mother was still before his eyes. Death at length commiserated his situation, and he expired full of repentance for his accumulated crimes. He was an undutiful son, an unnatural brother, and a cruel father. age. The prince now ascended the throne in the thirty-seventh year of his He no sooner obtained the power, than he meditated to revenge the death of his beloved Ignez. The three murderers, namely, Pedro Coello, Diogo Lopez Pacheo, and Alvaro Gonsalvez, had fled into Castile previous to the death of the late King. The prince ordered them to be tried on a charge of high treason, and being found guilty, their effects were confiscated. Next, he contrived to seize their persons, by agreeing with the King of Castile that both should reciprocally deliver up the Portuguese and Castilian fugitives, who sought protection in their respective dominions. Gonsalvez and Coello were accordingly arrested, and sent in chains to Portugal; Pacheo escaped into France. The King was at Santerem when the delinquents were brought to him, and instantly ordered them to be laid on a pyre that was previously formed, contiguous to which he had a banquet prepared. Before the torch was kindled, and whilst they agonized at every pore under the most lingering tortures, their hearts were cut out, one at his breast, the other at his back. Lastly, the pyre was set in a blaze, in presence of which he dined, whilst they evaporated in flames. Having thus far appeased his insatiable thirst of revenge, he ordered his marriage with Donna Ignez to be published throughout the kingdom; then her body was taken out of the sepulchre, covered with regal robes, and placed on a magnificent throne, around which his ministers assembled and did homage to their lawful Queen. After this ceremony, her corpse was translated from Coimbra to Alcobaca, with a pomp hitherto unknown in the kingdom; though the distance between these two places is fifty-two miles, yet the road was lined on both sides all the way with people holding lighted tapers. The funeral was attended by all the noblemen and gentlemen in Portugal, dressed in long mourning cloaks; their ladies also attended in white mourning veils. The cloud which the above disaster cast over the mind of Don Pedro was never totally dispersed, and as he lived in a state of celibacy the remainder of his life, agreeable to his vow, there was nothing to divert his attention from ruminating on the fate of his beloved spouse. The impression her death made on him was strongly characterised, not only in the tortures he inflicted on her murderers, but also in the acts of his administration, which, from their severity, induced some to give him the appellation of Pedro the cruel; by others he was called Pedro the just. MISCELLANEOUS SELECTION. CRITICKS. SOME author, if I mistake not, has coarsely styled criticks the dray-horses of literature. But it would be more just to assign them the same rank in letters, which the tillers of the ground occupy among mankind. The earth produces bountifully-but to little or no purpose, did not the husbandman pluck away the noxious and useless plants, and select the wholesome, agreeable, useful ones, as the objects of cultivation, and the sources of his gain. His profession is the most honourable, for it is the most necessary and important yet he is often slighted and avoided, while the soft-fingered, smerk-faced courtier receives unremitted attention. Thus the criticks-they are more serviceable in the republick of letters, than any other class of writers, inasmuch as they excite enquiry, eradicate absurd principles, correct perverse taste, cultivate judgment, and direct the attention to such works and such means as will produce the best intellectual harvest. They delve in a barren soil, till something like fecundity appears-and again they prune a forest, "wild above rule or art," till it is admired for its regularity and beauty. They remove the rubbish and the rust of years, and present to our view a field of rich and deep soil, yielding fruit and flowers in profusion. So Addison unfolded the stores of Miltons's matchless mind. Still they are servants, and worse than ser vants; for they are not only not courted, but are often shunned as cautiously as pirates, while the whining novelist, and the fawning, fibbing poetaster, those fire-flies and butterflies of literature, are the delight (and I may add playthings) of the great and the fashionable world. Almost every person hates a critick, even though the one should, by the other's instruction, arrive at excellence. The most lenient of this unfortunate race (unless absolute panders) are looked upon as growlers, the most honest and persevering as necessary drudges; and the chief satisfaction they can receive, while living, is that of enjoying independent and just sentimentswhich is more, I fear, than falls to the lot of those who merit their strictures. A captious critick should receive no quarter; and a just and able one must be content with safety and solitude. Their productions are but common and durable stuff, which is ever held in ordinary; although if this were prohibited in literary traffick, the remaining commerce would, ere long, consist chiefly in "show and empty sound,"-They are emphatically the farmers of literature. ON POLITENESS. Troy Gaz. EXCESSIVE and too frequent marks of respect and esteem only tire those to whom they are addressed, and on that account are the contrary of true politeness, whose only end is to please. It is a great art, to know how to vary these according to persons and circumThat which is only due respect to a superiour, would be to an equal accounted over-strained complaisance or affectation. stances. CUMBERLAND. The dramatick and philological writings of this author are well known; and when I read the works of so pious and amiable a writer, I cannot but wish his " CALVARY, or the Death of Christ," might be more generally read. In the 5th book of this Poem, after having invoked those" sacred Guides," the Evangelists, to aid his attempts to describe the sufferings and death of our Saviour, he makes the following incidental remarks.. The sentiments and style of this extract alike have charmed me; and, on the subject of worldly favour and temporary fame, I never found its compeer. Troy Gaz. Musing my pious theme, as fits a bard |