SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES. Jan. 29. Henry Crabbe Robinson, esq. James Gooden, esq. and Nicholas Aylward Vigors, esq. F.R.S. and High Sheriff of Somersetshire, were elected Fellows of the Society. T. Crofton Croker, esq. as a supplement to the Essay by Mr. Kempe (noticed in our November number, p. 456) communicated a description of the several relics found in his excavations at the Warbank, in the parish of Keston, near Bromley in Kent. Two folio drawings, in which these curiosities are most accurately delineated, and displayed in every curious point of view, by the pencil of Mr. Wm. Henry Brooke, F.S.A. and which are presented by him to the Society, were at the same time exhibited. The most interesting relic depicted is perhaps a piece of stucco, ornamented with an elegant pat tern. This stucco, it may be remarked, appears to be composed of the stalactical con cretions of chalk, pounded. A letter was read from Rev. Dr. Nott, of Winchester, describing some Playing-cards, of some of which drawings were exhibited. They were formerly in the possession of a widow lady in that neighbourhood, who had forty specimens, forming part of at least six sets or packs. Of those represented in the drawing, some were Persian and the others Chinese; but, as appeared to us, of no antiquity. Mr. Ellis concluded the evening's proceedings by communicating, from the Cottonian MSS. a letter written in 1566, and signed at the head by Queen Elizabeth, giving instructions to Mr. (afterwards Sir Thomas) Randolph, then Ambassador in Scotland, to ascertain, and endeavour to conciliate, the politics of the Earl of Argyle, with regard to Ireland, in which country it appears that that powerful peer possessed considerable influence. Feb. 5. T. Amyot, esq. Treasurer, in the chair. Mr. Amyot communicated from the British Museum a translation of a very curious letter, the original of which was in Italian, addressed by the Sultan Mahomet the Third to Queen Elizabeth, in 1596. It commences with a string of compliments to her Majesty, couched in a most ridiculously hyperbolical style, and proceeds to report the success of his siege of Agra in Hungary; in which the Turk boasts of having slain 120,000 infidels, having caused the river to run blood three days,-of the difficulties he had overcome, as a swamp lay between the armies, such as that which separates Heaven from Paradise, &c. Mahomet hoped and expected that the Queen would order the guns to be fired throughout her empire, in honour of his success. The letter concluded with his hearty congratulations for the great victory her Majesty had achieved in Spain. Feb. 12. Hudson Gurney, esq. V. P. in the chair. The first article read was an Essay by James Logan, esq. on the insignia of the Celtic and Gaelic nations, which that gentleman presumes to have been used as distinctive symbols, forming an early, though not scientific, system of heraldry. The paper was accompanied by coloured drafts representing round shields "of the Gallic, German, Celtiberian, and other auxiliaries, from the Notitia Imperii of Pancirolus and the Hieroglyphica of Pierius." Mr. Ellis communicated from the Harleian collection, extracts from two folio inventories, taken in the 1st Edward VI. and displaying a view of the furniture and household stuff in the various royal palaces in the days of Henry the Eighth. The list of the "tables" (i. e. pictures), "pictures" (i. e. statues), and maps, chiefly of stained linen, then in the palace of Westminster, under the charge of Sir Anthony Denny, is particularly interesting. Feb. 19. Hudson Gurney, esq. V.P. in the chair. Mr. Ellis communicated two documents from the Lansdowne MSS. The first was a Petition or Representation, presented to Queen Elizabeth in 1577, from "three or four thousand poor persons" in Cardiganshire, complaining of William Hurle for his oppressive conduct in the administration of the office of Ragler (Latinized by Constabularius) of that county, which had occasioned a suit in the Exchequer. The other article was a Certificate of the decays of Dover Castle, made at a survey in -1829.] Antiquarian Researches. HERCULANEUM AND POMPEII. A letter from Pompeii, dated Jan. 15, was lately communicated to the French Academy of Inscriptions, respecting the present excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii. The most brilliant discoveries are daily making. A magnificent mansion is gradually appearing at Herculaneum, the garden of which, surrounded by colonnades, is the grandest which has hitherto been found. Some of the paintings with which it is decorated are of great interest. Among other mythological subjects there is a picture of Perseus, who, assisted by Minerva, is killing Medusa; Mercury laying Argus to sleep, that he may ravish away the beautiful Io, a subject very rare among the monuments of art; Jason, the Dragon, and the three Hesperides. But the most remarkable objects in this mansion are some basreliefs in silver, fixed on elliptical tablets of bronze, and representing Apollo and Diana. There are numberless other articles of curiosity in furniture and household utensils. It is certain that the quarter in which the excavations are going on is the finest in the city. The Tuscan Atrium first presents itself in the mansion we are speaking of. This atrium is surrounded with small rooms very prettily decorated, from which we pass into a garden, round which are also disposed apartments appropriated to visitors. To the left of the Atrium there is a passage leading to large porticos supported by red pillars, and embellished with a profusion