were, in the more northern countries of Europe, and in different parts of the other three great quarters of the globe; they cannot, however, be considered as having yet effected a lodgement there. This, however, is certain, that where any striking event-such as a war or a revolution-occurs, one or more of their number appear, as unfailingly as the vulture at the scent of carrion. They are fond of prowling about old ruins, and secluded, rocky, and woody scenes. It has not, however, been ascertained that they are given to commit acts of violence. Their moral and religious principles seem (as far as can be discovered) of a peculiarly easy and graceful character, susceptible of being put off or on, as they shall be found to accord with the feelings of the nation in which the wearers are for the time resident. They are great collectors and retailers of gossip; but their character for veracity is not quite unimpeachable. They are remarkable for credulity, although this tendency is much kept in check by an admirable provision of nature, in virtue of which they believe, or disbelieve, in conformity with their friendships or enmities. Their philological attainments we have already had occasion to allude to ;-like Coleridge's ancient mariner, "They pass from land to land, They have strange power of speech;" delayed at Moscow by difficulties thrown in the way of his accompanying the army against Turkey as a volunteer. He experienced additional delay in the Crimea. At last he joined Admiral Greig's fleet; remained a short time aboard; obtained leave to make an excursion to Adrianople; left that city in the beginning of October, and returned to Sevastopol in the Crimea, where he was apprehended under suspicion of being an English spy. He was sent to St Petersburg, where he had an interview with the Emperor, who apologized for the harsh and undeserved treatment he had received. In a few days he returned to England, over Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands. The narrative affords a lively picture of the appearance presented by Russia and European Turkey,. during the last campaign, to a traveller making a hasty transit through these countries. It is amusing, and must serve even a higher purpose, till more precise and authentic information can be obtained. Our great objection is, the want of dates. The author apologizes for this omission by saying, that to have given them, except in the case of great operations, would have been attributing too much importance to the motions of a private individual. Our reply is, that he has omitted them even in the case of great military movements; and as to what regards the private individual, it is of some importance to know what events are most likely to have fallen under his own ob and what is worse, they fasten upon the devoted listener servation; for, in his narrative, he makes no distinction with the same inevitable eloquence. We leave to statesmen the serious consideration, how far the existence of these homeless myriads is consistent with the well-being and stability of states. We leave to divines the yet more important enquiry, whether they are not the locusts of whom the Apocalypse declares that they shall come upon the earth at the sounding of the fifth angel's trumpet, and have power given to them as the power of scorpions? Our business is with these gentlemen and ladies in their literary capacity. They belong to the class of authors whom Sterne (we think) has entitled, "those who write galloping." Their incessant change of place gives them volatile habits even upon paper. Their custom of looking more at the outside than at what is beneath the surface, renders them superficial. Their want of time to probe to the bottom the value of the reports they pick up, prevents them from being always very trustworthy. Their volumes may be looked upon as a bulkier kind of newspaper paragraphs. They are not exactly the truth, but an unsubstantial likeness of it, their narrative is founded on facts, they are the long shadows which solid information throws before to herald its approach. Light, flippant, and agreeable, they are excellent food for the devourers of circulating libraries. To criticise severely such aerial beings would be to fight with a phantom. The only way to do with them is, to extract some of their best stories,-taking them as we would do a merry tale over our wine,-laughing at the jest without enquiring too narrowly into its merits. This may seem a long introduction to Captain Alexander's work, but it will save us an immense deal of recapitulation with his successors. Captain Alexander is a military author, and makes great parade of his assiduous study of his profession. He is, we have no doubt, a brave and honourable man, and a good drill; but his book, to say the least, is presumptive evidence against his being any thing more. His military criticisms are entirely confined to the matter of uniforms, in which he seems most profoundly learned. His descriptions of engagements are not particularly happy; and the map prefixed to his second volume is such as no one, in the slightest degree acquainted with the science of map-making, would have allowed to be published with his work. The Captain's story is shortly this: He sailed from England in the beginning of May 1829. He experienced a brief delay in the Baltic, from the ice, which had not completely broken up. He stopped at St Petersburg to learn a little Russ. He was further between what he has seen and what he knows only from report. The campaign opened in February, and closed before the end of September. Captain Alexander left England in May, and experienced no less than four detentions upon the road ;-how long was he in the seat of war? This is a question of some importance.