When the meat was done, they began to regale themselves with their prize, to the great joy of Sixtus, who had mixed opium in it; as soon as the band were fairly asleep, he whistled, his soldiers came up, and they were every one taken. The recollection of this story has made the rogues cautious. The chief of the gang into whose hands our Author and her friends were in no little danger of falling, told a captive whom they ransomed, that they were always afraid of fresh wine lest it should be drugged; that they therefore always made the person who brought it drink a good deal of it, and if in two hours no bad symptoms appeared, they then used it. The narrative of this poor fellow's captivity is highly interesting. Though repeatedly threatened with being murdered in case the money for his ransom did not punctually arrive, he was otherwise well treated, and exhorted to make himself comfortable, and the chiefs conversed with him freely. One of them, the second in command, talked to him of the political nature of their situation.

'He said that government would never succeed in putting them down by force; that they are not a fortress to batter down with cannon, but rather birds, which fly round the tops of the sharpest rocks, without having any fixed home; that if, by any misfortune, seven perished, they were sure of ten recruits to replace their loss; for criminals, who would be glad to take refuge among them, were never wanting; that the number of their present company amounted to a hundred and thirty individuals; and that they had an idea of undertaking some daring exploit, perhaps of threatening Rome itself. He ended by saying, that the only way to put an end to their depredations would be to give them a general pardon, without reservation or limitation, that they might all return to their houses, without fear of treachery; but, otherwise, they would not trust to nor treat with any one; and added, that this was the reason for which they had not concluded any thing with the prelate sent to Frosinone to treat with them. As it was, their company was determined to trust nothing but a pardon from the Pope's own lips; and he repeated this same sentiment to me several times during the second day I was obliged to pass with him and his fellows.' pp. 211, 212.

These brigands or foruscuti are what the forest outlaws of England were in the days of Robin Hood. They are neither of the poorest nor the vilest of the population, but generally possess a little field and a house, whither they retire at certain seasons, and only take the field when the hopes of plunder 'allure them, or the fear of a stronger arm drives them to the 'woods and rocks.' They maintain, indeed, that their habits of life arise from necessity rather than choice. The main body was said to amount to a hundred and thirty, although the division which kept Poli and its neighbourhood in continual alarm, never exceed thirteen. Mrs. Graham was told that they seldom take foreigners or any persons from whom they cannot expect a

speedy ransom. Every robber has a silver heart containing a picture of the Madonna and child, suspended to his neck by a red ribbon. We know,' said one of them, that we are likely to die a violent death, but in our hour of need we have these,' (touching his musket,) to struggle for our lives with, and this,' (kissing the image of the Virgin,) to make our death easy. This mixture of ferocity and superstition, our Author remarks, is one of the most terrific features in the character of the banditti of Italy.

A gang of gipsies made their appearance one day while our Author was at Poli, The men were furnished with pedlars'. wares; the women, as usual, were fortune-tellers, and, in addition to the customary prognostications of future good things to those who cross their hands, held out the promise of one thing which in England would not be esteemed a benefitindulgent confessors. One of them told the party, that her mother was born at Alexandria in Egypt, and was the head of the tribe in Italy. We talked with them,' says Mrs. G., 'some time, and found that there own dialect was the same with 'that of the gipsies of England and Spain, and the Bohemians ' of France and Germany, which Richardson and Schlegel have long since recognised to be that of the Nats of Hindostan.'*

