that the depositions made by Mrs. Aram before the Coroner formed a portion of the chain of collateral testimony. The other misapprehension of Mr. Scatcherd to which we referred is

this:

" From the periodical publications of 1759, and especially the Gentleman's Magazine, p. 354, it seems that the trial of Aram gave no great satisfaction to the public, but that reflections were made both upon the judge and jury."

Now, the passage in the Magazine is as follows:

"It is much to be regretted, that frequent occasion is given to censure the verdict of a jury, and the behaviour of a judge, by the publication of maimed and confused accounts of trials in various parts of the kingdom,"

- a general observation, it will be seen, arising from some discordant statements in the newspaper accounts of the trial; and it scarcely affords sufficient grounds for asserting that the trial itself had given public dissatisfaction, or that the "reflections" and "censure" were made in this particular instance. Mr. Scatcherd should have quoted some of the other "periodical publications" in which such sentiments might have been found more directly advanced; or he should have gathered what was the general opinion of the time from private correspondence, either published or unpublished.

It will be perceived that we shall be glad to see the researches into the history of Eugene Aram pursued even further and with greater vigour than has been done by Mr. Scatcherd; and we think that his memoirs are deserving of being discussed in a larger volume, with an accurate appendix of all the documents that can be found. Among these, Eugene Aram's reported Confession should not be omitted, though Mr. Scatcherd considers it a vile forgery. We dare say he is right, but still he should have allowed the reader to judge for himself, more particularly as he occasionally refers to it

as a document.

Aram, though neither a great nor a good man, nor one that might have left any fame behind him, if he had not acquired his unfortunate notoriety, yet furnishes a subject as worthy of

the biographer as any that can be found. He is the man of great natural capability, of very considerable acquired learning (the more remarkable from being entirely self-taught), of contemplative and reserved temperament, but of proud and selfsufficient heart. His great error was that he deemed his own deceitful heart as competent to teach him morality and religion, as the abilities with which he was endowed were to amass human knowledge. The awful presumption of the dying declaration which he put upon paper previously to attempting suicide, is the epitome of this grand error of his life. After arguing against the presumed guilt of suicide, he adds :

"I solicitously recommend myself to the Eternal and Almighty Being, the God of Nature, if I have done amiss-but perhaps I have not; and I hope this thing will never be imputed to me. Though I am now stained by malevolence, and suffer by prejudice, I hope to rise fair and unblemished. My life was not polluted, my morals irreproachable, and my opinions orthodox."

In the place of a conviction of sin, and penitent aspirations for the mediation of the great Intercessor, he here runs into the height of selfrighteousness. Of the boasted orthodoxy of that man's opinions, morals, or life, of which he constitutes himself the sole judge and standard, no favourable opinion can be predicated; nor can we be surprised that a vessel thus void either of rudder or ballast should deviate into many a dangerous current; that such a man should desert his wife and family, join in swindling and robbery, and even commit murder; and yet after all be justified in his own deceitful heart! The scholar was fortified by the rules of the grammarians, but the man was untaught of the gospel and its perfect law. And here we think it right to add, that the biographer of Eugene Aram should view his career on Christian principles. It is true that the character of the hero of the tale will suffer on that plan: but what of that, if the cause of truth be served, and the biography is thereby rendered more useful? Mr. Scatcherd considers that the grand moral to be derived from this piteous tale is, "Beware of Low Company," and that it is

Another material assistance afforded by Mr. Brewer, consists in ample explanations of the views of Aristotle, as well as a sufficient insight into the theories to which he is from time to time alluding, and from which he dissents, to guide the student to a right interpretation. We have a distinct dissertation on Plato as a preface to the 6th chapter of the 1st book, while the notes of the 10th book contain a copious account of the theory of Eudoxus. In pointing out the peculiar tenets of his author, the very judi. cious course he has pursued is expressed in the lines he has chosen for his motto "Non nisi ex Aristotele ipso discas demum Aristotelem intelligere." Thus he evinces considerable reading of every part of the Aristotle's works, and by a comparison of passages makes him his own interpreter. Accordingly, his notes are never tedious, and instead of burthening the memory with facts collected from the most distant quarters, he gradually leads the student to collect his author's meaning for himself, and thus feeds the mind in the way most conducive to a sound and healthy digestion.

