mere plaything of our ancestors; but the present writer advances a different theory, which he certainly supports with considerable ability and research. The substance of his doctrine may be shortly stated: He produces incontestable documents to shew, that the period when the Velocipede first appeared in England was in the nineteenth century, towards the close of what was denominated the Peninsular war.' (It may be necessary to inform some of our readers, that this war was conducted in Spain, under the auspices of Wellington, a well-known general of his day; and that its successful result was to give a timely check to the ambitious encroachments of Napoleon Bonaparte.) Now,' says our author, the enemy being, at the commencement of the contest, superior in cavalry, (an historical fact) is it not quite natural to assume, that the Government would buy up all the spare horses in the kingdom, and ship them off to reinforce the British army? My conclusion, therefore, is, that in the general scarcity of horses, caused by this necessary measure, Velocipedes were invented to supply their place. This conclusion is corroborated by three most powerful circumstances: First, There is extant a coloured engraving, bearing date about the period in question, in which a Royal Duke is represented as travelling from London to Windsor on a velocipede. Is it to be imagined, that a prince of the blood would not have procured a horse, if the substitute were not the familiar vehicle of the higher classes? Secondly, Velocipedes fell into disuse shortly after the conclusion of the war; and, Thirdly, I find, by the parliamentary records, that about the same time the agricultural tax was repealed—a tax, let me say, which our ancestors, notwithstanding their ignorance of the first principles of political economy, would never have imposed, had not the pressing demands of the state for those animals been such as to justify the apparent impolicy of the measure.' On the whole, we are rather disposed to concur with this ingenious antiquarian." "AMERICA. "To the Editor of the Old Hampstead Magazine. London, July 17, 2200. " Mr. EDITOR,-I cannot refrain from making a few observations upon a letter signed Columbus, inserted in your last, wherein the writer, as it appears to me, has been seduced by his national prepossessions into a strain of very invidious comparison, and into many unfounded conclusions upon the subject of the respective merits of America and England. "The first point that he introduces, and on which he seems especially to pique himself, is, the superior courtesy and refinement of manners, which so pre-eminently distinguish the American gentleman from the less fortunate inhabitant of every other quarter of the globe.' Really, Mr. Editor, this is going rather too far. This is the first time I ever heard it was a misfortune to have been born an Englishman; and even if it were so, I should not deem it pre-eminently courteous' in this American gentleman,' to make a voyage across the Atlantic for the purpose of telling me so. I know not what Columbus's notions of refinement may be, but I sincerely pray, that the youth of Old England may long continue uninfected by the finical airs and jaunty gait, and effeminate babble, and sentimental languor, and superhuman grimace, of the Transatlantic coxcombs that infest our drawing-rooms. "He goes on: Even the boasted" British fair" consider their attractions incomplete, unless their minds have received a final polish in the brilliant circles of Washington and Philadelphia, and their persons a final fascination from the unrivalled productions of the American loom.' Mr. Editor, in answer to this pretended superiority of American manners and manufactures, I appeal to all (except the ladies, who will never listen to reason) whether English conversation and English stuffs have not always been allowed, by the most competent judges, to be fully equal (in my opinion they are far superior) to any thing in that way that we have seen imported from Americaand if the British fair' have had the folly to think otherwise, does not Columbus see that it is, and has been from time immemorial, a part of woman's nature to despise every thing native, and to dote upon whatever is foreign. They must have foreign fashions, foreign phrases, foreign attitudes, foreign perfumes, foreign shrubs and flowers; even in daily conversation, the indelible character of their sex breaks out, and, try to fix their minds upon what you will, they are sure to fly off to something foreign to the subject. It is hence, believe me, and not from the intrinsic beauty or value of the articles, that we see our wives and daughters bedizened in Kentucky gauze, and East Florida satin, and Susquehana lace, and head-dresses à l'Illinois, and the various other items of Transatlantic frippery. "Columbus complains of our travelling: he rails at the insolence of our waiters and hostlers, and descants in a strain of sensitive sublimity upon the transcendent horrors of a double-bedded room, an abomination never heard of in his native land.' In answer to this exquisite tirade, I shall merely ask him, if he ever chanced to hear of the homely Jonathan of days of yore, who never grumbled at making one of three-in-a-bed, and would have been affronted at its being hinted to him that he was not enjoying substantial comfort. I shall not follow Columbus through his pompous detail of the political inportance and resources of the American empire, nor through his rapturous eulogiums upon the American schools of painting and sculpture, and upon the generations of statesmen, philosophers, and poets, whose names have shed a lustre upon the land that produced them.' As to some of the facts asserted, I shall only say, that, judging from a single specimen, I must allow his countrymen to possess the inventive faculty in a high degree, while his reasonings and general views seem to savour more of the exploded absurdities of three or four centuries ago, than of the juster notions that distinguish the present philosophic and enlightened age. "Your constant Reader, "BRITANNICUS." "LITERATURE. "To the Editor of the Old Hampstead Magazine. "SIR,-Your inhuman allusion to me in your late strictures upon modern poetry was too palpable to be misunderstood. I bave therefore to inform you, that my poem was submitted to the public at the ardent solicitations of several literary friends, whose judgments are not inferior to that of any periodical critic in the kingdom. But I never expected that it could please the present degenerate taste. I told them what I now tell you, that it was written for posterity, and to the decision of an impartial posterity I confidently appeal. July 5, 2200. Yours, "ANTHONY SANGUINE." TO THE DAISY.