and there is no doubt that his choice of subjects | yoke by acts of insubordination, their revolts were for his works would have been more refined if he had moved in a higher sphere. It has been observed, also, that, if Rembrandt had visited Italy, and studied the antique, his taste might have been improved; but this is very doubtful, for he had a collection of the finest Italian engravings, drawings, and designs, many of them taken from the antiques, from which he might have derived improvement; but it appears that he experienced more real pleasure in contemplating his own repository of old draperies, armour, weapons, and turbans, which he jocularly called his antiques, than he ever felt from surveying the works of the Grecian artists, or the productions of Raphael. Nevertheless, as M. Fuseli observes, "Rembrandt was, undoubtedly, a genius of the first class, in whatever is not immediately related to form and taste." As to his colouring, it is surprising; and he perfectly understood the principles of the chiaroscaro. The lights in his pictures were painted with a body of colour unusually thick, but he knew the nature and property of each particular colour so thoroughly, that he placed every tint in its proper place, and by that means preserved his colours in their full freshness, beauty and lustre. The works of Rembrandt require to be viewed at a certain distance, whereas those of Titian will admit of the closest inspection. Rembrandt's portraits are excellent, and he was so exact in giving the true resemblance of the persons who sat to him, that he distinguished the predominant feature, and the character of every face, without endeavouring to improve or embellish it. Rembrandt's etchings are greatly admired, and carefully preserved in the cabinets of the curious in most parts of Europe. It is said that the sums he received for these etchings, and his pictures, were immense; and, as he was extremely economical, he must have left considerable property at his decease. He died in 1674, in his sixty-eighth never conducted with that spirit, or method, or general union which alone could give any chance of success: they displayed their inability effectually to resist quite as plainly as their determination not to submit, and the results were their utter degradation, and most complete and cruel subjection. The great blow was struck at once, though it was found frequently necessary to cauterize the wound. The transcendent effect of this conquest on the annals of England is evidenced by the influence it has exercised over our historians, who generally begin the histories of the reigns of our kings from the Norman Conquest, assigning from thence to each reign, however unimportant, a separate chapter, and a careful detail, while all those monarchs who lived before the time of William, are clubbed together, and dismissed with a few hasty lines of reference: thus, in effect and reality, making the Norman conquest "a dark, determined, boundary line," a term "of beginning and ending," an era on which to found chronologies and calculations. But this great error is now fully understood and carefully avoided. Historical writers of the highest talent and deepest research have, of late years, devoted their commanding talents to the study of Anglo-Saxon antiquity; and the result is, that our Anglo-Saxon kings are restored to the eminence they so justly deserve to occupy, in niches higher, aye, far, than those filled by the rapacious early Normans; and that the Anglo-Saxon laws and legislature are proved to be the very germ and foundation of that freedom which now it is our boast to enjoy. The most important principle of the English constitution, which, without asserting in direct terms that the sovereign is responsible to the nation, does virtually place him in subordinato the law, may be traced as it began to be developed in the Anglo-Saxon Empire. de It is indeed true, that the Anglo-Saxons, as a nation, had become enervated and debauched, and that the rule of the Normans, iron as it was, awakened a new spring and spirit in the land ultimately beneficial. But the rigid feudality, to which William subjected the whole nation, certainly obscured, if it did not tend to destroy, those "liberties rived from the Anglo-Saxon constitution, for the restoration of which there were often such fierce contentions, and which the barons wrested from the tyrannic John. Are we not right in saying that this charter, restoring their "ancient liberties,' and ceded on the plains of Runnymede, is the foundation of the liberty we now enjoy? And yet it is said that the direct influence exercised by William on the legislation of the realm, was of limited extent,2 that he respected the Saxon laws, and assented to the general demand of the people for their observance. Though he hath had the name of Conqueror (says Baker, in his Chronicle), yet he used not the kingdom as gotten by conquest; for he took no man's living from him, nor dispossessed any of their goods, but such only, whose demerit made them unworthy to hold them. Only vacancies of offices, and filling up the places of those who were slain and fled, were the present means