cases is a blessing, which can alone reconcile them to the most heart-rending affliction. eating, burning-oil devourer, Mons. Chabert, who, it is cur rently reported, at the present moment imposes most successfully on the credulity of innumerable wonder-loving Dr Morrison's work, entitled "Medicine no Mystery," Londonians, even at the west end of that unwieldy metro- will be read with interest by scientific, or well-educated, polis! We never believed in the authenticity of Ireland's non-professional persons. His views are too general to "Vortigern and Rowena ;" never put our trust in the pro-be of advantage to the mere medical student or to practiductions of Mrs Shipton; never placed any reliance on the prophecies of the Belfast Almanack; never perilled our fortune in Carrol's or Pidding's celebrated lotteries; and, finally, never under any circumstances reposed faith in Buchan's Domestic Medicine. In our swaddling clothes we may have swallowed some of Dalby's Carminative, but the re-single quotation will be sufficient to give an idea of the collection of the same hath escaped us; and since we have arrived at the age of manhood, and speared salmon in the Tweed, we hold even Hunt's "Family Pills" in abomination, and are sorely tempted to blaspheme against "Solomon's Balm of Gilead!" Young well observed, in his gloomy" Night Thoughts," | that "men think all men mortal but themselves ;" and this, to a very considerable extent, is true: yet, since we have ascended the Aristarchian chair, we have thought it befitting to ponder more deeply with ourselves, and know the full catalogue of the afflictions to which our "mortal flesh is heir." We think it proper, therefore, for the good of the commonwealth, and especially for the bodily welfare of the inhabitants of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen, to introduce notices of medical books occasionally in our columns, that we may warn our readers what Scylla and Charybdis they may avoid, and how they may pass safely, securely, and happily, through the Hygeian road of a long and happy life. We are not like certain managers of theatres, who, in taking leave of their friends and patrons, wish them "health and happiness until the house re-opens next season.' Our affections can endure no such periodical limits or intermissions. They may, like the waters of the Nile, occasionally overflow their continents; but we can never cease to entertain a sort of parental regard for the health, happiness, and prosperity, of the contributors, subscribers, and readers of the Edinburgh Literary Journal. We can assure our fair readers especially, that this to us is a subject of the deepest solicitude. We sympathize with every cold, tremble for every headach, and are on the verge of desperation when we fancy any of them may have a twinge of the toothach, But on this subject we begin to grow pathetic. How fortunate, therefore, that a work has come under review like that before us, and that we can at last console ourselves with the pleasing reflection, that Medicine has indeed beno mystery." A great revolution has been, and is still, taking place in medical science. Physicians have not only laid aside their well-powdered wigs, their starched ruffles, and gold-headed canes, but with these have disposed of all that mystical mannerism which, in a less enlightened age, may have imposed on the superficial observation of the patient. Society is now in so enlightened a state, that few attempts to conceal ignorance, by " outward pomp and circumstance," will be long successful; and medical men, we apprehend, frequently find it necessary to explain, to the anxious relatives round a sick bed, the cause of certain symptoms, the nature of the danger that may be impending, and the views with which certain remedies are administered. Such communications, to welleducated and intelligent people, are calculated to increase, rather than diminish, confidence in the practitioner; and as the art of medicine is not to be acquired by a few aphorisms, not to be gathered from books, but must depend exclusively on experience, the physician never need apprehend danger to his temporal interests, by communicating freely to an enquiring mind the principles on which he proceeds. There may, it is true, be some cases of slow, lingering, and fatal disease, the prognosis of which need not be rudely announced; for, where the Promethean vulture of sickness is to prey for months upon its victim, there is no humanity in at once shutting out all hopes rom the surviving relatives, whose ignorance in many come 66 tioners, as they will find, in general elementary works, the information which is here presented in a popular form. The work is divided into two parts, the first of which treats of the animal system in a state of health; the second of the animal system in a state of disease. A style in which it is written, and the author's method of treating the several subjects he discusses. We choose one extract from the chapter on THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. "The brain and spinal marrow form the origin and main trunk of the nervous system. The nerves of four of the senses (sight, hearing, smell, and taste) originate immediately from the brain, the position of those senses being, in all animals by whom they are possessed, in the head. The seat of the fifth sense is the general surface of the body; and the nerves constituting it are filaments derived from the nerves of sensation distributed throughout the frame. The nerves which supply the internal organs which perform the vital functions, form, as I have said, a separate system; it is called the sympathetic, or Ganglionic system. The nerves which serve for motion, and those which constitute the general sensation of the body, proceed from the spinal marrow in thirty pairs, and are distributed, the former to all the muscles of the body, which are the immediate organs of motion, and the latter to all the sentient parts of the frame. The Ganglionic nerves have their origin all along the front part of the spine on each side, and arise from small bodies like glands, called ganglions, which are connected by filaments with the nerves of motion and senneral description must serve here for that of the Nervous sation proceeding from the spinal marrow. This very geSystem, as to its structure. So intimately connected is the due supply of nervous influence with the healthy actions of every organ and part, that whenever the former is by any means suspended or diminished, the actions of the organ, whose supply of nervous power is affected, either cease altogether, or are vitiated and deteriorated, in proportion to the nerves that supply the diaphragm (the principal organ the extent of the nervous affection. For example: When in respiration) are divided, respiration ceases, and death ensues. When the nerves supplying the stomach are divided, digestion ceases, and the food previously eaten is found some hours after in an undigested state. The heart performs its peculiar action by means of its nervous supply. When a sudden shock is given to the whole nervous system by fright, that system is thrown into a state of collapse, tural powers again. The most striking effect of this state or diminished action, preparatory to the recovery of its na is the apparent cessation of the action of the heart and pulse during the swoon; the other phenomena attending this state cannot be understood until we shall have considered the peculiar functions of the heart itself, and the organs connected with it, which form the sanguineous or circulating system."-Pp. 2-5. As a general knowledge of the most important functions of the human body is essential to every well-educated man, we have no hesitation in recommending, for the attainment of that object, the work of Dr Morrison. MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE GERMAN LANGUAGE, AND REASONS FOR ITS MORE GENERAL CULTIVATION IN THIS COUNTRY. (A Communication from Gottingen.) THE German is a language to which neither the Scotch nor English pay that attention which it undoubtedly deserves. Since my arrival in Germany I have been more struck with our neglect of this useful language than I had ever been in Scotland; for here, English is as common a study as French is with us. Hamburg, where all merchants of any respectability speak our language, may be called a half English town. Of course, it is no good school for one who would learn to speak German. Even here, in Göttingen, our countrymen will find opportunities enough of speaking English, if they do not wish to be at the trouble of acquiring the language of the country. Though Russell had taught me that English was much studied in Germany, I certainly did not expect to find it so generally known as it seems to be here. Of the Professors of the Göttingen University, there are few, if any, who do not understand English; I mean in so far as to consult with facility the productions of our press, which relate to their respective sciences; and not a few speak it with great fluency and accuracy. The study of our language is no less favourite and common among the students. In the circle of my acquaintance here (already pretty considerable) most have studied English a little, many can read it with ease, and not a few speak it with a readiness and accuracy, which, to those who have never been in England, must have cost much pains and study. To suppose a Göttingen student who had not soared to the heights of tragic feeling with Shakspeare, and heartily sympathized with all Sir Walter Scott's well-depicted scenes of English and Scottish life, would be to brand him as utterly a stranger to literature in general. They whom want of opportunity or inclination have debarred from consulting these authors in the original, never fail to make acquaintance with them by means of translations, which are to be found everywhere, both good and cheap. Cheap I may truly say. Sir Walter's works are published at Stuttgard, at four-pence per volume. For this price I bought