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prospered; the conduct of the prisoners
has been wonderfully improved, and the
greatest decorum now prevails in every
part of the building.
During the last year, the number of
commitments was less than one-half that
of former years, and not one of those who
received instruction has been re-commit
ted for any offence. Several depraved
females, it is known, have returned to the
paths of virtue and industry, in conse-
quence of the humane exertions of ladies
visiting this prison.

At Kilmainham, not one of the pri

den. In Russia, a prison discipline
society was formed by the indefatigable
exertions of a valuable member of the
committee in England, Mr. Walter
Venning. This gentleman sacrificed
health, interest, comfort, and society,
to encounter vice, misery, disease, and
even death. Like Howard, he was
devoted to the task of assuaging the
miseries and promoting the improve-
ment of his fellow creatures, and, like
him, fell a victim to his exertions:-
Assiduously engaged in visiting one of

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For dinner on Sundays, Tuesdays, clods, stickings, or other coarse pieces of Thursdays, and Saturdays, six ounces of beef, (without bone, and after boiling,) with half a pint of the broth made therefrom, and one pound of boiled potatoes. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, one quart of broth for the males, and one pint for the females, thickened with Scotch barley, rice, potatoes, or pease, and other cheap vegetables. with the addition of cabbages, turnips,

soners who were the subjects of the com-the prisons in St. Petersburg, Mr. Ven-mittee may direct, for every male prison

contracted a fever, which terminated his existence on the 10th January last.

-mittee's labours, have been re-committed
to it since their discharge; though inning
every other class of prisoners, where their
time is devoted to idleness and guilt, fre-
quent and melancholy instances have oc-
curred of their return into confinement,
under fresh and aggravated charges.'

Soon after the formation of the Socie-
ty, Mr. Venning joined the committee,
and very essentially contributed, by his
exertions, to the success of their labours.
There is another object in which this of the metropolis, and ever earnest in his
He was indefatigable in visiting the gaols
society in England has laboured with endeavours to restore the criminal, but es-
equal zeal, if not with equal success- pecially the youthful offender, to the
the reformation of juvenile offenders. paths of religion and virtue. During his
From the investigations of the com- late residence in Russia, a period of near-
mittee, they have ascertained, with ly four years, his time has been unceas-
some degree of certainty, that there are ingly devoted to the amelioration of the
gaols in that country.
upwards of eight thousand boys in the the Emperor Alexander a memorial, for-
He presented to
metropolis, who subsist in a material cibly pointing out the great national ad-
degree by depredations on the public. vantages that result from the improve-
A great proportion of these boys are
ment of prison discipline, and the wis-
passing constantly through the prisons, dom and practicability of rendering punish-
thus ripening into the most atrocious ment the instrument of reformation. The
offenders; and on their release they are justice of these views was acknowledged,
industriously engaged in spreading the and, to carry them into effect, an associa-
knowledge and practice of crime. the imperial sanction. This association
tion was formed at St. Petersburg, under
Some of these have not distress to plead has been productive of extensive good,
on their behalf, and have friends earn- by introducing improvements in the con-
estly desirous to assist them; the great-struction of places of confinement, and
est portion, however, are nursed in de- regulations calculated to preserve the
pravity and tutored in crime. At an health, and promote the moral and reli-
early age they are turned into the gious interests of the criminal. It is
streets, and dare not return to their needless to add, that in these philan-
homes without a certain sum, the fruits throphic labours Mr. Venning eminently
of mendicity or theft. The commit-wretched and the guilty confined in the
shared; and long, very long, will the
tee, in visiting the several prisons of prisons of the Russian empire, have rea-
the metropolis, found many cases of son to revere his name and bless his me-
boys who were quite friendless, and mory.'
who, on their discharge from confine-
ment, literally knew not where to lay
their heads. In order to assist such, a
temporary refuge has been instituted,
which has had the good effect of re-
claiming and providing for many
youthful victims of crime. The com-
mittee attribute much of juvenile de-
linquency to the number of fairs in the
neighbourhood of the metropolis, and
recommend their abolition by the le-
gislature.

