and contrivances of ruin; whose mind never pauses from the remembrance of his own sufferings, but to indulge some hope of enjoying the calamities of another, may justly be numbered among the most miserable of human beings, among those who are guilty without reward, who have neither the gladness of prosperity, nor the calm of innocence." How far is this sentence removed from the most palpable truism ? P. 87. The publication of the Rambler produced a very rapid revolution in the tone of English composition: an elevation and dignity, an harmony and energy, a precision and force of style previously unknown in the history of our literature." Drake, &c. This is not true :-for elevation and dignity the English language did not want, while it possessed the works of Milton, Barrow, Taylor, Hooker, Donne, and others. The same of its harmony and energy; Dryden surely did not want harmony of period, nor Clarendon energy. As for precision, we should not have thought that quality pre-eminent in Johnson's Rambler; nor did we think our old writers, trained up as they were in severe schools of logic and dialectics, wanting in this necessary constituent of every good style. P. 138. Boswell quoted, 'Quem Deus vult perdere, prius dementat,' and asked where it was. Dr. Chandler, after a pause, said, in Horace. Another pause : then Dr. Fisher remarked that he knew no metre in Horace to which the words could be reduced; upon which Dr. Johnson said dictatorially—" The young man is right."We suppose it is now almost unnecessary to state that these words are the Latin translation of a fragment of Euripides: Ὅταν δὲ Δάιμων ἀνδρὶ πορσύνη κακὰ Τὸν νοῦν ἔβλαψε πρώτον. P. 140. "Had a long and interesting conversation with Sir James Mackintosh; spoke highly of Johnson's prompt and vigorous powers in conversation, and on this ground, of Boswell's Life of him. Burke, he said, agreed with him, and affirmed that this work was a greater monument to Johnson's fame, than all his writings put together."-Perhaps so; and yet we must not forget the Dictionary, the Satires of Juvenal, Rasselas, and the Lives of Cowley, Dryden, and Pope. What says Coleridge? "Dr. Johnson's fame now rests principally on Boswell. It is impossible not to be amused with such a book; but his bow-wow manner must have had a good deal to do with the effect produced. For no one, I suppose, will set Johnson above Burke ; and Burke was a great and universal talker. Yet now we hear nothing of this, except by some chance remark of Boswell. The fact is, Burke, like all men of genius who love to talk at all, was very discursive and continuous. Hence he is not reported; he seldom said the sharp short things that Johnson almost always did, which produce a more decided effect at the moment, and which are so much more easy to carry off. Besides, as to Burke's testimony to Johnson's powers, you must remember that Burke was a great courtier, and, after all, Burke said and wrote, more than once, that he thought Johnson greater in talking than in writing, and greater in Boswell than in real life."-See Table Talk, ii. 218. "Dr. Johnson seems to have been really more powerful in discoursing vivâ voce in conversation, than with his pen in his hand. It seems as if the excitement of company called something like reality and consecutiveness into his reasonings, which in his writings I cannot see. His antitheses are almost always verbal only, and sen. tence after sentence in the Rambler may be pointed out, to which you cannot attach any definite meaning whatever. In his Political Pamphlets there is more truth of expression than in his other works, for the same reason that his conversation is better than his writings in general."-Ditto, p. 275. P. 278. "The Dirce ascribed, I think, to Valerius Cato," &c. Read "Dira." And thus we close these curious and entertaining volumes, which complete the circle of our information of Johnson. Sir William Scott is dead, and we can now hope no more. Of Boswell it may be said—Αετὸν κάνθαρος μαίευται. Mr. URBAN, Cork, May 5. IN the number of the Gentleman's Magazine of last month (N. S. Vol. VII. No. 4.) page 370, it is stated, "that Barclay in his Icon Animorum, dedicated to Louis XIII. of France, mentions that the timber of Westminster Hall was brought from Ireland;" and the questions follow-"Is that usually admitted to be the case ?