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WIVES INIMICAL TO LITERARY STUDIES. THOMAS COOPER or Cowper, Bishop of Lincoln, was the compiler of a Latin and English Dictionary, printed in 1578, and highly popular in its day; the publication was retarded some years by the anxiety of the Bishop's wife, who fearing so much study might prejudice his health, one day in his absence entered his study, and taking all his papers and notes he had been busied eight years in gathering, burned them. Delighted with her achievement, on the Bishop's return she apprised him of the act, his reply was, Woman, thou hast put me to eight years study more.'

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STATUTES.-Current Notes, vol. iii. p. 92. The Institutions were first printed by Nicholas Hill, 1546, but the name of the author has not transpired. There were several subsequent editions, and so late as 1625 it was reprinted by the Company of Stationers as a handbook of instruction for law students.

BYRON.-The original manuscript of The Curse of Minerva,' formerly in the possession of R. C. Dallas, at whose sale it sold for 167. 10s, and passed into the library of the late Smyth Piggott, Esq. of Brockley Hall, Somerset; was purchased on the 24th ult. by Mr. Boone of Bond Street, for 221. 10s.

C. R., Dundee.-The Apollo statue that is now the theme of general admiration at Paris, is the one found at Lillebonne, of gilded bronze and not marble. The naming it an Apollo was without the slightest consideration; and the French sçavans will doubtless soon determine whether it is an Antinous or not.

VOLTAIRE having asked Fontenelle, then more than ninety years old, what he thought of Mahomet? the latter replied, "Il est horriblement beau!"

BARRIER TREATY VINDICATED, 1712, 8vo.-Who was the author of this interesting historical volume? S. M. Charles, second Viscount Townshend, supplied the papers but John, Lord Somers, was the editor.

ROBERTSON'S FABULOUS HISTORY OF CHARLES V.

THERE are few persons who have perused Robertson's narrative of the Emperor Charles V.'s abdication, and his subsequent retirement into monastic life, without deep emotion, simply, because doubts were created that the once all powerful monarch was, at the close of his life neglected by his son, Philip II., the husband of our Mary the First; and unpleasant suspicions engendered, that he had been destroyed by the policy of his son. But all these highly wrought particulars, these speculative enrichments which have so often "pointed a moral or adorned a tale," are all fiction; and in the words of the legend on the coins of our Mary-VERITAS TEMPORIS FILIA; the truth by the lapse of time has been elicited, and documentary evidence is extant to negative the assertions hitherto current in reference to Charles V.

The following is the subject of a letter by Henry Wheaton, Esq. formerly Minister from the United States, at Berlin, in 1843.

You will doubtless recollect the remarkable incidents related by Robertson in his History of Charles V. respecting the retirement of the Emperor into the Convent of St. Justus in Estramadura, after his abdication, and to which narrative the historian has lent the strong colouring of his graphic pencil. We are told that Charles renounced, not only the substantial power he had inherited or acquired, but the pride, pomp, and circumstance of imperial sovereignty, for the quietude and solitude of a monastic life, devoting himself for the residue of his days to religious exercises and practices of self-mortification, until he fell into a state of melancholy dejection that nearly deprived him of the use of his mental faculties. This gloomy scene is dramatically closed by his resolving to anticipate the celebration of his own obsequies, and according to the historian, the ex-Emperor, wrapped in a sable shroud, and surrounded by his attendants, laid himself in a sarcophagus placed in the middle of the convent chapel. A funeral requiem was then performed, and Charles mingled his own with the voices of the clergy, who prayed for the repose of his soul. After the close of the ceremony the spectators withdrew, and the church doors were shut; Charles remained some time in the coffin, then rose, and retired to his cell, where he spent the night in solitary meditation. This sad ceremony is supposed to have hastened his dissolution, as he is stated to have been immediately attacked by a fever, of which he died on the 21st of September,

1558.

