pretence of purchasing some little present for them. Though they did not return so soon as was expected, little uneasiness was felt on their account, until the parents received a note informing them that their children were safe and well, and that they need entertain no apprehensions regarding them, but demanding a considerable sum of money as the condition of their being restored. The money has not yet been paid; all search has proved ineffectual; and the children are still in the hands of the thieves.' Mr Robertson having put the chaplainship of the Presbyterian troops at Gibraltar on a better footing than hitherto, returned to his native country. His work is interspersed with many grave remarks concerning the morality of the British soldiers and sailors, to which attention cannot be too earnestly recommended, especially to those in power, who have the ability to cause the very great improvement which appears to be necessary in this respect. To all classes of readers, however, Mr Robertson's work will be found instructive and entertaining. BIOGRAPHIC SKETCHES. JOHN JOACHIM WINCKELMANN. When he had reached his seventeenth year, the kind Tappert despatched him to Berlin, with a letter of introduction to the rector of a gymnasium there, under whose roof he remained for a twelvemonth, alternately instructing and instructed. He was then recalled to Stendal, where his friend the rector placed him at the head of the choir. He spent the next four years in unremitting study, endeavouring at the same time to support himself and assist his family by teaching in public and in private. We have no detailed account of his life during this period. One anecdote only remains, which relates to his residence in Berlin, and deserves to be repeated as a pleasing illustration of his youthful enthusiasm. He had heard, it is said, that the library of the celebrated Fabricius was about to be sold at Hamburgh, and he determined to proceed there on foot and be present at the sale. He set out accordingly, asking charity (a common practice with poor German students in their rambles, and not considered disgraceful) of the clergymen whose houses he passed on the road; and having collected in this way a little sum, he purchased on his arrival some of his darling poets, and returned to Berlin overjoyed with his success. Winckelmann was now twenty-one, and it was quite time for him to choose a profession. His Stendal friends JOHN JOACHIM WINCKELMANN, the celebrated historian thought him fitted for the church, and they sent him to of ancient art, was born on the 9th of December 1717, obtain the necessary qualifications at the university of at Stendal, a town of Prussia, about eighty miles from Halle. He had no special inclination towards theology, Berlin. His father belonged to almost the lowest rank but he obeyed in silence, and applied himself to it with of life, being in fact a cobbler, struggling not only with his usual ardour. At Halle he had access to public poverty but with disease, which, at an early period of libraries, and his studies seem to have been of the most Winckelmann's life, forced him to take refuge in an hos- miscellaneous kind, ranging from Homer and the higher pital. As the boy grew up, he showed great anxiety to mathematics, to medicine and the ponderous tomes of go to school; but his parents were unwilling to lose even the feudal lawyers. At the end of two years he abanhis trifling services, and it was not without much diffi- doned theology, probably because the help from home culty that he at last persuaded them to send him began to fail him. He remained at Halle for six months to the burgh seminary. Once there, the rector, Esaias longer, arranging the library of one of the academic auWilhelm Tappert, a very worthy man, was struck with thorities; and then, with the small sum that he received his dawning genius and earnest perseverance. He for this, found himself thrown friendless upon the world. offered to instruct him for less than the usual fee, and He was too poor to enter any profession, and a thouby procuring him at the same time admission into the sand vague wishes began to agitate his breast. His choir, enabled him, without drawing on his father's love of study had been confirmed into a habit: the magscanty resources, to remain at school. Young Winckel-nificent gallery at Dresden, to which, on the occasion of mann proved the most apt and diligent of scholars; he seldom joined in the sports of his companions: generally, when they were playing, he might be seen conning some difficult passage of a classic, or learning by heart from a manuscript before him long lists of Greek and Latin words. With his industry and fine faculties he made such progress, that Tappert promoted him, while quite a stripling, to the rank of usher; some also of the Stendal burghers employed him in giving private lessons to their children; and with the trifling gains thus acquired, Winckelmann began to find himself contributing to the support of his parents. In time, a closer intimacy sprang up between the rector and his young protegé. Tappert lost his eyesight, and