66

with his torn and bleeding hands, until, at length, "Dead! dead!" she exclaimed ; " and how a lucky push loosened a large stone which was did he die? Who has killed him? It never was enclosed between two of the roots of the tree. It his own fault. No, my Manuel was not a drunkfell forward, and the bright rays of heaven poured ard. My Manuel was not reckless. If he died, in upon his dazzled and enchanted vision. He it was not by his own hand. Show me the murfelt a thrill of delight, such as one entombed bederer, that I may call for vengeance on him.” fore his time might experience when the doors of My poor child," replied the director, "there his sepulchre flew outward, and gave him back is no murderer. There was carelessness, but no once more to warmth and light. With a little crime." additional labor he enlarged the aperture, until he was able to force himself through it. But what was his astonishment, when at length he stood under the open sky, to find that he was in the exact spot in which he had taken his noontide meal only a few hours before!

"Never tell me that, Don Jayme," replied the excited woman, all her Creole blood flushing in her cheek and sparkling in her eyes. "My Manuel was no sot, no madman, to throw away his life like Pedro Bravo. If he is dead, I accuse Miguel Gomez of his murder. There stands the A moment's consideration cleared up the mys-villain-look in his face and judge. It was only tery. The fountain was no natural spring, but a year ago, a little while before Manuel and I simply the place of exit for the waters which were married, that he offered the cargador Pedraslowly accumulated in the mine, and percolated za the post of captain of the gallery if he would through the mass of rocks, earth, and vegetation, come behind Manuel and push him off the Rinthat closed the entrance of the adit. So exact, conada. Answer me, Juan Pedraza, before the however, was its resemblance to an ordinary moun- great God who sees and hears us, is it not true?" tain spring, that this was, no doubt, the main cause Juan Pedraza, a miserable-looking man, with a of the locality of the old socabon having fallen into face haggard from the effects of habitual intoxicaoblivion; since nobody, of course, dreamed of tion, hung down his head, and made no reply. A looking for it in the vicinity of a fountain. It gloomy silence ensued, which was at length broken was clear to the young miner that he had made a by Don Jayme, who said, discovery of great importance to the company. With this thought in his mind, and eager to inform his friends of his wonderful escape, he set out at once up the mountain.

He was fated, however, not to reach the galera without encountering yet another very remarkable adventure. But before describing this, it will be necessary to relate briefly the events that had occurred at the shaft during the time he had spent in the mine. Don Jayme, after laboring for nearly an hour in his useless search, and being excessively puzzled by the complete disappearance of the body, which he could in no plausible way account for, had left the task for further examination to the miners, and ascended the shaft in great perplexity. Presently a new cause of distress and anxiety came to disturb him. The news of the dreadful accident, as it was considered, had spread to the village of San Adrian, and reached at last poor Margarita. Hurrying in a frenzy of agonized excitement up the mountain, she suddenly presented herself before the director, as he was walking up and down the galera, with his hands behind him, in the true English style of moody meditation.

"Where is my husband-my Manuel?" she exclaimed, in a peremptory tone. "I know he is here with you. It is all a joke to frighten me. What have I done, that you should wish to torment me in this way? Tell me, señor, for charity, where is my husband ?”

"Gomez, this affair begins to look serious for you. I am not your judge, but it is my duty to see that the matter undergoes strict investigation. Perez-and you, Francisco-I give the accused into your charge. See that he does not escape, and bring him before the alcalde to-morrow morning, when all now present will attend the examination."

The nervous anxiety which had been depicted on the countenance of the overseer ever since the explosion, now suddenly gave way to an expression of ferocious determination.

"

"Stand off!" he exclaimed, drawing his knife; back, for your lives! I am innocent of Manuel's death; but I will not stay to have my life sworn away by heretic Jews, spiteful women, and drunken villains. Out of the way, Perez! Follow me at your peril."

With these words he darted out of the galera, and fled down the mountain at a pace which defied pursuit.

