humble shrine; it is held in the highest veneration through- | out the Mediterranean by the sailors, fishermen, and their wives, and its walls and roofs are hung with ex-votos, chiefly paintings representing moving accidents by flood and field; all the veriest daubs, but very curious as illustrating the religious feelings of the people. Besides a vast number of shipwrecks, storms, steam-boat explosions, escapes from British vessels of war, there is a whole host of surgical operations, sick beds, road-side accidents, &c. The cholera produced numerous offerings, among them a silver tunny fish, presented by the Marseilloise fish-wives. Many ostrich eggs, and models of ships, are suspended from the roof, and one corner is filled with cast-off crutches, the gifts of grateful cripples, now no longer lame, and by ropes' ends, by which men have been saved from drowning."

The same writer describes the view from the top of the hill beside the chapel as one of the best which can be obtained at Marseilles, presenting the vineyards and olive-gardens of the vicinity, dotted with white country

houses, called Bastides, to the number of five or six thousand, belonging to the citizens and shopkeepers. Yet the general aspect of the country is so arid and dazzling to the sight, that "the eye is delighted to turn and repose upon the deep blue of the Mediterranean, the graceful curves of the coast of the gulf of Lyons, and the little group of islands called If, crowned by a castle, once a state prison, in which Mirabeau was shut up."

The Museum, in which is also a picture-gallery, contains the few remaining relics of the ancient Massilia, some marbles, engravings, and medals of value, and a library said to contain ninety thousand volumes and two thousand manuscripts. The picture-gallery contains about a hundred and fifty pictures, not remarkable for their beauty, and very badly lighted.

Establishments of a sanatory nature are extremely well conducted at Marseilles; the cause being, those fearful ravages of the plague which, in 1720, destroyed nearly fifty thousand persons, or half the population. The Lazaretto is a commodious and well-regulated establishment to the west of the port, covering an area of no less than fifty acres, and furnished with the necessary apartments for all classes of persons, and extensive storehouses for goods. It is surrounded by a double wall, and is inaccessible except to those who enter it to perform quarantine. This immense establishment was able to receive the entire French army on its return from Egypt. Of late years a new access has been formed to the building, bringing it into connection with the harbour by means of a canal, without any contact with the habitations. This entrance is finished by a magnificent gate, called Dieu-donné. The care taken at Marseilles for the prevention of disease, is equalled by the provision made for the cure of various maladies. The hospitals are very numerous, and adapted to the circumstances of different classes of sufferers. The Hotel-Dieu receives all poor persons whose maladies are not incurable. About two thousand five hundred individuals are annually relieved at this institution, besides which food and lodging is provided during three days for all distressed persons who come with passports of indigence or disease. La Charité is another institution of a more general nature, and has generally about eight hundred and fifty patients under treatment. La Maternité receives and supports, during two months, distressed women about to become mothers. Many other hospitals for foundlings, insane persons, &c., are likewise regulated by a government commission, and there are several voluntary associations for visiting and relieving the sick, and otherwise distressed.

The dreadful visitation of 1720, already alluded to, has employed the pens of various writers, and has been made the subject of painting. One by Gerard, exhibiting the ravages of the malady, and the self-devotion of some of the principal inhabitants, helps to adorn the walls of

* A view of this building, together with much interesting information on the subject of Quarantine and Lazarettos, will be found in Saturday Magazine, Vol. XVI., pp. 173, 180.

the council room at Marseilles. The figure of the good Bishop, who visited the sick and dying when nearly all the other ecclesiastics had fled from the city, is here introduced; also of the Chevalier Rose, who helped to bury the dead with his own hands. At a time when every night added a thousand or twelve hundred to the dead of Marseilles, when every avenue was choked with the bodies of the dead and dying, or with heaps of infected goods thrown from the houses; when there were none but galleyslaves, and these only under terror of the sword, that would help to remove the dreadful accumulation; when all the miseries and horrors that human nature is subject to were heaped on the devoted inhabitants, or were created by their own wild despair, depravity, and selfishness, the conduct of those who still laboured amongst them, and put their lives in momentary peril for their sakes, is indeed worthy of note. Pope notices the con

duct of Bishop Belzance:

