quire no relaxation from their labour during the twenty-four hours of the day, and that LETTERS TO MY SON AT ROME. horses must rest sixteen hours out of the twenty-four, it becomes evident that the steam engines afford a power equal to 900,000 horses, which is equivalent to the muscular force of about six millions of men; an amount far exceeding the manual labour of the whole of Great Britain!" This calculation, as it has been intimated, applies to fixed engines only; how vast must be the addition to be made for the locomotive engines on railroads, and the accession of steam power on canals, rivers, and even the ocean! Certainly we were impressed with the idea that, in consequence of the railways having driven a large number of coaches off different roads, the horses belonging to those coaches must have been sold at a heavy loss, and dispersed over the kingdom. We considered too that, as a natural consequence of this change, the breeding of horses in this country would, in future, be on a much reduced scale. It has however "been ascertained, with a tolerable degree of accuracy, that since the establishment of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, as many additional horses are employed in the conveyance of passengers and goods from places on both sides of the line to the railway, as were before used upon the road from Liverpool to Manchester. This being the case, similar effects must have been produced by similar causes on the Birmingham line. In the metropolis, too, such is the new demand for road cattle to convey passengers to the railroad stations, that their value has increased. Look also at the increase of omnibus, cabriolet, and coach work in the streets of London now, compared with what it was only twelve or eighteen months ago. Amongst the new sources of employment for draught cattle, observe particularly the PARCELS' DELIVERY COMPANY, one of the most important establishments for the advantage of the community that has been introduced for the last century. Facts, they say, are stubborn things. And we learn that the directors of that company, which is daily increasing its facilities to an astonishing extent, bought fifty horses of Chaplin, the great coach proprietor, the day before he took 800 off the Birmingham line between Denbigh Hall and Rugby, and paid for them on an average 231. each. Twelve months previously a similar lot of cattle would not have produced more than 167. each. Thus, without entering into calculations on the growth and consumption of grain, we are perfectly satisfied that the agricultural interest will be amongst the foremost to benefit by the introduction of steam conveyance, whether by railways or common roads. * Vide page 95.—It was stated by Emily Bailey in the coroner's inquest held upon the body of Mrs. Maclean, that on the morning of that lady's death, (Oct. 15th,) between the hours of eight and nine, having received a note, addressed to Mrs. Maclean, from Mr. Swanzey, she went to her room for the purpose of delivering the same to her, and found some difficulty in opening the door, in consequence of Mrs. Maclean having fallen against it. That deponent, on entering the room, discovered Mrs. Maclean lying on the floor with an empty bottle in her hand(which bottle being produced was labelled, “Acid hydrocianicum delatum, pharm. Lond., 1836; medium dose five minims," being about one-third the strength of that in former use prepared by Scheel's proof), and quite senseless. [It may not be improper to remark, that hydrocianic or prussic acid, though an invaluable medicine in many cases, is never, from trated form, but always greatly diluted. However, its deadly power, sold to individuals in a concenthe strength above described is greater than that of the hydrocianic acid, usually found in chemists' shops. Mr. Maclean, the husband of the deceased, deposed that she was very subject to spasms and hysterical affections, and had been in the custom of using the medicine contained in the small bottle produced, as a remedy or prevention, which she had told him had been prescribed for her by her medical attendant in London (Dr. Thomson); that on seeing her use it, deponent had threatened to throw it away, and had at one time told her that he had actually done so, when she appeared so much alarmed, and said it was so necessary prevented from afterwards taking it away. Now, it is for the preservation of her life, that deponent was very remarkable that the Dr. Thomson alluded to above has published a letter in the newspapers, stating, on the part of himself and his druggist, that there was no hydrocianic (prussic) acid in the medicine chest which they had mutually stored for the use of the lamented lady, and at the same time communicating under his direction to Mrs. Maclean previously to the subjoined as the contents of the chest furnished her departure for Cape Coast:-"Tinct. of opium, 1 oz. tinct. of henbane, 1 oz.; tinct. of squills, Progresses the abominable stages of cruelty, dissipation, and drunkenness, which existed not only in Hogarth's day, but even within my recollectiofi. Thanks for much improvement in society from the abolition of boxing, cockfighting, prizefighting, lotteries, &c.; and "slang," we hope and trust, will soon follow