·

During our Author's residence at Poli, several excursions were made by the party into the neighbourhood of the town. The chief objects of interest are the stupendous aqueducts which traverse the Campagna. Palestrina, the ancient Preneste, is rich in the relies of past ages. Nothing can be imagined 'finer,' says Mrs. G., than the first near view' of the town. A ruined tower and fortress of the middle ages, crown its conical hill; a large couvent near one of the gates, forms part of the outline; while a few cypresses and pines mixed with the building, and partly concealing the cyclopian wall that extends from the citadel to the plain, serve, with their dark foliage, to detach the hill from the surrounding wood-clad mountains: the narrow plain between the Volscian and Alban hills, leads the eye on to Mount Circeo and the sea. In walking through the town, fragments of marble columns, and statues, and fountains, set up as ornaments to the streets, or as seats at the mean doors of the inhabitants, continually presented themselves. Some columns with rich capitals which adorn the side of a church, and broken parts of similar columns built into the walls of neighbouring houses, are supposed to have belonged to the porticoes erected by Sylla to adorn the approach to the temple of his favourite goddess. Every gate, every avenue to Palestrina, either bears

* See Eclectic Review, N.S. Vol. VIII. p. 581; and Vol. XIII

P. 371.

' an antique name, or contains objects of historic or antiquarian 'interest.'

Mrs. Graham notices the indications of ancient volcanoes! that are every where to be traced in the Campagna.

An attentive examination of the situation of the seven hills, and the' historical traditions concerning them, would lead us to believe that the capitol and Palatine formed the crater of a volcano, which emitted flames once, at least, even after the foundation of the city, when Curtius leaped into the gulf; and the circular disposition of the other bills round these two, give additional probability to the idea. The cave of Cacus under Mount Aventine is looked upon as volcanic. Real black lava has always been quarried for the pavement of the roads near the monument of Cecilia Metella; and the rocks round Rome abound in all the volcanic substances. It is true, there is reason to believe that the sea has covered the Campagna up to the foot of the mountains; but at what period it retired, whether long before the extinction of the greater number of the volcanoes, whose situations are still to be traced, or at the same time, must for ever remain matter of conjecture. The craters of the high Alban hill, however, have less doubtful evidence of thein existence after the building of the adjacent cities. Livy relates the remarkable shower of stones that fell among the Alban hills, accom panied by a loud noise, which the soothsayers taking upon themselves to explain, established the nine days' festival, annually celebrated by all the people of Latium: other showers of stones occurred at dif ferent periods. The funeral vases found buried under a bed of volcanic tufo, between Marino and Castel Gandolfo, are an incontestiblé proof, that such showers of stones and sand must have fallen, and that too when the country was peopled and civilized; for among other things contained in the urns were the implements of writing.

6 A noise like that above mentioned was heard in the hills of Aricia at the close of the battle, where Aruns, the son of Porsenna, was killed. But the sudden rise of the waters of the Alban lake ontwo memorable occasions is the least doubtful fact connected with the antique volcano, whose crater it is. The inundation which occurred during the siege of Veii had long been preceded by one which swallowed up the royal palace of Alba, and which was so sudden, that neither the king nor his family had time to escape.

The lake of Gabii, as we had occasion to remark, in our journey from Rome to Poli, is also the extinguished crater of a volcano. So is that of Anagni concealed from us by the conical hill of Palestrina, which is directly between it and Guadagnola. The lava from Anagni has flowed in a direction towards Marino, and is visible on the roadside.' pp. 89-91.

Earthquakes are still frequent enough in Rome and its neighbourhood, to excite little attention among the people. Mrs. Graham was awaked by one in the month of March, which would have been talked of in England, yet did not even make a paragraph in the Diario Romano.' In ancient times, these convulsions of nature were far more frequent and terrible.

Does not the strong language of the Apocalypse indicate, that one still more tremendous than has ever yet been known, accompanied with volcanic phenomena, will accomplish the final overthrow of the " mighty city?" Bishop Newton remarks, that the predicted destruction is a complete and total destruction, such as has never yet been the fate of Rome; and that it is intimated, that she shall be swallowed up by a subterraneous fire. The soil and situation of Rome and the neighbouring countries,' adds the Bishop, 'greatly favour such a suppo'sition.'

Art.

