Born-St Augustine, bishop of Hippo, and father of the Church, 354, Tagaste, Numidia; Pelagius, celebrated antagonist of St Augustine, 354; Edward III., king of England, 1312, Windsor; Philip Beroaldus, the Elder, scholar and critic, 1450, Bologna. Died.-Justinian, Roman emperor, 565; Malcolm Canmore, king of Scotland, 1093, Alnwick, Northumberland; Thomas Erpenius, celebrated orientalist, 1624, Leyden; William Etty, painter, 1849, York; Sir John Forbes, eminent physician and medical writer, 1861, Whitchurch, near Reading. THE STAMFORD BULL-RUNNING. From time immemorial down to a late period, the 13th of November was annually celebrated, at the town of Stamford, in Lincolnshire, by a public amusement termed a Bull-running. The sport was latterly conducted in the following manner: About a quarter to eleven o'clock, on the festal-day, the bell of St Mary's commenced to toll as a warning for the thoroughfares to be cleared of infirm persons and children; and precisely at eleven, the bull was turned into a street, blocked up at each end by a barricade of carts and wagons. At this moment, every post, pump, and 'coigne of vantage' was occupied, and those happy enough to have such protections, could grin at their less fortunate friends, who were compelled to have recourse to flight; the barricades, windows, and house-tops being crowded with spectators. The bull, irritated by hats being thrown at him, and other means of annoyance, soon became ready to run; and then, the barricades being removed, the whole crowd, bull, men, boys, and dogs, rushed helter-skelter through the streets. One great object being to 'bridge the bull,' the animal was, if possible, compelled to run upon the bridge that spans the Welfand. The crowd then closing in, with audacious courage surrounded and seized the animal; and, in spite of its size and strength, by main force tumbled it over the parapet into the river. The bull then swimming ashore, would land in the meadows, where the run was continued ; the miry, marshy state of the fields at that season of the year, and the falls and other disasters consequent thereon, adding greatly to the amusement of the mob. The sport was carried on till all were tired; the animal was then killed, and its flesh sold at a low rate to the people, who finished the day's amusement with a supper of bull-beef. A local historian thus informs us how the sport was conducted in the seventeenth century. "The butchers provide the bull, and place him overnight in a stable belonging to the alderman; the next morning, proclamation is made by the bellman that each one shut up his shop-door and gate, and none, under pain of imprisonment, do any violence to strangers; for the preventing whereof (the town being a great thoroughfare), a guard is appointed for the passing of travellers through the same without hurt. None to have any iron upon their bull-clubs, or other staves, which they pursue the bull with; which proclamation being made, and the gates all shut up, the bull is turned out of the alderman's house, and then hivie-skivy, tag-rag, men, women, and children of all sorts and sizes, with all the dogs in the town, running after him, spattering dirt in each others' faces, that one would THE STAMFORD BULL-RUNNING. think them to be so many furies started out of the infernal regions for the punishment of Cerberus, as when Theseus and Perillus conquered the place, as Ovid describes it: 'A ragged troop of boys and girls They part his skin from bones." According to tradition, the origin of the custom dates from the_time of King John; when, one day, William, Earl of Warren, standing on the battlements of the castle, saw two bulls fighting in the meadow beneath. Some butchers coming to part the combatants, one of the bulls ran into the town, causing a great uproar. The earl, mounting his horse, rode after the animal, and enjoyed the sport so much, that he gave the meadow, in which the fight began, to the butchers of Stamford, on condition that they should provide a bull, to be run in that town annually, on the 13th of November, for ever after. There is no documentary evidence on the subject, but the town of Stamford undoubtedly holds certain common rights in the meadow specified, which is still termed the Bullmeadow. Bull-running was, for a long period, a recognised institution at Stamford. A mayor of the town, who died in 1756, left a sum of money to encourage the practice; and, as appears by the vestry accounts, the church-wardens annually gave money to aid the bull-running. In 1788, the first attempt was made by the local authorities to stop the custom, the mayor issuing a curious proclamation, stating that bull-running was contrary to religion, law, and nature, and punishable with the penalty of death. The Earl of Exeter, who lived 'At Burleigh House, by Stamford town,' lent his personal influence to the mayor on this occasion; but the bull was run, and both the earl and mayor were insulted by the mob. In 1789, the mayor having obtained the aid of a troop of dragoons, met the bull at St George's Gate, as it was being driven into the town by the bull-woman -a virago dressed in blue ribbons, who officiated on these occasions, and followed by the bullards, a name given to the admirers and supporters of bull-running. On the mayor appealing to the officer of dragoons to stop the procession, the latter refused to interfere, alleging that the people were peaceably walking on the highway. In that case,' replied the mayor, 'your men are of no use here.' 