in their wake. The thanks of the public are also eminently due to Sir Robert Peel's police, the universal adoption of gas lights, and a better organized state of society than existed even twenty years ago. * With regard to literature, we have writers from a penny a line upwards, as we have penny gazettes, penny satirists, penny libraries, and twopenny octavos, quartos, folios, and broadsheets without end. We have also editors of the legitimate daily and weekly newspapers from twenty down to two guineas per week; and for the first rate monthly and quarterly reviews, magazines, &c., considerably more than the latter sum has been paid for a single sheet of sixteen pages. According to the popularity or success of the works, many of them produce rich harvests both to editors and proprietors. list of new books, just published; and as a similar one appears periodically, it will convey to you an idea of the extraordinary extent to which literary productions have, on a standard library scale, arrived. Among them you will find announced the 110th volume of Dr. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia. However, were I to attempt a description, or to furnish you with the titles of the thousand and one ephemerals amongst the Brougham cheap literature, you would wish that many of them were swept out of the calendar. Still there are vast numbers of useful cheap publications brought forward, and taken in, with the newspapers, at all the coffee shops in which the middle and even the lower classes of the people sip their "mocha" and their “ bohea," and read at an economical rate, instead of wasting their time and money in public houses. This is evidently a great improvement in society. It is, however, deeply to be regretted that many of these cheap publications indulge in scurrility, in the most infamous attacks on personal character, and in the gross est abuse of the freedom of the press; to say nothing at present of the "slang style" which they adopt, and which can tend only to vitiate the morals and taste, instead of improving the minds of the people. Even some of our monthly periodicals are far from presenting that purity of manner and of matter that might be desired. As to works of artistical illustrations, they abound from the loftiest eminence down to the broad caricature of the ever-humorous, laughable, and pleasant George Cruikshank.* greatly excels his late father, who etched It was well said that all things are great or little "Woodward's Eccentric Excursions" for me by comparison. Sorbiere, in his "Journey to London forty-five years ago-(how time rolls on!) in 1698," says " The streets are lighted all the winNext to Cruikshank, but wholly of a different ter; but there is an impertinent usage of the people at London not to light 'em when the moon shines. order, come the political sketchers, and a host They ridiculously defend themselves by saying they of comic rivals in the "Heads of the People," can see hy moonshine, and have no more reason to Dickens's "Pickwick," "Nicholas Nickleby," hold a candle to the moon than to the sun.”—Hurand "Oliver Twist," (the illustrations of the TON, the historian of Birmingham, in HIS Journey last of these by friend George), and the illus- to London," in the year 1785, thus speaks of the illutrations of the puns of that pun-ish gentleman, disposed. Not a corner of this prodigious city is unmination of the metropolis "The lamps are well Thomas Hood. Still we have not depicted such lighted. They have everywhere a surprising effect; things as the abandoned Rake's and Harlot's and in the straighter streets, particularly at the west end of the town, and where those streets cross each 14 oz.; aceti. cantharidis, 1 oz.; tinct. of jalap, other at right angles, the sight is most beautiful. But 4 oz.; spir. ammoniæ arom., 4 oz.; tinct. of mur. of this innumerable multitude of lamps affords only a iron, 4 oz. ; bicarbonate of potassæ, 4 oz. ; sulphate small quantity of light, compared to the shops. By of quinine, oz.; calomel, 1 oz.; tart. emetic, 1 oz. ; vials in drawers; rhubarb, 2 oz.-A. P. THOMSON." these the whole city enjoys a nocturnal illumination; -Are we quite sure that ALL the facts of this lament- I have counted twenty-two candles in one little shop. the prospects are preserved, and mischief prevented. able case are before the public? We have our doubts. Whence, when, of whom, and by whom, By the vast profusion of oil, wax, and tallow, the and for what alledged purpose, was the phial of stranger will naturally suppose they cost nothing, or flows in with the same ease as the tide, prussic acid obtained? He * Robert, the nephew of George Cruikshank, is a genteel unassuming young man, and a promising artist. He frequently visits at C. He, with your sister and four of my grand-daughters, spent the day of the 27th of December with us. I recollect the Monthly Review (to which you know I am so partial) for upwards of fiftythree years; and in its most palmy days of success, amidst a general combination of talent, I believe that only four guineas per sheet were given for the reviews in that highly-distinguished work. So much for times past and present. A more liberal feeling now exists that money and that a fortune is burnt up every night."