1069 Autograph of William IV.-Gleanings. REVIEW-Specimens of Penmanship: By J. P. Hemms. Harding, London. 1830. We are not, perhaps, acquainted with a more exquisitely delicate art than that of ornamental penmanship. The graceful ease of a bold and flowing line, struck by the pen of such a master as Mr. Hemms, affords the eye a gratification which it cannot derive even from a beautiful painting. To relish the excellences of the latter, some knowledge of perspective and picturesque effect is necessary; but every eye is sensible of the freedom and symmetry of fine writing. The plate, containing a dedication of this "Original Penmanship" to the mayor, al. dermen, and common-council of Notting 1070 ham, exhibits an effect in arrangement, and a richness in execution, which we do not remember ever to have seen surpassed. The representation of Hebe feeding the eagle is an astonishing effort of the pen, whether we regard the flourishing, or the delicately wrought portrait. We cannot particularize the whole of these splendid specimens, which are thirteen in number; though we might easily find occasion to dilate on each one separately. They confer no trifling distinction on the Grammar School of Nottingham, where this talented penman is engaged; and the public generally will not, on inspection of his work, withhold from the artist that patronage he so justly merits. AUTOGRAPH OF HIS PRESENT MAJESTY WILLIAM IV. THE following Autograph has been procured for us from an exalted quarter, by especial favour. In very few instances, we apprehend, has His Majesty written his name in full since his accession to the throne, his general Signature being only W. R. Most of our readers, we doubt not, will be gratified at thus viewing the handwriting of our most gracious Sovereign. GLEANINGS. Antiquity-A Phoenician inscription has just been found in Sicily, of the year 2025 before our era, accompanied by a later translation in Greek. It speaks of a great famine in Canaan, and the emigration of part of its inhabitants, who fixed themselves in the dominions of an Atlantide prince, who was then reigning, bat whose name is unfortunately effaced. Roman Coins.-A communication made to the editor of a north-country paper, from the Carlisle museum, gives an account of several coins, urns, and other vestigia of what appears to have been a Roman cemetery of some extent, These interesting remains have been laid open in the course of the excavations now in progress, for the purpose of improving the London road, at a place called Gallows Hill, about half a mile from the town of Carlisle. A small urn, containing sundry coins in fine preservation, is also mentioned. Among them are some of Faustina, very beautiful. The writer adds: "The bottom of the urn, in which were the silver coins, bears testimony to a very remarkable chemical operation of nature. It exhibits a fine green glaze deposit, evidently the precipitation of the alloy of the silver, and in consequence the silver appears fresh and free from alloy, the coins having on their surface, but little appearance of metallic oxide. This fine, silent, and secret operation of nature has never hitherto been either discovered, or made a subject of speculation. No doubt it merits the best attention of the chemist, the naturalist, and the antiquarian."-Literary Gazette. Earthquakes in London.-In the month of February, 1750. a violent shock of an earthquake, announced as it were by coruscations of aurora borealis, with tem pests of thunder, lightning, rain, and hail, greatly terrified the inhabitants of London; and this terror was redoubled by a similar phenomenon the very same day of the following month, between five and six o'clock in the morning; the shock was preceded by low flashes of lightning, and a rumbling noise like that of a heavy carriage rolling over a hollow pave ment; its vibrations shook every house from top to bottom, and in many places the church bells were heard to strike; people started naked from their beds, and ran to their doors and windows in a state of distraction; yet no house was overthrown, and no life lost. A fanatical soldier went about preaching repentance, and prophesying that a third shock, on the same day in April, would lay the mighty Babylon in ruins. The churches were now crowded, and licentiousness was awed for a time; those who were able fled from the city, and the highways were encumbered with horses and carriages. "On the 8th of April," says Smollett," the open fields that skirt the metropolis were filled with an incredible number of people assembled in chairs, chaises, and coaches, as well as on foot, who waited in the most fearful suspense until morning, and the return of day disproved the truth of the dreaded prophecy" Bishop Sherlock took occasion from this to publish a" Pastoral Letter to the Clergy and Inhabitants of London and Westminster, on occasion of the late Earthquakes," of which one hundred thousand copies were sold in a month!