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and act, might he live over his days again: intermixed with the new discoveries the author has made in his travels abroad, and in his private conversation at home. Together with the lives and characters of a thousand persons now living in London, &c. digested into seven stages, with their respective ideas."

"He that has all his own mistakes confess'd,

Stands next to him that never has transgress'd,
And will be censured for a fool by none

But they who see no errors of their own."

DE FOE's Satire upon Himself, p. 6.

This work, containing a narrative of his own history, was written while Dunton was under the necessity of secreting himself from his creditors. It is a very curious performance. It was first published by S. Malthus in 1705; and, with selections from his other works, was reprinted by Mr. Nichols of Parliament-street, in two handsome 8vo volumes, in 1818. In this preface Dunton informs the impartial reader, that the common business of life has given him many opportunities to know something of the fate of books: and promises him that before he has perused the whole, he will know something more of men as well. It contains notices of statesmen, divines, lawyers, booksellers, in short, lives and characters of every one he came in contact with in the course of a long and active life.

It were endless to enumerate Dunton's various productions, or to give a description of his projects. In his latter years he was affected with insanity, hence some of his effusions are rather extravagant. In 1723, appeared "An Appeal to his Majesty ; with a list of his Political Pamphlets," which was probably his last published production. He appears to have died in obscurity in the year 1733, at the age of seventy-four.

An extract or two from his writings is subjoined: While in America, Dunton made frequent excursions into the Indian territory, and one of his "rambles" was to Roxbury, in order to visit the Rev. Mr. Elliott, the great apostle of the Indians. "He was pleased to receive me with abundance of respect, and inquired very kindly after Dr. Annesley, my father-in-law; and then broke out with a world of seeming satisfaction, 'Is my brother Annesley yet alive? Is he yet converting souls to God? He presented me with six Indian Bibles, as also with twelve 'Speeches of Converted Indians,' which himself had published." Dunton thus characterises his father-in-law:-" Among my dissenting authors, I shall begin with Dr. Annesley, a man of wonderful piety and humility. I have heard him say, that 'he never knew the time he was not converted.' The great business and pleasure of his life was 'to persuade sinners back to God from the general apostasy;' and in the faithful discharge of his ministry he spent fifty-five years. He had the care of all the churches upon his mind, and was the great support of dissenting ministers, and of the morning lecture. His non-conformity created him many troubles; however, all the difficulties and disappointments he met with from an ungrateful world, did never alter the goodness and the cheerfulness of his humour. And what an ingenious author has said of himself, in a different case,

was true of the reverend doctor:

A slave to sickness, and to pains a prey,

I keep my humour, cheerful still and gay.'

After his decease, Mr. Williams preached his funeral sermon, and Mr. De Foe drew his character, and the reader may meet with it in that author's works."

Of Baxter he remarked, that "he was a man well versed in polemical divinity, and the modern controversies, that were then managed with a great deal of warmth and concern, His humour was something morose and sour, which may, perhaps, be imputed to the many bodily affections he laboured under, as well as to the

troubles and disturbances he met with in the world. He has writ more than most men can read in a lifetime.'

Of Ridpath, the political writer, he says:-" He is a considerable scholar, and well acquainted with the languages. He is a Scotchman, and designed, first of all, for the ministry; but by some unfortunate accident or other, the fate of an author came upon him. He has written much; his style is excellent ; and his humility and his honesty have established his reputation. He writes the Flying Post,' which is highly valued and sells well. It was this ingenious gentleman that invented the Polygraphy, or writing engine, by which one may, with great facility, write two, four, six, or more copies of any one thing upon so many different sheets of paper at once."

"Mr. Daniel De Foe is a man of good parts and very clear sense. His conversation is ingenious and brisk enough. The world is well satisfied that he is enterprising and bold: but, alas! had his prudence only weighed a few grains more, he would certainly have wrote his 'Shortest Way' a little more at length." To conclude-Dunton thus describes Tonson, his contemporary and is himself a very good judge of persons and authors; and as brother in trade :-"He was bookseller to the famous Dryden; there is nobody more competently qualified to give their opinion of another, so there is none who does it with a more severe exactness, or with less partiality; for to do Mr. Tonson justice, he speaks his mind upon all occasions, and will flatter nobody."

