It is possible, that a misdirected zeal for religion, and not mere worldly ambition, actuated Suffolk and Northumberland in their well-known attempt to set up Jane as Protestant Queen, in opposition to the Papist Mary. It was at their instigation that Edward the Sixth on his death-bed, doubtless in fear for the prospects of his kingdom, signed the new deed of succession, and they, in conjunction with the king's privy council, after a few days' concealment of the demise of the crown, on the 9th of July, 1553, proclaimed " Jane, the Quene." But the zeal, or ambition, of the two dukes was all in vain, as those must ever find, who do evil to compass good; nine brief days of a sovereignty within the Tower-walls was all their harvest of Protestant ascendency, all their gain of selfish aggrandizement, and those who committed treason against legitimacy perished on the scaffold, even in the life-time of Jane and Guilford Dudley, their innocent and misguided victims.

We have sufficient evidence that the fatal crown was forced most unwillingly upon Lady Jane Grey, from her last pathetic letter to her father,—" Washing my hands with the innocence of my fact, my guiltless bloud shall cry before the Lord, Mercie to the innocent! and yet though I must needs acknow

ledge, that being constrayned, and (as you know well enough) continually assayed; yet, in taking upon mee, I seemed to consent, and therein grievously offended the quene and her lawes ;" and again, in her speech on the scaffold, "I consented to the thing I was enforced unto, constraint making the law believe I did that which I never understood;" again," If my fault deserved punishment, my youth at least, and my imprudence, were worthy of excuse. God and posterity will show me favour."

In fine, the king commanded, a father enjoined, a near of kin persuaded, and the whole privy council of nobles, lawyers, and hierarchs, counselled and sanctioned her assumption of the crown: and however futile her right to the throne in a question of hereditary succession, however criminal was her gentle usurpation, still mankind has always cried shame on the tyranny which spared not a fair girl of seventeen, but committed her to the scaffold, more for hethan treason, by the hands of her bigoted and cruel relative, Queen Mary.

resy

The accomplishments and truly Christian virtues of Jane Grey, are well known: we are told by Strype, Chaloner, Ascham, Fuller, and others, that she could speak Latin and Greek fluently; was well versed in Hebrew, Chaldee, Arabic, French, and Italian; and was familiar with instrumental music, and other usual feminine accomplishments: that she had the innocency of childhood, the beauty of youth, the birth of a princess, the learning of a clerk, the life of a saint,

and the death of a malefactor for her parent's offences. Aristotle's praise of women was said to have been perfected in her; and her writings when in prison prove her to have added the resignation of a martyr, and the constancy of a heroine, to the faith and" duty of a Christian."

SHAKSPEARE.

WHO shall appraise Potosi's hidden mines,
Or measure Oronooko's gushing springs,
Or in a balance weigh the Apennines,

Fathom the deep, or span the polar rings?—
And who can sum thy wealth, exhaustless mind,
Or scale the heights of its imaginings

Where giant thoughts with beauteous fancies twin'd, Stand wondrous, as the heaven-kissing hills?

Thy theme is Man: the universal heart

In sympathy with thee dissolves or thrills,

While the strong spells of nature leagued with art
Bind the world captive in a magic chain:

Thy peer is not yet born; our hope is vain,-
We may not look upon thy like again.

It were a work of supererogation to preach to Englishmen on the text, William Shakspeare. Yet, be it only for the sake of uniformity, something is expected to be said, although unqualified praises pall upon the wearied spirit. Much of Shakspeare's hidden excellence, to be rightly appreciated, demands more than a superficial perusal; his innate knowledge of morals and humanity is incalculable: as an obitèr example, let the attention be directed to the deep philosophy of that scene in the Tempest, where the savage, the drunkard, and the fool are found mingled up in a fraternal friendship, and where the blind sincerity of an untaught Caliban worships for wine the knavish hypocrisy of a drunken Stephano; a rare commentary on the degrading influence of social vices and follies, and on the true character of Gentile idolatry. There is more than mere amusement in these things. Take again the contrast afforded in the different appreciations of the terrors of death by the humorous grave-digger, hardened only by habit, and the contemplative prince, softened by misfortune; between the merry but unfeeling "A mad rogue! 'a poured a flagon o' Rhenish on my head once," and the true pathos of " Alas! poor Yorick." An hundred other instances will readily occur to the habitual student of