It is a pity that there is no way of
punishing a crowd in its collective capacity short of grape-shot. The crowd at Calais which by its furious yells and hisses taunted M. Duruof into obviously imminent risk of his own life and that of his wife, by ascending in his balloon last week on a night of black storm, ought, if such a law existed, to be pumped upon by all theAre-engines of the town, and might even be slightly scalded all round with advantage. The poor aeronaut.-.though wanting in the moral courage which the occasion demanded from him—certainly did not want the cool nerve and dogged pluck which his art requires. He hugged the clouds until daybreak, and then, far out of sight of land, made a skilful descent on rough water with a strong gale blowing, but within view of several vessels, one of which—a fishing-smack—happily for him, belonged to a gallant mariner of Grimsby, one William Oxley, who at once gave chase to the balloon, and after a race which lasted for more than two hours, overtook it, and rescued Duruof and his almost inanimate wife, "while the balloon rushed off at a mighty speed towards Norway." The history of that chase ought to be placarded pro bono public° on every wall in Calais.
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