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recognises Roland as the champion who had supported his cause in the conflict on the High Street. Apologizing for the rudeness of his family, he bestows on the youth the chain and jewel with which, in the fashion of the times, his bonnet was adorned. Nothing could exceed the surprise of Woodcock at seeing him return triumphant from this second dangerous adventure. Tedious as we feel ourselves, we cannot resist the first view Roland had of Holyrood.

"It was indeed no common sight to Roland, the vestibule of a palace, traversed by its various groupes, some radiant with gaiety-some pensive, and apparently weighed down by affairs concerning the state, or concerning themselves. Here the hoary statesman, with his cautious yet commanding look, his furred cloak and sable pantoufles; there the soldier in buff and steel, his long sword jarring against the pavement, and his whiskered upper lip and frowning brow; there again passed my lord's serving-man, high of heart, and bloody of hand, humble to his master and his master's equals, insolent to all others. To these might be added, the poor suitor, with his anxious look and depressed mien -the officer, full of his brief anthority, elbowing his betters, and possibly his benefactors, out of the road-the proud priest, who sought a better benefice-the proud baron, who sought a grant of church lands -the robber chief, who came to solicit a pardon for the injuries he had inflicted on his neighbours the plundered franklin, who came to seek vengeance for that which he had himself received. Besides, there was the mustering and disposition of guards and of soldiers-the dispatching of messengers, and the receiving them-the trampling and neighing of horses without the gate the flashing of arms, and rustling of plumes, and jingling of spurs within it. In short, it was that gay and splendid confusion, in which the eye of youth sees all that is brave and brilliant, and that of experience much that is doubtful, deceitful, false, and hollow hopes that will never be gratified-promises which will never be fulfilled-pride in the disguise of humility --and insolence in that of frank and gene. rous bounty." II. pp. 63, 64.

We are forced to pass hastily over an interesting conversation betwixt Murray and Morton, in which the characters of these leaders are very skilfully brought out, with many other particulars of much interest. We can only afford to say, that Catherine Seyton, much against Morton's will, was appointed one of Queen Mary's attendants, and Roland her

nge of honour; appointments no

doubt brought about, especially the first, by the intrigues of the Catholics. The only other thing worthy of note that pressed on the Page's attention, was a most extraordinary vision, as he nearly thought it, of his friend Catherine attired as a youth, who, coming briskly into a hostelry, as taverns were then called, showed such audacious boldness, whipping all that opposed her out of the way, that Roland was perfectly confounded. In spite of his admiration of her wit and beauty, he was shocked even to horror at what appeared to him her impudent and masculine deportment. The astonishment of the Page was, if possible, increased, when the youth, calling him to a window, presented him with a short but highly ornamented sword; at the same time conveying to him a message from the donor, (Lord Seyton,) the purport of which was, that he was to accept the weapon on no other terms but those of a vow never to draw it till commanded by his rightful sovereign. Roland readily accepted it on these terms, though having no very distinct apprehension of their import, farther than that more was meant than met the ear. Adam Woodcock, the guardian friend of the Page, coming up rather bluntly to join the conference, the fiery messenger of Lord Seyton gave him, on some slight provocation, a stroke over the eyes with his switch that had nearly blinded him, and hastily departing left Roland more than ever confounded at the assurance of the disguised female. Perhaps, thought he, when she did once undertake this hazardous mission, she thought this fierce bearing was necessary to support her assumed character. Thus puzzled and bewildered he spent the night. A very characteristic, indeed almost tender parting betwixt him and Woodcock the next morning, leaves him to steer his dubious way alone. Liberty of choice, however, is not left him. He is summoned to the presence of the Regent, and given to understand, that he is again to resume his office of a lady's page; he refuses with becoming spirit what he now considers as an unmanly employment; but when made to understand that Mary Queen of Scots is the lady to whom his services are destined, he yields to his fate. The ladies (two only) placed about the Queen's person, being

of her own choice, the Regent thinks it proper she should have at least one attendant faithful to his interests; and knowing Roland to be bred in the family of the wise and worthy Knight of Avenel, and recommended by him as a youth of good capacity and honourable principles, he chooses him to attend, and covertly to watch his unfortunate sovereign. He accompanies Lindsay, Ruthven, and Melville, to the island in which he was to share the imprisonment, and watch the conduct of Mary Stuart. The march of the stern and rugged Lindsay and his party is admirably described. The page is sent to the island as their precursor; and here, to use the words

of Johnson on another occasion,

The Queen, the beauty spreads her mournful charms.

