The Sun. — London, England, 1829-11-02 00:00:00

the 'Nimble Terrace, covered with wounds, as if he had tither fought desperately with his murderers, or they bad Wantonly mangled his body with repeated stabs. There were strong reasons for supposing, too, that the fatal en tnnnter had not taken place where the body was found, hut that it had been brought there after life was extinct ; as there was a track of blood through the garden, and for considerable distance along the unfrequented road which led to the villa. " Suspicion naturally fell upon Malavolti, who was im mediately arrested. He denied the crime laid to his charge, sad demanded to know the alleged proofs of his guilt. But the compendious principles of criminal jurisprudence which regulated the Neapolitan tribunals, were too wel ad apted for the gratification of powerful malignity, to protect less powerful innocence. The family of Brit torno was potent in its wealth, in its alliances, an d in its influence ; and the trial of Malavolti was s o conducted, as to secure that decision front his judges, tvhich had been already bargained for by his prosecutors. tre was found guilty upon the negative evidence of his own ina bility to disprove his guilt. Sentence of death wa , P i a ' s ". M a l avo l t i appea l e d to t h e super i or court . G rey "ends and wrinkled brows, clothed in scarlet and ermine, itent throu g h the solemn plausibility of revising a decree which they never intended to reverse; and Malavolti had the consolation of knowing that all the forms of justice had been duly observed, in grave mockery of all its essential Djineip' es, and its fundamental spirit. Ile was ordered to executed at th e expiration of three weeks." Whil e in prison, awaiting the anguished ex pectancy of his execution, Malavolti is constantly visited by his mother, who, after much affecting entreaty, pers ua d es hi m, not so muc h b y reason aby a sense of her maternal sacrifice for him, to abandon his purpose of suicide which he had meditated, to escape from the shame of a public de ath ; he yields to her with the proud resigna tion of conscious but burning innocence, and em phatically: . says-- ,, It is idle now to talk of cancelled oaths, made to any own heart in the 460ilyof s4ame, as I contemplated the ignomi t"us scene of a public execution:"— th, " Th e sca ff old was erected about a hundred yards from e Wall s of the prison. It was a beautiful summer morn 'rig, and the sun shone with all the brilliant radiance, and the air fanned upon his pallid cheek as he passed Int° its with all the balmy softness, of the Italian cli lhate. -tie assembled crowd was numerous; but of th e ;awry tho usands wh o were t h ere co ll ecte d, not one ven ,T.e,4 t" ditturb the thrilling silence of the scene. 'gala _ t Iti surveyed the m u ltit u d e; an d aga i n hi s f ace was hlushed for a moment, while his knitted brow, and the It au g h tY gathe r i ng up o f hi s b o d y, procla i med that one last rn ggie with himself, one expiring rally of mere earthly Pssio n) was throbbing in .his heart. But it was soon "err and be ascended the scaffold with the calm demean- Cur of a ma n in whom the fear of death had passed away. " The last offices of religion were performed by Ansel '°°, who had retired a few paces from the block ; the ex t'i'sutinner stood ready with his axe ; and Malavolti was in 'eact of kneeling down, after having requested the P heads manf ort ,, not to srtike till he gave the signal, by stretching o sh his hand, when a voice from the crowd exclaimed, I° P 1 ' Malavolti either heard it not, or supposed it was pn.me other cry, for he knelt down, while the assistants s Z ce ded to place him in the proper position, when the In "ice, in a l ou d er an d f ran ti c t one , was heard again. Ti...n ne ent! Innocent!' it cried, or rather screamed. 141 T words were instantly repeated by a thousand tongues, " the air resounded with tumultuous shouts of ' Irmo iriemnetl lo,nocent ! ' The scene that followed at once sub ,nd vann.iterrific. Malavolti raised himse l f on one knee, Sri h' "e " wildly round, as if suddenly aroused from some con g f tful dream. The officers of justice, mistaking the usi T for a desperate attempt at rescue, laid hold of bloc'kaeu en deavoured to force his head down again to the b oth while the executioner, grasping the axe firmly in tek hands, with a ferocious look, stoo in an attitude to s t o t he fatal blow, the moment there was room for him rilwield the instrument. The populace hooted, groaned, e d--antid loud and louder cries of " Innocent! lurder ! Brittorno ! Brittorno!' ( "M a l avo l t i, w i th a giant ' s strength, wrested himself r oot these who were struggling to hold him, and like a tt iania e , sprung at the throat of the executioner, who had ' h a _ j aetl his axe t o f e ll hi m w h ere h e stood. The people, 7arin g down all opposition, ru s h e d f orwar d ; M a l avolt i Zia th e execut i oner rolled together on the platform, the Otter s treaming with bl oo d f ro M a woun d i n fli cte d w i t b "n axe i n f a lli ng, w h en, j ust at that moment, a man i v as gtrn forcing his way through the crowd, and ascend 07,4tert of the scaffold. It was the Count Brittorno his l l' • Il e Was enveloped in a black cloak, his hat off, tb_. eatures distorted with agony, and exclaiming in a voice at res L oo k °Li ndell above the wild roar of the multitude— „„ " me! look on me ! lam Brittorno—Malavolti of h7.,oeent The eye of Malavolti caught one glimpse aVar t : Per "; and bursting into an hysterical laugh, he r ) : - nod in the arms of the Padre Anselmo. A tremend wolthout of exultation burst from the populace, which l i , nci t ePeated with deafening violence when they saw the tias Malav o lt i firmly grasped in that of Brittorno, who "eeling by hi s s id e ." • ‘‘ The. Cruise of his Majesty's ship Torch" d ip to be recommended for its brevity, and Land lan ie wit of the cook's broken leg. "My v ad and her Lod ers" having now reached bak er's thirteen to the g dozen, must be cur ex cuse for not w e i g hi ng eac h " particular roll : suf 'ct lee it, th at all smack of the same original flour. 