The Welshman

A B ERA Y RON. PETTY SESSIONS. At these sessions, held on the 24th ult, Capt Philipps, Mabws (chairman), and Capt Hughes, Alltllwyd.—Jenkin Jones Thomas, Esq., late of Llaethliw, and now ot Ferryside, and his servants, Joseph Pugh, George Thomas, and William Jones, were charged with as- saulting James Johns, servant to David Thomas, Esq., of Llanfair, Llandyssil, on the previous Tuesday morning, between one and two o'clock, at Llaethliw. Mr Barrett P. Jordan appeared, and stated the caee for the complainant. It appeared from the evidence that a very serious assault had been committed, and the Bench, after hearing what the defendant bad to say, fined Mr Thomas 43 and costs, or in default, one calendar month with hard labour George Thomas and Joseph Pugh, 10s each and costs, or .in default 14 days' imprisonment with bard labour. LIBERAL MEETING.—It is reported that a meeting of the leading liberals of the district, will be held here next week, to take measures for raising a fund of A60,000, in order to aid the voters who have been injured, in any way, in consequence of the last election. Mr H. Richard, M.P., writing to the Baner last week, calls upon the preachers to bring the matter before their congregations on Sundays after the sermon, and tj exhort them to contribute to the fund liberally. REGISTRATION COURT.-The court for this district was opened on the 6th, before Joshiah Rees, Esq., Re- vising Barrister. A large number of objections bad been made by both sides. Mr Smith t Smith, Jones, and Lewit-), and Mr Harries, Llechryd, represented the Liberals; and Mr Attwood, of Aberysiwith, appeared for the Conservatives. The revision lasted till two o'clock a.m. on Friday morning. The result of the revision is vB follows Expunged Expunged Appeals Parish, by by by Conservatives. Liberals. Literals. Cicenniu £ 1 Dhewid — 3 — Hcnfynyw 37 6 12 Llanarth — 12 1 L!anbadarn-trefeglwys i L'anddcwi-Aberarth 30 10 2 Liandys8iliogogo 10 3 Llanina »nd Cydplwyf 7 Llanllwchaiarn 60 5 167 22 21 The barrister granted Mr Smith a case for appeal, in respect of lenses given for sixty years, but having a re- trospective view, that is the leaseholder bad entered into possession of the property in respect of which the lease was he:d leforo having the lease drawn out, and the sixty years mentioned in the lease were to commence from the entry of the leaseholder, and not from the time of obtaining the lease. The Liberals feel confident of having the case decided favourably to them, while on the other side it is said that the case will not be pro- ceeded with. The revision of the Llanrhystirl division took place on Friday, and the result was :-Hi expunged by Conservatives, leaving both sides equal.

TIVY & AERON BOARD OF CONSERVATORS. A quarterly meeting of this Board was held at the Magistrates' Room, Newcastle-Emlyn, on Friday last. There were present—Mr J. P. Vaughan Price (in the chair), Mr Fitzwilliams, Mr F. J. Walker, Alltyrodin, Mr C. E. Longcroft, jun., Llanina, Mr D. Thomas, Llanfair, and Mr A. H. Jones, Penrallt. The first business was the selection of conservators for the ensuing year, to be recommended for appoint- ment by the courts of quarter sessions. After some conversation, the following recommendations were unanimously agreed upon :— Cardiganshire.—Mr Walker, Altyrodin; Mr Ihomas, Llanfair; Mr T. E. Lloyd, Coedmore; and Mr J. Lloyd, Gilvachwen. Carmarthenshire.—Mr A. H. Jones, Penrallt; Mr C. E. Longcroft, jun. Mr Sylvanus H. Lewis, Llandys- sil and Mr W. H. Hall, Gellydywyll. Pembroke-shire. -Capt. J. Stewart, Emlyn-Cottage Mr T. Parker, Lion Hotel, Cardigan; Capt. Macdonald, Neuaddfawr; and Mr Jones Lloyd, Llancych. Mr Jordan, the clerk to the board, read the following report of Mr Walpole, who had lately visited the rivers in the district:— Salmon Fisheries Office, 4, Old Palace Yard, West. minster, S.W., August 24th, 1869. SIR,-I venture on my return to town to send you a few observations on the inspection which I have just had the pleasure of making of the Teify and Ayron Fishery District, and, as I saw the Ayron first, the few remarks which I have to make on this, the smaller of the two rivers, I will, if you will allow me, commence with making THE AYRo-a river of considerable capabilities, is 19 j miles long, and drains an area of 63 square miles. It joins the sea at Aberayron through a narrow shallow channel, in which there is certainly no sufficient depth of water to induce salmon or migratory salmonidae to leave the sea at an early period of the year. The lead, therefore, into the river, and the compara- tive dryness of the river in the summer, are sufficient to account for the unquestioned fact that salmon do not begin to run up the river until late in the summer. North of the river the sea coast is fished with a pecu- liar engine—a goryd (to use its local name)—which I have not met with in any other part of the country. The goryd is a semicircular, or, in some instances, a circular, wall of rough stones, built in such a way as to capture the fish which happen to run up with the flood by preventirg their return with the ebb tide. The goryd, as I am informed, captures a fair number of flat-fish, &c., and a few salmon and sea trout, and no license duty has ever been placed on it by your Board as, however, it is avowedly used for the capture of sea trout, I am clearly of opinion that it ought to be sub- jected to a small license duty -the imposition of which would in no way affect the legality of the engine, and would bring a small additional revenue to your Board. Strictly speaking, I have no doubt that the goryd might be included under the generic name of fishing weir indeed, I blieve that the proper meaning of that word, like that of its synonym, the Saxon word gaith," is simply an enclosure," but it will probably be safer for your Board to license it under the name under which it is locally known, applying of course in the first instance to the Secretary of State for his approval of the license. There are two weirs on the Aeron, to which 4 is necessary that allusion should be made. The weir at Aberayron is a steep slope of masonry ending in an almost perpendicular fall into a deep pool below. The length of the slope is about 33 feet 6 inches, the height of the weir is about 7 feet 9 inches; and the slope, therefore is on an average about I in 4. The weir is quite impracticable except on very rare occasions. It could, I think, be made practicable, or at any rate much more practicable by the construction of a second weir below it. This weir should be nothing more than a very stout board, two feet high, secured into the firm rock of the river bed by strong iron pins. I have seen this device in use on a considerable tribu- tary of the Usk, where it has stood firmly