'Very well,' said the officer, 'I shall dismiss them.' The dismissed dragoons, to their great glee, joined the bullards, and the bull was run as usual. For a long time afterwards, the bullards received no opposition. The towns-people, delighted with the sport, subscribed for a second annual bull-running, which took place on the Monday after Christmas Day; and there were several occasional bull-runnings every year, the candidates for representing Stamford in parliament being always found willing to give a bull for the purpose. In 1831, the Conservative party canvassed the borough under a flag bearing the representation of a bull. Several clergymen and others remonstrated against this mode of obtaining popular support, distinctly declaring they would not vote, if the THE STAMFORD BULL-RUNNING. obnoxious banner were not laid aside. NOVEMBER 13. But many persons of station, and well-known humanity, defended the practice of bull-running, alleging that it was an old-fashioned, manly, English sport; inspiring courage, agility, and presence of mind under danger; and, as regards inhumanity, it was not by any means so cruel to the brute creation, nor so perilous to the life and limb of man, as foxhunting. In 1833, the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals made its first public appearance as an opponent of the practice. One of its officers was sent to Stamford on bull-running day, and, being more bold than prudent, was roughly hustled by the crowd. This interference of the society, however well-meant, had a very different effect to that desired; instead of discountenancing the practice, the people of Stamford were thereby stimulated to support it. 'Who or what is this London Society,' they asked, 'that, usurping the place of constituted authorities, presumes to interfere with our ancient amusement?' In 1836, the society sent several of its officers and agents to Stamford. The 13th falling that year on Sunday, the bull was run on the following day; in the evening, the populace resented the interference of the society's officers, by assaulting them, and breaking some windows. At the following Lent Assizes for Lincolnshire, the society preferred bills of indictinent before the Grand Jury, against eight persons, for conspiring to disturb the peace by riotously assembling to run and torment a bull at Stamford, on the 14th of November previous. True bills being found against the men, bench-warrants were obtained, and they were arrested to take their trials at the ensuing midsummer assizes. As is well known, this mode of proceeding behind a man's back, as it were, which deprives the accused of the fair advantage allowed by law, in giving him a copy of the depositions of the witnesses against him, is looked upon with deserved disfavour by both the judges and people of England. Moreover, the conduct of the society in putting the expensive machinery of the higher courts of law in operation against poor labouringmen, for a trumpery street squabble, created a strong feeling in Stamford and its neighbourhood. A subscription was immediately opened, to raise a defence-fund for the prisoners, many subscribing who utterly detested bull-running, but considered the society's proceedings to be over-officious, unjust, and arbitrary. The manager of Stamford theatre, to his immense popularity, gave a benefit in aid of the defence-fund, the piece selected being Colman's comedy of John Bull; and altogether, a considerable sum was collected. At the trial, Sergeant Goulbourn, and the leading barristers on the circuit, were retained for the prosecution. The council for the defence could not deny the riot, but pleaded use and custom, and the ignorance of the prisoners, who believed that valuable common rights were preserved to the town by the act of bull-running. Judge Park, when summing up, told the jury that no use or custom could justify a riot. Five of the prisoners were acquitted, three only being found guilty; these last were discharged on giving bail to appear to receive judgment, at the Court of Queen's Bench, when called upon. The bullards, accepting the result of the trial as a victory, determined to have a grand run in 1837. THE STAMFORD BULL-RUNNING. run Influence, however, had been brought to bear on the Home Secretary, who wrote to the mayor of Stamford, impressing upon him the necessity of taking active measures to prevent a proceeding so illegal and disgraceful as bull-running. The mayor, accordingly, swore in more than two hundred special constables to his assistance; but their opposition being lukewarm, the bull was with greater éclat than ever. In 1838, the Home Secretary determined to put down the custom. Several days before the 13th, a troop of the 14th Dragoons, and a strong force of metropolitan police, were sent to Stamford, and a considerable body of special constables were sworn in. The commanders of the military and police, having viewed the field of action, consulted with the mayor. As prevention was better than cure, and there could be no bull-run without a bull, measures were taken accordingly. The town was strictly searched, and two bulls being found, the animals were taken and confined in an inn-yard, under a picket of dragoons. Sentries were then placed on all the