According to authentic information just received here torical researches in Spain, all this turns out to be a from a German traveller, now engaged in making hisfabulous legend. Don Tomas Gonzales, well known as the learned author of an Essay on the relations subsisting between Philip II. of Spain, and Mary of England, printed in the seventh volume of the Transactions of of the royal archives at Simancas, and occupied himself the Royal Academy of History, at Madrid; was keeper to the latter years of his life with a history of Charles V.,

from his abdication till his death, compiled from original documents, in that rich collection. The manuscript of this work, in the possession of the late author's nephew, is entitled, Vida y Muerte del Emperodor Carlos Quinto en Juste. The first part of the work, giving an account of the Emperor's abdication at Brussels, and his voyage to Spain, follows the ordinary authorities, and does not differ materially from Robertson's narrative of the same events.. Its peculiar interest begins with the landing of Charles in the peninsula-from which period the author had the exclusive use of documents of unquestionable authority, but which were unknown to the Scottish his

torian.

It seems the Emperor's daughter, Donna Juana, widow of Prince John of Portugal and Regent of Spain, during the absence of Philip II. in Flanders, had instructed Don Luis Quijada, major-domo, and Don Juan Vasquez de Molina, the Emperor's private secretary, to send her a daily journal respecting the state of the Emperor's health, his actions, his conversations, and in short, particulars of every thing that passed at St. Justus. These despatches are all carefully preserved in the archives of Simancas, and Don Tomas Gonzales, has made copious extracts from them. He has also made use of the correspondence between Charles and his son Philip, the other members of his family, and different distinguished personages of the time. Among these papers are several letters from the infant Don Carlos, son of Philip II., unfortunately celebrated in poetry and in history, addressed to Charles V,, and from the latter to the infant's tutor, Ruy Gomez de Silva, in which he bewails the errors of his grandson, and advises how he might be reclaimed.

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These trustworthy documents demonstrate beyond all question, that the ex-emperor, far from having lived a monastic life in the cloister of St. Justus, or associated as a lay brother on an equal footing with the monks of that convent, very seldom participated even in their religious exercises. Their total silence respecting the extraordinary scene of his funeral obsequies, related by Robertson, on I know not what authority-affords of itself a strong negative proof against the reality of this act as wild and uncommon as any that superstition ever suggested to a weak and disordered fancy." It can hardly be supposed, that the responsible personages whose official duty it was to report daily and confidentially to the Queen Regent every act of Charles's life, and who have in fact, recorded the minutest circumstances preceding and attending his death, should have dared to omit an incident so striking in itself, and the most important of all, since it is supposed to have hastened his dissolution. From the reports of Quijada and Vasquez, it also appears, that Charles was for several months before his decease confined to his room with the gout, so as to have been physically incapable of assisting as the principal actor in such a trying scene.

Robertson dwells upon the small number of attendants whom Charles took with him into his modest retirement as an additional proof of his having with

drawn altogether from worldly concerns; those documents, on the contrary, contain positive evidence of his being constantly attended by more than five hundred persons of various ranks and degrees, principally Flemings and Germans.

In short, it appears that Charles remained Emperor de facto up to the time of his death, still directing by his advice and general superintendence the complicated affairs of the vast dominions, he had nominally conferred on his son. Philip, so far from thwarting his father's intentions, as in this respect he has been accused of so doing, frequently in his correspondence laments his inadequacy from want of experience for the task of government, and entreats his father to leave his cloister, and resume the sceptre.

