deserving man : he is very much liked; and particularly by the poor, whose friend, for his own good, he has too much been."-" So much greater the pity," rejoined I. "But, ma'am, how does your observation apply?"-" He is soon to leave us."—"To leave you?" The "Yes, Sir, after a service of threeand-twenty years; and to make room for a stranger. On the death of our late rector, it was the wish of every one in the parish that he might be presented to the living; but, alas! his services and character were no recommendation, and his virtues were his crimes. The living was offered three deep over his head, and the wishes of the parish never consulted. poor, who chiefly mourn the loss of their friend, are the loudest in their lamentations; and you may be assured we are heartily sorry for it. But what will not caprice and folly effect in opposition to justice and merit.”- "True!" rejoined 1; and wishing the lady a good morning, Happy should I be, if these things were managed differently: but at present we have no remedy but pa tience." A chain of mines runs from east to west through this parish, and continues its course into Camborne: for half a century they have poured wealth into the lap of the Basset family, as lords of the soil: this harvest of good fortune is nearly at an end; the fickle dame, who bestows her favours without any respect to desert, seems now turning her wheel in another direction, and pours them on a combination of merchants. Mines have existed from time immemorial in this county: tin at a very carly period formed its staple. Cornwall, together with Scilly, was, without αςραγάλων ρυθμὸς, κομίζουσιν εἴς τινας accessible at low water. In its imme- : Small found in combination with it, and then it was rejected as useless, receiving the designation of poodre. But now matters are reversed, and tin is invariably rejected for copper; its value be of machinery, though still it is streamed ing inadequate to support the expense for, and is raised sometimes in copper mines. Mining within the last half century has been gradually improving in all its branches, both with regard to putting down shafts, and driving ends to insersect, and to run through the course of the lode : for which the miner, no less than the mariner, is chiefly indebted to the compass its use, so far as it relates to mining, is called dialling. Steam engines, under the scientific hand of Watt, are come to a perfection that would utterly astonish the inventors of the old atmospherical engines: a great saving of coal, and a more powerful application of steam, are the well-known results of his improvements. Formerly, the doubt, the Cassiterides of both Herodotus and Diodore Siculus; the latter gives an account of the tin trade with such a particular reference to places, as cannot leave a shade of doubt on the mind where these islands were situate. βελέριον ἀπέχειν λέγεται τῆς ἠπείρου πλούν Sμipar Toσufwr. Which must be, the Lizard Point: the manners of the inhabitants of this part he describes as being more hospitable and more cut tivated than in other parts of Britain, from commercial intercourse: he then mentions their raising the tin, and refining it for sale, and then its being sarried to market.—ATO TUTOUYTES Nogress when he came to the extent of miner removed the incumbent earth from the lode, and picked his ore from the backs, or those parts of it that were most contiguous to the surface. Sometimes he was indebted to the waterwheel to discharge the mine of its water; but was arrested in his pro its power. The system, of late, has received a complete revolution; the miner no longer crawls on the surface, but having discovered the lode by costeaning (a word derived from two Cornish words, Cothas, to find, and Stean, tin), which is a process of sinking trenches eight or ten feet deep, at various distances from north to south, till the Bryle, goran, or matrix of the lode, is found): he takes up this adit at high-water mark, places a steam-engine on it, and pursues its course till he reaches the copper ore: having proceeded thus far, he penetrates it with levels in all directions, and at various depths in the earth: these levels being connected with shafts, form passages for the conveyance of the ore to them, which is then put into a kibbail, a kind of bucket, and drawn to the surface, where it is prepared for merchandise, and sold to the smelter. It is a question, though mining has been carried to so great an extent, and its system so much improved, whether it has been so productive as formerly. I conceive the advantage was in favour of our predecessors in mining. Formerly, small capitals were embarked, and losses in proportion were small; making all due allowance for the different value of money in the same period. Where mines formerly were discovered, the miners were hurried to no desperate extremity: but since our mining mechanism has been improved, and the art itself better understood, a ruinous speculation has, in many instances, been introduced, and men have not known