of beautiful paintings, allusive to classical mythology. These porticos were devoted to promenading. They inclose a little garden, in the centre of which there is a basin for fish, and at the bottom was found a large triclinium, or dining-table, and seats for reclining. The gynæceum, or apartment appropriated to females, consists of a peristyleum, surrounded with porticoes leading into the apartments, where there is a luxurious display of pictures, executed in first-rate style. Castor and Pollux, the household gods, are on each side of the entrance; the other principal subjects are-Echo and Narcissus; Endymion; the Infant Achilles plunged into Styx by his mother Thetis; Mars and Venus; Saturn; Orpheus; Ceres; Mars Pacific; Jupiter Hospitalis; and a classical group of a Satyr and an Hermaphrodite. The exedrum, or study, is decorated with some admirable pictures, representing Bacchantes of incomparable beauty; Achilles drawing his sword against Agamemnon, &c. From the exedrum we pass into a third garden, also surrounded with red columns, and adorned with pictures connected with classical subjects. There is a little niche, or sacrarium, in the garden, from which we pass into a third peristyleum. Among the moveable articles found in this mansion, a casket is particularly mentioned, enriched GENT. MAG. February, 1829. 161 with elegant ornaments in bronze, and de- MONUMENTS OF ANTIQUITY AT ARLES IN again from its ruins. The pilasters of the Doric order, which ornament the first story, serve as a base to the Corinthian columns of the upper portico. Above commence the steps downwards. The crown-work, of the Attic orwanting at Arles, where the vaulting of the der, so well preserved at Nismes, is entirely arches forms the summit of the edifice; but these successive undulations, far from hurting the perspective of the monument, render the boldness and lightness of its elevation still more striking. Travellers, who have visited Pont du Gard, will easily form an idea of this architecture, at once slight and colossal, in which beauty is combined with strength, and in which elegance and majesty surprise and enchant us. The internal decorations of the Amphitheatre at Arles are not the only parts of it worthy of being inspected: in its subterranean apartments this edifice defies comparison with every other monument of a similar nature. Three circular and concentric galleries, running under the exterior of the building, serve as a support to it. These galleries communicate with one another by eight passages, which cut them into as many trapeziums, the areas of which are filled by vaulted chambers. It is supposed that the animals destined for the were kept in these boxes, but the purpose for which they were built is not exactly known. The grand features of architecture displayed in the superstructure are visible also in the substructure-the same order, the same grandeur, the same beauty of cutting and execution. games Till the present time the circular prolongation of the vaults was only conjectural, the soil by which they were covered permitting nothing but guess work. People were afraid that the inequalities of the ground would 162 Antiquarian Researches.-Select Poetry. have opposed an insurmountable resistance to the exposure of the foundations. The clearing of the soil has removed all uncertainty. The three galleries have been entirely explored-two are complete in their circumvolution. The irregular windings of the rock which serves as a base to the edifice, partly intercept the third, and destroy its continuity on the western side. This interruption is only a few metres in length, and it is astonishing that the archi tect should have sacrificed the regularity of this admirable work to an inequality of ground so easy to level. But such accidents sometimes occur in the greatest works, in which art seems to take a pleasure in conquering mighty, and in compromising with paltry difficulties. Even as they remain to us, these substructions are the work in which the architectural power of the Romans and Gauls shines with the greatest splendour. They serve at once as a challenge to the power of time, and to the proud spirit of a conquering nation. Medals, animal bones, shattered marbles, and different articles of domestic use, are found every day among the clearings of the ruin. A chronological classification of them With the love of our God, of our laws, There arose, from our hands, who those blessings would wrest, And yet boast 'twas in Liberty's cause. Then the brave and the loyal with Chichester stood, And vow'd, round her flag firmly rang'd, That the laws (which our fathers had seal'd with their blood) Of old England should never be chang'd. And long may they stand as the rock on the shore That keeps at his foot the dark main; May they stand as a bulwark 'gainst Faction's wild roar, And spurn back her efforts again. And these words, ye brave spirits, when life late expires, Be your boast, and your pa [Feb. would be a history of the ages which have passed away since the erection of the edifice. Turned from its original uses by the introduction of Christianity,-converted into a fortification in the middle ages,-mutilated by the ignorance of our various rulers prior to Louis XIV.,-mutilated anew since that period,-restored at length to our admiration as a solemn ruin, the Amphitheatre has seen all these revolutions take place under the influence of our manners. War, religion, luxury, and misery, have successively been its masters. A large population has lived in the 212 houses which its precincts inclosed, and which served as a refuge to the most desolate poverty. All these huts have recently disappeared. It is scarcely a month since a workman, in pulling one of them down, broke with his hammer an earthen jar. It contained gold pieces of the reign of Charles IX. and Henry III. One of them, bearing the date of 1594, has the effigy of the Cardinal de Bourbon stamped upon it, who was proclaimed King of France by the League, under the title of Charles X. M. Laugier, Baron de Chartrouse, has been mainly instrumental in clearing these ruins.