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art enough in it ;—' I wanted kidney potatoes ;'--still, do not discourage you; If you have any of a better rt;'-You may succeed more perfectly, perhaps, in a cond attempt;- Send me six sacks ;'But don't let it ceed three acts';— My price, for a good article, will be ghteenpence a bushel-If I approve of your play, I all give you one guinea per night - Send them when er you choose ;'-You may let me hear from you as soon you like ;—' I am, sir ;'-Next week, if you're ready; Your obedient servant;'-I'm always at home; ROBERT WILLIAM ELLISTON;'-Seal it, and send it, en ;—Good morning, sir !

Trusting, however, that our readers may partake more of our former, than of our latter feelings, we heartily wish them all a merry Christmas; but, sincerely desirous that they may on no account be induced to become more merry than wise, we shall subjoin for their salutary warning the following very awful tradition:

A LEGEND OF GLAMIS,

Glamis Castle has long been familiar to every reader of Macbeth,we need not, therefore, describe " its pleasant seat,"-nor how "the temple-haunting martlet hath made his pendent bed in every jutty, frieze, and buttress of its ancient towers."

It was many centuries ago, that Christmas day happened to occur (as it does now) on a Sunday; and every injunction was given by the clergy that it should be observed with the most devout solemnity. Our good King James's book of" Lawful Sports for Sunday," would at that time have been utterly useless, as every kind of relaxation was indiscriminately prohibited, and the strictest discipline of the church enjoined from every pulpit in the kingdom. To all well-disposed minds, this was a source of real gratification; and, in obeying the precepts of the clergy, they only followed their own pious inclinations; but to many, the restraints of the approaching solemnity appeared likely to prove an intolerable burden, and amongst the rest, a large party of bon vivants, who were assembled at Glamis Castle, resolved to celebrate their festivities in the manner that suited them best.

SONNET.

THE FOREST-BREEZE.

WRITTEN IN DEJECTION.

By T. Brydson.

this old natural aisle, where, side by side,
And top to top, stand the grey elm and oak➡
heard thy voice come onward like the tide
Of summer sea, on shore that has no rock.

h, eloquent-breathing voice! which at once brought
To my still'd soul flow'r odours small bird's song
The coo of doves—and bleatings far among
teep-sprinkled hills. Now art thou, well I wot,
hou forest-breeze, most sorrow-changed since then,
And wailest mournfully adown this aisle,
Which looks in naked leaflessness, the while,
ike Gothic ruin. Soon wilt thou again

Lift up thy summer voice but when will he,

On Christmas eve, the bottle had circulated freely, till late on that memorable afternoon, when the whole party, with one consent, adjourned to the gaming-table. One gentleman, who had been particularly deep in his

Who loves thy saddest tones, respond thy tones of glee? potations, was observed to play with the most remarkable

THE FOUNTAIN IN WINTER.

By Thomas Brydson.

FLOWERLESS banks and leafless trees
Are the picture now,

Which yon aged trav❜ller sees

As he bends his brow

Over thy cold marble brim,

On this sunless day

Does the picture type to him
Pleasures fled away?

Ah! yes-old age is emblem'd there,

In the banks and bowersWhile memory sings a plaintive air Of youth's leaves and flowers.

CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS.

eagerness; the dice-box seemed perpetually in his hand, but yet every throw he attempted proved more adverse than its predecessor. Already he had lost a very considerable sum of money, when the more sober part of the company announced that it was nearly twelve o'clock, and lighted their tapers to retire.

The losing gamester loudly insisted, however, that his antagonist should remain to give him a chance of regaining his money, to which the other most readily consented.

"You cannot surely propose playing,” said an elder member of the party, "until the morning of Christmas day?"

"I shall persevere till I retrieve my losses !" exclaimed the enraged gambler, "even though our game were to last till the Day of Judgment."

Instantly the tapers of all the company burnt blue,—a strong smell of sulphur arose, and scarcely had the rest of the party time to rush out of the fatal room before its walls and windows were closed for ever on the two illfated gamesters.

penance.

