OR,

Sketch Book of the Times.

THE above engraving does not, like many | It is only interesting as representing the of our embellishments, recommend itself residence of one who must be known by to the notice of our readers, by the natural name to most of our readers, and who has or architectural beauties which it depicts. ever been a great favourite with all who

have perused the work by which he has immortalized himself. If, as we believe, it is the prerogative of genius alone, to throw fascination and interest over a tri

laughter.) Perhaps some honourable gentlemen, who were interested in such matters, would get up in their places, and propose that one or two of these bridges should be built of irm! (Shouts of laughter.) For his part, if this passed, he would move for leave to bring in half a dozen more bills, for building bridges at Chelsea, and at Hammersmith, and at Marble Hall Stairs, and at Brentford, and at fifty other places besides." (Continued laugh

ter.)

Mr. Low declared it to be the opinion of the "worthy chief magistrate," that, if any carts go over Putney bridge, the city of London was irretrievably ruined! and added, that the river above London bridge would be totally destroyed as a navigation!

vial subject, or a dry detail, we need not doing, use him as though you loved him; wonder at the rank which Isaac Walton that is, harm him as little as you may enjoys in the estimation of posterity. His possibly, that he may live the longer." work on angling has been the delight of This is perhaps as singular a case of every brother of the angle," and of self-deception as the records of biography every man of taste, since its first appear- exhibit. Dr. Paley resembled Walton, ance. The simplicity of its style, the ge- we believe, in this peculiarity of his chanuine love of nature which it displays, the racter, as well as in its simplicity, benepurity and philanthropy of its sentiments, volence, and intimate sympathy with nathat true politeness, the result of a sound ture. No writer presents us with more understanding and of an amiable sensi-joyous and eloquent descriptions of the bility, beautifully exhibited in every page, gaiety and revels of inferior animals, than and heightened in effect, rather than ob- are contained in his Natural Theology; scured, by the somewhat quaint language and these he gives with a gout which we of the age in which it was written. But should not readily imagine to consist with In the present day, it is not only highly the book is itself a portrait of its venerable the love of angling. Such, however, was amusing to read these denunciations of misery author; nay, it presents him to you alive the case. Little remains to be said of the and ruin, but we are thereby reminded of the -you walk with him, reflect with him, life of Walton. Few events worthy of befallacy of human judgment and foresight. dwell with him on the peaceful beauties ing recorded can ever mark the history of Not only is there a bridge at Putney, but the forebodings of Mr. Boscawen are almost all of the landscape, and silently and gently any man, whose time was engrossed, and sink into the calm and amiable temper of whose desires were confined to the prose-realized, as relates to the erection of bridges, mind and heart which dictated this most cution of an amusement. He was born at Stafford in the month of August, 1593, innocent of books. died at Winchester on the 15th of December, 1683, and was buried in the cathedral there.

Walton appears to have been well acquainted with the writings of Montaigne, whose essays were excellently translated by his friend Cotton. In many respects, particularly in the artlessness of his character, our author resembles Montaigne, but he had less of whim and eccentricity. Montaigne informs us of his good nature, but the kindheartedness of honest Isaac oozes from him unconsciously from every pore. Of the tenderness of his natural disposition, it is impossible to doubt; and yet it is curious and almost ludicrous to note how the love of his art, and the force of habit, occasionally hoodwink his He expresses indignation humanity. against every other form of cruelty; and, censuring those who even fish at improper seasons, he observes:

But the poor fish have enemies enough beside such unnatural fishermen, as, namely, the otters that I spake of, the cormorant, the bittern, the ospray, the sea-gull, the hern, the king-fisher, the gosara, the puet, the swan, goose, ducks, and the craber, which some call the water-rat: against all of which, any honest man may make a just quarrel; but I will not, I will leave them to be quarrelled with and killed by others; for I am not of a cruel nature, I love to kill nothing but fish."

And his mode of preparing a live bait still more strikingly illustrates our observations:

"Put your hook into his mouth, which you may easily do from the middle of April till August, and then the frog's mouth grows up, and he continues so for at least six months without eating, but is sustained, none but He whose name is wonderful knows how I say, put your hook, I mean the arming wire, through his mouth, and out at his gills, and then, with a fine needle and silk, sow the upper part of his leg, with only one stitch, to the arming wire of your hook; or tie the frog's leg above the upper joint to the armed wire; and, in so

MODERN IMPROVEMENTS AND

ANCIENT OPINIONS.

