knew more of the Poet than any other man of his time; and he has been often heard to say, that those who had merely read Burns' writings had but a faint idea of the extent of his powers-which shone most resplendently in conversation, and escaped in bursts of wit, eloquence, or satire, which were felt and acknowledged by all as electrical, when he happened to be in the vein, and the company agreeable, In a letter written by Mr. Syme, in November, 1829, and addressed to Mr. H. Constable, respecting a newly discovered portrait of the Poet, we find a passage strongly corroborative of what has just been stated. The Poet's expression varied perpetually, according to the idea that predominated in his mind; and it was beautiful to mark how well the play of his lips indicated the sentiment he was about to utter. His eyes and lips the first remarkable for fire, and the second for flexibility formed at all times an index to his mind; and as sunshine or shade predominated, you might have told, à priori, whether the company where he happened to be seated, were to be favoured with a scintillation of wit, a sentiment of benevolence, or a burst of fiery indignation. Mr. Taylor's portrait certainly gains on you, and upon the whole I consider it a valuable production. The hat might have been dispensed with, and is a novelty to me, although its shape may be suited to the fashion of the times. I cordially concur in what Sir Walter Scott says of the Poet's eyes. In his animated moments, and particularly when his anger was roused by instances of tergiversation, meanness, or tyranny, they were actually like coals of living fire.'"

The facts which the faithful history of Mr. Jeremy Bentham's life exhibits, are replete with interest. We are told that at three years of age he read Rapin's History of England as a mere amusement, and that at seven he went over the French Télémaque with the ease of an veritable Francois. At eight he added the perfect skill of a violin player to his other premature accomplishments. During one of the vacations which he spent at home, after leaving Westminster school, young Bentham indulged his fancy with poring over the works of Helvetius on the Mind. It is said by his most intimate friends, that this book afforded him the germ of that principle, in developing which he spent a protracted life. He passed through the University of Oxford with eclat, having obtained his batchelor's degree at 16, and that of master of arts at 20 years of age. From the University he proceeded to Lincoln'sinn, where he entered for the bar, and was a bencher of that society in 1817.

Bentham, in even his most youthful days, was familiarly called "the philosopher." He attended Blackstone's law lectures at Oxford he drank tea with Hogarth-he took notes of Lord Mansfield's charges-and he was member of a club of which Johnson was the most eminent. But it was at Oxford that he gave proof of that acute power of perception and that high moral character which certainly belouged to him in after life. Five students at Oxford were, during his time, expelled as methodists. Their crime was, that they met in their chambers, and conversed over the bible; and that when persons were sent to examine them, for the heads of the col

lege had heard of their meetings, the sense which they put on the thirty-nine articles differed in some respect from the interpretation adopted by the interrogators. We have Bentham's own words for the effect of this proceeding on his youthful mind, for he was a witness to it. His affection, which, on his entrance to the University, was quite glowing for the Church of England, he declares was eternally obliterated from his heart by the expulsion of the innocent and meritorious youths. Bentham at this time was not required to sign the thirty-nine articles; but when his time for doing so approached, he received notice of the demand, and proceeded as a conscientious man would do, to examine them for himself, and see if he could sign them without committing his moral character. We must allow the sufferer to explain the nature of the perplexity which ensued:

"The examination was unfortunate. In some of them, no meaning at all could I find; in others, no meaning but one, which, in my eyes, was but too plainly irreconcileable either to reason or to Scripture. Communicating my distress to some of my fellow collegiates, I found them sharers in it. Upon inquiry, it was found that among the fellows of the College there was one to whose office it belonged, among other things, to remove all such scruples. We repaired to him with fear and trembling. answer was cold; and the substance of it was-that it was not for uninformed youths, such as we, to presume to set up our private judgments against a public one, formed by some of the holiest as well as best and wisest men that ever lived. When, out of the multitude of his attendants, Jesus chose twelve for his Apostles, by the men in office he was declared to be possessed by a devil; by his own friends, at the same time, he was set down for mad. The like fate, were my conscience to have showed itself more scrupulous than that of the official casuist, was before my eyes. Before the eyes of Jesus stood a comforter-his Father-an Almighty one. Before my weak eyes stood no comforter. In my father, in whom in other cases I might have looked for a comforter, I saw nothing but a tormentor: by my ill-timed scruples, and the public disgrace that would have been the consequence, his fondest hopes would have been blasted, the expenses he had bestowed on my education bestowed in vain. To him, I durst not so much as confess those scruples. I signed: but by the view I found myself forced to take of the whole business, such an impression was made, as will never depart from me but with life.” -pp. 323, 324.