-We subjoin an extract, as a specimen of the manner in which the work is executed: THE PLAGUE AT SEVASTOPOL. "Beside the Quarantine Bay, on whose left were the dispersed remains of buildings, there was a large open space, enclosed with a high wall, and containing several ranges of houses: at the gate of this enclosure we dismounted, and were received by the superintendent and doctor of the quarantine. On entering, we found the rocky shore covered with fifteen hundred Turkish prisoners; they formed picturesque groups as they sat and stood on the uneven sur face; and numerous caves were below them, in which these unfortunate Osmanlees lived. We then went towards a sentinel guarding a low-browed cave, enclosed by a railing, and the entrance to which was washed by the waves: here were the victims of the fatal pest. Russian sailor was lying, who had just expired: he was one of the crew of an infected bark, from the shores of Roumelia; a blackened arm was but partially covered with a winding-sheet; a funeral-boat was moored near, which was about to convey the body to a distant part of the beach for interment with quick lime: two wooden cots, on which many had breathed their last, from the horrid disease, were floating on the water, and a heap of the clothes of the deceased were smouldering and consuming with a slow fire beside where we stood. "At the mouth of this cavern of death the corpse of a "The Governor then ordered some of the infected to be brought out of the cavern for inspection; first, there appeared a stout young man who had just been attacked, and had not yet become much enfeebled by the malady: he walked between two assistants (convicts) who had a most haggard and care-worn look, and were clothed in tarred jackets, trowsers, and gloves, which are non-conductors of infection. The face of the patient was of a yellowish hue, and he started when he observed his dead companion; but, recovering himself, he replied to the questions that were put to him he said he felt feverish, and parched with thirst, and after putting out his tongue, which was quite white, he stripped off his shirt, when inflamed buboes appeared under his arms, and an incipient one on the calf of his left leg. He was then taken back, and an old man, in the stand, and sat down on the rock whilst he showed the dark last stage of debility, was brought before us; he could not spots on his body. A third victim was then carried out in a sheet he was literally in articulo mortis. He said, in a hollow sepulchral voice, that his time was-come; the traces of mortification were very apparent all over his attenuated frame, and he expired with a stifled groan, whilst the assistants were conveying him into the cavern. "The whole scene was one of thrilling horror; and we were so much taken up with contemplating the melancholy exhibition, that we did not observe that the breeze was wafting towards us the smoke from the clothes of the dead; and we inhaled it for a considerable time, but it was attended with no bad effects, though we did not feel at our ease for some time after. We then left this abode of disease and death to return homeward. Many of the Turks were at their evening prayers as we passed; they had spread out their little carpets, by the side of which lay their slippers, and were prostrating themselves in silent adoration towards the Holy City; some of the youths were singing plaintive airs, and some were preparing their couches, and disappearing in the caverns." The Midsummer Medley, for 1830. A Series of Comic Tales, Sketches, and Fugitive Vagaries, in Prose and Verse. By the Author of " Brambletye House," &c. &c. 2 vols. 12mo. London. Colburn and Bentley. 