Star.
London, England, 1824-11-02 00:00:00

PROLOGUE
To THE ALCESTIS OF EURIPIDES,
PERFORMED Ant READISG SCHOOL, OCTOBER, 1824.

itten by C. A. WHEILWItIcIiT, 3L4. Prebendary el I.incatn, cke.

Our Scene, transplanted from the Attic Stage,
Ileroic Fable of a distant age,
Traced in the philosophic Poet's strain,
Solicits your attentive tar again.
The son or Jove, his arduto,s labours past,
Finds the worst Tyrant to be tamed at last,
Unnerves the adamantine grasp of Matti,
And from his thrall sets free th' imprisrmel bfeath !
0 magic Spirit ! whose harmonious lay
Could truths sublime in fiction's garb array,
Nature with liberal hand consigned to thee
The use of every Passion's master key;
That hid: N.)ft l'ity's tear spontaneous flow,
Waked by the story of Mecka's woe ;
Wild *l'grror at Orestes vacant glare
Shudder appalled, when Madness kindles there;
And now records, Alcestis' tale to prove,
How brightly flames the torch of wedded love,
Potent o'er Fate's loexorabletloom,
And burning mid the vapours of the tomb !
Scenes, like the Grecian Bard's, our Shakspeare drew,
Which bate Alcestis (1) 'piing to life anew.
There,.warmed by more than Sculpture's magic art,
Withfond,etnotinn heaves the swelling heart;
Her mielt complaining eye, and brow serene,
Declare the jealous Monarch's blamelessQut:en,

itineir; life and hapOiness restored,
Crowns the bleat fate of h€r reiientant Lord !
Sail', rescued Athena, breathe thy lucid clime, (2)
Pure, es when Nature revelled in her prime;
Still o'er each rockltateep and verdant plain
Wave the green olive of thy pelieful reign;
Still be thy rude Invaders' hostile band
Repelleth 3i *eist from &Mos' sea-girt strand!
Destruction whelm their baffled Navy's pride,
That flushed with dreams of conquest ploughed the tide !
With thine own spirit nerve the warriors' stroke
To burst the proud Oppressors galling yoke,
What reap the ample harvest of the tomb,
Thirsting for blood; and eager to consume;
O'er Ileaven's wide face whet bid Corruption sail,
And Famine stalk upon the tainted gate.
Those plains, which late in fertile beauty smiled,
Their Wasting presence makes an arid wild.

As locusts o'ef the ravaged country 'mead,
Black Desolation follows where they tread.
The acm of vengeance still thy wrongs repay;
Such as atoned Ipsara's bloody day.
Theo let the clash of arms with distant roar,
sink like the wave that slumbers on thy shore;
And soothed as bx the lyre, War's furious Lord (3)
Best hitensanguined lance, and sheathe his sword!
Ye honoured Patrons, (4) who with candid brow
Judge, as of old, our Classic efforts now.
*math whose eye and fostering voidance led,
Our studious youth the paths of Science tread;
Culling the fruits, whose genuine charms inspire
Iltipe's ardent throb, and Freedom's holy fire,
And all the nobler energies impart,
That beat congenial to a Briton's heart;
Still by your wonted favour deign to grace
l'hot.e aims, which dignify life's narrow space !
(1) liermione in the Winter's Tale.
(2) Eurip. Medea, v. 820, (Forum Ed.) 'Epexileotoar
TO wawa, Ukfhots /Lc- •
(3) Pind. Pytb. 1. 19. Ka yap Boarar'Arrns, Ste.
(4) 'Doe Vice-Chancellor, the Warden of All Souls, and the
President of Sr.-Julin's Colleges, .oaford, the Triennial Visitors.