Ivanhoe, at Hamburg, complete in five volumes. If, then, the Germans are such admirers of our literatare, why are we so backward to return the compliment ? If some unlucky German should stumble on our coasts, how improbable that he would meet with an Englishman who could communicate a thought to him in his native tongue! When a German student pays a visit to our universities, is it very likely that Göethe or Schiller will meet his eyes, arrayed on the shelves of the Scottish Burchen? I question much if he would find the German classics very abundant even in the extensive libraries of our greatest literati. While translations of our classics are here to be found in abundance, even in the common circulating libraries, where with us is the good and complete translation to be found of those brilliant writers who have adorned the German literature? The fact cannot be disputed; and I again ask, why is it so? It cannot be that the German literature is held unworthy of the trouble necessary to be employed in acquiring the language; for we study French and Italian commonly enough, though these languages are keys to nothing half so valuable as the German can unlock. A more book-making people than the Germans cannot easily be named, and these books are not generally (as some suppose) the flimsy effusions of a wild imagination, but the solid and elaborate productions of a more laborious and painstaking set of authors than any other country in Europe can boast of. Diligence and perseverance, united with the greatest zeal in the pursuit, and an undivided attention to their respective provinces, have procured to the German literati a character, before which their French and even English brethren must yield. In Botany, for instance, Mineralogy, and other branches of Natural History, they have made great advances; and if in these departments we can oppose to a Wildenow a Smith, or to a Werner a Hutton, in the field of Philology and Biblical Criticism, the different universities of Germany can boast of such a constellation of bright names, that before them all our literati must hide their diminished heads. Every Scotch grammarian and divine will confess, that the greater number of those books which assist him in unfolding the meaning of ancient authors emanate from Germany. So incontrovertible is this fact, that many among the English, unable to assert their own superiority in this respect, have had recourse to the miserable shift of turning that which is properly a subject of praise, into an object of ridicule, by misrepresenting the Germans as mere laborious drudges in literature, well calculated to compile lexicons of words, plants, or stones, but utterly destitute of that fire of genius which produces the poet and the fine writer. For such a charge there has long ceased to be any foundation. The works of Goethe, Schiller, Wieland, Herder, Lessing, and a hundred others, will not fear comparison with the best productions of English, French, or Italian literature. I may safely take it for granted, therefore, that the German language contains literary treasures worthy the attention of those with whom such treasures are in estimation; and I shall now endeavour to recommend it to the notice of my countrymen on considerations drawn from the nature of the language itself, independently of the literature of which it is the medium. The German language, then, deserves our attention principally on account of its near connexion and relationship with our own. The present languages of Europe, numerous as they at first sight appear to be, are all reducible to three original tongues-the Latin, the Sclavonic, and the Teutonic. The Sclavonic is the language of Russia, and of some parts of Germany. Latin prevails in the greater number of European languages-it forms the principal part of the Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese; and, along with the German, it forms the present English language. This prevalence of the Latin arose, very naturally, from the extension of the Roman empire. Thus it has happened that in France, Spain, and Portugal, the polished and cultivated language of the conquerors has almost entirely extirpated the languages of the original inhabitants. Germany was at once too remote from the seat of Roman power, and possessed too warlike inhabitants, to be exposed to the same danger from the Roman power, as those nations whom we have just mentioned. Accordingly this country, with its northern neighbours, Denmark, Holland, Sweden, and Norway, has retained its original tongue, without any further intermixture with the Latin, than what the universal use of this language, in matters of religion and law during the middle ages, rendered unavoidable. England has, in respect of language, been exposed to more changes than any other nation in Europe. The original language of the Britons, our ancestors before the invasion of the Romans, has no connexion either with the Latin or the Teutonic, but is rather allied to the Eastern tongues. It kept its