the other became his daily visitor, read to him, wrote for him, and tried in a thousand ways to cheer his solitary hours. The chief want of Winckelmann, as of every poor student, that of books, was now supplied. He had free access to his patron's well-chosen library, and he read with avidity Homer, the Greek dramatists, and works on archæology and history. Meanwhile he was giving indications of something rarer than even an industrious and affectionate disposition. He wished to travel, he used to say, when quite a child; above all, he longed to visit Egypt, that he might behold the pyramids. His innate love for objects of art began also to Poor Winckelmann now discovered that life was made display itself, as well as it could in a place so seques- of sterner stuff than such romantic dreams. He went tered as Stendal. Long after, when the poor cobbler's to Jena, and there, besides mastering Italian and Engzon had become a famous man, his companions remem-lish, struggled hard to complete his knowledge of mehared how he incited them, by the hope of some petty dicine, with a view to making it a profession. But this reward, to search the surrounding country for anti-scheme also, after a few months, poverty compelled him quarian remains; and, so recently as 1821, two Roman urns were to be seen in the library of the Stendal school, which were exhibited with pride as the product of one some festivities, he had paid a flying visit, was ever before his eyes, and he resolved to devote his life to literature and art. Meanwhile his early passion for wandering revived, and he now put in execution a scheme which savours of less wisdom than might have been expected from a youth of twenty-three, who had seen something of the world. Fascinated with a fresh perusal of Cæsar's Commentaries, he began, in the summer of 1740, a pedestrian journey to France, solely, his biographers assure us, to visit the scene of the great Roman's military exploits. As is usual in such cases, his funds were speedily exhausted; and when near Frankfort-on-the-Maine, he was compelled to retrace his steps. The most laughable part of the story remains to be told. Arriving at the bridge of Fulda, he remarked his own dishevelled, travel-stained appearance, and fancying no one near, resolved to remedy it. He had pulled out a razor, and was about to operate on his chin, when he heard a noise, and turning round, perceived a party of ladies, who, thinking him on the point of committing suicide, were shouting for help. The truth, however, was speedily explained, and the fair intruders, it is added, generously forced on his acceptance a gift of money sufficient for him to pursue his retreat in comfort. of these excursions. to forego. He became tutor in a family at Heimersleben, and during the year and a half which he spent there, devoted his leisure to historical studies, reading, we are informed, Bayle's dictionary twice through. At last the conrectorship of the school at Seehausen was for some time tolerably happy. He had a noble library offered him, with a yearly salary of 250 thalers, little at his command; from time to time he made excursions more than L.35. Small as this was, it was a larger to Dresden, where he could converse with such men income than he had ever enjoyed: it enabled him to as Hagedorn and Oeser; and, still better, range at will send something to his infirm and aged parents; ac- through its picture-gallery and collection of antiquities. cordingly he accepted the post with joy, and in the At last, what with the laborious fulfilment of his duties autumn of 1743 we find him installed at Seehausen. and the intensity of his private studies, even his HerDuring no period of his life does Winckelmann appear culean strength gave way; his health grew daily worse; more deserving of our regard than in the years of ob- his drooping gait and emaciated frame betokened the scure drudgery which he passed at Seehausen. He approach of death; and his friends advised him, if he found, on his arrival, none of his scholars acquainted wished to live, at once to seek a warmer climate. Meanwith more than the first rudiments of Latin and Greek; while (in the spring of 1751) Archinto, the papal nuncio many were ignorant of their ABC; and the poorer ones at Dresden, came to Nöthenitz, and made, during his could obtain no money from their parents for the pur- stay there, Winckelmann's acquaintance. He was chase of the necessary school-books. Thus, in spite of charmed with his learning and exquisite taste, and, obhis title of conrector, Winckelmann had little scope for serving his debility, strongly recommended him to go to the display of his fine genius and deep erudition. But Italy. That,' cried Winckelmann, 'is the goal of all my nothing daunted, nothing discouraged him. He made, wishes.' The nuncio begged him to pay him a visit at with his own hand, copies of such passages in the clas- Dresden. There he introduced him to Father Rauch, sical authors as his scholars became qualified to read, the confessor of the king; and both hinted, among other and these he distributed among them. He