WHILE we are erecting suspension bridges
over arms of the sea, and cutting tunnels under
navigable rivers, it is worth while to take a
glance at the opinions of our forefathers, with
regard to the spirit of improvement. This
seems to have begun to show itself in the last
half of the seventeenth century; for we see,
from "Grey's Debates," that on April 4th, 1671,
the second reading of a bill was moved, "for
building a bridge over the river Thames, at
Putney;" " and it is from the opinions delivered
during the debate, that we are enabled to draw
conclusions very favourable to the progress of
knowledge. Upon that occasion, Sir William
Thompson observed,—

66

"Mr. Speaker, London is circumscribed, I mean the city of London; there are walls, gates, and boundaries, the which no man can increase or extend: those limits were set by the wisdom of our ancestors, and God forbid they should be altered. But, Sir, though these landmarks can never be removed-I say never, for I have no hesitation in stating, that, when the walls of London shall no longer be visible, and Ludgate is demolished, England itself will be as nothing-though, Sir, these landmarks are immovable, indelible, indestructible, except with the constitution of the country, yet it is in the power of speculative theorists to delude the minds of the people with visionary projects of increasing the skirts of the city, so that it may even join Westminster! * * *”

Mr. Boscawen said, "If there were any ad

vantage derivable from a bridge at Putney,
perhaps some gentlemen would find out that a
bridge at Westminster would be a convenience.
Then other honourable gents. might dream
that a bridge from the end of Fleet-market into
the fields on the opposite side of the water
would be a fine speculation; or who knows
but at last it might be proposed to arch over
the river altogether, and build a couple more
bridges, one from the palace at Somerset-house,
into the Surrey marshes, and another from the
front of Guildhall into Southwark. (Great

although not so, as to their desolating effects on the city of London. A bridge at Westminster has been found to be a convenience— another has been erected from Fleet-market into the opposite fields (at Blackfriars); even the "couple more" are really in existence, and nearly in the sites pointed out-the Waterloo and Southwark bridges; and, what is still more remarkable, it has not only been "proposed," but one of these (the Southwark bridge) is actually built of iron!!! Sir Wm. Thomp son, had he lived to the present moment, might have sought in vain for the walls of London. Ludgate bar is demolished; the "wall, gates, and boundaries, set by the wisdom of our an

cestors, which no man could increase or extend," have disappeared. London is extended on every side, so that the skirts of the city are not to be distinguished, by a stranger, from Westminster.

The conclusion of this remarkable debate is not less deserving of notice. Sir Henry Herbert, just before the house divided, said, “I honestly confess myself an enemy to monopolies; I am equally opposed to mad, visionary projects; and I may be permitted to say, that, in the late king's reign, several of these thoughtless inventions were thrust upon the house, but most properly rejected. If a man, Sir, were to come to the bar of the house, and tell us that he proposed to convey us regularly to Edinburgh, in coaches, in seven days, and bring us back in seven days more, should we not vote him to Bedlam? Surely we should, if we did him justice; or, if another told us he would sail to the Indies in six months, should we not punish him for practising upon our credulity? Assuredly, if we served him rightly."

THE PASHA OF EGYPT.

THE following account of this extraordinary man is taken from an address of Sir A. Johnston to the Royal Asiatic Society:"The Pasha of Egypt, one of our honorary members, a chief of a clear and vigorous mind, observing the advantage European states have derived from a similar policy, has publicly encouraged the introduction into Egypt of all those arts and sciences which are calculated to improve the understanding of the people, to mitigate the effects of their religious feelings, and to secure the stability of the local government; he has assimilated his army and his navy to those of Europe, and subjected them to European regulations and to European discipline; he has formed corps of artillery and engineers upon European principles; he has attached regular bands of military music to each of his regiments, with European instructors, who teach the Arab musicians, according to the European notes of music, to play upon European instruments the popular marches and airs of England, France, and Germany; a short distance from Cairo he has established a permanent military hospital, and placed it under European surgeons, and the same rules as prevail in the best regulated hospitals in Europe; and he has formed a school of medicine and anatomy, in which not only botany, mineralogy, and chemistry are taught, but human bodies are publicly dissected by students who profess the Mahomedan religion, and who are publicly rewarded, in the heart of a great Mahomedan population, according to the skill and the knowledge which they display in their different dissections. At Alexandria he has established a naval school, in which the Mahomedan students are instructed in the several branches of geometry, trigonometry, mechanics, and astronomy, connected with naval architecture and the science of navigation, and a dock-yard, under the control and superintendance of a European naval architect distinguished for his talents and his skill, in which, besides frigates and other vessels of smaller dimensions, four ships of the

