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taken place? Is it because the brave patriots of Oporto have proclaimed the constitutional regime? But this regime is not, however, an infernal machine, it is not even a new invention. From the eleventh century there existed States-general in Portugal, either composed of the Cortes, the higher clergy, the nobility, or the deputies of several villages.

The Portuguese are farther advanced than the English in representative government. There has scarcely transpired a century in which the States-general have not been convoked, and no King has even yet abolished them. It is in this manner, that the right of im posing taxes has fallen exclusively to the Cortes. The Queen, mother of the reigning Queen, was the first and only Sovereign, who imposed taxes by her absolute will, and without any restriction. Thus, the reestablishment of the Cortes, in Portugal, is no other than the restoration of the people of Portugal to their ancient rights.

You are not, perhaps, acquainted with the profession of political faith, which the Cortes of 1640 caused to be printed in Latin, and accompanied with a picture of the King, to whom it was dedicated, in order that it might circulate throughout the world. The following are a few quotations:

1. That the power of Kings resides in the people, and that they receive it directly from them.

2. That this power is conferred to Kings temporally; the people being always able to resume it, when ne cessary, for their legitimate defence and preservation; and whenever the kings render themselves odious by their administration.

3. That kingdoms and people may break their oaths and withdraw their allegiance from Kings who do not govern with equity.

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Such were the principal articles of faith, which the Portuguese professed a century before there were either philophers, jacobins, liberals, or carbonari, &c.

Either the cabinets of Europe are very ignorant, or they think the liberals so. They accuse them of being the authors of perverse principles of politics, whilst all ages and Eur. Mag. Jan. 1823.

former nations have professed a public right, far more devoid of prejudices than our's.

In the time of the Romans, the word" Republic" made nobody's hair stand on end; regicide even was one of the commandments of the Roman Decalogue. The Goths were jacobins, since in their military assemblies they commanded, judged, and deposed their Kings Charle magne was a jacobin, since he assem bled the legislative corps of the em pire'in the Champ de Mai. The Popes who dethroned Kings, and bastinadoed the Emperors of Germany, were jacobins. The Council who made and dethroned Popes, and the Polish Diets who would not acknowledge the legitimacy of Dynasties, were also jacobins. Alexander III. who bestowed his benediction on the assembly of the Republics of Lombardy, and who excommunicated Frederic Barbarossa, was a Car bonaro. Julius II. who cried out when dying, Hors de l'Italie les barbares! was a Carbonaro; in fact, the Guelphes of the middle age, who would never bear the yoke of the Austrians, were all Carbonari. »

Speaking of the Portuguese Cortess M. Pecchio gives a very favourable and animated account of the mem bers, and of Portuguese eloquence. He thus concludes the account of his visit to one of the Sittings:

Although the distance from the new city to the palace of the Cortes is a full league, the last time I was there the galleries appropriated to the public were filled. The most perfect order and tranquillity prevailed; but in the course of the day Andrada, the Deputy of Brazil, hav ing risen to combat the opinion of the favourite orator, Borges Car neiro, the people in fear for their tribune began to be agitated. This Deputy controlled them immedi ately by the following exclamation: -Here you should be respectful. At the elections you are kings; in this assembly you are subjects.

The following anecdote is an instance of the self-importance of these Portuguese Deputies. Before the revolution, it was usual for the King to present his hand to kiss to all those who were presented before him. This custom was, undoubtedly, ridiculous; but still less so than

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that established by the Popes, of presenting their toe to be kissed, When the King entered for the first time among the Cortes, forgetting that a Deputy was, like himself, a Sovereign, his Majesty presented his hand to kiss to the first who appeared. The latter, pretending to imagine that the King desired to be supported, took him by the hand, and with the King leaning on his arm, they ascended the stairs toge

ther.