At this moment Manuel, whose strength had been nearly exhausted by his labors in the mine, was painfully ascending the difficult path. He had nearly reached the Rinconada, and had paused for an instant to take breath, when a man suddenly turned the corner before him at full speed. It was Miguel Gomez. He held in one hand a drawn knife, and looked backward over his shoulder, as if expecting to be pursued. But when, on turn

"Would to God that it were a joke, my dearing his head, he beheld directly before him the young woman!" replied the director. "It is, unhappily, too true."

Margarita, notwithstanding the agitation of her mind, saw that he spoke in earnest. Her thoughts immediately took another direction.

figure of his victim, standing motionless, with pallid face and bloody hands, and eyes steadily fixed upon him, he recoiled with a cry of horror and affright. Whether it was a mere accident from the dizziness of the sudden shock, or whether

it was an access of suicidal frenzy, can never be known; but the unhappy wretch disappeared from the sight of the horror-stricken beholder, one last scream of despair ascending as the criminal shot | Don Manuel Campos, the present resident manager downward to his frightful and inevitable doom.

From the London Times.
DEATH OF MEHEMET ALI.

Of Mehemet Ali, as of Frederic of Prussia, or of the Muscovite Peter, it may be said that he THE death of Mehemet Ali is an event of his- was cruel with a direct intention of benefiting a torical rather than of political interest. The late people. Leaving, however, such a discussion as Viceroy of Egypt had ceased to govern before he this for the amusement of casuists, we prefer, in had ceased to live. The wonder is, not that his considering the career of the Egyptian ruler, to faculties should have given way at length, but that call attention to those extraordinary anomalies in they should have remained perfect until little more his character which will cause him to be placed in than a twelve-month before the close of his event- the records of history side by side with the founder ful career. Few monarchs recorded in history of the Russian empire. In thirty-six years Peter have retained possession of power for so long a the Great raised Russia from a semi-barbarous time as Mehemet Ali. For very nearly half a state to a pitch of military strength and political century he was the virtual sovereign of Egypt-importance which placed her on a level with the that is to say, of a country which proposed a leading powers of Europe. Her army, her navy, double difficulty to its rulera difficulty from her commerce, her legislature, were all the work within, and a difficulty from without. Through- of one man. His great qualities were often out the whole period of his sway, the territory he was endeavoring to reduce into order was subject to the attacks and manoeuvres of the most civilized nations of Europe; whilst, at the outset of his rule, he found himself hampered by the savage independence of those who should have been the almost passive instruments of his will. There was, moreover, a third obstacle to the successful administration of Mehemet Ali, which should not be forgotten. In place of being an independent sovereign, he was in theory a mere feudatory, bound to receive the orders and to act in subservience to the policy of another power, and to counsels most frequently inspired by his own rivals in ambition. The task of Mehemet Ali may be summed up in three periods: He had first to clear the ground on which to found a sovereignty; he had then a sovereignty to found; and when that was done came the hardest task of all-to civilize the people he had brought under his sway. In other words, ferocity, policy, and intelligence were in turn to hold sway over the mind of a man who set out in life as an untutored barbarian.

stained by acts of tyranny and cruelty, but he ac-
complished a work which would have been impos-
sible to a man of finer fibre and keener morality.
"He gave a polish," says Voltaire,
66 to his peo-
ple, and was himself a savage; he taught them
the art of war, of which he was himself igno-
rant; from the sight of a small boat on the river
Moskwa he created a powerful fleet; made him-
self an expert and active shipwright, sailor, and
commander; he changed the manners, laws, and
customs of the Russians, and lives in their mem-
ory as the father of his country." If the achieve-
ments of the petty Roumelian shopkeeper have
been less important, we must refer the inferiority
of the result rather to the deficiency of opportu-
nity than to the defects of the man. With the
like materials in his hand, we doubt not that Me-
hemet Ali would have accomplished as much, or
more, than his Muscovite prototype.

