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with her three sons to the chateau de Rochemaure, to take counsel with the old marquis as to the steps proper for herself and her family to adopt in the existing conjuncture. I was present (continued Lormet) at that consultation. The marquis advised Madame de Josselin herself to join her husband without delay. As to your sons,' said the marquis, they should remember the Athenian law, which condemned to death every citizen who did not take one side or another in times of civil trouble. They held it base in any one to wait till he saw what would be his interest, before declaring what his course was to be. Your sons are now old enough to judge of their duty, and they should follow it. For me, I am too old to bear arms in any cause, or to seek an asylum in a foreign land, and it is my resolve to wait here the issue of events in quietness, so long as I am permitted to enjoy it. But the issue, I fear, will be dark and calamitous to all France.'

Madame de Josselin adopted the counsel of the marquis, and left the country with her youngest son. Her two elder children, notwithstanding the prejudices of birth, had long been alive to the wrongs infiicted on the people of France by their superiors, and they gave in their adherence, accordingly, to the popular cause. Isidor was immediately named commandant of a volunteer battalion of the Loire, and at the head of it was sent to Mayence to join General Kleber. But the hope which the young man had entertained of being appointed to combat with his country's foreign enemies, was suddenly brought to an end. The garrison of Mayence, of which he formed a part, was ordered to La Vendée, the very province of his birth, and the abode of his hortense. Against it was he to go as an enemy, and there to engage in mortal contest with his countrymen and friends. So deeply did this idea distress him, that, on reaching La Vendée with General Kleber, whose favour he had completely gained, isidor made an appeal to his commander to be permitted temporarily to quit the army. But this appeal was met by a hint of the reflections which might be thrown out against him by others, especially as a battle was hourly expected; and Isidor at once saw that, at the moment at least, he could not honourably be relieved from his painful situation. He remained, was present at the engagement of Torfou, and had the honour of being advanced to the rank of chief-of-brigade by Kleber, for his conduct on the field. But Kleber was immediately called to the army of the north, and the subsequent disposition of things compelled Isidor to remain behind with his battalion. His entreaties procured a promise, however, that the general would send for him to the north within a month afterwards.

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Isidor addressed them in opposition to this design.
He called to their recollection its founder, Oliver de
Clisson, the terror of the Flemings, and scourge of the
English; and concluded by saying, that, in any case,
they ought not to destroy the castle except by express
orders, especially as he had proposed to occupy it as a
favourable station for continuing the war. This little
harangue had the desired effect. The castle was
evacuated, and Isidor made all possible haste to report
the issue of the expedition to the officer above him in
command, who, at the young soldier's own suggestion,
sent him back with a single picquet of cavalry, to
occupy Clisson and its neighbourhood. Isidor esta-
blished his men in a building at the end of the park,
and then took an opportunity of entering alone the
deserted castle.

The scene which then took place is not to be described. There Isidor, as he had been warned by the Vendean chief, found his beloved Hortense and her grandfather, concealed in the secret chamber where the family papers were kept. It may be imagined with what terror the proposal to burn the castle inspired him. The secreted pair, he found, had been prepared to fly in the garb of peasants towards Paris, just before the castle was taken. Now, the scheme was renewed. Isidor, over whose mind the remembrance of the terrible Carrier threw an inexpressible degree of alarm, counselled flight on the following day. This being arranged, he tore himself from them, to avoid raising suspicion. An awful shock awaited him on rejoining his men. A paper was handed to him, containing these words: By order of the representatives of the people, Carrier and Francastel, the chief-of-battalion, Josselin, will instantly arrest and conduct towards Nantes, the rebel Rochemaure, whom he will find concealed in the Castle of Clisson,' &c. The unhappy young officer, as soon as night fell, returned to the castle, and without being able to articulate a word, placed the order in the hands of M. de Rochemaure. I expected it,' said the old man, calmly. Hortense saw by the looks of her lover that something alarming had occurred. Tell me, Isidor, what has happened! Tell me, I conjure you! The youth turned away his head, but the marquis answered for him. It would be of no avail to conceal it. The poor boy has received orders, my child, to arrest me.' Hortense gave a cry of poignant distress, and threw her arms around her grandsire. We must all fly instantly,' cried Isidor, starting as if from stupor; the park adjoins a forest, which I have well examined. We can find temporary safety there, at least, and may afterwards reach the hamlet beyond.' That is what I was about to propose,' said the old marquis. "You have no other way, Isidor, of saving The inquiries of Isidor procured him intelligence your wife-yes, your wife; for, from this moment, respecting Hortense and her grandfather, that at once Hortense is yours, and you must answer for her propleased and vexed him. He learnt that the neutra-tection before heaven and before men! Such a thought lity preserved by the marquis had not saved him from suspicion, and that he had been compelled to quit his chateau, but had escaped with his grandaughter to some place not known. Trusting that they were in safety, the young soldier longed for the summons of Kleber, to take him from a scene where the fulfilment of his duty was so painful. But at this time Carrier, the execrable Carrier, came to Nantes. With the eagerness of a bloodhound, this man caused the republican soldiers to scour the country incessantly in search of prey. Isidor was forced to act under his orders for a few days, and was sent with his battalion to take the Castle of Clisson, where several Vendean chiefs, it was known, were accustomed to meet. When in action, Isidor forgot all but his immediate duty, and on this occasion he speedily made his way, at the head of a few of his men, into the castle. In a lower hall, he found five or six wounded Vendean officers. 'Surrender, gentlemen,' cried Isidor, and I pledge my word for the safety of your lives! His men echoed the pledge. "You promise more than you can perform,' replied an old Vendean officer, calmly. Once taken prisoners, we are in the hands of Carrier, not yours; and we must certainly perish on the scaffold. Permit us to go,' continued he after a pause, and we shall yield our arms, and engage never more to bear them against the republic.' This was all that Isidor desired from those whom he opposed in this civil struggle, and he consulted his comrades with the view of gaining their consent. Guided by him, they gave it at once, and the officers were told that they were at liberty to depart. Before going, however, the old officer again spoke. I have another prayer to make,' said he. 'Do not burn the castle. It was the cradle of a brave man, and such an edifice should be sacred.' Having said these words, he turned to Isidor, and whispered a brief sentence in his ear, after which he departed with his friends.

That whisper affected Isidor most painfully. He became deadly pale, and staggered back, as if struck by a cannon-shot. The sound of fire-arms recalled him to activity, if not to composure, and he rushed out to discover the cause. Alas! the poor Vendeans had been observed by others of the investing band, and, before a word of explanation could pass, had been shot on the spot. Immediately afterwards, the whole of the soldiers entered the castle, and a search commenced, in which the young commander, contrary to his usual custom, appeared to take the inost active share. Under the plea of anxiety to fulfil his duty, he allowed no one to search but with himself. The task at length was finished, and then the troop, according to their usual custom, proceeded to set the place on fire.

was capable of giving pleasure to the unfortunate pair,
even in that hour of distress; and they kneeled down
to receive the old man's blessing. Having given this
with tears, the marquis continued to enjoin the neces-
sity of flight. My father,' exclaimed Hortense, you
do not speak of yourself. The marquis now pointed
out the necessity of their separation. He said that
his age and infirmities would but impede their flight,
and render it vain; and that he himself would even
be safer alone. To all this Hortense had but one
reply, No, no, I will never quit you! never!'