ON LETHARGIES.
A celebrated Professor of the University of Berlin,
Dr. Christopher William Hufeland, has just published
a very interesting work on Lethargies, in which he re-
lates a great number of instances of the danger there is
in interring persons with so much precipitation as is
usual, especially. in France. He furnishes a sure means
of ascertaining if a person be really dead or not ; and
relates the following anecdote:
A young man fell in love with the daughter of a
rich citizen of Paris, and his auction was returned.
The father of the Lady obliged her, however, to re-
nounce her lover, and to marry another. A Short time
after the nuptials, the young wife fell ill and died. She
was buried at Paris twenty-four hours after her decease.
Her first lover, incapable of resisting the desire he felt
of seeing her for the last time, succeeded in gaining the
sexton, who consented to open the tomb the same night.
The young man threatened the latter to kill him, if he
committed the smallest indiscretion; after which he
carried off the body, conveyed it to a neighbouring
house, placed it near the tire, rubbed it with warm
cloths, and tried all possible means of restoring to life
the woman he adored. After some hours, he had the
happiness to discover signs of life appear ; she first be-
gan to emit gentle sighs, and at last returned entirely
to herself. As soon as she was entirely re-established
in health, the two lovers, thus re-united by death, set
out for England, whence they did • not dare to return
till several years had elapsed. At first a stand was
made against recognizing the young female for the pre-
tended defunct ; but her new husband found means to
prove that she was really the same as had been interred,
and demanded restitution of the fortune shichbelonged
to her. The consequence was, a not extraordinary
law-suit. The first husband persisted in asserting that
she belonged to him, while the second affirmed that she
was dead as far as he was concerned, and that without
his measures and his exertions she would
. never have
been restored to life. • The Parliament, however, ap-
peared to lean towards the title of the first husband ;
and this circumstance urged them to return to England,
without awaiting the decision of the law-suit. The par-
ticulars of this remarkable process are yet to be found
in the journals of the Parliament.
After having reported a great number of similar ex-
amples of other persons boiled alive, Dr.Hufelsind adds:
" There exainples ought Co render us more circumspect,
and indoce us no longer to abandon bodies on the re-
presentation of the nurses, who very often pay no at-
tention to a corpse after they believe it to be one. I res
mother one of these women once assuring' me, some
time after the interment ota man she had attended, that
some of his family would shortly follow, because the
defunct opened one eye in the-coffin, which, according
to her, was a certain sign of the death of another rela-
tion ! After such a declaration, can it be doubted that
innumerable victims have been prematurely buried, who
might have otherwise enjoyed alOug existence ?"—Ncays
of Literature:
FRENCH ACCURACY IN ENGLISH NAMES.
Natwithstanding the frequent intercourse between
Great What% Mid- France, it is astonishing how little
iseigfiboVii,lillyr as . yet learnt of the mode
of spelling H 111414.11 stamea. The fillov ins is a list of
naraies taken from the latest Paris detail of the arrival
of At'atierS in Frante a Polska:ion professing to give
the
sek.iil,alitat,lta AAA htsibstaTitatis of strangers, for
the benefit of tradesthen and of commerce. It is taken

. ,

mbatim et literatim, according to the French spelling.
Some of the names, no dbubl, can easily be guessed at';
oLhers -again, are such as t 9 bid defiance to all conjectui e.
Chescerfidd—(Chesterfield).
Marquis de Wurrenter—( Warrender).
1 lonoraLle Marquis J. Knot.
Monsieur I)ucane.
Lord Dukerton.
Noble Jowslay Parker.
Ladi Anna Scott.
Monsieur Aclierlay.
Brazeliar.
Mademoiselle Wisdem.
Monsieur Acome. •
Lnrd How den.
Monsieur Hon. Gentilhomme Robert Taylor.
- George Clerck Arbuthnot.
John-Turribuck (from andon).
Ilt*Ong, ectiyer Anglais.
Elwand,Negociant Anglais.

-- Robert Pareston.
- L'Abbe Campbell.
Cornwell John, Negotiant Angl.:i3.
- Teyleur, Negociant.

- hl;xwelle (3dazwell).
- Williame kemmedy—(Kennedy).
rranclaud Lewis. •
Joyec—(probably Joyce).
Johnson, d'Etleniburg—(probably meant as corning
from Edinburgh !!!)
C. A. Turlhon,ecuyer Anglais.
Capitaine It. N. Notham—(llotham).
Rohr.
Hannach—(llannah).
Ladi Mary Kill—(Hill).
Monsieur Th. Marchings Downshire.
Le Docteur Dorratt.
llunsieur Bunketon.
L'Amiral Sir John Equinthern.
Monsieur Alfrede Jhorp, ecuyer.
Colkburn—(Cockburn).
Le Cuhnel Senverby.
Monsieur Sompson.
'Miss Kyrosham, de Londres. •
Sir Edouard Baundell, do. ' •
Major Desban.
Monsieur Colqu'honn—(Colquhotm).
- Sheeps Hanks.
Graves, Reard Admiral,
Lord Roskelin.
Brudenell.

