undergone its revolution of vices; and as cruelty is not the present vice of ours, we can all humanely execrate the purpose of amphitheatres, now that they lie in ruins. Moralists may tell us that the truly brave are never cruel; but this monument says 'No.' Here sat the conquerors of the world, coolly to enjoy the tortures and death of men who had never offended them. Two aqueducts were scarcely sufficient to wash off the human blood which a few hours' sport shed in this imperial shambles. Twice in one day came the senators and matrons of Rome to the butchery; a virgin always gave the signal for slaughter; and when glutted with bloodshed, those ladies sat down in the wet and streaming arena to a luxurious supper! Such reflections check our regret for its ruin. As it now stands, the Coliseum is a striking image of Rome itself-decayed, vacant, serious, yet grand-half-gray and half-green-erect on one side and fallen on the other, with consecrated ground in its bosom-inhabited by a beadsman; visited by every caste; for moralists, antiquaries, painters, architects, devotees, all meet here to meditate, to examine, to draw, to measure, and to pray. In contemplating antiquities,' says Livy, 'the mind itself becomes antique. It contracts from such objects a venerable rust, which I prefer to the polish and the point of those wits who have lately profaned this august ruin with ridicule.

6

[Funeral Ceremony at Rome.]

[From Mathews's Diary of an Invalid.] One day, in my way home, I met a funeral-ceremony. A crucifix hung with black, followed by a train of priests, with lighted tapers in their hands, headed the procession. Then came a troop of figures dressed in white robes, with their faces covered with masks of the same materials. The bier followed, on which lay the corpse of a young woman, arrayed in all the ornaments of dress, with her face exposed, where the bloom of life followed the bier, dressed in the robes of their orders, yet lingered. The members of different fraternities and all masked. They carried lighted tapers in their recitative. I followed the train to the church, for I had hands, and chanted out prayers in a sort of mumbling doubts whether the beautiful figure I had seen on the bier was not a figure of wax; but I was soon convinced it was indeed the corpse of a fellow-creature, cut off in is the Italian mode of conducting the last scene of the the pride and bloom of youthful maiden beauty. Such tragi-comedy of life. As soon as a person dies, the relations leave the house, and fly to bury themselves and their griefs in some other retirement. The care of the funeral devolves on one of the fraternities who are associated for this purpose in every parish. These are In the year following the publication of Forsyth's dressed in a sort of domino and hood, which, having original and valuable work, appeared A Classical holes for the eyes, answers the purpose of a mask, and Tour in Italy, in two large volumes, by JOHN completely conceals the face. The funeral of the very CHETWODE EUSTACE, an English Catholic priest, poorest is thus conducted with quite as much ceremony who had travelled in Italy in the capacity of tutor. as need be. This is perhaps a better system than our Though pleasantly written, Eustace's work is one own, where the relatives are exhibited as a spectacle to of no great authority or research. Hobhouse-who impertinent curiosity, whilst from feelings of duty they furnished the notes to the fourth canto of Lord follow to the grave the remains of those they loved. Byron's Childe Harold, and afterwards published a But ours is surely an unphilosophical view of the subvolume of Historical Illustrations to the same poem the cold clod as the sole remains of the object of our ject. It looks as if we were materialists, and considered -characterises Eustace as one of the most inaccurate and unsatisfactory writers that have in our affection. The Italians reason better, and perhaps feel times attained a temporary reputation.' Mr Eustace as much as ourselves, when they regard the body, died at Naples in 1815. Letters from the North of informed it, as no more a part of the departed spirit deprived of the soul that animated, and the mind that Italy, addressed to Mr Hallam the historian, by W. than the clothes which it has also left behind. The STEWART ROSE, Esq., in two volumes, 1819, are ultimate disposal of the body is perhaps conducted here partly descriptive and partly critical; and though with too much of that spirit which would disregard all somewhat affected in style, form an amusing miscel-claims that this mortal coil' can have to our attention. lany. A Tour through the Southern Provinces of the Kingdom of Naples, by the HON. R. KEPPEL CRAVEN (1821), is more of an itinerary than a work of reflection, but is plainly and pleasingly written. The Diary of an Invalid, by HENRY MATHEWS (1820), and Rome in the Nineteenth Century (1820), by MISS WALDIE, are both interesting works: the first is lively and picturesque in style, and was well received by the public. In 1821 LADY MORGAN published a work entitled Italy, containing pictures of Italian society and manners, drawn with more vivacity and point than delicacy, but characterised by Lord Byron as very faithful. Observations on Italy, by MR JOHN BELL (1825), and a Description of the Antiquities of Rome, by DR BURTON (1828), are works of accuracy and research. Illustrations of the Passes of the Alps, by W. BROCKEDON (1828-9), unite the effects of the artist's pencil with the information of the observant topographer. MR BECKFORD, author of the romance of Vathek, had in early life written Sketches of Italy, Spain, and Portugal. After remaining unpublished for more than forty years, two volumes of these graphic and picturesque delineations were given to the world in 1834. Time has altered some of the objects described by the accomplished traveller, but his work abounds in passages of permanent interest, and of finished and beautiful composition. Every season adds to the number of works on Italy and the other parts of the continent.

