wounded or maimed, many of them for life, and nine were killed outright, so that it was with us a season of lamentation, and mourning, and great wo! From that hour forth, the apparition of William Tibbers was no more seen on earth, that ever I heard of. But it was the general impression that it was the devil who appeared that day in court, and wreaked such vengeance on the simple and credulous natives. William Tibbers was indeed a Samson to us, for at this his last appearance, he did us more evil than all the rest of his life. His daughters gained the property, but I cannot say they have enjoyed it. The old adage seems to be realized in their case, that " a narrow gathering gets aye a wide scattering," for their great wealth appears to be melting away like snow from the dike.* Fraser's Mag. Review of New Books. Cabinet Cyclopædia, Vol. X. At a period like the present, when all eyes are turned towards Belgium, a readable history of a country that once cut so conspicuous a figure amongst the states of Europe, and has so often been the theatre of war and famine, is no upacceptable thing. Though the volume is not quite all that might be wished, it, nevertheless, contains a mass of really desirable information. Until the appearance of the present work, if our recollection serves us rightly, we possessed scarcely any other books upon the history of the Low Countries, than a ponderous folio, by Grimestone, and a translation of Cardinal Bentivoglio's book, both of which it would be more than a trial of temper to wade through. We are, therefore, greatly indebted to Mr. Grattan, for his history of this curious state. A fairer sample of our author's labours cannot be found than the follow The date of the above letter is 1749, and is supposed to have been written by the Rev. R. Walker, of the Episcopal communion, to a brother in office. If so, it must have been from some chapel in Morayshire, for undoubtedly Elgin must be the county town alluded to. The distance from Edinburgh. The ancient town house in the middle of the street, with the village and quay, five miles down the river. All these, with other coinciding circumstances, fully warrant such a supposition. The original letter is directed to The Rev. JS-n-, Carubbers Close, Edinburgh. 203 ing, which exhibits the great commercial wealth of the ancient Flemings. "The whole of the provinces of the first time united under one sovereign, Netherlands being now (1555) for the such a junction marks the limits of a second epoch in their history. It would be a presumptuous and vain attempt to trace, in a compass so confined as ours, the various changes in manners and customs which arose in these countries during a period of one thousand years. The extended and profound remarks of many celebrated writers on the state of Europe from the decline of the Roman power to the epoch at which we are now arrived, must be referred to, to judge of the gradual progress of civilisation through the gloom of the dark ages, till the dawn of enlightenment which led to the grand system of European politics commenced during the reign of Charles V. The amazing increase of commerce was, above all other considerations, the cause of the growth Reformation opened the minds of men of liberty in the Netherlands. The to that intellectual freedom, without which political enfranchisement is a printing opened a thousand channels to worthless privilege. The invention of the flow of erudition and talent, and dividual possession to fertilise the whole sent them out from the reservoirs of indomain of human nature. War, which which particular instances of heroism seems to be an instinct of man, and often raise to the dignity of a passion, was reduced to a science, and made subservient to those great principles of policy in which society began to perceive its only chance of durable good. Manufactures attained a state of high perfection, and went on progressively with the growth of wealth and luxury. The opulence of the towns of Brabant and Flanders was without any previous example in the state of Europe. merchant of Bruges took upon himself alone the security for the ransom of Nicopolis, amounting to 200,000 ducats. John the Fearless, taken at the battle of A provost of Valenciennes repaired to cally held there, and purchased on his Paris at one of the great fairs periodisale. At a repast given by one of the own account every article that was for counts of Flanders to the Flemish magistrates, the seats they occupied were unfurnished with cushions." proud burghers folded their sumptuous Those cloaks and sat on them. After the feast they were retiring without retaining these important and costly articles of A dress; and, on a courtier reminding them of their apparent neglect, the burgomaster of Bruges replied, We Flemings are not in the habit of carrying away the cushions after dinner! The meetings of the different towns for the sports of archery were signalised by the most splendid display of dress and deçoration. The archers were habited in silk, damask, and the finest linen, and carried chains of gold of the greatest weight and value. Luxury was at its height among women. The queen of Philip the Fair of France, on a visit to Bruges, exclaimed, with astonishment not unmixed with envy, 'I thought my self the only queen here; but I see six hundred others who appear more so than I.'" The remarkable escape of the patriotic and persecuted Hugo Grotius, sentenced to perpetual imprisonment for Arianism, is thus told. "Among