ANCIENT ROMAN PLATE. A very curious relic was discovered in the year 1735, on the south side of Newcastle, in a boggy place by the river Tyne. A little girl, the daughter of a smith, playing with other children, found a large piece of Roman plate. It weighed a hundred and forty-eight ounces. In shape it resembled a modern tea-board, was twenty inches long and fifteen broad, and hollowed about an inch deep, with a flat brim, an inch and a quarter broad, neatly flowered, took it home to play with; but her father, with vines bearing grapes, &c. The girl discerning its value, sold it to a goldsmith, from whom it was claimed shortly after by the duke of Somerset, as lord of the manor, and it subsequently passed into the possession of the duke of Northumberland. Our cut gives a correct representation of the sculptures, which are thus described by Mr. R. Gale, the antiquarian:— "Apollo, the principal figure in the whole piece, is placed in a funum or small temple, the roof of which is supported by two wreathed columns with flowered capitals, almost naked, having only a pallium hanging down from his left shoulder over his back; in the same hand is his bow, which he holds up towards the top of the column on the same side; his right hand is extended downwards with a branch in it, perhaps of laurel, cross that pillar; against which, almost to the middle of it, rises a pyramidical pile of twelve pieces; for what it is intended, I must confess my ignorance. Against the basis of the left hand column rests a lyre, whose form is truly antique; and beneath it grows a plant with three spreading flowers at its three extremities, designed, as I suppose, for an Heliotrope; close by it couches a griffin, with its wings elevated over its back. The ancients had so high an opinion of the sagacity of this fictitious animal, that they consecrated it to the God of Wisdom: Begerus gives us a medal of Commodus, the reverse whereof is Apollo in a chariot drawn by two griffins. Against the right hand column of this pyramidical pile, sits a woman, upon a square four footed stool, though no more than two of its legs are visible; she looks backward over her shoulder towards Apollo, and is wrapped up in a long garment or stola, from head to foot, and veiled. By this attire, and the altar which was brought from Troy, with the eternal fire burning upon it just by her, I take her to be Vesta. Her left hand is reposed upon her breast, and in her right, which rests upon the same thigh, she holds a little bundle (bound about with a ribbon) perhaps of wool. Below her lies a buck, dead, on one side, turning up his belly; and behind her rises a tall pillar with a globe upon it, probably haps a mass of the libamina, ex farre, melle, et oleo. I should have told you, that below the feet of Pallas grows a plant, which seems to bear two ears of corn upon the same stalk, but cannot say what it is, or how it belongs to her. Beneath the tree and the little altar stands a thin-gutted dog, like a greyhound, his nose turned up in a howling or barking posture, as often exhibited with this goddess on medals, and in other representations of her. Under her, in the very corner of the plate, rises a rock, upon which she sets her left foot, and against the side of it lies an urn with the mouth downwards, discharging a plentiful stream of water. The whole table is encompassed with a border, raised near an inch high, and ornamented with a creeping vine, whose grapes and leaves are in relievo, but the stalk only tooled. The work of this curious piece is neither of the best nor worst of times: the figure of Vesta, particularly, is extremely well executed, the posture free, the drapery soft and easy, and, what is very remarkable, the instita or border, an ornament of the stola, appropriated to the Roman ladies of quality. I cannot, nor has anybody else who has seen it, discover that the plan has any relation to any story in the heathen mythology, but seems only an assemblage of the deities it represents: this may be some argument of its antiquity; for, had a modern workman had the designing of it, he would in all probability have taken some known piece of history for his subject; to which I may add, all the symbols are genuine, and truly adapted to their owners. This elegant article was evidently prepared for festive purposes. Could we now trace its original owner-the Roman general or consul, of whose hospitable board it was the ornament, and learn the names of the distinguished guests who had taken their goblets, filled with blushing wine, from its fair surface-how dear to the lovers of antiquarian lore would its story prove! I listen through the hours of gloom The chimney's summit he has reached. Triumphant o'er retreating night, The cock's shrill voice bursts over all, And with a broader glare of light. Of water-cresses comes the call; The clanking milk-pail stops the way; The blind musician seeks to tread, Driven from his lowly home to play Ere he can taste his daily bread. I hear all these, and deeply mourn (Oh Sleep! thy heart is hard as steel) Disdain'st to rest upon my brow, Or place upon my lids thy seal. Relent! relent! Oh! come my way! Deign to be my companion