look only at the losses is painful: I mourned the death of Chatham, Nelson, Pitt, Fox, and Moore; but Providence raised up others in their places, and England at this moment is greater than ever. The events occurring in India are sad, but the worst is past, and British supremacy, like the fabled phoenix, will arise, new-fledged and youthful, from the general conflagration. I also have some pleasing reminiscences, for during the past six months it has fallen to my lot to introduce some particulars respecting the Arms, Armour, and Military Usages of the Fourteenth Century to the notice of my readers, which I hope they have found entertaining and instructive; I have pointed out how Gothic houses may be made suitable for modern requirements, and have brought before their notice the two books which shed a lustre upon the classical literature of the year,-Mr. Gladstone's Homer and Mr. Rawlinson's Herodotus. Chester with its early annals is no longer misty, but may be read by any one who will take the trouble to go through my pages; Montaigne, John Lilly, Dugald Stuart, and Edmund Burke have once more come upon the stage. Nor should I omit mentioning the curious documents connected with the Knights Templars, the History of Ancient Pottery, the Chronicle of Florence of Worcester, the Lives of Edward the Confessor, and the Peerage in the present century. These, and a number of other important papers, enable me to look with some pleasure upon the past. Of the future I will say little my hopes have so frequently been blighted, that I have learned to refrain from expressing them; but I have no reason to think that when I again indulge in a retrospect, it will be less satisfactory than the present. SYLVANUS URBAN. E PLURIBUS UNUM. LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. STATUE of Günther Von Schwarzburg, King of the Romans Statue of the Black Prince, from his Monument in Canterbury Cathedral Archers Crossbow-men Hawarden Church, Flintshire Emblems of the Crucifixion and the Arms of the Passion:-Pendant, with Emblems, Collumpton, Devon, 159; Ladder and Ham- Demidoff's Birthplace Leaning Tower, Neviansk Tell-tale-tit St. John's Church, Chester, (two views) North side of the Nave One Bay of the Choir Window of the south Choir Aisle Page 4 11 16 130 144 167 173 175 199 270 273 274 275 Cloisters, south-west angle-the Carrels, &c. Triforium, north-east corner of Choir South Aisle of Choir Cornice of Lady Chapel, over the Vault of the side Chapel . Series of Window-tracery, from Chester Cathedral West end of the Cathedral Pulpit in the Refectory, with the Staircase and Details Cloisters, north side-the Lavatory, &c. Battle, from the Roman du roi Meliadus Scale Armour Knightly Costume 470 465 589 Statue of a Knight in the Church of St. Peter, Sandwich 592 THE ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCHES.-Society of Antiquaries, 64; Oxford Architectural Society, 69; Archæological Institute, 72; British Archæological Association, 73; Numismatic Society-Chester Architectural, Archæological, and Historic Society, 74; Yorkshire Phi- HISTORICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS REVIEWS.-Schmid's Anglo-Saxon Laws, 84; Hughes' Boscobel Tracts, 85; Landmarks of History; Murray's Pitcairn: the Island, the People and the Pastor, 87; Barnard's Theory and Practice of Landscape Painting, Winged Words on Chantrey's Woodcocks, 88; Griffith and Farran's Children's Books... THE MONTHLY INTELLIGENCER ..... OBITUARY-with Memoirs of Rev. Dr. Bliss, 99; Rev. Dr. Townsend-Rev. Richard War- ner, 101; Rev. Duncan Macfarlan, D.D., 104; Professor Rauch-Capt. Monck Mason, 105; Mark Lockwood, Esq., 106; Francis Downing, Esq.-Thomas Sowler, Esq., 108; MINOR CORRESPONDENCE. POPE'S SIR BALAAM-WHO WAS HE? MR. URBAN,-This, I believe, is unknown, and the remark has been made that there is but little chance of ever discovering his identity. Supposing him to be the portrait of a real character, we may conclude that the subject of Pope's invective was dead and gone when the Moral Essays were published; that in life he had been noted for his wealth and his sharp practice; and that, among other things, he had married his daughter to a man of rank or title. Is anything certain known of Mr. Balam, who is mentioned in Pope's early letters to Henry Cromwell, printed in Curll's Miscellanea, 1727 ? Unless it can be shewn to the contrary, I would suggest that he is the person meant; the surname, to suit at once the poet's purpose as to identification, and to modify the virulence of the libel, being changed into a Christian name with a title prefixed. In a letter dated April 10, 1710, (vol. i. p. 30,) Pope says to Cromwell, "Pray, when you see Mr. Balam, do the same, [i. e. give my service to him,] who (you told me) was so obliging as to intend me his company before I left London." From this it would appear that Cromwell had intended to introduce Mr. Balam to his young friend,Pope was then in his twenty-second year, --but that in consequence of his leaving town for Binfield the introduction had been postponed. Before the next letter in which Balam is mentioned, Pope makes his acquaintance, and receives singular favours at his hands. July 24, 1711, he says to Cromwell (vol. i. p. 60), "Be pleased to assure Mr. Ballam (sic) of my faithful service: I can never enough esteem a zeal so ardent in my concerns, from one I never could any way oblige, or induce to it. "Tis an effect of the purest, most disinterested strain of natural good-humour in the world." The favours here alluded to, it seems to me, were pecuniary ones; and his disinterestedness towards the youthful borrower may probably at some later period have revealed itself in the form of a " shower of cent. per cent." Mr. Balam, too, appears to have had a daughter who shone in the circles of fashionable life. In the same volume (p. 83) there are some lines by Henry Cromwell, intituled "Venus at Bath," which conclude thus,-spelling the This, not improbably, may have been the daughter who ultimately "flaunted, a viscount's tawdry wife." I would suggest, friend, Mr. Balaam, was a wealthy merthen, subject to correction, that Pope's chant, that his father perished by shipwreck, that in his latter years he was noted for his usuriousness, that he possessed property in Cornwall; that his daughter married a man of title, and that, having given offence to the poet in his lifetime, his memory was covertly satirized, but with a strong hint as to his identity, by the ingenious change of his surname into a Christian one. The story of Mr. Balaam diddling the "honest factor" was probably one well known at the time. I cannot for a moment believe that it has any reference to Governor Pitt and the Orleans diamond. The "taking a bribe from France," the impeachment by Coningsby (the accuser of the Earl of Oxford), and the ultimate hanging of Sir Balaam, are not improbably mere poetic fictions. It may possibly be capable of proof, that the incidents of Pope's Sir Balaam could quondam friend Mr. Balam; but it is very not by any chance be applicable to his clear to me, that if the poet had remained on friendly terms with him or his family, he would never have used his surname in so unceremonious a manner. Yours, &c., |