Star.
London, England, 1829-11-13 00:00:00

ELOPEMENT IN HIGH LIFE.

Yesterday afternoon, information was given to the Chief
Magistrate at Bow-street Office, of an elopement which took
place under very curious circumstances, about two hours I re-
viousiy. The parties war J. C. C----, Esq. and Mist
F. A. I. B----, the daughter of Lady A. 8.--i. it ap •
pears that the gentleman has been oat terms of intimacy with
the family for some years, and that within the last two years
he had avowed dimwit as the professed admirer of Miss It. who
received his attentions favourably; but the proposals of marriage
which he made met with the decided opposition of the norher
and other near relatives of the young lady. The gallant, how-
ever, continued his attentions, and it was dt rowel expedet ut
ley
her friends to take her to France, in the hope that absent,
and time would weaken the impression which had heeit
produced upon her mind In favour of the young and hand-
some suitor. Thither he followed and stole °cols anal
interviews ; and a short time ago, when the family re-
turned to London, be contrived to inform the lady t.f his
readiness to carry her off to that part of the British dominions
where the nuptial knot can be tied without those forms and
ceremonies so tedious and annoying to persons thus situated.
—The young lady, it is now presumed, did not withhold the
desire of escaping with her paramour through the wit.-
dow, which looks upon a balcony, and was open. An alatnt
was immediately given, but the young lady was no where to
be
found, and the truth ahed upon the mind of her mother. who
dispatched her domestics in all directions in pursuit of the fuizitivto,
but the plan had been, as it would appear, well contrived, tor oti
trace whatever could be obtained of them
It is conjectured that the young lady got upon the balcory.
and from thence was assisted by hi r lover through a window
of the empty house adjoining, and so into a chaise and four,
which, it was ascertained, was waiting at a short distance.
and which was seen to drive off with flying speed in the di-
rection of the northern road. Information was forthwith sent
to Colonel Rowan the Chief Commissioner art Police, re-
questing assistance in pursuing the fugitives, and the Colonel dis-
patched a note to Sir Richard Birnie, expressing a wish that one
of the most experienced of the principal officers of the old police
should be sent on the required service. This step, we understand,
was taken; but the youthful pair must brve bad at least a three
hours' start of their pursuers, and the probability is that they will
beµ made one" ere they can be overtaken.
The young lady left the house without her bonnet, and had not
even a change of dress.

MEATH ELECTION.--We understand there is no foun-
dation for the rumour that Mr. GusTs vus LAMBERT.
(the present High Sheriff of Westmeath) means to alas
any opposition to Lord KILLEEN, at the ensuing elec-
tion. On the contrary, we learn that he has expressed
the most friendly dispositions towards the Noble Laid,
whose return, we are happy to find, will be marked by
the flattering circumstance of an election emphatically
and cordially unanimous.— Lord KILLEEN'S per,oilai
canvass through the county has been most prosperous, and
bis reception by persons of all political opinions exceed-
ingly flattering to himself. This may be regarded
indicative of the good feeling which is growing up
amongst all classes of society.---Dublin Muni;

Register.
TIIE CORK Cows. IcTtoxs.—lf the evidence 3414
duced to sustain the charge of conspiracy has 1.0.,
failed, we know not why LEAKY has been le-
spited ; and if it be admitted that it has failed, u a
cannot understand how SHINE, Ruch v., and MA-
GRATH, can be hanged. It may have been an ori-
ginal error to have joined the four men in the
same indictment —to have rested the conviction of
them all upon the same direct testimony. The erio...
however, was committed, and it cannot be redeemed by
adding another error to it. We think that it would he
adding another and a serious error to the past one —if,
under existing circumstances. SHIN 114(.11 v., awl
Mst: asTit, be executed.—Cork C.74.roh;ele.

