public traffic in Great Britain and Ireland, during the year 1848; of whom, 9 passengers were killed and 128 injured from causes beyond their own control; and that 12 passengers were killed and 7 injured owing to their own misconduct or want of caution. That 13 servants of companies or contractors were killed and 32 injured from causes beyond their own control, and that 125 passengers were killed and 42 injured owing to their own negligence or want of caution. That 41 trespassers and other persous, neither passengers nor servants, were killed, and 10 injured by improperly crossing or standing on the railway. One person was run over through the misconduct of an engine-driver, and there was one suicide. During the first half of 1848, 26,330,402 passengers were conveyed on 4,357 miles of railway, and during the second half-year, on 5,007 miles, 31,630,292 passengers; total number of passengers conveyed in 1848, 57,960,784. From a recent return, it appears that the number of persons employed on 72 railways open for traffic on the 1st May, 1848, was 52,688; length of railway, 4,252; and the number of stations, 1,321. Of the 52,688 persons employed, 14,297 are labourers; 10,814 artificers; 7,362 porters; 4,391 platelayers; 4,360 clerks; 2,475 policemen; 1,809 assistant enginemen and firemen; 1,752 enginemen or drivers; 1,464 conductors or guards; 1,058 switchmen; 1,011 foremen; 401 gatekeepers ; 343 superintendents; 197 messengers; 197 miscellaneous employment; 141 wagoners; 125 store-keepers; 106 draughtsmen ; 95 engineers; 81 secretaries; 70 accountants; 48 cashiers; 32 breaksmen; 30 managers; 29 treasurers. There has been considerable fluctuation in the price of share and funded property within the month, arising from the unsettled state of the Continent, and the Hudson excitement. Prices, however, as will be seen by the annexed table, were nearly the same at the close of the month as they were at the beginning: May 1. May 24. 17 18 25 25 54 5 58 60 144 15 The unsettled state of France has occasioned the slight fall perceptible in the above within the last few days. OBITUARY NOTICES FOR MAY. MARIA EDGEWORTH. of the band, through a feeling of gratitude for some kindness which he had previously experienced from Mr. Edgeworth. Their return home, when the disturbances were at an end, as described by Miss Edgeworth, in her father's memoirs, shows the affection which subsisted between the landlord and his dependents. At Edgeworthstown, county of Longford, Ireland, on the 21st May, Miss EDGEWORTH, the celebrated Irish novelist. She was the daughter of Richard Lovell Edgeworth, by his first wife, Miss Elers, a young lady of Oxford, to whom he was married at Gretna Green, having eloped with her when at the University, Miss Edgeworth commenced her career as an authoress about before he was twenty years of age. Mr. Edgeworth was born in 1800, and, numerous and valuable as her productions are, these 1744, and died in 1817. He married four wives, of whom the were not the only service which she rendered to literature. Sir second and third were sisters. In his latter years he devoted Walter Scott has acknowledged that to her descriptions of Irish much of his time to mechanics and literature, and the improve-character and manners we are indebted, in a great measure, for ment of his estate. In conjunction with his daughter, Maria, he wrote a treatise on Practical Education. He was also the anthor of one on Professional Education, published in 1808, as well as some subsidiary works. The construction of railroads early formed the subject of his attention, and, as we mentioned in the sketch of Mr. George Stephenson (Obituary Notices for August in last September number of Tait), he received, in 1798, the gold medal of the Society of Arts for some railway models presented to them. In 1802, he published his "Essay on Rail-being passed in tranquillity at the family seat at Edgeworthstown; roads." He also contributed some papers to the Philosophical Transactions, including an essay on Spring and Wheel Carriages, and an account of a Telegraph which he invented, but never brought into use. His memoirs, partly written by himself, and partly by his daughter, were published in 1821. Pallasmore, the birth-place of Oliver Goldsmith, is on the property of the Edgeworths; and the author of the "Vicar of Wakefield" received part of his education at the school of Edgeworthstown. Maria Edgeworth was born in Oxfordshire, and was twelve years old before she was taken to Ireland. The family were involved in the troubles