he made use of for pre (1) Palgrave, Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, vol. i. 654. (2) Palgrave. For example: ferring his followers." But his devoted attachment | fined, prices being set on every species of druise or to the laws, customs, and government of Nor- wound with marvellous exactitude. mandy, was undeniable; and his prohibition of the use of the Saxon tongue was of more destruc-If an ear be cut off, let compensation be made by tive effect, than any open opposition to the laws payment of twelve shillings. or customs of the realm. And these, his moderate measures, refer only to the early portion of his reign; for his arbitrary and cruel temper being driven to exasperation by the unceasing revolts of the English, he became exacerbated to the utmost extreme of tyranny, and "formed the scheme of rivetting such fetters upon the conquered nation, that all resistance should become impracticable." He fully realized his purposes. All Englishmen, who still held honourable offices, were deprived of them; they were deprived of all their political privileges; all their property was confiscated; the whole soil (with very slight exceptions) was divided amongst foreigners; and the very name of Englishman became a reproach. And, in the progress of this utter subversion of old rights, in apportioning the confiscated lands on military tenure to his Norman knights, William introduced as a universal system that foreign feudalism which was hitherto but slightly known in England. No land was granted to a noble, no estate held, but on condition of rigidly specified military service and feudal obligation. These nobles imposed correspondent obligations on their tenants, and multitudinous bonds, fines, and services were specified and rigidly enforced. which were unheard of in the Saxon times, when the extent of feudality seems to have been the obligation to attend the king in military expeditions, to assist in defending the royal castles, and in repairing the highways and bridges. To these Knute added the Heriot, or the forfeiture of a thane's horse and armour, on his death, to the king. If an ear be cut through, let compensation be made by payment of three shillings. If a piece of the ear be cut off, let compensation be made by payment of six shillings. If an eye be lost, let compensation be made by payment of fifty shillings. Whoever fractures the chin bone, let him forfeit twenty shillings for the offence. For each of the front teeth six shillings. For the tooth that stands by the front teeth (on either side) four shillings. For the tooth that stands by the last-mentioned tooth, three shillings; and for every other tooth, one shilling. If the speech be affected, twelve shillings. If a thumb be cut off, let compensation be made by payment of twenty shillings; and for a thumb nail, three shillings. If the shooting finger (i.e. the forefinger) be cut off, let compensation be made by payment of eight shillings. If the gold finger (i.e. the ring or third finger) be cut off, let compensation be made by payment of six shillings. If the little finger be cut off, let compensation be made by payment of eleven shillings. For every (finger) nail, one shilling. For a smaller disfigurement or deformity (in the countenance), three shillings; and for a larger one, six shillings. If a man hit another on the nose with his fist, let compensation be made by payment of three || shillings. If there be a bruise on the nose, one shilling. Et cetera, et cetera.1 Thus, though the influence of the Norman invasion remains to this day, yet was its immediate effect not so perceptible as we might suppose If we bear in mind the difference in the value of among a great mass of the people; for the labour- money then and now, we shall not consider these ing class of that day, having no acknowledged fines lenient. The weres were made to apply to station, passed like the cattle which they tended, every possible injury, from the slightest personal and the ground which they tilled, from one pro- blemish even to loss of life: and it is a singular cirprietor to another, little heeding, in the mere ex- cumstance in the jurisprudence of the Middle Ages, change of misery, whether he were Norman or that, if a person removed from one kingdom or proEnglish. They could not," says Henry, "so vince to another, his life and limbs continued to be much as call their lives their own; for these might valued at the same rate they had formerly been, have been taken from them by their masters with whatever were the different custom of the country perfect impunity, and by any other person, for to which he was come; consequently those perpaying their price to their owners. For some time sons who removed from a rich country into a poor after the settlement of the Saxons in England, their one, had much greater, and those who migrated slaves were in the same circumstances with their from a poor country into a rich one, much less horses, oxen, cows, and sheep, except that it was security for their lives, limbs, and properties. not fashionable to kill and eat them." And though" The nose of a Spaniard (as Henry humorously this brutal disregard