Starre Chamber will adde, upon the forger, a fine to the value of all his estates, whipping, wearing of papers through Westminster Hall, letters to be seared in his face with hote irons; and to the publisher likewise a great fine and longer imprisonment, not to be released until hee find sureties for good behaviour, and the like."

This catalogue of judicial terrors comprehends, at one view, all the ordinary punishments of the Star Chamber. In John Lilburne's case, gagging was had recourse to, in order to stop his outcries in the pillory. In other cases, a savage and cold-blooded ingenuity was exercised in the discovery of novel inflictions. Thus, one Traske, a poor fanatic who taught the unlawfulness of eating swine's flesh, was sentenced to be imprisoned and fed upon pork.

Mr. Bruce thinks it might be shown that most of these infamous punishments were introduced during the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. and grew into common practice under Elizabeth. Whipping seems to have been introduced by Lord Keeper Pickering, in the later reign. In the early instances, there was a moderation in fines; but, latterly, they were excessive, not accord ing to the estate of the delinquent, but in proportion to the supposed character of the offence, "the ransom of a beggar and a gentleman being all one;" or, as it is elsewhere expressed, "the Lord Chancellor useth to say often, that the King hath committed his justice to them, and that he hath reserved his mercy to himself; wherefore that they ought to look only upon the offence, and not upon the person, but leave him to his Ma. jesty for mercy, if there be cause." In the reigns of Henries VII. and VIII. it was not

So.

The clergy were then in the habit of attending the Court, and their "song was of mercy,"

(To be continued.)

SONG,

FROM THE GERMAN OF GOETHE.
Vanitas, vanitas vanitatum.

I HAVE my thoughts on nothing set, Hurrah,
And pleasantly through life I get, Ah, al;
Let him who would my comrade be,
Loud clash the glass, and cheerfully
The bottle drain with me.

On money first I set my mind, Hurrah,
But fortune to me was unkind, Ah, ah;
My money every way was strown;
And when I picked it up in one,
In t'other it was gone,

On women next I set my thought, Hurrah,
But that with misery was fraught, Ah, ah;
The false one other lovers sought,
And constant faith soon ennui brought,
The best could not be bought.

On honour next I set much store, Hurrah,
And, lo! another got still more, Ah, ah;
Soon as advancement I had won
Envy eclipsed my rising sun,
I had not pleased one.

THE following account of the origin of the annual ceremony of erecting the Penny Hedge, at Whitby, Yorkshire, is given by a recent writer:-Two persons of distinction in the neighbourhood, being out hunting the wild boar, the animal, closely pressed, obtained shelter in the hermitage of Eskdaleside, but almost immediately dropped lifeless. The hermit having closed the door, it was broken open, and the old anchorite beaten so severely with their boar-staves, The abbot of as to occasion his death. Whitby, who attended in his last moments, ordained the following expiatory penance: that on every Ascension Day, they should repair to the abbot's woods, preceded by his bailiff, blowing a horn, and crying aloud at intervals, "Out on you!" and that they should cut from thence a certain number of stakes and stowers with a knife of no more value than one penny. With these materials, they were to erect a hedge, at nine o'clock in the forenoon, at low water mark, in the harbour of Whitby, which was to stand the washing of nine tides, on pain of confiscation of their whole property. The lord of Whitby manor, as successor of the abbots, about half a century since, offered to dispense with the ceremony, but the proprietor of the remaining lands held by this remarkable tenure, declined it. W. G. C.

MIDSUMMER.

