Or who shall say to the Supreme Governor of the universe, what doest thou? Shall not the Judge of the earth do right?"

missionaries from the neighbouring islands; behold a delicate slender woman, of 20 years, from this place went the Rev. Mr. White, for four days without sustenance, exposed to wife, three children, and servant; Rev. Mr. the inclemency of the weather, supported; Hilliar, Rev. Mr. Oake, Rev. Mr. Jones, wife while hardy seamen were dying around her, and infant child. They left St. Kitt's a few and, finally, the sole survivor of 21 persons! days since, to return to the island, having We see, in a few short hours, the whole misadded to their number Mr. Truscot, another sion family of this island, called from their missionary, and his wife. The vessel in which earthly labours, but to receive, as we trust, a they embarked called at Monserrat: the num-heavenly reward. But who can stay his hand? ber of the mission family at that time amounting to 13 souls, as above, including one servant. At Montserrat, their friends advised them to leave the vessel in which they were, (being a dull sailer,) and go on board the On the Construction of Spectacles."Sir, Havmail-boat Maria, then ready to sail for this ing read, in column 204 of the Imperial Maga island. They did so; and a young lady also zine, the mathematical truths fairly quoted by took pasaage with them. The schooner which Zelim from the laws of optics, I add these rethey had left arrived here seasonably, and marks, with a view to be useful, and avoid brought the baggage of the mission family, technical terms. There is no perceptible difwhich they did not think best to take out, the ference between a right line and an arc as long ordinary passage being only a few hours. as a pair of spectacles, whose radius is across Some alarm, after the schooner's arrival, was a room-looking up a street twenty yards, to felt for the safety of the mail-boat; but as the recognize the features of an acquaintancewind was very high, it was supposed that she looking across a street for the name on a door had probably lost some of her sails, and put and number of a house-or for enjoying landback. On Friday p.m. the 3d instant, how-scape and mountain scenery; therefore all these ever, word was brought to town, that part of the wreck was seen on the Weymouth, [a shoal about four miles from the harbour, and only half a mile from a small island called Sandy Island,] with two persons on it. Two or three boats immediately went down thither, and found it to be the wreck of the mail-boat Maria, and the only survivor of 21 souls was Mrs. Jones, in a state of insensibility. It appears that she had been placed by the Captain (Whitney,) between the bow-sprit bitts, where she could not be washed away. She was in her night-dress only, with her husband's cloak or coat on, and a sailor's cap on her head. The body of Captain Whitney, the only one found, was lying near the wreck. He was buried yesterday. He had not been dead, probably, more than an hour, as he was seen on the bowsprit about two o'clock in the afternoon. Mrs. Jones is slowly recovering, and so far restored to her recollection as to say that she knows all the circumstances of the shipwreck; but the doctors forbid her being questioned, at present. The following circumstances, however, have been communicated by her :-The vessel struck on the reef in the night. Three or four days had elapsed before she was taken off. Mr. White, his wife, three children, and servant, were all swept away together, clinging to each other; Mr. Hilliar attempted to swim to Sandy Island, and was drowned in her sight; her infant was washed away from her arms; her husband died in her lap, the night before she was taken off, and was washed away. As returning recollection opens to her the horrors of the scene she had witnessed, I am told she often exclaims, Oh! Captain Whitney, why did be save me!' She must indeed be an_unhappy lonely woman; and time can never efface from ber remembrance this mournful event. She is, undoubtedly, most to be pitied, for we have good reason to indulge the hope that her kind friends are in heaven; that the scenes of Weymouth shoal were but a passage to the haven of bliss. Dark, deep, and mysterious, are the ways of a righteous and unerring Providence! With wonder and astonishment, we

concave glasses should be in flat frames, other. wise the curve should alter for every distance from five feet to five miles. Opticians having all sorts, bave some frames with a bend convex to the face of the wearer; there are convex glasses for miniature painters and engravers, who must hold their eyes near a small object; very few of these require spectacles, for nearness of object gives accuracy of sight. Children are forbidden to look at a small object held near their eyes, lest they should squint; and adults may suffer if the spectacles agree with or exceed the contraction of the sight; but if a purchaser, for instance a clergyman, tells the optician that he wishes to read his sermon further from his eyes than his con. tracted sight would of itself allow, the optician will not give him a frame bent so much as the natural contraction of his eyes; and thus of all readers: so that, except the spectacles of a near-sighted engraver, who must hold his eyes very near the object, there is no danger in de parting from flat frames at all; or, if the wearer must have a curve, he should take care it is not too much, nor so much as the contraction of his sight. It should be noted, that sight consists in concave mirrors that reflect a large portion of objects in front, right, and left, at once. Zelim will not deny the beauty of what is commonly called straight eyes compared with crooked.-H."

