hibits so eminent an example of Christian devotedness and heroism, that it would be an injustice to her memory not to quote it in her own words: "In the full occupation of dressmaking, I had care with it, and anxiety for the future; but as that disappeared, care filed also. God, who had called me into the vineyard, had said, 'Whatsoever is right I will give you.' I had learned from the Scriptures of truth that I should be supported; God was my master, and would not forsake his servant; He was my father, and could not forget his child. I knew also that it sometimes seemed good in his sight to try the faith and patience of his servants, by bestowing upon them very limited means of support; as in the case of Naomi and Ruth; of the widow of Zarephath and Elijah; and my mind, in the contemplation of such trials, seemed exalted by more than human energy; for I had counted the cost; and my mind was made up. If, whilst imparting truth to others, I became exposed to temporal want, the privation so momentary to an individual, would not admit of comparison with following the Lord, in thus administering to others."

Her next object was to secure the observance of Sunday; and, after long urging and recommendation, she prevailed upon the prisoners "to form a Sunday service, by one reading to the rest; . . . . but aware," she continues, "of the instability of a practice in itself good, without any corresponding principle of preservation, and thinking that my presence might exert a beneficial tendency, I joined their Sunday morning worship as a regular hearer."

After three years' perseverance in this "happy and quiet course," she made her next advance, which was to introduce employment, first for the women prisoners, and afterwards for the men. In 1823, "one gentleman," she says, "presented me with ten shillings, and another, in the same week, with a pound, for prison charity. It then occurred to me that it would be well to expend it in material for baby-clothes; and having borrowed patterns, cut out the articles, fixed prices of payment for making them, and ascertained the cost of a set, that they might be disposed of at a certain price, the plan was carried into effect. The prisoners also made shirts, coats, &c. *** By means of this plan, many young women who were not able to sew, learned this art, and, in satisfactory instances, had a little money to take at the end of the term of imprisonment. The fund of £1 10s. for this purpose, as a foundation and perpetual stock, (for whilst desiring its preservation, I did not require its increase,) soon rose to seven guineas, and since its establishment, above £408 worth of various articles have been sold for charity."

....

"They made straw hats, and, at a later period, bone spoons and seals; others made mens' and boys' caps, cut in eight quarters- the material, old cloth or moreen, or whatever my friends could find up to give me for them. In some instances, young men, and more frequently boys, have learned to sew grey cotton shirts, or even patch-work,

with a view of shutting out idleness and making themselves useful. On one occasion I showed to the prisoners an etching of the chess-player, by Retzsch, which two men, one a shoemaker and the other a bricklayer, desired much to copy; they were allowed to do so, and being furnished with pencil, pen, paper, &c., they succeeded remarkably well. The chess-player presented a pointed and striking lesson, which could well be applied to any kind of gaming, and was, on this account, suitable to my pupils, who had generally descended from the love of marbles and pitch-halfpenny in children, to cards, dice, &c., in men. The business of copying it had the advantage of requiring all thought and attention at the time. The attention of other prisoners was attracted to it, and for a year or two afterwards many continued to copy it."

After another interval she proceeded to the formation of a fund which she applied to the furnishing of work for prisoners upon their discharge; "affording me," she adds, "the advantage of observing their conduct at the same time."

She had thus, in the course of a few yearsduring which her mind had gradually expanded to the requirements of the subject before her-provided for all the most important objects of prison discipline; moral and intellectual tuition, occupation during imprisonment, and employment after discharge. Whilst great and good men, unknown to her, were inquiring and disputing as to the way and the order in which these very results were to be attained-inquiries and disputes which have not yet come to an end - here was a poor woman who was actually herself personally accomplishing them all! It matters not whether all her measures were the very wisest that could have been imagined. She had to contend with many difficulties that are now unknown; prison discipline was then in its infancy; everything she did was conceived in the best spirit; and, considering the time, and the means at her command, could scarcely have been improved.

