will take his hat and stick. I will be his humble cicerone, and tell him all I know of the history of the parks of our metropolis, as we go along. (To be continued.) THE LATE HUGH MINTOSH, THE GREAT RAILWAY CONTRACTOR. The will of Hugh M'Intosh, Esq., late of Bloomsbury Square, in the county of Middlesex, the great railway contractor, whose name is familiar to most of our readers, has just been proved in the Prerogative Court of the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury in Doctors' Commons, by his son, David M'Intosh, and Timothy Tyrrel, Esqs., the executors. The personal property of the deceased is sworn to be under the value of £300,000, and a stamp duty of £3750 has been paid on the probate. The will is contained in one sheet of paper, and, singular to relate, without making any bequest of his property, so that the whole of the immense fortune will go to the widow and children, in the same manner as if he had died intestate, with the exception, that in the event of his having died without a will, the duty to government would have been £5625, consequently saving £1875. The deceased was originally of humble occupation, but by perseverance and industry accumulated the immense fortune which he died possessed of. The whole of the London and Greenwich Railway was built by him, and also the greater portion of the East India Docks. Mr. M.Intosh was a native of Nairnshire. He wrought for some time as a common labourer on the Caledonian canal, and afterwards removed to Lancashire, where he first took small contracts, by which he saved a little money. He then went to London, and was in a short time extensively engaged on the West India Docks. This established his reputation as a contractor of public works, and he soon became a leading man in that department; and by native talent, integrity, enterprise, and industry, he became possessed of the large fortune which he left behind him. His reputation as a public contractor rests on many useful and durable works, both in this country and on the continent; while his kindness of heart is attested in the grateful recollection of many young men whom he assisted by his advice, and in many instances more substantially befriended. GENIUS WORSHIP. By W. Thompson, B. A. THE VESTIBULE. Matur'd in sleep, its colums form'd of air. 1 built a temple, and recalling oft Its visionary chambers, made me there A cell for warm heart-worship. Sweet and soft Comes every thought, what time this fane aloft Rears up its unsubstantial dome, to greet The solemn hour of peace, and doubly sweet In inward calm the tributary lay To frame, and there, on bended knee, to pay You homage, O ye Shades! that there united meet. NICHE FIRST.-SPENCER. We owe thee much, thou intellectual sire, Whose offspring, nurtur'd on ambrosial food, Were very giants. At thy fervent fire Did many light their torches; what was rude And though thy children overtop thine height, Though their young fame makes pale the ancient light Of glory that around thee plays, yet still None seeks thy page without a rapture-thrillAnd still thy volumes old are monuments of might. NICHE SECOND. SHAKSPEARE. Lord of the tear and laugh! how coldly tame The hymn of one poor voice uprais'd to thee! Thee, who the praise of all the earth may'st claim. Nor unregarded Nile, with voice of glee, Proclaims it to Hymettus constantly. To the queen-city of the sister hills In turn he pours it, whilst from her the rills Of Italy take up the swelling lay, Which speaking Hadriatic waves convey, Till each fair scene thou knew'st, with thankful music thrills. NICHE EIGHTH.-WORDSWORTH. Thou stand'st, to give her mysteries a voice, SCRAPS. The art of Mosaic work was very general in ancient Greece and this species of magnificence was so recherche, that it was used even to ornament ships! Hieron, King of Syracuse, built one, where all the story of the Iliad was represented in small stones! This vessel was the work of Archimedes, and was sent as a present to Ptolemy Philopater. Among other curiosities of this kind, was a grotto decorated with figures in Mosaic. This art came from Greece to Rome, before the war with the Cimbri, according to Pliny; but began to be in vogue only in the time of Sylla. It is an observation suggested by all history-and by none more than by that of James and his successor,-that the religious spirit, when it mingles with faction, contains in it something supernatural and unaccountable; and that, in its operations upon society, effects correspond less to their known causes than is found in any other circumstance of Government.Hume, Jac. I. c. 47. James I. granted licenses to ale houses, &c., by powers given to private patentees. Bacon was impeached in 1621, he was fined 40,000 pounds-which was afterwards remitted. WALDIE'S SELECT CIRCULATING LIBRARY, AND JOURNAL OF POLITE LITERATURE. TERMS. 