-French Paper. hold As dark, to him: Here, he no longer feels The plumed Actors in Life's motley crowd,— MAN. Jan. 10, 1829. 1829.] [ 163 】 HISTORICAL CHRONICLE. PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT. Feb. 5. The third Session of the present Parliament was this day opened by royal commission; when the Lord Chancellor read his Majesty's speech as follows : "My Lords and Gentlemen, "His Majesty commands us to inform you that he continues to receive from his Allies, and generally from all Princes and States, the assurance of their unabated desire to cultivate the most friendly relations with his Majesty.--Under the mediation of his Majesty, the preliminaries of a Treaty of Peace between his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, and the Republic of the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata, have been signed and ratified.-His Majesty has concluded a Convention with the King of Spain, for the final settlement of the claims of British and Spanish subjects preferred under the Treaty signed at Madrid, on the 12th of March, 1823.-His Majesty has directed a copy of this Convention to be laid before you; and his Majesty relies upon your assistance to enable him to execute some of its provisions. His Majesty laments that his diplomatic relations with Portugal are still necessarily suspended. Deeply interested in the prosperity of the Portuguese monarchy, his Majesty has entered into uegociations with the head of the House of Braganza, in the hope of terminating a state of affairs which is incompatible with the permanent tranquillity and welfare of Portugal. His Majesty commands us to assure you that he has laboured unremittingly to fulfil the stipulations of the Treaty of the 6th of July, 1827, and to effect, in concert with his Allies, the pacification of Greece. -The Morea has been liberated from the presence of the Egyptian and Turkish forces. This important object has been accomplished by the successful exertions of the naval forces of his Majesty and of his Allies, which led to a Convention with the Pacha of Egypt; and finally by the skilful disposition and exemplary conduct of the French army, acting by the command of his Most Christian Majesty, on behalf of the Alliance.-The troops of his Most Christian Majesty having completed the task assigned to them by the Allies, have commenced their return to France. It is with great satisfaction that his Majesty informs you, that, during the whole of these operations, the most cordial union has subsisted between the forces of the Three Powers by sea and land.-His Majesty deplores the continuance of hostilities between the Emperor of Russia and the Ottoman Porte.-His Imperial Majesty, in the prosecution of those hostilities, has considered it necessary to resume the exercise of his belligerent rights in the Mediterranean, and has established a blockade of the Dardanelles.-From the operation of this Blockade, those commercial enterprizes of his Majesty's subjects have been exempted his Majesty's declaration to his Parliament, which were undertaken upon the faith of respecting the neutrality of the Mediterranean Sea. Although it has become indispensable for his Majesty and the King of France to suspend the co-operation of their forces with those of his Imperial Majesty, in consequence of this resumption of the exercise of his belligerent rights, the best un derstanding prevails between the Three the remaining objects of the Treaty of Powers, in their endeavours to accomplish London. "Gentlemen of the House of Commons, "We are commanded by his Majesty to acquaint you, that the Estimates for the current year will forthwith be laid before you. His Majesty relies on your readiness to grant the necessary supplies, with a just regard to the exigencies of the public service, and to the economy which his Majesty is anxious to enforce in every department of the State. His Majesty has the satisfaction to announce to you the continued improvement of the Revenue. The progressive increase in that branch of it which is derived from articles of internal consumption, is peculiarly gratifying to his Majesty, as affording a decisive indication of the stability of the national resources, and of the increased comfort and prosperity of his people. "My Lords and Gentlemen, "The state of Ireland has been the object of his Majesty's continued solicitude.-His Majesty laments that in that part of the United Kingdom an Association should still exist, which is dangerous to the public peace, and inconsistent with the spirit of the Constitution; which keeps alive discord and ill-will amongst his Majesty's subjects; and which must, if permitted to continue, effectually obstruct every effort permanently to improve the condition of Ireland.-His Majesty confidently relies on the wisdom and on the support of his Parliament; and his Majesty feels assured that you will commit to him such powers as may enable his Majesty to maintain his just authority.