happiness; indifference, contentment; profit, honour. Here sentiment is nonsense; plain sense, wit; jollity, pleasure; possession, enjoyment; money the anchor of minds, the gale of passions, the port of life.

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SWITZERLAND.-The land of liberty. Trade, taste, knowledge, discovery among the Protestants, vigour in all; despisers of death; slaves of money abroad. Abroad, a contemptible swarm of valets, clerks, officers, artists, schemers; the leeches of fools.

RISE OF COFFEE-HOUSES IN THE EAST.

THE following account of the first establishment of coffeehouses, at Constantinople, in the year 1555, is translated from the Turkish History of Betchevi. The real name of this writer is not known; that of Betchevi is derived from Betchein, Hungary.

"There was no coffee used, nor was there even a single shop where it was sold, either in Constantinople, or any other part of Romelia, before the year 962 of the Hegira. In that year, two persons, one of whom was a native of Damascus, called Chems, and another from Aleppo, named Hakim, came to Constantinople, and opened two shops in the quarter Takhtecala, where they sold that excellent beverage. At first, these coffee-houses were only resorted to by the indolent and idle; but they soon became popular among the wits and men of letters, who assembled in perhaps twenty or thirty different knots in each house. Parties were formed for reading, others for chess or trictrac; some discussed new poems, and others pursued scientific conversations. As the expence only amounted to a few aspres, it was a cheap mode of entertaining a friend, to carry him to a coffee-room. All persons out of employment, and paying their court to obtain it, kadis, moudaries, and all who had no great business, flocked to these places, as affording the best amusements; in short, the rooms became so crowded, that it was difficult to obtain a seat; and their reputation was such, that many distinguished persons, always excepting ministers, went to them without scruple. But the imaums, the muezzins, and the professed devotees, declaimed against them, saying 'the people ran to the coffee-house instead of the mosque.' The oulemas, in particular, cried out against coffee-houses, declaring that an ale-house was better than a coffee-room. The preachers endeavoured to scold down the favourite beverage. The muftis declared,

that all substances roasted to charcoal were prohibited by the law, and brought forward solemn decisions to confirm their opinions.

"In the reign of Murad III. the prohibitions were renewed; but some amateurs obtained leave of the policeofficers to sell coffee in back shops and courts out of the public view. From that time, the use of coffee became so general, that government was tired of forbidding it. The preachers and muftis revised their doctrines, and declared that as the burning of coffee did not really convert it into charcoal, it might be drunk without endangering salvation; and the sheiks, oulemas, vizirs, and nobles, began to take it without distinction. At length, the grand vizirs themselves built coffee-rooms, and got a sequin or two for their daily rent."

LAWYERS AND PIGS.-AN EPIGRAM.

By Mr. Courtney.

"Tis said how a Pope, mov'd by pity divine,
In a famine at Rome, sent to Naples for swine;
Thirty thousand at least: Marquis Campio in hope
To save such a herd, yet not anger the Pope,
Devoutly reply'd-" Blessed Father, I swear,
In lawyers I'll pay you—the pigs I can't spare."

WONDERS OF NATURE.

(Fragments of Scottish Chronicles.)

"1627, Nov.-Much about this time an alarming accident happened on the south-west coast of Scotland. A south wind blowing directly from the Isle of Man, threw the sea upon the Black Shore, within the parish of Carlaverock, and upon Oldcock-pool, and several other parts within the parish of Ruthwal, in such a fearfull manner as none then living had ever seen the like. It went at least half a mile beyond the ordinary course, and threw down a number of houses and bulwarks in its way; and many cattle, and other bestial, were swept away with its rapidity: and what was still more melancholy, of the poor people who lived by making salt on Ruthwal Sands, seventeen perished; thirteen of these were found next day, and were all buried together in the churchyard of Ruthwal, which, no doubt, was an affecting sight to

their relations, widows, and children, &c., and even to all that beheld it. One circumstance more ought not to be omitted. The house of Old-cock-pool being environed on all hands, the people fled to the top of it for safety; and so sudden was the inundation upon them, that, in their confusion, they left a young child in a cradle exposed to the flood, which very speedily caried away the cradle; nor could the tenderhearted beholders save the child's life without the manifest danger of their own. But by the good providence of God, as the cradle, now afloat, was going forth of the outer door, a corner of it struck against the 'door-post, by which the other end was turned about; and going across the door, it stuck there 'till the waters were assuaged. Upon the whole, that inundation made a most suprising devastation in those parts; and the ruins occasioned by it had an agreeable influence on the surviving inhabitants,-convincing them, more than ever, of what they owed to Divine Providence, &c.

"And now to bring this year to a conclusion, (1628,) upon the 26th of December, there happened an accident, which may be reckoned a prodigy in nature. The day being frosty, and the weather serene, a huge moss, that lay on a rising ground between Falkirk and Stirling, not far from the entry into the Torwood, having in it a little loch, was sensibly perceived to move for some days; and the upper part of the earth of the moss being filled up by water, was, by degrees, carried down to a valley which lay below it, and there it rested to the thickness of a man's length, overwhelming great bounds of good arable ground, which had on it sixteen farmsteads, and some gentlemen's houses; so that for good lands and houses there was nothing to be seen but an unprofitable moss. This desolation having been represented to the privycouncil, the pitifull condition of the sufferers was by them recommended to the charity of all well-disposed persons; and a contribution was gathered for them through most parts of the country.