1. The Library is published on a double royal sheet, sixteen pages quarto each, on new type, and printed in the best style of book work. The weekly Journal of Belles Lettres will be contained on the two outer leaves of the number. To compensate for this arrangement, five numbers will be published monthly. 2. Price FIVE DOLLARS a year, if paid at, or remitted to, the office. SIX DOLLARS if collected by an agent from this office. 3. Subscriptions commence with January, and no subscriptions taken for less than a year. Letters must be all post-paid. Postmasters are allowed by law to forward subscriptions free. As postage has been a very heavy item of expense, we urgently request subscribers' attention to this. Premiums. As we have some extra copies for Traced in thy tremulous hand-and oh! too well 1836, 1837, 1838, and 1839, we offer two of these It brings to dear remembrance all thy fate, Thy spirit is the prisoner, and the grate years' Library and the new year for Ten Dollars. At the same rate to old subscribers, who wish to That girds it, is the world whose chillness none complete sets. PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY ADAM WALDIE & CO. No. 45 CARPENTER STREET, PHILADELPHIA. $5 for 60 numbers, payable in advance. GEORGE VILLIERS, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. "When this extraordinary man with the figure and genius of Alcibiades, could equally charm the presbyterian Fairfax, and the dissolute Charles; when he alike ridiculed that witty king and his solemn chancellor; when he plotted the ruin of "his country with a cabal of bad ministers, or equally unprincipled, supported its cause with bad patriots,- one laments that such parts should have been devoid of every virtue; but when Alcibiades turns chemist; when he is a real bubble and a visionary miser; when ambition is but a frolic; when worst are steemished for the foor on his character. "The portrait of this duke has been drawn by four masterly hands. Burnet has hewn it out with his rough chisel; Count Hamilton touched it with that slight delicacy that finished while it seems but to sketch; Dryden catched the living likeness; Pope completed the historical resemblance." Walpole. "In these portraits there are so many traits of resemblance, we may infer they are all from good likenesses. "He built the finest towers of cards imaginable, and had an agreeable voice. Miss Stuart had no aversion to scandal; and the duke was both the father and mother of scandal; he made songs and invented old women's stories with which she was delighted; but his peculiar talent consisted in turning into ridicule whatever was ridiculous in other people, and in taking them off even in their presence, without their perceiving it; in short he knew how to act all parts, with so much grace and pleasantry, that it was difficult to do without him, when he had a mind to make himself agreeable; and he made himself so necessary to Miss Stuart's amusement that she sent all over town to seek for him, when he did not attend the king to her apartments. "He was extremely handsome, and still thought himself much more so than he really was; although he had a great deal of discernment, yet his vanity made him often mistake civilities as intended for his person, which were only bestowed on his wit and drollery. - De Grammont. ship,-pleasure, frolic, or extravagant diversion | No wit to flatter left of all his store ! was all that he laid to heart. He was true to nothing, for he was not true to himself. He had no steadiness nor conduct; he could keep no secret, nor execute any design without spoiling it. He could never fix his thoughts, nor govern his estate, though then the greatest in England. He was tied about the king, and for many years he had a great ascendant over him; but he spake of him to all persons with that contempt, at last he drew a lasting disgrace upon himself. And at last he ruined both body and mind, fortune and reputation equally. The madness of vice appeared in his person in very eminent in NO. 6. No fool to laugh at, which he valued more. There, victor of his health, of fortune, friends, And fame, this lord of useless thousands ends." Moral Essay. PRINCE RUPERT. Born with the taste of an uncle whom his stances; since at last he became contemptible, and those who, wanting capacity for momentous poor, and sickly, and sunk in his parts, as well as in all other respects, so that his conversation was as much avoided as even it had been court ed." History of his own times. Dryden's well known character of him is in these lines. "In the first rank of these did Zimri stand; Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking, That every man with him was god or devil. Nothing went unrewarded but desert; Absalom and Achitophel. The last scene of this nobleman's life is thus described by Pope. sword was not fortunate in defending, Prince Rupert was fond of those sciences which soften and adorn a hero's private hours, and knew how to mix them with his minutes of amusement, without dedicating his life to their pursuit, as views, make serious study of what is only the transitory