it same piece, cannot have been accidental; and the Anne Bullen, we may be sure that he would not more closely it is examined the more clearly will have occupied us through the four first acts with a appear that the metre in these two sets of scenes tragic and absorbing interest in the decline and is managed upon entirely different principles, and death of Queen Katharine, and through half the bears evidence of different workmen. To explain fifth with a quarrel between Cranmer and Gardiner, all the particular differences would be to analyze in which we have no interest. On the other hand, the structure first of Shakspeare's metre, then of since it is by Shakspeare that all the principal Fletcher's; a dry and tedious task. But the general matters and characters are introduced, it is not difference may easily be made evident by placing likely that the general design of the piece would be any undoubted specimen of Shakspeare's later laid out by another. I should rather conjecture that workmanship by the side of the one, and of Fletch- he had conceived the idea of a great historical er's middle workmanship by the side of the other; drama on the subject of Henry VIII., which would the identity in both cases will be felt at once. The have included the divorce of Katharine, the fall only difficulty is to find a serious play known to be of Wolsey, the rise of Cranmer, the coronation of the unassisted composition of Fletcher, and to have Anne Bullen, and the final separation of the Engbeen written about the year 1612; for in those lish from the Romish Church, which, being the which he wrote before his partnership with Beau-one great historical event of the reign, would mout his distinctive mannerism is less marked; in naturally be chosen as the focus of poetic interest; those which he wrote after Beaumont's death it is that he had proceeded in the execution of this idea more exaggerated. But read the last Act of the as far perhaps as the third Act, which might have "Honest Man's Fortune," which was first repre- included the establishment of Cranmer in the seat sented in 1613; the opening of the third Act of the of highest ecclesiastical authority, (the council"Captain," which appeared towards the close of chamber scene, in the fifth, being designed as an 1612; and the great scene extracted by Charles introduction to that;) when, finding that his felLamb from the fourth Act of "Thierry and Theo- lows of the Globe were in distress for a new play doret,"* which, though not produced, I believe, to honor the marriage of the Lady Elizabeth with, till 1621, is thought to have been written much he thought that his half-finished work might help earlier; and you will have sufficient samples of them, and accordingly handed them his manuscript his middle style, in all its varieties, to make the to make what they could of it; that they put it comparison. In all these, besides the general into the hands of Fletcher, (already in high repute structure of the language and rhythm, there are as a popular and expeditious playwright,) who, many particular verbal and rhythmical affectations finding the original design not very suitable to the which will at once catch any ear that is accustomed occasion, and utterly beyond his capacity, expanded to Shakspeare, whose style is entirely free from the three acts into five, by interspersing scenes of them; and every one of these will be found as show and magnificence, and passages of descripfrequent in the un-Shakspearian portions of Henry tion, and long poetical conversations, in which his VIII., as in the above mentioned passages, which strength lay; dropped all allusion to the great ecare undoubtedly Fletcher's. clesiastical revolution, which he could not manage, and for which he had no materials supplied him; converted what should have been the middle into the end; and so turned out a splendid “historical masque, or show-play," which was no doubt very popular then, as it has been ever since. Assuming, then, that Henry VIII. was written partly by Shakspeare, partly by Fletcher, with the assistance probably of some third hand, it becomes a curious question, upon what plan their joint labors were conducted. It was not unusual in those days, when a play was wanted in a hurry, to set two or three, or even four, hands at work upon it; and the occasion of the Princess Elizabeth's marriage (February, 1612-13) may very likely have suggested the production of a play representing the marriage of Henry VIII. and Anne Bullen. Such an occasion would sufficiently account for the determination to treat the subject not tragically; the necessity of producing it immediately might lead to the employment of several hands; and thence would follow inequality of workmanship and imperfect adaptation of the several parts to each other. But this would not explain the incoherency and inconsistency of the main design. Had Shakspeare been employed to make a design for a play which was to end with the happy marriage of Henry and This is a bold conjecture, but it will