beings dear to me from my infancy, with the envy that menaces high talents, and with the trials which await the superior endowments of genius; but these trials, I am convinced, are given to prove, and to display the powers of those minds; to cause them to exercise their mental and moral strength, and to refine, confirm, and brighten their character, as we do gold in the furnaceas only the bravest spirits in an army are placed in the posts of extremest danger, which are also the posts of honour, so Providence selects the greatest souls to be examples of Fortitude, under suffering, and magnanimity under the oppressions of the world. It is a high commission, dear Sir, that such spirits are called upon to fulfil; and if at last, the whole is atchieved so as to merit the approbation of the Almighty Dispenser of all our faculties how little must be the regret, that half the world were your enemies! I warmly sympathise in your admiration of the Bard of Childe Alarique, but I cannot agree with you, that "the poet of Wooton," is at all inferior. There is a deep pathos, a sublime purity of sentiment in both, that I have no where seen excelled. When poetry breathes the inspiration of virtue, it is then, that we feel her celestial birth; it is then, that we reverence the poet as only next in dignity to the prophet. Childe Alarique only requires to be known to make itself a thousand friends, and as far as my little power will operate towards that effect, it shall be exerted. I am acquainted with the Editor of the New Review, published by Valpy, and I will send him an analysis of the poem, which is the form in which that work reviews authors. Mr. Gillies repeats having seen my brother, and mentions his having rather confidently promised to my Scottish friends, my visiting their country this autumn; Alas! my dear brother, is little aware how constantly the delicate state of my mother's health confines me to within a day's journey, at farthest, distant from her. I have hardly a hope of reaching Seotland at all; certainly not, unless she were well enough to accompany A recent letter from Naples shews that Science, though for a time depressed, will bound beyond human control. Signor Gasparini, a distinguished Neapolitan botanist, held, in 1848, a situation in the University of his native country, but, although he took no part in politics, King Bomba, after his violation of the Constitution, deprived the Professor of his situation, and reduced him to extreme poverty. Several applications to be reinstated were made without producing effect on the Neapolitan Government. In the meantime, a learned botanist from Vienna visited Naples, and finding the low and melancholy condition to which Signor Gasparini was involved, promised to procure an appointment for him in the Lombardo-Venetian provinces, which proffered kindness he gratefully accepted. The Neapolitan Government, however, interfered, and declared that the King would see with displeasure one of his disgraced professors appointed to an official situation by a friendly Government. The affair appeared to have fallen altogether in abeyance, until the recent visit of the Emperor of Austria to his Italian dominions, when, by an Imperial Decree, dated March 13, Signor Gasparini was appointed Professor of Botany in the University of Pavia. Another extraordinary circumstance occurred connected with this affair which is deserving of especial notice. When Baron Martini, the Austrian Minister at Naples, announced to Signor Gasparini his appointment, he added, His Majesty sends you near the frontiers of Piedmont, for he is determined to compete with the King of that country in extending education, and protecting the arts and sciences in Italy.' · Vidocq, whose auto-biography, from his extraordinary notoriety as connected with the police of Paris, created no little attraction even in this metropolis, died recently at Paris, in his seventy-eighth year. No. LXXVIII.] "Takes note of what is done- [JUNE, 1857. of the fancy and imagination of poets, dramatists, artists, and novelists, from the period of the murder to the present time. Camoens has introduced the tale into the third canto of the Lusiad, in an episode which had the reluctant commendation of Voltaire. That immortal poem has been translated into Hebrew and Latin, Spanish, French, and Italian, English and German, Danish and Swedish. In the Portuguese language, the story of Ignez has given rise to four, if not five tragedies. One by Antonio Ferreira, the Portuguese Horace, which has been translated into English by Mr. Musgrave; another by Nicola Luiz, of which an English translation by the late Mr. John Adamson, was printed in 1808; a third by Domingos dos Reis Quita, translated into English prose by Benjamin Thompson; and a fourth, entitled Nova Castro, by Joao Baptista Gomez ; besides which, mention is made in Twiss's Travels in Spain and Portugal, of another, by S. Silveira, printed Will any of your readers favour me with a transla- at