The example that has been so so gloriously set in this country for the improvement of prison discipline, has been followed in many foreign countries, particularly France, Russia, and Swe

In

For supper, one pint of hot gruel or porridge; also every day one-half pound of bread, made of such meal as the comer under the age of eighteen years, and one pound for every other prisoner. But the boys under eighteen years may have the full allowance of bread, if the chaplains and governor shall certify that their conduct has been meritorious during the week preceding.

The expense of food alone per week, is stated in evidence before the Lords' Committee on Gaols, to be 4s. 94d. each male prisoner, and 6d. less for the females. The expense of food at Devizes House of Correction, is 2s. 3d. to 2s. 6d. per week; that at Preston, (both prisons ending 2d May last, to be 2s. 1d. being in full work,) is stated, for the year If the cost of the Millbank dietary were reduced Is. viz. to 3s. 9d. per head, for five hundred and fifty prisoners, more than 14001. per annum might be saved. It is much to be desired, for the credit of the Penitentiary system, that this institution should be regulated with as strict a the objects of the establishment.' regard to economy as is consistent with

From the account of a visit to the prisons in France, made in December, 1820, we make one extract, from which it would appear, that juvenile delinquency is by no means uncommon in France; but we shudder at the idea of consigning a child of seven years old a dozen years. Our extract relates to to any prison, and that too for a period of the prisons in the department of the Upper Rhine:

Colmar Prison.-This is a wretched The Appendix to the Report con- place, constructed out of an ancient contains numerous extracts from the cor- vent. It contained seventy-seven prisonrespondence of the committee, which ers, seven of whom were galléréens. The give an interesting account of the prin- prison was calculated to hold one huncipal gaols in the united kingdom. dred and fifty, but five hundred have ocmost of those where labour is intro- no employment and no instruction. The casionally been put into it. There was duced, the prisoners are not only reformed, but the men prisoners, except the galléréens, expenses of the were all together. Two boys, one about establishments are essentially relieved. ten years old, who had stolen a child's At the general Penitentiary, at Mil-chair, appeared to be hardened thieves. bank, the earnings of the prisoners are The galleréens were locked up when they upwards of 4000l. annually, and the were not walking in the court, which they are allowed for four hours a-day. The expenses of the establishment 25,0001. The dietary of this establishment is as prison was well ventilated. No clothing women also had this permission. The follows;— is allowed. The sick are sent to a neighbouring hospital. An addition is now making to the buildings of this prison.

For breakfast, one piat of hot gruel or porridge.

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Ensisheim Maison Centrale de Deten-er of an ancient convent, a man was found | pamphlets of the proceedings of our com

mittee, you will find that works of love and mercy always did, and do still, constitute a distinct characteristic of this nation.

'As these pamphlets are in the Russian language, the following extract from one of them, perhaps, may not be uninterest

who had been taken up on suspicion, and
had been confined forty-eight days. The
window was unglazed, but not large
enough to admit light. The room was
very cold. The straw on which the pri-
soner lay was almost black with use, and
his clothes had not been changed since
his confinement. He was, he said, co-ing:-
vered with vermin. These are, it is to
be hoped, singular cases, yet it is the ge-
neral treatment of untried prisoners in this
country.'

-

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tion. This is a depôt for prisoners convicted and sentenced to more than a year's confinement, and many are sentenced for life. This depot is for eight departments, Haut Rhin, Bas Rhin, Mozelle, Meurthe, Vosges, Haut Soane, Doubs, and Jura. There are now in it six hundred and fifty prisoners, but it is capable of containing a larger number. It is divided into classes for men and women, correctional and criminal; there are also courts for the sick; making in all six courts. The young have also a sort of sepa- The prisons in Italy are generally ration, but it is little more than nominal. ill constructed and badly regulated; There was one boy who had been senbut this country can boast of a female tenced for stealing at seven and-a-half who, following the example of our disyears of age, and who is to remain till he is twenty years old. The boys have tinguished countrywoman, seeks the some instruction given them. The num-wretched out.' After describing the ber of women was about two hundred and state of the prison at Turin, where, seventy. The prisoners were all at work out of twenty-four women, eight were picking cotton, by which they get from sick, we are told, that,five to six francs per week; of this, onesixth goes to the entrepreneur, one-sixth to the governor, one-third to the prisoners weekly, and one-third on his discharge. The entrepreneur is a sort of merchant, who supplies all, and pays for the work at a rate fixed, every quarter, by the society of arts and manufactures at Mulhausen. The prisoners have two hours per day allowed for exercise and meals; the rest of the day they are obliged to work. Their allowance of food is 1lbs of bread, wheat, and barley, each day; besides potatoes or peas, and rice, with meat, the first Sunday in the month. This house was built for a Maison de Mendicité; it is not calculated for a prison, as it admits of no inspection. Instruction is very incomplete, and there seemed a considerable want of discipline.' In the Report on the State of Pri. sons in Switzerland, we find that the untried prisoners are by far the most hardly dealt with:

