which their own wild couplets were, to a certain extent, imitated. The people of the street in which I lived, seeing such numbers of these strange females continually passing in and out, were struck with astonishment, and demanded the reason. The answers which they obtained by no means satisfied them. "Zeal for the conversion of souls the souls, too, of gitanos -disparate the fellow is a bribón. Besides, he is an Englishman, and is not baptised; what cares he for souls? They visit him for other purposes. He makes base ounces, which they carry away and circulate. Madrid is already stocked with false money.' Others were of opinion that we met for purposes of sorcery and abomination. The Spaniard has no conception that other springs of action exist than interest or villany. My little congregation, if such I may call it, consisted entirely of women; the men seldom or never visited me, save when they stood in need of something which they hoped to obtain from me. This circumstance I little regretted; their manners and conversation being the reverse of interesting. It must not, however, be supposed that, even with respect to the women, matters went on invariably in a smooth and satisfactory manner. The following little anecdote will show what slight dependence can be placed upon them, and how disposed they are at all times to be grotesque and malicious. One day they arrived, attended by a gipsy jockey, whom I had never previously seen. We had scarcely been seated a minute, when this fellow, rising, took me to the window, and without any preamble or circumlocution, said, 'Don Jorge, you shall lend me two barias' (ounces of gold). Not to your whole race, my excellent friend,' said I; are you frantic? Sit down, and be discreet.' He obeyed me literally, sat down, and when the rest departed, followed with them. We did not invariably meet at my own house, but occasionally at one in a street inhabited by gipsies. On the appointed day I went to this house, where I found the women assembled; the jockey was also present. On seeing me he advanced, again took me aside, and again said, 'Don Jorge, you shall lend me two barias.' I made him no answer, but at once entered on the subject which brought me thither. I spoke for some time in Spanish; I chose for the theme of my discourse the situation of the Hebrews in Egypt, and pointed out its similarity to that of the gitanos in Spain. I spoke of the power of God, manifested in preserving both as separate and distinct people amongst the nations until the present day. I warmed with my subject. I subsequently produced a manuscript book, from which I read a portion of Scripture, and the Lord's Prayer and Apostle's Creed, in Rommany. When I had concluded, I looked around me. The features of the assembly were twisted, and the

"Trudged along, unknowing what he sought,
And whistled as he went, for want of thought."

Dryden has a great many powerful lines, roaming about in the sea of literary quotation, and which few are so well acquainted with his works as to know the source of. We suspect, that if the majority of people were asked to affiliate the subjoined lines

"Great wits are sure to madness near allied,

And thin partitions do their bounds divide,”

the answer would certainly be Pope. But they occur in the Absalom and Achitophel of Dryden, where many other familiar friends will be found to exist on examination.

There are three lines, almost all equally famous, and often quoted, which bear so striking a similarity to one another, that we cannot avoid concluding that the two last are but imitations of the first. Here they are; the reader may take off his hat to each in succession, for they are all, we feel assured, old friends. To save repetition, the context is also given here. "The heir and hope of a great family,

Which with strong beer and beef the country rules,
And ever since the Conquest have been fools."

So sang the Earl of Rochester, in his Letter from Artemisa in town to Chloe in the country. The unfortunate Richard Savage hits off a country squire with similar point, describing him as

"The tenth transmitter of a foolish face."

Pope, imitating Rochester with more plainness, and less skill, indeed, than Savage has done, bids the unillustrious great,

"Go! if your ancient but ignoble blood

Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood," &c.

It is curious that all of these lines should have attained to decided popularity, being certainly reitera

tions of one idea.

"When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war."

We give this line in the form in which it is usually quoted. It is one of those which has undergone some changes, to fit it more fully for the general purposes of quotation, since it fell originally from the pen of the writer, who was Master Nathaniel Lee. It is to be found in his once popular play of Alexander the Great, in this shape :

"When Greeks joined Greek, then was the tug of war."

The former popularity of the play made, no doubt, the popularity of the line.

It is not our purpose to point here to any lines

to pollute their souls by the ignominious offer. But who thinks of the corruption of the poor man's virtue when compared with the indulgence of the rich man's vanity? How idle such a thought! The object of pursuit must be tried for at every cost, and at a tremendous cost is it often obtained, of the money of the one and the morals of the other. Where does the responsibility lie? Who is to sustain the guilt of all the dissoluteness, the bribery, the perjury, the intimidation, the suppression of truth, the evasion of law, the perversion of right, and the thousand atrocities that follow in the train of an election contest? Who ?---The ignorant elector or the educated candidate?---He that takes a bribe when tempted by distress, or he who proffers it when prompted by ambition? Answer this, ye men who legislate for the religious instruction of the people, and blush with the deepest crimson of remorse, while ye bear involuntary witness to the turpitude of your proceedings! What! Do ye presume to vote for an avowed object, which ye are secretly determined, as far as in ye lies, and when it serves your purpose, to obstruct and undermine? Have ye the effrontery to boast of being friendly to the education of the poor, conducted upon Christian principles, knowing that ye yourselves will be among the first to tempt them to spurn at and set those principles at naught? Away with such profligacy! What a mockery of all virtue is it--what a fraud on common sense---what deep and disgusting hypocrisy, to enact laws for conferring religious knowledge on those whose minds you are habitually besieging with the grossest arts of the most abominable seduction! Viewing such instances of moral depravity in connexion with those evidences of the spurious Christianity that prevails among the educated classes of society previously enumerated, we are more strongly confirmed in our opi

nion that the religious training of the young is conducted on unsound and pernicious principles; and that, by commencing where we ought to end, namely, with instruction in Christian doctrine, we fail in establishing the influence of Christian precept on the mind, and thus, as we set out with saying, make the religion of thousands consist in a mere speculative and barren belief---in a holiday garment, as it were, to be reserved for special purposes and public occasions, instead of an every-day garb, to be worn unintermittingly, and adapted to all the scenes, and seasons, and situations of life."

