mate child of persecution, and has not degenerated from its stock to the present hour. False accusations are hard enough to bear, let them come from whom they may; but, to be compelled falsely to accuse one's self is a refine ment in tyranny, for which mankind are indebted to the ingenious cruelty of the Holy Office: the law, or speaking more properly, that abuse of justice, which usurps its name, participates much of the nature of inquisitorial proceedings, and I am in this place tempted to relate a fact, of which I was a very interested spectator, that will confirm what I have advanced.

I had in my family at Madrid a young man of exemplary character, who lived with me in great trust and intimacy, and was a native of that city, universally known and respected in it. He had been my guest but one night, when the next day, at the hour of dinner, the officers of justice entered my chamber, whilst a party of soldiers paraded at my gates, demanding the body of this unfortunate victim. It was as vain to ask to know the charge, as it was impracticable to avoid or resist it. After conditioning for the removal of the soldiers, and some promise of humanity on the part of the judge, I surrendered to that magistrate a young man, born of Irish parents, red-haired, of a fair complexion, and without impediment in his gait or person. I mention these circumstances because this officer and his alguazils were in search of his direct opposite in every particular, viz. of an old felon, an Asturian, black as a gypsey, and lame in one of his feet, by a natural defect in its formation. In spite of the evidence of his own eyes, the judge conducted my guest to prison, hand-cuffed and hauled between two fiend-like alguazils, in the sight of hundreds of spectators, who followed him through the streets, silently compassionating his ignominy and misfortune. The next day his books, papers, and effects were seized and rummaged, where, fortunately, they found no food for the Holy Office, nor offence against the state. In the regular course of pro ceeding he should have laid in prison ten or twelve years, if nature could have subsisted for that time, before he was allowed to see his judge; but, at my instance he was speedily admitted to an examination; and I place it justly amongst the many marks of kindness I was distinguished with in that kingdom, that justice was made so to quicken her customary pace on my account. When he was brought before the judge, though every feature in his face swore to the mistake of his commitment. the necessary forms of Inquisition were not to be passed over, and he was called upon to recollect all the passages of his life and conversation, and to guess the cause for which he was arrested and imprisoned. In perfect simplicity of heart he exposed to the Inquisitor all his history and habits of life, with the whole of his correspondence and acquaintance, as well as a disturbed imagination could bring it to recollection: when this had passed, and happily nothing had dropped on which his judge could fasten any new matter of crimination, he was coolly informed he did not an, swer to the description of the felon they were in search of, and that he was at liberty to return to the place from whence he came.

THE ORIGIN OF DUELLING IN FRANCE.

Francis de Vivonne, lord Chateigneraye, younger son of Andrew de Vivonne, lord high steward of Poitou, appeared with distinction at the courts of Francis I. and Henry II. He was connected in the tenderest friendship with Guy de Chabot, lord of Jarnac; but incurred the displeasure of that nobleman by an imprudent conversation. One day he told Francis I, by whom he was much

esteemed, that Jarnac boasted to him of having enjoyed the favours of his mother-in-law, Magdalen of Puy-gion, the second wife of Charles Chabot, lord of Jarnac, and Guy's father. The king rallied Guy on his good fortune, which so exasperated him that he not only denied the fact, but added, that with reverence to his majesty, Chateigneraye was a liar. The lie was soon communicated to Chateigneraye, who desired the king's leave to decide their difference by what was called the combat" à outrance:" (in which it is determined that one of the combatants must be slain): but this was not granted by Francis L. However, by the permission of his successor, Henry II, on the 10th of July, 1547, the battle was fought in the park of St. Germain-en-Laye; the king, the constable Montmorenci, and several other lords present. Chateigneraye, being dangerously wounded in the thigh, fell. His life was now at the disposal of Jarnac, who desired the king to accept at his hands the life of Chateigneraye, who was too proud to solicit the compassion of the victor. The prince, yielding to the entreaties of Jarnac and the constable, ordered the surgeon to attend Chateigneraye in his tent. But the shame of being vanquished drove the indiscreet combatant to such desperation, that he died three days after, with the character of one of the bravest and best men in France. He was the assailant in the fight, while Jarnac acted on the defensive. He was hardly twenty-eight years of age, and trust so much to his own dexterity, undervaluing his antagonist so strangely, that, according to Brantome, he had prepared a magnificent supper for the entertainment of his friends on the very pay of the combat; but the fortune of arms decided otherwise. The "coup de Jarnac" has become proverbial to denote an unexpected manoeuvre reserved by an enemy. The ceremonious interval which preceded such battles was employed by both champions in the exercise of their arms; and it is said that Jarnac had so thoroughly profited by his fencing-master's lessons, that in his mock skirmishes he never missed the thrust which proved fatal to Chateigneraye. This kind of battle was the last ever seen in France, for Henry so sincerely regretted the loss of his favourite as to prohibit it by an oath for the future. To this ancient institution of the Lombard law succeeded the licentiousness of private duelling, which in two centuries has caused more blood to be spilt in Europe, but particularly in France, than was ever shed by these combats from their remotest origin.

