hundred and fifty thousand, of whom more than twelve thousand are shut up in convents. The weather here has been for some days past most intolerably hot. At noon the sun "Darts on the head his forceful ray And fiercely sheds intolerable day.” The heat is so excessively relaxing, that when joined to the labour of climbing up the perpendicular streets, and to their pestiferous odours walking for some hours of the day, is next to impossible. The inhabitants regularly sleep after dinner at this season. The siesta is indulged in by all ranks. At this hour every thing is still and dead. At four the labouring classes begin to appear, and after sunset the principal inhabitants are seen abroad. The evenings are beginning to be cool, and the air at the close of the day is very refreshing. During the continuance of a drought they make processions to procure rain. A deluge and tempest follow, on which occasion they say that when Nosso Senhor is good, he is too good. A Portuguese trying to mount a horse prayed to St. Antonio to assist him. He then made a vigorous spring and fell on the other side into a puddle. Getting up and wiping his clothes, he observed, "St. Antonio has assisted me too much." You may say with truth of this climate, that it never rains but it pours. Days of perpetual, silent rain are very rare; when it once begins the water comes down in a deluge. "Unbroken floods and sold torrents pour." At this time it is easy to imagine how agreeble the streets are. The water rushes down them like rivers, and often with such violence as to make them utterly impassable. In many places I have seen the current three feet deep. As to walking, if you go under the houses, you are drenched with the water spouts; if you attempt the middle of the street you have to encounter a torrent; between the two there is a mountain of dung. Such is the force of the water, that you may stand a chance of getting drowned in an attempt to cross. Instances have actually occured of men and horses being carried away by the cataract, and almost precipitated into the river. Some people are considerate enough to make a bridge, by placing a plank on blocks or barrels, over these rapids. At the bottom of the Calzada Estrella, and at those crossings which are most frequented, gallegos post themselves at these times to convey passengers on their shoulders. The brooks round Lisbon which it was easy a little before to step over, and which in summer totally disappear, during the heavy rains, rush in torrents down the hills. The waters gather together in the valleys so they cannot be forded. In the months of November and December travelling is impracticable. After the rains have subsided, it is necessary to wait a month till the waters have retired to their proper channels. The rainy season lasts till February, after which hardly a drop falls for five or six months. The swelling of the streams it is feared will retard the operations of the army, which is shortly to march into Spain. Snow is extremely rare in this country About fourteen years ago a little happened to fall at which the common people were so terrified that they ran into the churches to implore the protection of St. Anthony, imagining that the world was coming to an end. The gallegos form no inconsiderable, and certainly not the least respectable part of the inhabitants of Lisbon. These useful men leave their poor native province Galicia, and emigrate partly into the other provinces of Spain, and partly into Portugal, where they engage in the most menial offices. Here all kind of drudgery is performed by them. The noble minded Portuguese disdain to engage in such servile employments as porters, waiters, carriers, &c. They scorn the idea of carrying a burden, or wheeling a barrow, which they say is only wor thy of a beast. The gallegos are very patient and laborious. They are so scrupulously honest that their faithfulness has become a proverb. Not withstanding they are avaricious, no allurements of gain will induce them to commit a dishonest action. Their dress is peculiar. They wear a brown cap. Many of them have no other lodging than what they casually find in cellars, stables, or cloisters. With their earnings they often return home to their families, when they have gained a sufficiency, and pass the remainder of their days in their native country. They make excellent servants, and are employed in most English families, as well as by many of the Portuguese, as cooks and chambermaids, &c.; they make beds, girls seldom being employed in that capacity. Portuguese servants are not only too lazy to work, but they are generally thieves, not to mention their uncleanliness. The lower classes here prefer raggedness and filth with all its concomitants, to the smallest exertion. Wherever you go you see a parcel of huge dirty fellows stretching themselves at full length on the ground. In this position they will sometimes continue from morning till night, in a state of the most perfect apathy. You will oftentimes, it is true, see them employed while thus lying in the sun, but their employment consists only in performing for each other the kind office of abridging their respective retinues, which they execute without the assistance of a comb, placing their heads alternately in one another's laps. In this occupation they however merely imitate their betters. All classes here occasionally employ themselves in this meritorious manner. It often serves to beguile a tedious hour, or to fill up a pause in conversation. Persons of condition, so far from being ashamed to allow others to lessen the number of the inhabitants that dwell on the surface of their skulls, will not hesitate in company to perform the same office for themselves. This is not seldom done by them at cards. Young ladies in their visits seldom fail reciprocally to engage in this useful pastime; they vie with each other who shall slay most in a limited time. A friend of mine lives in a family where there are several damsels, who are wonderfully expert at this amusement. They take great