hour, at which time the patient asked for drink. As she was taking some precaution, when offering him the glass, not to fatigue him, he cried, 'Oh! give it, I am strong enough!' He raised himself up with some difficulty, and, leaning his head on his right hand, asked his wife to continue. But his features were changed, for death was near. Madame Delavigne perceived the alteration, but, concealing her grief, resumed her reading, which her emotion rendered unintelligible. Why,' said the dying man, you are skipping whole sentences; and, addressing his son, told him to go on himself. A moment after the head of Casimir Delavigne fell back on the pillow. He began to recite some verses of a tragedy at which he had been at work for some time, and which was to be called 'Mélusine.' In two minutes after life had fled, and the nearly concluded work, which occupied his thoughts during his last moments, perished with him, for the deceased never wrote his pieces until after having completed them in his mind, and then recited them from memory at the moment of preparing them for the theatre."

CHARCOAL MOST EFFECTIVE IN THE GROWTH OF PLANTS.-Mr Barnes, of Bicton, says, "Charcoal is the most astonishing article to make use of for all purposes of cultivation, and especially for plants under artificial treatment. Ijudge from many years' experience in its use. My pine soils consist of nothing but charcoal and loam, without a particle of manure of any sort. Every plant under my care has some charcoal used about it. I never yet saw the plant that did not delight in it, and to heaths it is most especially acceptable." Mr Stewart, gardener at Stradsett hall, has exhibited to the Horticultural Society some cucumbers grown in equal parts of loam and charcoal, without any manure. No stimulant could have given better fruit, so far as health was concerned.

OPENING OF THE TOMB OF HENRY THE FIRST AT QUEDLINBURGH.-His Majesty of Prussia paid a visit to Quedlinburgh at the end of last month, to the celebrated vault beneath the chapel of the castle in that town, which chapel is built entirely of sandstone, whose exhalations are reported to have the property of preserving bodies from corruption. To test the virtue of this species of embalming, his Majesty caused to be opened the tomb containing the remains of the Emperor Henry the First, who died in 936, and that enclosing the body of the famous Countess of Konigsmark, the mother of Marshal Saxe, who died in 1728. The body of the Emperor was dried up, the features were undistinguishable, and the vestments crumbled into dust :-but the body of the countess was wonderfully preserved, the face yet retaining the traces of her mar

vellous beauty. Her dress, consisting of a robe of silver brocade, a Mary-Stuart cap, in white velvet, embroidered with silver and pearls, white silk stockings, and white satin shoes, had all the gleam and freshness of novelty.

FRENCH HUSBANDS WITH ENGLISH WIVES. --It is a curious fact that, notwith. standing the strong prejudices which the French entertain towards England and the English, the French gentlemen give a decided preference to English ladies, when they mean to marry. An Englishman visiting Paris is surprised at the number of English ladies with French husbands, whom he meets with in society. If an English lady, of passable appearance, remains long unmarried in Paris, the presumption is that the fault is her own. It is worthy of remark, on the other hand, that an English gentleman, resident in Paris, very rarely marries a French lady.-Paris and its People.

STATISTICS.-The rate of increase of the population between 1831 and 1841 in England, varies from 2-4 per cent. in the county of Hereford, to 36.9 in Manchester. The rate of increase in the number of inhabited houses for the same period, varies from 4.7 to 41.1 per cent., the houses in Westmoreland having only increased 4.7 per cent., whilst those of Durham have increased 41.1 per cent. In the following counties of England the number of males exceeds that of the females:-Hereford, 78; Lincoln, 914; Monmouth, 6,857; Rutland, 140; Stafford, 7,224: and in Wales-Brecon, 545; Flint, 697; Glamorgan, 4,550; Radnor, 296. The greatest excess of females occurs in the county of Middlesex, where there are 1,133 females to 1000 males, no doubt arising from the great number of female servants in the metropolis and its suburbs. In the county of Bedford, 25 in 100 women marry under age; in Huntingdon, 25; in Cambridge, 23; in Essex, 23; in Northampton, 22; in Hereford, 22; in the West Riding of York, 21; in the East Riding of York, 11: Cumberland, 10; Westmoreland, 10; Devon, 9; Salop, 9; Hereford, 9. The lowest annual value of real property per square mile in England, is 3497., being the county of Westmoreland; and the highest the county of Middlesex, 25,6837. In Wales, the lowest in the county of Merioneth, 1751.; and the highest in the county of Flint, 8771.

pawning, one by one, the diamonds in the famous baldric of the great Marlborough's sword, and his extravagance gave point to the charge; yet John, her youngest grandson, who was no less profligate, retained her favour in the midst of his excesses. Her grand-daughter, Lady Anne Egerton, was as proud as the duchess herself, and no less fiery; on some quarrel between them, the Duchess of Marlborough had Lady Anne's picture daubed with black, and over it this inscription, "She is much blacker within." With her the ruling passion was strong even against death. About four years before her demise, the duchess was attacked by a dangerous disease, and had lain a great while ill without speaking; her physician, believing her case very bad, said," she must be blistered or she will die." Her grace, who had listened with attention, called out, "I won't be blistered, and I won't die!" She kept her word.

