present Minister of War, the right hand of Zea Bermudez; and Don Nicolas Garoli and John Jose Heria, neither of whom are much known. The Queen Regent has directed her Minister to quit the head-quarters of Don Miguel, and has formally acknowledged Donna Maria as Sovereign of Portugal.

The accounts from Madrid are favourable to the Queen. The insurrection in Biscay has, however, gained strength; and symptoms of disaffection had appeared in Navarre. We shall probably soon have decisive news from the seat of the insurrection, as the Queen's troops had advanced in considerable force to the vicinity of Burgos.

BIOGRAPHICAL PARTICULARS OF CELEBRATED
PERSONS, LATELY DECEASED.

FERDINAND VII., KING OF SPAIN.

Ferdinand VII., King of Spain and the Indies, son of Charles IV., and of Maria Louisa of Parma, was born in the palace of St. Ildefonso, on the 14th of October, 1784; consequently, at the period of his demise, he had not quite completed his 49th year. At the age of six, he was proclaimed Prince of the Asturias. On the 19th of March, 1808, upon the abdication of his father (who lived till the 19th of January, 1819) he ascended the throne. Six or seven years previously to this, Godoy, the Prince of the Peace, undertook to bring about a marriage between Ferdinand and a Princess of England; but the rupture with Britain put a stop to the negotiation, and a double alliance was concluded between the heir of Spain with his cousin, Maria Antoinette, daughter of Ferdinand IV., King of the Two Sicilies, and between the Prince Royal (now King) of the Two Sicilies, and the Princess Maria Isabella, of Spain. The marriage took place in 1802. Ferdinand was devotedly attached to his wife; but she was hated by the King and Queen of Spain; and, after a life spent chiefly in melancholy retirement, she died childless, suddenly, and not without suspicion of poison.

Godoy proposed, as a second wife for Ferdinand, a French lady of the house of Beauharnois; but the Prince refused the connexion. It was] not until the year 1816, that King Ferdinand again married. He was then united to his own niece, the Infanta Isabella, of Portugal, daughter of King John VI. She died on the 26th of December, 1818; and, in 1819, he married as his third wife, Maria Josephina, daughter of Prince Maximilian, of Saxony. Her Majesty died on the 17th of May, 1829. Shortly afterwards, he married his surviving Queen, Maria Christiana, (born April 27th, 1806), third daughter of Francis I., present King of the Two Sicilies, and, consequently, niece of Ferdinand. By her, he had a daughter, Donna Isabella, in favour of whose succession he obtained the sanction of the Cortes.

Ferdinand's eldest brother, Charles Maria Isidore, (by many still regarded as the rightful heir of the Spanish crown,) was born on the 29th of March, 1788; and he married, on the 29th of September, 1816, the Infanta Maria Frances, daughter of John VI. of Portugal; by whom he has three sons, the eldest of whom is in his sixteenth year.

"During the greater portion of Ferdinand's reign," says a writer in the Times," the Absolutist, or, what is synonymous with it, the Church faction, was engaged in frequent attempts to harden and exasperate the spirit of the existing administration against the friends of lawful and constitutional government, and to crush, by dint of universal terror, every principle and material of future resistance to the real supremacy of the priesthood, to be exercised through the forms of a temporal monarchy. Ferdinand had no scruple of conscience or honour about making the people slaves, but he dreaded the failure of a system so violent and revolting as that to which the monkish faction would have urged him; and even from its success he shrunk with dismay, lest the lion's share of the depotism, when accomplished, might