son.' In those times, Boyarin Shereme

Makarius, who, in former times, was metropolitan of all Russia, at the marriage of the Czar Ivan Vassilovitch with the Czarina Anastatia, in his speech to him, said, among other things, act towards the needy with mercy; protect the widows, the orphans, and the injured; and, visit those who are confined in pritoff was also well known by his works of mercy. He gave away his fortune. When asked by the emperor, where have you spent your property?' he answered, I spent it with the poor of this world.' The Although these poor women were in Czar Mechila Federovitch regularly furso wretched a state, their situation was nished all the needy exiles to Siberia with better in other respects, for they were all money from his own private funds, to assist decently clothed, and employed in dif- them on their long journey. The Czar ferent works. I afterwards learned that Alexey Mechalovitch (father of Peter the they were indebted for this to the kind- Great) visited the prisons once every year ness and generosity of a lady, equally in plain attire, pardoned trivial offenders, distinguished by her rank and piety, who and sent all the prisoners bread from his had been excited to this work by the acown table. His two wives followed the counts she had heard of Newgate, and example of the philanthropic emperor. who, not finding other help, herself did The first, Czarina Maria Ilenechna, apthe whole work of a committee, relieving propriated great sums to the liberation of their necessities, giving them work, read-prisoners; and Czarina Natalia Kirilovna ing to them and instructing them in their satisfied all the wants of the prisons and duties, and preventing, in some measure, the hospitals by her presents, visited them the evil which must have resulted both in during the night, and with her own hands this world and another, from their con- distributed clothes to the indigent." finement in this miserable place.

'Prison at Villa Franca.

This prison is for the reception of the Galley-slaves, as they are called. It is situated near the port, where a considerable number of the slaves are conducted to work, during the day. Others, conNot only are they in general very walk out, chained two together, accompavicted of lesser offences, are allowed to long in being brought to trial, but their nied by a guard. These wear the prison places of confinement are most cruel. dress, upon which the word "Galéréen" is One or two cases will serve to illustrate marked on their back. Parties of them this. A man was found shut up in a towwere almost daily to be seen in the streets er situated in the middle of a river. He of Nice, offering for sale various useful was its only human inhabitant. His gaol-articles and trinkets of their own manufacer came three times a-day in a boat to examine his chain and bring him food, and his judges from time to time, as they proceeded in his examination. He was chained to his bed, from which he could not move far, and had no chair or table, nor fire, instruction, or comfort, but a few old books. He could indeed see the sky, but that only. He had been in this situation for twelve months, and even then

ture in prison; they appeared to behave
with great submission; and, as long
as they conduct themselves quietly,
they are not interfered with by their
guard, who closely follows them, and
stops with them, whenever they like to
offer their goods. Others, who are com-
mitted for life, were not suffered to par-
take of this indulgence.'

death we have already noticed,) giving
In a letter from Mr. Venning, (whose
an account of the prisons of Russia,
we have the following interesting de-
tails:-

it was not determined whether he was guil-
ty or not. In the same tower was a room
about sixteen feet square, without light
altogether, or air, except what passed
through a narrow funnel. In this place
they told me that a man had been on one In consulting the annals of Russia,
occasion confined eleven months. In ano- which you will perceive has been done
ther prison, a large apartment in the tow-by the interesting details contained in the

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'And it is added, and I believe with justice too, that in general with difficulty will the man be found in this empire who would not by some means, however inconsiderable, testify his commiseration for the unfortunate in prison.

