BARBERS.

From a very remote period, barbers have enjoyed the privilege of retailing and disseminating news. A short time after their installation at Rome, their shops became the rendezvous of all idlers and newsmongers, who were greedy to hear the reports of the town, and politi cal intelligence. Plutarch affirms, that this custom, which they had of receiving the gossips of the town, made them all great talkers; and he cites on this subject an anecdote of king Archeloüs, whose barber, an intrepid speaker, asking him in what manner he would like to be shaved-"without speaking a word," replied the king!

Amongst the ancients, a barber was a much more important personage than in our days. His shop must have been, in fact, greatly frequented. Every individual who had not the means of keeping a slave, exclusively charged with the care of his beard and his toilette, was obliged every morning to repair to the barber's. It was rare for a man to have at his own house, either mirrors, combs, or other apparatus for dressing; he was, therefore, obliged to have recourse to the barber, whose functions were to cut, pluck out and curl the hair, to shave and pair the nails.

It often happened, that the dandies entered the house of a barber, under pretext of hearing news, but in reality, to observe if the air or some other cause had not deranged the symmetry of their hair. Plutarch blames this excess of affectation; it is not rational, says he, that when one leaves the chair of a barber, he should present himself before a mirror, to examine if his hair is well cut, and his beard well trimmed.

We have already said, that the barbers cut the hair; but they did not use scissars, like the moderns; they employed only razors, more or less sharp. This custom undoubtedly preceded the invention of an instrument resembling our scissars, which was a pincer, terminating in two sharp blades, which, in passing one against the other, cut with facility. A second pincer, but very small, was made use of to pull out and pluck the hairs of the head and face. If we may believe Tertullian, there were women whose only trade it was to clear the faces of the men from superfluous hairs, either with a pincer, or by means of a pitch plaister, which they applied warm to the skin. There were also some who shaved the beard with as much dexterity as the most skilful barber.

Those who wished to conceal their age

took care to have all white hairs removed, but when they were rich, they easily found amongst their flatterers, persons complaisant enough to render them willingly this service. According to the accounts of the ancients, it ap pears, that, in most respects, the barbers and their shops, though, perhaps, more elegant, much resembled our own,

CROSS READINGS.

A young man angling in the New River yesterday caught an elderly woman passing through Water Lane.

A new percussion gun lock on an improved principle which will discharge-a number of men at a Cabinet Maker's shop.

In the press and shortly will be printed—150 pieces of fine blue calico. A good opportunity now presents itself to a young married couple to take care of Death from the bite of a mad cat.

A vacancy occurs in a Gentleman's Seminary near Town for-a young Bear just arrived from Greenland.

It is said the Emperor of Russia will shortly-let a milk walk in Clerkenwell doing a good stroke of business.

We beg to caution our readers against a man going about Town, and carrying under his arm-the new London Bridge.

It gives us great pleasure to hear that the Manufacturing Towns are-removed for the convenience of sale.

Pursuant to an order of the High Court of Chancery the-beasts at Exeter 'Change will be fed every Evening at nine o'clock.

Wanted in a respectable evangelical family-a young prig just returned from the Tread Mill.

For Caleutta direct-the New Church in the Waterloo Bridge Road.

We are very much concerned to state that on Thursday last as a labouring man was going to his work-Justice Bayley passed sentence of Death upon him.

Marlborough Street-Yesterday a very effeminate looking personage was accused of carrying away--.a fine large Elephant just arrived from Bengal

Thoughts and sentiments-of a quartern loaf for 8d.

A man went yesterday into an eating house in the Borough and devoured in the most voracious mnaner---that fine elegant teak built ship Alfred, with all her sails, masts, rigging, &c.

It is reported (though we cannot vouch for the truth of it) that---a chandler's shop is to be disposed of.

HENRI.

country where insult and humiliation had taken the place of hospitality; and that as he had not the means to travel as he had formerly done, and the little that he possessed was necessary for the support of those of his subjects who had accompanied him, he would on the next day leave Mittau on foot, and show the unfortunate French exiles an example how to support misfortunes."

At her marriage, the Duchess of Angouleme had received from her first cousins, the Emperor and Empress of Germany, a box of jewels; and without informing any person of her intention, she sent for some Jews and obtained upon these jewels a sum of money sufficient, not only for her uncle's travelling expenses, but to provide for the immediate wants of her countrymen at Mittau. When her uncle, the next morning, discovered this generous act, the tears of all the relieved Frenchmen told their Prince, that by pressing his niece to his bosom, he should reward, instead of resenting, the first act of her life which she had ever concealed from him. This young Princess had, in the dungeons of the Temple, early learnt to know the little value of either jewels, rank, or even life; as well as the real duty of humaLity, and the worth of undeserved wretchedness.

After some wanderings in the wilds of inhospitable Prussia, the policy of Buona parte to keep Louis XVIII. at a distance from his kingdom, left him at last permission to inhabit the castle of the dethroned King of Poland, at Warsaw; where, in more fortunate times, one of his own ancestors, Henry III., had ruled as a King; where his maternal grandfather, Stanislaus, had been elected King by a Polish Diet, and proscribed as an Usurper by a Polish faction. What painful remembrances, what sad reflections, for the well-informed and active mind of Louis XVIII!