outlets of the town, and parties patrolled the roads night and day, to prevent a bull from being brought in. The eventful 13th arrived, and though the streets were crowded with bullards, the authorities were perfectly at their ease. They even heard with complacency the bell of St Mary's toll the timehonoured bull-warning. But at the last stroke of the bell, their fancied security was rudely dissipated by the well-known shouts of 'Hoy! bull! hoy!' from a thousand voices; a noble bull having appeared, as if by magic, in the principal street. There never was such a run! The wild excitement of the scene was enhanced by the bewildered dragoons galloping thither and hither, in vain attempts to secure the animal. The metropolitan police, with greater valour than discretion, formed in a compact phalanx on the bridge; but the bull, followed by the bullards, dashed through them as an eagle might through a cobweb. After a run of some hours, the bull came to bay in the river, and was then captured by the authorities. An attempt was then made to rescue one of the bulls confined in the inn-yard. This led to a collision between the military and the people, stones and brickbats were thrown, and sabre cuts returned in exchange; but, on the dragoons being ordered to load with ball-cartridge, the mob dispersed. Where did the strange bull, a very valuable animal, so miraculously spring from? This enigma was soon solved by its being claimed by a certain noble lord. had been sending it, in a covered wagon, from one of his estates to another, and, by a 'curious coincidence,' it happened to pass through Stamford on the very day and hour its presence was required by the bullards, who, seizing the wagon, released the animal. Whether the coincidence were accidental or designed, the preceding explanation, if not quite satisfactory, produced a great deal of good-humoured laughter. He In 1839, a stronger force of military and police was sent to Stamford; every precaution was taken, yet some treacherous special constables smuggled a bull into the town, and the bullards had their last run. The animal, however, being young and docile, did not afford much sport, being soon captured by the authorities. In the following year, as bullrunning day drew near, the people of Stamford began to count the cost of their amusement. The THE STAMFORD BULL-RUNNING. THE BOOK OF DAYS. military, metropolitan police, and special constables The highly-exciting nature of the amusement THE BULLARD'S SONG. 'Come all you bonny boys, Who love to bait the bonny bull, And you shall have your bellyful. Earl Warren was the man, That first began this gallant sport; And saw the bonny bulls that fought. Delighted with the sport, The meadows there he freely gave, Come, take him by the tail, boys- Never let him quiet stand; * The old bullards are now nearly all dead; but the song, with various additions and variations, may still be occasionally heard. writing in 1846, says: 'Every incident that calls to Mr Burton, the mind of the lower classes their ancient holiday, is seized with enthusiasm, and the old bull-tune is invariably demanded, when anything in the shape of music attracts the attention. whenever there is a full house, "Bull! bull!" is At the theatre, * Threshers. SHOOTING-STARS. display of shooting or falling stars, those mysteDuring three successive years, from 1831 to 1833, the 13th of November was marked by a magnificent rious visitants to our globe respecting whose real nessed off the coasts of Spain, and in the country nature and origin science is still so perplexed. bordering on the Ohio. The second is thus desThe first of these brilliant exhibitions was witcribed by Captain Hammond of H.M.S. Restitution, who beheld it in the Red Sea, off Mocha. 'From like meteors bursting in every direction. The sky one o'clock A. M. till after daylight, there was a very unusual phenomenon in the heavens. It appeared at the time was clear, the stars and moon bright, with streaks of light, and thin white clouds interspersed in the sky. On landing in the morning, I inquired of the Arabs if they had noticed the above. They said they had been observing it most of the night. I asked them if ever the like had appeared before. The oldest of them replied that The area over which this phenomenon was seen extended from the Red Sea westwards to the Atlantic, and from Switzerland to the Mauritius. it had not.' But the most imposing display of shooting-stars on record occurred on the third of these occasions -that is, on 13th November 1833. It extended chiefly over the limits comprised between longitude 61° in the Atlantic, and 100° in Central Mexico, and from the latitude of the great lakes of North America, to the West Indies. From the appearance presented, it might be regarded as a grand and portentous display of nature's fireworks. Seldom has a scene of greater or more awful sublimity been exhibited than at the Falls of Niagara on this memorable occasion, the two leading powers in nature, water and fire, engaging, as it were, in an emulative display of their grandeur. The awful roar of the cataract filled the mind of the spectator with an infinitely heightened sense of sublimity, when its waters were lightened up by the glare of the meteoric torrent in the sky. In many parts of the country, the people were terror-struck, imagining that the end of the world was come; whilst those whose