for some years, and the cost of construction in that case was, I know, very blight indeed. The effect of the Board would, of course, be to raise the level of the pool below the weir, and so reduce the height of the weir by two feet, and this addition would materially assist the pas- sage of fish. The second weir on the Ayron, that at Pont Newydd, is fortunately not so difficult an obstruction, and offers little or no difficulty to the ascent of fish. I have very little doubt that the alterations which have been made in Aberayron weir are the real cause of the decline which has taken place in the salmon fisheries of the Ayron and I therefore cannot impress too strongly upon your Board, or on the Local Associa- tion by whom the Ayron is preserved, the extreme necessity of dealing adequately and quickly with this weir. THE TEIFY is, in a salmon sense, one of the finest rivers in the kingdom it is 70 miles long and has a catchment basin of 389 square miles. I was very glad to learn from the members of your Board, whom I had the pleasure of meeting, that there were symptoms of a better feeling among the fishermen of the river and that the alteration which has been made in the rate of license duties, which have been varied from one fourth to the whole scale given in the Act, has so far been effective that an increase has taken place in the revenue of the Board. I was still more glad to learn that in the tidal por- tions of the river there had been apparently a consider- able increase in the take of fish this year and that it is consequently fair to assume that increased protection has been attended with its legitimate result-an in- creased profit. But I was sorry to find that the advan- tages had hitherto been entirely monopolised by the tidal fishermen, because I am satisfied that, as no river can be productive in which all the interests, upper and lower, do not concur in the good work of protection, so on no river can all these interests be induced to carry on the work unless they more or less participate in the advantages of salmon culture. Without considering on this occasion whether the present close season is, or is not, applicable to the Teify, and without endeavouring to solve the difficult problem of the condition of the fish in the tidal portion of the river, I may be permitted to point out that there are un- doubtedly two reasons which materially interfere with the passage of fish up the river, and which consequently prevent the upper proprietors receiving any share in the advantages of salmon culture, which, in my judgment, on the broadest grounds of policy, it is essential that they should be given. The first of these reasons is the debris from the slate quarries at Kilgerran, which is constantly slipping into the stream an abuse, therefore, which, if the Board can rectify, I trust they will endeavour to deal with. The second and the more important reason is the high fall at Kenarth, which completely bars the river except in high floods. The river at Kenarth falls over high perpendicular rocks of irregular height the main body of the water being thrown towards the left of the stream and having gradually scooped out a channel for itself in that direction. Above this channel and stretch. ing diagonally across the stream a weir has been con- structed to supply a small mill with water power. The fish, passing through this narrow gorge, are arrested again by this artificial obstruction enables poachers to capture, and there is clear evidence that they do capture them in great numbers. As, however, the artificial obstruction exists for the sake of the mill, it is clearly that if the mill was re- moved the artificial weir would no longer be necessary, and if it were removed so considerable a volume of water would pass through the narrow gorge, to which I have already referred, that it would become almost impossible for the poachers to take, even if it were pos- sible for him to see them ascending. This, therefore, seems to me to be by far the most efficacious plan which could be adopted, and I have no doubt it was only not recommended by my colleague last year, because it was not then thought possible to touch the mill. But if I am rightly informed, the mill is of small value and the lease of the miller has very few years to run. The noble owner of the mill might possibly be willing, on its expiration, not to renew it; and, under these circumstances, I do not think that the Board can do better than to make such arrangements as may seem to them most advisable for terminating more immediately the miller's lease. Such a course would, I am satisfied, materially pro- mote the interests of the river in fact, nothing on the Teify is of so much importance as the passing 0 the fish over Kenarth falls. The passage, to be of any value at all, must be one with which no one may be able to tamper; and it would be simply waste of money to build anything which could be destroyed by poachers. The removal, therefore, of a weir will be a work of permanent utility, because it will be a work which will not only pass the fish up the river, but will make the gorge, in which fish are now poached, one of the most difficult places in the whole river for catching them. The other important question of the Teify, the Shot Fawr at the mouth of the river and the Lead Mines at the top of it, I do not propose to mention in this report further than to observe that the former could have been regulated satisfactorily if the new Bill, which was introduced by Her Majesty's Government this year, but which was unfortunately obliged to be withdrawn, had become ltiw and that the latter, I trust, will receive the constant attention of the Board, as nothing is t#g:.er than to destroy a river, and nothing is more difficult than to restore it. Into these questions, however, I will not enter fully now. The main question with which, in my judg- ment, the Board ought to deal I have already stated. It is hardly necessary for me to add how sincerely I trust that it may be dealt with promptly. Few Boards of Conservators have so noble a property to manage as the river Teify. Few Boards can, therefore, contribute more to the salmon wealth of the country than they are able. That they have difficulties to encounter I do not deny, but they are difficulties which may be overcome, and, I hope, are being overcome by tact and firmness, patience and perseverance and I trust that by the exer- cise of these qualities the Conservators may be able to say of the Teify again, as was said of it many centuries ago by a great Welshman, that it was more abundant in salmon and had richer salmon than any other Welsh river. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, S. WALPOLE, Inspector of Salmon Fisheries With regard to the obstruction of the river at Oil. gerran, there appeared to be a difficulty in dealing with the parties offending. Mr Fitzwilliams said the difficulty was this: that in a criminal case, like the one they were considering, they were required to fix upon the person who actually threw the debris into the water. The owner of the soil, or the lessee of the quarry, could not be made crimi- nally responsible for the act of another person-they could only proceed against the criminal himself. Therefore, the difficulty was to find out who the per- sons were who threw the debris into the water, for it was impossible that they could keep the police there night and day, watching the workmen. Mr Walker—Suppose we write to the Fishery Com- missioners, and hear what they have to say upon the subject. Mr Fitzwilliams—They have said that they can do nothing. They say, in effect, Find us the men who do this, and we will prosecute them." Mr Walker-I think we may make application, through the Chairman, to the Secretary of State, or whoever the proper authority might be, for his advice how to proceed against persons found obstructing the rivers. Mr Fitzwilliams-I will join you in such application, but I can tell you what the result will be practicaly. After the usual routine-the customary red tapery- (laughter)-the thing will come to nothing. The difficulty, as I have said, is in fixing upon the real culprit. As soon as you find him, punish him. My advice is very like the old lady's recipe for making hare soup, she says, "You must first catch the hare." (Laughter). Mr A. H. Jones-But cannot you attack these per- son civilly Mr Fitzwilliams-But the person who proceeds against them must then show that he has been civilly inj ured. There's the hitch. We have always pointed out the difficulty of finding out the culprit. The per- sons who actually commit the offence, take the work from another person. Those persons bring a certain number of slates up, and there is of course so much refuse, which goes somewhere. Now, I propose that we apply to Government to pass an Act of Parliament which shall provide that in all similar cases the parties who supply the material, or the owners of the soil, shall be answerable for all material dug up by other people, and thrown into the water. (Hear, hear.) Mr Walker-That could be added to the next Salmon Fisheries Bill. It is a pity It was omitted from the last bill. (Hear, hear.) Mr Fitzwilliams—We did make application for some power to deal with such cases, but were tuld that it was useless to legislate, until we agreed to make the land- lord answerable for all material pitched into the water from his land. Mr Walker-I think that is the idea we all enter- tain. Mr Fitzwilliams-It was a matter that required a great deal of consideration, for there was a difficulty in this way. Take the Cilgerran slate quarries, for example. The owner of the soil has no more to do with the obstruction of the weir than we have. He leases the quarries to Mr Stephens, and then Mr Stephens-who is not the owner, remember—underlets the working to somebody else, and the under-tenant lets out the work in small contracts, and so on downwards, until we find that the person who really commits the offence is a man of straw. He does the work, and if we could get an Act of Parliament so framed as to reach this man of straw, then he would not obstruct the river. The obstruction is caused by his fingers, but at present we have a difficulty in getting at him. After some further conversation Mr Fitzwilliams pro- posed that the Clerk be authorised to write a letter to the proper authorities, pointing out that it is impracti- cable to bring criminal proceedings within reach of the parties through whom the river at Cilgerran is impeded, unless an Act of Parliament be passed for all similar places, enabling boards of conservators to proceed against the owner of the soil, or against any other parties to whom it might be let or sublet. He suggested that a copy of Mr Walpole's report should accompany the Clerk's letter. It was, he said, impossible to prove who threw each specific piece of slate or other debris into the water, therefore a clause should be introduced into the Salmon Fisheries Act, or any other public Act, authorising summary proceedings to be taken against the owner of the soil out of which the slates were taken, or against any other parties to whom the soil might be sublet. Some conversation ensued with regard to the obstruc- tion caused by the mill at Kenarth. In reply to the Chairman, Mr Walker said the miller wanted X450 for his interest in the mill. He mentioned that in a con- versation between Mr Walpole and himself it was sug- gested that the Board should make a proposition to Lord Cawdor, to the effect that the Board considered the mill an obstruction detrimental to the river, and that it was highly desirable to remove the obstruction in some way and that the Board thought they should speak to his lordship first in order to ascertain what he would be inclined to do with regard to the termination of the lease. The miller did not seem inclined to come to any reasonable terms, but they did not wish to came to any terms with him before first of all speaking to his lord. ship. The Chairman said he believed Lord Cawdor sym- pathised with the Board, and wished the mill had never been built. Mr Walker suggested that the Clerk should write to Lord Cawdor, setting forth how strongly they felt as a board this obstruction to the river, whict, could not be removed unless terms could be made with the tenant, and that his lordship could average those terms better than they could as a Board. Of course some money would be required, and Col. Lewes, of Llysnewydd, bad suggested that a certain sum should be raised upon de. bentures, and that three or four members should put down their names for a certain sum each, as a guaran- tee for the iepayment of the money by the Board. After some further remarks, it was resolved that the Clerk do write to Lord Cawdor, and enclose a copy of Mr Walpole's report for his perusal, with a request that he would become the medium for carrying the sugges- tions of Mr Walpole into effect.-It was also resolved that the proposition for reducing the quorums should be adjourned until the next meeting, in the absence of the Chairman, whose proposition it was. The Clerk pro- duced the annual accounts for inspection, and after having been examined by the Board it was ordered that the presiding Chairman should approve of the same by fixing the Corporate Seal and signing them on behalf of the Board.—It was resolved that the Clerk should take the necessary steps to obtain the further approvals of the existing scale of licenses by the Secre- tary of State. There was no other business before the Board.

