own, which we bought upon speculation several years ago, will at length be brought into the market. We have, however, our City Lord Chancellors, who pique themselves upon their adherence to things as they have been, because they have been; and, like an illustrious Duke in our own country, and the enlightened king Ferdinand in another, declare, with all due solemnity, that they will continue to be as ignorant as they always have been, so help them God! These gentry expect the great wheel of time to stand still, because they don't know how to wind up their own stupid little watches! Our Common Council sages of this stamp shake their heads, and recall the good days of Mr. Vansittart, who so short a time ago, when these very measures were pressed upon his attention by the Opposition, pronounced them to be visionary and revolutionary, and fraught with convulsion and ruin to the country :-and then they very profoundly observe, that there cannot be much difference between his time and Mr. Huskisson's. Perhaps not; but there may be a marvellous one between the two heads. Poor Van! how must he, and such blind sticklers for antiquity as the chancellor, be horror-stricken at these radical innovations! Having thus, to the best of our ability, complied with your request, we beg to inclose your account current to this day, leaving a balance in our favour, after charging you the three thousand pounds, of 56257. 13s. 11 1-4d. which is carried to your debit in the new account, and of which you will please to acknowledge the receipt in conformity. We are, dear Sir, Your obedient humble servants, and Co. SIR, : No. XVIII. Frant, Sussex, 22d May. Your Gothic cottage at this place is going on rapidly; the floorings to the first story all laid. Went over yesterday to Eridge Castle, and saw Lord Abergavenny's bailiff, who has given us leave to fill up the small pond, and inclose the bit of ground beyond the paddock. Don't at all agree, Sir, that we shouldn't carry it a story higher, as always intended much better come down yourself, and you'll say same as I do. Know I am only a builder, a practical man, and never went to Greece and Italy, which I always thought a great humbug, for what suits them can't suit us, because of the difference of climate. As well expect us to wear the same clothes. I could have staid at home and built a better church than the new one in Regent Street, which they tell me is copied from one abroad. I never went to Rome or Athens, but when I build an Opera house wall, it shall stand its ground; and when I get the job of a new Custom-house, I shall make my arches rest upon the tops of the piles, and not between them, so as to bring down my building in three or four years. None of the new public buildings in London high enough. Look at the Board of Trade in Whitehall, which they have attempted to heighten by two balustrades at top. Like a dwarf with two cocked hats upon his head: don't look a bit the taller. New wall of the Bank just as bad: pillars very well, because they are only copies; but look at the top. Little carved squares, and little odd triangles. All little and angular: makes your eyes ache to gaze at them. Understand the builder gives lectures upon architecture which are very clever. Dare say he understands every thing except the practice, while I know every thing except the theory: think I have the best of it. Shall go on with second story unless I hear from you to the contrary. Meantime please send a bank post bill per return for same amount as last, as there is no more money at the Wells banking house. Can't go on clearing the ground beyond the paddock for want of hands, as the men are all out setting up the hop-poles, but no delay in the building. Hoping you'll soon come down, am, Sir, yours to command, LONDON LYRICS. The Two Sisters. BORN of a widow tall and dark, Whose head-piece ne'er at whist errs : Gertrude, ere twelve years old, would quote Emma (I happen well to know 't) The stars that gem yon vaulted dome Gertrude o'er Werner's Scale will run But Emma, bent on ball or rout, Gertrude, unmoved by doubt a jot, The grand piano Emma greets That, dipp'd in blue, with lofty air This, dress'd in white, seems not to care 'Twixt sense and folly free to choose, Can man dwell long in doubt? My Muse Darts oft times fly of merit wide- MILTON'S TREATISE ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.* THE public expectation excited by the intelligence of this work having been discovered, has not been disappointed. His Majesty having liberally ordered that it should be published, it has appeared within a reasonable time, and has been edited by a respectable translator. Milton's biographers have successively stated, that about the time when he retired from public business, he entered on the composition of three great works, although the misfortune of his blindness had already befallen him. Those works were, Paradise Lost, a Latin Thesaurus, and a body of Divinity, compiled from the Holy Scriptures. His immortal epic was first published in 1667. Of his Latin Thesaurus Symmons says, that the materials which he amassed occupied in MS. the bulk of three large folios; but they were left by him in too indigested a state to be fit for publication. It is said, however, that they were advantageously employed by the editors of the Cambridge Dictionary, to whom they were probably given by Philips. But neither Dr. Symmons, nor any other biographer of Milton, knew what had become of his System of Theology, which Wood, apparently by mistake or misinformation, entitles "Idea Theologia,”—nor even in what language it had been written. All that could be