year since, and was buried at the expense of an English merchant, who happened to be at Calais at the time. Not being a Roman Catholic, she could not be interred in consecrated ground. Horatia Nelson, the adopted daughter of NELSON, accompa→ nied the ill-fated Lady Hamilton, and after her death returned to England.

25.-ACCESSION OF KING GEORGE III.

Upon the death of George II, his present Majesty came to the throne, on the 22d of September 1760. 25..-SAINT CRISPIN.

Two brothers, Crispinus and Crispianus, were born at Rome; whence they travelled to Soissons in France, about the year 303, to propagate the Christian religion. Being desirous, however, of rendering themselves independent, they gained a subsistence by shoe-making. It having been discovered that they privately embraced the Christian faith, and endeavoured to make proselytes of the inhabitants, the governor of the town immediately ordered them to be beheaded, about the year 308. From this time, the shoe-makers chose them for their tutelar saints.

With reference to this day, we introduce an anecdote recorded of Charles the Fifth. This sovereign, in his intervals of relaxation, used to retire to Brussels. He was a prince curious to know the sentiments of his meanest subjects concerning himself and his administration; therefore often went incog." and mixed himself in such companies and conversation as he thought proper. One night, his boot requiring immediate mending, he was directed to a cobbler. Unluckily, it happened to be St. Crispin's holyday, and, instead of finding the cobbler inclined for work, he was in the height of his jollity among his acquaintance. The emperor acquainted him with what he wanted, and offered him a handsome gratuity. What, friend!' says the fellow, do you know no better than to ask one of our craft to work

6

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on St. Crispin? Was it Charles himself, I'd not do a stitch for him now; but if you'll come in and drink St. Crispin, do and welcome: we are as merry as the emperor can be.' The sovereign accepted the offer; but while he was contemplating on their rude pleasure, instead of joining in it, the jovial host thus accosts him:- What, I suppose you are courtier politician or other, by that contemplative phiz; but be you who or what you will, you are heartily welcome :-drink about-here's Charles the Fifth's health.' Then you love Charles the Fifth ?' replied the emperor.- Love him!' says the son of Crispin ; ay, ay, I love his long-noseship well enough; but I should love him much better would he but tax us a little less: but what have we to do with politics? Round with the glasses, and merry be our hearts.' After a short stay, the emperor took his leave, and thanked the cobbler for his hospitable reception. That,' cried he, you are welcome to ; but I would not have dishonoured St. Crispin to-day to have worked for the emperor.' Charles, pleased with the good nature and humour of the fellow, sent for him next morning to court. You must imagine his surprise to see and hear his late guest was his sovereign he feared his joke upon his long nose must be punished with death. The emperor thanked him for his hospitality, and, as a reward for it, bade him ask for what he most desired, and take the whole night to settle his surprise and his ambition. Next day he appeared, and requested that, for the future, the Cobblers of Flanders might bear for their arms a boot with the emperor's crown upon it. That request was granted, and, as his ambition was so moderate, the emperor bade him make another. If,' says he, I am to have my utmost wishes, command that, for the future, the company of Cobblers shall take place of the company of Shoemakers.' It was, accordingly, so ordained; and, to this day,

there is to be seen a chapel in Flanders adorned with a boot and Imperial crown on it: and in all processions, the company of Cobblers takes precedence of the company of Shoemakers.-[European Magazine, vol. lx, p. 354.]

It remains only to observe, that the shoemakers of the present day are not far behind their predecessors, in the manner of keeping St. Crispin. From the highest to the lowest it is a day of feasting and jollity. It is also, we believe, observed as a festival with the corporate body of Cordwainers, or Shoemakers, of London, but without any sort of procession on the occasion,-except the proceeding to a good tavern to partake of a good dinner, and drink the pious memory of Saint Crispin.

26.-PROCLAMATION OF KING GEORGE III.

His present Majesty was proclaimed King on the 26th of October 1760, the day after his accession to the throne.

28. SAINT SIMON AND SAINT JUDE, Apostles.

Simon is called the Canaanite, from the Hebrew word Cana, to be zealous : hence his name of Simon Zelotes, or the Zealot, Luke vi, 15. After enduring various troubles and afflictions, he, with great cheerfulness, suffered death on the cross.

:

Jude is called both by the name of Thaddeus and Libbæus Matt. x, 3, and Mark iii, 18. Jude, the brother of James: Jude, verse 1. And Judas, not Iscariot: John xiv, 22. He was of our Lord's kindred; Is not his mother called Mary, and his brethren James and Joses, and Simon and Judas?' Matt. xiii, 55. After great success in his apostolic ministry, he was, at last, for a free and open reproof of the superstitious rites of the Magi, cruelly put to death. He has left one epistle of universal concern to Christians.

History of Astronomy.

[Continued from p. 269.]

Astronomy of Modern Europe.

IN pursuing Dr. Herschel in his discoveries, we come to his paper on the construction of the heavens, in which he observes, having before described his instrument, that, till his time, the sidereal heavens have, not inadequately for the purpose designed, been represented by the concave surface of a sphere, in the centre of which the eye of an observer might be supposed to be placed. It is true, the various magnitudes of the fixed stars, even then plainly suggested to us, would have better suited the idea of an expanded firmament of three dimensions of length, breadth, and thickness. In future, he says, he means to consider those regions, in which he could penetrate by means of such large telescopes, as a naturalist regards a rich extent of ground or chain of mountains, containing strata variously inclined and directed, as well as consisting of very different materials. Hence the surface of a globe or map would but ill delineate the interior part of the heavens.

Dr. Herschel made use of telescopes with large apertures, imagining, that from these, great advantages would be sensibly perceived in all those objects that require much light, such as the very small and immensely distant stars, the very faint nebulæ, the close and compressed clusters of stars, and the remote, planets. On applying the telescope to a part of the via lactea, he found that it completely resolved the whole whitish appearance into small stars, which his former telescopes had not light enough to effect. 'The portion of this extensive tract, which it has hitherto been convenient for me to observe, is that immediately about the hand and club of Orion. The glo

rious multitude of stars, of all possible sizes, that presented themselves here to my view, was truly astonishing; but, as the dazzling brightness of glittering stars may easily mislead us so far as to estimate their number greater than it really is, I endeavoured to ascertain this point by counting many fields, and computing, from a mean of them, what a certain given portion of the milky way might contain. Among many trials of this sort, I found that 6 fields, promiscuously taken, contain 110, 60, 70, 90, 70, and 74 stars each. I then tried to pick out the most vacant place that was to be found in that neighbourhood, and counted 63 stars. A mean of the first 6 gives 79 stars for each field. Hence, by allowing 15 minutes of a great circle for the diameter of my view, we gather, that a belt of 15 degrees long and 2 broad, or the quantity which I have often seen pass through the field of my telescope in one hour's time, could not contain less than 50,000 stars, that were large enough to be distinctly numbered. Besides these, I suspected, at least, twice as many more, which, for want of light, I could see now and then by a faint glittering and interrupted glimpses.'

It was at the period that Dr. Herschel was pursuing this subject, that the French astronomers, Messier and Mechain, published, in the Connoissance des Temps,' an account of the different nebulæ or clusters of stars which they had observed in the heavens. The Doctor examined these with his superior instrument, and found that most of those which had been denominated nebulæ, by the astronomers just mentioned, yielded to the force of the light and power which he made use of, and were resolved into stars. Of one of these the Doctor says, A cluster of very close stars, one of the most beautiful objects I remember to have seen in the heavens. The cluster appears under the form of a solid ball, consisting of small stars, quite compressed into one blaze of light, with a great number of loose ones