that boys of ten or eleven years old were hanged for what may be termed an ignorant, if not innocent, participation in those riots. So much for the civilisation, judgment, and humanity of our fathers! Verily, the march of intellect has effected some improvement after all! Hanging-excepting by those who choose to perform the pleasant operation on themselves-has gone wonderfully out of fashion since that period. In fact, it would appear that a man must possess some interest to get hanged in the present day; and to this-the difficulty of getting the operation legally performed-may probably be ascribed the increased number of suicides. On the 2d of June, 211 years will have elapsed since the Bill of Rights was passed. The first Royal Exchange was founded on the 7th of June, 1566; the second, erected after the great fire of London, and opened on the 28th of September, 1669, suffered the fate of its predecessor on the 10th of January, 1838. When will the phoenix arise from its ashes? On the 11th of June, 3023 years-more than half of the supposed age of the world -will have elapsed since the fall of Troy ! Where are now the beauty and the frailty of the woman for whom the horrors of a ten years' siege were incurred, and for whom thousands of lives were sacrificed. Their memory is embalmed in the pages of Homer. The order of the Janissaries was abolished on the 15th of June, sixteen years ago. Seventy-eight years will have expired on the 17th, since the opening of the first English navigable canal. On the 18th of June, 1525-314 years ago-Cardinal Wolsey made a present of Hampton Court Palace to King Henry VIII. There is said to be no portrait of Wolsey that is not in profile; a peculiarity accounted for by the alleged fact that the prelate had only one eye. Formerly there was a carving of his head, in wood, in the central board of Twenty-four years ago, and 290 years after the presentation of Hampton Court to Henry VIII. by Wolsey, the battle of Waterloo was fought. The "victor of a hundred fights" still lives, rising-higher— higher-higher on the highest pinnacle of fame than ever. A requiem for the lost heroes of Waterloo! They sleep in the bosom of earth— They sleep-from their father-land far- Where they mocked the fierce havoc of war, O'er their sod the fresh laurel shall bloom; T. H. Magna Charta was signed on the 19th of June, 1215, 624 years ago. For this great charter of our liberties," observes a Lords: had it not been for them, we should "we are indebted to the contemporary, never have possessed it. It avails the oppomotives of the barons were selfish; that is nents of the peerage little to say that the no business of ours; the result was bene ficial"-not merely beneficial, but glorious. memorate. The birthdays of note this month are not very numerous. Of British poets, the natal day of Akenside is all that we have to comAkenside's 66 Pleasures of the the gateway leading to the Butchery of Ips-read, and too little understood. Imagination" is a divine poem, too little The author wich, his native town. Its apparent antiquity was such, that it was supposed to was born on the 23d of June, 1721, and have been executed during the cardinal's life-time. By the side of it was the representation of a butcher's knife. One of the most remarkable instances of alliteration in the English language is the following distich, applied to Wolsey: "Begot By Butchers, But By Bishops Bred, How High His Highness Holds His Haughty Head. died in 1770, at the early age of 49. Jean Jaques Rousseau, whose very name we detest, whatever may be the halo of genius by which it is surrounded, was born on the 28th, in 1712. Nicholas Poussin, an admired French painter, was born on the 1st, in 1594, at Andeley in Normandy. He spent the greater part of his life at Rome. Bishop, afterwards Cardinal, Mancini being attended y him one evening to the door, for want of a servant, the Bishop said, "I pity you, Monsieur Poussin, for having no servant." And I pity your Lordship," said the painter, for having so many.' George III. was born on the 4th of June, 1738. Vauxhall Gardens always used to be opened for the season on his birthnight. The 5th is the anniversary of the birthday of his son Ernest, King of Hanover. Giovanni Dominico Cassini, the astronomer, who determined the diurnal motion of the planet Jupiter round his axis, by means of his belt, was born at Piedmont, on the 8th of June, 1635. He also discovered the four satellites of Saturn, in addition to the one which Huygens had discovered. Patronised by Colbert, he was the first resident in the royal observatory at Paris, and continued to inhabit it more than forty years. Christian Huygens, the mathematician and astronomer just mentioned, was a native of the Hague. He also was patronised by Colbert, and was made a Fellow of the English Royal Society in 1661. He settled in France, where he received a handsome pension, and remained till 1681, when he returned to his native country, and died on the 8th of June (the anniversary of the birth of Cassini), in 1695. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz, the optimist, a contemporary of Cassini and Huygens, was born at Leipsic on the 23rd of June, 1646. Leibnitz was President of the Royal Academy of Sciences, at Berlin, and held high offices of state in both Germany and Russia. He was engaged in a controversy with Newton on the invention of fluxions; and afterwards with Dr. Clarke on the subject of free will. According to the Leibnitzian system of optimism, an infinite number of worlds are possible in the divine understanding; but, of all possible ones, God has chosen and formed the best. Each being is intended to attain the highest degree of happiness of which it is capable, and is to contribute, as a part, to the perfection of the whole." Antoine François de Fourcroy, the great French chemist, who died in 1809, was born at Paris, on the 15th of June, 1755. Pizarro, the conqueror of Peru, and the murderer of its rightful sovereign, was assassinated on the 26th of June, 1541; a suitable end for a monster so ferocious and savage. The emperor Julian, named the Apostate, died on the 29th of June, in the year 363, at the age of thirty-two. Numerous are the British authors whose departure is recorded in the month of June. On the 11th, Roger Bacon, styled Dr. Mirabilis, for his great and unusual learning, will have been dead 535 years. In mechanics he was regarded as the greatest genius that had arisen since the days of Archimedes. He was unquestionably the inventor of gunpowder in this country, whatever may be the claims of the Chinese in the east; and also of convex and concave lenses. Of their application to the purposes of reading, and of viewing remote objects, both terrestrial and celestial, he distinctly treats. He also describes the camera obscura, and the burning-glass. He not only detected the error of the Calendar, but actually suggested the reformation which was afterwards made in it by Pope Gregory the XIIIth. The memory of this philosophical monk deserves to be held in everlasting remembrance. In scientific discovery, and true philosophical feeling, he was as much before the age in which he lived, as was his illustrious namesake and successor, Lord Bacon, before the time of which he was at once the enduring honour and disgrace. No wonder that he was persecuted by the barbarians of his age-an age in which geometry and astronomy were branded as necromancy. Roger Bacon was a native of Ilchester, in Somersetshire.. He was seventy-eight years old at the time of his death. Thomas Hearne, the antiquary, editor of Leland's Itinerary, &c., died on the 10th of June, 1735. On the 12th, in 1759, died William Collins, author of the justly celebrated Ode to the Passions, and many other admirable poems. Poor Collins, who had suffered from poverty more than the common lot of poets, died in a state of mental imbecility. On the 8th of June, Edward the Black Prince, whom George the Fourth was anxious to regard as his model, will have been Robertson, the historian of Scotland, and dead 463 years. With an army of only of Charles the Fifth, died on the 11th of 12,000 men, the gallant Edward engaged June, 1793; Bishop Warburton, author of the French army of more than 60,000, near "The Divine Legation of Moses," &c., on Poictiers. He defeated this immense force, the 7th, in 1779; Colin Maclaurin, an emiand took John, the King of France, prisoner. | nent Scotch mathematician, author of a "Treatise on Fluxions, &c., on the 14th, in 1746; Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, on the 19th, in 1820; Dugald Stewart, one of the ablest of modern metaphysicians, on the 11th, in 1828; the Rev. Gilbert White, author of "The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne," on the 26th, in 1793; Dr. Abraham Rees, editor of the voluminous Encyclopædia which bears his name, on the 9th, in 1825; and Jeremy Bentham, the great utilitarian philosopher, on the 6th, in 1832. The Great Duke of Marlborough will have been dead 117 years on the 16th; Dr. Dodd, whose fall, when executed for forgery, was deeply commiserated, sixty-two years on the 27th; and Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, second daughter of Washington, Earl Ferrers, patron of the famous George Whitfield, and one of the heads of the Calvinistic methodists, forty-eight years on the 17th. John Skelton, a laureated poet at both Oxford and Cambridge in the reigns of Henry VII. and VIII., was descended from the Skeltons of Cumberland. Erasmus