literary notices. HUGH MILLER'S WORKS.* An elegant cheap edition of Hugh Miller's works is now in course of publication. It is neatly printed in clear type on thick paper. The binding is exceedingly chaste, in bright brown cloth with bevelled edges and gilt back. Altogether there will be twelve handsome volumes, each complete in itself, and cheap enough to be within the reach of the student and the working man." We hope to be in a position from time to time to introduce these volumes to our readers, and by characteristic quotations rather than any critical re- marks of our own, to extend the knowledge of a writer who takes rank among the highest in English litera- ture. The volume now before us is by no means the least interesting of the series. It consists for the most part of the principal contributions of Hugh Miller to the literature of what is called the Ten] Years' Conflict." In the struggle which culminated in the Free Church of Scotland, no one took a more conspicuous position than Hugh Miller, who, from his commanding abilities, was selected to conduct The Witness," the organ of the Evangelical party. He gave himself up to this labour with an all-consuming zeal, which never for a moment relaxed, and in accomplishing the purpose upon which his heart was set, he has left behind him a monument to his genius which will endure for ages. Indeed, his name must ever be associated with Chal- mers, and the other great men who took part in the movement. Everybody knows that the immediate cause of the movement was the presentation of a minister to a charge against the will of the congrega- tion, which led to a conflict with the civil authorities, the House of Lords at length deciding against the Church. It would be out of place here to go further into the subject, and we mention it only for the purpose of stating that the controversy cannot be fully com- prehended without studying this volume, which con- tains, in addition to many of the more powerful articles in The Witness, the famous" Letter to Lord Brougham," who had then just pronounced decision against the Evangelical party, and which led to the appointment of Hugh Miller to the editorship of The Witness." It also contains "The Whiggism of the Old School," in which he discusses with searching elo- quence and force the question of Church patronage in its historical, philosophical, and religious aspect. These are followed by six able articles on Dr. Thomas M'Crie," which have no direct bearing on the con- troversy. They illustrate, however, in a way emi- nently clear and pertinent, the precise manner in which the principles then at stake were apprehended by Hugh Miller, and constitute a masterly sketch of the beginning of the contest in connection with the ecclesi- astical history of Scotland in the present century." But we have overlooked a short sketch of The Literary Character of Knox," which supplies a good example of Hugh Miller's more graphic style. It is one of the main distinctions of works produced by the master minds, whether in literature or the fine arts, that they contain a large amount of thought. There are books of no great bulk which it seems scarce possible to exhaust, and pictures which, after one has looked at them for hours together, appear just as fresh and new as at first when one comes to look at them again. The works of Hogarth are scarcely less remark. able for vigour and condensation of thought than the works of Shakspeare; nor is Sir David Wilkie a less fascinating author than Sir Walter Scott, or a less masterly delineator of character. Both these great artists,—the living and the dead one,—Hogarth and Sir David,—have shown how possible it is for men of genius to think vigorously upon canvas and that a clear, readable, condensed style may be attained in painting as certainly as in writing. One never tires of their productions. They tell admirable stories in so admirable a manner, that the oftener we peruse them the better we are pleased and almost every story has its moral. There is, however, one of the most readable of Sir David's pictures which contains what we have been inclined to think a gross historical error, and belies the character of a very great man. His Knox Pleaching before the Lords of the Congregation is un- questionably a splendid composition,-full of thought and sentiment, but the main figure is defective. It represents not the powerful and persuasive orator, whose unmatched eloquence led captive the great minds of the country, but the mere fanatical leader of an unthinking rabble. It reminds us of the narrow-minded heresiarch described by Hume and Gilbert Stuart,—not of the vigorous-thoughted worthy aspoatrophized by the noble Milton as 'Knox, the Reformer of a kingdom, a great man, animated by the Spirit of God.' The reign of the dissolute and totally unprincipled Charles II. affected more than the mode and framework of English literature,-it affected it spirit also. It sub- stituted for that indigenous school to which Shakspeare and Milton belong, and whicb, in a later time, has been restored by Cowper and Wordsworth, the feeble ele- gancies of French literature in the reigu of Louis XIV. It substituted also for the native spirit of liberty and the zeal of truth, the servilities of French flattery and French falsehood. It was in this reign of degradation, —the reign in which the glorious Paradise Lost' was described by a servile versifier as a poem remark- able for only its length,' that Knox came to be repre- sented, like the blind poet who so honoured and cherished his memory, as a rude and unmannerly fanatic. He had taught kings that the divine right is not on the side ot irresponsible power, but on the side of a well-regulated popular liberty. He had shown with irresistible effect, that whatever God has com- manded, men have a 'divine right' to obey; and that in such matters kings and law-makers have no right whatever to interfere And the hereditary despots could neither overturn his logic nor forgive him the lesson. But they could revile and calumniate, and the creatures whom they half-fed, half-starved, fixed the calumny in the literature of the time. There was a decided improvement in the following age but the tone of its theology, in at least the sister kingdom, was unfavourable to the character of Knox. It was a time of spiritual death in the English Church and the cry of fanaticism raised against the Reformer, chiefly on a civil plea, in the reign of Charles II., was prolonged in the reign of Anne and the earlier Georges, on a purely religious one. Naturally enough, his beliefs were deemed absurd and irrational by the defamers and depredators of Whitfield; and there was no M'Cri to tell the Rundles and Atterburys of the time, that the zealot whom they contemned and undervalued had been a fellow-labourer in the English Church with its Lati- mers and Cranmers, and had lent his assistance in framing the code of belief which they themselves had professed to receive, but for which in reality they cared so little. The tone of our Scottish literature in the last century was borrowed in part from our English neigh- bours, and in part from the French. Hume, with less liveliness but greater original powers than Voltaire, condescended, in a considerable degree, to imitate the historical style of that volatile and accomplished writer, and evinced a hostility equally bitter to whatever had the sacredness of religion to