BOOKS.

ME. W. S. GIBSON'S DILSTON HALL..

To have the head cut off is a great advantage to any one anxious for posthumous fame. To many minds, the tyranny of Strafford, the falsehood of Charles, were dissipated by the blow of the heads- man. Sydney, if remembered at all, would have been remembered as an impracticable politician who desired einality—as low down as himself: the executioner's axe turned him into a tavern toast and a martyr. But for the beheading, Lord William Russell would have been mentioned in history, had his memory survived, as a well-meaning but weak politician, of -whom able but unscru- pulous men like Shaftesbury made a tool, and probably laughed at in private.. Had the merry Monarch been malicious, he would have pardoned Lord William Russell, and slain his reputation ; for posterity would then have ratified the verdict of the jury, as it is palpable that he associated with traitors and tampered with treason—very doubtful if he was not guilty. of" privy conspiracy," though he must be acquitted of open "rebellion. he blood shed on the scaffold not only made everything couleur de rose, but for about a century and a half elevated him into a martyr of liberty.

The case of the Jacobite lords is a more remarkable example of the benefits of beheading. The men we have just men- tioned were conspicuous from their position, or for their conduct, at least in the eyes of contemporaries. Except that old ruffian Levet, the Jacobite lords were, so to speak, unknown; and it is impossible for reason to rate them as "martyrs," or to sympathize with the whining sentimentality that bewails their fate. If war be rashly engaged in, the deaths in the field, the devastations of the campaign, the shock and ruin to private fortunes, -with all the racking anxieties and countless griefs that attend upon national convulsions, are chargeable upon its authors ; the prospects and termination of both the Jacobite rebellions prove that their calcula- tions -sill not absolve the conscience of the Jacobite leaders, even if conscientious motives could be pleaded for all of them.

Mr. Sidney Gibson's volume is in some degree another attempt to excite the public interest in the Stuart rebellions ; and its hero was undoubtedly one of the most interesting and least culpable of the Jacobite lords. Lord Derwentwater was connected by blood with the exiled family, his grandfather having married Lady Mary Tudor, the youngest natural daughter of Charles the becond.; through which connexion came the peerage. He was broug?tne. with the son of James the Second ; he appears to have remained ',/n. the Continent till his twenty-first year, and probably for the greater part of the time at St. Germains. In addition to the claims of fte- mily and association, he had also the motive of religion, for he was a stanch Roman Catholic. His wife too, whom he married soon after his return home, was a Romanist; she had been educated in the convent of Ursuline nuns at Paris, and like himself was much at the court of St. Germains, where it is supposed their attachment began. To his wife's influence, indeed, contemporary opinion and a tradition of the peasantry ascribe his implication in the rising, rather than to any loftier motive. A Secretary of State's warrant was out against the Earl as a suspected man; this he unluckily evaded by hiding amongst his retainers, till the reproaches of Lady Lterwentwater for his want of spirit drove him to join the ranks of the insurgents openly. Another tradition, however, ascribes the determination to supernatural influence. "It Nvas a belief in his family, we are told, as in many other ancient families, that a mysterious visitant, bound to its fortunes by some fatal tie, appeared to its lords either to warn them of danger or to announce impend- ing calamity,—a harbinger of ill, rather than a manifestation of the guardian spirit which has been supposed to attend the individual in his earthly course. On an evening shortly before his rising in the Stuart cause, the young Earl, sad and pensive, is said to have roamed in solitude through the wooded banks of the Des-irs Water, now pursuing his way- through deep forest shadows, and now emerging into green and moonlit glades, across which the startled deer ted before him; and, haring passed the Linnel's Bridge, and the site of the old rained nunnery, reached the Maiden's Walk—a terrace on the mar- gin of a cliff overhung with copsewood, looking down upon the vale of Nuns- burgh : that valley lay below, embosomed in deep woods, over which the moon threw an unclouded lustre, and almost insulated by the circling silvery current of the river, which, issuing from umbrageona depths, was glittering over its shallow bed. The Earl was reclining beneath a tree on this

and, listening to the low soft voice of the stream, was, perhaps, contrasting the repose of nature with the agitations of the human breast, and the phantoms which disturb ambitious man, when a figure stood before him in robe and hood of gray: 'The form he might trace, but not the face- 'Twas shadosed by a cowl; But eyes might be seen from the folds between, And they seemed of a 'parted soul.'