The extraordinary Cortes were installed the 26th of January, 1821, to prepare the Constitution upon the fundamental basis already approved and sworn to, by the King and the people. This work may be terminated in the month of August next. The experience furnished by Spain has been a guide to the Por tuguese legislators. This new Constitution contains all the errata corrige of which that of Cadiz stood in need. The King has preserved his title; but his power will not be greater than that of a Doge So much the better for him, because he will not be truly infallible, until the period when he will be no longer able to do evil.

The Congress proceeds slowly with reform: it appears they have adopted the maxim of building before they destroy. The only ame lioration, which has hitherto affected individual interests, has been the law which reduces the feudal rights. -The privileges of the Monks and of hereditary property are still untouched, as well as the scandalous riches of the higher clergy. The command of the troops do not devolve upon the States until the decease of the present holders. The direction of the police and the gendarmes are likewise untouched. It is not only because the Congress flatter themselves of disarming the enemies of liberty by holding out; but, it is also evident, they want to gain time and strength before the struggle.

At Madrid I became acquainted with Mr. Bowring, whose friend ship enchanted me. Mr. B. is a model of French amiability, founded upon the English character. He speaks a number of languages, and has travelled throughout all Europe; he is an eloquent poet, a lover of

liberty, a friend of the Spaniards, and the intimate acquaintance of Mr. Bentham, He converses with ease, holds a discussion with urbanity, and bears with patience my inveotives against human nature, and against heaven and earth because they do not unite to succour Italy. Could I find a more agreeable fellowtraveller? He always carries about him an album, in which he collects the remembrances of the most distinguished friends of liberty in Europe. He sometimes disputes because I call this album a martyrology.

Du fait, has not the age of the martyrs returned for the liberals of Europe?

Having spent only a month in England, I cannot pretend to understand the English character thor roughly, but I must confess I did not find John Bull so gross and intolerant as he had been described to me. It is true, he observed with ironical curiosity a redingote a la française which I had on; but he neither pelted me with stones nor mud. John Bull is embonpoint ; he is robust, well fed, well dressed, and well lodged; but I doubt whether he be happy; he works too much, he condemns himself to the perpetual labour of drinking tea twice a day, of spreading butter on his bread, and of being elegantly dressed. In all this I do not see but John Bull may be a good calculator.

After six years' separation, with what pleasure did I embrace in London my dear friend Ugo Foscolo! He is my favourite Italian writer. In his romance of Jacopo Ortis he has opened to the Italians a new career of glory, he has taught the means of awakening sensibility and enthusiasm, which are the two qualities necessary to a nation wishing to acquire independence and liberty. I also admire Foscolo because he has never bowed the knee before the idol which has flattered all the sovereigns of Europe. He lives near the Regent's Park; his honge is solitary, and situate on the banks of an ever. troubled canal, similar to Lethe, You might imagine his house a hermitage, were it not for being the residence of two pretty and modest wards. Ugo Foscolo has, however, made the same bad calculation as John

Bull. To live with ease, he is obliged to labour night and day for the literary journals of London. It is too great a labour for so small a share of glory. He ought rather to live on the top of a steeple like a solitary monk, in order to wage eternal war against the Austrians, who have horribly scandalized him, than to be forced to quit his country to save his honour. *

The Portuguese patriot, General Sepulveda, employs all his time for the good of his country: he might live in a glass house, for none of his actions need to be concealed. He is ever surrounded by his friends. His conversation is always interesting by the frankness and simplicity of his recitals. He abhors the autho rity which England pretended to exercise over his country; but in his hatred he never confounds individuals with the government. When speaking with him on the conduct of the hundred and fifty English offeers, who served in the Portuguese army before the Revolution, he highly praised them without any affectation of generosity. At the first movement which took place at Oporto, the English officers with drew, declaring that they ought not, neither would they, mingle with the internal affairs of the kingdom.

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The Portuguese, not wishing to be outdone in generosity, left them the choice of remaining in the army with their rank, or of retiring upon equivalent pensions. Neither of these officers accepted either; several of them even offered their services gratuitously to aid the liberals, and continued upon terms of friendship and esteem with General Sepulveda.

