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this point, proves only that you are blinded by excess of love." "It is vain attempting to persuade you at present, uncle," said the young lady; "but do not be too positive. Inquire a little farther, and you may arrive at the real truth."'

The result is, as usual, the entire discomfiture and confusion of the unhappy uncle, whose character for low cunning, and mischievous intrigue, is in perfect keeping throughout; and the same remark applies to all the personages of the romance, of every description. We will give one more scene, from the fourteenth chapter. The hero Teihchoongyu discovers, by accident, that one of the emperor's generals, at present under sentence of death, in consequence of certain reverses which he had suffered on the frontier, is the victim of combinations and intrigues among his enemies, and full of resentment at such injustice, walks straight into the court which has condemned him, (of which our hero's father, by the way, is a member), and there stoutly pleads the leader's

cause.

The three members of the triple court had not ventured, after the emperor's approval of his minister's advice, to record their dissent. At the same time, however, that they confirmed the sentence of beheading, and waited only for the Imperial warrant to execute the same, they still felt a secret uneasiness at the prisoner's fate; and when a person was seen entering the court, and thus loudly addressing them, they experienced a mixed sensation of alarm at the disturbance, regret for their sentence, and resentment at the intrusion. Discovering, on a closer view, that it was Teihchoongyu, the other two members felt unwilling to be harsh; but his father struck the table with fury, and rated him in round terms, demanding how he presumed thus madly to address so high a court, assembled there by Imperial commission to decide on a capital case. "The laws admit of no private feelings," cried he, and ordered the intruder into custody; but Teihchoongyu loudly exclaimed, "My lord, you are mistaken! The emperor himself suspends the drum at his palace gate, and admits all to state their hardships without reserve: may I not be allowed to right the injured before this very tribunal of life and death?" "What have you to do with the prisoner," inquired his father, "that you should right his case?" "He is not even an acquaintance," replied Teihchoongyu. "I can have no reasons on his own account; but the difficulty of finding his substitute impels me to intercede for one who is so worthy of being the emperor's general." "The emperor's general must live or die as the emperor pleases," cried Teihying. "What concern is it of your's, that you may behave in this mad style?-Seize him instantly!" The attendants now stepped up to lay their hands on the young man; but the other two members of the court interfered, "Hold!" cried they-and calling him up to the judgment table, they pacified Teihchoongyu with good words. "Worthy

"Worthy friend, we do not blame your well-intentioned spirit; but the nation has its laws, judges their dignity, and prisoners their sentence. It is not allowable to intrude in this rude manner. The leader has already been imprisoned for more than a year, and Shueykeuyih, who recommended him, exiled on his account. His offences being proved by several concurrent authorities, how shall he now be found guiltless by his judges? The nation's laws, the judges' dignity, and the prisoner's case, alike forbid this! Admitting, however, that we proposed a mitigation of his punishment, it would be impossible to remit the heaviest part of the sentence.* But the minister has advised his decapitation-the emperor has assented-how, then, shall we attempt to oppose it?"

"Alas," replied Teihchoongyu, sighing, " your lordship's words would better become those worthless ministers who abandon what is right for the sake of their places, their emoluments, or their personal safety: they pertain not to that disinterested spirit which identifies your country's welfare with your own! Were the truth as you state it, the lowest capacity might be more than sufficient to conduct the business of the state: what need of personages of your lordship's weight to minister for the sovereign! Let me ask you, what meant that saying of the ancient emperor, Thrice be death delayed,'† or of the ancient minister, In three cases only be death inflexibly awarded?' Your reasonings, if true, would go far to deprive these sacred characters of their reputation for wisdom."

