purpose, it would appear that the ignominious distinction had been shared between the drawbridge tower of London Bridge and the top of Westminster Hall. It was upon the latter that the disinterred heads of the leading regicides Cromwell, Bradshaw, and Ireton-were placed, as an expression of savage vengeance, immediately after the Restoration; while, about the same period, the stern battlements of the former were surmounted by the ghastly heads of Venner and his fanatical companions, as a warning to Fifth-monarchy men, or any others entertaining revolutionary sentiments. Many years before these decapitations took place, the tower of the famous old bridge had been graced, at considerable intervals of time, by the heads of Wallace, the Scottish patriot-Sir Thomas More-and Fisher, bishop of Rochester. The first instance of the present Temple Bar being used for the exposure of the remains of traitors occurred towards the close of the reign of Charles 11, when one part of the quartered body of Sir Thomas Armstrong was here barbarously exhibited to the public gaze. Standing on the narrow pathway among the crowd collected to witness the elevation of this sanguinary trophy of infatuated loyalty a crowd that had not long before, for the same reputed crime, followed to the scaffold close by the patriotic Russell-we learn from the conversation of the bystanders that the man who has come to this unhappy end is the last remaining victim of that conspiracy known in history as the Rye-house plot. Lord Wm. Russell, as we have intimated, had already died heroically in Lincoln's-inn-fields; Algernon Sidney had prayed for his murderers on Tower Hill; Holloway had been hurried from the West Indies to the tree at Tyburn; and now Sir Thomas Armstrong, who had been for some time living an outlawed life in Holland, after having been surrendered to the English government on the payment of a large bribe, has just expiated his imputed treasons at the same place of execution. It is reported, by messengers from the west now mingling with the spectators, that his head had just been affixed to an iron rod on Westminster Hall, having those of Cromwell and Bradshaw for his cheek-by-jowl companions. Two other quarters of the body are impaled on Aldersgate and Aldgate, while the fourth portion of the mangled corpse is to be sent down to Stafford, the borough which he had formerly represented in parliament. a this, under the judicial régime of the infamous Jefferies, he was adjudged "worthy of death," and was condemned without a trial. Notwithstanding the dread and terror inspired by the deeds of this inexorable judge, there are some individuals in the crowd who are daring enough to denounce, in an undertone of indignation, the flagrant prostitution of all the constitutional forms of justice on this occasion. One, who had been in Westminster Hall during his mockery of a trial, speaks especi ally of the heartless and brutal jeer of the lord chief justice, on Sir Thomas pleading that he might have the benefit of the law. That you shall have," exclaimed he, with a blasphemous taunt, "by the grace of God; see that execution be done on Friday next, according to law: you shall have the full benefit of the law." As proof that the king approved of this act of summary vengeance, we learn from the page of history that shortly after the event, when Jefferies was at Windsor, Charles took from his finger a diamond ring of great value, and presented it to him. This ring was ever after called the "bloodstone." Twelve years elapsed before the Bar had another occupant, during which interval the profligate Jefferies had ended his days in the Tower-the house of Stuart had wearied out the endurance of the nation and ceased to reign-and the glorious Revolution had placed a constitutional monarch upon the throne. The fallen house, however, continued for many years to have its secret adherents, and plots and conspiracies on its behalf were occasionally disclosed and avenged. The change of dynasty, although it had ushered in great social and civil improvements, had not led to the abolition of the unseemly exhibitions which we have just referred to. The next ornaments of Temple Bar consisted of the head and limbs of Sir John Friend and the headless trunk of Sir William Parkins, who, in connection with about forty other conspirators, had been engaged in a plot to carry off the king on his return from Richmond, where he was accustomed to hunt on Saturdays. From cupidity or timidity the scheme was divulged by some of the subordinate actors, which was followed by the apprehension of the misguided gentlemen just named; the first of whom was a large brewer and held a lucrative situation in the excise, while the latter had a valuable appointment in chancery. Parkins was