but you give an erroneous account of this very circumstance to which 1 mean to allude. You assert that he did not obtain, and indeed did not aim to obtain, the honours of the University. So far is this from the fact, that in his Freshman's year he won the gold medal for the Greek Ode; and in his second year he became a candidate for the Craven Scholarship, a University Scholarship, for which Undergraduates of any standing_are entitled to become candidates. This Iwas in the winter of 1792. Out of sixteen or eighteen competitors a selection of four was made to contend for the prize, and these four were Dr. Butler, now the Head Master of Shrewsbury; Dr. Keate, the late Head Master of Eton; Dr. Bethell, the present Bishop of Bangor; and Coleridge. Dr. Butler was the successful candidate. But pause a moment in Coleridge's history, and think of him at this period! Butler! Keate! Bethell! and Coleridge! How different the career of each in future life! O Coleridge, through what strange paths did the meteor of Genius lead thee! Pause a moment, ye distinguished men! and deem it not the least bright spot in your happier career, that you and Coleridge were once rivals, and for a moment running abreast in the pursuit of honour. I believe that his disappointment at this crisis damped his ardour. Unfortunately, at that period there was no classical Tripos; so that, if a person did not obtain the classical medal, he was thrown back among the totally undistinguished; and it was not allowable to become a candidate for the classical medal, unless you had taken a respectable degree in mathematics. Coleridge had not the least taste for these, and here his case was hopeless; so that he despaired of a Fellowship, and gave up what in his heart he coveted, college honours, and a college life. He had seen Middleton (late Bishop of Calcutta) quit Pembroke under similar circumstances. Not quite similar, because Middleton studied mathematics so as to take a respectable degree, and to enable him to try for the medal: but he failed, and therefore all hopes failed of a Fellowship-most fortunately, as it proved in after-life for Middleton, though he mourned at the time most deeply, and exclaimed, "I am Middleton, which is another name for Misfortune!" "There is a Providence which shapes our ends, Rough hew them how we will." That which Middleton deemed a misfortune drew him from the cobwebs of a college library to the active energies of a useful and honoured life. But to return to Coleridge. When he quitted college, which he did before he had taken a degree, in a moment of mad-cap caprice-it was indeed an inauspicious hour!" In an inauspicious hour I left the friendly cloisters and the happy grove of quiet, ever-honoured Jesus College, Cambridge." Short but deep and heartfelt reminiscence! In a literary Life of himself, this short memorial is all that Coleridge gives of his happy days at college. Say not that he did not obtain, and did not wish to obtain classical honours! He did obtain them, and was eagerly ambitious of them; but he did not bend to that discipline which was to qualify him for the whole course. He was very studious, but his reading was desultory and capricious. He took little exercise merely for the sake of exercise; but he was ready at any time to unbend his mind in conversation, and for the sake of this, his room (the ground-floor room on the right hand of the staircase facing the great gate) was a constant rendezvous of conversation-loving friends,-I will not call them loungers, for they did not call to kill time, but to enjoy it. What evenings have I spent in those rooms! What little suppers, or sizings, as they were called, have I enjoyed; when Eschylus, and Plato, and Thucydides were pushed aside, with a pile of lexicons, &c. to discuss the pamphlets of the day. Ever and anon, a pamphlet issued from the pen of Burke. There was no need of having the book before us. Coleridge had read it in the morning, and in the evening he would repeat whole pages verbatim. Frend's trial was then in progress. Pamphlets swarmed from the press. Coleridge had read them all; and in the evening, with our negus, we had them viva voce gloriously. O Coleridge! it was indeed an inauspicious hour, when you quitted the friendly cloisters of Jesus. The epithet friendly' implied what Mr. URBAN, CERGIEL. Nov. 10. I UNDERSTAND that a very curious and elaborate edition of Skelton is preparing for the press by the learned and reverend Mr. Dyce, the editor of Peele and Greene. I therefore take the liberty of saying, that, among many other very difficult and obscure passages of that singular poet, I have heard many persons doubt the meaning of the words 'Scalis Malis,' in the following lines: "For men be now tratlers and tellers of tales : [Wales; What tidinges at Totman; what newis in What shippis are sailing to Scalis Malis? And all is not worth a couple of nut shalis." Now, in Sir Henry Wotton's Parallel of the Earl of Essex and Duke of Buckingham, will be found (edit. 4, p. 177,) the following passage, which solves the difficulty: "His fortunatest piece I esteem the