The public and private Life of the Ancient Greeks. By Heinrich Hase, Ph. D. (Translated from the German.)

THE object of the translator of Professor Hase's book seems to be, that he might communicate extensive and accurate information concerning Grecian Antiquities in a pleasing and interesting form. Potter and Robinson have hitherto been almost the only works on this subject that have been put into the hands of beginners. Valuable as these are, they of course must give place to any thing that has the additional attraction of such de tails as were unknown till the more recent labours of Müller, Niebühr, Böckh, and others. Of course, the present publication was written under considerable advantages; so many men of learning and industry having co-operated with its author in illus. trating his several topics of laws, religion, political divisions, and others. In default of such a work, the most important discoveries must remain unknown to all that class of readers who have neither time nor ability to

pursue long and intricate discussions, to extract a few pages of conclusions from volumes of premises. By this book, Wachsmuth's opinion of the Pelasgi, and that of Müller concerning the Dorians, are made more easily intelligible to the youthful student than if they were read in the original essays. Those who are unable to consult Professor Heeren's work on the Social and Political State of the Greeks, may here find many of his observations in almost every chapter. In other respects the work is not, we think, so well suited to superficial readers as the translator appears to expect. The chief fault is, that the author encumbered himself with more topics than could be sufficiently illustrated in so small a volume. We grant that there is much to recommend it to men of learning; because those who are already conversant with all the facts that are adduced, and all the quotations made, require but little assistance in availing themselves of the full light that they are calculated to throw on any point of discussion. To them, mere enumeration and judicious arrangement is a sufficient commentary, and, consequently, while there is no paucity of facts, they will not complain of brevity.

As to the compilation "being so put together as to furnish something more interesting than a mere book of reference," we are of opinion that whoever regards it in that light will be disappointed. We are aware that there is a difficulty in giving relief and variety to any book of its kind; but still we think it practicable to a far greater extent than has been accomplished in the present instance. Many of the chapters are filled with little else than the Greek names of arts, customs, offices, and the like; with a brief explanation, more in the style of a lexicographer than an essayist. Our author having made use of the valuable work of Böckh, would

have done well if he had written with more perspicuit on the subject of finance. Indeed, neither in this nor

in other instances does the selection appear good. Even the few pages that are devoted to the Drama and Administration of Justice would have been sufficient to convey a clear and definite notion of each, if more were

recorded of essentials, and less of accidents and matters of minor importance.

In style and form, Hase's book certainly is dull enough: it could hardly be interesting without much greater perspicuity, which would require either more space or fewer topics. All the explanations are abstract; there occur no allusions to modern customs or institutions. To the unlearned, it will convey some instruction, but little amusement. The late discoveries above alluded to are published in an intelligible form as plain facts, separated from the multiplicity of observations on which they are founded. So far it has an advantage. In other respects, we do not promise much for benefit to youthful students. We are disposed to think that a more beneficial effect might have been produced with less labour, at least so far as regards common readers.

We must, however, confess, that we know of no other book on the same subject which we can recommend in preference; though, with such ample materials as the German scholars have lately collected, we think it might be easily superseded by one that sacrificed minute detail to familiar illustration and perspicuous arrangement.

Sanctuary Registers of the Cathedral Church of Durham and of the Church of St. John Beverley. (A publication of the Surtees Society.) 8vo.

WE regard societies formed for the purpose of preserving documents, records, plays, poems, or any obsolete but once popular compositions, as of peculiar utility to the illustration of history and philology; such matters are "caviare to the million," and the commercial sources of literature would never, by consigning them to the press under careful editorship, risk the chance of indemnifying themselves at length by a slow and lingering sale; they can therefore be only taken up by the zeal and generosity of indivi

duals, or under the protection of their united finances.