he tarries

Why drew Marseilles' good bishop purer breath, When nature sickened, and each gale was death. The progress of the plague was noted every day, in the city records of Marseilles, and in the extracts from this journal published soon afterwards, and translated into English in 1721, we find the following account of the Bishop's intrepid performance of his duties:-"In vain from the beginning of the contagion was he pressed to leave the city, to endeavour to preserve himself for the rest of his diocese; he rejects all such counsels, and hearkens only to those which the love the Sovereign Pastor has inspired him with for his flock, suggest to him; with unshaken fortitude, determined to lay down his life He is not satisfied with prostrating himself at the feet of for the good of his sheep, if God is pleased to require it. altars, and lifting up his hands to heaven to beseech God to mitigate his wrath; his charity is active; he is every day in the open streets, through all quarters of the town; he goes up to the highest and worst of the apartments of the houses, to visit the sick; crosses the streets among the dead bodies; appears in the public places, at the port, at the ring; the poorest, the most destitute of friends, those afflicted the most grievously and hideously, are the persons to whom he goes with the most earnestness; and without dreading those mortal blasts which carry poison to the heart, he approaches them, exhorts them to patience, disposes them to die, pours celestial consolation into their souls, drops everywhere abundant fruits of his generous charity, distributing money wherever he goes, and especially in secret to indigent families, whom holy curiosity prompts him to seek out and relieve; he has already given money he can upon pledges, to enable him to distribute more. away twenty-five thousand crowns, and takes up what

"Death has hitherto spared him, but has continually surrounded him, and almost mowed under his feet. The plague gets into his palace, the greatest part of his officers and servants are struck with it; he is obliged to retreat into the house of the chief president at Marseilles; the plague pursues him thither, and not only attacks the rest labours, one of whom expired beneath it. All this, howof his domestics, but two of his chosen assistants in his ever, does not terrify him, nor withhold him one moment from any of the duties of his fervent charity; he goes every where still to visit the infected."

The contagion commenced in June, reached its most terrific height in August, and declined in October and November, but it was not until the 10th of December that the Journalist of Marseilles could write as follows: "This day the distemper has so abated throughout the city, that no new patient has been carried into any hospital. entirely appeased; that this miserable unfortunate city will There is ground to hope that the wrath of God will be laid it desolate; and that we shall be secured from all be wholly delivered from this cruel visitation, which has returns of it, by the wise, exact, and judicious precautions which M. de Langeron takes, in concert with the sheriffs, with such indefatigable zeal, such laborious assiduity, such prudent vigilance, and such singular application, that the preservation of Marseilles cannot but be looked upon as his work; and its surviving inhabitants will be ever obliged to bless his name, and those of the sheriffs who second him so well, and do so justly merit, by the ardour with which they have exposed their lives, the title of Fathers of their Country."

|

mined upon a hundred interrogatories, nay, and examined of the whole course of their lives." This abuse was afterwards to a certain extent checked, but not remedied. If the defendant refused to answer the interrogatories, he was committed until he consented to do so. The examination was secret, the defendant was not allowed the assistance or advice of any one, nor was he beforehand made acquainted with the nature of the interrogatories; each one being read separately, and an answer demanded before he was made acquainted with❘ the next interrogatory. The defendant having passed his examination, might obtain license to depart upon appointing an attorney to attend the suit in his absence, and engaging to be present at the hearing of the cause. After this, the parties proceeded to examine witnesses upon interrogatories. The examination was taken privately, in nearly the same manner as is adopted at the present day in our courts of equity. The parties were not allowed to examine the witnesses with a view of im

peaching their credit. The court might be applied to, upon exceptions to the testimony of witnesses, and their credit examined in that manner; the witnesses for the plaintiff were, however, greatly favoured. In the fourth of Elizabeth, Lord Viscount Bindon was fined 1001. for calling a man who deposed against him "a knave." The king might give the testimony either orally or by writing under his signet. The judges might give tes timony either by certificate under their hands, or upon oath. All other persons delivered their testimony upon oath.

The cause being ready for determination, it was entered in a list of cases, and the defendant was summoned to hear the judgment of the court.

The court sat during term time for the hearing of causes, two or three times in every week. The number of the conncil who attended the court, is said in the reigns of Henry the Seventh and Henry the Eighth to have been nearly forty, of whom seven or eight were prelates.

In the reign of Elizabeth, the peers who were not privy councillors ceased to attend, which greatly lessened the number of the court, although upon some important occasions in the reign of Charles the First, the attendance amounted to twenty-four and upwards.