styles him Britannicarum Literarum Lumen et Decus. Having entered into holy orders, he became rector of Diss, in Norfolk; but, for his indulgence of buffoonery in the pulpit, and his satirical ballads against the mendicant friars, he fell under the heavy censure of his diocesan. Persecution only served to quicken the acrimony of his satire. At length, daring to attack the dignity of Wolsey, he was closely pursued by the officers of that powerful minister, and compelled to take shelter in the sanctuary of Westminster Abbey. There he was kindly protected and entertained by Abbot Islip, to the day of his death, which occurred on the 21st of June, 1529. His remains were interred in the chancel of the neighbouring church of St. Magaret. Inigo Jones, architect of the Banquetting House at Whitehall, died on the 21st of June, 1692. He wrote a book, the object of which was to prove Stonehenge to have been a Roman temple. Arthur Murphy, a well-known dramatist, translator of Tacitus, Sallust, &c., died at Knightsbridge on the 18th of June, 1805, in the 75th year of his age. Ludovico Ariosto, author of the Orlando Furioso,' and many other works, and one of the most celebrated of the Italian poets, died on the 6th of June, 1533. Carl Maria Von Weber, composer of the music of Der Freischütz, Oberon, and various other operas, was born at Eutin, a small town in Holstein, in 1786 or 1787. He died in London, of a pulmonary affection, on the 5th of June, 1826. Weber claimed the invention of lithography, which, for a short time, he practised at Frisberg, in Saxony. NAPLES, &c., IN THE YEAR MDCCCXXXIX. As a pendant to "ROME IN THE YEAR | laneum, &c. are most interesting. One room is MDCCCXXXIX," from the "Old Bookseller's Son," p. 217, we here insert a few lines by the same pen, dated Naples, April 20, 1839." Though not offering much that is new, they are not without interest as the reflection of first impressions, and as a sketch of the moment. "I have not as yet seen much of Naples, or rather its environs, which are the principal attraction; the town itself is as perfect a contrast to Rome as it is possible to have :—at Rome all is silent and quiet, the streets are thinly scattered with people, and little show of business is seen. Here, on the contrary, all is noise, bustle, and confusion; in every street are crowds, resembling those of Cheapside and Fleet Street, with omnibuses and carriages of every description. I have been three days examining the museum, and have not seen all yet, so extensive is the collection; there are few remarkable pictures, but the objects from Pompeii, Hercu occupied with vessels, &c. of glass, some of it threaded with different colours like the Dutchsome blue, green, &c.; oil, milk, medicine, &c. remaining in some of them. A suite of rooms, contains a most interesting collection of bronze utensils and furniture, the commonest kitchen article being designed and ornamented with the greatest taste;-locks, keys, surgical instruments, ladies' toilette articles, consisting of ivory and bronze boxes, with red and white paint for the complexion, bodkins, needles, &c.; children's toys, door ornaments, lamps, tickets for the theatre; in fact, most of the things in common use, in many of which they are before us in taste and beauty. The fresco paintings are also most curious, many of them in the finest style of art, and, as you may suppose, a great treat to me; in fact, the entire museum is the thing of all others in Italy (after painting) that I wish to In some few things it has fallen short of my expectations, in point of extent, but in others far surpassed them. see. * * It certainly diminishes much of the pleasure in travelling, when you do not know the moment you may be attacked. Don Miguel and his friends were robbed, a short time since, not far from Rome. I thought it as likely as not that we should, for our party were so lazy in the morning, that we always arrived late at night. The road is very interesting, from classical recollections, and the peculiarity of the sceneryforty miles being through the celebrated Pontine marshes, the atmosphere of which, in summer, will sometimes cause death, if a person sleeps while crossing them: it is very difficult to keep from doing so at that time, the air is so heavy; -two of our party did so, and were attacked with sickness, even at this early season. The scenery is wild and savage in some parts; the cabins of the peasants being very like the Irish. Eagles and hawks were feeding on carrion, and fighting and screaming at each other; large snakes slid about amongst the herbage, and droves of ugly-looking black buffaloes were feeding through the marshes, which extend about four hundred square miles, or more, and are a dead flat. At Terracina