not only a consenting party to the design of assassination, but had promised to bring five men to assist in it, whose names he refused to disclose, although by so doing he might have saved his life. The following account of their execution is from a newspaper of 1696. Continuing our imaginary picture of the past, as we thread our way through the dense throng that blocks the streets on either side of the ghastly gateway, we hear, beneath the noisy acclamations that first strike the ear, a low and half-suppressed Yesterday being the 3rd of April, Sir Wm. murmur of disapprobation at the spectacle. It is Parkins and Sir John Friend were drawn in a evidently felt, by the more dispassionate thinkers sledge from Newgate to Tyburn, where they were around us, that great injustice has been done in hanged and quartered. They had books in their thus taking the life of one who had always been hands the whole way, and Sir John seemed more stanch adherent of the Stuart family, and who penitent than Sir William. They prayed very until lately was one of the chief favourites of the heartily, being assisted by three non-jurant minisking and the court. He was also well known to ters, Mr. Cook, Mr. Collier, and Mr. Snatt: they have been the companion and principal adviser of both confessed a knowledge of the plot. Sir Wm. the Duke of Monmouth, the king's natural son. Parkins was observed several times to smile in the The only circumstance tending to criminate him sledge, and seemed to take much notice of the appears to have been his presence at a meeting, spectators. Sir John Friend confessed having where, in course of conversation, the design of a heard of the assassination, but that he abhorred "rising" in Dorsetshire had been mentioned. For it. When they came to the press-yard, the latter said to the former, We shall soon be in a glorious state.' At the gallows, before the cart was drawn away, they kneeled down, and the three ministers laid their hands on their heads, and so they went off." For officiating on this occasion-they being regarded as sympathizers with the sufferers-two of these clergymen were committed to Newgate, while Collier avoided the same fate by absconding. Referring to the revolting spectacle at Temple Bar, the excellent Evelyn, in his Diary, characterizes it as "a dismal sight, which many pitied. I think," he says, "there never was such a Temple Bar till now, except in the time of king Charles 11, namely, Sir Thos. Armstrong." The next grim tenant of this frowning gateway was the head of Col. Henry Oxburg, who, in the insurrection on behalf of the Pretender just after the accession of George 1, had joined the forces in the north. The disastrous issue of this campaign is well known, and among its gallant victims was this Lancashire gentleman. But though defeated, the enthusiastic adherents of the exiled house were not crushed. Men were yet to be found who were willing to risk property and life for the restoration of a dynasty which had always proved itself inimical to the liberties and best interests of the people of England. Among these was Christopher Layer, who hoped to accomplish, by a dastardly resort to assassination, what armies in the field had failed to effect. This individual, who was of good family, might have risen to high distinction in the legal profession, but for the tendency of his political principles and his intimacy with disreputable characters, which entirely ruined his prospects. Bent upon one of the wildest of projects, he visited Rome, then the residence of the Pretender, with whom he had several conferences, during which he engaged, on his return to England, to effect a revolution in so secret a manner that no one in authority should be apprised of the scheme until its object had been realized. This chimerical plan consisted in hiring an assassin to murder the king as he returned from Kensington; after which the guards were to be seized, and, during the confusion that this event would naturally produce, the great officers of state and the royal children were to be secured. The chief instruments whom he purposed to employ were some disbanded soldiers, whom he met, in order to give them suitable instructions, in a public-house, at Stratford, in Essex. Their treasonable conversation, however, was overheard, and the ringleader was arrested. During the first night of his custody, he was confined in the bedroom of a private house, from which he managed to effect his escape, by cutting up the blankets of his bed into strips, which he fastened together, and with the rope thus extemporized, descended from the window. Falling upon and upsetting a bottle-rack, however, the family was aroused, and he was quickly pursued and recaptured at Newington. He was speedily tried and condemned; but