terous wife, who had fled to Warren's castle as to a place of safety. Lancaster came upon them whilst engaged in consummating their honeymoon, and burnt Sandal Castle to the ground, and with it most of its brave defenders. Earl Warren himself, and Joan of Lancaster, however, escaped from the castle by a subterraneous passage; such, at least, is the common tradition. At all events, Earl Warren escaped, and he rebuilt the castle in great splendor. The third era embraces the period of the wars of the Roses, and the subsequent dismantling of the castle in its occu Sunday. But this is a digression. We left | the Duke of York a prisoner in the hands of Margaret's forces; they sat him on a little hillock, placed a paper crown on his head, and bowed the knee in mock reverence before him; and when he wept for shame at such insults, Clifford gave him a scarf dipped in the blood of young Rutland, wherewithal to wipe his eyes; adding outrage to insult. They slew him there, and placed his head on the tower of York, so that " York might overlook York." Sandal Castle was then dismantled, and has no important history for a long time, until the period of the Protec-pancy by the royalist troops. The fourth torate, when King Charles held possession of era relates to the destruction of the castle by it. Colonel Overton, at the head of the Cromwell's general, and ends its history. parliamentary army, advanced to lay siege to the place, which was defended on the part of Charles, by Bonnivant, and right stoutly did he hold his trust. Colonel Overton stationed a battery on Lowe Hill for the purpose of beating down the walls, though with little result. The stout old pile did its duty bravely: "In vain! ye shake, but cannot raze LEATHAM. But within the castle gaunt famine was stalking abroad in its most horrible shapes, and the garrison were obliged, having no prospect of speedy relief, to come to a compromise with the besiegers. They were allowed to march out unmolested, with all the honors of war, and Cromwell's troops speedily razed its towers to the ground, and since that time its political history is a blank. It is destined to play no further part in the history of our country. A small fragment of solitary wall still remains; and within one of the windows is carved in the stone the names of all the great little visitors, the Joneses and the Smiths, whose desire to grave their names on one of Time's pedestals has led them to that elevation. Sandal Castle's history may be divided into four eras; the first, of its erection, we cannot speak, but no doubt it is of great antiquity. The second era embraces its history, under the Earl of Warren, who owned Sandal as one part of his vast domains. It was destroyed in his time by the Earl of Lancaster, in revenge for the harboring of his adul After going over the ground, and peopling it with the spirits of departed heroes, we left the scene, and returned towards Wakefield, this time taking the high road. A couple of hundred yards down Cock and Bottle lane brings us to a triangular piece of ground on the right hand side, still pointed out as the death place of the Duke of York. It is nearly adjacent to the high road, and is now entirely overgrown with trees. Historical reminiscences now strike us at every step. We can fancy York bravely retiring from the fight, pursued perhaps by a knot of soldiers; here taken prisoner, and here beheaded. A spring of water from a solid rock faces the place. It is a most remarkable fact, that nowhere does the pale primrose grow with such profusion as on this thrice-dyed battle scene. Little rosy children and country maidens flock to gather the earliest blossoms of the season at Sandal Castle. Is it because the soil is so rich from the mere wantonness of the spirit of death which was here displayed? Who knows? the same has been observed at Towton, where a great battle took place between the Yorkists and Lancasterians, and where "roses of a peculiar kind still grow; some in distinct circles in the centre of the ground. Many of the inhabitants of the village believe that these roses spring from the pits in which the slain were buried after the battle." [Leatham.] At Waterloo, too, if I mistake not, the produce of the field of battle is tinged with a peculiarity not to be found elsewhere. Leaving the death place of York, we proceeded homewards, and the shades of evening were beginning to encircle the world of nature, when we again crossed the Calder on our entrance into Wakefield. NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. Mirabeau: : a Life-History. In Four Books. 