An hour was spent by the marquis in endeavouring
to combat this resolve of his grandchild. The period
of safety was fast passing by, for Isidor had been in-
formed that Carrier's detestable body-guard were to
come at morning to meet him and receive his prisoners.
At length, finding Hortense still resolute, the marquis
arose, and, saying solemnly, Isidor, remember your
duty to your wife,' went into a little side apartment.
In an instant, the sound of a pistol indicated that
the old man had sacrificed himself to terminate the
scruples of his grandchild, and enable her to be saved!
It was with great difficulty, and only after a long
delay, that Isidor could separate Hortense from the
body of her unfortunate parent. But he finally pre-
vailed upon her to quit the castle. The pair entered
the forest, and after walking till dawn, reached the
banks of the Loire at the village of Broussards. They
had the hope, if they could procure a boat to convey
them across the river, that they would then be in
comparative safety; and they were on the point of
entering one, when some soldiers, belonging to one of
the roving bauds of the republican army, were drawn
to the spot. The extraordinary beauty of Hortense
attracted the admiration of these ruffians, and they at-
tempted to stop the embarkation. Isidor ordered them
to desist, announcing himself as the commandant of
Clisson; but his words only bred suspicion, and he was
compelled to draw his sword and repel them by force.
More of the wretches came to the spot, however, and
the unhappy lovers were both seized and hurried off
to Nantes, which was close by, for examination. The
anxiety of any person to escape was in these times fit
cause for apprehension and execution.

On that day (continued Lormet) I myself had been thrown into prison. I was seated on a bench amid a crowd of other unfortunates, not one of whom had even a hope of life, when my attention was attracted by a conversation close behind me. We shall at least die together, Isidor,' said a low female voice. No, no, you shall not die, Hortense !' was the reply; so much youth, and beauty, and innocence, must find grace even with these monsters. If you love me,

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Isidor, do not even wish such a thing! I have seen
my father expire, and death awaits my husband-yes,
my husband, Isidor, and no power shall prevent me
sharing his fate.' The two speakers wept for a time
in each other's embrace. ، But what a death, Hor-
tense-oh, you know not all its horrors !'
may escape, Isidor,' said she, in a whisper almost of
exultation; we are not without the means.' I turned
round as she spoke, and saw that her features bore
the marks of the deepest despair.

، We

It was now that I spoke to the ill-fated lovers, and that the deed was consummated which has made me spend my days in solitary prayer far from the dwellings of men. Isidor and Hortense knew me instantly, and, in the contemplation of my misfortunes, forgot their own for a moment. But this forgetfulness could not last long. I told them I had overheard all, and Isidor, with indescribable eagerness, besought me, if I could, to rescue Hortense from the horrible indignities of a death such as Carrier gave his victims. I understood him too well. About my person I had a small quantity of poison-the necessity was dreadful. Why linger on the issue? Believing that I was conferring a benefit, and indeed feeling that I was making a great personal sacrifice, I gave it to the unhappy pair. It saved them from all sense of the barbarities that followed in a few hours, when one hundred and twenty-five unfortunates, men, women, and children, were taken on board a boat, tied together by pairs, and drowned in the Loire, in presence of Carrier and his band. The accompanying brutalities of the scene are not to be told. These were the too famous Noyades (drownings) of La Vendée !

I saw (concluded Lormet) the bodies of Isidor and Hortense committed to the waters of the Loire. I myself underwent the same doom, but by a train of accidental circumstances, which have no particular interest, found myself rescued from death. For all that has happened to myself, I might still be among men, but I prefer to remain in solitude, and feed my thoughts with the remembrance of the unhappy pair with whose fate I was connected-a pair such, in person and mind, as heaven has seldom lent to earth."

MEMOIRS OF A RUSSIAN LADY OF
HONOUR.*

THE Princess Daschkaw was the intimate friend of
one of the most remarkable personages of modern
history, Catherine II., Empress of Russia. The vices
which stained the character of Catherine as a woman,
cannot prevent the world from taking a strong interest
in her as the able and successful ruler of a great em-
pire; and hence we peruse these volumes with no
slight degree of curiosity.

The Princess Daschkaw was of the Worontzow family, one highly distinguished in the Russian annals, and several meinbers of which were in office under the Empress Elizabeth, at the period of our heroine's birth, which took place in 1744. She was therefore much about the court even from her infancy. When littlo more than fifteen, she was married to her countryman, Prince Daschkaw, to whom she was ever fondly attached. A story is told by her, which gives a striking proof of her conjugal affection in the early years of her wedded life. After a temporary absence from Moscow, where his family then lived, the prince returned to it in a state of ill health; and being unwilling to alarm the princess, at that time in a situation requiring such caution, drove first to his aunt's house. A giddy servant girl informed the poor young wife of his illness and secret return, and her fears magnified the danger so greatly, that, in spite of her condition, she left her chamber, and rushed through the streets to the house where the prince was. know not (she says) how I scrambled up a high flight of steps which led to my husband's apartment. All I can tell is, that, on entering, I saw him pale and extended on his bed. I caught but a momentary glimpse, and fell lifeless on the floor, and in this state was conveyed home in a litter." Prince Daschkaw believed at first that he had seen a vision, but he followed her home instantly. His complaint being infectious, he was not allowed to see his wife, and the pair had to content themselves with writing to each other hourly. Happily, both of them recovered. After “ forty long years of sorrow" for her husband'a loss, the princess remembered these things, she says, with profound pleasure; and we confess to have been also pleased, as well as prepossessed in her favour, by finding, on the threshold of her memoirs, this strong, though certainly very foolish, proof of her affectionate disposition and conjugal tenderness.

"I

Catherine, afterwards Empress of Russia, was at this time grand-duchess, being wife to Peter, nephew and heir-apparent of the reigning sovereign Elizabeth. The circumstance which first drew the notice of Catherine to the Princess Daschkaw is worthy of notice. "At the period of which I am speaking, there were not two women in the empire, excepting the grand-duchess and myself, who occupied themselves at all in serious reading; here was a point of mutual attraction." The grand-duchess had abundance of time to devote to the amusement, for she was hated and deserted by her husband, a person described by the princess, and with justice, as an annoying blockhead. The two principal features in his character

* Memoirs of the Princess Daschkaw, &c. Henry Colborn. London. 2 vols. 1840.