Charles continued to busy himself especially with ecclesiastical affairs. Robertson, on the contrary, tells us how the Emperor amused himself in his retirement in studying the principles of mechanical science, and in constructing curious works of mechanism, of which he had ever been remarkably fond. "He was," says the historian, "particularly curious with regard to the construction of clocks and watches; and having found, after repeated trials, that he could not bring any two of them to go exactly alike, he reflected, it is said, with a mixture of surprise, as well as regret, on his own folly, in having bestowed so much time and labour on the more vain attempt of bringing mankind to a precise uniformity of sentiment concerning the profound and mysterious doctrines of religion." This account of his sentiments is so far from being correct, that the truth is-he was never more zealously engaged in stimulating the work of persecuting the Protestants by the civil power, than during this period of his life. It is well known that the principles of the Reformation had at this time made considerable secret progress in Spain. The Grand Inquisitor informed the Emperor of the alarming fact, and accused Dr. Cazalla, Charles's own confessor, of being infected with heresy. He did not hesitate to instantly surrender the accused to the holy office, and in his answer to the Grand Inquisitor, exclaimed, "Have I then spent my whole life in endeavouring to root out heresy, in order to discover at last the director of my own conscience is an apostate?"

Charles, doubtless, considered the Protestants as the enemies not only of heaven, but of the State-and feared the destruction of the vast possessions he had left to his son, from their machinations. He had early crushed the civil liberties of Spain in the plains of Vilalar, and in all his letters from St. Justus he advises Philip to pursue the heretics with fire and sword, as more dangerous enemies than the political partizans of Padilla. He thus infused into the soul of Philip his own deadly hate of the Reformers, and his counsels were subsequently followed by that monarch with the spirit and activity of a demon.

The work of Don Tomas Gonzales contains many highly important letters on this subject from the Emperor to the Archbishop of Seville, then Grand Inquisitor, which throw new light upon the religious and

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PROPHECIES IN REFERENCE TO THE CHINESE. ISAIAH xlix. 12 - "Behold, these shall come from far; and lo, these from the north, and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim."

WE find, in the Chinese language, numerous words recording the most remarkable events that have since taken place, and some few, even before the time of the universal deluge: among these, there are some which convince us that the true knowledge of some of the Jewish doctrines, customs, and ceremonies were accurately noted by the Chinese. For the sake of brevity, I will mention one word only in proof of my assertion, viz.: sen, 3, (in the second series of numerals). There has been, I think, an essay published on the proper rendering of the word Elohim into Chinese. I have not seen the work; nevertheless, I believe that it cannot be rendered more intelligibly and significantly than by the word san, 3; which denotes not only the UNION of the three persons in the Godhead, but also their co-EQUAL majesty hence, we may easily give credit to the genuineness of the following part of the creed of the present insurgents, the Miao-tze of the different provinces, but chiefly those of the Kouang-Si:

"The Chinese in early ages
Were regarded by God;
Together with foreign states,
They walked in one way.
From the time of Pwan-koo
Down to the three dynasties
They honoured God,
As history records."*

But from the unexpected and extraordinary successes of the pretender and his followers, we may reasonably expect that the people of that far distant land will, ere long, have a more perfect knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

To shew that the prophecy in Isaiah relates to the people of China, it is necessary, in my opinion, to adduce something like a satisfactory kind of proof that the Scripture Sinim refers to the inhabitants of China.

The Chinese were known to the Arabians by the name Tsin, and to the Syrians by the name Tsini, which seem to denote that the Hebrew plural termination im in Sinim, refers to the people of the land of Sin. Morrison says, "the present reigning family (in 1822) calls it Ta tsing kwo," which literally signifies, great water-blue kingdom. Here we have a clue, if I mistake not, to its most ancient name, viz.: Yen, Chen, or Shen, limits (of the earth), terram aqua diluere; literally, earth going great interruption (from much water here and there). This word is peculiarly descrip

Callery and Yvan's Insurrection in China, by Oxenford, p. 306.

tive of the land of waters, China. The following words, han jin, Chinese-literally, river men; mwan chow jin, Tartar or Mantchon men, literally, land full of water men; han kwa, Chinese language, literally, river-spoken language; tsing hwa, Tartar language, literally, pure spoken language; have, all of them, the index denoting water in their composition.