BURTON'S "ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY." BURTON'S "Anatomy of Melancholy" is certainly an extraordinary book. Sterne is accused, with some justice, of stealing much from it, never acknowledging his obligations to it; some of his stories are copied almost word for word from the "Anatomy of Melancholy." The title of the work is, "The Anatomy of Melancholy what it is; with all the kinds, causes, symptoms, prognosticks, and several cures of it. In three maine partitions, with their severall sections, members, and subsecPhilosophically, medicinally, historically, opened and cut up. By Democritus, Junior.' In defence of his title he says, "It is a kind of policy in these days to prefer a fantastical title to a book which is to be sold; for as larks come down to a day net, many vain readers will tarry and stand gazing." Burton compares himself to a "ranging spaniel that barks at every bird he sees, leaving his game." "I am not poor," he says, “I am not rich; I have little, I want nothing; all my treasure is in Minerva's tower. I still live a collegiate student, as Democritus in his garden, and lead a monastic life, sequestered from the tumults and

tions.

troubles of the world."

Burton's book was very popular in his lifetime, (he was born in 1576, and died about the beginning of 1640,) but towards the close of the 17th century it fell into oblivion, till Johnson brought it again into notice. It was the only book, he said, that ever took him out of his bed two hours sooner than he wished to rise. Speaking to Boswell, he said, "Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy is a valuable work. It is, perhaps, overloaded with quotation. But there is a great spirit and great power in what Burton says, when he is writing from his own mind." Warton also says of it, "The writer's variety of learning, his quotations from scarce and curious books, his pedantry sparkling with rude wit and shapeless elegance [but query, Mr. Warton, how can "elegance" be "shapeless"?] miscellaneous matter, intermixture of agreeable tales and illustrations, and, perhaps, above all, the singularities of his feelings clothed in an uncommon quaintness of style, have contributed to render it, even to modern readers, a valuable repository of amusement and information."

COMFORT UNDER TRIALS.

Weigh your sins and your mercics together before you look at any of your trials. Never think of your sufferings, but at the same time think of your sins. Afflictions will sit light when sin sits heavy. You will find then that you have sinned away this comfort, and overloved the other blessing, have abused God's mercy, and stood in need of his rod, for he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. Whatever be the temptation or affliction, there is Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.”— need for it. And then, have we no mercies in our trials? It is of the

HILL'S" It is well."

FASCINATION.

The sympathetic power of fascination is a most unaccountable phenomenon. It is well known that in regions infested with venomous snakes, there are persons endowed both by nature and by art with the power of disarming the reptile of his poisonous capacities. The ancient Cyrenaica was overrun with poisonous serpents, and the Psyhlli were a tribe gifted with this faculty. Bruce informs us, that all the blacks in the kingdom of Sennaar are perfectly armed by nature against the bite of either scorpion or viper. They take the cerastes, or horned serpent (one of the most venomous of the viper tribe) in their hands at all times, put them in their bosoms, and throw them to one another as children do apples or balls; during which sport the serpents are seldom irritated to bite, and, when they do, no mischief ensues from the wound. It is said that this power is derived from the practice of chewing certain plants, and this is probably the fact; these substances may impregnate the body with some quality obnoxious to the reptile. The same traveller has given an account of several of these roots. In South America a similar practice prevails; and a curious memoir on the subject was drawn up by Don Pedro d'Orbies y Vargas, detailing various experiments. He informs us that the plant thus employed is the vejuco de guaco, hence denominated from its having been observed that the bird of that name, also called the serpent-hawk, usually sucked the juice of this plant before his attacks upon poisonous serpents. Prepared by drinking a small portion of this juice, inoculating themselves with it by rubbing it upon punctures in the skin, Don Pedro himself, and all his domestics, were accustomed to venture into the fields and fearlessly seize the most venomous of the tribe. Acrell, in the Amanitates Academicæ, informs us that the Senega possesses a similar power. This power of fascinating serpents is so great, that, according to Bruce, they sicken the moment they are laid hold of, and are as exhausted by this invisible power, as though they had been struck by lightning, or an electrical battery. Dr. Mead, and Smith Barton, of Philadelphia, endeavour to explain this power by the influence of terror. This supposition, however, is not correct, since the serpent will injure one man, and not another, if the latter is gifted with this faculty, and the former one is not. Thieves have been known to possess the power of quieting watch-dogs, and keeping them silent during their depredations. Lindecrantz informs us that the Laplanders can instantly disarm the most furious dog, and oblige him to fly from them with every expression of terror. Several horse-breakers have appeared at various periods possessing the same art, and they would make the wildest horse follow them as tamely as a dog, and lie down at their bidding. It is most probable that these charmers derive their power from some natural or artificial emanation. The most singular power of fascination is perhaps that exhibited by the jugglers of Egypt, who, by merely pressing the serpent called haje on the neck, stiffen the reptile to such a degree, that they can wave it like a rod.-Curiosities of Medical Experience.

