316 Benefit of more frequent Assizes. ral knowledge, and an acquaintance with the habits of thinking, the modes of living, the prejudices, opinions, and manners of every class of society, more especially of the lower class, for amongst these most of the offenders against the laws are taken. He ought not to rest satisfied with that superficial knowledge of those matters which are necessary to enable him fairly to dispense justice, which is to be obtained from the reports of gaols and police officers, the sources of the erudition of many of those who have and do amuse themselves and the Courts where they preside, by the display of the fancied information they possess in a manner which does indeed make the judicious grieve. With the Benches of the different Courts of Justice occupied by able Judges of from 40 to 50 years of age, it will be possible to effect the holding of the Circuits three times a year, which is perhaps sufficiently frequent. The term of imprisonment previous to trial would be considerably shortened: less opportunity would be afforded for compromising with prosecutors, or corrupting witnesses; while the expense of holding the Assizes would be nearly defrayed by the relief which the Counties would experience in the maintenance of prisoners by the diminution of the period of imprisonment before trial, or afterwards, of those under sentence either of imprisonment or transportation. The benefit, however, of more frequent Assizes would not be fully perceived, if the practice in the late additional Assize in the Home Circuit be adhered to, of disposing of the criminal business only. Most certainly the issues in civil cases ought also to be determined. Much fruitless litigation would thus be prevented; nay, much fraud in the transfer or concealment of property would also be prevented, because less opportunity would be offered for its commission. The great accumulation of business on the Civil side of the Court in different Counties, frequently compels the infliction of positive injustice upon parties in these cases by the postponement of their decision till the following Assizes. If the business of the Assizes was properly arranged, of course there would be no more difficulty in disposing of the Civil than of the Criminal cases; very great expenses would thus be saved to the [Oct. parties, and justice be better administered. If these great objects cannot be accomplished by the present number of Judges, the addition of another Judge to each of the three principal Courts would perhaps enable these learned personages to hold the Circuits more frequently, especially if three Judges were constituted a quorum in each Court, as six Judges might be employed in travelling the Circuits even while the Courts they belonged to were sitting; or while the Chief Justices were holding Nisi prius sittings, their twelve brethren might be employed. But, perhaps, if some measure were taken to equalize the business in the different Courts, by depriving the Serjeants in the Common Pleas, and the Attornies in the Exchequer of their exclusive privileges, and by the appointment of two Judges to each Court to hold Nisi prius sittings at the same time, the business which now so heavily presses on the Court of King's Bench, and occasionally upon the Court of Common Pleas, might be disposed of in comparatively so short a time as to leave sufficient leisure for the holding of the extra Assize. No doubt any measure of the kind would be most strenuously opposed, not only by those who possess the exclusive privileges alluded to, but even by the leading Counsel and Attornies of the King's Bench; because if the number of cases in the different Courts were nearly equalized, much of the business which now falls to their lot, would become the prize of the practitioners in the other Courts. But setting the consideration of the public benefit likely to arise from the measure aside, surely the additional encouragement which would be thus afforded to talent and ability in the profession, is no small recommendation. The present monopoly would be abolished, and the sums now paid to a few of the leading members of the bar, would be divided among a greater number of persons, and we should hear of fewer instances of elevation to the Bench being declined on the ground that the rank and emoluments belonging to the judicial character were not sufficient to compensate the party for the sacrifice of his income as a Barrister. Every person who has considered Courts of Justice with a philosophic eye, must be convinced that Courts constituted as the 1825.] The Censor, the English are, much of their character must depend upon the character of the Bar. Incapacity, ignorance, or even corruption, will naturally withdraw themselves from the scrutiny of an able, honourable, and well-informed Bar. If, therefore, our other Courts of Judicature were thrown open to the general practice of the Bar, we might reasonably expect that the Courts of Exchequer and Common Pleas would speedily obtain a similar honourable reputation with that which is now enjoyed by the Court of King's Bench, That of the vast number of cases which now bears so heavily upon the latter Court, many would for the future be taken for decision into the two others, and two or more Judges of each Court being empowered to sit for the dispatch of the Nisi prius cases at the same time, an opportunity would be afforded for putting into execution the plan which has so frequently been urged, the holding of the Assizes more frequently, the administering of justice more speedily, and the elevation of Courts of Justice and of the members of the Bar in public estimation. Yours, &c. R. H. THE CENSOR, No. XVIII. HE Treasurie of Auncient and "T Moderne Times, containing the learned Collections, judicious Readings, and memorable Observations, not onely