The full extent to which she was personally engaged in carrying out these objects, has yet to be explained. The Sunday service in the jail was adopted, as we have seen, upon her recommendation, and she joined the prisoners, as a fellowworshipper, on Sunday morning. Their evening service, which was to be read in her absence, was soon abandoned; but, finding that to be the case, she attended on that part of the day also, and the service was then resumed. "After several changes of readers, the office," she says, "devolved on me. That happy privilege thus graciously opened to me, and embraced from necessity, and in much fear, was acceptable to the prisoners, for God made it so; and also an unspeakable advantage and comfort to myself." These modest sentences convey but a very faint notion of the nature of these singular services. Fortunately, in a report of captain Williams, one of the inspectors of prisons, we have a far more adequate account of the matter. It stands thus:

"Sunday, November 29, 1835.-Attended divine service in the morning at the prison. The male prisoners only were assembled; a female, resident

In the town, officiated; her voice was exceedingly melodious, her delivery emphatic, and her enunciation extremely distinct. The service was the liturgy of the church of England; two psalms were sung by the whole of the prisoners, and extremely well-much better than I have frequently heard in our best-appointed churches. A written discourse, of her own composition, was read by her; it was of a purely moral tendency, involving no doctrinal points, and admirably suited to the hearers. During the performance of the service, the prisoners paid the profoundest attention, and the most marked respect; and, as far as it is possible to judge, appeared to take a devout interest. Evening service was read by her afterwards to the female prisoners."

We believe that there are gentlemen in the world who stand so stiffly upon the virtue of certain forms of ministerial ordination, as to set their faces against all lay, and especially against all female, religious teaching. We will not dispute as to what may, or may not, be the precise value of those forms. They ought to confer powers of inestimable worth, considering how stubbornly they are defended — and perhaps they do so; but every one amongst us knows and feels that the power of writing or preaching good sermons is not amongst the number. The cold, laboured eloquence which boy-bachelors are authorized by custom and constituted authority to inflict upon us the dry husks and chips of divinity which they bring forth from the dark recesses of the theology (as it is called) of the fathers, or of the middle ages, sink into utter worthlessness by the side of the jail addresses of this poor, uneducated seamstress. From her own registers of the prisoners who came under her notice, it is easy to describe the ordinary members of her congregation-pert London pickpockets, whom a cheap steamboat brought to reap a harvest at some country festival; boors, whom ignorance and distress led into theft; depraved boys, who picked up a precarious livelihood amongst the chances of a seaport town; sailors, who had committed assaults in the boisterous hilarity consequent upon a discharge with a paid-up arrear of wages; servants, of both sexes, seduced by bad company into the commission of crimes against their masters; profligate women,, who had added assault or theft to the ordinary vices of a licentious life; smugglers; a few game-law criminals; and paupers transferred from a work-house, where they had been initiated into crime, to a jail, where their knowledge was perfected. Such were some of the usual classes of persons who assembled around this singular teacher of righteousness.

Noble woman! A faith so firm, and so disinterested, might have removed mountains; a selfsacrifice founded upon such principles is amongst the most heroic of human achievements.

This appears to have been the busiest period of Sarah Martin's life. Her system, if we may so term it, of superintendence over the prisoners, was now complete. For six or seven hours daily she took her station amongst them; converting that which, without her, would have been, at best,

a scene of dissolute idleness, into a hive of industry and order. We have already explained the nature of the employment which she provided for them; the manner of their instruction is described as follows: "Any one who could not read, I encouraged to learn, whilst others in my absence assisted them. They were taught to write also; whilst such as could write already, copied extracts from books lent to them. Prisoners, who were able to read, committed verses from the Holy Scriptures to memory every day according to their ability or inclination. I, as an example, also committed a few verses to memory to repeat to them every day; and the effect was remarkable; always silencing excuse when the pride of some prisoners would have prevented their doing it. Many said at first, It would be of no use;' and my reply was, 'It is of use to me, and why should it not be so to you? You have not tried it, but I have.' Tracts and children's books, and large books, four or five in number, of which they were very fond, were exchanged in every room daily, whilst any who could read more were supplied with larger books."

There does not appear to have been any instance of a prisoner long refusing to take advantage of this mode of instruction. Men entered the prison saucy, shallow, self-conceited, full of cavils and objections, which Sarah Martin was singularly clever in meeting; but in a few days the most stubborn, and those who had refused the most peremptorily, either to be employed or to be instructed, would beg to be allowed to take their part in the general course. Once within the circle of her influence, the effect was curious. Men old in years, as well as in crime, might be seen striving for the first time in their lives to hold a pen, or bending hoary heads over primers and spellingbooks, or studying to commit to memory some precept taken from the Holy Scriptures. Young rascals, as impudent as they were ignorant, beginning with one verse, went on to long passages; and even the dullest were enabled by perseverance to furnish their minds and memories with "from two to five verses every day." All these operations, it must be borne in mind, were carried on under no authority save what was derived from the teacher's innate force of character. Aware of that circumstance, and that any rebellion would be fatal to her usefulness, she so contrived every exercise of her power as to "make a favour of it,' knowing well that "to depart from this course, would only be followed by the prisoners' doing less, and not doing it well." The ascendency she thus acquired was very singular. A general persuasion of the sincerity with which "she watched, and wept, and prayed, and felt for all," rendered her the general depository of the little confidences, the tales of weakness, treachery, and sorrow, in the midst of which she stood! and thus she was enabled to fan the rising desire for emancipation, to succour the tempted, to encourage the timid, and put the erring in the way.