4 Aut obiography" is too interesting to be mo. estlY re commended, except to men of gallantry 4141 courtly dames. " Sorting my Letters," it Reim' • is singularly excellent. " Considers ens o n the Law of Divorce" has almost fright to proceed, and we therefore stop short, st °I.. r considerations might carry us too far in (ar , (3 : 1 / 1 ' Domestic P o li cy, " th e ti t l e o f the next nele, with the singular appendix of " No. 1., " xa rather ominous. The merits of the re ttiai • ig articles may be guessed f rom th e i r titles \" of Wordsworth"—" Essay on the Theory and the Writings •vo rusworth"—" Political Econoiny," the third - (and we hope the last time)—" Africa"— ',good arti c l e on t h e " Ch aracter of the Eng 14h S cots, and Irish"—" Mr. Sadler and the b dinb e utit urgh R ev i ew—an d " I ta li an S onnets, " A le Noctes;" and they are not missed in :isti ed excellence of this number. MONTHLY MAGAZINE. Throb r_ tespect - 3 Shout this number, which in every other 4 8 unexceptionable, we have, for the bun .ttedtll time, the stale old story of Catholic P 4l : en cipati on . I n t h e art i c l e un d er t h e im -I°s.llhg head of,, The Political State of England ,o 1" turop e ," t h e p anic of 1825 i s, b y a process .ettrrlascining' wo rthy o f t he lo g ic ians of St . Luke , li ds - "'ut 4l (l t o th e grow i ng i n fl uence o f Catho tCt'l in th e counc il s o f G overnment. W ere e but Virit o f this vehement piece of declamation , e qual t o its style, it would be a first-rate t r , " Nocti on. Unfortunately, however, its poli o e re so desperately bad, that no charm of 'quence, however vivid, or however varied, can P t °4Bi blY rende r it acceptable. We gladly turn a more gracious subject :—" The Lord 4 a y°t's Day " i s a li ve l y, fanciful descr i pt i on of 4.;; 1 7 important epoch in the London year. pun P riests in G enera l, an d I r i s h P r i ests i n :.ttieular," possesses much truth, mixed up IiL A much prejudice and ill-nature. We dis e Wholesale abuse, even among the worst sects is a way s something to admire, something 0 -* _ ° ?thy of consideration ; but the present writer unmeasured in his condemnation of the Ca- Mic Clergy. It is but fair to add, that his t:nen of a P op i sh sermon (too good we sus-, ilid t . to be t rue ) a b ounds in rich, broad humour, amply' relay peruSal.. " Homer, the Iliad, and Odyssey," is a short, sketchy, and spirited account of the life and writings of this first of recorded poets. The remarks, however, on the subject of the digamma arc superfluous. It has been as satisfactorily ascertained, as it is ever likely to be, that the pronunciation of the digamma was V ; the supposition of Dawes that it was W, though once a favourite theory, has !men long since exploded. " The March of Mind, a Tale of Crutched-friars," sketches the • biography of a worthy city family, who have been ruined by too sedulous and inconsistent an attention to literature. " King Rothschild" is a remarkably spirited specimen of satirical versification ; a master-hand is visible in almost every line, though the spirit of the humour is not altogether in accordance with our way of thinking. " Prose by a Versifier," and vice versa, is a clever sparkling sketch of a ramble in Lon don, from which we extract the following spirited and somewhat fantastical observations : " Londoners are never young, that is to say, morally or mentally young—to be sure they vary in size and appear ance, according to the number of years which have rolled over their heads, but they have no infancy-, or boyhood, properly speaking. They form a permanent exception to Locke's assertion, that there arc no innate ideas ; they are all born with an instinctive knowledge of compound frac tions, and tare and trett, and can balance accaunts from the very moment they are born : this is proved by the extreme regularity with which they calculate the increase of food; and proportionate it to the increase of size and strength, invariably requiring at the hands of their attend ants, from day to day, the exact addition necessary, toge ther with a suitable allowance for waste. Many accurate observers of city phenomena, incline, from a close consi deration of the foregoing circumstances, to believe in the transmigration of souls, and maintain that a London Al derman never dies, but that when his frame is worn out by a long and close application to business, including, of course, a regular attendance at corporation festivals, where, in obedience to the canons of the city, it is incumbent on him to consume a certain quantity of turtle and venison, duly and sufficiently moistened with wine ; when his frame, I say, like an over-wrought mill, yields to the force of attrition, arid can no longer overcome the vin inertim of food, they affirm that his soul, like that of the Grand Lama, seeks a new habitation ; and as the priests of that pontiff are enabled to discover their future sovereign by certain infallible tokens, so, it is believed, are the skilful in such matters, able to detect the aldermanic spirit, while lurking in its infantile disguise, chiefly, it is said, by a certain orbicular protuberance of the abdomen, and a lam bent smile which overspreads the countenance, when the name of the ward to which it last belonged is uttered in its hearing. After all, there is no use in denying that there is some thing astonishing and stupendous, in the energy and per severance with which the " Atari sacra fames," inspires these same cocknies, and the gigantic, Briareus-like spirit of exertion and industry, with which tUy urge their mul tifarious pursuits. From every quarter and point of the globe, habitable and uninhabitable, from every element and combination of nature, they have evoked, by the talis manic touch of wealth, whatever can gratify the craving necessities, or soothe the still more insatiable follies of the most luxurious and extravagant race that ever the sun shone upon. At this instant, while my pen is tracing these words, the swarthy Indian is braving the ferocity of the ravenous tiger, or nimble leopard, to win from its fierce possessor a dappled hammer-cloth for my Lord Mayor of London. The patient diver is exploring the dim incon stint depths of the ocean, to wring from the maw of the philosophical, and contemplative oyster, pale glistening pearls, to shimmer in the light of Almack's, on the snowy bosom of Lady Emily Mordaunt. The dusky Arab urge