Mr. Bentham was induced to visit Paris when the Revolution broke out here he became intimate with Brissot, who seems, from some records he has left, to have entertained a great admiration of the young Englishman's qualities.

In the year 1784, Mr. Bentham commenced a tour on the continent, during which he undertook a distant journey to Crechoff, in Russia, where his brother Sir Samuel was quartered as commandant of an independent battalion of 1,000 men. Sir Samuel was at a distance on duty when Mr. Jeremy arrived; but the visitor con

soled himself for his brother's absence, by sitting down in the bleak wilds of southern Russia, and actually composing, amidst the yells of lard-eating Cossacks, his fine and invincible argument against the usury laws.

The death of Bentham's father left him in easy circumstances, and liking neither law nor courts, Mr. Jeremy was satisfied with all the expectations which a literary life affords. In 1802 he was elected a member of the National Institute, at a period when no more than three vacancies existed, and one was reserved for no less a personage than Napoleon, the First Consul. One of the most singular circumstances attending the literary career of Mr. Bentham was, that his manuscript treatises on legislation were translated by a French gentleman named Dumont, and appeared before the world for the first time in a French dress.

The simplicity, the perfect independence, the edifying moral career of Bentham, at once offer an irresistible testimony as to the sincerity of his avowed principles. He was accustomed to extraordinary mental labour: he seldom for any day during half a century, devoted less than eight or ten hours, and sometimes even twelve, to intense mental employment. This assiduity he bore, notwithstanding the admonitions to be careful, which his weak physical constitution so frequently suggested. He carefully arranged his time, being persuaded, from the very outset of his career, that the loss or abuse of the smallest portion of time was a real calamity in his estimation.

The number of works which were published by Mr. Bentham is almost incredible. The utility, at least of some of them, is a matter of too much notoriety to be disputed. It is a curious fact, that a work which he published in 1791, was the source from which the principle of a Legislative Act was drawn in 1791. This was The Panopticon, or The Inspection House, which contained a new principle of construction, applicable to any sort of establishment in which the majority are to be kept under inspection, with a plan of management adapted to the principle. Mr. Pitt, when he saw this work, gave up a plan of his own, then in progress, for ameliorating the state of our prisons: even acts of parliament were passed for the purpose of carrying into execution Mr. Bentham's plan. George the Third, whose vindictiveness was one of the most unpardonable of his bad qualities, found out that Bentham had been his antagonist in one of the periodicals of the day. His impartial and noble-minded majesty refused to put his name to some document in which Bentham was concerned. Pitt remonstrated— the king was inexorable in his resentment-and, will it be believed, acts were absolutely repealed by his majesty's desire, which in part realized Bentham's plan, but which were rendered useless because the king refused to follow up the completion of the project by not assenting to other statutes which were essential to it." A young

friend of Mr. Bentham's has supplied the following account of tha celebrated man in his private capacity:

The person of Mr. Bentham, during the latter years of his life, was eminently striking: simplicity was the main feature in his appearance; and that feature was so strongly imposed upon those who casually beheld him, as to trench somewhat on those bounds to which simplicity is so nearly allied. Who can read the Werther,' without feeling that it verges on the very borders of the ridiculous? and who, at the same time, is not softened into womanhood at the powerful picture of despair and hopelessness drawn in that simple garb? So it was with Mr. Bentham: there were persons who did not scruple to intrude upon the old man's privacy, for the purpose of drawing an unworthy caricature; but there were others who approached him with reverence, and who departed, as did the visiters of the Prophet of old, with peace in their hearts.