ground against the Roman power, but not so against the Saxon, before which it fled, and sought for itself an asylum in the mountainous recesses of Wales and Scotland. There, as well as in Ireland, it remains to the present day. But in the greater and more important part of the British isles, the language introduced by the AngloSaxons, a people from the north of Germany, prevailed universally. The dominion of the Saxons was destined to yield to that of the Normans, who, in the eleventh century, treated the Saxons as the Saxons had formerly treated the Britons. And now a great change took place in our language; Norman French became the language of the court, and of all who aimed at court favour, or wished to be thought in any degree refined and polished in manners. For this reason, we had well-nigh lost our old Saxon language. But it had taken too deep a root, to allow itself to be altogether extirpated by foreign influence. For many years, while the court and the polished of the land used the new language, the Old Saxon was retained, in its unmixed purity, by the peasants and other descendants of the original Saxons. From the influence of these causes, which the Author of Waverley has rendered so familiar to us, by the romance of Ivanhoe, many ages passed before one common language was spoken in England. At last, however, as the distinction between Normans and Saxons wore away, their languages also were incorporated, and from their union was the present English language formed. In this process, there was no yielding of the one language to the other, but a direct and literal incorporation. Each party advanced half-way; and, by mutual concession, a language was at last formed, neither pure French, nor pure Saxon, but a mixture of both. From this short sketch, it is easy to see the connexion which the German has with the English. It is the root -the original source of our language. Whilst in Saxony, and other parts of Germany, the Old Saxon or Teutonic has remained pure and unmixed, in England its progress was early cut short by the French, which has gradually made greater and greater encroachments, and thus given a Latinized cast to our tongue. On this point, the Germans have not been slow in recognizing their superiority, and holding it forth to the world :-" Whilst all the other languages of Europe," says Adelung, with exultation," have been lost in the Latin, or at least corrupted by an admixture with it, only the German language, with her northern sisters, has known how to maintain herself in her own purity, and has rather chosen to enrich and cultivate herself by her own treasures, than meanly to stand indebted for her culture to another." Thus writes Adelung, the greatest of German grammarians; and he speaks the voice of most of his philological brethren-many of whom, indeed, have carried the doctrine of purism to an extent at once absurd and impossible. Still the boast of Adelung is not without the best foundation. Well may the German pride himself in the purity of his language. Unaided by any polished and already formed tongue, it possesses a rich and expressive vocabulary of primitives, which are, with the greatest ease, capable of the most multifarious composition-to such a degree, that it has been allowed, in this respect, to equal, if not to excel, the power of the Grecian tongue. Our language, on the contrary, has not preserved even that degree of purity which was left to it after its admixture with the Norman, but has gradually lost more and more of its Saxon roots; so that, for example, those words of Saxon origin which were used by Chaucer, had become obsolete by the time of Shakspeare, while many of his words are at present unknown in the English language, or unintelligible to the ordinary reader. As to composition, in which, as I have mentioned, the modern German rivals the Grecian, we have altogether lost such a power in our language. All our compound words, and most of our terminations, are Latin or French. We are not poor in Saxon primitives, but we have lost the power of using them for the enrichment and improvement of our language. To give an example, we, as well as the Germans, have the root, G. "frey," E. "free." From this the German language produces, with the greatest ease, "Freygebigkeit," literally "freegivingness," a word quite foreign to the genius of the English language, which is obliged to form "liberality" from the Latin root "liber." This may suffice to give a general idea of the difference between the two languages in this respect. 