[From a pamphlet entitled "The Education Question-Special Religious Instruction;" reprinted from the British and Foreign Review.]

THE NEW SYSTEM OF CONVICT MANAGEMENT AT NORFOLK ISLAND.* CAPTAIN MACONOCHIE, whom we have already mentioned as being engaged in connexion with the convict management at Norfolk Island, has, we understand, carried into execution a most extraordinary plan of reformation, which we propose to describe.

not an individual present but squinted-the genteel Pépa, the good-humoured Chicharóna, the Casdamí, &c. &c., all squinted. The gipsy fellow, the contriver of the trick, squinted worst of all. Such are gipsies."

FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS.

Ir is curious to remark how many notable lines of poetry, and peculiar expressions, go floating about in the ocean of literature, familiar to and quoted by every body, while nobody knows whence they came, or who may have been the original writers. Some times these stray snatches of literature preserve their primary mould, and, in other instances, they have been materially altered and remodelled, with the view of rendering them more buoyant. A few of these waifs have been noticed by us of late, and perhaps it may amuse some of our readers to find them traced to their origin.

"Orient pearls at random strung."

We venture boldly to say that the original source of this line is as little known as its sight and sound are familiar to the reading world. It occurs in one of the versified translations, from the Persian of Hafiz, by Sir William Jones.

"Go boldly forth, my simple lay,
Whose accents flow with artless ease,
Like orient pearls at random strung;
Thy notes are sweet, the damsels say,
But oh! far sweeter if they please

The nymph for whom these strains are sung."
Another very famous line,

"And come to champagne and a chicken at last," is to be found in a song written by Lady Mary Wortley Montague, and addressed to Congreve. The verse runs thus:

"But when the long hours of public are past,

And we meet with champagne and a chicken at last,
May every fond pleasure that moment endear;
Be banish'd afar both discretion and fear!"

Nobody, for these last hundred years, when desirous of making a pointed and pretty allusion to man in a rude and primitive state of society, has neglected to quote the line,

"When wild in woods the noble savage ran. This is to be discovered, shining like a gem among a heap of rubbish, in Dryden's rhymed play of the Conquest of Granada. The passage says,

"I am as free as nature first made man,
Ere the base laws of servitude began,

When wild in woods the noble savage ran."

and which lines he has no difficulty in fathering, though he may not be able to indicate the particular poem, or portion of a poem, where they occur. No one is ignorant that

or,

"Look in her face, and you'll forget them all,"

"An honest man's the noblest work of God,"

"And whistled as he went, for want of thought."

severe labour for the crime for which they stand convicted, should be allowed (while some years of their time are to run) to go out in the colony on probation or training-that is, to be put on their good behaviour as servants, in order that they may have a chance of gaining a good character. Convicts have generally been allowed to hire themselves out on this principle, but only on their individual responsibility. The peparties of six, who shall choose each other, and the whole are to be responsible for each other's conduct. If one of the six behave ill, then all will be punished by being deprived of liberty. To punish one man for the crimes of another, may seem unjust, but, after all, in cases where liberty is granted as a boon, and where plain of; besides, it appears to be a means of producing it can be recalled at pleasure, there is little to coma general guardedness of conduct, and works, it is said, to admiration. The objects contemplated in the arrangement are all of a social character. Even while the men are undergoing their direct punishment, it will give a value to the social virtues; because if a man does not recommend himself to his companions during this interval by good conduct, at least towards them, and by a reasonable promise of behaving well afterwards while on probation, he may not find five others willing to run their several chances with him. It will also prevent favour or prejudice on the part of an overseer from influencing a man's fate; because, when his period for punishment is expired, nothing short of a judicial extension will keep him in it, if other five men are willing to join with him; and, on the contrary, nothing but a very special and stronglycalled-for exercise of supreme authority should release him without this being the case. It will thus sift the prisoners from the beginning, leaving the absolutely incorrigible behind, on the unexceptionable verdict of their own companions, interested in justly appreciating their character-and at the same time subduing the obstinacy of many who, in hitherto existing circumstances, have been considered hardened, and giving an early tangible value to good conduct, and to the suppression, concealment, and mastery of evil dispositions and intentions, hitherto, on the contrary, too often rather a subject of private boast. and feelings in common; and, each having a direct The new system will, moreover, give them interests concern in the good conduct of his fellows, the government will have the assistance of all in the maintenance of discipline. Let us now see how far the soundness of these suggestions has been confirmed by experience. The Australasian Chronicle of 23d June last con

*This article is chiefly an abridgement from the Scotsman newspaper.

tains the following extract from a private letter dated Norfolk Island, May 28:-"The system is working to admiration on the old hands-they seem determined to prevent offences among themselves, and they are excellent policemen for that purpose."

Mr Stuart, surgeon of the settlement, makes the following observations:-" My experience as a medical officer on this island, affords me ample means of forming my opinions on the comparative merits of the two systems, in their effects upon the prisoners. On my first arrival here, in November 1831, every means were resorted to by those men to thwart the ends of justice in inflicting punishment on them, and to avoid work as much as possible. Having those designs in view, their own persons became the objects of the most disgusting and painful inflictions; some maimed themselves with their working implements, some created madness, and others destroyed their sight, and were rendered stone-blind; while the tortures of the lash were courted as subservient to the completion of the schemes of the malingerer. No species of punishment that could be inflicted, had any effect in checking those practices amongst the more inveterate and determined resisters of labour and authority; but I am happy to say that humanity is now no longer shocked by such inflictions. On my first arrival, the number of malingerers was immense-upwards of one hundred daily. The wards of the hospital were filled, the cells of the jail were overcrowded, while the barrack-yard was swarming with idle impostors. Those men are now returned to their labour, and thus a great addition of labour has been made to the means of government to carry on the public works, both in the engineer department and in the agricultural establishment, and malingering is now totally at an end."