account for all the phenomena. Read the portions which I have marked as Shakspeare's by themselves, and suppose them to belong to the first half of the play, and they will not seem unworthy of him; though the touches of an inferior hand may perhaps be traced here and there, and the original connexion is probably lost beyond recovery in the interpolations. Suppose, again, the design of the play as it stands to have been left to Fletcher, and the want of moral consistency and coherency needs no further explanation. The want of a just moral feeling is Fletcher's characteristic defect, and lies at the bottom of all that is most offensive in him, from his lowest mood to his highest. That it has not in this case betrayed him into such gross inconsistencies and indelicacies as usual, may be explained by the fact that he was following the Chronicles, and had little room for his own inventions. A *In this scene we have 154 lines with the redundant syllable out of 232; 2 in 3; exactly the same proportion which we find in so many scenes of Henry VIII.; and nowhere else I think through the entire range of the Shak-comparison between this play and the "Two Noble spearian theatre. Kinsmen," the condition and supposed history of CHARITY TO UNBELIEF. I am no bigot. I believe that men will be judged by their actions and intentions, not their creed. I am a Christian; and so will Turk, Jew, and Gentile be in heaven, if they have lived well according to the light which was vouchsafed them. I do not and me in the world which we must both enter. fear that there will be a great gulph between you Nor does he scruple to describe very unceremoniously the men in whose service he was working at the time. THE STATESMEN OF THE LIVERPOOL SCHOOL. If our statesmen, so called by the courtesy of England, read Davila, and such historians as Davila, they could not commit such blunders as they have committed, are committing, and will commit, nor should we at this time have had cause to apprehend changes and consequent convulsions, from which we must look alone to Providence to preserve us. Were there more of sound knowledge there would be more of sound principle and sound feeling. I have to insert Sir P. Sidney among the elder worthies, and Hogarth among the latter; perhaps Johnson also, if I can so do it as to satisfy myself with the expression, and not seem to give him a higher praise than he deserves. Offence I know will be taken that the name of Pitt does not appear placent comfort occasionally from the sense that He appears, also, to derive an odd sort of comthere. The king would find him among the eminent men of his reign, but not among those whose in some particular book he is writing he shall rank will be confirmed by posterity. The whigs, certainly please nobody—as in this notice of too, will observe that none of their idols are brought forward; neither Hampden, nor their Sidney, nor Russell. I think of the first as ill as Lord Claren don did; and concerning Algernon Sidney, it is certain that he suffered wrongfully, but that does not make him a great man. If I had brought forward any man of that breed, it should have been old Oliver himself; and I had half a mind to do it. The old leaven shows itself in that last remark, and much would old George the Third have been amazed at finding himself nob and nob in Elysium with Old Noll! No wonder Southey should afterwards have occasion to remark his SOUTHEY'S CHURCH AND STATE CREED. 1. That revealed religion is true: 2. That the connection between church and state is necessary; 3. That the Church of England is the best ecclesiastical establishment which exists at present, or has yet existed; 4. That both church and state require great amendments; 5. That both are in great danger; and, 6. That a revolution would destroy the happiness of one generation, and leave things at last worse than it found them. In another, also, in his letters, there occurs a somewhat memorable avowal of *On this subject see an excellent article in the Westminster Review, vol. xlvii. p. 59; which is especially valuable for the discovery of some of Shakspeare's very finest workmanship among the scenes of the underplot, which previous critics had set down as all alike worthless. CCCXXXIII. LIVING AGE. VOL. XXVII. 3 THE LIFE OF WESLEY. It is written with too fair a spirit to satisfy any particular set of men. For the "religious public" it will be too tolerant and too philosophical; for the liberals it will be too devotional; the Methodists will not endure any censure of their founder and their institutions: the high Churchman will as little be able to allow any praise of them. Some will complain of it as being heavy and dull; others will not think it serious enough. I shall be abused on all sides, and you well know how little I shall care for it. To these extracts we shall append Mr. Cuthbert Southey's interesting mention of 66 THE CHANGES ADVOCATED BY SOUTHEY IN THE The The necessity of doing away with interments in | learnt that Raisley C. had committed the great sin crowded