The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-08 00:00:00

DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE.

Tho present number opens with an interesting article,
entitled " Portugal as it is," being the narrative of a
pedestrian journey from Lisbon to Oporto and Braga
in the spring of 1845. The writer says that, although
(luring the ascendancy of Don Miguel, and for some
years afterwards, there was unquestionably much danger
in travelling from town to town in Portugal, yet that at

the present day the dangers are by no means formidable,
and that the solitary traveller may now traverse even
the unfrequented parts of Portugal with perfect safety,
providedho possesses the amount of courage and common
sense, without which dangers will be met with every
where. He gives graphic descriptions of Santarem, A lco-
baca, Batalha, and the various places he passed through
on his route, and represents the people as not only
polite and civil, but really desirous to oblige, and as
having, as far as physical comforts are concerned, but
little cause of complaint. He remained some days at
Coimbra, and thus describes the course of instruction at
present pursued in that far-famed university, which owes
its efficiency almost entirely to the energetic measures
of the Marquis de Pombal, who expelled the Jesuits and
completely reformed the educational system.
" The mode of teaching in Coimbra is by lecturing, and
not by tutors, as in England, and the professors, in as
far as we could ascertain, speak extempore. In teach-
ing anatomy or mathematics, we were pleased with the
plan followed, which must be well adapted to imprsss the
mind of the pupil with the subject under discussion. In the
anatomical lectures, for example, after the teacher has de-
monstrated the muscles, acc., the students in rotation de-
monstrate the same parts to the audience. By this means
the teacher can easily know whether the pupil is merely
speaking from memory, or has an experimental acquaintance
with the subject.
" It is pleasing to speak of the good order and attention
which prevails during the lectures, and in as far as a stranger
could judge, the conduct of the pupil while in the lecture-
room, is superior to what we have been accustomed to while
a student. When a stranger enters the lecture- room, he is
received with the usual Portuguese politeness ; the professor
pauses and bows, and the students rise up. There is also
another trait in the Portuguese character no less amiable :
there are many young men from Goa, Brazil, and other
Portuguese colonies, whose complexion would exclude them
from the lecture-room among the equality loving democrats
of the United States, but at Coimbra more Christian feeling
prevails, and no man is despised on account of the line of his
skin or the crispness of his hair.

" The courses of instruction delivered in Coimbra are
ranged under different faculties. Of these, the first is, of
course, that of theology. The number of students of the-
ology in Coimbra, in 1841, was only ninety-three. This
small number may excite surprise, but by far the greater
number of students are trained in the bishop's seminaries in
their respective dioceses, and it is only the elite of the priest-
hood who look forward to the highest honours of the Church,
who study at Coimbra. The course of theological lectures
extends throughout six years, and certainly to a Protestant
the matters taught appear very curious, consisting of sym-
bolical, liturgical, and mystic theology. Only one year is
devoted to what would apper more important than all the
rest—the interpretation of the Scriptures. This all important
topic could only boast of a single student. In accordance
with the same indifference to literature, there are only eight
students of the Greek and nine of the Hebrew language.

" The faculty of law is the most efficient in the university,
and the number of students of jurisprudence, in 1844,
amounted to six hundred and eighty-seven, which is fully
half the number attending lectures in Coimbra. As a de-
gree in law is necessary to qualify for holding almost every
civil office which the Government can bestow, as well as to
enable any one to practise as a lawyer, the faculty of law is
justly regarded as the most important in the university.
The full course of instruction extends over a period of six
years. The number of professors is very considerable, and
the field of instruction proportionably extensive. The wide
range of subjects taught includes Roman, canon, and Por-
tuguese law, political economy, medical jurisprudence, be-
sides a variety of collateral topics; so that if the various
branches of jurisprudence be efficiently taught, the Portu-
guese lawyers should be the most accomplished jurisconsults
in Europe. The text books, at least in civil and canon law,
appear to be translations from German writers; the only
English author whose works appear to be known, is the
celebrated Jeremy Bentham ; his works, however, we should
imagine are more for speculation than practice.
" The medical faculty is very respectably organised, and
well calculated to form at least good literary physicians.
The students must have studied philosophy previous to en-
tering the medical classes—that is, the languages, mathe-
matics, natural history, and other preliminary studies.
However, Coimbra cannot be viewed in any other respect
than a school of medical literature. A medical education
must be an eminently practical one, and such can only be
obtained in large cities, where extensive hospitals afford
facilities for observing diseases and studying anatomy. In
Coimbra, a small town, of about seven thousand inhabitants,
a numerous body of students cannot make progress in ana-
tomy, or have the advantage of efficient clinical instruction."
This valuable paper is followed by an amusing his-
toriette of the Court of Louis XVI., entitled " Madame
de Saverne," and, we have an elaborate critique by Carl
Ludwig Fernow on Raphael's Tapestries, which are still
preserved in the Vatican. In No. sof the Poetical Remains
of Mrs. James Gray, we find some of the most exquisite
snatches of song that ever proceeded from the pen of
that gifted one, now, alas ! lost to us for ever. The fol-
lowing " touching little poem," as it is truly described
by the Editor, is but too true a picture of the fate of
THE GIFTED.
Oh, wo for those whose dearest themes
Must rest within the bosom's fold ;
Oh, wo for those who live on dreams,
Unheeded by the coarse and cold.
They have a hidden life akin
To nothing in this earthly sphere;
They have a glorious world within,
Where nothing mortal may appear—
A world of song, and flower, and gem,
Yet wo for them—oh, wo for them.
Such his perplexing wo, who seeks
A refuge upon stranger shores ;
In vain to foreign ears he speaks,
In vain their sympathy implores ;
The same sad fate a barque might prove,
Laden with gold or princely store,
Without a guiding star above
And an unmeasured deep before.
The world dothe scorn them, jibe, contemn :
Wo for the gifted, wo for them
The tale of Whychcots is continued ; and we have, more-
over, two political articles, one on " Ireland and her
Church," and the other entitled " Protestant Union,"
in both of which Sir Robert Peel, the former object of
the almost idolatrous admiration of the writers in the