The most pleasing of all the accounts, is that contained in a letter from Norfolk Island, in the Sydney Herald of 28th June. It describes the celebration of the queen's birthday in this most distant portion of her dominions. After the firing of salutes, "Captain Maconochie, accompanied by several of the civil officers, visited the prisoners at their barracks, and told them that he was anxious to recall to their minds the land of their birth, and revive those feelings of affection and loyalty which warm the heart of every British subject on such occasions as the present, even of those who are now expiating the offences committed against the laws of their country. A strong feeling,' he said, 'existed in the colonies against the doubly-convicted prisoners of this island-they were considered by some as incorrigible and irreclaimable. From such feelings he was every day more and more dissenting, as he was convinced, by his own experience, that the great body of these prisoners-more than twelve hundred-there before him, was every day showing forth proofs of order, regularity, and industry, so that there was not at that moment a single man in jail or in confinement. (Cheers.) He was most anxious to serve them, to redeem them from bondage, and to send them forth in due time to earn an honest livelihood, and to become useful subjects. But it all rested now with themselves; and as a proof of the confidence he had in their good dispositions and orderly conduct, he gave them indulgences this day which were unknown to Norfolk Island since the hour that it became a penal settlement. Their conduct this day would prove that they knew how to value a humane government, and would contradict the opinions of those who brand them with the desperate character of incorrigibles.' (A unanimous cry of 'We'll not abuse your benevolence; we'll behave like British subjects ran through the assembled multitude). He now proceeded to another part of the settlement, where, addressing six hundred new convicts, he told them, that his system was not to make the life of a convict one of ease, indolence, or pleasure, but one of constant employment, industry, and reformation; and thus fit them for earning honest bread once more in some of the neighbouring colonies. He told the new hands that much more was expected from them than from the old offenders. He wished to encourage emulation, and to test, by order and industry, which were the more likely to become better men and useful subjects. Music followed; and in the evening the Exile's Return' was acted at both the old and the new settlements. The prisoners were allowed to remain out of barracks till eight o'clock, when, at the first sound of the bell, every man retired to rest with the utmost order.

Every one was in admiration at the regularity and becoming demeanour of the prisoners, who, to the number of eighteen hundred, were allowed the whole day to traverse the island in every direction; while two boats lay alongside the new wharf, the oars near at hand, a quantity of powder for rockets, and for loading the cannon, was piled around the guns, without a single soldier to keep guard over these things, which would a little time back have been laid hold of with desperate avidity. Captain M. has only to say, "Let this or that be done; let this or that be shunned, and his order is immediately executed. Petty theft, once so prevalent, is now quite rare on Norfolk Island. A night or two after the Queen's birth-day, the assigned servant of one of the free overseers stole some tea, sugar, and wearing apparel, from his master. The entire mass of the prison population gave the most manifest signs of indignation at this man's base theft. They begged to be allowed to inflict summary punishment on the culprit ; and if they had obtained their request, Lynch law would have been put in force

in a most striking manner. How remarkable a change | appeared on the stage; and she promised to become a of feeling! A few months back, this offence would theatrical prodigy, when a young gentleman of rank, for have been considered as a mere trifle by the prisoners; tune, and honour, being struck with her great beauty and and it would have been a difficult matter to get them modesty, inquired for the mother, and sought the daugh ter's fair hand. The mother, who possessed the fine to give evidence in such a case, even for the detection sentiments of a gentlewoman, properly transferred the of the offender. Now the whole body seem determined to put an end to thieving, and would in this generously adopted her child." Quin's feelings on this admirer to Mr Quin, who, she gratefully observed, had instance, I think, put an end to the thief, if they disclosure, as he afterwards declared, entirely unmanned could but get him into their clutches, for they con- him. Dear, virtuous family!' he exclaimed, and burst sider this fellow as bringing a disgrace on them all." into tears. Quin gave away his lovely protegée at the altar, and lived to witness their connubial happiness, even until after they were surrounded by a numerous progeny, the daughters being all fair, and the sons all brave."

THE TWO COMFORTERS.

THE following, from the French of Voltaire, has frequently appeared in print, but may well appear once

more:

6

"One day, the great philosopher Citofile said to a woman who was disconsolate, and who had good reason to be so, Madam, the Queen of England, daughter of Henry IV., was as wretched as you: she was banished from her kingdom, was in the utmost danger of losing her life in a storm at sea, and saw her royal spouse expire on a scaffold.' 'I am sorry for her,' said the lady ; and began again to

lament her own misfortunes.

SCOTCH DEGREES.

When the University of St Andrews sold her honours -a proceeding which provoked Dr Johnson to tell the heads of the college that they would get rich by degrees, and which has long since been abandoned--a certain minister, who deemed that his ministrations would be more acceptable and more useful if he possessed what the Germans call the doctor-hat, put L.15 in his purse, and went to St Andrews "to purchase for himself a good degree." His man-servant accompanied him, and was present when his master was formally admitted to the 'But,' said Citofile, remember the fate of Mary Stuart. long-desired honour. On his return "the doctor" sent for She loved, but with a most chaste and virtuous affection, his servant, and addressed him somewhat as follows:an excellent musician, who played admirably on the bass-"Noo, Saunders, ye'll aye be sure to ca' me the doctor, viol. Her husband killed her musician before her face; and gin ony body spiers at ye aboot me, ye'll be aye and, in the sequel, her good friend and relation, Queen sure to say the doctor's in his study, or the doctor's enElizabeth, who called herself a virgin, caused her head to gaged, or the doctor will see you in a crack." "That a' be cut off on a scaffold covered with black, after having depends," was the reply, "upon whether ye'll ca' me confined her in prison for the space of eighteen years.' doctor too." The reverend doctor stared. "Ay, it's just That was very cruel,' replied the lady, and presently so," continued the other; "for when I fand that it cost relapsed into her former melancholy. sae little, I e'en got a diploma myself; sae ye'll just be Perhaps,' said the comforter, 'you have heard of the good enough to say-doctor, put on some coals, or, beautiful Joan of Naples, who was taken prisoner and doctor, bring me some whisky and hot water; and gin strangled.' ony body spiers at ye aboot me, ye'll be aye sure to say, the doctor's in the stable, or, the doctor's in the pantry, or, the doctor's digging potatoes, as the case may be."Church of England Review.