Lisbon in 1764, which would also appear to have been tion in verse? translated into German. The sad story of this unfortunate lady is probably too well known to need any lengthened recital on this occasion. She was a Castilian lady of noble extraction, who came to Portugal in attendance upon the Princess Constance, on her marriage with the Infante Don Pedro, son and heir of Alphonso the Fourth. Such was her beauty that the Prince became enamoured of her, and after the death of the Princess, was secretly married to her by the Bishop of Guarda. Some of the old King's evil counsellors, instigated by envy and jealousy, succeeded in obtaining his sanction for the assassination of the beautiful and innocent Ignez, his daughter-in-law, the wife of his son. The horrid deed was perpetrated during the absence of Don Pedro upon a hunting excursion, on January 7, 1355. The devoted widower, after his accession to the throne, caused the remains of his beloved consort to be exhumed, and after decreeing to them all the insignia and emblems of royalty, and enforcing from the nobles their homage and recognition of her as Queen of Portugal, conducted the corpse in solemn funeral procession to the monastery of Alcobaca, where the magnificently sculptured tombs of Ignez and Pedro,' though they did not escape the sacrilegious violence of the French soldiery in the Peninsular war, may still be seen. The melancholy fate of Ignez has been pathetically recorded by the old chroniclers and historians, and has supplied a favourite theme and subject for the exercise VOL. VII. There are also the following works relating to the same tragical event, of which I know nothing more than the titles-Sandades de D. Ignez de Castro pelo Manoel de Asevedo, Coimbra, 1734; and Sandades dos Serenissimos Reis de Portugal D. Pedro e D. Ignez de Castro, por D. Maria de Lara e Menezes Na officina de Pedro Ferreira, 1762. Nor should we omit a Sonnet by Antonio Ribeiro dos Santos, a translation of which is given in Mr. Adamson's Lusitania Illustrata, part 1, p. 76, and which may be regarded as an Inscription for the celebrated Fount of Tears, in the garden of the Quinta das Lagrimas, at Coimbra. In the Spanish language there are three dramas which owe their origin to this sad catastrophe; two tragedies by the monk Geronimo Bermudez, entitled-Nise Lastimosa; and Nise Laureada; the word Nise being an anagram of Ines; written after the model of the old Greek plays. They were originally printed in 1577, and have since been reprinted in the sixth volume of El Parnaso Espanol. The other drama is by Luis Velez de Guevara, and bears the title of Reynar Despues de Morir. In the French Language there seems to have been a novel written by a Lady of Quality, which was made English' by the notorious Mrs. Behn, and published with the rest of her works, under the title of Agnes de Castro; or, the Force of Generous Love. On this French novel Mrs. Catharine Trotter, (afterwards Mrs. Cockburn) founded the plot of her tragedy of Agnes de Castro, which was acted at the Theatre Royal in 1695, and met with great success. From a tragedy by Mons. De La Motte, said to be written in a turgid and inflated style, Mallet took his Elvira, acted at Drury Lane for G nine successive nights, and published in 1763. A German translation of De La Motte's Inez de Castro, was printed at Leipzig in 1774. The exhibition at Paris of a picture by the Count de Forbin, representing the exhumation and coronation of Ignez, suggested to the Countess de Genlis, the idea of writing an historical novel that has been translated into Portuguese, by D Caetano Lopez de Moura, a native of Bahia, and printed at Paris in 1837. In the English language, besides the translations to which allusion has already been made, there are four original tragedies-Inez, of which the author is unknown, printed at London, 1796; Inez de Castro, an historical drama, by Jonathan Skelton, of Trinity Hall, Cambridge; London, 1841; Ignez de Castro, a tragedy in five acts, contributed to Hood's Magazine, by the author of Rural Sonnets, London, 1846; and Inez de Castro, a tragedy in five acts, by Miss Mitford, printed in the second volume of her Dramatic Works, 1854. In 1829, Mons. St. Evre exhibited at Somerset House his famous pictures, of which reduced sketches by the artist himself are now before me, representing the Coronation of Ignez in the Church of Santa Clara, at Coimbra; and the Funeral Procession at the moment of its arrival at Alcobaca. The sight of these pictures inspired Mrs. Bray with an interest in the story of Ignez, and led to the composition of one of her fascinating romances, entitled The Talba; or, the Moor of Portugal, which appeared shortly afterwards. Among the minor pieces relating to the fair Castilian, may be enumerated some verses by Lady Flora Hastings, and Lord William Lennox. Some stanzas on the Coronation, by an anonymous writer in the English Journal, January 16, 1841; and a Prologue, written for an