divine, morrall, and phylosophicall, but also poeticall, martiall, politicall, historicall, astrologicall, &c. Translated out of that worthy Spanish gentleman, Pedro Mexio, and M. Francesco Sansorino, that famous Italian. As also of those honourable Frenchmen, Anthonie Du Verdier, Lord of Vanprivaz: Loys Guyon, Sieur de la Nauche, Counsellor unto the King; Claudius Gruget, Parisian, &c. London, printed by W. Jaggard, 1613." fol. pp. 9 5.965. II. “APXIO-ПAOTTO. Containing ten following bookes to the former Treasurie of Auncient and Moderne Times. London, printed by William Jaggard, 1619." folio, pp. 977. When the first discoveries produced by the revival of Learning were past, there arose a set of writers whose productions were of great disadvantage to their successors, who selected what appeared most remarkable in the works of others, without investigating the authenticity of their collections. These Florilegists were in greatest repute during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when trifles occupied the learned, and pretenders obtained the reputation of philosophers. Falgosius was the first of this class, and Wanley the last who deserves the praise of industry; but the anonymous compiler of this ponderous volume claims at least the merit of having introduced many a strange exotic into his native tongue. Could inquisitive readers submit to be amused, or desultory ones to be taught, a work which embraces every abstruse question would appear to possess invaluable stores. But essays on the difference between Paradise and Heaven, man and his degeneracy, and the Devil in the serpent's shape, will interest few except the malicious critic, who reads only to detect a fault. The compiler's philosophy is dubious, when, to the question, "Why man goeth upright?" he answers, Experience herein may be a present tutor, by any skin or bladder, which being throwne into the water simply, and not yet blowne up with ayre, which is the breath of man, it floateth lightly on the face of the water,"-forgetting that all animals breathe! Some of his theses remind us of the extracts from Suarez and Aquinas in the Memoirs of Scriblerus, such as "Whether evil dæmons and spirits can foretell things to come, they having no certaine knowledge?" With all their defects, these writers possessed the art of softening difficulties, and of grasping conclusions which had escaped many a literary disputant. Thus a topic which no scholar could approach without terror, in such hands becomes clear immediately; the lyre of Amphion, or the sword of Harlequin, is the only comparison equal to the pen which produced the following account: "In Isaac's time began the raigne of the Argives in Thessaly; and in the dayes of his sonnes Jacob and Esau, the Kings of Cesta began their rule, the first whereof was named Acris. Then in a short while after, Joseph was sold by his brethren to the Egyptians. During this Hercules age, beganne his government. And after him of Lybia travelled into Spaine, where he were Hyver, Brigus, Taga, Beto, Gerion, and divers others. Of their several raignes and jurisdictions there, Berosus, with sundry other well-approved authors, do make like mention. In this time was the city of Sivile first founded; and it is acknowledged 315 The Censor, in the world to be one of the most ancient, as likewise is set down by Berosus and others. It was first of all called Hispalis, according to the name of Hispalus, the sonne, or (as others will have it) the nephew of Hercules, who raigned worthily there; and it was hee that caused the first foundation thereof to be laide, and after built it in a comely manner. Yet Isidore contrarieth this judgement of Berosus, and saith that it was entitled Hispalis, because it was erected in a very marish ground, and that for their same security in building, they were compelled to drive great beames of woode, trees, and stakes into the ground. But howsoever it was, the city of Hispalis was afterwards called Spain, as wee are credibly informed by Trojus, Pompeius, Justine, and divers others. True it is that Julius Cæsar did first call it Sivile, enno bling it with great enlargement, making it his chiefe colony and abode for his Romaines, because it was (before that time) very famous and noble." B. 2, c. ii. In another chapter, the thesis "that Orpheus, Homer, Pythagoras, Plato, and other of the ancient philosophers and poets, did read the bookes of Moyses, and have taken many parti. cular points out of them," is thus dis. cussed: "At such time as Pythagoras and Plato learned the sciences in Egypt, they would (first of all) study the doctrine of Moyses, whose name (in those times) was in great admiration through all Egipt, and out of his bookes they couceived the reason of God, to wit, of the first cause. After whom, Numenius the Pythagorean wrote down in his bookes many thinges concerning Moysiacall doctrine, as Basile the Great witnesseth; and the same Numenius saith that Plato was no other than Moyses, speaking in the Greeke language. Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius doe both say that the Gentiles received their greatest mysteries from the Jewes, wrapping and enfolding them in the fables. That of Deucalion was taken from the historie of the Deluge; the fixion of Phaeton from the retrogradation and going backe of the Sunnne, which was in the time of Ezekias, They that would behold the building of the Tower of Babell, which Nimrod and his pertakers undertooke, meaning (by ladders) to climbe up into Heaven, and see what was done there, shall find it under certaine allegories, amply described in Homer, under the fable of the giants Oetus and Ephialtes, sonnes to Iphimedia, where hee describeth their height and wonderfull greatnesse, and how they would lay the mountaine of Ossa upon that of Olympus, and Pelion upon Ossa. The poet Ovid, born in Sulmo, tooke that which he singeth of the beginning and creation of the world (like as Homer, Hesiodus, and Linus, borrowed their songs of sanctifying the seaventh day), from none else but Moyses. Many have sung the golden age and raigne of Saturne, having gathered it from the most happy estate wherein Adam was before he sinned." B. 4, c. xvii. The following remarks on judicial Astrology would not have disgraced Aristotle or Hacon. They contain an argument against planetary influence, which a contemporary of Nastradamus must have been hardy to advance: we say a contemporary, for such the original author in all probability was: ters. "To the planet named Saturne, they attributed sterility and mortality. To Jupiter, happy times and the beginning of life. To Mars, the cause of debates, garbolles, To Soll, riches and treasures. and warre. To Venus, loves and marriage. To Mereury, eloquence and knowledge. To Luna, the empire and command over humide matAnd God (in all these thinges) was counted as nothing, but even as the figure filling up an empty place.......That this judiciary astrology is altogether a lyer, I will take a little paines to demonstrate; for it affirmeth, that if any one be conceived or borne while such a starre or such a planet raigneth, he shall containe the nature of that starre or planet to him attributed. Esau and Jacob were first conceived, and then borne, under one and the same planet, for they were twinnes.....notwithstanding they were both of very different natures..... As of a lady that was a Bordelois, that after five and twenty years past in marriage, had two daughters at a birth. The one, at meet years for a husband (with much dislike of her parents), became a religious Sister of the Order of St. Clare. The other kept a shop of sin in an open brothelry. These two histories may suffice......In like manner, if you will but conferre together the Almanacks of divers authors, you shall find no one of them to agree with another: whereby may be easily conceived the folly of this judiciall Astrology, which ought not henceforth to be tollerated in any Christian commonwealth." pp. 122-4. To enumerate the curiosities which this volume contains would be impossible. We have glanced at its graver topics, but it possesses attractions for every taste. To the philosopher, the poet, and the novelist, it offers an as The second part is principally historical, and is embellished with engravings, among which is a spirited representation of the English House of Lords. The translator, who still conceals his name, promises eleven additional books, semblage 1825.] Fly Leaves, No. XXVIII. Walton's Lives. semblage of subjects not to be found elsewhere, unless in the classification of Wanley; nor can the most careless reader turn over its pages without sus pecting much disingenuous conduct on the part of later writers. The publick is still supplied with Miscellanies in various forms, whose narratives may frequently be traced to these reposito ries. That they are in every way calcalated to delight, must be acknowledged; but the student, whose means and opportunities enable him to consalt original productions, should open such volames with caution; for, notwithstanding the pleasure they impart, they cannot confer the most essential one, a fair probability that he is reading the truth. FLY LEAVES. No. XXVIII. THE spirited Mr. Major has ful lished in a convenient sized octavo volume the interesting lives compiled by honest Isaac Walton. It is rich in engravings, with appropriate xylographic accompaniments, as might be expected from the praise-worthy liberality of such a publisher. The volume will rank for beauty of execution beside works of greater import, and prove a covetable gem to the bibliomaniac, whose judgment, however fast bound to the editio princeps, seldom fails to secure modern copies when appropriately embellished and recommended, like the present one, by the appendage of notes. A few years since the same lives appeared in that repellant form a tremendous quarto. So there is lately put forth the diaries of Evelyn and of Pepys in a like size, which convenience can seldom supply with a resting place. Omitting in this reading age the forced contraction of the book-rooms in the metropolis, do our bulky publishers ever visit the resident scholars at the Universities, and pry into the closets, examine the triangling corners and temporary shelves, bending with modern and ancient works, and never reflect that literary men ought, like mechanics, to have serviceable and not costly tools supplied as a matter of public expedience. * A fly leaf memorandum of the late Mr. James Boswell states, that his father "had an intention of publishing a new edition" of the Lives. Rodd's Catalogue, 1825, part ii. p. 297. Dr. Donne. 319 Our moralist Isaac Walton relates little, and descants less on this writer, until apparently arrived at the end of the holiday of youth; nor was it within the task of the editor of the new edi tion to supply the deficiency. No apology is therefore to be found for the gay and airy rhimes of his muse when, in her wanton moments, she scattered with thoughtless indifference (probably in term time among his brother re vellers of Temple-hall) the record of some passing event, in order to secure ephemeral fame. On every occasion posthumnous publications cannot be too cautiously received, and a production of indefinite character is entitled to stronger proof than that of authorship, to show when written it was ever intended to stalk in print. Public curiosity too commonly induces an Editor unsparingly to give all that can be oolthereby present ing unimportant trifles and the fringe of the times, which an unbiassed judgment would fitly neglect and leave to waste in the desart air. Of Donne it were enough to remark, that he never printed his