VI. Biblical Criticism on the First Fourteen Historical Books of the Old Testament; also on the First Nine Prophetical Books. By Samuel Horsley, L.L.D. F.R.S. F.A.S. Late Lord Bishop of St. Asaph. 8vo. 4 Vols. pp. 1729. Price 27. 2s. London. 1820. THE Editor of Bishop Horsley's posthumous works would seem

to estimate the manuscripts which he has inherited from his relative, at as high a rate as Bishop Pearson's writings were valued by Bentley, who pronounced the very dust of them to be gold: they are too precious to be lost. Hence they have been dealt out from time to time to the public, and a price has been demanded for them sufficiently costly to raise them above the level of vulgar produce in the markets of literature. We have had in succession, four volumes of Sermons, Speeches in Parliament, The Book of Psalms translated with notes; and now we have Biblical Criticism in four volumes. Whether there be any more inedited fragments of the learned Prelate which are yet destined for publication, we have no means of learning. Be this as it may, there is already ample reason for concluding that Bishop Horsley's fame has not been committed to the safeguard of the soundest discretion. His reputation as a Biblical Critic in particular, has not been advanced by the delivery from the press of his work on the Psalms ; nor will it receive any great accession from the original parts of the volumes now under our notice. To the praise of being a judicious interpreter of the sacred poetry of the Bible, but a very moderate claim can be established in favour of the deceased Prelate, though his Version of the Psalms has been described by its Editor as the most profound and the most important of all the works of their great author.' If we could concur in this judgement, we should certainly have to assign a very humble rank to the present "Biblical Criticism." Our opinion, however, is rather different, and we do not hesitate to ascribe to these four volumes, though, with the exception of the Hosea, they are neither profound' nor very important,' a higher value than belongs to the former work.

The contents of these volumes are not all original: they

include a series of Remarks on the first three chapters of Genesis, with some disquisitory matter on the Divine Names, extracted from the British Critic for 1802, in which they first appeared in an article on Dr. Geddes's "Critical Remarks ;" also, the Translation of the xviiith Chapter of Isaiah, and the Version of Hosea, both already before the public. These altogether fill upwards of a third part of the entire number of pages in the collection; and there are besides some passages which are given twice. This is an easy method of swelling out the bulk of a work, and of taxing the possessors of the republished articles; but the Editor is not a novice in the art of book-making; the name of Bishop Horsley looks attractive in a title page.

The learned Prelate was no advocate for the integrity of the printed Hebrew text: he impeaches its authority with as much freedom as Kennicott himself, and cared as little for the Masorets as any disciple of an anti-Rabbinical school. But, though he agreed with modern critics in the belief that corruptions have found their way into the printed text, he did not agree with many of them as to the means of correcting its errors. He declares himself against conjectural emendation, and would limit alterations to those cases in which a reading is supported by the authority of manuscripts or versions, or to the division of sentences and words, in which he thought an entire freedom might be allowed. To his general principles of criticism, we should scarcely venture to oppose an objection. Conjectural alteration of the sacred text has been practised by so many editors and translators without scruple, and without measure, that we cannot but approve of the more cautious methods of proceeding, and should certainly prefer the preservation of even apparently faulty readings to risking the greater corruption of the text by capricious changes. We question, however, whether such proposed emendations as the following, would not exclude their Author from the privilege of rebuking a critic who should venture to hazard a correction purely conjectural.

Judges, chap. xx. ver. 38.-" that they should make a great flame, with smoke to rise up out of the city." The word new is rendered Tupoos by the LXX: and by Tupos they certainly understood not a single torch, but a pile of combustibles on fire. The words onby wy лwo are not easily reduced to any regular construction. Perhaps the original reading may have been thus, new man

my."Now it had been agreed upon between the men of Israel and the ambuscade, that they [the persons of the ambuscade] should make a large pile, to send up smoke from the city." The alteration consists only in a transposition of the two words abb and new, which brings the accusative of the transitive verb next to its verb, which is its proper place; a removal of the letters on from the end of the word to the end of the word