HISTORICAL ACROSTIC.

THE following noblemen, to whom Charles II., after the removal of Clarendon, confided the conduct of public affairs, and who formed a most dangerous ministry, were known by the name of the Cabal, which word, by a singular coincidence, the initials of their names composed:

Clifford, Sir Thomas.

are figures not to be found in any of the common writers on geometry. But perhaps king James learnt his mathematics from the same system as Dr. Sacheverell, who, in one of his speeches or sermons, made use of the following simile:- They concur, like parallel lines, meeting in one common centre ! ! !'”

THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.

bury.

Buckingham, Duke of.
A rlington, Lord.
Lauderdale, Duke of.

CHURCH MUSIC.

IN a catalogue of Presbyterian books (Lewis's "Presbyterian Eloquence, Lond." 1720) occurs the following: -" A Cabinet of Choice Jewels, or the Christian's Joy and Gladness, set forth in sundry new and pleasant Christmas Carols, viz. a carol for Christmas day, to the tune of, Over nills and high mountains;' for Christmas day at night, to the tune of,My life and my death;' for St. Stephen's day, to the tune of, O, cruel, bloody tale;' for New Year's day, to the ture of, O, caper and frisk it; for Twelch day, to the tune of, ‘O, mother Roger!""

PIKED SHOES.

IN the reign of Edward IV. the fashion of wearing shoes with piked toes became general; by those who could afford it, these were fastened to the knee by gold or silver chains; but those who could not purchase such expensive ornaments, used a silken string attached from the knee to the long peak of the shoe. In the third year of Edward IV., parliament took this enormity into serious deliberation, and enacted that men should wear no shoes or boots exceeding at the toes two inches in length. This act, however, was not regarded, and piked shoes flourished, till in two years after another was passed, threatening the curse of the clergy, and a 20s. fine, to all who wore them longer than the prescribed measure. After this we hear no more of them.

ROYAL MATHEMATICS.

KING JAMES, in his "Dærnonology," speaking of wizards raising spirits, says, These things being all prepared, circles are made, triangular, quadrangular, round, double, or single, according to the form of the apparition they crave." Upon which Grose observes, "This is a pretty accurate description of that mode of conjuration, styled the circular method; but with all due respect to his majesty's learning, square and triangular circles

universal amongst most clergymen of the church of England, was once deemed so disgraceful, that Charles II. issued an edict to the university of Cambridge, ordering them to preach "both Latin and English sermons by memory, without book;" at the same time condemning "the present supine and slothful way of preaching," and ordering the vice-chancellor, for the time being, to inform him of all who persisted in the same, ❝ on pain of his majesty's displeasure."-Tobacco was so much approved after its introduction into this country by Sir W. Raleigh, that James I., in 1607, sent a letter to Cambridge, to prohibit its use at St. Mary's church, (the one appropriated to the members of the university.) I have frequently heard it asserted, in proof of the childish age at which it was formerly customary to send youths to college, that amongst the statutes of this university is one which prohibits the students from playing at marbles in the streets and public places; and, in proof of their poverty, that it was not uncommon to employ them to mend the roads!

SUMPTUARY LAWS.

In the tenth year of Edward III. an act was passed to prohibit any one from being served at dinner or supper with more than two courses, except upon some great holiday therein specified, in which three were allowed. This act, if not repealed by Edward's royal successor, Richard II., was little attended to, at least on his part, as his extraordinary and well-known luxury amply testifies.-The Romans had sumptuary laws, by one of which (proposed by the tribune Oppius) the ladies of Rome were prohibited from appearing in robes of various colours, or from exceeding in their ornaments half an ounce of gold. They were also forbidden to use carriages within the city, and at less than the distance of a mile from its walls. The matrons of Rome, after the battle of Zaina, effected a repeal of the Oppian law. This had been opposed by Cato, and when he was raised to the censorship he had his revenge, by promoting a severe inquisition into the clothes, trinkets, and equipages of the fair sex, and taxing each

I wish I was yon glorious Star,
That shines so sweetly from afar;
It looks so beautiful and bright,
Shedding its soft and silvery light;
And gazing downwards, seems to say,
"I pity thee, poor child of clay!"

1 wish I was yon little Cloud,

Along the sky so gaily driven;

I'd spread my milk-white sails, and, proud,
I'd plough the azure deep of heaven.

Oh! that I were yon glittering Bubble
That dances on the moonlight sea!
Without a thought, without a trouble,
It swims along so merrily.

The next revolving wave may sweep
The little sparkler from the deep;
And yet I would its fate were mine!
Better to live one happy day,
Than through a long, long life to pine
For very weariness away.

Oh! that I were some Water-Sprite-
My dwelling-place a coral cave!
I'd weave my hair with gems so bright,
And ride upon the watery wave.
Ah! who can tell what I may be,
When death hath set my spirit free?
I may be one of Ocean's daughters,
And dwell beneath the bright blue waters.
Monthly Magazine.