intended tragedy on the same subject, by Mr. John Adamson, Lusitania Illustrata, part 1, p. 74. A portrait of the beautiful creature, whose cruel fate has occasioned such a variety of compositions, was engraved for the embellishment of Mr. Adamson's Memoir of the Life and Writings of Camoens. It was taken from a print in a work entitled, Retratos e Elogios dos Varoens e Doñas que illustraram a Nacao Portugueza. The original painting was in the possession of the Conde de Redondo. I conclude with a query, as I am very desirous of ascertaining what has become of the copper plate which was engraved by Skelton, for Mr. Adamson. Heworth, June 17. E. H. A. In the Advertisement to a French translation of a volume entitled, Le Desespoir Amoureux, avec les Nouvelles Visions de Don Quixotte, Histoire Espagnolle,' printed at Amsterdam, 1715, duod., the Translator observes-We are beholden to Spanish writers for the Histories contained in this volume, which are merely a translation from their works, more particularly from those of the author of Homicidio dela Fidelitad, y la Defensa del Honor,' printed for John Richer, at Paris, in 1C09, but known in the original Spanish more than a century before Miguel Cervantes, who the world. Don Quixote is introduced in the three followproduced the celebrated romance of Don Quixote, came into ing histories or novels: Histoire du Berger Philidon, et de la Bergere Floride, avec quelques Visions de Don Quichotte. Cervantes has embodied this entire novel into his own work. Les Amours de Don Antonio, avec les Prouesses de Don Quichotte; and thirdly Les Avantures Étranges de Cretonia et de son fils Don Felix, avec de Nouvelles Visions de Don Quixotte. This last, wherein Don Quixote and Don Felix are introduced, having met at an inn, is the story of Walpole's found the character of Don Quixote, an erratic being, his Mysterious Mother. Cervantes therefore, upon this showing head being turned by the perusal of romances, riding everywhere, armed cap-a-pie, in search of adventures, ready sketched to his hand, but his version of the adventures of the rueful knight, will, like the writings of Shakespeare, be popularly appreciated and revered till the crack of doom. CERVANTES' DON QUIXOTE. In the Grenville Library Catalogue, it is stated there 1605; the difference being that one has the privilege were two editions of the first volume bearing the date for Castille only, and the certificate for the Errata, dated Aragon, and Portugal, dated Feb. 9, 1605. In the library 1 Dec. 1601. The other has the privilege for Castille, of Mr. John Dunn Gardner, was a first volume, the certificate being dated the 24th day of December, 1604, thus constituting a third or intermediate variation. Qu. Are these all one and the same edition, differing only in In one of the pocket journals of the Rev. John Price, the alterations on the title and following leaf? A comformerly Keeper of the Bodleian Library, is the follow-parison by any of your Correspondents, would soon ing extract from an old manuscript referring to, it is determine the question, and confer a favor on hoped, a long since gone-by superstitious belief. June 8. KEY MODE OF DETECTING THIEVES. Place a key upright on the 18, 19, 20, and 21 verses of the Fifteenth Psalm, and mention the names of the Persons suspected-it will turn and fall down at his name, who is the thief. Oxford, June 4. F. C. M. The Union Society, Oxford, adopted, in this seat of learning, as the subject of discussion at a recent meeting-That, by late events, some coercion of the press is rendered necessary! PAUL VERONESE'S TENT OF DARIUS. WHO WROTE THE WAVERLEY NOVELS? printed in Current Notes, June 1856; has at last been finally dissolved by the following announcement addressed to the Editor, and printed in the Times Newspaper of the 5th inst. Wright in his Observations while attending George, Mr. Fitzpatrick's inquisitorial enquiry into the claims Lord Parker, in his travels through France, Italy, etc., of Sir Walter Scott being the reputed author of the 1720-22, notices-The richest furniture of the Vene-Waverley Novels, to which a dispassionate reply was tian palaces is their paintings, with which they are often well stored. We saw several good ones at several palaces of the Grimani, there are six or seven families of that name: Maniani, Grassi, Delfino, Pisani, Barberigo and others. The Finding of Moses, in one of the palaces of the Grimani, that near the Servi, is the most celebrated piece of Paolo of any that is in private hands; the whole piece is very fine, but what shines most, as indeed it should, is Pharaoh's daughter; besides the beauty of the lady's person, the exquisite delicacy of her drapery is surprising. At the Palazzo Pisani is another much celebrated piece of Paolo Veronese, it represents Darius's Tent, or rather his family, for the Tent itself is not described in the picture, We have some copies of it in England. KING'S COLLEGE, A CENTURY SINCE. During the last week one of