his execution was postponed for nearly seven months, in order that he might have time to arrange both his own and his numerous clients' were thronged on the occasion, and many accidents occurred from the breaking down of the stands erected to accommodate the eager spectators. The day subsequent to his execution, his head was placed on the Bar, where it remained, blackened and weather-beaten by the storms of no less than thirty years. "Infancy had advanced into matured manhood, and still that head repulsively looked down from the summit of the arch. It seemed part of the arch itself. At the close of that period, the elements accomplished what the improving taste of the public had in vain demanded. One stormy night, a summary ejectment was served, and the head of Layer left its long resting-place, and descended from the arch into the Strand."* The sequel to this curious history is thus given in Nicholl's Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century:-"When the head of Layer was blown from Temple Bar, it was picked up by a gentleman in the neighbourhood (Mr. John Pierce, an attorney), who showed it to some persons at a public-house, under the floor of which, I have been assured, it was buried. Dr. Rawlinson, meanwhile, having made inquiries after the head, with a wish to purchase it, was imposed upon with another instead of Layer's, which he preserved as a valuable relique, and directed it to be buried in his right hand"- -a request which was complied with. At the close of July, 1746, the "City Golgotha" received its last grim occupants, in the heads of George Fletcher and Francis Townley, who had been compromised as officers of the insurgents in the celebrated "Rising of '45," in the interest of the Chevalier. This fresh and last attempt to restore the old dynasty was avenged, as its predecessors had been, by an appeal to the terrors of the scaf fold, the axe, and gibbet. The procession, on this occasion, to Kennington Common, the place of execution, was formed of dragoons, foot-guards, with three sledges containing the condemned, in the front seat of the first of which sat the execu tioner with a drawn scimeter. The ceremonies that followed were of the most revolting description. Townley was the first to suffer. The executioner performed his mournful office, the knife was applied to the yet breathing body, the head was severed from it, and, with the warm blood still gushing from its unclosed veins, held up to the vulgar gaze of the applauding populace. The heads of the traitors, as we have stated, were affixed to the Bar; and such was the revolt. ing curiosity of the public, that for several weeks large numbers gathered about the arch to gaze on the livid features of their unhappy fellow-men; while glasses were even let on hire, that the mor bid feelings of the masses might be gratified by a "TEMPLE BAR THE CITY GOLGOTHA: a Narrative of the Historical Occurrences of a Criminal Character associated with the present Bar. By a Member of the Inner Temple." This work, or bound pamphlet, published during the present year, and to which we are indebted for some of the facts em bodied in this paper, is a specimen of expensive book-making, such as we do not now often witness in this "shilling-volume age. Its price and its bulk are quite incompatible, and must limit its sale in a great measure among all but the most zeslous antiquaries, for whom, however, its contents will possess great interest. Its value is enhanced by two coloured litho graph plates of Temple Bar; the first being a representation of the present structure as it appeared more than a century surmounted by the heads of Fletcher and Townley. ago, and the other an emblematical sketch of the old gateway closer examination. Twenty years afterwards, the heads were still there; for we learn, by the "Annual Register" for 1766, that on a certain morning in January, between two and three o'clock, a person was detected discharging musket-balls, from a steel cross-bow, at these relics of humanity. For this offence he was taken into custody. On his examination he affected a disorder of the senses, and said his reason for so doing was his strong attachment to the government and his hatred of traitors; but it was strongly suspected that he was a near relative of one of the unhappy men. Upon searching him, above fifty musket-balls were found wrapped in a paper, with this motto, "Eripuit ille vitam." This attempt to dislodge the grim tenants of the Bar having failed, they continued to retain their elevated positions until early in 1772, when one fell down from the process of decomposition, and the other was shortly afterwards swept away during a high wind. Thus terminated this "reign of terror" in the very heart of the great metropolis; and since that