the form of its extremity or extremities (if both ends happen to be entire), by close inspection of the texture of its surface, and by admeasurement of its proportions, he can with certainty discover the general form of the animal to which it belonged, its size as well as its shape, the economy of its viscera, and its general habits. Sometimes the investigation in such cases proceeds upon chains of reasoning where all the links are seen and understood; where the connection of the parts found with other parts and with habitudes, is perceived, and the reason understood-as that the animal had a trunk, because the neck was short compared with its height; or that it ruminated, because its teeth were imperfect for complete mastication. But frequently the inquiry is as certain in its results, although some links of the chain are concealed from our view, and the conclusion wears a more empirical aspect-as gathering that the animal ruminated, from observing the print of a cloven hoof; or that he had horns, from his wanting certain teeth; or that he wanted the collar-bone, from his having cloven hoofs.

The discoveries already made in this branch of science are truly wonderful, and they proceed upon the strictest rules of induction. It is shewn that animals formerly existed on the globe, being unknown varieties of species still known; but it also appears that species existed, and even genera, wholly unknown for the last five thousand years. These peopled the earth. as it was, not before the general deluge, but before some convulsion long prior to that event had overwhelmed the countries then dry, and raised others f om the bottom of the sea. In these curious inquiries, we are conversant, not merely with the world before the flood, but with a world which, before the flood, was covered with water and which, in far earlier ages, had been the habitation of birds, and beasts, and reptiles. We are carried, as it were, several worlds back, and we reach a period when all was water, and slime, and mud, and the waste, without either man or plants, gave resting-place to enormous beasts like lions and elephants, and river-horses, while the water was tenanted by lizards the size of a whale, sixty or seventy feet long, and by others with huge eyes having shields of solid bone to protect them, and glaring from a neck ten feet in length, and the air was darkened by flying reptiles covered with scales, opening the jaws of the crocodile, and expanding wings, armed at the tips with the claws of the leopard. No less strange, and yet no less proceeding from induction, are the discoveries made respecting the former state of the earth, the manner in which those animals, whether of known or unknown tribes, occupied it, and the period when, or at least the way in which, they ceased to exist.

Peroration of the Speech at Conclusion of the Trial of Queen Caroline, October 4, 1820.*

Let me call on you, even at the risk of repetition, never to dismiss for a moment from your minds the two great points upon which I rest my attack upon the evidence; first. that the accusers have not proved the facts by the good witnesses who were within their reach, whom they had no shadow of pretext for not calling; and, secondly, that the witnesses whom they have ventured to call are, every one of them, irreparably damaged in their credit. How, I again ask, is a plot ever to be discovered, except by the means of these two principles? Nay, there are instances in which plots have been discovered through the medium of the second principle, when the first had happened to fail. When venerable witnesses have been brought forward-when persons above all suspicion have lent themselves for a season to impure plans-when no escape for the guiltless seemed open, no chance of safety to remain -they have almost providentially escaped from the snare by the second of those two principles; by the evidence breaking down where it was not expected to be sifted by a weak point being found where no provision, the attack being unforeseen, had been made to support it. Your Lordships recollect that great passage-I say great, for it is poetically just and eloquent, even were it not inspired-in the sacred writings, where the Elders had joined themselves in a plot which had appeared to have succeeded; for that,' as the Book says, they had hardened their hearts, and had turned away their eyes, that they might not look at Heaven, and that they might do the purposes of unjust judgments.' But they, though giving a clear, consistent, un

* Lord Brongham is said to have written this peroration fifteen times over, it order to render it as perfect and effective as possible

adicted story, were disappointed, and their victim was rescued from their gripe Let not men e trifling circumstance of a contradiction about a tamarisk tree. hese contradictions or those falsehoods which false witnesses swear to from ess and heedless falsehood, not going to the main body of the case, but to the body of the credit of the witnesses-let not men rashly and blindly call these Es accidents. They are just rather than merciful dispensations of that Provie which wills not that the guilty should triumph, and which favourably protects nnocent.