'I have again the painful task of anthe decease of their president, her Excelnouncing to you that the Ladies' Committee have sustained a very severe loss in lency Mrs. Kazadavleff. I shall not soon forget her kindness to the prisoners, or the friendship with which she honoured me One of the last instances of her kindness which I witnessed was towards a poor female prisoner, a native of Little Russia, who, after having received part of her punishment, was to be exiled to Siberia for life, but she was too weak to go far; the guard had not conducted her out of the city, before she fell down in the street through extreme weakness, and they were obliged to bring her back to the prison, where we found her in a most Mrs. Kazadavleff, who made herself acmiserable condition: her deplorable state immediately attracted the attention of quainted with all her wants, and instantly supplied some of them: but her kindness did not stop here: she succeeded in her application that she might not be sent off till she was perfectly recovered. A comfortable bed was provided for her in the

hospital of the town prison, to which she was removed, and where, by attention and care, her life was for some time prolonged; and, although she did not recover, she had the consolation of knowing that she had in her last illness a true, a disinterested and sympathizing friend, in this lady. Her Excellency Mrs. Tolstoy, daughter of Field Marshal Koutusoff, has been appointed president of the Ladies' Committee. A temporary building has been granted to the Ladies' Committee, until the new prison be erected for the female prisopers, almost adjoining the town prison. The plans are nearly ready. Separate dorinitories are to be made for debtors as well as for criminals. There are some doubts entertained how the sleeping cells are to be sufficiently heated by warin air, and I will thank you to give me information on this subject, as the plans now drawing, are principally

under my direction.'

ard. He says,—

from the most imminent danger, and ceeded by one monthly. Six parts are
brought back again to St. Petersburg. now due, but three only have appear-
After this, notwithstanding the shocked; a fourth is, however, promised for
which his health had received, he ceased
the first of next month. Whether this
not, during the autumn, to look out for a
fit opportunity to depart, but adverse delay is of a temporary or a permanent
winds obliged him to remain here.
nature, we know not, but however in-
jurious we think the want of punctu-
ality may be to a periodical (and we
think it highly so), yet even this is
much better than that the work should
suffer by haste; and it is, perhaps, due
to the editor and publisher of the
'Lives of Eminent Scotsmen,' to at-
tribute the delay to their anxiety to do
the work ample justice.

Thus, the Almighty disposer of events ordained that he should lay down the frail tabernacle of his body here, in order to be clothed with an "eternal one not made with hands;" that he should here finish his earthly career, in order to commence another in our Father's kingdom which is on high.

Out of love and sincere esteem for the memory of our deceased colleague, I have à proposal to make, to which you will doubtless all accede, that you allow me to communicate the decease of Mr.

Venning to his Imperial Majesty, and to ask the gracious permission of his majesty to erect on the spot, where the mortal reThe Prince Galitzin, in his address mains of this friend of mankind rest, a at the Annual Meeting of the General humble, yet becoming monument, in tesCommittee of the St. Petersburg Pri-timony of the meek Christian qualities son Society, in January, 1820, pays an and labours of the deceased; and of the esteem of the members of the St. Peterselegant tribute to the memory of Mr. burg Committee of the Tutel Society for Venning, whom he calls a second How-prisons, for his memory, towards the establishment of which society he was the most active instrument. Not splendour, nor vain show, nor empty eulogy, ought to constitute the symbols and ornaments of this monument, but a simplicity which shall speak to the heart, and excite to pious reflection. While Russia has to shew near one frontier the ashes of his countryman, who marked the first traces of amelioration in the condition of prisoners, and of the sick and the suffering, let her also show another monument of a second How ard.'

Since the year 1817, Mr. Venning had resided in Russia, and though little, or rather altogether unknown at first, it may be said that he himself then performed the work of a whole society. With the highest permission granted to him, he examined the state of the prisons, houses of correction, and poor houses in St. Petersburg, Iwer, and Moscow. Many reforms and improvements were made according to his suggestions, and a particular attention was thereby excited to wards this department.

To the friends of humanity, the Third Report of the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline must be highly gratifying, as it not only shews that a great deal of good has been done, but points out an ample field for future exertions.