ANTIQUITIES.
Among the curiosities lately deposited in the British
Museum, are some Roman wine-jars of the year before
CHRIST 105. Their antiquity and precise date are
placed beyond a doubt by the following. circumstances.
A number of earthenware vessels of various kinds were
dug up among the ruins of Carthage, and sent to this
Government as a present by the Bey, who knew nothing'
of Oeir age or value, except that the English liked such
curiosities. On arriving at the Colonial Office, they
were forwarded to the British Museum : and a learned
Antiquarian of that establishment examining them with
care, discovered on •ne of the amphora the names of
the Consuls of the abovementioned year, Longinus
and Marius.

In enlarging the burial•place of the Imperial Family
in the Capuchin Convent, at Vienna, the work Men lately
came to the remains of an ancient Roman Sepulchre.
Under a heap of stones, many of which bore the num-
ber of the Legion stationed there, they found a skeleton
Kith a large bracelet of metal. Two other skeletons
were found at a little distance, and near them some
coins of the time of Adrian. It is supposed this
sepulchre was placed close to the military road leading
from Italy.

. ....m.,......
BRISTOL SESSIONS,

OCT. 27.

CONSPIRACY TO LOSE A PRIZE-FIGHT.
ThZ KLNO TIM PROMOTION or JOHN Coo:, JOHN POLLEN,AND
JOHN Lavers Too" v. WILLIAM FIVSIII ANDJAMIS KAMM
These defendants were indicted for a conspiracy to
bribe one Strong (better known by the name of Cabbage)
to lose a prize battle, which he had agreed to fight with
defendant Bailey, and thereby to defraud certain per-
sons who had laid wagers on the fight.
Mr. TAUNTON said the indictment was for a conspi-
racy and gross fraud. Stephen Strong was a boxer of
considerable celebrity, and much amusement was ex-
pected from a fight between him and the defendant
Bailey.—The terms of this fight were made the subject
of a written agreement, by which Strong and Bailey
agreed to fight for 251. a-side, on the 23d of February,
12f24; 51. a-side being deposited in the hands of a Gen-
tleman of the name of Tripp, at the time when the
agreement was signed. The defendant Ferris, not con-
tent to take his fair chance, resolved on getting up what
is called a cross•fight. It often happens, however, that
roguery confounds itself, and thus it was in the
present case; for after Strong had been prevailed on by
the defendants to lose the fight, the parties put their
fraudulent intentions into the shape of an agreement in
writing; a copy of which I will now read—
" I, Stephen Strong, do agree to fight James Bailey on the 2.5 d
of February, 1824, for twenty-five pounds a-side • and do agree by
an oath before (me) W. Ferris and James Bailey, to lose and let
the aforesaid James Bailey win the aforesaid fight, by my pro-
mising the said Stephen Strong twenty-fin pounds for himself,
wholly and solely for his own self-
" The mark X of Stephen Strong.
" 51. in hand, X Stephen Strong. " Wm. Ferris.
" Witness—James Bailey. " James Bailey."

Strong, though, be gave way to this arrangement,
had still a little honesty left, and wished to reserve a
power of communication to some of his dear friends.
In fact he did so; and, as it always happens, one com-
municated to the other, till the thing got publicly
known. The fight nevertheless took place. I do not
know how it is, Gentlemen, but there is something
about a Bristol man which makes him extremely averse
to take a batting—so it was with Cabbage. Although
he agreed to lose, his Bristol pluck got up, and be gave
Bailey a most tremendous beasin,g. Cabbage, Gentle-
men, could have told you all the particulars of the con-
spiracy which we are to try—but be is no longer in the
ring. Since his fight with Bailey, he encountered that
mighty- boxer Death, who, in vanquishing him, has
deprived me of one of my best witnesses.
The witnesses hiving proved the statement of the
Learned Counsel,
Mr. SMITH addressed the Jury for the defendant Fer-

ris. The foundation of the charge was an agreement to
fight—an agreement itt direct breach and violation of
the law—an agreement on which no civil action mould
lie, and in !elation to ‘l-rich no wager could be teco
vered. P►ize•fightitlg was iltegal, and it was no crime
to deprive a man of an advantage he could not legally
•enjoy. On that ground he opposed the indictment.
The Town Clerk was unwilling- to decide upon the
objection, but he left the case to the Jury, who, after a
few minutes consultation, fond both the defeadanti
Not Guilty.

Elam j Domain, one of the fellows whn broke Stir-
ling prison on the llth instant, has been apprehended
and again lodged in jail. So incorrigible has been the
conduct of this depraved youth, that his unhappy mo-
ther teas the per‘ou. who delivered him up to justice.

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