of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and were obliged to hurry from their house, it having been taken possession of by a party of rebels; but it was spared from pillage by one the "Waverley Novels." "The rich humour, pathetic tenderness, and admirable tact" of her Irish delineations, he declared, led him first to think that something might be attempted for his own country of the same kind with that which Miss Edgeworth so fortunately achieved for Ireland. Her works were also serviceable to the cause of education and social morality. She had long ceased to take an active part in life, or in that world of literature of which she was once so bright an ornament; her last years and the announcement of her death at so very recent a date must have startled many who, from her retirement, must have believed that that event took place some years ago. In her early literary efforts she was greatly assisted by the advice and sound practical suggestions of her father, to whom she was in the habit of submitting the first designs of her works. The famous "Essay on Irish Bulls," the joint production of her. self and her father, was published in 1801. Its subject was not fat or lean cattle, of a particular breed, but the illustration of those peculiar blunders of speech in which the natives of the Green Isle excel above all the nations of the earth. Her "Castle Rackrent" abounds in some of those admirable sketches of Irish life and manners, for which most of her tales and novels are so much dis tinguished. Her "Belinda," a novel of real life and ordinary characters, is also descriptive of some of the striking traits of the Irish character. In 1804 she published her "Popular Tales," in three volumes, and, two years afterwards, "Leonora," a novel in two volumes. In 1809 she issued three volumes of "Tales of Fashionable Life," of a more powerful and varied cast than any of her previous productions. Three other volumes of "Fashionable Tales" appeared in 1812, and fully sustained the high reputation which she had now attained. In 1814 her novel of Patronage," in four volumes, was published. Its object is to show the miseries resulting from a dependence on the great, and she paints the manners and characters of high life with her usual vigour and fidelity. In 1817 appeared two tales named "Harrington" and "Ormond;" the intention of the first of these being the removal of the prejudices entertained by many against the Jews. The other is an Irish story. In 1522 Miss Edgeworth published a work of a different kind, namely, "Rosamond," a Sequel to Early Lessons," which had been previously published, being tales for the young. In 1825 she issued four volumes of similar tales, under the title of "Harriet and Lucy," being a continuation of that course of moral instruction for youthful readers on which she had so ably and so successfully entered, and in which she had so few predecessors or equals. 66 On the publication of "Waverley," in 1814, Sir Walter Scott desired Mr. James Ballantyne to send her an early copy, inscribed from the Author." Miss Edgeworth thanked the then unknown novelist, through Mr. Ballantyne, for the gift. Mr. Ballantyne's reply, written at Scott's request, has been preserved in Lockhart's life of Sir Walter. It is dated 11th November, 1814; and, after expressing how very elevated was the admiration entertained by the Author of "Waverley" for the genius of Miss Edgeworth, the following remark of Sir Walter is quoted, to show the influence which her writings had on his mind:---" If I could but hit," he often remarked, "Miss Edgeworth's wonderful power of vivifying all her persons, and making them live as beings in your mind, I should not be afraid." Sir Walter himself frequently corresponded with Miss Edgeworth. In a letter to her from him, dated 24th April, 1822, he thus gives his opinion of one of her tales of fashionable life, which had excited some sensation at the time of its publication:-"You have never got half the praise "Vivian' ought to have procured you. The reason is, that the class from which the excellent portrait was drawn feel the resemblance too painfully to thank the author for it; and I do not believe the common readers understand it in the least. I, who (thank God) am neither great man nor politician, have lived enough among them to recognise the truth and nature of the painting, and am no way implicated in the satire." 