PARTICULAR PEOPLE. READER! didst ever live with a particular lady? one possessed, not simply with the spirit, but the demon of tidiness? who will give you a two hours' lecture upon the sin of an untied shoe-string, and raise a hurricane about your ears on the enormity of a fractured glove !-who will be struck speechless at the sight of a pin, instead of a string; or set a whole house in an uproar on finding a book on the table instead of in the bookcase! Those who have had the misfortune to meet with such a person will know how to sympa. thize with me. Gentle reader! I have passed two whole months with a particular lady. I had often received very pressing

invitations to visit an old schoolfellow, who is settled in a snug parsonage about fifty miles from town; but something or other was continually occurring to prevent me from availing myself of them. "Man never is, but always to be 'cursed.'" Accordingly, on the 17th or June, 1826, (I shall never forget it, if I live to the age of old Parr,) having a few spare weeks at my disposal, I set out for my chum's residence. He received me with his wonted cordiality; but I fancied he looked a little more care-worn than a man of thirty might have been expected to look, married as he is to the woman of his choice, and in the possession of an easy fortune. Poor fellow! I did not know that his wife was a precisian-I do not employ the term in a religious sense. The first hint I received of the fact was from Mr. S., who, removing my hat from the first peg in the hall to the fourth, observed, "My wife is a little particular in these matters; the first peg is for my hat, the second is for William's, the third for Tom's, and you can reserve the fourth if you please for your own; ladies, you know, do not like to have their arrangements interfered with." I promised to do my best to recollect the order of precedence with respect to the hats, and walked up stairs impressed with an awful veneration for a lady who had contrived to impose so rigid a discipline on a man, formerly the most disorderly of mortals, mentally resolving to obtain her favour by the most studious observance of her wishes. I might as well have determined to be emperor of China! Before the week was at an end I was a lost man. I always reckon myself tolerably tidy, never leaving more than half my clothes on the floor of my dressing-room, nor more than a dozen books about any apartment I may happen to occupy for an hour. I do not lose more than a dozen handkerchiefs in a month; nor have more than a quarter of an hour's hunt for my hat or gloves whenever I am going out in a hurry. I found all this was but as dust in the balance. The first time I sat down to dinner I made a horrible blunder; for, in my haste to help my friend to some asparagus, I pulled the dish a little out of its place, thereby deranging the exact hexagonal order in which the said dishes were arranged. I discovered my mishap on hearing Mr. S. sharply rebuked for a similar offence. Secondly, I sat half the evening with the cushion a full finger's breadth beyond the cane-work of my chair; and what is worse, I do not know that I should have been aware of my delinquency, if the agony of the lady's feelings had not, at length, overpowered every other

consideration, and at last burst forth with, "Excuse me, Mr., but do pray put your cushion straight; it annoys me beyond measure to see it otherwise." My third offence was displacing the snufferstand from its central position between the candlesticks. My fourth, leaving a pamphlet I had been perusing on the piano-forte, its proper place being a table in the middle of the room, on which all books in present use were ordered to repose. My fifth,-but in short I should never have done, were I to enumerate every separate enormity of which I was guilty. My friend S.'s drawing-room had as good a right to exhibit a placard of "Steel traps and spring guns" as any park I am acquainted with. In one place you were in danger of having your legs snapt off, and in another your nose. There never was a house so atrociously neat; every chair and table knew its duty; the very chimney ornaments had been "trained up in the way they should go," and woe to the unlucky wight who should make them "depart from it." Even those "chartered libertines," the children and dogs, were taught to be as demure and hypocritical as the matronly tabby cat herself, who sat with her fore feet together and her tail curled round her as exactly as if she had been worked in an urn-rug, instead of being a living mouser. It was the utmost stretch of my friend's marital authority to get his favourite spaniel admitted to the honours of the parlour; and even this privilege is only granted in his master's presence. If Carlo happens to pop his unlucky brown nose into the room when S. is from home, he sets off directly with as much consciousness in his ears and tail, as if he had been convicted of a larceny in the kitchen, and anticipated the application of the broomstick. As to the children, heaven help them! I believe that they look forward to their evening visit to the drawing-room with much the same sort of feeling. Not that Mrs. S. is an unkind mother, or, I should rather say, not that she means to be so; but she has taken it into her head, that "preachee and floggee too" is the way to bring up children; and that as young people have sometimes short memories, it is necessary to put them verbally in mind of their duties,

"From night till morn, from morn till dewy eve."

So it is with her servants; if one of them leaves a broom or a duster out of its place for a second, she hears of it for a month afterwards. I wonder how they endure .t! I sometimes thought that, from long practice, they do not heed it; as a friend

of mine who lives in a bustling street in the city, tells me he does not hear the infernal noise of the coaches and carts in the front of his house, nor of a confounded brazier, who hammers away in his rear from morning till night. The worst of it is, that while Mrs. S. never allows a moment's peace to husband, children, or servants, she thinks herself a jewel of a wife; but such jewels are too costly for every day wear. I am sure poor S. thinks so in his heart, and would be content to exchange half-a-dozen of his wife's tormenting good qualities for the sake of being allowed a little common-place repose.