-If so, on what authority?" There is no doubt but that in Ireland it is generally believed that the famous wood of Shilelah furnished the oak of which the roof of that struc ture was supposed to be built; and several Irish writers assert it as a fact, which, however, I cannot trace to any original or authentic source. Camden, the contemporary (though the senior) of Barclay, does.not confirm it; and by others it is distinctly contradicted. In Rees's Cyclopedia, article Westminster, it is said "The roof rising to a high pitch, is ingeniously constructed, not of Irish oak, as generally supposed, but of chesnut brought from Normandy." Perhaps the truth may be as described by Nightingale, in his Beauties of England and Wales, vol. x. p. 517, "that the roof was built of chesnut, supported by ribs of oak.' The original roof, we know, was erected by William Rufus about the year 1097, but was consumed by fire * in the reign of Richard II. who supplied the present one. That the Irish black oak, however, was then much in request for similar constructions in foreign countries, may be deduced from the circumstance related by French bibliographers, that it was employed by Charles V. surnamed the Wise, of France, in forming the Royal Library, of which he was the founder. That monarch filled the throne contemporaneously with our Richard II. and had collected above nine hundred volumes, a very considerable number previous to the dis *May we ask our correspondent's authority for this?-EDIT. covery of printing, which he deposited in one of the towers of the Louvre, thence distinguished as 'La Tour de la Librairie.' Such was the basis of the renowned Bibliothèque du Roi, the most numerous and the most valuable assemblage of books ever formed. L'Abbé Sallier, in his introduction to the great catalogue of that library (Paris 1739, et seq. 6 vols. fol.) states, that the roof of its first seat, La Tour de la Librairie, in the Louvre, was, as I have said, built of Irish oak, which is repeated by the author of the Essai Historique sur la Bibliothèque du Roy (Paris 1783, in 12mo.) and in the 'Description de la Bibliothèque du Roi (Paris 1782, in 12mo).” This fact makes it very probable that the same material was used in Westminster Hall, blended, perhaps, as Nightingale represents it, with ches nut. John Barclay's work, referred to by your correspondent on this occasion, was printed in London, 1621, 8vo; but his subsequent productions, Euformionis Satyricon, and Argenis, are far more celebrated, having both been honoured, or encumbered, cum Notis Variorum, of which collection they form a part. The Euphormio, 1674, vol. 1. 8vo. and the Argenis 1664-69, 2 vols. 8vo. The latter was in progress of printing, under the care of the philosopher Gassendi, in Paris, when the author died at Rome in 1621, aged 38. These volumes, descriptive, under feigned names, of the Court of France, &c. at the period, frequently issued from the press in the 17th century; but the Elzevir edition, Argenis, cum clave, in 1630, and Euphormio in 1637, are most esteemed. The purity of Barclay's style suggested to Grotius the following epitaph for him, who, born of Scotch parents in France, resided for some time and died at Rome. "Gente Caledonius, Gallus natalibus, hic est, Romam Romano qui docet ore loqui." Yours, &c. J. R. Mr. URBAN, Cork, April 28. AT a meeting of the Academy of Sciences, held on the 13th ult. at the Institute in Paris, M. Cordier, one of the members, made a very interesting communication on the state and progress of steam-machinery in France. After adverting to the economical consumption of coal in England, compared to the French process, he adds :-" Un très habile mécanicien Français, M. Collier, après avoir adopté l'appareil Français, le changea au point qu'il en fit une invention nouvelle, pour laquelle il prit trois brevets de perfectionnement. Mais l'usage du distributeur fumivore de M. Collier ne s'est point repandu, surtout à cause de la coalition des chauffeurs, qui voyaient leur industrie menacée par un si notable perfectionnement." In England, however, according to the learned Acadamician, the French improvement has been adopted, and he is most solicitous to have it explicitly understood, that its author was French, not English, 'pourque la machine Collier ne nous revienne, et ne se fasse jour parmi nous comme invention Britannique." This is very patriotic; but the fact is, that Mr. Collier, to whose merit the homage is paid, was an Englishman, a native of Staffordshire, and who, though long resident in France and Flanders, never acquired the fluent, indeed scarcely the intelligible use of the French language. His first employment was under Sir Richard Arkwright