cities. The system of giving allotments of shooting an owl. The criminality of the act of ground to laborers. The employment of paupers was qualified by an ingenuous confession that he in cultivating waste lands. The commutation of did not know what it was when he fired at it; the tithes and, lastly, the necessity for more clergy-bird was brought in to show us, and then given me men, more colleges, more courts of law. —And a somewhat striking protest made by ey himself against what in those days might fairly be called QUARTERLY." The journal wants more of the litera humaniores, that I might show it to your godson-owls and South-monkeys being of all created things those for which he has acquired the greatest liking from his graphic studies. Home I came with the owl in my hand, and in the morning you would have been well pleased had you seen Cuthbert's joy at recognizing, for the first time, the reality of what he sees daily in Bewick or in some other of his books. Wordsworth and his wife were here, and as there was no sin in eating the owl, I ordered it to be dressed and brought in, in the place of game that day at dinner. It was served up, without the head, and a squat-looking fellow it was, about the size of a large wild pigeon, but broader in proportion to its length. The meat was more like bad mutton than anything else. Wordsworth was not valiant enough to taste it. Mrs. W. did, and we agreed that there could be no pretext for making owls game and killing them as delicacies. But if ever you eat one, by all means try it boiled, with onion sauce. and in a humaner tone than it has been wont to observe. I think a great deal of good may be done by conciliating young writers who are going wrong, by leading them with a friendly hand into the right path, giving them all the praise they deserve, and advising or insinuating, rather than reprehending. Keats might have been won in that manner, and perhaps have been saved. So I have been assured. Severity will have ten times more effect when it is employed only where it is well deserved. All this we think much to Southey's honor; and sure we are that the closer his character is examined, and the larger the thoughts that are brought to the consideration of it, the better it will be found to bear the tests of sincerity, honesty, and high-mindedness. Our concluding quo tations are also taken from his letters. HIS BOOKS. You may get the whole of Sir Thomas Brown's works more easily perhaps than the Hydrotaphia in a single form. The folio is neither scarce nor dear, and you will find it throughout a book to your heart's content. If I were confined to a score of English books, this I think would be one of them; nay, probably, it would be one of the selection were it cut down to twelve. My library, if reduced to those bounds, would consist of Shakspeare, Chaucer, Spenser, and Milton; Lord Clarendon; Jackson, Jeremy Taylor, and South; Isaac Walton, Sidney's Arcadia, Fuller's Church History, and Sir Thomas Brown; and what a wealthy and well-stored mind would that man have, what an inexhaustible reservoir, what a Bank of England to draw upon for profitable thoughts and delightful associations, who should have fed upon them! I am glad you have passed six weeks pleasurably and profitably, though grudging a little that they were not spent at Keswick, where, among other things, I should like you to see the additional book-room that we have fitted up, and in which I am now writing, dividing my time between the two book-rooms by spells, so that both may be kept well aired. It would please you to see such a display of literary wealth, which is at once the pride of my eye, and the joy of my heart, and the food of my mind; indeed, more than metaphorically; meat, drink, and clothing for me and mine. I verily believe that no one in my station was ever so rich before, and I am very sure that no one in any station had ever a more thorough enjoyment of riches of any kind, or in any way. It is more delightful for me to live with books than with men, even with all the relish that I have for such society as is worth having. THE Hudson's Bay Company are advertising for emigrants to Vancouver's Island. One plan adoptbody of experienced agriculturists, who are to be ed by the company is that of sending out a small engaged at about £55 a year with maintenance, under a contract for five years; the object being, that, with a certain number of laborers under them, they shall create farms which may be sold ultimately to persons possessed of moderate capital, and who are likely to become the most useful class of inhabitants. It is regarded as probable that many families would be tempted to seek the country with a view to settlement under such circumstances, who would hesitate to enter upon the wild life of a wholly unprepared region.