2 vols. | Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Edited 12mo. Smith and Elder. London, 1848. The author of this work states, that before the memorable 23d of February, a considerable portion of it was ready for the press; but that in the second volume, recent events have disposed him in the choice of such passages as were still sound, practicable advice to Frenchmen, and, in fact, to every lover of order and of peace." The style and tone of the publication is somewhat too much of the Carlyle school for our taste, but it furnishes much better material from which to form a judgment concerning the history and character of Mirabeau than the English reader will find elsewhere. The tendency of the writer to look as favorably as may consist with candor on his much disfavored hero, does not lead him to suppress facts; and as to his own reasoning upon those facts, the reader will be competent to judge of the degree of value that should be attached to it. Under the best possible education, the passionate, impulsive nature of Mirabeau would have been a faulty nature; under the influence of an education as neglected and faulty as it could well be, the natural consequences followed. Up to a certain point in his history, the bad was comparatively forgotten in the good; from that point the good has been as much forgotten in the bad. But the unfortunate incident for his memory has been, that after awhile he ceased to be a man of mere party; and thus, by degrees, brought upon him the evil tongues of all parties. He found it easier to raise the demon of revolution than to control it when raised. This last work, however, his gigantic soul saw must be done, or all would be lost. But the thing could not be done, and what he foresaw ensued. In this respect, his career bears some resemblance to that of Cromwell. Had he given himself up to mere partisanship, his party would have been an heir-loom for his reputation. All sorts of party passions would have rushed to his defence, had he only been content to echo its watchwords. But his nature, with all its faults, could not be brought to worship the narrow egotism of party as the wisdom of humanity. His aim, accordingly, was in the direction of a broader and more humane form of settlement than mere partisanship could tolerate. In holding to this course he was wise, however much he may have been execrated and calumniated for his wisdom. Men of sense look back upon him as the one man who saw where it would be good to stop, and their estimate of the mobs, or the managers of mobs, who were proof against his counsel, is not now very flattering. In his private life, he was a vicious man in a vicious age, but there were some forms of degradation to which the sovereignty of his intellectua! nature could never be brought to submit.-Britizh Quarterly Review. by William Smith, LL. D. Second edition improved and enlarged. In some points of view this new edition of Dr. Smith's very valuable Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities is almost a new work. Various articles have been entirely rewritten, especially in the earlier part, where the idea of a smaller book than was eventually found advantageous induced a somewhat curtailed treatment, during its first serial appearance. A good many new articles have been added, the subjects of which were altogether omitted in the first edition; a considerable addition has been made to the number of illustrative wood-cuts; and those articles in which no fundamental change has been made have been carefully revised. In short, the new matter extends to upwards of three hundred pages, besides the illustrations; and the old has been carefully considered and corrected.—Spectator. Life of Lord Clive. By the Rev. G. R. Gleig. This book, forming Nos. 5, 6, and 7 of "Murray's Home and Colonial Library," is a carefully compiled history of the public career of the founder of our Indian Empire-and does not pretend to be anything more. It is chiefly founded on the "Life," by Sir John Malcolm: no new materials are added, nor is any novelty in the way of estimating the mixed, but brilliant, character of the conqueror attempted. Mr. Gleig seems to have had no purpose in writing beyond making a book; but this he has done with the careful mediocrity of manner which marks all his productions; and perhaps many will be disposed to read the narrative of Clive's life in this form who are unable to procure the larger work of Sir John Malcolm. Neither is, however, very satisfactory. Macaulay's essay on Clive is incomparably the best and truest account of him which we possess. But it is only an essay; the history of the Hero of Plassey still remains to be written.-Athenæum. The Authorship of the Letters of Junius elucidated; including a Biographical Memoir of Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Barré, M. P. By John Britton, F. S. A. London: J. R. Smith. 