recommend it. Robertson, Smollett, Kaimes, Adam Smith, Gilbert Stuart, Tytler, and Moore, bad all caught the English mode and the English spirit, and were, in at least as marked a degree as any of their English contemporaries, tinctured with infidelity. Hence, in part, the disrespect shown by almost all these writers to the memory of Knox Knox's 'History of the Reformation' is immensely superior to the history of Bacon It displays more freedom and more power. There is a dramatic effect in some of the dialogues altogether fascinating, and there are touches of such simple pathos in the narrative that they affect even to tears. It is not as a his- torian, however, that the literary character of Knox can be rated highest. His history, unlike Bacon's, which is rather overlaboured than the reverse, seems, so far as regards composition, to have been carelessly written,—in the midst, doubtless, of the ceaseless round of harassing employments in which the latter portion of his life was spent. It is in his shorter compositions that hib great ability as a writer is best shown and with some of these before us, we speak advisedly when we assert that he was decidedly the first man of either kingdom who wrote what would be deemed a good English style, tested by the present standard. There is a mellifluous flow and thorough ease in his sentences altogether astonidhing, when we take into account the stiff inflexibility of the English language at that period, as shown in the prose writings of even his abler con- temporaries. Whole colonies of half-naturalized Greek and Latin words had been just brought into the lan- guage and, as if unsuited to its genius, they performed their work clumsily and heavily in even in the hands of superior men. We instance the earlier homilies of the English Church. Almost every member of every sentence in these compositions is broken into two parts, the last of which generally repeats in Saxon English the idea which in the first is expressed in Latinized Eng- lish. And hence their stiff and peculiar verbosity of style. In the more carefully written compositions of Knox there is none of this. Johnson has remarked of Milton, that the heat of his genius sublimed his learn- ing,' and threw off merely the finer and more subtle parts into his poetry. In the same way, the genius of the great Reformer seems to have fused into one pliant and homogeneous mass the language which, when em- ployed by men of a lower order, was so heterogeneous anct untractable. He seemed as if born to anticipate the improvements and refinements of an age yet distant, and this not merely in his knowledge of things, but in his command of words." The Debate on Missions" has interested us very much. In order to illustrate the true character of Moderatism in the Church of Scotland, Hugh Miller describes with wonderful effect the famous debate on missions, which took place in the General Assembly in the first year of the present century. The Moderates opposed success- fully alproposal to support the missionary cause, which was then for the first time engaging the attention of the Christian Church in this country. Hugh Miller sketches the leaders on both sides-the Moderates and Evangelicals, the former represented by Dr Hill and the latter by Dr Erskine. He gives a clear summary of the debate. And it is worth remarking that the Moderates used precisely the same arguments against missions to the heathen as find favour at this moment in many quarters. To spread abroad the knowledge of the Gospel among barbarous and heathen nations," Mr Hamilton remarked, seems to me highly preposterous in as far as it anticipates, nay as it even reverses the idea of nature. Men must be polished and refined in their manners before they can be properly enlightened in religious truths. Philosophy and learning must in the nature of things take the precedence. Indeed it should seem hardly less absured to make revelation precede civilization in the order of time, than to pretend to un- fold to a child the Principia of Newton, ere he is made at all acquainted with the letters in the alphabet. These ideas seem to me alike founded in error, and therefore I must consider them both as equally romantic and visionary." We cannot give further quotation but, says Hugh Miller, Mr Hamilton ceased speaking and sat down. On the table of the General Assembly there always lies a Bible. The venerable leader of Evan- gelism rose, and pointed to the table. Moderator,' he ?li.??and the brief and emphatic sentence that followed ,i d was one of those which men never forO'et Moderator rax me that Bible. The debate proceeded to the ex- haustion of the subject. We commend these papers to the consideration of all who are interested in the spread of Christianity by means of foreign missions. There is much valuable information in them. We must how- ever bring our notice of this volume to a close, without even naming a tithe of the good things it contains. But before doing so, we are constrained to transfer into our columns some very fine life-like portraits from Sketches of the General Assembly of 1841." Now mark that elderly gentleman standing at the end of one of the middle seats, against the crimson- covered barrier which fences off the Lord High Com- missioner's portion of the House from the central portion assigned to members of Assembly. He has risen, not to speak, but merely for change of posture, for the debate has been protracted, and he has been patiently waiting it out, to recor d his vote with the evangelical party in the cause of discipline and reform. He is a man rather above the middle stature, well made, and, though plainly, very neatly dressed. Age has silvered his hair, and there is a slight stoop of the shoulders but the vigour of the figure is left unim- paired and the silent though emphatic testimony of the countenance, the compression of mouth indicative of firmness, the cast of sober thought which dwells in the singularly significant lines of the forehead, the deeply contemplative expression of eye, all indicate an intellect in its prime. The complexion is pale, but healthy. Observe the form of the head. The silvery hair clusters round the forehead but causality, rising full, broad, and high, from an ample base formed by largely developed knowing organs, stands out like a tower, shading the locks, as it were, to either side, and strongly catches the light on its rounded upper line, as in the portraits of Burke and Franklin. We have before us a man of more than European reputation,—a man whose name, pronounced in any part of the world in which letters are cultivated or science is known, would at once ensure recognition and respect. No writer of the present age unites a higher degree of literary ability to exact science: no writer of our own country unites them in a degree equally high. The Earl of Aberdeen, true to his character as a diplo- matist, and indifferent apparently to character of any other kind, could describe the evangelical party as com- posed of men low in accomplishment and intellect com- pared with their opponents. Spoke his Lordship the truth P We stake the intellect and accomplishment of that one man, not merely against those of any indi- vidual on the opposite side, but against the intellect and accomplishment of the whole opposite side put together appealing confidently to the country for its verdict in the case, and yet confining our statement of the merits