Born: Dr. Richard
Busby, celebrated head-master of Westminster School,
1606, Button, Lincolnshire; Philip Dormer Stanhope,
Earl of Chesterfield, statesman, and author of Letters
to his Son, 1694, London;
John Home, author of
Douglas, 1722, Leith; Peter Simon Pallas, traveller,
1741, Berlin;
Theodore Edward Hook, novelist, 1788,
London.
Died: Mardonius,
Persian commander, slain at Plataea, 479
B.C.; Virgil, epic poet, 19
B.C., Brundusium; John Biddle,
'father of English Unitarianism,' 1662, Moorfields,
London; Francois Bernier, eastern traveller, 1688,
Paris; Pope Clement XIV, 1774; Princess Augusta of
England, 1840; Mrs. Sherwood, author of numerous works
for children, 1851, Twickenham.
Feast Day: St. Maurice
and his companions, martyrs, 286; St. Emmeran, bishop
of Poitiers, and patron of Ratisbon, martyr, 653.
VIRGIL THE
NECROMANCER
It is difficult to explain how
the fame of the poet Virgil, in its passage through
the opening period of the middle ages, became so
extraordinarily enveloped in fable. Virgil, as we
know, was born at Mantua, but he is said, among other
places, to have studied at Naples; and it was with
that city that, in the middle ages, the name of the
poet was most intimately connected, and there, as
early certainly as the twelfth century, numerous
stories were told of his wonderful exploits. These,
too, were believed by men of the
highest rank in theology and science.
Our great
scholar, Alexander Neckam, has collected some of them
in his work, De Naturis Rerum, which was published in
the latter part of that century; and when, at the
beginning of the century following, another of our
scholars, Gervase of Tilbury, visited Naples, he
listened to similar stories which were told to him by
his host, the Archdeacon Pinatellus. Virgil was said
to have founded the city of Naples upon eggs, as a
magical charm for its protection, and this was the
legendary derivation of the name of one of its
principal castles, the Castel del' Uovo. On one of the
gateways of Naples he set up two brazen statues, one
with a merry, the other with a sad and deformed
countenance, so enchanted, that if any one entered the
town by the side of the gateway on which the merry
statue stood, he was certain to prosper in all his
affairs; while entering by the other side, produced a
contrary effect. On another gate he set up a brazen
fly, which remained there eight years, during which
period no flies could enter the city; he relieved
Naples in a some-what similar manner from a plague of
infectious leeches; he built baths, which cured all
disorders; he surrounded his house and gardens with a
stream of air, which served for a wall; he constructed
a bridge of brass, which took him wherever he pleased.
At length, in the fifteenth century, many of these
marvellous stories were collected together, and formed
into what was called a life of Virgil, which appears
to have been first printed in France, but of which an
English version was printed in England early in the
sixteenth century. It is a curious production, full of
very wild adventures, and curiously illustrates the
state of intelligence in the middle ages.
After some very fabulous
general history, the story tells us that Virgil was
the son of a Campanian knight, who had married the
daughter of a senator of Rome, and who was powerful
and a great enemy to the emperor. Virgil's birth was
painful, and was announced by an earthquake in Rome,
and they gave him his name from the verb vigilo, to
watch, 'for by cause that he was a great space of tyme
watched so with men.' He was sent to school when a
child, to Tolenten (probably meant for Toledo, where
people were supposed to go to learn magic in the
middle ages), and soon afterwards his father died, and
his powerful kinsman dispossessed the widow and her
child of their estates, while the emperor refused to
give them redress. It was at this time that the event
occurred by which Virgil became possessed of his
supernatural powers, for, unlike other magicians, he
obtained them without subjecting himself to any
disagreeable terms.