in Manchester, whence he was seduced, in 1794, by M. Fonfrède (Boyer) whom he assisted in establish. ing a cotton manufactory at Toulouse. He subsequently formed a similar enterprize at Sainte Foy, and other parts of France and Belgium, and, about ten years ago, passed a considerable time in London, with a view to bring to perfection and obtain a patent for this eulogized improvement. It was on the premises occupied by the Morning Chronicle, near Norfolk Street, in the Strand, that he constructed his apparatus and made his experiments. Whatever, therefore, may be the value of the machine Collier, its discoverer was assuredly an Englishman. Mr. Collier (James) died in Paris not long since, leaving one son, a surgeon in our East-India service, and two daugh ters, one of whom is married to M. Huet, a gentleman in legal practice at Versailles. Mr. Collier's brother, John, much his junior, is also a mecanicien in Paris. When in so distinguished a body as the French Academy of Sciences, it is thought proper thus urgently to claim a man of talent for France, it is fair to contest the pretension, and cannot be unimportant to prove that, by birth and education, Mr. Collier was an Englishman-Suum cuique. The M. Fonfréde, whom he followed to Toulouse contrary to the existing laws, was brother to the Girondin deputy of that name in the French Convention, in whose company I dined on the 28th May 1793 (only three days before the overthrow of his party, and consequent establishment of Robespierre's sanguinary power), at the house of M. Vandenyver, the banker, in rue Vivienne. Several of the most celebrated of M. Fonfrède's colleagues from the Gironde, were present-Vergniaud, Gaudet, Gensonné, Ducos, (his brother-in law), &c. of whom the major part fell under, the revolutionary axe in the ensuing October; and every guest, save myself, to the number of thirteen, as well as our host, had ceased to live before twelvemonths had elapsed. Of the execution of some, I was a witness; and I well remember that it was in company with Mr. Collier. I heard of Robespierre's death in the month of July of the following year. These youthful recollections, suggested by the occasion, will, I trust, be pardoned me. M. Fonfrède, I may add, was father of the 1 leading doctrinaire journalist, Henri Fonfrède, now in Paris. avail himself of hints thrown out in so friendly a disposition, there can be no doubt; but in the letter of your correspondent T. R. (p. 353) there is a passage which bears so directly on the character of poor Goldsmith for veracity and integrity, that I cannot suffer a month to pass by without an endeavour to explain the apparent discrepancy there referred to. But to do so, I must first quote the passage from J. R.'s letter: "In volume I. p. 181, it is said, 'It would appear he (Goldsmith) had the honour of an introduction to Voltaire at Paris. Two allusions are made to this honour ; one in the Public Ledger; another, in an account of his (Voltaire's) life.' In the latter, Goldsmith says, (as quoted page 182,) The person who writes this memoir (of Voltaire), who had the honour and pleasure of being his acquaintance, remembers to have seen him in a select company of wits, of both sexes, in Paris, when the subject happened to turn on English taste and learning. Fontenelle, who was of the party, began to revile both. Diderot attempted to vindicate their poetry and learning, but with unequal abilities. Fontenelle continued his triumph, till about 12 o'clock, when Voltaire appeared at last roused from his reverie; his harangue lasted three hours. I never was so much charmed, nor did I ever remember so absolute a victory as he gained in the dispute.' Now, Goldsmith, according to Mr. Prior, and the fact is incontestible, never was in Paris until 1754 or 1755; and it is equally certain that Voltaire left that capital for Berlin in 1750, and never returned to it until 1778 (February), in the month of May of which year he died there; so that it was impossible he could have been seen there by Goldsmith in 1754 or 1755. His state ment, therefore, is difficult of explanation. Nor is it less so in regard to Fontenelle, who, in 1754 or 1755, when Goldsmith was in Paris, was in the ninety-eighth or ninety-ninth year of his age—a period of life wholly incompatible with the story. Fontenelle was born in February 1657, and, independently of his great age, had long been obliged to relinquish society from utter deafness. How Mr. Prior will reconcile these obvious discrepancies I am at a loss