The second and third parts, now before us, contain twenty-two memoirs, including the lives of James the Fifth and Sixth, Henry the Minstrel, Sir David Lindsay, the Earl of Stirling, Alexander Barclay, Dr. Armstrong, Thomson, Macpherson, &c. The life of one of the most amiable of the Stuarts, James the Fifth, is well written; and justice is done to the memory of this King of the Poor,' in the following estimate of his character :

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The mere narrative of such a life as James's, makes any summary of his character unnecessary: there are no incon gruities to reconcile, no great faults to be put in proper balance; it is throughout vigorous, splendid, and consistent. still remains, however, to fill up the sketch, which a feeble hand has attempted to present, of the leading events of his history, with some traits, which, though not less interesting, rest, as it were, in shadow. It has been seen how inflexible James was in the administration of justice, His indefatigable exertions to promote but it has yet to be told, that he was the the establishment of a Tutel Society for first of the Scottish monarchs who took the prisons here, were at last crowned with care to make known to the people what the desired success. On the 19th of July, the whole Acts of Parliament of his reign their rights were. In 1540, he ordered 1819, his Imperial Majesty was pleased to give his sanction to such a society; and to be printed in the vulgar tongue; a the act declaring its formation testifies, measure quite as hostile to the arbitrary that Mr. Venning was the first person who claims of the feudal barons, as the more suggested the idea among us, of such a recent translation of the Scriptures into beneficent institution. His joy and dethe same tongue was to the exclusive prelight at this event, so much desired for WHEN we noticed the first part of this tensious of the Romish clergy. It cannot by him, seemed to make a deep impres- elegant little work, we spoke very de- be said that James gave encouragement to the latter; but he set an example kind of sacred bond seemed to unite him cisively as to what we deemed its me- which essentially prepared the way for it. to Russia. Last year, he was a co-operits-the originality of the memoirs, Although not possessed of any of that rerator in the establishment of a Prison the elegance with which many of them ligious fervour which began to distinguish Committee at Cronstadt, and though his were written, and the spirit of impar- the age in which he lived, and apparently active love for suffering humanity excited tiality and free inquiry which distin- little sensible of the importance of relihim subsequently to resolve on visiting guished the whole these, it will be gious liberty to the spread of knowledge, England and other places, where he ex- allowed, are strong recommendations James was ardently desirous for the inpected to exert himself in a new sphere of to any work, particularly to a biogra- formation of his subjects in all other remind to return to Russia. At last, he two subsequent parts do not render it profane learning, he was a liberal patron usefulness, yet he always proposed in his phical one; but strong as they are, the specis. Of the elegant and useful arts, took his departure for Denmak, with a view to form a Prison Society there; but necessary that we should qualify them. and active promoter. "He furnished it is well known, that by the ship being One thing we certainly must regret, the countrie," says Pitscottie, a writer not wrecked in a storm, his voyage was pre- the want of regularity in the publica- the most charitable to his memory, “with vented, and it was only by a special act of tion. The first part, we believe, ap- all kyndes of craftismen, sik as Frencha gracious Providence that he was saved peared on the first of May, to be suc-men, Spainyardis, and Dutchmen, quhilk

sion on his mind, and from that period, a

LIVES OF EMINENT SCOTSMEN.
Parts 11. and III.

and of all branches of what was called

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ever was the finest of thair professioun that culd be had; quhilk brought the countrie to great policie." Lindsay, Buchanan, Bellenden, Maitland, Montgomery, Henryson, and many others of in

guishing qualities of Thomson's mind
and heart are best discovered from his
works; that those who inferred from
his poems that he was a great lover, a

