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Chinese mob, and the Sisters massacred with the utmost cruelty. M. Fontaine, the French Consul, was also put to death, and some priests and merchants, French and Russian, shared his fate. The children in the hospital were burned, together with the building. Chung How, the Chinese Governor of the city, was appealed to by M. Fontaine, when the outrage commenced, but neglected to take any measures to put a stop to it.

The popular motive for this outrage would seem to have been fanatical dislike to the missionaries of Christianity, founded mainly on fabricated tales of their evil practices in the way of kidnapping and torturing. Directly after the event, an investigation was set on foot by the Chinese authorities; but it was so managed that the question turned not upon with whom the guilt of murdering the Sisters of Charity lay, but upon what cause the Sisters had given for the hatred against them. The powerlessness of the French representative at Pekin, under the circumstance of the European War, to take decisive action in the name of his country, encouraged the Chinese authorities in their temporizing course; but at last the serious threats of England, and the appearance of a naval force at Chefoo, had some effect. On the 16th of October, sixteen men were executed as accomplices in the plot; but it was the comparatively innocent only on whom the hand of justice seized: the real instigators were persons of more social and political consideration, and probably had other motives for the deed than those which actuated their underlings, and these were spared.

A money indemnity of 500,000 taels was paid to the French.

PARAGUAY.

The war between Paraguay and Brazil was brought to a close by the defeat and death of the Dictator Lopez on the 1st of March. Notwithstanding the triple alliance that had been brought to bear against him, for the Argentine and Uruguay Republics had both made common cause with Brazil, he had retreated to the mountains of the North West, and prevailed on a body of 5000 Indians to join him. The last contest took place on the banks of the Aquidibaniqui river. The forces of Lopez were routed, and he was himself killed in the mêlée, having refused the quarter offered him. The war had lasted just five years.

RETROSPECT

OF

LITERATURE, ART, AND SCIENCE IN 1870.

WE propose adopting in our Retrospect for 1870, a somewhat similar plan to that we made use of in the preceding year, and to group what we think more especially worthy of notice under certain leading heads. Thus we shall take1. Works relating to History, more strictly so called, including therein Notices of Public Records; 2. Biographical Sketches of Eminent Personages, for the most part recently deceased; 3, Miscellaneous Literature, including Travels, Novels, Poetry, &c.; 4. A notice of the Royal Academy and of works relating to the Fine Arts; 5. Science-including Notices of the British Association— and of works relating thereto,

I. HISTORY,

1. To take first documents relating to History, the public is indebted to that well-known and laborious antiquary Mr. John Gough Nichols for a very interest ing and exhaustive account of the MS. historical treasures preserved at Beaumanor, the seat of Mr. Percy Herrick, the majority of which were collected and placed in the chests in which Mr. Nichols found them, by one of the present owner's ancestors, Sir William Herrick, who was for seven years one of the Tellers of the Exchequer. The existence of these treasures was well known in Leicestershire, and a considerable number of them had been made use of by the historian of Leicestershire some sixty years ago; to Mr. J. G. Nichols we owe, however, their complete examination-and the arranging and binding of them so that they may be accessible in future to other students.

The documents preserved may be briefly stated to be as follows: 1. A thin folio volume belonging to the time of Sir W. Bowyer, who preceded Sir W, Herrick in his Exchequer Office, and containing certificates from September 1608 to August 1616. 2. A great ledger for the whole time of Sir W. Herrick being in office from 1616 to 1623, preserved in the original calf binding with the Royal arms in gold on its sides. 3. Five other similar volumes in folio, being receipts and payments of the Exchequer during the same period, 4. Twenty other volumes, in modern binding, containing Debenture Orders on the Exchequer, and receipts for the same, the latter bearing the signatures of many eminent personages, as Ben Jonson, Inigo Jones, and others of their contemporaries-though not, as Mr. Nichols fondly hoped, that of Shakespere. There are eleven other folio volumes containing many matters of great interest, which Mr. Nichols has