fall to his ecclesiastical allies. Cowardice and cunning, both in the extreme, were the keys to his entire administration. His reign was a shuffle from beginning to end. As compared with the church and with his brother Carlos, its superstitious and sanguinary but unflinching champion, Ferdinand affected a sort of milieu policy, with a little more tendency to the tyrannical or the forbearing as the influence of the arbitrary courts of Europe or of Great Britain might preponderate. The war in Portugal, had it been merely a contest, however unnatural, between two brothers for a neighbouring erown, might have been looked upon by Ferdinand, not only with indifference, but complacency, because it would help to distract and enfeeble a kingdom over which the Spanish branch of the House of Bourbon has at no time ceased to indulge the ambition of reigning. But the Portuguese war embraced more extensive and alarming objects. Its results were to be constitutional or arbitrary government in Portugal; and its sympathies, which pervaded the whole of Europe, acted upon Spain with a more immediate and trying pressure. From the outset of that struggle, the dearest object of the Spanish Court, and at one moment there is reason to believe its actual determination, was to interfere by force of arms and establish Miguel and the reign of murder in Portugal; but England threatened force for force, and, as usual, Ferdinand and his ignoble Ministers yielded, confining their unlawful support of Miguel to money and other fraudulent appliances. In the mean time, one strong measure resorted to by Ferdinand drew a more definite and lasting line of separation between the Spanish partisans of Carlos and the church and their opponents. By a formal act of State, that is, by the repeal of the Salic law, he opened the succession to his daughter, and excluded Carlos not only from the throne, but from all share in the regency. This has been, in fact, a declaration of war against the principle of despotism throughout the Peninsula, inasmuch as it seems obvious that after the death of Ferdinand there is no power capable of resisting the Carlist faction but a close and hearty union of Spaniards of all other denominations. Of these the ablest minds are to be found among the advocates of a free and representative government, and into their arms we apprehend the Regent must throw herself if she entertains any rational hope of ensuring her daughter's succession. The army are said to be friends to constitutional freedom-if so, an important, though not infallible, auxiliary is added to the young Queen's cause; but, on the other hand, the accessible wealth of Spain is for the most part at the disposal of the clergy."

RAMMOHUN ROY.

This distinguished Brahmin died at Clifton on the 21st of October. He was a native of the province of Bengal, properly so called, and born in the district of Burdwan, the most fertile and the most populous of all British India. He was about 60 years of age; and as the district in question was ceded to the British Government as early as 1760, Rammohun was of course born a subject of the British Government. In Lower Bengal there are two distinct classes of Brahmins, namely, those who trace their pedigree to the ancient priesthood of the country, and those who trace their descent from certain emigrants from the north-west of India, who planted themselves in Bengal shortly before the Mohammedan conquest of that country, or nine centuries back. The true Bengalee Brahmin is little respected, being neither esteemed for learning nor for purity of blood; those of western descent are highly venerated, and of this order was Rammohun Roy. Considerable pains appear to have been taken with the early education of Rammohun, long before he had formed any acquaintance with Europeans; for, in his own district, he was instructed in all the learning usually bestowed upon a Brahmin, and was afterwards sent to the celebrated seminary of Benares, where he remained several years, engaged in studying the Sanscrit language:

His first acquaintance with the English language he owed to the care and patronage of the late Mr. John Digby, collector of the land-tax in the district of Rungpore, one of the most easterly portions of Bengal. His merit soon raised him to the highest office which a native can hold, that of Dewan, or chief native superintendent. It was in this office that he acquired the little fortune which enabled him to become a zemindar, or proprietor, in the district of Hooghly, to no larger extent, however, than an income of 1000l. a year.

. Of the earlier portion of his life, however, he has left an interesting account, (published in the Literary Gazette, youškymnos fa 1,5ɔmovit **"My ancestors," he says, "were Brahmins of a high order; and, from time immemorial, were devoted to the religious duties of their race, down to my fifth progenitor, who about 140 years ago gave up spiritual exercises for worldly pursuits and aggrandizement. His descendants ever since have followed his example, and, according to the usual fate of courtiers, with various success, sometimes rising to honour and sometimes failing; sometimes rich and sometimes poor; sometimes excelling in success, sometimes miserable through disappointment. But my maternal ancestors, being of the sacerdotal order by profession as well as by birth, and of a family than which none holds a higher rank in that profession, have up to the present day uniformly adhered to a life of religious observances and devotion, preferring peace and tranquillity of mind to the excitements of ambition, and all the allurements of worldly grandeur.