BURMESE WAR.

A letter from an assistant-surgeon in the Indian army, to a gentleman in Edinburgh, says, speaking of the. Burmese war, that it is the "bloodiest perhaps ever carried on. No quarter," the letter continues, "is given by these cannibals. Every prisoner they take of ours is crucified, and a cut made down his belly, his bowels let out, and in that state he is left to die. I am sorry to say many of our people have already suffered this death. We, however, in our turn, mow them down in thousands, and take their stockades, or mud forts, as fast as we get up with them. Sometimes forty or fifty of them, on being approached by our troops, will stand stone still, blind their eyes, and be shot. This has frequently happened. At other times excessive numbers will make a rush out from a jungle, and succeed in cutting off some of our troops; but if they see a tolerable body of Europeans, they make of direct again for the jungle. A shell was thrown some weeks ago, and about 50 or 60 men, womeu, and children got close to it, amused for a few seconds at the fusee, when it went off and killed all around."

The Curds are a wandering nation, living between Turkey and Persia, and always at the service of those who will pay them best. The Shah Abbas, emperor of Persia, employed them at Tauris, where they rendered him very signal services; but it occurring to him that, for the same bribe, they might probably do as much for the Turks as they had done for him, he invited the principal chieftains to a feast, and caused them all to be massacred. These cruelties rendered him odious to all; and some of the chief nobility uniting in a conspiracy against him, threw a letter into the chamber of Mirza, his son, in which they offered him their assistance in placing him upon the throne. The young prince shuddered with horror at the proposal, and carried the letter to his father, who commended his affection and tenderness, but who afterwards determined to take away his life, that he might free himself from all disquietude. This was the only surviving son out of four, whom his barbarous suspicions had consigned to an early tomb. Bebut, an officer, being commanded by Abbas to put Mirza to death, met the young prince mounted upon a mule; and seizing the bridle, he said, "Dismount, thy father demands thy life" and immediately threw him to the ground. The young prince exclaimed, "Alas! my God, what have I done to deserve this punishment ? Cursed be the traitor who has done this! However, since it is the will of God, be his commands and the king's executed." As he finished these words, Bebut gave him two wounds with a poniard, and laid him dead on the spot. This inhuman murder was closely followed by the repentance of Abbas, who shut himself up for ten days with a cloth over his eyes, that he might not see the light; lived a whole month on spare diet; wore mourning for a year; and caused the place where the prince was killed to be made a sanctuary. After the first ten days of his mourning, he invited the khans whom he suspected, to a feast, with the flatterers who had induced him to be jealous of the deceased prince; and causing poison to be mixed with their wine, he saw them

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all die in his presence. He then ordered Bebut to be the executioner of his own son; and the unhappy father was obliged to bring his son's head to the tyrant, as a proof of his having executed his command. As Bebut grieved immoderately, Abbas said, "Console thyself, my son and thine are no more, and reflect, that in this respect thou art equal with the king thy master."

Abbas was the founder of the commerce which the Armenians carried on, and which has since become so considerable in Europe and Asia. That money might not be carried out of his dominions, he discouraged the pilgrimage to Mecca, and established another in his own dominions.

In his dying moments, he sent for four of the chief lords of his council to his bed-side, and told them that it was his will that his grandson, Mirza, should succeed him and assume the name of his father. The noblemen conducted the young prince to the royal palace, where they seated him in the divan, on a stone table, upon which there were as many carpets as there had been kings of Persia of his family; for every king, at his coming to the throne, has one of these carpets, called "carpets of justice," made for him. After assembling all the lords in the neighbourhood of Ispahan, they crowned him, kissed his feet, and wished him a long and happy reign. On his accession to the throne, he assumed the name of Safi.

EXTRAORDINARY INSTANCE OF TORTURE.

