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In conclusion, it may be useful to see how far the registered results coincide with the calculated and predicted heights of tides, taking for this purpose those tides when high water occurs between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., being those to which the calculation of Holden's Tables refer.

We have the actual height in excess of predicted height, in 1854, on 231 occasions; in 1855, on 244; and in 1856, on 264.

The height has been less than predicted, in 1854, on 112 occasions; in 1855, on 95; and in 1856, on 64.

And the actual and predicted heights have agreed, in 1854, on 22 occasions; in 1855, on 15; and in 1856, on 11.

The greatest differences between the registered and predicted heights occurred as follows:

HEIGHT IN EXCESS OF PREDICTION.

Feb. 17th, 1854-2 feet 8 inches, wind W.N.W. strong gale.

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Dec. 19th, 1855-2 9

HEIGHT LESS THAN PREDICTED.

April 1st, 1854-2 feet 6 inches, wind S.W. moderate.

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THE CHARACTERS OF MACBETH AND RICHARD THE THIRD, ACCORDING TO SHAKSPEARE, COMPARED.

By James Stonehouse, Esq.

(READ 21ST MAY, 1857.)

It is curious to observe, in analysing the persona of Shakspeare's works, how skilfully he has moulded them into shape, and how remarkably he maintains, throughout each play, their respective individuality. In examining the characters of Macbeth and Richard III., we find this to be most strongly exemplified. He places before us two men achieving the goal of their desires by treachery, violence, and fraud, standing as it were on the very hill-top of crime; with dispositions singularly opposite, yet succeeding alike, and dying alike, sword in hand, in the moment of defeat. They are both soldiers, statesmen, and of royal blood. Richard, the incarnation of wrong doing, is bold, crafty, and unscrupulous. fication of vacillancy, fear, and boastfulness. Richard is innately wicked, while Macbeth cannot be said to be naturally so. One perpetrates acts of violence, impelled by daring and dauntless ambition, while the other is dragged, or rather drifted into crime, by temptation too potent for a weak and pliant mind to withstand. Here we have two men striving for power, pursuing the same ensanguined path, strewing it with acts of perfidy and violence. Both put aside all that stand between them and the glittering goal of their culpable designs,

Macbeth is the personi

"A crown, that bright reward of ever daring minds;"

yet, how unlike in their respective idiosyncrasies.

Let us see, first, of what "perilous stuff" Macbeth is made. He seems conscious of his moral poverty, and want of resolution. He says of himself, when compassing the destruction of Macduff and his race, that there must be

"No boasting like a fool,

This deed I'll do before the purpose cool."

Lady Macbeth, who may be supposed to know her husband well, thus strikes the key note of his character

"Yet do I fear thy nature,

It is too full o' the milk of human kindness

To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great;

Art not without ambition; but without

The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,

And yet wouldst wrongly win."

Lady Macbeth taunts Macbeth with being "infirm of purpose," and he feels, himself, that he is wishful to mount the pinnacle of power, but needs sufficient resolution to tread the slippery rounds of the ladder that leads to it. He says,

"I have no spur

To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on the other side."

With the world generally Macbeth appears, in his early career, to have stood in good estimation, for he prides himself upon having "won golden opinions from all sorts of people." The wounded sergeant from the battlefield extols his bravery, while the good king Duncan styles him "our valiant cousin," and "noble Macbeth," calls him "a worthy gentleman," and praises him on all occasions, at the same time rewarding him for his faithful services. Macduff terms him "our gallant partner." These laudations of the man, it should be remembered, are all uttered previously to his first great crime, so that we may conclude that Macbeth, until it was committed, had shaken hands kindly with the fair world in all his doings.

Richard's character presents a widely different aspect. Richard says of himself, that he is "subtle, false, and treacherous," that he has "neither pity, love, nor fear," and that love "foreswore him in his mother's womb." But proud of his noble birth, he says

"I was born so high

Our aiery buildeth in the cedars top

And dallies with the wind and scorns the sun."