THE KIT-CAT CLUB.

The Kit Cat Club, which consisted of the most distinguished wits and statesmen among the Whigs, was remarkable for the strictest zeal towards the House of Hanover. They met at a house in Shire-lane, and took their title from the rame of Christopher Cat, a pastry-cook, who excelled in making mutton-pics, which were regularly part of the entertainment

"Immortal made, as Kit-cat by his pies."

The founder of this Club was Tonson, the celebrated bookseller, who, when he had acquired an independence, purchased a villa at Barn-Elms, in Surrey, which he adorned with portraits of the Kit-Cat Club, painted by Kneller, on canvas somewhat less than a three-quarters, and larger than a half-length; a size which has ever since been denominated a Kit-Cat from this circumstance. The canvas for a Kit-Cat is 36 inches long, and 28 wide. A splendid volume under the title of the "Kit-Cat Club" from the original paintings of Sir Godfrey Kneller, containing 43 portraits, was published in 1735.

IN PLACE AND OUT OF PLACE.

M. FREDERIC CUVIER.

M. Frederic Cuvier, the younger brother of the illustrious Baron Cuvier, Professor of Animal Physiology to the Museum of Natural History at Paris, and Inspector-General of the University, was born at Montbelliard, in Alsace, in 1773: he had from an early period attached himself to those studies which his brother had cultivated with so much success, and his appointment as keeper of the menagerie at the Jardin des Plantes furnished him with the most favourable opportunities of studying the habits of animals, and of prosecuting his researches on their physiology and structure. The Annales d'Histoire Naturelle, and the Mémoires du Musée, contain a series of his memoirs on zoological subjects, of great value and interest, and his work Sur les Dents des Mammifères considerées comme Caractères Zoologiques, is full of novel and original views and observations, and has always been considered as one of the most valuable contributions to the science of zoology which has been made in later times; the great work Sur l'Histoire des Mammifères, of which 70 Numbers have been published, was undertaken in conjunction with Geoffroy St. Hilaire, and is the most considerable and most extensive publication on zoology which has appeared since the time of Buffon. He was likewise the author of many other works and memoirs on zoological subjects in various scientific journals and collections.

M. F. Cuvier, like his celebrated relative, combined a remarkable dignity and elevation of character, with the most affectionate temper and disposition, Like him, too, his acquisitions were not confined to his professional pursuits, but comprehended a very extensive range of literature and science. In his capacity of Inspector of the University, he devoted himself with extraordinary zeal to the improvement of the national education of France in all its depart. ments, from the highest to the lowest. It was in the course of one of his tours of inspection that he was attacked at Strasburg with paralysis; the same disease which, under similar circumstances, had proved fatal to his brother, and likewise in the same year of his age, 63.-Farewell address of the Duke of Sussex to the Royal Society.

WOMAN'S LOVE.

How many bright eyes grow dim-how many soft cheeks grow pale-how many lovely forms fade away into the tomb, and none can tell the cause that blighted their loveliness. As the dove will clasp its wings to its sides, and cover and conceal the arrow that is preying on its vitals-so it is the nature of woman to hide from the world the pangs of wounded affection. The love of a delicate female is always shy and silent. Even when fortunate, she scarcely breathes it to herself; but when otherwise, she buries it in the recesses of her bosom, and there lets it cower and brood among the ruins of her peace. With her, the desire of the heart has failed. The great charm of existence is at an end. She neglects all the cheerful exercises which gladden the spirits, quicken the pulses, and send the tide of life, in healthful currents, through the veins. Her rest is broken; the sweet refreshment of sleep is broken by melancholy dreams; "dry sorrow drinks her blood," until her enfeebled frame sinks under the slightest external injury. Look for her, after a little while, and you find friendship weeping over her untimely grave, and wondering that one, who but lately glowed with all the radiance of health and beauty, should so speedily be brought down to darkness and the worm.-Washington Irving.

