1829.] REVIEW. Police Reports. It is plain, then, that the larceny committed in London is more than one-half of that perpetrated in the whole kingdom besides. Larceny is, therefore, the predominant crime of the Metropolis. The number of persons sentenced to death in the country during the said seventeen years, was 16,712; in London and Middlesex, 2851; or more than five to one. Of the former, 15,426 were pardoned, or had their sentences commuted. Of the latter, 2497. Of the criminals in the country only one in nearly thirteen suffered death; in town, about one in eight. Thus crime has either greater atrocity in the latter, or the law is more leniently enforced in the former. We shall now make some remarks deduced from the preceding tables. i. Cattle-stealing. It is noticeable that there is no execution for this crime from 1811 to 1816, and only three from 1817 to 1827. ii. Forgery. There were in the country one hundred and eighty-one criminals executed between 1811 and 1823; and only eleven from 1823 to 1827. Thus as the average number of sufferers per annum was in the first twelve years fifteen; so in the last it was only two. Thirteen lives out of fifteen were therefore saved in the country alone by the resumption of cash payments. iii. Horse stealing. None executed in London before 1825. iv. Larceny on navigable rivers. None in the country or London, since 1818. We shall now take the numbers of persons executed during the war from 1811 to 1816, when provisions were high; and from 1816 to 1827 during peace, when they were low; deduct ing from the gross amounts convictions for forgery and crimes unconnected with a state of plenty or cheapness. From 1811 to 1815 inclusive, the number of persons executed in the country, after deducting convictions for arson, forgery, rape, and an abominable offence, was 266. In town, after making the same deductions, 48.* Total, 314. In 1815 peace was made, and from 1816 to 1820 inclusive, the period of There were no less than 33 for forgery in town; in the country, 65. 435 agricultural distress, there were executed in London, after deducting 41 for forgery, and 3 for rape, &c. 91; and in the country, after making similar deductions, 380. Total, 477. Thus crime increased one-fourth, notwithstanding the fall of commodities in the last five years mentioned. We shall now take two periods of seven years each, without discriminating the crimes, that we may show the increase or decrease, and average, in these respective intervals. From 1814 to 1820, both years inclusive, there were executed in the country 649, average between 92 and 93 per annum; in town 167, average not quite 24 per annum. [It is remarkable, that in 1820 the executions in London were nearly double those of any preceding or subsequent years. The increase seems to have chiefly laid in the forgeries and robberies.] From 1821 to 1827, both inyears clusive, there were executed in the country 490, average 70 per annum; in London 134, average 19 per ann. Thus, according to the number of executions, crime has decreased within the last seven years; but to show how far pardon or commutation of punishment has affected the above calculations, we shall now give the numbers sentenced to death during the same two periods, and subtract the one amount from the other. From 1814 to 1820, both years inclusive, there were in the country 7107 criminals sentenced to death, of which were executed 649. There were therefore released by pardon or com mutation 6458. [It is remarkable, that in the first year after the peace, viz. 1816, the number of capital sentences in the country increased about 300, and has since continued in nearly the same ratio. In London the increase in the same year was not quite 100, and has not continued in that ratio, but below it.] From 1814 to 1820, both years inin London and Middlesex 1327, of clusive, there were sentenced to death whom were executed 167; there were released by pardon or commutation 1160. In the country, therefore, about one in ten escaped capital punishment; in London, only about one in eight, during the above periods. From 1821 to 1827, both years inclusive, there were sentenced to death 436 REVIEW.-Kinsey's Portugal illustrated. in the country 7946, of whom there were executed 490, or only one out of sixteen or nearly seventeen; in town, 1148 were sentenced to death, of whom were executed 134, or one in eight or nearly nine. Thus it plainly appears, that in the present day country rogues have nearly a double chance of escape over those of London. Now, without partiality for either of these distinctions of persons, or at all desiring to lessen mercy to any of them, we only know that when Justice does not hold her scales even, it is only because she puts her sword into the one to weigh it down, for the purpose of deterring by more severe example, or because there are greater circumstances of atrocity in the crimes. Admitting, however, the necessity, it is clear that inequality of danger and punishment is unfavourable to the decrease of crime in the parts spared. Portugal illustrated, in a Series of Letters. By the Rev. W. M. Kinsey, B.D. Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, &c. embellished with a Map, Plates of Coins, Vignettes, Modinhas, and various Engravings of Costumes, Landscape Scenery, &c. Second Edit. Imp. 8vo. pp. 564. THE chief praise of writing Travels in the epistolary form is due to Lady Mary Wortley Montague. Her celebrated Letters are full of sprightliness, taste, and elegance. The substance of these Letters was supplied in part from the author's journal, and partly from communications addressed to Mr. Bayly and other friends; and though it should appear that the public is the real correspondent of the author, it is of no moment if he has taste and judgment to make his materials those which will instruct and interest. In the work before us those materials embrace a whole museum of every kind of information which can be desired concerning Portugal, an unfortunate nation, preyed upon like a carcase in a field, by monks, priests, and fidalgos (gentlemen), "who are the principal authors of the moral, religious, and political degradation, as well as abject misery of their unfortunate country." Pref. xvii. * In noticing books of Travels, it is our practice to pick flowers and make them up into a bouquet. We shall do so now. [May, At the opera of Lisbon our author saw a theatrical regiment composed entirely of females, who marched and went through the evolutions with most wonderful precision, and handled their muskets like heroines. (p. 66.) The filth and stench of the streets are so intolerable, that it spoils the appetite for dinner among Englishmen; but, such is the force of habit, that a Lisbon fop complained of his residence when in London, being uncomfortable and disagreeable, through want of the Lis bon smells. (p. 79.) The viands at meals are bad salt fish, dirty looking rice, half-fed meat, hard boiled beef, not salted, tongue or bacon, waxy potatoes, dumplings of adamantine contexture, cheese like flint, "a small quantity of very poor wine, abundance of water, and an awful army of red ants, probably imported from the Brazils, in the wood of which the chairs and tables are made, hurrying across the cloth, and lurking banditti of fleas in the tapestry-covered chairs. (p. 82.) The streets are filled with dogs without masters, congregating in packs; dunghills are placed at the doors of good houses; and filth is thrown out of the windows at night. (p. 84.) Kitchen chimnies are of a conical form. (p. 129.) Swans painted with crowns around their necks, occur at the Royal palace of Cintra. (p. 130.) This is a cognizance of our Henry IV. Richard II. bore a white hart, collared and chained Or; and in the same palace the arms of the Portuguese nobility are pendent from the necks of stags. (p. 130.) These are curious coincidences; but the palace was built by Don Emanuel, between 1495 and 1521, long after the reigns of our Kings. The kitchens generally are our garrets, in the tops of the houses. (p. 177.) Gentlemen's carriages are frequently drawn by oxen. (p. 207.) Stirrups are wooden clogs open behind. (p. 257.) Carts, supposed to have been borrowed from the Romans, and imitative of the Greek war chariots, are low, and set upon thick small wheels, cut out of a single piece of wood. (p. 289.) The Jews' harp is capitally played upon by itinerant musicians. (p. 380.) To keep water and other liquids cool in summer, "earthen vessels are made of clay, containing lime and iron, so as to be very porous, but without glazing. These vessels, which are called pucaros or alcarrazes, 1829.] REVIEW.-Kinsey's Portugal illustrated. suffer the moisture to pervade their substance in the form of a fine dew, which is continually evaporating and producing cold." P. 406. This fictile composition deserves the attention of our potters. ge The Portuguese bee-hives are in neral of a cylindrical form, made out of the rind of a cork tree, and are usually covered with a flat piece of cork, or with a pan of earthen ware inverted, the edge of which projects over the hive, like a penthouse. (459) Beehives of cork are Roman. (See Ency. of Antiq. i. 61.) The compartiments of the Rosary are thus given : "The complete Rosary consists of fifteen paternosters, and one hundred and fifty ave-marias, ten of the last to each of the first; so that the whole rosary contains fifteen parts or mysteries concerning the Son and the Virgin Mary. The "terco" is a third part of the rosary. The mysteries 437 are divided into terçoes; the first five are called the joyful mysteries; the second five, the dolorous; and the last, the glorious mysteries." P. 469. Sweetmeats form the great luxury, and to the habit of eating these, "as provocatives to drink, deep draughts of water, which blow the body out, Costigan ascribes the little, fat, pursy misshapen persons of the nobility." P.488. Our author has described and engraved (p. 514) a cromlêh near Avrayolos; and between Pegoës and Vendas Novas, Hautefort saw a stone circle of twelve enormous blocks erect, and a thirteenth in the middle (p.501), a most decisive proof that this circle was intended to represent the twelve months, or signs of the zodiac, with the Sun in the centre. At Leiria, which sprang from the ancient town of Callipo, Mr. Kinsey saw a curious arch of an old chapel, of which this is an engraving: 438 REVIEW.