his head!ong steed after the affrighted ostrich, to snatch t lefeathers that shall wave at St. James's, or the mountain- leaded Papuan is tumbling the bird-of-paradise from his perfumed bower, under the invisible influence of Mrs. Alderman Fizzle; though the scoundrel would eat her, if he could only lay hands on her, with as little re morse as if she were a turtle. Tire wastes of Siberia can not shelter the sable—the whale cannot flounder through the ice-bergs of the Arctic Ocean—there is no rest for the stately elephant in the forests of India, and the unwilling lobster must emerge from the sea-caves of Norway, and all because a bulbous, broad-brimmed, zodiac-waisted son of Mammon, who may be sitting, at this identical moment, in the next box to me, for aught I know to the contrary, will not, as the Scottish song says, " let them be." " Affairs in General," are, as usual, vigorous and lively comments, spiced with neat sarcasm, and brightened by a pleasant dash of caricature on the leading topics of the month. They greatly enhance the interest of the number, which, if we except its inconsiderate politics, is a capital one. NEW MONTHLY AND LONDON MAGAZINE. " Notes upon Circuit," is one of the most delightful of Mr. Sheil's very delightful series of papers upon this subject. It possesses all the wild interest of romance, combined with all the strict sobriety of truth. The style is particularly captivating, highly ornamented, and in some parts redundant, ..but every where suited to the subject. Among the numerous trials which he has selected for the display of his varied abili ties, we extract the two following ; both are highly interesting " KILKENNY.—The only civil case at Kilkenny which deserves mention, was an action brought by a girl named Maria Leonard, against an English officer, the paymastt r of a regiment, Captain Richard J . He had been quartered at Templemore, where he contracted a concu binal intimacy with Miss Maria Leonard, whom he ap pears to have considered as a piece of porcelain that had never received any flaw. This Diana of the barracks al leged that, previous to his leaving Templemore, he gave her a certificate, written in' bog Latin, in which he had forged the name of a Father Kesbani, testifying her mar riage to one Jacobus Smith. This document, which was sworn to by several respectable witnesses to be in the Cap tain's handwriting, produced a good deal of merriment at his expense. But the ground of action was a kind of bond for two hundred pounds, by which the Captain bound him self, in the event of his putting her away, ' from his fancy or otherwise.' The question turned upon the genuineness of this instrument. A variety of the Captain's letters were produced, which raised shouts of laughter. There was a quantity of contradictory swearing, and the case was doubtful, until a whole squadron of dragoons was pro duced, who kissed and told," and made the counsel for the plaintiff, who had represented Miss Leonard as a second edition of ' Sterne's Maria,' upon their sentimental journey through Circuit, look exceedingly disastered. The ge neral camp, pioneers and all,' appeared to have participated in those favours of which the Captain imagined that he enjoyed a monopoly. It was impossible to resist the charge of the whole regiment, who came down with fixed bayo nets; but when the plaintiff's case was utterly broken, the most melancholy person in court was the Captain, who, although he got a verdict, seemed to think that the romantic drollery of his amour more than counterbalanced the glory of success. He appeared to wish that he had nothing known,' and that the bliss of ignorance in which he had so long revelled was better than such a verdict. It is but justice to him to add, that his character for liberality, and his high reputation as a into of honour, were thrown by the jury into the balance, and weighed the plaintiff up. The only farther circumstance worth note is, that an idea went abroad that the Catholic rent had supplied the means to defray the action. This preposterous notion was set at rest by the highly-respectable attorney who conducted the case, by whom it appeared that the plaintiff had herself been able to advance the costs, in order to assert a right which, at first view, appeared to be perfectly well-founded, and which it was his professional duty to assist her in maintaining. " In the Criminal court, a conviction of three men for the murder of a man of the name of Devereux, afforded an illustration i f the moral condition of the peasantry, and one of the instances in which murder is at last overtaken by a slow but certain retribution. Devereux took a few acres of land from which the prisoners at the bar had been ejected. It was resolved that he should die ; sentence having been pronounced upon him by the secret tribunal,' which Captain Rock has established for the redress of wrongs, which are not only not cognizable, but are pro duced in the imagination of the lower orders by the law. Devereux was aware that bis head had been devoted. He never slept out - of the town of Callan, which was at three miles distance from the farm, and always walked with arms about him. However, the ministers of 'agrarian vengeance were not to be frustrated. A day wi. 1 for his lation. The whole conotry was e ! .a.sed of it. As lie was walking in the broad ;), i n ia,, ti ell, c ue of bourere engaged him in converaatien, and et the corner of a hedge three men rushed on him, when Lila companion pinioned his elbows behind his back, in order to prevent him from drawing the pistol which Ile endeavoured to grasp, and, beating his forehead in. left him dad upon the ground. The wh,le scene was observed by a woolan, who was aware that the morder was to be perpetrated, and cent out for the purpose of seeing the sp e ctacle. She was induced, by the reward offered by Government, to give in formation, on which the executioners of Devereux were hanged. Devereux was himself a bad and bloody man, and at the trial it was stated by one of the witnesses for the prosecution, that he had, many years before, committed murder. The question was not pursued, and whom he had murdered I did not at the moment learn. Upon the day appointed fur the punishment of the men who had taken his own life away, I left Kilkenny