THE TOURIST.

CIPATION.

SOME of the friends of Negro Emancipation are apprehensive of evil consequences from its regretted, as it serves to weaken a righteous cause. We purpose, in a future number, to immediately taking place. This is much to be treat somewhat at large on this point, and are confident we shall be able to show the utter fallacy of the fears which are entertained. For the present we must content ourselves with letting our readers know the opinion which is entertained by some intelligent observers, resident in Jamaica. The following passage is extracted from the Christian Record, for May last. This publication is conducted by churchmen, and is every way entitled to public confidence. Coming from such a quarter, we hope the sentiments expressed in this editorial paper will have their proper influence.

try, for the instruction of all orders of his [ THE SAFETY OF IMMEDIATE EMAN-
people, in reading, writing, and arithmetic;
he has sent, at great expense to himself, young
men, both of the higher and lower ranks of
society, to England and France, for the purpose
of acquiring useful knowledge, the former in
those branches of science and literature which
are connected with their service in the army,
the navy, and the higher departments of go-
vernment; the latter in those mechanical arts,
which are more immediately connected with
their employment as artisans and manufac-
turers; he has constituted a public assembly
at Cairo, consisting of a considerable number
of well-informed persons, who hold regular
sittings for forty days in each year; and pub-
licly discuss, for his information, the interest
and wants of his different provinces; he pa-
tronises the publication of a weekly newspaper
in Arabic and Turkish, for the instruction of
his people; and, finally, he protects all Chris-
tian merchants who are settled in his country,
not only in time of peace, but also in time of
war, and afforded the European merchants
who were settled at Alexandria and Cairo, a
memorable instance of his determination to
adhere under all circumstances to this policy,
by informing them, as soon as he had received
intelligence of the battle of Navarino, that
their persons and their property should con-
curred. I have dwelt at some length upon
tinue as secure as if no such event had oc-
this subject, because I have felt it to be my
duty, in consequence of the information which
I have received as Chairman of the Com-
mittee of Correspondence, to give publicity in
this country to those measures, by which one
of the most distinguished of our honorary
members has restored to Egypt, in their
highest state of perfection, all the arts and
sciences of Europe; has emulated, as a patron
of knowledge, the conduct of the most en-
lightened of the Caliphs of Bagdad; and has
afforded, as a Mahomedan, a bright example,
for their imitation, to all the Mahomedan so-
vereigns in Europe, Africa, and Asia."

1787, by Dr. Currie.

"We would therefore have every Christian proprietor to examine the question closely, and in perpetuating is, under any modification whatever, what his Heavenly Master would have him consider whether that which his conduct assists to perpetuate. If it be not contrary to his will, the Christian will be comforted by the examination which satisfies him of this clearly; if it be

and he is convinced of this, will he not contrary, rejoice that he has made the examination, and discovered in time the necessity of an altered conduct?-of doing every thing in his power, and, our own parts we beg to avow distinctly our bewith a fixed purpose, to bring it to an end? For lief that keeping men in slavery is directly opposed to the spirit of the gospel, and that were all slave-holders to become Christians indeed, the state of slavery would not exist a single moment. think ourselves, therefore, compelled, in our deBut unhappily, there are many who are, and will still continue, any thing but Christians. We sire to have it abolished, as a crime against God

and our fellow-creatures, to have regard to those measures of precaution and expediency which may arise from any husty and undigested measure of be necessary to guard against the evils that would emancipation, through the opposition of unchristian men, and the working of the general depravity of man-a depravity as strong no doubt in the bosom of a slave, as in that of the being who con

