M$ 
old age alone prevented him from pro¬ 
nouncing on her the severest sentence 
of the law. He ordered that she should 
pay a fine of Is. aud be imprisoned in 
the house of correction, and there 
kept to hard labour, for six calendar 
months. 
INCREASE OF THE PRIVILEGED 
CLASS. 
When George III. came to the throne 
in 1/60, the House of Peers was com¬ 
posed of 107 lav peers, besides the 
bishops. Even the revolution of 1688, 
which entailed so sensible an obliga¬ 
tion 011 William, produced only three 
dukes and five earls, and none of in¬ 
ferior degree. But in 55 years the 
English peerage increased to 366 per¬ 
sons, deducting the 28 Irish peers for 
life, and 16 peers for Scotland, an ad- 
(1 if ion of 191 to the ranks of the no¬ 
bility in that short time—add to these 
a new creation of Irish peers, who had 
not seats in the upper house, about 75 
—and it makes a total of 266. Ba¬ 
ronets have increased in a still greater 
proportion ; for there were 398 English 
baronets more in 1819 than in 1760. 
THE JEWISH POETS. 
Professor Eichliorn has long engaged 
in editing the preserved fragments of the 
Jewish political poets. He arranges 
their oracles in the chronological order 
of the events to which they relate, and 
is endeavouring to shew that they were 
all composed after the transactions to 
which they allude. Under the name 
of Isaiah, for instance, many poems have 
been brought together, which describe 
events occurring during the reigns of 
Cyrus and Darius Hystaspes. These, 
in the professor’s opinion, were then 
first written, principally by Daniel, 
and had no place in the canon of the 
temple. They were according to him 
'first inserted in that edition or transla¬ 
tion of the sacred books of the Jews, 
which, for the information of the court 
of Shushan, was undertaken by Jere¬ 
miah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah and 
Ezra. It is this translation which we 
possess. Hebrew was the language of 
the court of Shushan; but was at no 
period the vernacular dialect of Jeru¬ 
salem. Cyrus and Darius were both 
descended from those Jews, whom 
Shalmaneser transplanted into the ci¬ 
ties of the Medes; and when they ac¬ 
quired ascendancy in Persia, they set 
about establishing there the Jewish 
religion. This was completely accom- 
plishe 1 at an early period of the reign 
of Darius, and fev means of an exten- 
[Sept } f 
sive massacre of the idolatrous priest¬ 
hood, called by Herodotus the Mayo- 
phonia , and circumstantially related in 
the 9th chapter of Esther. The Jewish 
religion continued to be the established 
church of the Persian empire until the 
Jewish dynasty was overthrown by the 
conquests of Alexander the Great. To 
Ezra principally was confided the con¬ 
fection of the Scriptures, who, under 
the name Zoroaster is celebrated by the 
Greeks as the religious law-giver of 
Persia. The Medic title tsar, or prince,, 
has coalesced with his name, Zoroaster 
being the Greek form of the words 
Ezra-tsar. 
PRICE OF PICTURES. 
It is well known that pictures of any 
considerable interest are not to be 
bought except by mere chance, and at 
enormous prices. A hundred years ago, 
the little Correggio at Dresden, a picture 
not a foot square, Avas sold for 13,000 
gold ducats, and when a certain poAAer- 
fill monarch told the Duke of Tuscany 
that he Avotild give him 8000 crowns 
for the Madonna della Seggiola at 
Florence, the duke replied that for 
another such picture, he would gwe 
his majesty 80,000. The small picture 
of Acteon, belonging to the late Mr. 
West and ascribed to Titian, sold for 
£2000, AA r hile Mr. West refused 10,000k 
for his OAATi last picture but one. 
TO FELTON IN THE TOWER. — 1628. 
By butler, Author of Hudibras. 
Enjoy thy bondage, make thy prison know 
Thou hast a liberty, thou canst not owe 
To such base punishments, kept entire, 
since 
Nothing but guilt shackles the conscience. 
I dare not tempt thy valiant blood to whey . 
Enfeebling it with pity ; nor dare pray 
That thou may’st mercy find : lest thy grea$ 
story 
Lose somewhat of its miracle and glory: 
I Avish thy merit study’d cruelty, 
Stout vengeance best befits thy memory ; 
And I would have posterity to hear, 
He that can bravely do can bravely bear. 
Tortures seem great unto a coAvard’s eye ; 
’Tis no great thing to suffer ; less to die. 
Should all the clouds fall out, and in the 
strife 
Lightning and thunder take aAvay my life, 
I should applaud the wisdom of my fate, 
Which knew to value me at such a rate, 
As at my fall to trouble all the sky, 
Emptying upon me Jove’s full armory. 
Serve in your sharpest punishments, use 
the rack 
Enlarge each joint, and make each sineAV 
crack ? 
Cornucopia. 
Thy 
