The Cow-tree. It was stated a short while ago, in the papers, that a person had arrived from Columbia, bringing with him some specimens of this curious tree. We now find, by an American paper, that a bottle of the juice, and a piece of the bark, have been received at the Harvard University, from Mr. Litchfield, the American consul at Puerto Cabello. This milk was taken from a tree about seven feet in circumference, and one hundred and forty feet in height. It is white, and bears a close resemblance to cow's milk, or rather cream. By exposure to the air, it becomes brown, and, by drying, it is changed into wax, which burns with a pure and strong light. The odour and taste of the milk are like those of onr sour cream. Humboldt and other travellers have described the cow-tree; the milk flows from incisions made in the trunk. The natives and negroes go to the trees in the morning, and fill vessels; some drink the milk under the tree, and others carry it to their children. The trees near the road, are full of incisions made by travellers, who appease their hunger and thirst with the milk. Intelligence of Captain Ross-We copy the following paragraph from Jameson's Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal: "Two accounts of the progress of Captain Ross's exploratory voyage have reached us. We give them as communicated to us. According to one account, Captain Ross was met with in Baffin's Bay, in August, 1829, where, having suffered damage during hard weather, he fortunately was enabled, from the wreck of a Greenland ship, to refit. afterwards steered northward, and has not since been heard of. The other account represents our adventurous cominander and his brave crew as having been forced back to Lively Bay, in Baffin's Bay, where they spent last winter." He Unicorns.-An Italian gentleman, named Barthema, said to be entitled to implicit credit, who has just returned from Africa, states, that he saw two unicorns at Mecca, which had been sent as a present from the King of Ethiopia to the Sultan.-Hobart's Town Courier. The Revenue.-The rapid increase of taxation within our own times, compared with former periods of English history, is very remarkable, and well deserves serious consideration. The following data will be useful: Amount of the Net Produce of the Public Revenue at . 1603 £600,000 895.819 The Commonwealth 1641 1.517.247 Charles I. Charles II. James I.. 1660 1.800.000 1685 2,000,000 2,001.855 William and Mary 1688 Anne George 1. George II. 1701 3,895 205 1714 5.691.203 . . 1727 . 1760 6.762,643 8,523.540 . 1820 46.131,634 1830 47.109.673 To the above is to be added the expense of collecting, which at present amounts to between £4,000,000 and £5,000,000 annually. Living in New York-A correspondent lately gone from England to reside in the above city, informs us that a large turkey may be bought for 33.; a goose for 1s.; and fowls at 6d. each: wages are very good. First English Colony in America.-Many years elapsed before the English obtained any settlement in America. The first attempt was made by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who, in the month of June, 1578, obtained a patent from queen Elisabeth, authorizing him to plant a colony in that country. Gilbert's project failed; but it was afterwards resumed by his half-brother, the celebrated Sir Walter Raleigh, who, in 1584, obtained a patent similar to that which had been granted to Gilbert, and next year planted a colony at the mouth of the Roanoke, naming the Country Virginia, in honour of his royal mistress. But all these settlers, as well as others who crossed the Atlantic during the next twenty years, either perished by famine and disease, or by the hands of the Indians, or returned to England.-Dr. Lardner's Cyclopedia. Part X. of Views in the East. Part I. of The Life and Times of His Majesty, Pluralities Indefensible. By Richard Newton, Sermons on the Amusements of the Stage, preached at St. James's Church, Sheffield, by the Rev. T. Best, A.M. Tables adapted to various Commercial Purposes. By Lin Dillon, accountant. 1 Vol 8ro. Eminent Piety necessary to eminent Usefulness; a Discourse delivered before the London Missionary Society, May 11, 1831. By Andrew Reed. Memorials of the Stuart Dynasty, including the Constitutional and Ecclesiastical History of England, from the decease of Elizabeth to the abdication of James II. By Robert Vaughan, author of " The Life and Opinions of Wycliffe The English and Jewish Tithe Systems compared, in their origin, their principles, and their moral and social tendencies. By Thomas Stratten. The Second and concluding Volume of the Life of Thomas Ken, deprived Bishop of Bath and Wells; seen in connexion with the spirit of the times, the Restoration, and the Revolution in 1688. By the Rev. W. L. Bowles, Canon Residentiary of Salis bury. The Voice of Humanity. No. 4. A Lecture on Knowledge. By Thomas Swinburn Family Classical Library. No. 17. Horace. Lardner's Cabinet Library. Vol. IV. The Doctrine of the New Testament on Prayer. By Isaac Crewdson. The Canon of the Old and New Testament ascor- A Key to Chanting, &c. By J. E. Dibb. Divines of the Church of England. By the Rev. Suggestions on the Abolition of Slavery. By a Historical Account of the Liverpool Railway. By Joseph Kirwen. Report of the Religious Tract Society. Pyrus Malus Brentfordiensis; a Descriptive Catalogue of the most valuable sort of Apples. By Hugh Ronalds. With a coloured figure of each. Preparing for the Press. Sir Edward Seaward's Narrative of his Shipwreck, and consequent Discovery of certain 1slauds in the Caribean Sea. Edited by Miss Jane Porter. 