u

line, three carrying 110 guns upon two decks, Extract from a Letter to Mr. Wilberforce, in siders him as but one of the live stock of his and one of 130 guns, have been recently built; he has opened the old port, which was formerly shut against them, to all Christian vessels. He has encouraged the formation of regular insurance offices, and authorised Christian merchants to acquire a property in lands, houses, and gardens. He has employed an English civil engineer of great eminence, on a very liberal salary, to improve all the canals in the country and the course of the Nile: he is about to construct carriage-roads from Alexandria to Cairo, and from Alexandria to Rozetta and Damietta: and M. Abro, the cousin of his minister, is about to establish upon them public stage-coaches, built on a model of one sent to him by a coachmaker from this country; he has introduced steam-boats, which navigate upon the Nile, and steam-engines, | which are used for cleansing and deepening the bed of that river, and for various other public works; he has patronised the employment, by Mr. Briggs, of two Englishmen, taken for the purpose from this country, in boring for water in different parts of the desert, and he has discovered, through their operations, some very fine water in the desert between Cairo and Suez; he has encouraged the growth of cotton, indigo, and opium, and the former of these productions is now a great article of trade between Egypt and England, France, and Germany; he has established schools in the coun

estate. But at the same time, we would record our deliberate belief, founded upon no slight ac. "VERY frequently, indeed, it is asserted, race of negroes in this island, that the measure of that the condition of the negroes in the Westquaintance with, or short experience of, the present Indies is happier and better than in their own emancipation (which ALL AGREE must one day be country; and, therefore, that those transported to passed), accompanied by a judicious, and in its our sugar colonies can really sustain no injury. details well defined, enactment, for the alteration Whence, then, I have asked, arises the waste and governmeut of the newly freed labourers, and of life in the West Indies, which occasions with the establishment of an effective police, those evils following, which are made the bugthe necessity of so large a supply to keep up might THIS DAY take effect with perfect safety to the numbers there; and whence the increase all classes of the community, and without one of advocates of truth and justice. Nay more if the of life in Africa, which affords this supply bears to frighten from the measure the Christian negroes are not now hit for such a boon, we beWe desire, therefore, without their numbers being diminished? lieve they NEVER will be. Ten millions of negroes have been carried across to see Christian Proprietors, not seeking how to the ocean to support a population which, it is Ten families planted in those reconcile themselves to their possession of their the quessaid, at present does not amount to more than We must 800,000 souls. islands 300 years ago, when the slave-trade fellow-men, but how they may immediately and commenced, under the auspices of freedom consistently abandon it. Again we say, and of nature, with the advantages of a fertile tion presses-it must be decided soon. soil, and a climate congenial to their constitu- either go back at once, if WE CAN, to the state of tions, might by this time have produced a slavery in which we were thriving a hundred years greater number. Who can doubt it? Within ago, or at once meet the spirit of the times, and half this time, a handful of Englishmen have change our unwilling slaves into willing, because to all the present proprietors-the very least of spread themselves over an immense continent properly recompensed, free labourers or fearful have converted a wilderness into a fertile indeed will be the consequent ruin and destitution country-have given battle to the most power-them. We say Now is the time to make the change ful people of Europe; and through a sea of toils and troubles, have arisen to the rank of thirteen independent states. The English were free men: the unhappy Africans were slaves."

only fix this, and men will be astonished at the May the spirit of wisdom and of a sound mind be easiness and safety with which it will be effected. in all our councils!"