-Valpy's Divines of the Church of England.. Christianity.-Pure and genuine Christianity never was, nor ever can be, the national religion of any country upon earth. It is a gold, too refined to be worked up with any human institution without a large portion of alloy-for no sooner is this small grain of mustard seed watered with the fertile showers of civil emoluments, than it grows up into a large and spreading tree, under the shelter of whose branches the birds of prey and plunder will not fail to make for themselves comfortable habitations, and thence deface its beauty and destroy its fruits.-Soam Jennings: Disquisitions on several Subjects. Strange Conveyance.-A bottle was lately found by some fishermen near Berehaven, Bantry Bay. It contained, in a letter addressed to a gentleman in Scotland, a bond for 6007.; also a note requesting the finder of the bottle to forward them as directed, which has been complied with.-Southern Reporter. 1071 Gleanings.-Literary Notices. To Keep off Flies.-The following simple way of preventing flies from sitting on pictures, or any other furniture, is well experienced, and will, if generally used, prevent trouble and damage-Let a large bunch of leeks soak for five or six days in a pailful of water, and wash the picture, or any other piece of furniture, with it: the flies will never come near any thing so washed.-Oil of laurel applied to the doors and places where meat is kept, will effectually keep files from it. In door Plants.-Persons who are fond of odoriferous plants and flowers, should never permit them to he placed in their bed-chamber, as many of them are so powerful as to overcome the senses entirely. Even plants that are not in flower, and have no smell, yet injure the air during the night, and in the absence of the sun, by impregnating it with nitrogen and carbonic acid gas; although in the daylight they rather improve the atmosphere by yielding oxygen gas. Adulterations of Milk.-From an inquiry instituted in Paris on the subject of the adulterations of milk, it appears that the common ingredients are water, wheat flower, and sugar-candy. The new milk is al lowed to stand for a time, and a portion of the cream is removed; water is then added to the skim milk its whiteness is procured by boiled wheat flour; and the flat taste arising from the flour is removed by a small quantity of sugar-candy. A sull more ingenious fraud is practised in Paris, with emulsion of almonds, by means of which, for a shilling, thirty pints of water may be changed into fair and honest seeming milk; and by the addition of a little sugar-candy, the flavour as well as colour and consistency may be obtained. The former adulteration is supposed to be the one most commonly practised in Londou. Neither is discoverable without chemical tests. Law. The amount of effects of suitors in Chancery, in 1828, was 39,210,3267.-The number of barristers is estimated at 1,034; conveyancers and pleaders, 138; London attorneys 9056; country attorneys. 2.667. Total Lawyers in England and Wales, 12,895.-For the nine years ending in 1829, the attorneys paid, in duties on articles of clerkship, admissions, and yearly certificates, upwards of one million sterling. Sir William Jones on Slavery." I pass with haste by the coast of Africa, whence my mind turns with indiguation at the abominable traffic in the human species, from which a part of our countrymen dare to derive their most inauspicious wealth. Sugar, it is said, would be dear, if it were not worked by blacks in the western islands; as if the most laborious, the most dangerous works, were not carried on in every country, but chiefly in England, by freemen: in fact, they are so carried on with infinitely more advantage; for there is an alacrity in a consciousness of freedom; and a gloomy, sullen indolence in a consciousness of slavery but let sugar be as dear as it may; it is better to eat none, to eat honey, if sweetness only be palatable; better to eat aloes or coloquintida, than violate a primary law of nature, impressed on every heart not imbruted by avarice, than rob one human creature of those eternal rights of which no law upon earth can justly deprive him."