6 In the summer of 1825, Sir Walter Scott, on his tour through Ireland, returned Miss Edgeworth's visit, and was received by her with great distinction and hospitality, at Edgeworthstown, where he and his party remained a week. She, and her sister Harriet, and her brother William, then joined Sir Walter's party for the rest of their Irish travels. Of her facility in writing, Sir Walter gives the following testimony, in a letter to Joanna Baillie, dated from Abbotsford, October 12th, 1825:-"I have not the pen," he says, "of our friend Maria Edgeworth, who writes all the while she laughs, talks, eats, and drinks-and I believe, though I do not pretend to be so far in the secret, all the time she sleeps too. She has good luck in having a pen which walks at once so unweariedly and so well." Miss Edgeworth's last work of fiction, a novel entitled "Helen," in three volumes, appeared in 1834. It is not inferior to any of her other works. Besides those already mentioned, she also wrote "The Modern Griselda," " Frank,” “Garry Owen,” “ Lanrent le Paresseux," "Little Plays for Young People,” “Moral Tales," "Parent's Assistant," "Patronage and Comic Dramas," &c. For many years, indeed, literary composition formed the chief business of her life. Originality and fertility of invention, and a power of depicting Irish manners, unequalled among modern authors, are her chief characteristics as a novelist. She especially shone, however, in those delightful stories, written in so beautifully simple a style, in which the youthful mind is made first to comprehend its part in the great drama of social life. In private life, Miss Edgeworth was highly beloved and respected by all who knew her; and in her intercourse with society, she is described as having been most unaffected and agreeable. She was born about the year 1766, and must, therefore, have been about eighty-three years of age at the time of her death. In LIEUT. GENERAL SIR JASPER NICOLLS, K.C.B. AT Goodrest Lodge, his seat near Reading, on the 4th May, Lieut. General Sir JASPER NICOLLS, K.C.B. He entered the army as ensign in the 45th foot, in 1793. He commanded a company under Lord Lake in the Mahratta war, and was present at the battle of Argaum, and at the siege and storming of Gawil ghur. In 1805, Major Nicolls joined Lord Cathcart's army in Hanover. In the following year, he proceeded with the expedi tion under General Crawford to South America, and distinguished himself at the assault on Buenos Ayres, in July, 1807. 1808, he embarked for Spain, and for his services as lieutenantcolouel in command of the 2d battalion of the 14th Foot at the battle of Corunna, in January, 1809, he received a medal. Soon after, he accompanied the expedition to Walcheren. Subsequently, he served many years in the East Indies, and during the Nepaul war he commanded the force which conquered the province of Kumawn in April, 1815. He afterwards commanded a brigade in the Pindarree war. At the siege of Bhurtpore, in 1825, MajorGeneral Nicolls commanded the 2d Infantry division, which division carried the left breach, January 18, 1826. For this eminent service he was the same year nominated a Knight Commander of the Bath. In 1833, he became colonel of the 93d foot. In 1840, he was removed to the colonelcy of the 38th Foot, and in 1843, to that of the 5th Fusiliers. He was commander-in-chief in the East Indies from 1839 to 1843, and held the local rank of general there. GENERAL SIR ROBERT WILSON. In 1823, Miss Edgeworth visited Edinburgh with two of her sisters, Harriet and Sophia. After spending a few weeks in the Scottish capital, and making a tour into the Highlands, they| proceeded to Abbotsford, on a visit to Sir Walter Scott, with whom they remained a fortnight. Mr. Lockhart says, "The next month-August, 1823-was one of the happiest in Scott's life. Never did I see a brighter day at Abbotsford than that on which Miss Edgeworth first arrived there; never can I forget her look and accent when she was received by him at his archway, and exclaimed, Everything about you is exactly what one ought to have had wit enough to dream!' The weather was beautiful, and the edifice, and its appurtenances, were all but complete; and day after day, so long as she could remain, her host had always some new plan of gaiety. One day there was fishing on the Cauldshields Loch, and a dinner on the heathy bank. Another, the whole party feasted by Thomas the Rhymer's Waterfall in the glen; and the stone on which Maria that day sat was ever afterwards called Edgeworth's stone." The following is Sir Wal- vices. In 1794 he joined the army of the Duke of York in ter's description of her, in a letter to Joanna Baillie:-"We saw,|| you will readily suppose, a