I have a confused remembrance of her story,' said the afflicted lady.

'I must relate to you,' added the other, the adventure of a sovereign princess, who, within my memory, was dethroned after supper, and who died in a desert

island.'

I know her whole history,' replied the lady. Well, then, I will tell you what happened to another great princess, whom I instructed in philosophy. She had a lover, as all great and beautiful princesses have; her father entered the chamber, and surprised the lover, whose countenance was all on fire, and his eyes sparkling like a carbuncle. The lady, too, had a very florid complexion. The father was so highly displeased with the most terrible blows that had ever been given in his proyoung man's countenance, that he gave him one of the vince. The lover took a pair of tongs, and broke the head of the father-in-law, who was cured with great difficulty, and still bears the mark of the wound. The lady, in a fright, leaped out of the window, and dislocated her foot, in consequence of which she still halts, though possessed in other respects of a very handsome person. The lover was condemned to death for having broken the head of a great prince. You can easily judge in what a deplorable condition the princess must have been when her lover was led to the gallows. I have seen her long ago, when she was in prison; she always talked to me of her own misfortunes."

And why will you not allow me to think of mine?" said the lady.

Because, said the philosopher, you ought not to think of them; and since so many great ladies have been so unfortunate, it ill becomes you to despair. Think on Hecuba; think on Niobe!'

SEARCH AFTER HAPPINESS.

If you cannot be happy in one way, be happy in another; and this facility of disposition wants but little aid from philosophy, for health and good humour are almost the whole affair. Many run about after felicity, like an absent man looking for his hat, while it is on his head, or in his hand.-Sharp.

THE APPROACHING CENSUS. WE have seen, in the hands of a friend, the act of Parliament,

official reports, schedules, and other documents, preparatory to people of the three kingdoms of Britain and Ireland. The comthis great national undertaking, the decennial numeration of the prehensiveness and business-like accuracy of these documents, afford at once a proof of the advance which this important branch of statistics has made, and an earnest of the precision and fidelity with which the new census will be taken. With all who feel an interest in their country's welfare, we look forward with much expectation to this great registration; not merely from a

natural curiosity to know the advance which the population has made since 1831, the date of the last census, but from our con. viction that much public benefit will ensue from the faithful and accurate execution of this work. The time was when any attempt to number the people created a general alarm that it was intended to forward some purpose of taxation, military conscription, or act of tyranny. An enlightened age ought to manifest no such fears. Fraudulent government, at this time of day, would only defeat its own end. Public measures must be direct, and Ah!' said the lady, had I lived in their time, or in really mean what they profess. The press would expose and that of so many beautiful princesses, and had you enbaffle all sinister legislation, were it unwisely attempted. Every deavoured to console them by a relation of my misfor-reflecting person must see clearly, that, at the very least, it is harmless to obtain an accurate knowledge of the population of the tunes, would they have listened to you, do you imagine?' country, instead of resting satisfied with a rough guess that, since Next day, the philosopher lost his only son, and was 1831, it must have increased so much above twenty-four millions, like to have died with grief. The lady caused a cata- at which it then stood. We cannot, moreover, see what advan logue to be drawn up of all the kings who had lost their tage, for the ends of injustice or oppression, could be taken found it very exact, and wept nevertheless. children, and carried it to the philosopher. He read it, of the ascertainment of some other abstract facts-such as the number of persons under each roof, the distinction of males and months after, they renewed their visits, and were surfemales, and the profession, trade, or calling of the inmates. In prised to find each other in such a gay and sprightly in the negative conviction that at least the operation of numbering the absence, then, of all sinister purpose or possible evil resulthumour. They caused to be erected a beautiful statue the people will be innocuous-we should look for very few into Time, with this inscription— To him who comforts.”" stances indeed where the penalties for refusal to make returns, or the actual making of false ones, will be incurred.

ANECDOTE OF QUIN.

·

Three

But the ascertainment of the numbers of the people will be positively advantageous, more or less directly, to every inhabitant Of Quin, the actor, the following anecdote lately apof the land. Sound practical measures for the administration of the multifarious resources of the country-its food, produced and peared in Fraser's Magazine:-"Quin at this time, for imported, its currency, its revenue, its labour and labourer's convenience, having occasion to make frequent profes-wages, its colonies, commerce, and manufactures, its emigration sional visits, particularly at an early hour, at Carlton and immigration, its strength compared with other countries, its House, retained two small ready-furnished apartments, sanatory measures, its police protection, its life insurances, and on the second floor, at the house of a widow in Pall Mall, surplus savings establishments, its diseases and rate of mortality, who lived with her two daughters; one of whom, being nomy in general-are all in some degree dependent on a knowledge its education as a national object-in fine, its statistics and eco very beautiful and talented, attracted the notice of the of its population; without which much legislation must be guess player, who being most liberal, and a truly excellentwork, and subject to errors in calculation, which may tell u hearted man, he advised the mother to let her go upon favourably upon the comforts and interests of every individual of the stage. The lady and her daughters were poor; but the land, from the highest to the lowest. being most exemplary, they politely declined. Quin, nevertheless, urged the point; and observed, Though we players are by foolish construction stigmatised as vagabonds by statute, I will give you ample references, where you and your friends may inquire into my character and reputation; and I offer you a week for further consideration. The inquiries were made, proved all that the strictest rectitude could require, and the offer was most gratefully accepted. The benevolent actor delicately presented the mother with a purse containing fifty guineas, and said, finding the young lady intelligent and accomplished, 'You must allow me to be her preceptor, visits my apartments in King Street, Covent Garden, do and as I am an honest man I will protect her. When she you, her mother or her sister, come with her, for I will Complete sets of the Journal are always to be had from the never receive her alone. I will, God aiding, do my best publishers or their agents; also, any odd numbers to complete for her, and put her in the way of fortune. The experi-pages and contents, have only to give them into the hands of any sets. Persons requiring their volumes bound along with title ment was made; her instructor was delighted; she bookseller, with orders to that effect.