We cannot pretend to pass in review, in the space of a few lines, the various important acts of Mehemet Ali's career. The first object of his ambition, when he once found himself firmly seatThere have been many false ideas entertained in ed as the ruler of Egypt, was no doubt to make this country upon the subject of the extraordinary himself independent of his Suzerain at Constantiman who has recently expired at Alexandria. We nople; the second, to aggrandize his power by the do not offer any justification of his crimes when annexation of the Syrian provinces, and to carry we say that he must not be judged by an European the war even to the Dardanelles. Stranger revostandard. As compared with Oriental rulers, Me- lutions have happened in the East than that the hemet Ali was not a sanguinary or violent man. petty tobacco-dealer of Covalla should have leaped When he struck down the Mamelukes, at Cairo, into his master's seat and borne sway in the city of in 1811, the act was inspired by a great political Constantine. The events of 1840, and the bommotive, not by wanton cruelty. Separated as we bardment of Acre, are fresh in the recollection of are by some forty years from the crime, we cannot Europe. No such idea had ever entered into the deny that by the destruction of the Mamelukes, imagination of the crafty viceroy, as that he was Mehemet Ali removed the great obstacle to the fitted to cope by himself with the arms of the Eucivilization of Egypt. We must search for a par- ropean powers. He trusted that the strength of allel to the bloody scene enacted in the citadel of all would be neutralized by their mutual disunion; Cairo in the destruction of the Strelitzes, or of the and how nearly he approached success, the events Janissaries. We do not justify the Egyptian of the time have proved. The conquest of Conruler in saying that his bloody and violent deed stantinople by Mehemet Ali has been, within the must not be mistaken for another act of a totally limits of legitimate dreaming, the most splendid distinct nature. No doubt he displayed a pro- political conception of the last twenty-five years. found indifference to human life when it stood be- It was not a game in which any man was likely tween him and the enterprises he had in hand; but to succeed, but it was a game which a very bold in this respect it is difficult to draw any distinction and a very extraordinary man was likely enough to to his prejudice between him and other men upon play. whom history has bestowed the title of "Great." It is, however, by the acts of his internal ad

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guessed. At the age of twelve he was put apprentice to a goldsmith of Newburyport, of the name of Davis. His master died three years afterwards, and Perkins, at fifteen, was left with the management of the business. This was the age of gold beads, which our grandmothers still hold in fond re

ministration that Mehemet Ali must be mainly the common schools of that day furnished, and judged. There can be no doubt that he has given nothing more. What they were in 1770 may be a great onward impulse to the territory over which he bore sway for so long a period. The army and navy he called into existence, if not sufficient to contend with the great European powers with any chance of success, are at least of sufficient importance to give stability to the government of Egypt against attacks from without and trouble from with-membrance-and who wonders? The young goldin. This is in itself a point of paramount importance. If it can be inscribed with truth on the tomb of the dead viceroy that he has established "order" within the Egyptian territory, we need not be so careful in ascertaining the specific development of this or that branch of manufacture during his rule. No doubt there was much that was forced and unnatural about the manner in which he dragged out the resources of the country. You cannot import civilization by the bale, nor establish an important the imported buckles. commerce by virtue of a mere decree. Manches- branch of business till the revolutions of fashion But drove shoe-buckles out of the market. Nothing could be done with strings, and Perkins put his head-work on other matters.

ters and Liverpools are not house-plants.
even admitting the failure of many of Mehemet
Ali's cherished schemes of manufactures, it is cer-
tain that he gave a strong onward impulse to the
civilization and prosperity of his country. We
doubt not that in other respects the example of en-
ergy and enterprise he has shown will bear fruit in
due season, although probably not in the way he
anticipated himself.

[We are indebted to the Boston Courier for an opportunity of paying respect to the memory of a man of genius, and of great kindness, at whose house in London we frequently passed a pleasant hour, nearly twenty years ago.]