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soldiery have no superiors; but in that cool intrepidity which can make and sustain a charge, they have never been able to compete with the soldiers of many other countries-the Scots, the Musco

ferior fame, were among the men of let- great swimmer, and rigorously absti- vites, the Swedes, and even the Holland

poe

ters who contributed to shed a lustre on
nent,' might, from the same source,
his reign, and who, in an age when there have proved that he was an early
was no reading public, could live on the riser, since he reprobated the bed of
patronage of the court alone. Bellenden sloth most eloquently. The last me-
he employed to translate, into the Scot-moir in the second part is that of John
tish tongue, the History of Scotland, by Oswald, who, under the name of Sil-
Hector Boethius, an author to whom Dr. vester Otway, contributed several
Johnson has done the justice of saying, tical effusions to the London newspa-
that he "may be justly reverenced as one
of the revivers of elegant learning;" and, pers in 1788 or 1789. Oswald had
subsequently, he gave the same author a
been an officer in the army, and is bet-
commission to execute a translation of ter known as a politician than a poet.
Livy, the first of Roman historians *. In At the commencement of the French
a poetical prologue which Bellenden has revolution, he warmly espoused its
prefixed to the latter version, he pays a principles, and went to Paris, where he
just tribute of praise to James for his en- became a very active member of the
couragement of our native literature, and Jacobin Club:-
farther speaks of him, as being himself
distinguished for his literary productions.'
If the editor of this work did not, in
almost every line of his work, prove
that he was a true Scot, we should
have suspected him to be of the sister
kingdom, on account of a bull, which
occurs in a note to this memoir. He
tells us that James kept his court at
his castle of Cauthally, since called
Cowdaily, a name given to it in conse-
quence of the last lord having, every
day at his table, a bullock dressed en-
tire.

6

It is generally known that Alexander Barclay, the translator of the Ship of Fools,' has been claimed by both England and Scotland; the question appears to be set at rest by the editor of this work, who adduces pretty decisive evidence that he was a Scotsman.

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ers. Colonel Oswald saw, when too late to repair a bad impression, that he had mistaken the national character; he was obliged to throw away his pikes, because his men absolutely refused to be trained to the use of them.

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When the war in La Vandée broke those selected to proceed against the reout, Colonel Oswald's corps was one of bels, a distinction which it Ro doubt owed

to having a foreign commander, who might be supposed to have fewer scruples than a native in acting against natives. In the first encounter, however, which they had with the Vendeans, Oswald's men are generally understood to have taken advantage of the confusion of the fight to rid The influence which Mr. Oswald had said to have not only dispatched the fathemselves of this advantage; they are acquired in the Jacobin Club, gave him a ther, but his two sons, youths of a most corresponding influence with the govern-interesting character, and another Engment of the day, over which that club, as every body knows, exercised for some time a most pernicious control. The first of Anglo-Jacobins was not to be requited by any inferior appointment; they at regiment of infantry. The corps is said, however, not to have been of the best description, being composed of the refuse of Paris and the departments.

once nominated him to the command of a

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Mr. Oswald had, previously to this appointment, been joined by his two sons; but true to the principle of equality. which he professed, he only made them drummers in the regiment of which he

was colonel.

lish gentleman, whom Oswald had seis, at all events, certain that the four Englected as worthy to share his fortunes. It lishmen fell in the fight; and whether in consequence of their own forward bravery rades, will probably ever remain a mysor of the treachery of their French com

tery:

Mr. Oswald was about the common stature, but of a very commanding appearance. I have heard that, when in Paris, he affected the Roman costuine; wore his collar open, and his hair à la brutus.'

In the memoir of James the Sixth, the author takes a full and comprehensive view of the life, conduct, and policy of that weak but tyrannical monarch. The events of his reign are too well known to admit much in the way of novelty, but some of the most prominent are reprehended with just sepersecuting spirit of this king, in sende verity. The writer, after noticing the ing men to the stake for what he deemed heresy, justly observes, that—

