THE CATHEDRAL OF ST. STEPHEN, VIENNA. 51 pounds. The hands of the clock are six feet long. Opposite to this fine tower stands a second, which was not completed. The Emperor Rudolph laid the foundation of this lofty tower in the year 1359. The name of the architect who built the lower part is not known-he died in 1400; and, for the next seven years, it was entrusted to the hands of unskilful masters; until, according to tradition, Anton Pilgram, of Bruem, ordered all that had been undertaken since the death of its first builder to be taken down, and continued the work, most probably from the present elevation of the clock, with that boldness and lightness that has made it the admiration of succeeding ages. The last stone was placed on the pinnacle at Michaelmas, 1433. This edifice was therefore completed in seventy-four years-the Strasbourg tower in one hundred and sixtytwo years. The portrait of Anton Pilgram, in stone, is yet to be seen at the foot of the altar of Peter and Paul. In the year 1450 the second tower was begun, but was left unfinished in 1576; in 1769 it was roofed with copper, and a small tower erected. It is said that, aiready, at the period when the second tower was begun, the great tower had suffered so much from lightning that it threatened to fall at the beginning of the sixteenth century. After many refusals, Leombard and Gregor Hausen undertook the bold work of taking down and rebuilding the pinnacle. They cut the stones of the crooked pinnacle, restored it to its pristine beauty, and straightened the iron bar (sixty-four feet in length) which supports the summit, and had been affected by the lightning. This operation, which was performed by means of fire in the tower itself, occupied twelve years. But the summit soon deviated again from the perpendicular, and all the attempts which had been made from the end of the sixteenth century to the year 1809, to guard against the vibration of the pinnacle in an outward direction were in vain. The earthquakes of the year 1590, the by no means inconsiderable vibrations of the iron bar, which, from the great disproportion of its length (sixty-three feet) to its thickness (four inches at bottom, three at top,) could not remain in a vertical position, and lastly the bombardment of Vienna on May 11, 1809, in which not even this noble edifice was spared, had materially contributed to increase the deviation from the perpendicular, which at length amounted to more than three feet. In the lest erection of the Tower in 1519, thirty-eight feet of the pinnacle at the summit were not built hollow, like the lower part of the tower, but solid, thus injuriously increasing, instead of diminishing, the weight, at its highest elevation; this great weight became very detrimental from the vibrations during the ringing of the bells, or from other causes, and the guiding bar, once crooked, acted as a moveable axis to increase the inclination. In 1838 it became necessary to adopt decisive measure to remedy the evil, for the fall of stones of the summit indicated the possibility of an approaching fall of this lofty edifice in the middle of the populous city. It was therefore resolved to take down and rebuild the upper part of the tower. This difficult operation was intrusted to two carpenters of Vienna, 'Jacob Fellner and Anton Rueff, and the upper pyramid of the tower, which begins at an elevation of two hundred and fifty-six and a half feet above the pavement, and rises to a height of one hundred and seventy-five feet eight inches, was surrounded by a scaffolding of twenty-one stories, of which only the lowest was firmly based on the stone gallery, which surrounds the pyramid, and on which is still to be seen the stone bench from which the heroic defender of Vienna, against the Turks, in the year 1683, Count Starhemberg, was wont to observe the movement in the enemy's camp. The other stories of the scaffolding were erected without resting on the tower itself. In the course of four years the old pinnacle was taken down, and a new one of iron, in external form resembling its predecessor, but lighter and of improved construction erected. On the 20th of October, 1842, the Eagle and Cross, of gilt copper, were raised to their present elevation, amid the rejoicings of the good people of Vienna. The whole expenses of this remarkable undertaking amounted to 130,000 florins, or £13,000 sterling. NESS SANDS, NEAR BRISTOL. WHEN Spain, aided by the genius of the wonderful man, whom she had allowed to hunger in penury on her shores, first opened the way to the New World, the spirit of enterprise, and thirst for discovery, was wonderfully excited by the reports of the riches and wonders which had been acquired and displayed by Columbus on his successful return from his expedition. The heroic Genoese was treated like an equal by the most haughty court in Europe, and these events which might well be considered marvellous in themselves, were spread throughout Europe, with the exaggeration natural to the excited enthusiasm of the times. Bold adventurers were not slow in following the steps of the first discoverer, and, in the maritime history of this stirring period, Bristol is entitled to honourable mention. The most westerly part of continental Europe, if we may here use this appellation, the waves of the Atlantic, rolling in swelling tides, invited the spirit of commercial enterprise, and Sebastian Cabot, the son of a wealthy Venetian, but himself a NESS SANDS, NEAR BRISTOL. 53 native of Bristol, was, when only nineteen years of age, included in a patent, dated March 5, 1496, which was granted by Henry VII. to John Cabot, his father, for the discovery and conquest of unknown lands. The name of the vessel which first touched the shores of the continent of America, was the Mathew of Bristol; the land which he discovered was, probably, the coast of Labrador, although it has been generally supposed to be Newfoundland. In 1609 Newfoundland was colonized from Bristol; and, in 1631, the merchants of Bristol fitted out the Henrietta, Captain James, for the discovery of a north-west passage to the coast of China. In lat. 52° this bold seaman sank his vessel in James's Bay, named after himself, and wintered on shore. In the summer of the next year, the vessel was raised again, but the captain, after unsuccessful attempts to attain the object of his search, returned to Bristol. The part of North America thus colonised from England, is the northern and colder, the least distinguished by vegetable and mineral wealth. But it was the most fitted to nurture the elements of European civilisation, and has reacted most advantageously on the mother country. The climate was the best suited for the constitution of Europeans, mental as well as corporeal, which cannot, without injury, support the heat of the tropics. No gold or precious stones tempted wild adventurers, but fertile vales and rich woods attracted diligent agriculturists, or political and religious non-conformists, men of active intellect and moral character. The soil of their new country tended to maintain the previous colour of their mind; they found before them no well cultivated lands, nor populous districts; no powerful kingdoms with the seductive charms of luxury or over-refinement-like the Spaniards in the treeless plains of Peru and Mexico-but impenetrable forests, in which uncivilised Indians, few in number, wandered. These could be repressed or destroyed; which, for the Spaniards, would have been as cruel as impossible; thus there remained in the north an unmixed European population; in the south arose a mixture, or what is still worse, a servile dependence, with the mutual hatred and harshness of treatment which characterises men of different races and of different colour. Lastly, the British possessions were much nearer the mother country than the Spanish. But notwithstanding all this, the different fate of the American colonies, and the different reciprocation of interest between them, must be sought principally in the political character of the people and government of Great Britain and of Spain. But if Bristol seemed destined, by its geographical position and vicinity to the Atlantic, to take an honourable part in the discovery of, and communication with the New World, it shared in the dangers of this adventurous undertaking. The vast mass of waters, rolling with mighty impulse undisturbed for thousands of miles, burst with resistless force against the first coasts which impede their course, VOL. III. P |