and lower spokes, which have arrived at the vertical position, appeared to be considerably curved. The curvature is in the same direction on both sides of the upright spokes, so that they all seem to turn upwards; and the same appearance presents itself whether the wheel be moving to the right or to the left of the spectator. Dr. Roget, in his late lecture at the Royal Institution, has traced this deception to the law of the permanence of impressions on the retina; the form of the curve being that resulting from the continued intersections of a revolving radius, with a vertical line moving parallel to itself. Buried Trees discovered.-Lately at Stockport, as some men were digging, they discovered, about three feet below the surface of the ground, two fine oak trees imbedded in the clay. They were perfectly sound, quite black, and so exceedingly hard as to be susceptible of the finest polish. The largest of them, sixtyfive feet in length, has been sold for £30. Of their age no conjecture can be formed. Many such discoveries have been made in various places, but in general, on exposure to the atmosphere, the timber, notwithstanding its hardness, soon becomes decomposed. Should this be the case with the tree lately found and sold, the purchaser will have a poor bargain. South American Toleration.-By the late treaty into which this country has entered with Buenos Ayres, we are happy to find, among other stipulations, that Englishmen may celebrate their religious rites in that country with the same freedom as in their native land. They may erect protestant or other chapels, and have their own cemeteries. To crown all, these powers engage to co-operate for the abolition of the slave-trade. The treaty seems founded on liberal principles, and is highly honourable to the contracting parties. Imprisoned Bird's Nest.-While some men, at Bathley, near Newark, were sawing the log of an oak-tree, a bird's nest was discovered, with three eggs in it, supposed to have belonged to a gray woodpecker. The nest was in the heart of the tree, and the surrounding timber was without crack or aperture. The nest, eggs, and parts of the tree, about a yard long, have been preserved. The cavity in which the nest was found, had assumed the form of an egg. The log measured forty feet in length, and its diameter, where the nest was enclosed, about six feet from the top, is seventeen inches. Remains of a Serpentine Animal.—As some men were lately excavating the ground on the racecourse, Lincoln, to obtain a supply of water, they dug up a large mass of blue lias, which, when broken, was found to contain the remains of some serpentine animal coiled up. The exact dimensions we have not heard; but the vertebres and external form are said to be in the finest state of perfection. Wages of Iniquity.-The General Assembly of Barbadoes have proposed voting to the editor of a Glasgow newspaper, a piece of plate, value £500, for his zealous endeavours to whitewash slavery, for his skill in dressing the planters and overseers in the garb of humanity, and for blackening the characters of those who have exerted themselves to terminate the diabolical system. Discovery. Three small islands were discovered west of America, on the 26th of May, 1824, in latitude 18. 11. south, and longitude 114.48. west. They lie near each other, but appeared to be uninhabited. No notice bad previously been taken of them in any existing chart. Literary Notices. Just Published. In one vol. 12mo. boards, price 5s. Christian Characteristics, or an attempt to delineate the most prominent features of the Christian Character. By the Rev. Thomas Lewis, minister of Union Chapel, Islington. A Letter to the Rev. Ralph Wardlaw, D.D. on some passages in his Dissertation on Infant Baptism. By John Birt. Price 1s. Also the third edition of the late Dr. Williams's Essay on the Equity of Divine Government, and Sovereignty of Divine Grace. One volume 8vo. 12s. Six Lectures on Popery, delivered in Kingstreet Chapel, Maidstone. By William Grocer. 5s. boards. The second edition of The Rural Residence, a poem in four books, containing Reflections of a Moral and Religious Nature. By W. Stones. Post 8vo. 4s. Juvenile Essays, which obtained the prizes proposed by the proprietor of the Teacher's Offering. 2s. boards. The Rotunda, or Characteristic Sketches of the Speakers at the religious Meetings held there. Sonnets and other Poems. By D. L. Richard8vo. boards. son. LONDON: PRINTED AT THE CAXTON PRESS, BY H. FISHER. THE Emperial Magazine OR, COMPENDIUM OF RELIGIOUS, MORAL, & PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLedge. JULY.] "READING IS THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM OF INTELLECTUAL COMMERCE." MEMOIR OF JAMES BALDWIN BROWN, ESQ. LL. D. OF THE INNER TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW. (With a Portrait.) Ah, who can tell how hard it is to climb The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar?" BEATTIE. TRITE as this quotation is, it always comes recommended to the fancy by its truth, which is of universal recognition. In proportion to the difficulty of such an ascent as is here alluded to, is the pleasure which we derive in seeing it effected; and when it is accomplished by the unaided efforts of genius, through long discouragement and toil, by one of the most rugged paths that lead to that envied height, we can neither regard without admiration the success of the young aspirant, nor trace the steps which conducted him to eminence, without the liveliest curiosity. JAMES BALDWIN BROWN, the subject of the present memoir, was born on the 6th of June 1790, at Enfield, in Middlesex, where his mother's family resided, that of his father having for some time been engaged in the crape, which is also the staple manufactory of the county of Suffolk, though its members were not of the number of those who made large fortunes in it. Being an only child, he received a liberal education, the foundation of which was laid by a maternal uncle in his native town. At the age of ten, he was removed to the academy at Peckham, then under the care of the late Rev. Martin Ready, with whom, as his preceptor, he passed as much of the short peace of 1802 and 1803, as the speedy renewal of hostilities would allow, in France, where, as some drawback on the advantage of acquiring a thorough knowledge of the language of that country, he ran no slight risk of being one of those who were there detained, in opposition to the rules of war and the law of nations. Soon after his return, he was removed to Aspley, in Bedfordshire, at that 79.