No entrance to that apartment has ever since been discovered; but on each subsequent Christmas eve a noise As our immortal Shakspeare has very judiciously re- of jovial festivity resounds through the ancient halls of arked, “Christmas comes but once a year." We re- the Castle, and an incessant rattle of dice gives fearful ember the time when so rare a recurrence of this fes-testimony to the supernatural duration of the gamester's ve occasion was a subject of deep lamentation to ushen the bun, the turkey, and the Yorkshire pie, (which valled the Douglas larder)—when the Christmas firede, the Christmas holyday, and the Christmas box, ere for six months the daydream of our sanguine hopes, ad for as much longer, the perpetual theme of our deghtful reminiscences. Our feelings are now of a more equered nature-the snows of many a successive year ave chilled the ardour of our anticipations-the comliments of the season have now assumed a new form, ad our desk is groaning beneath a mountain of unopened For this profanation of Christmas, the whole party etters, whose seals of Jews'-wax, and very billious were condemned on the spot, to continue dancing a whole spect, have almost brought us to rejoice in the declara-year incessantly; their shoes did not wear out, neither on of the poet, that " Christmas does come only once a

ear."

It is a well-known tradition of the Roman Catholic Church, that one Christmas eve, a gay party being assembled for its celebration, they ended, as more modern parties frequently do, with dancing. The light fantastic toe was in full exercise, when twelve o'clock was loudly pealed from all the neighbouring churches. This produced no interruption to the joyous efforts of the company, who seemed to emulate each other, "till roof and rafter 'gan to dirl."

did they feel tired nor hungry, during all that time; but they danced on with unrelaxed activity, till the very

ground on which they trode was worn away, and a deep chasm is still to be shown, which was excavated by their incessant footsteps.

We ourselves are fond of an occasional gallopade; but one night has generally sufficed to wear out both ourselves and our shoes. Nevertheless, there are doubtless many in this gay city, to whom a whole year of incessant dancing would be no very formidable penance, and there may even be a few, to whom many centuries of gambling would appear as an agreeable pass-time. In whatever way our readers may be pleased to spend their Christmas eve, however, we trust it will be so much to their own satisfaction, that we cannot wish them better than to hope they may have a whole year, or rather a whole century, of such enjoyment.

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I may mention, that some of their brethren in the south appear to have been abundantly supplied with fish. Four thousand eels were a yearly present from the monks of Ramsey to those of Peterborough!

Last Execution for Witchcraft in England.-Sir Walter Scott has fallen into an error in his "Letters on Deme ology," in representing the last execution for witchcraft in England, under form of judicial sentence, to have be in 1682. So late as 1716, two persons, Mrs Mary Hicken and her daughter, the latter only nine years of age, we tried at the assizes at Huntingdon, and executed there a Saturday, July 28, of that year. The case is thus cheracterised by Gough: "A substantial farmer apprehe his wife and favourite child; the latter for some sy illusions practised on his weakness, the former for the antiquated folly of killing her neighbours in effigy; and Judge Powell suffers them to be hanged, on their ow confession, four years after his wiser brother had venturi his own life to save that of an old woman at Hertford" And this in an age which could boast the names of Nes-ton and Boyle, Locke and Addison, Bentley and Arbus:not, Pope and Swift!

Richard Cromwell.-In his first speech to his Paris ment, Richard Cromwell thus beautifully touches upr his father's death:-" He died full of days, spent in so and great travel, yet his eyes were not waxed dim, neither was his natural strength abated; as it was said of Most he was serviceable even unto the last. As to these no tions, he left them in great honour abroad, and in n peace at home: all England, Scotland, and Irelan dwelling safely, every man under his vine and his fig-t from Dan even to Beersheba." The whole of this spes in composition and natural pathos, wants little but the irresistible eloquence of truth, to render it equal to th funeral orations of antiquity. Richard Cromwel wa an amiable man, but wholly destitute of force or energ of character. His last words were highly characterists When dying, he said to his daughters, "Live in love; I am going to the God of Love."

"

Church and State...a stickler for Athanasius' CreedIn 1710, Gabriel Newton, an alderman of Leicester, i wt baterais owy By R. Carruthers. L.26 per annum to the corporation of Huntingdon, it

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title, In a former contribution, under the above t avowed a lurking fondness for mouldy books, and time-testator makes the following injunction:-" The b worn manuscripts, the disjecta membra of departed customs and forgotten events. The following trifles, picked up in the county of Huntingdon, may gratify some laborious idler, of kindred taste.