-Times, City Article. THE Roman Catholic gentry residing in London 11th August, at St. George's Cathedral, in Westassembled in great numbers on Sunday morning, minster Road, to hear an expected farewell address from Dr. Nicholas Wiseman, on the eve of his decardinal. parture for Rome to be installed in the dignity of The Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Shrewsbury, the Earl of Kenmure, Lords Camoys, Beaumont, Clifford, Petre, Lovat, Strafford, Stourton, Arundel and Surrey, and Dormer, with Mr. Sheil, Mr. Anstey, and some other Roman Catholic members of the House of Commons, were present. High mass was celebrated; and the cardinal elect delivered an address, glorifying the success of Roman Catholicism throughout the world, and the zealous labors of the clergy in his own district. In England were present to hear a second sermon by the evening, many clergymen of the Church of Dr. Wiseman. The Pope, it seems, has expressed an earnest desire that Dr. Wiseman should reside of his counsel in the midst of the political and spiritpermanently in Rome, to give him the assistance ual difficulties which now environ the church. Cardinal Wiseman's successor here is not yet named; the choice is expected to fall upon either the Rev. Dr. Doyle, the senior priest of St. George's Cathedral, or the Rev. John Henry Newman, priest of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, King William Two or three weeks ago, calling at Calvert's, I Street, formerly Vicar of Great St. Mary's, Oxford. AN OWL FOR DINNER. From the New Monthly Magazine. RESPONSIBILITY OF MONOMANIACS. differing as to the mode of punishment to be adopted. Medical men, further, do not in general entertain that distinction upon which so much emphasis has THE case of Robert Pate, lately condemned to been laid since the time of Lord Hale. as to the seven years' transportation for an assult upon the knowledge between right and wrong. Dr. Davey, person of her majesty, presents many features of one of the surgeons of the Hanwell Asylum, justly peculiar interest, in a medical, a philosophical, and remarked in his " Medico-Legal Reflections on the a legal point of view. There could be no doubt as Trial of Daniel M'Naughten," that if consciousto the partial insanity of the culprit. His conduct ness be the test of insanity, he would be at a loss had always been that of a man laboring under to comprehend the cases of by very far the greater mental aberration. At one time, he fancied he was number of the patients in the Hanwell Asylum. being poisoned; at another, that his stomach was He instances, for example, the following case :— full of bricks and stones. When he was in the A patient, an inmate of Hanwell Asylum, labors service it was generally remarked, even among the under a form of insanity, characterized by excessive men, that he was not right in his head. Forced and obdurate pride. She sits always in one posiby a common form of insanity-imaginary persecution with her head thrown upwards and backwards, tions to leave the army, Dr. Conolly was consulted and her eyes directed to the ceiling, the legs are upon his case; but, unfortunately, nothing was done crossed, and the body erect as a board. She detowards placing him under either proper surveil-clines speaking to any one, and if spoken to, exlance or control. hibits the utmost contempt and annoyance. The only condescension she is ever known to be guilty of, is to inflict a severe chastisement on some person or other who may happen to incur her particular displeasure. So far as we can learn, adds Dr. Davey, this patient has no illusion or hallucination; her intellectual capacities are very good. No medical man doubts the necessity of punishing these violences of a proud and passionate nature; they only differ with lawyers as to the mode of punishment. They adopt moral and humane means; the law, such as are alone at its disposal. What possible good would transportation do in a case like this? While he was still at large, Mr. Startin, of Savile-row, reported his insanity to his relatives, but still no steps were taken to prevent the catastrophe, which was sure to occur some day or other. Every one, who saw Robert Pate cursorily was struck with his proceedings and condition. People stopped his cab-driver, to inquire if he was in his right mind. Those who have been in the habit of intercourse considered him latterly getting worse. Drs. Conolly and Munro testified in court to his insanity. So clearly, indeed, was the insanity of the man proved to the jury, that Baron Alderson congratulated the court upon the circumstance; for he justly remarked, "It has long been the boast of this country that no man of sane mind could be found capable of committing an attack on his sovereign;" and the learned judge, therefore, it is to be supposed, considered Robert Pate's case no exception to the general rule. Yet Robert Pate was found guilty of a premeditated crime by the jury, and was condemned to seven years' transportation by the judge. The views now entertained by the majority of medical men upon the question of responsibility as most consistent with our improved knowledge of the functions of the brain, as well as with reason, religion, and morality, may be expressed in the words