DESPATCHING NEWSPAPERS FROM THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE. The number of persons employed in the sorting and despatching of newspapers is very great The stated number is about 290; but on particular occa. sions, when there is anything of an exciting interest in the public journals, the number is increased to 300. The operation to be gone through in forward. ing newspapers, is much more simple than that which must be observed in the case of letters. The first thing to be done is to put all the newspapers one way; so that their respective addresses may be at once perceived. This done, they are carried to the sorting table, where they are sorted or arranged for all the great lines of road for the different mails. The number of divisions into which

The difference between "out of place" and "in place" is amusingly illus- they are classed is twenty. They are then collected into other parcels and trated by Walpole :

I

"I laughed at myself prodigiously the other day for a piece of absence. was writing on the king's birth-day, and being disturbed with the mob in the street I rang for the porter, and, with an air of grandeur, as if I was still in Downing Street, cried, Pray send away those marrow-bones and cleavers !' The poor fellow, with the most mortified air in the world, replied, Sir, they are not at our door, but over the way at my Lord Carteret's.' 'Oh,' said I, then let them alone, may be he does not dislike the noise.' 'I pity the poor porter who sees all his old customers going over the way too."— Walpole's Letters to Sir Horace Mann, vol. i. p. 225.

BURNING OF HERETICS.

Heretics were first burned in England in the reign of Henry IV. the usurper, in order to please the bishops, who assisted him in deposing Richard II.- Walpoliana, vol. i. p. 78.

MUTILATING BOOKS.

Swift, in a letter to Stella, Jan. 16, 1711, says, "I went to Bateman's the bookseller, and laid out eight-and-forty shillings for books. I bought three little volumes of Lucian in French for our Stella." This Bateman would never suffer any person whatever to look into one book in his shop; and when asked the reason for it, would say, "I suppose you may be a physician, or an author, and want some recipe or quotation; and if you buy it, I will engage it to be perfect before you leave me, but not after; as I have suffered by leaves being torn out, and the books returned—to my very great loss and prejudice."

carried to the mails by which the respective parcels so arranged or sorted are to be forwarded to their several places of destination. But though the process of sorting newspapers for the mails be less complicated than that gone through in the case of letters, nearly the same time is required to sort a thousand, or any other given number of newspapers, that is required to sort the same number of letters. The difficulty of handling newspapers, in consequence of their bulky appearance, is so great, that as much time is lost in the process of handling as is required to examine, tax, and stamp letters. It is stated by the clerks in the post-office, that where a man would take one handful of letters he must take twenty handsful of newspapers.-Travels in Town, by the Author of “ Random Recollections."

MORAL HONESTY.

They that cry down moral honesty cry down that which is a great part of religion-my duty towards God and my duty towards man. What care I to see a man run after a sermon, if he cozen and cheat as soon as he comes home! On the other side, morality must not be without religion, for if so it may change as I see convenience. Religion must govern it. He that has not religion to govern his morality, is not a drachm better than my mastiff dog; so long as you stroke him and please him, and do not pinch him, he will play with you as finely as may be, he is a very good moral mastiff; but if you hurt him, he will fly in your face and tear out your throat.-Selden-Table Talk.

London: WILLIAM SMITH, 113, Fleet Street. Edinburgh: FRASER AND Co. Dublin: CURRY & Co.-Printed by Bradbury & Evans, Whitefriars.

THE

No. VII.

PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM SMITH, 113, FLEET STREET.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1839.

THE BRITISH NAVY.

FIRST ARTICLE.-PUTTING A SHIP IN COMMISSION. "Our ships in ordinary will spring from inaction into a display of their might-ruffle their swelling plumage-collect their scattered elements of strength-and awaken their dormant thunder!"-Speech of MR. CANNING in Parliament.