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Act for Saving Flesh Victual.-In the 5th of Queen Elizabeth, (1563,) an act was passed "for the better saving of flesh victual, by ordering every Wednesday to be a fish day, unless in cases of sickness." In the parish register of Eynesbury, a village in Huntingdonshire, there is an entry illustrating this s curious act of Elizabeth. "John Burton, being very sycke, was licensed to eat flesh for the tyme of his syckness, so that he, enjoying the benefit of the licence, and his sickness continuing vill dayes, do o cause the same to be regystered into the registerbook; and this lycence noe longer to endure than his sickness doth last; by me, William Samuell, parson of Eynesbury." This entry occurs under the date of 1568, five years after the passing of the act.

A Fatal Infection.—The parish register of Ramsey records, that Major William Cromwell (a cousin of the

clothing and educating boys of indigent parents. T

are to tone the responses, and the money is to be with drawn if the Creed of St Athanasius be not publicly resa in the church, unless the said Creed, by king, quen, e

Parliament, be abrogated or abolished out of the rul of the Church of England, which abolition, in the e

nion of the said Gabriel Newton, will be a greater blow to the Church and State than the taking off the head a the royal martyr, King Charles the First.

Anglo-Saxon Cookery. The general food of the Angis * Saxons appears to have consisted of the articles now in use, but the porpoise was admitted to the table, a des cacy for which our taste has certainly declined. Neither do we stand in need of an admonition from the Counc to refrain from eating horse-flesh. It was one of the Saxon regulations, that if a person ate any thing halfdressed, ignorantly, he should fast three days; if know ingly, four days.

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all of them could not be consistent with the theory u, ese brought forward to prove. Thus

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elle contended

WERNERIAN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY.

... gard to plumage, to European ones; but it was suggested A FAREWELL TO THE HARP.

by the Professor that a variation may exist in the form By John Malcolm.

of the head, sufficient for making them distinct species, ADIEU, my harp, from whose tones of sorrow,

js 113 especially if at the same time a difference shall be found Low sighing round me their hymned spell,

*****s to exist in the habits of the bird, in the locality, period A mystic joy my lone heart could borrow,

of migration, &c.
I bid thy music a long farewell.
Of Nature's charms, and of Beauty's daughters,

ANDERS IAN UNIVERSITY SOIREES.
Thy pensive breathings no more shall be ;
Bat like thy mates, lull’d by Babel's waters,

Glasgow, December 27, 1831. I hang thee now on the willow-tree.

DR SCOOLER read a paper, entitled an examination of

the Diluvian hypothesis of Messrs Cuvier and BuckYet not as one his first love forsaking,

land. His object was to prove that the evidence brought Of aught than song do I higher deem,

forward to support this hypothesis was quite inconclue And not as one that from visions waking,

sive, and that the parts could be explained with more Forgets the music that blest his dream,

simplicity on other principles. Dr Scouler disclaimed I leave thee now; but because each feeling

all cosmogony, as being utterly unconnected with the Too strongly thrilled to thy dirgerlike strain,

science of geology, and hoped the time was past when And spirit wounds Time's soft balm was healing,

the dreams of Werner, Woodward, or other visionaries, Were ope'd afresh till they bled again. goud

would be mistaken for philosophy.

The Diluvian theory, it was observed, reposed on a Then farewell, my hush'd harp, for

ever,

multitude of heterogeneous and discordant facts, and that Not less I love thee that now we part ;, ; No more thy breathings sball fan to fever

which they The passions shrined in this glowing heart. the Diluviyu, as

been called, had many origins, No more the spell of thy weeping numbers

and, in many instances, could not be ascribed to an inunMy soul to sorrow shall yile away,

dation. Some diluvia resulted from the decomposition Awakening thoughts from their peaceful slumbers, of rocks, containing rounded and more durable frag'Twere mercy now that should sleep for aye. ments; others resulted from the bursting of the barriers

of lakes; others were merely the alluvium which covered LITERARY AND SCIENTÍFIC SOCIETIES OF

the strata while at the bottom of the sea, and were conEDINBURGH.

sequently elevated along with it.