-His Majesty recommends that when this essential object shall have been accomplished, you should take into your deliberate consideration the whole condition of Ireland, and that you should review the laws which impose civil 164 Proceedings in the Present Session of Parliament. disabilities on his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects.-You will consider whether the removal of those disabilities can be effected consistently with the full and permanent security of our Establishments in Church and State, with the maintenance of the Reformed Religion established by law, and of the rights and privileges of the Bishops and of the Clergy of this realm, and of the churches committed to their charge.-These are institutions which must ever be held sacred in this Protestant kingdom, and which it is the duty and the determination of his Majesty to preserve inviolate.-His Majesty most earnestly recommends to you to enter upon the consideration of a subject of such paramount importance, deeply interesting to the best feelings of his people, and involving the tranquillity and concord of the United Kingdom, with the temper and the moderation which will best ensure the successful issue of your deliberations." He In the HOUSE OF LORDS the Marq. of Salisbury moved the Address to his Majesty, which was seconded by the Earl of Wicklow.-On a question being proposed by the Duke of Newcastle respecting the Catholic Question, the Duke of Wellington said that it was the intention of his Majesty's Government to present to Parliament a measure for the adjustment of what is called the Roman Catholic Question, which measure would extend to the removal, generally, of all disabilities affecting the Roman Catholics, with exceptions solely resting on special grounds.-Lord Winchelsea heard with regret and surprise that Ministers intended to bring in such a measure. considered that both the honour and the consistency of the new advocates of Emancipation were deeply compromised.-Lord Eldon said, that he should betray his duty to his sovereign, whom he revered-that he should betray his duty to every member of the community, knowing as he did the danger and hazard of the measure about to be proposed were he not to raise his voice loudly and earnestly against it. He trusted the sentiments expressed by him might find their way throughout the country, and that every individual in it would hear him say that which was his firm, fixed, and unalterable conviction,-namely, that if they once permitted Roman Catholics to take their seats in either House of Parliament, or to legislate for the State, or if they granted them the privilege of possessing the great executive offices of the Constitution, from that day and that moment the sun of Great Britain was set.-Earl Bathurst thought the mode intended by Ministers to be the only proper and advisable one.-Lord Farnham expressed himself strongly opposed to emancipation in every shape.-Lord Anglesea said, he had intended to take that opportunity of entering into a vindication of his conduct in [Feb. Ireland; but, in consequence of the peculiar circumstances in which he felt himself placed, he would for the present abstain. I would propose a measure (said his Lordship) which would at once extinguish the Catholic Association-pass a Bill for putting upon a footing of political equality your Protestant and Catholic brethren, and I will answer for it you will never hear again of the Catholic Association.-Lord Goderich supported the Address.-The Duke of Newcastle regretted deeply the change of sentiments in the Duke of Wellington, and that he had ceased to be the defender of his country.-Lord Redesdale thought the reasoning used in favour of Dissenters was not at all applicable to Catholics, insomuch as the Dissenters were split into a number of parties, while the Catholics were united, and not only united, but subject to foreign influence.-The Duke of Wellington deprecated the attempt, at the present moment, to call forth any explanation of what Ministers intended. He denied that he had changed his mind on this subject, or that he had not been always most anxious for a settlement of the question.Lord Lansdowne said, the measure now recommended was one of such paramount importance to the peace and security of Ireland, and to the best interests of the empire at large, that let it be introduced by any party, be they who they may, it should receive his most cordial support.-The Address was then agreed to. In the HOUSE OF COMMONS, the same day, Visc. Clive moved the Address to his Majesty, which was seconded by Visc. Corry. Sir J. Yorke expressed his entire satisfaction with the sentiments contained in the whole of the speech.-Mr. Bankes wished to learn what the plan of procedure that Government intended to adopt might be. He said, that if the two Honses of Parliament should be opened to Roman Catholics, it would be impossible for the Protestant Church of Ireland to stand many years after such a concession.-Sir R. H. Inglis was decidedly opposed to Emancipation. He thought the Catholic Association had intimidated the Duke of Wellington.-Lord Milton did not think that the previous history of the Noble Duke bespoke a man to be so lightly intimidated. He warmly approved of the measure.—The Marquis of Chandos opposed the Catholic claims. Mr. Moore was of opinion, that this measure would be a source of sorrow, surprise, and indignation, to every Protestant in Ireland. Mr. Secretary Peel said, the most painful sacrifice a public man could be called on to make was, to separate himself from those with whom he had long acted, and whose integrity he respected. He saw the dangers as before, but the pressure of present evils was so great, that he preferred the contin |