I

I

COItN—EXCHANGE. MARK—LANK Nov.
We continue to be abundantly supplied with Barley ; but as thu
greater part of it is stained, the trade was exceedingly dull, and
full 2s. per quartet cheaper. Wheat was also heavy sale; but a
few sales have been effected at Monday's prices. Oats continue
nearly the same.

IMPORTATIONS PECS MONDAT.
Wheat, English (qrs.) . 1,950 I Barley. Foreign .
1ri.1% . . -- ; Oats, English . .
Foreign . 1 050 . Foreign
Barley, English . 7,700 Irish
Irish . . -- i Flour (sacks) .
SMITHFIELD MARKET, Nov. 15.
CATTLE AT MA REST.

5,8Q0

5,750
7,200

Beasts
Sheep and Lambs.. I 2,390 Pigs . 110
Beef 3s 4d to 3s 103 Vea1........ —3, Od to 4s 4d
Mutton 4s Od 4s Gd Pork 3s (...1 4. SJ
Lamb ..... ..0s Od Os Oil
I-lay per load, £2 81. to £4 es. Clover €3 0.. to 4.5 .54..
Straw X 1 16s. to £2 Os.
--

COAL MARKET—Ton DAV.
Two o'Cwca.—T►e arrival of Coal from Sunderland and New-
castle was not sogreat today as on Wednesday last ; but owing to
the number *lshii* left on hand, the supply was abundant; SI new
ships were at this day's market, making a total on the week's
arrival of 166 ships. The Coal Exchange was fully attended by
merchants. bat the supply still continues greatly over the demand.
Ships arrived der* the month
Best Waihend Coals .... 345. 6d. 345. 9d.
Other sons 29. Od. 355. 6d.
Ship at Market 1591.