With respect to the famed boulder stones, be

that it was impossible to conceive them elevated by a Saturday, Dec. 24, 1831. deluge such as that which the theory supposes) to the Professor Graham in the Chair,

height of 1500 feet on the sides of Mount Jura. Such Present;-Professor Jameson ; Drs Brunton, Greville ; been traced to their

source in the Scandinavian peninsula.

stones had been found in abundance in Germany, and had James Wilson, Falconar, Witham, Allan, &c., Esqs.

What current could transport them

in across the Baltic ? A NOTICE was read to the meeting regarding a speci. The occurrence of shells still found in the ocean in men of Siren lacertina, which was preserved alive for more places far removed from the presed, had been est

been esteemed than six years, at Canonmills, near Edinburgh, commu- a strong proof of the Diluvian nicated by the secretary, Mr' Nein. In the Edinburgh these shells had been found far inland, in others they had New Philosophical Journal, vol. iv. p. 346, an account been found on the summits of little hills, elevated from was given of the habits of this animal. Since that pe- twenty to two hundred feet above the level of the sea. To riod no change has taken place in its appearance, not bas illustrate the transportation of these skells to diluvial It shown any symptom of being a'larva, or imperfect ani- summits, was a strange inconsistency on the part of those mal, as some naturalists still believe it to be." This spe- who accounted for the rounding and elovation of immense cimen continued alive till October last, when having masses of boulder_stones on the same principle, for the escaped over the brim of the reservoir' in which it was shells were in general entire and uninjured. In cases kept, the fine fimbriæ of the branchial apparatus became where these shells occurred remote from the ocean, and at dried and shrivelled up, and occasioned its death. The small elevations, it was the result of the filling up of length of time for which this reptile was kept:, by Mr estuaries, &c. ; and in cases where they were elevated far inches, seem to indicate that it was a perfect animal

. ted, and such a phenomenon was by no means rare, the Neill

, and its increase of size, from eighteen ta twenty above the actual level of the sea, the land had been elevaMr James Wilson, in some observations, stated that it temple of Jupiter Serapis had been submerged under the belongs to a small group, named Pneumobranchiata, on ac- Mediterranean, and at a subsequent period had been elecount of the animals containing both lungs and gills. vated many feet above the level of the sea." "The earthThe genera in this group are only four-Axoloth, Meno-quake of 1822 had elevated 100 miles of the coast of branchus, Proteus and Siren : the latter of which is the Chili six feet above the level of the sea, and here was a only one where the species have no more than two feet. true and understood example of the diluvian origin of In the course of the conversation, it was mentioned by these shells. M. Necker of Geneva, that he and M. Prevost had also The next point examined was the history of extinct kept alive for several months the Proteus anguinus, that animals. The proof of diluvian currents, drawn from singular animal, which has bitherto been only found in the fossil remains of the elephant and rhinoceros occurthe subterranean waters of Carniola. It is remarkable ring in Siberia, was of little value; the animals were that if kept in the light, it pines away, loses its pink hue, adapted for living in a cold country, and had gradually becomes of a dark colour, and at length dies.

become extinct in the same manner as the beaver and the Professor Jameson then exhibited a small bird from Irish elk in our own country; one of the first of these the Himalah Mountains, very similar to the common animals, at least, had lived in Scotland and England in redbreast, but of a less size, and with a sharper bill. A historic times. The same explanation applied to the reconsiderable difference was observed in the shape of the mains of animals found in caverns. If the hyæna were head; that of the common redbreast being flat, that of no longer an inhabitant of England, the lion had ceased the Indian individual elevated. Many birds are found to live in Greece, although it had been common there in in the Himalah range, bearing a close resemblance, in re. the time of Xenophon.

some cases,

?

man.

enterprise merited. As to their merits, which are considerable, LITERARY CHITCHAT AND VARIETIES.

you will soon have an opportunity of judging. Some New Mac

is announced for publication here, whilst in that department you We understand that Mr William Chambers, anthor of "The

seem asleep.