occupation of a genius. Had the court of the first Charles been peaceful, how agreeably had the prince's congenial propensity flattered and confirmed the inclination of his uncle! How the muse of arts would have repaid the patronage of the monarch, when, for his first artist she would have presented him with his nephew! How different a figure did the same prince make in a reign of dissimilar complexion ! The philosophic warrior who could relax himself into the ornament of a refined court, was thought a savage mechanic, when courtiers were only voluptuous wits. Let me transcribe a picture of Prince Rupert, drawn by a man who was far from having the least portion of wit in that age, who was superior to its indelicacy, and who yet was so overborne by its prejudices that he had the complaisance to ridicule virtue, merit, talents. "He was brave and courageous, even to rashness; but crossgrained and incorrigibly obstinate; his genius was fertile in mathematical experiments, and he possessed some knowledge of chemistry; he was polite even to excess, unseasonably; but haughty, and even brutal, when he ought to have been gentle and courteous; he was tall, and his manners were ungracious; he had a dry hard faced visage, and a stern look, even when he wished to please; but when he was out of humour, he was the true picture of reproof." What a pity that we, who wish to transmit this prince's resemblance to posterity on a fairer canvass, have none of these inimitable colours to efface the harsher likeness! We can but oppose facts to wit, truth to satire. How unequal the princes! yet what these lines cannot do, they may suggest-they may induce the reader to reflect, that if the prince was defective "In the worst inn's worst room, Bishop Burnet says, he "was a man of noble presence. He had a great liveliness of wit, and a peculiar faculty of turning all things into ridicule, with bold figures, and natural descriptions. He had no sort of literature, only that he was drawn for some years into chemistry and thought he was near finding the philosopher's stone. He had no principles of religion, virtue, or friend- | Of mimic'd statesmen, and their merry king. Gallant and gay, in Clieveden's proud alcove The bower of wanton Shrewsbury and Love; Or just as gay at council, in a ring was adorned by the arts that polish, which can alone make a court attract the attention of subse quent ages. Horace Walpole-Catalogue of Engravers, p. 135. MUSIC. The sovereigns of France always patronised the Grand Opera or Academie Royale. Under Napoleon and the Restoration, when its expenses were scarcely half of what they now amount to, the opera derived above 800,000 francs a year from the public treasury and civil list of Louis XVIII. and Charles X. The materiel of this opera is valued at 4,000,000 of francs. It is obliged to give 150 representations in the year. The salary of one singer only now exceeds what the whole opera cost a hundred years ago, when the total expense of the personel, including singers, dancers, the orchestra, machinists, tailors and dress makers, amounted only to 67,050 livres. At that period a premier chanteur was paid 1500 livres per annum, a premier danseur 1,000, and a premiere danseuse 900-sums for which Tag now in vogue in Italy need not surprise. Ас- Marini, 1400l.; Mademoiselle Francilla Pixis, Composers have their due share in the golden a large revenue to the one he has derived from a wealthy father. If Doniretti, with his prolific to fortune, it must be his own fault.-Foreign TIME. I saw a child whose youthful cheek The song he sang was "Dance! prepare I saw a man, whose ample brow And his hand grasp'd a keen-edged sword Around him throng'd a numerous train, lioni would scorn to perform a mazurka, or I saw an aged, shrivell'd form, Of Age, aud Want, and Crime, Oh! how Time changes! and man too, Where chance and change shall never come, Rosini, who has been for two or three years in Italy, has expressed in a letter, his earnest desire to visit Paris, in order, says the great composer, THE LUNGS OF LONDON. Follow me, if you please, sir, through this 1 ttle gate-ake care of the steps-there are exactly six-now, give me your arm-this is the Birdcage Walk-that classic structure to our left, the military chapel-to the right you see Storey's bers," and exactly in front, half hidden by its own umbrageous foliage, is the charming enclosure-step this way-the charming enclosure of ST. JAMES'S PARK. When I enter this park, my notions of govern ment, let me tell you, become highly monarchical. I touch my hat to the memory of our kings who devised and confirmed to us these places of harmless recreation, and am more and more established in my contempt for your close-fisted, shabby, commercial republicans, who, if they got their greasy paws upon this place once again, would "Deep and yet clear-though gentle yet not dull; catamites, of the former court, grew out of fashion; and the nobility and courtiers, who did not quite