Conscious of his strong will and determination, he exclaims,

"I'll climb betimes without remorse or dread."

His mother's description of his course of life from infancy presents a frightful picture. It is certainly deserving of remark that Shakspeare has assigned the task of exhibiting "the innermost man of his two heroes to

two women near akin to them. He seems to have observed that women are good judges of character. The Duchess says to her son,

"A grievous burthen was thy birth to me.
Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy:

Thy schooldays frightful, desperate, wild, and furious;
Thy prime of manhood daring, bold, and venturous;
Thy age confirm'd, proud, subtle, sly, and bloody."

King Henry in the Tower shrinks at Richard's approach with instinctive dread, for he exclaims on seeing him,

"What scene of death hath Roscius now to act."

Richard rather boasts than appears ashamed of his aptitude for dissimulation, and says,

"I can smile and murder-while I smile,

And cry content to that which grieves my heart."

He has no credence in goodness, either in himself or others. Macbeth, on the contrary, estimates the high character of "the gracious Duncan," and assigns his virtues as a reason why he should not slay him. Towards the close of his career we see him desiderating a good name. In his regrets the "milk of human kindness" is found flowing.

"I have lived long enough. My way of life

Is fallen to the sear and yellow leaf;

And that which should accompany old age,

As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,

I must not look to have."

While Macbeth thus exhibits a consciousness of the excellence of doing rightly, and trembles while he acts wrongly, Richard appears to care little what he does, or what men think of him.

In the contrival and committal of the murder of Duncan the whole machinery of Macbeth's character is laid bare. He is always doubting as well as fearing the consequences of his acts. He listens with ready ear to the insidious proposals of his wife, yet reasons with himself as to the baseness of the suggested act of treachery. At one moment he declares,

"We will proceed no further in this business,

He hath honored me of late ;"

while in a few minutes afterwards he arrives at another conclusion, worked up to a state of false excitement, by the upbraidings and sneers of his companion. We find him then stringing up his loosened nerves with a sort of artificial determination, for he exclaims,

"I am settled, and bend up Each corporal agent to this terrible feat."

In committing the murder of Duncan how admirably is Macbeth's irresolute disposition displayed. Fears and doubts are tossing tumultuously within him. Previously to entering the chamber of his victim his agitation is extreme, while his exclamation, "if we should fail," shows how uncertain he is of success. He dreads the very ground he walks upon betraying him;

"Thou sure and firm set earth,

Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear

Thy very stones do prate my whereabout."

The very fact of bringing away the daggers from the chamber proves how completely unnerved he was, and how "brainsickly of things" he must have been," when he thought he heard voices upbraiding him, and bidding him " "sleep no more." Look again at his speedy remorse. The appearance of his "hangman's hands" appals him, while the blood is already wet upon them, and his frantic terror is exhibited at the very thought of revisiting the scene of horror.

"I'll go no more,

I am afraid to think what I have done;
Look on 't again I dare not."

Now let us see how Richard feels and acts under circumstances which would be likely to try a man's nerves. He has no "compunctious visitings." He is equally insensible to every tender or generous emotion. Virtue in others Richard despises, meekness and gentleness he ridicules; while he appears to abnegate the existence of righteousness either in himself or others. Richard is no hypocrite. He is a rank dissembler. The hypocrite makes truth serve the purpose of falsehood. The dissembler is content with making falsehood serve his own particular purpose. Richard dissembles with the Lord Mayor and the city authorities. He dissembles when he refers to Scripture and Sacred things. He dissembles with Buckingham. He dissembles with Lady Ann. He dissembles when he

pretends to weep on learning the news of king Edward's death.

"Sorrow's the mode

And every one at court must wear it now.

With all my heart-I'll not be out of fashion."

Under similar circumstances Macbeth would have acted the hypocrite. He had neither the wit nor ability to dissemble. Macbeth sickens at the thought and sight of blood. Richard is indifferent whether he sheds it himself, or causes it to flow by the agency of others. Richard considers deeds of violence as necessary to his elevation. Macbeth trembles at the

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