Theatrical Gossip - Wars, and rumours of wars. The proprie Book of Scotland,” &c., is at present preparing for the press a new

tors of Drury Lane and Covent Garden Theatres have served a work, which may be expected to be of an interesting nature, en.

notice on the managers of the minors, that if they continue to it titled “Traditionary Legends and Popular Antiquities of Scot

without the licenso mentioned in the 10th of Geo. II., cap. land,” The Double Trial, or the Consequences of an Irish Clearing; they will proceed against them for the penalty of £50 for earts

offence. A meeting of the performers at the minors has b*** a Tale the Present Day, by the Rev. C. Lucas.

announced; and a petition to his Majesty, and a memorial to the A Numismatic Manual, or Guide to the Study of Ancient and

Lord Chancellor, are preparing. It is said that two thousard Modern Coins, with Plates from the Originals, by John Y. Aker.

persons are at present engaged in the metropolitan nivoir Mr J. G. S. Lucas has designed and engraved a Companion they ruined themselves, and now they seek to ruin every on

First our overgrown patent theatres ruined the draina, de vf Print to his " Samson carrying off the Gates of Gaza."

of the trade they can lay their unhallowed clutches on. The “ A Six Weeks' Tour in Switzerland and France," by the Rev.

first crime does not come, wé fear, within the danger of the William Liddiard, author of “ The Legend of Einsidlin," &c.

law; the second is the privilege of every fool ; the third met “ Advice to a Young Christian, on the importance of aiming at

be prevented. The great Kembles arose in defianee of monopy an elevated Standard of Piety," by a Village Pastor. The author of “ Natural History of Enthusiasm,” has a new

-the little Kembles seek to prop themselves up by it. Thus, la

stage vindicates its title, to be esteemed a " mirror of nature work in the press, entitled " Saturday Evening." “ An Essay on the Rights of Hindoos over Ancestral Property, Rudolph of Hapsburg helps himself to a crown, and his silly de

scendants prate about legitimacy.-Mrs Gore's comedy has l*** according to the Law of Bengal," by Rajah Ram-mohun Roy; and

endured at Drury Lane. The story is that of a rich uncle reclaira also, by the same author, " Remarks on East India Affairs; with

ing a nephew, by pretending to reduce him to beggary, and tbul 3 Dissertation on the Ancient Boundaries of India, its Civil and Religious Divisions, and Suggestions for the future Government affording his friends an opportunity of showing themselves a

their true colours. Mrs Humby, in speaking the epilogue, of the Country. A new monthly periodical, to be called the Lady's Cabinet of played high talent in the hoyden line-one that has too luk

been vacanta-At the Olympic, the most pleasing novel; Fashion, Music, and Romance, is announced.

“ The Dumb Belle.” Vestris, in order to cure a lover's herra Banyan's Pilgrim's Progress, with many engravings on wood

of woman's tongue, pretends to be deaf and dumb, and acts qc"> by G. W. Bonner, and Explanatory Notes by W. Mason, “ Who can they be p or a Description of a Singular Race of charm.--Rayner's Theatre will open on the 9th of January, i

in character, till an unlucky aspersion of her legs breakz # Aborigines inhabiting the Summits of the Neilgherry Hills, or

less it be burked previously by the great Patentees. Raçats Blue Mountains of Coimbatoor," by Captain H. Harkness. A fifth edition of the " Endless Amusement." If it go on at this supported by Henry, who some years ago made a tolerabis zu

pearance at the Adelphi, after the fashion of Matthews rate, it will indeed be endless.

theatrical world is all agog in Liverpool, Ducrow, at his 3 A newspaper, entitled the “Freemantle Gazette, and Western

phitheatre; Paganini at the Theatre-Royal; a clerer compae Australian Journal," is now regularly published at the Swan

under an enterprising manager, at the Liver Street Theat'; River Settlement. The first number bears date, March 1831.

Beverley at the Olympic; and Holloway at the Sans Pareil. Captain T. Brown, the indefatigable historian of.“ Horses and

own pantomime is excellent-the best infinitely that we have the allied Species," has commenced a series of engravings of

for many years. All our young friends must go to see the * Game Birds." The work is to extend to ten numbers, with

favourite Sinbad groaning under the Old Man of the Sea. four plates in each number. They include the winged objects of the sportsman's research in the four quarters of the globe. A

WEEKLY List of PERFORMANCES. volume of letterpress will accompany the work, containing his. torical researehes into the field-sports of all nations. Such a

December 24. 30. work has long been a desideratum, and Captain Bo's work promises to supply it in splendid style,

SAT. As You Like It, A Concert, $ Matrimony. Dr Chalmers will be proud to learn that a learned bibliopole, Mon. Richard the Third, John Jones, & Dominiguse the Is not a hundred miles from Edinburgh, is in the habit of " taking

serter, notes” of his sermons. Perhaps he may finish the stanza and Tues. Macbeth, Do., & Electricity. "print them.'' We have the gentleman's own word for the fact

WED. A New Way to Pay Old Debts, & Harlequin Sinbad. and in print, too.