Nothing that we have ever heard of, in any country, can be compared with the atrocities committed by the gangs of decoits (robbers) in India. The following relation of the prosecutor on a trial of decoits, exhibits a horrible picture of human depravity. He states, "that about twelve o'clock, on the night on which the robbery and murders took place, he was sleeping in a house, at a short distance from that of his father, and being awoke by the noise of robbers, went out, and saw that a party of about fifty decoits had attacked his father's house; that, from fear, he concealed himself in a plantain garden, within fifty yards of the spot, from whence he saw the robbers drag out his father and mother; and, after binding their hands and feet, apply lighted straw and torches to their bodies, demanding of them, at the same time, to point out where their money was concealed; the unfortunate people assured them they had none; but the robbers, proving inexorable, went into the house, and brought from it a quantity of hemp, which they twisted round the body of Loharam, and, after pouring on it ghee, or clarified butter, to render it more inflammable, set fire to it; that they then procured a quilt from the house, which they also moistened with ghee, and rolled round the body of Loharam: the prisoners threw the prosecutor's father on the ground, and, keeping him down with a bamboo which they held over his breast, set fire to the quilt; at this time, the cries of the unfortunate man were most shocking, the robbers continually calling on him to tell where his money was, and he assuring them that he had none, and imploring them to take his cows, or any thing they might find in his house; the robbers, however, still proceeded to farther cruelty. Having procured some mustard seed, and tore up the flesh of Loharam's breast, by drawing a large bamboo several times across it, pounded the mustard seed on the sores, with a view to make the torment more excruciating. The mother of the prosecutor was also tortured nearly in the same manner, by the robbers tying hemp round her body, and setting fire to it, and dragging her about from place to place, by the hair of her head, calling on her all the

while to tell them where her husband's money was concealed; and also calling on the prosecutor by name, to come and witness the state of his father and mother; these cruelties, together with the plunder of the house of Loharam, and other ones adjacent, continued until between three or four o'clock in the morning, at which time the robbers departed, and the prosecutor, on going up to his father and mother, found them most dreadfully mangled, but still alive; his father expired about noon, and his mother not till the following morning."

TRAGICAL DEATH OF THE MARQUIS DE SOLANO.

The following account of the death of the Marquis de Solano, Governor of Cadiz, is extracted from Jacob's Travels in Spain :

"As soon as it was known at Seville that Solano had fled to Cadiz, the revolution immediately broke forth, the inhabitants flew to arms, and the sympathetic feeling which pervaded all Spain was displayed in that city with irresistible force. A committee, called in Spain a junta, composed of the most zealous, intelligent, and virtuous of the citizens, assumed the government, directed the spirit of the inhabitants, and produced, what Spain had not witnessed for many ages, a combination of order and energy. The feelings of Seville were communicated to Xeres, to Santa Maria, and even to Cadiz, though in the latter their effects were stifled by the efforts of Solano. Numbers of people, however, arrived from Seville, inspired with feelings of patriotism and vengeance; many entered the city disguised like peasants; and a sufficient number soon arrived to kindle the suppressed patriotism of the Gaditanos. Solano received intimations from his private friends that the plan of an insurrection was formed, and that he was to be its first victim; he was apprised of the intention to assassinate him, on his return from the theatre, and was entreated by his friends not to attend; but he had too much courage to be awed by the intimation; and either the firmness of his demeanour, or some alteration in the plans of his enemies, preserved him for that night from the threatened attack. A party of his friends, who adjourned from the theatre to his house, aware of the danger that impended, urged him to seek his safety by flight; he rejected their counsel, affected to treat their fears with contempt, and avowed his resolution not to part with his authority, but in obedience to the commands of the power from which he had received it. The supplications of his wife, the endearments of his children, and the anxiety of his friends, were all exerted in vain; and he resolutely determined to maintain his authority, or to perish in the attempt.

"Early on the ensuing morning, the whole city was in a state of tumult; the populace, irritated by the patriots from Seville, indignant at the treachery of France, and clamorous for the death of the governor, surrounded his habitation. Some parties attacked it with musquetry, while others dragged cannon from the ramparts and assailed his residence. In the midst of the firing he escaped by the roof of his house, and took refuge in an adjoining one, the lady of which, an intimate friend of the family, hid him in a small closet, which had been secretly built some years before.

"When the insurgents gained possession of Solano's house, and discovered his flight, they pursued him to the house where he was concealed, which was searched with diligence, but without success. After committing some atrocities, and even wounding the lady of the house with a musket ball, they were