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The two other judges answered not a word, but his father broke silence, "Foolish boy, say no more! This man's death is inevitable." Teihchoongyu, however, rejoined with warmth, "Brave men and worthy leaders are the rare productions of heaven: if your lordships are inflexible, and persist in condemning Howheaou to death, let me entreat you to condemn me with him!" "But his guilt and incapacity have been proved," said Teihying, "it is only condemning a worthless servant: is there anything extraordinary in that?" "Men's capacities are not so easily known," said his son; the courage and ability of this leader are such, that, if he be re-appointed to the frontier, he shall prove another wall of a thousand leagues'-no hero of the age may compare with him." "Allowing his capacity to be great," observed the father, "his delinquency is still greater. The ablest leaders," said Teichoongyu, "must ever be liable to

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19

That is, he must be strangled, if not beheaded. The well known prejudice of the Chinese against the mutilation or dismemberment of the body, renders the sentence of decapitation much more terrible to them than strangulation. It is evidently to a feeling somewhat similar among his own countrymen, that Juvenal alludes when, speaking of the fate of Pompey, he adds,

'Hoc cruciatu

Lentulus, hâc pœnâ caruit, ceciditque Cethegus

Integer, et jacuit Catilina cadavere toto.'

+ Such is the actual practice, in ordinary cases, at the present day: first, by the local magistrate, who refers to the provincial judge; next, by the provincial judge, who refers to the criminal tribunal; lastly, by the criminal tribunal, which refers to the emperor. The Chinese name for their great wall.

my own

commit errors and hence, it is customary for the emperor to reprieve them for a while, that they may redeem themselves by acts of merit.?? "But in that case," remarked one of the judges, of somebody must be surety; will you venture to be answerable for him?" "If Howheaou be restored to his command," replied he, "I entreat that head may answer for his misconduct, as the just punishment of such rashness." The other two judges now turned to Teihying, and said, "Since your lordship's son thus publicly tenders his personal responsibility, it befits us to make a formal representation, and request his majesty's pleasure." Teihying was compelled, under the circumstances of the case, to assent to this: the leader was accordingly remanded to prison; and Teihchoongyu, being called upon to enter into a written engagement on the spot, was placed in custody for the time being!' ze

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We think the attention of the public cannot fail to be powerfully excited towards the Oriental Translation Fund, which has, in the course of a little more than one year, published five works, is carrying many more through the press, and has a long list of others in preparation. The Royal Duke, who lately presided at its annual meeting, very truly observed, that this association had established, e converso, the truth of the old English proverb, by saying little, and doing much. The Travels of Ibn Batuta, the Marco Polo of the east, by Professor Lee of Cambridge; and the Autobiography of Shah Jahangueir, by Major Price-a work which may be placed side by side with the Memoirs of the Emperor Baber, are worthy fruits of such an institution; and we hold the gratitude of the learned world to be not a little due to those whose activity and zeal have procured it substantial support in the highest quarters-but especially to that accomplished and zealous orientalist Lieut.-Col. FitzClarence, to whose exertions, as Dr. Lee says, "the institution owes almost entirely its origin and its efficiency.'

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ART. V.-Annals of the Caledonians, Picts, and Scots; and "of Strathclyde, Cumberland, Galloway, and Murray. By Joseph Ritson, Esq. 2 vols. 8vo. Edinburgh. 1828.

1

THE situation of Scotland, in respect to her early history, was, till of late years, extremely odd. Her inhabitants believed themselves, and, by dint of asseveration persuaded others to believe them, one of the most ancient nations in the world, possessed of clear and indisputable documents authenticating their history up to the very earliest era of recorded time. This error was no mere transitory ebullition of vanity, but maintained and

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fostered by reference to divers respectable tissues entitled Histories of Scotland, all ringing the changes upon a set of fables which had been ingeniously invented to prevent the disgrace of avowed ignorance. Thus do

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Hector Boece, or Boethius, in his Scotorum Historia ab illius Gentis Origine,' first printed at Paris in 1526, is the artist to whose pencil the flourishes in the blank leaves of Scottish story are chiefly to be ascribed. He was certainly a person of learning and talent, since he was the friend of Erasmus, and is described by him as vir singularis ingenii et facundi oris. But when Erasmus tells us that even the thought of a falsehood was unknown to him, we can hardly suppose he ever read that work in which friend Hector

in imposition strong,

- Beats the best liar that e'er wagg'd a tongue.'

