ed, saw no one, except his own officers, during the tragedy which ensued. His own determination was made; and he Issued an order to the Neapolitan comnodore, count Thurn, to assemble a court-martial of Neapolitan officers, on board the British flag-ship, proceed immediately to try the prisoner, and report to him, if the charges were proved, what punishment he ought to suffer. These proceedings were as rapid as possible; Caraccioli was brought on board at nine in the forenoon, and the trial began at ten. It lasted two hours; he averred, in his defence, that he acted under compulsion, having been compelled to serve as a common soldier, till he consented to take command of the fleet. This, the apologists of lord Nelson say, he failed in proving. They forget that the possibility of proving it was not allowed him; for he was brought to trial within an hour after he was legally in arrest; and how, in that time, was he to collect his witresses? He was found guilty, and sentenced to death; and Nelson gave orders that the sentence should be carried into effect that evening, at five o'clock, on ooard the Sicilian frigate La Minerva, by hanging him at the fore-yard-arm till sunset; when the body was to be cut down, and thrown into the sea. Carac cicli requested lieutenant Parkinson, under whose custody he was placed, to intercede with lord Nelson for a second trial,-for this, among other reasons, that count Thurn, who presided at the courtmartial, was notoriously his personal enemy. Nelson made answer, that the prisoner had been fairly tried by the officers of his own country, and he could not interfere: forgetting that, if he felt himself justified in ordering the trial and the execution, no human being could ever have questioned the propriety of his interfering on the side of mercy. Caraccioli then entreated that he might be shot. -- I am an old man, sir,' said he: I leave no family to lament me, and therefore cannot be supposed to be very anxious about prolonging my life; but the disgrace of being hanged is dreadful to me.' When this was repeated to Nelson, he only told the lieutenant, with much agitation, to go and attend his duty. As a last hope, Caraccioli asked the lieutenant, if he thought an application to lady Hamilton would be beneficial? Parkinson went to seek her. She was Hot to be seen on this occasion,-but she was present at the execution. She had the most devoted attachment to the Nea. politan court; and the hatred which she felt against those whom she regarded as its enemies, made her, at this time, forget what was due to the character of her sex, as well as of her country. Here, also, a faithful historian is called upon to pronounce a severe and unqualified condemnation of Nelson's conduct. Had he the authority of his Sicilian majesty for proceeding as he did? If so, why was not that authority produced? If not, why were the proceedings hurried on without it? Why was the trial precipitated, so that it was impossible for the prisoner, if he had been innocent, to provide the witnesses who might have proved him so? Why was a second trial refused, when the known animosity of the president of the court against the prisoner was considered? Why was the execution hastened, so as to preclude any appeal for mercy, and render the prerogative of mercy useless?---Doubtless, the British admiral seemed to himself to be acting under a rigid sense of justice; but, to all other persons, it was obvious, that he was influenced by an infatuated attachment— a baneful passion, which destroyed his domestic happiness, and now, in a second instance, stained ineffaceably his public character. The day being "The body was carried out to a considerable distance, and sunk in the bay, with three double-headed shot, weighing 250 pounds, tied to its legs. Between two and three weeks afterward, when the king was on board the Foudroyant, a Neapolitan fisherman came to the ship, and solemnly declared, that Caraccioli had risen from the bottom of the sea, and was coming, as fast as he could, to Naples, swimming half out of the water. Such an account was listened to like a tale of idle credulity. fair, Nelson, to please the king, stood out to sea; but the ship had not proceeded far before a body was distinctly seen, upright in the water, and approaching them. It was soon recognised to be, indeed, the corpse of Caraccioli, which had risen, and floated, while the great weights attached to the legs kept the body in a position like that of a living man. A fact so extraordinary astonished the king, and perhaps excited some feeling of superstiticus fear, akin to regret. He gave permission for the body to be taken on shore, and receive christian burial." VOL. I. 65 F Ilazel. 3d. St. Genevieve. The late Dr. Clarke mentions in his 'Travels," that as he was "one day lean- Persian Fleur-de-lis. Iris Persica. ing out of the cabin window, by the side of an officer who was employed in fishing, the corpse of a man, newly sewed in a hammock, started half out of the water, and continued its course, with the current, towards the shore. Nothing could be more horrible its head and shoulders were visible, turning first to one side, then to the other, with a solemn and awful movement, as if impressed with some dreadful secret of the deep, which, from its watery grave, it came upwards to reveal." Dr. Ferriar observes, that "in a certain stage of putrefaction, the bodies of persons which have been immersed in water, rise to the surface, and in deep water are supported in an erect posture, to the terror of uninstructed spectators. Menacing looks and gestures, and even words, are supplied by the affrighted imagination, with infinite facility, and referred to the horrible apparition." This is perfectly natural; and it is easy to imagine the excessive terror of extreme ignorance at such appearances. 4th. St. Titus Corylus avellana. stu. St. Simeon Stylites. Bearsfoot. Helleborus fœtidus. 6th. St. Nilammon. Screw Moss. Tortula rigida. 7th. St. Kentigern. Portugal Laurel. Prunus Lusitanica. 8th. St. Gudula. Yellow Tremella. Tremella deliquescens 9th. St. Marciana. Common Laurel. Prunus Laurocerasus 10th. St. William.. Ulex Europaas. Gorse. 11th. St. Theodosius. Early Moss. Bryum horæum. 12th. St. Arcadius. Hygrometic Moss. Funaria hygrometica Yew Tree. 13th. St. l'eronica. Taxus baccata. 