prejudices on this interesting subject, we address our readers in As no reader of this Journal, we flatter ourselves, can have any prejudices on their attention to the coming census of the 6th of of endeavouring, during the few intermediate days, to banish the June, and to suggest to them, each in his or her sphere, the duty fears and enlist the good will of the less informed, so that when the householder's schedules are left at their houses, they will feel no alarm or suspicion, but, on the contrary, with the alacrity of good citizens, faithfully fill up and punctually return them to the

enumerators, who will call for them.

Printed and Published by W. and R. CHAMBERS, Edinburgh. Sold by W. S. ORR, Amen Corner, London; J. MACLEOD, Glasgow; and all booksellers.

"CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE," &c.

NUMBER 488.

VISIT TO LINCOLN.

I HAD for many years felt an inclination to visit Lincoln, partly in consequence of the fame of its cathedral -deemed one of the most magnificent fanes of the Christian religion in existence-but more particularly from a tendency, which defies all the more reasonable parts of my nature, to think with fondness of any place or thing which is intimately associated with traditionary poetry, or indeed any of the simple notions and narratives which have come down to us from the childhood of the people. It must appear most ridiculous; yet I cannot but confess that the old story of the Jew of Lincoln-the common saying as to a certain famous personage looking over Lincoln-the popular wonderment, as rife in the vales of Scotland as in the land of the southron, as to the great Tom of Lincoln and, finally, those frequent allusions to "Lincoln green" in the Robin Hood ballads, with King James's line,

"Their gowns were of the Lincum licht," occurring in his "Christ's Kirk," and that everlasting recurrence of the same idea whenever an English or Scotch balladist has to describe a ghost vanishing at daybreak

"The young cock crew in merry Lincum,

The wild-fowl chirp'd for day"

as if Lincoln were the only place in whose neighbourhood visitants from the other world ever appeared, or which had cocks to warn them away - or as if the Lincoln cocks crew for all the ghosts in the world -had given me an interest in this city far beyond what the most remarkable scene of commercial enterprise could excite. With such memories in my brain, but with a very indistinct idea, or rather no idea at all, of what kind of town, in its general features, Lincoln is, I approached it from Hull (at which I debarked from a Leith steamer) in a fine forenoon of April in the present year.

SATURDAY, JUNE 5, 1841.

racter of a colonia, that is, one in which the soldiers were citizens, each holding a piece of the neighbouring land. This town, which was of square form, surrounded by a wall and fosse, was called by them Lindum, a word probably derived, as was usual, from the earlier British appellation. It seems not unlikely that the British appellation contained the syllable Lin, meaning in Celtic a pool and which, by the way, forms the first syllable of London and the second of Dublinbeing peculiarly appropriate in the present instance, considering that the site would then be enclosed in pools, which afterwards became fens. So also the appellation of this district of Lincolnshire, Lindsey, would mean the island of pools, or the tract of dry land amidst pools. Subsequently, the present name Lincoln would be arrived at by a combination of Lindum and colonia. When the Romans had passed away, the city continued to be a place of note amidst the tempestuous ages of the Heptarchy and the Danish invasions; and, after the Conquest, it rose into still greater distinction. William here built a powerful fortress, and, during his reign, the see of Dorchester being transferred hither, the present cathedral was commenced. At that period, as William of Malmsbury and Henry of Huntingdon assure us, Lincoln was a populous and thriving town. That it possessed great commercial importance is proved in a remarkable manner by the re-opening, in the reign of Henry I., of a canal originally formed by the Romans, extending from the Witham to the Trent at Torksey, and completing a circle of inland navigation of the greatest consequence. At that period, there were fifty or more parochial churches in Lincoln-a number, as compared with the probable population, which gives a striking idea at once of the wealth of the place and the religious ideas of the people. The see of Lincoln was the largest and one of the richest in England. Those of Ely, Peterborough, and Oxford, were all taken out of it. The bishop had no fewer than twenty houses or palaces, chiefly within his diocese. A writer mentions, with much naïveté, that, till the Reformation, there was no mention of any Bishop of Lincoln having ever been translated to another see, except Winchester, though, since then, seventeen translations have taken place. The city, as well as the see, is no longer relatively what it was, though, as a cathedral and county town, possessing some inland business of various kinds, and presenting many objects of antiquarian interest, it is still a place of considerable note.

The cathedral, situated on the eminent ground al

The reality went beyond my dreams in all respects. Lincoln is a preserved town of the middle ages-a striking engraftment of Saxon upon Roman antiquities, and Norman upon Saxon, and an Elizabethan town upon all; exhibiting, indeed, memorials of almost all the past and gone things of English history, and surprisingly little of the tastes and habits of modern men, to mar or interfere with the effect. First of all, the situation is extremely happy. Amidst the wide-extended plains of eastern England, some of which are here but recently redeemed from a fenny condition, there is a tract of slightly raised or table-ready described, is universally acknowledged to be the land, several miles in extent, and terminating towards the south in what for England may be called a steep slope. On the abrupt verge of this tract, and along the slope below it, the city of Lincoln, containing about fourteen thousand inhabitants, is situated. The cathedral and older part of the city are placed on the high ground: the more modern town descends along the slope into the plain below, where it is intersected by the river Witham. Rising from ground so eminent, the cathedral of Lincoln is considered as possessing the finest site of any similar building in England. The same advantage is enjoyed by the remains of a Norman castle to the west of the cathedral, and several other buildings of an elegant or impressive character. It may hence be imagined that the spectacle presented by Lincoln to those approaching it from the south-crested with grand military and ecclesiastical towers-is of no common kind in England.