great deal of Miss Edgeworth, and two very nice girls, her younger sisters. It is scarcely possible to say more of this very remarkable person, than that she not only completely answered, but exceeded, the expectations which I had formed. I am particularly pleased with the naireté and good-In 1799 he served in Holland, and in 1801 in Egypt. He was humoured ardour of mind which she unites with such formidable powers of acute observation. In external appearance she is quite the fairy of our nursery tale, 'the Whippity Stowrie,' if you remember such a sprite, who came flying through the window to work all sorts of marvels. I will never believe but what she has a wand in her pocket, and pulls it out to conjure a little before she begins to those very striking pictures of manners." Flanders, as a volunteer. Soon after he obtained a coronetey in the 15th Dragoons; and on the 24th April of the same year, he was one of the eight officers who, with a detachment of dragoons, saved the Emperor of Germany from the French cavalry, for which he was created a Knight of the Order of Maria Theresa. at the capture of the Cape of Good Hope. In 1806, he accom panied Lord Hutchinson to the continent on a secret mission, and was eminently distinguished at the battle of Barros. He raised and organised the Lusitanian Legion, with which corps he rendered essential service to our army in the Peninsular war. Ho was subsequently the British Commissioner with the Russian army during Napoleon's campaign of 1812; and it was he who saved the Russians against a secret plot for putting them into the hands of the French. He served in the principal actions up to the close of the war. He was unmarried. He received the honour of knighthood twice--first, from George IV., for his naval services; and, secondly, from William IV., on receiving the Guelphic Order. Rear-Admiral of the White. He was in the receipt of pensions for wounds amounting to £550 per annum, in addition to his half-pay, and was also on the "good service" pension list. He In December, 1815, Sir Robert Wilson, with Messrs. Bruce had been engaged in upwards of fifty sharp encounters with the and Hutchinson, was instrumental in the escape from Paris of Lava- enemy. When a lieutenant of the Royal George, he was in a lette, with whom he passed the barriers in a cabriolet. With his two boat of that ship, which miraculously escaped destruction in savEnglish friends, he was afterwards arrested, and tried by the Couring the lives of a part of the crew of the Ajax, while on fire. Royale, and condemned to a short imprisonment. He was dismissed from the army in 1821, for his conduct at the funeral of Queen Caroline, but a general subscription was entered into to indemnify him. He was subsequently restored to the rank of lieutenaut-general, and became a general in November, 1841. In 1835 he was appointed Colonel of the 15th Dragoons. He was Governor of Gibraltar from 1842 to 1818. In 1814 he was nominated a Commander of the Order of Maria Theresa, and, in 1813, a Knight of St. George, by the Emperor Alexander of Russia, for his services during the campaigns of 1812-13. In 1811 he had been made a Commander of the Tower and Sword, for his services during the Peninsular war. In 1814 he received the Red Eagle of Prussia, and the First Class of St. Anne of Russia. These orders were all resumed by their respective sovereigns in 1821. In 1818 Sir Robert Wilson was first elected M.P. for Southwark, and sat till 1831. He was the author of a " Historical Account of the British Expedition to Egypt," 1802; "An Inquiry into the Present State of the British Army," 1804; "An Account of the Campaigns in Poland, and Remarks on the Russian Army;" "Sketch of the Military and Political Power of Russia," &c. His death took place somewhat suddenly, having been out walking the day before. GENERAL THE HON. SIR EDWARD PAGET, G. C. B. He was a younger brother of Field-Marshal the Marquis of Anglesey, being the third son of the first Earl of Uxbridge, by the eldest daughter of the Very Rev. Arthur Champagné, Dean of Clonmacnoise, Ireland. He was born in 1775; entered the army as cornet and sub-lieutenant, March, 1792; became captain the following December-major, Nov. 1793-and lieutenant-colonel, in 1794, in which year he served in the campaign in Flanders and Holland. He was at Lord St. Vincent's action of February 14th, 1797; became colonel in 1798; and was in the actions of the 8th, 13th, and 21st March, in Egypt, in the latter of which he was wounded. He was also, at the investment of Cairo and