period the public sentiment has happily become so far changed and refined as to render a repetition of such sanguinary exhibitions not only useless but unendurable. MR. W. T. CLARK, THE ENGINEER. THE following notice of the labours and achievements of this eminent engineer, who died in September last, is taken from a recent number of the "Literary Gazette." William Tierny Clark, esq., was born, it appears, on the 23rd of August, 1783, at Sion House, in Somersetshire. He commenced his career under a when the tenth of the whole supply of the metropolis, with a capital of nearly 700,000l., and an annual rental of nearly 70,000l. per annum. Such was, in a great measure, the result of Mr. Clark's labours. The first work of civil engineering undertaken by Mr. Clark was the Thames and Medway Canal. That work had been commenced by a company of shareholders, for expected to derive from shortening the navigation purpose of profiting by the advantages which they between Gravesend and Chatham forty miles, by means of a cut across the isthmus which separates the Thames and the Medway. The project had been stopped for want of capital, but it was again resumed under Mr. Clark's direction in 1819, but was not completed till several years afterwards. The canal was principally remarkable from the great length and size of the tunnel, and which, in carrying through the Frinsbury ridge of hills near the Medway, occasioned great difficulty and expense. This canal is now converted into a railway. Mr. Clark's next work was the Hammersmith Suspension Bridge. It was commenced in 1824, and finished in 1827, and is principally remarkable for the small deflexion of the chains between the chord line or points of suspension. The Marlow designed and commenced by his predecessor in the Suspension Bridge over the Thames was originally West Middlesex Waterworks, Mr. Millington, in 1829, but was completed after Mr. Clark's own design. The bridge resembles in its style and construction that of Hammersmith, with slight difference in the dimensions and in the architecture of the piers and suspending towers. The same may be said of the Norfolk Suspension Bridge, which he erected for the Duke of Norfolk, tecture is more decorative and elegant. Mr. Clark near Shoreham, over the Arun. The style of archierected about this period a handsome cast-iron bridge the finest work of Mr. Clark is the Pesth Suspension at Bath, also a small cast-iron bridge at Windsor. But this magnificent undertaking will be found in an Bridge over the Danube. The origin and progress of octavo volume recently published by Mr. Weale, under the Reports of Counts George Andrassy and Stephen Mr. Clark's directions. It contains a translation of Széchenyi on the expediency of constructing a bridge over the Danube between the cities of Pesth and Buda; their questions to and answers from Mr. Clark; the memoir of Count Széchenyi; a Report of the Ban Direction, or Board of Bridges and Roads; and a detailed statement by Mr. Clark himself of the progress of the works of the bridge, from their commenceit appears that the total cost of the bridge, without ment in 1839 to their completion in 1849; from which deducting the old materials, was 622,0427. In 1845, Mr. Clark sent over to St. Petersburg a magnificent design for a suspension bridge over the Neva. It was greatly admired by the Emperor, who in return presented him with a first-class gold medal. The Emperor of Austria also presented Mr. Clark, through the Archduke Charles, with a splendid box set in brilliants, as a token of his approbation on the completion of the Pesth Suspension Bridge. Our limits preclude our entering into the difficulties which the bridge encountered from the bursting of the dams, the shocks of the ice, or the ravages of hostile armies. The physical difficulties were all encountered and overcome by assistants. The Suspension Bridge of Pesth, while it the energy and perseverance of Mr. Clark and his stands a monument to his genius, is the admiration of all who have seen it. It was the last and crowning act of a life devoted to a profession of which he was an ornament. He died on the 22nd of September last, aged sixty-nine, and his remains were consigned to a family vault in Hammersmith church. millwright at Bristol, to whem he was apprenticed very young for several years. From Bristol he went to Coalbrook Dale, where he continued till the year 1808, when he went to London, and was shortly after, at the request of his former employers, admitted as a draftsman into the employment of the late Mr. Rennie, with whom he remained till 1811, when he was appointed engineer of the West Middlesex Waterworks. At that period the West Middlesex Waterworks were in a comparatively insignificant state. They had been established