own conduct in power, not to merit more compassion than he found in the hour of his adversity."

Early in April, Mr. Matthews returned to Rome, and had an opportunity of witnessing a public execution by the guillotine. The criminal had, at the instigation of his mother, murdered his father; and the atrocious act had been brought to light by the fidelity of a dog.

At last the bell rang, the Host was brought from a neighbouring church, that he might receive the last sacrament, and soon afterwards the criminal was led out. Inglese was a passport on this as on other occasions. The guards that formed in a square round the guillotine, made way for me to pass; and I was introduced, almost against my will, close to the scaffold. A crucifix, and a black banner, with death's heads upon it, were borne before the culprit, who advanced between two priests. He mounted the scaffold with a firm step, and did not once flinch till he stooped to put his head into the groove prepared to receive it. This is the trying minute; the rest is the affair of less than a moment. It appears to be the best of all modes of inflicting the punishment of death; combining the greatest impression on the spectator, with the least possible suffering to the victim. It is so rapid, that I should doubt whether there were any suffering; but, from the expression of the countenance when the executioner held up the head, I am inclined to believe that sense and consciousness may remain for a few seconds after the head is off. The eyes seemed to retain speculation for a moment or two, and there was a look in the ghastly stare with which they glared upon the crowd, which implied that the head was aware of its ignominious situation. And indeed there is nothing improbable in this supposition, for in all injuries of the spine whereby a communication with the sensorium is cut off, it is the parts below the injury which are deprived of sensation, while those above retain their sensibility. And so, in the case of decapitation, the nerves of the face and eyes, may for a short time continue to convey impressions to the brain, in spite of the separation from the trunk.

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There are some sketches, not particularly striking, of Italian preachers. One is said to be elegant, another plain and affectionate; but the Dr. Chalmers of Italy, is the Frate Pacifico, who must unquestionably be an astonishing resemblance of the Doctor, since this ornament of the Roman pulpit, is ruddy, robust, and portly,' with a deep, rich, double-bass voice,' and entirely destitute of Chalmers's splendour of language or va'riety of illustration.' In fact, Mr. Matthews expressly limits the similarity to the devoted earnestness, entire absorption in 'the subject, and fertility of invention of the two orators;'qualities which it was hardly worth while to note as the ground of specific comparison, since they are common characteristics of the larger proportion of popular divines.

The banditti who roam the country about Rome, are slightly

noticed. In one instance, Mr. M., having ascended to the roof of the castle of St. Angelo, found a party there drinking wine, 'who very courteously invited him to partake of their good cheer. The gentry who made up this jovial groupe, proved to be the leaders of a band of robbers, who, finding their occupation less profitable than usual, had actually surrendered themselves to the government, claiming at the same time the reward offered for their apprehension. The terms were accepted, and after a years enthralment, these worthies will be at liberty to follow their old courses. The English at Rome are, it seems, accustomed to enter into conversation with these desperadoes; and one of our countrywomen is said to have made them a handsome present.

The reflections on the moral and political condition of Italy, which commence the ninth chapter, are just and forcible: they describe the spirit of impatience which inflames the people, and advert to that utter degradation of character and principle which render any effectual melioration scarcely practicable. At Bologna, Mr. Matthews finds out that he has not formed ‘a 'just estimate' of the merit of Guido, and learns to appreciate properly the excellence' of Dominichino and the Caracci. His picture of Venice contains few details, and those 'somewhat musty.' The following pleasing illustration of Italian courtesy, deserves transcription.

'I ought to record, as an instance of the obliging civility of the Italians, that I met a serenading party in a gondola to-night, singing very beautifully to their guitars, the songs of a favourite opera. Supposing they were professional people, and under the idea that I was to make them a recompense, I detained them half an hour; and it was not till they explained their refusal of any remuneration, that I found it was a nobleman's family returning from an excursion to Padua.'

Switzerland and France have of late been drawn upon so largely by our lady and gentleman travellers, that Mr. Matthews cannot be expected to supply his readers with much novelty; but, as he describes common scenes and events with vivacity, he will be read with gratification. He has analysed the popular amusements with talent and spirit; the skill of the French in cookery, and the cheapness and variety of the Parisian eating-houses, are also duly commemorated. The administration of justice seems to stand urgently in need of radical reformation. The wretched system of procedure by interrogatories; the leaning of the judge against the prisoner; the constant and whispering communication between the public accuser and the jury; and the severe cross-examination of the culprit himself;-all these circumstances, together with the indecorous levity of the bench, amply justify the disgust with which Mr. Matthews witnessed the whole transaction.

Art. V. A Grammar of Botany, illustrative of Artificial as well as Natural Classification, with an Explanation of Jussieu's System. By Sir James Edward Smith, M.D. F. R. S. &c. &c. President of the Linnæan Society. 8vo. pp. 241. [21 plates.] 12s. plain, 11. 11s. 6d. coloured. London. 1821.

E are somewhat doubtful whether this work will add much to the Botanical fame of Sir J. E. Smith, already so well established by his Introduction, his Flora Britannica, his articles in Rees's Cyclopædia, and his co-operation with Mr. Sowerby in the great national work, the English Botany. The title would indeed seem to be a misnomer, if the term grammar is to be understood as meaning an elementary manual of principles; for the book contains only a brief and not very clear account of the Latin terms applied to the roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits of plants; a hurried abstract of the Linnæan Classification; and a long explanation of the system of Jussieu. This Grammar, in a word, will never enable any body, learned or unlearned, to master the rudiments of Botany, for this plain reason, that they are not contained in the volume; whoever, therefore, may purchase it with this view, will be greatly disappointed. If the reader be previously acquainted with Systematic Botany, he may, indeed, obtain from this Grammar a succinct and tolerably clear view of Jussieu's System, the exposition of which occupies about two thirds of the work. A tyro would only bewilder himself among the sesquipedalian terminology of the classes and orders. The System of Linnæus is despatched in a few pages, which have the merit of being nearly unintelligible to any body but a thorough botanist. This, we think, is not a little surprising in a work coming from the President of the Linnæan Society, and the possessor of the MSS. and the Herbaria of the learned Swede.

