principle advised by Dr. Benjamin Franklin: the very fame philofopher, who, living under the protection of our mild government, was fecretly playing the incendiary, and too fuccefsfully inflaming the minds of our fellow-fubjects in America, till the great explofion happened, which for ever difunited us from our once happy colonifts. On May 15th, 1777, the inefficacy of his pointed conductors was evinced. Lightning ftruck off feveral pieces of ftone and brick from the coping of the Board Houfe, which ftands at a small diftance from the magazines; neither the conductor on this houfe, or any of the others, acted; but Providence directed the ftroke to that alone: the mifchief was very triRing. Mr. B. Wilfon had very ably diffented against the method propofed by Dr. Franklin; but the evil genius of the wily philofopher stood victorious; and our capital narrowly escaped fubverfion*. At prefent, these important magazines are made as fafe as human wisdom can contrive. The house in queftion is a handsome plain build ing, and is called the Board House, from the ufe made occafionally of it by the Board of Ordnance. It commands a fine view up and down the river, and the rich gentle range of hills in the county of Kent." Vol. i. p. 42. of time would admit to ward off the tremendous blow. He was attended by Sir Edward Spragge with a train of gallant officers, and a multitude of noble volunteers. He funk feveral fhips in the channel of the river, flung a chain across the narroweft part, and placed behind it three great men of war, which had been the fruits of his valour, taken from the Dutch. At firft the intrepid Monk threw himself on board thefe fhips, with three hundred young gentlemen volunteers with pikes in their hands; but being dif fuaded by his friends from so desperate and useless a poft, he came on shore, otherwife he and his brave companions would have in a very small space been devoted to the flames. "The Dutch were then approaching very faft, with all the advantages of wind and tide. With a prefs of fail they paffed amidst the funk fhips, and broke through the chain. They hefitated about the laft, and probably might have defifted, had not one Captain Brackel, at the time confined on board one of their fhips for certain misbehaviour, offered to lead the way, and atone for his past misconduct. He performed his engagement; and the three fhips, the Unity, the Matthias, and Charles V. were in a moment in one tremendous blaze. On the thirteenth they advanced as high as Upnor Caftle, with fix men of war and five Fire-fhips; but met with fo warm a reception from Major Scott, commandant in the caftle, and Sir Edward Spragge, who directed the batteries on the oppofite fhore, that the Dutch fuffered great damage in their fhips, and lofs of men. But, in their return, they burnt the Loyal London, the Great James, and the Royal Oak. A Douglas, captain of the laft, in the confufion of the day, had received no directions to retire. 'It never fhall be faid,' fays he, that a Douglas quit "CHARLES II. who was fond of the navy, made great additions to the yard (Chatham), and here laid up our principal fhips. In June 1667, we fuffered here an infult of the most mortifying nature. On the 7th of that month, De Ruyter appeared fuddenly at the mouth of the Thames, with feventy fail of fhips. He detached his Vice-admiral Van Ghent with feventeen of the lighter ships and eight fire fhips, attacked and took the fort atted his poft without orders!' fo con Sheernefs, and then made difpofitions to proceed up the river. Government took the alarm, and instantly sent the Duke of Albemarle to Chatham, who, with his ufual courage and activity, affembled a large body of troops, and took every measure which the shortnefs tinued on board, and fell a glorious "A reafon was affigned for this difafter; for, on infpection, it was found to be owing to a want of construction in the metallic conductor. See Phil, Tranf. vol. lxviii. p. 232.” the the Royal Charles in triumph. In their return, two of their fhips were run on fhore in the Medway, and deftroyed; and this, with the eight fire-fhips burnt in the action, a hundred and fifty men killed, was all the lofs the Dutch hiftorians pretend they received. Much of ours was owing to the infamous conduct of Commiffioner Pet, and the other civil officers, who neglected every order which was given them, and who carried away every boat to fecure their own effects, when the intrepid Monk was in want of them for the moft important purpofes. London was ftruck with fuch a panic, that it hourly expected the enemy to burn it to the ground. Some fhips were funk at Woolwich, and fome at Blackwall, and batteries erected on various parts of the river. -Great cenfure fell on the government; who had rafhly laid up the capital fhips on entering into a treaty with the Dutch, who had even then refufed a fufpenfion of arms. Still, it was faid, more mischief might have been done; for, had the enemy acted with becoming vigour, neither the dock at Chatham, nor the remainder of our navy, could have escaped destruction." Vol. i, p. 68. FEVERSHAM SINGULAR ROYAL ENTERTAINMENTS. "WHEN the Emperor Charles V. and the King's Highnefs Henry VIII. called here in 1522, in their way to London, the expenfe was 11. 