yet; If Sleep were "murdered by Macbeth," T. GLANCES AT SPAIN AND THE Strange scenes are now occurring in Madrid. A new revolution seems likely. What less can be looked for, when the authorities are braved with impunity, and when the latter deem it necessary to order shop-keepers to keep open their places of business which had previously in the spirit of rebellion been closed? After all the triumphs of constitutional liberty which have been heard of in Spain, it sounds oddly to hear tradesmen commanded to offer their goods for sale. This is done, and, as might be expected, the order has been met with cunning evasion or impudent defiance. Some of the citizens pretend that they are about retiring from active life; others placard their houses as being to be let; and some pretend that court appointments preclude them from following their former occupations. The doors being thus kept fast by the householders, officers and soldiers next make their appearance with axes and sledgehammers to break them open. In the streets stones are thrown at the political chief. One unfortunate young man has been shot for this offence. The Morning Post mentions that on the 21st ultimo, "Brigadier El Rayo, the captor of Zurbano, had a very narrow escape of his life. He was passing along the street de las Postas, in plain clothes, when he was beset by a group of persons armed with sticks, who crying out This is El Rayo, at him!' commenced a violent attack. The brigadier being unarmed, ran towards the nearest military post, where the sentinel on duty, seeing a man hastening towards him, followed by others, levelled his musket and ordered them to halt; but the fugitive, doubtless preferring running the risk of being shot to having his brains knocked out with cudgels, pursued his course, and the soldier's piece sent a ball whistling close to his ear. This arrested the career of his foes and he got off." Though the Spanish name has not been pre-eminent in modern warfare, no people are more ferocious than they prove them selves in their domestic broils. The unhappy Quesada, captain-general, was not only murdered by the crowd, but it is said his tongue was first cut out, and his ears and other pcrtions of his person were exultingly displayed in the shop-windows of the capital. This happened about nine years ago. A private letter, written at that period, which has never been published, received from a gentleman engaged there in an official capacity, gives the following picture of the amusements and comforts of the Spaniards: "There are no public amusements,that is to say, there is: 1. The Cirque Olym pique, a few horsemen from Franconi's, who have a temporary building or shed like Richardson's at Greenwich or Bartlemy fair, literally; and they give the same performances fifty times running. 2. Theatre Calle de Sarten, a long room, literally again; performances not equal to our strolling players. 3. Theatre of La Cruz. 4. Ditto of La Principe. These two perform comedies, tragedies, and ope ras,-Spanish singers of Italian music in a very indifferent style. There is hardly one good performer in the two companies, and sometimes there will be forty persons in the pit, and perhaps three boxes taken. So much for the amusements. I go sometimes on Sundays, the best nights. The people are dull, proud, lazy, lying, unsociable, intractable, and ferocious, when roused, to a degree that would make the bloody annals of the first French revolution shrink into insignificance. They are really fond of human blood. Death does not satiate their vengeance; they must always mutilate their victim, and exhibit the most shocking levity over the mangled corpse. A poor cobbler, suspected of adverse politics at Bilbao, was seized by the populace, and dragged at the tail of a mule through the streets, some flinging stones at him, others striking him with sticks, and some with knives or swords, the object being to keep him alive as long as possible. He begged for death, as a relief from his horrible sufferings; and at length, in the public market-place, was despatched by twenty hands. A number of women then washed their hands in his blood, and making their children do the same, danced a fandango round his body, singing a jocular song. The living here is not so bad as I expected; but there is not a glass of pure wine to be had at any price; spirits undrinkable to an Englishman; beer, in bottles only, wretched; and if any of these were good, to drink them, even as a most moderate Englishman would, would produce a fever or a determination of blood to the head in a week. If a man even eats his dinner with an appetite, he creates a fire beneath his skin that consumes him. All the milk is from sheep and goats, and the butter rancid. I have not eaten a bit since I have been here. The bread and water are perhaps the best in the world." And such as they were in 1836, the Spaniards remain in 1845. Their violence, kept alive by their disgusting bull-fights, is as plentiful as their ignorance, their violence, and their superstition. In connection with the last, the author of “A Handbook for Travellers in Spain" furnishes an agreeable account of the pilgrimages in former