The natural advantages of the situation probably caused it to be early adopted as a seat of collected population by the British aborigines. Afterwards, the Romans established upon the spot a town of the cha

finest Gothic edifice in the kingdom with respect to exterior, York Minster being only superior with regard to the inside. The exterior length, including the buttresses, is 516 feet; the width of the west end is 174 feet. There is a double set of transepts, the longest (towards the west) being in exterior length 250 feet, and in width 66. The vaulting of the nave is 80 feet from the pavement below. There are three towers; one central, above 270 feet high, and two towards the west, 180 feet each. These must be allowed to be splendid proportions. "The exterior," says Dr Dibdin, " presents at least four perfect specimens of the succeeding styles of the first four orders of Gothic architecture. The greater part of the front [by which the western extremity is meant] may be as old as the time of its founder, Bishop Remigius, at the end of the eleventh century: but even here may be traced invasions and intermixtures up to the fifteenth century. The western towers carry you to the end of the twelfth century; then succeeds a wonderful extent of early English, or the pointed arch. The transepts begin with the twelfth, and come down to the

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middle of the fourteenth century; and the interior, especially the choir and the aisles, abounds with the most exquisitely varied specimens of that period. Fruits, flowers, vegetables, insects, capriccios of every description, encircle the arches or shafts, and sparkle upon the capitals of pillars. Even down to the reign of Henry VIII., there are two private chapels, to the left of the smaller south porch, or entrance, which are perfect gems of art." *

When, passing through a vaulted archway, under an old building named the Exchequer, I first entered the close of Lincoln, and saw the immense edifice rising before me, I felt an impression which I can never forget. In contemplating a fabric so vast, so elegant, and so ancient, it seemed as if the productions of nature were not beyond being rivalled by man's works, either in grandeur or perpetuity. The west front contains, as Dr Dibdin has remarked, some of the oldest parts of the edifice. These are composed of small square stones, which give a chequered appearance to this part of the building; and it is easy to trace the lines of separation between the original and added pieces of masonry. It is a curious peculiarity of the Gothic architecture, that, while the general impression is always fine, the details, when narrowly looked into, are often grotesque-in other instances, only ingenious and pretty. In the west front of Lincoln are some rude old sculptures, representing spirits tormented by devils, and a few scriptural scenes most rudely conceived and executed. There is also to be detected, on a pinnacle, a peasant blowing a horn, being, it is said, no other than the swineherd of Stow, a person who, being probably an oddity in his day, or giving some donation to the church, had been thought worthy by an early bishop of this distinction. Entering the church by a great door underneath this front, the attention is attracted to another still more ridiculous thing, namely, some side-doorways built in the Roman style of architecture, and therefore grossly out of harmony with the rest of the building. This outrage upon good taste was perpetrated by an obscure architect, who regarded Gothic architecture with contempt, or was ignorant of it, and was restrained in these matters by no considerations as to congruity. All other feelings, however, are now lost in contemplating the stupendous extent of the interior, as the eye wanders along the vast nave, over the screen of the choir, and rests at last upon the dimly seen colours of the remote east window.

On arriving underneath the great central tower, we find the principal transept extending on each side, each equal in size to a goodly church, and each terminated by a splendid circular window of ancient stained glass, slightly unequal in size and form of structure. The more beautiful one, towards the south, has a mullioned frame of the most florid and graceful character, insomuch that, though there were no stained glass in it, it would still be a highly beautiful and interesting object. There is also a casing of open stone carvedwork around it, of a strikingly beautiful character. The inequality of these two magnificent windowsone fine, the other finer-and the latter being composed of smaller pieces of glass, have led to a verger's legend, which will remind the reader of the almost universal tale of the 'Prentice's Pillar. It is said that, the master of the work having completed one, his apprentice ambitiously offered to undertake the other, using only the small pieces of glass left by the master. The offer was accepted, the window finished, and a day appointed for the public to view both. The master, in the pride and confidence of his superior skill, took

*Northern Tour, vol. i. p. 93.

his place on a ledge immediately under or over his own window, probably to withdraw the covering. The gazers looked with admiration on his work, but, when the other was revealed to them, became so enthusiastic in their expressions of astonishment and delight, that the master, in the agony of his disappointment, threw himself from his elevated position, and was killed by the fall. The Penny Magazine, which relates this story, adds that the vergers have for some time ceased to tell it to visiters, in consequence of finding it usually received with some degree of ridicule.

It may be necessary for many of the inhabitants of non-episcopal countries, such as Scotland, to mention that, in English cathedrals, there is no seating or furnishing in any part but that corresponding to the upper limb of the cross-namely, the choir. The central part of this portion of the edifice is usually enclosed by a narrow range of raised seats on each side, these seats being for the dignitaries and other official persons; and, generally, above them on each side, and in other parts of the enclosed space, there is much beautiful work in carved wood; the whole being used as a place for the daily performance of what is called cathedral service. The choir is therefore, practically, an abridgment of the church for common use— reminding one of the old Scottish saying, adduced so ludicrously by Peter Peebles, " If we cannot preach in the kirk, we may sing mass in the quier." In the choir of Lincoln Cathedral, the carved wood-work is of the fourteenth century, and, for its age, wonderfully entire and beautiful. The reading desk rests on a brazen eagle, rising from the floor, of the age of Charles II. In the usual place between the choir and the body of the church, is a gallery containing a magnificent organ.