The opinion of the General respecting Marshal Beresford, appeared to me equally frank and impartial. He attributes to him the merit of having disciplined the Portuguese army. "Before the time of Marshal Beresford," said he, “no profession was more servile than that of arms. The court presented commissions even to their domestics. Beresford saved the officers from this ignominy; he has left us an army filled with honour, and equal in discipline and bravery to English troops. So much so, that no innovation has been made upon his regulations. He was a despot in administration, but just. Beresford had not suffici ent greatness of mind to save from punishment the brave General Gomez Friera, and twelve other officers, who conspired against him in 1817; but he will ever deserve our esteem for his military regulations."

ON A MOURNING RING.

THE dear memento of a friend that's gone,
Whose lov'd remembrance time can ne'er destroy;
How much I prize it never can be known,
Tho' not the emblem of soft smiling joy.

Oft as I view it will the starting tear
Unbidden flow, and fancy will retrace

Those hours when thou, lamented shade, wert near
To charm with every mild attractive grace.

Where art thou now? The tenant of the tomb;

Twelve circling months consign'd to the cold earth;

Fled is thy beauty, vanish'd is its bloom;

But, oh! ne'er, ne'er forgotten be thy worth.

As diffidence thy virtues would conceal,

Few in its full extent that worth could know;

I knew it well, and still thy loss I feel,

Still mourn thy death, tho' with a chasten'd woe,

Whene'er this little Ring attracts my sight,

Full many a useful lesson it may give;
Teach me like thee to shun each vain delight,
Like thee, blest Saint, in innocence to live.

S. B. R.

THE FINE ARTS.

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE.

IF Architecture were to be considered merely as the science of building, it might safely be asserted that its origin must have been nearly coeval with that of the human race. In the present epitome, however, we shall confine ourselves to a glance or two at its history, as one of the branches of the Fine Arts. In this view of the subject, we necessarily begin with Grecian Architecture.

The only authentic accounts we have respecting Grecian Architecture commence about 600 years before Christ; and it appears that in the course of about three centuries, that is, from the age of Solon and Pythagoras to the age of Pericles, all those inventions and improvements took place, which rendered Grecian Architecture the model of beauty and perfection. Anterior to the Macedonian conquest, the tem-, ples of Greece and of its colonies seem to have been of one order, the Doric, and of one general form; and it is probable, from the nature of that form, that the earliest Greek temples were of wood. The strength and simplicity of the Doric order, as finely illustrated in one of its most admirable examples, the Parthenon at Athens, give it a peculiar claim to the character of sublimity. By the invention of the Ionic and Corinthian orders, the resources of architectural composition were considerably extended. The former was no doubt invented in the country the name of which it bears. Vitruvius fancifully supposes that this graceful order was founded on the imitation of the female form, as he also imagines that the proportions of the more sturdy Doric were determined by those of men. Every body knows the origin of the Corinthian order. A young maiden of Corinth having died, her nurse collected in a basket the toys of which she had been fond when alive, and left them near her grave, covering the basket with a tile, to preserve its contents from the weather. The basket happened to be set upon the

root of an Acanthus, and the plant being thus depressed in the middle, its leaves and stalk spread outwards, and grew up around the sides of the basket, till they were bent down by the tile, which lay projecting over the top.. Callimachus, the sculptor, passing by, was struck with the pleasing appearance of the whole; and adopted it as the capital of a new order, of more delicate proportions than had been until that time used.

About the period at which Grecian Architecture was rising to eminence, the Tuscans, by whose name one of the five orders of Architecture is still known, began to distinguish themselves in Italy, and espe-. cially in Rome, the walls and the Capitol of which were built by them. The conquest of Greece, and subsequently of Asia, gave the Romans at once a taste for the Fine Arts and the means of indulgence. One of the earliest and most celebrated Rò-, man architects was Cossutius, who, about two hundred years before the Christian era, was employed by King Antiochus to proceed with the Temple of Jupiter Olympus, which Pisistratus had begun. The extent, the materials, and the decorations of the dwellings of Rome, under the Emperors, were such as almost to exceed the bounds of credibility. Augustus particularly signalised himself in this respect; and it w his boast that he left a city of marble, which he had found of brick. He was emulated by Herod the Great, King of Judæa, whose architectural designs were conceived and executed upon a scale which surpassed all others of that age, and by whom the Temple of Jeru salem was rebuilt;-a magnificent and wonderful undertaking, which occupied during eight years the labour of ten thousand artificers. The Emperor Domitian was fond of Architecture, but his taste was very indifferent. Soon after his time flourished Apollodorus, an architect of extraordinary powers. Under his

