of the Prussian government, and succeeds in undertaking the survey Country. Sta that part or volume which was published in 1821. In no country has the science of Statistics been more successfully or diligently cultivated than in Germany. It had its professors in the universities, before it had even acquired a name in other states. This name has been since naturalized by them, but it is originally of German con struction. To enrich this department of human knowledge, a large portion of useful information had been collected by those indefatigable purveyors, Meussel, Hoeck, Hassel, Lichtenstern, Crome, and others. What enhances the merit of their researches is, that those intelligent and sagacious observers, in going over their ground of enquiry, in devoting themselves and directing their labours to this object, had no other help than what their own productive industry could create. The science which forms an instructive picture of the physical powers in a state, of collecting the results of its distant parts from a mingled mass of people, united into one body, and of exhibiting them in a general scale, had been entirely overlooked. It was by translations from some of the German authors, here noticed, that an interesting curiosity was excited for prosecuting enquiries of this nature. Hoeck had published statistical tables of Germany; Lucien Bonaparte, then minister of the interior, about twenty years ago, gaye orders for a translation of it into French; the principle was gradually developed and illustrated; it was observed, that, by such means, governments would attain accurate and connected views of their civil and domestic means, and trace the progress of culture, through the combinations which compose the community, &c. Directions were immediately given to the prefects to furnish complete lists, on the German plan, summing up a general account of the nation at large; of the inhabitants, their various occupations, those employed in agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and trade. Such reports, drawn from all the respective departments, present a spectacle highly interesting to the reflecting observer, and display the resources of states in their great and striking diversities, and in a way that no insulated individual could ever have accomplished. The lively and striking example set by France was not lost upon other governments. It is only from such official documents that an author can expect fully to describe and explain the circumstances which it is his proper object to set forth, tistical calculations require authentic facts; without these, writers and reporters, in their approximations, will be liable to make numberless mistakes: but, as such results are continually varying from year to year, a supply of fresh materials, by enquiries made on the spot, becomes indispensible. This is provided for by the Prussian government, which has ordered a census to take place, and be in force, every ten years; and has a board established for the purpose at Berlin, under the direction of M. Hoffman. All the various materials collected by the administrators in the different provinces, and their subdivisions, are forwarded to, and concentrated by, this board, where they are brought together, connected, and arranged, in general tables, for publication. Reflexions sur les Lois Pénales de Reflections on the Penal Laws of EVERY thing which relates to the legal in- them: prejudice has carried the day, although opposed by the admirable eloquence of Romilly, Erskine, and of Mackintosh. M. Taillandier has terminated his work very happily, by translations of the principal speeches of these celebrated men, in the various discussions which have taken place in parliament, for the reformation of the criminal laws. Lettre à M. Champollion le jeune, relative a l'Affinité du Coptique avec les Langues du Nord de l'Asie, et du Nord-est de l'Europe. Par M. Klaproth.-Paris, 1823. Letter to M. Champollion, the younger, relative to the Affinity of the Coptic with the Language of the North of Asia, and the North-east of Europe. By M. Klaproth. THE author of this letter, who is versed in all the languages of Furope and Asia, en deavours to point out the affinity which exists between the languages just mentioned and the Coptic, which is nothing more than the ancient Egyptian language, written in Greek characters. In order to effect this, he has assembled and compared a certain number of Coptic, Sclavonian, Chinese, Turkish, Ichouwachish, Persian, Caucasian, and even Latin words, whose orthography he finds very analogous to the same number of Egyptian words having the same meaning. The author wishes to conclude from this, that the Egyptian language is not of African origin; but we feel, that a question like this cannot be resolved by the analogy, more or less direct, of 125 Egyptian words, with the same number of words extracted from the idioms of different countries; but these comparisons are not the less useful to philology, which, when applied to the discovery of the origin of languages, is a highly philosophic study. NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. It was the design of the Conductors of this Review, to introduce a special narrative of the very extraordinary circumstances which have obstructed the free circulation and sale of their first and second Numbers; but, as public feeling and approbation have baffled the attempts of the interested enemies of the Work, any further notice of the measures of the parties is rendered unnecessary. I is to be hoped, that the present Number will find its way in the usual manner, without the annoyance to the Country Booksellers, and the disappointment