Ar Magdalen College, Oxford, (says a recent writer,) a sermon was formerly preached every year, on Midsummer-day, being the nativity of St. John the Baptist, in the stone pulpit in the quadrangle, which was built upon the site of the dissolved hospital of St. John. The walls were adorned with boughs and flowers, and the ground was covered with green rushes and grass; the whole being intended to commemorate the preaching of St. John in the wilderness. At Westchester, on St. John the Baptist's eve, (says Aubrey,) they bring a lot, or multitude, of young birch-trees, and place them before their doors to wither. I remember when the maids, (especially the cook-maids and dairymaids,) used to stick up in some chinks of the house, Midsummer men, which were slips

J

of orpine: they placed them by pairs, that is, one for such a man, the other for such a maid, his sweetheart; and, accordingly, as the orpine did incline to, or recline from, the other, that there would be love or aversion; and if either did wither, death. In 1694, on the day of St. John the Baptist, (says Elias Ashmole,) as I was walking in the pasture behind Montagu House, I saw two or three and twenty young women on their knees, as if they were weeding; but I afterwards learned that they were looking for a coal under the root of a plantain, to put under their heads that night; it being a popular superstition that they would then dream of him who was to be their husband. W. G. C

CHESTER MYSTERIES.

THE Chester mysteries, which Shakspeare speaks of, (says Gardiner,) were no doubt left by the Romans. In the first ages of Christianity, Pagan rites were engrafted on the new religion to render it popular and imposing; and in the ceremonies of the last century, we may detect considerable remains of these superstitions. The rows of galleries that run through the streets are evidently structures of Roman origin: they are the ancient vestibules or porticos. These form a shelter from the weather, and well adapt the city for shows and sights. At the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox, the performance of the mysteries took place, and drew the people in crowds from the neighbouring mountains. In these exhibitions, enormous giants paraded the streets, with dragons and unicorns, and other terrific objects, that astonished and frightened the people. Sir Isaac Newton was of opinion, that this Midsummer show was the same as the Saturnalia of the Romans. The monks of Chester, with the Abbot Marmion at their head, also contributed their part by acting before the gate, the play of The Assumption of our Lady. In the nightly serenade, the mountain bards stole through the silent corridors with their murmuring harps; but as the morning dawned, the men of Harlech with a bolder thrum, waked Glendower and Caernarvon to the lists, and the bowmen to W.G.C.

the butts.

AN AMERICAN-INDIAN FEAST.

ROUND a large fire, continually burning outside the house, (says Mr. Arfwedson,) the Indians seated themselves on the ground, cross-legged, in the Turkish manner; the men were nearest to the fire, and the women and children behind, wrapped in blankets, and shivering with cold. They conversed a long while in short and half-broken sentences, intermixed with cries not unlike the neighing of a horse. In these cries they were joined

At last,

by the soft voices of the women. the whisky-bottle began to circulate; and, once put in motion, it was impossible to check its progress. Night came on, but still none felt disposed to retire; the hospi table landlord never permitted the bottle to remain empty: the consequence was, that all the men became intoxicated, and began howling and gesticulating in a manner which surpassed any thing I had ever heard or seen. I often thought they would kill each other, and this would, probably, have happened, had not the women interfered, and succeeded in parting the combatants. Thus they continued till morning, when one after another departed under the guidance of the females, The scene was unique, and highly interesting; the variety of colours, the wild howling of the men, the slavish looks of the women, the loneliness of the wood, the dark shades of the night, and the flames of the fire-all left a deep impression on my mind of Indian hospitality.-W.G.C.,

The Public Journals.

THE DYING FLOWER.

By Frederick Rückert.*

"HAVE hope; why shouldst thou not?-the trees
Stripped by the rough, unfriendly breeze,
Have hope, and not in vain,
That spring shall come again.
Thou too, within whose secret bud
A life hath lurked unseen,
Shalt wait till spring revive thy blood,
And renovate thy green."
"Alas! no stately tree am I,

No oak, no forest-king.
Whose dreams of winter prophesy
A speedy day of spring.
A daughter of an humble race,
A flower of yearly blow
Of what I was remains no trace
Beneath my tomb of snow."
"And if thou wert the frailest reed,

The weakest herb that grows,
Thou needst not fear, God gave a seed
To every thing that blows.
Although the winter's stormy strife,

A thousand times bestrew
The sod with thee, thou canst thy life
A thousand times renew."
"Yes, thousands after me will blow
As fair-more fair than I,
No end can earth's green virtue know,
But each green thing must die.
Though they shall share in miue, no share
In their life waits for me,

Myself have changed-the things that were
Are not, uor more may be.