35. 3d. and at the faine time for a gallon of wine to the archbishop, one fhilling. "In the records of the town are, befides, the following curious articles: 1515, Paid for brede and wine, £. s. d. given to the Queen of France 1518. To entertain my Lord Chief Juftice 1519. For fpiced brede and wine, to the Lord O 7 4 99 5 4 655 0 189 "This laft article evinces the character of Wolfey, who is treated here with an expenfe and luxury proportion ably fuperior to that of his royal mafter and miftrefs. The corporation knew his pride, and would not provoke his revenge by the least symptom of difre, fpect," Vol. i. p. 95. RECULVER MONASTERY. "ABOUT two hundred and twenty. fix years after the desertion of Britain by the Romans, a very different race of people poffeffed themselves of the walls of Reculver. Egbert, King of Kent, in 669, prefented the place to Bafla, a nobleman of his court, at that time in holy orders. Here he founded a monastery, which continued till the year 949, when it was annexed by King Edred to Chrift Church in Canterbury. The church is far from being coeval, the windows and doors being Gothic, and the door-cafe made of Caen ftone, which was not imported till after the conqueft. Ethelbert, the fifth King of Kent, had a palace here. The tradition of his being interred on this spot is erroneous; for, according to Bede, he died in 613, and was buried in St. Paul's, in London. In his time happened the great event of the landing of St. Auguftine on the east part of the Isle of Thanet, in 596. He was fent by Pope Gregory the Great, to preach the gospel to the pagan Saxons. The reafon which induced his Holiness to fend Auguftine is pleasantly related by the author of the Life of Gregory, being a ftring of diverting puns. Our faint landed with forty companions, and was graciously received by Ethel bert in the open air. The king did not know but that they might have been magicians; and it is notorious that the force of magic lofes much of its power fub dio. But they foon undeceived the monarch. Auguftine quickly established himself most effectually: the monaftic life got firm footing; nor was it expelled but by the powerful charms of the tyrant of the fixteenth century." Vol. i. p. 100. RICHBOROUGH. "RUTUPIE ftood in a harbour call ed by the fame name, Portus Rutupas, and Portus Rutupienfis, the best known to the Romans of any, and the first they were acquainted with; for it is certain Cæfar landed within its limits, As it lay most convenient to the Por tus tus ftius and Gefforiacum, the common ports of France for påffing and repaffing between the two kingdoms, it was conftantly frequented, even to the last years of the Roman empire in Britain. Lupicinus, master of arms, failed here in the year 360, and feems to have gone directly through the Wantfum in his way to London. Theodofius landed here, in 364, from Boulogne. Defertur Ruitupias fta ⚫tionem in adverfo tranquillam.' No British port has been fo greatly celebrated. Poets, hiftorians, and geographers unite in its praise, or take notice of it as an important place. Among the firft are Lucan, Juvenal, and Aufonius; Tacitus, Ammianus Marcellinus, and Orofius, among the hiftorians; Ptolemy, Antoninus, and several other among the geographers and authors of itineraries. I muft quote Juvenal to prove the great reputation the Rutupian oyfters held at Rome. They were exported to that luxurious city, notwithstanding they boafted much of their Lucrine oyfters. Circæis nata forent, an yawl was hoifted out, and twenty-two men and boys crowded into it; the long-boat remained on board on fire. In this fituation, without clothes, provifion, or compafs, at the distance of a hundred and twenty leagues from the nearest land, they experienced all the miferies of cold, hunger, and thirst. It was propofed to fling into the fea the two boys who had occafioned the miffortune: this was overruled. It was then propofed to caft lots, and give all an equal chance of being faved, by lightening the boat, which lay deep in the water: this was oppofed, and foon became unneceffary, by the death of five of the people raving mad. Hunger grew now irrefiftible. Mr. Scrimfour, the furgeon, propofed the eating the bodies of the dead, and drinking their blood: he made the firft effay, and turned afide his head and wept. They could only relish the hearts, of which they ate three. They cut the throats of their dead companions as foon as life was departed, and found themfelves refreshed and invigorated by this unnatural beverage. By the twelfth 'Lucrinum ad Saxum, Rutupinove day the number was reduced to twelve; edita fundo 'Oftrea.' "The Romans had long before invented the vivaria, or oyster-beds, and doubtlessly introduced them here as they did their other luxuries, that they !might not be disappointed of fo delicate a repaft." Vol. i. p. 119. SANDWICH DISTRESS OF A SHIP'S CREW. "IN Mr. Boys's parlour I obferved some small pictures of a fhip in diftrefs: he related to me the fubject, and