'An Virgilius was at scole
at Tolenten, where he stodyed dyligently, for he was
of great understandynge. Upon a tyme the scholers
hadde lycence to goo to play and sporte them in the
fyldes after the usaunce of the olde tyme; and there
was also Virgilius therby also walkynge amouge the
hilles all about. It fortuned he spyed a great hole
in the syde of a great hyll, wherin he went so dope,
that he culde not see no more lyght, and than he
went a lytell ferther therin, and than he sawe son
lyght agayne, and than wente he fourth streyghte:
and within a lytyll wyle after he harde a voice that
called, "Virgilius, Virgilius!" and he loked aboute,
and he colde nat see no bodye. Than Virgilius spake
and asked, "Who calleth me?" Than harde he the voyce
agayne, but he sawe no body; then sayd he, "Virgilins, see ye not that
lytyll borde lyinge bysyde you there
marked with that word?" Than answered Virgilius, "I
see that horde well enough." The voyce sayde, "Doo
awaye that horde, and lette me oute theratte." Than
answered Virgilius to the voyce that was under the
lytell horde, and sayd, "Who art thou that talkest
me so?" Than answered the devyll, "I am a devyll
conjured out of the body of a certeyne man, and
banysshed here tyll the day of jugement, without
that I be delyvered by the handes of man. Thus,
Virgilius, I pray the delyver me out of this payn,
and I shall shewe unto the many bokes of nygromancy,
and howe thou shalt cum by it lyghtly and knowe the
practyse therein, that no man in the scyence of
negromancye shall pass the. And moreover I shall
showe and enforme you, so that thou shalt have all
thy desyre, whet-by methynke it is a great gyfte for
so lytyll a doynge; for ye may also thus all your
power frendys helpen, and make rythe your ennemyes
unmyghty." Thorowh that great promyse was Virgilius
tempted; he badde the fyend showe the bokes to hym,
that he myght have and occupy them at his wyll. And
so the fyend chewed hym, and than Virgilius pulled
open a horde, and there was a lytell hole, and
therat wrange the devyll out lyke a yeel, and cam
and stode byfore Virgilius lyke a bygge man; therof
Virgilius was astonied and merveyled greatly therof,
that so great a man myght come out at so lytell a
hole. Than sayd Virgilius, "Shulde ye well passe
into the hole that ye cam out of?" "Yes I shall
well," sayd the devyll. "I holde the best plegge
(gaze, wager) that I have ye shall not do it." "Well," sayde
the devyll, "thereto I consented' And
than the devyll wrange hymselfe into the lytell hole
agen, and as he was therein, Virgilius kyvered the
hole ageyn with the horde close, and so was the
devyll begyled, and myght not there come out agen,
but there abydeth shytte styli therin. Than called
the devyll dredefully to Virgilius, and sayd, "What
have ye done?" Virgilius answered, "Abyde there
styll to your day apoynted." And fro thensforth
abydeth he there. And so Virgilius becam very
connynge in the practyse of the blacke scyence.'
Of the 'cunning' of Virgilins
there can be no doubt after this example�at all
events, he had evidently more wit than his
antagonist. Some time after this, his mother became
old and deaf, and she sent for her son home from the
school, that he might take steps to recover his
inheritance, and to take his rightful place as a
senator of Rome; and her messenger proceeded to
Tolenten, and:
'whan he cam there, he
founds Virgilius teching and lernynge the greattest
lordes of the lands, and other landes also; for I
ensure ye, he was a fayr and a wyse yonge man, and
conynge in the scyence of negromancy above all men
then lyvynge.' Though Virgilius had now, we are
told, made himself immensely rich, and had little
need to care for his rights at Rome, yet he obeyed
his mother's call, went to Rome, and met with a
rebuff from the emperor, which led to a war between
them, in which the imperial power was defeated and
set at nought by the 'negromancye' of the scholar.
The result was a
reconciliation, and the restoration of Virgilius, who
now became one of the principal men in the emperor's
council, and he began to turn his eyes upon the fair
ladies of Rome. The first of these to whom he made
advances played him false, for, seeking only to mock
him, she invited him to visit her one night in her
chamber in a high tower, promising to let down a
basket attached to a rope,a nd thus to draw him up.