These are the main and striking features of the cathedral. When we come to detail, we find much to

interest, and, what is rather odd, a little to amuse. To

the east of the altar in the choir, is a considerable vacant space underneath the oriel window. This contains a number of altar-shaped tombs of lords, ladies, and prelates, generally adorned with beautiful carved work and figures. On one the figures are a series of gentlemen and ladies, in ancient costume, remarkable for the variety of the attitudes, and the grace and spirit of the execution, though most are now somewhat mutilated. One of these tombs is that of Catherine Swynford, one of the wives of John of Gaunt, and a progenitrix of Henry VII. Before the Reformation, some of the tombs of the more venerated prelates were adorned with shrines of pure gold-of which metal 2621 ounces (besides 4285 of silver) were taken from this church by Henry VIII. One bishop, St Hugh de Grenoble, who died in 1200, had attained high esteem on account of his scholarly qualities and magnificent style of living. Two kings, John of England and William of Scotland, assisted at his funeral,

and a shrine was erected over him, of beaten gold, eight feet long by four in breadth. A later diocesan, named Richard Fleming, attained distinction from an opposite cause, namely, great asceticism. The vergers tell that he endeavoured to fast for forty days in imitation of Christ, and died about eleven days short of the proposed period, reduced to perfect skin and bone; in which form his body is represented on his tomb near the north-east door. A Bishop Longland, of the reign of Henry VIII., and confessor of that monarch, erected a beautiful chapel at the south side of the choir, to serve as his tomb, and, though it so chanced that he was buried elsewhere, we see inscribed over this structure the following quaint play upon his name in Gothic characters: "LONGA TERRA MENSURAM EJUS DOMINUS DEDIT" (Long land-the Lord has given him his length of it.) I observed, on this and some other parts of the church, a few pocketknife scribblings of dates unusually remote-for instance, " 1696,"1643," and "1623" one inscription, very neatly cut, was "John Whalley, 1576."

A cloister that is to say, a small quadrangular series of buildings, with a piazza looking inwards, wherein processions formerly passed-adjoins to the cathedral on the north side. Connected with it is a chapter-house-as usual, a large and elegant octagonal room, with a central pillar; it was reared by the Bishop Hugh above mentioned. In the interior of the quadrangle is a small modern structure, of the character of a shed, designed as a covering to a curious Roman remain found there fifty years ago-namely, the pavement of a bath or sudatory. This pavement is composed of small bricks, of different colours, and so arranged as to produce an effect not unlike that of a Turkey carpet. Sir Joseph Banks was so much interested in this curious relic, that he used to visit it annually, like a pilgrim coming to a beloved shrine. From its being some feet below the present surface, we may judge how much rubbish had accumulated on the ground between the Roman and the Norman periods. The cathedral library occupies the north side of the quadrangle a reconstruction by Wren, in his

his nature, and, when every thing else was obliterated, some faint traces of this still remained. The remainder of our observations on this ancient city must be deferred to next week.

TENTH ARTICLE.-COMMERCIAL RESTRICTIONS

AND ENCOURAGEMENTS.

favourite but here most unsuitable style. The collection is described with rapture by Dr Dibdin, as containing many curious old books and manuscripts. In the founder of this library, with one of his grandthe hall is to be seen a portrait of Dean Honeywood, mother-a remarkable person in her way, as, living to ninety-three, she left 367 lawful descendants, amongst POPULAR INFORMATION ON POLITICAL whom were 16 children, 114 grandchildren, 228 greatECONOMY. grandchildren, and 9 of the fourth generation. beautiful porch, adorned with statues of Edward I., his Near the south-east angle of the church, there is a queen, and other personages, by sculptors of that age, deemed the golden one of early English sculpture. The figures, though much mutilated by the Puritan soldiers, who used this glorious minster as a barrack, are strikingly elegant, particularly in the arrangements of the drapery, from which Flaxman himself did not disdain to take hints. There is another and larger porch on the south side, called the Galilee, "a genuine and delicious specimen," says Dibdin, "of early English architecture." It forms a space sufficient to contain a considerable number of people, and for this there is said to have been a reason of utility. The Galilee was a common appendage of great churches, and probably considered as a part of them less sacred than the rest, or rather perhaps as a part representative of the unconsecrated ground of the world at large. Here preliminaries to admission, as in baptism, proselytism, the churching of women, penance, &c., were performed. In monasteries, the monks had interviews with their secular friends in the Galilee, and, when doing penance, they were here exposed, before being received back into communion with the brethren. The name probably arose from some quaint reference to the text, "Lo! he goeth before you into Galilee." In the principal tower is hung the enormous bell called the Great Tom of Lincoln, weighing, in its present form, 5 tons 8 cwt., and measuring in diameter at the rim 6 feet 10 inches. This huge engine of sound was recast, with the addition of a ton to its weight, in 1834, the former bell being of date 1610. It is now a heavier, as well as a softer and sweeter bell, than that of St Paul's.

There is an architectural curiosity to which the painful climbing of narrow spiral stairs in the western attention of strangers is usually directed. After a extremity of the building, we find ourselves in a garret-like place between the vaulted roof of the nave and the lead cover of the church. Here we have on each hand one of the towers which adorn the west front of the cathedral, the intermediate space being twenty-two feet. Between the one tower and the other springs a slip of arch-shaped masonry, about a foot in thickness, two feet in breadth, and with a rise of only fourteen inches. It might almost be mistaken for a broad thick plank planted between the two towers, and which had been crushed into a curved form by a slight pressure from either end. Accordingly, it is called the Stone Beam. It is difficult to see what rational purpose it could have served, unless to give warning if the two towers were inclined to shift their position; but the probability is, that it is a mere sport or whim of those who dictated its erection. When one jumps down upon it, it vibrates under the pressure, as real timber would do; and the act is therefore one which cannot well be performed with unshaken nerves.

