water, which soon sets and becomes hard, is now succesfully employed for anatomical preparation.

It is so penetrating, as frequently to return by the veins, and is found to be very convenient, from the circumstance of its not requiring the application of heat. The first application of the above mixture to anatomical purposes, is reported to have been by an American anatomist of the name of Ramsay.

PRESERVATION OF FRESH WATER FISH IN WINTER.

WHEN fish ponds are frozen over, it should be the daily practice, for the preservation of the fish, to break the ice in several places, and agitate the water beneath, in order to renew the supply of atmospheric air. If as in many fish-preserver, a penstock will allow of the water being partially drawn off from beneath the ice, it will materially aid in the pre servation of the fish. The necessity of a supply of atmospheric air, may be easily proved, by confining a few small fish in a glass vessel nearly filled with water, and tied over with a piece of bladder; the fish will, in consequence, soon grow languid and die, and the air above the water will be found to extinguish a lighted taper owing to its being deprived of its oxygen. Register of Arts.

SINGULAR POETICAL WILL.

THE following is given as a correct copy of the Will of the late Mr. Joshua West, the poet of the Six Clerk's Office, Chancery Lane, dated December 13, 1804.

Perhaps I die not worth a groat!

But should I die worth something more, Then I give that and my best coat, And all my manuscripts in store, To those who shall the goodness have, To cause my poor remains to rest Within a decent shell and grave

This is the will of-JOSHUA WEST. J. A. Berry,

John Baines.

THE FOREIGN EXECUTIONER.

(Continued from page 196.)

to be disclosed

It was with no little degree of expectation, that I looked for the morning of the 30th of January, when the secret sins and sorrows of my unhappy guest were determined, however, not to seek his chamber until he should solicit my presence: and I therefore waited until about eleven o'clock when he entered my apartment still bearing his ancient oaken chest, but habited in a manner entirely different from his worn out soldier's raiment of the preceding day. He now appeared in a close dress of coarse white cloth, fastened with a large buff girdle and a broad iron buckle, and covered with a round cap, that fitted tightly to his head. Before him hung a short and rough brown apron, much spotted with blood, which was greatly changed in colour from the length of time it had remained there; and the additional sleeves which were put on over his vest, were stained in a similar manner. Upon one shoulder rested the box, his constant companion, and in the other hand he VOL. I

P

carried an ancient dark coloured highcrowned hat, while on his legs were loose calf-skin breeches, and light brown stock ings, with the large square boots of the 17th century.

I had now a fair opportunity of studying the countenance of this man, comparatively in a state of rest. It was much furrowed, and was of a very dark olivecolour, with the red blood of his cheeks, and an angry flush upon his broad bald forehead, glowing through it; having his black grizzled hair, some portions of which appeared from beneath his cap, hanging down in flakes upon his shoulders. Above his deeply sunken eyes, very thick bushy brows of the same hue, gave to them a yet darker shade, and at the lower part of his face, large curling moustaches, and a full, pointed beard, almost obscured his lips, which seemed ever to wear a scornful smile. There was in the whole of his features, something that one would shudder at without precisely knowing why; for his eyes occasionally looked lighted up with malice, and a stern foreign aspect gave all the characters of revenge to his swarthy visage.

14-SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1828

As he entered the apartment I saluted him with "A good morrow to thee, mine ancient friend, let me hope that the night season has fully answered that end for which our Maker first created it ;the resuscitation of our flagging souls, the strengthening of our wearied bodies, the filling of our hearts with fresh life, and the disposing of our tongues to gratitude from the union of all these blessings. Hath it been so with thee?"

me;

66

"Yes," replied my guest, setting down his chest and seating himself opposite to yes, I feel braced for the trials and duties of the day, with a strength which I know well is not mine own; a calmness which for these last sixty years has been unknown to me. But now, thou benevolent Priest, call up all thine attention to the history which I am about to relate, awaken all thy Christian charity to pity, and pray for one, whom all others of thy profession have held accursed to perdition.'

"We should beware," said I," as erring men ourselves, how we pursue any crime with execrations; since in so doing we too frequently involve the man with

his sins, and forget liberality of sentiment whilst we are condemning aberations from virtue. This too productive of another evil; for they who delight in the denunciation of sin are frequently permitted to fall into it themselves, to teach them that they likewise are mortal. For thy history then, relate it, and be alike sure of my sympathy and of my prayers.”