SCENES AT TAUNTON. - Taunton was twice in possession of rebels during the reign of Henry VII. First it was seized by one Flemmock, a Cornish lawyer, and Michael Joseph, a blacksmith, who here murdered the provost of Penryn, a commissioner of that subsidy which provoked the Cornish to rebel. Not long after the impostor, Perkin Warbeck, took possession of it, but was soon compelled to fly by the Devonshire forces. In the time of the civil wars a garrison was first placed here by the parliament, which was soon driven out by the Marquis of Hereford's men. Nor did the royal party long continue in possession; for the place was in a little time taken by Colonel Blake, afterwards general and admiral, who was appointed governor. Not long after it was besieged by a party of the royal army, under Lord Goring; but Blake defended it till he was relieved. Taunton was also, after the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth, the chief scene of Jeffrey's and Kirk's inhuman executions. The latter caused nineteen wounded men to be hanged here without even permitting their friends or relations to speak with them. Vast numbers were condemned by Jeffreys. He persuaded the poor wretches to confess their guilt, and throw themselves on the king's mercy. But this was only a snare: he caused them to be immediately executed, and their quarters to be exposed upon trees by the roadside. Above twenty gentlemen were ignominiously executed; and when James II issued a proclamation of pardon, forty young ladies were particularly excepted, because they had presented the duke with colours made at the expense of the town. Taunton has two annual fairs-the first 17th of June, and the second 7th July and two following days.

The Gatherer.

Workhouse Occupations. - The notice lately taken of the cruel practice of making in workhouses garments at a very reduced efforts in the metropolitan parishes to put price, has caused several praiseworthy guardians were summoned for this week a stop to the evil. The Hackney Union low remuneration of sempstresses, and to consider of a resolution deprecating the ordering that the master be now desired not to receive any more slop-work at the present remuneration paid for it, nor, in fact, at any price until the same has been previously submitted to, and approved by, the board; in the hope that this example may be followed by other boards of guardians, and the evil so loudly complained of redressed.

Metropolitan Drapers' Association.-From an able address on the subject, which appears among our advertisements, it will be seen that a powerful effort is making to shorten the hours of business, now uselessly protracted, with every prospect of

success.

Density of Population. In the county bitants to a square mile, while in the of Westmoreland there are only 74 inhacounty of Lancaster there are 944. In the county of Middlesex, the number is 5,591 In Wales, inhabitants to a square mile. the numbers vary from 59 in the counties of Merioneth and Radnor, to 274 in that of Flint. The average number of inhabitants to each house in England in 1841, was 5'4, and in Wales 4.8.

Master Printers in the Time of Charles I. Archbishop Laud procured a decree to be passed in the Star Chamber, July 1, 1637, "to regulate," says Heylyn, "the trade of printing, and prevent all abuses of that excellent art to the disturbance of the church." By this decree it was ordered, "That the master printers from thenceforth should be reduced to a certain number; and that if any other should secretly or openly pursue that trade he should be set in the pillory, or whipped through the streets, and suffer such other punishment as that court might think fit to inflict upon him.

Alarms of the Rich and Poor.-In no government can the powers be so balanced, and rights and duties so clearly defined, as to obviate all suspicion that the authority entrusted for the welfare of the community will not be abused. The wealthy dread the open aggression of the poorer classes. The latter stand in no less alarm of the silent invasion of their liberties by the rich, who, being usually possessed of considerable legitimate power, have no occasion to set the laws at defiance when endeavouring to increase their own

privileges at the expense of those of their fellow-citizens.

French Romance.-The Morgue is the source of much of the inspiration of la jeune France. When we put together the prison, the gibbet, the pillory, the gallows, the dissecting-room, the hangman and the priest, the monster-criminal and the monster-beauty we shall have enumerated a considerable portion of the elements of the modern French romance. We nearly complete the list by adding an air of antiquity, assuming the language of the ancient chronicles, a monarch mad or cruel, an alchemist's laboratory, a monk or a soothsayer.