14th. St Hilary. Barren Strawberry. Fragaria sterilis. 15th. St. Paul the Hermit. Hedera helix. Ivy. 16th. St. Marcellus. Common Dead Nettle. reum 17th. Garden Anemone. Larnium purpu hony. nemone hortensis. 18th. St. Prisca. Four-toothed Moss. Bryum pellucidum. 19th. St. Sts. Martha, Maris, &c. St. Martha was married to St. Maris, and with their sons, Sts. Audifax and Abachum, were put to death under Auretian (A. D. 270.) Butler says, that their White Dead Nettle. relics were found at Rome, in 1590, one thousand three hundred and twenty years afterwards. DEDICATION OF FLOWERS. The monks, or the observers of monkish rules, have compiled a Catalogue of Flowers for each day in the year, and dedicated each flower to a particular saint, on account of its flowering about the time of the saint's festival. Such appropriations are a Floral Directory throughout the year, and will be inserted under the sucseeding days. Those which belong to this and the eighteen preceding days in January are in the following list: JANUARY. 1st. St. Faine. NEW YEAR'S DAY. Laurustine. Viburnum Tinus. 2d. St. Macarius. Groundsel. Senecio vulgaris THE GARDEN. ha. To the author of the "Flora Domestica," and to the reader who may not have seen a volume so acceptable to the cultivator of flowers, it would be injustice to extract from its pages without remarking its usefulness, and elegance of composition. Lamenting that "plants often meet with an untimely death from the ignorance of their nurses,' "the amiable author" resolved to obtain and to communicate such information as should be requisite for the rearing and preserving a portable garden in pots and henceforward the death of any plant, owing to the carelessness or ignorance of its nurse, shall be brought in at the best as plantslaughter." " The cultivation of plants commences with our infancy. If estranged from it by the pursuits of active life, yet, during a few years' retirement from the " great hum of a noisy world, we naturally recur to a garden as to an old and cheerful friend whom we had forgotten or neglected, and verify the saying. a man, and twice a child." There is not 66 one of woman born" without a sense of pleasure when he sees buds bursting into leaf; earth yielding green shoots from germs in its warm bosom; white fruitblossoms, tinted with rose-blushes, standing out in clumps from slender branches; once flowers courting the look by their varied loveliness, and the smell by their delicacy; large juicy apples bowing down the almost tendril-shootswherefrom they miraculously spring; plants of giant growth with mul tiform shrubs beyond, and holly-hock: towering like painted pinnacles from hidden shrines: Can imagination boast, 'Mid all its gay creation, charms like these? Dr. Forster, the scientific author of a treatise on "Atmospheric Phenomena," and other valuable works, has included numerous useful observations on the weather in his recently published "Perennial Calendar," a volume replete with instruction and entertainment. He observes, in the latter work, that after certain atmospheric appearances on this day in the year 1809," a hard and freezing shower of hail and sleet came with considerable violence from the east, and glazed every thing on which it fell with ice; it incrusted the walls, encased the trees and the garments of people, and even the plumage of birds, so that many rooks and other fowls were found lying on the ground, stiff with an encasement of ice Such weather," Dr. Forster observes, "has been aptly described by Philips ar occurring oftentimes during a northern winter: Ere yet the clouds let fall the treasured snow, And every pointed thorn, seemed wrought in glass, The stag in limpid currents, with surprise, The spreading oak, the beech, and tow'ring pine, The cracking wood beneath the tempest bends, "It may be observed, that in both the above descriptions of similar phenomena, he east wind is recorded as bringing up Philips, Lett. from Copenhagen. the storm. There is something very re markably unwholesome in east winds and a change to that quarter often die Is noted in Doblada's Letters from Spain, as within the period that ushers in the car nival with rompings in the streets, and vulgar mirth. ST. AGNES' EVE Formerly this was a night of great im- And on sweet St. Agnes' night BEN JONSON. Old Aubrey has a recipe, whereby a lad or lass was to attain a sight of the fortunate lover. "Upon St. Agnes' night you take a row of pins, and pull out every one, one after another, saying a Pater Noster, sticking a pin in your sleeve, and you will dream of him or her you shall marry." "The custom alluded to by Horace of sticking a tail, is still practised by the boys in the streets, to the great annoyance of old ladies, who are generally the objects of this sport. One of the ragged striplings that wander in crowds about Seville, having tagged a piece of paper with a hooked pin, and stolen unperceived behind some slow-paced female, as wrapt up in her veil, she tells the beads she carries in her left hand, fastens the paper-tail on the back of the black or walking petticoat called Saya. The whole Little is remembered of these homely gang of ragamuffins, who, at a convenient methods for knowing "all about sweetdistance, have watched the dexterity of hearts," and the custom would scarcely their companion, set up a loud cry of have reached the greater number of read'Largalo, làrgalo'-' Drop it, drop it'ers, if one of the sweetest of our modern this makes every female in the street look to the rear, which, they well know, is the fixed point of attack with the merry lighttroops. The alarm continues till some friendly hand relieves the victim of sport, who, spinning and nodding like a spent top, tries in vain to catch a glance at the poets had not preserved its recollection in 1 The Eve of St. Agnes. St. Agnes' Eve? Ah, tter chill it was! The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass, They told her how, upon St. Agnes' Eve, Out went the taper as she hurried in ; As though a tongueless nightingale should swell A casement high and triple arch'd there was, Of fruits, and flowers, and bunches of knot grass, done Her vespers Eut dares not look behind, or all the charm is fled. Soon, trembling in her soft and chilly nest, |