"And when the sun shall shine on them,
That shines on me so bright,
What boots their coloured diadem,
To me deep sunk in night?

The author of this beautiful poem-which need fear no comparison with the choicest pieces of Goethe or Wordsworth-is no less distinguished among the living lyrists than among the Oriental scholars of Germany. We translate from a volume of poems,→→→ Gesammelte Gedichte von Frederick Rückert, publish ed at Erlungen in 1834.

That sun, whose cold and frosty smile
Mocks at my honours brief,
Seems he not beckoning the while
A future Summer's chief?
"Alas! why did my leaves incliue
Unto thy faithless ray?

For while mine eye looked into thine,"
Thou filch'dst my life away.
Thou shalt not triumph o'er my death,
My parting leaves I close
Upon myself-receive my breath

Not thou that caused my woes.
"Yet dost thou melt my pride away,
Change into tears my stone!-
Receive my fleet life of a day,
Thou endless oue alone!

Yes! thou hast made my pride to pass,
Mine ire hast sunn'd away;
All that I am, all that I was,
I owe it to thy ray.

Each zephyr of each balmy morn,
That made me breathe perfume,
Each sportive moth on bright wing borne,
That danced around my bloom,
Each shining eye that brighter shone
My magic hues to see,
These purest joys I owe alone,

Eterual One, to thee!

"As with thy stars thou didst begirth
The never-fading blue,

So didst thou deck thy green of earth
With bright flowers ever new.

One breath I have not drawn in vain
For thee-be it no sigh!

One look I have for earth's fair plain,
One for the welkin high.

A ROMANCE OF THE DAY.

M. DE PONTALBA is one of the great proprietors of France. His son had been a page of Napoleon, and afterwards a distinguished officer, aide-de-camp to Marshal Ney, and a protégé of the Duke of Elchingen. He married the daughter of Madame d'Almonaster, and for some time, they lived happily; but on the death of her mother, Madame de Pontalba began to indulge in such extravagances that even the enormous fortune of the Pontalbas was unequal to it. This led to some remonstrance on the part of the husband; on the morning after which she disappeared from the hotel, and neither he nor her children had any clue to her retreat. At last, after an interval of some months, arrives a letter from her to her husband, dated New Orleans, in which she announces that she means to apply for a divorce; but, for eighteen months, nothing more was heard of her, except by her drafts for money. At last she returned, but only to afflict her family. Her son was at the military academy of St. Cyr-she induced him to elope, and the boy was plunged in every species of debauchery and expense. This afflicted in the

deepest manner his grandfather, who revoked a bequest which he had made him of about 4,000l. a year, and seemed to apprehend for him nothing but future ruin and disgrace. The old man, eighty-two years of age, resided in his chateau of Mont Léveque, whither, in October, 1834, Madame de Pontalba went to attempt a reconciliation with the wealthy senior. Then and there occurred the most extraordinary and unaccountable scene. On the 19th of October, the day after Madame de Pontalba's arrival, she found she could make no impression on the father-in-law, and was about to return to Paris, when old M. de Pontalba, at the age of eighty-two, observing a moment when she was alone in her apartment, enters it with a brace of double-barrelled pistols, locks the door, and approaching his astonished daughter-in-law, desires her "to recommend herself to God, for that she has but few minutes to live;" but he does not even allow her one minute he fires immediately, and two balls enter her left breast. She starts up and flies, her blood streaming about, to a closet, exclaiming that she will submit to any terins, if he will spare her." No, no; you must die !"-and he fires his second pistol. She had instinctively covered her heart with her hand-that hand is miserably fractured by the balls; but saved her heart. She then escapes to another closet, where a third shot is fired at her without effect-and at last she rushed in despair at the door - and while M. de Pontalba is discharging his last barrel at her, she succeeds in opening it. The family, alarmed by the firing, arrives, and she is saved. The old man, on seeing that she is beyond his reach, returns to his apartments, and blows out his brains. It seems clear that he had resolved to make a sacrifice of the short remnant of his own life, in order to release his son and his grandson from their unfortunate connexion with Madame de Pontalba. But he failed-none of her wounds were mortal; and within month after, Madame de Pontalba," perfectly recovered, in high health and spirits, radiant and crowned with flowers, was to be seen at all the fêtes and concerts of the capital."