Virgilius came, was drawn half-way up the tower, and
then the lady fastened the rope, and left him hanging
there to be a spectacle to the populace all the next
day. How Virgilius revenged himself is well known to
all readers of the old popular literature, and can
hardly be related here. Soon after this he took a wife
and built himself a magnificent palace, which also
possessed many wonders. The emperor now began to be
troubled with rebellions in different parts of his
empire, and he asked the counsel of Virgilius, who
thereupon made in the Capitol a marvellous group of
statues, one representing Rome, the others each
allotted to a country or province, and each of these
turned its back on the statue of Rome and rung a bell,
when the province it represented was on the point of
rebellion. Thus the emperor was informed of the revolt
before it had time to get head, and the group in the
Capitol received the name of Salvatio Romae�the
safeguard of Rome. It was at length destroyed by an
ingenious contrivance of the men of Carthage. The
manner in which this was effected will perhaps be best
told in the quaint language of' the original:
Than thought they in there
mynde to sende iij. men out, and gave them great
multytude of golde and sylver; and these iij. men
take theyr leve of the lordes, and went towarde the
cytie of Rome, and, when they were come to Rome,
they reported themselfe sothesayers and trewe
dremers. Upon a tyme wente these iij. men to a hyll
that was within the cytie, and there they buryed a
great potte of money very depe in the erthe, and
when that was done and kyvered ageyne, they went to
the brygge of Tyber, and let fall in a certayne
place a great barell with golden pence; and when
this was done, these thre men went to the seniatours
of Rome, and sayd, "Worshypfull lordes, we have this
nyghte dremed, that within the fote of a hyll here
within Rome, is a great pot with money; wyll ye,
lordes, graunte to us, and we shall do the coste te
seke thereafter?" And the lordes consented, and than
they toke laberours, and delved the money out of the
erthe. And when it was done, they went another tyme
to the lordes, and sayde, "Worshypful lordes, we
have also dremed, that in a certayne place of Tyber
lyeth a barell full of golden pence; if that you
will graunte to us that we shall go seke it." And
the lordes of Rome, thynkynge no dyscepte (deceit),
graunted to those sothesayers, and badde them do
that they shulde do there best. And than they hyred
shyppes and men, and went toward the place where it
was; and when they were come, they sowght it in
everye place thereabout, and at the laste founds the
barelfull of golden pence, whereof they were glade;
and than they gave to the lordes costely gyftes. And
than to come to theyr purpose, they cam to the
lordes ageyne, and sayde to them: "Worshypfull
lordes, we have dremed ageyne that under the
foundacyon of Capitolium, there where Salvatio Rome
standeth, be xij. barelles full of gold; and
pleasyeth you, lordes, that you wold graunte us
lycense, it shall be to your great avauntage." And
the lordes styrred with covytayse, graunted them,
bycause ij. tymes afore they told trewe. Whereof
they were glad, and gatte laberours, and began to
dygge under the foundacyon of Salvatio Rome; and
when they thought that they had dygged anoughe, they
departed fro Rome, and the next Jaye folowynge fell
that house downe, and all the worke that Virgilius
had made, and so the lordes knewe that they were
deseyved, and were sorowfull, and after that hade
nat no fortune as they had afore tymes.'
Virgilius also gratified the
emperor by a contrivance to clear the streets of Rome
of night-runners and evil-doers, and by making a
wonderful lamp, which stood on a great pillar, and
gave light at night to every street in Rome. He also
built himself a wonderful orchard attached to his
palace, and this brings us to another phase in his
adventures.
In a new amour, Virgilius was
more successful than on a former occasion. Having
heard of the extraordinary beauty of the Soldan's
daughter, he resolved to possess himself of her. For
this purpose, he 'by his connynge,' built a bridge
through the air, and over this passed to the Soldan's
court, and gained the lady's love. After some perilous
adventures, which we will pass over, he brought the
princess home with him, and kept her in his wonderful
orchard, for he 'was sore enamoured of that lady.'
After a time, he became
desirous of finding a husband for the princess, and
'thoughte in his mynde to
founde in the myddes of the see, a fayer towne with
great landes belongyng to it; and so he dyd by his
connynge, and called it Napells, and the fundacyon
of it was of egges; and in that towne of Napells, he
made a tower with iiij. corners, and in the toppe,
he set an apell upon a yron yarde, and no man culd
pull away that apell without he brake it; thorowghe
that yron set he a hotel, and on that hotel set he a
egge; and he henge the apell by the stauke upon a
cheyne, and so hangyth it styll. And whenne the
egges styrreth, so shulde the towne of Napels quake,
and whan the egge brake, then shulde the towne synke.'
Such is the legendary origin
of the town of Naples! It was no sooner completed,
than Virgilius gave it as a dower to the Soldan's
daughter, and married her to a certain lord of Spain.