abandon their debaucheries, had yet that reverence to the king, to retire into corners to practise them," The amusements of Charles were such as conferred honour on genius, and gave encouragement to virtue and the arts. There is no writer of the period whose productions are not more decent than those of either the preceding or subsequent reigns. Walpole, who hated equally the king and his politics, in a passage not unworthy of the occasion, has at least done justice to his taste, and the high refinement of his court. " During the prosperous state of the king's affairs, the pleasures of the court were carried on with much taste and magnificence. Poetry, painting, music and architecture, were all called in to make them rational amusements; and I have no doubt but the celebrated festivals of Louis the Fourteenth, were copied from the shows exhibited at Whitehall, in its time the most polite court in Europe. Ben Jonson was the laureat; Inigo Jones, the inventor of the decorations; Laniere and Ferabosco composed the symphonies; the king, the queen, and the young nobility danced in the interludes." To the names given by Walpole, we may add those of Milton and Selden. The "Masque of Comus," written by the former, and the scenic contrivances of the latter, may afford some conception of the rational amusements of the court of Charles. Marshal Bassompierre mentions his state introduction to Charles and Henrietta: "I found the king," he says, "on a stage raised two steps, the queen and he in two chairs, who rose at the first bow I made them on coming in. The company was magnificent, and the order exquisite." This was a high compliment from the most elegant man in Europe, and perhaps, the best judge of his time as to the merits of such a scene. Among the Strafford Letters we find numerous allusions to the amusements of the court of Charles as described to the Earl of Strafford by his amusing csrrespondent Mr. Garrard. On the 9th of January, 1633, the latter writes: "I never knew a duller Christmas than we had at court this year, but one play all the time at Whitehall, and no dancing at all. The queen had some the inside, the late Earl of Bristol, then being in with much applause. In their company there was one Mr. Read, of Gray's Inn, whom all the waiting and lying there, he unbolted the door women and some men cried up for as handsome a man as the Duke of Buckingham." It may be interesting to insert the dramatic personæ of one of those celebrated masques, once the glory of Whitehall. The following is the court " play bill," at the performance of the Cœlum Brittannicum, of which Carew, one of the most elegant of love poets, was the author, and Inigo Jones the inventor and director of the machinery. The names of the Masques. The King's Majesty; Duke of Lennox; Earl of Devonshire; Earl of Holland; Earl of Newport; Earl of Elgin; Viscount Grandison; Lord Rich; Lord Fielding; Lord Digby; Lord Dungarvon; Lord Dunclue; Lord Wharton; Lord Paget; Lord Saltoun. The names of the young Lords and Noblemen's Sons. Lord Walden, Lord Cranborn, Lord Brackley, Lord Chandos, Mr. William Herbert, Mr. Thomas Howard, Mr. Thomas Egerton, Mr. Charles Spencer. Cavendish, Mr. Robert Howard, Mr. Henry Even the political misfortunes, which began to press upon Charles, could not altogether destroy his interest in the fine arts; and though their splendour had certainly somewhat faded, his favourite masques continued still to be a source of enjoyment. Algernon, Earl of Northumberland, in a letter to his sister, the Countess of Leicester, dated 5th December, 1639, thus writes: "The king and queen have begun to practise their masque: a company of worse faces did I never see assembled than the queen hath gotten together upon this occasion, not one new woman amongst them. My Lady Carnarvon conditioned before she would promise to be of the masques, that it should not be danced upon a Sunday, for she is grown so devout by conversing with my Lord Powis and the Doctor, that now she will neither dance nor see a play upon the Sabbath. I assure you their majesties are not less busy now than formerly you have seen them at the like exercise."* body, has recorded a curious anecdote relative to the king's nice exaction of such observances :"I remember," he says, "that coming to the king's bedchamber door, which was bolted on little infirmity, the bile, or some such thing, Charles was not only well informed in all matwhich made her keep in; only on Twelfth Night ters of court etiquette, and in the particular duties she feasted the king at Somerset House, and pre- of each individual of his household, but enjoined sented him with a play, newly studied, "The their performance with remarkable strictness. Faithful Shepherdess," which the king's players Ferdinando Masham, one of the esquires of his acted in the robes she and her ladies acted their pastoral in last year. I had almost forgot to tell your lordship, that the dicing night the king carried away in James