1830. We have always looked upon Horace Smith as an agreeable enough small man, but assuredly nothing more. The present work fully confirms this view of his intellectual character. It is, upon the whole, the poorest which Mr Smith has yet given to the public. It is a sort of omni-gatherum, of what he is pleased to term “ Fugitive Vagaries," the success of which he evidently considers a good deal dependent on the season of the year at which he has brought them out. People are commonly in good humour at midsummer, and disposed to be more easily satisfied than when the wind blows keen from the east, and the sky is thick and muddy. Unfortunately, however, for Mr Smith, the midsummer of the year 1830 does not appear to be like the midsuminer of any other year with which we are acquainted, and has fully as much of a November, as a June or July look. Hence, people are not in one whit better humour than usual, and "Fugitive Vagaries" are as likely to be dealt critically with, as on Candlemas day. When Mr Smith was a young man, he and his brother hit upon a lucky idea, and by the publication of "Rejected Addresses," obtained at once the character of wits. They have been struggling hard ever since to support this character, but by no means with unequivocal success. Nay, we are sorry to say that they have written some as dull things as we could wish to read on the shortest, much less on the longest, day of the year. In the "Midsummer Medley," dulness, we think, on the whole, preponderates. There is a mixture of both prose and verse, but in too many instances, the " Comic Tales and Sketches" look as if the author sat down with the most deadly Intention of being lively in spite of fate; and his humour, consequently, instead of gushing out spontaneously like a fountain, becomes frequently forced, and almost painful. As a poet, Mr Smith was always rather below par; as a novelist, he is respectable, but a little heavy; as a writer in magazines, he wants versatility, and seems to have run himself out. He is never absolutely contempt ible, but he is often feeble and unimpressive. His" Tour to the Lakes," is perhaps the best specimen of rhyme which his" Fugitive Vagaries" contain; and as a pleasant enough little bit of prose, we subjoin the following introduction to AN ARABIAN TALE. “An Arabian Tale! Positively I cannot relate it unless I have Arabian listeners; and to become such, my auditors must all sit cross-legged, and in a circle; which is as indispensable to my proper inspiration, as was the tripod to that of the ancient Pythoness. One cross-legged personage I must have, at all events, to prevent my imagination from flagging; and as there is no tailor at hand, thou, gentle reader, must submit to the operation. There! that attitude will do perfectly well; your chair looks like an ottoman; you yourself have the aspect of a Turk; and, as far as exteriors go, there is nothing farther to be desired of either. But have you prepared your mind, most accommodating reader, as well as your body? Have you laid in a stock of the genuine Arabian, blind, unenquiring credulity? Somebody said of Louis XIV., 'qu'il avoit la foi du charbonnier.? Yours must be as implicit and omnivorous. I will have no uplifting of hands, no enlarging of eyes,-not one of Mr Fudge Burchell's exclamations. If you cannot, upon the present pinch, suppose the flat ceiling of the room in which you are reading to be the pointed top of a tent, and yonder draperied window to be the opening in its front, commanding an extensive view over the great wilderness of Paran, it will be of no use to listen to me. Look! yonder are the camels kneeling down at the wells; and hark! what a pleasant cooling sound is it to hear them sucking up the water with their parched mouths! Ha! the men are quarrelling at the farther well; all struggling to be first to fill their skins and leathern bottles. Lo! daggers are gleaming in the air! it cannot be helped; the sand round about the margin of the water is generally stained with blood. Well, let them fight, we will begin our story, for this clashing of steel will soon be over.-But what is it to be? Shall it be one of the tales of Lokman the fabulist, the kinsman of Job, who lived to the time of David? or of Sandabar, who died only one hundred years before Christ? Shall I recount to you the marvellous history of Solomon's magical ring, or divulge some of the secrets he learned by knowing the language of birds? or conjure up dous in power, who dwells in the dark bowels of the earth; before you the dwarf spirit, little in stature, but tremenbeneath the grey pyramid? "You are aware, of course, that, according to the Arabian creed, a bird, called Manoh, issues from the brain of every dead person, and haunts his sepulchre, uttering lamentable screams, and divulging to the ears of the initiated all the secrets and the crimes of the defunct? Shall I reveal some of these dread mysteries? No: this eternal blazon must not be to ears of flesh and blood.' I will tell you, instead, the story of Hatem Tai, the greatest warrior, and the keen est hunter, that ever drew a sword or wound a horn in Arabia." If Mr Smith thinks we have spoken too severely of him, let him take care to publish his next Medley in the middle of a bona fide summer, and not merely at midsummer time. If we had blue skies and soft zephyrs, we might come to like his apostrophes to Italian ImageBoys, and histories of Mark Higginbothams. THIS work is only going through the press, but we have been favoured with a perusal of all the sheets yet ready. It bids fair to be an interesting and well-arranged collection of anecdotes, illustrative of the men and things of