TH6 MONTHLY MAGAZIN& WOISTAKCS, TIMICRES, MID CO.
A half-mad Grcek has lately written a volume to per-
!,iade the world that he has at length made the discovery of the
true author of the Iliad. This author, who has evaded such a host
..1 inquirers in every age, from the days of Solon down to the days
or Payne Knight, is no other than Ulysses, the man of craft, who
took Penelope to wife, contrived to escape the swords of Hector
and bis men at arms, which laid low so many of bis gallant coun-
trymen, was shipwrecked and "agitated over so many seas," re-
turned, found his Penelope as virtuous, fond, and deep in tapestry, I
weaving, as in the hour be left her : and having nothing else to do,
in his monarchy of Ithaca, which at present employs the diplo-
matic functions of a British corporal and a dozen men, busied his
leisure in writing the history of the " Late War under Agamem-
non," as commander-in-chief, assisted by the documents from
head-quarters, and the personal communications of several officers
on the staff of the grand army.
But leaving this Greek discoverer to settle his claims with the
governors of St. Luke's, the subject is curious and cloudy enough
to exercise the best skill of modern inquiry.
This inquiry will probably be found, whatever other elucidations
it may produce to conclude with the following propositions—that
the two matchless poems of the Iliad and Odyssey were the work
of one man—that they were preserved in writing in the Greek
colonies along the eastern border of the Mediterranean—that the
Athenian Pisistratus, a man of cultivated mind, seeing the con-
fusion into which those poems had fallen in Greece, by the habit of
the rhapsodists, or reciters,—to break them up into fragments for
popular recitation, and interpolate them with absurdities of their
own, collected them, and brought them back into their original
shape, a task in which be was assisted and directed by the use of
authentic copies of the originals procured from the Greek colonies
in Asia Minor.
We may first very briefly cast aside the notorious hypothesis of
the German school of Wolfe and Heyne, that the Iliad and
Odyssey were written by a dozen, or a hundred dozen of rhymers.
and finally compacted into their present form by some collector
The Germans are a heavy people, and so conscious of their hea-
viness, that they are always labouring to appear light. A harlequin
with wooden legs, is their tree emblem, and fantastic dulness their
trite spirit. Heyne has the frivolous stupidity to expose himself to
the world's laughter by wisdom of this kind—" Jam ingenium
Died praclarum, ad cot:vapor hancce mine artis debeinus, nobis
Homerus esto.”—(Hom. 7,8, p. 806•) The idea is altogether
nonsense. The consecutive action, the similarity of style, and,
above all, the brilliant and vivid genius which has made every age
bow to the supremacy of Homer, vindicate the immortal work
and the immortal author, from twenty generations of Goths and
Vandals.
The only attempt at argument on which this hypothesis relies, is
the presumed difficulty of proving that the art of writing existed In
the age of Homer. But it is clear that, at least in Judea, writing
was known long before the time of Moses, and was in common
use.—(Numbers, v. 23, Dent. xxiv. 1.) The Pentateuch was
written about 1570 years before the Christian are. That, in
Greece, prose works were not known before Pherecydes•
(8.C.544) nor any laws committed to writing before those of
Draw, is a matter unconnected with the question. Writing ex-
isted in Asia. But even if it had net existed, the habit of the
time, of committing long poems to memory, as a livelihood, could
have sufficiently preserved them. Even at so low a date as the
time of Xenophon, there were many persons in Athens who had
both the Iliad and Odyssey by heart.—(Sympos. 3 5.) But the
Book of Job, which was undoubtedly committed to writing, was
probably composed about 184 years before Abraham, and 2000
before our at..
The age of the great poet has been a more dubious matter of
controversy. The ancients seem to have ascertained nothing defi-
nitively on the point. Strabo makes him a contemporary of Ly.
curgus, and an adviser in forming the Spartan laws.—(Lib. x.)
Cicero, himself an accomplished Greek scholar, and who had stu-
died at Athens, merely observes, that " his age is uncertain, but
that he lived long before the foundation of Rome"—(De Oar.
Orat. 10.) That Homer did not live in the immediate time of the
Trojan war is declared by himself.—(lliad, B. 486.) There is
some evidence in the name of the Nile, which he always calls
JEgyptus, the ancient tame.—(Gen. xv. 18.) The great council
of the Greek States, the Amphyctionii, is net mentioned by him,
though its distinction was attained in a very remote age. The next
point is to ascertain the downward limit. The most famous and
important event of Greece, after the Trojan war, was the return of
the Heraclitha, an event which produced a general revolution of
territory. But Homer makes no mention of this great change.
His catalogue of ships, which forms one of the most curious and
complete documents of the state of ancient territory, is constructed
wholly on the situation of the different little sovereignties before
the invasion of the Heraclids. This invasion took place in 824
B.C. eighty years after the Trojan war in 904 B.C. Homer must
have lived in this interval. But the date may be brought still
closer, by observing that the last event to which he alludes is the
possession of the Trojan sceptre by the descendants of Areas. in
the third generation. Thus he would have flourished in the ninth
century B.C. Herodotus already fixes him at the same period, for
he gives the date of Homer 400 years before his own. Herodotus
lived 444 B.C.