Palmer's hat, 1850/. The queen was his half, and brought him that luck; she shared presently 900/. There are two masques in hand, the first of the Inns of Court, which is to be presented on Candlemas day, the other the king presents the queen with on Shrove Tuesday, at night. High expenses; they speak of 20,000/. that it will cost the men of the law." Again, Mr. Garrard writes to the earl on the 27th of February following:-" On Monday after Candlemas day, the gentlemen of the Inns of Court presented their masque at court: there were sixteen in number, who rode through the streets in four chariots, and two others to carry their pages and musicians, attended by an hundred gentlemen on great horses, as well clad as I * Collins's Memorials, vol. ii. p. 621. In a letter of the time it is said, "The Masqueing House is nearly ready, and 1400/. is appointed for the charge of a masque at Twelfth Night." Collins's Memorials, vol. ii. p. 531. Mr. D'Israeli says, "The fullest account I have found of one of these entertainments, which at once show the curiosity of the scenical machinery and the fancy of the poet, the richness of the crimson habits of the gentlemen, and the white dresses, with white herons' plumes and jewelled head dresses, and ropes of pearls, of the ladies, was in a manuscript letter of the time, with which I supplied the editor of Jonson, who has preserved the his memoirs of that poet." "Such were narrative in the magnificent entertainments," says Mr. Gifford, ever saw any: they far exceeded in beauty any 1-43.6 upon my knocking, and asked me, What news?" -I told him I had a letter for the king. The earl then demanded the letter of me, which I told him I could deliver to none but the king himself: upon which the king said, The esquire is in the right; for he ought not to deliver any letter or message to any but myself, he being at this time the chief officer of my house; and if he had delivered the letter to any other, I should not have thought him fit for his place." It seems that, after a certain hour, when the guard was set, and the "All-night" served up, the royal household was considered under the sole command of the esquire in waiting.* "The king," says Lord Clarendon, "kept state to the full, which made his court very orderly, no man presuming to be seen in a place where he had no pretence to be." Although Charles formed many friendships from among his own subjects, he never lost sight of the dignity of his own station, and was peculiarly tenacious of any undue familiarity when the license emanated not from himself. When in the west of England, during the civil troubles, Dr. Thomas Wykes, Dean of Burien in Cornwall, an inveterate punster, happening to be riding near him, extremely well mounted, "Doctor," said the king, " you have a pretty nag under you; pray how old is he?" Wykes, unable to repress, even in the presence of majesty, the indifferent conceit which presented itself;" If it please your majesty," he said, " he is in the second year of his reign" (rein). Charles discovered some displeasure at this unlicensed ribaldry. "Go," he replied, "you are a fool." Though kind and considerate to those about him, the manners of Charles, unfortunately for himself, were by nature far from either graceful or conciliating; and considering the peculiar period in which he lived, and how influential is the well-timed civility of a king, the deficiency was a real misfortune. It was afterwards said of his son, Charles the Second, that he denied favours with more grace than his father bestowed them. The unfavourable impression conveyed by the manners of Charles, was owing, in a great degree, to a natural impediment in his speech. At times he stammered so painfully that it was with difficulty he could bring out a word. This infirmity would seem to have been hereditary, for his father's tongue is described as being too large for his mouth, and Charles himself was unable to speak till he was four years old. It is remarkable that this imperfection left him at his trial, and that he addressed his inhuman judges on that memorable occasion with extraordinary fluency * Pegges's Curialia, vol. i. part 1, p. 23. Charles was probably well aware, of what modern wisdom seems inclined to forget, that the vulgar are easily caught by appearances, and that the trappings of monarchy are in no slight degree its supporters. We naturally call to mind an anecdote, related by Walpole, of the conduct of a certain Spanish ambassador who abandoned a Congress because he was unable to obtain precedence over the French deputy. On his return to his own court, he waited on the king and explained his conduct. "What!" said the indignant monarch, "could you think of abandoning such an important business for the sake of a ceremony !" The ambassador piqued at the reflection, answered with great spirit: "A ceremony! What is your majesty yourself but a ceremony!" It may be remarked that Sir Henry Wotton used wittily to define an ambassador, as "a man sent abroad to tell lies for the good of his country." 