"In conformity with the usage of my paternal race, and the wish of my father, I studied the Persian and Arabic languages, these being accomplishments indispensable to those who attached themselves to the courts of the Mohammedan princes; and, agreeably to the usage of my maternal relations, I devoted myself to the study of the Sanscrit and the theological works written in it, which contain the body of Hindoo literature, law, and religion,

"When about the age of sixteen, I composed a manuscript calling in question the validity of the idolatrous system of the Hindoos. This, together with my known sentiments on that subject, having produced a coolness between me and my immediate kindred, I proceeded on my travels, and passed through different countries, chiefly within, but some beyond, the bounds of Hindoostan, with a feeling of great aversion to the establishment of the British power in India. When I had reached the age of twenty, my father recalled me, and restored me to his favour; after which I first saw and began to associate with Europeans, and soon after made myself tolerably acquainted with their laws and form of government. Finding them generally more intelligent, more steady and moderate in their conduct, I gave up my prejudice against them, aud became inclined in their favour, feeling persuaded that their rule, though a foreign yoke, would lead more speedily and surely to the amelioration of the native inhabitants; and I enjoyed the confidence of several of them even in their public capacity. My continued controversies with the Brahmins, on the subject of their idolatry and superstition, and my interference with their custom of burning widows, and other pernicious practices, revived and increased their animosity against me; and through their influence with my family my father was again obliged to withdraw his countenance openly, though his limited pecuniary support was still continued to me.

"After my father's death I opposed the advocates of idolatry with still greater boldness. Availing myself of the art of printing now established in India, I published various works and pamphlets against their errors, in the native and foreign languages. This raised such a feeling against me, that I was at last deserted by every person except two or three Scotch friends, to whom, and the nation to which they belong, I always feel grateful.

"The ground which I took in all my controversies was, not that of opposition to Brahminism, but to a perversion of it; and I endeavoured to show that the idolatry of the Brahmins was contrary to the practice of their ancestors, and the principles of the ancient books and authorities which they profess to revere and obey. Notwithstanding the violence of the opposition and resistance to my opinions, several highly respectable persons, both among my own relations and others, began to adopt the same sentiments.

"

"I now felt a strong wish to visit Europe, and obtain, by personal observation, a more thorough insight into its manners, customs, religion, and political institutions, I refrained, however, from carrying this intention into effect until the friends who

coincided in my sentiments should be increased in number and strength. My expectations having been at length raised, in November 1830 I embarked for England, as the discussion of the East India Company's charter was expected to come on, by which the treatment of the natives of India and its future government would be determined for many years to come, and an appeal to the king in council against the abolition of the practice of burning widows was to be heard before the Privy Council; and his majesty the Emperor of Delhi had likewise commissioned me to bring before the authorities in England certain encroachments on his rights by the East India Company. I accordingly arrived in England in April 1831.”

In politics, Rammohun Roy was a republican. At Calcutta he seldom or ever visited the Government-house, and kept at a distance from all the chief functionaries of Government. Among Europeans he associated chiefly with the ultra-liberal party. In 1823, when the press was persecuted at Calcutta, he boldly wrote and printed a petition to his Majesty in Council against the government measure, one of the best written that that important topic ever gave rise to. In 1820, on the breaking out of the Spanish, Neapolitan, and Sardinian revolutions, Rammohun gave a public entertainment in honour of them. In England, being invested with a diplomatic character, his politics were less obtruded than in India, but still he never allowed an opportunity to pass of expressing his hearty approbation of all liberal institutions. The progress of the Reform question kept him in a perfect fever of anxiety; "he told me over and over again," says a writer in the Times,' " that, independent of its own merits, it afforded the only chance likely to occur in his days of procuring an improved government for his fellow-countrymen in India."