the last monuments of old New York has disappeared before the advancing press of business. On a tract of land so far up the island as to be out of the reach not only of business but of population, the foundation stone was laid in the year 1756, for the buildings then and since occupied by King's College. The institution was liberally endowed as things went in those days. When the States cut | loose from the King the name of the institution was changed to the more euphonious and republican one of Columbia, but the buildings and endowments remained. Population some years ago left it in the rear; and now, business having quite encircled it, the college authorities have given up their grounds in Park-place, for the construction of marble warehouses, and have removed the whole institution some four or five miles further up the island, planting it again upon the outskirts of population. | Seeing the immense amount of building going on, and the rapid increase of New York, one is tempted to speculate whether another century will roll over before it will again find itself in the midst of business. I see no signs of check in the prosperity of New York. On the contrary, more buildings are going on, and of a more magnificent character, this year than ever before. Whole streets are again in ruins, on which marble warehouses will rise equalling in beauty any warehouses in the world. Shipping alone is stagnant, and freights low; but this can only be temporary, and meanwhile manufactures of almost every branch are concentrating here. If Wouter Van Swiller were to return, and see the quiet places where he used to enjoy his pipe amid the cares of government; or if Peter the Testy, were to behold the meadows devoted in his day, to pasturing the cattle destined for the distant town, now covered with expensive dwellings, I fancy that those respectable old gentlemen would go crazy at once. New York, May 13. C. THE WAVERLEY NOVELS. Sir,-As the daughters of the late Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Scott, we desire to offer to the public, through your journal, our full and entire contradiction of a report which has been circulated, and which claims for our parents some participation, less or more, in the authorship of the Waverley Novels. We shall be greatly obliged by your giving publicity to our declaration, that these surmises are entirely false. We have the honour to be, Sir, June 3. Your obedient Servants, ANNE RUTHERFORD SCOTT. FEUDS OF THE MACGREGOR CLAN. Sir Walter Scott revived a great interest in the Highland clan McGregor, by his vivid impersonation of Rob Roy, whose character and daring exploits were perfectly in keeping with those of his forefathers. But the Clangregoris, was not a mere freebooting and shifty body subsisting on black mail and robbery. The chiefs possessed large territories, and inter-married with the most potent families in the surrounding districts. It seems, however, that they were either very turbulent and lawless, or made themselves so obnoxious to other neighbouring clans, more especially to the Campbells, that they were engaged in endless feuds, out of which issued much intrigue, bloodshed, and butchery, till finally persecution and extirpation fell upon the unhappy and dreaded name. The crisis of their fate arrived at the beginning of the 17th century, when for one of their most furious and destructive raids eighteen of the principals were taken to Edinburgh, and there at the Mercat Cross, were hanged and quartered, at their head being Alester Roy M Gregour of Glenschray, who was hung on ane pyn [a pin] an ell higher than the rest.' In this promiscuous legal slaughter a variety of names shew that the Clan Gregor had numerous adherents, who acknowledged their Chieftaincy, and followed them to war, plunder, or death; for we find M'Allesters, M'Neill's, M Conochies, and other Macs, who were all ignominiously suspended on the cross-formed gibbet, so many feet below the elevated distinction of their unfortunate leader. But besides this terrible example, others were hanged there, and in other places; and at the same time, their country was scoured with merciless cruelty, and fugitives were murdered or massacred wherever they were found, sometimes not fewer than a score in the struggle and the chase. The gallows on which the M'Gregors suffered in Edinburgh was, we are told, raised on purpose for them, in the shape of the cross, so that they might all be suspended together, with Glenschray at the top. The fashion was indeed so new and original that M'Gregour and the gallows was maid a comoun proverb.' We might imagine that this process of extinction by law and the sword would have completely quelled the desperate Clan, but, on the contrary so soon after as the year 1610, i. e. within six or seven years; we have King James the First dispatching the Earl of Dundar for taking order with them, and settling the Highlands as he had previously settled the Lowlands or south-borders of Scotland. His