MR. BURKE Somewhere expresses an opinion, that it is better that the minds of men should be occupied with information ever so trivial and useless, so that it be not erroneous and prejudicial, than that they should be destitute of information of all kinds. Nor does the great name of Mr. Burke, with all the knowledge of human nature and of politics with which it will ever stand associated, yield by any means the most powerful sanction to this opinion, It is perpetually reiterated and confirmed to us by the concurrent voice and experience of those, among whom, during later times, the advantages of ex-. tended knowledge and intellectual culture have been enjoyed. It has at length become a problem, how any persons possessing the benefits of an ordinary education could delude themselves with the notion, that the same causes which produced innocent gratification to them should involve the elements of anarchy and mischief to others. For, what, let us inquire, have they first to establish, before they can give any weight or plausibility to their opinion? They must prove, that men will be the more likely to disobey, the more thoroughly they know and appreciate the cogent reasons which enforce obedience that they will be the more engrossed by sensual pleasures, in proportion as they have access to such as are of a higher and an opposite character: in contradiction to the experience of all mankind, they must show that we are inflated with vanity, in proportion to our intellectual acquirements; and disposed to fraudulent self-aggrandizement by learning, from the historian and the moralist, that "true self-love and social are the same." In short, they must make an admission, at once the most humiliating and impolitic that can well be imagined; namely, that the grounds of truth and of duty in religion, morals, and politics, are so weak and questionable as to render it necessary to forbid all examination of them.

We trust, however, that these remarks are but little called for by the present state of society. We are persuaded, that if there be a party who uphold the opposite opinion, that party is daily on the wane. We joyfully hail those indications which distinguish the present as the golden age of education. We cannot but anticipate

its constant and accelerated progress,
when we find, among its most zealous
promoters, men upon whom it has most
profusely showered its advantages, and
who combine the influence of rank with
the authority of office.

set on foot, for the improvement of the lower classes, and especially the children of the poor, in moral and religious knowledge, from which the parties concerned, but to the kingdom at we hope much good will accrue, not only to large. These are the likeliest, or rather the only expedients that can be adopted, for formBut while we entertain the highest hopes ing a sound and virtuous populace; and, if from the operation of these forces, which there be any truth in the figure by which somay be said to constitute the primum ciety is compared to a pyramid, it is on them mobile of the great process, we may ad- its stability chiefly depends: the elaborate orvert with equal pleasure to the excellent nament at the op will be a wretched compensation for the want of solidity in the lower order and adaptation of the mechanism parts of the structure. These are not the times by which it is carried forward. We refer in which it is safe for a nation to repose on the particularly to the abundance of cheap pub- lap of ignorance. If there ever were a season, lications, the rise and currency of which we when public tranquillity was ensured by the deem of sufficient consequence to be ranked absence of knowledge, that season is past. among the most important characteristics The convulsed state of the world will not perof the present age. In some of them the being appalled by phantoms, and shaken by mit unthinking stupidity to sleep, without most useful knowledge is contained, sim- terrors, to which reason, which defines her obplified to the level of every degree of in- jects and limits her apprehensions by the telligence, and rendered accessible and reality of things, is a stranger. Every thing attractive to all by their cheapness and in the condition of mankind announces the elegance. We confidently anticipate the approach of some great crisis, for which nomost beneficial results from this source, ledge, probity, and the fear of the Lord. thing can prepare us but the diffusion of knowand we trust that The Tourist will not While the world is impelled, with such viocontribute least to justify such expecta-lence, in opposite directions; while a spirit of tions. giddiness and revolt is shed upon the nations, and the seeds of mutation are so thickly sown, the improvement of the mass of the people will be our grand security, in the neglect of which the politeness, the refinement, and the knowledge accumulated in the higher orders, weak and unprotected, will be exposed to imminent danger, and perish like a garland in the grasp of popular fury."

We cannot close these remarks more suitably than by adopting the eloquent language of one of the greatest writers our literature can boast, in confirmation of these opinions.

"We congratulate the nation, on the extent of the efforts employed, and the means

THESE are the ruins of one of the most beautiful monastic edifices which we owe to the piety, or the superstition of our forefathers. Its situation is most romantic, and, at the same time, exceedingly appropriate to the purposes of its establishment. It was founded by Henry the Third, and peopled by a colony of Cistertian monks from Beaulieu Abbey, which lay a few miles off. What time this holy fraternity spent in their devotions, we are not informed; but we may fairly conjecture that they did not suffer

|

themselves to be unduly engrossed by literature, as their library at the time of the dissolution, under Henry the Eighth, consisted but of one book.

