of November, received from other quarters, I beg permission to add a few particulars, which principally fell under my own observation. Just as the inhabitants of Surfeet, a village near Spalding in Lincolnshire, had retired to bed, they were alarmed by the information that the sea-banks were broken, and the sheep swimming in the pastures. Immediately the graziers exerted themselves with the greatest activity, and bore "the pelting of the pitiless storm," to rescue their distrest flocks, in waggons and carts. Several farmers and graziers have sustained very serious losses of cattle; and the greatest damage has been done to their winter stock of cole and turnips, as well as to the new-sown wheat, and fine grazing land. The Reservoir presents a melancholy scene of ruin the road gulled in various places; the sluice of the Vernatt's drain separated from the shore, and the salt water rushing in. Amongst nume rous other losses, a barn and corn-stacks belonging to Mr. Wheat, near the new sea-bank, have been completely swept away. A great many sheep, the property of the same person, were drowned; and the cottage of his shepherd totally gutted by the tide, and the poor inhabitants compelled to wade to the house of their neighbour, Mr. Beasley, whose loss has been very extensive.

But the most afflicting scene was at Fosdyke, from which place to Boston, it appeared one sheet of water, and both new and old banks were broken on every side. The inn was in the most imminent danger of being swept away, and the stables were demolished. Owing to the

fury of the waves from below, there was not a dry room in the house. In addition to the accumulated horrors of this most tempestuous night, the poor sufferers who dwelt near the sea, were alarmed at intervals by the crash of the banks, which blew up with a loud noise resembling a clap of thunder. It was shocking to see the sheep lying dead; and the corn, hay, and household furniture, floating in every direction. 1 myself counted nearly forty drowned sheep in a field of about five acres. Mr. Birkett has been a great sufferer in the loss both of live and dead stock; and to com plete the dreadful scene, he had been winnowing wheat, which stood deep in sacks, and near them lay the corpses of two women, one of them aged eighty years. What much added to the distress, (a day or two after the inundation, when the dry land began to be seen,)

was to hear the mournful lowings of the bullocks, which, although part of every field was still flooded, in vain tried to quench their thirst, and could obtain no relief from their owners, who are themselves in the greatest want of that necessary article, fresh water.

Upon the whole, it is supposed that about fifteen thousand valuable sheep, besides other cattle, have been lost; and upwards of twenty thousand acres of the richest land in the kingdom deeply flooded, from Wainfleet to the neigh bourhood of Spalding. The losses also at sea have been immense. Not fewer than forty wrecks are thrown up along the Lincolnshire coast; and dead bodies of poor sailors are brought in with every tide.

I could mention several other circumstances; but as I have, doubtless, been anticipated by former accounts, I will close my tale of woe with the consola tory reflection, that God has been merciful to the old enclosures of Surfleet, which were in the most perilous situation, from the apprehended blowing-up of the Glen sluice. This sluice was expected to give way every moment, but provi dentially weathered the late most tremendous storm, which the memory of the oldest man living cannot parallel.

"The waves of the sea are mighty, and rage horribly: but yet the Lord, who dwelleth on high, is mightier."

SAMUEL ELSDALE.

Surfleet, Nov. 19, 1810.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

BSERVING in your publication

B some remarks upon the former existence of vineyards in this country, (of which I was from old authors aware), I should feel obliged to your correspondent for any hints which would enable me to ascertain what kind of grapes were formerly raised here: and also whether there is any published treatise on the management of the vine, agreeably to the plan followed in the wine countries, where they grow in the open air, trained to stakes, or otherwise.

A CONSTANT READER. Yorkshire, Nov. 10, 1810. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

Serious are the restrictions, the embarrassments, and the perils, to which the commerce of the United States is exposed; and their government, dissatisfied with the present, is looking forward to the future. But it does more than look forward. It silently acts. It is preparing for rendering the trans-atlantic republic more independent of Europe. That its manufactures are rapidly advancing, the official article inserted in the last Number of your Magazine, is sufficient to prove. It is also laying the foundations for a great extension of its foreign trade; and, in fact, for the wider diffusion of the English language and literature: and such will be the progress of commerce, of navigation, and of language, that the same language, that of England and the American republic, will hereafter afford the singular instance of two opposite phrases, the riches of the East, and the riches of the West, meaning precisely the same thing.

