The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-04-19 00:00:00

TIDE WANDERING SPIRIT.

There's • voice that is heard in the depth of the sky,
%Where nothing is seen bet the blue-tinted Heaven ;
That voice with the wind Tolle its mellowness by.
And a few notes alone to our fond OM are given :
The spirit who sings it still hastens away,
He ts doomed round the wide earth for ever to roam,
Ile may settle a moment, but never will stay,
Fee he never found, and never will Aod here • home.
There is grief in the voice, as it come through the ilk
bike the low.moaning wind in the calmness of Ewe,
Or the tone, as we dream, of the angels, who bear
The pare soul that riacs to mingle with Heaven
It was clear, when it first caanq, but quickly afar
It murmured and died like tie wave an the ahem
When the mariner halls the benevolent star,
That rises and smiles, sad the Nevem is o'er.
0 ! that voice is the dirge, *mike ever is sang
O'er the wreck sad the ruin elf beauty end lore,
But is ears that are deaf is its melody Bung,
There are Done. who will been, but pure OHS ahem :
0 ! Earth is so place for the jEti,no, who feels
Every wound of the heart tbri pang of =r,
He will mourn and be never at rill be s
To the skies, and the bright world that walessees* there.
To this specimen we might add many others of equal
merit. Tie eked of the writer iv of a conteendative east,
and the pester part of his effusions speak strongly ill fa-
vour of his ertenbility. The lines ant Cmesemption,"
beginning—
There is a sweetness in woman's decay,
When the light of beauty is fading away,
are elegant and pathetic; as ate the stanzas emtitld " RE-
TROSIPECTION; which open thee—
There are moments in Mb which me never impt,
Which Mightn't. and brighten, as time Stead away ;
They give a new charm to dee happiest let.
Asa they shim ea the &Dm of the *diem day t
These easwieMs me begeimd by smiles had by time;
The fee lesk of hem mid the LIU poking ONO;
As the mu, la the dews of his glory,
Asil the cloud weep and glows witarilheidabowis Has,...
His longer and Mae elaborate poems polite many
beauties which we might transcribe, did our spew permit.

The Hos E. Petro sad 111,. Fox, Esq. ars appointed
stewards fat Leeds contateLawnt faces.