furnished me with the following melancholy epifode:-In 1727 his father was second mate in the Saxborough Galley, a fine fhip of thirty-two guns, fitted out by the South Sea Company, under the Affento contract, and commanded by Captain Kellaway. Her crew, including two paffengers, confifted of thirtynine. On June 25, in their way from Jamaica to England, the fhip took fire by the careless application of a candle to a puncheon of rum. The head was heard to burft off with the explofion of a cannon, and the flames feized her without hopes of remedy: the a raging fea added to their miferies: a dead duck, in a putrid ftate, came within their reach, and was eaten as the greatest delicacy. On July 7th defpair feized them, and they lay down to die. By accident Mr. Boys raised himself and faw land: on communicating the news to the furvivors they were instantly reanimated, and took to their oars. They perceived fome fhallops in with the land, and found themfelves on the coafts of Newfoundland. They were taken on shore and treated with the utmoft humanity by Captain Le Cras, of Guernsey, admiral of the harbour. Mr. Boys, with true piety, kept the day of his deliverance ever after as a faft.-The reft of his life was bleffed with profperity. He had begun his career in his Majefty's fervice: accident flung him into that in which he experienced fo great a calamity. He returned again into the royal navy, rofe to the poft of captain, and hoifted the broad pendant as commander in chief of his Majefty's fhips and veffels in the Thames, Medway, and Nore. length he finished his honourable days lieutenant-governor of Greenwich Hofpital, in March 4th, 1774, aged 74. It "Sat. IV. 1. 120." At is remarkable that two of his fellowfufferers lived to a very great age. Mr. Scrimfour, the furgeon, attained that of eighty; and George Mould, a feaman, being brought into Greenwich Hofpital by the lieutenant-governor, died there at the age of about eightytwo." Vol. i. p. 130. (To be continued.) XIV. Mrs. Piozzi's Retrospection. (Continued from p. 6.) THIRTEENTH CENTURY TION OF LEARNING-ITALY, ENG- roared by inventive luxurious artifice at foot of his fplendid throne. True; but l'Hiftoire de la Conquête par Geoffroy de Villebardouin, one of the higheft noblemen in France, and accustomed to all the magnificence which our western hemifphere could fhow; bears teftimony to that admiration, which even Frenchmen felt, and Italians haftened to prove, by carrying thence to their own country, thofe arts of life which had in all ages found the foil of Florence and of Rome propitious. Innocent III. encouraged excellence in others, and in himfelf united various RESTORA- qualities, which cannot without difficulty inhabit the fame heart: but fuch was his peculiar care for juftice, that, by frequent recitation, he learned to repeat over the pretenfions of contending claimants, that he might be enabled to judge with perfect equity between them. The times were indeed paft, when perfons aggrieved ran to the fovereign's or pontiff's palace, and with loud outcries forced him to hear and to redrefs; men now decided every thing by the fword: which Innocent the IIId lamented, and endeavoured to render unneceffary, by hearing and getting every one's story by memory: yet was it no eafy matter to adjust affairs between debtor and creditor, which laft had no power of touching the horses, arms, or hawks of a gentleman equal with himfelf; and as for artifans or traders, they came not within the idea of receiving juftice: and when we read of charters, immunities, and franchises, we muft annex no other notion to the words, than merely manumiffion from actual flavery. Under Frederick Barbarossa indeed, Otho Frifingenfis complains that there began to grow up free cities in Italy, that affected to be governed by their own magiftrates; but in a century more, the emperors fecing fome great lords living among thefe burgeffes, and fwearing now and then to protect them with their fwords, began to form palaces for themfelves at the gates, with intent to awe the inhabitants and hold them in due fubjection. The free cities however would be flaves no more: after a thousand contefts, they shook off all fovereignty except what they THE opening of the thirteenth century found the world recovered from that general panic which was fuppofed immediately to precede her diffolution. It might perhaps occur to fome of those who searched the feriptures, that neither at evening, nor at night, nor at cock-crowing, nor in the morning was the hour appointed. The evening was paft, and night came gradually on, ending in utter darkness during the Gothic ages. Robertson points out the moment of deepest obfcuration, which returned, he fays, 'with redoubled gloom after Alfred and Charlemagne had fhown the dawn at diftance. The crufading times might be, I think, confidered as the moment of cock-crowing, from which hour light made her gradual though flow advances towards that morning which feems to me ended with the eighteenth century. "This light broke from the Eaft: the Latin writers, loft in wonder at the fuperior glories of Conftantinople, make