But the new town was so fair, that the emperor 'had a
great fantasy' to it, and he secretly assembled a
great army to take it by force. Virgilius, however,
protected Naples against all his designs, and he
fortified it, and, leaving all his other houses, he
made it his sole residence. Above all, he loved
scholars, and endowed there a large school, so richly,
that every scholar, while he remained at school, had
land allotted to him sufficient for his keep. Thus,
under his care, it Leonine the greatest school of
necromancy and magic in the world.
Virgilius was again reconciled
to the emperor, and performed other marvellous things
for his service. At length old age approached, but he
was provided even against this. He had built for
himself, outside Rome, a strong castle or palace, with
only one entrance, which, was protected by images of
men with iron flails, which, by his necromancy, he
kept in continual motion, so that none but himself
could approach the entrance without certain death.
Here he came sometimes alone, to secure himself from
the emperor's importunities. One day Virgilius took
his most trusty servant with him into this palace, and
when they were alone, he said to him:
"My dere beloved frende, and
he that I above all men truste, and knowe most of my
secret;" and than led he the man into the seller,
where he had made a fayer lampe at all seasons
burnynge. And than sayd Virgilius to the man, "Se
you the barell that standeth here?" and he sayde,
"Ye there muste put me; fyrste, ye muste slee me,
and hewe smalle to peces, and cut my head in iiij.
peces, and salte the harde under in the bottum, and
then the peces thereafter, and my hearte in the
myddel, and then set the barell under the lampe that
nyght and daye therein may droppe and leke; and ye
shall ix. dayes longe, ones in the daye fyll the
lampe, and fayle nat. And when this is all done,
than shall I be renewed and made yonge ageyn, and
lyve longe tyme and maney wynters mo, if that it
fortune me nat to be taken of above and dye." And
when the man harde his master Virgil-ins speke thus,
he was sore abasshed, and sayd, "That wyll I never
whyle I lyve, for in no manner wyl I slee you." And
then sayd Virgilins, "Ye at this tyme must do it,
for it shall he no grefe unto you." And at the last
Virgilius entreated his man so muche, that he
consented to hym. And then toke the servant
Virgilius, and slewe hym, and when he was thus slayn,
he hewn hym in peces and salted hym in the barell,
and cut his head in iiij. peces as his master bad
hym, and than put the herte in the myddell, and
salted them wele; and when all this was done, he
hynge the lampe ryght over the barell, that it myght
at all tymes droppe in thereto. And when he had done
all this, he went out of the castell, and turned the
vyces [screws�Virgilius had taught him the secret
how to stop the movement of the flails, and set them
agoing again], and then wente the coper men
smyghtynge with theyr flayles so strongly upon the
yron anveldes as they dyd afore, and there darste no
man enter; and he came every daye to the castell,
and fylled the lampe, as Virgilius had bad hym.'
When Virgilius had disappeared
from court seven days, the emperor became impatient,
and sent for his confidential servant, whose answers
were evasive, and made the emperor more resolute to
solve the mystery. He therefore compelled the servant,
by fear of death, to take him to the castle, and stop
the flails, so that he might enter. And he and his
courtiers wandered over Virgilius's palace, until he
cane to the cellar in which he found the remains of
the great necromancer salted in a barrel. In his first
anger, he slew the faithful servant, by which
Virgilius's instructions were lost and could no longer
ho carried out.
'And when all this was done,
than sawe the emperoure and all his folke a naked
cliylde iij. tymes rennynge aboute the barell,
sayinge the wores, "Cursed be the tyme that ye cam
ever here I" and with those wordes vanyshed the
chylde away, and was never sene ageyne. And thus
abyd Virgilius in the barell dead.'
Such is the legend of the
necromancer Virgil, which, there can be no doubt, was
the character given by the middle ages to the Roman
poet. It is one of the most curious examples of the
strange growth of medieval legend, and at the same
time shows us the peculiar estimate which people in
the darker ages formed of science and learning. At the
same time, when we refer this to the darker ages, we
must not forget that, in ages considered to be much
more enlightened, the Romish Church took advantage of
these superstitions and prejudices to persecute
science and its followers.