1848. We cannot say that we think Mr. Britton's "Elucidation," creditable as it is to his ingenuity and research, will throw much light upon the vexed question of the authorship of the famous Letters of Junius. Mr. Britton is of opinion that the real author of these letters was Col. Barré, and that he was assisted in their composition by the Earl of Shelburne, and Dun ning, Lord Ashburton. To the same trio the authorship has been before attributed, with this difference, however, that the first place has been assigned to Lord Shelburne, Barré and Dunning being spoken of as his assistants; and Col. Barré has been named as the probable author, though his individual claims seem not to have been publicly investigated. Mr. Britton's opinion that the letters emanated from the parties above named, seems to have been formed nearly half a century ago, while collecting materials for his Beauties of Wiltshire." He at that time became acquainted with the Rev. Dr. Popham, of Chilton, who, in early life, held the vicarage of Lacock for more than twenty years. During this time Dr. Popham was in the habit of visiting at Bowood, the seat of the Earl of Shelburne; where, among other distinguished men of the day, Counsellor Dunning and Col. Barré were the most regular and constant visitors. Certain peculiarities in the daily intercourse of the Earl and his protégés excited Dr. Popham's attention, and finally his belief became confirmed that the trio were either the actual authors of the letters, or that they knew the writer. On one particular occasion, when the clergyman and the three friends were the only persons present at the dinner-table, an attack on the writings of Junius, then exciting attention, was discussed, and one of the party made the remark, "that it would be shown up and confuted by Junius in the next day's Advertiser." Instead of the confutation, however, there was a note by the printer, stating that the letter would appear in the ensuing number. Thenceforward," said Dr. Popham, "I was convinced that one of my three friends was Junius;" but this circumstance, in our opinion, tells rather against than for the hypothesis, though Mr. Britton seems to consider it as one of the conclusive facts in favor of his view of the case.-Westminster Review. Scholia Hellenistica in Novum Testamentum, Philone et Josepho Patribus Apostolicis aliisque Ecclesia antiquæ Scriptoribus necnon Libris Apocryphis maxime deprompta. Londini: Pickering. The title of the volumes before us sufficiently explains their general object. They consist of a series of short extracts, in the original Greek, from occasionally from Chrysostom and other early Philo-Judæus, Josephus, the Apostolic Fathers, and writers, and from the Apocryphal books of the New Testament, interspersed with remarks of Grotius, Carpzov, Valckenaer, and other modern writers on Sacred Criticism. The extracts are arranged in connection with each verse of the New Testament, and field must have bestowed a vast amount of labor in are accompanied by Scripture references. Mr. Grinbringing together such a mass of erudition, bearing on the subject of the illustration of the New Testament; and we feel assured that his labors on so great a subject will be justly appreciated by the and we rarely meet now with such elegant Latinity Church. His work is the fruit of a ripe scholarship, as in his Preface, which it is a positive pleasure to peruse-English Review. Life in Russia, or the Discipline of Despotism. By Edward P. Thompson, Esq., Author of "The Notebook of a Naturalist." London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1848. A delightful and impartial narrative of the events incident to a residence in a part of the world of which we really know next to nothing. As Mr. Thompson truly says, In the middle of the nineteenth cenrury, there is less known of Russia than of any other country, most certainly than of any other country in Europe, and yet more is said of it, more obloquy is heaped upon it, and more unjust statements made concerning it than it deserves, with all its faults." This is clearly attributable to our ignorance of the great empire. We know that, in Russia, despotism and serfdom mutually support and sustain each other; that bribery and espionage go hand in hand; and that the two extremes of barbaric pomp and the most abject misery, co-exist among the people to a greater degree, perhaps, than is to be found in any other nation; but of the real sentiments of the Russians in reference to their condition, and indeed of the true social position of the mass of the people, we are comparatively ignorant. We are unable to realize a state of things so opposed to all we are in the habit of considering the most desirable condition for a people, forgetting that at no very remote period our own island in many respects presented an approximation to the existing state of the Russian empire. And we have been further sub LIST OF NEW PUBLICATONS. The Castlereagh Memoirs and Correspondence, 2 Mrs. Trollope's New Novel, the Young Countess. vols. 8vo. Memoirs of Chateaubriand, written by himself. Zoological Recreations, by W. J. Broderick. Secrets of the Confessional, by Count C. P. de Lasteyrie. 2 vols. Clara Fane, by Louisa Stuart Costello. Rollo and his Race, by Acton Warburton. 2 vols. Mr. Street's Poem, Frontenac. An Essay on English Poetry, with Short Lives of the The Conspiracy of the Jesuits, by the Abbate Leone. |