Though the republic of the United States is a severe sufferer from the prolongation of the contests of Europe, the western hemisphere is nevertheless rising in importance. Whilst a dark cloud is hanging over the fortunes of Europe, a new spirit of light, energy, and improvement, is diffusing itself through the immense territories of Spanish America: her example, and encreased activity, and the presence of the supreme government, are giving a stimulus to the arts, the industry, and the population, of Brasil, and will call forth some of its inexhaustible resources. British capital and enterprise continue to eurich Dutch Guiana, Powerful causes are operating to render the United States a successor to the provinces of the Baltic, with respect to the supply of corn or flour, and to make Canada, in some degree, a successor to those provinces with respect to the supply of timber and naval stores; and the government of those States has recently adopted a measure, which will lead to a memorable change in the complexion of human affairs. That govern ment, some time since, sent out two most important expeditions, which, I believe, have never yet been announced to the British public, and which are intended to act in concert—an expedition by sea, and another by land.

The former set sail to the southward, for the purpose of doubling cape Horn, of traversing the Pacific, and reaching the Columbia. The latter was to proceed to the westward, to follow the Missouri, to cross the great ridge of moun MONTHLY MAG, No. 206.

tains, and to arrive at the same river by this long, though much shorter, route. Captain Meriwether Lewis, of the 1st regiment of United States infantry, was the gentleman who, under the appointment of the executive government, in company with lieutenant Clarke and thirty-one other persons, followed the Missouri, from its mouth to its source; and, in the years 1804, 1805, and 1806, explored this new route to the Pacific— a route never before traversed by civilized man. It was on the 16th of October, 1805, that they penetrated to the banks of the Columbia; that river, at the point where they reached it, being nearly half a mile broad. But they will not, in the present land-expedition, have the benefit of captain Lewis's advice and assistance, he having, it is stated, put an end to his life.

The former expedition was prepara tory. The design of the present is to settle a new colony either in the bay of the Columbia, or, more probably, at its mouth, or on its shores; a colony which will hereafter conduct a vast trade with different parts of the East. The maritime part of the expedition is conveying stores and necessaries for the settlement of the infant colony.

A principal object in view is to open a communication between the Missouri and the Columbia; or, in other words, between the Atlantic and Pacific, with as short or as commodious a carryingplace over the mountain tract, as can possibly be found. The great obstacle, indeed, to an extensive intercourse between the eastern and western sides of the North American continent, an obstacle which time only can surmount, and after all imperfectly surmount, is the intervening ridge of mountains, which is broad, and supposed to be free from snow only about three or four months in the year. These months, therefore, will hereafter be busy months for the transport of commodities. The want of roads, of culture, and of population, time and industry will remedy. That the Anglo-Americans will hereafter carry on, across the Pacific, a vast and lucrative commerce with China and Japan, in spite of the present timid and jealous character of their governments, can scarcely be doubted; but in numerable reflections, which I shall abstain from entering upon, crowd upon the mind in connexion with the preceding facts. H. S. S.

A

ALBERTINUS MUSSATUS, N historian and poet of Padua, flourished at the close of the 12th, and the commencement of the 18th, centuries. He deserves to be better known as one of the earliest who attempted the restoration of classic literature in Italy. The following particulars of his life are deduced from his own writings, at once the best and most satisfactory source.

