Acting upon this system, the indulgence of the affections common to humanity, may be honourably united, with an observance of the principles inculcated by virtue: the plains of Princeton (famed in martial story) shall be traversed by many a veteran, with the fondest recollections of patriotic worth: And the sons of Nassau must forever associate in remembrance, even the inanimate objects of the collegiate scene, with a consciousness, a grateful consciousness, of the blessings of education. THE USEFUL ARTS-FOR THE PORT FOLIO. BETTS'S PATENT CHEESE PRESS. MR. OLDSCHOOL, I AM happy to find that a portion of your elegant miscellany will be devoted to agriculture, and other branches of rural economy, and that while the dulce forms so agreeable a portion of the work, the utile will not be forgotten. Every invention that tends to the improvement of our domestic manufactures deserves to be encouraged. Our farmers, our dairy women in particular will be gratified in being presented with an improved Cheese Press for which Mr. Betts of the Eastward who is the inventor has obtained a patent, as it combines a well regulated pressure with compactness of form, it promises to supersede all the awkward contrivances in use for the purpose: it is worthy the attention and will no doubt receive the patronage of our intelligent farmers and industrious housewives. Two upright posts AA are connected at a suitable height by a plank B of a proper width to form a scat, and by a strengthening brace C above; a perpendicular rod D and cross piece E forming a T reversed passes through the connecting piece; on one side of the rod is a row of teeth F, the ends of the cross piece moves in a groove G on each side; a small cog-wheel H operates on the teeth; its axis is supported under the brace by iron straps; it terminates with a head I; on this axis is also fastened a wheel, having a number of pins iii near its rim projecting in a horizontal manner; the lever K, the end of which is notched, so that by altering the position of the weight L the degree of pressure may be varied, is not fastened to the axis, but turns on it, and is confined by the head; when used, the end of the lever is brought towards the person, raised, and rested on the next pin above. The manufacture of cheese within the last ten or fifteen years has greatly increased. The following facts, taken from the treasury statements, show the rapid progress of this interesting branch of our domestic manufactures. In 1792 the cheese exported was only 125925 lb. 1332224 lb. Nor has the quantity only been attended to, the quality is also improved: in many of the States cheese is now made of a very superior kind, and but little encouragement is wanting to Fender it equal to the best of the English. C. TRAVELS IN FRANCE-FOR THE PORT FOLIO. LETTER LXXIV. SHORTLY after leaving Blois, we entered upon the embankment which protects the low grounds from the overflowings of the Loire. It is about twenty-five feet wide on the top, rising very gradually to an elevation of fourteen or fifteen feet above the level of the cultivated land; it lies on one, or the other side of the river, or on both, according to the situation and extent of the low grounds, which are every where in a state of the highest cultivation. Wherever they terminate and the high land commences, it is generally by a slope sufficiently gentle to be also in cultivation, and, for the most part, in vineyard; there are some vines also in the low grounds which are trained from tree to tree, as in Lombardy. These last afford good grapes, I am told, but the wine they produce is of an inferior quality. The care of the embankment is by no means left to the individual over whose land it passes, and whose possessions it protects; it is a general concern, and being by far the greater part of the way the high road of the country, it is kept up and repaired by the profits of the different turnpikes. The earth which was necessary for the construction of this useful work was generally taken from the outside in dry seasons, and there are sluices at certain distances for letting off any great accumulation of rain water. Amid a number of ancient castles on the left bank of the river, we were struck with the appearance of Chaumont; it stands upon a low but rugged rock, and overlooks a little town, which it seems to command and to protect. Chaumont is the property of a gentleman who has preferred to become an American citizen and to live in New-York. It would have cost me a struggle to have exchanged the castle of my ancestors, and such a castle in so fine a country for the narrow streets, the musquitos, and the docks, and the yellow fever of New-York. But I can conceive that the difference of government to one who has a family growing up may very possibly supersede every other consideration. The site of Chaumont, which was besieged and taken by Henry II of England some five hundred years ago, called our attention to the history of that great prince, and the more so, as we were now passing through the provinces which formed his hereditary dominions as heir of the ancient house of Plantagenet, when blinded by interest and ambition, just as a man might be in these latter times, he thought himself fortunate in contracting a marriage with the heiress of Guyenne, who disgraced and tormented him by her improper conduct, and