of human life became amelio-illustrates the custom) was perfectly safe in Engrated as the influence of Christianity prevailed, still land, because it was valued at thirteen marks; but the extreme carelessness with which the life of a the nose of an Englishman ran a great risk in slave was regarded was evidenced by a law which Spain, because it was valued only at twelve shilprevailed a considerable time afterwards, viz. that lings. An Englishman might have broken a Welshif a slave killed his master, he was punished with man's head for a mere trifle; but few Welshmen instant death; but if he killed only a fellow-could afford to return the compliment." slave, his punishment was just what his master pleased. By the time of the Conqueror the Anglo-Saxon laws were minute and multifarious, and were, for the most part, duly administered. William confirmed many of the laws of Ethelbert; amongst them the WERES, or pecuniary compensation for personal injuries, which were most minutely de One of the most interesting peculiarities of the early legislature of England was the compurgation, branching as it did into various ordeals, and later into the trial by combat. The most ancient form of clearing an accused person seems to have been by oaths taken in his behalf; and we are told that the conflicting parties (1) Palgrave, Proofs and Illustrations, cvii. appeared in the court or field, attended sometimes by as many as a thousand witnesses on each side, who discharged whole volleys of oaths at one another. The person called upon to clear himself of the imputation of crime was required to bring his compurgators (as those who testified in his behalf were called) to a certain place; the number of oaths required for any crime being regulated by law. These compurgators did not testify their knowledge of the man's innocence, but only their belief of his own affirmation of the same. They each placed a hand on the Gospels, or on a holy relic, and the accused party placed his above the rest, and swore by the Almighty, and by all the hands that were under his, that he was not guilty. In some cases, two, three, or four hands were sufficient; in others, fifty or a hundred were required; and if one were withdrawn from the heap, the testimony of the whole was invalidated. If the party accused were a female, law and custom required that she should obtain the requisite number of women to take oaths in her behalf, though in any other case they were not admitted to be compurgators. If the accused person, male or female, failed to clear himself by the requisite number of hands, if but one were wanting, he was condemned. This oath was called the oath of credulity, and hence arose the saying, "he has cleared himself by so many hands." Afterwards a certain value was fixed on hands, according to the different ranks of the owners; thus, the hand of a thane was equal to the hands of six ceorls, &c. We must not omit to add that the law required compurgators to be of unblemished character; a 66 good name," says the historian, was never of more value than now ;" and a man of ill reputation was compelled to undergo a triple ordeal in cases where a single one sufficed for persons of credit. 66 There is an ancient form of words extant, which shows the solemn estimation in which an oath was held. "May he who breaks his plighted troth be banished and driven from land and home, as far away as men may flee! Let him be a forflemed man, whilst fire shall flame, whilst the grass shall spring, whilst the fir-tree grows, whilst the babe shall greet after the mother, whilst the mother shall give suck to the babe, whilst the ship shall sail, whilst the shield shall glitter, whilst the sun shall shine, whilst the hawk shall soar, whilst the heavens shall roll, whilst the wind shall howl, whilst the waves shall flow. Let him be forbidden from Church and from Christendom, from the house of God and the fellowship of all good men, and never let him find a resting-place except in hell!" Can a more impressive denunciation be imagined? But, despite all precautions as to character, the multiplication of oaths had the natural effect of destroying their force, and then other means were resorted to, to imbue them with a degree of solemnity which might beneficially influence the minds of the compurgators. Of course each nation or province adopted such symbols as were most interwoven with their own prejudices and opinions. The Danish army, we are told, A.D. 876, "stole into Wareham, a fort of the West Saxons. The king afterwards made peace with them; and they gave him as hostages those who were worthiest in the army; and swore with oaths on the holy bracelet, Ghost. (beneath). Swear. seen, Ham. Hic et ubique? then we'll shift our ground. And lay your hands again upon my sword: Never to speak of this that you have heard. Ghost. (beneath). SWEAR BY HIS SWORD. In later times the sword has been a very usual each case a religious emblem, it has not been, as emblem on which to pledge faith, but though in with the Danes, a Pagan, but a Christian one, from cross. the handle being always made in the form of a the Gospels-the holiest emblem we possess; but (1) Saxon