Mussato was born at Padua, in the year 1261. Unfavoured by birth or fortune, he was early inured to hardships and difficulties. The indigence of his parents scarcely afforded him the first rudiments of education; and his father dying while he was yet a youth, he had to discharge the paternal office to his brothers and a sister, all younger than himself. Muratori, in his preface to the Historical Books of Mussato, among the "Rerum Italicarum Scriptores," has given a concise sketch of the life of Mussato, written by Xicco Polentonus, a Paduan, who lived not long after him, and who, as he himself informs us, inhabited the same house, near the Pons Molinus, that Mussato had formerly occupied. Polentonus says, that at the age of twenty-one he lost his father; and that he had to support his mother, seven sisters, and two brothers: but Mussato himself seems not to confirm this. In his first elegy he tells us : Bina mihi fratrum series adjuncta sorori,

Et tamen illorum de grege major eram; His pater, ut major, patris post fata relinquor; Quam fueram pubes, sic pater ante fui.

In order to procure subsistence for himself and the charge thus devolved upon him, he embraced the laborious occupations of schoolmaster and scribe. While motives thus imperious confined his exertions within this humble sphere, it is not improbable that his acquaintance with classic authors was promoted by his transcribing, for hire, various of their works. Notwithstanding his circum. stances, he informs us that he felt a strong attachment to the pursuits of science, and especially to the study of medicine and philosophy; but when arrived nearly at the age of thirty-five, we find him beginning to practise as an advocate in the Courts of Padua. The popularity he had already acquired as a poet and a grammarian, contributed to promote his success in this new profession. He had already been distinguished by the appellation of the Poet, He now applied

himself to acquire a perfect knowledge of the laws, and became conversant in the business of the state. As an advocate he acquired both reputation and wealth: his merit became conspicuous, and he rose rapidly to the highest honours of the state. He was advanced to the equestrian rank, and a seat in the senate. The government of Padua was at that time a popular one, and he was the favourite of the people, who were pleased with him both on account of his plebeian origin, and because he took part with them, on all occasions, public and pri vate, against the nobility.

He was sent at different times on the most honourable public missions, both to Rome and other states of Italy. Upon one of these occasions he obtained from the haughty Boniface VIII.* the abbey

Mussatus (De Gest. Ital. lib. 4. Rub. 2d.) calls this Pontiff "Virum nostri tem poris mundo formidabilem." If his power had equalled his ambition, he might well have been styled formidable. The following cu rious correspondence is given by one of Mus sato's commentators, (borrowed from the "Decreta Ecclesie Gallicanæ,") between

this proud pope and Philip king of France. Boniface, servant of the servants of God, t Philip, King of the French.

Fear God, and keep his commandments. We will that thou know thyself to be both in spiritual and temporal matters our vassal. The collation to benefices and prebends doth in no wise pertain unto thee: and if thou hast the keeping of any such that may be vacant, thou wilt reserve the profits thereof for the successors therein; and if thou hast collated to any such, we decree such collations to be void, and they are hereby wholly annulled. Those who hold any other opinion on this head, we denounce as heretics-Given at the Lateran, Dec. 4, in the sixth year of our pon• tificate.

THE ANSWER OF PHILIP.

Philip, by the grace of God, King of the French to Boniface, bolding himself forth as the sove reign Pontiff-Health little or none.

Know thy exalted fatuity, that in temporal matters we own subjection to none; that the collation to benefices and prebends is of our royal prerogative, and that their profits, vacatione durante, are our's; that the collations hitherto made, or hereafter to be made, by us; are declared valid, and shall be by us maintained against all gainsayers. Furthermore, those who hold any other opinion on this head, we denounce as fools and lunatics. Givor, Fa

of Santa Justina, near Padua, for his brother Gualbertinus.

When Henry VII. who had recently assumed the title of King of the Romans, was at Milan, receiving the homage of the Italian states, Mussato was deputed to wait upon him in the name of his countrymen, and obtained a promise of peculiar privileges and favour for them. At the coronation of the emperor and empress in 1311, he tells us he had the honour to bear the train of the latter. Notwithstanding the Paduans had sworn fidelity to Henry, they frequently endeavoured to shake off his authority, but were reconciled and had their pardon obtained by the influence of Mussato, who has left an account of these his missions and his addresses to the king.