The figure spoke to the astonished Earl, and warning him that he should be riding for his King, gave him a crucifix which she declared (for the tones were those of a woman) should render sword or bullet harmless to him ; and BO Baying, disappeared as the shadow that departeth ; leaving the agitated young nobleman to retrace his steps under the influences of that strange awe which a communication from the world of spirits may be supposed to have induced. Such is the legendau tale; but the Earl's resolve belongs not to the regions of tradition."

These circumstances, coupled with his misfortunes and death, were sufficient to have given James Radcliffe a place in local tra- dition and ballad literature, as well as to have made him a hero with the Jacobite party while it existed, and with those persons who now profess a strong sentiment of Jaeobitism coupled with a, • Dilston Hall, or Memoirs of the Right Honourable James Radcliffe Earl of Der- wentwater, a Martyr in the Rebellion of 1715. To which is added, a Visit to Bea- burgh Castle; witla an Account of Lord Crewe's Charities, and a Memoir of the noble Founder. Forming the Second Series of Descriptive and Historical Notices of Northumbrian Churches mad Castles. By William' Sidney Wham. Esq., Banister- at-law, F.S.A., &c. &c. Published by Longman and Co. servile loyalty to ()Amen Victoria" Something Anora goi0-540# ing to render bin+ the idol of the peasanky in his distriatiato lead- them to conneet'resnarkable nataral. a speurances

and to cherisliltienidry down to the- eesent' ' kift is

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London after their surrender, Lord Derwentwater is said to have asked the commander of the escort if he knew how they were to be disposed of. The officer said that the noblemen would probably be sent to the Tower, and the rest distributed in the Marshalsea,

Signor Tro o Savelh, who wai beheaded in the flower of his youth, in the Castle of St. Angelo at Rome, which was recommended to his perusaL

There was one e in this book which mightily pleased him : the per- son who assisted this young nobleman at his death showed him how the death which he could not avoid might nevertheless be made a voluntary sacrifice by a voluntary acceptance of it ; and that it would be so much the more mentorious the more willingly it were embraced ; that though our Saviour was ordained by His heavenly Father to drink of the chalice he did it, however, voluntarily, which doctrine was confirmed by many exam- ples, particularly out of S. Clirysostom; and his Lordship was resolved to practise it the beat he could; but when, on the Monday before he died, his life was assured him if he would change his religion, he told it me with the greatest transport of joy, that having refused his life on such terms, he hoped it was not now making a virtue of necessity; that had he a thousand lives he would sooner part with them than renounce his faith ; and with tears of joy in his eyes, he humbly thanked God for giving him this opportunity of testifying his love for him. It was better than a quarter of an hour before he could speak of anything else ; and indeed, one would take him to be in a kind of rapture while he spoke upon that subject. From this time for- ward, I own I took him to be another man, disengaged in a wonderful man- ner from what ties us down to this world ; and alienated by an invisible hand above himself and everything that is worldly. His sentiments were sublime, and his words were attended with something that cannot be de- scribed. The Holy Ghost appeared to have taken full possession of his heart, and by choice he would have employed the remainder of his days in nothing but spiritual concerns, had not decency and even duty obliged him sometimes to attend a little to other things. The Tuesday following, some others came to him advising him to send for some minister of the Church of England, ac- cording to my Lord Chancellor's advice with whom he might talk of indifferent things, since he did not intend to change his religion ; and upon the strength of this, they would at least get a reprieve for lum, and that this once got, his life was safe. He told them he did not doubt but they meant well by this advice, and therefore, after his very obliging manner, he thanked them for their kind intentions towards him ; but desired to be excused, because he would not give any handle for people to suspect that he had any doubts in his religion. On the Wednesday he was prayed to read a Protestant book for much the same motives, and he made much the same answer as the day before ; all which contributed not a little to augment that interior satisfac- tion which he felt from the time when he refused to have life upon the terms of forsaking his religion and principles. The person that came to him with this first message was likewise to see him the night before he suffered, upon his Lordship's request, for the latter wanted to speak home to him upon the delusion he lay under of forsaking his religion ,• and he did it with so much charity and good-nature, that had he not entirely preferred this world to the next, it must have made a great impression upon him ; for, as his Lordship attributed this proposal to a mistaken good-will, so he was resolved to return it by a real pod-will; and therefore, as he infinitely preferred the good of his soul to that of his body, he endeavoured to make his relation sensible of the danger he was in, that he might timely withdraw and prepare for eternity."