poems, and that his excess of fancy was not beyond the license and fashion of the young and gay of his own period; for it is not probable any such lucubrastic composition appeared after once entering as a divine the pale of the Church. Had he winnowed the scantlings of his muse, and collected with his name what he deemed worthy to be owned, even the chaff might then have been preserved from his popularity, as I possess a manuscript volume, contemporary with the time of the author, written in a fair Italian hand, with the precision and care of a female, containing a very large proportion of his poems, and including with those above alluded to, one of the same character never yet printed. Sir Henry Wootton. If a judicious editor were to bestow his attention on the Reliquie Woottoniana, and furnish a limited impression, it could not be otherwise than well received. Wootton wrote prose with the freedom of a gentleman, and verse with the inspiration of a poet. The extent of his claim in the latter character has never yet been critically examined. It seems impossible to believe him the Henry Wootton for whom was licensed to Henry Bynneman in 1578," A Courtlie Controuersie of Cupid's Cautels," and pub. 320 Letter of Dr. Samuel Johnson. lished in the same year. The merit of that amatory production is not very extraordinary, but as Wootton could not be then more than ten years old, if his biographers give his age correctly, it would infer a more than usual precocity of talent; at the same time, it remains to be remarked, no mention is any where made of another Henry Wootton to whom that work can be confidently assigned. His powers as a poet has been critically touched upon, in a Memoir of Wotton, from the interesting pen of Sir Egerton Brydges, and passingly by other writers; but the research of an editor, industriously disposed, could not fail to relieve this question from its present indecision. The following is a dedication of the Elements of Architecture, 4to. 1624, written on the fly leaf of a presentation copy from the author. "To the right Honorable the Earle of Middlesex, Lord High Thresover of England. "My Lord, "I humbly present vnto youre Lorde this Pamphlet printed sheete by sheete as faste as it was borne, and borne as soone as it was conceived: So as It must needes haue the imperfections and deformities of immature birth besides the weaknesse of the Parent. And therefore I could not allowe it so much faúour even from myself as to thinke it worthie of dedication to any. Yet my long deuotion towardes y Lorde and your owne noble love of this Art which I handle, doe warrant me to intertayne you with a Copie thereof. And so I rest Your Lordps ever deuoted servant henry Wotton." LETTER OF DR. SAM. JOHNSON. Wof enriching our pages with an original and very characteristic letter of the great Author of the Rambler. It was written to his namesake, the late William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut. This eloquent and excellent man spent several years in England, about the middle of the last century, as the agent of the Colony of Connecticut, and acquired high reputation among the most distinguished political and professional men of Great Britain, by his able management of an im E have this month the pleasure [Oct. portant American cause before the Lords in Council. He received the degree of doctor of civil law from the University of Oxford, and this circumstance, together with the accidental similarity of name, recommended him to the acquaintance and friendship of Dr. Samuel Johnson. Several letters passed between them, after the American Dr. Johnson had returned to his native country; of which, however, it is feared that this is the only one remaining. "Letter from Samuel Johnson, to W. S. Johnson, LL.D. Stratford, Connecticut. "SIR,-Of all those whom the various accidents of life have brought within my notice, there is scarce any man whose acquaintance I have more desired to cultivate than yours. with neglecting me, yet our mutual inclinaI cannot indeed charge you tion could never gratify itself with opportunities. The current of the day always bore us away from one another, and now the Atlantic is between us. "Whether you carried away an impression of me as pleasing as that which you left me of yourself, I know not; if you did you have not forgotten me, and will be glad that I do not forget you. Merely to be remembered, is indeed a barren pleasure, but it is one of the pleasures which is more sensibly felt as human nature is more exalted. "To make you wish that I should have you in my mind, I would be glad to tell you something which you do not know: but all public affairs are printed; and as you and I have no common friend, I can tell you no private history. "The Government, I think, grow stronger, but I am afraid the next general election will be a time of uncommon turbulence, violence, and outrage. "Of Literature no great product has appeared, or is expected; the attention of the people has for some years been otherwise employed. "I was told a day or two ago of a design which must excite some curiosity. Two ships are in preparation which are under the command of Captain Constantine Phipps, to explore the Northern Ocean; not to seek the north-east or the northwest passage, but to sail directly north, as near the pole as they can go. They hope to find an open ocean, but I suspect it is one mass of perpetual congelation. I do not much wish well to discoveries, for I am always afraid they will end in conquest and robbery. but am grown better. "I have been out of order this winter, Can I never hope to see you again, or must I be always content to tell you, that in another hemisphere I am, Sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON. "Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, London, March 4, 1773." COMPENDIUM |