As soon as the funeral-service is concluded, the corpse is stripped and consigned to those who have the care of the interment. There are large vaults underneath the churches for the reception of the dead. Those who can afford it, are put into a wooden shell before they are cast into one of these Golgothas; but the great mass are tossed in without a rag to cover them. When one of these caverns is full, it is bricked up; and after fifty years it is opened again, and the bones are removed to other places prepared for their reception. So much for the last scene of the drama of life. With respect to the first act, our conduct of it is certainly more natural. Here they swathe and swaddle their children till the poor urchins look like Egyptian mummies. To this frightful custom one may attribute the want of strength and symmetry of the men, which is sufficiently remarkable.

[Statue of the Medicean Venus at Florence.*] [From Mathews's Diary.]

The statue that enchants the world—the unimitated, the inimitable Venus. One is generally disappointed

*This celebrated work of art was discovered in the villa of

Adrian, in Tivoli, in the sixteenth century, broken into thirteen pieces. The restorations are by a Florentine sculptor. It was brought to Florence in the year 1689. It measures in stature only 4 feet 11 inches. There is no expression of passion or sentiment in the statue: it is an image of abstract or ideal beauty.

personification of all that is elegant, graceful, and I contemplated the busy scene from my peaceful beautiful; not only abstracted from all human infirmi-platform, where nothing stirred but aged devotees ties, but elevated above all human feelings and affections; creeping to their devotions; and whilst I remained thus for, though the form is female, the beauty is like the calm and tranquil, heard the distant buzz of the town. beauty of angels, who are of no sex. I was at first Fortunately, some length of waves rolled between me reminded of Milton's Eve; but in Eve, even in her days and its tumults, so that I ate my grapes and read of innocence, there was some tincture of humanity, of Metastasio undisturbed by officiousness or curiosity. which there is none in the Venus; in whose eye there When the sun became too powerful, I entered the nave. is no heaven, and in whose gesture there is no love.

dition, including two ships, the Hecla and Griper, was intrusted to Captain Parry, who had the satisfaction of verifying the correctness of his former impressions, by sailing through what Captain Ross supposed to be a mountain-barrier in Lancaster Sound. To have sailed upwards of thirty degrees of longitude beyond the point reached by any former navigator-to have discovered many new lands, islands, and bays-to have established the muchcontested existence of a Polar Sea north of America

latter of which may be seen an oven and grinding-mills, like old Scotch querns. We examined likewise an oilman's shop, and a wine-shop lately opened, where money was found in the till; a school, in which was a small pulpit, with steps up to it, in the middle of the apartment; a great theatre; a temple of justice; an amphitheatre about 220 feet in length; various temples; a barrack for soldiers, the columns of which are scribbled with their names and jests; wells, cisterns, seats, tricliniums, beautiful mosaic; altars, inscriptions, fragments of statues, and many other curious remains of antiquity.finally, after a wintering of eleven months, to Among the most remarkable objects was an ancient wall, with part of a still more ancient marble frieze, built in it as a common stone; and a stream which has flowed under this once subterraneous city long before its burial; pipes of terra cotta to convey the water to the different streets; stocks for prisoners, in one of which a skeleton was found. All these things incline one almost to look for the inhabitants, and wonder at the desolate silence of the place.

The houses in general are very low, and the rooms are small; I should think not above ten feet high. Every house is provided with a well and a cistern. Everything seems to be in proportion. The principal streets do not appear to exceed 16 feet in width, with side-pavements of about 3 feet; some of the subordinate streets are from 6 to 10 feet wide, with side-pavements in proportion: these are occasionally high, and are reached by steps. The columns of the barracks are about 15 feet in height; they are made of tuffa with stucco; one third of the shaft is smoothly plastered, the rest fluted to the capital. The walls of the houses are often painted red, and some of them have borders and antique ornaments, masks, and imitations of marble; but in general poorly executed. I have observed on the walls of an eating-room various kinds of food and game tolerably represented: one woman's apartment was adorned with subjects relating to love, and a man's with pictures of a martial character. Considering that the whole has been under ground upwards of seventeen centuries, it is certainly surprising that they should be as fresh as at the period of their burial. The whole extent of the city, not one half of which is excavated, may be about four miles.

ARCTIC DISCOVERY-ROSS, PARRY, FRANKLIN, ETC.

