1831.] REVIEW.-Lynch's Feudal Dignities, &c. contradictory, and indeed too often erroneous, statements of annalists and historians.”—p. i, The points which are most especially established are, (1) the antiquity of the House of Commons, as essential to a full Parliament, when a general pecuniary tallage ensued; and (2) the existence only of baronies by tenure, in the early periods (office, we add, excepted), for the Judges anciently voted as Peers, and so de cæteris. In proof of the first position we adduce the following writ of John, by which we see who were the "clerus et populus" of our own historians. The latter is especially designated by the words citizens, merchants, burgesses, and freeholders. "On the 10th of February, in the 5th year of his reign, the same King issues his writs to the Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Archdeacons, and Clergy, the Earls, Barons, Justices, Sheriffs, Knights, Citizens, Merchants, Burgesses, and Freeholders, and all other his faithful in Ireland, acquainting them that au Aid had been granted him in England, and praying them to grant him, non consuetudinarie set amabiliter,' a similar Aid in this moment of his necessity, as the Justiciary of Ireland, Walter de Lacy, and others, whom he sends over, will declare to them. To obtain an extraordinary Aid like the above was the principal cause at that period of convoking full Parliaments: only in the 'commune concilium' could such supplies be granted." -p. 38. That the populus appeared by representation is a desiderata as to evidence, but that it did do so is to be inferred from the Clergy appointing procurators, of which we have authentic evidence prior to the pretended introduction of representatives in the time of Edward the First. And the words merchants, burgesses, &c. show that the House of Commons did not grow out of the representatives of the inferior tenants in capite, as erroneously surmised. In truth, the tenants in capite, merely as such, never had a right to attend Parliament; only those who held baronies by tenure, there being in the early periods no other baronies. In p. 126, we have positive proof of this. In a close roll of 51 Edw. III. the King declares, IT HAS NOT HITHerto been the LAW OR CUSTOM IN OUR REALM, THAT ANY PERSONS, WHO HAVE NOT HELD BY BARONY, OUGHT TO BE SUMMON 231 ED TO OUR PARLIAMENTS, OR BE It is very true, as appears from a clause roll of John extracted by Selden, that upon the convocation of a full Parliament for levying aids, scutages, &c. all the tenants in capite were mustered by summons, but that they did not join the Peers, only appointed four knights to represent them in the general business of Parliament, which knights did not sit in the Upper House, for the extract now to be quoted shows that such persons were summoned, but only among the Commons, and not among the Peers, until they had acquired the estates requisite to constitute a barony. Thomas Vernoill or Verneill was summoned as a Knight to the Parliament of Dublin 48 Ed. III. and again to that of Kilkenny, 50 Ed. III. That he was not summoned as a Peer, is evident, because he was ordered to be summoned by the Seneschal of Meath, and no Peers were summoned by Sheriffs or persons of that rank. The presumption here is, that he had been elected a Knight of the Shire. He was, however, fined for non-attendance, but in his prayer of remission, states particularly, "Because none of his ancestors were ever summoned before this time to any Parliament except amongst the Commons. This latter allegation as to the petitioner's ancestors, which is evidently true, was not however considered by the King as a legal cause for absence; and therefore, in issuing his writ to the Exchequer, he merely commanded that the one point, namely, the wars of the Connors and Bermyngham, should be inquired into; and the jury having found that this Thomas on account of those wars could not attend that Parliament without destruction of his country, the fine was discharged, and only on that account. In consequence, as Sir Thomas Vernoill's estates in Meath were of great extent, and sufficient to qualify him on the principle of Tenure, he con tinued to be summoned afterwards as a Feudal Baron by special writ, notwithstanding that his ancestors, never having so great an estate, had never been summoned amongst the Peers."-p. 127. The Barony by Tenure, as dependent upon estates, is proved by the following extract from a record, which refers to the practice in the time of Heury the Second. It is evident from thence, that persons who held a given estate had a claim to be summoned (the omission of which forms one of 232 REVIEW.-Recollections of the Mauritius. the grievances in Magna Charta), but not others of smaller property, unless the King thought fit for especial purposes to summon particular individuals among them. "As to the principle of Tenure, or the obligation of the Baronage to attend Parliaments, in the third section of this record, under the head of Summons of the Laity,' we find the following words: 666 Every Earl and Baron and their Peers, viz. such as have lands or rents to the value of one entire earldom, or twenty knights' fees, each computed at twenty pounds, which make four hundred pounds, or to the value of an entire bounty, viz. thirteen knights' fees and the third of a knight's fee, which make four hundred marks, ought to be summoned and come to Parliament; and none others of the laity or clergy of lesser possessions ought, at their own costs, to appear on account of their tenures, unless the King should summon his Counsellors, or other wise men, for some necessary cause, to whom he usually sends, praying them to come to and remain in Parliament at the charges of the King himself.' "It is evident from the above, that the feudal parliamentary dignities of Ireland