66 remains untouched. To give an example or two of the truth of these remarks. The word "harness" is, in modern English, applied only to horses. In German, the word "harnisch" is in common use to signify “a man's armour," which is a signification in which it occurs in Shakspeare. In the same author we read of terror which makes "the fell of hair Rise as if life were in it." The expression, " fell of hair," is not used in modern English, and would not likely be intelligible to the ordinary reader. "Fell," in German, is "skin." The expression therefore signifies, as Johnson has already remarked, "my hairy part, my capillitium." The same connexion and relationship of the two languages which makes it so useful to the student of English, contributes much to make the acquisition of German easy. Perhaps the reason why this language has been so little studied may lie partly in the general belief that it is extremely difficult. But though it must be confessed that, to an Englishman, and especially to one who has learned Latin, it is much more difficult than French and Italian-the two living languages most studied with us— yet it is by no means so difficult as is commonly imagined. Though the two languages, as already remarked, differ in respect of compound words, yet there exists the greatest similarity in the roots, and in some parts of the flexion of the language. A glance at a German dictionary will prove this to any one who is unacquainted with the language. Many of the words are almost identical; others have only suffered the common change by which consonants pronounced by the same organ of the voice are interchanged with each other. The change of a T into a D, or a B into a V, and such like, are quite familiar to every one who has at all attended to the formation of languages. Such is the similarity of the German and English languages, that, should an Englishman be thrown into Germany without any knowledge of the language, he might make his way not badly by using his own tongue. At all events, he would be in no danger of starving for want of the necessaries of life; for he who should call for "flesh, bread, beer, wine, milk," would be easily understood by those who express these eatables and drinkables by "fleisch, brod, bier, wein, milch." If "wasser" does not appear so like our word "water," it must be remembered that in Low German this best of drinks is likewise expressed by "water," precisely as in English. In general, those English words which aré considerably changed in High German, the language of literature and polite society, remain almost the same as English in Low German, the language of Northern Germany and of the common people. Sometimes, though the German word is evidently the same as the English, yet its signification, being somewhat modified, causes rather ridiculous associations. One can hardly refrain from laughing when, in the description of some German beauty, he hears her "haut" (E. hide) extolled as the most fair and beautiful. We use "hide" for the skin of a beast, the Germans for that of a human being. Much as this similarity must aid an Englishman, it is of yet greater importance to a Scotchman, whose language possesses many remains of the Old Saxon, which one seeks in vain in the present English. Many of our common vulgar Scotch words are in classical use in Germany, and used in the most polished and refined society. This appears very strange to one who has been accustomed to associate vulgarism with such expressions. If, then, it be confessed that one who has studied Latin finds comparatively little difficulty in French or Italian, does it not follow, by the same mode of reasoning, that one acquaint From the connexion above stated, it is quite evident how necessary it is that he who would understand his own language fully, should be acquainted with German. Here he will find, in classical and general use, those words which form the basis of the English language. Particularly useful will an acquaintance with the German language prove to him who would study our older authors. There many words occur which an Englishman would make nothing of, but which a German, who had studied English, would recognise as old friends. Not to mention Chaucer and our oldest writers, how much would we profit by an acquaintance with German in the interpretation of our great tragedian, Shakspeare? an author whom all Englishmen profess to read, but not all understand. It is not Greek or Latin that will assist used with English and Scotch should find proportionably here. True it is, that these are exceedingly useful in giving an Englishman a command of his tongue; but the work is only half done if the German or Anglo-Saxon little difficulty in studying German? But this is not the only advantage which Scotchmen possess over their Southern neighbours in learning this language. Another and a most decided advantage which we enjoy, lies in the similarity of our pronunciation to that of the Germans. If there has arisen a complaint that the German pronunciation forms one of its greatest difficulties, this has, in all likelihood, come from the English, who are often very hard pressed to bring forth the rough and guttural sounds in which the German abounds -for that this is too much the character of the language must be confessed, however much some of the Germans may be inclined to deny it. It is certainly a pity that High German, which, since the time of the Reformation, has been the reigning dialect, should not be the softest that