of the chemist, he can secure a fine crusted
appearance in as many days!

The following anecdote may serve to illustrate
the perfection to which the art of our
wine wizards has been brought in modern
times. The Prince of Wales had a small
quantity of remarkably fine wine; and his
household chose to drink it out. The Prince
one day ordered some of this identical wine
for his table, and there was but a single bottle
left. The person who had the management
of the wine went to a merchant in the City,
and stated what he wanted. The dealer said,
"Send me a bottle of what remains, and what
I send must be drank immediately; I can
imitate it." The trick was perfectly successful.
The prince enjoyed the " remarkably
fine wine " with evident satisfaction, and
was afterwards supplied with more from the
same binn.

The facts elicited during this inquiry prove,
beyond the shadow of a doubt, that high duties
on wine, act as they do on other articles;
injuriously to the revenue, to the trade, and
to the nation. They open a very wide door
to frauds, and stimulate the use of far less
wholesome liquids. The people require, and
will have, a beverage possessing more or less
of stimulant qualities; and if, by wise legislation,
they can be provided with a genuine,
wholesome and cheap wine, the effect must
be to rescue hundreds of thousands from the
vice of gin-drinking. It has been stated, and
we fear with too much truth, that in Glasgow
alone twenty thousand people go to bed
drunk every Saturday night.

There surely cannot be a doubt as to which
is the less hurtful, and the more likely to
elevate the character of the consumers: Port
or rum, Sherry or gin, Claret or whiskey,
Moselle or cognac. Of the advantages
certain to result to this country, not less than
to those producing wines, from a liberal
reduction of our duties, there is ample
evidence in these volumes; we cannot do
better than conclude with the following
testimony:

An old resident on the Continent "alludes to
the great probability of an increased demand
from Spain for our casks and bottles; articles
in which that country is deficient; while
Portugal is ready to ' reduce the tariff upon
our cotton and woollen goods, if we reduce the
wine duties.' To these results, must be added
the immense impetus that will be given to
our shipping interests and the industry of
numerous classes connected with them."

An extensive wine importer stated that he
did not know any " article in commerce that
would give so much employment to labour
as an increased importation of wine. It is
bulky; and, being in casks, would require a
great number of ships to bring it over; to
land and store it on the quays for guaging;
to convey it to the cellars; to fine and to
bottle it; and to convey it away when sold.
A large quantity of cork-wood must be
imported additionally, which would employ
many vessels. Bottles must be manufactured,
as well as cases and baskets; all these
manufactures employing manual labour.

FORTY FAMOUS ARM-CHAIRS.

HERE follow some notes upon the French
Academy, with its forty famous fauteuils, or
arm-chairs, the gift of the Grand Monarque.
The original chairs ceased to be used after the
transference of the sittings of the Association
from the Louvre to the Palace of the Institute;
but the order of them is still religiously
preserved, and the honour of a seat in the
Academy is to this day accounted great. At
this day in France there are some things called
great that are particularly little. What our
neighbours regard as a new and gorgeous
throne may be but rickety old lumber;
nevertheless, we think the arm-chairs of the French
Academy to be thrones in their way better
than lumber, representing powers that deserve
the honour of a little history.

The first literary society in France which
took sittings in Paris was founded in 1570, by
John Anthony Bayfius, a writer of Latin
verses, and a son or nephew of the once
celebrated Lazarus Bayfius, a learned,
turbulent, and unfortunate scholar. The
academy of Bayfius, which appears to have
been intended quite as much for the
encouragement of music as of literature, was duly
registered, after considerable opposition, by
the parliament of a famous King, that is to
say, Charles the Ninth—author of St. Bartholomew,
a tragedy—and it enjoyed the protection
both of that sovereign and of his successor.
But those times were so noisy that learning
was impossible, arid the academy of Bayfius
broke up, after an existence of twenty-five
years, expiring with its founder. An attempt
to revive it in 1612, made by one Daniel
Revauet, author of a book called " A Plan
for a New Academy, and for its introduction
at Court," met with no success. Peter Ronsard
the poet, Desportes, and the elder Du Perron,
were the most distinguished members
of the academy of Bayfius; of which the
sittings were held in a mean building, not very
long since demolished, in the
Rue des Fossès St. Victor.

The founder of the present French
Academy was Valentine Conrart, secretary to
Louis the Thirteenth, and an indefatigable
writer of manuscripts, none of which, we
believe, have ever been committed to the
press. At the house of this gentleman, in the
years 1630 and 1631, Godeau ,Gombauld,
Giry Habert, Serisay de Malleville,
Chapelaine, author of La Pucelle, and other men
of genius or men of letters, were in the
habit of assembling once or twice a week for
the discussion of literary subjects, and the
advancement of new works. Their sense of
their own importance was acute; for these
gentlemen, of course without any charter,