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1823.J

Fine Arts

direction was constructed the cele brated bridge over the Danube; a work surpassing in its kind every thing that the Architecture of Greece or Rome had produced. In all the noble edifices that were raised by Trajan, he was employed or consulted; and the stately column in Rome, which is yet standing entire, distinguished by the name of Trajan's Pillar, is a monument to his abilities. Apollodorus fell a victim to the revenge of the Emperor Adrian, by whom he was ordered to be put to death in consequence of a sarcasm, in which the indiscreet architect had indulged, on a temple built after one of Adrian's own designs. Nevertheless, Adrian was a great encourager of Architecture. By him were built the city of Antinoopolis, in the South of Egypt, and that wall of defence in the North of England, eighty miles long, the ruins He of which still bear his name. also completed the Temple of Jupiter Olympus, in Athens, which had been six hundred years in building. The period of the Antonines produced some good works in Architecture; of which the column yet, standing, commonly called Antonine's, is one example. It may here be observed, that the introduction of arches into buildings by the Romans had operated an essential change in the forms and principles of Architecture. While this was an extraordinary improvement in the art of construction, it may, perhaps, be doubted, whether by destroying the inestimable simplicity of Grecian Architecture, it did not lead to its deterioration as a Fine Art. Certain it is, that from the period of the Antonines the art declined; and the vast palace erected by Dioclesian at Spalatro may be consider ed as the final degradation of good Architecture in the Western Empire. The removal of the seat of empire to Constantinople taking place after the Fine Arts had received their mortal wound, that city was never illustrated by any public works of a pure and noble taste. The church of St. Sophia, founded by Justinian, though a grand effort of construction, is of barbarous Architecture.

We now descend to the middle ages, and change the scene to our

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own country. The Saxon style of
architecture was in a great measure
the Roman, rudely and incorrectly
executed. Its characteristic features
were thick walls, generally without
buttresses; and the arches employed
in it were nearly all semicircular.
Then came the Norman architecture,
practised by that people after their
conquest of England, but which
was little more than an adoption of
the style of Architecture of their
Saxon predecessors; the only mate-
rial difference being in the superior
magnitude of the Norman structures,
and the more frequent use in them
of stone, together with a neater
mode of building, and the introduc-:
tion of some newly-invented orna-

ments.

The prelates in the early Norman reigns were men of consummate skill in Architecture; especially Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester, who flourished at the latter end of the eleventh century. Of the twenty-two English cathedrals, no less than fifteen retain considerable portions which are undoubtedly of Norman workmanship. From the year 1155 the style of Architecture practised by the Normans began to be mixed with new forms and decorations; and at length it was superseded by that much more elegant and lofty style of building, vulgarly and improperly denominated Gothic.

Rather before the middle of the twelfth century, and not earlier, a new style of ecclesiastical architecture was produced, it is believed first in this country, called the pointed style. When it is recollected that the power of the Goths was every where crushed in the course of the sixth, and their very name extinguished in the beginning of the eighth century, it will be evident how inapplicable the term "Gothic" is to pointed Architecture. The origin of pointed Architecture has been the subject of great dispute. By the best authorities it is attributed to the Norman English, and the English. After its introduction, it underwent great changes. There are three distinct orders in this style. The characteristic of the first order the middle of the twelfth to the end is the acute arch; and it lasted from and of the thirteenth century. Of this order, Lincoln, Beverley,

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