Destructive Engines shorten War.-If the annihilation of armies could be made to depend upon the pointing of a single great gun by the Emperor Nicholas or the Emperor of Austria in any particular direction, no army in the world would stand such imperial manoeuvring; whole nations would stand up as one man, protesting against being made imperial nine pins, and warfare would cease to be a royal game.-Westminster Review.

A Denbighshire Charm.-The well of St Thecla, in Denbighshire, was celebrated for the cure of epilepsy, by the following ceremony:-The sun being set, the patient washes himself in the well, and walking thrice round it, repeats the Lord's prayer each time. If a male, he makes an offering of a cock; if a female, she offers a hen. The fowl is carried in a basket round the well, and then into the churchyard. The patient enters the church and places himself under the communion table, where, putting a bible under his head, and being covered with a cloak, he rests till daybreak; and then, having made an offering of sixpence, and leaving the fowl in the church, he departs. If the fowl dies the disease is supposed to be transferred to the bird, and the cure, of course, effected.

Arithmetic Taught at Grammar Schools.The Charter-house grammar school was founded in 1610. The statutes made in 1627 provide that it should be "the master's care and the usher's charge" to teach arithmetic to those boys who might be more fitted for trades than for the learned professions, so little did our forefathers insist upon inviting all to devote themselves exclusively to classics.

Archbishop Laud's Dying Pun.-This unfortunate prelate was never accused of levity in his parting moments, but there was something like a play upon words in the last sentences he uttered. Turning to approach the block, but finding the way obstructed by people who had placed them. selves upon the scaffold, he begged them "to let him have room to die." Being close to the block he took off his doublet, and seeing through the chinks of the

boards that, some people had got under the scaffold about the very spot where the block was placed, he called to the officer to stop the chinks, or to remove the people thence, saying, "it was no part of his desires that his blood should fall upon the heads of the people."

Anti-Nepotism.-"In the trust I have exercised through life," says Jefferson, the American President, "with powers of appointment, I can say with truth, and with unspeakable comfort, that I never did appoint a relation to office, and that merely because I never saw the case in which some one did not offer or occur better qualified."

Earl Hardwicke and the Corn Laws.-At his annual rent audit Earl Hardwicke made an important statement. He said he, in common with Sir R. Peel and the Duke of Buckingham, was opposed to free trade, but he thought that ultimately free-trade principles must prevail. But he conceived the result would not be so disastrous as had been anticipated.

Anachronism in Hamlet.-" The first act ends," says Voltaire, "with the king giving his royal orders (and which must never be disobeyed) to fire all the cannon round the ramparts, two hundred years before the use of gunpowder was known."

The Hobby.-In The Regulations and Establishment of Algernon Percy, fifth Earl of Northumberland, 1512,' mention is made of the number of horses kept for the use of "my lordis and my ladys." Among them we find the Hobys particularly mentioned: they were of a small size, and active; originally from Ireland; and were so highly prized, and so universally admired by every one, as to become a proverbial expression-"he's riding his hobby."

Abode of James.-The residence of the ill-starred James, Duke of York, is still standing in High street, Peckham. It is an unpretending building, with a stuccoed frontage, having two Corinthian pilasters. The fore-court and ground-floor are now being converted into a general dealer's shop.

Gilded roofs do not keep out sleepless nights.

A hundred years of trouble are not worth a day of tranquillity.

Pythagoras says, "Anger begins with folly and ends with repentance."

TO CORRESPONDENTS. The usual Supplement, price two pence, beautifully illustrated, with Index to the Volumes, is published with the present number. Answers to several correspondents are necessarily delayed. We hope shortly to diminish the arrear.

LONDON: Published by JOHN MORTIMER, Adelaide Street, Trafalgar Square; and sold by all Booksellers and Newsmen.

Printed by C. REYNELL, 16 Little Pulteney street, and at the Royal Polytechnic Institution.

Original Communications.

THE HALL OF CHRIST'S HOSPITAL. To the local pictures which have lately appeared we this week add the hall of Christ's Hospital. Few acquainted with the city have failed to admire this elegant structure, as few can regard the noble establishment with which it is connected without admiration. The youthful monarch by whom it was founded passed to his grave too early for England's welfare. He was so unlike his royal sire, that had life been spared, so far as man could judge, he must have ranked among the most illustrious kings whose deeds are recorded in our annals. Some interesting facts are related of the origin of this charity. Grafton writes that Dr Ridley, then Bishop of London, preached before the king at Westminster, and in his sermon made a fruitful and godly exhortation to the rich No. 1198.]