a

In the mean time, a suit for restitution of conjugal rights was pending between her and her husband; and towards the end of last October, a final decree of the court enjoined, that Madame de Pontalba should return under marital authority, and should reside in such of her husband's houses as he should appoint-excepting only-with admirable delicacy- the Chateau de Mont Levêque, where the bloody scene had been acted.-[From a paper on the pernicious influence of French Novels-in the Quarterly Review.]

(Cream freezing Apparatus.) The apparatus, represented in the Engraving, consists only of two parts; viz. the vessel for containing the freezing mixture; and a cover, to which is attached, in the same piece, a concentric annular cavity or chamber, in which the prepared cream is to be frozen; this cavity, forming a circle within the vessel itself, is open at the top, as represented, and, of course, closed at the bottom, and reaching very nearly to the bottom of the vessel: this secondary part fits close over the vessel containing the freezing mixture. It will be perceived that in the figure, there are seven very small holes in the central part of the cover, just sufficient for the escape of the air, to admit of the ascent of the freezing mixture in the middle part of the vessel. The apparatus should be furnished, (as expressed in the figure,) with an outer cover.

Previously to use, it will be proper to as certain the quantity of liquid the apparatus will contain when together, and mark its height; likewise the proportion of the ingredients for furnishing a given quantity in measure should be known. Thus, for each pint, small or old measure, will be required of sal ammoniac and nitre, (each equal parts by weight, reduced together into fine powder,) six ounces, and of Glauber's salt, in clear crystals and dry, four ounces and a half, freely reduced to fine powder, and in a separate parcel from the former; and water ten ounces, or enough to make up one pint in measure when added to the former ingredients-of course, the whole must be well stirred together, and expeditiously, before introducing that part of the apparatus which contains the article to be frozen, and occa

sionally afterwards, till the object is completed, avoiding, as much as possible, any accidental accession of heat.

A freezing mixture, composed of sal ammoniac and nitre with water, all at the temperature of 50°, to which temperature, or nearly so, they may all be reduced by water from a pump by drawing off a sufficold of 22° below the freezing point, and cient quantity first, will from 50° produce a with the addition of Glauber's salt to 28°. The confectioners find a degree of cold at 12° or 15° below the freezing point sufficient for their purpose; but it must be recollected that the cold produced by salts dissolved in water, is not so durable as with ice and salt; the duration of the refrigerating power in the above mixtures will of course be in proportion to the quantity and thickness of the appa ratus. Mr. Walker's usual way is, in extremely hot weather, to place the vessel containing the powdered salts in the coldest water drawn from the pump previously; but in the ordinary way it will suffice to add the cold water without the above precaution: it may be advisable to be provided with a second quantity of the ingredients, to preserve the cold by a renewal of the mixture."

The drawing is taken from an apparatus of Mr. Walker: it is made of tin, for want of a fitter material, and painted outside of a grass-green colour. The apparatus abovementioned may be only half or three parts filled for use; care must be taken in every instance that the surface of the subject to be acted upon be rather below the surface of the freezing mixture.

In the Philosophical Magazine, Mr. Walker has described two other apparatusone for freezing water on the smallest scale, in the hottest weather, the other, in one piece, for cooling wine; but the Cream Freezing Apparatus is the most important of Mr. Walker's inventions.

WEEKS'S PATENT COOKING APPARATUS.

MR. WEEKS's improvement in the cooking range consists in the front bars of the grate, the cheeks, the back, and the end pieces into which the back fits, being constructed of hollow tubes, the whole having at the same time the appearance of a common grate; and pipes from these communicate with two hot water cisterns, one placed on each hob of the grate. There is also a communication between these cisterns by pipes passing horizontally over the back of the fire-place, so that a continually circulating medium is obtained.