Contemporaneous with the African expeditions already described, a strong desire was felt in this country to prosecute our discoveries in the northern seas, which for fifty years had been neglected. The idea of a north-west passage to Asia still presented attractions, and on the close of the revolutionary war, an effort to discover it was resolved upon. In 1818 an expedition was fitted out, consisting of two ships, one under the command of CAPTAIN JOHN Ross, and another under LIEUTENANT, afterwards SIR EDWARD PARRY. The most interesting feature in this voyage is the account of a tribe of Esquimaux hitherto unknown, who inhabited a tract of country extending on the shore for 120 miles, and situated near Baffin's Bay. A singular phenomenon was also witnessed-a range of cliffs covered with snow of a deep crimson colour, arising from some vegetable substance. When the expedition came to Lancaster Sound, a passage was confidently anticipated; but after sailing up the bay, Captain Ross conceived that he saw land-a high ridge of mountains, extending directly across the bottom of the inlet-and he abandoned the enter prise. Lieutenant Parry and others entertained a different opinion from that of their commander as to the existence of land, and the Admiralty fitted out a new expedition, which sailed in 1819, for the purpose of again exploring Lancaster Sound. The expe

have brought back his crew in a sound and vigorous
state-were enough to raise his name above that
of any former Arctic voyager.' The long winter
sojourn in this Polar region was relieved by various
devices and amusements: a temporary theatre was
fitted up, and the officers came forward as amateur-
performers. A sort of newspaper was also estab-
lished, called the North Georgian Gazette, to which
all were invited to contribute; and excursions abroad
results of Captain Parry's voyage soon induced
were kept up as much as possible. The brilliant
another expedition to the northern seas of America.
That commander hoisted his flag on board the
Fury, and Captain Lyon, distinguished by his
services in Africa, received the command of the
Hecla. The ships sailed in May 1821.
It was
more than two years ere they returned; and though
the expedition, as to its main object of finding a
passage into the Polar sea, was a failure, various
geographical discoveries were made. The tedious-
ness of winter, when the vessels were frozen up, was
again relieved by entertainments similar to those
formerly adopted; and further gratification was
afforded by intercourse with the Esquimaux, who,
in their houses of snow and ice, burrowed along the
shores. We shall extract part of Captain Parry's
account of this shrewd though savage race.

[Description of the Esquimaux.]

The Esquimaux exhibit a strange mixture of intellect and dulness, of cunning and simplicity, of ingenuity and stupidity; few of them could count beyond five, and not one of them beyond ten, nor could any of them speak a dozen words of English after a constant intercourse of seventeen or eighteen months; yet many of them could imitate the manners and actions of the strangers, and were on the whole excellent mimics. One woman in particular, of the name of Iligluik, very various traits of that superiority of understanding for soon attracted the attention of our voyagers by the which, it was found, she was remarkably distinguished, and held in esteem even by her own countrymen. She had a great fondness for singing, possessed a soft voice and an excellent ear; but, like another great singer who figured in a different society, there was scarcely any stopping her when she had once begun;' she would listen, however, for hours together to the tunes played on the organ. Her superior intelligence was perhaps most conspicuous in the readiness with which she was made to comprehend the manner of laying down on paper the geographical outline of that part of the coast of America she was acquainted with, and the neighbouring islands, so as to construct a chart. At first it was found difficult to make her comprehend what was meant; but when Captain Parry had discovered that the Esquimaux were already acquainted with the four cardinal points of the compass, for which they have appropriate names, he drew them on a sheet of paper, together with that portion of the coast just discovered, which was opposite to Winter Island, where then they were, and of course well known to her.

We desired her (says Captain Parry) to complete the rest, and to do it mikkee (small), when, with a

occasioned many of the complaints that proved fatal during the winter; and on this account we hardly knew whether to rejoice or not at the general success of their fishery.

countenance of the most grave attention and peculiar of these people so constantly subject them, may have intelligence, she drew the coast of the continent beyond her own country, as lying nearly north from Winter Island. The most important part still remained, and it would have amused an unconcerned looker-on to have observed the anxiety and suspense depicted on the countenances of our part of the group till this was accomplished, for never were the tracings of a pencil watched with more eager solicitude. Our surprise and satisfaction may therefore in some degree be imagined when, without taking it from the paper, Iligluik brought the continental coast short round to the westward, and afterwards to the S.S.W., so as to come within three or four days' journey of Repulse Bay.