were governed solely by the principle of Tenure, and remained, down to this period, unaffected by any alteration; and that this continued to be recognized by the Crown, and of the Legislature, appears from the record left us by Archbishop Alan, of the Parliament assembled in the reign of Henry the Eighth, wherein he was present, and which record, as to the persons summoned and their qualifications, is nearly a transcript of the above Modus. "After this exemplification of the Modus,' the principle of Tenure was so strictly observed, that we find many Barons, who were always summoned to Parliament by special writs, and were fined frequently for non-attendance, became completely divested of their privileges in that respect, and were never summoned again to Parliament. This may be attributed to alienations or partitions made of their estates, or to the encroachments made by the natives on the former possessions of such Barons, which so diminished their property, as to leave them far below the standard prescribed by the Modus."-p. 182. We have had occasion to notice in our review of Sir William Betham's work that, in our judgment, the greatest error has prevailed concerning our ancient Parliamentary history. In the book before us, we have found records which confirm our opinions. Our old Chroniclers do affirm that even in the time of the earliest Norman Kings, a convocation of the Clergy and a House [March, of Commons did exist under the term "Clerus et Populus," and that the assemblage of them was imperative when a general taxation was implied. Circumstances prohibit further entrance into the subject. We have therefore only to thank Mr. Lynch for the light which he has thrown upon it, and to say that his work contains other most curious and valuable matters. Recollections of the Mauritius or Isle of THIS is evidently the production of a ladylike and talented woman; who, besides the respect due to her sex and abilities, claims from us the consideration which is due to misfortune. The volume is a "widow's mite" to literature, and a very acceptable one. The "Recollections" are given in the form of notices to her two daughters, and are distinguished by an elegance of thought and correctness of feeling, highly honourable to the authoress. We extract the following description of a storm in the island of Mauritius, as a specimen of style, and as affording an instance of the tremendous power of the tempest in the middle zone: They only who have witnessed such a hurricane, can form an adequate notion of its horrors. The wind had been very high during the preceding night, and the rain poured in a deluge from the clouds. The next morning the storm began to give notice of its approach; the wind roared louder than the loudest thunder, veering perpetually to every point of the compass, and the rain fell in still greater torrents.' "Never shall I forget the terrors I felt during that awful scene! The windows and doors were closely shut; and secured by nails and bars; yet, as the blast roared around, the house shook as if in an earthquake. 1 never before imagined that it was possible for the wind to produce sounds so appallingly, so tremendously loud; it seemed as if all the elements were at strife, and all nature in commotion and uproar. could hardly hear each other speak, amid the raging tempest, and every moment dreaded that the roof would be carried off We by the wind, and that we should be crushed beneath fallen beams and rafters."-"The storm continued to rage thus until evening, when it gradually decreased iu fury, and by the dawn of morning, a perfect stillness had succeeded to the tumult of the winds; but what a scene of ruin, of desolation, met our 1831.] REVIEW.-Finati's Life and Adventures. view, on opening the windows to receive the light of day !” There are some curious remarks on the condition of the slaves in the latter part of the volume, which is throughout an interesting picture of colonial life. Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Giovanni Finati, native of Ferrara; who, under the assumed name of Mahomet, made the campaigns against the Wahabees for the recovery of Mecca and Medina; and since acted as Interpreter to European Travellers in some of the parts least visited of Asia and Africa. Translated from the Italian, as dictated by himself, and edited by William John Bankes, Esq. 2 vols. 16mo. Murray. GIOVANNI FINATI was the son of respectable parents, who intended him for the Church, but when he arrived at the age of eighteen, he was impressed for a conscript. He gives an account of this horrible form of re cruiting. A substitute might be provided, but if he deserted the original drawee was obliged to take his place. This misfortune happened to poor Finati, who then secreted himself. Compulsory measures were accordingly taken to induce the family, by persecution, imprisonment, and confiscation of property, to deliver him up. He voluntarily therefore surrendered himself; was marched into the Tyrol, whence he deserted and came home. The consequence was, that the confiscation was renewed, and his younger brother peremptorily required to serve in his room. Concealment in the unfrequented part of the country, lodging in sheepfolds, outhouses with the animals and cattles, and sometimes in ditches and holes in the earth, wretchedness and privation, were all that he gained by his escape. He was at last discovered, and marched handcuffed to Venice. A visit to that city in 1807 by Buonaparte, produced a general amnesty, and saved him from the utmost rigours of military law; but "after his head had been shaven close, a particular dress, much like those which common convicts wear, was put upon him, and he was loaded not with heavy chains only, but with a great weight also attached to them, which he was compelled to drag behind, as he was goaded in derision by the subaltern officers along the line, from whence he was conducted back, with every mark of contempt and disgrace, to the barracks, and GENT. MAG. March, 1831. 