THE PRINCESS AUGUSTA
This royal lady, second
daughter of George III, combined great sweetness of
nature with a propriety of behaviour which is not
always accompanied by amiable qualities. There is an
anecdote of her Royal Highness well worthy of
permanent preservation.
'During the latter part of the
reign of George IV, when a certain lady held immense
influence over him, the king one day asked the
Princess Augusta to come and dine with him. Her Royal
Highness asked if Lady � was to be there, and, on
receiving a reply in the affirmative, begged to
decline. The king pressed the matter very much, when
the princess said: "If you command my attendance as
king, I will obey you; but if you ask me as a brother
to come, nothing will induce me." His majesty said no
more.' It may further be noted of this good woman,
that she was benevolent upon a moderate income, and
died so poor as to require no will.
MRS. SHERWOOD
The children of the present
day enjoy immense advantages over their fathers and
grandfathers as regards the supply of instructive and
entertaining works suited to their tastes and
capacities. Foremost among the pioneers of the
improved order of things, stand the names of Miss Edgeworth and Mrs. Sherwood.
Aiming both at the same
object, these two distinguished writers pursue,
nevertheless, a very dissimilar path. Whilst the
former occupies herself with the moral, and more
especially the reasoning, faculty of human nature, to
the almost entire exclusion of the religious element,
the latter adopts invariably the peculiar doctrines of
Christianity, or what are commonly termed evangelical
views, as the only sound basis on which any system of
lasting improvement can be founded.
The maiden name of Mrs.
Sherwood was Butt, and she traced her descent from an
ancestor who was said to have come over with William
the Conqueror. Her family was certainly one of very
old-standing in the midland counties. Her
grandfather, Dr. Butt, resided in Lichfield, at a
time when it was the centre of a brilliant literary
coterie, including Miss Seward, Richard Lovell
Edgeworth, Dr. Darwin, and Mr. Day, besides being
visited occasionally by Dr. Johnson and
David Garrick
from London. His son, George Butt, entered holy
orders, and was presented to the rectory of Stanford,
in Worcestershire, where his daughter, Mary Martha,
the future authoress, was born in 1775. In her
autobiography she has given a charming description of
this place, where her girlhood's days were spent, and
the remembrance of which we see vividly reproduced in
her delightful pictures of English country-life in the
Fairchild Fancily.
Though a sincere affection seems to
have subsisted between her and her parents, yet the
discipline at Stanford Rectory was, according to her
own account, of rather the strictest sort. She was
never allowed to sit in the presence of her parents,
to come near the fire, or take part in any
conversation, and, according to the preposterous
discipline of those days, had an iron collar round her
neck, to which a backboard was strapped, and thus accoutred, would have to stand
the greater part of the
day in the stocks, in which position, moreover, she
was obliged to learn and repeat her lessons. Yet she
says she was a happy child, and such a picture of
fresh rosy health that her father used to call her
Hygeia. She informs us that at a very early age she
began to write stories and plays, but she had the
misfortune, shared in by other geniuses, of being
originally regarded as a dull child. Little of incident
marks her life till after her father's death, which
took place when she was about twenty years of age.
She
then married her cousin, Captain Sherwood, of the 53rd
Regiment, and accompanied him to India. Here, with the
cooperation of Henry Martyn and Mr. Corrie, she
exerted herself in the founding of schools for the
Indian children, besides taking under her more
especial care the children of the European soldiers, a
labour of love in which she seems to have been
eminently successful. Her husband entered cordially
with her into all her pious and benevolent exertions.
Many of her juvenile works, including the well-known
Henry and his Bearer, which enjoyed such a diffusion
as to be translated even into the Chinese and
Cingalese languages, were composed in India.
Captain
and Mrs. Sherwood, returning to England after a
residence of many years, took up their abode in the neighbourhood of Worcester,
and continued there till
a short time before Captain Sherwood's death, when
they removed to Twickenham, near London. In this place
Mrs. Sherwood closed her long and useful life, amid
the affectionate ministrations of her daughters, on
22nd September 1851. To the last she retained her
cheerfulness, and up to within a year or two of her
death, her vigour both of body and mind were almost
unimpaired.