for Clomnel. It was a bright and cheerful day. The very breathing of the air under a cloudless sky, and in a delightful temperature, seemed to intimate the value of existence, and gave to the consciousness of a light and unburthened vitality a great charm. It was a day which should scarce have been Re lected for the ministry of death. As I advanced, I observed crowds of people assembling in various directions, and climbing upon hedges, where women and girls, as well as :nen, were seen straining upon tiptoe, in order to catch a glimpse at some object by which they seemed to be singu larly attracted. On looking towards the gaol, I perceived in the rope which was depending from the pulley to which it was attached, and in the rest of the apparatus of justice, the motives of this intense curiosity. The murderers of Devereux were about to die. I saw the door of the prison leading to the stage on which they were to perform a part that appeared to be likely to engage the sympathies of the spectators, open, and presently the iron balcony was occu pied by the figures of the doomed and of the executioner. This was sufficient for the gratification of any love of this kind of excitation which I may happen to possess, and turning from the frightful spectacle, I desired the driver, who obeyed the orders with some reluctance, to push on. We were soon out of sight of this painful scene. I fell into conversation with the postilion, who was continually turning back to catch a parting view of the catastrophe; and from him I learned, what I afterwards inquired about and found his statement confirmed, that Devereux, upwards of twenty-five years before, had imbrued his hands in blood. He had joined in the conspiracy of the unfortunate Robert Emmet. The insurgents rushed into Thomas -street, and advanced towards the Castle, scattering dismay before them. They met a carriage, which they stopped. Some of the crowd exclaimed, 'lt is Lord Norbury !' That instant the door of the carriage was burst open, and, while the unhappy gentleman inside it exclaimed, No ! I am your friend, Lord Kilwarden,' the hand of Devereux drove a pike through his heart." Did time and space allow, we should present our readers with a fine piece of landscape painting, in Mr. Shell's description of the scenery in the neighbourhood of Clonmel. It is as fine, and we know not that we can give it higher praise, as any thing we ever remember to have read in the long, matchless series of the Waverley novels. But it is ill his more thrilling and sombre de scriptions that Mr. Shell's genius shows to best advantage. Even its sportiveness has a sardonic cast about it, and we know no living writer, with the single exception, perhaps, of Mr. Banim, who can throw so much terrible power and earnestness into his details of an Irish murder. His details of the death of one Crosbie, at Wexford, by his wile and her paramour, is a striking evidence of his abilities in this line. " Anecdotes of Russia" is a pleasant and moderately satirical sketch of the domestic manners of the Russians in the neighbourhood of Moscow. According to the author, the women there, even of the higher classes, are uniformly dirty and squalid ; and realize in the most literal sense the truth of Campbell's remark, that " 'tis distance lends en chantment to the view." Seen at a distance, from which the minutiae of their dress are in visible, they show off' to considerable advantage ; but woe to the admirer of the sex who incon siderately ventures within view of their dirty stays, which rarely fail to peep out through the interstices of their rich and glittering silk gowns! The author adds, that Dr. Clarke, in his descrip tions of the habits of the majority of the Rus- Sian aristocracy, has little, if at all, overcharged the picture. " The New Police" is a spirited and judicious defence of Mr. Peel's new Police establishment, which is very properly contrasted in its candour and manliness, with the sneaking system of espionage pursued by that paragon of imbecility, my Lord Sidmouth. " The Dead Sea" is a striking description of one of the most striking scenes in nature. In point of earnestness, however, and force of colouring, it is far inferior to Sir W. Scott's sketch of the same spot, in his opening chapter of the " Ta lisman." " A Short Plea for a Joe," is a lively apologetic defence of old jokes. " A Thought of the Future," is as eloquent, and tender, and graceful, as Mrs. Hemans' poetry is. " Autobiography of a Landaulet," is sketchy and amusing, and of the usual calibre of maga zine articles. " The Crusade of Children" is an intelligent essay upon a subject now nearly worn threadbare. We could have spared, how ever, the illiberal sneer at Mr. C. " His tory of the Crusades," from which, notwith standing the petulant tone of his remark, the author has gleaned some of his most valuable facts. " Effects of Emancipation" is a satirical sketch of the state of parties in Dublin after the passing of the Relief Bill. The cursory sketches of Sir H. Lees and the Lord Mayor's Dinner are thrown off with infinite spirit. Altogether the number is an excellent one. THE LONDON UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE. For intelligence, variety, learning, and an ardent spirit of philosophical and literary inquiry, this Magazine is worthy the source from which it ema nates. It represents with admirable fidelity the intellect of a rising University, whose every on ward step in the paths of science is seven leagued. Oxford, if we remember rightly, pub lished a short time since a periodical of similar pretensions, which was carried on solely by Oxonians, and was in every respect a faithful re presentation of the University mind. The ex periment was, however, unsuccessful, and no wonder, it was heavy, prosing, and spiritless, de ficient in activity, deficient in freshness of thought, deficient in fancy, deficient, in short, in every quality in which it should have abounded. For the present periodical we anticipate no such failure. It is full of freshness, of the young green sap of knowledge, and shoots forth its various roots with all the lusty vigour of health. The first article, entitled, " On the Improve ment of Education," though it treats of a subject intolerably hacknied, and consecrated from time