of Mr. Sampson, author of a well-known pamphlet on "Criminal Jurisprudence considered in relation to Mental Organization"-that so far from the Creator having sent into the world some beings who are responsible, and others who are exception whatever; and that every human being is alike responsible-responsible (according to the degree of his departure, either in mind or body, from that degree of sanity necessary to the proper discharge of his social duties) to undergo the painful but benevolent treatment which is requisite for his cure. Such a result fully deserves a moment's consideration. The attorney-general laid it down, after the well-known fiat of Lord Hale, “that it was neces-exempt from responsibility, there is, in fact, no sary to show that a man was not aware what he was doing, or was incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong, to justify the jury in coming to a conclusion that an accused person was insane;" and Baron Alderson said, in his charge to the jury, "that they must clearly understand that it was not because a man was insane that he was unpunishable; and upon this point there was generally a very grievous delusion in the minds of medical men.' This conflicting position of men of science and of men of law here alluded to, and which has presented itself so frequently of late, appears to us to arise from a misapprehension of objects. Medical men in upholding before the jury, as in duty and conscientiousness they are bound to do, the insanity of a criminal, do not wish to screen the guilty person from punishment, but to convey by implication the kind of punishment (confinement in an asylum and medical treatment) which should be inflicted in such a case; while the law officers of the crown are jealous of a plea of insanity, as such may either lead to the acquittal of a guilty person, or to what they deem to be a too heavy punishment-seclusion in an asylum for life. To avoid these two alternatives, the law has ruled that it is not because a man is insane that he is unpunishable, medical men agreeing in the same view of the matter, only The now generally-admitted fact of plurality of organs and functions of the brain would at once show that there may be monomania or partial insanity, and yet an average degree of intelligence and a perfect appreciation of right from wrong. Dr. Wigan has gone further, and has to most persons shown in a satisfactory manner the duality of the mind, and that actually one propensity may be excited or diseased, while its corresponding organ may be in a state of quiescence. It had been justly remarked by Combe, in his invaluable essay on the Constitution of Man," that if a man could be found in whom all the qualities of mind and body were healthfully constituted and harmoniously developed, we should then behold one who would realize, humanly speaking, a perfect being. That all fall short of this standard, is a truth which religion and experience alike confirm; but some approach more nearly to it than others; and the question that we have to consider, in estimating the qualities of our fellow creatures, is not whether any one exists whose mind and body are thus perfectly | result of passions aroused to a maddened and unsane, but what is the relative degree of his or her controllable degree of resentment, jealousy, pride, divergence from the perfect type. or a drunken, furious, or morbid condition of body A variety even of most trifling things indicates and mind, than of cool premeditation. The law in each the amount of this divergence from that takes cognizance of this latter fact to a certain exharmonious balance of the mental powers in which tent, and establishes a distinction between murder alone true soundness of mind can exist. The mo- and manslaughter; but it is obvious that society ment a person becomes what is called eccentric, can take no cognizance of crime, except to prevent mentally separates himself from those who are and to punish it. Hence it is, that if insanity was around him, or departs in any ostensible manner to be a shield to either punishment or prevention, from the adopted practices of society, he is insane the plea might be advanced in almost every inaccording to this amount of divergence. It cannot, stance of evil done. Baron Alderson was, thereas a means of correction, be too strongly pointed fore, perfectly justified in ruling, that it is not beout that all indulgence in excessive vanity or love cause a man is insane that he is not punishable. of approbation, excessive pride, whether of family, The question is, when is the mode of commission social position, intelligence, riches or other acqui- of such a character that the punishment should be sitions, in religious exaltation and imaginary su- preventive, that is, medical rather than revengeful. perior piety, by excessive benevolence and injudi- Some of our best heads have been puzzled at this cious hospitality or generosity, and their reverse, point of the question. For example, Mr. George are forms of monomania or partial