ANY and everything relating to the British Navy, never fails to excite an interest in the public mind, but there is no subject respecting which the generality of persons are so ignorant or so ill-informed. Whilst every one perceives and acknowledges the necessity for maintaining this right arm of our strength, this safeguard of our national prosperity, in pristine vigour and efficiency, comparatively few are acquainted with the admirable arrangements which regulate its discipline, control its economy, and render every department connected with the "mighty whole" instantly available, so as to realise, in an incredibly short space of time, the appropriate metaphor with which we have headed these remarks.

The exploits of the British Navy-the brilliant victories it has achieved the results of those achievements in the supremacy obtained, securing to this favoured country old, and opening new channels of unbounded extent for its increasing trade and manufactures; sweeping the seas of its enemies, and rendering the "highway of commerce" safe for its merchant vessels to traverse, -all these things are familiarly known, and duly recorded in the annals of history. But, except in some few elementary books-of little value to any but the profession-there is scarce any information to be obtained regarding this interesting subject: and we are not aware that a popular description has ever been published, to which the reader might refer for information, in the expectation of finding his curiosity gratified.

Under this impression, and supposing that some general account of the various matters connected with our "wooden walls," will be agreeable to our readers, we purpose introducing the subject occasionally in successive numbers, until we have explained every point connected with the routine of a British ship-of-war, the mode of performing the duties on board-the portions of duty which devolve upon the different classes, or ratings, as they are technically called--the wages and victualling of the crew,-in fact, everything that can be supposed to interest the reader, from the first equipment of a ship-of-war, until we place her alongside of an enemy, and finally return her into port with her prize in tow, and leave her crew in the enjoyment of their well-earned rewards.

Sailors invariably adopt the expletive "she," when speaking of a ship, and as this mode of description is also familiar to the generality of persons, we shall adhere to it. Whenever nautical phrases occur we will explain their meaning by a note.

Selecting for our purpose a seventy-four-gun ship, which class is distinguished as "third-rate," we will suppose that the Lords of the Admiralty have decided upon equipping a vessel of this force for sea. This is technically called "putting her in commission," that is, removing the vessel from "ordinary," in which state she remains when dismantled.

VOL. I.

[PRICE TWOPENCE.

The First Lord of the Admiralty, in whose immediate patronage all appointments to commands exists, selects from a list of names, furnished by the senior sea Lord, a captain to command her. He then directs his private secretary to communicate this intention to the officer, who is at liberty to accept or decline the offer of appointment.

It will seem strange to the reader that any doubt should exist upon this point, or that a captain on half-pay would decline active service, and the command of a ship; when he is informed, however, that a tour of three years in such command—that being the usual time that ships are kept employed in time of peace-must involve him in several hundred pounds' expense, over and above the pay he will receive ;-that many officers have large families, no private fortunes, and cannot therefore afford this sacrifice; that moreover, no dishonour is incurred by declining employment under such circumstances in time of peace, his surprise will cease.

We shall take another opportunity to explain the incongruity of an officer's pay being inadequate to support the proper dignity of his rank and station, when we come to describe the captain's duties particularly; for the present we will suppose him to have accepted the proffered appointment, or that having declined it, the command has been accepted by another.

The selection of the lieutenants is in the second sea Lord at the Board, who keeps a list of all such as he considers eligible for active employment, with a register of their qualities, as reported by the commanders they have served under. This member of the Board also nominates some others of the officers. The nomination of his second, however, is, by long established custom, permitted to the captain, and he has the option of choosing either a commander or lieutenant; if the latter, he is called the "first lieutenant," and every officer of that rank, subsequently appointed, must be junior to him in seniority upon the list of lieutenants.

This regulation has been adopted and continued on the plea of the necessity for the captain's having confidence in the officer to whom devolves the duty of carrying his orders into effect,indeed the principal duties of the ship; but it materially limits the power of the Admiralty in the range of appointments: for it is probable, nay almost certain, that the captain will select for his first lieutenant some active young officer, who has been constantly and recently employed afloat, and therefore well practised in his duty, in preference to one who has been long on half pay, and unacquainted with the improvements that are continually occurring; this is the reason why so many old lieutenants are unemployed. When the captain makes his election for a commander, it affords the opportunity to appoint lieutenants of long standing, still however, depending upon the seniority of the first lieutenant. But the truth is, that old officers, unless they can obtain commands, are not very desirous of employment afloat, as lieutenants of ships, for reasons we shall state hereafter.