laboured and things, that Winckelmann, by becoming a Catholic, laboured, until at last things began to wear a flourishing might obtain a pension from the court of Dresden, and aspect. Beyond the sphere, too, of his immediate duties, thus repair to Italy. Hints soon became persuasions: he found time both for his own intellectual improve- after long wavering, in an evil hour Winckelmann conment and for the indulgence of his kindly disposition. sented, and on the 11th of July 1754, abjured LutherAfter school, he gave a few private lessons. In the anism to enter the pale of the Romish church. Such evening, a favourite pupil, whom he instructed in phi- changes, when they proceed from conviction, can never losophy and mathematics, remained till ten. Then deserve to be visited with reprobation; but in this case, Winckelmann belonged to himself. Seizing his Sopho- the most friendly of Winckelmann's biographers admit cles (a favourite author, of whom he was projecting a far other motives were at work. We learn with pleanew edition), he read and annotated till midnight. sure, that at the moment he was severely punished by When twelve struck, he never dreamt of going to bed, the estrangement of his very dearest friends. At the but, wrapping himself closely in an old fur cloak, leant same time, the Count Von Bünau must not escape unback in his chair, and slept among his books till four. censured. Even the tolerant and aristocratic Goethe is He then renewed his own studies for two hours more; indignant at his niggardly neglect: the acquisition of a at six the favourite pupil returned, and stayed until it book-rarity the less, nay, a simple application from a was time to open school. Few scholars of Winckel- minister of his influence to the court of Dresden, would mann's eminence have had, during the early portion of have furnished the slender aid which Winckelmann their career, so little leisure for private study; none purchased at so dear a rate. ever turned that little to better account. Five years of this laborious existence did not impair Winckelmann's health of body or cheerfulness of mind. He was modest and wise enough to be content with his situation, and might have remained all his life at Seehausen, had not some vexatious interference on the part of the school-inspector forced him reluctantly to leave it. After resolving on this step, he made several unsuccessful attempts to procure employment, and had finally made up his mind to betake himself to London, where, with his knowledge of languages, he hoped easily to obtain a situation as corrector of the press. Happily, during a brief visit to Dresden, in the June of 1748, he heard some one mention the vast collection of books which the Count Von Bünau, at his estate of Nöthenitz, near Dresden, was then amassing and arranging. He penned immediately a modest letter to that nobleman, imploring the most trifling literary engagement. The count inquired into his character and accomplishments, was pleased with both, and offered his petitioner a subordinate post in his library, with a yearly salary of L.12! Winckelmann accepted the offer, received the money for his travelling expenses, hurried to Stendal, taking with him all the books he had through life painfully collected, commissioned a friend to sell them, and apply the proceeds in a weekly allowance to his father, to whom he bade farewell, and then proceeded, light of heart, to Nöthenitz. The count was engaged in the composition of a history of the German empire, and Winckelmann's principal employment at Nöthenitz was to make such copies of, and extracts from, old documents as were to find a place in that work. He acquitted himself altogether to the satisfaction of his employer; nay, at first he laboured with such assiduity that his hair became gray: we do not find, however, that he received any more solid encouragement from his excellency than praises and kind words. Nevertheless, with board and lodging provided him, and a little leisure on his hands, Winckelmann was "An His excellency contented himself with being very angry, and Winckelmann was soon of course forced to quit Nöthenitz. He repaired to Dresden; and here he found himself moneyless as ever: Archinto was in Italy, and Rauch, though very polite, kept his hand closed. Meanwhile, Winckelmann (narrowly escaping starvation) projected, drew, wrote, and studied-the last generally in the Brühl library, where Heyne was then employed. It is a curious fact,' remarks Mr Carlyle, in his notice of the latter, that these two men, so singularly correspondent in their early sufferings, subsequent distinction, line of study, and rugged enthusiasm of character, were at one time, while both as yet were under the horizon, brought into partial contact. acquaintance of another sort," says Heeren," the young Heyne was to make in the Brühl library, with a person whose importance he could not then anticipate. One frequent visitor of this establishment was a certain almost wholly unknown man, whose visits could not be specially desirable for the librarians, such endless labour did he cost them. He seemed