immemorial to stupidity, though, in fact, it treads that debateable land on which prosing dulness may pasture unmolested, is yet spirited and argumentative in its remarks, easy, fluent; and happy in its language. " A Sketch from Ole Bcotti:) , mr" is, however, much more to our taste, and 'se suspect to that of our readers also. Seldom has Mi.. -Jeffrey, the subject of this a e been more correctly or inure gyriegoalro) Essly s il Y u ' utrayed. The writer hits him off evidently from the walla impressions of the moment, and places the acute, practised, and sarcastic advocate. before us in all the vivid ness of reality. We give the following extract as a specimen ; it is descriptive of a cause which Mr. Jeffrey is supposed to have much at heart, and in which, notwithstanding his earnestness, he is defeated : " How I pitied the poor jurors! The Solicitor-Gene ral had marshalled on his side a strong phalanx of law, so that when he sat down, each looked on Jeffrey as a men in the forlorn hope, with not a leg to stand on. Their faces were turned towards him with an air of listless ex pectancy, approaching to indifference ; but as the speaker proceeded, I could perceive their features quickening into excitement and uneasiness, as though indicating a suspi cion that they had jumped rather too quickly to a conclu sion. Jeffrey perceived his advantage, but did not suffer it to hurry him. lie kept his keen eye fixed on that of the foreman : and continued speaking with such a calm and convincing air as seemed to insure conviction. He called for a cup of coffee, and on its being brought, took it into his hand, stirred it with the utmost indifference and sang-froid, and continued sipping a little at short inter vals. He looked as if i.e were at breakfast in his own study. Strangers, attorneys, jury, advocates, and the judge, all gazing on him with fixed earnestnese, and he sipping and speaking, and speaking and sipping, as if he were dictating at home to the amanuensis. The Solicitor- General looked at the Judge, and he at the Solicitor again, and they smiled. About an hour afterwards Jef frey perceived the latter drinking out of a tea-cup. ' Is that tea, or coffee, Mr. Solicitor-General ?' he inquired, paus'ng a moment-.-. if it's coffee, I'll thank you for a cup, for mine is done.' This certainly appeared rather artificial. He would occasionally fold his arms on his breast, and say, Now, gentlemen of the jury, let us pause for a moment or two, to look about us, and see where we have got to,' and then, with a few emphatic pauses, recapitulate his leading arguments ; and thus keep them full in the recollection of his hearers. The facts of the case were shortly these :—The late Lord Bute had appointed a Mr. Cooper, a theological student at Glasgow University, to be private tutor to his son, and after a few years, in compensation for his services, had presented him with a bond of annuity for life. Some time afterwards his Lordship procured Mr. Cooper some livings in Wales, to the amount of 3001. a year, and in 1811 Mr. C. sur rendered to his Lordship the bond of annuity. Ia 1820 he died ; and the present action was brought by the father of the deceased, to claim from the present Marquis the annuity due from 1811 to 1820 inclusive. The case was tried on the two following issues: was the deceased sane or not at the time of giving up this bond? and was the obligation extinguished by its surrender I The great point which the plaintiff's Counsel laboured to establish was the insanity of Mr. Cooper, at the time of giving up the bond ; and, certainly, evidence was adduced, which was irrefragable. It was, however, wonderful to see the confidence and apparent sincerity with which Mr. Jeffrey undertook to grapple with the whole body of the obnox ious testimony, and explain away the most incontrovertible manifestations of madness, into any thing but madness.— He had a reason ready for every thing. One circum stance adduced in strong corroboration of the alleged insanity of the plaintiff was, that he one morning leaped front his bed, with nothing on but his shirt, and a night cap, and sallied forth with a sword in one hand and a pis tol in the other, in pursuit of a—hen, which he chaced thrice round the garden. This was a desperate fact, and stoutly sworn to ; but our Counsellir found nothing in it indicative of madness'—and, after convulsing the Court with laughter by a ludicrous caricature of this insane ex ploit, instructed the Jury to look at it in no other point of view than as the fro icksomeness of an eccentric young man ! On one occasion he said to the Jury, with the most impenetrable sang froid, ' Gentlemen, I address you as men of plain and simple understandin g s.' I observed the Jury ; and each of them looked at the other with an odd air of wonder and concern, to hear themselves the sub jects of such a sorry compliment ! What I chiefly ad mired in Jeffrey was, iris choiceness of expression, and sin gular felicity of illustration. _ _ " After all that I have said, I fear it will be thought a hazardous experiment, if I presume to present the reader with the substance of one or two loose notes wl►ich I took of many happy sallies of Mr. Jeffrey. Those who heard him well know the difficulty of the task. A further proof of Mr. Cooper's insanity was, that during his residence at Pembroke College, Cambridge, he groundlessly fancied himself the aversion of the whole University—shunned by the students and hated by the tutors—and, in consequence, abruptly took his departure. " And now, gentlemen of the Jury,' continued Mr. Jeffrey, folding his arms on his breast, and standing in an easy and negligent attitude, ' we come to another of the card-built castles of our opponents. Mr. Cooper, con ceiving himself an object of ridicule to both students and tutors, abruptly leaves Cambridge ; and is, therefore, for sooth, if we are to admit the clever casuistry of my Learned Friend (Mr. Robertson), insane. Why, gentle. men, every man who does a very absurd and unaccountable action, with his eyes open, may be called, to a certain ex tent, insane ; that is, not of a sound, well-ordered mind. But, with regard to this Mr. Cooper, I am apt to think his conclusions were not quite so chimerical and ground less, as to his being an object of curious