The editor of this volume has given us faithful copies of the Sanctuary Registers of Durham and Beverley; they will save many a weary hour to the historical inquirer in deciphering the ancient court hands in which the originals are written; we speak more particularly from personal acquaintance with the Beverley Register preserved in the Harleian Library. These documents are introduced to the world, through the medium of an appropriate preface, by the Rev. Temple Chevallier, in which the ancient privileges of sanctuary are defined. The first writer who treated the subject at any length was, we believe, the Rev. Samuel Pegge, in a paper inserted in the eighth volume of the Archæologia of the Society of Antiquaries; but that learned gentleman entirely omitted to distinguish between the forty days' immunity granted to felons who fled to any church, and within that time abjured the realm before the coroner, and taking the cross in their hands went to the nearest sea-port for the purpose of embarkation; and that permanent sanctuary afforded to offenders and debtors by places privileged by royal grant and papal bulls of confirmation. To these, individuals flying, declaring their crime, and conforming to the regulations of the place, were admitted as permanently resident. These distinctions were treated at some length by Mr. Kempe, in his Historical Notices of the Collegiate Church and Sanctuary of St. Martinle-Grand, London, to whose work, with a courtesy not always found in modern literature, the editor handsomely acknowledges his obligations.*

"In different churches," says Mr. Chevallier, "the privilege of sanctuary appears to have been more or less extensive. At Durham, the sanctuary extended

to the church and church-yard, and its circuit. Security was afforded to all who

came within a certain distance of the sanctuary itself; and penalties were imposed upon such as should violate the

GENT. MAG. VOL. X.

3 X

privilege of sanctuary, increasing in proportion to the degree of holiness ascribed to the successive distances. It appears from the account of the liberties of St. John of Beverley, p. 99, Tit. iv. v. vi., that the privilege there extended from that church for a mile (leuca) every way; that the outward and second boundaries were

designated by crosses of rich carving (nobiliter insculptas): that the third boundary commenced at the entrance of the church, and the sixth included the high altar, and the fridstol, a stone chair near the altar, which conferred the greatest security. The word fridstol (frith, peace, stol, seat,) implies the seat of peace: and according to Spelman,* that at Beverley had this inscription :-' HAEC SEDES LA

PIDEA FREEDSTOLL DICITVR I. E. PACIS CATHEDRA, AD QUAM REVS FVGIENDO PERVENIENS OMNIMODAM HABET SECVRITATEM.'

"The violation of the security of sanctuary between the outer and second boundary at Beverley was punished by a fine of one hundredth,' or eight pounds. The second space was secured by a penalty of double that sum. In like manner, a fine of six, twelve, and eighteen 'hundredths,' was incurred by any one who violated the sanctity of the space between the successive boundaries up to the sixth. But if a person should take a malefactor from within the sixth inclosure, he would be what was styled botelos (bootless); his offence would be such as no payment

could redeem.

"In Hutchinson's History of Cumberland, vol. i. p. 192, there is a woodcut of a stone at Nunnery, in the parish of Ainstable, on which is sculptured a rude cross, with the word ' sanctuarium' round it, partly in Saxon characters. This seems to have been a boundary stone similar to those set up at Beverley. And in the same work there is a quotation from Staveley's History of Churches, from which it appears that four crosses were in like manner set up in the four ways leading to the Monastery of Hagulstad, that is, Hexham, in Northumberland; that a gradation of penalties was incurred, as at Beverley, by any one who should apprehend a fugitive, in proportion to his proximity to the church: and that there, also, to take any one out of the stone chair, called Fridstol, near the altar, or from among the holy relics, was an offence not redeemable by any sum. This stone

chair is still carefully preserved in the church of Hexham. The ornaments upon it assign it to the Norman period."

There was some difference in the treatment of persons flying to sanctuary at Durham and at Beverley. Such privileged places had probably their peculiar customs.

"At Durham, persons who took refuge fled to the north door and knocked for admission." Of the identical knocker, a grotesque and monstrous head, still remaining on that door, we have a representation in the wood-cut, p. xxiv.

"There were two chambers over the north door, in which men slept, for the purpose of admitting such fugitives at any hour of the night. As soon as any one was so admitted, the Galilee bell was immediately tolled, to give notice that some one had taken sanctuary. The offender was required to declare, before certain credible witnesses, the nature of his offence, and to toll a bell in token of his demanding the privilege of sanctuary. The notice of this custom occurs constantly in the registers of the sanctuary at Durham, until the year 1503, in such terms as to show that it was regularly observed. But it does not appear to be noticed after that time. Every one who had the privilege of sanctuary was provided with a gown of black cloth, with a yellow cross, called St. Cuthbert's Cross, upon the left shoulder. A grate was expressly provided near the south door of the Galilee, for such offenders to sleep upon: and they had a sufficient quantity of provisions and bedding, at the expense of the house, for thirty-seven days."

At Beverley, greater indulgence was shewn to the miserable fugitives.