But we must here have recourse to our author's own words, for no others can do justice to the subject.

"Her face, her form, have been so deeply impressed upon the imagination, that, even at the distance of nearly three centuries, it is unnecessary to remind the most ignorant and uninformed reader of the striking traits which characterize that remarkable countenance, which seems at once to combine our ideas of the majestic, the pleasing, and the brilliant, leaving us to doubt whether they express most happily the queen, the beauty, or the accomplished woman. Who is there, at the very mention of Mary Stuart's name, that has not her countenance before him, familiar as that of the mistress of his youth, or the favourite daughter of his advanced age? Even those who feel themselves compelled to believe all, or much of what her enemies laid to her charge, cannot think without a sigh upon a countenance expressive of any thing rather than the foul crimes with which she was charged when living, and which still continue to shade, if not to blacken, her memory. That brow, so truly open and regal-those eye-brows, so regularly graceful, which yet were saved from the charge of regular insipidity by the beautiful effect of the hazel eyes which they overarched, and which seem to utter a thousand histories-the nose, with all its Grecian precision of outline the mouth, so well proportioned, so sweetly formed, as if designed to speak nothing but what was delightful to hear the dimpled chin-the stately swanlike neck, form a countenance, the like of which we know not to have existed in any other character moving in that high class of life, where the actresses as well as the actors command general and undivided attention. It is in vain to say that the portraits which exist of this re

markable woman are not like each other;
for, amidst their discrepancy, each possesses
general features which the eye at once ac-
knowledges as peculiar to the vision which
her history for the first time, and which
our imagination has raised while we read
has been impressed upon it by the nume
rous prints and pictures which we have
seen. Indeed, we cannot look on the worst
of them, however deficient in point of exe-
cution, without saying that it is meant for
Queen Mary; and no small instance it is
of the power of beauty, that her charms
should have remained the subject not mere-
ly of admiration, but of warm and chival-
rous interest, after the lapse of such a length
We know that by far the most
of time.
acute of those who, in latter days, have
adopted the unfavourable view of Mary's
character, longed, like the executioner be-
fore his dreadful task was performed, to
kiss the fair hand of her on whom he was
about to perform so horrible a duty." II.
Pp. 179–182.

The first view we have of the Queen is in an interview betwixt her and the Lady of Lochleven, mother to the Regent. That her treatment of Mary was harsh and insolent, we know from the history of the times, and that Mary was not likely to meet such treatment with meek forbearance, was to be inferred from the general tenor of her character and conduct. Yet there is a bitterness too nearly approaching to coarseness in this first conference, which grates upon our feelings, and seems unnecessarily exaggerated. The picture of the interview betwixt Mary and her revolted barons is admirable, both for its force and fidelity; Lindsay's

iron eye,

That saw fair Mary weep in vain,
seems absolutely to scowl upon us.
The homage he pays at parting to her
spirit and her sorrows, though he had
withheld it from her rank and digni-
ty, is well imagined. The whole
scene, in short, is in the author's very
best manner,-a manner from which
he can never depart without mortify-
ing his countless admirers, and gra-
tifying the few who would willingly
detract from his well won fame. And
now we enter on the most painful
part of our task, which, because it is
so painful, we shall briefly hurry
over it.