66

were, a strong love of all things military, and an intense admiration of the Prussians, whose sovereign he actually termed "the King my Master." He was perpetually surrounded by a band of officers, "who had been for the most part corporals or sergeants in the Prussian service, the truant sons of German shoemakers, and such as had risen from the very dregs of the people." With these personages, over punch, tea, and tobacco," and engaged in ridiculous games, the grand-duke passed his whole time. The Princess Daschkaw was compelled to be sometimes present at these entertainments, and was so little able to conceal her contempt for the entertainer, as to give him replies now and then that caused his very familiars to stare, and exclaim, "What a spirit that woman has!" When the Empress Elizabeth was on her death-bed, the prospect of danger to the grand-duchess Catherine, from the accession of her husband to power, greatly alarmed the Princess Daschkaw. The revolution that overturned the government of a great empire, was concocted by this active and energetic woman, who, on hearing that the empress was certainly dying, proceeded, in the middle of a winter night, to the palace of the grand-duchess. The latter was in bed. "My dearest princess,' said she, 'before you tell me what brings you out at such an extraordinary hour, endeavour to warm yourself; you are, indeed, too negligent of your health, which is so precious to us all.' She then bade me get into the bed, and having well muffled up my feet, she at length allowed me to speak." In this somewhat odd position, these two women first openly spoke of overthrowing the succession to the throne of Russia.

farrier, a carpenter, a magistrate, a lawyer—fn short, she daily practises every species of incongruity; corresponds with her brother, who holds the first post in the empire; with authors, with philosophers, with Jews, with poets, with her son, with all her relatives; and yet appears as if she had her time a burden on her hands. She gives me continually the idea of her being a fairy; and I protest it is not jokingly that I say so, for the impression never quits me for a moment.

quented this hotel, that I seriously set about upbraiding M. Rebender, our chargé d'affaires, for allowing such an abominable monument of our disgrace to exist. He gravely replied that it was quite out of his province to repress grievances of such a nature; but, madam,' said he, you are not the only one whom these battles have offended: Alexis Orloff, when he passed through Dantzig some time ago, was at this same hotel, and was no less indignant at the pictures than yourself.' Why did he not, then, buy them,' said I, 'at any price, The princess died in 1810. To the memoir of her and throw them into the fire? Were I a twentieth life, there is appended a considerable amount of corpart as rich, I would do so in a moment; but, as that is respondence, and also an interesting narrative of the not the case, I must have recourse to a plan which editor's own stay in Russia. Were it but for this will, perhaps, answer as well.' As soon as our resident narrative alone, the work would be well worthy of the left us, I commissioned two gentlemen, MM. Woltch-public notice. We conclude with an extract illuskoff and Schtellin-both belonging to our embassy at trative of Russian despotism :-" It is well known Berlin, whither they afterwards accompanied us to that, during the reign of Peter I., it was the custom buy me some oil colours, blue, green, red, and white; of that tyrant to punish those nobles who offended and as soon as supper was over, and we had well barri- him, by an imperial order that they should become caded the doors, these gentlemen, who knew how to fools; from which moment, the unfortunate victim, handle a pencil, assisted me in regaining these lost however endowed with intellect, instantly became the battles, by changing the blue and white of the con- laughing-stock of the whole court; he had the priviquering Prussians into the green and red uniforms of lege of saying every thing he chose, at the peril, howour Russian heroes. It cost us the whole night to ever, of being kicked or horsewhipped, without daring achieve this twofold victory; and it must have occato offer any sort of retaliation; every thing he did was sioned no little surprise and curiosity among the good ridiculed, his complaints treated as jests, and his sarpeople of the house, to find that three of our party casms sneered at, and commented on, as marvellous were thus locked up together, and their dull room, proofs of understanding in a fool. The Empress Anne hitherto the refuse of the yawning traveller, lighted surpassed this abominable cruelty, but sometimes up all night, and suddenly become the theatre of some mingled in her practices so much of oddity, that it mysterious mirth. For my part, the idea so enchanted was impossible not to be entertained. Once she deme, that I was like a truant child, both fearful and creed that a certain Prince G should become a triumphant at the frolic. The next day, I had my hen, to punish him for some trifling misdemeanour; and Peter, however, at first obtained the sceptre peace- trunks unpacked in this same field of battle, as the for this purpose, she ordered a large basket, stuffed ably. Immediately afterwards, he began to annoy and only excuse I could offer for keeping every one out of with straw, and hollowed into a nest, with a quantity disgust every body. His passion for military parade it but those of our party and the two companions of of eggs inside, to be placed conspicuously in one of proved ludicrously troublesome to various respectable my prowess." the principal rooms at court. The prince was conold gentlemen who had all their days been peaceful The princess visited Scotland in 1778, and placed demned, on pain of death, to sit upon this nest, and civilians." I could not help smiling when I perceived her son for a time at the University of Edinburgh, render himself to the last degree ridiculous, by imithe old prince Troubetskoy, who was at least seventy under the charge of Principal Robertson. "The very tating the cackling of a hen. This same empress was years of age, suddenly metamorphosed into a military names (says she) of Robertson, Blair, Adam Smith, very fond of the Countess Tchernicheff, and frequently character, and now, for the first time in his life, arrayed and Ferguson, are sufficient to denote the privilege ordered her into her presence, to divert her by her in full uniform, braced tight as a drum, booted and and pleasure I enjoyed in their society." She herself amusing conversation. This poor lady became, howspurred, and prepared for desperate combat. This was universally admired, alike for her wit and exten-ever, exceedingly unwell, and her legs swelled so viofearful vision was one of the dauntless warriors of the sive intelligence, as for her qualities of heart, her up- lently, as to make it quite a martyrdom for her to court of Peter." These and many worse propensi- rightness, and her benevolence. On returning to stand. The empress, never conceiving the possibility ties of the czar offended and alarmed the country, Russia, she received many marks of favour from of a subject being tired in the presence of her soveand paved the way for the revolution. This event Catherine, and at last that all-powerful personage, reign, and not wishing to deprive herself of the enter was finally effected by a dashing stroke of the Princess having the belief, not unsupported by personal expe- tainment she experienced in her society, for a long Daschkaw. Having sounded the Ismaeloffsky guards, rience, that women could manage all sorts of affairs as time saw her suffering before her eyes, without offerand found their disposition favourable, she boldly well as men, actually named the princess "Director ing the slightest relief. One day, however, perceiving ordered them out to receive the empress-consort, on of the Academy of Arts and Sciences!" To do the her ready to faint, and vainly trying to support herself, her entering the capital from Peterhoff. The guards princess justice, she obstinately resisted this nomina- first on one foot and then on the other, yet still foreobeyed; they received Catherine with shouts, and, tion. 66 Appoint me (said she) directress of your ing her spirits into gaiety, the empress took compasbeing joined by the people, at once proclaimed her the majesty's washerwomen, and you shall see with what sion on her poor favourite, and said, "Thou mayest head of the empire. Peter was thrown into confine-zeal I am capable of serving you." But the empress lean upon that table, and Anna Ivanovna (her mament, and was soon after most barbarously murdered. was peremptory, and the princess was obliged to suc-jesty's chief attendant) shall stand before thee, and The princess assuredly had nothing to do with this cumb. Once satisfied of the necessity for assuming screen thee from me, so that I may not see thy attimatter, and she also declares the empress entirely the office, she turned to the duties of it with her usual tude.' With this anecdote of a female despot, we innocent of all share in it. Such may be the case, promptitude and good sense. Accompanied by the close these entertaining memoirs. but it is undeniable that the Orloffs, on whom the illustrious Euler, she took her place at the head of the princess lays the guilt, were both before and after- Academy, and addressed them in a harangue full of wards the unworthy favourites of the empress. In point and force. The Academy was then in a state whatever manner it may be palliated, the murder of at once of decay and corruption. "I am resolved to Peter reflects indelible disgrace on Catherine. allow not the smallest peculation (said she) in the offices." The academy was in debt, and that deeply, and its publications had been stopped. The princess again published the Transactions of the body, and, in order to pay the debt, "had recourse to the expedient of offering those books for sale which were issued from the academic press, at thirty per cent. lower than the established prices. From this source I had soon the means of paying these debts, of raising the stipends of all the professors, and also of establishing three new courses of lectures in mathematics, geometry, and natural history, which were delivered gratuitously." In short, the princess put the academy to rights in one year, without any external aid whatever. An extraordinary sight it must have been to see the ablest men in the country standing idly by, totally unable to help themselves, while this talented woman was actively and successfully labouring to relieve them.

