give any authority for this assertion, and the question we ask is-Was any commission issued for the purpose described or not? Upon turning to Sir James Mackintosh's History, which is Mr. Tytler's frequent reference for facts, the same circumstance will be found stated, with the addition that Thomas Earl of Wiltshire, the queen's father, was one of the commissioners. Sir James gives the credit of the recent discovery of this commission to Mr. Turner, and refers his readers to that author for an abridgment of the Record of this document, the contents of which would, he states, "offend every modest eye, even through a Latin medium." (Mackintosh's England, 11. 193.) Mr. Turner states, "That the

May Day perturbation was mere public scenery, and that her arrest had been determined upon at least a week before, is proved by a special commission hav. ing been made out and signed on the 25th April, to various noblemen and judges to begin the investigation of the affair."-(Turner's England, x. 443.)

Mr. Turner adds in a note, "after many searches for some legal documents about this trial, I found an extract of this Commission among the Birch MSS. in the British Museum, No. 4293," and he further mentions its date, and the persons to whom it is addressed. There is, it will be perceived, a slight discrepancy between the date given by Mr. Turner and his followers, but that is not of much moment. The main point is, was this a Commission" to begin the investigation of the affair," as Mr. Turner has it; "to enquire into her alleged misdeeds," as represented by Sir James Mackintosh; to institute an inquiry into her conduct," according to the phraseology of Mr. Tytler? Our readers may judge for themselves-for here it is; and let not the most sensitive amongst them be alarmed by the description of it given by Sir James Mackintosh, for a more modest, harmless document never existed:

"Henricus Octavus Dei gratia Angl' et Franc' Rex, fidei defensor, &c. Thomæ Audeley Militi, Cancellario Angl', preclarissimisq' consanguineis suis Thomæ Duci Norff, Carolo Duci Suff', ac charissimis consanguineis suis Joh'i Comiti Oxon', Rad'o Comiti Westm'l', Thomæ Comiti Wiltes', Rob'to Comiti Sussex,

necnon dil'c'is et fidelibus suis Will'o D'no Sands, Thomæ Crumwell armig' primario Secretario suo, Will'o Fitz Jamys Militi, Will'o Paulett Militi, Joh'i Fitz Jamys Militi, Joh'i Baldwyn Militi, Ric'd' Lyster Militi, Joh'i Porte Militi, Joh'i Spelman Militi, Waltero Luke Militi, Antonio Fitzherbert Militi, Thomæ Inglefeld Militi, et Will'o Shelley Militi, salutem; Teste meipso apud Westm' vicesimo quart' die Aprilis anno regni nostri vicesimo octavo," &c.

Now what does all this amount to? Simply, that on the 24th day of April, in the 28th year of the reign of Henry VIII. a document of some description or other, probably a Commission, was directed to Sir Thomas Audeley and others, which ran in the King's name, which began "Greeting," and ended

Witness myself at Westminster." But as to its purpose, its connection or want of connection with Ann Boleyn, its indication of a concealed determination to arrest her, its proof that the May-day perturbation was mere public scenery,' all that is entirely baseless and visionary, without any shadow of foundation whatever, except in the minds of Mr. Turner and the other gentlemen whose histories

are

He

founded upon Authentic and Original Documents, some of them not before published." The real fact is, that worthy Mr. Turner, hunting about at the Museum, stumbled upon a note of this Commission, if it was a Commission, written in a modern hand upon the same sheet of paper with what is apparently a copy of part of the indictment against Anne Boleyn. This juxta-position misled the good man, and his own active and fertile imagination supplied the rest. was anxious to defend Ann Boleyn; his ingenuity supplied various inferences from this Commission which he thought favourable to her, and he never paused to inquire how far the document itself would support them. The other gentlemen are too chivalrous in Anne's support to forego any thing ever advanced on her behalf. But how, it will be asked, came Sir James Mackintosh to give this luckless Commission so bad a name? Thus,-Mr. Turner, it has been seen, connects the Commission and the indictment; Sir James confounds them, and applies to the former a description only applic

able to the latter. Thus error is perpetuated and enlarged! If we could stain our pages with the indictment itself, it would be seen that there the mistakes of Mr. Turner are even more extraordinary, and the copying of his followers equally servile. Any one who chooses to turn to Mr. Turner's statement, will do well to contrast his assertions and inferences with the fact that all the offences are charged to have been committed not only on the days which he mentions, but "diversis aliis diebus et vicibus antea et postea." The immodest character of the document ought not to be made a reason for mis-stating its contents, either for or against Anne Boleyn.