For materials, he had before him the Rhyming Chronicle of Wynton, Prior of Lochleven, the Chronicle of John Fordun, and his continuator, Bower, and similar worthies. There was little

information probably to be gained from public records, which were not then, as now, accessible to every student; and this, indeed, is some apology for the gross errors of Hector's predecessors, and his credulity in adopting them; but it affords none for the various additions with which it has been his pleasure to embellish the elder figments; bolstering them out with plausible circumstances, and issuing absurd family legends, bardic traditions, and all the crazy extravagancies of popular report, under the authority of a grave Principal, for such he was, of the University of Aberdeen. Still less was he entitled to rest upon such evidence as, that of Verimundus, Cornelius Hibernicus, John Campbell, and others, whom no author save himself ever saw, or heard of-men of straw -mere names. Thus we may pardon his repeating, as a tradition occurring in Wynton, and other early historians, how Gathelus, the son of Cecrops, king of Athens, son-in-law to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, (having married his daughter Scota)—this couple, terrified by the plagues inflicted on Pharaoh for his obstinacy, left Egypt in search of a more quiet residence in some distant land;-how, in their exploratory voyage, they founded the cities of Compostella and Lisbon; how they discovered Ireland and peopled it; and, finally, how they and their followers, the Scots, so called as being the subjects of Scota, obtained possession of North Britain. The anxiety of every nation is as great as that of Falconbridge, to have some proper mat for their father; and Boethius, in his day, could not have well avoided retailing what his predecessors had left upón

record

record about Gathelus and Scota. But he is totally without excuse, when he augments the falsehood with a circumstance devised by himself; and assures us that when King Ptolemy sent abroad a mathematical mission to enlarge the knowledge of geography, they were entertained hospitably at the court of Ruether, an imaginary king of Scotland, and returned delighted at having found, in so remote a region, the language, manners, and government of Egypt. In this, as in other cases, Hector dressed up and adorned the rude fictions of early times, and gave wings to the bug which would otherwise have crawled unnoticed in its native obscurity. Upon such principles, this notable forger put forth his regular pedigree of Scottish kings, some few of whose names are to be found, unquestionably, in a brief and doubtful catalogue of Irish authorities, but most are individually indebted to himself for their very existence, and all of them for their lives, characters, and the respective events of their respective reigns.

A much more eminent man condescended to take him for his guide and authority during this early period, and repeat his fabulous narrative in language equal, for spirit and emphasis, to that of the silver age of Rome-George Buchanan. Lesley, the celebrated bishop of Ross, who had done and suffered so much in the cause of Queen Mary, indited, also, a history of Scotland (published at Rome in 1578) in which he saw no cause to reject the ready, convenient, and creditable list of ancient monarchs drawn up by Boece. A prelate and royalist, he scorned not to see as far into a millstone as Buchanan, a heretic and opposer of the divine right of the sovereign; and accordingly adopted, without hesitation, the history of Gathelus and Scota, which the classical taste of the latter historian had thrown somewhat into the background.

Thus, thanks to the goodly correspondence amongst these grave authors, the annals of Scotland continued to be garnished with a comely catalogue of kings, whose existence no true-born native would suffer to be impugned or challenged. To render their individual stories more diversified, they follow each other arrayed successively in light and darkness-a moderate and worthy prince being as regularly succeeded by a profligate and oppressive tyrant, as the squares of a chess-board are alternated with black and white. According to the universal belief introduced upon such foundations, Fergus I., descended from Gathelus and Scota, in the year before the coming of Christ 330, took possession of the kingdom of North Britain, and bestowed on it the name of Scotland, in which his posterity ever since have reigned.

The Scottish people continued to enjoy their dream of antiquity, and of the immense length of their royal line, for more than half a

century,

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