He was executed on the 24th of February 1716, in his twenty- seventh year, having been born in June 1689. He died maintain- ing the right of the Pretender to the throne. His body was se- cretly buried in the domestic chapel at DiLston; a fact which was established by opening the coffin, in 1805. The book that contains the materials for this sketch is one of a

feeling migbi, -t4 cm.ng to that ufie si*yr him to embark in aniexnedition Wi4use r tJje convinced of; .buty4heAgreat•cause !wee; hospitalitytmo)pes housg Patten says, "The Earl lived among his own people(pitheroiiiei. spent his estate rinid'toitththnlly did offices of kiiidness,aild neighboughepd .toevomlAgy,fia„ ongrOity Qftrecl.,:tt house, of igerieroualeapgalityAndsjiMPle4zeterfainmento in that'eountry do, and none,come upcitge, • Ho WBS very e , to poorend distressed *Milks cm all occasions, whether knovntrito L-Wit. /hitt •n him or not, and whether Papist or Protestant." It is a- tradition - than gel* that all the meat and game in the larder Were diStribnted. 604. 'serving corn Thursday evening to the .poor. Notwithstanding all the influences that were in operation to lead Lord Derwentwater to declare for the Pretender, it seems difficult to account for his joining a project which never had even the 'ap- pearance of success, whose originators did nothing at the outset, and when less than a thousand troops advanced against them were

only anxious to avoid an encounter, though none of the insurgents has now increased to 9000/. a year, and been considerably extended had sense enough to attempt to make their escape. On the road to in its scope under a general clause of the Bishop and Baron's val.

DR. 1II0Af AS RXXO CHAMBERS ON CORPULENCE.* THE substance of this volume was originally delivered to the Col-. Newgate, &e. Lord Derwentwater rejoined, there was one house lege, of Physicians ea the. Gulstonian Lectures for the 'present year. would hold them all, and they had the best title to it of any people They were 'reported at the time in the Lancet, and are now pub- in Britain. Being asked what house that was, he replied, Bedlam. lished in a revised aud Unproved form.

e ease of the Earl to of Derwentwater was o clear to allow any chance of legal escape. Such, however, appears to have been the kindly feeling towards him, that his life might have been saved if he would have acknowledged the Hanoverian succession and turned

Protestant, or, in the significant term of the times "conformed." rmarkable facts or surprising occurrences; or if ahotter class of His friends, it appears, could have procured a respite if he would mind has employed itself upon the theme, -it has seemed proper to har,tdle the matter facetiously, intermingling •Witlpriefessional oh-. even have made a show of discussing the subject with some Protest- ,

ant divines ; and after a respite they thought they could eventual have obtained a pardon. But he refused to listen to any sucK of corpulence, toldin Chambers eschews' the trifling without 'falling into the dry. In propositions ; in fact, he was in the hands of the priests The e ' following acemmt is taken from a letter in the possession of the Petre family, who are direct descendants of the Derwentwaters by the female aide: it was written to Lady Derwentwater by the the rationale of obesity,—as its probable physiological causes, the pnyft who attended the Earl.

He prepared himself for his general confession from the first day he

saw me, and finished it with wonderful composure the Friday eight days of the subject, so far as the limited materials permit, in order inter before his death, [viz. Friday, 17th February,] which he inirtly renevred the alia t,o taace. what may be called:the apparently p'redisposin. g causes, e —as " hereditcuy " illness- marriagecate./ though we find but one Monday. following; when he received, with wonderful satisfaction a littl book, min an acommt of the penitent behaviour of a man of quality, called " great appetite " in the table, iindinianyefthe eaUSeS assigned by eAkw,lanjwitgvitilost,R,ftpotigl. t,Fili4391 wrfitiwg,141PeaK441aerlasialow aea3Alientwa. o of Derwentwater, it contains an heraldic sketch OfithaAamilyi:

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an age whe4 s yynin§p e Was rarely' found anywhere; and his life has an id-vent-thous interest from the number of rulers under whom he lived, having been born in the reign of Charles the First and dying in the reign Of George the First. Ile appears, however, but a poor trimmer of a jacobite, after the self-devotion of Derwentwater... The property he left for educational purposes and to assist the families Of poor clergymen iffrciii) ttee8.40; • • ::■11 • • fir .idt

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