uch, my Lords, is the case now before you! Such is the evidence in support of measure-evidence inadequate to prove. a debt-impotent to deprive of a civil -ridiculous to convict of the lowest offence-monstrous to ruin the honour, to the name of an English queen! What shall I say, then, if this is the proof by h an act of judicial legislation, a parliamentary sentence, an ex post facto law, is -ht to be passed against this defenceless woman? My Lords, I pray you to se. I do earnestly beseech you to take heed! You are standing upon the brink precipice; then beware! It will go forth your judgment, if sentence shall go ist the queen. But it will be the only judgment you ever pronounced, which, ead of reaching its object, will return and bound ba k upon those who gave it. e the country, my Lords, from the horrors of this catastrophe-save yourselves n this peril; rescue that country of which you are the ornaments, but in which can flourish no longer, when severed from the people, than the blossom when cut Crom the roots and the stem of the tree. Save that country, that you may cone to adorn it; save the Crown, which is in jeopardy; the Aristocracy, which is ken; save the Altar, which must stagger with the blow that rends its kindred one. You have said, my Lords, you have willed-the Church and the King have ed-that the queen should be deprived of its solemn service. She has, instead of solemnity, the heartfelt prayers of the people. She wants no prayers of mine. I do here pour forth my huinble supplications at the throne of mercy, that that cy may be poured down upon the people in a larger measure than the merits of ir rulers may deserve, and that your hearts may be turned to justice!

6

w Reform.-From Speech in the House of Commons,' Feb. 7, 1928. The course is clear before us; the race is glorious to run. You have the power of ding your name down through all times, illustrated by deeds of higher fame, and re useful import, than ever were done within these walls. You saw the greatest rrior of the age-conqueror or Italy-humbler of Germany-terror of the North aw him account all his matchless victories poor, compared with the triumph you now in a condition to win-saw him contemn the fickleness of Fortune, while, in -pite of her. he could prorounce his memorable boast: 'I shall go down to postey with the Code in my hand.' You have vanquished him in the field; strive now rival him in the sacred arts of peace! Outstrip him as a lawgiver, whom in arms u overcame! The lustre of the Regency will be eclipsed by the more solid and during splendour of the Reign. The praise which false courtiers feigned for our wards and Harrys, the Justinians of their day, will be the just tribute of the wise d the good to that monarch under whose sway so mighty an undertaking shall be complished. Of a truth, the holders of sceptres are most chiefly to be envied for at they bestow the power of thus conquering, and ruling. It was the boast of Austus-it formed part of the glare in which the perfidies of his earlier years were t-that he found Rome of brick and left it of marble; a praise not unworthy a eat prince, and to which the present also has its claims. But how much nobler ill be the sovereign's boast, when he shall have it to say, that he found law dear and ft it cheap; found it a sealed book, left it a living letter; found it in the patrimony the rich, left it the inheritance of the poor; found it the two-edged sword of aft and oppression, lert it the staff of honesty and the shield of innocence!

ISAAC D'ISRAELI.

A taste for literary history and anecdote was diffused by Mr. Isaac D'Israeli (1766-1848), author of the Curiosities of Literature,' and a Ong series of kindred works and compilations. After some abortive

with great demonstrations of talent, as a Rousseau, a Chatterton, a Savage, a Burns, or a Byron, others, finding it less difficult to be eccentric than to be brilliant, have therefore adopted the one, in the hope that the world would give them credit for the other. But the greatest genius is never so great as when it is chastised and subdued by the highest reason; it is from such a combination, like that of Bucephalus reined in by Alexander, that the most powerful efforts have been produced. And be it remembered, that minds of the very highest order, who have given an unrestrained course to their caprice, or to their passions, would have been so much higher, by subduing them; and that, so far from presuming that the world would give them credit for talent, on the score of their aberrations and their extravagances, all that they dared hope or expect has been, that the world would pardon and overlook those extravagances, on account of the various and manifold proofs they were constantly exhibiting of superior acquirement and inspiration. We might also add, that the good effects of talent are universal, the evil of its blemishes confined. The light and heat of the sun benefit all, and are by all enjoyed; the spots on his surface are discoverable only to the few. But the lower order of aspirers to fame and talent have pursued a very different course; instead of exhibiting talent in the hope that the world would forgive their eccentricities, they have exhibited only their eccentricities in the hope that the world would give them credit for talent.