education and vigour of mind prevented them from yielding to such terrors, were, nevertheless, vividly reminded of the grand description in the Apocalypse, 'The stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.' shooting-stars is, that they form part of the solar The most probable theory as to the nature of system, revolving round the sun in the same smaller in size, and subject to great and irregular manner as the planetoids, but both infinitely unfrequently within the limits of the earth's atmoperturbations. The latter cause brings them not sphere, on entering which they become luminous from the great heat produced by the sudden and violent compression which their transit occasions. Having thus approached the earth with great 576 occasionally fall to the surface of the earth, may be such of those bodies as have been brought so far within the influence of terrestrial gravity as to be rendered subject to its effects. NOVEMBER 14. St Dubricius, bishop and confessor, 6th century. Laurence, confessor, archbishop of Dublin, 1180. reason of its universal sympathies. To be remembered for ever by some work requires that the whole energy, at least for a time, be given to one work. Even great parts,' says Locke, writing of Leibnitz in 1697, will not master any subject without great thinking.' Leibnitz was the son of a professor of jurisprudence in the university of Leipsic, in which city he was born in 1646. He was a precocious child, and from his boyhood displayed that love of St learning and speculation which distinguished him through life. He gives an amusing account of his efforts when a youth of fifteen, during long solitary walks in the wood of Rosenthal, near Leipsic, to adjust the claims of the Ancients and Moderns-of Born.-Benjamin Hoadly, bishop of Bangor, eminent Whig prelate, 1676, Westerham, Kent; Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger, Danish poet, 1779, Copenhagen; Sir Charles Lyell, geologist, 1797, Kinnordy, Forfarshire. Died.-Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz, mathematician and moral philosopher, 1716, Hanover; George William Frederick Hegel, German philosopher, 1831, Berlin; Dr John Abercrombie, physician and moral writer, 1844, Edinburgh. LEIBNITZ. Leibnitz is one of the great names of literature : 'A man so various that he seemed to be Not one, but all mankind's epitome.' Nevertheless, though his title to fame is everywhere confessed, few at this day, with the exception of some arduous students, are practically conversant with its grounds. Leibnitz was one of the chief intellectual forces of his age, but as a force he was more remarkable for quantity than intensity. He busied himself in a multitude of pursuits and he excelled in all, but he produced no master-piece -nothing of which it could be said, It is the best of its kind. He was a universal genius; his intellect was as capacious as harmonious, and a storehouse for all knowledge; but his mind was lost by 89 Aristotle and Descartes, and the reluctance with which, when conciliation was impossible, he was compelled to make an election. His talents, as manifested at the university, and his publications, early brought him into notice, and found him patrons among the princes of Germany. He travelled over the continent, visited England, and everywhere made the acquaintance of men of science and letters. An amusing anecdote is told of him when at sea in a tempest off the Italian coast. The sage captain attributed the storm to the presence of the heretical German, and presuming him ignorant of the Italian language, began to deliberate with the crew on the propriety of throwing the Lutheran Jonah overboard. Leibnitz, with much presence of mind, got hold of a rosary and began to tell his beads with vehement devotion. The ruse saved him. At Nürnberg, he heard of a society of alchemists who were prosecuting a search for the philosopher's stone. He wished to join them, and compiled a letter from the writings of the most celebrated alchemists and sent it to them. The letter consisted of the most obscure terms he could find, and of which, he says, he did not understand 577 a syllable. The illuminati, afraid to be thought ignorant, invited him to their meetings and made him their secretary. Though Leibnitz could thus quiz the alchemists, he believed, to the end of his life, in the reality of the object of their labours. In the leisure which various pensions secured him, he followed his versatile inclinations with incessant assiduity. Metaphysics, physics, mathematics, jurisprudence, theology, philology, history, antiquities, the classics, all shared his attention, and in all of these branches of knowledge the world heard his voice with respect. The ancient languages he knew well, and was tolerably acquainted with more than half-a-dozen of the modern. He had notions about calculating machines, about improved watches, about a universal alphabet, about hydraulic engines, about swift carriages, by which the journey of one hundred and fifty miles, between Amsterdam and Hanover, might be done in twenty-four hours; and about a hundred other things. He dabbled in medicine, in everything; there was nothing, in fact, in which he could not be interested. In his Protogena, he throws out thoughts, which, Dean Buckland observes, contain the germ of some of the most enlightened speculations in geology. His memory was quick