The country of Homer was a celebrated source of controversy
after his death. But the only probable narrative of his birth and
career Is given In a life attributed to Herodotus ; one.half of which
seems fabulous, yet which has undoubtedly formed the ground-
work of all the subsequent attempts. This life states that Homer
was born in Smyrna, that his mother, Crytheis, was front Cams,
and that Homer was illegitimate, and was born suddenly, iu the
midst of a festival, on the banks of the river Metes. The Greeks
subsequently accounted for this transaction in the national way.
A descended inhabitant of the skies, as usual in the case of cele-
brated poets, was the parent, and the mother was afterwards mar-
ried to a king, Mson, who took upon himself the tutelage of the
illustrious child. So says Plutarch, that grand collector of the
gossip stories of his fabling country. But the more ancient narra-
tive is less lofty. Crytheis supported herself and her child by the
labour of her hands, and was a spioner.—(lllad. M. 433.) She
then married Phemlos, a schoolmaster. Homer was taught by
Pronepides. After the death of Phetnins, he became master of his
school, where, being found by Mentes, a rich Smyrnese wader,
be was induced to take the opportunity probably of some of the
traders' ships, and, fortunately for the fame of Greece, and the de.
light of posterity, go forth to see the world.
In Ithaca he was taken ill, and suffered mush from an affection
of his eyes. In Ithaca he found himself surrounded with uadi-
tioas of Ulysses ; and an Ithacan, of the name of Mentor, pee him
the narrative of those adventures ea which be afterwards con-
structed the Odyssey. This weakness of his eyes at last rendered
him totally blind ;but there is an utter improbability in the story
that he was born blind. His descriptions of Nature, sunshine, the
heavenly bodies, storms, the human features and actions, are not
the perceptions of a man been blind. They have in them the
most distinct evidence of actual vision. The well-known saying of
the Roman is perfectly founded—" Si quiz can esecum genitum
putat, omnibus sensibus cocas est."—(Patercul. I. I. 3.) On this
'residence at Ithaca, a conjecture, similar to that of the Greek pro-
fessor. bad been hazarded by Jacob Bryant, a man of learning, but
~ scarcely less extravagant than any Gertnan.of thee* all, that Ho-
mer, in desaWilt Ulysses aced, rePattliev iat himself
sod his wife. and that Ithaca was hie birtistglilae..: But we mud
recollect that Jacob
a Bryant doubted, or mime dealid. the exist-
ence of Troy and the Trojan war altogether, auk had his mind re- •
vainly mode up fors historical scenticila by the widest license of
hypothesis.
Homer, in conformity to a eu.toeu nearly c,ieval with mankind,

seems to have made his livelihood on this journey by reciting his
compositions at the banquets of the great. At Phase, he encoun-
tered the common adventure of a literary robbery. Thestoridss. a
teacher of youth, engaged to give him a lodging and maintenance
on condition of being allowed to transcribe his poems. Thestorides
then ran away, carrying the MSS. with him to Chios, where he
declared himself their author, and commenced reciting them as a
rhapsodist. Homer was at this time advanced In life, and blind.
But the spirit of the poet was alive to this injury of his property
and fame. He ordered himself to be landed at Chios, and set out
in pursuit of the delinquent pedagogue. On reaching the shore
from Brythrte, he was bewildered, was near being torn to pieces
by the dogs of Glaucus, a shepherd, but saved by their matter
coming up, and was led to &limo, where he lived for some time,
teaching children, and enjoying his triumph over his plagiary, who
11.4 fled immediately on his arrival. Chios, finally, was his resi-
dence; there he grew *anent, married, and had two daughters,
one of whom died early, and the other was married to the father
of one of his pupils. His career now drew near its end. Sailing
to Athens, he fell sick at 10, died, and was buried in a plain, not far
from that" ever-resounding main," which he had so often and so
sublimely commemorated.
. .