ufe of exclamation to exprefs their fenfe of furprise, and hardly can drop into cold narrative of matters which amazed them. Benjamin the Jew, and Gonthier the monk, fay my readers, might be eafily dazzled and amazed by fight, or even hearing of the golden tree filled with mechanic finging-birds, coloured with precious ftones after nature, which was faid to adorn the Greek emperor's palace; while lions, formed of the fame precious metal (there fo near its birth-place), *«Fuller, in his Life of Hildegardis, calls the twelfth century cock-crowing time. I know not why, but his manner of understanding the paffage was diftinct from mine." created created for themselves, and at laft ended in independent, though petty republics. "Italy, with much addition to her wildom, made much increafe to her wealth. Companies of merchants and traders from Lombardy, fettled in various nations; a, bank had been fome time erected at Venice; plants of the fugar-cane had been brought from Afia, and cultivated in Sicily, whence they were carried to Spain, where we shall leave them till the woody iflands, thence called by Spaniards Madera, by Portuguese Madeiras, were discovered; but Roger I. carried off many artificers in the filk trade from the crufades to Palermo; and while they were at work to adorn our weftern world, the Italians, trading in money, were diligent to corrupt it; exacting twenty per cent. intereft at the loweft, and fometimes thirty in France and England, where people had little notion of punishing fuch crimes, except by excommunication, for the criminals were too mean to be called out for duel. Foreigners, indeed, devoured England quite at their pleasure, and our commerce was yet at a low ebb; no treaty of that nature appearing, till one was made with Hacquin King in Norway, about 1215. London, roofed with thatch, and containing only 40,000 inhabitants, as Peter de Blois afferts, who lived there long, could scarce deserve Fitzftephen's pompous description of it, I think, while chimneys were unknown even to houfes where the baron drank from out his filver cups. Day was however beginning to break even in the north: the coaft of Schonen was obferved to swarm with herrings; and Arnold de Lubec thanks God very properly for that difcovery, which, as he faid, fed the fouthern nations of Europe, and clothed the northern ones with manufactures-not with fkins as formerly. Literature kept pace in advancement: and whereas a book had till near the year 1200 been esteemed a commutation for fin, if bequeathed to a church library, where many had been prefented pro remedio animæ fuæ, in order to obtain peace for the foul of him who gave it; the Countess of Anjou paid two hundred sheep, five quarters of wheat only, and five quarters of rye and millet for fome fermons written by the bishop of Halberstadt; and paper being grown of common ufe, VOL. V. No. XLIV. people were no longer obliged to fcratch out Livy's Decades in order to copy over on the fame parchment the legend of Cecilia perhaps, or the romance of Sir Alifandre. Innocent III. was himielf a felolar, and wrote a Treatife de Contemptu Mundi, befide the Stabat Mater, which is not even yet forgotten; the Spanish Saracens, and even Jews, contributed to dig up the germ of philofophy, the feed of which was after fo well diffeminated; and Martinus Scotus lent his affiitance in the ufeful work of tranflating; and although private wars, carried on with rancorous hatred between private families in every nation, ftill fubfifted, and quarrels of individuals were decided by fingle combat, fome law was known, and fame was accepted, and men did not in this century, as in the preceding one, when two grandions difputed fucceffion in a barony againft their uncles, brothers to the deceased, look with perplexity on a cafe fo intri cate, and refolve that the gordian knot, which none could untie, fhould at length be cut; when choofing two champions, one for the uncles, the other for the grandfons, their relations fet them out armed cap-a-pee, to fettle it with their lives. Happily the right heirs' combatant fucceeded, and brothers of a dead baron contended for his eftate no more against the immediate defcendants of his perfon. Riga and Flenfburg had in the last century reared up their rough heads; the first ftone of this laft-named city was laid by Waldemar, grandfather to Margaret, known afterwards to history by name of the Semiramis of the North: and univerfities ftarting up daily in various countries, thowed that war alone was not completely and pofitively, in the days we are reviewing, the fole concern of man. "Our own country's fituation, brought nearer to Retrospection's eye by the approximating powers of Shakefpear, makes one feel as if lefs far removed from learning's reftoration than we really were in the days of King John, under whofe reign flourished Bishop Grofthead, a man whose rugged manners, and cruel punishment of light carriaged or refractory nuns, was well counterbalanced by deep and wide erudition, and by his commendable fpirit of battling in favour of the English clergy against foreigners, for which he |