all the imprisoned Arminians who had the good fortune to elude the vigilance of their gaolers, the escape of Grotius is the most remarkable of all, both from his own celebrity as one of the first writers of his age in the most varied walks of literature, and from its peculiar circumstances, which only found a parallel in European history after the lapse of two centuries. "Grotius was freely allowed during his close imprisonment all the relaxations of study. His friends supplied him with quantities of books, which were usually brought into the fortress in a trunk two feet two inches long which the governor regularly and carefully examined during the first year. But custom brought relaxation in the strictness of the prison rules; and the wife of the illustrious prisoner, his faithful and constant visitor, proposed the plan of his escape, to which he gave a ready, and, all hazards considered, a courageous assent. Shut up in this trunk for two hours, and with all the risk of suffocation, and of injury from the rude handling of the soldiers who carried it out of the fort, Grotius was brought clear off by the very agents of his persecutors, and safely delivered to the care of his devoted and discreet female servant, who knew the secret and kept it well. She attended the important consignment in the barge to the town of Gorcum; and after various risks of discovery, providentially escaped, Grotius at length found himself safe beyond the limits of his native land. Ilis wife, whose torturing suspense may be imagined the while, concealed the stratagem as long as it was possible to impose on the gaoler with the pardonable and praiseworthy fiction of her husband's illness and confinement to his bed. The government, outrageous at the result of the affair, at first proposed to hold this interesting prisoner in place of the prey they had lost, and to proceed criminally against her. But after a fortnight's confinement, she was was restored to liberty, and the country saved from the disgrace of so ungenerous and cowardly a proceeding. Grotius repaired to Paris, where he was received in the most flattering manner, and distinguished by a pension of 1000 crowns, allowed by the king. He soon published his vindication-one of the most eloquent and unanswerable productions of its kind, in which those times of unjust accusations and illegal punishments were so fertile." The character of Louis Buonaparte, who was made king of the Bavarian monarchy by his brother Napoleon, is summed up as follows. "The character of Louis Buonaparte was gentle and amiable, his manners easy and affable. He entered on his new rank with the best intentions towards the country which he was sent to reign over; and though he felt acutely when the people refused him marks of respect and applause, which was frequently the case, his temper was not soured, and he conceived no resentment. He endeavoured to merit popularity; and though his power was scanty, his efforts were not wholly unsuccessful. He laboured to revive the ruined trade, which he knew to be the staple of Dutch prosperity: but the measures springing from this praiseworthy motive were totally opposed to the policy of Napoleon; and in proportion as Louis made friends and partisans among his subjects, he excited bitter enmity in his imperial brother. Louis was so averse from the continental system, or exclusion of British manufactures, that during his short reign every facility was given to his subjects to elude it, even in defiance of the orders conveyed to him from Paris through the medium of the French ambassador at the Hague. He imposed no restraints on public opinion, nor would he establish the odious system of espionnage cherished by the French police; but he was fickle in his purposes, and prodigal in his expenses. The profuseness of his expenditure was very offensive to the Dutch notions of respectability in tosh, which have preceded it, it is, The Whole Art of Dress, &c. pp. 100. This book is expected to effect a complete reformation amongst both young lection of gentlemanly apparel, from the and old. It contains rules for the sehat to the shoe-tie; with illustrative en matters of private finance, and injurious to the existing state of the public means. The tyranny of Napoleon became soon quite insupportable to him; so much so, that it is believed that had the illfated English expedition to Walcheren in 1809 succeeded, and the army advanced into the country, he would have declared war against France. After an ineffectual struggle of more than three years, he chose rather to abdicate his throne than retain it under the degrad-gravings of the most appropriate shapes ing conditions of pro-consulate subserviency. This measure excited considerable regret, and much esteem for the man who preferred the retirement of private life to the meanness of regal slavery. But Louis left a galling memento of misplaced magnificence, in an increase of ninety millions of florins (about nine millions sterling) to the already oppressive amount of the national debt of the country." An anecdote, developing the noble conduct of the Prince of Orange at Waterloo, is given at page 349. "On occasion of one peculiarly desperate charge, the prince, hurried on by his ardour, was actually in the midst of the French, and was in the greatest danger; when a Belgian battalion rushed forward, and, after a fierce struggle, repulsed the enemy and disengaged the prince. In the impulse of his admiration and gratitude, he tore from his