Colonel Oswald commanded, obliged him The bad character of the men whom to have recourse to a system of severity in disciplining them, which, while it made In the life of Thomson, which is one them good soldiers, there is every reason of the neatest in these volumes, the to believe made him in every one a pereditor corrects an error into which sonal enemy. In the outset of his comJohnson has fallen in his Lives of the blunder, which added nothing to his pomand he committed a sort of national Poets,' when he states that Thomson's pularity. Knowing what feats his own 'first want was a pair of shoes,' and countrymen had performed at the point that, for the support of all his necessi- of the bayonet; convinced from experities, his whole fund was his "Winter." ence and observation that there was in a 'The history of James's life in England It appears, from a letter written by charge of cold steel something more ap- was stained by but too many similar acts Thomson at the time, and which the palling than in a hundred volleys of mus- of arbitrary cruelty. The whole of his editor has discovered and printed, that ketry-he conceived the notion that a re-internal government consisted, indeed, of Thomson, though not rich, was unem-charge would be one of powerful effi- rights and liberties of his people, fregiment trained to depend entirely on the little else than acts of aggression on the barrassed, and far from wanting a pair ciency, and certain to acquire great dis- quently aggravated by peculiar features of of shoes. The literary part of this let-tinction. He proposed, therefore, to lay wantonness and rigour. The murder of ter (which is addressed to Dr. CranSir Walter Raleigh, the glory of his age stoun) establishes a fact of some interand nation, to please the court of Spain; est to the curious in poetical history, the pardon of his Majesty's favourite, the the source from which he derived the Duke of Somerset, and his lady, for poiidea of his admirable poem of Wininvoked, on his knees, the vengeance of soning Sir Thomas Overbury, after having ter.' The editor ridicules the idea of heaven on himself and his posterity, if he Murdoch and others, that the distindid not yield them up to justice; the imprisonment of the Earl of Northumber land for fourteen years, in addition to an

Only five books of this translation were completed, and they still remain in MS.'

aside the musket in his regiment, and to
substitute a pike of superior construction.
The directory approved his suggestion,
and the experiment was made. The men,
the innovation in the same light as their
however, could not be persuaded to view
English colonel. They were Frenchmen,
and decided upon it with French feeling.
For light warfare-the brisk fire-quick
retreat-and as quick return-the French

exaction of thirty thousand pounds, on a about to be overwhelmed by a coalition There are several memoirs in this mere suspicion, unsupported by the least of enemies; and to save both, sent over part on which we would dwell, but our proof, of his being privy to the gunpow--an aid of one regiment of foot He limits preclude it. In the life of der-plot; the committal to the Tower of saw the Palatinate lost through his pusil- Macpherson, the author expresses himseveral members of the House of Com-lanimity, and then weakly imagined that self decidedly that he was all but the mons, and the banishment of others for he could reason princes, flushed with vicpresuming to assert that the people of tory, out of their conquest. He allowed sole author of the poems which he England possessed any right which did his unfortunate daughter, her husband, ascribed to Ossian.' It is one of the not flow entirely from the grace and fa- and her children, to drag out a long ex- features of this work to rescue from vour of their sovereigns: such were a few ile in a foreign land, without affording oblivion the names of several men of of those acts which gave a character of them any of those helps which duty and genius who had been born to blush oppression and profligacy to the domestic humanity required at his hands. He suf- unseen.' Among those must be rankadministration of James, seldom before ex- fered the British flag, which had never be-ed the unfortunate Charles Salmon, a ceeded in the history of England. fore known dishonour, to be grossly inNor did James confine himself to con- sulted, and our merchant-ships to be pil-journeyman printer of Edinburgh. duct, the evil of which might perish with laged by the Dutch; contenting himself He was zealous in the cause of the him. In the sufficiency of his self-con- with sending a remonstrance, which the Pretender, and was the author of some ceit, he must needs become a legislator, Dutch, viewing it as it deserved, passed jacobite songs, and An Elegy written and confer on England a law, which was over unheeded. Nay, as if there had in the Abbey Church, Edinburgh.' to do the work of ignorance and inhuma- been no fitter way for an independent Salmon was a dissipated young man :nity long after he should be no more. It prince to resent injuries, than to heap faAt the suggestion of some of the more is painful to be obliged to speak thus se- vours on his enemies; notwithstanding all prudent of his gay companions, Salmon verely of a prince of our native line; but, the Dutch had done, he consented to de-issued proposals for publishing a colleccan less be said of that law which first liver up to them the cautionary towns tion of his poetical effusions, under the made witchcraft a crime in England, and which they had deposited in the hands of modest title of "Poems by a Printer." has been the cause of consigning hundreds Queen Elizabeth, on their paying five From the misfortunes which afterwards and thousands to an ignominious death, millions less than the sum for which they befel him, this collection never saw the for an impossible offence? James had stood pledged; and thus relieved them light; but there is reason to believe that before leaving Scotland, written and pub- besides from that state of dependence on he had accumulated a sufficient number lished a "Treatise on Dæmonologie," in Britain, which had been hitherto regarded of poems to have formed a very respectwhich he had endeavoured, with great as the right arm of our continental poli- able volume. Several of them had apshow of learning, to "resolve the doubt-cy. The massacre at Amboyna was now ing hearts of many," as to the "fearful all that was wanted to place beyond in the Dumfries Weekly Magazine, in Ruddiman's Magazine and peared abounding of those detestable slaves of doubt, whether it was possible to rouse a the devil, witches or enchanters," and spark of the man or sovereign in him. established by Mr. Jackson, on a similar established, to his own satisfaction, that He submitted to this unexampled injury; The friend to whom the writer of this plan, and may, perhaps, still be traced. "witches ought to be put to death accord- even without requiring satisfaction, and memoir is indebted for such information ing to the law of God, the civil and im- contented himself with whiningly telling as it contains of Salmon, remembers to perial law, and the municipal law of all the Dutch ambassador, "that he had have heard him recite two imitations, or christian nations." He now resolved to never heard nor read a more cruel and im- rather parodies, of the Deserted Village let his English subjects have the benefit of pious act than that of Amboyna. But," this sensible discovery; and found the continued he, "I do forgive them, and and Splendid Shilling, as parts of his inParliament foolish enough to concur with I hope God will; but my son's son shall former was "Auld Reikie," and of the tended publication. The subject of the him in passing that law, on which so many revenge this blood, and punish this hor-latter, "The Threadbare Coat." There capital convictions have taken place for rid massacre." witchcraft, and which remained, for upwards of a century, a disgrace to the sta tute-book, and to the national character.