Germany can boast of. This may appear clearer by a few examples. When, for instance, our language is content with the letter "p," the Germans regularly add an "f," which two letters produce together a sound at once harsh to the ear and difficult for the organs to pronounce. Our words "pillar, pool, pipe, pepper," are, in German, "pfaler, pfuhl, pfeife, pfeffer." Our t also they change into ts, a sound by no means agreeable." Toll," for instance, is " zoll," pronounced "tsoll." Zimmer-pellations of the sex belong to the neuter gender. Besides pronounced tsimmer-is, in English, " timber," in Scotch and Low German, "timmer." The Germans have also that well-known mark of a rough language, the concurrence of many harsh consonants, with very few vowels. In the words " Pfingst,”—a contraction from Pentecost― and "furcht" (fruit), this is very manifest. In the latter example, occurs that sound which Englishmen learn with difficulty to pronounce, though it is quite familiar to Scotchmen. He who finds such an insurmountable obstacle in pronouncing "Loch Lochy," or "Auchtermuchty," will certainly not feel quite at home in reading the two following lines of Schiller's Mary Stuart: "Nimmer lud Lie Das Joch sich auf dem ich mich unterwarf. Kält ich doch auch anspruchen machen können;" where the unlucky guttural sound of ch occurs only nine times! An Englishman will either slip over the German ch altogether, or make a k of it. A Frenchman finds himself equally at a nonplus here; and will certainly convert this sound into sh. One circumstance that greatly facilitates the acquisition of a true German pronunciation, is the regularity of the principles on which it depends. In English pronunciation, though a vowel or consonant have a certain pronunciation in one word, it is by no means certain that it will be pronounced so in another. This is a great grievance to foreigners, especially to Germans, who complain greatly of the difficulty of acquiring a good, or even a tolerable pronunciation of our language. No pronunciation, on the contrary, is more easy than the German. Each vowel, diphthong, and consonant, has a certain determinate sound, which it retains in almost all situations. No language possesses more than the German that great perfection in orthoepy, that the words are pronounced as they are spelled. But while I thus assert what, I believe, every one will find to be true, that the German language is, on many accounts, by no means so difficult as it is often represented, I would not be understood as representing a knowledge of it attainable without considerable labour. The Germans themselves say that their language is amongst the most difficult of cultivated European tongues. Let not, then, the student suppose that he will master it in as short a time, and meet in it with as few difficulties as he may have found in the study of French or Italian. Both these languages are a mere trifle to a tolerable classical scholar. In studying German, the student does not find that assistance from a knowledge of Latin which he experiences in studying those languages which are formed on that of ancient Rome. Nor would I conceal that this language, besides the difficulty which arises from its being unconnected with Latin, and the two modern European tongues which are generally studied with us, contains also drawbacks, which give no small trouble to the student. One of the greatest of these is the entire want of all rule and analogy in forming the genders of nouns. To this neither the signification, nor the origin, nor the termination of words, forms any tolerable clew. Not only are things without life made masculine and fe minine, according to no discernible analogy which they possess with the sexes of the animate creation, but many living creatures, even of the most dignified kind, are, by the application of the neuter gender, degraded into the rank of things. Though one might perhaps tolerate that "weib," a contemptuous appellation for a woman, should receive this gender, yet it is certainly very absurd that we should be compelled to address a dignified lady (das Frauenzimmer) and a beautiful virgin (das Fraulein) in the same debasing manner. One would think that the early Germans must have had a true Miltonic contempt for the female sex, and, to make this their contempt visible to all the world, had interwoven it with the very nature of their language, by making some of the most common apthis, the Germans and their Northern neighbours have had the presumption to alter the order of nature, which the Greek and Roman poets had established, by making the sun a lady, and the moon a gentleman; which conduct, besides the open insult it implies against the dignity of Apollo and Diana, has unspun the theories of those grammarians who have unwarily asserted that the sun, from its majesty and superior dignity, has, by all nations, been made masculine, while the moon, which performs only an inferior part, and disperses only a borrowed and a weaker light, has been as universally