the contrast is great indeed;-lemon and orange-trees in full bearing; Indian fig and aloe, myrtle, &c. were growing amongst the rocks, and here and there a group of beautiful palms appeared amongst the olives. The place is rendered still more interesting, by its having been the retreat of Cicero from his enemies; the rocks are immense, and he probably hid himself amongst them;-his tomb is on the road-side, and nearer to Naples. The bay of Naples is well worthy of its reputation; the weather has not, however, been suitable to seeing it to advantage as yet. You may suppose I look on Vesuvius with great interest: he has not as yet appeared to notice my arrival by making preparations to receive me, as little or no smoke appears from his stately mansion. The Neapolitans are not the picturesque population I expected; there is, in fact, no costume more than ordinary. A rascally young lazzaroni attempted to pick my pocket (a trade at which they are very expert here), but I felt his hand, and turned round and thanked him for his kindness; so he walked off sheepishly enough. How so many exist without employment I cannot imagine. On the mole there are frequently three or four groups at a time, of perhaps eighty or a hundred each, sitting round an improvisatore, a conjuror, an orator, or a punchinello. The population is, in fact, the most numerous possible." LETTER FROM ELIZABETH CARTER TO MISS HIGHMORE. From the Original in the Collection of a Lady. Deal March 21, 1749-50 How do you do, dear Miss Highmore, after the late terrifying shock which has thrown most people into such sad Apprehensions? As insensible as you represent me about a storm (which however I am not) I have felt great Pain to think what those must have suffered who were in the midst of this alarming scene. I thank God we have felt nothing of it in our part of the World, but there have been Strange Sights in the Air, and some of them very beautiful. No, indeed, dear Miss Highmore, I am no admirer of the Roman Heroes, whom I always look upon as a Gang of rapacious Savages. That Love of their Country, which one Every where finds extolled with such magnificent Elogiums, appears to me no other than that kind of fidelity which is absolutely necessary even among a Crew of Banditti, that they may the more effectually pick the Pockets and cut the Throats of all the World besides. Their whole History, if one divests it of the false Colourings which Oratory and Success have thrown over it, is nothing but a dark Scene of Rapine and Oppression, and a tricking Policy perpetually watching every Opportunity that the weakness of their Neighbours afforded them of seizing possessions to which they had no Right. I believe from what you say on this Subject it may be safe to trust ones Opinion with you, but to be sure to most People it would seem a very absurd one, who have used themselves to look upon these Conquerors of the World in a very different Light. I have read the Roman Father, but as you are so cautious of declaring your Sentiments about it, I will be equally secret in mine & so about this important Point you are likely to remain absolutely in the dark. Mr. West's Translation of Pindar I have never seen. oration ascribed to Aspasia I do not remember ever to have met with, in what Author is it to be found? The That people may be seriously unhappy from fancied Misfortunes cannot be denied, but it by no means follows from thence, dear Miss Highmore, that real and imaginary Evils are the same Thing; they differ in one very essential Point, that the first cannot be avoided, and the last certainly can. However it must be confessed that people thus fantastically wretched may deserve great Commiseration. Accustomed perhaps from their Infancy by an unfortunate Education to connect Ideas which in themselves have no Connection, and thus to place their Happiness on Objects where the Author of their nature never intended it should be placed. My Compliments attend your Papa & Mama & Mrs Browne My Head which you are so good to inquire after is but a good for nothing kind of a Head & at present will give me leave to add no more than the Assurance of my being dear Miss Highmore Your very obliged & faithful humble servant E Carter NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. The Illustrated Shakspere; revised from the best Authorities. With Annotations, and Introductory Remarks on the Plays. By many Distinguished Writers. Illustrated with nearly One Thousand Engravings on Wood, from Designs by Kenny Meadows: engraved by Orrin Smith. Part I., The Tempest. Superroyal 8vo. Tyas. 1839. ANOTHER Shakspere!