length the witch became wicked in thought, though not in deed. The hatred of the world placed her out of the pale of society. Detesting and detested, she sought to inflict those evils which she could not effect; and, half conscious of a delusion which she could not overcome, she became reckless of her own miserable life, yielding to the frantic despair which compelled her to wish to believe that she was in league with the powers of darkness. In this country, however barbarous the law may have been, still the strict forms of our jurisprudence, administered by the highest judges of the land, contributed to keep these persecutions somewhat within bounds. Where these checks were wanting, the numbers persecuted, in consequence of the belief in witchcraft, almost pass credibility. In New England, in the year 1692, nineteen were hanged; one refused to plead, and perished by the peine forte et dure. Fifty confessed themselves to be witches, and were pardoned. One hundred and fifty were in prison when the trials ceased, and informations had been laid against upwards of two hundred more; and this in a newly settled and thinly peopled colony!

*17.1827.-RUNDELL DIED, ET. 81.

He was of the firm of Rundell and Bridge, jewellers to the royal family. Many of the works which were produced from this manufactory have been considered to rival, in classical conception, and delicacy and splendour of execution, the productions of the celebrated Benvenuto Cellini. We may instance, as one of the most distinguished of these works, the splendid Shield of Achilles,' executed, according to Messrs. Rundell and Bridge's directions, by the late Mr. Flaxman, and which is universally acknowledged to be one of the finest performances of modern art. This chef-d'œuvre originated in the suggestion of Messrs. Rundell and Bridge, unprompted by any order, or expectation of order, and

at their own sole expense. For the model and drawing they paid Mr. Flaxman the sum of £620. Four casts in silver-gilt, beautifully and elaborately chased, were executed from Mr. Flaxman's model, and became the property of His Majesty, His Royal Highness the late Duke of York, the Earl of Lonsdale, and the Duke of Northumberland. Some idea may be formed of the magnificence of this production, when it is stated, that the completion of each cast occupied two experienced workmen an entire twelvemonth. To this notice may be added that of copies, equally creditable to the spirit and liberality of Messrs. Rundell and Bridge, of the celebrated Portland and Warwick vases. Among other means by which the proprietors of this establishment sought to advance English manufacture in their particular trade, was that of obtaining the services of the best talents, both native and foreign, which could be procured. Accordingly, artists and workmen of distinguished ability always found in their manufactory a certain and liberal engagement; and by this accumulation of superior executive ability, they may almost be said to have accomplished what they are reported to have aimed at-the advancement of a manufacture nearly into a department of art. Nor has this increased reputation of our manufactories been confined to England. The various splendid services of plate, and the articles of jewellery and other costly work, which have, at various times during the last half century, been presented to official dignitaries and other persons in foreign countries, and have been ordered from this establishment by foreign potentates, must necessarily, from their acknowledged superiority, have raised the fame of English manufacture; and in this point of view the life of an individual whose peculiar and personal exertions have been thus useful, acquires an interest which that of the mere manufacturer, however wealthy, never could possess.

Mr. Rundell was, perhaps, not more distinguished by his peculiar excellencies as a man of business, than by his personal qualities: both were alike creditable to him. Of the former we have taken a hasty survey; of the latter it would be injustice not to say something. He was rich, and devotedly attached to the farther acquisition of wealth; but he was totally free from those blemishes which frequently disfigure the possession of money. His wealth was not contaminated by avarice; his desire of gain never invaded his honour; his anxiety to increase his possessions gave admission to no sordid or covetous motive: he was always liberal; and as his wealth augmented his liberality enlarged; and his discernment of deserving objects of bounty, and of beneficial media of dispensing it, seemed to be strengthened. In proof of his generosity of temper, it may be stated, that, irascible as he was, no one in his service, either commercial or domestic, ever left him spontaneously. Of his freedom from sordid or avaricious motives, the bountiful, not to say magnanimous benevolences which he gave to his relations

F

in his life-time, are a most honourable testimony. It has been represented, on very good authority, that he distributed among his relations during his life-time, in sums varying between £500 and £20,000 (for his bounty on meet occasions descended in such large amounts) no less a sum than £145,000. In addition to these absolute gifts, he made regular annual allowances, many of them secured by binding legal securities, to such of his relations and dependents as in his judgment would be most benefited by an annual provision, to an amount which, if calculated according to the established value of annuities, would increase the total of his living bounty to a sum almost, if not quite, unexampled in the annals of generosity. 22.-SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY, See p. 55.

24.-SAINT MATTHIAS.

St. Matthias was chosen by lot into the apostolical office, in the place of the traitor Judas (Acts i, 26), and was afterwards murdered by the Jews.-See T.T. for 1825, pp. 145, 146.

*28. 1828.-DESTRUCTION OF THE BRUNSWICK

THEATRE.

In the morning of this day, a most calamitous and destructive event took place at the Brunswick Theatre, Well-street, Wellclose-square. The rehearsal was going on at about half past eleven o'clock, and the entire strength of the company was on the stage, preparing for the evening's exhibition (that of Guy Mannering), when suddenly a cracking noise was heard from the wrought-iron roof of the building, and almost instantaneously it fell in with a tremendous crash, throwing the front wall of the theatre into the street. The shouts and wailings of the persons inclosed within the ruins were of the most pitiable description. The bodies dug out the same day were, those of Mr. Maurice, printer, of Fenchurch street, principal proprietor; Mr. Evans, formerly a printer at Bristol; Mr. E. Gilbert, a performer; Miss Fearon, sister

to Madame Fearon, and Miss Freeman, actresses; Robert Purdy, a blacksmith; Allis and Penfold, door-keepers; Jesse Miles, a carpenter; and Levi, a clothesman, who was reading the play-bill at the door. Upwards of twenty sufferers were carried off to the London Hospital. Public subscriptions for the benefit of the unfortunate sufferers were undertaken and liberally supported.

At a coroner's inquest held on the bodies, it was stated by Mr. WHITWELL, the architect, that the accident originated not from the weight of the roof itself, nor from the bad structure of the walls, but from an additional weight of about eighty tons having been attached to the roof without his authority; the slips, the painters' gallery, &c. being all appended to it by means of iron bars. Mr. Whitwell stated, that the roof, being made of wrought iron, was lighter than it could have been even of wood, and was so constructed, that if it had only to bear the weight of its covering, it would have remained for a century or more; but that the proprietors had, in the face of the strongest remonstrances from the architect and the roof-contractor, suspended the machinery abovementioned from the roof, which it was never calculated or intended to bear; and that this was the cause of the dreadful calamity.

The theatre was begun Aug. 2, 1827-run up with incredible speed-opened and fell down-all in less than seven months.

*FEB. 1828.-HON. MICHAEL NOLAN Died,

King's counsel, and chief justice of the Brecon circuit. Mr. Nolan was a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, and was author of the following professional works: Reports of Cases relating to the Duty and Office of a Justice of the Peace, from Michaelmas Term, 1791, to Trinity Term, 1792, 2 parts, royal 8vo, 1793; Strange's Reports of adjudged Cases in the Courts of Chancery, King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, 3d edit., with Notes and References, 3 vols.