Scotland, England, and Ireland. In the first department, which is the Scottish, the ingenious editor has introduced a number of anecdotes and historiettes hitherto unpublished, and from the various sources from which he has selected the remainder, he has been pretty successful in keeping back all the more hackneyed and oft-repeated jeux d'esprit. We shall entertain our readers with some of the stories which Mr Chambers has collected, most of which are as yet as good as manuscript, as the work itself will not appear for several weeks : EDINBURGH LAWYERS. "The Edinburgh lawyers of the last age were a race very much addicted to hard drinking. Drinking, indeed, intruded itself into every scene of their lives; and, as much of their business was necessarily performed in taverns, on account of the wretched accommodation of their own houses in the old town, the ink-glass and the claret-stoup were alike dear to them; and they could scarcely attempt to take a supply from the one, but the pen was in danger of being immersed in the other. These habits clung to them till a very recent period, as some anecdotes of men still alive will testify. "A gentleman, now retired from public life, but who will be long remeinbered for his talent of saying good things, was one night engaged with a judge in a tremendous bouse, which lasted all night, and till within a single hour of the time when the court was to meet next morning. The two cronies had little more than time to wash themselves in their respective houses, when they had to meet again in their professional capacities of judge and pleader, in the Parliament House. Mr C, it appears, had, in the hurry of his toilet, thrust the pack of cards he had been using over night into the pocket of his gown; and thus, as he was about to open the pleading, in pulling out his hand. kerchief, he also pulled out fifty-two witnesses of his last night's debauch, which fell scattered within the bar. Mr C' said his judicial associate in guilt, with the utmost coolness, before ye begin, I think ye had better tak up your hand.' "An equally wet and witty barrister one Saturday encountered an equally Bacchanalian senatorial friend, in the course of a walk to Leith. Remembering that he had a good jigot of mutton roasting for dinner, he invited his friend to accompany him home; and they accordingly dined together, secundum morem solitum. After dinner was over, wine and cards commenced; and, as the two friends were alike fond of each of these recreations, neither ever thought of reminding the other of the advance of time, till the church bell next day disturbed them in their darkened chamber about a quarter before eleven o'clock. The judge then rising to depart, Mr walked behind him to the outer door, with a candle in each hand, by way of showing him out. Tak care, my lord, tak care,' cried the kind host, most anxiously holding the candles out of the door into the sunny street, along which the people were pouring churchwards; 'tak care; there's twa steps.'" used to frequent a tavern in a low street in Edinburgh called. the Potterrow, where, if their accommodations were not of the first order, they had at least no cause to complain of the scantiness of their victuals. One day, as the landlady was bringing in a third supply of some particularly good dish, she thus addressed them :- They ca' ye the literawti, I believe; od, if they were to ca' ye the eaterawti, they would be nearer the mark.'" REASONS FOR THE SCOTCH BEING great smugglers. "An Englishman once expressed great surprise, in a company of literati at Edinburgh, that the Scotch should be so much addicted to smuggling, seeing that they are a remarkably sober and moral people. He thought it must be much against their conscience. 'Oh, not at all, sir,' said Mr Rd, a noted punster, who was present; what is conscience but a small still voice.'-' Farther,' added Professor W- -, it is the worm that never dies."" A LAD IN HIS DAY. "When Dr Thomson (father of Dr Andrew Thomson of Edinburgh) was minister of Markinch, he happened to preach from the text, Look not upon wine when it is red in the cup;' from which he made a most eloquent and impressive discourse against drunkenness, stating its fatal effects on the head, heart, and purse. Several of his observations were levelled at two cronies, with whom he was well acquainted, who frequently poured out libations to the rosy god. At the dismissal of the congregation, the two friends met, the doctor being close behind them. Did you hear yon, Johnie?' quoth the one. Did I hear't! Wha didna hear't? I ne'er winked an ee the haill sermon.'-' A weel, an' what thought ye o't?'-'Adeed, Davie, I think he's been a lad in his day, or he coudna ken'd sae weel about it! Ab, he's been a slee hand the minister !'" THE NEW CUT. "An old Scotch clergyman, who had an old tailor for his man, was one day riding home from a neighbouring parish, where he had been assisting in the celebration of the sacrament. 