The chancellor proceeded to the sittings of the court in great state, his mace and seal being carried before him. He was the supreme judge, and alone sat with his head uncovered. The clerks of the court stood by him; and his servants attended within the court. Upon important occasions, persons who wished to get convenient. places went there by three in the morning. The chancellor called upon the counsel at the bar to speak, and, upon admitting the suit, appointed the counsel. The chief justices generally attended; and the chancellor had the power of commanding the attendance of any of the other judges, or that of the members of the council. Upon all motions he was the mouth of the court, to give the rule or order; the appointing of hearings, the admission of attorneys, and other duties, were afterwards entrusted to the clerk of the court.

Upon the trial of causes, the parties were heard by their counsel; the examinations of the witnesses were read, and the members of the court proceeded, in great silence, to deliver their opinions. They spoke in order, from the inferior upwards, the archbishop always preceding the chancellor. In the case of equality of voices, that of the chancellor was decisive. He alone had the power of assessing damages, and awarding costs, and he alone could discharge persons sentenced to imprisonment during pleasure.

After the sitting of the court, the lords, together with the clerk of the council, dined in the inner Star Chamber at the public expense. The cost of these dinners seems to have been a matter of consideration with Lord Burleigh, and the gradual increase of the expense, not

withstanding the decrease of persons who attended the court, is worthy of observation. An account, signed by Wolsey and others, and now amongst the Lansdowne MSS., furnishes a statement of the expense of seventeen dinners given to the lords of the council in the year 1509. The whole expense amounted to 35l. Os. 5d., which averaged about 27. 1s. 2d. for every dinner. Another paper, in the hand-writing of Lord Burleigh, gives the following statement:

Anno 1559, the ordinary charge for a dynar, 47. 10s. or 5l. 9s. 1579, 1590,

دو

8

17

0 or 10 0 0 or 18 0 In the above account of the practice of the court, we have abridged Mr. Bruce's clear and admirable description, in which he cites numerous authorities for his statements. Respecting the punishments inflicted by the court, he says:—

Every punishment, except death, was assumed to be within the power of the court. Excluded from sentencing capitally, they seem to have given themselves up to the infliction of meaner and more cruel punishments, heaping them one upon another, until their meaning and character were lost. They do not seem to have considered that disgrace, which is the essence of mean punishments, is produced more effectually by the infliction of one, than of many; and that when several different punishments are awarded, their accumulation tends rather to dignify the punishment, than disgrace the offender. If the complaint were founded upon a precise statute, which was very seldom the case, the court awarded the punishment inflicted by the statute; but if the offence were against the statute, but the bill not grounded upon the statute, "they use most commonly to impose a greater fine and more grievous punishment than the statute, and seldom or never lesse, unlesse the statute be somewhat antiquated."

Mr. Bruce then quotes, from the Hargrave manuscripts, an instance in illustration of this practice:

The statute of 5 Elizabeth, c. 14, punisheth the forging of false deeds with double damages to the partie grieved; imprisonment during life, pillory, cutting off both ears, slitting nostrils, and forfeiture of all his goods and profits of all his lands during his life; and the publisher of such deedes (knowing the same to be forged) with like double damages, pillory, cutting off one ear, and imprisonment for a year. The Starre Chamber will adde, upon the forger, a fine to the value of all his estate, whipping, wearing of papers through Westminster Hall, letters to be seared in his face with hote irons, and to the publisher, likewise a great fine, and longer imprisonment, not to be released until hee find sureties for good behaviour, and the like.

This catalogue of judicial terms (says Mr. Bruce) comprehends at one view all the ordinary punishments of the Star Chamber. In John Lilburn's case-I trust it was a solitary one-gagging was had recourse to, in order to stop his outeries in the pillory; and, in other cases, a savage and cold-blooded ingenuity was exercised in the discovery of novel inflictions. For instance, one Traske, a poor fanatic who taught the unlawfulness of eating swine's flesh, was sentenced to be imprisoned and fed upon pork. I think it might be shown that most of these infamous punishments Henry the Eighth, and grew into common practice under were introduced during the reigns of Henry the Seventh and Elizabeth. Whipping seems to have been introduced by Lord Keeper Puckering. In the early instances there was a moderation in fines; but latterly they were inflicted in excess, not according to the estate of the delinquent, but in proportion to the supposed character of the offence, "the ransom of a beggar and a gentleman being all one." In the reigns of Henry the Seventh and Henry the Eighth it was not so. The clergy were then in the habit of attending the court, and their "song," says Hudson, was of mercy." It ought to be remembered, to the honour of Archbishop Whitgift, that he seems to have struggled against the increasing barbarities and oppressions of this judicature. "I well remember," says Hudson, "that he did ever constantly maintain the liberty of the Free Charter, that men ought to be fined, salvo contenemento, and in many years never gave any sentence but therein he did mitigate in something the acrimony of those that spake before him."