Alexandria. He became major-general in January, 1505; and in the action at Oporto, 12th May, 1809, he lost his left arm. He was also, as well as his noble and gallant brother, in the Corunna retreat, and received a medal for his services on that occasion. He became a lieutenant-general, June 4th, 1811. In 1812 he was nominated a Knight Grand Cross of the Tower and Sword, for his services in the Peninsular war; the same year, he was made Knight Grand Cross of the Bath. In December, 1815, he was appointed colonel of the 28th; and in May, 1825, he obtained the rank of general. In 1837 he was appointed governor of Chelsea Hospital. Sir Edward married first in May, 1804, Frances, fourth daughter of William, first Lord Bagot, by whom, who died May 30th, 1806, he had a son, the Rev. Francis Edward, Rector of Elford, county of Stafford; and, secondly, in 1815, Harriet, fourth daughter of George, third Earl of Dartmouth, by whom he had three sons and five daughters. Sir Edward Paget was the fourth in seniority of the generals of the army. SIR EDWARD KNATCHBULL, BARONET. At his residence, Mersham Hatch, in the county of Kent, on the 24th May, the Right Hon. Sir EDWARD KNATCHBULL, Baronet, in his 68th year. He was born in 1781, and was the only son of the eighth Baronet by his first wife, the daughter and co-heir of William Weston Hugeson, Esq., of Provenders, Kent. He succeeded his father in 1819. At one period Sir Edward's name, as a public man, was more prominent than it has been of late years, he having been Paymaster-General of the Forces from December, 1834, till April, 1835, and from September, 1841, to February, 1845. He represented the county of Kent in Parliament, from October, 1819, to April, 1831, and sat for East Kent from January, 1833, to February, 1845, when he retired from Parliament. He was a Conservative in politics, and a favourable specimen of the country gentleman. Sir Edward was twice married. His first wife was the daughter of the late Sir John Honywood, Bart., by whom he had a son, Norton Joseph, who succeeds him. She died in 1814, and in 1820 he took, for his second wife, the eldest daughter of Edward Knight, Esq., of Godmersham Park, Kent. In 1834, he was made a Privy Councillor. He was also a deputy lieutenant of Kent. The baronetcy was created in 1641. The first Baronet was Sheriff of London, and represented Kent in Parliament, in the time of Charles I. The family have held Mersham Hatch since the second year of King Henry II. ADMIRAL SIR ADAM DRUMMOND. At London, on the 3d May, Admiral Sir ADAM DRUMMOND, K.C.H., of Megginch, Perthshire, at the advanced age of seventyeight. He was the third son of Colin Drummond, Esq., by the daughter of Robert Oliphant, Esq., of Rossie, in the county of Perth, and was the elder brother of General Sir Gordon Drummond. He was born in 1770, and entered the navy on the 2d of March, 1780. He became a lieutenant in 1795, a commander in 1798, a captain in 1799, a rear-admiral in 1830, and a viceadmiral in 1837. He attained the rank of Admiral of the Blue in 1848. He was midshipman of the Raisonnable at Rodney's relief of Gibraltar, and in the subsequent action in 1780. He also served as lieutenant in Duncan's celebrated victory of Camperdown. In 1798 and 1799 he commanded the Bull Dog at Alexandria and the Bay of Naples. He assisted at the capture of the San Leon in 1798, and at the bombardment of Alexandria in 1799. In 1808 he captured Le Rennair, a French privateer, off the Irish coast. He married, in 1801, the Lady Charlotte Murray, eldest daughter of John, fourth Duke of Athol, the widow of Sir John Menzies, Bart. She died in 1832. Admiral Drummond was nominated a Knight Commander of the Order of the Guelphs of Hanover, on the 1st of January, 1837. The family to which he belonged are descended from Sir Malcolm Drummond, who was Lord of Concraig, in the time of King David of Scotland. THE BISHOP OF LIMERICK. SIR NESBIT J. WILLOUGHBY, K.C.H. At London, on the 19th May, Sir NESBIT JOSIAH WILLOUGHBY, K.C.H. and C.B., Rear-Admiral of the White. He At Birmingham, on the 3d of May, the Hon. and Right Rev. was the son of Robert Willoughby, Esq., of Apsley House, Not- EDMUND KNOX, D.D., Lord Bishop of Limerick, in the 77th tingham, of the family of Lord Middleton, by his second wife, year of his age. He had arrived at that town on his way to the daughter of James Bruce, Esq., of Wester Kinloch, grand-Ireland, suffering at the time from inflammation of the lungs, daughter of Sir Edward Gibson, Baronet, and maternally des- caused by cold. Finding himself