-Dr. Lardner's Cyclo padia. Coal breaking.-The cause of the coals supplied to consumers being so small, when it is well known they come in blocks of large size from the pit's mouth, may be gathered from the following calculation made by the celebrated Dr. Hutton, who says, that "if one coal measuring exactly a cubic yard (nearly equal to five bolls) be broken into pieces of a moderate size, it will measure seven bolls and a half, and if broken very small it will measure nine bolls.-London Paper. Silk Worms.-Many efforts have been recently made to introduce the silk-worm on an extensive scale into Ireland, especially in the county of Cork. We have just heard of a voluntary colony of these valuable insects having settled in this county, on the demesne of Mount Loftus, the seat of Sir Nicholas Loftus, Bart. On that demesne there are no mulberry trees, but there are several of the European spindle-tree, or Enanymus Europeus, and of these the colonists have taken possession. One tree is literally weighed down with them, and it is supposed there are not less than half a million of worms actively spinning upon it. We always understood that no leaf would bring the silk-worm to perfection except the mulberry; yet those at Mount Loftus appear to enjoy vigorous health, but we fear they are doomed to speedy annihilation. Even in Italy, the silk worm is fed within doors, and we fear the moth would perish, even if the weather should enable the caterpillar to live, and cut its way through the cocoon.-Leinster Journal, June 20, 1229. Literary Notices. Just Published. 1072 Part III. of Captain Elliot's Views in the East, &e. contains beautiful Delineations and Descriptions of Assar Mahal, Beejapore; Jumma Musjid, Agra; and Cawnpore. No. XIX. of the National Portrait Gallery presents Viscount Goderich, Richard Porson, A M., and the Hon. Mr. Agar Ellis, with their respective Memoirs. Thucydides, with Original English Notes, Examination Questions, &c., by the Rev. Dr. Bloomfield, 3 vols. The Orestes of Euripides, with English Notes, by the Rev. J. R. Major. The complete Works of Bishop Sherlock, with a Summary to each Discourse, and Notes, by the Rev. T. S. Hughes, B.D. 5 vols, small 8vo. cloth, bds. The Classical Library, No. 10, containing Original Translations of Pindar and Anacreon; cloth, bds. Ecclesiastical History, in a Course of Lectures DOW delivering at Founders' Hall, Lothbury, by W. Jones, M.A. Part I. Medicine No Mystery, being a brief Outline of the Principles of Medical Science. Second Ediuen, by John Morrison, M.D. Post 8vo. The Pulpit, Part 95. Faustus, a Poem, Canto I, The Protestant Instructor, by the Rev. E. Harrison, Vicar of Redbourne, Lincolnshire. One Vol 8vo. Part 8 of York Castle, and Newgate in the Nineteenth Century, by Leman Thomas Rede, Esq. No. 6 of the Familiar Astrologer, by Raphael. Vol. I. of A Concise View of the Succession of Sacred Literature, in a Chronological Arrangement of Authors and their Works, from the Invention of Alphabetical Characters, to the Year of our Lord 1445. Part I. by Adam Clarke, LL.D. F. A S. Part II. by J. B. B. Clarke, M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge; and Chaplain to H.R.H. the Duke of Sussex. Edinburgh Cabinet Library-Discovery and Adventure in the Polar Seas and Regions, Whalefishery, &c. by Professors Leslie, Jameson, and Hugh Murray, Esq. The Juvenile Forget Me Not, for 1831, by Mrs. S. C. Hall. Embossed Morocco. The Whole Book of Psalms, with all the Marginal Readings, a Commentary and Notes, by Adam Clarke, LL.D. F.A.S. 4to. cloth. Cheltenham Lyrics, and other Poems, by Hal Harding. Utility of Latin discussed, for the Consideration of Parents. by Justin Brenan, Twenty-two Short Discourses on Scripture Passages, by Charles Hubbard. Historical Catechisms, by I. Watts, D.D. A Manual of Prayers, in Easy Language, by Rev. J. Topham, M.A., &c. The Christian Eclectic, by Charles Scott. Divines of the Church of England. Vol45, (Works of Sherlock), by the Rev. T. Hughes. Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M. No. 1. ia 37 Nos. A Defence of the Surinam Negro-English Version of the New Testament, by Wm. Greenfield. A Discourse on the Resurrection of the Body, by J. P. Dobson. The Duty of a Prompt and Complete Abolition of Colonial Slavery, by the Rev. S. C. Wilks, A.M. The Pleasures of Benevolence, a Poem. Anti-Slavery Reporter, Nos. 68 69. Sunday School Teacher's Magazine, No. 9. New Series. The Arrow and the Rose, with other Poems, by Wm. Kennedy. Ackerman's Juvenile Forget-Me-Not, for 1831. The Humourist, a Companion for the Christmas Fireside, by H. Harrison. The Gem, for 1831. Forget me Not, for 1831. Family Classical Library; Pindar and Anacreon. A Discourse upon National Dietetics, &c., by George Warren, Surgeon. LONDON: PRINTED AT THE CAXTON PRESS, BY HI. FISHER, SON, AND Co. Or the Archiepiscopate of York, the crosier has more than once been in the hands of royalty; though on some occasions it has been brandished by others, both against the coronet and the sceptre. In the hands of the present eminent prelate, it is a genuine symbol of that pastoral care, which he has manifested in promoting the best interests of those over whom Providence has placed him. The Hon. EDWARD VENABLES VERNON, LL. D., who is the eighty-third Archbishop of York, was born October 10, 1757. His Grace is the third son of George Venables, Lord Vernon, Baron of Kinderton in Cheshire; by Martha, sister of George Simon, Earl of Harcourt. In his twelfth year, he was sent to Westminster school. Thence he removed to Christ-church, Oxford, where he was admitted Student in 1775. In 1778, he was elected Fellow of All Souls' college, in that University.-In June 1781, he was ordained deacon by the Bishop of Oxford; and, in the October following, priest by the Bishop of Peterborough, on letters dimissory from the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. Immediately after which, he was instituted to the family living of Sudbury in the county of Derby. Perhaps the first step to his present eminent station was laid in 1782, when his late Majesty George III. appointed him his chaplain. In February, 1784, he married Anne, third daughter of George Granville Leveson, Marquis of Stafford; by Louisa Egerton, the only sister of the late Duke of Bridgewater. In 1785, he succeeded to a canonry in Christ-church, and shortly afterward, on the presentation of the Lord Chancellor Thurlow, to a stall in the cathedral of Gloucester. When Dr. Douglas, Bishop of Carlisle, was translated to Salisbury in 1791, Dr. Vernon was promoted to the vacant see, 120.-VOL X. [1828. which he filled for the space of sixteen years. This promotion virtually aided the interests of the celebrated Dr. Paley, though the circumstance is not stated by that eminent divine's biographers. In a Memoir of the late Rev. Dr. Zouch, prefixed to the edition of his works by the Ven. Archdeacon Wrangham, who has been from 1814 sole Examining Chaplain to the Archbishop, it is stated, that to this prelate the admirable writer in question was indebted, not only for a benefice in that diocese (the first, which his lordship had in his power to bestow), but also indirectly for his more valuable preferments -the rectory of Bishopwearmouth, and the sub-deanery of Lincoln. The patrons of these preferments acted less disinterestedly than the Bishop of Carlisle for they had the sagacious prudence to stipulate for the presenting to the benefices which Dr. Paley would vacate; though they had affluent patronage of their own in abundance, and the see of Carlisle has not much, under the most favourable circumstances, to bestow. It may be farther added, that the judgement and generosity thus exerted were honourable to both parties, as appreciating and rewarding the divine, to whom English theology is under such deep and complicated obligation. For it is only an occasional age, that produces a mind capable of adding a Hora Pauline to the evidences for the truth of Christianity. The descendents of the venerable Archdeacon of Carlisle have not been overlooked or neglected, as his son Edmund was presented by his Grace to the vicarage of Easingwold, his first option from the see of Chester. It is supposed to have been his late Majesty's intention to translate the subject of this Memoir from Carlisle to the see of Worcester, when Dr. Hurd was spending the remainder of his days in otio literato: but Dr. Markham, Archbishop of York, dying in 1807, Dr. Vernon was elevated to his present high station. Ever since the commencement of his archiepiscopal labours, they have been performed with so much dignity toward his clergy, that they look up to him more as a father than as a 3 |