3 Vols. The Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. By Thomas Moore, Esq. Journal of a Residence at the Courts of Germany. By William Beattie, M.D. L. and E., and Physician to the King as Duke of Clarence. Select Works of the British Poets, from Chaucer to Johnson. By Robert Southey, LL.D. A Guide to the Fruit and Kitchen Garden. By George Lindley, C.M.H.S. Edited by John Lindley, F.R.S. &c. A Manual of the Land and Fresh-Water Shells The Family Shakspeare. By Thomas Bowdler, Letters to a Young Naturalist, on the Study of Nature and Natural Theology. By James L. Drummond, M.D. &c. Memoirs and Correspondence of the late Sir Edward Smith, M.D. The Mosses, and the rest of the Cryptogamia; forming the Fifth Volume of the British Flora. By Dr. Hooker. 8vo. Oriental Customs applied to the Illustration of the Sacred Scriptures. By S. Burder, M. A. &c. 12mo. Researches into the Nature and Affinity of Ancient and Hindu Mythology. By Lieutenant-Colonel Vans Kennedy. A Second Edition, enlarged and corrected, of the Book of Private Prayer, for the use of Members of the United Churches of England and Ireland. LONDON: PRINTED AT THE CAXTON PRESS, BY II. FISHER, SON, AND CO. THE IMPERIAL MAGAZINE. JULY, 1831. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE RT. HON. CHARLES, EARL GREY DE HOWICK, K. G. AND FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY. (With a Portrait.) THE GREYS, of Werke, in Northumberland, are of very old standing, in that part of the kingdom; and yet this family is only a branch from a still more ancient stock, the original of which is lost in the cloud of antiquity. But "stemmata quid faciunt; therefore, leaving the tedious task of tracing the labyrinthine maze of pedigree, to the genealogist, we shall barely say, that the direct ancestor of the present line was ennobled in the reign of James the First. The title then conferred, however, became dormant, till revived by a fresh patent, in the person of Sir Charles Grey, a General in the Army, Knight of the Bath, and Governor of Guernsey. He was an officer of great experience, and had served with distinction in 1759, under Prince Ferdinand, at the battle of Minden. At the close of the American revolutionary war, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the forces there, and at the same time honoured with the red riband; but the expiration of hostilities rendered the general's embarkation less needful, and he remained in England. At the breaking out of the war with France, Sir Charles went to the relief of Ostend and Nieuport; from whence he proceeded to the West Indies, where, in conjunction with Admiral Sir John Jervis, afterwards Earl St. Vincent, he succeeded in reducing Martinico, St. Lucie and Guadaloupe. In 1802, he was created Baron Grey; and on the 1st of April 1806, he was raised to the earldom. This veteran of the old military school died at Fallowden House, near Alnwick, on the 14th of November, 1807, in the eightieth year of his age. By his lady, who was his first cousin, of the family of Grey of Southwick, in the county of Durham, the earl left five children, Charles, who succeeded to the title and estates; Henry, a lieutenantgeneral, and now governor of Gibraltar; George, a captain in the navy, and commissioner at Portsmouth; William, a colonel in the army, and governor of Chester; and Edward, rector of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, London, and dean of Hereford. In addition to these, the first Earl had two daughters: Elizabeth, wife of the late Samuel Whitbread, Esq. and Hannah, the widow of a Captain Bettesworth, of the navy. CHARLES, the second EARL GREY, was born at the family seat of Fallowden, March 13, 1764. He received his education first at Eton school, and next at King's College, Cambridge. At the age of eighteen, he set out on the tour of Europe, and in Italy became acquainted with the late duke and duchess of Cumberland, upon whose establishment he obtained a distinguished appointment, which procured his introduction to the first personages on the continent. Mr. Grey was in the suite of their royal highnesses when they had an interview with the sovereign pontiff, Pius the Sixth, at Rome, in the spring of 1786. Soon afterwards he returned to England, where he had scarcely landed, when a vacancy in the represen2D. SERIES, NO. 7.-VOL. I. 2 P 151.