considered as a female. So difficult is it to give general rules for the capricious operations of the human mind in affixing genders to inanimate things. But while this irregularity in the genders of nouns must be a great difficulty to him who would speak and write the German language with classical accuracy, it is manifest that it does not in the least degree stand in the way of those who study the language (as many do) only with the view of being able to consult the works which it contains, belonging to their peculiar vocations. To such I can say from experience, that the German language, if studied with any tolerable degree of diligence and zeal, will be very easily acquired; and when it is acquired, the way is open to an excellency and an extent of genius and learning, which will amply repay any pains taken in the acquisition. Of this, indeed, our literary men are becoming more and more convinced, and the study of this language, long neglected, is now beginning to be more general-the language itself is no longer considered as a barbaric tongue, unworthy the attention of civilized nations—and its literature, though long despised, is now looked upon with the admiration and the esteem which it deserves. That the state of public opinion in this matter may still continue to improve, is the sincere wish of J. S. B. Gottingen, 17th July, 1829. ANTIQUARIAN SCRAPS. START not, gentle reader, at the sombre, uninviting title of these brief notices. Antiquarian pursuits, it is true, are often but a species of laborious trifling, yet they sometimes present points of interest and humour, and should not be condemned en masse. There is an indescribable pleasure in striving to dissipate a portion, however small, of that mist which mantles between the land of oblivion and the region of authentic record; and, though it is perilous in some companies to avow a lurking fondness for mouldy parchments and faded ink, I confess I must, as Mrs Malaprop says, "own the soft impeachment." Life has few things better than a quiet chamber, a clear coal fire, a glass or two of racy port, and a midnight spell, by the light of a pair of tapers, over a venerable tome or an ancient manuscript. pigs, goats, kids, lambs, calves, capons, hens, pullets, pigeons, and other birds; conies, wild beasts, eggs, salt, hay, straw, timber, wood, underwood, billets, coals, and other utensils and victuals." Edward VI., "in consideration of rents owing by the dissolution of the abbeys," released about 40s. of the annual-rent. Elizabeth seems barely to have recited and confirmed the former charters. Charles I., in language worthy of his father," of his special grace, and certain knowledge, and mere motion," granted fresh charters to most of the burghs, defining more clearly and definitely their respective immunities; and, in several instances, incorporating the ruling powers under the title of "Mayor and Aldermen," instead of the old title of “Bailiffs and Burgesses." We may here close the list, for but little alteration was made by subsequent monarchs, and the practice of renewing burgh charters has, as our lawyers say, fallen into desuetude. Fresh light might still be thrown upon our Constitutional history, if the ancient returns of members of Parliament, made by the Sheriffs, were printed and publish In assisting a legal friend in some enquiries relative to a disputed election case in an English burgh, I was amused with the variation in the style and wording of old charters and public documents. The most ancient charter extant, is that of the city of London. It was granted by William the Conqueror, and forms a striking contrast to the copia verborum in which our modern lawgivers and jurisconsults love to luxuriate. The following translation is from the pen of an able antiquary, Mr Bailey, one of the present keepers of the records in the Tower:-" William the King friendly salutes William the Bishop, and Godfrey the Portreeve, and all the Burgesses (Burghwaller') within London, both French and English, and I declare I grant you to be all lawworthy, as you were in the days of King Edward, and I grant that every child shall be his father's heir, after his father's death, and I will not suffer any one to do you wrong. God preserve you." The brevity of Domesday Book, with its enumeration of taini-villani-milites-ed. Among the records in the Tower, there are returns and homines, is well known. King John improved upon the style of his royal predecessors. The following full and flowing enumeration, I copy from a charter of date 1206" The same borough and burgesses shall have and hold the same liberties and free customs as any other borough and free burgesses of England do have, well and in peace, freely and quietly, entirely, fully, and honour ably, in wood and plain, in ways and paths, in meadows and pastures, in fees and lordships, in waters and mills, in vivaries and fisheries, in moors and marshes, within borough and without, and in all places and things." For this comprehensive grant, the monarch