taking of Cadiz Malez; and no less modest; for then he wrote with his own hand a censure of his omissions." At p. 41, of ed. 1736, speaking of flowers and herbs, "The columbine and nepte." This is the nepeta, or cat-mint; so called from a supposition that cats are fond of it. Bishop Hall, in his "Select Thoughts," "has "The cat to her nep." At p. 231, "The hobby and the musket, The sensers and the crosse shall set." For the meaning of musket, see Swan's " Speculum Mundi," 4to, p. 1643. "Of hawks there be many kinds, as the falcon, merlin, tassell, lannor, and sundrie others. Howbeit, the tassells are supposed to be the males of such birds as live by prey, as the tassell of the saker is called a hobbie, or mongrell-hawk, that of the sparrow-hawk a musket, that of the lannar a lannaret, and so of the rest. Now some again distinguish these birds three several ways. First, by the form and fashion of their bodies, some being great, as the gosse hawk, faulcon, gerfaulcon; and some small, as the merlin, musket, harmhawk, hobbie, and such others," &c. THE memoir of the Marquis Luigi Grimaldi, in your Number for October (p. 430), affords a fit opportunity of recording in your pages a document relating to his illustrious family, which I discovered since your publication of those interesting papers, on the "Golden Book of Genoa," on the "Tenants in Chief of Domesday Book," and on the "family of Grimaldi as connected with England," in September 1830, and in January and December 1832. The original paper is preserved in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, among royal and princely letters in the volume No. 1729, f. 142a, and is denoted as art. 76 in my forthcoming Catalogue. The wrapper (143) bears the impress of a round seal of the size of a half-crown, thus inscribed in Roman capitals, DVX ET GVBERNATORES REIP. GENVE, around an oval shield bearing a plain cross; and it is indorsed thus by a contemporary hand, The State of Gene to the quenes Mate vijo Junij 1554." It contains the credentials borne by SIMON NEGRO and LUCAS GRIMALDI, who were elected and dispatched by the Doge and Governors of the Republic of Genoa, as Ambassadors, to pay their respects to Queen Mary at her marriage with Philip of Spain, which was performed at Winchester, 5 July, 1554; the treaty having been concluded and ratified by the Queen in March, and by the Prince 25 June foregoing. (Rymer, xv. 377-380, 393 -403.) * Advantage has been omitted to be taken in the new edition of the preface of Domesday Book, of the original information contained in this article, identifying several of the Tenants in capite. Though I have not found their names mentioned in any documents relating to the Queen's marriage, nor any evidence of their having been present; yet the existence of the original letter in England, and its contemporaneous indorsement, prove that their mission was executed. They are described therein as 66 principal gentlemen, ," and in the Genoese fashion, entitled magnifici, being persons capa ble of bearing high offices in the State. This Lucas was the person thus named in the pedigree in your Magazine for December 1832, p. 511, “Luke Grimaldi, Lord of Beaufort, Ambassador to Spain from Genoa, d. 1580." He was the elder son of Cardinal Jerome, and ancestor of the elder or English branch; while his brother John Baptist was ancestor of the younger branch, Serma et inuitma Regina, Il non potere, si come al debito nostro si conuerrebbe, Serma e christianissima Regina, intrauenire di presenza alla celebratione di queste santissime nozze di .v. Mta con l'inuittissimo e gloriosissimo Prencipe di Spagna, et ad honorarle, per quanto potessimo, ha caugiato in Noi ardentissimo desiderio di far palese à tutti, quanto sia grande questo nostro piacer', et allegrezza. Col mezo al manco della uiua voce de principali gentil' huomini di questa nostra Repub. e cosi habbiamo fatto elettione deli Magci. Simone di Negro, e Luca Grimaldi, Ambascri nostri essibitori di queste, et impostogli che affrettino il prestamente condursi al cóspetto di .v. Mta per fare l'ufficio sudetto, Tanto desiderato da Noi sotto que miglior modi che potráno e sapráno. eglino Consapeuoli à pieno dell' animo nostro, l'aprirano à .v. Serta, et ella (merce della sua immensa humanità) degnera di credergli come anoi stessi, e restare anco seruita di accettare questa Repub. per vna di quelle, che hoggidi piu affettuosamente desiderano la grandezza di .v. Mta alla quale, quanto piu inchineuolmente possiamo, si raccomandmo. Da Genoua. Allj sette di Giugno del MDLIIII. Di vv. serma e chrma Mta deuotmj seruitori, Duce e Goueri della Repuca di Genoua. Alla Serma et AMBROSIUS. Inuitma Regina d'inghilterra. which has become extinct in the person of the late Luigi Marquis of Pietra. With the transcript of the letter I beg that you will publish the translation; and let me extend my remarks by communicating a fact that has come to my knowledge,-that a valuable collection of wills, pedigrees, and other MS. documents relating to the family of Grimaldi of Genoa, having been offered for sale there, by the executors