to the bare pronunciation of a name. That man, with the nobly philosophic forehead, and (to quote from his own description of Sir Isaac Newton) the fine head of hair, as white as silver, without bald- ness,' is Sir David Brewster. The part taken by Sir David in the present struggle is suited to tell power- fully on ingenuous minds in behalf of the Church. When the collision between the civil and ecclesiastical courts took place, he had not made up his mind on the problem which it involved. He saw too clearly, how- ever, not to see that the question was no indifferent one, or one in which he could remain neutral, but that, as a subject of the realm, and a member and office- bearer in the Church, it would be imperative on him to act some determinate part regarding it. He accordingly set himself carefullyjto examine. He read, and studied, and brought to bear upon the subject the same powers of patient investigation which had rendered him so eminently successful in the field of scientific inquiry. What has been the result ? It is only necessary to mark the position he has taken up, in order to ascertain the conclusion at which he has arrived. But there were perhaps disturbing influences that interfered with the process. Will it be deemed a disturbing influence that Sir David was born a reformer,—that throughout life he has been the determined opponent of sinecurists, who profess to teach, and do nothing,—and uncom- prisingly hostile to every immorality in the class who set themselves to acquire a smattering of theology, in order that they may become qualified, in the sense of Dr Cook, to teach it again for a bit of bread ? The Moderator again rises. A loud ruffling noise has broken out in the galleries at least two-thirds of the members of Assembly have joined in it; and the business of the Court is interrupted. A very distinguished member has just entered. He is a man well stricken in years. His pace is slow, and his locks, like those of the two gentlemen just described, are bathed in silver,—' the lyart haffets wearing thin and bare.' His person large and massy, though his stature does not perhaps exceed five feet nine or five feet ten inches and there is no tendency to obesity. He is very plainly dressed. The complexion is pale, the face large, and the features un- commonly firm and massy. There. is an inexplicable, mysterious, un describable something in the expression, that inspires awe and respect. And mark the head. It would be saying marvellously little were we but to say that there is not such another head in the House,—we may add, not such another head in Edinburgh, in Scot- land, Britain, Europe. The breadthacross the forehead is what the phrenologists term not simply large, but enor. mous. The length, too, in profile, is so very great, that the bulky heads around seem but of moderate size. The front portion, however, from the ear to the forehead, is considerably massier in proportion than the posterior region, and stands up more conspicuously and there is a noble development a-top. He has seated himself a few feet to the Moderator's left. The grave, deep ex- pression seems as fixed as the features to which they impart so solemn a character. But he is evidently following the speaker, -one of the most powerful in the House, with much interest, and all at once the counte- nance is lighted up in a manner as difficult to describe as the expression which has just disappeared. We can com- pare it to nothing but the sudden lighting up of an alabas- ter vase, or to an instantaneous gleam of sunshine. The expression slowly changes, until it has passed into the more habitual one and he rises to address the Assembly. All at once, every individual present has grown a zealous conservator of the peace but for half a moment the hush, hush,' is too general, and makes more noise than it allays. The speech has the disadvantage of being read, not spoken, and read at first with several stops and interruptions, and in a rather low though audible tone. But there is an intense attention already excited, despite the apparent disadvantages. As the speaker proceeds, the voice rises, strengthens, deepens, till it seems to roll in thunder through the House. There is energetic action, confined chiefly, however, to the right arm and shoulder. The earnestness is over- powering even the dullest hearer, firing as he listens, feels himself carried along by the o'ermastering force of an eloquence whose components can scarce be analyzed, but which is at once power of character, of argument, and of illustration,—an irresistible sincerity, that, through a magic sympathy, makes others sincere too, at least for the time, and a vehement poetry, that seems to pass through the imagination that it may assail and overpower the heart. Eloquence has been compared to a stream but here the comparison seems inadequate. We must have overbearing ponderosity and heat, as well as resistless rapidity. We must have weight as well as motion. If we illustrate by a stream at all, it must be a stream of dense molten lava pouring down the steep side of a mountain, and floating away on its surface rock and stones, and entire buildings. There is no man,' said Jeffrey of the present speaker, that so enables me to form a conception of the oratory of Demosthenes. Need we name the far known leader of the Scottish Church, Dr Thomas Chalmers, the greatest of living Scotsmen,'—or attempt drawing the character of a man more extensively known than perhaps any other of the present age, and destined to grow upon posterity ?" BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.- Through an unfortunate oversight, Blackwood was not noticed with the other magazines of the month. It usually takes the first place, to which indeed it is entitled on the ground of age as well as literary merit. None of our monthlies surpass it in varied excellence, and many of them fall infinitely short of it. But the present number does not call for detailed notice. Cornelius O'Dowd is evidently out of temper and although as brilliant and as caustic as ever, his tit bits" do not possess the flavour one mostly finds in them. Perhaps the fault is a want of relish on our part for that which is after all really good in itself. This is not bad: — The persistent assertion of the English that there is nothing like England'—that we are not only wiser, richer, and freer than all the world, but that we row, ride, box, and shoot better, build better ships, and tub' more than the rest of mankind—is such a popular belief, that to qualify any part of it with the faintest suspicion of a doubt, would be to reduce a man's patriotism to the level of a Fenian. In fact, when not engaged in the actual work of life, we go about humming Rule Britannia and though our ears are so habituated to the strains that they cease to attract attention, the newly-arrived stranger has to confess himself almost addled by the chorus, and wonderingly asks how, with this perpetual din in our ears, we ever find time to embank the Thames or disestablish a Church. On the whole, I believe it a very sage philosophy, and that by its practice we reconcile our- selves to bear many things with a better grace than the natural tendency to grumble which exists in our tem- perament might otherwise incline to. It is in this way that Ministers reconcile us to that extra two-pence of income-tax. You are made to believe it is such a fine thing to be a Briton, it is