Has our author really lost his inestimable secret of successfully grafting fiction on truth,-of preserving the general outline of historical detail, and filling it up with colouring so

consistent and well suited, that the whole piece seemed as if the colours, which time had faded, had been merely restored, and the neglected interstices filled up? To Shakespeare, and to the author who most resembles him, has that power hitherto been limited. With due and modest reverence for truth, they only permit fiction to act as her handmaid,-to clothe her where she is too bare or too cold;-and to adorn her when her vestments are too homely, or perhaps adjust a becoming veil where her features appear too harsh. To speak without a figure, the broad line of distinction between this writer and all others who have since Shakespeare attempted the delicate and difficult task of blending stubborn and well known facts with the creations of their own fancy, is this,-They, with egotistical conceit, permit their own inventions to predominate, and bend and twist historical facts to suit their tales. But with our novelist, in time past, history has been like the principal and unaltered stem of the oak, and his inventions have been like the ivy that clings round it, or the misletoe that springs from it, merely adorning it, or concealing the gaps that time has made in the original trunk. Before we begin our strictures upon the mode of conducting the story, from the first appearance of Mary, we must enter a protest against the manners and language assigned to her during her residence in the island. The very idea of a queen is so combined with habitual dignity, that we know not how to disjoin it from a kind of lofty decorum. It is barely possible that this queen of grace and beauty might be flippant, but so little probable, that flippancy from her startles and dis gusts. Mary was certainly very inconsistent in her conduct; but many others are so in their actions, though not at all in their manners. With the exception of the letter which she sent to Elizabeth in a fit of desperation, after suffering for eighteen years all that malignity could do to embitter misfortune, nothing remains to war rant the author in assigning to her such manners. On the contrary, she has been allowed, even by her ene mies, to have manners the most charming and insinuating, an excellent understanding, and a temper naturally mild and benignant. All these advantages may be held to be an ag

gravation of her faults and follies, yet they afford no ground for suppos ing she could be habitually coarse, nay gross in her conversation. Set ting the well known elegance and polish of her manners out of the question, her good sense could never have permitted her to keep up such a perpetual war of words. Well knowing the retorts to which she was liable, and the danger she incurred by provoking an insolent woman armed with so much power, the taunts which she uses towards the mother of Murray recoil with double force on the memory of her own father. We are disgusted by the improbability, as well as shocked by the coarseness, of these too frequent conversations; the lofty grace and decorum which attended the hard-fated queen to the scaf fold could not have entirely forsaken her in her prison. Chesterfield, a better judge of manners than of mo rals, has truly said, that a sneer is an odious thing. Who can fancy the ele gant Mary Stuart sneering? The scene of the supposed poisoning, and all the mean trickery arising out of it, gave us sensations that we shall not describe. They did not, however, fall much short of those Lord Hailes speaks of, comparing them to those he should feel at seeing a son turn his back in battle. Worse, if possible, because still more unworthy of the author, is the very superfluous contriv ance of forging the keys. How could he violate the truth of history by descending to this clumsy expedient? Donald Ord, more properly Donald n. Ord, whom he quotes as a precedent, was an infant in the time of Montrose's wars, and took this cognomen, because in his orphan childhood he was protected by a smith, who happened to be his foster father. He was a gentleman of distinguished abilities, and never struck an anvil or forged a weapon in his life. His numerous descendants will not be much flattered by this account of the mechanical habits of their respected ancestors. We can barely endure these preposterous keys, as they are to be the instrument of relieving Mary from her imprisonment, and ourselves from the

Captious art, And snip snap short, and interruption

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LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE

Lithography.-Mr J. Ruthven of Edinburgh has succeeded in constructing a press on the principle of his patent, which answers most perfectly for printing from stone. It is free from the disadvantages that have hitherto attended lithographic presses, and promises to render the art very generally adopted throughout England. Any degree of pressure is at once brought to bear on the stone by means of the lever. The roller is found to clean the stone from the printing ink at each impression, and the labour of winding the bed through is much less than by the method hitherto used. By this machine a greater number of impressions may be taken in a day than formerly. One of them has been for some time at work in London at the lithographic establishment of Mr Willich, Dartmouth Street, Westminster; where it may be seen by the admirers of this interesting art. The press has also the advantage of being equally applicable to copperplate printing.