Error only to be Combated by Argument.

We should justly ridicule a general, who, just before an action, should suddenly disarm his men, and putting into the hands of all of them a Bible, should order them, thus equipped, to march against the enemy. Here we plainly see the folly of calling in the Bible to support the sword; but is it not as great a folly to call in the sword to support the Bible? Our Saviour divided force from reason, and let no man presume to join what God hath put asunder. When we combat error with any other weapon than argument, we err more than those whom we attack.

Mystery and Intrigue.

There are minds so habituated to intrigue and mystery in themselves, and so prone to expect it from others, that they will never accept of a plain reason for a plain fact, if it be possible to devise causes for it that are obscure, far-fetched, and usually not worth the carriage. Like the miser of Berkshire, who would ruin a good horse to escape a turnpike, so these gentlemen ride their high-bred theories to death, in order to come at truth, through by-paths, lanes, and alleys; while she herself is jogging quietly along, upon the high and beaten road of common-sense. The consequence is, that those who take this mode of arriving at truth, are sometimes before her, and sometimes behind her, but very seldom with her. Thus the great statesman who relates the conspiracy against Doria, pauses to deliberate upon, and minutely to scrutinise into divers and sundry errors committed, and opportunities neglected, whereby he would wish to account for the total failure of that spirited enterprise. But the plain fact was, that the scheme had been so well planned and digested, that it was victorious in every point of its operation, both on the sea and on the shore, in the harbour of Genoa no less than in the city, until that most unlucky accident befell the Count de Fiesque, who was the very life and soul of the conspiracy. In stepping from one galley to another, the plank on which he stood upset, and he fell into the sen. His armour happened to be very heavy-the night to be very dark-the water to be very deep-and the bottom to be very muddy. And it is another plain fact, that water, in all such cases, happens to make no distinction whatever between a conqueror and a cat.

Magnanimity in ITumble Life.

In the obscurity of retirement, amid the squalid poverty and revolting privations of a cottage, it has often been my lot to witness scenes of magnanimity and self-denial, as much beyond belief as the practice of the great; a heroism borrowing no support either from the gaze of the many or the admiration of the few, yet flourishing amidst ruins, and on the confines of the grave; a spectacle as stupendous in the

world as the falls of the Missouri in the natural; and, like that mighty cataract, d to display its grandeur only where there are no eyes to appreciate its mag

ce.

Avarice.

rice begets more vices than Priam did children, and, like Priam, survives them t starves its keeper to surfeit those who wish him dead; and makes him submit e mortifications to lose heaven than the martyr undergoes to gain it. Avarice ssion full of paradox, a madness full of method; for although the miser is mercenary of all beings, yet he serves the worst master more faithfully than Christians do the best, and will take nothing for it. He falls down and worthe god of this world, but will have neither its pomps, its vanities, nor its res for his trouble. He begins to accumulate treasure as a mean to happiness, y a common but morbid association, he continues to accumulate it as an end. es poor, to die rich, and is the mere jailer of his house, and the turnkey of his 1. Impoverished by his gold, he slaves harder to imprison it in his chest, than -other-slave to liberate it from the mine. The avarice of the miser may be d the grand sepulchre of all his other passions as they successively decay. But, e other tombs, it is enlarged by repletion, and strengthened by age. This latter ox, so peculiar to this passion, must be ascribed to that love of power so insepafrom the human mind. There are three kinds of power-wealth, strength, und ; but as old age always weakens, often destroys the two latter, the aged are into cling with the greater avidity to the former. And the attachment of the to wealth must be a growing and a progressive attachment, since such are not in discovering that those same ruthless years which detract so sensibly from the gth of their bodies and of their minds, serve only to augment and to consolihe strength of their purse.