The tranquillity of this retreat was disturbed by another humiliation from another Monarch. The Prussian Minis ter, Meyer, asked Louis XVII, to renounce the throne of France in favour of Buonaparte; but he refused with a noble diguity, which must have appalled the man who thus dared to insult him. A plot having been discovered, which had for its object the assassination of the King, determined him to quit Warsaw, which he did within a few days after.

The last and only safe asylum of the House of Bourbon was in England, where they were received, not only with the kindest hospitality, but when all the

pensions from the several crowned heads of Europe (at one time amounting to 120,0001. a-year), had ceased, they still received sufficient to enable them to live in splendour. The royal palace at Holyrood was assigned to them; but Louis XVIII. principally resided at Hartwell, a seat belonging to the Marquis of Buckingham. There he remained until the fall of Buonaparte enabled him to ascend the throne of his ancestors.

When the Senate and Legislature of France had recalled this long-persecuted Monarch, he passed through London ont his way to Paris. His entry into the British metropolis on the 20th of April, 1814, was like a triumph. The Prince Regent went to Stanmore to meet him, from which place they were to proceed in state. When his Majesty had got within a short distance of the village, the populace took the horses from his carriage, and drew him into the town. The Prince received the exiled Monarch at the door of the inn, according to the French custom, by affectionately embracing him. They then rode together in the state carriage to town, where an immense concourse of spectators of all ranks had assembled to view this interesting procession. On the 23d, the King left town for Dover, and the Prince Regent, who had set off from London two hours before him, dined with him in the evening on board his yacht. The next day he proceeded in triumph to his capital, after an exile of 23 years.

CHARLOTTE CIBBER,

SOME account of this singular woman may not prove uninteresting to our readers.

CHARLOTTE CIBBER was the youngest child of Colley Cibber, the poet laureat, born when her mother was forty-five years of age, and in her infancy discovered a wild and ungovernable disposition. In her narrative of her life, she gives an account of her propensity to a hat and wig at four years of age, and mentions several strange frolics played by her in her youth. She had a natural aversion,' she says, 'for a needle, and a profound respect for a currycomb, in the use of which she excelled most young ladies in Great Britain.' Her father, however, spared no expence in her education: she was taught French, Italian, and some Latin; and instructed in geography, music, and dancing. Employments of a very different kind, however, frequently engaged her attention; and when she was fourteen, she was very

fond of shooting; imagining herself, she says, 'equal to the best fowler or marksman in the universe.' Among her other favourite amusements were hunting, riding races, and digging in a garden. She married, when very young, Mr. Richard Charke, an eminent performer on the violin; but her husband had a great attachment to other women, and they soon separated. She then went upon the stage, and first appeared in the character of Mademoiselle, in the Provoked Wife, in which she was well received. From this she rose, in her second and third attempts, to the capital characters of Alicia in Jane Shore, and Andromache in the Distressed Mother. She was hereupon engaged, at a very good salary, at the Theatre at the Haymarket, and afterwards at Drury Lane. But her imprudence and impetuosity of temper, occasioned her to quarrel with Mr. Fleetwood, the then manager, whom she not only left on a sudden, without any notice given, but vented her spleen against him in public, by publishing in 1735, a farce called The Art of Management;' in which she endeavoured to place him in a very ridiculous light. However, at the desire of her father, he received her again; but her repeated misconduct soon caused her to be thrown out of employment in her profession as an actress. She then commenced trader, and set up as a grocer and oil woman in a shop in Long Acre. But this situation she soon quitted, and became mistress of a puppet-show, by which undertaking After that she went, for many years, in man's clothes. For

she was a loser.

some time she was valet de chambre to

a peer, afterwards set up an catinghouse in Drury Lane, and at length became a drawer at Marybone. She was also a dealer in pork, and nine years of her life she was a strolling player in the country. In Wales, she turned pastry cook and farmer; and at Bristol, hired herself to a printer, as corrector of the press. On her return to London, she published in numbers, 1755, a narrative of her own life, to which she prefixed a dedication from herself to herself. She

complains much that her father would not take the least notice of her; but he was very indulgent to her in the former part of her life, and seems not to have deserted her till she was grown profligate to a very high degree. She kept a public house at Islington for some time, and died on the 6th of April 1760.

PETER THE GREAT.