The resistance of the Paduans lost them first Vicenza and its dependencies, which revolted to Henry in 1311. Mussato, on his return from his last mission, laid before the senate of Padua the result of his embassy; but so strong a party was formed against the prudent measures which he recommended, that, inflamed by an harangue, in a truly republican style, from Rolando de Plaziola, twothirds of the senate voted for the rejection of the terms offered them by the emperor, and Mussato in vain endeavoured to stem the torrent.

The Paduans having thus defied the resentment of Henry, Canis Grandis della Scala, to whose government of Verona the emperor had annexed Vicenzá, proceeded to hostilities against Padua. We find Mussato (A. D. 1312) preferring still his country to the favour of the mo narch, which he certainly possessed in a high degree, and acting in a skirmish as standard-bearer for the division of the city in which he lived. The events of this war, and his own share in it, he relates in hus History of the Transactions of Italy. Warton, in his History of English Poetry, vol. 2. p. 409, says, that the three books written by Mussato in heroic verse, on the subject of this war, are among his inedited works; but they are evidently the 9th, 10th, and 11th, of the history last mentioned, the rest being written in prose.

On the death of Henry in 1313, a negociation for peace was set on foot be tween the Paduans and Canis Grandis della Scala; but the latter refusing to comply with the demand made by Mus sato, on behalf of his countrymen, for the restoration of Vicenza to Padua, the conference was soon terminated, and the war

renewed. Early in the year 1314, a vio lent tumult of the populace took place. in Padua; the house of Mussato was plundered, and he himself narrowly es caped, on horseback, with life, from the city. Of this event he gives a full ac count, De Gest. post. Hen. Lib. iv. Rub. 1.

But his fellow-citizens were soon sensible of the injustice of this outrage offered to a man who was an ornament to his country; and it was voted by all ranks that he should be invited to assist again at the public and private councils of the state; and that, to compensate in some measure for the indignities offered him, he should be honoured with new testimonies of the public gratitude and esteem. Præterca A. Mussatum, ignara plebis prolapsu indigne molestatum, secretis publicisque consiliis evocandum, habendum, conciliandum, proque acceptâ contumelia præstantioribus honoribus extollendum, memoriâ rerum gestarum a Jacobo de Carrari et gravioribus multâ elegantià commendatum. Hæc omnia ex plesbicito senatusque consulto paribus votis constituta sunt A. D. uri, 1314. Maias Kalendas.

Thus honourably invited back to his country, in a public address he enume rates his services, and represents how little he had merited the injurious treatment which he had so lately experienced. He thus concludes his harangue: "0 fratres, O tribuni plebis, O civium mei visendi gratiâ, consolandi, amplectandi aggregata concio! non eam ignavam turbam alloquor, quæ eum, qui Bonifacium Papam VIII. virum nostri temporis mundo formidabilem, sibi placabilem ac munificum,qui magnanimum Henricum VII. orbis terrarum principem suis consiliis acquiescentem fecit, qui sum mæ Imperatricis purpureum paludamentum sustulit in incessu, quem intimo cum caris admisit in thalamo-qui Vicentiam Padua municipem fecerat; qui patria libertatem in asperrimis anfractibus vine dicaverat, turba illa infesta non accepit. Dignè equidem auratæ pecudis vellus grex inquinatus abhorret. Absit a vobis, Oribuni, vilium belluarum feritas, sau, guinem sitiens innocentium. Salutem, fortunasque meas, et si quid restat, quod mea possint ingenia, facultates, salvatus evoveo patribus, proceribus, et populo saniori."