to the literary public, which have, unfortunately, attended the circulation of the two first Numbers. Such obstructions, opposed to the circulation of a new Work, consecrated to morals and science, are the highest compliments which could be paid to the originality and popularity of its plan, and to the energy and ability of its execution; although the precedent is most portentous to the spirit of free enquiry, and to the independence of the public press. They do forbear * * * * * * In this respect the Conductors enter their solemn protest against commercial interdicts on Literature; but, in other respects, they have promised forbearance, and they do forbear. * * * A Reader of the Monthly Critical Gazette begs us to correct a little inaccuracy that occurs in No. 2, page 178. “Ourika, (he wishes to state,) is not the production of the Duchess de Broglie, but of the Duchess de Duras. Another work, in quite as small a compass as Ourika, entitled Evelina, has just appeared in France, which public opinion attributes to the pen of the Duchess of Broglie, daughter of the celebrated Madame de Staal; and the more so, perhaps, as that lady has never contradicted the report. "The Reader, at the same time, candidly submits it to the consideration of the learned Editor, whether it be not going too far backward, to review works published so long ago as the year 1822. Hoping this observation will be attributed to the interest he takes in the progress of so eminently useful a publication as the Monthly Critical Gazette. THE MONTHLY CRITICAL GAZETTE. SEPTEMBER 1, 1824.-No. 4. HISTORY. Letters illustrative of English History; with Notes and Illustrations. By Henry Ellis, Esq. F. R. S.-3 vols. 8vo. pp. 310. Harding, Triphook, and Lepard. THIS valuable collection of letters, drawn from the rich archives of the British Museum, is justly dedicated to the munificent Sovereign who has lately made, to its library, so noble an addition. Such traits of the munificence of George IV. as a patron of the sciences and arts, are a glory at once to the monarch and his people. A royal crown of laurel of this description is verdant and deathless; but there is none of the poison-berry of false glory mingled with its leaves. History, says Bolingbroke, borrowing his observation from the Greek, is philosophy-teaching by example. This is, perhaps, rather what history ought to be, than what it is. History, in actual fact, partakes too much of romantic colouring, either because the author wishes to impart a graphic force to his style, or because he has a particular party bent; besides, as he intimates, the historian often draws characters of persons whom he does not know, and, in the necessity of assigning causes, traces them back to remote events, very often too when they spring from the most obvious and simple sources of action. How many follies and absurdities are there, of which the best and greatest of men have been sometimes guilty! In men of a loose or trivial mind, these defects appear less remarkable, because in such persons, there is no mixture of worth to contrast with such imperfections; but when they sully the private character of some great man, who is esteemed in other respects for every virtue that ever ornaments the species, regret is certainly mingled with a wholesome moral, and sorrow with salutary knowledge. Who can refrain a sigh to think, that great learning and mean pride, virtuous practice and degrading ignorance, distinguished understanding and low-bred avarice, should be blended in the same character,-in the persons, for example, of a Bacon or a Marlborough; and that a man may be at once the greatest, wisest, meanest of mankind? History looks at things too much in the gross, Crit. Gaz. Vol. 1. No. 4. 2 P and is, therefore, too often incapacitated for discriminating between the nicer shades of character: opposite vices are often blended in the same person. Many of our virtues become the sources of mean and degrading results. Love of friends and family has often been the parent of woe and ruin; honourable desire of applause has often found its tomb in lawless ambition; piety has been converted into turbulent hypocrisy; and sensibility has often unstrung the soul to the last degree of timidity and irresolution, when surrounding difficulties most required cool calculation and immoveable nerves. Under these circumstances, we agree with the gifted editor of the collection, that original letters of eminent persons in the state, afford a closer and familiar view of characters, manners, and events, than the pen of the most accomplished compiler of history. They unravel causes by action, which, without their aid, would be impenetrable. At a time, when newspapers were not in existence, they furnished individuals with the only means of recording opinions, or knowing the progress of events; hence they were often regularly continued between parties, as the publications of a journal, and hence furnish a series of historical pictures of events, which Mr. Ellis thinks, if regularly collected, would form a useful supplement to our histories. The following letters (and we are sorrow our room will not admit of larger extracts) are not among the least interesting of Mr. Ellis's collection: the one exhibiting a trait of ecclesiastical morals, suggested in Shakspeare's Henry the Eighth, but generally considered problematical; the other furnishing a picture of courtly manners, in the same period, equally unique and burlesque. ORIGINAL LETTERS. LETTER 133.