—They member the appearance of London at night in 1785, who, like the "OLD BOOKSELLER," happen to recan, in contrasting it with that of 1839, describe it only as "darkness visible." between authors and booksellers. The distress of authors is now comparatively rare; they are more provident and prudent, and possess better feeling and better taste than formerly. It is the same with artists, and even with men in trade. Some instances have occurred in which authors have been sadly distressed and disappointed ere their abilities and talents were duly appreciated, in other countries as well as in England. "The Polyeucte of Corneille, which is now accounted to be his masterpiece, when he read it to the literary assembly held at the Hotel de Rambouillet, was not approved. Voiture came the next day, and in gentle terms acquainted him with the unfavourable opinion of the critics. Such ill judges were then the most fashionable wits of France. Corneille suffered all the horrors of poverty. He used to say, his poetry went away with his teeth. Some will think that they ought to disappear at the same time, as one would not give employment to the other. "Samuel Boyse, author of the Deity, a poem, was a fag author, and at one time employed by Mr. Ogle to translate some of Chaucer's Tales into modern -English, which he did, with great spirit, at the rate of threepence per line for his trouble. Poor Boyse wore a blanket, because he was destitute of breeches; and was, at last, found fainished to death, with a pen in his hand. Savage was in continual distress, independent of an unnatural mother's persecution. He sold his beautiful poem of the Wanderer for £10. “Falconer's deaf and dumb sister, notwithstand ing the success of his poem of the Shipwreck, was for some time the tenant of an hospital. "Poor Chatterton, one of the greatest geniuses of any age, and who is styled The sleepless boy, that perish'd in his pride,' destroyed himself through want, (though insanity would be the better term, since it was in the family,) still left wherewithal, by the aid of friends, to preserve his sister from want and proverty in her latter years. Christopher Smart, the translator of Horace, and no mean poet, died in the rules of the King's Bench. Poor Smart, when at Pembroke College, wore a path upon one of the paved walks. "Joseph Warton informs us, that when Gray published his exquisite Ode on Eton College, his first publication, little notice was taken of it. "Tannahill, in whose hands the lyre of Scotland retained its native, artless, sweet, and touching notes; and whose songs are distinguished by elevation and tenderness of sentiment, richness of rural imagery, and simplicity of diction, put a period to his existence principally, because Mr. Archibald Constable, bookseller, Edinburgh, unfortunately declining the publi * In the London Monthly Miscellany for January, 1839, we observe two original letters from Chatterton to the younger Dodsley, one of them an engraved facsimile, with some very curious particulars. Respecting what are termed ROWLEY's Poems, OUR decided opinion is that they were not written by Chatterton. Such too, if we forget not, is Southey's opinion. cation of his poems, though offered for a very small sum. "To those unacquainted with literary history, these statements may seem wonderful, that any difficulties should have been experienced in the first attempt to publish many works which now adorn the republic of letters; yet another instance must be recorded in that exquisite poem, the Pleasures of Hope of Thomas Campbell, and nothing can be better authenticated than the fact of its having been offered, in vain, to every respectable bookseller both in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Not one of them could be prevailed upon to risk even paper and printing upon the chance of its success; and at last it was with considerable reluctance that Messrs. Mundell and Son, printers to the university of Glasgow, undertook its publication, with the very liberal condition, that the author should be allowed fifty copies at the trade price, and in the event of its reaching a second edition, a further gratuity of £10. It was published in 1799. "In the above slight enumeration of the obstacles which the fine compositions of genius, and the elaborate labours of erudition, are doomed to encounter in the road to fame, we may raise our regret; but how often are we astonished to find that works of another, and often of an inferior description, are rewarded in the most princely manner." Now with regard to the two last-named individuals, Tannahill and Campbell, I can readily account for the want of their success from the nature and situation of the persons (Constable and the Mundells) to whom their productions were offered. Archibald Constable was not at that period sufficiently established or experienced as a first-rate bookseller; and, as poetry is not always the most marketable commodity, he probably did not think of consulting a literary friend on the occasion. I recollect Archy callhe offered to the trade. It was a reprint of ing on me in the year 1794 with the first book BISHOP BEVERIDGE'S Private Thoughts on Religion. It certainly was a good book, but it was printed on a whited brown, or