One distinguishing
characteristic of Mrs. Sherwood's works is the
freshness with which English rural manners and scenes
are portrayed. Her descriptions are redolent
throughout of violets and wild-roses, green shady
lanes, and pleasant walks through woods and fields.
Her children, too, are really children�not
philosophers in jackets and pinafores, as the young
people of Miss Edgeworth are apt to appear to us. Mrs.
Sherwood must be admitted to possess the descriptive
and dramatic, if not the imaginative faculty in a very
high degree. Her style is the purest and simplest of
English, and. the true Christian lady, as well as
genial-hearted woman, display themselves unmistakably
from beginning to end.
AN EPISODE FROM
ZUTPHEN
The small army which Elizabeth
sent in 1585 to aid the Protestant Netherlanders
against their Spanish masters, contained other heroes
besides Sir Philip Sidney.
Of one of these�the Lord
Willoughby�we find an interesting anecdote in the
modern work, entitled Five Generations of a Loyal
House; an anecdote, moreover, connected with that
skirmish or battle of Zutphen in which Sidney received
his mortal wound.
'On the 22nd of September 1586,
an affray took place, in which Lord Willoughby
pre-eminently distinguished himself by valour and
conduct, and many others with him upheld the glory of
the English name. Sir John Norreis and Sir William
Stanley were that day reconciled; the former coming
forward to say, "Let us die together in her majesty's
cause." The enemy were desirous of throwing supplies
into Zutphen, a place of which they entertained some
doubt; and a convoy, accordingly, by the orders of the
Prince of Parma, brought in a store, though an
insufficient one, of provisions. A second, commanded
by George Cressiac, an Albanois, was despatched for
the same purpose, the morning being foggy.
Lord
Willoughby, Lord Audley, Sir John Norreis, and Sir
Philip Sidney, encountering the convoy in a fog, an
engagement began. The Spaniards had the advantage of
position, and had it in their power to discharge two
or three volleys of shot upon the English, who,
nevertheless, stood their ground. Lord Willoughby
himself, with his lance in rest, met with the leader,
George Cressiac, engaged with, and, after a
short
combat, unhorsed him. He fell into a ditch, crying
aloud to his victor: "I yield myself to you, for that
you be a seemly knight," who, satisfied with the
submission, and having other matters in hand, threw
himself into the thickest of the combat, while the
captive was conducted to the tent of the general, Lord
Leicester.
The engagement was hot, and cost the enemy
many lives, but few of the English were missing.
Willoughby was extremely forward in the combat; at one
moment his basses, or mantle, was torn from him, but
recaptured. When all was over, Captain Cressiac being
still in his excellency's tent, refused to acknowledge
himself prisoner to any but the knight to whom he had
submitted on the field. There is something in this,
and the like incidents of the period, which recall us
very agreeably to recollections of earlier days of
chivalry and romance. Cressiac added, that if he were
to see again the knight to whom he had surrendered
himself, in the armour he then wore, he should
immediately recognise him, and that to him and him
only would he yield. Accordingly, Lord Willoughby
presenting himself before him, in complete armour, he
immediately exclaimed: "I yield to you!" and was
adjudged to him as his prisoner.
'It was in this skirmish that
the gallant and lamented Sir Philip Sidney, the boast
of his age, and the hope of many admiring friends,
received the fatal wound which cut short the thread of
a brief but brilliant existence. During the whole day
he had been one of the foremost in action, and once
rushed to the assistance of his friend, Lord
Willoughby, on observing him "nearly surrounded by
the enemy," and in imminent peril: after seeing him in
safety, he continued the combat with great spirit,
until he received a shot in the thigh, as he was
remounting a second horse, the first having been
killed under him.'
MAJOR BERNARDI
On. the 22nd of September,
1736, there died in the prison or Newgate, at the
advanced ago of eighty-two, and after a lengthened
confinement of forty years, John Bernardi, whose name,
as Mr. Macaulay observes, has derived a melancholy
celebrity from a punishment, so strangely prolonged,
that it at length shocked a generation which could not
remember his crime.
Bernardi was an Englishman,
though, as his name implies, of Italian extraction;
his father and grandfather having been agents for the
republic of Genoa at the court of England. In early
life, he had served in the Dutch army under the Prince
of Orange, and subsequently in that of James II,
during the war of the revolution; in the latter he
attained the rank of major, and fought at the
battle
of the Boyne, and siege of Limerick. In 1696, on the
discovery of the plot to assassinate William III, Bernardi was arrested on
suspicion of being one of the
conspirators, and committed to Newgate.