speculation and droll remark to those around him. I will go so far as to say, that if lor Mr. Robertson were at Cambridge, and received similar treatment to that which Mr. Cooper re ceived, we should be apt, at least I know I should, to de camp without much ceremony. It is, I say, very possible that Mr. C. might be shunned at Cambridge, and there fore feel inclined to run back to dear Scotland and her consolations. This, I am apt to imagine, shows rather sagacity and spirit than madness. Let it be remembered that Mr. Cooper went to Cambridge at a comparatively late period of life, when he would be no meet companion for his light-hearted juniors. And in what character did he mingle with the gay, spirited, and high-bred crowd, at an English University—with the bright tribes of Eton, Harrow, and Westminster ? What did he appear to them, other than a great, gloomy, hulking Scotch Dominic., wandering about like a 'statue stepped from its pedestal to take the air,' having nothing in common with the viva cious youngsters around him, but his cap and gown ? And then again, when the fastidious ears of the Etonians would be shocked by hearing the strains of Virgil or Horace shouted in the rich Northern brogue, and ghastly guttural intonations of Mr. Cooper, not unaccompanied, perchance, with a false quantity to add to its attractions; is there, I ask, any thing extraordinary in supposing them to be amused with these and similar gaucheries of the raw Caledonian? Nothing more natural, lam sure, gentle men :—the simple fact of the case is this: Mr. Cooper was very eccentric—a Scotelunan—an elderly eccentric Scotchinan ; and his companions were very free and quiz zical, and the consequence is unavoidable. He was fair game for them, and not being able to stand the chase, he took to Scotland again for shelter. Now was not this the very best thing he could do?—I think it would have been a much more unequivocal symptom of insanity, had he re mained at Cambridge. I cannot, therefore, hut admire the ingenuity and hardihood of my Learned Friend, in ground ing on this part of Mr. Cooper's conduct a plea of insanity. Had I, in short, as I said before, been in Mr. Cooper's circumstances, I am sure I should have taken a similar step; but to be brought in ►nad for it, oh, it is prepos terous !' lam conscious that this is but an imperfect at tempt to embody in words the subtle, etberial, and evanescent spirit of Mr. Jeffrey's wit and sarcasm.' " The following is a summing up of Mr. Jef frey's character : " In Court Mr. Jeffrey is not chatty or communicative with his legal brethren ; but, on the contrary, is silent and reserved. I do not recollect seeing his anxious and restless countenance once relax into a smile. He has his full share of lively sensibility, nay rather irritability, which is so frequently allied to great powers. I never saw a man more apparently free from vanity or conceit. His chief failing is en impatience in minor matters. The few op portunities I have had of observing Mr. Jeffrey more closely, convinced me of the truth of a remark made by one of his warmest admirers, that a' too restless display of ta lent, a too undisguised statement of all that can be said for and against a question, is, perhaps, the greatest fault that can be attributed to him.' This remark applies equally to his writings and to his pleadings in Court. He appears too apt at times to sink the Counsel in the Reviewer; but, at the same time, he contrives to effect a corresponding change in his hearers. Whether, however, in his charac ter of writer or speaker, it is delightful to follow his rapid and graceful movements from one sparkling sentence to an other, and from one harmonious cadence to another, al ways lively, always ingenious, always piquant. As a law yer, Mr. Jeffrey a p pears rat h er f am ili ar w ith p r i nc i p l es than practice; but paramount as he is in so many other ebartteters, it is surely no heavy hardship for him to yield he pslm of legal tact to others. "In company Mr- Jeffrey is, as a friend styled him a glorious creature.' His buoyant spirits never flag, his in tellectual energies never dr•op. 11,- is acute, eloquen., and , on - ,mun;cative to the last. Wiwi out being that odious tlang, a profe.sed taker, he is the I fe of the select circle in which he moves, centre of attr xt:dn, the mirror of courtt,y. Lott cannot advance any U ing differing in an) r. speet from his opinions, without being sure of a brilliant and often unanswerable reply. It is worth committing th, fault, for the sake of the punishment. I cannot conceive r higher treat Than to see Mr. Jeffrey and Mr. Coleridg• brought together, and engaged in a Metaphysical struggle. When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tng of war.' " No twin can be lung in Mr. Jeffrey's comp:my with out a consciousness of belt; in communi.m with the con , entrated spirit of the age. It is a man's own fault if iT part from him without instruction ;—without amusement he cannot." " The Gamester" is a graceful sketch in verse, replete with tenderness and simplicity of feeling, and a very creditable sample of the poetical talent of the University. We regret that our limits prevent us subjoining an extract. " Lord Byro►►'s Cain" is a bold and promising metaphy sical treatise ; it is manifestly, however, the pro duction of a young and unfledged writer. The ideas are vigorous and abundant, but not pro perly marshalled : they want concentration and arrangement, qualities which are the slow but sure growth of mature thought and tried ex perience. " The Blue Rout" is a lively intel ligent sketch, pointed without sarcasm, and broad without coarseness. "On the Origin of Juries," evinces a very creditable reach of in formation, though it scarcely possesses the merit of novelty, so indispensable in these days of literary excitement. "On the Eloquence of the French Bar," is an answer to some remarks on the same subject that appeared some months since in that able journt►l, the " Foreign Re view." It is ingenious, but possesses no one feature sufficiently attractive to entitle it to any very lengthened consideration. " On the Be nefit of a Classical Education," is penned in a fine generous and manly spirit. None decry the classics, but those who are hopeless of becoming acquainted