JOIN NICHOLS-ARTHUR YOUNG.

ne of the most industrious of literary collectors and editors was N NICHOLS (1745-1826), who for nearly half a century conducted - Gentleman's Magazine.' Mr. Nichols was early put apprentice WILLIAM BOWYER, an eminent London printer (1699-1778), who, scholarship that reflected honour on himself and his craft, ed an edition of the New Testament, with notes, and was author everal philological tracts. On the death of Bowyer, Mr. Nichols ied on the printing business-in which he had previously been rtner-and became associated with David Henry, the brother-inof Cave, the original proprietor of the 'Gentleman's Magazine.' ry died in 1792, and the whole labours of the magazine and busidevolved on Mr. Nichols, whose industry was never relaxed. The t important of his numerous labours are his Anecdotes, Literary Biographical, of William Bowyer,' 1782; 'The History and iquities of Leicester,' 1795-1811; 'Literary Anecdctes of the hteenth Century,' eight volumes, 1812-14; and 'Illustrations of Literature of the Eighteenth Century'-supplementary to the necdotes'-three volumes octavo. Additions have from time to time a made to these works by Mr. Nichol's son and successor, so that 'Anecdotes' form nine large volumes, and the 'Illustrations' eight umes, the seventeenth-completing the series-having been issued 859. Mr. Nichols edited the correspondence of Atterbury and ele, Fuller's Worthies,' Swift's works, &c., and compiled accounts

of the Royal Progresses and Processions of Queen Elizabeth and James I.' each in three volumes quarto.

ARTHUR YOUNG (1741-1820) was eminent for his writings and services in the promotion of agriculture. He was one of the first who succeeded in elevating this great national interest to the dignity of a science, and rendering it popular among the higher classes of the country. He was for many years an unsuccessful theorist and experimenter on a small paternal estate in Suffolk to which he succeeded, but the knowledge thus acquired he turned to good account. In 1770 he commenced a periodical, entitled 'The Farmer's Calendar;' and he afterwards edited another periodical, The Annals of Agriculture,' to which King George III. was an occasional contributor. A list of his published letters, pamphlets, &c. on subjects of rural economy, would fill two of our pages; but the most important of Young's works are a Tour in Ireland,' 1776-79, and 'Travels in France,' 1787-89. These journeys were undertaken by the recommendation and assistance of government, with a view of ascertaining the cultivation, wealth, resources, and prosperity of Ireland and France. He was author also of surveys of the counties of Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincoln, Hertford, Essex and Oxford; with reports on waste lands, inclosures, &c. The French Revolution alarmed Young with respect to its probable effects on the English lower classes, and he wrote several warning treatises and political tracts. Sir John Sinclair-another devoted and patriotic agriculturist-having prevailed on Pitt to establish a Board of Agriculture, Arthur Young was appointed its secretary, with a salary of £400 per annum, and he was indefatigable in his exertions to carry out the views of the association. To the end of his long life, even after he was afflicted with blindness, the attention of Mr. Young was devoted to pursuits of practical utility. Some of his theories as to the system of large farms-for which he was a strenuous advocate-and other branches of agricultural labour, may be questioned; but he was a valuable pioneer, who cleared the way for many improvements since accomplished.

SIR JOHN CARR.

A series of light descriptive and gossiping tours, by SIR JOHN CARR (1772-1832), made considerable noise in their day. The first and best was 'The Stranger in France,' 1803. This was followed by Travels Round the Baltic,' 1804-5; The Stranger in Ireland,' 1806; "Tour through Holland,' 1807; Caledonian Sketches,' 1809; 'Travels in Spain,' 1811. Sir John was also author of some indifferent poems and dramas. This indefatigable tourist had been an attorney in Dorsetshire, but the success of his first work on France induced him to continue a series of similar publications. In Ireland he was knighted by the Lord-lieutenant (the Duke of Bedford), and his Irish