-Cambrian Quarterly Magazine. which, upon a first hasty view from a distance, would appear to resemble the western Saxon door of Ifley Church near Oxford, and many others of that æra, and of a later date. But upon a nearer inspection, this circular arch at Leira, reputed Moorish, would seem to be nothing more than a variety of the same description of Gothic arch. "1. The outward mouldings which run round the receding arches, are decorated with a wreath of flowers, evidently of an oriental character. 2. The terminations on either side are supported by columns, ornamented with heads looking upwards. 3. The number of receding arches is six, and the circular lines intervening are alternately charged with rosettes and rows of heads in half relief; these heads are represented as leaning forward on one of the hands, while the other grasps the arch beneath. 4. Instead of the beaks and tongues observable on the Saxon arches of Ifley Church near Oxford, and at St. Peter's in the East, Oxford, these heads on hauds" distinguish the Leiria arch. 5. Above this circular arch again are represented, in demi-relievo, grotesque human figures of different shapes, with heads of oxen and sheep projecting. 6. and lastly, the arch of this western entrance is supported at either termination of its bend by five columns; those on the right side are much defaced and injured by time or weather. The capitals of these columns represent flowers of an oriental character, intermixed with non-descript birds and grotesquely shaped animals. These severally distinct and characteristic portions are interlaced with each other, and combining correctly, give a peculiar interest to the whole." pp. 425, 426. We are truly sorry to be necessitated, by the very abundance itself of curious and instructive information contained in this amusing book, to do it great injustice. Such exhibitions of scraps as we have given, remind us of mere chippings of the Pyramids or Pompey's Pillar, which gallant officers bring home, as if parings of a beautiful female's nails could give us any idea of her person. The line engravings are beautifully executed by Mr. Joseph Skelton and Mr. W. B. Cooke. Thirty-six costumes are taken from models made for the author in Portugal. An excellent map of Portugal, engraved by Arrowsmith, is also given: and the vignette engravings on wood, by Messrs. Willis, Brooke, and Hervey, add much to the interest of this luminous and entertaining work. [May, The Cambrian Quarterly Magazine, IT has often been matter of regret to us, that our Cambrian neighbours have not, with the enlarged views with which literature is promoted in other parts of this island, indulged the uninitiated in their language with the hidden stores it contains-that, setting aside those contracted notions that require implicit belief in all their traditions, in all their wild conjectures, they should not treat the affairs of Wales with more liberal discussionthat that self-sufficient conceit (the result of being penitus toto divisos orbe, which has made them hold in contempt, and stigmatize as officious, any unfortunate Sais who has presumed to offer a dissentient opinion, actuated by the spirit of their maxim" the truth against the world,") should not yield to better feelings. respects as With Chinese pretensions to antiquity, there were many in the last century, though we trust very few at the present time, who would have us believe that every thing should be traced to a Welsh origin; that customs as well as languages have Celtic roots, and backed by a compliant etymology, Cymry must be acknowledged in all "the well-spring of true nobility." That it should be gravely asserted by persons of great good sense on other subjects, that, for instance, David Rizzio was a Welshman, and his real name Davydd Rhys, is as extraordinary an instance of infatuation, as that an Irishman should believe Dionysius Halicarnassus to be a native of the land of potatoes, and his true patronymic Dennis O'Callaghan. Yet this is absolutely so, and in its support we are told that his father was Sion Davydd Rhys, who wrote the Welsh grammar, because having gone to Italy, they say he there became a professor, modestly (we suppose) undertaking to teach the people their own language. That he went to Italy we allow, because having selected the medical profession, he travelled, as was the fashion in Elizabeth's days, for what was considered the best instruction; and unfortunately for the composition of this improbable story, the invariable genealogical practice of Wales has been entirely overlooked, as Sion Davydd Rhys would eo more imply John the son of 1829.] REVIEW.