The Express.
London, England, 1867-11-01 00:00:00

RINAL ACTHOIO4.—It is scarcely possible to eon-
( .e a work less likely to entice any one to the eases of
tral authorship than the " Catalogue" of Horace
1.4p01e, with its scanty praise and its abundance
carping criticism. " Frederick Prince of Wales,"
, tells us, "wrote French songs in imitation of the
-.;eat, and did not miscarry solely by writing in a lan-
not his own." Three letters of James IL's, which
.• re published at his command by W. Fuller, gentleman,
d the unhappy agent into being voted by the House of
f..minoes a notorious cheat ; into his being prosecuted by
.Ittorney-tleneral, and whipped and pilloried. Charles I.
,rote " most uncouth and inharmonious poetry,"
The merit of Jmura l.'s compositions is expressed in the
caustic assertion that " Bishop Montagu translated all his
ilajesty's works into Latin. A man of so much patienoe
11:04 well worthy of favour." Henry VIII. himself comes off
very little better, with the suggestion as to the great work
%bleb corned for the wearer of the English crown the title
of Ih•femler of the Faith (of which Walpole most charac-
teristically says," it seemed peculiarly adapted to the weak
head of the high church, Anne") that " a little scepticism
on his talent fur such a performance, roan as it is, might
make tta question whether he did not write the defence
of the sacraments against Luther, as one of his sec.
cessora is suppow d to have written the Eleke flotraord,
that is, with the pen of some court prelate." With the
same suggestion of assisted authorship be sweeps away
the claim of Edward If. to the composition of the poem
attributed to him, believing that " this melody of a dying
nion ,rch is about as authentic as that of the old poetic
warbler, the swan." The only royal pen to which he allows
any real merit is that of Queen Elizaheth, who, " in the
days when," as Camden says, " King Edward was wont to
cell Ler Lis snit sisti r Majsrancr, applied much to
hter,ture."-- Quart, sly ri, new number.
31 e:rEons. —A remarkable meteor which appeared
in April 2ti wan seen by two practised observers. Messrs. ,
Ras..idell and Wood, at Liverpool and Weston-super-Mare
resp. ctivtly. From a careful examination of their °hoer-
Lite os it results that the meteor appeared when at a
t of :42 miles vertically over Lichfield, that it trt-
, lb l in a southerly direction at the rate of about :XI miles
per —core!, and disappeared when over Oxford at a height
of miles, having travelled over a course of nearly 75
mil,., The meteor appears to have belonged to the deto-
nate.; class. Eight minutes after its appearance Mr.
1%.',.1 heard a sound "which resemble.] the momentary
ro, a railway train, at some distance, crossing over a
l'r• ;v." It is worth noticing that Mr. Wood must have
Le • i the roar of the meteor inversely, that its, the first
is, of the sound he heard was the part generated lst,
" • '" "140. A detonation was also heard at Stony
S!* Vora, a place lying nearly under the path of the
fl. c's. -r.,r, bit/ Mow:in, for November.
r.,it's BILL IN THE REIGN OF WILLIAM 111.
. ;Le diary of Sir Thomas Rokeby, justice in the Court •
f.: ,ninon Pleas in the reign of William 111., just pub-
-1 •1. occurs the worthy valetudinarian's doctors bill for
?run months, October and November, 1697 :—" Purg-
': leeches 6d.; aperitive ingredients, Is. 6d-
•'.:ri.ee water, 2a. ; a purging bolus, Is. rid, ; purging
I•• (;.scan pow& r. 4s. ; vermifuge pills, a box,
port:log bolus, Is. ti.l.; purging pills, Is.; cephalick
; an hysteri-k julep, 3s. 6d. ; hysterick pills,
`l. ; a %volitive potion, 2s. Gd. ; a stomattick cor-
'ltal. : a cordial potion, Is. wl. ; voimitise salts, 3 doses,
it. 61.; the hysterick julep, as. Gd.; mithridate, Is.; the
; vornitive salts, Is. Gd.; the hyste-
rick• the hysterick julep, 3s. fa; sal-annoniac,
17s. 1011." Spite of this drenching to which he
had t, ,uhi•et himself, he lived to the age of 67.—Brdish
Moho'? J.,irnal. a