3 and ease. Lilly, who heard him, authenticates the fact. There was undoubtedly, however, in Charles, a want of tact in his general address, as well as an impediment in his speech. This defect of manner will, perhaps, be best exemplified by the following lively passage, which occurs in a letter from the Countess Leicester to her husband, when the latter was ambassador at Paris: it is dated 14th March, 1636 :-"Since my coming to town, I have been twice at the court, because I did not see the king the first time, but from the queen I received then expectations of her favour to you: the elector also made me some compliments concerning you, much handsomer than I expected from him. In his majesty, I found an inclination to show me some kindness, but he could not find the way; at last he told me, that he perceived I was too kind to my husband when he was with me, which kept me lean, for he thought me much fatter than I used to be. This short speech was worse to me than an absolute silence, for I blushed, and was so extremely out of countenance, that all the company laughed at me." father, held literature in great respect. On one Charles, among his other accomplishments, is Few of our kings have had the least perception of the beautiful. Charles the First is undoubtedly the only monarch of this country to whom the arts may be considered as under an obligation. His collection of statues, paintings, models, and antiquities, must have been superb in the extreme; and but for the interruption of the civil troubles, and the tasteless devastation which followed, the cabinet of the court of England would still have been the envy of the polite world. Besides objects of taste, such as had descended to him from former monarchs, he had himself collected for many years with vast labour and expense. He had added to his gallery of pictures the entire cabinet of the Duke of Mantua, considered the most splendid in Europe. The price of paintings on the continent rose, it is affirmed, to double their value, in consequence of a competition between Charles and Philip the Fourth of Spain, another royal collector. It has even been asserted, that Charles was once on the point of an agreement with Vandyke, that, for the immense sum of eighty thousand pounds, he should adorn the walls of the banqueting house at Whitehall with the ceremonies of the order of the garter. Such a building, embellished by such an artist, would indeed have been the glory of Europe. The banqueting house, however, in the reign of Charles, was decorated with some of his choicest pictures; and we find him refusing to permit one of the queen's favourite masques to be performed in it, lest the lights should damage the collection: the incident, however trifling, is a proof of his care for the arts. served among the Harleian MSS., and is entitled, "An Inventory of the Goods, Jewels, Plate, &c., belonging to King Charles I. sold by order of the Council of State from the year 1649 to 1652." Each article or lot had its price previously fixed, and nothing could exceed the gross barbarity and want of taste in the valuation. This Gothic insensibility and ignorance, however, mattered little; for except a slight occasional competition, the price given seldom exceeded the appraisement. It is curious to discover what in those days was considered the value of pictures, which are now deservedly regarded as beyond price. The celebrated cartoons of Raphael were valued at only £300, and what is more remarkable were " knocked down" without a purchaser. The six following pictures alone brought a price which could be considered as equivalent to their worth. A Sleeping Venus, by Corregio, sold for 1,000l. -A Madonna, by Raphael, 2,000l.-A Picture, by Julio Romano, 500/.-A Madonna and Christ, by Raphael, 800l.-A Venus and Pard, by Titian, 6001. The following have been mentioned as remarkable for the insignificant sums at which they were purchased. The Woman taken in adultery, by Rubens, 20/.---Peace and Plenty, by Rubens, 100l.--Venus attired by the Graces, by Guido, 2001.* The Duke of Buckingham and his brother, one of the finest efforts of Vandyke, was valued at 30/. and sold for 50%. Christ, the Virgin, and "many Angels dancing," by Vandyke, was also only valued at 40l. Walpole informs us, that his father afterwards gave 700l. for this picture, and that it had been previously twice sold for upwards of 1,000/. Titian's pictures were generally appraised at 100%. But the valuation of the following list is really ludicrous. King Edward III. with a great curtain before it, 47.-A Portrait of Buchanan, 31. 10s.--Queen Elizabeth, in her robes, 17.- The Queen Mother, in mourning, 3/.