We have perhaps spent too much time upon this matter, but our excuse is, that the compassing of this revolution, by which Russia was saved from a probably long career of gross tyranny, was the great event of the Princess Daschkaw's life. She lost her husband early, and in 1769 made a journey through Europe, which she repeated a few years afterwards, chiefly for the benefit of her children's health and education. She visited France, and became intimate with many distinguished persons, among others Diderot and Voltaire. On being first introduced to the latter, she found him in very bad health. "He was supported into the room by his valet-de-chambre, and placed on his knees in a great chair, over the back of which he leant, and continued opposite to me in this uneasy posture during the whole of supper-time. This sort of constraint, perhaps, disappointed a good deal the expectations I had formed from this visit." On first hearing the princess speak, he behaved most characteristically." He disconcerted me excessively by raising up his arm in a theatrical manner, and with a tone of astonishment exclaiming, What is this I hear? even her very voice is the voice of an angel!' As I came only to admire him, to be flattered so extravagantly was certainly the last thing in my thoughts and so I believe I told him." Voltaire, she also tells us, was much afraid of the ingenious trickery of a neighbour, M. Hubert," who had a little favourite dog with which he used to divert himself at the other's expense by making him snap at a piece of cheese, which, after two or three twists in his mouth, turned out so exact a likeness of Voltaire, that one would have said it was a miniature copy of the famous bust of Pigal."

Another incident of her travels, of a still more diverting description, may here be cited :-" At Dantzig, where we were to remain a couple of nights, we lodged at the Russian hotel, the most considerable in the place. On being shown into the large eating-room, I was struck with two pictures, the subjects of which were battles lost by the Russian troops, who were represented in groups of dead and dying, or on their knees, supplicating mercy of the victorious Prussians. I was so scandalised at the figure my countrymen here made, in the sight of travellers of all nations who fre

The Princess Daschikaw survived her mistress, and was exiled under Paul, a doom from which she was freed by Alexander. She spent the greater part of her advanced life at Troitskoc, her estate near Moscow; and here she was living in 1803, when visited by Miss M. Wilmot (now Mrs W. Bradford) a young English lady whose relatives she knew, and who has acted as editor of these Memoirs, intrusted to her for the purpose by the princess. The following excellent sketch of the latter in her advanced days, is from the pen of Miss Wilmot's sister:-"I wish you were to see the princess go out to take a walk, or rather to look over her subjects. An old brown greatcoat, and a silk handkerchief about her neck worn to rags, is her dress; and well it may be worn to rags, for she has worn it eighteen years, and will continue to wear it as long as she lives, because it belonged to her friend Mrs Hamilton. There is an originality in her appearance, in her manner of speaking, in her doing every description of thing, which distinguishes her from every creature I ever knew or heard of. She helps the masons to build walls, she assists with her own hands in making the roads, she feeds the cows, she composes music, she writes for the press; she talks out loud in the church, and corrects the priest if he is not devout; she talks out loud at her little theatre, and puts in the performers when they are out in their parts; she is a doctor, an apothecary, a surgeon, a

POETRY OF GEORGE BUCHANAN. THE scholarship, integrity, and general talent of George Buchanan, are universally acknowledged; but few persons are aware that his character had its soft as well as its stern features, and that he was a dramatic and lyrical poet whose strains must have still been familiar to his countrymen, if they had chanced to be expressed in a language readily and generally intelligible. He had studied the Greek and Roman poets, not as a pedagogue, but as a man of poetic feeling and power, and it was rather his misfortune than his choice that, neglecting his own homely ver nacular, he composed his verses in Latin. We propose to introduce, in this place, a few specimens of his poetic talents, in an English dress, that our readers may form some acquaintance with those portions of his character which we have remarked to be at present generally unknown. Here, of course, we must fail in a great measure to convey a due impression of the exquisite felicity of his language; but it may be pos sible to give some notion of the style of his ideas.

He has many sprightly and graceful lyrics addressed "to Neæra," some of them in a strain only too volup tuous for modern taste. Whether this was a creature of his imagination or the object of a real passion, his biographers do not inform us; but assuredly the latter case seems the more probable one, when we consider the earnestness with which he addresses her. In one, of which we give a translation by the late Mr Robert Hogg of Peeblesshire, there is, it is true, some trace of the conceit of the Cowley school, but it is elegant and playful conceit :

My wreck of mind, and all my woes,
And all my ills, that day arose,
When on the fair Neæra's eyes,
Like stars that shine,

At first, in hapless fond surprise,
I gazed with mine.

When my glance met her searching glance
A shivering o'er my body burst,
As light leaves in the green woods dance,

When western breezes stir them first;
My heart forth from my breast to go,
And mix with hers, already wanting,
Now beat, now trembled to and fro,
With eager fondness leaping, panting.
Just as a boy, whose nourice woos him,
Folding his young limbs in her bosom,
Heeds not caresses from another,
But turns his eyes still to his mother,

"The chief town of England is London. It is a merry, busy place. There are a great many people in it. It is very sooty. There are no fields in London, but it is full of houses; and there are several parks and squares for the people to walk in. The country is quite different from London. It is full of fields, which are divided by In basket wove of shrubs on which they grew; hedges. There are four seasons in England: spring, The swallow and the nightingale he brings, summer, autumn, and winter. In spring, the leaves of And pigeons with their young beneath their wings. * * the trees become green, and there are buds to the flowers. One of the dramas of Buchanan is formed upon the In summer, the flowers are in blossom, the birds sing, death of the Baptist, which our poet represents as and the fruit, which was green in spring, gets quite ripe. chiefly brought about by two priests of the temple. England has had thirty-two kings, besides three queens. In these personages there can be no doubt that The kings' names are William the First, who built the Buchanan described bigots of his own age and of the Tower of London, and made Doomsday-Book. He also faith which he had himself deserted; that he thus made a law which divided the land between earldoms, made a shrewd guess at the characters of the perse-knights, and baronets. William the Second was killed by an arrow whilst he was hunting in the New Forest. cutors of an earlier day, no reader of the present age He built Westminster Abbey for his dining-room, which can doubt, for characters absolutely identical are every where seen around us. The tragedy of "Jephthah," was two hundred feet long. He reigned thirteen years. He was the brother of three other boys, the youngest of as might be expected from the subject, is of tenderer whom died young. His father ascended the throne in interest, and presents many eloquent passages. The 1066. Henry the First reigned twenty-one years. Oliver following extract contains perhaps one of the most Cromwell had a son. The queen who is now reigning is

are the very ones who remain single, or, what is worse, make unhappy matches.