with them ; and we are glad to see a young writer take up the cudgels in their favour in the right spirit of youthful enthusiasm. On the whole the present number of this Magazine (which is only the second), is a superior one, and if followed up with the same spirit with which it has set out, can scarcely fail of becoming generally popular. UNITED SERVICE JOURNAL. Though far from pretending to rank among the foremost of the monthly periodicals in the literary character of its contents, yet there are few which possess more varied and interesting articles than the " United Service Journal.'' The opening paper in the present number, " a Visit to the Island of Madagascar," details a variety of facts in a graphic unassuming man ner more especially as regards the late king Radama, who, it would appear from the writer's account, was " a powerful and civilized mo narch, who possessed great talents, and who al ways had the civilization of his people nearest his heart." " Sketch of a Ship-carriage con structed and used in Siberia," details some curi ous, and perhaps useful particulars, respecting an amphibious sort of vehicle, which may be drawn by horses on land, and at the same time be made to answer every purpose of a ship on the water. The details arc accompanied by an enaravine , illustrative of the vehicle, in its two fold capacity of ship and carriage. " Dibdin's Sea Song 3" is a manly defence of those fine old marine lyrics, which have rendered the name of Dibdin so deservedly celebrated. The remain ing articles, which we regret that w• have not space to analyze, are each good: in theirrespec tire styles. We conclude with the following anecdote from the " Reminiscences of General Burne." " I had often heard of that curiosity in natural histery, that in India it rained fishes, and I interrogated them as to the circumstances. They had heard of it in the country, and several had found small fishes in the gutters and vi randahs of houses after rain ; but on one occasion they were all eye-witnesses of the fact. When stationed at Bangalore, one day at dinner, the messman infin•med them, that the sentry had called out, that it had ' rained fishes.' They all rushed out to the esplanade before the mess-room, and saw a quantity of young fry, about the size of small minnows, floundering and splashing in the pools which the rain hail formed. It was a sudden shower, like the explosion of a thunder cloud, very violent, but only of a minute's duration, and was nearly over when they ran out; they were bareheaded, but one man had taken the precaution of putting on his hat; when he returned, and took it off in the mess-room, he found a small fish, quite alive, and floundering in the cock. I tell you this tale as it was told to me,' and have no doubt of the veracity of the narrators ; they imagined they were absorbed by a water-spout, and again discharged on the land, when the cloud it formed burst, and the current of air which raised, no longer supported them. That extraneous bodies, spe cifically heavier than the atmosphere, are supported there for some time in the same way, there is no doubt. The ashes of a volcano and the sands raised by the Harmattin have covered the decks of ships many leagues from the place where they were first raised in the air ; and I myself was witness to the abreption of a stack from a farmer's yard by the current of a whirlwind, which carried it a considerable way, with a rotatory motion, before it sepa rated ; it was then broken into fragments, and for a mile or more, it was raining showers of hay and straw along the road." EDWARDS'S BOTANICAL REGISTER, OR, ORNAMENTAL FLOWER GARDEN AND SHRUBBERY. Continued by Join; LINDLEY, Esq. Professor of Botany in the University of London—No. 9 of Vol. IL New Series, Coloured Plates. This month's Number will, as usual, gratify our gardening friends and rural economists. The Canna speciosa, presented by the Hon. Court of Directors of the East India Company, though splendid and beautiful, will not prove of such:general interest as the hardy subjects, of which, perhaps, the two " Pentstemons," and " Anise scented Lophanthus" will be most admired. The " Blue-leaved Pentstemon," Mr. Lindley in forms us, though perfectly hardy, and a peren nial, is like many of the newly-introduced species of this genus, apt to exhaust itself so much in flowering, as to become little better th a n a bien nial. This may, however, be prevented by pinching a part of the flowering stems of each plant, upon their first appearance ; a practice which may be advantageously adopted with re gard to all plants having similar habits. DERIVATION OF HONEY-MOON.—It was the custom of the higher orders of Teutones, a people who inhabited the northern part of Greece, to drink mead or metheglin, a beverage made with henry, for 30 days after every wedding. From this custom comes the expression " to spend the honey-moon." SPIRIT OF TILE PI7t3T,IC JOURN For some time past the most insignificant of our West India communities seem to think that they may beard the general Government with impunity, and exclaim, in Toni Thumb vela, " 'Sdeath, be a rebel," on the most. trifling :ittempt to correct their abuses, or counteract their wishes. This observation is sugge s t e d by the conduct of the Legislature of Tobago, as :lisplaved in the Tobago Gazelle of the sth am! the 12th of done last. These numbers of the Colonial journal contain the report of a commit :cc of the General Assembly, on a message.trans mitted by the Governor, for the approp by the Lords of the Treasury, of a portion of the duties raised in the island on foreign tnerchan disc. By the 6th of the present was enacted, that for the benefit of the colonial tiSsele, the fees formerly levied in the colonial ports 6' the payment of the Custom-house office's should cease, and be replaced by salaries. 