"As it is certain," began the stranger, "that my birth would be a foul stain even to the best or most glorious of cities, I will say only that I am of Spain, that my name is Ignacio Riaza, and that my unhappy parents were called Luis and Raquel Riaza from the place of their birth, a town about twenty Spanish miles Northward of the Capital. I call them unfortunate, in having a son who from his earliest years was pledged to vice; so deeply pledged, that Eliséo Estrellado, or Elisha the star-lightened, an eminent Astrologer of Madrid, when he erected my nativity, refused to explain it because it's configurations shewed such a malignant soul. As I grew upward these planetary predictions were abundantly fulfilled; for a fierce and cruel disposition,

which proceed for me the surname of Sanguijuela, or the Bloodsucker, shewed that Mars had a powerful ascendancy in my mind. The most ferocious have, however, felt the influence of affection, and it is possible, if I had allowed myself to be guided by the gentle Engracia Rosadella, my first and only sincere love, I might have been-but no matter I must

on.

"My fierce impetuous disposition carried me into the army whilst yet quite a youth, where all the vices which are common to the most abandoned soldiery were mine-I gamed to.such excess, that it was in vain to apply for more aid to those friends who had even then assisted me almost beyond their means: but yet I deemed avarice held back their hands, and permitted myself to be persuaded by a wretched creature, one Carlota Reze losa, for whom I had left my former amiable Engracia, to try upon my heart-broken parents the effects of-how shall I say it?-of the secret poison! They who propose a crime usually find the means to execute it; and the detestable Carlota brought me acquainted with an old hag, usually called Madre Juana la Envenenador, or Mother Jane the Poisoner, who furnished me with a bottle of her fiendish preparation. Even though I had gone thus far in guilt, blood was not yet hanging upon my soul, and I would fain have shrunk back from the horrid precipice before me; my debts, however, were large, my creditors clamorous, and the pay of my fellow soldiers which I had drawn, as a petty officer, was embezzled, Rezelosa, whom I have sometimes deemed to be a fiend in human form, knew all this, and constantly urged me forward by alternately depicting to me discovery and ruin; and the success which might arise from a quick performance of the deed. I cannot relate to you a thousandth part of what I felt, even previously to my preparing the draught, time seemed to fly with me unobserved, and I know only that it was given! As it was made to a very powerful degree of strength, it's action was too visible and too rapid for our crime to remain a secret. The blue livid bodies were soon discovered; and to this hour I deem that it was by Rezelosa's evidence, that these murders were attributed to me! Yet was I well avenged; for to avoid the consequence of her own share. in this horrible transaction, which I made fully known, both she and the hag who furnished it, also swallowed a portion of the same poison! All my other offences became now detected; I was tried and condemned; publicly excommunicated in the Churches, and cast into a most

loathsome dungeon to await my release by an untimely death.

"It happened at this time, that Lorenzo Verdugo, the chief public Executioner, fell sick and died of the prison-plague, at a period when the State most required his services, in consequence of a conspi. racy which had lately been discovered. No one, not already stained with blood, could be prevailed upon to accept the office; till, at length, the principal Judges of the Criminal Court gave orders that it should be offered to me, together with my forfeited life; and this was done on the night before that day when I myself was to have been executed. The miseries which I had met with, even in my short career, notwithstanding they were the natural consequences of my own crimes, had inspired me with a boundless hatred to mankind; and I accepted, with a fiendish joy, the restoration of my liberty on condition of becoming Head-Executioner of the City. Yet there were those who could not rejoice even at the saving of my life upon such terms: my ever kind and gentle Engracia, who had wept over all my sorrows, and who had yet borne up her tender frame to visit me in my condemned prison, upon seing me pass her dwelling to the first performance of my sanguinary duty, gave a wild shriek and expired! I have sometimes wondered how my form hath held together, stained as it is with crime, and weakened by such awful visitations: but all at that time seemed to me only additional excitements to wade deeper in human blood in the new office to which I was appointed. I will not harrow up your soul by telling the histories,- -nor indeed can I well call them to mind-of those many victims which have died by my hand; I feel guiltless of all of them, for they fell for crimes exciting no compassion; but there is one execution which neither time nor tears can wash away; where he whose blood was shed, was condemned because he was too angel-like to live in such depraved times: and where the trial and the sentence were begun without authority, carried on without justice, and executed without mercy.

"It will hardly be credited, that at the time of which I speak, I was not twenty years of age: and I had hardly reigned two years over death, when a British Trooper, who spake the Spanish tongue, sought my dwelling, and proposed to me a voyage to England; where he stated that a person of high rank was to be beheaded, and that the government wished for an Executioner who was at once eminent and unknown. No country on earth could be more detestable to me than my