insatiable in reading, and called for so many books, that his reception there grew rather of the coolest. It was John Winckelmann. Meditating his journey for Italy, he was then laying in preparations for it. Thus did these two men become, if not confidential, yet acquainted; who at that time, both still in darkness and poverty, could little suppose that in a few years they were to be the teachers of cultivated Europe, and the ornaments of their nation." For Winckelmann, both the darkness' and the poverty' were soon to be at an end. He found means, in the May of 1755, to publish his first book, the 'Reflections on Imitation of the Greeks in Painting and Statuary,' which was dedicated to the king, and brought its author high and sudden fame. A month or two afterwards, he received the promise of an annual pension of L.30; Rauch sent eighty ducats for travelling ex * Miscellanies, vol. ii. pp. 42-3 penses; and in the following October Winckelmann, him at Rome. Suddenly, Arcangeli asked him to show now about to enter his thirty-ninth year, found himself the company at dinner that day the empress's medals. at last in Rome. He refused. Will you tell me, then, what your name It is not our intention to detail with the same minute- is?' 'No; I do not wish to be recognised,' was Winckelness the remaining thirteen years of Winckelmann's mann's reply; and, offended with the abruptness of the life, years of almost uninterrupted happiness. In Rome questions, he sat down, with his back towards the Itahis health was completely restored; he needed little for lian, and began to write. Arcangeli immediately took the supply of his bodily wants, and that little he always from his pocket, and threw over Winckelmann's head, obtained without difficulty. When his pension ceased, a knotted cord, which, as he started up, tightened on the death, in 1759, of his patron Archinto, the Car-round his throat. They closed, and had struggled todinal Albani invited him to become keeper of his collec-gether for a short time, when Arcangeli drew a knife tions, with an ample salary, and merely nominal duties. He was appointed by the Pope, in 1763, Antiquario della Camera Apostolica, or Superintendent of the Antiquities of Rome, an honourable post, congenial to his tastes. He lived on a familiar footing with the great and opulent; the most eminent of the artists resident in Rome were his daily companions; he had free access to the noblest collections of art in the world; and in the purest intellectual enjoyment and effort, he speedily forgot his past sufferings and struggles. Every foreigner of distinction who visited the Eternal City was proud to have Winckelmann for a cicerone: he himself delighted, when he found rank and genuine taste combined, to act in that capacity, and his conversation on such occasions was of the most brilliant and fascinating kind. The thoughts and emotions which were excited in him by the beautiful remains of antiquity, found moreover enduring expression in a long series of masterly writings. The principal of these, his History of Ancient Art, was begun in the second year of his residence at Rome, and published at Dresden in 1764. The publication of this work raised him to the pinnacle of European celebrity, and more than one German potentate (the great Frederick among the rest) endeavoured, without success, to tempt Winckelmann to his court. His friends in Germany, however, prevailed upon him, in 1768, to pay them a visit; and, in the company of a Roman sculptor named Cavaceppi, he set out for his native country in the April of that year. But as the distance increased between him and his beloved Rome, he sank into a deep melancholy: when they were crossing the Tyrolean Alps, he pointed to the gloomy sky overhead, and exclaimed, Torniamo a Roma' (Let us return to Rome). Cavaceppi persuaded him to continue his journey, and they reached Ratisbon, where the Empress-Queen, Maria Theresa, was then residing. Winckelmann now resolved to go no further. The Austrian prime minister, Kaunitz, himself joined his expostulations to those of Cavaceppi in vain. He remained at Ratisbon till the end of May, and having been presented to the empress, who bestowed on him some costly medals in proof of her regard, proceeded to Trieste, where (preserving, we know not why, a strict incognito) he took an apartment in a hotel, purposing to sail to Italy in the first ship bound for Ancona. and plunged it into his victim. At this moment a servant, hearing the noise, rushed up and opened the door, through which Arcangeli escaped unpursued. It is needless to protract the catastrophe. Physicians were summoned; but all was vain; and at four in the afternoon Winckelmann expired. The assassin was some weeks afterwards captured, tried, and executed. The news of this unexpected, mysterious, and melancholy death, was received with regret throughout all Europe, especially in Germany, where many of his admirers (the youthful Goethe among the number) were ignorant of Winckelmann's abrupt return towards Italy, and were preparing to welcome him with enthusiasm. We have left ourselves