*

*

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE MACHINE, CALLED

"THE LEWIS."

THERE is many an ingenious contrivance adopted in almost every art or trade, the origin of which it would be extremely difficult to ascertain. Thus the simple but beautiful little apparatus called the Lewis, used by the mason in hoisting large blocks of stone, is commonly supposed to have been the invention of an ingenious French mechanic, employed in the magnificent works of Louis the Fourteenth, and had its name given by way of compliment to that monarch.

It appears, however, from an examination of many of the beautiful ruins of our country, so rich in these relics of a former age and state of society, that a machine answering all the purposes of the Lewis, was known long before the age of Louis the Fourteenth. This discovery was made some years ago, by Mr. Gibson, while examining the ruins of Whitby Abbey. It will first be necessary to say a few words respecting the origin of this establishment, referring the reader for further particulars to Saturday Magazine, Vol. III. p. 25.

Whitby Abbey was originally founded under the name of the Monastery of Streanshall, in the year 658, by Oswy, king of Northumberland, whose kinswoman, Hilda, superintended its erection, and was the first abbess. The monastery was afterwards plundered and set on fire by the Danes. It lay in a ruinous state until the reign of William Rufus, when a church was erected on the ancient site by William de Percy, a powerful Norman baron, who endowed it with considerable grants of land, which, with many civil and religious privileges, were afterwards confirmed by Henry the First and Pope

Honorius the Second.

After the Reformation, the church was abandoned, and it long continued to be one of the most beautiful ruins of this country. In the year 1762, the body or nave of the church, resting on sixteen well-proportioned pillars, unable to resist the violence of a storm blowing full upon it from the north, fell to the ground; yet such was the excellence of the cement, that the pillars and arches, hardly disjointed, remain prostrate in nearly their original forms.

On carefully examining some of the stones as they lay on the ground, especially the key-stones of the arches, some of which weigh nearly a ton and a half each, Mr. Gibson was surprised to see, in the crown of each, a cavity in many respects similar to those cut into large blocks of stone, for the purpose of raising them by the Lewis.

"At the piers of this part," says Mr. Gibson, "this machine is highly useful in raising stones of six, and even ten tons weight. That the holes in the key-stones of Whitby Abbey were cut for similar purposes, hardly admits a doubt; but the machine must have been of a somewhat different form, and perhaps less powerful than that used at present, yet it might have been capable of raising a block of four tons, larger than any stones we see used in our ancient buildings."

The modern form of the Lewis is shown in fig. 1, where a a represent two distinct parts of the machine, perforated at their heads to receive the bolt e d. These are inserted by hand into the cavity formed in the stone, and between them the part is inserted, which pushes their points out to the sides of the stone, and fills the cavity. c is the ring of the Lewis on which the tackle is hooked: each end of this is likewise perforated to receive the bolt, which enters at d, and forelocks at e.

Fig. 2 is the supposed form of the machine used at the erection of Whitby Abbey.

In forming this cavity, the part a has been left apparently as a guide to point the two principal members, de, of the machine to their destined places, where they are secured by the intervention of a third part b, perforated at the head to receive, in conjunction with c d e f, the forelock bolt.

Fig. 2

Such of our readers as have the opportunity would do well to pursue this interesting inquiry by examining the stones of any ancient ruined buildings to which they may have access.

MEN in great place are thrice servants; servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business; so as they have no freedom, neither in their persons nor in their actions, nor in their times. It is a strange desire to seek power and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self. The rising into place is laborious, and by pains men come to greater pains; and it is sometimes base, and by indignities, men come to dignities. The standing is slippery, and the regress is either a downfall, or at least an eclipse, which is a melancholy thing. Certainly great persons had need to borrow other men's opinions to think themselves happy; for if they judge by their own feeling, they cannot find it: but if they think of themselves what other men think of them, and that other men would fain be as they are, then they are happy within; for they are the first that find their own griefs, as it were by report, when perhaps they find the contrary though the last that find their own faults.-BACON.