social feelings. Our studies embrace the most interesting parts of natural knowlege. Our first object is to learn the construction of our own frame, the means by which we live, and move, and have our being; and we shall thus see the nature and operation of those influences by which health is interrupted and restored, by which disease and suffering may be averted. Chemistry, natural philosophy, and natural history, auxiliary sciences, are more or less connected with the primary objects of our pursuit. When we have thus prepared ourselves for our great task, we shall be known only as instruments of good; in restoring or securing health, the greatest of blessings; in removing pain and sickness, the greatest of evils; in soothing the anguish and quieting the alarm which friends and relations feel for each other; in protracting the approach of that awful moment, from which we all shrink back with instinctive dread, the termination of existence. The happiness or misery of life, and the very question of life or death, often hang on our decisions. I trust that, bearing in mind the serious nature of those duties, you will be anxious to employ the short period of your studies to the greatest advantage, and allow no opportunity of gaining knowledge to pass unimproved; you will thus become respected members of an honourable profession, and prepare for yourselves, in the decline of life, the sweetest of all rewards, the retrospect of labors devoted to the good of others."

NOTICES AND OBSERVATIONS FOR

SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER.

Sept. 14. The remonstrances of GreatBritain, aided by the expostulations rather than the menaces of those continental powers which are particularly sensitive with regard to the balance of power, were at length so influential as to check the career of the Russians, whose progress defied all the sultan's efforts. The czar consented to make peace, and, without being so moderate in his demands as the alarmed potentates wished, granted such terms as the opportunity of humbling a barbarian prince would naturally have suggested even to an unambitious victor. He insisted upon the cession of some frontier posts, settled the government of Moldavia and Walachia in such a mode as was calculated to paralyse the

tyranny of the Porte in those principalities, demanded a free passage for Russian and other vessels through the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, exacted a pecuniary grant for the injuries inflicted on the commerce of his subjects, and required the payment (within ten years) of four millions and a half sterling toward the expenses of the war. A treaty, adjusted on this basis, was signed at Adrianople, and ratified by the grand signor, who, when he expected the advance of the exulting enemy, was more disposed to retire into Asia, than to defend his capital with spirit and vigor. While he thus betrayed his pusillanimous dread of the foe, he had at least a sufficiency of courage to perpetrate acts of the most outrageous cruelty, on pretence of quelling an insurrection.

With regard to Greece, it was stipulated that the limits of the new state should not be confined to the Morea,-a paltry grant which would have satisfied our ministers-but that northern Greece should be given up by the prince who, unable to govern it, intended with ruthless malignity to make it a scene of desolation.

29. The new system of police, organised by Mr. Peel, came into operation in Westminster. Its arrangements exhibit a military air; but it is considerably less arbitrary than the Parisian establishment. The chain of duty has the following links. Each division is formed into eight sections, each section into eight beats; and the force employed consists of as many companies as there are divisions. Each company includes one superintendant, four inspectors, sixteen sergeants, and 144 constables; and there is also a smaller company on foot, ready to be occasionally called into action. The superintendant is responsible for the general conduct of the officers and common men under his charge. No precise course is prescribed to him; but he is desired to visit different parts of his division at uncertain hours, not only at night, but even in the day-time. The object of the plan was to restrain breaches of the peace by more active vigilance, and prevent public offences by a more determined spirit of counteraction. As far as it has been yet tried, it seems to work well, and to promise success.

Supposed Delinquency of a Naval Officer. It is undoubtedly proper that a neglect of duty, in the servants of the

public, should subject them to animadversion and censure, and, in certain cases, to punishment. Officers of all descriptions are bound to serve their country with zeal and fidelity, and to show, on every occasion, that they are fully entitled to the recompense which they receive. Captain Dickenson, under such an impression, did his duty in the sea-fight of Navarino: yet he was tried by a court-martial during twenty days, as if he had not acted like a brave and skilful officer. Some of the charges were declared by the court to be frivolous, groundless, and vexatious; and the on presumed offences that could be proved against him were, an incorrect return respecting an officer's death, and the presentation of a petition to Sir Edward Codrington, in the form of a "round robin." These were considered as mere irregularities, and the captain was honorably acquitted.

October-Disappointment in Love.A young woman, named Eliza Leach,

Fine

Architectural Beauty and Substantiality. -The new Post Office was opened to the public on the 23rd of September; and as, when the stately new church of St. Pancras was built, the old one was suffered to remain as a chapel of ease, so the old post-office, instead of being demolished, as most people supposed that it would be, is permitted to subsist as a branchoffice. The architect of the new fabric is Mr. Smirke, whose former reputation is rather augmented than diminished by this grand work.