-The King, when a Boy, 21-Picture of the Queen, when with child, 58. The valuable collection of coins sold, on the average, at about a shilling a-piece. The pictures, together with the furniture of nineteent palaces which had belonged to Charles, and the remains of the jewels and plate which had not already been sold for the maintenance of the royal cause, fetched the comparatively trifling The learning and accomplishments of Charles were of no ordinary kind. He was an excellent mathematician; well read in the history and laws of his country, and had studied divinity as deeply as any of his contemporaries. He perfectly understood the French, Spanish, and Italian languages, and was conversant with and appreciated the classics. He had studied carefully the arts and manufactures, and himself observed, that he believed he could earn his livelihood by any one of them except "weaving in tapestry." He said at another time, that, were he compelled to make choice of a profession, he would not be alawyer: -" I could not," he added, "defend a bad cause, nor yield in a good one." His conference with Henderson, and especially his negotiation with the parliamentary commissioners, on which latter occasion he combated, unaided, the arguments of some of the wisest men in England, afford high proof of the vigour of his intellect and the depth of his scholastic knowledge. The highest compliment ever paid to the mental powers of Charles, proceeds from his adversary Henderson himself. This famous disputant and theologian, this gifted presbyterian, on whose controversial genius the hopes of thousands of enthusiasts were fixed, -who was to have annihilated the arguments of his sovereign, and to have made him a convert to presbyterianism, thus speaks of the illustrious antagonist, over whose arguments and principles he had anticipated an easy conquest :- " I do declare before God and the world, whether in relation to kirk or state, I found his majesty the most intelligent man that ever I spoke with; as far beyond my expression as expectation. I profess that I was oftentimes astonished with the solidity and quickness of his reasons and replies, wondered how he, spending his time in sports and recreations, could have attained to so great knowledge; and must confess, that I was convinced in conscience, and knew not how to give him any reasonable satisfaction; yet the sweet- of Charles. It is to be regretted that the conness of his disposition is such, that whatsoever I ductors of popular convulsions have been rarely said was well taken. I must say that I never men of refinement. The year before the death met with any disputant of that mild and calm of Charles, his splendid effects, his unique cabi- of Ireland. temper, which convinced me that such resolution net, the delight of his leisure hours, were directand moderation could not be without an extraor- ed by the parliament to be sold. Some ignorant dinary measure of the Divine grace. I dare say individuals, who styled themselves commission- mas de Brantingham. Introduction. London, 1835. We have several other evidences of the taste and refinement of Charles. At Mortlake he patronised a manufacture of tapestry, which, but for the age of barbarism which followed, might have rivaled the boasted Gobelins of Paris. He delighted in the company of learned men, and in their society is said to have been more social and at his ease than on any other occasion. He loved and understood music, and was himself a pupil of Cooper's, and performed on the viol di gamba. He was a friend of the poets, especially of Ben Jonson, and of May, the translator of Lucan. Milton speaks of Shakspeare as the "closet companion of his solitudes." To the patriots and avengers of 1648 we are indebted for the loss of the magnificent collection * The following account of various sums, paid by Charles 1. to Vandyke and Rubens, will, doubtless, be considered as curious. "To Sir Anthony Vandyck, for divers pictures, viz. our own royal portraiture; another of Monsieur, the French King's brother; and particular of the Archduchess, at length, at 251. apiece. One of our royal consort; another of the Prince of Orange; and another of their son, at half-length, at 201. apiece. One great piece of our royal self, consort, and chil dren, 100%. One of the Emperor Vetellius, 201.; and for mending the picture of the Emperor Galbus, 51. To Sir Anthony Vandyck, 4441. for nine pictures of our royal self, and most dearest consort the queen; 401. for the picture of our dearest consort the queen, by him made, and by our command delivered unto our right trusty and well-beloved cousin and counseller, the Lord Viscount Wentworth, our Deputy "To Sir Peter Rubens, Knight, 3,0001. for certain pictures from him sold unto us." Issue Roll of Tho † Granger incidentally mentions the number of the if his advice had been followed, all the blood that ers, were appointed the appraisers. The inven- king's palaces as twenty-four. Including the old is shed, and all the rapine that is committed, tory took a year in drawing up, and the collection Scottish palaces, they probably amounted to even should have been prevented." Charles, like his three years in selling. The catalogue is pre- more than this number. |