a sort of tea paper; but Archy said it "was a pretty enough little bookee!" So much for Archy and poor Tannahill! With respect to Campbell and Messrs. Mundell and Sons: the latter were in general very heavily engaged as printers to the university of Glasgow, as well as upon public documents, Greek Lexicons, &c.; and although they printed Dr. ANDERSON'S (their uncle) edition of the Poets, in fourteen volumes, royal octavo, in the year 1792, yet they had little spare time to glance at, or inclination to speculate in, modern poetry. They printed editions of Rollin, Plutarch, and LOCKE On the Human Understanding, which they understood the value of much better. I was appointed their agent to these works in 1795. The elder of the firm of the Mundells retired from the business. Alexander visited London, became a student in the Temple, and was subsequently appointed to a high situation connected with parliamentary papers, and after upwards of forty years' residence in London, he recently died at his dwelling in Great George Street, Westminster. His brother, James Mundell, died upwards of thirty years ago. The Mundells were maternal uncles to John Cumming, Esq., (formerly a bookseller in Holborn,) now a banker in Naples, your brother's godfather, and to whom I gave you a letter. With respect to Mr. Campbell's disappointment in the first instance, his merit soon developed itself, and he shone conspicuously amongst the first poets of his day. He eventually benefited much from it. His Gertrude of Wyoming, and other literary productions and editorial labours, have produced very handsome emoluments; besides which, Government very liberally and wisely voted him a pension for his merit and abilities. earliest edition of Suidas: Suida Lexicon, Gracei Mediolani, per Joan. Bissolum et Benedictum Mangium, 1499: to which is prefixed an amusing Greek pen of Stephanus Niger, a native of Cremona and dialogue between a bookseller and a student, from the disciple of Demetrius Chalcondyles. "In 1496, Florence produced the celebrated Editio primaria of the works of Lucian, Luciani Opera, Grace; of which the printer's name is not specified. "To Joannes Lascaris the verfication and introduction into use of GREEK CAPITALS are attributed: and it appears from these specimens, he thought it expedient that the whole text of each Greek poet, the printed litteris majusculis, and the scholia or notes pars libri nobilior, as Mattaire expresses it, should be only in the smaller character. The fine capitals of Lascaris were, as we know, admitted into use by subsequent printers only so far as to distinguish proper names, and the commencement of poetical lines or verses; and in some early editions of the Greek scholiasts upon Homer and Sophocles, to distinguish the whole words or passages of the poet commented on from those of the annotator. So much for some of the poets of the past "This preface is addressed by Lascaris to Petrus and present day. I will now present you with Medices. It abounds with honourable testimonies to some further annals of books and of booksellers; the family of the Medici; which, he says, has of all respecting the latter I shall, as I originally pre- others shown the most conspicuous zeal in collecting mised, occasionally deviate from chronological discernment of their value. He records the special the various monuments of antiquity; and the justest order, and take the range of the Row, as I find munificence of Lorenzo de Medici, by means of which the objects and personages so closely connected two hundred manuscripts, ducenta antiquorum voland interwoven with each other. I shall, how-umina, had lately been brought to Florence from ever, diverge to the north, east, west, and south, without, I trust, omitting any material object. Yours, my dear Son, AN OLD BOOKSELLER. THE ALDINE TRIUMVIRATE.* "In the year 1488, which was signalized by the noble impression of the works of Homer last mentioned, we find that the Grammatica Græca of Lascaris, together with the Interprezatio Latina of John the monk of Placentia, issued from the press of Leonardus de Basilea, at Vicenza, in 4to. The operations of the Greek press, however, continued as yet very slow and it was not till after a further interval of about five years, that another Greek impression appeared. In 1493, a splendid addition was made to the typographic glory of Milan by a magnificent impression of Isocrates' Græce. The editor of this fine book, which is said to exhibit a remarkably pure and correct text, was Demetrius Chalcondyles; the printers, Henricus de Germanus and Sebastianus ex Pontremulo. Before the conclusion of the fifteenth century the same city also distinguished itself by the * Vide pages 2, 52, and 100. Greece and the neighbouring countries: and he alludes to a magnificent 'Bibliotheca,' or edifice, which Piero was then constructing as a depository for those and similar literary treasures: to the latter he expresses his own personal obligations, and the hopes which all the learned reposed in him as the hereditary patron of letters. The pillage of Florence, however, by Charles VIII. of France, the ruin of the fortunes of the house of Medici, the banishment of Piero and his speedy death, most of which events either anticipated