There is an oven connected with the improved range, in which, from the manner of its construction, meat may be baked, and yet have all the advantage of meat that is roasted.

through which a constant current of air passes, and the flue. From the cisterns on each side, a pipe the exhalations are thus carried up by a funnel into may be carried through the wall behind; this pipe will carry boiling water to a very considerable dis tance; so that by having another cistern beyond the wall, cooking may be performed by the mistress or housekeeper in a different room from that where the fire is, and whence the boiling water is supplied. Over the range there is a canopy of tin or zinc, to prevent the steam ascending to the ceiling, at the top of which there is an opening for its escape into the flue.

It is well known that a false bottom to a grate causes a great saving in fuel, because the fire is by it brought in closer contact with the bottom of the pots or pans placed on the grate; but, at times, when roasting is to be done, the whole depth of the grate is required. In order to save the waste of fuel occasioned by neglecting to put in the false bottom when no roasting is wanted, and to obviate the inconvenience of having the fire deranged when roasting is required, Mr. Weeks's plan of a false bottom will be effectual.

w

(Weeks's Kitchen Range.)

The front bars (a a), which are hollow, communi cate with hollow cheeks (b b), from the back of which pipes pass to the bottom of the cisterns (cc); and the communication between the cisterns is formed by the pipes (d d). The back of the grate, which is composed of hollow tubes, fits into hollow end pieces, each of which has also a pipe to communicate with the hot water cisterns (cc). The inside of the cast iron back of the grate, which the poker comes against in poking the fire, is nearly smooth, and the pipes are almost entirely on the outside. The surface of the range is covered with a cast iron plate, in which are placed five cast iron pans and a fish kettle, (of course the number of these pans may be increased,) for stewing and for other culinary purposes. These vessels contain only boiling water, but tin vessels are placed in them, and in the cisterus containing water, the articles to be cooked either by stewing or boiling; the water, &c. in the inner vessels being made to boil by those vessels being surrounded by the boiling water in the outer vessels. This offers two advantages, namely, that the water in the tin vessels can never exceed the boiling point, and that these vessels, with their contents, may be easily and at once lifted out. There are two sheets of cast iron (q q), which slide in grooves, and are pushed together to keep the fire and heat from any one engaged at the stew-pans. The cock (i) for drawing the water off is fixed near the top of the range, so that the pipes cau never be wholly emptied. Above the cast iron plate and paus is the oven. This is double-cased, so that

there is a vacuity all round, except at the doorway (k), for a current of hot air. But the principal improvement here consists in the introduction of a continual current of air. We all know that meat which is roasted is superior to meat that is baked, because the former is cooked in a continually changing, and, consequently, a purer atmosphere; and the exhalations from it pass up the chimney, and otherwise into the atmosphere; but the meat that is confined in an oven becomes saturated with the impurities with which the air surrounding it has become contaminated. To obviate this evil, openings (17) are made on each side of the oven,

(False Bottom to a Grate.)

The cut shows a false bottom connected with the grate; w w are screwed on to the cheek; and by turuing round the handle, which is put on the axle (r) of the wheel, the false bottom, which has a thin edge, will make its way forward through the fire, and may be drawn back at pleasure. The thin edge, when pushed forward, rests in a groove on the other end of the grate.

NEW METHOD OF STRIKING CUTTINGS.

THE sketch represents a new mode of striking cuttings, which Mr. Alexander Forsyth has proved to be far superior to the ordinary practice; and which is so extremely simple, that it is likely to be adopted by the amateur cottage matron, with her pinks and wall-flowers. It is as follows: Take a wide-mouthed 48-sized pot, for example, and crock it in the usual manner with broken tiles, &c.; then take a wide-mouthed small sixty, and put a piece of clay in the bottom of it to stop the hole; then place it inside the other, on the top of the crocking, so that the brims of both pots may be on a level. Then fill in the space between the pots with sand, or other propagating soil, according to the nature of the plant about to be propa gated; and let the cuttings be inserted in the manner here shown, with their lower: extremities against the inner pot. Plunge the pot in a cutting frame, or under a bell or hand-glass, in a shady place out of doors, according to the nature of the cuttings and.