RISE OF THE BRITISH NAVY.

Henry VII. 1485.– Built the Great Harry, cost £14,000. this, was properly speaking, the first ship of the royal navy. Burnt by accident, 1554.

Henry VIII. 1509.-The Regent, the largest ship in the navy, was of 1000 tons. Burnt in fight, August, 1512. This king fixed the wages of seamen at 5s. per month. Queen Elizabeth raised them to 10s.

In 1521, the navy consisted of 45 ships.-In 1545, it contained 100 ships. Laws made for planting and preserving timber. Dock yards founded at Deptford, Woolwich, and Portsmouth; also the Trinity House. At the king's death in 1547, tonnage of the whole navy, 12,445.

Expence £50,000 per annum, exclusive of timber from the royal forests, £36,000 per annum.

The unhappy dispute between Charles I. and his people was fanned into a flame on occasion of his demanding shipmoney, or enforcing a tax, by virtue of the royal prerogative ; but it appears from authentic documents, that every shilling of the money was not only faithfully applied, but to the great honour and advantage of the nation. By means of it, a formidable fleet of sixty sail was equipped, supposed to be the greatest England ever knew.

In 1634, this tax produced above £200,000. In 1640, it was voted illegal. The successes of the English against the Dutch in 1653, were in a great measure owing to the superior size of the English vessels, of which king Charles had set the example in building the Sovereign of the Seas, on a large scale.

66

"Our ancestors," says Mr. Pennant, seem to have had a classical reason for planting these dismal trees among the repositories of the dead, and a political one for placing them about their houses. In the first instance, they were the substitutes of the invisa cupressus; in the other, they were designed for provision of materials for the sturdy bows of our warlike ancestors

who drew,

And almost joined the horns of the tough YEW."

Specious as this explanation is, there is statutory evidence of its incorrectnesss. In the preamble to the last statute of Edward I. entitled Ne rector arbores in cœmeterio prosternat, it is narrated, that trees were originally placed in church-yards to Low as churches were protect the church from the wind. then built, the yew, from its thick foliage, would answer this purpose better than any other and hence, no doubt, arose its universal introduction in such situations.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MANUSCRIPT.

IN the British Museum there is an extraordinary relic of literature-an Egyptian manuscript on papyrus, which was taken from a mummy at Thebes, and brought into England by William Hamilton, esq. by whom it was presented to the British Museum. The papyrus, before it was expanded in the manner it is now seen, was closely rolled up.

The

The characters in the manuscript are those which were in common use among the Egyptians. They are evidently written from right to left, a mode of writing which was remarked by Herodotus to prevail among that people. Egyptians not only differed from the Greeks in this mode of writing, but they differed also in the mode of rolling their manuscripts; the Egyptians beginning their rolls from the left, and the Greeks from the right. In their different practices, however, both had the same object in contemplation, that when a manuscript was unrolled, that part of it, which contained the beginning of the writing, should first present itself.

This manuscript is divided into four columns, the first of which is imperfect; and each column is accompanied by a drawing, which represents one or more objects of Egyptian adoration. The ink, which has retained its colour in a surprising manner, seems to be composed of lamp or charcoal black, suspended in some animal matter. In some few parts of the manuscript, the ink, at first sight, seems to have lost its blackness; but these passages, upon a close inspection, are found to have been originally written with red ink.

With respect to the instrument by which the letters were formed, there can be but little doubt but that it was a reed and not a brush; it being a matter of great uncertainty whether the Egyptians ever used the latter in their writings; although Count Caylus is of opinion, that they employed it in their writings on cloth. Among the numerous paintings which yet adorn the walls of almost all the temples in Upper Egypt, a remarkable figure has been more than once observed, which will serve to throw considerable light upon the present inquiry. "This figure," says Ripaud in his Report on the Antiquities of that part of the country, "is engaged in writing on a volume or roll with the calamus or pen made of a reed." To this circumstance may be added the authority of a writer eminently learned in the manners and customs of the Egyptians :

"Modo si papyrum, Ægyptiâ argutiâ

Nilotici calami inscriptam non spreveris
Inspicere."

It is worth while to remark, that every roll consisted of an indefinite number of sheets, which were fastened together by glue; care being always taken to place the best sheet. of papyrus first-that which was next in superiority, second-and so in gradation to the last, which was the worst sheet in the roll. Proximatum semper, bonitatis diminutione ad deterrinas. This custom, mentioned by Pliny in the preceding passage, is confirmed, in some measure, by the roll before us, which, if held up to the light, will be perceived to have the first sheet composed of a much finer piece of papyrus than any of the succeeding sheets.

Before the expedition of the French into Egypt, no manuscripts of this kind had ever been noticed. They are, unquestionably, by far the most ancient manuscripts that have reached our times. The few which have been found, have been observed to lie close to the embalmed figure, underneath the resin and bandages, which have been employed to envelope the body. No mummy has been known to contain more than two. Their position is sometimes under the arms, "sometimes between the thighs, and sometimes even in the hand of the deceased, which has been artificially made to inclose them.

BOOKS.

THERE are three capital mistakes in regard to books:

I. Some persons, through their own indolence, and others from a sincere belief of the vanity of human science, read no book but the Bible. But these good men do not consider, that, on the same principle, they ought not to preach sermons; for sermons are libri ora, vivâque voce pronunciatio

II. Some collect great quantities of books for shew, and not for service. Of such as these Lewis XI. of France aptly observed, that "They resembled hunch-backed people, who carried a great burden, which they never saw." This is a vain parade, even unworthy of reproof. If an illiterate man thinks by this art to cover his ignorance, he mistakes; for while he appears to affect modesty, he dances naked in a net to hide his shame.

III. Then there are others, who purchase large libraries with a sincere design of reading all the books; a very large library, however, is but a learned luxury.

THEOLOGICAL COLLOQUIES.

SIR Henry Wotton, when at Rome, having gone to hear vespers, the priest, with whom he was acquainted, sent to him, by a boy of the choir, this question, written on a small piece of paper:- "Where was your religion to be found before Luther?" Sir Henry immediately wrote under itMy religion was to be found then where your's is not to be found now-in the written word of God."

When the same question was proposed to the learned Mr. Joseph Mead, he facetiously answered Where was the fine flour when the wheat went to the mill?" And, at another Where was the meal before the corn was ground?"

time,

The following, which is a still better version of the story, is by a more recent hand :

Catholic. Where was your religion before Luther?
Protestant. Did you wash your face this morning?
Catholic. Yes.

Protestant. Where was your face before it was washed?

Bishop Bedell wrote a very long treatise on these two questions:-"Where was the reformed church before Luther's" time?" 66 And what was the fate of those who died in the bosom of the church before the reformation?" Archbishop Usher often urged him to publish this work; but this he neglected, and it was at length lost in that scene of confusion which attended the Irish rebellion.

LETTER FROM LADY ARABELLA STUART TO THE EARL OF
SHREWSBURY.

Ir may please your lordship to pardon me if writing now in hast, with a mind distracted with the several cares of a householder, and those that this remove and new year's tide adde thearto, I omit, sometimes, that which wear, perchance, more material to write than that I write, and forgett many things which, according to the manner of us that have only after wittes, come not to minde till your letters gone, and then are too ancient news to be sent by the next. I received your lordship's letter safe by Mrs. Nelson; and that your in my aunt's letter was plural, so that I ment Í receaved your lordship's and her's, how ill soever I expressed it. I will amend my obscurity, God willing. Your lordship

be