The native country of this mighty genius was certainly Asiatic.
All his descriptions are tinged with the colours of an Asiatic Greek,
and are suitable only to lonia, or some Greek colony on the east
of Greece. This has been strikingly illustrated in his allusions to
winds, sunset, rains, sea, ice. by Wood, in his Essay on the Ge-
nius of Homer." Smyrna seems co have felt itself entitled to claim
the honour, if we are to judge from its extraordinary homage to
his memory. It burned Zollus in eMgy, as a revenge for his cri-
ticism; it struck medals in honour of the poet, some of which
exist, and represent him, not blind,but reading ; and it even erected
him into a demi-god, and built his temple. The claims of Chios,
founded on his residence there, have been argued by many of the
learned, ancient and modern. Sinmaides, and Tbeocritus, and
Leo Anodus. are in favour of Chios ; but they can prove no more
than that he lived in the island. The distich relative to this dispute
is weD known—
" Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodes, Argos, Athens,
Orbis de patria certat, Homere, ma."
A multitude of poems have been attributed to Homer by the
Greeks. But the art of verbal criticism was too negligently exer-
cised on the subject. The people, eager for every novelty, and
inclined to receive with zealous delight every production that bore
the name of their first poet, suffered a multitude of spurious works
to usurp the honour. The only poems which establish in any con-
siderable degree a claim to authenticity, are the Batracho-muoma-
chia, or Battle of the Frogs and Mice; a humorous fragment, the
Margites, of which but four stanzas remain ; and the Hymn to
Venus. The Margites was universally supposed by the ancients
to have been the production of Homer. Zeno calls it bit earnest.
Aristophanes, Plato, and Aristotle state it decidedly as his work.
The Hymn to Venus bears evidence of having been at least of the
Homeric age ; yet the battle of the Frogs and Mice has been at-
tributed to Pigres, of Helicarnassua, brother of the Queen Arte-
misia. The thirty-three hymns, with the exception of the Hymn
to Venus, are supposed to be by Cynathus--at all events, they are
of high antiquity.
Homer's travels were chiefly in the countries bordering on the
Mediterranean. His mention of Arabia and Lybia is cursory, and
there is no evidence of his having seen either. Spain and Italy
appear also to have been beyond his travels. But he speaks of
Thebes with the force of a spectator; and he probably penetrated
deep into Ethiopia. He is closely familiar with the habits of
Phanicia and Egypt ; and his catalogue of the ships Implies a sin-
gularly close knowledge of the whole of Ggeee, from its eastern to
its western boundary. How much MIAS it be regretted that he
had not seen Jerusalem, the most magnificent seat of religion in the
world. With what additional splendour must his genius then have
show, front the majesty of the city, and the wisdom and worship
of Sion.

The language of Homer has been, by an absurdity possible only
to a pedant, conceived to consist of the four chief dialects of Greece.
We might as well conceive an English epic compounded of the
Yorkshire, Somersetshire, Cornish, and Scotch. The great poet
of course used the simple language of his country and his day. The
divisions subsequently recognised in the language of Greece Proper,
originated in the nature of the territory, which Is cut into fres-
meats by mountains and rivers. The slight assistance that history
gives, is summed up in the knowledge, that Xolus and Dorus, the
sons of Hellen, the son of Deucalloo, settling in separate portions
of Greece, much of the accent and phraseology of the neighbouring
native tribes naturally passed into the language which they brought
from Asia And thus formed the peculiar dialect of their descendants'
Achzus and lon, sons of the younger brother Xantbus, were born
in Attlee, where their father had married the daughter of Erec-
theus the King. Achzus finally went into Laconia. lon remained
in Attica, and his language was adopted by the people, who are
thence called by Homer lonians. Neleus, the son of Codrus, went
with a number of his countrymen into Asia Minor, and there
planted the first lonian colony. Homer lived about the period of
this emigration. He is supposed even to have been one of the
esttlen.—(Knight's Proleg. 66.) He, of course, spoke the lan.
page of Attica. But this being before the Athenians had excluded
the peculiarities of the Doric and Rolle, they are still to be found
in his writings. The Attic still differs but little from the lonic ;
it is centrected lonic. The frequency of the broad vowel sounds
was inconsistent with the refinement of the Athenian ear, and was
gradually reduced.
Homer's alphabet was by no means so copious as that of the sub-
sequent Greek. It probably had but sixteen letters. The vowels
H and ri, and the double consonants, were later ; the former being
represented by Hand 0, and the latter by their component sounds.
The dissolute is still a subject of controversy. In writing and
speaking, the meeting of two words, one of which ended with a
vowel and the other began with one, was offenaive to the Greek
ear. Thus, something like the vulgar pronunciation of London,
which adds a consonant to every word ending with a vowel, as
Maria-r, Diana-r, was the sign of elegance among the Greeks.—
With the Londoner, the addition is r, with the Athenian the inter-
mediate was n. With the other tribes it was the custom to prefix
to words beginning with a vowel, a 1", with a line across it, thus,
F.—(Dionys. Halle. Antiq. Roos. 1.20.) The latter is supposed
to have formed the sixth, or the original Felasgic alphabet. It was
used by the Laconians, Barium, lonians, and Saint, but by the
last to so late a period, that it was peculiarly called the iollc Di.
gamma. It exists, however, in no MSS. But it is found in in-
scriptions—the Delian marble, and coins of Vella. The pronun-
ciation is still a matter of contest. Dawes declares it to be W.
Marsh overthrows this supposition, and states It to be F. The
probability is, that it had the force of V. The Fis actually found
ht inscriptions for V. And several words which are transferred
Iron the Greek to the Latin have the V, as Fogrot,.vinum; °Foe
iv% Soc. The total disappearance of the digammi from the
Homeric writings, is accounted foe on the idea, that at the period
of revising the copies by Pisistratas, the digamma had either fallen
into disuse, or perhaps bad become so substantially a part of the
language, that its position in the words was as perfectly understood.
as we understand the omission or use of an aspirate in tbecommon
- words of a modernlanguage: Homer has been idly learned to
have been the earliest poet of Greece. The expression Of Hero-
dotus should be qualified into his being the best. Homer himself
mentions Thamyris, and probably Licus.—(li. Z. 570.) But poetry
is u old as the world.
wseememmesemeneie
Wednesday afternoon the body of a man was dis-
covered by some passengers floating in the basin in Hsi Greet Park,
wMefi has newly been enclosed •by a wooden paling. An alarm
was instantly given; and, drags being procured, the body was
brousht.on shore. From the appearance of the deceased, be Must
live been' some days in the water, and *bourse years of age. He
was' rather genteelly dressed is's blaek'coat end temente, striped
black silk waistcoat. and Wellington boots; but'tbene was nothing
found on his person to discover who be was. The body was re-
moved to he. 31artin's workhouse to be owned.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