pleasure in thus obliging their visitors, and I have several times been asked by them if I would not permit them to confer the favour on me. I saw the other day in the Praca do Rucio, a man seated on the pavement with a baboon on his shoulder picking the lice from his head. He seemed very dexterous in the performance of his work. I was told that he belonged to a fellow who gains his livelihood by thus employing his talents for the public good. Not long since I was dining at a house where the servant who stood behind my chair was, while I was eating, industriously cracking his captives on the back of it. I requested him to defer his bloody business till I had concluded my dinner. When two friends are thus using their fingers instead of combs, those prisoners that they take are usually bitten between the teeth. (To be continued.) FROM THE UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE. M. Delaporte's Journey in England, Ireland, and Scotland. In a Series of Letters to a Lady. Translated from the Paris Edition of 1774. The simplicity with which foreigners in general describe the customs and manners of other countries, always delighted me. Even their errors and prejudices are not without instruction.'-ANON. first derives its source from the Tame and the Isis, not far from Oxford. This city is the most ancient of all that profess the Protestant religion. Each of the numerous colleges here has its library, and the former resemble so many palaces, where upwards of a thousand students and bursars, are maintained. It has the privilege of sending members to parliament ; is governed by its own statutes, and elects a chancellor, who is almost always a person of the first quality, having a vice-chancellor under him, who executes the duties of his office, Geography of England-The City of Oxford, University, &c.-Guy Earl of Warwick-The Parian Marble-Bedford— Curious Paintings-Child eight years of age sentenced to death-Reasons for the same-Woman in the pillory-The Architect and the Duke of Bedford-Privilege of Peers-Man preparing Poison, &c.-Persecution of Catholics apologized for Oaths, Fines, &c.-Sabbath, Original strictness in keeping-Men in Cornwall metamorphosed into StonesMode of trying Witches-Shocking instance of Ignorance and Barbarity-A Witch-Believer's Recantation-Duke of Bedford and the Maid of OrleansLily the Astrologer-Witches and Wizards-Distribution of Alms at Kingston-A Female Highwayman-Singular The English boast much of the Species of Goat-Mode of Fattening theatre at Oxford, where the students Geese-Cattle-Sparrows-Game-En- perform their classical exercises; of glish Climate-Portsmouth-Offensive a cabinet of natural history, antiquiEstablishments in Canada-Hostilities ties, &c.; a chemical laboratory, and -Murder of M. Jumonville-Generosia garden of exotics. But what disty of the Savages-Moderation of the French-Mode of treating French Pri- tinguishes this province most, are soners-Naval Strength of England; its the ancient victories of the celebrated Opulence, &c.-The English Inventors Earl of Warwick, the famous bower of most of the Instruments used in Na- of fair Rosamond, the magnificent vigation-Peers, and People, &c. house of the Duke of Marlborough, and, above all, the celebrated tablets of Parian marble. I have here read the history of Greece, engraved in large characters, more than two hundred and sixty years before the Christian era, and, as some of the characters were impaired by time, I was shown copies in which the omissions were supplied by learned men who had very closely investigated the subject. HITHERTO, Madam, the city of London, and some counties between Dover and the capital have been the objects of my epistles. I have, since that period, made several incursions into the interior, and to the extremities of the kingdom, of which I am going to give you an account. This island, the largest in Europe, and the most flourishing in the universe, is divided into two kingdoms, England and Scotland; the former into fifty-two provinces or counties, in the course of one hundred and eight leagues from the east to the west, and a hundred and seventeen from the north to the south. It is watered by three principal rivers; the Thames, the Severn, and the Humber; the Proceeding to the right, on my way to Cambridge, I passed through the town of Bedford, agreeably situated, though rather small and ill built, as the river Ouse runs through it. I had a letter of recommendation to one of the inhabitants, who possessed a cabinet which much excited the cu riosity of strangers. This is nothing less than the whole body of the laws of England, exhibited in a number of paintings which ornament his gallery. Here we see a child, only eight years of age, condemned to death for setting fire to a barn. His judges, in this case, found a degree of deliberate wickedness, and were also persuaded that malice had been the principal motive of this crime; but, as I still expressed some astonishment at the case, I received for answer "The English think a person may be convicted of a crime, as soon as ever the culprit may have the will to commit the same. It is true that children are very seldom supposed to be responsible for their actions before they are ten years of age; their punishment is therefore migitated. At fifteen, however, they are deemed equally as culpable as grown persons; but, with respect to capital crimes, the law exempts none from punishment, but children under eight years of age. If a person, sound in mind, has perpetrated a crime, and becomes insane previous to his trial, proceedings against him are stopped, because the law supposes him unable to defend himself. The execution of a criminal is less calculated for the punishment of the individual than the example of the whole community. As for drunkenness, it is here regarded more as an aggravation than an excuse for a crime; and it would be deemed next to madness to endeavour to excuse one crime by pleading another as the cause of the first!" Arranged next to this picture was that of a woman