Hew strange a thing it is, in the constitution of English and American society, that the subject, of all others the most important and the most delicate, should be that on which every body is most given to joke and banter their friends. Much mischief has been done by this coarse interference of the world in what ought to be the most private and sacred of our earthly concerns; and every refined, delicate, and high-minded girl, should set her face against it, and, by scrupulously refraining from such jokes herself, give no one a right to indulge in them at her expense. Well-educated girls have a wide range of topics, which afford plenty of agreeable and useful discussion between them and their gentlemen friends; and it is much better to talk with them, and with your female friends, of things and of people-of books, pictures, and the beauties and wonders of nature-than of Miss A's spoiled complexion, or Mr B's broken engagement, or the quarrel between C and DIf you are familiar with the works of great minds, and spend much time in reading them, or if you love nature and scientific researches, you need not be told to avoid gossip, you will have no relish for it. If not possessed of much mental cultivation, you may yet find topics enough without talking of people; and it is so difficult to do that, without sinning against truth or charity, that it is best to avoid it whenever you can.

SKETCHES OF SUPERSTITIONS.

WITCHCRAFT IN SCOTLAND.

THE mania respecting witchcraft-for such it might be called-which sprang up into vigour throughout southern Europe in consequence of the edicts of Innocent and Leo, spread in time to Scotland, and acquired strong possession of the public mind during the reign of Queen Mary. At that period, an act was passed by the Scottish parliament for the suppression and punishment of witchcraft; but this only served, as the papal bulls had done, to confirm the people in their maniacal credulity, and to countenance and propagate the general delusion. In terms of these ill-judged statutes, great numbers of persons, male as well as female, were charged with having intercourse with the devil, convicted, and burned on the Castlehill of Edinburgh and elsewhere. This continued during the earlier part of the reign of James VI., whose mind, unfortunately for the more aged of the female part of his subjects, was deeply impressed with the flagrant nature of the crime of witchcraft. In 1590, James, it is well known, made a voyage to Denmark to see, marry, and conduct home in person, his appointed bride, the Princess Anne. Soon after his arrival, a tremendous witch conspiracy against the happy conclusion of his homeward voyage was discovered, in which the principal agents appeared to be persons considerably above the vulgar. One was Mrs Agnes Sampson, commonly called the Wise Wife of Keith (Keith being a village in East Lothian), who is described as grave, matron-like, and settled in her answers." On this occasion, the king was induced by his peculiar tastes to engage personally in the business of judicial investigation. He had all the accused persons brought before himself for examination, and even superintended the tortures applied to them to induce confession. The statements made by these poor wretches form a singular tissue of the

ludicrous and horrible in intimate union.

"The said Agnis Sampson was after brought again before the king's majestie and his council, and being examined of the meetings and detestable dealings of those witches, she confessed, that upon the night of All-Hallow-even she was accompanied, as well with the persons aforesaid, as also with a great many other witches, to the number of two hundred, and that all they together went to sea, each one in a riddle, or sieve, and went in the same very substantially, with flaggons of wine, making merrie and drinking by the way in the same riddles, or sieves, to the Kirk of North-Berwick, in Lothian, and that after they had landed, took hands on the land, and danced this reil, or short daunce, singing all with one voice,

• Cummer, goe ye before, cummer, goe ye; Gif ye will not goe before, cummer, let me.' At which she confessed that Geillis Duncan did goe before them, playing this reil or daunce upon a small trump, called a Jew's harp, until they entered into the Kirk of North-Berwick. These made the king in a wonderful admiration, and he sent for the said Geillis Duncan, who upon the like trump did play the said daunce before the king's majestie, who, in respect of the strangeness of these matters, took great delight to be present at their examinations."

is the greatest enemie hee hath in the world." Such
an eulogy, from such a quarter, could not but pamper
the conceit of "the Scottish Solomon."

The following further points in the deposition of
Agnes Sampson are worthy of notice. Item, She
went with the witch of Carrieburn, and other witches,
to the kirk of Newton, and taking up dead folks and
jointing them [cutting off fingers, &c.], made enchanted
powders for witchcraft. Item, She went with other
witches in a boat, the devil going before them like a
rock of hay. Item, The devil, in the shape of a dog,
gave her responses concerning her laird's recovery,
and endeavoured to put awa ane of the ladies' daugh-
ters. Item, She raised a universal great storm in the
sea when the queen was coming to Scotland, and
wrote a letter to that effect to a witch in Leith. Itcm,
She used this prayer in the healing of sickness :-

All kinds of ill that ever may be, &c.

The repetition of these and such like verses by the
confessing witches, has been matter of frequent sur-
prise. But it must be remembered that a code of
witchcraft, extensively known and accredited, existed
at that day, regular forms and rules for its exercise
having been laid down in the course of time. It
must be recollected, also, that these poor creatures,
though guiltless of all supernatural intercourse, had
really pretended to the gift of healing by charms and
incantations in many cases, and had to invent_or
learn formulas for the purpose. Besides, we find
these doggrel scraps chiefly in the revelations of
Agnes Sampson. She, it is stated, could write, and
of course could read also; and hence she is to be
regarded as a person who had had superior oppor-
tunities for acquiring a knowledge of the witch-
craft code, as well as superior capabilities for filling
up deficiencies on the spur of the moment. In her
confession she implicated one Doctor Fian, otherwise
called John Cunningham, master of the school at
Saltpans, in Lothian, a man whose story may be
noticed at some length, as one of the most curious and
instructive in the whole annals of Scottish witch-

craft.