'We learn from Ferretus Vicentinus, a contemporary historian and poet, (of considerable merit, though now almost wholly unknown) that Mussato had not, in the year 1311, been crowned as poet

laureats

laureat, (nondum poetæ titulo decoratus) though his talents for poetry had long been recognized by his countrymen; it is probable, therefore, that one of the additional marks of honour conferred on him at this time by his fellow-citizens, was that of the Laureat. It ought to be observed that Padua was at this time one of the first seminaries of learning in Europe, and this literary distinction enhances the alue of the honour shewn to Mussato on this occasion. After an interval of many centuries, during which it had fallen into disuse, it was revived for him, about forty years before the time when Petrarch was honoured with the poetic wreath. The most esteemed poets then in Padua, after Mussato, were his friends Lovatus and Bonatinus; the former, in the opinion of Petrarch, "poetarum omnium quos vel sua vel patrum vidit ætas, si xii tabulas non miscuisset cum Musis, facile princeps" But the suffrage of the learned as well as that of the vulgar confirmed the title of Mussato to this dignity. The ceremony of his coronation was marked with great pomp and solemnity. The bishop of Padua, at the head of a procession composed of all ranks and orders, amid the sound of trumpets and other instruments of music, went to the house of the bard elect, and invested him with his honours, by placing on his head a crown of laurel, ivy, and myrtle intermingled, and by putting on his hands a kind of gloves made of goat-skins.

The

Munus enim tragicis vatibus hircus erat." The day was dedicated to mirth, festivity, and the praises of the poet. courts of justice were shut up, all kind of labour was suspended, the trades:nen and artificer forgetting their wonted employment, (like the Abderites of Sterne,) acknowledged the influence of poesy, and partook in the general rejoicings. The University and Senate of Padua deCreed that the day of the coronation should be annually held sacred, and devoted to the commemoration and repetition of the same ceremony.

Mussato continued after this actively employed in the service of his country. He appeals with confidence to the bishop of Padua, Paganus de la Turre, as a witness of his unremitted efforts in behalf of the republic; and in his History recounts the various engagements he had with the forces of Canis Grandis della Scala, for the recovery of Vicenza. At length, however, in an action near that city, having received eleven wounds, and

his horse falling in consequence of some planks giving way on the bridge on which he happened to be engaged, he threw himself into the water to avoid being taken, and even in that situation bravely attempted to defend himself, till at length overpowered by numbers, he was led a prisoner into the city.

Canis

Whilst he continued here, Grandis della Scala brought with him some of the chief persons of his court to visit Mussato; and, as he tells us, was pleased to remind him how officious he had been in thwarting his interests both at the courts of Henry (for before their last revolt, the emperor had been prevailed on by Mussato to leave Vicenza subject to the state of Padua) and afterwards at Padua also. Mussato, whose soul felt neither the wounds of his body nor its captivity, boldly replied, "That his threats or reproaches were alike ob jects of indifference to him; he had shed his blood in asserting the liberties of his country, and that if death was his destiny, it could not be more glorious." Peace being soon afterwards concluded (November 13, 1314,) between the Paduans and Canis della Scala, Mussato was, of course, restored to liberty.

But Padua was now become a scene of factious turbulence; its affairs were rapidly declining: the politic prince of Verona had a large party within its bosom, preparing the state for a voluntary submission to his yoke. In the year 1319, Mussato went on a public mission to Florence, and several other states of Italy, to solicit succours for his country. men. While on this expedition, he was seized, as we learn from his poems, at an inn near Florence, with a dangerous fever. He was removed by order of the bishop of Florence to his palace, and restored to health by his humane atten tions. During this illness he imagined himself transformed into a bird, and in

* When Dante, who was of the Gibeline party, incurring the hatred of Boniface VIII. had his house destroyed and his property pillaged, he found refuge and protection in the

favour of Canis della Scala: but this the un

fortunate bard lost by an unlucky bon mot. The prince conversing one day in his palace with Dante, pointed to his favourite buffoon, who was receiving from all sides the caresses of the courtiers, and asked the poet how such a senseless fellow gained the favour of all in so much greater a degree than himself, who was a man of such talents and learning Dante replied, "It is because every one che rishes most, what most resembles himself." a poetical