commission was to call out the noble and gentlemen of these parts "to pursue the said Clan Gregour, for rooting out of their posterity and name!" This was, indeed, to Settle a Country, and yet such were the good old times-times when the strongest took what they could and kept it against all invaders. The proscribed M'Gregours could not hold their own against this accumulated force, but Providence respited them for a while. Being fiercely, 'straitlie' pursued, they fled to an Isle called Hanvernak in Monteith, where by order of the Secret Counsell,' they were in February 1611 besieged by the array called out against them; but the impending vengeance was 'haistily dissolved through ane vehement storme of snaw.' Of three of their leaders, however, one was slain, and two were sent prisoners to Edinburgh to be dealt with! The Earl of Dunbar having died, several other commissions were issued, and a furious desultory warfare was carried on, the M-Gregors ravaging the lands of the Campbells, and in one of their forays killing forty great mares and their followers in Glenurgquhay, whence the Marquis of Breadalbane takes his second title of Lord Glenorchy; together with a fair courser sent to the Laird from the Prince out of Lordon. The revenge for this barbarous act, which nearly annihilated a zealous endeavour to improve the Highland breed of horses, contemporary, by the by, with the introduction and propagation of fir trees by the same influence; was exemplarily savage and not long delayed. The M'Gregors now held together to the number of six or seven score of men, but were pursued by superior force through Balquihidder, Monteith, and Lennox till brought to a stand at Benbuie in Argyle, where they were defeated with great slaughter, and the prisoners hanged on the spot where the mares were killed. From that date they were so scattered that never above the number of ten or twelve, met again. The despoiling of the Clan led to great controversy, and the partition of their forfeited property and lands was the source of violent disputes, even among the near relations and families of those who had ruined them. Among the subjects of quarrel was the allotment of some portions of the fines or rents originally belonging to the obliterated tribe for the maintenance of three or four score of their orphan bairns, who were herded together like the children in a modern poorhouse, and not quite so sufficiently provided for. Such was the finale of the wild blood of the clan Gregouris which had troubled the Highlands for a hundred years anterior to the period at which we have taken up their history. For a long time the very name was never heard; till at length Gregorys, Gregersons Gregsons, and Smiths, the refuge for the destitute, began to appear, and, at last, in spite of all danger, the Mac Gregor again arose and has flourished among the foremost in every walk of life-the army, the civil service, and the learned professions. Before laying down the pen, we may mention two memorable events connected with the antecedents of ClanGregor exploits and casualties during the sixteenth century. First, John M Ewin M'Allaster M'Gregour ravished Helene Campbell, daughter of Sir Coline Campbell of Glenarquhay, Knight, and widow of Lochbuy, and of their two grandsons one died of the hurt of an arrow going betwixt Glenlyon and Rannoch; and the other, his brother Gregor, was beheaded by Coline Campbell, the nephew of the lady from whose enforced union he had the fate to spring. Allaster Roy, his son, was the unfortunate individual who was elevated to the pyn' of the Gallows-cross in the sanguinary execution at the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh. The massacre at Glencoe, so extenuated by Macaulay, and a series of vengeful incidents after the battle of Culloden re-shadowed forth during two hundred and fifty years the olden order of things in the days of the ClanGregor. Balmoral, and Taymouth, and Drummond Castle, witness other sights; and perhaps the happiest parts of the British Isles are those very districts where lawless oppression and vindictive fury without let or hindrance reigned so long. Well may the present generation, but in an opposite sense, ask with Macduff, Stands Scotland where it did? EXPENDITURE ON THE NATIONAL COLLECTIONS. The accounts for the financial year ending in April 1857, shew that in the year 1856-7, there has been expended on the National Collections 202,4671. against 228,8667. disbursed in 1855-6. To the British Museum Establishment was appropriated 49,460. To the buildings, 49,7681. and to purchases, 20,454l. To the National Gallery, 12,0771., and to Scientific Works and Experiments, 5,8157. To the Royal Geographical Society, 5001.; to the Department of Science and Art, 58,9664,; to the Museum of Practical Geology, 7,312l.; and to the Royal Society, 1000%. The total amount expended on the purchase and laying out of the Kensington Gore estate, from 1851 to 1856 to 1856 inclusive, is 277,3097. |