days, which even now have not fallen wholly into desuetude. "In Spain, as in the East, the duty of performing certain pilgrimages was formerly one of the absolute precepts of faith. Spain abounds in sacred spots and high places.' Monserrat was their Ararat, Zaragoza and Santiago their Medina and Mecca. These were the grand sites to which it once was necessary to go up.' In process of time, the monks provided also for every village some consecrated spot, which offered a substitute for these distant and expensive expeditions; they will perish with the dissolution of monasteries, which derived the greatest benefit from their observance. Few pilgrims ever visited the sacred spot without contributing their mite towards the keeping up the chapel, and the support of the holy man or brotherhood to whose especial care it was consigned. 'No penny no paternoster;' and masses must be paid for, as diamonds, pearls, and other matters, and the greatest sinners are the best customers. Although lighter in purse, the pilgrim on his return took rank in his village, and, as in the East, was honoured as a hadji; the Spanish term is romero, which some have derived from Roma, one who had been to Rome, a roamer; others from the branch of rosemary, romero, which they wore in their caps, which is a Scandinavian charm against witches; and this elfin plant, called by the Northmen ellegrem, is still termed alecrim in Portugal. Thus our pilgrims were called palmers, from bearing the palm-branch, and saunterers, because returning from the Holy Land, La Sainte Terre. These romerias and ferias, the fairs, offer the only amusement and relaxation to their hard and continued life of labour: feria, as the word implies, is both a holy day and a fair. It was everywhere found convenient to unite a little business with devotion; while purer motives attracted from afar the religiously disposed, the sacred love of gold induced those who had wares to sell, to serve God and Mammon, by tempting the assembled pilgrims and peasants to carry back with them to their homes something more substantial than the abstract satisfaction of having performed this sort of conscientious duty. In every part of Spain, on the recurrence of certain days devoted to these excursions, men, women, and children desert their homes and occupations, their ploughs and spindles. The cell, hermitage, or whatever be the place of worship, is visited, and the day and night given up to ongs and dance, to drinking and waзsail, with which, as with our skittles, these pilgrimages have much sympathy and association; indeed, if observance of rites formed any test, these festivals would appear especially devoted to Bacchus and Venus; the ulterior results are brought to light some nine months afterwards: hence the proverb considers a pilgrimage to be quite as attractive to all weak women as a marriage, 'a romerias y bodas, van las locas todas.' The attendance of female devotees at these alfresco expeditions, whether to missas de madrugada,' masses of peep of day, or to virgines del rocio,' dew-virgins, of course attracts all the young men, who come in saints' clothing to make love. Both sexes remain for days and nights together in woods and thickets, not 'sub Jove frigido,' but amid the bursting, life-pregnant vegetation of the South. Accordingly, many a fair pilgrim 'sale romera y vuelve ramera;' the deplorable consequences have passed into national truisms, detras de la cruz, estâ el diablo.' Those who chiefly follow these love-meetings are, unfortunately, those whose enthusiasm is the most inflammable. In vain do they bear the cross on their bosoms, which cannot scare Satan from their hearts. 'La cruz en los pechos, el diablo en los hechos.' This is the old story: 'After the feast of Bel the people rose up to pray." DESTRUCTION OF THE FLEET The building in which so much suffering and so much profligacy has at various times been witnessed, is no more. It has been levelled with the ground. Its corri. dors, its chambers, its fair, and its strong. room, are all laid low. In the report of the committee of the House of Commons in 1729, to inquire into the conduct of Bambridge, the warden, it is described to have been an ancient prison, formerly used for prisoners committed by the council-table, then called the star-chamber, "which exercised unlimited authority, and inflicted heavier punishments than by any laws were warranted." That court being dissolved 16 Charles I, and with it all pretences of the warden to take fees from archbishops, bishops, temporal peers, baronets, and others of lower degree, or to put them in irons, or exact fees for not doing so-the Fleet became a prison for debtors, and for contempts of the courts of Chancery, Exchequer, and Common Pleas only; and fell under the same regulations as other gaols of the kingdom. The Fleet prison, in letters patent of Elizabeth, was called Prisona de la Fleetalias, The Queen's Prison of the Fleet: at which time certain constitutions were agreed on between the then warden, Richard Tyrell, and the prisoners under his charge, as to fees and other matters; which were confirmed by Charles II, whose letters patent grant the office of warden of |