no room to speak of his works: his biography is now before the reader. We wish that Winckelmann, by avoiding the fatal error of apostacy, had allowed us to say that his was a life altogether worthy of a scholar and a man. EVENINGS WITH THE OLD STORY-TELLERS. WE can confidently recommend to young persons, and to the attention of all who have charge of them, a small and cheap, but elegant volume, entitled 'Evenings with the Old Story-Tellers,' being a member of a series entitled Burns's Fireside Library, in which we find many excellent reprints and adaptations prepared with remarkable taste, and even elegance, notwithstanding the small prices at which they are published. The particular volume here referred to contains a connected series of examples of the stories popular in the middle ages, chiefly from the well-known collection called the Gesta Romanorum; the translations being only executed by the editor where there did not exist happier versions by authors of established reputation. These stories, with their unscrupulous supernaturality, their allegorically-religious characters, and primitive ideas with regard to the course of nature and providence, are a curious and interesting study; nutritive of the imagination and feelings, at the same time that they have a historical value as exponents of European opinion in past ages. They are here very pleasantly strung upon a series of conversations represented as taking place in one of the Oxford colleges. The following may serve as a specimen of the collection JOVINIAN THE PROUD EMPEROR. He met at the common dining-table of the hotel an Italian stranger named Francesco Arcangeli, who, it afterwards appeared, had been banished for theft from In the days of old, when the empire of the world was in the Austrian dominions. This scoundrel easily gained the hands of the lord of Rome, Jovinian was emperor. Oft his confidence, by introducing him to the captain of a as he lay on his couch, and mused upon his power and his ship bound for Ancona, and by an agreeable and win-wealth, his heart was elated beyond measure, and he said ning manner. The unsuspecting Winckelmann told him within himself, Verily, there is no other god than me." It happened one morning after he had thus said unto everything about himself except his name, and showed himself, that the emperor arose, and summoning his huntshim the presents of the empress; these excited the men and his friends, hastened to chase the wild deer of the Italian's cupidity. On Wednesday the 8th of June forest. The chase was long and swift, and the sun was Arcangeli left the hotel early in the morning, and hav- high in the heavens when Jovinian reined up his horse on ing made some purchases, returned to his room, where the bank of a clear bright stream that ran through the ferhe remained for some time, and then (as he was daily tile country on which his palace stood. Allured by the in the habit of doing) paid a visit to Winckelmann in refreshing appearance of the stream, he bade his attendants his apartment. The latter was sitting, without neck- abide still, whilst he sought a secluded pool beneath some cloth or upper garment, at his writing-table, on which, willows, where he might bathe unseen. as it chanced, there lay unfinished his literary testament. He rose to greet his guest, and they walked together up and down the room till ten, talking of his approaching departure. Winckelmann was in the gayest humour, spoke with enthusiasm of his patron Albani's splendid villa, and begged the other to come and visit But and revelled in the refreshing coolness of the waters. commands, and followed their new emperor to the palace gates. Jovinian at length quitted the water, and sought in every direction for his apparel and his horse, but could not find them. He called aloud upon his attendants, but they heard him not, being already in attendance on the false emperor. And Jovinian regarded his nakedness, and said, 'Miserable man that I am! to what a state am I reduced! Whither shall I go? Who will receive me in this plight? I bethink me, there is a knight hereabout whom I have advanced to great honour; I will seek him, and with his assistance regain my palace, and punish the person who has done me this wrong.' Naked and ashamed, Jovinian sought the gate of the knight's castle, and knocked loudly at the wicket. Who art thou, and what dost thou seek?' asked the porter, without unclosing the gate. 'Open, open, sirrah!' replied the emperor, with redoubled knocks on the wicket. 'In the name of wonder, friend, who art thou?' said the old porter as he opened the gate, and saw the strange figure of the emperor before the threshold. Who am I, askest thou, sirrah? I am thy emperor. Go, tell thy master Jovinian is at his gate, and bid him bring forth a horse and some garments, to supply those that I have been deprived of." 