I never shall forget the delight I felt on entering my own house, after enduring her thraldom for two months. I absolutely revelled in disorder, and gloried in my litters. I tossed my hat one way, my gloves another; pushed all the chairs into the middle of the room, and narrowly escaped kicking my faithful Christopher for offering to put it "in order" again. That cursed spirit of order!" I am sure it is a spirit of evil omen to S. For my own part, I do so execrate the phrase, that if I were a member of the House of Commons, and the order of the day were called for, I should make it a rule to walk out. Since my return home, I have positively prohibited the ase of the word in my house, and nearly quarrelled with an honest poulterer, who has served me for the last ten years, because he has a rascally shopman, who will persist in snuffling at my door, (I hear him now from my parlour window,) "Any order this morning ?" Confound the fellow ! that is his knock. I will go out and offer him half-a-crown to change his phrase ! When at school,

"Order is heaven's first law," but were I doomed to transcribe the sentiused to be our standing round-text copy; ment in these my days of adolescence, I should take the liberty of suggesting the new reading of

"Order is hell's first law," for I feel satisfied that Satan himself is a particular gentleman."

66

Literary Magnet.

DIRGE.

SWEET be thy slumbers, child of woe
At the yew-tree's foot, by the fountain's flow!-
May the firstling primrose blow,
Pallid snow-drop bloom;
And the blue-eyed violet grow,
By thy lonely tomb!
Duly there, at close of day,
Let woman's tears bedew the clay !

IN the character of Wentworth, Mr. Ward has, in his last novel, (and which we think is calculated to enhance the high fame of the author of Tremaine,) drawn an admirable sketch of the above-named distinguished statesman. The following extract possesses a two-fold interest-it developes, with great truth, the most striking points of Mr. Canning's character, and our admiration is divided between the painter of the narrative and the subject of the picture, which the author has so finely displayed.

"De Vere saw in Mr. Wentworth, much, if not everything he admired. He thought him, as in times a little farther off, ano. ther considerable minister was thought, by one who well knew how to describe him, "a person of as much virtue as can possibly consist with a love of power; and his love of power no greater than what is common to men of his superior capacities.' He admired and loved him, too, for many other qualities. But it is not easy to describe this able and accomplished person. His mind was an assemblage of all that could excite, and all that could soothe; his heart, the seat of an ambition belonging, as it were, to himself; equally above stooping to court or people, and which no fear of either could affright. With all this, his feelings were attuned to friendship, and his intellect to the pleasures of elegant cultiva tion. Thus he shone alike in the tumult of party, and the witchery of letters. In these last, he had been beautifully distinguished, and had had many amiable associates, before he acquired his political eminence. In the senate, his eloquence was like a mountain river, taking its rise from reason, but swelling its impetus by a thousand auxiliary streams of wit and imagination, which it gathered on its way. It is, indeed, difficult to say whether his wit or his reasoning predominated; for such was the effect of both united, that never was reason so set off by wit, or wit so sustained by reason. The one was a running fire, flashing from right to left over the whole field of argument, so as to embarrass and para

lyze his antagonists; while the other, when seriousness was resumed, struck down everything that opposed, with the force of thunder. But he had a more powerful recommendation still to the favour of his auditors, whether in the senate or elsewhere. His politics, as his heart, were truly, I might say insularly, British; and though he contemplated and understood the continent as well as any, and better than most who went before him, of the continent it was his principle to steer clear, except in so far as it was connected with Britain. This did not fail to "buy him golden opinions with all sorts of persons;" and he wound up all by a staunch adherence to his personal friends, not one of whom he had ever been known to fail, or to abandon. This made him the most loved for his own sake, of all the leaders of his time out of the house, while in it, he reigned without struggle or compeer,-nihil simile aut secundum. Yet, superior as Mr. Wentworth was in all these respects, he was kept, strange to say, from rising to the highest point, by the influence or intrigues of far less gifted rivals. Men wondered at this, but (happily for the repose of mankind) the times are over when a man who could not rule by other means, did not scruple, if he could, to seize the government by force, and awe even his prince into dangerous compliances. Mr. Wentworth knew this, but, even in other times, would never have attempted to go so far, and he therefore contented himself, at present, with a second place. This, at the time we write of, was the less irksome, because the high quality and worth, and still more, the long habit of being considered the leader of his party, which belonged to the Premier, induced the submission of all to his authority, without a murmur. Everybody, however, foresaw, from what has been stated, that the Premier's resignation would occasion a contest for the succession, which might shake the administration to its centre; and Mr. Wentworth was not a man to submit to hold a second rank under any other living person. Such, then, was the public character of this accomplished man; and there were not wanting those who observed, in his connexion with great families, in the spread of himself among all men of parliamentary power, and particularly in the attachment of the young men of rising talents to his person, a promise of future strength which might one day influence the fate of the empire."De Vere; or, the Man of Independence. By the author of Tremaine.