Altogether, Lincoln cathedral excites, more than any other Gothic church I have ever seen, the consideration of how much of the best genius of the middle ages had been concentrated upon architecture, sculpture, and all the other arts which could conduce to the setting off of Christian worship. When one compares such a building as this, in all its grandeur of magnitude and elegance of detail, with the appliances which then existed for the domestic comfort of the people, it seems as if all superior intelligence had run, almost exclusively, into this peculiar channel. The cathedral is, as might be expected, an object of great veneration in the city. On its being rumoured, above a hundred years ago, that the spires were to be removed from the western towers, the people rose in a tumult to prevent it. When this object was finally accomplished in 1808, its promoters experienced abundance of clamour, and neither prose nor verse was spared on the occasion. Considering the absolute claims of the building to admiration, and the interest which it gives to the city in the eyes of strangers, and the numbers of these who are attracted by it to Lincoln, we cannot wonder at its being the subject of so much affection. A Lincoln boy, who wanders abroad and grows old in distant climes, remembers the cathedral, as a Swiss remembers his native mountains, or the beautiful lake reposing at their feet. Those who spend their days beside it, feel as if it were a part of themselves. A gentleman informed me that it was one of his proudest reflections that he possessed a right to lay his bones beneath the magnificent tower which tells forty miles off the situation of his native city. Even the humble officials whose duty it is to show this fine minster grow sentimental from long connexion with it. There was lately one who had become too old to continue any longer in active duty, and who accordingly demitted his functions to a son. He had for a long time, while living by the fireside of his children, ceased to know where he was, and had almost forgot the faces of his own kindred; when, being led one day into the cathedral, he surprised them all by recognising its features, and pronouncing its name. The habit of sixty years had fixed its image deep in

"It may happen," says Bentham, speaking of the intercourse of nations with each other, "to be a misfor tune that our neighbour is rich it is certainly one that he be poor." And in continuation he says: "Jealousies against rich nations are only founded on mistakes and misunderstandings: it is with these nations that the most profitable commerce is carried on; it is from these that the returns are most abunda the most rapid, and the most certain. Great capitals produce the greatest division of labour, the most perfect machines, the most active competition among the merchants, the most extended credits, and, consequently, the lowest prices. Each nation, in receiving from the richest every thing which it furnishes, at the lowest rate, and of the best quality, would be able to devote its capital exclusively to the most advantageous branches of industry." Very different have, unfor tunately, been the sentiments that have long prevailed regarding national commercial intercourse. That the poverty of our neighbours is our own riches and prosperity, has been continually urged and acted upon. It is to the great master of political economy, Adam Smith, that we owe the first great efforts to dispel a prejudice, which, by offering a reward to selfishness and exclusive rapacity, tended to darken the opinion of mankind as to the extent of the justice and wisdom that characterise the arrangements of the world. When, in 1787, Pitt brought forward his plan for a commercial treaty with France, on the principle of reciprocity, the Bishop of Llandaff, in a memorable speech, told the legislature and the country, that "the wealth of France was the poverty of Britain, its strength our weakness, its dignity our disgrace." pressed in any quarter, a certain amount of the Although such sentiments will scarcely be now exfeeling they so strongly represented still exists. On a late occasion, when a treaty with the same country was under discussion, some merchants in London, who were interested in its not taking place, drew up a statement in pounds, shillings, and pence, of the exact amount which this country was said to lose even by the present system in its trade with France, that amount being the difference in value between our imports from that country and our exports thither. The trouble of drawing up the statement would not have been taken, had it not been supposed that some people would listen to it.

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The tangible form of this fallacy is in the old principle of "the balance of trade," which viewed all the exports of a country as so much gain, and all the imports as so much loss. "If we buy a thousand pounds' worth of goods from a nation," said this principle," and sell them five hundred pounds' worth, we are just losers to the extent of five hundred pounds by the transaction. Let us, therefore, take measures to turn the balance the other way. Let us impose heavy duties on the goods of that country, or, if that will not do, let us prohibit them altogether. Let us give every encouragement to the exportation of goods; and, rather than lose the balance in our favour, let us pay people to export who do not find the trade sufficiently profitable to induce them to do so." A great part of the fallacy of this proposition arises from a mistake which we have already discussed an idea that money, instead of being a measure of value, and a means of exchange, is the sole element of commercial riches. With this understanding, the balance of trade seemed very simple. It resolved itself into thisMoney is the object of all commerce, and the more money we get, the more profitable are our transaetions." If we were to strike a balance of trade in the present age, we would take a different measure. Money we would consider not the final object of trade, but merely one of the instruments of acquiring it. We would look to serviceable commodities-the usual objects of human utility and desire, food, clothing, luxuries, and ornaments-as the elements from which the calculation should be made; and say that the nation which possessed the greatest quantity of these, has the balance of trade in its favour. To say that an excess of imports over exports in our relations with any other people, proved that the trade was more profitable to us than to them, would be the adoption of a counter fallacy; but it would, probably, not be far distant from the truth to argue, that where the whole imports of one nation exceed those of another, the former is thus shown to be the richer of the two. However the circumstance be brought about, it shows that it can buy more; and buying is with nations, as with individuals, one of the outward signs of affluence. It is true that we may imagine a people, as well as an individual, wasting their resources; but it is not the act of mere buying that will constitute this in either case. The man of large fortune purchases, in the course of a moderate expenditure, what would ruin his poor neighbour; and the value of the tea annually purchased by Britain, would drain off the whole resources of Denmark. It is not in the amount of its purchases that we can trace a nation's ruin, but