or soon followed the publication of this impression of the Anthologia Graca, not only rendered nugatory the preceding expectations, but probably occasioned the otherwise unaccountable suppression of this interesting preface itself; which is actually found in very few of the copies at present known to be extant. Mattaire, in his Annales, tom. i., p. 270, seqq. has given a fac-simile of it. "Chevillier observes, on the authority of Aldus. himself, in his preface to the edition of Stephanus de Urbibus, Gr., fol. 1502, that he first engaged in Greek impressions when war broke out in Italy; meaning in 1494, in which year Charles VIII. of France passed the Alps, in order to the conquest of Naples. Chevillier considered his impression of the works of Aristotle, the first volume of which appeared in November 1495, as the earliest fruit of his press. But M. Renouard, in his catalogue of the Aldine impressions, first mentioning Constantini Lascaris Erotemata, says it is the earliest work printed by Aldus with a date, and probably the first which he gave to the public. But some, he adds, consider his Musaus in 4to., without date, as the earliest impression: the reasons for which may be seen in his work. "The most extensive and voluminous efforts of early Greek press are doubtless to be found a the Aldine editions. Such are the Aristotle, Greek, The 19th of January is the anniversary of folio, 1495-1498, and the Galen, which issued from the birth of another extraordinary man-James the same establishment after the decease of Aldus Watt, the first great fabricator of the steam enManutius, viz. anno 1525, in five vols. folio, and a small character. Andreas Cratander of Basil had gine, to which we are indebted for nearly all the the courage and patience to reprint the work in the great mechanical improvements of the age. like number of volumes. The Commentary of Eusta-Watt was born at Greenock, in Scotland, in thius on Homer, in 4 vols. Greek, folio, printed at 1736. Unlike most of the originators of great Rome by Antonius Bladus, 1542-1550, was an im- inventions and discoveries, Watt realised a mense undertaking. It was, however, after a con- handsome fortune; and, after passing some years siderable interval, exceeded by the fine edition of the works of St. Chrysostom, executed in England, where of peace and retirement, he died in 1819. Greek typography had before been comparatively little practised. I speak of the well-known magnificent impression, intitled, S. J. Chrysostomi Opera, Græce, 8 vols. folio, printed in Eton college, by John Norton, 1613, under the direction and at the charge of Sir Henry Saville. These volumes, (says Chevillier,) sont d'un tres-beau caractère. C'est un chef d'œuvre d'Imprimerie Grecque.' This impression acquired for John Norton the same title or distinction in England, which the celebrated Robert Stephens had attained under Francis I. of 'in Græcis, &c., Regius Typographus.?” In the course of another section or two, we hope to close our sketch of the history of The Aldine Triumvirate. MEN, WOMEN, AND EVENTS OF THE WEEK BEFORE US. Copernicus.-Watt, the Inventor of the Steam En- In his William Congreve the dramatist, whose death occured on the 19th of January, 110 years ago, at the age of 59, was descended from the an. cient family of the Congreves, of Congreve in Staffordshire. There is more of wit and smartness in one of Congreve's comedies-albeit they are most reprehensibly licentious—than in all the dramatic effusions of the last half-century put together. The late Sir William Congreve, Bart., the inventor of the rocket system, who died in 1802, is understood to have been of the same family. Henry Howard, the elegant and accomplished Earl of Surrey, one of the numerous victims of that ferocious tyrant, Henry VIII., lost his head upon the block 292 years ago this day. Superadded to every quality of the perfect gentleman, the Earl of Surrey was blessed with the finest poetic talent of the age. He quar tered on his shield the royal arms of Edward the Confessor, to which he had an hereditary right, and it has been alleged that he aspired to the hand of the Princess Mary. From various coincidences, Lord Orford proves the fair Geraldine, the fame of whose beauty was exalted by the pen and by the lance of the Earl of Surrey, to have been Elizabeth, the second daughter of Gerald Fitzgerald Earl of Kildare, by Margaret, daughter of Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset; and to have been the third wife of Edward Clinton, Earl of Lincoln. One of the sweetest episodes in all Sir Walter Scott's writings, is that of Surrey and the Fair Geraldine. To-morrow, the 20th of January, is the anniversary of the Declaration of American Indepence. That event occured in 1783, 56 years ago. The same day is the anniversary of the deposition of that weak and favourite-ridden sovereign, Edward II., in 1327. Cardinal Bembo, a noble Venetian poet, and secretary to Pope Leo X, died on the 20th of January, 1547, at the age of 77; Garrick, the actor, died on the same day of the month, in 1779, exactly sixty years ago, at the age of 63; and John Howard, named "the philanthropist,' died in 1790, at the age of 64. Mrs. Garrick, who, with one or two of her daughters ,, |