1823.] Stephensiana, No. XVII. 



tress, that she prevailed upon her to of the human mind, 

 let Flaxman take a model from it; 



MJiicli Mrs. J. was afterwards con- 

 stantly in the habit of seeing exliibited 

 in his shop in the Strand, where were 

 to be purchased plaster-casts for the 

 use of artists. 



MR. GIBBON. 



When Mr. Fox's library was sold 

 in 1781, (for that great man, wlio main- 

 tained so honourable a place in the 

 public esteem, was not fortunate in the 

 administration of his temporalities,) 

 the first volume of "the Decline and 

 Fall" came to the hammer. What is 

 singular enough, it brought three gui- 

 neas, from a little competition, full of 

 ardour, excited by a manuscript note 

 in it, in the well-known hand of tlie 

 man of the people: — "The author at 

 Brookes's said that there was no salva- 

 tion for this country until the heads of 

 the principal persons in administra- 

 tion were laid upon the table. And 

 yet, in eleven days after, this same 

 gentleman accepted a place at the 

 Board of Trade, under those very 

 ministers, and has acted with them 

 ever since." The historian was a man 

 of genius, and no one doubts the me- 

 rits of his productions ; but an opinion 

 is here implied that does no great ho- 

 nour to his patriotism. 



LORD Chatham's monument. 



It is said that Garrick stood for the 

 attitude of his lordship, as executed 

 by Bacon, and placed in Westminster 

 Abbey. 



RISE AND FALL OF NATIONS. 



Mr. Burke, one of the most inge- 

 nious and profound writers of a late 

 period, has made the following obser- 

 vations on the prosperity of nations: — 

 " In all speculations ujjon men and 

 human affairs, it is of no small moment 

 to distinguish things of accident from 

 permanent causes and from effects 

 that cannot be altered. I am not quite 

 of the mind of those speculators who 

 seem assured that necessarily, and by 

 the constitution of things, all states 

 have the same periods of infancy, 

 manhood, and decrepitude, that are 

 found in the individuals who compose 

 them. The objects which are attempt- 

 ed to be forced into an analogy are not 

 founded in the same classes of exist- 

 ence. Individuals are physical beings, 

 subject to laws universal and invaria- 

 ble : commonwealths are not physical 

 but moral essences ; they are artificial 

 combinations, and, in their proximate 

 4iflicient cause, the arbitrary production 



143 



We are not yet 



acquainted with the laws which neces- 

 sarily govern that kind of work made 

 by that kind of agent. There is not, 

 as in the physical order, a distinct 

 cause by which any of those fabrics 

 must necessarily grow, flourish, and 

 decay; nor indeed, in my opinion, 

 does the moral world produce any 

 tiling more determinate on that sub- 

 ject than what may serve as an amuse- 

 ment (liberal, indeed, and ingenious, 

 but still only an amusement,) for spe- 

 culative men. I doubt whether the 

 history of mankind is yet complete 

 enough, if ever it can be so, to furnish 

 grounds lor a sure theory on the inter- 

 nal causes which necessarily affect the 

 fortune of a state. I am far from de- 

 nying the o|)eration of such causes ; 

 but they are infinitely uncertain, and 

 much more obscure and much more 

 difficult to trace than the foreign 

 causes that tend to depress and some- 

 times overwhelm society." 



LORD HARCOURT. 



The late nobleman, a great admirer 

 and practiser of the arts, fell a victim 

 to his humanity, in endeavouring to 

 save a favourite dog ; and was himself 

 precipitated in the well into which the 

 animal had fallen. 



THE NEGROES. 



'J'hese "heteroclites of the human 

 race," as they are called by Ur. Whi- 

 taker, were but little known in Europe 

 till the middle of tiie fifteenth century. 

 Among others parts which commerce 

 has acted in public affairs, is that of 

 making the people of various countries 

 acquainted with each other. The 

 Portuguese, in pushing their naviga- 

 tion along the western coast of Africa, 

 discovered these unfortunate people, 

 whose history we cannot now survey 

 without compassion. William of 

 Malmsbury, however, two centuries 

 before, had remarked their peculiari- 

 ties, and introduced them to public 

 notice. In the expedition of Baldwin 

 against the Turks, he describes them 

 as " Ethiopians with woolly hair, and 

 a complexion as dark as soot." 



Five hundred negroes were in the 

 city when Jerusalem was stormed by 

 the Crusaders in 1099; terms were 

 granted them, and they were allowed 

 to march out to Ascalon. Their ap- 

 pearance and manners were ludicrous 

 to the Crusaders, who laughed, it 

 seems, when they first saw the blacks: 

 — " Our men tliought it a scandal to 

 llicir valour to cut them down ; con- 

 ceiving 