Mrs Sampson deposed that Dr Fian was always a prominent person at the witch-meetings, and Geillis Duncan, the marvellous trump-player, confirmed this assertion. Whether made through heedlessness or malice, these averments decided Fian's fate. He was seized, and after being "used with the accustomed paine provided for those offences inflicted upon the rest, first, by thrawing of his head with a rope, whereat he would confess nothing" and, secondly, being urged "by fair meanes to confesse his follies," which had as little effect; "lastly, hee was put to the most severe and cruell' paine in the world, called the bootes, when, after he had received three strokes, being inquired if he would confesse his actes and wicked life, his tongue would not serve him to speake; in respect whereof, the rest of the witches willed to search his tongue, under which was founde two pinnes thrust up into the heade, whereupon the witches did say, now is the charme stinted, and showed that those charmed pins were the cause he could not confesse any thing; then was he immediately released of the bootes, brought before the king, and his confession was taken." Appalled by the cruel tortures he had undergone, Fian seems now only to have thought how he could best get up a story that should bring him to a speedy death. He admitted himself to be the devil's "register," or clerk, who took the oaths from all witches at their initiation, and avowed his having bewitched various persons. In proof of the latter statement he instanced the case of a gentleman near Saltpans, whom he had so practised upon, he said, that the victim fell into fits at intervals. This person, who seems to have been either a lunatic or afflicted with

66

St Vitus's dance, was sent for, and "being in his majestie's chamber, suddenly hee gave a great scritch, and fell into madnesse, sometimes bending himself, and sometimes capring so directly up, that his heade did touch the seeling of the chamber, to the great admiration of his majestie." On these and other accounts Dr Fian was sent to prison, but he contrived soon after to escape from it. By meanes of a hot and harde pursuite," he was retaken, and brought be fore the king, to be examined anew. But the unfortunate man had had time to think, and, like Cranmer under somewhat similar circumstances, resolved to retract the admissions which the weakness of the body had drawn from him, and to suffer any thing rather than renew them. He boldly told this to the king; and James, whom these records make us regard with equal contempt and indignation, ordered the unfortunate man to be subjected to the following most horrible tortures. "His nailes upon all his fingers were riven and pulled off with an instrument called in Scottish In the sequel of Agnes Sampson's confession we a turkas, which in England are called a payre of find some special reasons for the king's passionate pincers, and under everie nayle there was thrust in liking for these exhibitions, in addition to the mere two needles over, even up to the heades; at all which love of the marvellous. The witches pandered to his tormentes, notwithstanding, the doctor never shrunk vanity on all occasions, probably in the vain hope of a whit, neither would he then confesse it the sooner mitigating their own doom. Agnes Sampson de for all the tortures inflicted on him. Then was hee, clared that one great object with Satan and his agents with all convenient speed, by commandement, convaied was to destroy the king; that they had held the great again to the torment of the bootes, wherein he contiNorth Berwick convention for no other end; and that nued a long time, and did abide so many blowes in they had endeavoured to effect their aim on many them, that his legges were crusht and beaten together ccasions, and particularly by raising a storm at sea as small as might bee, whereby they were made unserwhen James came across from Denmark. "The viceable for ever." Notwithstanding all this, such was witches demanded of the divell why he did beare such the strength of mind of the victim, or, as King James hatred to the king? who answered, by reason the king | termed it," so deeply had the devil entered into his

heart," that he still denied all, and resolutely declared that "ell he had done and said before was only done and said for fear of the paynes which he had endured." As, according to this fashion of justice, to confess or not to confess was quite the same thing, the poor schoclmaster of Saltpans was soon afterwards strangled, and then burned on the Castlehill of Edinburgh (January 1591).

Much about the same time that Agnes Sampson made her confessions, some cases occurred, showing that witchcraft was an art not confined to the vulgar A woman of high rank and family, Catharine Ross, Lady Fowlis, was indicted at the instance of the king's advocate for the practice of witchcraft. On inquiry it was clearly proved that this lady had endea voured, by the aid of witchcraft and poisons, to take away the lives of three or more persons who stood between her and an object she had at heart. She was desirous to make young Lady Fowlis possessor of the property of Fowlis, and to marry her to the laird of Balnagown. Before this could be effected, Lady Fowlis had to cut off her sons-in-law, Robert and Hector Munro, and the young wife of Balnagown, besides several others. Having consulted with witches, Lady Fowlis began her work by getting pictures of the intended victims made in clay, which she hung up, and shot at with arrows shod with flints of a particular kind, called elf-arrow heads. No effect being thus produced, this really abandoned woman took to poisoning ale and dishes, none of which cut off the proper persons, though others who accidentally tasted them lost their lives. By the confession of some of the assistant hags, the purposes of Lady Fowlis were discovered, and she was brought to trial; but a local or provincial jury of dependents acquitted her. One of her purposed victims, Hector Munro, was then tried in turn for conspiring with witches against the life of his brother George. It was proved that a curious ceremony had been practised to effect this end. Hector, being sick, was carried abroad in blankets, and laid in an open grave, on which his foster-mother ran the breadth of nine riggs, and, returning, was asked by the chief attendant witch, "which she chose should live, Hector or George?" She answered, "Hector." George Munro did die soon afterwards, and Hector recovered. The latter was also acquitted, by a pro

vincial jury, on his trial.

These disgraceful proceedings were not without their parallel in other families of note of the day. Euphemia Macalzean, daughter of an eminent judge, Lord Cliftonhall, was burned at the stake in 1591, having been convicted, if not of witchcraft, at least of a long career of intercourse with pretenders to witchcraft, whom she employed to remove obnoxious persons out of her way-tasks which they accomplished by the very simple means of poisoning, where they did accomplish them at all. The jury found this violent and abandoned woman, for such she certainly was, guilty of participation in the murder of her own godfather, of her husband's nephew, and another individual. They also found her guilty of having been at the Wise Woman of Keith's great witch-convention of North Berwick; but every witch of the day was compelled to admit having been there, out of compliment to the king, to whom it was a source of agreeable terror to think himself of so much importance as to call for a solemn convocation of the powers of evil to overthrow him.. Euphemia Macalzean was "burnt in assis, quick, to the death." This was a doom not assigned to the less guilty. Alluding to cases of this latter class, a writer (already quoted) in the Foreign Quarterly Review remarks, "In the trials of Bessie Roy, of James Reid, of Patrick Currie, of Isobel Grierson, and of Grizel Gardiner, the charges are principally of taking off and laying on diseases either on men or cattle; meetings with the devil in various shapes and places; raising and dismembering dead bodies for the purpose of enchantments; destroying crops; scaring honest persons in the shape of cats; taking away women's milk; committing housebreaking and theft by means of enchantments, and so on. South-running water, salt, rowan-tree, enchanted flints (probably elf-arrow heads), and doggrel verses, generally a translation of the creed or Lord's Prayer, were the means employed for effecting a cure." Diseases, again, were laid on by forming pictures of clay or wax; by placing a dead hand, or some mutilated member, in the house of the intended victim; or by throwing enchanted articles at his door. A good purpose did not save the witch; intercourse with spirits, in any shape, being the crime.