or representatives of some female descendants; the whole was bought up by the Sardinian Government, and lodged in the archives of Turin for the purpose of assisting in the investigation of the long-pending claim * of the male line of the Grimaldis to the principality of Monaco. WILLIAM HENRY BLACK. (Translation.) Most serene and invincible Queen, The not being able as we ought, most serene and most Christian Queen, to be present at the celebration of these most holy nuptials of your Majesty, with the most invincible and glorious Prince of Spain, and to honor them as much as we could, has caused in us a most ardent desire to make manifest unto all how great is our pleasure and joy,-by means (at least) of the word of mouth of the principal gentlemen of this our Republic; and so we have made choice of the Magnificents Simon di Negro and Lucas Grimaldi our Ambassadors, the exhibitors of these [letters], and have charged them that they make all haste to conduct themselves to the sight of your Majesty, to do the above office, so much desired by us, in the best manner that they can and know. Conscious to the full of our mind, they will open to your Serenity, and you (a mark of your vast politeness) will deign to receive them as ourselves, and to continue the service of accepting this Republic as one of those which now most affectionately desire the greatness of your. Majesty, to which as humbly as possible we recommend ourselves. From Genoa, on the seventh of June 1554. Of your most serene and most Christian Majesty, the most devoted servants, the Duke and Magistrates of the Republic of Genoa. AMBROSIUS. To the most serene and invincible Queen of England. * The number of crowned heads in Europe is eleven, and nine other families reign under the titles of Grand Dukes, Dukes, and Princes, making a total of twenty Sovereign houses in Europe; the house of Grimaldi is in the latter class. REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. The Revenue and Expenditure of the OUR curiosity has been much gratified with the perusal of this accurate and laborious work; and our acquaintance with the penetralia of Government-offices, and Government-patronage, much increased. Though we own, and gladly own, that we entertain strong conservative opinions, and are much opposed to many sentiments and many arguments that we have heard attributed to Mr. Wells; yet we must confess that he has brought before us much abuse that needs correction, much expenditure that demands retrenchment, and much alteration that is required in the different branches of our official system. The fact is, that our transient prosperity during a war twice as long as that of Troy, our paper-money, our great national expenditure, begat thoughts and habits of lavish prodigality. We dipped our hands in the national purse, and conceived that there was an El Dorado at the bottom of it. Large salaries, large pensions, large benefactions were given without scruple, and too often without discrimination. The amount of these was not felt, or censured, as long as the tide of opulence set upon our shores; but when the nation became comparatively poor, when other countries shared her hitherto unrivalled commerce, when prices artificially raised fell more than a third in some cases, in the case of agricultural produce more than a half, when also we reverted to a metallic currency, the amount of these old, fixed, and bonded claims remained the same; and the reductions that have been made have not been in proportion to the increase in the value of money. The Government clerks, the Judges, the Ministers, the officers of different establishments, have not been reduced in the same proportion as the profits of the merchant, or the rents of the landed proprietor, or in anything like it. It would take an estate of three thousand acres of GENT. MAG. VOL. II. land to give a country gentleman a clear net income equal to that of a head clerk in a public office; such a person enjoys an income equal to the average of that of four or five ministers of the Church. The gist of Mr. Wells's book is, that it is necessary for the welfare, the prosperity, the safety of the country, that its expenditure should be greatly reduced; and its taxes levied at the cheapest rate, and in a manner the least oppressive. The last sentence of his work is the following: "The plans of Government for the remedy of our social evils are such as to leave untouched the real origin of the distresses they profess to remove. They may strike the throne to its centre, swamp the House of Lords, uproot the Established Church, abolish Tithes, Ecclesiastical Revenue, and Church Rates, reduce the Aristocracy to become absentees, and their tenants paupers. Attempts may be made to improve the administration of the Poor Laws; but while they leave the amount of the permanent expenditure the same (Mr. Wells ought to have said, while they do not take means for a larger reduction than they have hitherto made), while they take no measure for the diminution of the debt, while the army and civil department of the navy are kept upon their