If then this prophecy of Isaiah be near its fulfilment, we may begin to look forward to events which shall lead to the accomplishment of that prophecy in Zechariah, "and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea, even to sea, and from the river even to the ends (limits) of the earth." But a century and a half must pass away before the full glorification (as in the Egyptian on the Dendera ceiling) of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the earth can be made manifest. T. R. BROWN.

Vicarage, Southwick, Jan. 3rd.

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Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen of England on July 10, 1553, four days after the decease of King Edward the Sixth, and seems to have relinquished that title and state on the 19th following, a period of nine days, but she is believed, although reluctantly, to have assumed the royal dignity immediately after King Edward's demise; this presumption creates the supposition her reign really extended to thirteen days. The earliest public documents hitherto discovered are however, dated on July 9, and the latest on July 18, 1553.

STONEHENGE, A Correspondent suggests, "was not a Temple of the Sun, as so called by Diodorus Siculus ; Druidical Temple, as more recently determined by Dr. or a Pagan Temple, as defined by Inigo Jones; or a Stukeley; but an arena in which wild animals were collected and destroyed, as the Nineveh sculptures recently exhumed, display the monarch spearing or levelling with the arrow, the bull or the lion. The supposition is not extravagant to suppose the liths shut in with hurdles or boughs; the summits of the pillars crowned with galleries, and the central lith whence the arbiter ludorum, not surely elegantiarum, witnessed and decided the meed of successful, though inglorious, victory?"

SCOTT'S TALLY HO! TO THE FOX.

SIR WALTER SCOTT's appointment as Clerk of Session, was notified in the Gazette, March 8th, 1806; a nomination that at the time was looked on by many of the Government adherents with any thing but feelings of satisfaction. In short it was almost immediately after a Whig ministry had gazetted his nomination, although a known Tory, to the office, that had for twelve months been a principal object of his ambition, that, rebelling against the implied suspicion of his having accepted something like a personal obligation at the hands of adverse politicians, he soon after put himself forward as a decided Tory partisan.

The impeachment of Lord Melville was among the first measures of the Whig ministry, and although the ex-minister was, as to all the charges involving his personal honour ultimately acquitted, yet the investigation brought forward so many circumstances by no means creditable to his discretion, that it was with an ill grace the rejoicings of his friends, of whom Scott was one of the most zealous, were scornfully jubilant; such they were, however, in Edinburgh, and at a public dinner given in honour of Melville's acquittal, on June 27, 1806, Scott performed his part by writing the Song, entitled, "Health to Lord Melville." It was sung to the air of Carrickfergus, by James Ballantyne, and hailed with rapturous applause. The song was printed in the newspapers at the time, but is not embodied in the collected edition of Scott's poetical works."

The song, it is admitted by Lockhart, his son-in-law and biographer, gave great offence to many sincere personal friends, whom Scott numbered among the upper ranks of the Whigs; it created a marked coldness from several towards him, which as his letters show wounded his feelings severely-the more so, because a little reflection must have made him repent not a few of the allusions. Scott's Tory prejudices as exemplified in the song, had however fallen into a slumber that has been awakened by the recent publication of Moore's Diary, by Lord John Russell, and General Napier, the party who has considered himself aggrieved, has occasioned the following correspondence, wholly addressed to the Times journal, in defence, it must be admitted, of a defective remembrance of all the circumstances.

The following, addressed to the Editor, appeared in the Times on the 28th ultimo.

SIR,-I request, as a favour, the insertion in The Times of this my reply to the following passage from Mr. Thomas Moore's diary, published by Lord John Russell

“Asked Lord H. (Holland) about the story Napier tells of Sir W. Scott having written a song for the Pitt Club' while Fox was dying, the burden of which was 'Tally-ho! to the Fox.' Not a word of truth in it, as I told Napier when he mentioned the wretched calumny."