A third expedition was undertaken by Captain Parry, assisted by Captain Hoppner, in 1824, but it proved still more unfortunate. The broken ice in Baffin's Bay retarded his progress until the season was too far advanced for navigation in that climate. After the winter broke up, huge masses of ice drove the ships on shore, and the Fury was so much I am, however, compelled to acknowledge, that in injured, that it was deemed necessary to abandon proportion as the superior understanding of this extra-her with all her stores. In April 1827, Captain ordinary woman became more and more developed, Parry once more sailed in the Hecla, to realise, her head-for what female head is indifferent to if possible, his sanguine expectations; but on this praise?-began to be turned by the general attention occasion he projected reaching the North Pole by and numberless presents she received. The superior employing light boats and sledges, which might be decency and even modesty of her behaviour had comalternately used, as compact fields of ice, or open bined, with her intellectual qualities, to raise her in sea, interposed in his route. On reaching Hecla our estimation far above her companions; and I often Cove, they left the ship to commence their journey heard others express what I could not but agree in, on the ice. Vigorous efforts were made to reach that for Iligluik alone, of all the Esquimaux women, the Pole, still 500 miles distant; but the various that kind of respect could be entertained which modesty impediments they had to encounter, and particuin a female never fails to command in our sex. Thus larly the drifting of the snow-fields, frustrated all regarded, she had always been freely admitted into their endeavours; and after two months spent on the ships, the quarter-masters at the gangway never the ice, and penetrating about a degree further than thinking of refusing entrance to 'the wise woman,' as any previous expedition, the design was abandoned they called her. Whenever any explanation was neces--having attained the latitude of 82 degrees 45 sary between the Esquimaux and us, Iligluik was sent for as an interpreter; information was chiefly obtained through her, and she thus found herself rising into a degree of consequence to which, but for us, she could never have attained. Notwithstanding a more than ordinary share of good sense on her part, it will not therefore be wondered at if she became giddy with her exaltation-considered her admission into the ships and most of the cabins no longer an indulgence, but a right -ceased to return the slightest acknowledgment for any kindness or presents-became listless and inattentive in unravelling the meaning of our questions, and careless whether her answers conveyed the information we desired. In short, Iligluik in February and Iligluik in April were confessedly very different persons; and it was at last amusing to recollect, though not very easy to persuade one's self, that the woman who now sat demurely in a chair, so confidently expecting the notice of those around her, and she who had at first, with eager and wild delight, assisted in cutting snow for the building of a hut, and with the hope of obtaining a single needle, were actually one and the same indi

vidual.

for the morrow

No kind of distress can deprive the Esquimaux of their cheerful temper and good-humour, which they preserve even when severely pinched with hunger and cold, and wholly deprived for days together both of food and fuel-a situation to which they are very frequently reduced. Yet no calamity of this kind can teach them to be provident, or to take the least thought with them, indeed, it is always either a feast or a famine. The enormous quantity of animal food-they have no other-which they devour at a time is almost incredible. The quantity of meat which they procured between the first of October and the first of April was sufficient to have furnished about double the number of working-people, who were moderate eaters, and had any idea of providing for a future day; but to individuals who can demolish four or five pounds at a sitting, and at least ten in the course of a day, and who never bestow a thought on to-morrow, at least with the view to provide for it by economy, there is scarcely any supply which could secure them from occasional scarcity. It is highly probable that the alternate feasting and fasting to which the gluttony and improvidence

564

minutes. These four expeditions were described by Captain Parry in separate volumes, which were read with great avidity. The whole have since been published in six small volumes, constituting one of the most interesting series of adventures and discoveries recorded in our language. On his return, Captain Parry was appointed hydrographer to the Admiralty, and received the honour of knighthood. From 1829 to 1834 he resided in New South Wales as commissioner to the Australian Agricultural Company. He again returned to England, and held several Admiralty appointments, the last of which was governor to Greenwich Hospital. In 1852, he attained to the rank of rear-admiral, and died, universally regretted, on the 8th of July 1855, aged sixty-five.

'The

Following out the plan of northern discovery, an expedition was, in 1819, despatched overland to proceed from the Hudson's Bay factory, tracing the coast of the Northern Ocean. This expedition was commanded by CAPTAIN JOHN FRANKLIN, accompanied by Dr Richardson, a scientific gentleman; two midshipmen-Mr Hood and Mr (now Sir George) Back-and two seamen. The journey to the Coppermine River displayed the characteristic ardour and hardihood of British seamen. his life, and Captain Franklin and Dr RichGreat suffering was experienced. Mr Hood lost ardson were on the point of death, when timely succour was afforded by some Indians. results of this journey, which, including the navigation along the coast, extended to 5500 miles, are obviously of the greatest importance to geography. As the coast running northward was followed to Cape Turnagain, in latitude 68 degrees, it is evident that if a north-west passage exist, it must be found beyond that limit.' The narratives of Captain Franklin, Dr Richardson, and Mr Back, form a fitting and not less interesting sequel to those of Captain Parry. The same intrepid parties undertook, in 1823, a second expedition to explore the shores of the Polar seas. The coast between the Mackenzie and Coppermine Rivers, 902 miles, was examined. Subsequent expeditions were undertaken