THURS. Castle of Andalusia, & Do. MACREADY'S LAST.-Some one prosing to Macready about the FRI The Haunted Tower, & Do. decline of the stage, he said, “the public must be nearly blind to patronize spectacles as they do."

Wilkie's PORTRAIT OF GEORGE IV.-The general effect of this picture is perfect, and the colouring exquisite. The light and

TO OUR READERS. shade is managed with a simplicity which rejects all paltry clever. With next Number—the first of the New Year-me present to ness, and shows the painter's power in managing this most diffi

Portrait of Professor Wilson. Accidental circumstances la cult essential of the art. The expression is princely, although prevented the completion of the Index to the Volume not in enfeebled by the meanness of the legs and prettiness of the feet.

cinded, which will be circulated, along with the Title-page, in The background is most appropriate-quiet and rich. On the early Number. After two weeks intermission of Reviews, M. whole, the picture is worth a thousand of Chantrey's big statue, critical stomach is fearfully sharp-so authors may treat although it scarcely cost a twelfth of the price of that metallic

Some important improvements on our arrangements will love mase.

announced in our next. We commence the New Year Ik UNIVERSITY AT DURIAM. A Durham college has been com

giant refreshed. menced, and is to open in October next, under the auspices of the A remonstrance has been made at head-quarters on the pasta Bishop and Chapter. There is a foundation for students; and the Bohemian Brothers. From the judgment passed npon tai also provision for the reception of ordinary and occasional stu.

musical powers, there is no appeal,-on that point the sentras dents. Four years will complete the education of a member, and of our critic is definitive. His article involved, however, there will be prizes and examinations. This institution promises questions in which we are accustomed to claim & roice. It to be highly beneficial, particularly to the northern parts of Eng-deny that they are Whitechapel Jews we believe, from this land.

language, that they are in this matter correct-they are the Improved READING.–Sinclair is not remarkable for his memory. mian. Further, we admit that their airs are native Balesa. A short enongh sentence, which he was called upon to enunciate

We deny that their dresses are. in one of his characters, ran originally thus :-“ I am a single We are not apt to listen to remonstrances against our citi man, and consequently liave no tie to bind me to this country.” decisions--conscious that we speak always honestly, and pro He got on favourably as far as the word man, but there he rally with due deliberation. Those, however, who wish to w “stuck dead." Again he commenced, but still could not weather against our judgments, must have recourse to written pieau the point. At last, in despair, ho resolved to make a tail-piece Personal interviews on such occasions are always constrain de of his own, and out bolted—“I am a singlo man, and consequently unsatisfactory to both parties. All persons presuming to ca -[a long panse) -bachelor."

such business, after this notice, may depend upon the Ed.1x CHTCHAT FROM GLASGOW.-De Begnis and his company have being denied. He knows them merely as authors and artisti, been here-at a most unpropitious season-for both their throats begs to decline the honour of personal acquaintance. and purses. Every one here is busy with balancing, or eating and drinking, so Mr Alexander has not met with the reward his Correspondents in our next.

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LITERARY CRITICISM.

1832.

Life of Frederick the Second, King of Prussia. By Lord Dover. In two volumes, 8vo. Pp. 532, 524. London. Longman and Co. LORD DOVER, (not having perused the Court Calendar Peerage so assiduously as Miss Landon, we know thing of the nobleman beyond his name,), knowing rally nothing of politics, strategics, and jurisprudence, undertaken, with the most amiable diffidence, to ite the history of a philosophical king, one of the greatgenerals that ever existed, and at the same time a d and shrewd, if not always an enlightened, legislator. rd Dover is, however, excellently qualified for his task; has read all the "Memoires pour servir," &c., which ate to his hero; and his is one of those philosophic nds which takes for its standard of belief the apophgm—“ I believe because the thing is incredible." His glish style is, it is true, none of the best or clearest then his French quotations are so delightfully comonplace and inapposite. We do not mean to deny that lordship's work possesses a certain degree of interest. is the only thing approaching to a complete life of ederick that we have in English; and such persons as ve not access to, or are unable to consult the original arces, will find in it a mass of anecdotes respecting this traordinary man and his contemporaries—some true, I some false, but almost all amusing. A few letters Marshal Keith are published by Lord Dover for the