We will suppose these preliminaries settled, the nomination of the captain approved, and the appointments decided on, the

[Bradbury and Evans, Printers, Whi'efriars.]

H

commissions are ordered to be made out, and an official letter* is written to each officer, apprising him thereof. He may either "take up," as it is called, that is, receive his commission at the Admiralty, in London, or at the admiral's office, at the sea-port where the ship is stationed. The captain, or one of his lieutenants, proceeds without delay to make the arrangements for putting the ship in commission, which is accomplished by hoisting the pendant, and reading his warrant to the officers already appointed; the forms and observances appertaining to which ceremony are as follow:

On arriving at the sea-port wherein his ship is stationed, the captain, or one of his lieutenants, to whom he has delegated the duty of putting the vessel in commission, repairs to the office of the Port Admiral, and reports his arrival to the secretary. Thence he proceeds to the superintendant residing in the dockyard, who orders the master-attendant, (one of his officers),

to make the necessary arrangements, and also furnishes a pendant. The pendant is a long narrow strip of bunting, of the colour of the admiral's flag, having a St. George's cross at the top; and when hoisted at the head of the main (middle) mast, signifies that the ship belongs to Her Majesty's fleet, and is in commission. Every person on board, or, as it is called, under the pendant, is amenable to naval discipline, the laws regulating which are strictly defined by the Act 22 of George II., cap. 23, the articles of war, and also the naval instructions, a code of rules promulgated by the Lords of the Admiralty, under the authority of an order in council, and amended occasionally to suit the exigencies of circumstances.

The pendant, being emblematic of a ship of war commanded by an officer of the royal navy, is not allowed to be worn by any other class of vessels whatever. It is said to have been originally adopted in defiance of the Dutch, who exhibited a broom at the mast-head, and boasted that they could sweep the seas of their enemies; on which a British admiral ordered his captains to hoist this representation of a whip, with the design of whipping the Dutch out of the British Channel. Whatever might have been the first intention, the symbol is, undoubtedly, a very ancient one, and has long since been adopted by all nations to distinguish their ships of war.

A ship, when brought forward (that is, prepared) for commissioning, is generally placed in the basin, a large pond within the dock-yard, capable of holding several vessels. This is done for the greater convenience of equipping her, and hoisting on board her masts and water-tanks, by means of the sheers or cranes, placed on the edge of the basin. The officer, having stepped on board, calls around him any others who have been already appointed, and having hoisted the pendant, either upon a mast or a flag-staff, he reads his commission, of which the following is a copy :Admiralty Seal.

By the Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland &c. TO HENRY HAULAWAY hereby appointed Lieutenant of Her Majesty's Ship the Nonsuch

By virtue of the Power and Authority to us given, We do hereby constitute and appoint you Lieutenant of Her Majesty's

* The following is the form of the official letter:"SIR,

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"Admiralty Office, January 1, 1839. My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty have appointed you Lieutenant of Her Majesty's Ship, Nonsuch, at Portsmouth; it is their Lordships' direction that you repair immediately to this Office for your appointment, and that you report to me the day on which you shall have joined the ship. "I am, Sir, your very humble Servant, "JOHN BARROW.

"P.S.-It is desired that you acknowledge the receipt of this letter. "To Lieutenant Henry Haulaway,"

Ship the Nonsuch Willing and requiring you forthwith to go
on board and take upon you the charge and command of Lieu-
tenant in her accordingly Strictly charging and commanding
all the officers and company belonging to the said ship subor-
dinate to you to behave themselves jointly and severally in their
respective employments with all due respect and obedience unto
you their said Lieutenant And you likewise to observe and
execute as well the General Printed Instructions as what Orders
and Directions you shall from time to time receive from your
Captain or any other your superior Officers for Her Majesty's
service Hereof nor you nor any of you may fail as you shall
answer the contrary at your peril And for so doing this shall
be your Warrant Given under our hands and the Seal of the
Office of Admiralty this First day of January 1839 in the
second year of Her Majesty's Reign'
By command of their Lordships
C. WOOD

C. ADAM
DALMENY

Seniority 10th July 1836 The above quaint form has been unaltered probably from its first adoption. It will be seen that, as in old statutes, no

marks of punctuation occur; and although called a commission, it is strictly speaking, a warrant.—It is lithographed on parch ment, bears a stamp of five shillings, and the officer pays a fee of one pound one shilling and sixpence on receiving it.