TATTERSALL'S.
The betting yesterday was so dug that we can only subjoin the
present state of the odds against all the horses now in the betting
for the Derby, Oaks, and St. Legsr•

BROST.
7 to 1 apt Sir M. Wood's Mummer
14 to I ---. Sir M. Wood's Cetus
14 to 1 Mr. Petre's Brunswicker
IS to 1 Mr. Thornhill's Wit Tyler
17 to 1 --- Lord Exeter's Mabmoud
111 to I Mr. Chifney's Cressida colt
1$ to 1 --- Lord Sefton's Sal. Colt
u 5 to 1 -- Lord Sefton's Mouche
20 to 1 Lord Cavendish's Mouse colt (taken)
20 to 1 Mr. Petre's The Major
25 to 1 --- Lord Exeter's Red Rover
25 to I Col. Wilson's Brother to Lamplighter
25 to 1 .-- Ld Anson's Mina colt
30 to I --- Mr. Roberts's Sister to Sailor (taken)
30 to 1 --- Mr. Vansittart's Darioletta colt (taken)
OAKS.
15 to 2 Lord Sefton's /douche
10 to 1 -- Mr. Stonehewer's Leeway filly.
22 to 2 Shumla.
20 to 1 -- Filagree.
20 to 1 Sister to Emma.
2S to 1 --- Nina.

K. LIOSS.

9 to 1 Ruby.
IS to 1 Brunrwickers
16 to 1 Lady_ Mowbray.
16 to 1 --St. Niels°las.
20 to 1 Reginald.
The above are the present odds, bet not a bet was made.
HUNTING.
Mr. JotWe's bounds meet on Monday, the 16th, at Box Hill ;
Wednesday, the 1110, at Horse Hills; Saturday, the 21st, at
WindmiU Walton.
The Surrey, Monday, Hamsey Green ; Thursday, Rose and
Crown ; Saturday, LimpsSeld.

:5 Tice t"..ettl.
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-'O-4 * 7v ‘ LITERATURE.
--4.---
1111111"Misit: THE ILIAD AND THE ODYSSEY.