—John Clusey to Lord Cromwell, in favour of a Nun of Shaftesbury, the natural daughter of Cardinal Wolsey. (MS. Donat. Brit. Mus. 4160. p. 11.) The name of this daughter of Cardinal Wolsey has not been handed down to us. Roy, in his "Rede me and be not Wrothe," ascribes more natural children to him; and expressly names one Winter. "Hath he children by his whoares also? Ye, and that full proudly they go ; . Namely, one whom I do knowe: Which hath of the Churches goodes clerly And yett is not content I trowe. His name is Master Winter, To whom my lorde, his father Hathe gotten of the Frenche Kynges Grace, That when the bishop of Rone Out of this lyfe is dedde and gone, He shall succede hym in his place." Of Thomas Wynter, the person here alluded to, who was dean of Wells, archdeacon of York, and provost of Beverly, a particular account will be found in Wood's Fasti Oxonienses. He had various other preferments, but appears to have resigned the greater part, upon the Cardinal's fall, in 1529. He kept the archdeaconry of York till 1540. Fiddes has printed the grant of a Coat of Arms to him by Sir Thomas Wriothesley, Garter, in 1526; the component parts of which are evidently taken from Wolsey's. Reginald Pole, afterwards cardinal and archbishop of Canterbury, was sent at King Henry the Eighth's expense, to complete his studies at Padua, whither Wynter accompanied him as a fellow student and companion. Pole wrote to the King, and Wynter to Cromwell, to give an account of their arrival and first settlement there. The letters, both in Latin, are preserved in the Cottonian Collection. The thirty-eighth of the articles exhibited in Parliament against Wolsey, speaks of two natural children, which the Cardinal had had by the daughter of one Lark: 38. Also, the said Lord Cardinal did call before him Sir John Stanley, knight, which had taken a farm, by convent-seal, of the abbot and convent of Chester; and afterwards by his power and might, contrary to right, committed the said Sir John Stanley to the prison of Fleet, by the space of one year, unto such time as he compelled the said Sir John to release his convent-seal to one Leghe of Adlington, which married one Lark's daughter, which woman the said Lord Cardinal kept, and had with her two children: whereupon the said Sir John Stanley, upon displeasure taken in his heart, made himself monk in Westminster, and there died." Rygthe honorable, after most humyll comendacyons, I lykewyce beseeche you that the Contents of this my symple Letter may be secret; and that for asmyche as I have grete cause to goo home, I besuche your good Mastershipe to comand Mr. Herytag to give attendans upon your Mastershipe for the knowlege off youre plesure in the seyd secrete mater, whiche ys this, My Lord Cardinall causyd me to put a yong gentyll homan to the Monystery and Nunry off Shayfftysbyry, and there to be provessyd, and would hur to be namyd my doyther; and the troythe ys she was his dowyther; and now by your Visitacyon she haythe commayndment to departe, and knowy the not whether. Wherefore I humely beseeche your Mastershipe to dyrect your letter to the Abbas there, that she may there contynu at hur full age to be professed. Withoute dowyte she ys other xxiiij. yere full, or shalbe at shuche tyme of the yere as she was boren, which was a bowyte Myclelmas. In this your doyng your Mastershipe shall do a very charitable ded, and also bynd hur and me to do you such servyce as lyzthe in oure lytell powers; as knowythe ouie Lord God whome I humely beseeche prosperyusly and longe to preserve you. To the right honorabull and his most especiall good Master, Master Cromwell, Secretary to our good Lord the Kyng. LETTER 92. Your orator, JOHN CLUSEY. King Henry the Eighth to the Lord Steward and other Officers of the Household, apt pointing the Diet for the Lady Lucy. A.D. 1533. (From the original in the Chapter-house at Westminster.) The particular post which the Lady Lucy held at Court has not occurred to the editor of the present volumes. She was probably one of the Ladies of the Bed-chamber. The allowance of diet, from its quantity, must have included provision for her ordinary servants. Henry R. By the King. We wol and commaunde you to alloue daily from hensforth, unto our right dere and welbilovede the Lady Lucye, into hir Chambre, the dyat and fare herafter ensuyng. First, every morning at Brekefast oon Chyne of Beyf at our Kechyn; oon chete loff and oon maunchet at our Pantry barr; and a galon of Ale at our Buttrye barr. Item, at Dyner a pese of Beyfe, a stroke of Roste, and a Rewarde at our said kechyn; a cast of chete Bred at our Panatrye bar; and a Galone of Ale at our Buttrye barr. Item, at after none, a manchet at our Panatrye Bar; and half a Galon of Ale at our Buttrye Barr. Item, at Supper, a Messe of Porage, a pese of Mutton and a Rewarde at our said kechyn; a cast of chete brede at our Panatrye; and a Galon of Ale at our Buttrye. Item, at after Supper, a chete loff and a Maunchet at our Panatrye barr; a Gallon of Ale at our Buttrye barr; and half a Gallon of Wyne at our Seller Barr. Item, every mornyng at our Woodeyarde, four tall shyds and twoo fagotts. Item, at our Chaundrye barr, in Wynter, every night oon preket and foure Syses of Waxe, with eight Candells white lights, and oon Torche. Item, at our Picher house wekely six white cuppes. Item, at every tyme of our remoeving, oon hole Carte for the Cariage of hir stuff. And these our Lettres shalbe your sufficient warrant and discharge in this behalf at all tymes hereafter. Yeven under our Signet at our manour of Esthampstede the xvjth day of July the xiiij. yere of our Reigne. To the Lord Steward of our Houshold, the Treasourer, Comptroller, Cofferer, Clerks of our Grene Clothe, Clerks of our Kechyn, and to all other our hed Officers of our said 'Houshold, and to every of theym. |