by her jealousy, and excited his sons to acts of perfidy and rebellion against the most generous and indulgent of fathers. The best maxims for the government of human life might surely be derived from history. Henry II, the greatest and wisest monarch of his time, so distinguished for his abilities in peace and war, whose character both in public and private life was, with very few exceptions, without a blemish, and who possessed every accomplishment both of body and mind which could render a man either estimable or amiable, sinking under the disgrace of a dishonourable peace, opposed by his children, deserted by his favourites, and retiring to die in an obscure castle, affords a striking lesson of the versatility of human affairs. I have often thought that lord Lyttleton's account of the last moments of this great monarch's life was as pathetic a picture as is to be found in history, and that it ought to weigh with the reader in favour of one of the dullest books that was ever written. We passed through Amboise, and took a hasty look at the exterior of the ancient castle where Charles VIII was born, and which is connected with some important events in the history of France. We saw Chanteloup far upon our left, and could distinguish the column which Monsieur de Choiseul erected during his exile in honour of those who came to visit him. No individual before the revolution ever united so much power in his own person as Mon- ' sieur de Choiseul, being at one time at the head of the three great departments of the army, the navy, and foreign affairs. From this world of business, this torrent of human affairs, the transition to the tranquillity of rural life must have been painful, and it was wise in him to think of amusing himself by the pursuits of agriculture. I do not imagine, however, from what I heard as I passed, that his proficiency in farming was ever very great or very profitable; his noble cow-house and well-established dairy, which Young speaks so highly of, could not, it seems, supply the household with milk, and Chanteloup was sold after his death to pay his debts. To the castles of the former nobility, which are spread along the river, there were now added, as we approached Tours, a number of comfortable houses, which bespoke the prosperous trade of that ancient city in better times, and there began also to be seen some singular habitations scooped out of the soft rock which must have formed the banks of the river, in days of yore, before it had made for itself so deep a channel. The chimnies to these are opened through the rock, and smoke is frequently seen to rise amdist horses and cattle, who are thus grazing on the top of a human habitation. These cavern houses are generally inhabited by the class of labourers, and afford others the facility of having very cool and dry cellars at a trifling expense. We shortly after passed the ruins of the venerable and once wealthy and distinguished monastery of Marmon tice, and entered Tours over a noble bridge of fifteen arches, which leads into one of the handsomest streets we had ever seen in France. The houses are of hewn stone, their fronts have a uniform appearance, and there are side pavements for the accommodation of foot passengers. All that heaven has ever bestowed upon man was once to be enjoyed in this fine country. But their manufactories, which formed a principal source of their prosperity, are gone to decay, and the overplus of what the earth, in its utmost fertility produces, but suffices a livelihood and the means of paying taxes. In walking about the town I saw nothing that looked like opulence or prosperity, and the playhouses which we attended in the evening, was the very emblem of wretchedness. I could not have imagined that I should find a theatre in one of the handsomest towns of France, in comparison of which, the playhouse over the old beef-market at Newport might be called a splendid place. The cathedral, which you may have seen a description of in some book of travels, and which was once distinguished for a profusion of Gothic ornaments, and revered as a place of peculiar sanctity, was defaced and defiled with the most profligate ingenuity during the revolution. The workmen employed upon this iniquitous occasion are said to have received nearly thirty thousand livres as wages, and the government is now expending more than twice that sum to restore this ancient place of worship as much as possible to its former appearance. Tours is known in history as the birth-place of Agnes Sorcel, who, with all her frailties, is said in an epigram made upon her by Francis I, to have rendered more service to France than the prayers, in all probability, and the mortifications of a whole convent of nuns could. It was at Tours that Louis XI dragged on the last period of his wretched life, the horrors of which have been described by his historian, Comines, with so much truth and simplicity. He had trifled with oaths and promises, had oppressed his subjects, and put numbers to death, on every frivolous pretence; he had exercised his ingenuity too in the invention of such instruments of torture, as might best prolong the sufferings of those, who were the peculiar objects of his vengeance, and he now felt the full force of all the enormities he had committed, with the additional mortification of being exposed |