After this time, Netley Abbey passed into the hands of various possessors, and among others of Sir Bartlett Lucy in the year 1700, who sold it to a carpenter of Southampton. The latter intended to pull it down, for the sake of the materials; and we are told that we owe the preservation of the ruins from this Gothic attack to the following occurrence, the account of

which we take from Browne Willis, who "Durgives full credence to the legend. ing the time," says he," this man was in treaty with Sir Bartlett, he was greatly disturbed by frightful dreams, and, as some say, apparitions: particularly by that of a monk, who threatened him with great mischief, if he persisted in his purpose (of pulling down the edifice). One night, in particular, he dreamed a large stone from one of the windows fell upon him and killed him. This so terrified him, that he communicated these disturbances to a particular friend, who advised him to desist but avarice, and the contrary advice of other friends, getting the better of his fears, he concluded the bargain; when attempting to take out some stones from the bottom of the west wall, the whole body of a window fell down upon him, and crushed him to death."

THE TWILIGHT HOUR.

Sweet hour! the latest, loveliest,
Of all that 'tend upon the sun;
Thou blushing loiterer of the West,

I would the wintry months were gone,
If but again to welcome thee,
And share thy smile o'er land and sea.
And while the gorgeous heavens weave
The crimson clouds into a veil
Before his brow, as he takes leave

Of earth-to watch the crescent pale
O' the moon, I see the evening star
Beckoning her sisters from alar;

And listen to the tinkling bells
Of flocks returning to the fold;
Or village peal-those chimes that tell

A tale of memory to the old,

Of hope to youth-whilst, high above,
The rooks wend homeward to the grove;

Or see, while trills the nightingale

His notes, the slow owl skirt the plain,
And bats' swift circuit in the 'dale;
All motives to a dreary train
Of pleasant thoughts, that breathe repose,
And mark the rosy evening's close.
O'er lands beyond the Appenine,
Though darkness soon dispels the charm,
With deeper glow thy beauties shine,

Sweet twilight!-mirror'd in the calm
Blue water, till the night-wind's play
Succeeds the sultriness of day.

There 'tis the convent-bell ye hear,

And the impassion'd vesper-chaunt;
Or blither music greets the ear,

Where the guitar, and some romaunt,
The tarantell' and tambourine,
Make glad some vine-embower'd scene.

There, too, the fire-flies hold their dance,
And the cigali's jocund song
Resounds, unheeding night's advance,
The silver olive trees among;
And myrtles yield their fragrancy
To wanton zephyrs wandering by.

I would the wintry months were flown,

Once more, sweet hour, to walk with thee;
If, haply, not where suns go down

In climes that zone the midland sea,
With fancy and with thee to roam
Among th' accustom'd scenes of home.
Felix Farley's Bristol Journal.

signify that her care extended to the
country also. The breastplate or neck-
lace, adorned with the signs of the zodiac,
was intended to show that this superin-
tendance was exercised through all the
seasons of the year. There seems good
reason to believe that when the Romans
invaded this country the worship of this
In the year 1602 an
great goddess was introduced among our
ignorant ancestors.
image was dug out of the ground in Mon-
mouthshire, which, by the form, dress,
and inscription, appears to be the figure
of the Ephesian idol. We are also in-
formed by an ancient manuscript in the
Cotton Library, that in the time of the
heptarchy, Ethelbert, King of Kent, built
a church in London, to the honour of St.
Paul, upon the spot where formerly stood
a temple of Diana; and a variety of relics
have been dug up, at different times, near
the site of St. Paul's, which strongly con-
firm this account.

THIS was one of the most celebrated | cities; while the heads of cattle beneath deities of ancient mythology. She was worshipped with the same distinctive attributes, in various countries, and under various names. She is supposed to have been originally the Isis of the Egyptians, and to have been introduced into Greece under the name of Diana at the same time with Osiris, under that of Apollo. This figure is remarkable as representing one of the false deities mentioned in the Scriptures, "Diana of the Ephesians," her most splendid temple being at Ephesus. It was built by the united contributions of many of the Grecian states and princes, and was so magnificent as to be esteemed one of the wonders of the world. The figure itself was probably intended to set forth the extensive blessings of Providence, as bestowed on all classes of created beings. It is drawn as manybreasted, to denote that the goddess possessed abundant fountains of nourishment. The turrets, crowning her head, show her peculiar guardianship over