where to stop; till, like the gainbler, they continue to double their stake, and their ruin is effected in their last throw. The finest object in the inland scenery of this parish is Karnbrê, unquestionably used as a place of worship once by the Druids: when one stands on its summit, we become in a way in spired: we see the Arch Druid in his flowing robe, silver beard, and his golden crescent pendent from his neck, at his bloody ceremonial, immolating a human victim. The circle, the sacrificing rock, the Logan stone, all remind you that you staud on consecrated ground. Here you command a view of 60 miles in extent, from Routor to St. Burien, commanding at the same time the North and South Channels, Mount's Bay, and Peudennis Castle. The bird's-eye view this eminence gives you of the country is very beautiful: mines, villages, and neat country residences, mingle in pleasing landscape, though the country is by no means rich. Dr. Borlase proves to a demonstration, that this Karn was a druidical place of worship: and so must every antiquarian conclude, who examines the many vestiges of druidism here remaining. Tradition, as well as history, assure us, that this Karn was once covered with oak trees; several stumps of those trees are still seen to attest it. Leland says, it was once imparked: at present it is shorn of its oak, and I fear in the course of a few years it will be denudated of, some of its finest granite rocks, and consequently of every druidical vestige. The chisel of the stone-cutter is visible on some of its finest rocks, and an extensive contract, I apprehend, is entered into, for making a bridge over the Severn from the granite of this Karn; which will deprive it of all its hoary honours. How incapable are men of rightly appreciating the gifts of fortune and nature, whose cupidity can be gratified in despoiling her and antiquity of their greatest ornaments! Such gifts are but as "jewels in a swine's snout" to the possessor. If the above account of a parish where I passed some pleasant weeks is deemed worthy of a place in your Magazine, it is much at your disposal for insertion. If I have time, perhaps, I may give you some further remarks on mining, and its interests. For the present, I remain, your's, &c. Penzance, Sept. 22, 1817. VIATOR. To the Editor of the European Magazine. SIR, R," in Virgil, I beg leave to reply to the question of your correspondent, W. K.,* that I consider Belides to be equally incorrect and improper in Virgil, as in the passage which I have quoted from Ovid; since it equally mars the metre in both, by producing, in each case, a trochee, instead of the dactyl which the poet evidently intended." ESPECTING the patronymic," Be I have already assigned my reasons in my former letter, and therefore need not repeat them bere: but, as an additional proof and authority in support of * Page 207. the masculine Beliades, I present to him the following line from Seneca, in which the epenthesis of the A has taken place, converting the feminine Belis Belidos (whence the fem. plur. Belides) into Belias Beliados Stricto cruenta Be--lias | ferro stetit. Herc. Ct. 960. Now every scholar, acquainted with the ancient poets, well knows, that both the masculine and the feminine patronymics are, in that respect, subject to the same laws, the same licences: but the copyists, accustomed to the patronymic Pelides, which so frequently occurs in the poets-and not aware of the difference in the formation and quantity-took for granted that they ought, after the same form, to write Belides in Virgil and Ovid, instead of Beliades, which the metre as imperiously demands in their lines, as it does in the line from Seneca; though, in the latter instance, it afforded better protection to the in serted A, as the want of the additional syllable would be more quickly and more sensibly felt in Seneca's trimeter, than in the hexameters of Virgil and Ovid. THE wantonness of cruelty, to which THES men of naturally bad dispositions may be induced by the possession of despotic power, was never more evident than in that law of Tiberius, which rendered the smallest deviation from profound respect to the Emperor's statue, picture, or resemblance of any kind, a capital crime. At a feast given by Paulus, a man of high rank, Seneca tells us, that when the bowls had gone cheerfully round, and continual repletion began to demand evacuation, the master of the house, on whose finger usually shone a gem,' engraved with the head of Tiberius, rose, more than once, from his chair, to visit the corner of the room. The season of convivial festivity is, by no means, that of consideration, and, of consequence, the ring accompanied Paulus on each necessary errand. Maro, an informer, sat among the guests: man who, though noted for his crimes, was, through motives of personal fear, admitted to every table. This wretch was observed, by an attendant slave, to mark down on his tablets every time that the Emperor's head received dishonour. Paulus had fortunately been a kind master, and