'Though th e interests of navigation were generally benefited this abolition of fees, colonial relief was the chief object of the measure. In passing this enactment no provision was made for the Cus tom-house officers whose fees it abolished ; but as it svaa never contemplated for a moment that this relief to the colonies was to be purchased at the expellee of throwing any adcliiional burden on the mother country, or of robbing the Custom-house officers, it followed, as a matter of course, that in lieu of fees the Colonial Treasury should supply to those public servants another fund of income. Whether the duties levied for this purpose: were levied under an late perial or a colonial act, still in all cases dutiea tO an amount sufficient for the payment oz theisa officers were reserved as salaries bersyse the rs:- mainiog proceeds were to be paid into the colo nial treasury. As a matter of convenience, and to avoid misunderstanding, or to elude oppo sition, it was agreed that only a fourth part ot . the proceeds should be taken to answer thesis charges, Government never for a moment: how. ever, surrendering the right_ of deasicting rho.whole expences of collection from the 'roseamount of duties paid in the colonies. Ilya Majesty's Government at the same time declared that they would not claim a right to deduct from the Custom-house duties of the colonies a larger sum under the name of salaries than migiit 4 . ;` , .1- stitute a reasonable remuneration for their f ter lection, though they assumed the rigtst to judge of the adequacy of that remuneration: Ti e revenue levied for the use of the Crown is ‘»d' dened with the expences of collection, as well as that levied for the use of the colonies. That the change from fees to salaries was a real relief to the colonies, is evident from the circumstance, that before the act of 182.5 the whole SUMS col lected under the former head was 103,000 L, while the total of the new and reduced salaries amounts only to 73,0001. A message, ;is which these facts and this reasoning were con tained, ought in the usual course of things, to have been received with gratitude and executed with alacrity. But this was not the view taken of the matter by the committee of the General Assembly of Tobago. Its repoo is full of groundless jealousy, clumsy sarcasm., and factious opposition. It begins by affectedly exculpating the Governor of the island and the Colonial Secretary in England from the charge of having penned the message, and ascribes its composition to some inferior officer in some subordinate department of the Treasury. The committee then complains that their remon strances and petitions had been three ycara liege lected under three successive colonial secretaties. Entering at last upon the subject of tie ines-. sage, they declare that the substitution of salaries for fees was no relief to the coloniea; and utter some unmeaning words about illegal taxation and resistance. We cam only find room for the fol lowing quotation on this subject, in which a. body of men, living by the labour of slaves, venture to quote Burke against slavery:— " It must be admitted, that some slight advan. tages have accrued to the colonies from some altera tions that have been made in the laws affecting their commerce, or rather, some advantages may be expected to be felt hereafter, for at present no bene fit has hitherto resulted. The commercial monopoly of the mother-country has been partially relaxed : the right to recontinue it has never been renounced. With a right to control all their trade, and with a right to impose, through the medium of the Lords of the Treasury, unlimited taxation, the colonies must see that the mother-country now reduces them to that lamentable situAtion, which was so forcibly depicted in the arguments on American taxation. Statesmen of wisdom, it might have been thought, would have gone far to keep this out of sight, but the Lords of the Treasury have not scrupled to expose it to the eyes of the colonists in all its nakedness. The immediate connexion be tween the taxation of America by the British Par liament, and the loss of the valuable possessions: of which the inhabitants renounced their allegiance, must always be present to the minds of those inha bitants of those Colonies which retained theirs.— They have seen a result not at the time anticipated. They retain a sense of rights, out of which others could not be argued, and they are sensitively alive to the maintenance, and consequently to the infringe ment, of their own. If the claim now made—if the right now usurped shall be persisted in, they feel by experience, that their own degradation, even in the eyes of the people, and people of the highest intelli gence in England, is complete. So strongly was the force of t his observation impressed on the minds of that eminent Statesman, that in his celebrated speech en American taxation, Mr. Burke:says-4 Whether you were right or wrong in establishing the colonies on the principles of commercial monopoly, man r than on that of revenue, is at this day a matter of mere speculation. You cannot have both by the same authority. To joie together the restraints of an universal external and internal monopoly, with an universal internal and external taxation, is an unna tural union—perfect uncompensated slavery.' And again—' Nobody will be argued into slavery. Sit, let the gentlemen on the other side call forth all their ability,—let the best of them get up and tell me what one character of liberty the Americans have, and what one brand of slavery they are free from, if they are bound in their property and industry, by all the restraints you can imagine on commerce, and at the same time are made pack-horses of every tax you choose to impose, without the least share in granting them. When they bear the burdens of un limited monopoly, will you bring them to bear the burdens of unlimited revenue too ? The English men in America will feel that this is slavery—that it is legal slavery, will be no compensation either to his feelings or his understanding.'" „ de v s a nt r o in t; The Committee next accuses the Lords of ir the Treasury, or the authors of the message, of p o e n a ls k t s s' ot 7 the disingenuousness,—of arbitrary caprice, — o f want of candour,--of tyrannical interference with theo f rig o Parliament. h e It c o s l • them without their own consent or the authority and uses other phrases respecting their Lord ships which do not commonly meet their ears in official documents on this side of the Atlantic. At last, after telling the Assembly that they look upon the " vapouring" of the Lords of the Trea sury about the relief afforded as mistake or hy pocrisy, they add— " With regard to the alternative offered the