'Rascal,' rejoined the porter-thou the emperor! Why, the emperor but just now rode up to the castle with all his attendants, and honoured my master by sitting with him at meat in the great hall. Thou the emperor! a very pretty emperor indeed. Faugh; I'll tell my master what you say, and he will soon find out whether you are mad, drunk, or a thief.' The porter, greatly enraged, went and told his lord how that a naked fellow stood at the gate calling himself the emperor, and demanding clothes and a good steed. Bring the fellow in,' said the knight. So they brought in Jovinian, and he stood before the lord of the castle, and again declared himself to be the emperor Jovinian. Loud laughed the knight to the emperor. "What, thou my lord the emperor! Art mad, good fellow? Come, give him my old cloak, it will keep him from the flies.' 'Yes, sir knight,' replied Jovinian, I am thy emperor, who advanced thee to great honour and wealth, and will shortly punish thee for thy present conduct.' 'Scoundrel!' said the knight, now enraged beyond all bounds; 'traitor! Thou the emperor! ay, of beggars and fools. Why, did not my lord but lately sit with me in my hall, and taste of my poor cheer? And did not he bid me ride with him to his palace gate, whence I am but now returned? Fool, I pitied thee before, now I see thy villany. Go, turn the fellow out, and flog him from the castle ditch to the river side.' And the people did as the knight commanded them. So when they ceased from flogging the emperor, he sat him down on the grass, and covered him with the tattered robe, and communed on his own wretchedness. 'Oh, my God!' said Jovinian-for he now thought of other gods beside himself- is it possible that I have come to such a state of misery, and that through the ingratitude of one whom I have raised so high? And as he thus spake, he thought not of his own ingratitude to his God, through whom alone all princes reign and live. And now he brooded over vengeance. Ay,' said he, as he felt the sore weals on his back from the scourging-ay, I will be avenged. When he next sees me, he shall know that he who gives can also take away. Come, I will seek the good duke, my ablest counsellor; he will know his sovereign, and gladly aid him in his calamity.' And with these thoughts he wrapped his cloak round him, and sought the house of the good duke. Jovinian knocked at the gate of the duke's palace, and the porter opened the wicket, and seeing a half-naked man, asked him why he knocked, and who he was. 'Friend,' replied the emperor, I am Jovinian. I have been robbed of my clothes whilst bathing, and am now with no apparel, save this ragged cloak; and no horse; so tell the duke the emperor is here.' The porter, more and more astonished at the emperor's words, sought his master, and delivered Jovinian's message to him. 'Bring in the poor man,' said the duke ; 'peradventure he is mad.' So they brought Jovinian into the duke's great hall, and the duke looked on him, but knew him not. And when Jovinian reiterated his story, and spoke angrily unto the duke, he pitied him. 'Poor mad fellow,' said the good duke, 'I have but just now returned from the palace, where left the very emperor thou assumest to be. Take him to the guard-house. Perhaps a few days' close confinement on bread and water may cool his heated brain. Go, poor fellow; I pity thee!' So the servants did as their lord commanded, and they fed Jovinian on bread and water, and after a time turned him out of the castle; for he still said he was the emperor. Sorely and bitterly did the emperor weep and bewail his miserable fate when the servants drove him from the castle gate. Alas, alas!" he exclaimed in his misery, 'what shall I do, and whither shall I resort? Even the good duke knew me not, but regarded me as a poor madman. Come, I will seek my own palace, and discover myself to my wife. Surely she will know me at least.' Who art thou, poor man?' asked the king's porter of him when he stood before the palace gate, and would have entered in. 'Thou oughtest to know me,' replied Jovinian, 'seeing thou hast served me these fifteen years." 'Served you, you dirty fellow,' rejoined the porter. 'I serve the emperor. Serve you, indeed!' 'I am the emperor. Dost thou not know me? Come, my good fellow, seek the empress, and bid her, by the sign of the three moles on the emperor's breast, send me hither the imperial robes, which some fellow stole whilst I was bathing.' "Ha, ha, fellow! Well, you are royally mad. Why, the emperor is at dinner with his wife. Well, well, I'll do thy bidding, if it be but to have the whipping of thee afterwards for an impudent madman. Three moles on the emperor's breast! How royally thou shalt be beaten, my friend.' When the porter told the empress what the poor madman at the gate had said, she held down her head, and said with a sorrowful voice unto her lord, My good lord and king, here is a fellow at the palace gate that hath sent unto me, and bids me, by those secret signs known only to thou and me, to send him the imperial robes, and welcome him as my husband and my sovereign.' When the fictitious emperor heard this, he bade the attendants bring in Jovinian. And lo! as he entered the hall, the great wolf-hound, that had slept at his feet for years, sprang from his lair, and would have pulled him down, had not the attendants prevented him; whilst the falcon, that had sat on his wrist in many a fair day's hawking, broke her jesses, and flew out of the hall-so changed was Jovinian the emperor. Nobles and friends,' said the new emperor, 'hear ye what I will ask of this man.' And the nobles bowed assent, whilst the emperor asked of Jovinian his name, and his business with the empress. 