Need we be surprised that such a course of conduct should have made James an object of ridicule among foreign nations, and of contempt with his own? All over the continent, caricatures of him were to be seen, exhibiting him in the most ludicrous situations. In one place, he was represented with a scabbard without a sword; in another, with a sword stuck so fast in the scabbard, that nobody could draw it; and in a third, carrying a cradle after his poor daughter, the Electress Palatine, who, with dishevelled hair and tattered garments, was trudging along with a child on her back. The French had their epigram, too, on the occasion, the point of which is, with some loss of elegance, preserved in the following old version:

A tyrant at home, James was a truckler abroad; and though England enjoyed an unwonted length of peace during his reign, it was a blessing gained by a sacrifice of character and advantages, for which it ill compensated. He had scarcely seized the sceptre, when he gave peace to Spain without being asked for it; and thus lost, as Cornwallis, the ambassador whom he sent to Madrid, says in a letter to Cecil," such an opportunity of winning honour and wealth,' as England never before possessed. He afterwards allowed the Spaniards, whom he had thus foolishly favoured, to ill-treat, defraud, and even massacre British subjects with impunity. He beheld his son-in-law, the Elector Pa-While Elizabeth was England's king, latine, and in him the protestant cause, That dreadful name through Spain did ring; How alter'd is the case-ad sa' me! These jugling days of gude Queen Jamie.'

'Sir Walter Raleigh speaks of it as a known fact, that "the Spaniards murthered twenty-six Englishmen, tying them back to back, and then cutting their throats, when they had traded with them a whole month, and

came to them on the land without so much as

one sword."

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were also a variety of occasional pieces, addressed to the friends with whom he associated, including some names which would have vouched for the regard in which, though poor and humble, Charlie Salmon was held by individuals of the first respectability.

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Whatever prospects of poetical renown Salmon may have formed, one night of all. In a fit of intoxication, he fell into fatal dissipation came and destroyed them the company of a recruiting serjeant, and the same friend who had last seen him with a white cockade in a paper cap, working a press to the song of "The Crown is Charlie's right, is it no? is it no?" saw him next morning enlisted under the black cockade, or, as Salmon was wont with other jacobites to call it, the curse of God. Poor Salmon! When asked by one of his friends how he could have been so misled, he answered, with a smile at his own simplicity, "I listed for a lieutenant."

The regiment in which he had enlisted was the Seaforth Highlanders, and without waiting to excite what he dreaded more than the bitterest reproach, the

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