'John,' cried he, how comes it, do you think, that my young brother there should have such great assem blages of people hearing him, when I, for instance, although preaching the same sermons I ever preached, am losing my hearers daily?'- Lord bless ye, sir,' answered his sage valet, it's just wi' you as it's wi' mysell. I sew just as weel as ever I did; yet that puir elf has taen my business maist clean awa. "The taverns to which Edinburgh lawyers of those days resorted were generally very obscure and mean-at least such they would now appear; and many of them were so peculiarly situated in the profound recesses of the old town, as to have no light from the sun, so that the inmates had to use candles continually. A small party of legal gentle meu happened one day to drop into one of these dens; and, as they sat a good while drinking, they at last forgot the time of day. Taking their impressions from the caudles, they just supposed that they were enjoying an ordinary evening debauch. Sirs,' said one of them at last, it's time to rise: ye ken I'm a married man, and should be early at hame.' And so they all rose, and prepared to stagger home through the lamp-lighted streets; when, lo! and "Every body is aware of the indolent character of the behold! on their emerging from the tavern, they suddenly author of The Seasons;' of his being found once in a found themselves projected into the blaze of a summer after-garden, eating fruit off a tree with his hands in his pockets, noon, and, at the same time, under the gaze of a thousand curious eyes, which were directed with surprise to their tipsy and negligent figures. How they got home, under such circumstances, through a crowd of sober and unsympathizing spectators, is left to the imagination of the reader.” THE REV. MR SHERRIFF OF KÍRKALDY. It's no the sewing that 'll do, sir; it's the new cut; it's just the new cut.'" NAE MOTIVE. &c. A friend one day entered his room, and finding him in bed, although the day was far spent, asked him, in the name of wonder, why he did not get up? 'Man, I hae nae motive,' replied the poet." WHO WAS JESSE? THE LAIGH GREEN. "An old schoolmaster, who usually heard his pupils once "Innumerable characteristic anecdotes are told of this ce-a-week through Watts' Scripture History, and afterwards lebrated clergyman, who, for native humour and unrestrain-selves to his mind, one day desired a young urchin to tell asked them promiscuously such questions as suggested themed freedom of speech, never perhaps had his equal in the him who Jesse was? when the boy briskly replied, ' The Church of Scotland. It was one of his many eccentricities to speak of secular, and even familiar things, in the time of Flower of Dumblane, sir.'” divine service, so as sometimes to overset the gravity of his congregation. In the year 1794, when a number of volunteer corps were raised throughout the country for the defence of government, a Kirkaldy weaver, who had got himself newly decked out in the flaming uniform of the Kirkaldy brigade, came one Sunday into church, after the commencement of divine service, and kept lounging about for some time in the passage, to show himself in his new attire, although repeatedly offered accommodation in the pews. Mr Sherriff was only prevented from immediately reprehending his vanity by his being engaged in prayer; but, when that was concluded, he looked over the pulpit and said to the new soldier, 'Sit down, lad; we ken ye've gotten new breeks, and we'll tak a leuk at them when the kirk skails.' A SHEEP'S-EYE VIEW. which belonged to one of the bailies. The boy having an "Some years ago, a poor boy went into a shop in Glasgow, interesting appearance, the magistrate put some question to these points he found the boy very ignorant, as might be him respecting his education and moral instruction. Upon expected. The magistrate also enquired of him how he was employed on the Sunday, and was told that he begged on the week days, and played himself on the Sabbath day. Sabbath day? Do you know, my lad, where all those go What!' says the bailie, is that the way you spend the that play themselves on the Sabbath day? Ay, sir,'says the boy; they gang to the Laigh Green." NO PAY NO PLAY. "When the first Musical Festival took place at Edinburgh, there was a great bustle for some time before among not be a sufficient number of violin-players in town, to fill the musicians, and much fear was expressed lest there should that department of the orchestra. An old woman who con ducted a wretched performer, her husband, through the streets, and who thought, perhaps, that the Musical Festival would be an affair little better than a penny wedding, hearing of the great demand for fiddlers, remarked one day to a friend, Faith, they'll no get our John, unless they "Hume, Smith, and other literati of the last century, pay him weel!" "A gentleman of Edinburgh, being in love with a lady at Portobello, (a sea-bathing village two miles from the capital,) used to take walks along with a friend to the top of Arthur's Seat, for no other purpose than to get a distant peep at the residence of the