took care to exact "the ancient fee-farm rent, with L. 10 of yearly increase, payable to exchequers; to wit, one moiety at Easter, and the other moiety at St Michael." As these fee-farm rents added considerably to the revenue of the crown, each succeeding monarch was careful to have the burgh charters renewed immediately on his accession, generally raising the amount of each, as the clergy still strive to do the tithes on their induction. The following curious notice occurs in a charter of Edward I. :-"In his well-known hatred to the enemies of the Christian faith, the King also grants the burgesses, from every Jew or Jewess passing over the bridge on horseback, one penny, or on foot, one halfpenny." In those days, the poor Jews were indeed a doomed race. Three years before the date of the charter alluded to (in 1277), fifty were drawn at horses' tails and hanged, and all the synagogues ordered to be destroyed, in consequence of some of their number having crucified a child at the town of Northampton. In 1287, they were all banished, and their property confiscated; at this time there were 15,600 Jews resident in England. They remained banished for upwards of three centuries, till Cromwell restored them; in return for which, the Rabbis wished to prove that Oliver was the new Messiah, or the Lion of the tribe of Judah. for some of the burghs, in regular consecutive order, from the twenty-third of Edward I.—the earliest epoch of acknowledged representation. It is well known that, for several centuries, the office of member of Parliament was eagerly avoided, on account of its being considered an intolerable burden; and, to release themselves of the tax of two shillings per day, which the burghs were bound to pay their members, many of the corporations wholly neglected the precept, and made no return, or prevailed upon the Sheriff to get them exempted, on the plea of poverty and incapacity. Some of the old returns have the names of sureties indorsed on the writ, in order to secure the attendance of the members. I have seen a written agreement, between the major part of the burgesses of a borough and their representatives, so late as 1645, in which the member stipulated that he would serve in Parliament, "without requiring or demanding any manner of wages or pay from the electors." The patriotic Andrew Maxwell, member for Hull, in the reign of Charles II., is commonly said to have been the last who received this honourable salary. I shall close these Scraps, with an extract from an ancient will, registered, with many others, in the office of the Archdeacon of Huntingdon :-" William Ferrers, late Prest and Parsone of the parishe churche of Seynt John the Baptiste in Huntyngdon, (the church, by the way, in which Oliver Cromwell was baptized,) bequethes to the parishe churche of Seynt John thirteen shillings and fourpense, to be bestowede abowte most necessarie things ther needfull to be don; and to bye and proviede a canapye of silk for the holie sacramente ther, and that they may provide for the Bybullis, a desk, and a chayne, after the honeste manere; to the four parishe Clerks fourpense everie one of them; to every poure housholder in my parishe, at the day of my buriall, fourpense; to thirteen bedemen, holding thirteen tapirs abowte my heryse, to the honoure and glorie of Almyghtie God, at dyrge In the charters of Edward III. frequent mention is and masse, fourpense to everie one of them." The will made of the "mortal pestilence," and "dire adversities," is dated in 1542—two years after the date of the royal in consequence of which the King had to lower his fee- proclamation, enjoining every curate and parish to profarm rents. The awful calamity of the plague disappear-vide themselves with the Bible of the largest size. "It ed almost as soon as the city of London had been rebuilt, after the great fire of 1666; so the land-scurvy, and, before that, the leprosy, became gradually extinct, when the reformation of religion and improvements of agriculture had removed the necessity of eating salt fish and salted meat during the greatest portion of the year. But to return for a moment to the burgh charters.Richard III. was laudably minute in his enumeration of the exemptions and privileges granted to the burgesses on the payment of their fee-farm rent; they were duly assoilzied from "all prisages, chiminages, and taking of carriages, horses, carts, waggons; and also of wheat, barley, rye, oats, beans, pease, oxen, cows, sheep, hogs, was wonderful,” says Strype, “to see with what joy the book of God was received, and what resort there was to the places appointed for reading it." So eager, indeed, were the people to see and hear the blessed Book, that it became necessary to fasten the "Bybullis" with a chain to the desk, after the "honest manner" alluded to by the priest of Huntingdon. SOME ACCOUNT OF MY OWN LIFE. An Article by a New Contributor. THE precise day and place of my nativity is of little consequence. I was approaching the years of confirmed |