* SWEET simple flower, though lost to fame, Surely thou 'rt Nature's favour'd flower! Then bade thee grace young Spring's new power, The glowing God beheld thee fair, As brightly glancing from the sky, And, pleased at Nature's friendly care, He said," Henceforth be call❜d mine eye.” Now each returning season brings Why valued less, because not rare Thy beauty meets the common eye? Thy modest mien, thy lowly sphere, And as I view that orb so dear, Sweet flower! I'll still remember thee. L. "Thus the word 'daisy' is a thousand times pronounced, without our adverting to the beauty of its etymology, viz. the eye of day.' "-NEW MONTHLY MAG. vol. I. page 133. art. CAMPBELL'S LECTURES. Ов I Now forward to you the conclusion of my friend's narrative “ the formation of the intellectual and moral character of a Spanish Clergyman." My next letter will introduce you to a national spectacle peculiarly our own,-to the arena of a bull-fight. L. D. "The Spanish universities had continued in a state worthy of the thirteenth century, till Campomanes, an enlightened minister of Charles III., gave them an amended plan of studies, which, though far below the level of knowledge over the rest of Europe, seems at least to recognise the progress of the human mind since the revival of letters. The present plan forbids the study of the Aristotelic philosophy, and attempts the introduction of the inductive system of Bacon; but is shamefully deficient in the department of literature. Three years successive attendance in the schools of logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics, is the only requisite for a master's degree; and, though the examinations are both long and severe, few of the Spanish universities have yet altered the old statute, which obliges the candidates to draw their theses from Aristotle's logics and physics, and deliver a long discourse upon one chapter of each; thus leaving their daily lectures perfectly at variance with the final examinations. Besides these preparatory schools, every university has three or four professors of divinity, as many of civil and canon law, and seldom less of medicine. The students are not required to live in colleges. There are, however, establishments of this kind for under-graduates; but being, for the most part, intended for a limited number of poor boys, they make no part of the Academic system. Yet some of these colleges have, by a strange combination of circumstances, risen to such a height of splendour and influence, that I must digress into a short sketch of their history. "The original division of Spanish colleges into minor and major, arose from the branches of learning for which they were intended. Grammar and rhetoric alone were taught in the first; divinity, law, and medicine, in the last. Most of the major colleges were, by papal bulls and royal decrees, erected into universities, where, besides the fellows, students might repair daily to hear the public lectures, and finally take their degrees. Thus the university of this town (Seville) was, till lately, attached to this major college, the rector or head of which, elected annually by the fellows, was, by virtue of his office, rector of the university. This, and four other colleges at Salamanca, enjoying similar privileges, but far exceeding ours in wealth and influence, formed the literary aristocracy of Spain. Though the statutes gave no exclusion to plebeians, the circumstances required in the candidates for fellowships, together with the esprit de corps actuating * Page 165. the electors, confined such places to the noblesse. Anxious to increase their influence, none of the five major colleges of Spain could ever be induced to elect any one who was not connected with some of the best families. This, however, was but a prudential step, to avoid the public disgrace to which the pruebas, or interrogatories relative to blood, might otherwise expose the candidates. One of the fellows was, and is still, at Seville, according to the statutes, to repair to the birth-place of the parents of the elected member, as well as to those of his two grandfathers and grandmothers-except when any of them is a foreigner, a circumstance which prevents the journey, though not the inquiry-in order to examine upon oath, from fifteen to thirty witnesses at each place, who, either from their own knowledge, or the current report of the town, must swear that the ancestor in question never was a menial servant, a shopkeeper or petty tradesman, a mechanic, had neither himself, nor any of his relations, been punished by the Inquisition, nor was descended from Jews, Moors, Africans, Indians, or Guanchos, i. e. the aborigines of the Canary Islands. It is evident that none but the hereditary gentry could expose them=selves to this ordeal: and, as the pride of the reporter, together with the character of his college, were highly interested in the purity of blood of every member, no room was left for the evasions commonly resorted to for the admission of knights in the military orders. "Thus, in the course of years, the five major colleges* could command the influence of the first Spanish families all over the kingdom. It was besides a point of honour among such as had obtained a fellowship, never to desert the interest of their college and, as every cathedral in Spain has three canonries, which must be obtained by a literary competition, of which the canons themselves are the judges, wherever a major collegian had obtained a stall, he was able to secure a strong party to any one of his college who should offer himself as a champion at those literary jousts. The chapters, on the other hand, were generally inclined to strengthen their own importance by the accession of people of rank, leaving poor and unknown scholars to grovel in their native obscurity. No place of honour in the church and law was left unoccupied by the collegians; and even the distribution which those powerful bodies made of their members--as if not only all the best offices and situations, but even a choice of them, were in their hands-was no secret to the country at large. Fellows in orders, who possessed abilities, were kept in reserve for the literary competitions. Such as could not appear to advantage at those public trials were, by means of court favour, provided for with stalls in the wealthiest cathedrals. The absolutely dull and ignorant were made inquisitors, who, passing judgment in their secret halls, could not disgrace the college by their blunders. Medicine not being in honour, there were no fellows of that profession. The lay members of the "There exist in Spain some other colleges which are also called major; but none, except four at Salamanca, and one at Seville, were reckoned as a part of the literary aristocracy of the country. None but these had the privilege of referring all their interests and concerns to a committee of the supreme council of the nation, expressly named for that purpose." |