unable to prosecute his jourcended from the first Earl of Lauderdale. He was born in 1777, ney, medical advice was procured, but without effect. He was and entered the navy in 1790. He became a lieutenant in 1803, the seventh son of the first Viscount Northland, by a daughand a captain in 1810. He served with great distinction during|ter of the first Lord Knapton, and brother to the first Earl of the late war. He was nominated a Commander of the Bath on the 4th of June, 1815, and a Knight Commander of the Guelphic Order of Hanover, on the 17th of January, 1832. In 1841, he was appointed naval aide-camp to the Queen. He became RearAdmiral of the Blue in 1817, and a short time before his death Ranfurly. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, consccrated Bishop of Killaloe in 1831, and translated to the See of Limerick in 1834. He married, in 1796, the fourth daughter of Thomas Hesketh, Esq., but his lady died in 1837. His lordship's remains were removed to Rostrevor in Ireland. THE DUKE OF ST. ALBANS. the Times. He was also an occasional contributor of leading articles to the same journal. Mr. Twiss was afterwards appointed Vice-chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a situation which he held til his death. He was the author of "The Life of Lord Eldon," one of the best specimens of biography which we possess, some of the most remarkable political transactions of the century. Que of his daughters was married to the late Mr. Francis Bacon, sub-editor of the Times, and after his death she became the wife of Mr. John Delane, who succeeded the late Mr. Thomas Barnes as editor of that paper. At his residence in Piccadilly, London, on the 26th May, WILLIAM AUBREY DE VERE BEAUCLERK, ninth Duke of St. Albans. He was the son of the eighth Duke by his second wife, the only daughter of John Nelthorpe, E., of Little Grimsby House, Lincolnshire. He was born in 1801, and suc-and interesting as a collection of curious anecdotes, relating to ceeded his father in 1825. He married first, in 1827, the celebrated Mrs. Coutts, "who began life," says Mr. Lockhart, in describing her visit to Sir Walter Scott, at Abbotsford, in 1825, "as Miss Harriet Mellon, a comic actress in a provincial troop, and died Duchess of St. Albans." She was the widow of Thomas Coutts, Esq., the first English banker of his time, who bequeathed to her all his enormous wealth. She died in 1837, and the Duke married, secondly, in 1839, the daughter of the late General Joseph Gubbins, of Stoneham, Hants, and of Kilrush, county of Limerick. By his second Duchess he had two sons, and is succeeded by his eldest, William Amelins, the present Duke, born in 1840. His Grace was hereditary Grand Falconer, and hereditary Registrar to the Court of Chancery. THE EARL OF MAYO. MR. SAMUEL MAUNDER. Ar London, on the 30th April, Mr. SAMUEL MAUNDER, author of various well-known useful publications. He was the brother-in-law of William Pinnock, celebrated for his series of elementary books of education. In the preparation of these, Maunder rendered him the most valuable assistance; in fact, Pinnock's Catechisms, and the works especially of a historical kind, were almost entirely compiled by him. He was afterwards chiefly occupied in getting up those convenient volumes of reference which Messrs. Longman and Co. have from time to time Treasury of Useful Knowledge, of History, of Biography, of Natural History; Maunder's Scientific and Literary Treasury, Maunder's Universal Class Book, &c. The department of literature in which he was engaged is a most laborious one, that of compressing, as it were, a vast amount of knowledge into the smallest space, with a due regard to its correctness and the necessary and proper conveyance of information. In this department he was a master workman, and his publications will be found useful, at all times and in all places, to old and young, and to the learned as well as to the ignorant. At his residence, Bursted Lodge, near Bognor, on the 23d May, JOHN BOURKE, fourth Earl of Mayo, in his 84th year.published, under the name of "Treasuries," such as Maunder's He was the son of the third earl, Archbishop of Tuam, by the only daughter of Sir Richard Meade, Baronet, sister of the first Earl of Clanwilliam, and was born 18th June, 1766. He succeeded his father in 1794. In 1792 he married the fourth daughter of William Mackworth Praed, Esq., of Bitton House, Devonshire. The Countess died in 1813. In 1810 he was made a Privy Councillor; and, in 1816, was elected a representative Peer of Ireland. He was