'Askest thou me who I am, and wherefore I am come rejoined Jovinian. 'Am not I thy emperor, and the lord of this house and this realm ?" These our nobles shall decide,' replied the new king, Tell me now, which of us twain is your emperor?' And the nobles answered with one accord, "Thou dost trifle with us, sire. Can we doubt that thou art our emperor, whom we have known from his childhood? As for this base fellow, we know not who he is.' And with one accord the people cried out against Jovinian that he should be punished. On this the usurper turned to the empress of Jovinian -Tell me,' said he, 'on thy true faith, knowest thou this man, who calls himself emperor of this realm?' And the empress answered, Good, my lord; have not thirty years passed since I first knew thee, and became the mother of our children? Why askest thou me of this fellow? And yet it doth surprise me how he should know what none save you and I can know.' Then the usurper turned to Jovinian, and with a harsh countenance rebuked his presumption, and ordered the executioners to drag him by the feet by horses until he died. This said he before all his court; but he sent his servant to the jailer, and commanded him to scourge Jovinian, and for this once to set him free. The deposed emperor desired death. Why,' said he to himself, should I now live? My friends, my dependents, yea, even the partner of my bed, shun me, and I am desolate among those whom my bounties have raised. Come, I will seek the good priest, to whom I so often have laid me.' open my most secret faults: of a surety he will remember Now the good priest lived in a small cell nigh to a chapel about a stone's cast from the palace gate; and when Jovinian knocked, the priest being engaged in reading, answered from within, 'Who's there? Why troublest I am the Emperor Jovinian; open the window; I would speak to thee,' replied the fugitive. thon me?' Immediately the narrow window of the cell was opened, and the priest, looking out, saw no one save the poor halfclothed Jovinian. 'Depart from me, thou accursed thing,' cried the priest; thou art not our good lord the emperor, but the foul fiend himself, the great tempter.' Alas, alas!' cried Jovinian, to what fate am I reserved, that even my own good priest despises me? Ah me! I bethink me; in the arrogance of my heart I called myself a god. The weight of my sin is grievous unto me., Father, good father, hear the sins of a miserable penitent.' Gladly did the priest listen to Jovinian; and when he had told him all his sins, the good priest comforted the penitent, and assured him of God's mercy if his repentance was sincere. And so it happened that on this a cloud seemed to fall from before the eyes of the priest; and when he again looked on Jovinian, he knew him to be the emperor, and he pitied him, clothing him with such poor garments as he had, and went with him to the palace gate. The porter stood in the gateway, and as Jovinian and the priest drew near, he made a lowly obeisance, and opened the gate for the emperor. 'Dost thou know me?' asked the emperor. Very well, my lord,' replied the servant; but I wish that you had not left the palace.' So Jovinian passed on to the hall of his palace; and as he went, all the nobles rose and bowed to the emperor; for the usurper was in another apartment, and the nobles knew again the face of Jovinian. But a certain knight passed into the presence of the false emperor. My lord,' said he, there is one in the great hall to whom all men bow; for he so much resembleth you, that we know not which is the emperor.' Then said the usurper to the empress, 'Go and see if you know this man.' ful of the pomps and vanities of the world. The next knight was Conscience. The dog that turned against his old master was the lusts of the flesh, our own evil desires, which will ever in the end turn against those the empress, man's soul; and the clothes in which the who have pampered them. The falcon is God's grace; good priest clothed the half-frozen emperor are those kingly virtues which he had thrown off when he gave loose to the vanities of the world. SAVINGS' BANKS IN FRANCE. THE establishment of savings' banks, recognised as they now are by government, is a measure calculated to benefit the humbler classes of society. The advantages by interest. The poor man cannot command the same they offer are twofold-safe custody, and improvement' facilities with his scanty savings as the rich man with his large accumulations; he does not find it easy to meet with fit persons who will take charge of it; and if he retains it in his own possession he makes no profit, and is exposed to the chance of being plundered. Here, then, the savings' banks afford him the opportunity of making a secure deposit, whether for