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Price 6d.

rity of the Emperor dwindled to a shadow, and the higher
nobility gradually arrogated sovereign rights within their
own territories, while, at the same time, the attempts, on
the part of the House of Austria, to render the Imperial
dignity hereditary in its lineage, still further excited
their jealousy of the head of the state. All attempts, on
the part of an emperor to give an efficient police, and
good courts of justice to the empire, were consequently
frustrated; and Germany, viewed as one state, was a
realm of anarchy, where the will of the most powerful
was law.
Each petty lord attempted, in self-defence, to
organize something like a government upon his own
estate, and this alone kept the country from falling back
into utter barbarism.

The evil had reached its height at the time when Frederick the Second ascended the throne. The German empire existed but in name it was a name, however, which perplexed and misled men. Amid this chaos, the Prussian, dynasty was Protestant in self-defence. Its founder had, without any sanction but his own will, and an encouraging dictum of Dr Luther, erected the domains appertaining to the German Order into a secular princedom. One of his descendants had gone further, and arro gated to himself the kingly title for those of his lands that lay beyond the limits of the empire. Frederick's father felt the tenure upon which he held this power and dignity, and had converted his territories into a great garrison. These territories, however, although manned by a brave and well-disciplined soldiery, were difficult of defence; for they lay so scattered, as to consist entirely of frontier. If, therefore, his successor wished to maintain his kingly state-and where is the man who would voluntarily descend from it?-there was open to himo nly one line of policy. He must round out his frontier line by new ac quisitions-regulate his expenditure by the strictest economy-encourage the developement of his kingdom's productive powers-and, as far as was consistent with this last object, convert his people into a nation of solAll this was achieved by Frederick the Secondand more. He left refinement and knowledge where he found ignorance and brutality; he left a consolidated and uniform system of law, where he found confusion and arbitrary government. The mind that could accomplish this is worthy of study-in its greatness, that we may have before our eyes an image of a "patriot king;" in its peculiarities, that we may know how compatible human littieness of conduct is with the most godlike of conceptions, and thus learn tolerance for human folly.

Frederick was deserving of a better fate than has fallen
his share—at least in English literature. He has been
ployed by shallow, half-learned moralists, and puny
ts, like "a regimental target set up for ball practice.",
d finally-" the unkindest cut of all"-bis defence has
len into the hands of Lord Dover. Germany, how-
r, has done him justice. We speak not of the contro-
sies respecting his character, carried on by her thou-diers,
d-and-one brained and brainless writers, but of that
p-rooted and pervading feeling, which has gained for
, from the Alps to the Baltic, the grand though homely
e-FRITZ DER EINZIGE.

He was indeed a great man, in the strictest accepta-
of the term-a strange phenomenon among that herd
little jolterheaded, selfwilled, insignificant sovereigns,
o (and whose fathers) have built their houses amid
ruins of the German empire.

In order to appreciate fully the greatness of Fredek, we must know something of his peculiar situation. e foundations of the German empire were laid upon same plan as those of the other feudal monarchies of rope, but its territory was too extensive, its nobles re necessarily too powerful and remote from the centre authority, to be held together by such feeble bonds. her causes of disorganization supervened--the speedy inction of the lineal descendants of its founder, and the ostitution of an elective emperor-the acquisition of Italian crown, and the dreams of re-establishing the man empire-lastly, religious discords. The autho

Frederick's intellect was French. His governess when an infant was a Frenchwoman; his tutor, till his fourteenth year, was a Frenchman. From the latter he derived his knowledge of, and fondness for study; and, when deprived of him, the Germans he found at his father's court were not such as to lead him to expect information or pleasure in their intercourse. To gratify his love of literary pursuits, he was driven among the French literati. Surrounded by them, his mind imbibed the colouring of their thoughts, although it retained its native energy, and straight-forward good sense.

His character was formed in a hard school-under a

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