breast one of those decorations gained by his own conduct on some preceding occasion, and flung it among the battalion, calling out, Take it, take it, my lads! you have all earned it!' This decoration was immediately grappled for, and tied to the regimental standard, amidst loud shouts of Long live the prince!' and vows to defend the trophy, in the very utterance of which many a brave fellow received the stroke of death. "A short time afterwards, and just half an hour before that terrible charge of the whole line, which decided the victory, the prince was struck by a musket-ball in the left shoulder. He was carried from the field, and conveyed that evening to Brussels, in the same cart with one of his wounded aids-decamp, supported by another, and displaying throughout as much indifference to pain as he had previously shown contempt of danger." With the above extracts we conclude our notice of this ably condensed narrative; and though it will not bear a comparison with the historical treatises of Sir Walter Scott and Sir J. Mackin for hats, cravats, coats, waistcoats, inexpressibles, and all the et ceteras of male costume. The author, while he deprecates foppery in dress, endeavours to convince his readers of the importance of a proper attention to costume. We have always been of opinion that a slovenly man is never to be depended upon, and we are convinced that he who is careless of his own appearance, must be not only careless of his own affairs, but also of those of others. A slovenly man is an eye-sore to all around him. We recommend the unArt of Dress," without loss of time;initiated to get a copy of "The Whole even the experienced may profit by an attentive perusal of this work. The Economy of the Teeth and Gums, &c. By the author of "The Economy of the Hands and Feet," pp. 129.Effingham Wilson. This little work displays considerable knowledge and judgment. Having been sufferers from tooth-ache, we have been induced to try some of the author's receipts for that "hell o' a' diseases," as Burns emphatically terms it; and we have no hesitation in pronouncing them superior to any that we have yet met with. We particularly recommend to the attention of our readers those chapters which speak of the danger to be apprehended from the use of powerful acids and other corrosive liquids; they contain a salutary caution to all those who are afflicted with this horrible complaint.-This work is published at a price that renders it available to all classes. Anecdotes of the Second French Re volution. Nos. 1,2,3 & 4. Strange. This cheap and unpretending little history of events, which have surprised and astonished all Europe, must at this time be read with interest. It is neatly printed,and contains several engravings of the public edifices in Paris. The style is clear and concise, and the work, which we understand will be completed in about twelve numbers, and form a volume, will contain an interesting account of the three memorable days, and of the causes which led to scenes so remarkable and so astounding. We strongly recommend these anecdotes to our readers, as mementos of facts worth preserving. The Note Book. CHINESE ADVERTISEMENT. It is the custom in China, on losing property, having children stolen, or apprentices running away, &c. to stick manuscript bills or advertisements against the walls. The following, stuck up a few days since, may be taken as a specimen : "Chang-chaou-lai, who issues this thanksgiving advertisement, lives outside the south gate, in Great Tranquillity Lane, where he has opened an incense-smoking-mosquito shop. On the evening of the 12th instant, two of his fellow workmen in the shop, Ne-ahung and Atik, employed a stupifying drug, which by its fumes sunk all the partners in a deep sleep, during which they robbed the shop of all the money, clothes, &c. which they could carry away. Next morning when the partners awoke, no trace was to be found of these two men. If any good people know where they are, and will give information, a thank's offering in flowery red paper of four dollars will be presented. If both the booty and the two men be seized, and delivered over at my little shop, then dollars will be presented. Decidedly I will not eat my words. This advertisement is true.-Ne-ahung is about 20 years of age, short stature, has a white face, and no beard. Atik, whose surname is not remembered, is upwards of 20 years of age, is tall, has a sallow face, and no beard. Reign of Taoukwang, 9th year, 9th moon, 3d day." Canton Reg. Jan. 9. THE SABBATH. It is very remarkable that the heathen nations, who are supposed to have but little knowledge of the law or history of Moses, account one day of the seven more sacred than the rest. Hesiod styles the seventh day "The illustrious light of the sun;" and Homer says, "Then came the seventh day, which is sacred and holy." Almost all nations, too, who have any notion of religion, have appropriated one day in seven to the purposes of public devotion, though they have differed with regard to the parti THE UDORAMA AND COSMORAMA. The breath of Nature and the voice of Art. What is the "Udorama?" inquireth one,-What is the "Cosmorama ?" reiterateth another. Questions like these, which appertain, first, to the precise nature of the light and shade scenic; and, secondly, to the actual state of the structures of this world's magnificence, can be answered satisfactorily, only, by ocular demonstration. We do not, however, despair of opening these leaves of art, though