Considering that Rammohun may be looked upon in many respects as self-taught, the extent of his acquirements must be considered as remarkable. He was thorough master of the Sanscrit language-a very difficult one, and he was master of the Arabic, also a difficult one; then he was an exceedingly good Persian scholar, and quoted the Persian poets liberally, appropriately, and gracefully; of course he understood thoroughly the Hindee and Bengalee. He had read a great deal of English literature, chiefly historical, and, considering the late period of life at which he made this acquisition, the precision and grammatical accuracy which he had attained were remarkable. He wrote, of course, much better than he spoke. With a view of being able to read the Jewish Scripture without the medium of a translation, Rammohun entered upon the study of the Hebrew, his progress in which was facilitated by his previous acquaintance with the cognate Arabic, and I am told that his acquirement in that language was very considerable. Rammohun may, upon the whole, be considered as having been rather a clever and dexterous dialectician than a close or profound reasoner. He was a quick and a keen observer of character, and in the ordinary intercourse of life discreet and prudent. As far as his slender means enabled him, he was liberal and generous; indeed, he was too apt to listen to wellgot-up tales of wo, and was repeatedly the victim of his credulity. His person will be familiar to many of your readers. He was about six feet high and large in proportion; but his person, though not wanting in apparent symmetry, was unwieldy and without activity. His features were large, manly, and fine, and such as are more frequently to be found in the paintings of the Italian masters than in the real condition of any nation. During his residence in England he never had good health, evidently being oppressed by the climate, and appearing subject to bilious attacks from that disordered state of the stomach which resulted from our dense atmosphere, as compared with that of his native country. He was much sought by many distinguished individuals, but though he drove about in his carriage, he never altered his simple mode of living. He never embraced any form of Christianity, and it is a mistake to suppose that he was even an Unitarian. Bishop Heber denominated him and his followers "Atheistical Brahmins;" but this was a calumny. Rammohun was a pure Deist, or believer in God and his unity.

The chief object which brought Rammohun Roy to this country was a mission which he undertook from the King of Delhi. In fact, he was the ambassador in this country of the Great Mogul. This Prince had, by treaty, a good claim against the East India Company, to the extent of a full half million. During his whole residence in England Rammohun Roy, notwithstanding the many obstacles thrown in his way, had carried on the negotiation for his employer with great skill, firmness, and perseverance, and a few weeks previous to his death had the matter brought to a successful termination by a compromise. As the arrangement now stands, 30,000l. a year are to be added to the stipend of the Mogul, and from the latter Prince Rammohun was to receive, as the reward of his services, to him and to his heirs for ever, an annual sum of from 3000l. to 40007. sterling. This was the best bargain which the East India Company could have made; for the transaction was of a nature little calculated to bear the light, and, indeed,' the most discreditable to our policy of anything which has occurred in India since the rogueries of Clive and Hastings. The case was printed, but not published, by Rammohun, and there is a copy of it at this moment before your correspondent, as he is writing.

It may be added that the title of Rajah was formerly bestowed upon Rammohun by the Mogul, shortly before he entered upon his mission, and that, by the universal admission of all India, the Mogul is the only power that can bestow such a title. This is a matter of no great moment, for the title of Rajah is now more common in India than Baron in Germany, or Count in old France.

RICHARD HEBER, ESQ.

Richard Heber, Esq., was the son of Reginald Heber (who succeeded his elder brother as lord of the manors and patron of the rectories of Marton, in Yorkshire, and Hodnet, in Salop), and Mary Baylie his first wife, and was half-brother to the late amiable and pious Reginald, Bishop of Calcutta, who was by a second wife. Towards his brother Reginald he always acted a most affectionate part. He was for some time M.P. for Oxford University, and distinguished himself in Parliament. After his travels on the Continent and the East he lived in almost total seclusion, in which retirement he employed himself in making a collection of the most costly books, and for a private gentleman possessed the most extensive and curious library ever known. Mr. Richard Heber, inheriting from his father the patronage of the living of Hodnet, instituted his brother Reginald in it, which was his first living.

We are indebted to a correspondent of the Sun Newspaper for the following interesting particulars:-Heber began to collect books when he was quite a youth; he never travelled in the East, as it has been erroneously stated in some of the journals, neither did he at any time seclude himself from public life. During all his trips to the continent he associated with the savans in the respective towns he visited. At the end of the revolutionary war he went to Paris for the first time, where he made extensive purchases of valuable books. Even then his classics and his English literature, in number and value, exceeded those of any other individual. His subsequent journeys to the Low Countries, Holland, some parts of Germany, and France, were evidently for the purpose of increasing his literary stores. Where there was a library to be sold, Heber was sure to be first in the field. He appears to have commenced purchasing books at auctions at the sale of the Pinelli Library, at Robson's Rooms, in Conduitstreet, about the year 1789, after which period, under the wing of the little squat, but most intelligent and very learned Dr. Gossett, Heber usually took his seat on the Doctor's right hand at all the book auctions in London, where, at his outset, he was a liberal purchaser of sixpenny articles. Heber secured choice gems in the sales of the Duke of Bridgewater (where most rare and valuable English books were disposed of in baskets full to a lot),