233 directed to be lodged there for two mouths in strict confinement, without being suffered to move out of them; and during all that time, there was no office, the meanest and most laborious, that was not thrown upon him, as matter of punishment and degrada tion."-i. 23. Such was Buonaparte's method of preventing desertion. He was sent to Spalatro in Dalmatia, whence he escaped by another desertion into Turkish Albania; but found that, unless he turned Mahometan (at least nominally) he could not avoid slavery. A general officer took him into his service, and placed such confidence in him as to allow him to enter his harem, "which included ten females of different countries, all of them young, and all more or less attractive, and the merriest creatures ever seen."-i. 56. An intrigue with one of these, who proved pregnant, compelled him again, from dread of the consequences, to fly into Egypt. Upon his arrival there he enlisted in the service of Mahomet Ali; and from this period commence the adventures which in this work are recorded in detail. These we shall pass over to notice matters of archæology or curiosity. We have a vulgar superstition about laying ghosts in the Red Sea. The large bay of Birket Faraoun is, according to tradition, the place where the Israelites crossed the sea. There is almost a continual motion in the water of this bay, which motion may be asscribed to exposure on three sides to the sea, and sudden gusts of wind from the openings of the vallies. These circumstances, together with the shoals, render it a very dangerous harbour. Hence the Arabs say, that the restless spirits of the Host of Pharaoh still remain at the bottom of the deep, and are continually busied in drawing down mariners to their destruction.-i. 139, 140. Locusts, after being fried in butter, it seems, are eaten like shrimps (ii. 78). At Girstie he took two dovetails of wood out of a colossal figure, as old as the time of Sesostris (84). He says, concerning the temples of the Ptolemaic Dynasty (as Edfou or Apollinopolis) that "there is not a single historical sculpture to be seen on any one of them, but all purely mythological and dedicatory, whereas in the earlier edifices very few exist that do 234 REVIEW.-Finati's Life and Adventures. not present some representation of real life and feats of war."—ii. 93. He also observes that the execution of the sculpture is much finer in the early temples. He is of opinion that "some sound may proceed from Memnon's statue by the variation of the atmosphere, since morning after morning he observed that effect produced in the portico at Phila; where the stones, as they warm or cool, give a crack like that of a panel, or that (to which the ancients compared the statue's voice) of a harp-string."-ii. 95. At Diban, the Dibon of Scripture, our author saw some kistvaens like ours (ii. 270); and on the ridge of the Mokattam a curious picture, "which represents the removal of a Colossus as large as those at Thebes, upon a sledge drawn by a multitude of men."-ii. 303. The papyrus rolls are not commonly found in the more splendid sort of mummies; and they rarely occur in those of females.-ii. 306. The triple inclosure now distinctly noticeable, puts it beyond doubt that the ruin at Siwah, first visited by Browne, is really the celebrated temple of Jupiter Ammon.-ii. 345. Our author says, "I have a great number of tiles written in a cursive Greek character, and highly curious upon that account, which purport to be receipts of pay by the Roman soldiery at Assouan, during several reigns, from Tiberius to Commodus-one of these I found myself at Elephantine; and I have an Amphora, also, that has served the same purposes as a modern slate to some tradesman's family in Roman times, with his house or shop accounts registered upon it in ink from day to day."-ii. 357. At Elephantine, which, after Thebes, is the place where the greatest harvest of curious antiquities is brought for sale by the natives, a roll of papyrus in the Greek character was put into our author's hands. It proved to be "the last book of the Iliad most beautifully The Dongolese bedsteads, placed like ours upon four feet, as a protection from ground-insects, have a little wooden rest for the head, as a See Q. Curt. lib. iv. c. 7.-REV. [March, pillow, exactly similar to those which he had seen in the old mummy pits."—ii. 370. Thus we may understand Genes. xxviii. 18, where Jacob took the stone that he had put for his pillow. The tower houses of Diodorus are still to be seen. At Sennaar "The old palace of the Kings, is a tall pile of many stories. The American's Journal says, the centre building is six stories high, with five rows of windows."-ii. 408. Such are a few of the many curious things to be found in this book. The Life of Bruce the African Traveller. MAJOR HEAD writes with the chivalrous feeling of an officer, the cautious prudence of a statesman, the professional skill of a geographer, and the elevated reason of a philosopher. A combination of qualities more suited to the nature of the work before us could not have been found. Bruce was a Quixote, but because he was so it did not necessarily follow that he was a liar. He related Anglo-extraordinary things; what else could he find among savages? He was charged with forgery by those who did not know what was the hand-writing of the persons forged upon; in short, he was actually libelled in a manner which, had the subject been different, would have very justly consigned his enemies to the penalty of a criminal indictment. But Major Head has too ably vindicated him to require further remark upon this head. Major Head very excellently comments upon the monstrous folly of sending out, in the exploration of Africa, individual travellers, who are certain only of being first baited like bulls, and then slaughtered afterwards. He exposes the palpable errors of these travellers in wearing an European costume, and grossly insulting the religious prejudices and barbarous manners of the natives. Thus they alienate them, and do enormous injury to the cause which they profess to serve. Let any man of common sense read the passage hereafter quoted, and add to it the remarks of Captain Kotzebue concerning the pseudo-evangelization of Otaheite, and he will see that whatever good may be desired by rational people, it is totally defeated by the 1831.] REVIEW.