we are sure our readers will not be fully entertained without exercising their own perspective binocles. Preceding artists have made Leicester-square popular and almost classical. This spot is attractive at present by the two representations which arrest our attention, and to which we allude in the spirit of taste and admiration. It is no ordinary pleasure to visit the beauties of Switzerland without danger and expense, loss of time and of friends. Merely by quitting the pavement of Cockaigne, we are in view of the Valley of Grindelwald, with a Lake and Waterfall. In the surrounding scenery are seen a Chapel, Cottages, a Water-mill; and in the valley, the river from the Lake winds its fertilizing course. The mountains, with glaciers the extreme points, shed an awful grandeur on the more minute objects by the varied reflections of light and shade so silently playing to the dashing waters during the transitions of four-and-twenty hours-the brilliance of morn, the reflective beauty of calm noon, like peace in ecstacies of repose,-the cool aspect and grey chill of tranquil evening, with laughter lingering on the waves, and flickering, like friendships unwilling to depart, on the massive growth of sparred substances, the contemplative night irradiated by moonshine the evergreens completely at ease from hurricanes, and the hearts shut in affections within the little lighted heritances of wood and fragrancy,-the sheep sheltered on the right-the cattle grazing on the left-with the cosmoramic edifices in view,-a long flight of steps inviting the mind upwardly to Saint Martin's Church, near which Italian peasants are employed invoking the shrine of the Virgin Mary. The Triumphal Arch of Septimus Severus-the Campo Vaccino the Colosseum-the Campanile Tower the remains of an ancient aqueduct the ancient Market Place, once the Roman Forum-the view of the Menai Bridge, North Wales, and Warwick Castle. In another aspect, also, are Cape Town, the Dutch Settlement, Table Mountain, the Lion's Rump Mountain, the town and country of the Cape from the house of the Signal Master to the Castle. Being assured by the artists, Messrs. Meadows and Cooper, of the correctness of the several situations, placed with advantage for the true representations of the buildings; as well as the faithful delineation of the Swiss sceneries by Mr. Dalberg-the value is enhanced by the delightful exhibition of these miniatures which convey ideas of their gigantic and statured portraiture. The Naturalist. SILVER FISH. The fish so called is merely an accidental variety of the gold fish, which varies in colour from age, food, the kind of water in which they are bred, &c. the greater number being of a golden orange colour, many white, or silvery, and others of one or other of those colours, mixed with large patches of black; they also vary in the shape and size of the fins and tail, which last in some is disproportionately large, and divided into three long lobes. These beautiful fish, originally natives of China and Japan, were probably introduced into Portugal at an early period, after the people of that country had discovered the route to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, as they appear to be now completely naturalised, and abound in many of their streams, whence they are brought to us by trading vessels from Lisbon, St. Ubes, &c. in large earthern jars, and may be had at a very easy rate before they get into other hands. They have also been introduced and naturalised in the Mauritius by the French, where they now abound in fish-ponds and streams, and are served up at table with the other fresh water-fishes, to the brood of which they are thought to be very inimical, by destroying their spawn and young fry. The extreme elegance of the form of the golden carp, the splendour of their scaly covering, the ease and agility of their movements, and the facility with which they are kept alive in very small vessels, place them amongst the most pleasing and desirable of our pets. Customs of Various Countries. SUPERSTITIOUS CUSTOM. In several parts of Suffolk the following singular practice is resorted to upon the master of a house dying where an apiary exists. No sooner has the domestic calamity taken place, than a messenger is dispatched to inform the busy inmates of the hive of the sorrowful event; this is done by tapping gently against their straw dwelling and saying, "Your master is dead!" A presentiment existing in the minds of their owners, if this custom remains unfulfilled, that the industrious little labourers will forsake the hive, never to return. Anecdotiana GEORGE III. H.W.W. An Irish conjuror and ventriloquist, of the name of Ray, but who called himself "Le Sieur Ray," to blarney his countrymen, (though he spoke a brogue thick enough to have cut with a knife, as Bowles used to say,) sailed into port with us, and divided the market. He cleared more by one evening's exhibition than we by three-and won fifty pounds besides, by swimming over a river with a rope about his waist. This was the impudent dog (the act evinced his origin) who, exhibiting before their late Majesties, refused to perform his grand deception till the Queen said cockalorum, in which he pretended the charm consisted. Her Majesty thought the word either difficult or indelicate, and declined; but the King was so bent upon the great astonishment, that he turned round to her goodnaturedly, and said,-"Say cockalorum, Charlotte-say cockalorum." Bernard's Retrospections. |