Dublin University Magazine, is attacked with the most
envenomed bitterness. We cannot say that we pity him.
Born of the people, his natural position was that of a
popular leader. He chose, however, not to stand by his
order. Like George's Dandin, he must needs seek to
ally himself with the aristocracy, and the political M. d
la Dandiniere, finds, like his prototype, when it is past
remedy, that he has paid too dear for his whistle—but
coos favez voulu George's Dandin—vous Cavez voulu.

REMINISCENCES OF OUR
STREETS.
(From the Patrician.)
Piccadilly was named after a hall called Piccadilla
Hall, a place of sale for the ruffs called piccadilloes,
worn by the gallants of the reign of James I. Where
the opening of Hamilton-place is now, was a one-storied
building occupied by a barber, still well remembered
by several on whom the noted functionary operated
in his day. Clarges-street stands on the site of the
mansion of Sir Thomas Clarges, brother-in-law to our
first Duke of Albemarle ; and on the spot where
Apsley House shows its present imposing appearance,
the traveller found a comfortable homely hostelrie,
called the Hercules' Pillars, the same at which our old
friends Squire Western and the fair Sophia were
domiciled on their arrival in London. Between the
three houses next to Apsley House and Hamilton-place,
intervened a row of small houses, one, a public-house
called the Triumphant Chariot. Holborn was Old
Bourne, or the Old River. Cheapside derives its name
from the Saxon chepe, a market. Smithfield is a cor-
ruption of Smoothfield. Mincing-lane was called Min-
cheon-lane, from tenements pertaining to the mincheons
or nuns of St. Helen's. Fetter-lane has been erroneously
supposed to have had some connexion with prisons or
criminals ; such was not its derivation. Formerly the
spelling was Fewtor-lane, derived from the circumstance
of the iewtors or idle beggars making it a place of resort.
In 1700, Bond-street extended no further than the
west-end of Clifford-street. New Bond-street was then
an open field, called Conduit-mead, from one of the
conduits which supplied that part of the town with water,
and which gave name to the present Conduit-street.
In 1720, Oxford-road (now Oxford-street), from Princes-
street eastward, as far as High-street, St. Giles's, was, on
the north side, almost unbuilt. " I remember," says Mr.
Pennant, " there was a deep hollow road and full of
sloughs; there was here and there a ragged house, the
lurking place for cut-throats; insomuch that I was never
taken that way by night, in my hackney coach, to a
worthy uncle's, who gave me lodgings at his house in
George-street, but I went in dread the whole way." The
south aide was built as far as Swallow, now Regent-
street. Soho-square dates from the reign of Charles the
Second, and was called, originally, iu honour of the
Duke of Monmouth, who lived in the centre house,
" Monmouth-square," a name which tradition asserts
that the admirers of the popular and ill-fated Prince,
changed at his death, to Soho, the word of the day at
the field of Sedgemoor. In the time of " the merlin
monarch," the Haymarket was a lane, bounded by hedges,
and all beyond to the north, east and west, was entirely
country. On the site of Windmill-street stood a corn-
mill. May Fair, in former times the resort of the most
disorderly part of the community, became notorious
for a fair which was held there each year for
seven days consecutively, and not finally put
down before the reign of George 11. Park-lane was
called Tyburn-lane, until its fashionable inhabitants
changed the name. At the beginning of last century
Marylebone (St. Mary on the Bourne) was a small vil-
lage, nearly a mile from any part of the metropolis.
Covent, properly Convent-garden, formerly belonged to
the abbot and monks of Westminster. The Piazza was
designed by Inigo Jones. The Adelphi owes its erec-
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marched to Hay Hill, then
an open country, to attack
the metropolis, but were there met and repulsed by the
royal army. In the days of Charles 11. the locality sub-
sequently denominated Seven Dials was erected, in the
expectation that it would become the abode of the
gay and wealthy 1 Close at hand were Soho-square
and Covent-garden, then aristocratical resorts, and on
the other side, the mansion of the Bedford and other
noble families, sufficient good companionship, one would
suppose, to sustain the Seven-dials' respectability ; but
the influence of St. Giles's was omnipotent. Seven-
dials soon rivalled its neighbour the Rookery in misery
and wretchedness. At the survey of Aggas in 1560,
Chancery-lane presented only a few scattered houses at
the ends which connect it with Holborn and Fleet-
street ; but in the reign of Elizabeth, the bonchers of
Lincoln's Inn, wishing for more privacy for their
gardens,
erected a wall to separate them from the street,
and upon the building of this wall the most illustrious
of bricklayers, Ben Jonson, worked with his own hands.
Lad -lane was originally Lady't -lane ; and Grace-
church-street, Grass-street, in allusion to herb market
held there.

The Duke and Duchess of Beaufort are entertain-
ing a distinguished party at Badminton. The circle includes
the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Earl and Countess de Grey,
the Earl of Wilton,the Earl and Countess of Shelburne, Lord
Alvanley, Mr. and Lady Charlotte Lister, Captain Somerset,
Mr. Sturt, the Marquis and Marchioness of Worcester, &c.
The first lawn meet of the Badminton hounds for the present
season took place on Saturday, on which occasion a brilliant
field assembled.