-Head's Life of Bruce. foolish projects of our devotees at home, who act as madly as it would be to plough and harrow the surface of a piece of water, scatter seed upon it, and expect a crop. Africa is composed of sandy deserts and pestilential marshes; but if, as has been done to a great extent in Egypt, "The dry country could be irrigated, and the wet one could be drained, this immense continent would gradually become the garden and the granary of Europe, and with its water, wealth would circulate, and civilization flourish."-p. 129. Such fanatics have not been allowed to propagate all their folly in India, and what has been the result? The explanation may be found in the wisdom of the policy, a policy which is excellently contrasted with its opposite error in the following extract: 6 "In all countries under the sun, there is most surely one great road which leads directly to every man's heart, namely, his own interest. And in Africa, if we would but resolve to travel on that road, to be 'a light to lighten the gentiles,' we might then with some reason pride ourselves on being Britons and Christians.' If we were calmly to impart to these ignorant people the valuable information which we possess, if we were to satisfy them that our object is really to do them good, to give them gratis the inestimable benefits which science can bestow upon rude labour; if we were to offer to the poor woman a wheel for her drawwell, to show people who pound their corn in a mortar a more simple method by which they might grind it, if we would by a common filter sweeten for them impure water, and by a herb lull the painful disorder which it creates,-if we would come forward to replace a dislocated limb,—and, on a much larger scale, if we would explain to these people that by a very simple operation immense portions of their vast country might be either irrigated or drained, and that even their climate might thus be purified, if we could show them manure lying unknown before them,-in short, if on great subjects, as well as small, we were chemically and mechanically to assist them, we should undoubtedly find that the value and good qualities of a mind truly civilized, would, rising to its proper level, be in Africa as elsewhere fully appreciated, that our fame would justly extend,—and that every tribe and nation would be eager to receive us. "But if, on the other hand, instead of conferring benefits, we invade these people for narrow, selfish, and suspicious objects, the value of which, as rational beings, they cannot possibly comprehend,-if we tell them that we have come from a most dis 235 taut country to discover the source of their rivers, to carry away a copy of their temples, or to make mysterious notes and observations on their stars,-that we want also specimens of their grubs, insects, and we justly expect, but plants,-what can objects actually brought upon its devothe persecution which the search of these tees even in England, in the century of demonology and witchcraft, which has so lately ended? "But if, going far beyond all this, we are to give positive as well as negative grounds of offence, -if our political travellers, entering a capital dressed in gaiters and round hats, are to cry, Down with slavery,' and our missionaries in sable garments, are equally prematurely to exclaim 6 Down with your religion,' may it not be fairly asked, does our non-intercourse with uncivilized conduct, or our own. Africans proceed from their prejudiced and "Those who seem still determined to support such desperate theories, ought surely to be desired, like Bruce, to go themselves; for certainly nothing can be more ominous, or smell more rankly of theory, than a large body of men encountering danger by deputy, and shrinking from the execution of a project which each of them so eloquently recommends. Traveller after traveller in Africa, jaded, worn out, and exhausted, yet still leaning against his collar, nobly pushes forward, until death sends to inform us that he can do no more, Et Tartuffe? et Tartuffe? il se porte à merveille! Gros et gras, le teint frais, et la bouche vermeille."" We shall now give two extracts, which show how indispensable is Oriental archæology or custom to illustration of the Bible. The first relates to the "Horn" of Scripture as an ensign of honour. "One thing most remarkable in this cavalcade was the head-dress of the Governors of Provinces. A large broad fillet was bound upon their forehead, and tied behind their head. In the middle of this was a horn, or a conical piece of silver gilt, about four inches long, much in the shape of our common candle-extinguisher. It is called kirn or horn, and is only worn in reviews or parades after victory. This is probably taken from the Hebrews, and explains the several allusions which are made to it in Scripture. And the horn of the righteous shall be exalted.' Psalms, &c. &c." In crossing the Desert of Nubia, Bruce saw a phenomenon which illustrates the mode by which Providence acted in regard to the "pillar of fire" that preceded the Israelites : *Of this costume there is a wood-cut. |