THE LATE T. A. KNIGHT, ESQ.

THOMAS ANDREW KNIGHT, of Downton Castle, Hereford

shire, the President of the Horticultural Society of London, to the establishment and success of which he so greatly contributed, was born in the year 1758. He was educated at Ludlow school, and afterwards became a member of Baliol College, Oxford. From his earliest years he appears to have shown a predominant taste for experimental researches in gardening and vegetable physiology, which the immediate and uncontrolled possession of an ample fortune gave him every opportunity of indulging; proposing to himself, in fact, as one of the great objects of his life, to effect improvements in the productions of the vegetable kingdom, by new modes of culture, by the impregnation of different varieties of the same species, and various other expedients, commensurate with those which had already been effected by agriculturists and others in the animal kingdom by a careful selection of parents, by judicious crossing, and by the avoidance of too close an alliance of breeds. In the year 1795 he contributed to our Transactions his first, and perhaps his most important, paper, on the transmission of the diseases of decay and old age of the parent tree to all its descendants propagated by grafting or layers, being the result of experiments which had already been long continued and very extensively varied, and which developed views of the greatest importance and novelty in the economy of practical gardening, and likewise of very great interest in vegetable physiology. This paper was succeeded by more than twenty others, chiefly written between the years 1799 and 1812, containing the details of his most ingenious and original experimental researches on the ascent and descent of the sap in trees; on the origin and offices of the alburnum and bark; on the phenomena of germination; on the functions of leaves; on the influence of light, and upon many other subjects, constituting a series of facts and of deductions from them, which have exercised the most marked influence upon the progress of our knowledge of this most important department of the laws of vegetable organization and life.

the Horticultural Society, and contributed no fewer than 114 Mr. Knight succeeded Sir Joseph Banks in the Presidency of papers to the different volumes of its Transactions; these contributions embrace almost every variety of subjects connected with horticulture; such as the production of new and improved varieties of fruits and vegetables; the adoption of new modes of grafting, planting, and training fruit-trees; the construction of forcing-frames and hot-houses; the economy of bees, and many other questions of practical gardening, presenting the most important results of his very numerous and well-devised experiments. Mr. Knight was a person of very great activity of body and mind, and of singular perseverance and energy in the pursuit of his favourite science; he was a very lucid and agreeable writer, and it would be difficult to name any other contemporary author in this or other countries who has made such important additions to our knowledge of horticulture and the economy of vegetation. Farewell Address of the Duke of Sussex.

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"UNDER Isabella's glorious rule," says her latest historian, in his concluding chapter, "we have beheld Spain emerging from chaos into a new existence; unfolding, under the influence of institutions adapted to her genius, energies of which she was before unconscious; enlarging her resources from all the springs of domestic industry and commercial enterprise; and insensibly losing the ferocious habits of a feudal age, in the refinements of an intellectual and moral culture. In the fulness of time, when her divided powers had been concentrated under one head, and the system of internal economy completed, we have seen her descend into the arena with the other nations of Europe, and in a very few years achieve the most important acquisitions of territory, both in that quarter, and in Africa; and finally crowning the whole by the discovery and occupation of a bound

less empire beyond the waters*." In her reign, also, events transpired producing a new era in the annals of the world. The

For several centuries after the Saracenic invasion of Spain, in the eighth century, the country was divided into a number of small but independent states, divided in their interests, and often in deadly hostility with each other. The population, too, consisted of different races, totally unlike in their origin, religion, and government.

your government, if you maintain our rights and liberties, but
not otherwise." It was a fundamental article in the constitution,
that if the king should violate their privileges, the people might
legally disclaim him as their sovereign, and elect another in his
place *.