The Iliad of Homer in a Nutshell.-This has long been a kind of proverbial expression, quoted to illustrate what has generally been deemed impossible. On this subject the learned Huet asserts, that he long considered the story of that industrious writer who is said to have enclosed the Iliad in a nutshell as a mere fiction; but having examined the subject more maturely, he thought the thing literally possible,and thus makes out his calculation:-A piece of vellum, about ten inches long and eight wide, if pliant and firm, can be folded up, and, without much difficulty, enclosed within the shell of a large walnut. This vellum can hold in its breadth one line which will contain 30 verses, and in its length 250 lines. With a crow quill the writing can be perfect. One

Part I. of Nicholson's Cabinet-maker, Upholsterer, and Complete Decorator, 4to. 5s. In about eight parts, with one hundred colour-lestinæ, &c. In one large vol. 8vo. with maps ed and plain embellishments.

LONDON: PRINTED AT THE CAXTON PRESS, BY H. FISHER, SON, AND CO.

I am. Jer, with you your humble sos. S. Dunelm :

(Late Lord Bishop of Durham!?)

Published by Fisher, Son & Co Caxton London, Junel.1826.

THE

Emperial Magazine;

OR, COMPENDIUM OF

RELIGIOUS, MORAL, & PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE.

JUNE.

"THE TORCH OF LITERATURE ILLUMINATES THE PATHS OF WISDOM."

MEMOIR OF THE HON. AND RIGHT REV.
SHUTE BARRINGTON, LL.D.
LATE LORD BISHOP OF DURHAM.

(With a Portrait.)

[1826.

branches of the stock settled in the counties of Leicester and Cambridge. One of the family became a judge in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and left a large family; a descendant of whom was Benjamin, who, after the restoration, was a silk merchant on Ludgatehill, and married the daughter of the famous Joseph Caryl, author of the voluminous Commentary on the Book of Job. This Mr. Shute died in 1683.

Few instances of good fortune can be adduced in private history more remarkable than that which fell to the lot of John, the youngest of the three sons of this Mr. Benjamin Shute. He was born at Theobald in Hertfordshire, in 1678, and being intended for a learned profession, was educated under Mr. Thomas Rowe, who kept a dissenting academy near London, and brought up a number of eminent scholars, among whom was Dr. Isaac Watts, who was the contemporary of Mr. Shute. The latter, at the age of sixteen, removed to Utrecht, at which celebrated seat of learning he studied the civil law with such diligence, that, when no more than nineteen, he pub

THE family of Barrington may be traced to the Saxon period of our history; and subsequently it became ennobled by an intermarriage with the Plantagenets. One of the descendants, Sir Francis Barrington, married the aunt of Oliver Cromwell, which alliance produced nine children, of whom Sir Thomas became a zealous adherent of the popular party during the civil wars. His son John followed the same course, but at the restoration saved the estate and led a private life. Though his second son, Gobert, was likewise a parliamentarian, he conducted himself so moderately as to be taken into the favour of Charles the Second, who conferred on him the honour of knighthood. He had six sons and as many daughters. Thomas, the eldest, became a colonel in the army, and by his extravagance so reduced the paternal property, that he prevailed with his brother Francis, who was a rich Turkey merchant, to pur-lished two academical exercises in chase the estate. This Francis died in 1681, and as he had no children by his wife, who was the daughter of Samuel Shute, an eminent merchant and alderman of London, he gave back by his will the estate to his brother Thomas, with a limitation that, in the event of his having no issue, the same should pass to John Shute, the youngest son of Benjamin, his wife's brother. Accordingly it was under this settlement that Mr. Shute some years afterwards entered into the possession of the property so settled, upon which he assumed the name and arms of Barrington.

Latin, one on natural and the other on moral philosophy. Soon after this he accumulated the degrees of master of arts and the doctorate, when he printed an inaugural discourse "De Theocratia Civili." This was followed, in 1698, by a learned dissertation on the union of law and philosophy; and the same year he returned home, where he entered as a student of the Inner Temple. While engaged in those studies which, no doubt, would have led him to the highest honours of the bar, he was suddenly called off to politics by the peculiar circumstances of the times.

Party spirit ran very strong, especi ally among the high churchmen, who treated their opponents as unworthy of toleration, which induced Mr. Shute, who was born and bred a pres→ byterian, to publish, though anony

21