-Oh, no! not another Shakspere, for the Creator never produced a second; but another edition-another illustrated edition-an edition of "SHAKSPERE FOR THE PEOPLE," the exquisite beauty and delicacy of the typography of which surpasses all that we have seen. The avowed object of the projectors of this work “is to make the BOOK OF SHAKSPERE literally a household thing;" and that, "whilst its price and mode of publication shall bring it within the means of readers of the humblest fortunes, the novelty of its pictorial illustrations, with the care bestowed upon its text, and typographical pretensions," shall" render it superior to many editions put forth at quadruple its cost." The new resources of mechanical science, remark the proprietors, and the extraordinary improvement in wood engraving, enable them to diffuse amidst―ay, millions!those beauties of art, and necessarily those refinements of life, no longer jealously considered as the property of the few, but claimed as the heritage of the many. Time was, when literature and art were to the people— "Bann'd and barr'd, forbidden fare." Happily, in our day, the triumphs of the mind have vindicated their first and most sacred purpose-that of being ministrant to the moral improvement, and therefore to the highest happiness of all men. Books are no longer the exclusive luxuries of the rich-they are become the necessary food of the poor." We farther quote from the ably-written prospectus, as more to the purpose than aught that we can ourselves advance on the subject:-" In the present great moral struggle-in the present conflict of all that ennobles as of all that debases our common nature-good books may be considered as manna, blessing a hungry multitude. This allowed, what human work so irresistibly addresses itself to human sympathies as the writings of Shakspere? Where shall the people find a nobler teacher-from whom shall their nature receive such immortal elevation-where shall they behold such vivid, stirring pictures of the world about them-whence learn (and learning, fear, respect, and love) the wondrous mysteries of the human heart-its powers alike for good or evil? Who shall teach them this with a loftier, a sweeter, a simpler, and a more convincing eloquence than Shakspere? Where shall they see and gather this loveliness and wisdom but in the starry page of HIM, whose genius, surpassing the powers of all men in its strength, is tempered with a charity and sweetness, rendering that strength so universal?" One of the great merits of this edition, independently of its intrinsic and abstract excellence, is, that it interferes with none of its predecessors or contemporaries. Its illustrations are of a poetical rather than of historic or antiquarian character. Thus, while it is complete in itself, it is desirable, if not essential, in every library, other editions of the bard upon its shelves. even though every library may have a thousand The "Introductory Remarks" to the "Tempest" are very neatly written: our regret is that they are not upon a more extended scale. Of the "Notes" we are not yet enabled to speak, as Part the First is entirely occupied by the play itself. 66 able for its extreme delicacy and beauty. It is The typography, as we have said, is remarkto the illustrations, however, that we must turn for the primary attraction. The designs, by Meadows, are of a highly poetic character. The Tempest" alone furnishes twenty; some of them slight, it is true, but others exquisite, and all effective. A sufficient guarantee for the admirable style of their engraving is given in the name of Orrin Smith. Perhaps the gem of Part I. is a brilliant and richly imaginative landscape-a moonlight scene-i -illustrating the passage, "On the bat's back I do fly," in Ariel's charming song "Where the bee sucks, there suck I; In a cowslip's bell I lie," &c. The wreck-with the wild rush of the waters, the lightning's flash, and the demons of the storm-forming the head-piece to Act I., is dazzling and terrific. Rich in humour, the headpiece to Act IV. is also very striking. Grand in its very simplicity, Prospero forms a noble portrait. Amongst the other illustrations may be particularised the portraits of Sycorax, Caliban, Ferdinand, Miranda, Ariel, the King, Trincula, Stephano, the Conspirators, &c.-A brief descriptive list of the illustrations, on the wrapper, is very desirable. It is announced that a biographical account of Shakspere, collected from various sources, and embracing the results of various late discoveries, will be written for this work, by Mr. Jerrold; with an Essay on the Plays and Poems. The chief, almost the only fault we can find with this specimen Part of "The Illustrated Shakspere " is its distressing cheapness: we cannot comprehend by what possible circulation the enormous outlay for paper, print, painting, engraving, &c., here involved, is ever to be brought back to the proprietors. |