arranged as follows: 5. Matters of business public and private from 1571 to 1714, with a short series of MS. news letters, 2 vols. 6. Matters of account, 1 vol. 7. Family letters, together with some poetry and literary fragments, 3 vols. 8. Papers relating to the five sons of Sir W. Herrick, 1 vol. 9. Papers relating to the estates of Sir W. Herrick, in 3 vols. ; the first, relating to Beaumanor, the second to the town and county of Leicester; the third, to Richmond in Surrey, London, and other places. It should be added that, inter alia, were letters and other documents relating to the poet Robert Herrick, who was a nephew of Sir William Herrick. Many other miscellaneous documents were discovered, as, for instance, two rolls of the new-year gifts at court, one of the reign of Queen Mary and one of Queen Elizabeth in 1599;-many letters patent under the great seals of Elizabeth and James I. ;—a plan on vellum of Beaumanor Park, made in 1621; -a court roll of the 21st Edward IV., when this manor was in the hands of Katherine Duchess of Norfolk, one of the King's maternal aunts;—a rent roll of 32 Henry VIII., the admission to a tenement, bearing the autograph signatures of the Lady Frances Duchess of Suffolk and of her then husband Adrian Stocks; —and, after Sir William Herrick acquired the manor, a nearly complete series of court rolls to the present time. There are besides four other very old rolls: 1. The "compotus" of Thomas Hemeri, serviens of Beaumanor, 5-6 Edward I., A.D. 1275-1276. 2. The "compotus" of Henry del Peeke, serviens of Beaumanoyr, 8-9 Edward III., A.D. 1314-1315, which mentions among other things the building of the stone wall which separates the parks of Beaumanor and Loughborough. 3. The "compotus" of John Godewyn, bailiff, 7-8 Henry IV., a.d. 1405-6. 4. The "compotus" of Mr. John Kirkeby, bailiff, 3-4 Henry VI, A.D. 1424-1425. We think that the public are greatly indebted to Mr. Percy Herrick for having taken such care of these valuable ancestral and historical documents, and for having permitted Mr. J. G. Nichols to give so full an account of them. He has set an example which other owners of MS. treasure would do well to imitate. We should add that, among other curiosities at Beaumanor, Mr. Herrick has the bed on which Richard III. slept the night before the battle of Bosworth Field, 1485.

The report recently laid before the Common Council of London "On the Municipal Archives of London," is most interesting, as showing what an enormous collection of muniments are still in existence in the City. They may be arranged under certain distinct heads as follows:-1. The Bridge House Records, being deeds, &c., in ten books bound in vellum, and commencing with Fitz-Ailwyn, mayor in the reign of Richard Cœur de Lion, A.D. 1189, many of these documents bearing his seal. Among them are title-deeds, grants, copies of wills, &c. Some of these deeds have the City seal attached to them, as it existed prior to its alteration by order of the Court of Common Council in 1539. On the reverse is the figure of St. Thomas à Becket, which was then ordered to be destroyed. There is also a large folio volume containing a transcript of nearly all these deeds, which must have been made early in the sixteenth century. 2. Bridge House Accounts containing the rolls of the receipts and payments of the bridge-masters, being the weekly receipts of the payments of fishmongers, butchers, &c. for standings in "Stocks Market," the rents of the property belonging to the Bridge House, and of the tolls payable at the bridge-together with a weekly account of the payments to workmen, and the priests and officers of the chapel of St. Thomas on the bridge from A.D. 1382 to A.D. 1405. Besides these are the Rentals, commencing in 1404;-miscellaneous Books of Payments from 1404 to 1697;- Corn and Granary books from 1568 to 1714;-Passage Tolls,

exhibiting many ancient City rights, commencing with the Charter of King John in A.D. 1199, with a continuance till 1762; and the proceedings of the Court Leet (Hallimote) or Court Baron for the borough of Southwark from 1539 to 1762. There is also an account of the Council of Basle, giving copies of the proceedings of the eighteenth general council; with copies, also, of the Bulls of Pope Eugenius and of others in relation to it. The earlier works in the office of the Great Chamberlain were probably burnt in the fire of London, as at present they have not been discovered earlier than A.D. 1681. It is proposed to have a special arrangement of the above most valuable historical collection of papers after the same fashion which has proved at "The Rolls so successful under the management of Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy. We ought to state that this is the second report, and that the first comprehended the documents preserved in the Town Clerk's and Chamberlain's departments. Many note-worthy facts of City history may be gathered from the examination of these Records-such as the close connexion maintained between the Citizens and the Advisers of the Crown, the interchanged civilities between the Ruler on the Throne and the Civic Functionaries-the grants of money made from time to time by the City-and the part the citizens played in many of the great questions which agitated the nation.