"1652. Upon Monday, the 29th March, the sun eclipsed, from eight hours to half hour to eleven, or thereby before noon. The sun eclipsed eleven digits. The darkness continued about eight minutes. The people all began to pray to God. A little thereafter, was seen, upon the south side of the firmament, a clear, perfect star. Some affirmed that they saw two; but I one only."-Register of the Sessions of the Burgh of Peebles.

A convulsion very similar to that of the Solway Moss many years after, and to the more recent one of the moving bog in Ireland.

The people, in the south of Scotland, still talk to this day of the Dark Monday.

"1674.-There was a great storm of snow, with violent nipping cold frost, that lay from the 15th day of January, 1674, to the 18th of March, wherein was thirteen drifty days. The most part of the country lost the most part of their sheep, and many of their nolt, and many all their sheep. It was universal; and many people were starved for want of fuel for fire."-Council Books of Peebles.

This winter was long after remembered by the name of the Ill Winter.

"THE ENGLISH ROMAYNE LIFE."

In the year 1590, a curious black letter tract, of seventytwo quarto pages, was published with the following title: "The English Romayne Life; discovering the Liues of the Englishmen at Rome; the Orders of the English Seminarie; the Dissention betweene the Englishmen and the Welchmen; the banishing of the Englishmen out of Rome; the Pope's sending for them againe; a Reporte of many of the paltrie Reliques in Rome; theyr Vaultes vnder the Grounde; theyr holy Pilgrimages; and a Nvmber of other matters woorthie to be read and regarded of euery one. Therevnto is added, the cruell Tyranny vsed on an Englishman at Rome, his Christian Suffering, and notable Martirdome, for the Gospel of Jesu Christ, in Anno 1581. Written by A. M. sometime the Pope's Scholler in the Seminarie among them. Honor alit Artes."

This tract, which was written by Arthur Munday, is dedicated to Bromley, lord chancellor; Burleigh, lord treasurer; the earl of Leicester; and the rest of the queen's privycouncil. It is divided into eight chapters, and describes, in a quaint manner, the travels of the author to Rome; an account of his residence there; with various interesting occurrences respecting the English, which took place in the "Eternal City." Arthur Munday, though "sometime the Pope's Scholler," appears to have entertained a very strong antipathy against his holiness and popery, which he is determined to expose; that those persons, into whose hands his book may fall," may behold the egregious follies and devillish drifts, whereby God is displeased, and man too much wilfullye blinded: so that, turning to the bare and naked truth, which craveth neither shadow, nor any coloured device, they may

vomite up that antichriste, and his abominable inventions, and cleave to that which God himself hath commaunded."

Munday gives a curious account of the carne vale (carnival) at Rome, and of the "pope's generall curseing on Maunde Thursdaie," which he thus describes :

"On Maunde Thursday, the pope cometh in his gallery ouer St. Peter's, sitting in his chayre, wherewith he is carried on men's shoulders; and there he hath a great painted holie candle in his hand, burning, when a cardinall, on each side of him, the one in Latin and the other in Italian, singeth the pope's general malediction.

"There he curseth the Turke, and her majestie our most gracious princesse and gouernesse, affirming her to be farre worse than the Turke, or the cruellest tyrant that is. He curseth likewise all Calvinians, Lutherians, Zwinglians, and all that are not according to his disposition. When he hath cursed all that he can, saying 'amen,' he letteth the candle fall; whereat the people will scramble for it, and euery one catch a little piece if they can: yea, our Englishmen will be as busie as the best; and one of them chanced to get a peece of the waxe of the candle, whereof he made such a bragging when he came to the colledge, as you will not think; that he had got a peece of the candle wherewith the queene of England was cursed, and that he would keepe it so long as he liued."

The eighth and last chapter of this work contains a highly-interesting account of the martyrdom of an Englishman at Rome, in 1581; we, therefore, quote it entire.

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A true Report of the Christian Suffering, and mercilesse Martirdom of one Richard Atkins, English Man, at Rome; who, for the trueth of the Gospell, to the great Terrour of all the Beholders, endured the Extremity of the Torment and cruell Agonie of Death, in the Yeere of our Lord 1581.

"ABOUT the time of Midsommer, in the yeere 1581, one Richard Atkins, a Hartfordshire man, came to Rome, and, hauing found the English colledge, he knocked at the doore, when diuers of the students came to welcome him, knowing that he was an English man. Among other talke, they willed him to go to the hospitall, and there to receiue his meate and lodging, according as the order was appointed; whereto he aunswered, I come not, my countreymen, to any such intent as you iudge, but I come louinglie to rebuke the great misorder of your liues, which I greeue to hear, and pittie to beholde.

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