After the close of her labours at the jail, she proceeded, at one time of her life, to a large school which she superintended at the work-house; and

entitled her to renown, and children to associate the name of Sarah Martin with those of Howard, Buxton, Fry-the most benevolent of mankind."

MARTINEZ, MARIANNE,

WAS the daughter of a gardener of Vienna. One day the poet Metastasio met her in the street, when she was a very little child; she was singing some popular air. Her voice, and her vivacity pleased the poet, and he offered her parents to educate her. They accepted his proposals, and he kept his promises. Nothing was neglected to make the young girl an artist. She had the good fortune to receive lessons in music, and on the harpsichord, from Haydn, whose genius was not yet famous; and Porpora taught her the art of singing, and the science of composition. Her progress was rapid; she played with neatness and grace; she sang beautifully, and her compositions showed a vigour of conception together with extensive learning. She reunited the qualities of many distinguished artists. Dr. Burney, who knew her at Venice, in 1772, speaks of her with admiration. Metastasio bequeathed to her all his property. In 1796 she lived at Vienna, in affluence, and gave weekly concerts at her house, where she received all the musical celebrities. Dr. Burney cites with high eulogy many of her sonatas, and her cantatas on words of Metastasio. She composed a miserere, with orchestral accompaniment. Gerbert had a mass and an oratorio written by her.

MARTINOZZI, LAURA.

FRANCESCO I., duke of Modena, became possessed of the sovereignty, in 1629, by the resignation of his father, Alphonso III., who entered a convent of Capuchins, and, under the name of brother Giambattesta, renounced all worldly pomps and vanities. Overtures had been made to the young prince, by cardinal Mazarin, for an alliance with his niece, Laura Martinozzi. These had been rather evaded; when an autograph letter, from Louis, king of France, urgently pressing the marriage, determined the affair; and, in 1655, attended by the most magnificent pomp, Laura was received at Modena as the wife of its sovereign. At the end of six years of conjugal happiness, Alfonso died, appointing his widow regent, and guardian of his son and daughter. The duchess held the reins of empire, for thirteen years, with a firm hand, and appears to have governed with more ability than her predecessor or her successor. In 1676 she retired to Rome, where she lived in comparative seclusion till 1687, when she died. Her daughter, Mary Beatrice, was the wife of the unfortunate James II., of England, whose reverses and exile she shared.

MARY THERESA OF AUSTRIA, DAUGHTER of Philip IV. of Spain, married, in 1660, Louis XIV. of France, and died 1683, aged forty-five. Her life was embittered by his infidelities.

MARY I., QUEEN OF ENGLAND,

ELDEST daughter of Henry VIII., by his first wife, Catharine of Spain, was born at Greenwich, in February, 1517. Her mother was very careful of her education, and provided her with proper tutors. Her first preceptor was the famous Linacre; and after his death, Lewis Vires, a learned Spaniard, became her tutor. She acquired, under these learned men, a thorough knowledge of the Latin; so that Erasmus commends her epistles in that language.

Towards the end of her father's reign, at the earnest request of queen Catharine Parr, she undertook to translate Erasmus' Paraphrase on the Gospel of St. John; but, being taken ill soon after she commenced it, she left it to be finished by her chaplain. It was published; but, on Mary's accession to the throne, she issued a proclamation suppressing it; and it is supposed that the sickness that seized her while translating this work was affected.

Edward VI., her brother, dying July 6th, 1553, she was proclaimed queen the same month, and crowned in October. Upon her accession, she declared in her speech to the council that she would not persecute her Protestant subjects; but, in the following month, she prohibited preaching without a special license, and in less than three months the Protestant bishops were excluded the house of Lords, and all the statutes of Edward VI. respecting the Protestant religion were repealed.

In July, 1554, she was married to prince Philip of Spain, who was eleven years younger than herself, and by temper little disposed to act the lover.