present or for future use. Once in the safe keeping of the bank, the yond the risk of improvident emergencies. The greatest sum may become a nucleus of accumulation, and is bedifficulty with working men is to lead them to acquire the first habits of order, foresight, and economy. Induce a labourer or an artisan to deposit even the smallest saving, week by week, until the entire sum shall amount to L.5, and it is certain that, before arriving at that period, he will become sensible of the propriety and the necessity for saving. He will appear a new individual; one who no longer regards himself as an outcast, without a future, but who will take and maintain his standing among the producers and preservers of national wealth. His conduct will become more regular, his habits more moral; he will be a better workman, better 'Oh, my good lord,' said the empress, when she re-husband, father, and citizen. 'I will myself go and determine,' rejoined the usurper, as he took the empress by the hand, and, leading her into the great hall, placed her on the throne beside himself. Kinsfolk and nobles,' said the usurper, by the oaths ye have sworn, determine between me and this man.' And the empress answered, 'Let me, as in duty bound, speak first. Heaven be my witness, I know not which is my lord and husband.' And all the nobles said the same. Thereupon the feigned Jovinian rose and spake: 'Nobles and friends, hearken! That man is your emperor and your master; hear ye him! Know that he did exalt himself above that which was right, and made himself equal unto God. Verily he hath been rewarded. He hath suffered much indignity and wrong; and, of God's will, ye knew him not. He hath reperted him of his grievous sin, and the scourge is now removed. He has made such satisfaction as man can make. Hear ye him, know him, obey him.' As the feigned emperor thus addressed the astonished nobles, his features seemed illumed with a fair and spiritual light, his imperial robes fell from off him, and he stood confessed before the assembly an angel of God, clothed in white raiment. And as he ended his speech, he bowed his head, and vanished from their sight. Jovinian returned to his throne, and for three years reigned with so much mercy and justice, that his subjects had no cause to regret the change of their emperor. And it came to pass, after the space of three years, the same angel appeared to him in a dream, and warned him of his death. So Jovinian dictated his troublous life to his secretaries, that it might remain as a warning unto all men against worldly pride, and an incitement to the performance of our religious duties. And when he had so done, he meekly resigned himself, and fell asleep in death. From a little work written on this subject by Baron Charles Dupin,* we learn that savings' banks were introduced into France soon after their legal establishment in England. A model bank, presided over by the duke of Larochefoucauld-Liancourt, was started in Paris in the year 1818, from which date up to the year 1880, only twelve others were instituted, and those were all in the departments; that is, the country. In 1831, a year remarkably fatal to the interests of the working population, no new bank was founded; but in 1832, when the effects of the Revolution of July began to be felt in popular institutions, four others were established; in 1833, nine; forty-eight in 1834; and at the present day, France contains four hundred and fifty savings' banks, showing a remarkable and rapid progress, which impressively illustrates the blessings and advantages of peace.† In 1830, the year of the Revolution, the deposits in the savings' banks in France amounted to L.207,824, and the sums drawn out to L.150,276, being L.100,000 more than in the previous year. In 1831-a year characterised by riots at Lyons and Paris, and great commercial distress, when the poor were excited against the rich, and civil war showed its head for a moment *Histoire, Constitution, ct Avenir des Caisses d'Epargne de France. Paris: 1844. The first savings' bank in England was started, but unsuccessfully, in the year 1798. The idea was adopted with better Calder, who instituted a bank for his parishioners; and afterwards, success in Scotland in 1807 by the minister of the parish of West in 1810, by Henry Duncan, minister of Ruthwell, in Dumfriesshire. The latter took the care of the administration of the establishment upon himself, and published the result in a well written pamphlet, in which he explained the system and its advantages, and succeeded in drawing public attention to the enterprise. In 1813, Sir William Forbes established the bank of Edinburgh upon a plan The moral of the story is thus given :-' Jovinian which served as a model to all that succeeded it. From the addiwas but the picture of the proud, worldly-minded man, tional experience gained by the experiments in Scotland, the orientirely given up to vanity and folly. The first knight ginal bank was founded in London within a year two afterwhose castle he visited was True Wisdom, ever disdain-wards, under the management of Mr Baring. |