ascertained was, that it had been at one time in the hands of Cyriac Skinner, who, as every one in the least acquainted with Milton's history knows, was his favourite pupil and attached friend. It is in a sonnet to him that the poet has left recorded his heroic feelings of fortitude under the calamity of blindness. In another sonnet addressed to him, he alludes to Cyriac's descent from the Lord Chief Justice Sir Edward Coke. In the latter part of the year 1823, a Latin manuscript, bearing the title "Ioannis Miltoni Angli De Doctrina Christiana, ex Sacris duntaxat Libris petita," was discovered by Mr. Lemon, in the course of his researches in the old State Paper Office, situated in what is called the Middle Treasury Gallery, Whitehall. It was found in one of the presses, loosely wrapped in two or three sheets of printed paper, with a large number of original letters, and other curious papers, relative to the Popish plots in 1677 and 1678, and to the Rye-house plot in 1683. The same parcel likewise contained a complete and corrected copy of all the Latin letters to foreign Princes and States written by Milton while he officiated as Latin secretary; and the whole was enclosed in a envelope, superscribed "To Mr. Skinner, Mercht." By whom, or by what means, or at what time this interesting relic was deposited in the State Paper Office, can at present be only matter of conjecture, every trace of its existence having been lost for nearly a century and a half. But that it is, as it is entitled, a work of Milton, can admit of no rational * A Treatise on Christian Doctrine, compiled from the Holy Scriptures alone; by John Milton. Translated from the original by Charles R. Sumner, M. A. Librarian and Historiographer to his Majesty, and Prebendary of Canterbury. + It has been ascertained by Robert Lemon, sen Esq. deputy keeper of his Majesty's state papers, the gentleman to whom we are indebted for the discovery of this MS. that Milton retired from active official employment as Secretary for Foreign Languages about the middle of the year 1655. His former salary of 2881. per annum was changed into a pension of 150l. to be paid to him for life out of his Highness's Exchequer. doubt. The idea of forgery being fairly to be put out of the question, its title and contents speak for its authenticity. The writer in one passage expressly identifies himself with Milton, in referring to one of his own works. The handwriting resembles that of persons known to have written for Milton. The opinions have a general Miltonic character. It is true that some of them exceed, in the latitude of their departure from popular belief, whatever Milton has directly expressed in his other writings; and there are tenets advanced which it may be doubted if any man could have promulgated in that age with personal safety. The work was not probably finished till Milton had seen the triumph of high-church principles restored; and even among religionists in general, he must have foreseen that his dogmas would excite animosity. His mind looked far into the future, and had a proud and prescient consciousness of being destined to be heard by posterity. Whether his religious opinions be right or wrong, it was doing no injustice to his contemporaries, if he believed that they had not temper sufficient to give the truth a fair hearing. For him to defer the promulgation of his sentiments, was not to suppress them; it was only preserving what he conceived to be the light of pure doctrine, till it could be revealed in the atmosphere of calmer times. We may easily imagine, then, that he intended this body of theology to be a posthumous work; and among his friends there could not be a more likely or worthy depositary of his MS. than Cyriac Skinner. Mr. Lemon, the discoverer of the MS. satisfactorily conjectures, that the well-known republican principles of Cyriac exposed him to the suspicion of participating in some of the plots which prevailed during the last ten years of Charles the Second's reign, and that his papers were seized in consequence. On this supposition, the Milton MS. would come into the possession either of Sir Joseph Williamson or of Sir Joseph Jenkins, who were successively the principal Secretaries of State from 1674 to 1684, and who both bequeathed their manuscripts to his Majesty's State Paper Office.* The MS. itself consists (as the Editor informs us) of 735 pages closely written on small quarto letter-paper. The first part is in a small and beautiful Italian hand, being evidently a corrected copy prepared for the press, and without interlineations of any kind. It was written, Mr. Lemon (who is well acquainted with the handwritings of that period) supposes, by Mary, the second daughter of Milton, and is full of such mistakes as would be natural to a copyist imperfectly acquainted with the learned languages. The remaining three-fifths of the MS. are evidently in a different hand, and are supposed by Mr. Lemon to be the penmanship of Edward Philips, Milton's nephew. This part of the volume is interpersed with numerous interlineations and corrections, and in several places with small slips of writing pasted in the margin. These corrections are in two distinct handwritings, different from the body of the MS., but the greater part of them un * From further particulars stated by the translator, it appears probable that the work was seized in Holland by the agents of Charles's Government, and that it had previously passed into the possession of a brother of Cyriac Skinner. But the facts are involved in some obscurity, and instead of detailing them, we must refer the reader to the Preface itself. |