Of course, in the revelations of the various witches, inconsistencies were abundant, and even plain and evident impossibilities were frequently among the things averred. The sapient James, however, in place of being led by these things to doubt the whole, was only strengthened in his opinions, it being a maxim of his, that the witches were "all extreme lyars." Other persons came to different conclusions from the same premises, and before the close of James's reign, many men of sense began to weary of the torturings and incremations that took place almost every day, in town or country, and had done so for a period of thirty years (betwixt 1590 and 1620). Advocates now came for ward to defend the accused, and in their pleadings ventured even to arraign some of the received axioms of "Daemonologie" laid down by the king himself, in a book bearing that name. The removal of James to England moderated, but did not altogether stop, the witch prosecutions. After his death they slackened

more considerably. Only eight witchcraft cases are on the Record as having occurred between 1625 and 1640 in Scotland, and in one of these cases, remarkable to tell, the accused escaped. The mania, as it appears, was beginning to wear itself out.

the flames! And for what? For an impossible crime!
And who were the victims, and who the executioners?
The victims, in by far the majority of cases, were the
aged, the weak, the deformed, the lame, and the blind;
those to whom nature had been ungentle in her out-
ward gifts, or whom years and infirmities had doomed
to poverty and wretchedness; exactly that class of
miserable beings, in short, for whom more enlightened
times provide houses of refuge, and endow charitable
institutions, aiming, in the spirit of true benevolence,
to supply to them that attention and support which
nature or circumstances have denied them the power
of procuring for themselves. Often, too, was the
victim a person distinguished by particular gifts and
endowments; gifts bestowed by the Creator in kind-
ness, but rendered fatal to the possessor by man.
These were the victims of witchcraft. The execu
tioners were the wisest and greatest of their time.
Men distinguished above their fellows for knowledge
and intelligence, ministers of religion and of the laws,
kings, princes, and nobles-these and such as these
judged of the crime, pronounced the doom, and sent
the poor victims of delusion to the torture, the stake,
and the scaffold.

As the spirit of puritanism gained ength, however, which it gradually did during the latter part of the reign of Charles I., the partially cleared horizon became again overcast, and again was this owing to ill-judged edicts, which, by indicating the belief of the great and the educated in witchcraft, had the natural effect of reviving the frenzy among the flexible populace. The General Assembly was the body in fault on this occasion, and from this time forward the clergy were the great witch-hunters in Scotland. The Assembly passed condemnatory acts in 1640, 43, 44, 45, and 49, and with every successive act, the cases and convictions increased, with even a deeper degree of attendant horrors than at any previous time. "The old impossible and abominable fancies," says the review formerly quoted, " of the Malleus were revived. About thirty trials appear on the Record between 1649 and the Restoration, only one of which appears to have terminated in an acquittal; while at a single circuit, held at Glasgow, Stirling, and Ayr, in 1659, seventeen persons were convicted and burnt for this erime." But it must be remembered that the phrase THE following notice of a lecture on this interesting sub"on the Record" alludes only to justiciary trials,ject, delivered a short time ago by Mr Murray to the which formed but a small proportion of the cases really tried. The justiciary lists take no note of the late Birmingham paper:members of the Birmingham Athenæum, appears in a commissions perpetually given by the Privy-Council to resident gentlemen and clergymen to try and burn witches in their respective districts. These commisdons executed people over the whole country in muljitudes. Wodrow, Lamont, Mercer, and Whitelocke, prove this but too satisfactorily.

66

The clergy continued, after the Restoration, to pursue these imaginary criminals with a zeal altogether deplorable. The Justiciary Court condemned twenty persons in the first year of Charles II.'s reign (1661), and in one day of the same year the council issued fourteen new provincial commissions, the aggregate doings of which one shudders to guess at. To compute their condemnations would be impossible, for victim after victim perished at the stake, unnamed and unheard of. Morayshire became at this particular period the scene of a violent fit of the great moral frenzy, and some of the most remarkable examinations signalising the whole course of Scottish witchcraft took place in that county. The details, though occasionally ludicrous from their absurdity, are too horrible for narration in the present pages. The popular frenzy seems to have exhausted itself by its own virulence in 1661-62, for an interval of six years subsequently elapsed without a single justiciary trial for the crime of witchcraft, and one fellow was actually whipped for charging some person with it. After this period, the dying embers of the delusion only burst out on occasions, here and there, into a momentary flame. In 1678, several women were condemned, on their own confession," says the Register; but we suspect this only means, in reality, that one malicious being made voluntary admissions involving others, as must often have been the case, we fear, in these proceedings. Scattered cases took place near the beginning of the eighteenth century, such as those at Paisley in 1697, at Pittenweem in 1704, and at Spott about the same time. It is curious, that, as something like direct evidence became necessary for condemnation, that evidence presented itself, and in the shape of possessed or enchanted young persons, who were brought into court to play off their tricks. The most striking case of this nature was that of Christian Shaw, a girl about eleven years old, and the daughter of Mr Shaw of Bargarran, in Renfrewshire. This wretched girl, who seeins to have been an accomplished hypocrite, young as she was, quarrelled with a maid-servant, and, to be revenged, fell into convulsions, saw spirits, and, in short, feigned herself bewitched. To sustain her story, she accused one person after another, till not less than twenty were implicated, some of them children of the ages of twelve and fourteen! They were tried on the evidence of the girl, and five human beings perished through her malicious impostures. It is remarkable that this very girl afterwards founded the thread manufacture in Renfrewshire. From a friend who had been in Holland, she learnt some secrets in spinning, and, putting them skilfully in practice, she led the way to the extensive operations carried on in that department of late years. She became the wife of the minister of Kilmaurs, and, it is to be hoped, had leisure and grace to repent of the wicked misapplication, in her youth, of those talents which she undoubtedly possessed. The last justiciary trial for witchcraft in Scotland was in the case of Elspeth Rule, who was convicted in 1708, and-banished. The last regular execution for the crime is said to have taken place at Dornoch in 1722, when an old woman was condemned by David Ross, sheriff of Caithness. But we fear the provincial records of the north, if inquired into, would show later deaths on this score. However, here may be held to end the tragical part of the annals of Scottish witchcraft. The number of its victims, for reasons compute, but the black scroll would include, according previously stated, it would be difficult accurately to to those who have most attentively inquired into the subject, upwards of FOUR THOUSAND persons! And by what a fate they perished! Cruelly tortured while living, and dismissed from life by a living death amid

VEGETABLE PHENOMENA.

were furnished with wings, which carried them through
the air to a great distance. As an example of this de-
scription of seeds, it would be sufficient to mention those
of the mahogany and bignonia grandiflora. Some seeds
also possessed clastic balls, or balloons, to aid their trans-
port through the air, and ensure their proper contact
cells, one of which was inflated with air, while the other
with the earth; the bladder nut was provided with two
contained the seed, and by its weight descended on that
side towards the earth. There were other plants which
actually planted their own seeds, the tips of the branches
to which the seed pods were attached gradually bending
towards the earth, and forcing the seeds into the ground.
The falling seeds of the cannon-ball tree," which
flourished in tropical climates, as they rebounded from
the earth, sounded through the forest like the running
fire of musketry; and the balls, which were perfectly
spherical, presented the appearance as if military had
hermandia sonora, there was a circular orifice below, and
bivouacked around the spot. In the seed-vessels of the
the seeds were disposed at intervals within, so that as
the breeze whistled through spaces between the seeds, the
tree became vocal, and was known to the negroes of the
West India islands by the familiar name of "Jack in the
Box." A friend of his had informed him that there was
a valley in Barbadoes called, from the number of these
trees which it contained, "The valley of Jack in the
Box," and that he had often sat at its entrance listening
with delight to these natural Æolian harps, strung among
swept between the hills.
the branches, as the zephyrs fluttered in the woods or

