Great Marlow, Bucks.  M.L.B.

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THE GATHERER.

Congreve Rockets.—­When the Congreve rockets were first introduced into the navy, the admiral on the Brazil station proposed to exhibit to the king, Don Juan VI., the effect of these formidable projectiles.  His majesty consented, and the whole court were accordingly assembled in the balconies of the palace, at the Rio, for the purpose of witnessing the spectacle.  By some mishap, of very frequent occurrence in the early history of these missiles, at the moment of firing the tube veered round, and the rocket, instead of flying over to Praia Grande, took the opposite direction, and fell and exploded in the great square, almost beneath the windows of the palace.  The consternation of the king was only equalled by the mortification of the admiral, who immediately despatched an officer on shore to explain the cause of the contretemps to his majesty; and offering to let off another, but the terrified monarch would not hear of it.  “I have a great respect,” said he, “for my good allies, the English, but after dinner they are absolutely fit for nothing;” an observation which clearly indicated to what cause his majesty attributed the unfortunate result of the exhibition.—­Monthly Magazine.

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Prosperity of America.—­The United States of N. America posses an almost undefinable extent of fertile uncultivated land—­a highly industrious and intelligent population of 13,000,000—­the national debt will be paid this year—­and they have a large surplus revenue.  That of 1831 was 27,700,000 Spanish dollars; the expenditure for all government purposes 14,700,000.

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War.—­Were the disputes between great and rival nations to be settled by single combat, by those, through whose ambition, pride, or other cause, they were occasioned, millions of lives might have been saved.

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Curious Custom.—­There is held in Italy, a kind of feast, or ceremony, in the courts of certain princes, on St. Nicholas’s Day, in which people hide presents in the shoes or slippers of those they would do honour to; in such a manner as to surprise them on the morrow, when they come to dress.  It is done in imitation of the practice of St. Nicholas; who used, in the night time, to throw purses of money in at the windows, for portions to poor maidens on their marriage.  P.T.W.

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Experience.—­It often happens that the more we see into a man, the less we admire him.—­Pliny.

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The Romans were so anxious to encourage marriage, that they punished unmarried persons by rendering them incapable of receiving any legacy, or inheritance by will, except from near relatives.  And those who were married, and had not any children, could take no more than half the estate.