THE LATE JACOB PERKINS.

A SIMPLE and unostentatious notice of the demise of this remarkable man is all the tribute that the public press has yet paid to his memory. The merits of our ingenious countryman deserve more. He has passed quietly away from the scene of his labors; but he has left his mark upon the age. The generation now existing enjoys the fruit of his toil, and generations yet to come will learn to appreciate his genius. He who contributes to the perfection of the useful arts, does more for the welfare of mankind than he who conquers an empire. The true benefactors of the human race are not those who set up thrones and issue their dictates to obedient millions, but those who enlarge the sphere of human power by studies which sharpen the human intellect, develop the genius of man, and show the supremacy of mind over brute matter. Of this class of gifted minds was Jacob Perkins.

He was descended from one of the oldest families of that ancient portion of the state of Massachusetts, the county of Essex-a region of stubborn soil, but rich in its productions of men. Matthew Perkins, his father, was a native of Ipswich, and his ancestor was one of the first settlers of that town. Matthew Perkins removed to Newburyport early in life, and here Jacob Perkins was born, July 9th, 1766. He received such education as

smith gained great reputation for the skill and honesty with which he transformed the old Portuguese joes, then in circulation, into these showy ornaments for the female bosom. Shoe-buckles were another article in great vogue, and Perkins, whose inventive powers had begun to expand during his apprenticeship, turned his attention to the manufacturing of them. He discovered a new method of plating, by which he could undersell This was a profitable

Machinery of all sorts was then in a very rude state, and a clever artisan was scarcely to be found. It was regarded as a great achievement to effect a rude copy of some imported machine. Under the old confederation, the state of Massachusetts established a mint for striking copper coin; but it was not so easy to find a mechanic equal to the task of of age when he was employed by the government making a die. Perkins was but twenty-one years for this purpose; and the old Massachusetts cents, stamped with the Indian and the eagle, now to be seen only in collections of curiosities, are the work of his skill. He next displayed his ingenuity in nail machinery, and, at the age of twenty-four, invented a machine which cut and headed nails at one operation. This was first put in operation at Newburyport, and afterwards at Amesbury on the Merrimack, where the manufacture of nails has been carried on for more than half a century.

Perkins would have realized a great fortune from this invention, had his knowledge of the world and the tricks of trade been any way equal to his mechanical skill. But he was deprived of the profits of his invention by the incapacity or dishonesty of two scheming individuals to whom he entrusted the business of putting his machines in operation. Others, however, made a great gain from his loss; and he turned his attention to various other branches of the mechanic arts, in several of which he made essential improvements, as fireengines, hydraulic machines, &c. One of the most important of his inventions was the engraving of bank bills. Forty years ago counterfeiting was carried on with an audacity and a success which would seem incredible at the present time. The ease with which the clumsy engravings of the bank bills of that day were imitated, was a temptation to every knave who could scratch copper; and counterfeits flooded the country to the serious detriment of trade. Perkins invented the stereotype checkplate, which no art of counterfeiting could match;

and a security was thus given to bank paper which ceived a brilliant compliment from John Quincy it had never before known.

There was hardly any mechanical science in which Perkins did not exercise his inquiring and inventive spirit. Whether it promised pecuniary reward or not, it was all the same to him. Whatever gave scope to his restless, inquisitive, and practical genius-whatever promised to be useful or agreeable to those around him, laid claim to the exercise of his powers.

Adams in an oration which he delivered at Washington, while Secretary of State. In connection with this discovery, Perkins also invented the bathometer, an instrument for measuring the depth of the sea by the pressure of the water; and the pleometer to measure a ship's rate of sailing.

