The contents of our present Magazine assume a somewhat different appearance to their ordinary proportions, in consequence of two recent events, to the record of which we have found it necessary to devote so large a space that it has interfered with our usual arrangements. We could not omit that regard to the biogra phy of the Duke of Wellington which it is the business of our Obituary to pay to all the illustrious dead, though amidst the crowds of "Lives" now offered to the public it may appear to be a superflous work. Notwithstanding the eager swarm of these multitudinous but ephemeral productions, our readers, we are assured, will thankfully accept our comparatively brief, but accurate, summary of Wellington's largely filled career; and if, in some respects, it is still imperfect, it is a subject to which they will gladly permit us to revert.

The other event to which we have alluded is the annual meeting of the Archæological Institute at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which we have reported fully, as required by the importance of the papers produced, though not yet so thoroughly but that we have been obliged to reserve a portion to next month.

In our next Magazine we hope to pay attention to some important topographical and antiquarian works recently published. Among these we are happy to state is the second and concluding Part of the History of North Durham, by the Rev. James Raine, who, at the recent visit of the Archæologists to Durham, received the felicitations of all who are acquainted with bis most valuable work upon its final accomplishment. He has also concur rently given to the world, in quarto, an Historical Account of Auckland Castle, with biographies of the Bishops of Durham, which he has compiled under the auspices of the present Bishop.

In an article of our present Magazine we have described the further service Mr. Raine has rendered to the North of England, in enlarging and enriching the memoirs of his own ancient friend and master in historic lore, the Historian of Durham. We shall take the opportunity of the present page to make one further remark on that important point of Mr. Surtees's literary history,-his contribu tions to the "Border Minstrelsy" of Sir Walter Scott. We cannot but regard it as a great omission on the part of Mr. Lockhart, that in his later editions of the Life of Scott he has inserted no account of this curious piece of literary history. Indeed, the notice of Mr. Surtees

in that work is altogether insufficient. His name is once mentioned in a letter of Scott to Southey, with the following editorial note: "This amiable gentleman, author of the History of Durham in three volumes folio, one of the most learned as well as interesting works of its class, was an early and dear friend of Scott's," adding the date of his death, and a mention of "The Surtees Club" (a misnomer for the Surtees Society).-Life of Scott, 8vo. edit. 1845, p. 194. Now, this statement, brief as it is, is scarcely correct. Surtees cannot be said to have been an early friend of Scott, as they did not correspond until 1806, nor meet until 1809; and they had only seen one another once before the date of the letter of Scott to Southey, which should be mentioned to account for the not very affectionate terms of that letter. At a later period Scott would probably have written differently. Mr. Surtees's name occurs once more, in connection with the verses to Sir Cuthbert Sharp, at p. 670. Here he is again termed, by the Editor, Scott's "old and dear friend Mr. Surtees of Mainsforth," a term much more appropriate in 1827 than in 1810. The lines were occasioned by Sir Cuthbert's expression of a hope that Scott had not forgotten the friends he met at Sunderland

Forget thee? No! my worthy fere,
Forget blithe mirth and gallant cheer?
Death sooner stretch me on my bier:
Forget thee? No.

These are two of the five stanzas which Scott threw off on this provocation. The festivity alluded to was the ball which took place on the reception of the Duke of Wellington at Sunderland on the 4th Oct. 1827. In respect to the whole intercourse between these two distinguished men, we may remark, that Scott's letters included in Taylor's Life of Surtees themselves deserve some attention in the standard Life of their writer; but the literary history of "The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border" demands more of the biographer of Scott than this, for, besides the 21,000 copies which Mr. Lockhart estimates have been printed of that work in England, there are other American and continental editions: and the book has been translated,-of course including Mr. Surtees's contributions, into German, Danish, and Swedish.

THE Counts of Hapsburgh, the Archdukes of Austria, and the Emperors of Germany, are potentates with whom we are all historically acquainted. We are less intimate with them, however, as men; and yet in this respect they are better worth knowing. If they do not look so important, they are infinitely more amusing. There was an idiosyncrasy among them known to no other race. Three at least of the illustrious line submitted to die rather than not eat melons, when their highnesses were suffering from cholic! After that, our King who died of lampreys seems but a poor plagiarist.

Some six centuries and a quarter ago Rhodolph of Hapsburgh, a Swiss cavalier, founded the family. Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona, and there was many an ancestor for Austria to choose from between Adam and Rhodolph. But the latter was the first man at whom pride chose to stop and acknowledge him for a grandsire. By dint of hard fighting with knights in steel and bishops in pontificalibus, and by some as hard dealing as hard fighting, Rhodolph became, as Hamlet says, "spacious in the possession of dirt." He was, in other words, a rich lord of land. His sire was a poor man and a better, but Rhodolph being richer was more respectable; and, whatever the records of creation may have to say to the contrary, the first man, according to Austrian imperialism, was not Adam, but the Count of Hapsburgh.

Though Rhodolph was elected King of the Romans, he was never crowned; and history recognises him as Emperor of Germany only by courtesy. Unlike

most men of his day, he was a reader, and was given to make application of what he read. He astounded all Europe by flinging a bridge of boats over the Rhine, a feat that had not been heard of since the era of the Latins. His ambition, moreover, was of that daring sort that the Bishop of Basle, who had fruitlessly attempted to overcome him, once exclaimed aloud, "Sit fast, great God, or Rhodolph will seize your throne." Rhodolph, however, was a pious man. One of the prettiest of Schiller's ballads narrates the wellknown story of his dismounting from his horse, upon meeting a poor priest carrying the host, and of his making priest and host ride, while he humbly led the steed by the bridle. He was the darling of a well-disciplined soldiery. The citizens loved him, yet from them he was accustomed to hear bitter but salutary truths when he passed among them in disguise. This was after he had beaten the Bohemians out of Austria, and when he had become so perfect a legislator that men called him Lex Animata, or the living law. Fierce as he was in the field, he was fond of conversing with literary men, and it was his delight to do them honour. He loved his joke too. When about to marry Agnes of Burgundy, the officiating Bishop of Spires offered to kiss the bride. "Hold there," said Rhodolph, "kiss your Agnus Dei, bishop; but leave my Agnes to me.' We have all heard of the Roman Emperor who announced his approaching death by contemptuously remarking, "I am about to be made a God of!" Rhodolph, more poetically, told of his