upon a very limited scale, and the greatest capabilities of the works were confined to supplying water to the neighbouring hamlets by means of a small pumping-engine of twenty horse power, and a small reservoir, barely sufficient to contain a day's supply. The West Middlesex Waterworks had only been established in 1806; they were then unremunerative, nor did they yield any dividend tntil several years after Mr. Clark became manager of them. Mr. Clark, however, was not disheartened: on the contrary, he encouraged his employers to make new sacrifices, by increasing the amount of their capital, and expending it judiciously in increasing the works. He foresaw the prosperity which would ere long attend those sacrifices, and he spared no exertion to render the works as perfect as possible, by increas ing the number and power of the engines and the capacity of the reservoirs; so that, from the insignibeant establishment of 1819, based upon a capital of his death increased to three large pumping-engines or 20,000l., producing no revenue, he left the works at aggregate power of 245 horses; two capacious and forty millions of gallons, and of supplying an voirs, capable of containing between thirty-five abundant quantity of good water to the extent of one the Varieties. ANCIENT BABYLON.-The French government having employed a party of gentlemen to explore the site of ancient Babylon, a report has lately been received from them, in which they intimate that it has been ascertained, beyond reasonable doubt, that the ruins beneath a certain tumulus are those of the marvellous palace-citadel of Semiramis and Nebuchadnezzar. They are in such a state of confusion and decay that at present it is not possible to form any idea of the extent or character of the edifice. They appear, however, to extend beneath the bed of the Euphrates-a circumstance accounted for by the change in the course of that river. Sarcophagi have been found, in which were skeletons clothed in a sort of armour, and wearing crowns of gold on their heads. When touched, the skeletons, with the exception of some parts of the skulls, fell into dust; but the iron, though rusty, and the gold of the crowns, are in a fair state of preservation. The dead are supposed to be some of the soldiers of Alex ander or Seleucus. BATHS AND WASHHOUSES.-The rapid increase of these public conveniences within the last three or four years is very remarkable, and affords satisfactory evidence of the appreciation in which they are held. In 1849 there were only two establishments open in the metropolis, and the return was 297,831 bathers and 9070 washers. In 1850 there were three establishments, giving accommodation to 509,200 bathers and 60,154 washers. In 1851 there were five establishments, and the numbers respectively are 617,212 and 132,251. In 1852, with seven establishments at work, the numbers swelled to 800,163 bathers and 197,580 washers. At the present time it is impossible to meet the demand for accommodation. The extraordinary success of the scheme in the metropolis has led to its being carried out very extensively in the principal provincial towns. It does not appear, however, that Scotland has awoke yet to the importance of the object. AN APOLOGY FOR A LEADING ARTICLE. We select the following paragraph from a Trinidad paper recently received, in which the editor favours his readers with a singular apology for a leader. Labouring under a fit of lassitude, for which perhaps, the climate considered, some allowance ought to be made, he writes :-" Our dis-position for com-position is restrained by indis-position. This deposition is no im-position, but we expect in the next number to be in a position to resume our ex-position. DUTY ON PAPER.-"The Times" circulation in 1850 was nearly twelve millions (11,900,000). The duty on the paper amounted to upwards of 12,000l. Assuming the weight of each ream of 500 sheets to be 78 lbs., the duty per ream would be rather more than 10s., and the number of reams about 24,000. But the case of "The Times" is entirely exceptional, its enormous circulation enabling it to employ the first talent, and its talent increasing the circulation. Its well-written articles, even when the arguments excite a smile, are admired for the style of their composition. Of ten other daily papers, the total issue was 8,920,140, equivalent to an average of 1784 reams each, the duty upon which would amount to about 90007. Of 48 weekly newspapers, not including those issuing less than 2000 numbers weekly, the circulation in 1850 was 23,021,274, giving an average of 479,610 issued, and 960 reams of paper consumed by each; and assuming the weight per ream to be 50 lbs. only, a saving to each newspaper by a repeal of the duty would be effected to the amount of 350. per annum.