Chronicle. (2) It was often usual formerly to cause an attestator to place his right hand on the corporate, or linen cloth, which covered the eucharistic emblems: hence perhaps our term corporal oath. sworn, William triumphantly displayed the holy relics, which added such force to the oath, and at the sight of which he, Harold, "was sorely alarmed." We may remark, that oaths at this time were always taken fasting, often in a church, or, if not within the church walls, in a court held close by. The Anglo-Saxon oaths were mostly, indeed very generally, clothed in alliterative rhyme, and great power was attached to the mere pronunciation of the words, even though the mind might not follow them. They were called "words of power." It is said that the promise or oath pronounced in our marriage service is the identical one of the Anglo-Saxons, and that, even when the benediction and other prayers were pronounced in Latin, this oath or promise was made in the vernacular tongue. The remains of the ancient rhythm are said to be most clearly perceptible in the Old Salisbury Missal:-" I take thee, John, to be my wedded husband-to have and to, hold-fro' this day forward-for better for worse-for richer for poorer-in sycknesse, in hele-to be bonere and buxom in bedde and at borde-till death do us part -and thereto I plight thee my troth." Many are the instances in which the mere pronouncing of the words was held binding in olden times, and we are not without "a case in point" in modern ones. The readers of the memoirs of Mr. Edgeworth, the father of the accomplished novelist, will remember that this gentleman, in his boyhood, one merry evening after a dance, went through the marriage service with a young lady, the key of the door serving for a ring, and another youth, as giddy as any of them, enacting parson. But so serious a matter did the elder Mr. Edgeworth consider this frolic, that he absolutely instigated a suit of jactitation of marriage in the ecclesiastical court to annul this mock marriage. If these ancient words of power do yet indeed retain their efficacy, it is, we fear, utterly bootless that so many fair ones, with natural and praiseworthy, however useless, foresight, do ever, when at the hymeneal altar, pronounce the cabbalistic word OBEY with a mental reservation. (To be continued.) Poetry. [In Original Poetry, the Name, real or assumed, of the Author is printed in Small Capitals under the title; in Selections, it is printed in Italics at the end.] ANGEL WATCHERS.' BY S. M. NOT unwatched by heavenly powers Which, by day, she seems to win Weary Earth finds sweet reposing, So we know not what we gain Which our hearts in mercy steeping, (1) See Illustration, p. 32. When the Powers of Hell prevail O'er our weakness and unfitness, Those unnumbered Hosts that stand Oh, what strength of shame and woe Oh, what reverent heed would then For our brows are bathed and cross'd--- Lord, Thy saints in evil hour I HOLD it a greater injury to be over-valued than under. For when they both shall come to the touch, the one shall rise with praise, while the other shall decline with shame. The first hath more uncertain honour, but less safety: the latter is humbly secure; and what is wanting in renown is made up in a better blessing, quiet. There is no detraction worse than to over-praise a man, for, whilst his worth comes short of what report doth speak him, his own actions are ever giving the lie to his honour.-Feltham's Resolves. WHAT IS WATER? LET us imagine ourselves introduced to some old seaman who has navigated the Arctic and Antarctic Seas, and traversed those great ocean-basins which cover more than half our globe. If he possesses a fair share of observation and common sense, we shall gain some important knowledge of the strange animals and singular vegetation nourished in the wide dark-heaving world of waters. Leaving him, suppose we betake ourselves to the sea-shore, and gaze, when all is calm, upon those countless music-speaking waves, or listen, in the storm, to the roar of the same waters, when, lashed by the tempest, they drive navies from their anchors, and beat down the cliff-walls along the coast. With such scenes before us, and the narratives of the sailor in our memory, the question "What is water?" may naturally force itself upon our atten VOL. III. tion. To answer this inquiry, and furnish other information connected with the subject, is the object of this article. It was natural that men should for ages imagine water to be a simple fluid, and the boldest speculator, as he gazed upon the sea, had no conception that the whole mass was resolvable into two gases. The ancients represented chaos as the primeval condition of the universe, but this chaos was rather a name for the general confusion or commingling of all the elements, than an expression denoting their reduction to primitive substances. Some, who maintained air to be the origin of all things, may seem to have thought water, with all other bodies, resolvable into some rarer element; but these too were far from the truth. which lay buried behind that mysterious veil of visible agencies under cover of which the sublime workings of |