THE

GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE,

AND

HISTORICAL CHRONICLE.

FROM JULY TO DECEMBER, 1831.

VOLUME CI.

(BEING THE TWENTY-FOURTH OF A NEW SERIES.)

PART THE SECOND.

PRODESSE & DELECTARE.

E PLURIBUS UNUM.

BY SYLVANUS URBAN, GENT.

London:

PRINTED BY J. B. NICHOLS AND SON, 25, PARLIAMENT STREET; WHERE LETTERS ARE PARTICULARLY REQUESTED TO BE SENT, POST-PAID ;

AND SOLD BY JOHN HARRIS,

AT THE CORNER OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, Ludgate STREET; BY G. G. BENNIS, 55 RUE NEUVE ST. AUGUSTIN, PARIS; AND BY PERTHES AND BESSER, HAMBURGH.

exhaust itself; how grateful then ought we to be to those considerate persons, who are so kindly doing their best to ensure us an additional supply.

But we must now turn "from lively to severe." How affecting it is, at a time when a mortal disease is advancing towards us, nay has already entered our land, to see multitudes engrossed with the single idea of a political experiment, which after all will disappoint them as sadly as the Emancipation bill has done. While death is creeping nearer and nearer, it is nothing less than madness to waste our anxieties on elections, when we may not even live to give a vote. Franklin told a lady, who wished to enjoy pleasant dreams, that nothing would so much tend to procure them, as a good conscience: we believe that there is no such antidote for the cholera, as the tranquillity which a good conscience gives, nor, in fatal cases, any such alleviator of its violence. And the best new year's gift we can make to our readers, is the sincere wish that they may secure this most effectual of preservatives. He who possesses it, will experience the full value of Horace's lines,

Si fractus illabatur orbis,

Impavidum ferient ruinæ.

Six months will elapse before we draw up another address to our readers. May they understand and appreciate our meaning; and we trust that, notwithstanding all gloomy prospects, we shall then meet them again.

THE

GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.

[PUBLISHED AUGUST 1, 1831.]

Embellished with Views of the CHAPELS of ST. BARNABAS, KENSINGTON, and the HOLY TRINITY, TOTTENHAM ; and the Gravestone of the founder of EWENNY ABBEY.

Printed by J. B. NICHOLS and SON, CICERO'S HEAD, 25, Parliament Street, Westminster; where all Letters to the Editor are requested to be sent, POST-PAID.

( 482 )

MINOR CORRESPONDENCE.

A CORRESPONDENT says: "The outcry of the moment in the several papers against Capital Convictions for Thefts to a small amount, without cruelty in aggravation, is based upon an error, to which Mr. Peel's well meant alteration of value from 40s. to 51. gave occasion. That great statesman forgot for an instant the very principle of British Jurisprudence, to protect by law what cannot otherwise be secured, the Poor Man's all, however little; and robberies, with burglary in the dwellings of small tenants, have been multiplied in consequence. Nothing can be more fallacious than the argument drawn from the low rate at which it is pretended the law estimates human life. The truth is, the law estimates the value of a subject's property, "according to that he hath, not according to that he hath not."

HANS HIJORNOR observes that "in Don Quixote, Part the Second, book 2, chap. I. (Smollett's translation) a young gentleman is introduced preparing to contend for a prize at the University, where he was completing his education, by composing a glossary, or paraphrase, on a text either prescribed to or adopted by the candidate (the point being left uncertain). Considering the celebrity of Cervantes, it is surprising that exercises in this form, which seem to have been extremely common amongst the Spanish literati of that æra, do not appear to have attracted the attention of any of our poets; not at least in your correspondent's recollection. And yet a glance at a task of this kind may suffice to show it, beyond comparison, a more rational appropriation of time than that consumed in charades, conundrums, and riddles ; which last Swift descended to write; and it was likened to Titian painting draught boards, which would have been inexcusable as long as a sign painter could be found.' This mode of composition, which approaches, in verse, to the general method of discourses from the pulpit, gives occasion for some sage remarks from the Knight, who is always a highly accomplished gentle man, apart from his infirmity, and may be regarded as the vehicle of those sentiments we might look for from his chronicler. From one passage, which shows that suppressing the names of the candidates in such exhibitions is a modern expedient, it seems the young nobility were often competitors for the palm of merit in scholarship, &c. I should wish to recommend this practice in our scholastic discipline.'

The miniature possessed by sir Joshua Reynolds, which was supposed to represent Milton, and proved by Lord Kaimes to represent Selden (as stated by B. in June, p. 502), was bequeathed by Sir Joshua to the Rev. William Mason the poet, and by the latter in 1797 to William Burgh, esq. LL.D. of York, as an acknowledgment for

editing Mason's works :-" that the said William Burgh, esq. shall attend to the correct printing of the same, for which friendly trouble I desire him to accept the fine miniature picture of Milton, painted by Cooper, which was bequeathed to me by Sir Joshua Reynolds." Memoir of Mason, in Hunter's South Yorkshire, vol. ii. p. 169.

An OCCASIONAL READER observes: “ having seen a statement in the newspapers respecting a large quantity of silver coin that was found about five weeks ago in the bed of the river at Tutbury, (see Part 1. p. 546) and an entire ignorance expressed of any historical event at that place, to which the concealment of such a treasure could be referred, allow me to turn your attention to Walsingham and Holinshed for a satisfactory solution of the question. In the year 1322, 14th of Edw. II. you will find that the whole of the ground between Burtonupon-Trent and Tutbury was occupied for three successive days by the force of the Duke of Lancaster and several Barons, in arms against the King and the Royal army, that several actions were fought in disputing and forcing passages of the river, and that Tutbury itself was a distinct point of contest, alternately occupied by the hostile armies. Can we for a moment doubt that the silver coins which have been recently taken out of the Trent at that place, were thrown into the stream on the abandonment of the town by one of the opposing parties?

The four coins, found some time since in excavating for the Saint Katherine's Dock, of which one has been sent us by ALEPH, is of billon, coined by one of the James's of Scotland, by which is uncertain. It is engraved both in Snelling and Cardonnell.

Any account of the life and of the family of Sir William Clerk, Knt. killed at Cropredy Bridge, fighting for King Charles I. against the force of Sir William Waller, will much oblige F.

Information is requested respecting the parentage and family of Benjamin Lovell, Rector of Preston Bagot, co. Warwick, circ.

1539.

Leonard Hotchkis, A. M. Master of Shrewsbury School, died in 1754, [Literary Anecdotes, vol. VIII. p. 422,] mentioned in History of Shrewsbury, p. 357. Was he not the son or brother of Mr. Hotchkis, Master of the Charter House? What was the age of the former, and qu. if not a native of Bucks? where his father (if the Charter House Hotchkis, which from the singularity of the name is probable,) was vicar of Kingsey, during several years.

An OLD SUBSCRIBER wishes to be informed as to a family of Pomeroy, said to be of Engesdon in Devonshire?

James W. is requested to favour us with a sight of the article he alludes to.

THE

GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.

JULY, 1831.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

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