The portico leads immediately to the great hall, about eighty feet long, sixty feet broad, and fifty-three feet high in the centre. On each side of the centre are six Ionic fluted columns, upon granite pedestals, corresponding with a granite dado, surmounted by pilasters next to the walls: the whole of the entablature, which is fully enriched, is of mastic, except the epistylium, which is of Portland stone. The architraves to the doors are of granite, and the walls are plastered with mastic cement. On the north side of the hall are the newspaper, inland, and ship-letter offices; on the south, the foreign offices, receiver-general's, and accountant's office. At the south-west end is the assistant

was courted by Willis, a compositor, who expressed so high a regard for her, that he promised to marry her, and ordered the bans to be published for that purpose; but he suddenly altered his intention, and declared that "it was impossible he could ever marry her," though he had no complaint to make of her, and considered her as strictly virtuous. This unexpected and unjustifiable treatment so shocked her feelings, that her cheerfulness gave way to dejection and despair, more particularly after she had been informed that he was actually married to a rival. grieved and drooped for a time, and then put an end to her sorrow by taking poison. When the faithless wretch was examined by the coroner, he peremptorily refused to state his motive for the breach of his promise, and contented himself with declaring that he deplored the fate of the unfortunate woman. The jury not only blamed the chemist for selling arsenic to the poor girl, but severely condemned the cruel conduct of the false lover.

Arts.

She

secretary's official residence, well suited for the accommodation of a respectable family. The principal rooms are in admirable proportion, and the decorations are elegant. At the eastern end of the hall, near Foster-lane, is the twopenny post-office. North of the centre, in the eastern front, is the hall where the bags are received from the mails; they are then conveyed to the Tick-room, where they are opened. Communicating with the hall is the inland sorters' office, and adjoining is the letter-carriers' office; these rooms are one hundred feet long, and the fittings-up in them appear to be perfect in their kind.-There are almost innumer. able boxes, pigeon-holes, drawers, &c. required for the duties of these offices. At each end of the letter-carriers' office are projecting circular rooms, or bars, for the principals. There is a spacious office appropriated solely for the West-Indian letters, approached from the Foster-lane front. In this wing are the controller's and mail-coach offices. The foreign office is most conveniently fitted up; the beauty of the ceiling at once attracts attention, while the light, thrown from an octagon, produces a good effect.

Under the great hall is a tunnel, through 4 B

which the letters from the inland to the foreign office, and vice versa, are conveyed by machines, like mail-coaches in miniature, which are set in motion by a spring. By a similar contrivance, the letters are transferred from the general to the twopenny post department.

On the first, or principal floor, are the board-room, secretary's rooms, and secretary's clerk's office. The board-room is of the dimensions of thirty-seven by twenty-four feet. The ceiling is of the form technically called waggon-head. The cornice, which is classically enriched, is supported by pilasters. All the floors in this part of the building are of American oak. At the eastern end of the hall, on the north side, is a staircase leading to the letter-bill, dead, mis-sent, and returned-letter offices; and across the gallery of the hall are the offices connected with the solicitor's and secretary's departSome observers have objected to the construction of the edifice, as if it had not every desirable convenience. Undoubtedly some things might be amended; but, upon the whole, the public, we think, ought to rest satisfied with the work.

ments.

Improvements at Windsor Castle.As the renovation of this fine structure has not yet been completed, we shall merely take notice, for the present, of St. George's Hall and the ball-room. The hall was only 108 feet long, but is now increased to 200. All the foreign fopperies introduced by Charles the Second -the Frenchified sash-windows, the voluptuously-painted ceiling, and the other devices of a rakish court, have been cleared away sans ceremonie, and their places supplied by windows and decorations purely Gothic. The throne, the

wainscoting, and the music gallery, are all of British oak; and, instead of elderly gentlemen in full-bottomed wigs, sprawling among muslin-cinctured nymphs and naked boys, on the walls and ceiling over the heads of the assembled knights, there are now plain unadorned shields for the emblazonment of their arms.

The ball-room was formerly the king's guard chamber, filled with old rusty pikes, match-locks, bandoliers, and other man-killing contrivances. It has been considerably enlarged, and it is now—or rather it will be when finished—a splendid ball-room its lofty walls and elliptic ceiling of purest white, are enriched with elegant gilded devices, in high relief.

