ANECDOTE OF MILTON.

BELIEVING that the following real circumstances has been but

little noticed, we submit the particulars of it, as not uninteresting, to the attention of our readers: ---It is well known that, in the bloom of youth, and when he pursued his studies at Cambridge, this poet was extremely beautiful. Wandering one day, during the summer, far beyond the precincts of the University into the country, he became so heated and fatigued, that, reclining himself at the foot of a tree to rest, he shortly fell asleep. Before he awoke, two ladies, who were foreigners, passed by in a carriage. Agreeably astonished at the loveliness of his appearance, they alighted, and having admired him (as they thought) unperceived, for some time, the youngest, who was very handsome, drew a pencil from her pocket, and having written some lines upon a piece of paper, put it with her trembling hand into his Own -Immediately afterwards they proceeded on their journey. Some of his acquaintances, who were in search of him, had observed this silent adventure, but at too great a distance to discover that the highly favoured party in it was our illustrious bard. Approaching nearer they saw their friend, to whom, being awakened, they mentioned what had happened; Milton opening the paper, and with surprize, read these verses from Guarini:

"Ye eyes! ye human stars! ye authors of my lovliest pangs! If thus, when shut, ye wound me, what must have proved the consequence had ye been open?" Eager from this moment, to find out the fair incognita, Milton travelled, but in vain, through every part of Italy. His poetic fervor became incessantly more and more heated by the idea which he had formed of his unknown admirer; and it is, in some degree, to her that his own times, the present times, and the latest posterity must feel themselves indebted for several of the most impassioned and charming compositions of the Paradise Lost.

EXTRAORDINARY INSTANCE

OF

RIGID JUSTICE IN A MAGISTRATE.

BODLE

N the town of Galway, in Ireland, there is a very ancient stone

over which are coarsely

and Cross Bones. The circumstance which caused this emblem is curious: -About the time of Henry VII. or perhaps earlier, the town was in itself a palatine, and all the law proceedings ran in the name of the mayor, who had also the power of condemning or pardoning criminals. John De Burgh, then mayor, was a very opulent merchant, and traded largely, especially with Cadiz, in Spain.---On some occasion, he sent over his only son with a cargo to Don Alonzo Herrera, his correspondent there, who received young De Burgh with the greatest hospitality; and on his departure he sent with him on a visit his own son, together with a very large sum in specie to purchase merchandize.----The young de Burgh, tempted by this wealth, with the assistance of two or three of the crew, the vessel being his father's, threw the young Spaniard overboard, and on his return appeared greatly distressed by the loss of his friend, who he pretended had died at sea of a fever.---For some time this succeeded, but at length on a quarrel between two of the sailors concerned in the murder, the whole business transpired, the men were seized, and instantly accused young De Burgh.---The wretched father was obliged to mount the tribunal, to sit in judgment on his only son, and with his own lips to pronounce that sentence which left him childless, and at once blasted for ever the honour of an antient and noble family.---His fellow-citizens, who revered his virtue and pitied his misfortunes, saw with astonishment the fortitude with which he yielded to this cruel necessity, and heard him doom his son to a public and ignominious death on the following morning.---Their compassion for the father, their affection for the man, every noble feeling was aroused, and they privately determined to rescue the young man from the prison that night, under the conviction that De Burgh, having already paid the tribute due to justice and his honour, would secretly rejoice at the preservation of the life of his son.---But they little knew the heart of this noble magistrate.---By some accident, their determination reached his ear; he instantly removed his son from the prison to his own house, and after partaking with him in the office of the holy communion, after giving and receiving a mutual forgiveness, he caused him to be hung at his own door; a dreadful monument of the vengeance of Heaven, and an immortal proof of a justice which leaves every thing of the kind in story at an immeasurable distance.

The father immediately resigned his office; and after his death, which speedily followed that of his son, the citizens fixed over the door of the house a scull and bones, which remain there to this day.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

W. Cowdroy, Jun. Printer, Salford.