England.-Education. By returns made up to the 1st of May last, it appears that there are in England and Wales 37,332 schools of all descriptions, in which are educated 1,571,372 children of both sexes, or about 42 to a school. It is specified that 18,276 of these schools are initiatory, and that 14,192 are English or commercial schools, of which 8375 are for females. It also appears that the church catechism is taught in 22,581 schools; that the systems of Bell and Lancaster have been more or less adopted in 1411; that Phillips's interrogative system of questions without answers has been introduced into 3682; and Pestalozzi's system of oral analysis into 7; that the French language is taught in 7520; and the dead languages in 3327. The number of persons employed in education, as master, governesses, assistants, and private tutors, is estimated at 56,330.

Engraving. The Siderographic printing and engraving establishment of Messrs Perkins, Fairman, and Heath, has been commenced in the house in Fleet Street, Late Parker's Glass Manufactory, with every prospect of splendid success. Already they have engaged to manufacture Bank Notes on their inimitable plan for several Yorkshire and other banks; and they are also preparing various engravings for popular books, as maps and views for Goldsmith's Geography, frontispiece to Mavor's Spelling Book, and a solar system for Blair's Preceptor, all of which will have proof impressions of their engravings, though tens of thousands are fald annually. Over and above these applications, they are making preparatious to

VOL. VII.

The

print on cotton, dresses of greater beauty than ever were fabricated before. perfection and taste of all their prints must so improve the public judgment, that coarse and inferior prints must soon be banished from use; and hence the arts themselves must be greatly improved.

Agriculture. Of all the animals which share with man against his will the fruits of his labours, the weevil in corn is one of the most formidable, on account of its voracity, its diminutive size, by which it e ludes the observation, and its extraordinary fecundity. It is, besides, so impassible, or tenacious of life, that no means of destruction hitherto employed have been able to extirpate it from buildings in which it was once lodged. Besides its ability to endure very long abstinence from food, it braves even aspersion with muriatic acid, and fumigation with sulphur: nay, boiling water and brandy are stated not to destroy in it the principle of life. As this insect is reported, by French writers on agriculture, to destroy annually a tenth, and sometimes even a fifth part of the har vest, a simple, easy, and cheap mode of effectually destroying it has long been sought, but without success. A French gentleman, of the name of Chenest, appears to have really discovered such a me. thod. He has applied it with complete success in various places in France, and has received the most satisfactory testimonies from the Mayors and other persons who have witnessed the results of his experiments. He has also laid his plan before the Royal Agricultural Society, which appointed a committee to examine the truth of his statements. The Committee, after a series of successful experiments for seven years, declared that the method perfectly answered the purpose: and Count de Cazes, as Minister of the Interior, recommended the Prefects to make the invention known. Mr Chenest is, we hear, now in England, and intends to submit his invention to the Board of Agriculture.-Lit. Gaz.

Corsicaurum.A new mineral earth has been lately found in Corsica, thought to be impregnated with particles of gold. By chemical operation, vases have been made of it, for table services, and it is found to vie in colour and lustre with the finest vermilion. The name of Corsicaurum has been given to it ;-it has the property of not discolouring white stuffs, which is not always the case with gold, the most purified and refined.

Succedaneum for Leeches.-M. Salandiere, physician, has invented an nstru ment to serve as a succedaneum for Lceches Kk

It possesses considerable advantages; measuring exactly the quantity of blood to be taken, causing the fluid to move with greater or less rapidity on a determinate scale, and producing an effect called by the physicans resolving, much superior to the leech. It has nothing to disgust, like those animals, excites little or no pain, and it may be used in all countries and at all

seasons.