-Journal of the Society of Arts. COALS. It is estimated that the annual weight of coal now raised in this country is about 35,000,000 tons. The consumption in Paris has enormously increased during the last few years. Thus in 1820 it was 513,900 hectolitres; in 1830, 984,000; in 1840, 1,611,200; in 1850, 3,595,236; and in 1852, 3,800,400-an increase of 7:40 per cent. In wood consumed for firing, there has been a falling off since 1820 from 1,004,600 steres to 476,000, or from 100 to 47. YIELD OF THE POTOSI MINES.-Since the discovery of the gold mines of Potosi, there have been extracted from them no less than sixteen hundred millions of dollars! WHITTINGTON'S STONE.-A correspondent of the "Builder" says: "In paying a visit recently to the above, I was sorry to see it out of condition; the inscription is almost illegible, and in a short time will be wholly so. It appears to me that it has been recently moved from the edge of the road farther in, on account of a new street forming at the foot of Highgate-hill. I suggest that the custodes should re-cut the inscription, and put a fence round this record of the past." DOOM OF WESTMINSTER BRIDGE.-This old bridge, which has been for a long period in a ruinous condition, and with which so many literary and historical associations are connected, is shortly to come down. Its doom, pronounced by the last government, has been confirmed by the present administration. It has been authoritatively stated that a new bridge is to be constructed, "wide, low, and at right angles to the Houses of Parliament," and that the operations are to commence during this year. DRAM-DRINKING.-By a contemporary we learn the sad fact, that in forty cities and towns in Scotland, every 149 of the population support a dram-shop, while it requires 981 to keep a baker, 1067 to support a butcher, and 2281 to sustain a bookseller. Surely there is something fatally wrong here! ALL THE GOLD IN THE WORLD.-Taking a cube yard of gold at 2,000,000l., which it is in round numbers, all the gold in the world at this estimate might, if melted into ingots, be contained in a cellar 24 feet square and 16 feet high. All our boasted wealth already obtained from California and Australia would go into an iron safe nine feet square and nine feet high. So small is the cube of yellow metal that has set populations on the march, and roused the world to wonder.-New Quarterly Review. DISCOVERY OF TOMBS AT SAKKARA.-The finding of these tombs and their magnificent sarcophagi is, perhaps, the greatest discovery which has been made relative to the antiquities of Egypt, since the days of the enterprising Belzoni. This discovery is due to M. Mariette, a gentleman employed by the French government. passage in Strabo having led him to infer that a line of sphinxes led to the Serapium, he commenced his search in the moving sand-hills of Sakkara. Here he unearthed the line of sphinxes, one of which had been found in 1832 by Signor Marucchi; but they not being in a straight direction, and turning abruptly at the entrance of the Serapium, it was with difficulty they were traced. They were 140 in number, and 16 feet apart. The whole avenue proved 1120 feet in length. At the termination were eleven Greek statues of Homer, Pindar, Solon, Lycurgus, Aristotle, and other poets, philosophers, and lawgivers of Greece. One sphinx, inscribed with the name of Apis, was met under a depth of 60 or 70 feet of sand; stone peacocks nine feet high, and colossal lions, were also found here. The tomb of Apis was next sought for, and discovered, after a whole year of labour. COMMUNICATION TO THE NORTH OF EUROPE.-The Electric Telegraph Company are conveying electric wires from the Colchester station to Orfordness, in Suffolk; from thence a submarine cable will be laid down to Scheveningen, Holland, thus giving this country means of communication with the continent. It is believed that the Electric Telegraph Company have selected Ipswich as the locality for their principal office: it is to be on the Corn-hill. Active operations will be commenced as soon as the requisite pipes are finished. These will be sunk underground to the depth of about two feet. A REMARKABLE TYPOGRAPHICAL FEAT.-One of the most marvellous instances of activity and despatch in the printing of a book has lately occurred in relation to the Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin," the entire volume having been "set up" in type, printed, and published in four days. The object of this haste was to present a complete copy at the anti-slavery meeting held at Stafford House. IN 1850, there were 78,533 visits made to the readingroom of the British Museum, for "study or research;" in 1851, the number was about 300 less and last year it fell to 72,226, or 6300 less. |