with no slight degrees of skill. Hence the Crusades, which were ruinous to every other state, were advantageous to them; for the crusaders returning tinctured with many Asiatic wants, Venice managed to make itself the mart and the channel through which those new wants were successfully supplied.

CLXXXIV.

WHO ARE DEFECTIVE IN OBVIOUS THINGS.

SOME few persons resemble Lord Granville, and others Lord Poulet. The former is said to have embraced systems like a legislator, but was incompetent to the detail of a common magistrate. The latter lived most of his life at court; and yet never acquired even the rudiments of knowledge in regard to mankind. Fox was a statesman, yet never read Smith's Wealth of Nations; Pitt was a politician, yet never read the Life of Cardinal de Retz; and Necker was a financier, and yet totally unacquainted not only with logarithms and fluxions, but even with the common rudiments of algebra.

CLXXXV.

CERTAIN STATESMEN COMPARED TO MUSICAL INSTRU

MENTS.

If we may be allowed occasionally to assimilate, we may, perhaps, be excused for saying, that Sir Robert Walpole might have been compared to a harpsichord; Lord Chatham to a full fine-toned organ; the Marquis of Rockingham to a grand pianoforte; Mr. Fox to a violoncello; and Mr. Pitt to a harp, destitute of a pedal.

CLXXXVI.

WHO EXPECT WHEAT FROM CHAFF.

SUPERFICIAL advice is pestilential advice: because out of numbers, it is almost sure to gain the greater number of votes. When it is offered only to one, it is not so pestilential; because that one may chance to be a man of sense and experience. If your Holiness 'will follow my advice,' said Cardinal de la Voye to Pope John XXII., you would soon mortify these 'Italians, much more than by conquering them by 'arms.' 'Ah!' returned the Pope, in what manner? 'It must, at least, be difficult and expensive.' 'Not in 'the least,' returned the Cardinal; only transfer the 'pontificate from Rome and Italy to Cahors and Gas'coigny. By this you will triumph over your enemies ' at the expense only of a word.' 'Do you not per'ceive,' answered his Holiness, that if I take the ad'vice you offer, I and my successors will be mere bishops of Cahors, and the emperors only governors ' of Gascoigny; while those, who hold the spiritual and temporal precedence at Rome, will ever be the true

.

and emperors? Instead of obscuring the glory of Italy, I shall restore it to its former splendour. The name signifies but little : Rome will always be the ca'pital of the world in spite of us.' They have a saying in Andalusia, 'When a fool gives you his advice, give ' him, in return, a box on the ear.'

CLXXXVII.

WHO OBTAIN HONOURS WITH NO GOOD EFFECTS.

THE rivalship between universities is of long standing and of known effect; and when I once proposed to a celebrated governor-general of India the establishment of a university at the Cape of Good Hope for the benefit of the African, Asiatic, and South-American settlements, he acceded to the wisdom of the plan; but declared its establishment impossible, on account of the colleges and schools at Hertford, Calcutta, and Madras.

But these jealousies are trivial, when we compare them to the accounts we have received in respect to the divisions, heresies, controversies, jealousies, wars, martyrdoms, and massacres, that arose out of the contests between the Greek patriarchs and the Roman pontiffs, as to which of the two should occupy the highest rank among the nations of the earth. It is impossible, in fact, to read them, and be conscious of the effects they produced, without a feeling of indignation and disdain.

Lord Tenterden made a curious declaration, this evening*, in the House of Lords; and I suppose he must be correct, since the truth of his assertion was attested by his Grace the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. I am one,' said his Lordship, who obtained, at a very 'early period of life, almost all the honours which the 'university of Oxford could bestow; and can take upon 'me to say, after forty-six years subsequent in the world, that no more uncertain, or, indeed, worse crite

* March 27, 1832.

'rion, can be selected for general intellectual expectancy, or fitness for the office of pastor, than the circumstance of the candidate's having obtained honours ' at the university.' And is this indeed the case?

CLXXXVIII.

WHO EXCEL, AND YET DO NOT ACCOMPLISH ALL THEY PROPOSE TO THEMSELVES.

SAW two pictures by Tintoretto; and they are worthy the fame he enjoys ;-the Burial of Christ, and the Presentation in the Temple. The ambition of Tintoret may be read in the inscription over his studio:'Michael Angelo's design with the colouring of Ti'tian.'

These he never attained; but when Pietro da Cortona saw his works, he exclaimed :- Did I but live in 'Venice, not a festival should pass without my resorting 'to this spot, to feast mine eyes upon such beautiful 'objects.'

The inscription over his studio was, doubtless, gratifying to Tintoretto's vanity; but it injured his reputation by exciting an expectation he ought never to have hoped to gratify. He had this consolation, nevertheless ;-he fancied he had obtained all he desired. Take away the vanity of hope, and who shall rise from his bed?

CLXXXIX.

WHO FORGET THE MAIN POINTS.

MANY persons are solicitous in respect to all points but the main one. As an instance we may refer to Warburton's opinion of David Mallet :-' He has, in his life ' of Bacon, forgot that Bacon was a philosopher; and ' if he should write the life of Marlborough, he would, ' probably, forget he was a general.'

The branches of some trees are observed to flourish with vigour, even though their internal parts have vanished; but we never observe this in the character or fortune of man. The main point is the main object, without securing which the structure withers. The only difficulty is, in what does the main point consist?

CXC.

WHO WILL AND WHO WILL NOT.

SOME politicians act in this manner: they will and they will not.' They begin well, and finish with making bricks without straw.

It was said of Lord Grey, during the feverish state of public opinion, that he, too, would and would not: he would give the people their rights, and yet continue their wrongs. This proved erroneous. He gave all that he promised. He gave as good a reform, (it is said) as the people of the day could estimate. 'He planned • it in the enthusiasm of youth;' say they, 'he supported