Colonel of the Kildare Militia; also, a Doctor of Civil Law, and, since 1819, a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Guelphs of Hanover. He filled the situation of Chairman of Committees in the Irish House of Peers, and was in receipt of a large pension since the Union. By his death a vacancy occurs in the Irish Representative Peerage. The late Earl is succeeded in his title and estates by his nephew, Robert Bourke, Esq., of Hoyes, in the County of Meath, son of the late Bishop of Waterford. MR. HORACE TWISS. At London, suddenly, from a complaint of the heart, on the 4th of May, HORACE TWISS, Esq., a gentleman well known for many years in the literary as well as the political circles of the metropolis. He attended a meeting of the Rock Life Assurance Company, and was in the very act of addressing the chairman when his death took place. Mr. Twiss's father was a highly accomplished and learned person. His mother was a sister of John Philip Kemble and Mrs. Siddons. After receiving an excellent education, he was placed for two or three years in an attorney's office. He then became a member of the Inner Temple, and in due time was called to the bar. He travelled the Oxford circuit for some years, and became one of its distinguished leaders; but during the latter period of his professional career he attached himself exclusively to the equity courts. In his younger days he got a name among the wits of the day; and in Lord Byron's journal he is mentioned once or twice. For many years he sat in parliament as member for Wootton Basset. On that borough being disfranchised by the Reform Bill, he succeeded in getting returned for Bridport, but only for one parliameut. He was an eloquent speaker, and on several occasions he made powerful and effective speeches. On the formation of the Duke of Wellington's administration in 1828, Mr. Twiss was appointed Under Secretary for the Colonies. He subsequently devoted his talents to the press. He was the originator of the plan, now generally adopted in the morning papers, of giving a summary of the speeches in the Houses of Parliament, in addition to the reports, and for many years he ably supplied the House of Commons summary for WILLIAM NICHOLSON, THE GALLOWAY POET. At Kildarroch, Borgue, on the 16th May, WILLIAM NICHOL SON, a minor poet of Galloway, aged 67. The Dumfries Courier states that "in the early part of his career, and, indeed, for a number of years afterwards, the deceased was as well known in Galloway (his native Stewartry, especially), as its more landmarking objects-woods, mansions, coasts, harbours, hills, valleys, steeples, and streams." It appears that he combined the occupations of trader and wandering minstrel, and that he played upon the Irish bagpipes, which ensured him a welcome wherever he went. He was the author of a volume of poeins, which reached a second edition, published in Dumfries, with a memoir of his life. A portion of his poems had been revised by the Ettrick Shepherd. The principal piece in his volume was entitled "The Country Lass." His most celebrated production is "The Brownie of Blednoch." ROBERT VERNON, ESQ. At London, on the 22d of May, ROBERT VERNON, Esq. of Ardington House, Berks, in his 75th year. This gentleman was known for many years past, as a liberal patron of art and artists, and has acquired a lasting name to himself by his munificent gift to the nation, of the "Vernon Gallery," a collection of pictures, the works of modern British artists, on which he is said to have expended at least £150,000. Mr. Vernon, we believe, was by trade a dealer in horses, and by his integrity, his prudence, and his devotedness to business, amassed a large fortune. He was a man of a benevolent and enlarged mind, ever ready to assist struggling talent, and to befriend the man of genius. Besides the money he spent in the purchase of paintings-generally from the artists themselves, and not from dealers--he expended large sums in public and private charity, and took both pride and pleasure in searching out and fostering unfriended merit, wherever it could be found. PRINTED BY GEORGE TROUP, 29, DUNLOP STREET, GLASGOW. TAIT'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. JULY, 1849. SCOTCH BILLS AND SCOTCH REPRESENTATION. Commons is becoming yearly more apparent. The treatment of the country is odious, and it is of more consequence to the Government that the people begin to feel it in that light. Scotch measures are never considered in the House of Commons before midnight, and it were better if they were never