France. From a late publication of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, it appears that Paris contains 714,000 inhabitants, of which 25,000 are not domiciled. The average number of births annually is 21,000, and of these the proportion of male to female is 25 to 24. The consumption of bread annually is 113,880,000 kilogrammes; of oxen, 70,000; of heifers, 9000; of calves, 78,000; of sheep, 34,000; of swine, 72,000; of eggs, 74,000,000; of pigeons, 900,000; of fowls, 1,200,000; of wine, 870,000 hectolitres.

French Theatres.-The theatres in France have long been under the immediate control of the government, and various regulations have at different periods been made respecting them. In November 1796, a decree was passed, and which still continues in force, enacting, that a decime on every franc of the price of admission at all places of public amusement should be collected for the use of the poor -that is, one tenth part of the receipts. The following is the produce of the duty in francs for 3 years, 24 francs to a pound sterling.

1814. 1815. 1816. Theatres. 446,551 449,038 452,635 Fetes Publiques 13,383 13,614 10,887 Balls 5443 5675 Concerts

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4763

8021

2713

3551

2613

6470 6516

6013 5922 4362

Soirees Amusantes 2341 Panoramas 2511 Petits Spectacles 2635 3636 8608 Curiosities 6420 Total 485,137 491,826 497,358 Italy. The excavators have just discovered, near the forum of Pompeii, a pub. lic edifice which is supposed to be the Chalcidicum, and an inscription importing that the edifice was built at the expence of the priestess Eumachia. A few days after the above discovery, a statue of the same priestess was found in perfect preservation; which far surpasses in grace, elegance, and grandeur, all the works of art that had previously been dug from the ruins of Pompeii.

The Classics in Arabic. The learned world may reasonably expect, in a few years, complete and perfect translations of Plutarch, Sallust, Livy, Tacitus, Aristotle, Hippocrates, &c. from the Arabic; the French have been lately assiduous in their researches after such ́Arabian trea

sures.

Mr Giardin, the French Ambassador at Constantinople, has sent to Paris fifteen valuable works in Arabic from the Imperial Library at Constantinople, among which are the complete works of Plutarch and Herodotus!

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The works of Aristotle, Hippocrates, Livy, Tacitus, Sallust, &c. are known to have been translated into Arabic, and might be discovered and purchased by well-directed search after them, at Fas, Morocco, or some other ports of West or South Barbary.-Mr Jackson, in his recent travels in those countries, annexed to Shabeeny's Account of Timbuctoo and Housa, page 325, says, "It is more than probable, that the works of many Greek and Roman authors, translated during the æra of Arabian learning, are to be found in the hands of literary individuals, in several parts of West and South Barbary !"—Lit. Gaz.

Germany. The Germans, we are happy to see, are beginning to fill up a most important vacancy in their Literature. Hitherto they have been almost destitute of Biography, and comparatively few of their great men have been transmitted to posterity in a manner worthy of them. We, in fact, know no one good Biography composed in German, and even the lives of Schiller, Fichte, Mendelsohn, are yet very imperfectly written. The long notices relative to authors and professors, which are given in all the German Reviews, seem to have contented curiosity in this most important point. There has lately, however, appear. ed the Biographies of three celebrated men, and they will no doubt stimulate the Germans to more attempts in this agreeable species of writing. The life of Kraus, a celebrated political economist and philosopher, dis tinguished as the opponent of Kant, was published at Königsberg (where he was professor) in 1819. The life of the amiable Jacobi, formerly President of the Royal Society of Sciences at Munich, was published there in 1819; and the life of the celebrated bookseller of Berlin, and voluminous author Nicolai, was published there in the early part of this year. All these are men who had much influence on the taste and genius of their country; and we hail these productions as the dawn of an elegant literature, (not fable,) which amuses as much as the best invention, and leaves none of those vain wishes which the ideal perfections of the poets never fail to cause. Nicolai has been accused of Illuminatism. He was at least conspicuous in the controversy about secret societies in the latter part of the last century; and the present biography ought to contain some good materials for forming a correct opinion on this doubtful point of History.

A Biography has been published at Copenhagen, of Peter Hörberg, a celebrated Swedish painter. He also wrote his own

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