VIEW OF A CLASSICAL SCHOOL. THE extent to which classical education, as it is called, has long been carried in this country, to the almost entire exclusion of instruction of every other kind, has been more than once commented on in this periodical, and the injurious consequences of the practice pointed out. While admitting the standard writings of Greece and Rome to be fair adjuncts to an elegant educabranch of the belles lettres, the custom of imbuing tion, or, in other words, to constitute an agreeable the mind of youth with that species of knowledge alone, and neglecting all those departments of it calculated to be of use in after-life, was reprobated as alike absurd and deleterious. If, in common with many able contemporaries, we held this opinion formerly, we must say, that something has recently fallen under our eye, which confirms it, and indeed doubles its strengtli. Lighting on a past number of the Quarterly Journal of Education, we there found a sketch of the daily and sessional business of one of the most ancient and distinguished schools of England. It was originally founded by a man of large property, whose purpose was to make it a free school, for the benefit of the youth of the parish in which it is situated; but the very liberality of the founder had the effect, in the course of time, of rendering the school a fashionable one, and unfitting it as a place of instruc tion for any but the children of the richer orders. Masters of the very highest eminence for scholarship were secured by the amplitude of the funds, and the consequence was the progressive influx of the children of the nobility and people of rank, whose attendance at the seminary was in a great measure incompatible with that of the poorer orders. The school, in short, is now almost exclusively one for the youth of the nobility and gentry of England.

And what is here taught to the youth of the English nobility and gentry-those to whom the country is to look for its legislators, rulers, peers, and prelates

After a brief recapitulation of his previous lecture, Mr Murray noticed some important advantages which had resulted to man from a close examination of the structure and physiology of the products of vegetation. Amongst other interesting facts, he stated that the peculiar form and shape of the trunk of the oak imparted to Smeaton the idea of his wonderful structure, the Eddystone Lighthouse. He also adverted to the structure of floating breakwaters, which were exact copies from nature, being white water-lily. In noticing incidentally the great constructed on the principle exhibited in the forms of the height and diameter which particular trees sometimes attained, Mr Murray adverted to the great sycamore, or mammoth tree, from Salt River, bordering on Kentucky and Indiana. The inner portion of this giant tree, which is supposed to be some thousand years old, had long since decayed, and there were large apertures in it which were used as doorways. Before cutting, it measured seventy-two feet in circumference near the base, and five or six years previously, when in a more perfect state, it measured considerably more. Amongst other extraordinary circumstances connected with the history of this tree, probably the largest ever grown on the American continent, it is stated that it frequently served as a shelter for parties of travellers with their teams, and that seventeen horses have been stabled in it at one time. Amongst examples of the opposite extreme exhibited in the productions of the vegetable kingdom, he noticed the cabbage palm of tropical climates, which sometimes reached an altitude of 200 feet, with a stem not exceeding four inches in circumference; while some pines had been found to attain a height of 400 feet. The lecturer next proceeded to describe that beautiful portion of the plant, the blossom, and the mechanism exhibited in the opening and shutting of flowers, in connection with the temperature and hygrometry of the atmosphere. Many flowers closed at the decline of day, and remained shut during night; while others changed their hues so rapidly, that the artist who attempted to make a copy from nature was obliged to wait the return of successive days, in order to depict a particular colour. The hibiscus mutabilis unfolded its blossoms green in the morning; they afterwards changed to white; about noon they became red; and in the evening they changed to a rose tint or a those in whose hands is hereditarily vested the bulk crimson. All these changes had been found to be con- of the soil of England, and who consequently have nected with the varying temperature of the atmosphere. under their control the fortunes and comforts of a The distribution of colour would, therefore, be found to vast portion of their fellow-countrymen-what is possess its geography on the surface of the globe. White taught, at the school in question, to this most imporand blue flowers prevailed as we advanced to the polar tant class? Do we find them imbued with a knowregions; cloth of gold" arrayed temperate climes; and ledge of the past history of their own country, and the tropics. Each colour, too, had its particular season. a vermilion livery clothed "the land of the sun" between enlightened as to the modes of government which have White and blue prevailed in spring, scarlet in summer, injured or benefited it? Do we find them anxiously and the autumn had its sere and yellow leaf." The instructed in all that relates to its commerce, on lecturer here incidentally adverted to the theory of some which its welfare so largely depends? Do we find botanists who contended that flowers were merely meta- their attention called to those wonders of science, morphosed leaves, observing, that the doctrine of "mor- practical and speculative, which have raised it to thể phology," as it was called, was totally irreconcilable first place among the nations, and the farther develope with sound logic or common sense. The independence ment of which must exert so great an effect on its of flowers and leaves could not be controverted. The future interests? Do we find them, in short, trained sloe was a milk-white sheet of blossom before the leaves in such a way as becomes those who are to be the first appeared, and the almond tree blossomed before the men in a great country, to be its legislators and guides foliage expanded. The hazel, too, displayed the pendant in an age of knowledge and improvement, and to serve ensigns of its catkins while the leaves yet remained as the skilful guardians of its many interests? rolled up in the cerements of the buds. The truth was, For centuries, the course of education at this schoo that the offices and functions of leaves were altogether different. In glancing at the interesting phenomenon, has been, and at this day is, something very diffe the chronometry of vegetation, or the opening and shut-rent indeed from the training to which these interro ting of plants at particular hours, Mr Murray mentioned gatories point. By quoting the daily business of the the case of the ornithologalum umbellatum, which ex-forms or classes, we shall enable our readers to judge panded its flowers in Paris at eleven o'clock. The same for themselves. Here is the weekly or six days interesting and curious phenomenon was also witnessed business of the sixth form, the highest or most adin the economy of the seed-vessels and the seeds, the vanced in the school. MONDAY.-Repetition of circumstances connected with the ventilation, matura- Friday's Horace, Satires or Epistles, 50 lines; Latin tion, and preservation of which embraced a world of lyrics or Greek verses of Thursday looked over-hour wonders in itself. Some fruits, seed-vessels, or cases, for this half-past 7 A. M. Horace's odes, 60 or 70 lines →→ were of immense growth and weight, as an instance of hour 11 to 12. Homer's Iliad, 50 lines; rest of hour, which the lecturer mentioned that he had seen a mamEuclid-hour 3 to 4. Roman history, one page-hour moth gourd, which weighed 180 lbs. Some seeds were variable temperatures, appearing to be the design confound to be enveloped in silk, others in cotton and down 5 to 6. TUESDAY is a whole holiday as respects the -protection from moisture, and insulation in reference to school; but exercises and private reading with the assistant masters (all upon the same subjects) go on nected with these remarkable provisions. The seeds of during the day. WEDNESDAY.-Repetition of Friday's particular plants were also provided with wonderful ap- Greek play, 30 lines; rerses of Friday looked overparatus for conveying them to the locality congenial to hour half-past 7. Virgil's Aneid, 50 lines-hour 11 their germination and growth; and for this purpose some to 12. Euclid, Vulgar Fractions, Decimals, or Logic

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