-VOL. XIII, tation of his native county occurred by the death of the duke of Northumberland; and the consequent succession of his grace's second son to the peerage, by the title of Lord Lovaine, baron of Alnwick, so created by the patent granted to the duke, in 1784. Mr. Grey, on his arrival at this critical moment, was immediately invited by the gentlemen of Northumberland, to offer himself as a candidate on this occasion; and being supported by the ducal interest, he was returned the same year without opposition. When elected as knight of the shire for this important county, Mr. Grey had but just completed the legal age of qualification for a seat in parliament; and what may here be mentioned as a remarkable circumstance, his mother, who was supposed to have been past child-bearing, gave birth to a daughter at the precise period when her first-born received this proud mark of distinction. Young as he was, and surrounded on all sides by connexions decidedly ministerial, Mr. Grey immediately adopted an independent part, and joined the standard of Mr. Fox, by whom he was introduced into the Whig club. Temptations were certainly held out, to bring him over to the other side; and his father, Sir Charles, was greatly mortified at seeing his son become a leading character in the phalanx of opposition. But he had taken his stand, and nothing could shake it; nor has he, during the period of nearly half a century, deviated from the principles with which he set out in his political life. His first, or as commonly called, in parliamentary language, his maiden speech in the House of Commons, was an attack upon Mr. Pitt's commercial treaty with France. The eloquence displayed by him on this occasion, stamped him at once, in the public estimation, as a debater of the highest order; and, therefore, from this time he never rose without exciting attention, nor ended without making a strong impression on the minds of his hearers. There were now two subjects which more than any other agitated the nation, and furnished scope for declamation. These were-the motion for liquidating the debts of the Prince of Wales, and the proceedings for an impeachment of Warren Hastings. In the debates on both, Mr. Grey bore an active part. But on the former, there arose an extraordinary discussion, which might, at an earlier period, have been productive of very serious consequences. Mr. (now lord) Rolle, having pointedly alluded to the supposed marriage of the Prince to Mrs. Fitzherbert, received a severe castigation from the friends of his royal highness; and Mr. Fox in very peremptory terms, gave a flat denial to the report, which he said was a foul calumny, and that neither had such a union taken place in any way, nor could have happened under any circumstances. This declaration from the great leader of the opposition, appeared to extinguish the rumour, and to afford satisfaction. But there were persons to whom it gave great offence, particularly to the person most interested and whose character it involved. With whom the error, if it was an error, originated, cannot easily be explained at this distance of time, since the two parties upon whom the charge or suspicion fell, are no more. Certain it is, that when the Prince desired Mr. Fox to retract what he had asserted, or at least to qualify it, in justice to the lady, he refused. Mr. Grey was then applied to, but he also declined to interfere in such an unpleasant concern. Upon this, the Prince called Sheridan to his assistance, who got through it with some management, but with little satisfaction. On the impeachment of the governor-general of India, Mr. Grey was chosen one of the managers, and at the trial he greatly distinguished himself in opening the several charges, and examining the witnesses. When the regal functions were suspended by the mental malady of the king in 1788, Mr. Grey proved a zealous defender of the right of the Prince of Wales to the assumption of the regency, unshackled by any restrictions; and in all the stormy debates which arose upon that great question, he took a lively part, and on some occasions assailed the minister with uncommon severity. Hitherto the Whigs had preserved a formidable body of political strength, in number and talent. The union of the party, however, was soon afterwards broken, by a difference of opinion between the two principals, Mr. Burke and Mr. Fox, upon the merits of the recent revolution in France. Shortly after this schism, a political society was formed, under the denomination of "The Friends of the People," for the express purpose of obtaining a parliamentary reform. To this association, which, less for its professed object, than on account of the republican tendencies of some of the members, was particularly obnoxious to the ardent loyalists, Mr. Grey and Mr. (now Sir) James Mackintosh belonged! Mr. Fox, however, withheld the sanction of his name from the institution; whence many thought that, after all, he was but half a reformer. Indeed, he acknowledged as much himself, when questioned on the subject, "I may be asked," said Mr. Fox, " why my name does not appear in the list of the society for reform? My reason is, that though I perceive great and enormous grievances, I do not see the remedy." This was at the beginning of 1792; and on the last day of April that year, Mr. Grey rose in the House of Commons, to give notice of his intention, early in the ensuing session, to bring forward some propositions relative to a parliamentary reform. He said, in evident alluson to Mr. Fox and his friends, "that many of the greatest and most respectable characters that ever existed in the country, were declared advocates for a reform in the representation of the people. That some of these persons had not of late come forward on the occasion, was more owing to an apprehension of not succeeding in the project, than