PETER the Great had a violent affecfion for an officer's daughter, named Munce, and used more assiduous means to gain her, than monarchs are generally his public mistress, and for many years forced to at last she yielded, and became he loved her with a fondness rarely found. One fatal day he went to see a castle he had built in the sea, attended by his own and the foreign Ministers. At their return, the Polish Minister, by some accident, fell over the draw-bridge, and was to save him. The Emperor ordered all drowned, notwithstanding all endeavours the papers in his pocket to be taken out and sealed up, before all the company. On searching his pockets, a picture dropPed, which the Emperor took up, and, judge his surprise, when he found it was the portrait of the Lady. In a sudden gust of passion he tore open some of the her written to the deceased in the tenderpapers, and found several letters from est style. He left the company that instant, came alone to the apartment of her to send for the lady thither. When one of the ladies in waiting, and ordered she entered, he locked the door on them three, and asked her how she came to write to such a person? She denied she had; he then produced the picture and letters, and, when he told her of his death, she burst into tears, while he reproached her with ingratitude, in such a storm of passion, that the Lady who furnished dered; but, on a sudden, he also melted this account, expected to see her murinto tears, and said he forgave her, since he so severely felt how impossible it was "notwithstanding you have returned my to conquer inclination; "for," he added, fondness with falsehood, I find I cannot hate you, though I do myself for the it would be quite despicable in me to meanness of spirit I am guilty of; but continue to live with you; therefore be gone while I can keep my passion within the bounds of humanity. You shall never want, but I will never see you' after married her to one who had an more." He kept his word, and soon employment at a distance, and was always kind to them in point of fortune.

Very different behaviour was shewn by the Czar to his wife Eudoxia, of the her when he was very young, and by her noble family of Lapuchin. He married death, but left a son and daughter behad one son, who was afterwards put to hind him. After some years marriage he grew weary of her, and pretended jealousy. She was on this suspicion confined, and all her nearest relations,

and some of the gentlemen of her court, taken up, and, according to the custom adopted in Russia, examined by torture; but none of them accused her, though they had offers of pardon if they would. These examinations lasted some months, in which time about fourteen of her nearest relations were put to death; and one of her gentlemen, Colonel Glebow, of whom Peter had the greatest suspicion, underwent such repeated tortures, as it was thought no creature could have borne, with great constancy, persisting in his own and her innocence during his torments. At last the Czar himself came to him, and offered him pardon, if he would confess. He spit in the Czar's face, and told him " he should disdain to speak to him, but he thought himself obliged to clear his mistress, who was as virtuous a woman as any in the world; and, said he, the only weakness I know her guilty of, is loving thee, thou inhuman butcher; and, if any thing can make me think thee more a devil than thy cruel treatment of her, it is fancying I could ever be brought to accuse an innocent person to save myself; for, could my body hold out these torments as long as thou shalt plague the world, I could suffer them with pleasure, rather than relieve them by such falsehood." After this he would speak uo more, and, when no confession could be got from him, his head was severed from his body. The unhappy Empress was immured in a convent during the remainder of the Czar's life; but on the accession of her grandson to the throne, she returned to court, and lived in ease and tranquillity.

MEDALS.

THE trenches that have been lately opened at Bagueres to lay the foundations of the beautiful establishment that is to bear the name of the Thermes de Maria Therése, have caused the discovery, at the depth of a metre and a half, of several square pools, as also medals of the reigns of Augustus, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, &c. &c. These medals have the form of bricks. The elegance of the mouldings and the nature of the cement leave no doubt that these discovered remains have been the work of the Romans. The ancient walls of the town were built in part upon those pools, about the year 1200, and what yet exists of them increases the difficulty of making the trenches.

SAMNITE COINS.

A WOOD-CUTTER has lately felled, in the forest of Ardennis, a very old and lofty oak, which concealed in its trunk

some frgments of vases for sacrifice, and medals. It has been ascertained that these pieces were coined by the Samnites, so far back as 276 years before the foundation of Rome. Therefore the age of this tree, which at that period might have been sixty or eighty years old, amounts to near 3600! It is the "Echo du Nord" that relates this fact. We must believe it, unless we choose to make a journey to Ardennes.

NEW ROUTE TO ITALY. THE beautiful road of Posilippo, began by the French in 1811, and carried on with much art up to the foot of the mountain near Puzzuoli, is continued upon the same plan by the Austrians, and will be completed immediately. The trenching which these works made necessary has been the means of discovering tombs inclosing skeletons, and vases with money placed in the mouths of the skeletons.

THE CHAPEL TREE.

THERE is at present at Allouville (pays de Caux) an oak, the circumference of which is thirty-four feet above the roots, and at the heighth of a man, accord with its thickness. It is chiefly at twenty-six feet. Its elevation does not the top that it extends its width. Its enormous branches rising from the trunk spread out horizontally in such a manner at seven or eight feet from its base, as to cover an immense space. The trunk from the roots to the sunimit, is of a very decided conic form, and the interior of this cone is hollowed throughout the whole length. Different openings, of which the greatest is below, give access to this cavity. All the central parts have been long since destroyed; it is only by the exterior layers of wood, and by its bark, that this ancient child of the forest at present subsists, full of vigour, clothed with a thick foliage, and loaded with acorns. The lower part of the cavity has been converted into a chapel, six or seven feet in diameter, carefully floored with marble. image of the virgin decorates the altar; and a grated door incloses this humble sanctuary, without concealing the image from the sight or homages of the pious traveller. Above the chapel, and which is also closed, is a little chamber, containing a bed (a habitation worthy of some new stylite,) and to which you are conducted by a staircase that winds round the trunk. Its summit, which has long since attained its full height, and which presents at the point of its termi

The