the grateful servant rewarded that kindness, by privately slipping the ring from his master's finger; so that when Maro called on the company to witness the treason of their host, the gem was found in the haud of the slave, and the accusation, of consequence, fell to the ground. The observation of the narrator on this story is too pithy and concise to be omitted. "Si quis hunc servum vocat, et illum convivam vocabit." "He who could look upon this man as a slave, ought to invite Maro as a guest.' Odious as this informer's conduct may appear, it has been paralleled at a neighbouring court within the last century. In 1743, a lieutenant in the naval service of Russia, named Falkenberg, rose, under pretence of sickness, from the table of a nobleman high in rank (to which he had been introduced by an intimate friend), that he might repeat before the Czarina Elizabeth a few rash words, which concern for the harsh treatment of the late Regent's exiled family had drawn from the company, in an unhappy thoughtless hour. This wretch's information involved in torfures, and in shameful deaths, no less than eight of the first people in his country, amongst whom were numbered the friend who had introduced him, and Mad. Lepouchin, a lady of elegance, youth, and beauty, whose public and disgraceful sufferings are described by M. Le Chappe d'Auteroche,* in a manner that would chill the blood of a Stoic, This opprobrium to the human race was infinitely more detestable than Maro, as he belonged to a profession which demands and implies the highest ✦ Voyage de Siberie, &c. sentiments of honour; whereas Maro, being known as an informer, gave fair warning to those who invited him to beware of their visitor. The execrable Falkenberg gained, indeed, a regiment by his treachery, but his enjoyments were very limited. None of his officers would exchange a word with him; every one's hand and voice was against him he was per petually harassed by fallacious accusations; he was sometimes imprisoned for faults which he did not commit; a wife, whom he loved fondly, pined to death for the wretched dishonoured condition of her husband; and so far did the abhorrence of his very name operate, that a physician could not be found to visit the innocent, unhappy woman, until one belonging to the army was forced to attend on her, by orders from a field-marshal. A third anecdote, without the burlesque indelicacy of the first, or the complicated horrors of the second, will be at the same time, at least, equally interesting, and equally declamatory against despotic ordinances, with either. A young lady of high birth and fashion at Rome, but unfortunately engaged in the number of Vestal Virgins, became involved in a fatal snare, by a line which dropped carelessly from her pen. The Vestals were allowed great honours and great liberty; and this lady had probably been pleasantly entertained by some married friend, from whose demeanor she had formed a very favourable idea of wedlock. Actuated by some motive, she wrote on a scroll, in the ecstasy of her spirit— "Felices nuptæ! Moriar ni nubere dulce est." The verse was unhappily found; and her hand-writing being known, she was accused as having incurred the punish ment due to those who disgraced the temple of Vesta, that of burying alive. Seneca reports the arguments on both sides, but does not give us the result. When Britons are recalling to their grateful memory the blessings which they owe to the glorious Revolution in 1689, they should be told to what provoking degrees of meanness des Hail, happy bride !-I would I were beheaded But it were monstrous clever to be wedded! That species of vanity which relates to the person, has sometimes been very difficultly extinguished, even at the point of death. The moustache (or whisker) was an ornament highly in fashion towards the beginning of the seventeenth century. The Comte de Bouteville, who was condemned to die, for a duel, was remarkable for the beauty and fullness of his "moustache;" and while the executioner was cutting his hair, that it might not be in his way, the Comte hastily raised his hand to guard those favourite locks; but the Bishop of Nantes, who attended on him, thus reprehended his attachment to such mundane follies.+" Mon fils, il ne faut plus penser au monde. Quoi! vous y pensez encore."+ If, however, any human being was free from personal vanity, it must have been the second Duchess d'Orleans, Charlotte-Elizahelh of Bavaria. us hear her own words. "I must cer Let tainly be monstrous ugly.§ I never had a good feature. My eyes are small, my nose short and thick, my lips broad and thin. These are not materials to form a beautiful face. Then, I have flabby. lank cheeks, and long features, which suit ill with my low stature. My waist and my legs are equally clumsey. Undoubtedly, I must appear to be an odious little wretch; and had I not a tolerably dure me. I am sure a person must be good character, no creature could ena conjuror to judge by my eyes that I have a grain of wit." |