well worth the cost; and in the same way the parson exhorts you to weekly grati- tude for your creation, preservation, and all the bless- ings of this life," that you would be the most brutish of mankind if you did not come to see how much of these benefits pertained to your birthplace; and that your name on the national registry was a better title to universal nobility than any inscription of a Libro d'Oro," or any entry in a Gotha almanac. Lord Palmerston did a great deal to propagate this whole- some creed. Hia Civia Romanus' theory-invented at a time of general peace, and when by free-trade institu- tions we were freely admitting foreigners to compete with us in our own markets—had a considerable success; and to do our travelling countrymen on the Continent justice, they were not slow to avail themselves of a pre- tension that declared they had exceptional rights and privileges, and that, with the 'Times' and John Bright to back them, they'd like to see the confounde d foreigner who would dispute their right to carry Piccadily through Europe. I am not quite certain how far Englishmen generally put faith in their own pretensions, but I know that people abroad, partly because it suited their interests, partly out of indolence, accepted the theory, and John Bull was permitted to bully at railroad stations and thrash waiters, on the simple condition of paying fourfold for everything and suffered to behave like a bull in a china shop, on the tacit understanding that he would always pay for the crockery. Meanwhile, if we are not propagating the belief in our greatness abroad, we are evidently grinding a good deal for home consumption." For a while, indeed, we left to Court preachers and popular orators and leading newspapers the pleasant task of dilating on British blessings. Latterly, however, our tribunals have entered the field, and if they but continue as they have begun they will be very dangerous rivals to their pre- decessors in national blarney.' Only a few months back, a baronet, who was condemned to imprisonment for bigamy, was respited, after a brief confinement, on his promising to leave the country and within the last few days I read of a bank clerk, who embezzled 915,000 being discharged from prosecution, on the same pledge being given that he would go abroad.' It is true the chief magistrate said to send the case before a jury would inevitably result in a conviction, and that such a consequence might naturally be prejudicial to the prospects of a very promising young gentleman, who, as his prosecutor remarked, had displayed traits of com- mercial astuteness and ability in his frauds that, had they been only exercised in a legitimate direction, must have speedily made him a partner in 'the house.' 4 Under the circumstances, therefore,' said the Lord Mayor-and I do like the works-they smack of Guild- hall-there is a savour of turtle about the delicious vagueness,—' under the circumstances, I will consent that the prosecution be withdrawn, but he must leave the country No more to him of fog, east wind, and income-tax-no more to breathe the land trod by the immortal Tupper or the blatant Beales. He who steals my purse steals trash, but be who leaves England forfeits Paradise. Oh calamity most inevit- able and to be avoided What a proof have we here that our great dramatist wrote for all time Dogberry never dies! Why pay for him at the Haymarket when you can hear him at Guildhall for nothing I I am a poor exile from the land of these enjoyments, but if I ever visit England again, I promise myself some treats of justices' justice, of which I now but glean fragments from the newspapers, and can only show mind-pictures of the tone, look, and demeanour of the Solons who deliver them." A Great Whig Journalist" is no doubt the best paper in the number. It gives a most interesting account of the life and writings of De Foe, written honestly and if not quite free from party bias, frankly acknowledging the great journalist's enor- mous influence and the splendid intellect which gave him such a commanding position in the country. The character of the article may be estimated from the following pas-age Seldom, in any age, has a man of robuster intellect appeared. Without fortune or posi- tion born in humble rank; without much education, but such as he gave himself after he left school, and plodded along the busy ways of life with little to aid him in the upward struggle but a stout heart, a strong constitution, a clear and logical mind, a tenacity of purpose, and a firm faith in the opinions he held and the principles he advocated,-he for nearly fifty years fought either with the sword or the pen, whichever at the time seemed to be the most available, for the civil and religious liberty of Great Britain. He combated alike through good and through evil repute, accepting the garland of victory if it offered itself, and making no complaint of the crown of sorrow or martyrdom, if nothing else came in his way. Though he suffered fine, imprisonment, bankruptcy, the pillory, and the scorn of men, yet, like Milton before him, he never bated one jot of heart or hope in any difficulty, however great or apparently overwhelming. In the darkest night he saw the coming moon. In the depths of agony felt the ap- proaching relief; and with a 4 pluck' which is the characteristic of his countrymen all over the world, he would never say die," as regards himself or his cause. He was a fair fighter, and never hit below the belt, or struck a fallen adversary when he was down. In bis sturdy gladiatorship, though he dealt heavy blows to the right and the left, yet when he had occasion to praise-which was but seldom—he praised with his whole heart, and with all the power of his rhetoric. Though now almost wholly known as a novelist, it was not as a writer of fiction that his influence was mainly felt by his contemporaries. His great work, or, in the slang of the nineteenth century, his I mission,' was to write the political pamphlets that. in default of news- paper articles, directed public opinion at that critical period of English history. He was beyond question the ablest, as well as most active, pamphleteer of his time, and may claim the merit-if merit it may be-of invent- ing those short and racy disquisitions upon public affairs which, under the name of leading articles,' have since overflowed our land in the daily and weekly newspapers of a thousand towns and cities. He began this course of life early and continued it late. For nearly half a century-from the age of twenty-two to his death at seventy-one-his pen was never idle." There are three other good papers, "Juventus Mundi," 11 The War in Paraguay," and Charles Reade's Novels," but they require no special notice. The continuous tale, A Year and a Day," is brought to an end, having afforded its readers many hours' pleasant reading. THE STUDENT also escaped notice last week, and now we have only room to state that this is a capital number. We shall perhaps have occasion again to refer to some of the papers which record the progress of science. We have been much pleased with Mr Proctor's able contribution, Gauging the November Meteor-stream," and with the paper on The Hetero- genist Controversy," and On the Study of Illumina- tion, colour, and shadow on the Moon's surface." Besides these there are continued, Woman kind in all Ages of Western Europe," and The Mohammedan History of Egypt."