"I recollect well the day on which I first saw him. A parcel of us were playing at rackets in a small court attached to his grounds at Westminster, and we were also making a huge noise of laughter at the bad jokes of one who is now no more. Presently we heard a loud voice shout some words out of a window, which I misinterpreted into Don't make that noise,'-but which, when I enjoined quietness, were laughingly translated into D――e, you may come and make a noise;' meaning, that his secretary, who was with us, might go and play on the organ, as the morning's studies were concluded. Shortly afterwards the old philosopher came out, leaning on the arm of his dear friend and quondam pupil,' R. D▬▬e. His apparel hung easily about him; and consisted chiefly of a grey coat, light breeches, and white woollen stockings hanging loosely about his legs; whilst his venerable locks, which floated over the collar and down his back, were surmounted by a straw hat of most grotesque and indiscribable shape, communicating to his appearance a strong contrast to the quietude and sobriety of his general aspect. He winded round the walks of his garden at a pace somewhat faster than a walk, yet not quite so quick as a trot; his supporter having some little difficulty in keeping up with him. As he approached where I stood, De beckoned me to come forward, which I did, when he introduced me by name to his venerable instructor, who smiled upon me, and held out one of his hands, which I was only prevented from treatiug as subjects do those of emperors, by a feeling of false shame, lest my action should excite the ridicule of my racket companions. He spoke a few words to me, and then passed on, leaving a trace on my mind of the most pleasing description, yet not untinged with melancholy at the thought that his career was so nearly concluded. I often saw him after that time; and was wont to take up a position in one corner of the grounds, whence I could see him without being observed. I never looked upon his face without feeling the truth of the remark which has brought together the extremes of human life, and found a similitude between age and infancy. · There was a settled expression of bland and pleasing thought, altogether e from any thing like the slightest indication of passion. He seemed have passed through life unscathed by those turbulent feelings which result from an indulgence of the passions: the lines of his countenance were well defined and deeply engraved; but there was no scowl on the brow; there were no marks of contempt or scorn about the mouth an

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open and somewhat laughing aspect seemed to intimate the quiet meditation in which his manhood and age had passed away, Yet was he by no means unapt, or unobservant of what passed around him. His table-talk partook largely of reminiscences of bygone days, but he would now and then indulge in some lively sally upon those who were his guests. To one of them, a gentleman alike distinguished by the honesty and earnestness of his opinions, and by the talent with which he supports them with his pen, but to whose conversation Garrick's joke on Goldsmith might be applied- He writes like an angel, but talks like poor poll'-he once said, whilst at table,- J——, take that pen in your hand.' The pen was taken. There; now, J-, you're one of the cleverest fellows in England. Put it down.' The pen was laid down. There; now, J-, you're one of the greatest noodles I know of. Don't talk, J--; don't talk. Write! write!

"He passed the evening of his days surrounded by friends and admirers, who were delighted to pay him that homage which was his due: and he sunk at last into the repose of the grave, with the conviction that his life had been useful to his fellow creatures, blameless to others, and pleasing to himseif.' "-pp. 362–364.

Miss Spence, Sir John Leslie, and Lord Tenterden, furnish the subjects for the concluding portion of this volume, in conjunction with that portion which is called the index, and into which is thrust the commonalty, high and low, of those who paid the debt of nature during the year. We have only room to mention the curious trait which distinguished the last moments of the late Chief Justice of the King's Bench, Lord Tenterden. The noble lord died, there is no doubt, with harness on his back; he may truly be said to have stepped from the bench to the grave. During his last moments, when his family were around him, painfully watching his last struggles, he was observed feebly to move his head, as if he had been engaged in writing: he was heard forthwith to exclaim, "Gentlemen of the jury, you may retire."

ART. X.

1. Annals of the Turkish Empire, from 1591 to 1659, of the Christian Era. By NAIMA. Translated from the Turkish by CHARLES FRASER. Vol. 1. 4to. London: Printed for the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. 1832. 2. The Siyar-ul-Mutakherin, a History of the Mahomedan Power in India during the last Century. By Mir Gholam HusseinKhan. Revised from the Translation of Haji Musteffa, and collated with the Persian original. By JonN BRIGGS, M.R. A.S. Lieutenant-Colonel in the Madras Army. Vol. I. London: Printed for the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. 1832.

IN each of the publications issued by the Oriental Translation Society, we find, as they succeed one another, the manifestations of