dear object. This bis friend called, 'Taking a sheep's-eye view of Portobello.'”, in ch LITERARY GUZZLEMENT. We shall return to this amusing volume at some early position it creates for the ready reception of all manner opportunity. of errors, fallacies, and absurdities. Hundreds of examples might be produced to prove that this is not fanciful speculation, but a just representation of the cha It may The History and Topography of the United States. racter and tendency of false religion, in so far as regards Edited by John Howard Hinton, A.M. the real interest and happiness of mankind. Illustrated with a series of Views, drawn on the spot, and enbe sufficient, however, if we mention one or two histo graved on Steel. Vol. I. Part I. rical facts, illustrative of what has just been stated, and London. Jennings and Chaplin. August, 1830. showing that even the administration of public justice, and the execution of penal laws, have been frequently ob THIS work, which is to appear monthly, will be com- structed or neutralized by the sophistry of superstition, pleted in thirty Parts, and will form two handsome Theodosius I. (as we learn from his Constitutions, and quarto volumes. Of the merits of the history which it other authorities collected by Pilati, in his Histoire des is to contain, we cannot yet speak, although the specimen Révolutions depuis l'accession de Constantin jusqu'à la before us seems to be respectably executed. The engra- chute de l'Empire d'Occident) prohibited all criminal pro-- vings, which are three in number, besides the vignette, cedure during Lent; assigning, as a reason, that the judges are not first-rate, but they are distinctly executed, and ought not to punish criminals at a season when they were are interesting. They represent, 1st, "Piazza of Con- asking pardon of God for their own offences. Valenti*gress Hall, Saratoga Springs," 2d, "A View of New-nian I. published an edict or constitution, ordaining that, haven, Connecticut, comprehending Yale College ;" and 3d," City Hall, New York." The vignette is a view of the bay of New York. son. The Seasons, and Castle of Indolence. By James ThomWith Notes, Original and Selected. To which is prefired, the Life of the Author, by Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Edinburgh. Stirling and Kenney. 1830. 24mo. Pp. 279. THIS edition of Thomson's works recommends itself to the public on account of its cheapness and neatness. The notes also, with which it is accompanied, were contributed, we understand, by the late Earl of Buchan, the late Dr Robert Anderson, and the late K. Williamson Burnett of Monboddo. There are likewise a frontispiece and * vignette, the latter representing Musidora at the spring. An Taillegan; Comh-chrunneachadh ohan, oran, agus dhuanag. Le Seumas Munro. Glaschu. W. R. M Phun. 1830. 32mo. Pp. 64. THIS is the first pocket collection of songs published in the Gaelic language, and contains the best which that language affords. They are neatly printed and arranged. MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE. NUGE LITERARIÆ. By James Browne, LL.D. Hæ Nugæ in seria ducent. SUPERSTITION AND SOPHISTRY.-Truth can never be employed in defence of falsehood; in other words, a system founded in error can only be maintained by deception; and hence sophistry is the natural ally of superstition. All history bears testimony to the justness of this remark. Religion, in its purity the first of blessings, the ornament of our nature, and the source of all true virtue and happiness, when debased by ignorance, or corrupted by superstition, becomes a bane and a curse; searing the heart, blinding the understanding, and vitiating the moral perceptions of mankind, at the same time that it engenders the most mischievous delusions, and opposes a formidable barrier to the progress of knowledge, and the general improvement of the human race. Corruptio optimi pessima, says the well-known proverb; and in nothing is this pessimism more conspicuous or more malignant than in the sophistication of the mind, and the dis at the solemnity of Easter, all prisoners should be set at liberty, excepting such as were accused of great crimes, Constantine prohibited, by a law, the branding of felons on the countenance, a common infliction prior to the imperial decree abolishing it, because, according to him, it was contrary to the law of nature to wound the majesty of" the human face divine." Voilà une singulière raison, says Mr Bentham, alluding to this law; la majesté du front d'un scélérat! The Inquisition, says M. Bayle, sarcastically, but truly, condemns heretics to the flames, in order that it may not violate the maxim, Ecclesia non novit sanguinem." It murders by wholesale, under the sanction of a verbal quibble. La religion a eu ses calembourgs, comme la loi Upon no better or worthier grounds have Christian temples been opened as asylums to robbers, murderers, cut-throats, parricides, who have been, and still are, enabled to shelter themselves from the pursuit of justice, at those very altars dedicated to the worship of Him in whose law it is written, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." 