-VOL. VII. 1825. time one of the largest boardingschools in England, where he finished that part of his education for which he is not indebted to his own unaided exertions. His earliest inclination was for the bar, and in the mimic courts of justice established, mainly by his influence, amongst his schoolfellows at Peckham, this bias of his genius marked him out for the leading advocate, under the title of Attorney-general; though he had a formidable opponent in his school-fellow and friend, Dr. Raffles, whose talents were destined, as perhaps they were more fitted, for that sublimer field of eloquence in which they have since been exerted with such distinguished success. Prudential motives forbad, however, the indulgence of this deeply-rooted predilection, until the death of his father left him at liberty, at the period when he came of age, to devote himself to a pursuit from which his mind could never be diverted, and to embark in his preparation for it the very slender patrimony to which he succeeded. He was accordingly entered a student of the Inner Temple, and devoted himself most assiduously to legal studies; though, partly as a relief from the application which these required, and partly, it is to be presumed, to augment his very limited finances, he employed the fragments of his time, those, namely, which were spent in his walks to and from Westminster-hall, in preparing for the press a poem on the battle of Albuera. Though a hasty production, and published anonymously, "The Battle of Albuera" was most favourably received by the public, and by the directors of the public taste, all of whom spoke of it in terms of the highest commendation. The poem, indeed, was very generally attributed to an individual, the productions of whose muse had already secured for him a large share of public approbation. The real author meanwhile continued in concealment, except to the more intimate of his friends, and a few of 2 P the most eminent poets of the day, to whose notice it was the medium of advantageously introducing him. The author," they observe," has drawn his materials from the best sources, and has evinced a degree of diligence in his research, which is highly creditable to himself, and which the reader will see good reason to commend in the variety of important and interesting particulars which he has brought together for his instruction and amusement."+ This elaborate production was the means also of introducing Mr. Brown to the favourable notice of the Marquis of Wellesley, to whom the work was dedicated, to Mr. Canning, the late Mr. Grattan, and other supporters of Catholic Emancipation, in both houses of parliament, no less than to Lords Shrewsbury and Fingal, the leading Catholic peers of England and Ireland; but what was eventually of yet greater advantage to him, it procured for him the acquaintance of Sir John Cox Hippisley, who afterwards became one of the warmest and most useful of his friends. At the entreaty of that gentleman, who perhaps studied the question in all its bearings, more deeply, and obtained more information to illustrate it, than any man living, he commenced a task, which some of the reviewers very aptly designated as Herculean, in This, his first appearance before the public as an author, was made in the year 1812, and the poem soon passed through a second edition. Scarcely, however, had its transient interest subsided, than Mr. Brown published a work of a very different nature, and calculated to procure for its author a more enduring reputation. This was "An Historical Account of the Laws enacted against the Catholics, both in England and Ireland; of the ameliorations which they have undergone, and of their existent state;" to which were added, "A short account of the Laws for the Punishment of Heresy in general; a brief Review of the merits of the Catholic Question; and copious notes, tending principally to illustrate the views and conduct of the Church of England, the Presbyterians, and Sectarians, with regard to toleration, when in the enjoyment of power." Herein he established a character for patience of investigation and liberality of sentiment, that procured for him the highest commendations from the leading reviews in favour of this important question; and the views which he adopted, he advocated with all the ardour of a young man who had not "Historical Inquiry into the Ecclepassed his two-and-twentieth year. siastical Jurisdiction of the Crown of He illustrated, moreover, his subject Great Britain, from the earliest period with much more depth of historical to the Reformation," where he intendresearch than could have been expect- ed to put a close to an investigation, ed from the time devoted to its com- the object of which was to prove to position; to which, however, he gave the Catholics, that the concession of himself with the greatest industry, ara Veto to the crown, upon the apranging by night the materials he had pointment of the Irish bishops of that rescued from the dusty recesses of the church, was in strict accordance with public libraries, during those hours of the practice of ancient days, when the the day which were not occupied, in whole Christian world was of its perterm time, by his attendance on the suasion. He printed, however, but a courts, where he was a sedulous note- very small portion of this most extentaker. For these great exertions, he sive and erudite inquiry, embracing was rewarded by the praises of the that part of the reign of Constancritics, who declared, with justice, tine the Great which related to the innot only that “learning, judgment, terference of that emperor in the Donatemper, and industry, unite in recom- tist and a portion of the Arian schism, mending the work to general perusal," in the proceedings relative to which but that "it contains all the informa- the British bishops took a part. In tion which can be desired, relative to the illustration of this very limited and the disabilities to which the Roman very obscure portion of ecclesiastical Catholics of England and Ireland have history, Mr. Brown appears to have been heretofore, or are at present sub-consulted and cited some hundreds of jected, on account of their adherence authors, many, perhaps the majority, to the religion of their ancestors. of the Fathers of the Church, and an Monthly Review, July 1813. + Critical Review, Nov. 1813. 1 |