Thus to be quoted as the careless reporter of a "wretched calumny" does not suit me, and I will now give the ground for repeating my assertion, with a full belief in its truth,

It is printed entire in Lockhart's Life of Scott, edit. 1839, vol. ii. pp. 323-326.

despite of Lord Holland's authority. First, my recollection lished at the time the words of the song-the burden being, is clear and strong of this fact, that the newspapers pubI think, not "Tally-ho!" but "Hark, hark! to the death of the Fox." It was published as Sir W. Scott's composition, and as having been sung at a " Pitt dinner."

Second, after my discussion with Mr. Moore, I happened to meet Mrs. Dugald Stewart, widow of the moral philosopher, and mentioned the subject to her she raised her hands and eyes in astonishment at Mr. Moore's having contradicted the story, saying her husband had broken off all intimacy with Sir Walter in resentment, and, I think she said, had shut his door against him; moreover, that the only point doubtful was, whether Sir Walter had not also

sung the song at the dinner.

There must be people in Edinburgh still alive who can bear testimony to this. Yours respectfully,

Dec. 26.

W. NAPIER, Lieutenant-General.

The annexed reply was elicited and printed on the 29th.

SIR, I observe in your paper of this date, a letter from Lieutenant-General Sir W. Napier, respecting a song said by him to have been written for the Pitt Club, at the time Mr. Fox was dying. It is to be regretted that the gallant General did not take more pains to be certain of the fact before he repeated the assertion, which had already been disposed of in so decided a manner by the late Lord Hol land.

The song in question was written for the celebration of Lord Melville's acquittal, and sung at a dinner given in Edinburgh for that purpose on the 27th of June, 1806. Mr. Fox at that time was not known to be ill, nor did his death take place until the 13th of September, of the same year.

dicted.

Perhaps you will be kind enough to insert this in your next paper, as it is most unjust to Sir Walter Scott's memory to leave the assertion of Sir W. Napier uncontraI have the honour to be, your most obedient servant, Dec. 28. SENEX. The words of the song to which Sir William alludes are these

In GRENVILLE and SPENCER,

And some few good men, Sir,

Great talents we honour, slight difference forgive;
But the Brewer we'll hoax,
Tally ho! to the Fox!

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And drink Melville for ever' as long as we live.

These lines constitute the concluding portion of the eighth and last verse. Lockhart has the commencement of the third line High talents we honour.'

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On January 3rd appeared the following

SIR,-Your correspondent "Senex" may be, and no doubt is, a very respectable old lady; but I cannot, without the honour of knowing her, accept such testimony in opposition to that of Mrs. Dugald Stewart. Her memory, also, seems impaired, for she gives but one verse of a song by Sir Walter Scott, the rest, I suppose, not suiting her purpose; moreover, it appears to me more than doubtful that it is taken

from the song in question. However, my object in writing | tiful lines that ever issued from his pen, in the poem which now is to introduce the following letter, which furnishes was published soon after that statesman was lost to the testimony from another lady-better known to the world nation. I am, sir, your obedient servant, than Mrs. Senex-as to the truth of my version respecting Sir Walter Scott's conduct.

Dec. 31.

W. NAPIER, Lieutenant-General.

MY DEAR SIR WILLIAM,-I see a letter of yours in The Times of yesterday, referring to a passage in Moore's Diary respecting Sir Walter's song. I passed two winters in Edinburgh-1817, 1818-and then was well acquainted with Mrs. Grant of Laggan, a good Tory. Eulogizing Scott, she mentioned to me, as the only blemish in his life, the composition of the song referred to, and his singing it at a Pitt dinner.

Of course, I heard the story from others, but it was a subject which the friends of Scott avoided. Moore could have no good authority for his contradiction of your state

ment.

Use this statement if it can be of any service, without the name, which is of no authority on such a subject.

The controversy closed by the publication of the following in the Times on the 4th inst.