considered in the House of Peers, at any hour of day or night. The Peers have done nothing regarding Scotland acceptable to the majority of the people for many years past, notwithstanding the asseverations of Lords Brougham and Campbell on the subject, whose avowed acquaintance with our interests transcends that of most people resident within the country. The circumstance is more curious from the fact that the Scotch peers really display more genius than their fellow-labourers in the Commons. The surprising revelations by Lords Brougham and Campbell on Scotch affairs take the breath from the conscientious reader in this country. Take the THE success of Mr. Hume's motion for the reform ||-one, if we may not have more, in the House of of the House of Commons would increase the representation of Scotland by 50 per cent., and men do say in Scotland that thereby the mortal dulness of the Commons would be increased by four per cent. The Scotch representation is every way de ficient-first, in numbers, which the Scotch cannot help; but, second, in talents, which they might endeavour to amend. By some exertion, fifty-two less efficient representatives might be found in Parlia ment than the gentlemen sent up from Scotland, but an intimate knowledge of the House would be necessary in any man who undertook to find them. The reason for this singular fact may be difficult to discover, but some cause will exist for the most intelligent portion of the empire choosing to be represented by the least active, useful, and able, section of the House. The circumstance does not justify the unfair apportionment of the representation. We should not be deprived of our undoubted || space in Parliament, even if we are pleased to occupy the Scotch seats with lead. Entitled to seventy-case of the Marriage Bill as an example. Lord six or eighty seats, we should have them, even if we be obliged to send such Lord Broughams to the House, as those that were cunningly imported at New York, by a dealer in the heaviest, and the most murderous of the viler metals. The merchant knew that our American brethren, who protect themselves to the chin against our manufactures, had with a love of art more commendable than their recent assaults on Mr. Macready, and slaughter of free-born Americans, by way of proving the sterling nature of Mr. Forrest's representation of Othello agreed to admit works of art free of duty. Acting on a fortunate idea, he determined to turn Lord Brougham into money-to coin his lordship's character-a feat that nobody else, nct excepting the learned lord, could accomplish-and so he had a few hundred statues of his lordship cast in lead, after the model of Punch. The material in that form defied the Custom-house officials; and the Broughams passed free into the furnace, for no United States law prevented the immolation of statues in the smelting-pot, when they would not sell without its intervention. Let us have our eighty seats in the House of Commons, or one hundred if we deserve them; and the spaces can be filled by statues of past genius done in lead. They will not serve us worse than our present representation. The necessity of a voice for Scotland VOL. XVI.-NO. CLXXXVII, Brougham complains that marriage is made easy in Scotland, and he wants to make it difficult. Lord Brougham finds marriage, he says, scandalously easy, and he will finish by rendering seduction safer. At the very moment when he remonstrates against the facility of marriages, he interposes a "caveat" to credulity in his statements, by adding that many people in Scotland know not whether they be or be not married; and multitudes more have reasonable doubts of their legitimacy. We never met a married couple-or two persons, male and femalein search of an answer to the question, Are we married? We venture to say, that nobody in Scotland ever witnessed a phenomenon of that kind. We are assured that there are not twenty-four persons in the kingdom who have the slightest doubt on the subject. The assertion is as baseless as any other assertion ever made in the House of Peers. It is merely a statement without the slightest foundation-without the filmiest shade or phantom of truth in it-utterly, entirely, and indefensibly untrue. The matter of legitimacy is in the same position, of course, because Lord Brougham holds merely that there have been many hasty marriages-ceremonies of dubious force-and that their offspring of indistinct status in the world are a legion. The first statement being untrue, the second is necessarily erroneous; and we only won 2 K |