insanity. There Combe saw, in the Richmond Lunatic Asylum, is an excess of activity and consequent disease of Dublin, a patient who exhibited a total want of > one set of faculties to the injury and detriment of moral feeling and principle, yet possessed considerothers, more especially the intellect, and the more able intelligence, ingenuity, and plausibility. He amiable, generous, and noble sentiments. The ex- had been a scourge to his family from childhood— quisite balance of mental operations is interrupted, had been turned out of the army as an incorrigible and however unpleasant the imputation, there is villain-had attempted the life of a soldier-had incipient insanity. Society, happily, generally been repeatedly flogged-and had since attempted takes upon itself the correction of these minor the life of his father. Respecting this man, Dr. forms of insanity. Monomaniacal dresses and other Crawford, physician at the asylum, made the folaffectations in person and manner, indicative of a lowing remarks:-"He never was different from diseased self-esteem or love of approbation, are put what he now is; he has never evinced the slightest down by ridicule, by reproach, or by general con- mental incoherence on any one point, nor any kind demnation. Society, indeed, generally controls by of hallucination. It is one of those cases where derision and contempt the demands of an overween- there is great difficulty in drawing the line between ing or excessive vanity or pride. But when the extreme moral depravity and insanity, and in desame monomania is carried to uncontrollable ex-ciding at what point an individual should cease to cess, as in the instance of the patient at Hanwell, be considered as a responsible moral agent, and it is obvious that it is the duty of society to punish amenable to the laws. The governors and medical such aberrations by confinement and proper medical coercion and treatment. gentlemen of the asylum have often had doubts whether they were justified in keeping him as a lunatic, thinking him a more fit subject for a brideWe should have entertained but small doubts on the matter. It was humane and proper, under the circumstances, to keep a man, whose mind was so callous to every moral feeling and principle, under restraint as a moral lunatic; but it was just to society to punish him by law for every crime committed. So it is with regard to the progress of evil. We are all more or less addicted to evil, but the ten-well." dency is as contrary, and as opposed to a healthy and proper condition of mind, as any other form of monomania. False impressions, ungovernable desires, deficiencies of intellect or feeling-in short, all that makes up the sum of human errors, arises from an unbalanced action of the various faculties of the mind; and to the extent, therefore, that any one faculty is deficient in its comparative relation to the others in any individual, such is the extent of this departure from true soundness of mind in regard to those objects to which that faculty may relate. All human beings, then, are not perfect, but are more or less insane; that insanity, or divergence from perfection, being greater at times than at others. Thus, a person whose faculties are generally kept in admirable trim, will, under the influence of passion or excitement, do things which he may regret at other times. So also with regard to propensities-as love, the desire to acquire, to possess, or to hoard; by nature blessings, they may degenerate into curses, when transgressing the bounds of moderation. For the same reason, few crimes are committed in a state of sanity. Theft is more frequently a mere manifestation of uncontrolled or diseased acquisitiveness, or it arises from a deficiency of corrective feelings, rather than from positive want; so, also, the wounds and injuries inflicted, and murders committed, are far more frequently the In the case of Robert Pate, the insanity was established by antecedents, yet an indignant public called loudly and justly for punishment of a gross outrage committed. In this case his friends were most to blame, for not having put a long-ago acknowledged monomaniac under proper surveillance; but, the crime being committed, few medical men, as the learned judge premised, would have denied that punishment was necessary; they would only, by establishing the insanity of the accused, have shown that the punishment should have been removal forever from a society which he had so grossly injured-not transportation, like a felon. In the very paper which recorded the trial of Robert Pate, there was a verdict of a different character given in the case of one Walker, who threatened to assassinate the President of the French Republic. This bad man was declared by two medical men to be excited on three points-viz., suicide, homicide, and celebrity. The punishment awarded was not transportation, but incarceration in an asylum, and the cold-water douche, which, by reducing the excitement of the diseased organs, and bringing reason into play, has proved |