66 PUNISHMENT OF DEATH.-Much has been said and written of late on the subject of capital punishment, and a proposal has just been made, in the French Chamber of Deputies, for its total abolition, not excepting the extreme cases of murder and high treason. It is not stated is it at all necessary to go into any metaphysical arguupon what grounds this proposition was maintained; por ments on the subject. The punishment of death has four qualities to recommend it. First, In the case of murder, it is analogous to the crime. Secondly, In the same case, it is popular; that is, conformable to, and approved by, the sentiments of mankind. Thirdly, It relieves society of the terror of a repetition of the crime by the same individual, or, in other words, completely takes away the power to injure. Fourthly, It is eminently exemplary, inasmuch as it produces a stronger impression than all other species of punishment. We say nothing here of the warrant, contained in the Divine law, for its infliction in the case of murder; because we are now considering the punishment with reference to its own inherent qualities, viewed in connexion with the opinions and interests of society, which must ultimately determine all legislation on this subject. From what has just been stated, however, it is manifest that the punishment of death can never be abolished, without injury to society, until a substitute be found for it, which shall combine all, or at least the most essential, of the qualities above enumerated; namely, popularity, efficacy in taking away the power to injure, and exemplariness in an equal, or nearly equal, degree; and that, before any one can be entitled to be heard upon the subject, he must not only be provided with a substitute, but prepared to prove, beyond the possibility of dispute, that it possesses the qualities requisite for the protec tion and security of society. But no such substitute has yet, so far as we know, been proposed, nor, in the case of murder, to which alone our observations apply, is it likely ever to be found. Analogy, we admit, is only one re- like a huge bulrush, from fibrous and reedy roots, and, commendation of a punishment, and that, too, of second-running up in several triangular stalks, sometimes, accordary importance. In a punishment otherwise good, it is ing to Pliny, attained a height of ten cubits; although an additional merit or advantage; but it forms no justi- Theophrastus (Hist. Plant. lib. iv. c. 9) asserts that it fication of a bad one. Punishments might easily be ima- seldom exceeded three feet, which, considering the soil gined, as, for example, excisio testium, in the case of the and the climate, we think a most improbable statement. crimen raptus, which, though possessing the most perfect The stalks, at the thickest part, were about a foot and a analogy to the crime, would, nevertheless, shock the sen- half in circumference, tapering towards large tufted heads, timents of mankind, and thus fail to prove exemplary, which were altogether unfit for the manufacture of papyeven if the power of injuring were destroyed. But when, rus. The stem only was used for this purpose. Being slit to the secondary recommendation of analogy, we add the into two equal parts, the outer rind or bark was taken off, primary and essential requisites of popularity, efficacy, and the thin films or pellicles of which the stem was chiefly and exemplariness, we exhibit a combination of qualities composed, were then separated, by means of a sharp instruwhich belong to, and characterise, the ultimum supplicium ment, the innermost coats being always esteemed the best. alone. It has, indeed, been said, that any punishment This done, the films or pellicles in question were stretched 'may become as popular as that of death in the case of out upon a table, and being covered on one side with a 'murder, or even more so, provided it be found equal- fine paste made of wheaten flour, two or more of them, ly or more efficacious in the prevention of the crime. according to the thickness desired, were placed upon one True; but the whole question hangs upon the proviso; another transversely, and glued together by means of and it is incumbent upon those who maintain the inex- the paste; after which they were pressed, dried, and pediency of capital punishment, to point out a substitute smoothed by means of a roller, or, as sometimes happened, equally or more efficacious in the prevention of crime. by repeatedly passing over them a solid glass hemisphere. Perpetual imprisonment, with hard labour, has been fre- Such was the simple process by which Egyptian Papyrus quently mentioned, and indeed it is the only substitute was prepared for writing, in so far as we have been able which can be devised. But, in the first place, it is not to collect the details of it from the somewhat confused an exemplary punishment, or rather, it is, from its very and contradictory statements