair being actuated by the most sordid avarice, they divided the free counties into numerous smaller seats of justice, whereby the number of spies and secret informers naturally was increased to a most prodigious de gree, and various opportunities offered for fraud, imposition, and extortion. Although they were originally authorised to pronounce sentence only in criminal cases, in order to increase their fees they at length interfered in private and domestic affairs, and contrived to lay even counts and princes under contribution. On their admission, they vowed in the most solemn and awful manner, to judge with incorruptible impartiality, to regard no person, and even to be deaf to every emotion of the heart, in framing their decrees; but on the contrary, they were swayed by selfishness, accessible to corruption, partial to their friends, while they prosecuted their enemies with the most rancorous malice, and prostituted their function by rendering their authority subservient to the gratification of the most brutal lust. They were deaf to the lamentations of calumniated innocence, assassinated their relations inherit their estates, and were more dreadful to the virtuous than the midnight ruffian. A free count frequently acted at once as witness and as judge: the spy, informer, witness, and judge, were in many instances united in the same person; in short, the abuses which disgraced the secret tribunals rendered them a real curse to mankind. to "In the beginning of the 15th century, their power in Germany rose to a most alarming degree; and we may safely maintain that the German empire at that time contained more than 140,000 free knights, who, without either previous notice or trial, executed every one who was condemned by the secret ban. Austrians, Bavarians, Franconians, and Suabians, having a demand on any one whom they could not bring to justice before the regular courts of this country, applied to the Westphalian |