One thing we may clearly infer from this circumstance, namely, that the System of Linnæus, after having for nearly a century been studied and admired in every part of the world, seems now to be on the wane. The time was, that from the boarding school Miss, to the most learned professor, Linnæus was called great and immortal, and his System looked upon as equal in stability to the Newtonian System itself.

The chief merit of Linnæus consisted in making his Systema Naturæ a practical index to all the productions of nature; or rather, in making the parts and the structure of individual animals, plants, and minerals, an index to his book: so that a proficient, upon meeting with a strange plant or animal, has only to examine its parts and structure, in order to discover at once where it is placed and described in the Linnæan arrangement. Whosoever has resolution enough to commit to memory two or

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three hundred barbarous terms compounded of Latin, Greek, and Teutonic, may soon qualify himself to turn readily to any part of the System to identify a specimen, and to learn all that Linnæus thought useful to be known concerning it. The knowledge of a mere Linnæan naturalist appears to us, however, to be exceedingly circumscribed, and of small value. He hunts, so incessantly after minute and barely palpable distinctions, or slight variations of number, form, and colour, that all useful.. knowledge, and all practical and enlarged views of nature, are thrown into the shade. Nobody, not even Sir J. E. Smith himself, would think of reading consecutively a single page of the Systema Naturæ except by way of consultation, any more than of reading a School Dictionary. Yet, we must admit the utility of the Linnæan Index Naturæ (as we should rather call it) in the same way as we must admit the utility of a Dictionary. But, what would any rational philosopher think of making a dietionary the ultimatum of study, and not only so, but of asserting, that it contained all requisite information in literatureow science? This, however, is exactly what is done in Botany; and those who cultivate the physiology of vegetation, or investigate the economical uses of plants, are considered by the man of names, to be engaged in a very inferior sort of inquiry, which he contemptuously stigmatises with the epithet " popular."

Sir J. E. Smith is not himself considered to be an altogether genuine nosologist, being, if we mistake not, ranked by the amateurs only among second-rate botanists. The head and front of his offending' seems to lie in his having been too physiological in his "Introduction," and not sufficiently minute and technical in his other works; while Brown, Hooker and other first-rate botanists, carefully abstain from making a single useful or practical remark, and confine themselves most rigidly to varieties of colour, form, and structure, and to the coining and arrangement of names. The Grammar before us exhibits, in this respect, some symptoms of improvement. It contains no physiology, and, so far as we can discover, no useful or practical remarks whatever. It is, consequently, a genuine botanical work, though deficient in two of the parts which, as our Author teaches us, belong to the science. Take his own, words:

• SUBJECT.'

"

1. Botany teaches the knowledge of Plants, either, I, with respect to their characters and distinctions; 2, their structure and the uses of their several parts; or, 3, their various qualities with regard to mankind and the brute creation.

2. The 1st is called Systematical, the 2nd Physiological, and the 3rd Economical Botany.

3. Systematical Botany is founded on a knowledge of the external structure of plants, and the different forms under which their various parts and organs appear.

4. Physiological Botany, besides a knowledge of the external forms of the vegetable body, requires an acquaintance with its internal structure, and the different substances therein produced and contained, termed Secretions, with the purposes which such secretions

answer.

5. Economical Botany is either empirical or philosophical. The former originates in the experience and practical observation of mankind from one age to another: the latter is deduced from a consideration of certain characters in vegetables; either indicating peculiar properties; or pointing out affinities, more or less remote, by which certain known qualities in some plants, are presumed to exist in others.' pp. 1, 2.

Now, this is an accurate and complete division of the science, exactly as we should wish to see it cultivated :-1. Beginning with the form and appearance of a plant, marking its relation of similarity or difference with other plants, and giving it a name to aid the memory, and to enable us to speak of it to those who have not seen it:-2. Making this preliminary knowledge subservient to the investigation of the internal structure and functions of the plant; its manner of growth, of fructification, and decay; the nourishment it derives from the earth and the air; and the circulation of its juices in the bark, the leaves, and the woody fibre :-3. Following up this investigation of the plans of Providence, with an inquiry into the uses which have been, or may be made of the plant as food or medicine for man or beast, or as a material of clothing, shelter, or luxury.;

But, although all this is formally set down in the paragraphs just extracted, as constituting the science of Botany, we look in vain for the development of these three parts of the subject in the subsequent pages of the Grammar. We have an account, indeed, of three different methods of arranging plants in classes; though it appears very doubtful whether any body, with nothing more than the instructions here given, could class a single plant in its appropriate division in any of the three arrangements. But the Physiological and Economical divisions are wholly omitted, without a word of apology. The reader must be contented to learn, that, though these make two thirds of the science, the Author has not thought it requisite to say one word more concerning them than what we have already quoted. What, we may ask, would be thought of a book entitled a Grammar of Chemistry, which should divide the subject into Systematical, Experimental, and Economical, and put us off with a dry systematical catalogue of names, and tables of weights and other properties of substances,-at the same time wholly omitting, without apology, the doctrine of Affinity and the VOL. XV. N. S. 3 E