Perkins continued to reside in his birthplace till 1816, when he removed from Newburyport to BosThe town of Newbury-ton, and subsequently to Philadelphia. His attenport enjoyed the benefit of his skill in every way tion was now occupied by steam machinery, which in which he could contribute to the public welfare was beginning to acquire importance in the United or amusement. During the war of 1812 his in- States, though no one, not even Perkins himself, genuity was employed in constructing machinery had at that moment any conception of the degree for boring out old honey-combed cannon, and in to which it would revolutionize the whole system perfecting the science of gunnery. He was a of labor, mechanism, travel, business, and social skilful pyrotechnist, and the Newburyport fire-life. His researches led to the invention of a new works of that day were thought to be unrivalled method of generating steam, by suddenly letting a in the United States. The boys, we remember, looked up to him as a second Faust, or Cornelius Agrippa, and the writer of this article has not forgotten the delight and amazement with which he learnt from Jacob Perkins the mystery of compounding serpents and rockets.

small quantity of water into a heated vessel. Our scientific knowledge is not such as to qualify us for speaking with any authority upon these matters, but if we can take the word of those who profess to be well acquainted with the subject, Perkins was the first man who investigated the property of steam at an extraordinary high pressure, and he employed it on one occasion at the rate of 65 atmospheres, or 975 pounds to the square inch. We are informed that this discovery and another relating to the spherical property of water, both made by Perkins, long ago, have within two years been announced in France as the recent discoveries of an individual of that country.

About this time a person named Redheffer, made pretensions to a discovery of the perpetual motion. He was traversing the United States with a machine exhibiting his discovery. Certain weights moved the wheels, and, when they had run down, certain other weights, restored the first. The experiment seemed perfect, for the machine continued to move without cessation; and Redheffer was trumpeted to the world as the man who had solved After a short residence in Philadelphia, he rethe great problem. Perkins gave the machine an moved to London, where his experiments with examination, and his knowledge of the powers of high-pressure steam, and other exhibitions which mechanism enabled him to perceive at once that he gave of his inventive powers, at once brought the visible appliances were inadequate to the re-him into general notice. His uncommon mechansults. He saw that a hidden power existed some-ical genius was highly appreciated; and his where, and his skilful calculations detected the steam-gun was for some time the wonder of the corner of the machine from which it proceeded. British metropolis. This gun he invented in the "Pass a saw through that post," said he, "and United States, and took out a patent for it in 1819. your perpetual motion will stop." The impostor It attracted the notice of the British government refused to put his machine to such a test; and for in 1823, and Perkins made experiments with it bea sufficient reason. It was afterwards discovered fore the Duke of Wellington and a numerous party that a cord passed through this post into the cellar, of officers. At a distance of thirty-five yards he where an individual was stationed to restore the shattered iron targets to pieces, and sent his balls weights at every revolution. through eleven planks, one inch thick each, and placed an inch apart from one another. This gun was a very ingenious piece of workmanship, and could discharge about 1000 balls per minute.

The studies, labors, and ingenuity of Perkins, were employed on so great a variety of subjects, that the task of specifying and describing them must be left to one fully acquainted with the history of the mechanic arts in the United States. A few only of the results of his skill can be mentioned here. He discovered a method of softening and hardening steel at pleasure, by which the process of engraving on that metal was facilitated in a most essential degree. By this method, also, engravings were transferred from one steel plate to another, thus multiplying the plates to an immense extent without the labor of reëngraving. He instituted a series of experiments by which he demonstrated the compressibility of water, a problem which for centuries had baffled the ingenuity of natural philosophers. For this discovery he re

He

Perkins continued in London during the remainder of his life. He never became rich. lacked one quality to secure success in the world

financial thrift. Everybody but himself profited by his inventions. He was, in fact, too much in love with the excitement of the chase to look very strongly at the pecuniary value of the game. He was often reminded by his friends of his prodigal expenditure of thought and labor upon branches of science, which could bring no immediate gain of money—but this appeal to pecuniary interests had little effect upon a mind so free from selfishness, and one which loved knowledge for its own sake, and its connection with the interests of man