of the room may be effected by an opening into the chimney near the ceiling; and the temperature may be regulated with great precision by a valve placed in this opening, and made to obey the dilatation and contraction of a piece of wire affixed to it, the exact length of which at any time will depend on the temperature of the room.  The author first imagined such an arrangement of rooms for the winter residence of a person who was threatened with consumption; and the happy issue of the case, and of others treated on similar principles, has led him to doubt, whether many of the patients with incipient consumption, who are usually sent to warmer climates, and who die there after hardships on the journey, and mental distress from the banishment sufficient to shake even strong health, might not be saved, by judicious treatment in properly warmed and ventilated apartments, under their own roofs, and in the midst of affectionate kindred.

Arnott’s Elements of Physics.

* * * * *

LORD ORFORD’S DESCRIPTION OF THE DEATH OF GENERAL WOLFE.

The rapidity with which our arms had prevailed in every quarter of the globe, made us presume that Canada could not fail of being added to our acquisitions; and, however arduously won, it would have sunk in value if the transient cloud that overcast the dawn of this glory had not made it burst forth with redoubled lustre.  The incidents of dramatic fiction could not be conducted with more address to lead an audience from despondency to sudden exultation, than accident prepared to excite the passions of a whole people.  They despaired—­they triumphed—­and they wept—­for Wolfe had fallen in the hour of victory!  Joy, grief, curiosity, astonishment were painted in every countenance; the more they inquired, the higher their admiration rose.  Not an incident but was heroic and affecting!  Wolfe between persuasion of the impracticability, unwillingness to leave any attempt untried that could be proposed, and weariness and anxiety of mind and body, had determined to make one last effort above the town.  He embarked his forces at one in the morning, and passed the French sentinels in silence that were posted along the shore.  The current carried them beyond the destined spot.  They found themselves at the foot of a precipice, esteemed so impracticable, that only a slight guard of one hundred and fifty men defended it.  Had there been a path, the night was too dark to discover it.  The troops, whom nothing could discourage, for these difficulties could not, pulled themselves and one another up by stumps and boughs of trees.  The guard hearing a rustling, fired down the precipice at random, as our men did up into the air; but, terrified by the strangeness of the attempt, the French picquet fled—­all but the captain, who, though wounded, would not accept quarter, but fired at one of our officers at the head of five hundred men.  This,