of ancient writers. It ap nature, the reverse; secondly, the security which it offers pears farther, that the size of this paper seldom exceeded to society against a repetition of the crime, is far from two feet, and was generally much smaller. Among the being complete, inasmuch as nothing is more common Romans it had different names, according to its size and than the escape of felons, even from our strongest prisons; quality; the largest and finest being called Imperial, from thirdly, being neither exemplary in itself, nor such as to being used as letter-paper by the great men of Rome; the afford complete security to society, it can have little or no second sort, Livian, from Livia, the wife of Augustus ; efficacy in preventing the commission of the crime; lastly, and the third, Sacerdotal, we presume from its being used if it be ineffectual as a preventive, it can never become by the priests or augurs. Each leaf of the second and popular, or, in other words, conformable to public senti- third sorts was respectively twelve and eleven inches 'ment and opinion. These considerations appear quite square. An inferior kind, only nine inches in dimen'conclusive against the only substitute which has been, or sion, appears to have been used in the amphitheatres. ever can be, proposed for the punishment of death, and, Several charters, written on papyrus, are extant both in by necessary consequence, for its continuance, in the Italy and France; and it continued to be employed, in particular case to which alone our observations apply. diplomatic instruments and other public writings, till We cannot help adding, however, that a great deal of so- the seventh century, when it seems to have been comphistry and mystification has been employed by the ad- pletely superseded by parchment. (Astle's Origin and Pro versaries of capital punishment. No one has yet ven-gress of Writing, p. 204.) The specimens we have seen tured to deny that a man may lawfully kill in self-defence. Why may not society do the same thing for the same cause? A murderer is the common enemy of all, and, while he exists, no one can feel perfect security. Has not society, then, as good a right to put to death an enemy which threatens its existence from within, as one which threatens its existence from without? Both are cases of self-defence; in both, necessity compels, and therefore warrants, his destruction. of this substance are extremely coarse in the grain, as well as dark in the colour; so much so, indeed, that even with the aid of frequent washing in a solution of galls, it is extremely difficult to render the writing visible and legible; and it can never have been either an easy or agreeable task to write upon so coarse and so hard a substance, or to form the letters with any thing approaching to the distinctness attainable in writing upon parchment. In fact, the writing is almost uniformly bad; and, in many cases, it could never be deciphered at all, were it not for the aid afforded by the Greek registries engrossed on the top margin, which, though far from being well written, are of course much more easily read than the Egyptian texts of the syngraphs, or deed. TOM AND BOB; OR, A PLOT DISCOVERED. PAPYRUS.-A great deal having been said of late years on the subject of Egyptian Papyri, it may not be uninteresting to the general reader, if we inform him respecting the mode in which this substance was prepared for receiving those remarkable writings which the inge'nuity and learning of modern scholars have at length succeeded in deciphering. It appears from a statement of Varro, that the practice of writing on this plant was introduced into Egypt in the time of Alexander the Great, and that Ptolemy Philadelphus was the first who caused books to be transcribed on papyrus (paper-rush); nor, so far as we know, has any manuscript of this description By one of the Authors of the " Odd Volume," " Tales and been yet found of a more ancient date than the reign of the Ptolemies; although it is not improbable that this may happen, as Pliny expressly informs us, (lib. xiii. c. 11 and 13,) that papyrus was used by the Egyptians three centuries before the reign of Alexander. One thing is tertain, however, that it only became an article of commerce after the period of the Macedonian conquest, when quantities of it began to be exported to different parts of Europe and Asia. Papyrus was an aquatic plant, abounding in hollow places overflowed by the Nile, and on the Inundation subsiding, left fall of stagnant water. It grew Legends," &c. I AM a saddler by trade, but I am of a sentimental and contemplative turn of mind, and often saunter by myself into St James's Park, and along the Bird Cage Walk. One evening lately, wrapped in my meditations, I remained till it was very dark, and the Park was nearly empty. I had taken my station under a large tree, near which there was a bench, on which two wellish-dressed men were seated, and apparently in earnest conversation. Coming out of my reverie, I began, to speculate on the |