Eight persons were
tried, condemned, and executed for their participation
in the assassination-plot, as it was termed; but there
not being sufficient evidence to ensure a conviction
of Bernardi and five other suspected conspirators, the
government, to avoid bringing them to a premature
trial, and to afford time to procure condemnatory
evidence, suspended the Habeas Corpus Act for nine
months. At the expiration of that period, Bernardi and
his fellow-prisoners applied to be either tried or
admitted to bail, according to law; the judges
adjourned the consideration of the case for a
fortnight, thus affording time for the government to
obtain an act of parliament, authorising the
imprisonment of the unfortunate men for one year. At
the expiration of the year, another act was passed
authorising their confinement for another year; and at
the end of the second year, a third act was passed
authorising their confinement during his majesty's
pleasure, parliament, evidently aware of the injustice
of its proceedings, evasively throwing the
responsibility upon the shoulders of King William.
There were no hopes now for
the prisoners till the death of the king in 1702. When
that event took place, they again demanded to be tried
or admitted to hail; the answer was another act of
parliament to confine them during the pleasure of
Queen Anne. It happened to be the pleasure of this
royal lady to release one of the prisoners, named
Counter; so, at her death, there were but five to
claim their right of trial or bail; but another act of
parliament confined them during the pleasure of George
I.
When George II succeeded to the throne, death
having mercifully released two of the captives, named Meldrum and Chambers,
there were only Bernardi and two
fellow-sufferers to claim their legal rights. The
counsel who moved their case in the court of King's
Bench, stated that his clients had then been
imprisoned without trial for thirty-one years; that
they had been committed to Newgate, by a secretary of
state's warrant, on suspicion of having been concerned
in a conspiracy to assassinate King William; that they
had never been brought before a magistrate; that there
had not been the oath of even one witness sworn
against them. It will scarcely be believed that the
attorney-general, Sir Philip Yorke, afterwards Lord
Hardwicke, opposed the miserable men's claim by a
paltry technical quibble. He objected to the motion as
irregular, the original commitment not having been
produced, or proof given that the claimants were
committed to Newgate in 1696. The judges overruled the
objection, and there were hopes of justice being done
at last; but another act of parliament condemned the
unhappy men to imprisonment during the pleasure of
George II.
The prisoners petitioned parliament, the
king and the queen, recounting their sufferings, age,
and infirmities, further observing that several, who
had been taken in arms against the government in 1714,
had been pardoned and liberated, while they, who had
never been charged with any crime, were still rotting
in a noisome dungeon. The petitions were in vain;
death, more compassionate than crowned heads, released
two more of the prisoners, Cassels and Blackburne,
leaving Bernardi the solitary survivor; and it was not
till 1736 that he died in Newgate, after a cruel and
unjust, if not exactly illegal, confinement of forty
years. He had one solace, however, in his long
imprisonment. It appears that he married in 1712, and
a writer of the day tells us that his wife,
'by her
good management and industry, contributed much to his
support and comfort, and to the keeping of his heart
from breaking under the worst of his hardships,
difficulties, and distresses.'
Ten children were the
result of this marriage in Newgate, and of them we are
told that:
'in respect of charge and expense under his
strait and narrow circumstances, and under his
immurement or being buried alive, they were no small
burden to him, yet he esteemed them great blessings.'
A somewhat similar instance of
suffering and injustice was perpetrated by the
revolution government in Scotland. In 1690, an English
gentleman, named Neville Payne, was arrested on
suspicion of being implicated in the conspiracy to
restore James II, commonly known as Montgomery's
Plot. The Scotch privy-council, not, however, without
instructions from London, put Payne to the torture,
but though considered to be 'a cowardly fellow,' he
did not make any disclosures. Severer means were
employed to extract confession and the names of
accomplices, the torture being applied to both thumbs
and one leg, as severely as compatible with the
preservation of life, but without success. Although
there was nothing against the man, save mere
suspicion, he was confined, with more or less
severity, in various prisons in Scotland, for more
than ten years, till at last the privy-council,
apparently puzzled as to what they would do with the
'vain, talking fellow,' liberated him without bail or
other security. From the Domestic Annals of Scotland,
we learn that Payne was an inventor and projector of
improvements in ship-building and river navigation;
and in all probability he was the same Nevill Payne,
who figures in the dramatic history of England, as the
author of three clever plays.