SIR,-Lieutenant-General Sir William Napier, with characteristic perseverance, but with small civility to your correspondent "Senex," is determined never to be in the wrong. Let us hope that "the modern Polybius" has not always been so slow in consulting the most obvious authorities for assertions affecting, as in this case, the reputation of the dead. Here was a grave charge against Sir Walter Scott, though generously refuted when first made by Mr. Moore. Surely, if there were any doubt about the facts, Mr. Lockhart's biography was at hand, and was above suspicion. Accordingly, in the second volume of that work Sir William would have found the song printed at length, with all the circumstances attending the production of it. I cannot suppose that Sir William would venture to charge Mr. Lockhart either with forgery, garbling, or suppression. In short, the song was written before it was known even to Mr. Fox's own colleagues that his health was in anything like a precarious state, and was not sung at a Pitt dinner, but at one given to celebrate Lord Melville's acquittal. Mr. Fox's name is only once mentioned or expressly alluded to in the stanza correctly quoted by "Senex;" and lastly, was not sung by Scott himself, but by Ballantyne. Sung it himself! One would think that the words he put into the mouth of his own Frank Osbaldiston (though it was evidently Scott himself who spoke) must have been prophetic :

"It has even been reported by my maligners, that I sang a song while under this influence; but, as I remember nothing of it, and never attempted to turn a tune before or since, I would willingly hope there is no foundation for such a gross calumny."

"Senex," for anything I know, may be "an old woman," but his authority even Sir William must admit is as good as that of Mrs. Dugald Stewart, or Mrs. Grant of Laggan, who, perhaps, were never old. There may be a fond partiality in that of his son-in-law, and, therefore, I will not insist on Sir William's taking it for granted, as asserted by Mr. Lockhart, that Sir Walter never wrote but this one lampoon (which is bad enough to be harmless), and that he recorded his regret at this only ill-natured reference to the honoured name of Charles Fox by some of the most beau

Jan. 3.

H.

SIR,-The gallant, but not very courteous General might have employed his time to better purpose than in his effort to bolster up the original slander.

My only reason for not giving the whole song was its length. It may be seen on page 107 of the second volume of Lockhart's Life of Scott, who likewise states that it was sung by James Ballantyne at the dinner mentioned in my last letter. A reference to it will show that the lines quoted by me are the only ones that have anything to do with the subject.

I fear that even this reference will not be sufficient to satisfy Sir William; but I feel confident that every one else will agree with me that Sir Walter Scott is fully exonerated from the charge, and that Sir W. Napier's opinion, founded on gossiping recollections of his own and others, is of no value whatever.

With many apologies for trespassing on your valuable time, I have the honour to be, your obedient servant, Jan. 3.

SENEX.

AN INEDITED LETTER OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. Addressed to Alexander Mundell, Esq. Barrister-atLaw, Parliament Street, London.

with pleasure that my long depending business is at MY DEAR SIR,-From your kind letter I perceive length accomplished. My best respects attend Mr. Harrison, and I shall not fail to keep his directions in mind. Indeed as I have planning and planting in view, I dare say my Pegasus will not be over-weighted, as the Jockies say, by this accession of fortune.*

Pray let me know the account of fees, and so forth, that I may put myself out of your debt, so far as money can do so, for your attention to this matter. The friendly exertions you have made in my behalf merit my best thanks: assuredly my Christmas cheer has digested much better for the pleasure of your correspondence. Believe me ever, your faithful and obliged,

Edinburgh, January 7th, 1812.

WALTER SCOTT.

SUFFOLK BALLAD LORE.-The extensive collection of

ballads, traditionary and historical verses, in reference to the County of Suffolk, formed by the late Rev. James Ford, editor of the Suffolk Garland; the late Augustine Page, editor of the Supplement to Kirby's Suffolk Traveller; and other collections, are now preparing for publication, as a second and considerably enlarged edition of the Suffolk Garland.

In January, 1812, Scott entered upon the enjoyment of his proper salary as a Clerk of Session, that with his Sheriffdom, gave him from this time, till very near the close of his life, a professional income of sixteen hundred pounds a year.

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