THE HEADSHIP OF CHRIST AND THE RIGHTS OF THE CHHISTIAN PEOPLE. By Hugh Miller. Third Edition. Edinburgh W. P. Nimmo.

THE HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPT COMMISSION; The Times gives some particulars as to the progress of the work undertaken by this Commission. No less than seventy-three noblemen and gentlemen, possessing valuable collections, have opened them to the inspection of the Commissioners and upwards of thirty corpora- tions, ecclesiastical and lay, have done the same. Offers of assistance have also been made from all quarters. An important collection made by Dugdale has been come upon, illustrating the history of the ninth and tenth centuries papers bearing on the Perkin Warbeck episode, letters new to history from Henry VII., Eliza- beth of York, Henry VIII., Katharine of Arragon, Cardinal Wolsey, &c., have also been found, as well as a large mass of papers relating to the gun-powder plot, quite unknown to the historians. Light is thrown on the reign of William III. by letters of Cresaett and Cardonnel relating to transactions and political events at the Hague and in Denmark, and also by a paper in the handwriting of Lord Halifax, giving an account of various conversations between that nobleman and William III. Here is a trait in the character of the same monarch, from one of Cardonnel's letters to Under- Secretary Ellis, written from the Hague in October, 1701, five months before the King's death :His Majesty's cold wears off more and more, so that we reckon him almost quite recovered, but what I men- tioned to you before continues. However, his Majesty endeavours to divert himself as well as he can, and goes abroad every day. Yesterday he was a shooting, and afterwards went to a fish dinner at Mr Vander Esch's. It is a pity his Majesty will not be more governable and temperate in his diet. Should I eat so much, and of the same kinds, I dare say I should scarce have survived it so long, and yet I reckon myself none of the weakest constitutions." There is also a large collection of letters which was seized in the King's cabinet at the battle of Naseby, and brought in great triumph to London, to be perused by both Houses of Parliament. Out of the 300 letters captured by Fairfax only about thirty, which were considered as the most damaging to the King, were ordered to be printed. The remainder, being too much in favour of the un- happy monarch to be made public, were suppressed. Many of the letters which have just been brought to light are in cipher in the King's own hand, and are addressed to the Queen, of which the following is a specimen "Oxford, Fryday, 11 April, 1645. "Deare hart,—I am made beliue that this conveyance will be both safe and speedy, wherfor I cannot lett it slip, & though thou omittes dyuers occasions of wryting to me, yet that is no warant for me to follow thy example, it not being waranted by the law of Kyndness, but the same Law enjoynes me to deale freely with thee by confessing that the last melancoly letter, seconded by thy sylence, does troble me, beliuing that something wcb displeaseth thee must be the Cause, otherwais thou would not so soone forget what thou wrote by Pindar of the 13 March (thy words are je ne veux perdre nul occation descrire '), wherefor I pray thee wryt, let it be what it will, for nothing but wilfull sylence can looke like unkyndness between vs. I expect no volumes, a word or two satisfie me, but anuf of this I know thy affection will not be long in my debt in the least cir- cumstance of kyndness. I had more to wryt, but being often interupted & the Mess: staying, I will say no more but that I am eternally thyne. (Endorsed) 29 36 "To my Wyfe, 11 Aprill, 1645." Newly discovered documents bearing on the last ill. ness of Charles II. confirm the narrative of Father Huddlestone as to the conversion of that Prince to the Roman Catholic faith. In another collection have been found nearly 100 un. published autograph letters of Prior, the poet, and double that number from his friend George Stepney, the Ambassador, who is buried in Westminster Abbey. In one muniment room there are no less than 5,000 private letters from scholars, wits, and politicians in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The Athenaeum, noticing a new edition of the Countess Guiccioli's Recollections of the Poet," saya that lady's recollections of her late eccentric husband, E. do Boissy, would not be a bad book. He was a frank man, and used to introduce his wife as La Marquise de Boissy ma femme, ancienne maitresse de Byron." The Academy says the discovery of Junius so often announced has at length, there is every reason to believe, been placed beyond doubt by the researches of the Hon. Edward Twistleton, who has for the first time called in the aid of a scientific expert in handwrit. ing, the well known Mr Ch. Chabot. The results will shortly be made public, together with facsimiles of the autographs of Junius's Letters to Woodfall and George Grenville. THE HEART OF BYEON.—Few are probably aware of the fate of the poet's heart. After his death at Mis. solonghi in 1822, his body was embalmed and sent to England, but the heart was begged and obtained by the Greeks, who enclosed it in a silver case. Four years later, after the protracted siege of Missolonghi, a sally- ing party, carrying the relic with them, cut a way with great sacrifice of life through the Turkish lines; bat the heart was lost in crossing the marshes.