C

Palmer's Glyphography.

to be merciful to the poor, and also to move such as were in authority to travel by some charitable ways and means to relieve them; whereupon the king, finding that poor people swarmed in the city, sent of himself to the bishop, as soon as his sermon was ended, and willed him not to depart till he had spoken with him. He adds, "This that I now write was the very report of the said Bishop Ridley, who, according to the king's command, gave his attendance, and as soon as the king's majesty was at leisure he called for him, and caused him to come unto him in a great gallery at Westminster, where, to his knowledge, and the king likewise told him so, there were present no more persons than they two; and therefore made him sit down in one chair, and he himself in another, which, as it seemed, were before the coming of the bishop there purposely set, and caused the bishop, in spite of his teeth to be covered, and then [VOL. XLIV.

entered communication with him in this manner:-First, giving him hearty thanks for his sermon and good exhortation, he therein rehearsed such special things as he had noted, that the bishop said, "Truly, truly!' for that commonly was his oath, 'I could never have thought that excellency to be in his grace, but that I beheld and heard it in him.'

At the last the king's Majesty much commended him for his exhortation for the relief of the poor. 'But, my lord,' quoth he, you will such as are in authority to be careful thereof, and to devise some good order for their relief, wherein I think you mean me, for I am in highest place, and therefore am the first that must make answer to God for my negligence if I should not be careful therein, knowing it to be the express commandment of Almighty God to bear compassion of his poor and needy members for whom we must make an account unto him.'

The king then desired the prelate to communicate with others on the way in which most effectual relief could be afforded to the sufferers.

Surprised at this communication, Ridley expressed his readiness to be the instrument of good. He said, 'he doubted not but the mayor and his brethren, and many others in the city, would be ready to co-operate in such an undertaking, and that if it would please the king's Majesty to direct his gracious letters unto the mayor of London, willing him to call in such assistance as he should think meet, to consult of this matter for some order to be taken therein, he doubted not but good would follow thereon; and he promised the king to be one himself that should earnestly assist."

In consequence of this the bishop put himself in communication with Sir R. Dobbs, the Lord Mayor, and extensive plans were formed for the relief of the needy, and it was in consequence of this that the Hospital of Christ Church was founded. Edward, calling for pen and ink, in his last sickness, assigned an income of 4,000 marks per year, which done, he exclaimed, in the hearing of his council'Lord, I yield thee most hearty thanks that thou hast given me life thus long to finish this work to the glory of thy name.' Two days after this benevolent act Edward was no more.

From what has been stated, it will be seen how zealously Ridley laboured in the good cause. In this he only acted in the spirit of another eminent prelate of that day. It is known that when Cranmer, with other commissioners, visited Canterbury to settle a school there, some of them wished to admit none into it but "sons, or younger brethren of gentlemen; as for husbandmen's children, they were more meet,

they said, for the plough, and to be artificers, than to occupy the place of the learned sort. It was meet for the ploughman's son to go to the plough, and the artificer's son to apply to the trade of his parent, and the gentleman's children are meet to have the knowledge of government, and rule in the commonwealth." Cranmer successfully urged many reasons for another course, which was determined upon, "such a seasonable patron of poor men," says the historian, was the archbishop," who was shrewd enough to apply the following personal argument to the commissioners," And to say the truth, none of us all here were gentlemen born, but we had our beginning from a low and base parentage." Hence it will be seen that to churchmen we are largely indebted for our knowledge, as we are to our knowledge for our liberties.

66

The hospital was founded on the site of the old monastery of the Grey Friars. After the fire of London its hall was rebuilt, but the edifice represented in the Glyphographic drawing at the head of this article, was erected ten or twelve years since, from designs furnished by Mr Shaw.

The exterior is raised upon an arcade of flat pointed arches; each end is terminated by two large and lofty octagonal turrets, finished on the top with panels and embrazures; the hall externally consists of nine lofty and spacious windows of the pointed style, divided into three heights and four widths, by moulded stone mullions. The windows are divided by buttresses that support the principal trusses of the roof, and are finished by lofty octagonal pinnacles and foliated finials. The centre of each window is again marked by intermediate pinnacles, supported by sculptured corbels, and the parapet between them is formed of moulded embrazures. The whole structure is composed of fine Haytor granite, of a close compact nature, and of a beautiful gray colour, which harmonizes well with the architecture, and completes the beauty of the whole. The length of the interior is two hundred feet, but the width is only fifteen: along the two ends and the side opposite to the windows, there runs a spacious gallery, and it is in this hall that strangers are admitted to see the children sup in public. A fine organ is placed at one end, and under the centre window a pulpit is affixed, where Divine Service is performed. The decorations are exactly of the character which suits the place they occupy, being bold and massive: the brackets of the ceiling, the beams and the galleries are of oak; the walls being of a light stone colour.

We may add the public suppers, of which this hall is the scene, form one of the sights of London. The following