Under the administration of laws, based on constitutional
liberty, the Castilians prospered and amassed great wealth;
commerce and manufactures flourished, beyond that of any
nation in christendom. As early as 1227, a Navigation Act was
passed, and extended to Arragon in 1454, preceding by some
centuries the celebrated ordinance to which England owes so
much of her commercial grandeur. In relation to the manu-
factures of that age, an interesting fact may be mentioned; that
is, that the breed of sheep for which Spain has been so long
celebrated, owes its improvement to Catherine of Lancaster, who,
in the year 1394, took with her to Spain, as part of her dowry, a
flock of English merinos, distinguished, above all others at that
time, for the beauty and delicacy of their fleece.

Castile, notwithstanding, had been long in a turbulent and unsettled state, caused by the wickedness and imbecility of its In this condition was the kingdom when Isabella was

rulers.

born, which happened at Madrigal, April 22, 1451. She was
the daughter of John II., King of Castile and Leon, who, after
a factious and protracted reign, died four years after her birth,
leaving by his first wife (Maria of Arragon) a son, Don Henry,

who succeeded him; and by his second wife (Isabella of Portu-
Although great hopes were indulged of Henry IV., in couse-
gal) two children in their infancy, Alphonso and Isabella.

destinies of empires and kingdoms were affected in her person.
Under her auspices and patronage, the Spanish language and
literature first assumed a polished and regular form; the newly-quence of the weak and imbecile reign of his predecessor, yet he
soon became reckless and extravagant, lost the support of his
invented art of printing was introduced into her dominions, and
nobles, by which the country was plunged in anarchy, the laws
the first printing-press set up in Burgos.
were set at nought, banditti were uncontrolled, and oppression
reigned. At length the Archbishop of Toledo, and others of the
nobility, confederated against him, which ended in the farcical
trial of him in effigy on the outskirts of Avila, when he was
being thereby deposed, his brother, Alphonso, was proclaimed
stripped of his crown, and all the royal insignia, by the nobles;
in his stead. Henry, however, raised a large army, and for some
years a furious civil war was the consequence. To further his
ends, Henry attempted to force his sister, Isabella, into a hate-
ful marriage with a brother of the Marquis of Villena, who was
the principal abettor of this unnatural warfare. Isabella was
then fifteen years of age, and had been from the time of her
father's death living in seclusion with her mother at the little
town of Arevalo, where "far from the voice of flattery and false-
hood, she had been permitted to unfold the natural graces of
mind and person which might have been blighted in the pesti-
lent atmosphere of a court. Here, under the maternal eye, she
was carefully instructed in those lessons of practical piety, and
in the deep reverence for religion, which distinguished her
maturer years." In stature, she was then somewhat above the
middle size; her complexion was fair; her hair of a bright
chesnut colour, inclining to red; and her mild blue eye beamed
with intelligence and sensibility. She was exceedingly beautiful;
"the handsomest lady," says one of her household, "whom I
ever beheld, and the most gracious in her manners."

Castile, the inheritance of Isabella, occupied the middle of the peninsula, running north and south; on the right, or easterly side, was the kingdom of Arragon, the domain of Ferdinand, which comprehended the provinces of Catalonia and Valencia; and south was the kingdom of Granada, occupied by the Moors. Another state was the little kingdom of Navarre, within the Pyrenees. When the different states were consolidated, the capital of Castile became the capital of the empire.

The political institutions of Castile and Arragon were nearly alike; and though the form of government in both was monarchical, the spirit and principles were almost republican. The Sovereign was merely the chief of his nobility; his power was circumscribed by that of the cortes, or parliament, composed of four distinct orders; the nobles of the first class, or grandees; the nobles of the second class; the representatives of towns and cities; and the deputies of the clergy. By the law the cortes was to be convoked once in two years; and, once assembled, could not be dissolved by the king, without its own consent; all questions of peace and war, the collection of the revenues, the enacting and repealing of laws, and the redressing of all grievances in the state, depended on this assembly. When they pronounced the oath of allegiance to a new king, it was in these striking terms: "We, who are each of us as good as you, and are altogether more powerful than you, promise obedience to

* Prescott's Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella.

The face of affairs was now altered by the death of Alphonso; the opponents of Henry offered Isabella the throne, which she declined during her brother's lifetime. He, at this time, concluded a treaty by which he declared his daughter Joanna illegitimate, and acknowledged Isabella to be his heiress. Mean-· while the latter remained in retirement, unconsciously pre

* Mrs. Jamieson's Female Sovereigns,

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