condemned to the pillory for having made her house a place of prostitution. "You see that woman," said my attendant, "suffering the punishment of the law, without being able to allege either the authority or the command of her husband for what she has done; because, all the interior economy of the house, is supposed to be under her immediate control; and therefore, not acting under the authority of any one, she is equally as responsible for her actions, as if she was a widow." "Under other circumstances," he added, "an English woman is so dependent upon her husband, that even civil offences, committed by his order, by his instigation, or in his company, do not subject her to the law of the country." ~ But who is that stout fellow, said I, who has caught up another by the middle, and seems as if he meant to throw him from that terrace into the walk below? It is, said my attendant, an architect, who hit upon this singular method for obtaining the payment of a large sum owing him by the Duke of Buckingham. You know that our peers may contract debts, and brave their creditors with impunity, as no action can be brought against their persons. One day, the Duke of Buckingham having received a considerable sum of money, his architect being informed of it, he chose the place, here represented, to wait for the Duke and solicit the payment of his debt. The Duke expressed much regret upon being unable to satisfy him at the moment, but by way of softening his refusal, praised the talents of the architect, and spoke very highly of some work in particu lar done at his Grace's seat. While he was expatiating at large, upon a statue that could only be seen to advantage from a terrace, he incauti ously led the architect there to see it, who, availing himself of this moment of being alone with the Duke, seized him by the waist, and being much stronger than Buckingham, held him over the edge of the parapet, rather lofty, threatening that if he did not pay him that instant, or if he offered to make the least alarm, he would dash him down upon the pavement. Take your choice, said he, either to die on the spot, or to give me an order upon your banker, payable on sight. Here is pen, ink, and paper, write, or die this instant! The Duke, sensible of his danger, thought proper to comply; while the architect, hastening from the terrace, and turning the key of the garden gate upon the Duke, left the house immediately; and mounting his horse, which was waiting for him at the door, flew to the banker's, and received his money without any obstacle. It will appear to you, Madam, very strange, that the English people have not yet appealed against this privilege of parliament, as well as against that which once rendered their houses entirely open to the officers of the Customs. If you imagine such privileges are honourable to a small number of the community, you may be sure they are infinitely prejudicial to the rest of the nation, and particularly to commerce, in favour of contraband goods, which may be deposited in these privileged houses. They pointed out to my observation, in the same painting, two men extremely busy, one occupied in preparing poison, and the other administering it, and both destined to undergo the same punishment: for the English look upon those who commit the crime, and those who provide the means, equally culpable. And though their laws make a difference between the thief, and he who advises the theft, or receives what is stolen, they know of none between a felon, and those who assist him in his escape; or who rescue or prevent his apprehension. They condemn a father who favours the escape of his son, and punish a son who assists his father in a similar object, though not without the benefit of clergy, of which the criminal is deprived. This picture gave rise to some explanation relative to the crimes of felony and high treason. A man in England becomes culpable, if, after renouncing the established religion, he should appear again in the country, and make profession of the Catholic faith. Non conformists are also prohibited from having their children baptized, or the ceremony of marriage performed by any ministers, those of the establishment excepted. : A married woman, who follows any other religion, according to the law, cannot enjoy more than a third of her dowry, nor be the instructor of her own children, nor execute her husband's testament. The rigour against the Catholic clergy. is still greater; if taken in the act of exercising their public functions, excepting in the houses of ambassadors, the law condemns them to perpetual imprisonment. An English Catholic priest, returning from beyond sea, and refusing to take the oaths prescribed, is deemed guilty of high treason, as are also such persons as harbour or protect him. An Englishman conveying an infant out of the kingdom, to be brought up in the Catholic faith, is liable to pay an hundred pounds sterling to the informer, and both the child and its conductor are declared incapable of maintaining any suit at law, &c. &c. Such I was told was the severity of the English laws against those who refuse to embrace the established faith; but they are very rarely put in execution; and in excuse for their severity, it must be confessed, that the times in which they were made, perhaps, rendered them necessary. The restless spirit of the Catholics at the beginning of the reformation, their attachment to the queen of Scotland, the gunpowder plot, the attempt to assassinate king William the third, and the late attempts of the Pretender have compelled parliament to lay hard restrictions upon the Catholics. But to proceed; my eyes being still fixed upon the walls of the gallery, I asked what was the meaning of a man painted in the middle of the field with a gun, and of another person who seemed to threaten him? This I was informed was the law which imposed a fine upon a soldier, a sailor, or an artisan, or any common person convicted of making use of an oath, which penalty was doubled every time after the first. But as the |