present footing, while the expenses of fiscal collections are so enormous, while the pay of public servants is so disproportionate to their services, and the system of pensions, allowances, superannuations, and compensations still persisted in: in short, while upwards of 54 millions are levied from the people to be expended on the same plan as at present, the condition of the mass cannot but be untouched; and it is in vain to expect for the nation either internal prosperity, peace, or safety, and still less, external respect from peaceful neighbours, and rival competitors. We must return to the prosperous period of 1792. We must cease to be dependent on the Bank of England; the excellent and valued institutions of the country, its prosperity and tranquillity, must not be daily and hourly hazarded by the turn of the exchange, a sudden demand for gold, or the value of an Exchequer bill.” In one instance we are pleased to 4 H find Mr. Wells supporting an opinion that we have long maintained, that the clerks and officers of the Government establishments have no claim whatever, or right to retired allowances; they enjoy large incomes without risk or drawback, larger than could be got in many professions or trades. What must be thought of men who have saved nothing from half a century's receipt of one or two thousand a-year? What would a tradesman, a prudent tradesman, say of such conduct? and why should they not share the common lot of their fellow-citizens, enjoy the reward of their own care and produce, or suffer, as others do, the consequence of their heedless extravagance? On Chemistry, Meteorology, and the Function of Digestion. By W. Prout, M.D. (Bridgewater Treatise.) THERE are few names in science more eminent in the present day than that of Dr. Prout; and the contributions which he has made to it, have been among its deepest and most abstruse principles. That he should be selected for one of the Bridgewater Treatises was to be expected, and we think that his work has fulfilled the purposes which it professed, and has proved the sagacity of the author's views, and the extent of his knowledge. Such Treatises as the one before us, are not without considerable difficulties attached to their execution. In the first place they can present but a very abridged view of science-and yet its philosophical principles, its most important discoveries, its yet remaining deficiencies, are all to be enumerated or discussed. Hence the art of compression can only be the result of a most clear and comprehensive view of the subject. Again, it is absolutely necessary that the difficulties of science should be smoothed, and its principles familiarly illustrated, and the whole work adapted to general perusal. This we think Dr. Prout has effected in most instances; and in the few cases where such explanation was impossible, and where the subject could only be explained to persons familiar with science, Dr. Prout has judiciously admonished his general readers, and led them on to discussions attended with less difficulty. The sketch from Sect. II. to Sect. IX. of the Molecular forces and actions is not only very clearly and excellently written, but is distinguished also for the developement of original views. The author closes his consideration of them, by fearlessly asserting that the molecular constitution of matter is decidedly artificial, or, to use the words of a celebrated writer, that the molecules of matter 'have all the essential characters of a manufactured article,' and consequently are not eternal.— Again, the present order of things could not have existed, unless the molecules of matter had been endowed with both properties of chemical and cohesive affinity. One of which, the chemical, as it were, goes before, and imperiously determines what molecules shall be combined or separated, while the other, the cohesive, silently unobtrusive, follows in its train, and industriously assisting and arranging its predecessor's labours, here perhaps forms a diamond, or there superintends the integrity of the atmosphere. Such are molecular forces as they obviously appear to us, and such the arguments deducible from them; but when we attempt to go further, and inquire into the intricate nature of these forces, we not only find much that is unknown to us, but much that apparently surpasses our utmost conception. And what a still more sublime idea is this calculated to convey to us of the wisdom and power of that Being who contrived and made the whole. When and where, do we naturally exclaim, did this Being exist? Whence his wisdom, and whence his power? There is-there can be-but one answer to these inquiries. The Being who contrived and made all these things, must have pre-existed from eternity-must have been Omniscient-must have been Omnipotent -must have been God. In a similar line of argument at p. 155, the Author observes: "The phenomena of Chemistry are so extraordinary, and often so unexpected, that little in general can be predicated of them but what is actually known. The most experienced chemist, therefore, as compared with the great Chemist of |