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Analytical Indexes to Vols. VII. and VIII. of the series of Records known as the Remembrancia, preserved among the Archives of the City of London, A.D. 1580— 1664." Besides the Bridge House documents to which we have just called attention, we have also to thank the authorities of the City of London for the indexes to two out of the nine existing volumes of the Remembrancia-containing as these do a great number of most interesting entries, among which we may notice the following:-A complaint against some unauthorized persons for fishing for salmon in front of Chelsea; a letter from the Mayor and Aldermen requesting King James, in 1609, to present his chaplain, Mr. Theophilus Field, to St. Peter's, Cornhill. Field became ultimately Bishop of Llandaff, St. David's and Hereford, and was the brother of Nathaniel Field, an eminent actor, and one of Shakespere's company. An ordinance in A.D. 1633, ordering the "reform of the March of this our English nation, corrupted by time and the negligence of drummers. ... by the establishment of one constant measure . . . . . in order that the said ordinance being imparted to the colonels, and by them to the captains of the several regiments of the City, may be duly observed by all masters of the trained bands;" a letter from Charles the First in 1636, requesting subscriptions from the citizens "towards the erection of an academy for the education of the young nobility and gentry in the practice of arms and arts," a request, sneered at, at the time, when the Court was beginning to get unpopular-yet which was really the first conception of what has ripened into the "Royal Academy" and the "Society of Arts;"- many curious notices showing how much interest the Citizens took in the expeditions of Sir Francis Drake and of Sir John Hawkins ;-poor archers and bowyers praying that the bowling-greens may be put down, and archery thereby the more encouraged;-and last, not least, an account of the impressment of some 200 carts to carry the luggage of James I. to his palace at Greenwich! We hope that the Corporation will go on with the work they have so well begun.

"Calendar of the Carew MSS., preserved in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth, 1601-3." We have before called attention to the first portion of this valuable collection of papers, and expressed our satisfaction that the editing of them had been entrusted to the able hands of Messrs. Brewer and Bullen; and we are glad,

therefore, to find that their labours have been extended for two years longer. The present portion of the work commences with the administration of Mountjoy, who, if he had acted up to the spirit of his own instructions, and had not been repeatedly hampered by the Queen and other personages in England, would have made a model Viceroy, or, as he was then called, Deputy. Thus he orders morning and evening services, with enforced attendance by the soldiers; the punishment of death for blasphemy, duelling, stealing from the Queen's stores, treason with the enemy, desertion, and for sleeping when on guard, with stringent penalties for drunkenness, ill-treatment of women, and perfect silence "when the army is to take lodging or when it is marching or embattling, so that the officers may be heard." But then, as now, no government seemed to be of any avail for Ireland; the power of the priest was greater than that of the sword, and the great chiefs were so selfish or so savage that nothing could be done with them. O'Neil was set at nought by the jealousies of his own followers; Desmond and Ormond could not depend on the Geraldines and the Butlers; Burkes murdered O'Connors, and so on to the end of the chapter. Carew states distinctly that all the native Irish chieftains sought, he says, "Liberty of Irish exactions. Every one to be Palatine in his own country is the true mark they aim at, which, by the aid of the King of Spain, they hope to recover, supposing that the King would leave the country to be governed by themselves." Again, speaking of the opposition he met with himself from a certain Cormack McDermode, he shows that this gave him but little uneasiness, because “I have a strong faction of his nearest kinsmen against him." We will quote a passage which shows how these native lords fed upon the peasantry in the days of Elizabeth-and would again, we suspect, should the Fenian treason ever become triumphant. Coyny is as much as to say as a placing of men and boys upon the country used by a prerogative of the Brehon-law (whereby they are permitted to take meat, drink, aqua-vitæ, and money of their hosts without paymakin there for; and, besides, rob them when they have done). . . . . Livery is horse-meat exacted for the horses of them which take coyny, or otherwise send them to the poor tenants to be fed. The tenants must find the horses and the boys, and give them as much corn and sheaf-oats as they will have, and for want of oats, wheat and barley. ... Foy is when their idle men require meat out of meal-time, or where they take money for the coyny of their host to go a begging to their neighbour. . . . . Coshry is certain feasts which the lord useth to take of his tenants after Easter, Christenmas, Whitsuntide, and Michaelmas, and all other times at his pleasure. He goeth to their houses with all his train and idle men of his country, and leaveth them not until all they have be spent and consumed."

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"Calendar of the Clarendon State Papers, preserved in the Bodleian Library, vol ii." We gladly hail this valuable publication, which extends from the murder of King Charles I,, in 1649, to 1654; but do not know why the first volume, which will contain many important documents previous to the King's death, has not been first published. As it is, however, we accept this volume as an interesting instalment of what we hope to receive hereafter. Among the papers in this volume are "Copies of the King's disguised correspondence with the Royalists in England, as well as his letters to members of the royal family, chief among which latter are the interesting letters relating to the attempt of the Queen Dowager Henrietta Maria to force the Duke of Gloucester into a Jesuit college, and to effect his conversion to the Church of Rome, contrary to a promise

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