426 
bad habits and personal indolence, the 
least useful man of his age. 
BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
The precious. gift of civil liberty has 
been attained in England, not from 
the legislative genius of individuals, 
as at Athens and Spawa; but, by im- 
proving critical junctures, by frequent 
changes of the dynasty, by, two great 
revolutions, and by the progressive 
experience of ages. ‘The {first step to- 
wards a more restrained despotism 
. was at the accession of William Rutus, 
when he wrested the crown from the 
hands of his brother Robert. <A ge- 
nuine love of liberty has ever been 
predominant among the people; and 
-by degrees, as they found political 
occurrences favourable, they have been 
ready to embrace them. The tempe- 
rament of our ancient nobility was a 
check on the ferocity of unbridled 
power. Apropensity to servitude was 
then no characteristic of the great, 
nor were they so lost to a due sense of 
personal worth. 
SUMPTUARY LAWS. 
Among others at Zurich, in the 
thirteenth century, prostitutes were 
obliged to wear red caps, and the mu- 
sicians at wedding's were restricted to 
two fiddlers, two hautboys, and two 
singers. 
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE ELLENBOROUGH. 
This was one of the proudest men 
I ever knew. His condescensions 
even at dinner-table were too palpa- 
bly forced, and he scemed to consider 
himself like a schoolmaster who en- 
deayours to unbend among the youths 
upon whom he inflicts occasional fla- 
gellations. He was nevertheless a 
‘man possessed of a dangerous degree 
of talents, and of a dignified and co- 
pious flow of eloquence. 
WINDMILLS. 
Certain annalists report, that wind- 
mills were introduced into Normandy 
so early as the year 1105. Authors 
had before observed, that they were 
first used in the dry countries of Asia 
Minor. These, together with silk and 
sugar, were introduced into Italy, from 
Greece and Constantinople, during 
the expeditions of the Crusaders. 
SPANISH UNIVERSITIES. 
These were formerly twenty-two in 
number ; but one-half were suppressed 
in 1807. A general uniformity pre- 
vailed in their modes of instruction, 
but it rather conduced to superstition 
than to the preservation or improve- 
ment of real learning. Instead of 
Stephensiuna, No. XIV; 
[Dec. 1, 
each fuilowing their old plans, a new 
system of education, formed on more 
excellent modern models, was pre- 
scribed for the university of Salaman- 
ca, and this was to be followed in the 
others. The universities suppressed 
were—Toledo, Bona, Onnaté, Ori- 
huela, Avila, Irache, Baeza, Ossuna, 
Almagro, Gandia,and Siguenza. Those 
remaining are—Salamaneca, Alcala, 
Valladolid, Seville, Grenada, Valen- 
tia, Saragossa, Huesca, Cervera, St. 
lago, and Oviedo. Ay ee 
Unhappily, the forms by which uni- 
versity instruction is regulated place 
them, in point of actuak knowledge, a 
full century behind the rest of the 
world. They venture to teach nothing 
till all the rest of the world has 
adopted it. Just so, too, it is in all 
societies called learned: they are go- 
verned by the ancient members, and 
the knowledge of these is always one 
age behind that of the unfettered part 
of the community. 
THE ARGUS—CAPT. PERRY. 
I was invited in 1789, at the setting 
up of the above newspaper, to take a 
share in it; but, as I was in some de- 
gree engaged in the Orac/e, I declined 
the offer. I nevertheless made one of 
the party, at the house of Capt. P. in 
Argyll-street, where the plan for bring- 
ing it out was finally arranged. Among 
other persons present were Jobn 'Tur- 
ner, brother to Sir Gregory Page 
Turner, Thomas Twistleton, brother 
to Lord Saye and Sele, and Sir Harry 
Tempest. Nothing could exceed the 
strange notions which some of them 
entertained on the business of con- 
ducting a newspaper. One desired to 
have a column set apart for his re- 
marks on the world of fashion, after 
the manner of Addison, in the Spec- 
tator; another insisted on the same 
space being allotted to him for puns 
and jeux d’esprit ; and, in-consequenee, 
it was agreed that a certain space 
should be left open for the joint pro- 
duetion of two of the proprietors ; but 
the editorship of the whole was assign- 
ed to the largest sharer in the werk, 
Capt. Sampson Perry, formerly a sur- 
geon and officer of militia. 
There were, at the period of the 
birth of this paper, a considerable num- 
ber of peers and commoners neither 
attached to nor approving the mea- 
sures of the then ministry, who were 
denominated the Neutral Squad, at the 
head of which was Lord Hawke, a 
man of ordinary abilities, but ‘around 
. whom 
