restored to his body, or vigour to his mind. But Nature is indifferent to honours; and infirmities will seize their victim, without considering that it was intended he should hear appeals in the House of Lords."

Even when an individual is less advanced in years, the general uncertainty of life forms almost a sufficient objec tion against making a Peer of a man with a family but no wealth; and "a recent instance" was memorably unfortunate. In that case,

"the expediency of placing a learned Judge in the House to assist in its decisions, was so great as to surmount the obstacle; but

he died before it had been benefitted by his

services, leaving his successor without a sufficient income to maintain a private gentleman, and who has already become a pensioner of the crown."-p. 13.

The author has not overlooked the most obvious objections that may be made to his proposal. He presumes them to be,

1. " That the dignity of a Peer of the Realm is in its nature hereditary, and that, if deprived of that quality, the constitution of the House of Lords will be changed." This he affirms to be merely an assumption arising from the general practice; but that, besides the precedents of creations for life which he adduces, the power the Crown has always possessed of limiting a peerage according to its pleasure (as in the before noticed cases of Norbury and Canning, and a multitude of others,) sufficiently proves that it is not necessarily hereditary.

2. "That creating Peers for life will tend to form two classes of Peers." To this it is replied that the Representative Peers of Scotland and Ireland (the latter possibly ancient, the former undoubtedly so,) are already specimens of Peers for life. That Bishops are also Peers for life; and that, if the children of the proposed Peers partake of the present privileges of Peers' children, they will so far have the advantage of our Spiritual Peerage, whose wives and families have not special rank allotted It may be added, that the tenants of old peerages wanting heirs, are in no better condition than Peers for life. At all events it is presumed that the learned men we have been principally considering would from their personal characters never rank as a despised class, whatever danger there may be of that being the fate of their posterity, if hereditary Lords.

to them.

Thirdly, are to be considered those standing merits of an hereditary aristocracy,

"that the living representative of a man ennobled for his services becomes a memosimilar exertions; and that one of the chief rial of his virtues, and stimulates others to incentives to serve our country is, not only the hope of acquiring for ourselves, but of transmitting to our posterity, the dignity of a Peer of the Realm."

These advantages are not denied ; but in the present plan others are correspondent. The descendants of a peer for life, instead of becoming degenerate, as those of some hereditary peers, may be stimulated to achieve the same or higher honours. If fewer are able to transmit a title to posterity, more will be able to attain one.

It must, also, be distinctly understood, that our author does not contemplate a cessation of the creation of peerages for perpetuity, but only that none be conferred without correspondent fortune, or without those eminent services on which the nation, by Parliament, may be disposed to confer such fortune.

We have only to add, that we feel well satisfied with the plan recom mended in this letter. It is highly desirable as an improvement to the judicial character of the House of Lords; it may properly give the first coronet to a distinguished Senator of the lower house, an hereditary peerage following or not according to circumstances; and for military or naval services it may take the place of that something better than a Baronetcythe Irish peerage; from the creation of which the Crown has been so nearly debarred since the Union, and has thus perhaps been occasionally forced to confer British peerages where an Irish title would otherwise have sufficed.

Finally, we presume there would be the same moral checks to a King or his Minister's excess in creating peerages for life, as at present on their conferring hereditary peerages; the prerogative being now unlimited (as to British peerages) except by public opinion. Nor will the present Peers object to a measure which will so greatly tend to maintain the respectability and dignity of their order. The commencement of a new reign is a proper era for its adoption.

1830.] Mr. URBAN,

June 26.

is with much regret that I inform your antiquarian readers that the tower of the much-admired Abbey at Whitby (which has been noticed in tome of your volumes) fell to the ground about 1 o'clock in the afterHoon of Friday the 25th inst. This striking portion of the venerable pile has for some years past exhibited symptous of rapidly increasing decay, and to those who watched their progress, it was matter of surprise that the catastrophe had been so long averted; and that the late tempestuous seasons should not have accelerated the destruction of what has so long appeared to be tottering to its fall. But

was

not fated thus to meet its doom; and there is something rather affecting and sublime in the ruanner in which the downfall of this fine remnant of antiquity has at last taken place. Year after year has it proudly withstood the warring of the elements, and the fury of the wintry blast, as if unwilling to be hurried to that destruction, which, in the opinion of all who knew its perilous condition, might be expected from every passing storm; but yet, conscious of its infirmity, and that it could no longer resist the silent ravages of time, it slowly and majestically fell in the calm noontide of a summer's day, its remains forming a shapeless mass of ruin almost on the very spot once sheltered by its hallowed roof. The event has excited the most lively interest in the town of Whitby, by every inhabitant of which the Abbey is held in the highest veneration, and the falling of its lofty tower is to them like the loss of a friend, whom they had known and loved from their earliest years, whom they were in the habit of seeing every day, and meeting

with at every turn.

The tower of Whitby Abbey has for centuries been an important and well-known land mark, and formed a most interesting and conspicuous featate in the romantic scenery of the district. Its loss therefore will not be felt by the neighbouring inhabitants alone, but the traveller by land or sea has reason to lament its destruc

tion, and the public at large to regret

The tower was 120 feet high, and the cliff upon which it was situated was nearly 200 feet above low water mark. GENT. MAG. August, 1830.

118 that so noble a specimen of the taste and piety of our ancestors is now no HENRY BELCHER,

more.

We annex to our Correspond ent's report of the fall of the lower of Whitby Abbey, a S. W. view of it, taken about the year 1793. (See Pl.11.)

As a frontispiece to part ii. of our Vol. LXXXIII, is an excellent view of the east front of Whitby Abbey, drawn by Mr. J. C. Buckler, but that view does not embrace the tower. A copious account of the Abbey by Mr. Buckler, given in that volume, p. 633, will supersede the necessity of entering on its history on the present occasion.

In Grose's Antiquities, vol. iv. are two views of this Abbey; and in the Antiquarian Cabinet is a pleasing view from the N., showing the tower. But the best views of this Abbey are to be found in the new edition of Dugdale's Monasticon. Mr. Coney has there given two beautiful plates; one an exterior view, from the N.W.; and the other, an interior view looking towards the north and east. The latter forms a very superior subject for the pencil.

On the 12th of Nov. 1794, a heavy gale proved destructive to the west end of the Abbey, and the great window, which is shown in the annexed view, (and was justly admired for the elegance of its proportions,) was then destroyed. EDIT.

Mr. UREAN,

Aug. 10.

seed on the western shore of HE fishing town of Brixham is Torbay, four miles east of Dartmouth. It

is divided into two parts, the town' and the quay.' This latter is situated at the foot of a range of hills surrounding a small bay; the streets are narrow, and the greater part of the

houses old. Those on the west side of

the principal street are modern, but inconvenient, owing to their being built at the base of a lofty limestone rock, formerly a quarry, while their gardens are placed on the summit, and consequently long flights of steps are necessary to reach them; in one flight I counted seventy-four steps.

The haven is defended from the violence of the weather by a substantial stone pier, and is capable of sheltering, about two hundred sail of fishing vessels.

A chapel of case has been erected within these few years, to the great