and tenacious; he made notes as he read, but he had seldom to refer to them, for he seemed to forget nothing. George I. used to call him his living dictionary. At the age of seventy, he could recite hundreds of lines of Virgil without an error. In mathematics, if anywhere, his genius shewed itself supreme, and between him and Sir Isaac Newton a bitter controversy broke out as to the credit of the invention of the differential calculus. The question has been thoroughly and tediously debated, but the following points are now considered as tolerably clear: 1st, That the system of fluxions invented by Newton is essentially the same as the differential calculus invented by Leibnitz, differing only in notation; 2d, That Newton possessed the secret of fluxions as early as 1665, nineteen years before Leibnitz published his method, and eleven years before he communicated it to Newton; 3d, That both Leibnitz and Newton discovered their methods independently of each other, but that Newton had priority; and 4th, That although the honour belongs to both, yet, as in every other great invention, they were but the individuals who combined the scattered rays of their predecessors, and gave a method, a notation, and a name to the doctrine of infinitesimal quantities. As a theologian and metaphysician, Leibnitz was eclectic rather than original. His temper was truly catholic; he differed from others with reluctance; and it seemed to be one of his keenest delights to reconcile apparent contraries. Hence one of his schemes was the incorporation of the various sects of Protestantism, preparatory, if possible, to the inclusion of Rome, with concessions, in one grand Christian community. In philosophy, he had a doctrine called Pre-established Harmony, by which he professed to explain the relations between Deity, the Human Mind, and Nature. It met with wide discussion and some acceptance in the lifetime of Leibnitz, but Pre-established Harmony has long passed out of memory except in histories of philosophy. One of the warmest admirers of Leibnitz was THE SOURCES OF THE NILE. Sophia Charlotte, wife of Frederick, the first king of Prussia, a great lover of show and ceremony, for which his consort had a quiet contempt. Leibnitz called her 'one of the most accomplished princesses of earth,' and by the world she was known as the republican and philosophic queen. To Leibnitz, le grand Leibnitz,' as she styled him, she resorted for counsel in all her theological and philosophical difficulties, and not seldom to his perplexity, wanting to know, he said: 'le pourquoi du pourquoi' (the why of the why). Wearied with the emptiness of courtiers, she wrote on one occasion: 'Leibnitz talked to me about the infinitely little; mon Dieu, as if I did not know enough of that!' This bright soul died at thirty-six, to the great grief of Leibnitz. On her death-bed she said she was very happy; that the king would have a fine opportunity for display at her funeral; and, above all, that now she was going to satisfy her curiosity about a great many things of which Leibnitz could tell her nothing. With many other crowned heads Leibnitz held intercourse more or less intimate. Peter the Great consulted him as to the best means for the civilisation of Russia, and rewarded his suggestions with the title of Councillor of State, and a pension of a thousand roubles. Leibnitz was only able to get through his multiform business by persistent assiduity. He carried on a most extensive correspondence, and wrote his letters with great care, sometimes three or four times over, and made them the repositories of his most valued ideas and conjectures. His life was sedentary almost beyond example. Sometimes for weeks together he would not go to bed, but sat at his desk till a late hour, then took two or three hours of sleep in his chair, and resumed work at early dawn. He was a bachelor, and had no fixed hours for his meals; but sent to a tavern for food, when hungry and at leisure. His head was large and bald, his hair fine and brown, his face pale, his sight short, his shoulders broad, and his legs crooked and ungainly. He was spare and of middle height, but in walking, he threw his head so far forward as to look from behind like a hunchback. His neglect of exercise told severely on him as he advanced in life. He became plagued with rheumatic gout, his legs ulcerated, and he aggravated his ailment by compressing afflicted parts with wooden vices to stop the circulation of the blood, and dull the sense of pain. He died in Hanover in 1716, in his seventieth year, from the effects, it is said, of an untried medicine of his own concoction. He was buried on the esplanade of his native city of Leipsic, where a monument, in the form of a temple, with the simple inscription, 'Ossa Leibnitii,' marks the spot. DISCOVERY OF THE SOURCES OF THE NILE. It is curious to look back to the days when Bruce the traveller published his celebrated work on Africa, and claimed to have discovered the true sources of the mysterious river which flows so many hundreds of miles through that continent. Comparing that narrative with one which has appeared in 1863, we see that Bruce was in the wrong; that he may have discovered a source but not the source; and that a long series of intermediate investigations Iwas needed to arrive at a true solution of the interesting problem. No blame to James Bruce |