Monument to the Duchess of Rutland. -The remains of this lamentd lady have been removed from the church of Bottesford to a mausoleum on a neighbouring hill. The coffin occupies the interior of a white marble sarcophagus, placed within the centre of the fine Anglo-Norman arch at the eastern end of the building. On its side are sculptured the figures of Faith, Hope, and Charity. At the back of these a figure of her grace appears, seeming to have burst the confines of the grave, and to be in the act of ascending to the realms of immortality: A group of angels, introduced in a novel and peculiar manner, are hovering above, and one is in the act of placing upon her brows the crown of a heavenly kingdom. The whole is lighted from an unseen source, and the windows being composed of yellow and violet glass, a refulgence of colored light is thrown on the group, the effect of which is almost magical. The highest praise is due to Mr. Wyatt for this beautiful monument.

history may recollect the conspiracy of Piso and other enemies of Nero: Tacitus treats of it with his usual spirit, but not with satisfactory circumstantiality. The poet Lucan was put to death, not merely for his concern in this plot, but because he had publicly ridiculed some of the tyrant's poetical attempts.

The deviations of the dramatist from the historian's narrative are principally these; -the introduction of Epicharis as the betrothed bride of Flavius with a view of assigning a strong motive for her conduct, and an alteration which dramatic usage rendered necessary with respect to the mode of death of some of the dramatis persona. Thus Piso and Epicharis die by poison; but Tacitus relates, that the former opened his veins, and the latter strangled herself-exits certainly not suitable for scenic representation.

The plot of the drama is of the follow ing tenor.—Caius Piso, an eloquent and popular patrician, eagerly desirous of ascending to sovereign power, forms a conspiracy with Subrius Flavius, a military tribune, who does not, however, intend to aid the ambition of Piso, but only wishes to put an end to the abominable tyranny of Nero. Between Flavius and Epicharis, a mutual affection exists; and he is induced, in consequence of the patriotic spirit evinced by his betrothed, to intrust her with the secret, and with the names of several of the conspirators. When she learns that Scevinus, Quinctianus, Senecio, and Natalis, are some of those who are leagued with her lover, she determines to strengthen the band by winning over Volusius Proculus, who avows his readiness to join the conspirators, provided that she will consent to bestow her hand upon him, which she had formerly refused. This offer she rejects with disdain, and Proculus proceeds to denounce her to the emperor, before whom she is interrogated. She declares that it is revenge which stimulates Proculus to make the accusation; and, as she has not intrusted him with the names of any of the conspirators, the discovery of which would have given weight to his testimony, her asseveration is believed, but she is still kept in custody. Meantime Flavius, distracted at the loss of his mistress,-for, when she announced to him what had happened at her interview with Proculus, he advised her, in order to escape torture to give her hand to that

officer-attends a meeting of the conspirators. He informs them that he had made Epicharis acquainted with their designs, and they, enraged at this betrayal, adjudge him to die. They are about to carry the sentence into execution when the guards of Nero rush in, and seise three of the conspirators, while they unbind Flavius and set him at liberty. He is convinced that Epicharis has be trayed the cause, and his mind is wrought up to a state of desperation. From this he is relieved by his friend, Asper, from whom he learns that the plot has been disclosed, not by Epicharis, but by Milichus, the freedman of Scevinus. His hopes revive, and he hastens to the house of Piso, to stir him up to action; but Piso, having heard that he was denounced by his friend, Natalis, has taken poison, and dies. The tribune still thinks that it is not too late to attempt the execution of his bold purpose. He meets the prefect Rufus, to whom he communicates his intention. By him he is informed that Epicharis, immediately after the discovery of the conspiracy by Milichus, underwent the torture of the rack with unbending constancy. Flavius, on receiving this intelligence, becomes madly eager for vengeance, and Rufus, who secretly hates him, urges him to the deed, basely intending, when he makes an attempt on Nero's life, to foil his purpose, and thus bring down ruin on his head. Through the influence of Rufus, he obtains access to the dungeon of Epicharis, and acquaints her with the scheme which he had formed for the destruction of Nero, when she is next brought before him. He gives her a written paper, in which he denounces himself, and counsels Epicharis, that she shall, when again questioned, call on the emperor, to allow Fiavius to receive the scroll of confession from her, and to place it in his hands. After much entreaty she consents to take this course. She is again examined, and refuses to declare what she knows of the conspiracy. By Nero's order, a poisonous draught is introduced, and she is commanded to confess or drink. She at length, as had been arranged with Flevious, consents, through him, to give the fatal scroll to the emperor. Flavius advances, intending, as he presents the paper, to slay Nero, but is treacherously betrayed by Rufus, and is seised by the guards. Rufus, at the moment of his treachery, falls by the hand