to conjecture." Now, Sir, by a reference to the Life of Voltaire, in Mr. Murray's new and enlarged edition of Goldsmith's Miscellaneous Works, it will be seen, that the Memoir was a hasty compilation, or rather translation, which occupied poor Oliver only four weeks, and for doing which he was to be paid twenty pounds. It brings down the Life of Voltaire only to the period of his departure from the court of Berlin in 1750. When, therefore, Goldsmith says, "the person who writes this Memoir had the honour and pleasure of being his acquaintance," he cannot refer to himself, who had only a casual introduction to Voltaire, but to the original writer of the Memoir, which he was translating. "On With regard to the other "obvious discrepancy," if your correspondent had turned to the clever essay, Abuse of our Enemies,' one of the many for which we are indebted to the unwearied industry of Mr. Prior, he will find that Goldsmith says not one syllable about his introduction to Voltaire at Paris. His words are (vol. i. p. 328), "I remember to have heard M. Voltaire observe, in a large company at his house at Monrion, that at the battle of Dettingen, the English exhibited prodigies of valour; but they soon lessened their wellbought conquest, by lessening the merit of those they conquered." I hardly need say, that Voltaire's house at Monrion was near Lausanne, in Where rougher climes a nobler race display- GENT, MAG, VOL. VII. Yours, &c. A. B. 4 F ROMAN SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS FOUND NEAR CIRENCESTER. Mr. URBAN, (With a Plate.) London, April 17. IT becomes my agreeable duty to thank you for your kindness, in having procured for me copies of the very interesting sepulchral monuments found at Watermore near Cirencester in 1835 and 1836; and I beg to avail myself of the opportunity to send you a few remarks, which may not perhaps be considered unfit to accompany the engravings of the same, which I hear intend publishing in your vayou luable Magazine. Though the inscription upon the first of these monuments has been given in the Gentleman's Magazine for September, 1835, page 303, it will be as well to repeat it here, because some alteration in the interpretation of it offered by your Correspondent will, perhaps, on inquiry, appear desirable. Dannicus, a horseman of the Indian wing, of the troop of Albanus, who had served sixteen years; a citizen of Rauricum. By the care of Fulvius Natalis and Fulvius Bitucus, the heirs of his last will. He is buried here." I read Dannicus instead of Decius Annicus, because it appears from inscriptions, that the Gauls generally had but one name; even under the dominion of the Romans. We have an instance of it in the 3rd of the Watermore Inscriptions, where mention is made of Philus the son of Cassavus. The name of Dannicus, as far as I have been able to ascertain, is not found on any other monument; but we know those of C. Dannicus, of Dannicius Alpinus, of Danius Minuso, and that of Dannus, the son of Marus; this last occurs on a monument found at Nismes in France. The ala Indiana (Indian wing) does not seem to be mentioned on any other monument found in England, but it occurs in inscriptions found near Cologne, at Maintz, and near Manheim; which would lead to the inference, that this division of the Roman auxiliaries was stationed some time in Gallia, and apparently went over to England, to take part in the expeditions of the Romans into that island. The existence of the turma Albani of the Indian wing, recorded by this monument, was not hitherto known; another, viz. the turma Balbi, is mentioned on the inscription found near Cologne. H.S..B.F.c. "Sextus Valerius Genialis, eques alae Thracum (or Thracum Herculaniae ?), civis Frisiaus (for Frisius), turmae Genialis. Annos (vixit) quadraginta, (militavit) viginti. Hic situs est, heres fieri curavit.”—i. e. "Sextus Valerius Genialis, a horseman of the Thracian wing, a citizen of Frisia, of the troop (or the squa dron) of Genialis. (He lived) forty years, (and served) twenty. He is buried here (and) his heir erected this (monument)." The propriety of most of the corrections I have here ventured to introduce, will be readily admitted; but the conclusion of the third line is not so certain. The ala III Thracum occurs on different inscriptions, and one of them even mentions the name of a Valerius, who was a native of Gallia, and a commander of that wing; but it was stationed in Syria, and all the monuments relating to it were discovered in the southern parts of |