of any change of sentiment. That the necessity of such a measure existed now more than ever, and that the general opinion was more in favour of it, he was fully convinced; and he also thought, that by a timely adoption of so salutary an expedient, many serious consequences might be avoided." This announcement produced a warm altercation; in the course of which, Mr. Burke took occasion to inveigh with extreme bitterness against the club, that had been just formed to newmodel the constitution. Several members of the opposition answered Mr. Burke, and vindicated the society of the Friends of the People; but it was remarked, that Mr. Fox, though directly appealed to by that great orator, remained perfectly silent. In pursuance of this notice, Mr. Grey, on the 8th of May, 1793, brought forward his motion, introducing it with a petition from the "Society of the Friends of the People," praying for a thorough reform in, and a shorter duration of, parliament. This petition was of considerable length, and went into a general statement of the partial representation of the people in the House of Commons, as it then existed, by which the majority of members was returned by not more than fifteen hundred electors. The petition stated that Cornwall sent to parliament, within one, as many as all Scotland. It complained of rotten boroughs, of the nomination of members by peers and other persons, and of various other corrupt practices. Mr. Grey having read the petition, entered into an elaborate train of proofs of the allegations it contained; after which, he moved that the petition be referred, with others presented at the same time, to a select committee, to examine, and report thereon. This gave rise to a long debate, which was adjourned till the next day, when the motion was rejected by two hundred and eighty-two votes against forty-one. At this time war had become inevitable, by the preparations of government, and the decisions in support of those measures by parliament; and owing to the alarm which the progress of republicanism had excited, many of the old Whigs appeared in favour of hostilities. Mr. Grey was one of the first, however, to oppose the current, by moving a long address to the king, disapproving the whole conduct of his majesty's ministers, as leading to no other termination than that of plunging their country into an unnecessary war. It need scarcely be observed, that this motion was negatived without a division. But one part of this proposed address merits notice in the present sketch, as characteristic of the comprehensive mind of the statesman from whom it proceeded though many thought, at the time, that it was little better than an episodical superfetation. The passage is as follows: "When Poland was about to recover from the long calamities of anarchy, combined with oppression; after she had established an hereditary and limited monarchy, like our own, and was peaceably employed in settling her internal government; his majesty's ministers, with apparent indifference and unconcern, have seen her become the victim of the most unprovoked and unprincipled invasion; her territory overrun, her free constitution subverted, her national independence annihilated, and the general principles of the security of nations wounded through her side." On the 26th of January, 1795, Mr. Grey made another ineffectual attempt to put a stop to the ravages of war, by a motion for opening a negotiation with the existing government of France. Though he failed in persuading the house to accede to his proposition, he had the satisfaction of gaining over Mr. Wilberforce to his side, and of increasing the numbers in opposition to ministers. In the same session, a message from the king was brought down to the house of commons, recommending a suitable establishment for the Prince of Wales on his marriage, and the adoption of some measure for the liquidation of his debts. The proposed addition to the income of his royal highness produced a warm opposition, in which no one was more prominent than Mr. Grey. "He professed himself," he said, "as ready to support the real splendour of the royal family, as any slippery sycophant of the court; but that he thought there was more true dignity in manifesting a heart alive to the distresses of millions, than in all those trappings which encumber without adorning, royalty." He concluded with moving, that the addition should be reduced from £65,000 to £40,000. This motion, though strongly supported, was lost by a majority of one hundred and sixty-nine votes. At the close of this session of parliament, Mr. Grey moved articles of impeachment against Mr. Pitt, and the whole body of ministers, for misapplying the public money; but though he traversed a vast space of ground, and laboured the charge with considerable power of argument, the weight of numbers was on the other side. In the spring session of 1797, Mr. Grey brought forward a plan of parliamentary reform, which may be considered in some respects as the embryo or germ of that which is now in progress. He proposed to give the county of York four new members;-to divide each county into two districts, each of which to return one member. Besides the freeholders, he proposed to give the right of voting to copyholders and leaseholders. |