kisiaftrtliat in iv estminstse4ealVindee the late courts
the Bridgewater Arm, Mancheslar, ea Wskeeday Week, of King's Bench and Chancery, there still remains a stone
at which it was reeolved to establish a Mechanic's Institute, bench or table, and a stone chair, used by some of our an-
' for the dissemination of useful knowledge amongst the la- cient Kings when they sat in Parliament, or for the ad-
bouring elegies. ministration of justice. James I. is also said to have ant
Thomas Green, Esq. of Whittington Hall, late High in this court; the judges of which, however; told him
Sheriff of Lancashire, commenced an active canvass for the that he could nut legally give an opinion upon any matter
representation of the borough of Lancaster, which is va- brought before it. This court, though for centuries it has
cant by the death of the late General Doveton. It is ex- been fixed at Westminster (and which of course is ex-
pected Mr. Green will be returned without opposition. tremely convenient for the despatch of business in these
The election takes place to-morrow. civilised and enlightened times), yet it might he removed,
A NTlQlllTlrs.—Yesterday sennight, as a person of the with the monarch of the realm, to any place in the king-
name of Cave was ploughing in a ground near to Chat- dots. Early after the establishment of the cour, in its
tens Ferry, be ploughed up a pot : on examining the present turns, under Edward I. it sat at Roxburgh, the
contents they appealed to be coins ; and, considering the monarch having removed it to Scotland on his conquest of
number of years they must have lain in the earth, they that country.
are in a state of uncommon preservation. Some of them The judges of this are four ; the chief and three puisne
appear to have been coined during the reign of Constantine justices. We find, that during the greater part of the
the Great, bearing his inscription; others have Constan- reign of Ja:nes I. there were five judges of the King's
tinople on them ; they appear to be of a mixed metal ; Bench, and the same number in the Common Pleas. Lord
the number of them is about 1000, bearing different in- Raymond says, the additional judge was appointed for the
scriptions, and of different sixes : they weigh about three benefit of a casting vote in case of a difference of opinion,
pounds. A sample of them may be seen at the George and that at all reasons the circuits might be fully supplied
Inn, Chatteric—Contbridge Paper. with judges of the superior courts. In subsequent reigns,
On Monday afternoon, about four o'clock, a decent- upon the permanent indisposition of a judge. a fifth has
looking couple presented themselves, with great simplicity, been on several occasions arpointed. If this increase of
before the officiating Minister at our parish church, for the the number of judges was found necessary in the reign of
purpose of being married, neither having procured a licence, James I. it would seem to be far more requisite at the pre-
or even had the banns of marriage published. They had sent time, particularly when we observe that on several
walked from Topcliff, a distance of nearly forty miles, of the last circuits, it has been found necessary to obtain
having started at two o'clock in the morning. It is need- I the assistance of the senior counsel, in order to despatch
less to add, that the disappointed pair was dismissed with the busi tees of the assize.
an admonition to return home and get married in their own With regard to the emoluments of the judges, it cer-
parish.—l.erile Paper. tsinly cannot be said that they are over paid. Indeed,
ATMOSrilear or Sews-M. Vogel, of Munich, after with the exception of the chief of each court, the ju4es,
a number of researches, from which, judging by his from their high officer, are not in the receipt of so g an
name (Bird), we should suppose him extremely well qua- I income as many second-rate practitioners at the bar.
lifted, states, that, Ist, the air of the channel between By examining into the ancient constitution of our courts,
Dieppe and Havre contains muriates; 2dly, the air of the and the method by which the law of the land is admi-
Channel, as well as the air of the Baltic, contains less i nistered, it is curious ontl instructive to see how great a si-
carbonic acid than the air of the Continent ; 3dly, the milarity (as far as the learning and manners of the age will
muriates do not disengage their acid at a temperature ca- admit) exists between the practice of the common law in
Able of bringing them to ebullition, but the are partly the rude times of our Saxon ancestors, and that as it at
volatilised with the vapours of the water ; 4thly, there is I present obtains. Of this branch of the law, Lord Hale ob-
no particular colouring principle in sea air, as has been j serves,—" the original of the common law is as undia-
supposed ; 6thly, all waters containing muriates acquire a coverable as the head of the Nile:" the fact is, it had he
wine red colour, with nitres of silver, when exposed to the I beginning in those rude, unlettered days, when the ancient
ton.—The Britons thought not of solemn deeds to prove their titles,
LoNeow Sessioes.—Saturday the London adjourned lor of statute books to explain and record their laws.—
Radon, took place in Ouildhall, before Alderman Sir J. Peering, I Trained to the chice and the field, they passed their days
Sir Claudius Hunter, Messrs. Wood and Thorpe, the Common i ;thcers,wild state of savage ignorance and brutal courage:
and City O
piste, and three were found guilty, and sentenced to
when a few wee.'" ewe of assaults and thus thus we have not a single document handed down to
'sheet confinement. The Court afterwards catered into appeals ,us by the ancient Britons. And, indeed, till the 49th
Bast different parishes in the City. I year of the third Henry, we have scarcely any authenti-
A fatal accident occurred at Storge-Hill Colliery, in cited records of Acts of Parliament. Our Saxon ancestors,
Heebury. By some neglect the air reeds had not been kept open, from the time of Alfred, administered the laws of the
the consequence was the accumulation of explosive gas. In this
state of the works, Thomas Kitchen, one of the workmen, incau- • •
country in a manner singularly calculated to dispense
tiously permitted hie three children to go into the workings with a quick and impartial justice: the Kings held their courts
lighted candle, which exploded the gas. The unhappy parent " before all their people, upon public notice." Thus writsa
heard the explosion, and rushed to the assistance or his children, an ancient author ; and we find that King Edgar, not only
but it was only to shwa their fate ; he was sußiicated, and was held a great assembly at Christmas time, which he called
founen,d
th lyougingh on
considera the body
bly of hscorched, have is lifeless child.
since been declared The other two diout d. Mea Curia, but also rode the circuit on horseback in tiff
of danger. On Tuesday an inquest was held by Edward Brooke, spring and winter of every year, as an itinerant judge, end
Esq on the dead bodies.—Verdict, Accidental Death. publicly watched over and inquired into the due adminisH
HOAX EXTRAOII)INAIIy.—On Saturday week hand- oration of the lawn. Mat. Paris tells us, that in ancient
bills were posted in Oldham and the neighbourhood, announcing times the judges were elected by the people at large, and
that " Sigma. Francisco PUNtini, the celebrated Ihinau Atronaat, afterwards by their representatives in l'arliament. In the
would ascend in a balloon from Bent Grange, Oldham, on Mon- reign of Henry 111. the judges (according to the same
day, precisely at two o'clock in the afternoon ;" and (modestly
writer) were elected by free vote, and were considered as
enough) that he " would expect no remuneration but the voldn_
tarry contributions of the spectators." On the morning of Monday the conservators of the liberties of the people. The an-
the town and surrounding villages were almost emptied of inhabi- cient conservators of the peace were elected by the people
tants. Even as early as eleven o'clock thousands were assembled till the reign of Edward 111., as were the shire-reeves,
at the appointed place, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the sera- until the time of his royal father. In this manner the co-
nsist, and they continued to !MU in from Ashton-under-Line,
Stayley-bridge, 'Middleton, saddlewonh, Rochdale, &c. during ronen. are still elected. The shire-reeve was anciently the
the forenoon. That the latter had mute a distance of six or seven governor of the shire, and his office was judicial as well as
miles was no slight aggravation of the disappointment which they, ministerial. This principle of the popular election of
in common with the others, Mt, when one, twn, and three o'clock judges distinguished those northern countries free
were past without the appearance of " Signor Francisco." A long whence our Saxon establishments are supposed to have
time elapsed before the assembled multitude could be convinced
that the whole affair was a hoar ; and numbers lingered about the emanated. In the Cotton manuscripts we have recorded •
pound till the approach of night put an end !T) their hopes. It is singular instance of the independence of the first law-ola-
supposed that atone time there were six thousand persons at the cer of the kingdom, the chancellor of Ilenry 111. Soon
place and in the adjoining streets, and during the day not less than after the Kings marriage with Eleanor of Provence, Wil-
ms thousand. Happily but little mischief was done by the enraged ham de Savorie, bishop elect of Valence, the uncle of the
populace. The printer was imposed upon by a man who peg-
ethated the aeronaut. but who, be believes, was an fristarist.l , ado came to England on occasion of the marriage
The street leading to Bent Grange has since received the aryeepri.l with a train of three hundred horsemen, obtained much an
ass same of " BagOOD.Wilit"..-MOIICAtIIdfr Paper. seeendency at court that Henry managed all the airs of