GEORGE III, AN AUTHOR
The 22nd of September 1761 was
the day of that often-described ceremony, the
coronation of George III. It is scarcely at all known
that this monarch was the author of at least one
article, printed in a periodical publication. In the
seventh volume of Young's Annals of Agriculture, there
is a paper, giving an account of a farm, held by a Mr. Ducket, at Petersham, in.
Surrey, and bearing the
signature of Ralph Robinson. This paper, it is
asserted on indubitable evidence, was written by
George III.
Mr. Ducket was one of the first to apply
machinery to agriculture, and as he was an able
mechanician, as well as farmer, the paper was one of
no small interest. Mr. Ducket's farm, which had thus
the honour of a royal description, is now, or was
lately, held by Dr. Ellis, the hydropathist.
During a part of his life,
George III made careful notes on the various persons
and circumstances that came more immediately under his
observation; illustrating his notes with very apposite
quotations from Shakspeare, and other authors. One of
these note-books for 1778 happened to fall under the
inspection of Mr. Willis, the well-known bookseller,
who has recorded two instances of apt quotation by the
king; both rather different from what might be
expected. In allusion to Franklin, he quotes the
following words from Julius Caesar:
"0 let us have him; for his
silver hairs
Will purchase us a good opinion,
And buy men's voices to commend our deeds:
It shall be said his judgment rul'd our hands;
Our youths and wildness shall no whit appear,
But all be buried in his gravity.'
Dr. Johnson does not fare so
well in the king's estimation. In allusion to his
name, the monarch thus quotes from Love's Labour's
Lost:
'He draweth out the thread
of his verbosity finer than the staple of his
argument. I abhor such fanatical phantasms; such
insociable and point-device companions; such rackers
of orthography.'
George III. was accustomed to
pay the minutest attention to details, and regulated
everything in his own household and family. This habit
is illustrated in a remarkable manner by the following
arrangements, made by him for a journey to Portsmouth,
and a note directing a change in his first plan,
carefully copied from the original in his own
handwriting. The king made few journeys, but this was
on a memorable occasion, being to review the fleet,
and present Lord Howe with a sword of honour, on his
arrival at Portsmouth, after the glorious battle of
the 1st of June.
During the time the king
stayed at Portsmouth, he resided in the house of Sir
Charles Saxton,
commissioner of the dock-yard.
At the Commissioner's.
1. A bedchamber for the
King and Queen. If with convenience, a small room
for the Queen to dress; if not, can dress in the
bedchamber.
2. A chamber for the Princess Royal and Princess
Amelia.
3. A bedchamber for Princesses Augusta and
Elizabeth.
4. A bedchamber for Princesses Mary and Sophia.
Mrs. Clevely, Mrs. Sands, Miss Mackenthun, Mr.'s
Turner, Mrs. Willis, and Miss Albert.
Brown, Clark, Gisewell, Albert, Dureau, Robinson,
Colesham, and Cox.
2 Footmen of the King.
1 Ditto of the Queen.
2 Hobby Grooms, & 12 Coach-horse servants.
20 Coach-horses.
Horses for three poet-coaches, five post-chaises,
and two saddle-horses, on the Monday; on the
Tuesday, for two post-coaches and six
saddle-horse,. Lady Courtown.
Lady Caroline Waldegrave.
Lady Frances Howard.
Lord Harrington.
Mr. G. Goldsworthy.
Mr. G. Gwynn.
Mr. Price.
Prince Ernest�one gentleman and three servants.
'Windsor, June 16, 1794.
Since I have seen -- this
evening, it is settled that Princess Royal will not go
to Portsmouth, consequently not Miss Mackenthun, and
the two next princesses will take but one servant
between them, consequently Mrs. Clevely, Mrs. Sands,
Mrs. Willis, and Miss Albert will go in the
post-coach, and one post-chaise will be wanting at
every stage on Monday.'