-Haggitt's Sermons. Davydd Rhys. Here too is another fact, Rizzio was murdered in 1566; while the first time that the Cambrian made himself known was in 1580. It is surprising that persons afflicted with these mental hallucinations have not asserted that Mr. Telford is a Welshman, and that his constructing the bridge of the Menai is a proof of the fact or else, that his true name is Taly-fordd," the end of the road," which was given prophetically in allusion to that astonishing work, which completes the great and unrivalled highway he had formed through North Wales. Risum teneatis, gentle reader, we have not hazarded so improbable a conjecture; for Inigo Jones, whose birth and baptism stand recorded in the register of St. Bartholomew, Smithfield, has been pronounced, ex cathedrâ, a Welshman, and his real name Ynyr Sions*. A new æra, we rejoice to say, has commenced, and a Magazine undertaken by writers of great talent has appeared, under the title of the Cambrian Quarterly. The melange is great in its variety, and judicious in its selection. We have translations from the Welsh poets, statistical information, geological researches, antient mythologic tales, legends, fragments of local history, provincial news, and a review of Celtic literature. These are again enlivened with poetry and music, with descriptive excursions in the land of the Cymry, and with original biographical sketches. We heartily wish success to a periodical production undertaken with such zeal, and prosecuted with such ability. Sermons by the Rev. John Haggitt, Rector of Ditton near Cambridge. 8vo, pp. 296. SO many discourses, uttered even in town pulpits, have neither sense nor meaning, that we fear reason will be soon found only in country churches, of which the ministers are Divines of the old school. Were the modern Sermons alluded to, beautiful specimens of impassioned eloquence (the French It would seem that "the Armoricans would show their affinity by advancing similar absurdities. The word barbare, is from bara, bara, bread, bread, the Gauls under Brennus thus daily exclaiming!!!" If this induced the Romans to call other nations barbarians, what made the Greeks term even the Romans βαρβαροι ? 439 taste in Sermons), pleasure would at least be conferred; and if, in the late English fashion, only dry ratiocination was used, instruction would make some amends for tædium; but if, according to the opinion of Blair, persuasion and utility ought to be united in this kind of composition, what can we say of mere vapid declamation, which is absolutely the characteristic of numerous Sermons of the modern construction. They have often not a tangible idea; they resemble a gown and cassock not worn by a living Divine, but by a wooden stand in a shop for sale we know that they are parts of the ecclesiastical costume, and that is all. A solemn monotonous jargon, interlarded with quotation, is the only thing studied; but a Sermon that does not make an impression, is food that does not allay hunger, or drink that does not assuage thirst. There are, indeed, other Sermons which please certain low hearers. These in real truth are no other than bombast spoiled, i. e. divested of all sillinessmere strings of ejaculations, "the dear dear Jesus," and phrases of familiarity, which both degrade and profane the object of worship. Such are the consequences, says an ingenious writer, of that vitiated taste as to preaching, which disinclines the public mind to the salutary and useful. A preacher however is a tutor, and his congregation a miscellaneous collection of school-boys, with this dif ference, that bad ones do and can play the truant with impunity, until they are confined to a worse school, from whence they cannot escape. It is the duty of the Clerical tutor to diminish the number of these as much as possible; and, as there is no agent of human success but prudence, no permanent impressions but those of reason, that noble distinction of man is to be united with piety, because it is the most complete mode of edificationthe godliness" which has the promise of the life that now is, as well of that which is to come," can only result from such a union. Mr. Haggitt's Sermons are of the latter description. They are solid, not specious; for meretricious aids show that the preacher is more desirous of showing off himself as an actor for applause, than of ameliorating the principles of his audience. Not that Mr. Haggitt is deficient in ability to |