Mr. Tytler, in his notice of Catharine Howard, brings forward a new charge against Henry and Cranmer, which it will be as well to nip in the bud, for Cranmer's advocates are so needlessly sensitive, that if it be not smothered at once we shall have a deluge of volumes upon the subject. Mr. Tytler says, that Catharine Howard was induced by Cranmer to make a complete disclosure of her guilt, under a solemn promise of mercy, which promise was not kept. (Tytler, p. 435.) "These particulars, which," he says, "are new in the domestic history of this monarch, although they do not in any degree exculpate the Queen, place Cranmer and his Sovereign in a situation that requires explanation." (Ibid.) The authority for these new particulars is to be found in the volume of State Papers recently published under the Royal Commission, vol. I. p. 689, and the facts seem to stand thus:-The first intimation given to Cranmer, and by him to the King, referred to the Queen's ante-nuptial irregularities. She was examined by Cranmer upon that subject, and with a direct view to establish such a precontract between her and Dereham as might have been made the foundation of a divorce.

To induce her to give full information upon that point she was promised mercy; that is, pardon of those transgressions of which she was then known to have been guilty. Her examination, which was apparently inclosed to the King in the letter published in the State Papers, has been published by Burnet. (Reform. III.

pt. ii. 195, ed. 1825), and it may therefore be seen that it refers entirely to transactions before her marriage. In the end, either the pre-contract with Dereham failed, or whilst the inquiry upon that subject was proceeding, suspicion began to arise that her post-nuptial conduct was equally bad, and the pre-contract was on that account abandoned. At any event, a new inquiry was instituted, and terminated in results which are well known. Her post-nuptial transgressions alone are made the foundation of the Act of Attainder (33 H. VIII. cap. 21) and they, it is evident, were not contemplated in the mercy held out to her by Cranmer, nor were they included, or referred to, in the examination to which she submitted at the time that mercy was promised to her. Cranmer could only offer her a condonation of ante-nuptial offences, for they alone were at that time known or suspected. Mr. Tytler has fallen into error in consequence of not having perceived the distinction between her offences before and after marriage.

When we next meet Mr. Tytler it will give us great pleasure to speak more favourably of his labours.

Early English Poetry, edited by Thomas Wright, Esq. B.A. in black letter, with Prefaces and Notes, Four Parts. 1. The Turnament of Tottenham, with the Feest. 2. The Nutbrowne Maid. 3. The Tale of the Basin, and that of the Frere and the Boy. 4. Songs and Carols.-4 vols. square 12mo. 1836. Pickering.

Mr. Pickering's beautiful editions of our English Poets, whether specifically arranged under the head of Aldines, or simply marked by the Aldine Anchor, are always welcome to us; but he has seldom sent us such gems of typography and binding as the four little volumes which we now notice, with their old-fashioned black-letter text, and their fanciful outline woodcuts,-the latter being fac-similes from ancient illuminations. In the prefaces and notes Mr. Wright has displayed no ordinary learning and acuteness: and we are glad to find that he has turned his attention to one very important point,-that of fixing, as

nearly as can be done in the present state of our knowledge on this subject, the dialect of the different manuscripts from which he has printed.

We believe it to be contemplated, if these four volumes are successful, to continue them, so as to form a series of pieces illustrative of our literature and language during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The earliest of the poems now published are, the Turnament of Tottenham, printed for the first time from the MS. (now at Cambridge) which was used by Bedwell; its sequel, the Feest; and the Tale of the Basin, which was inserted by Hartshorne in his execrably incorrect collection of Metrical Tales. Next in date comes the story of the Frere and the Boy, now first given from a Cambridge MS. in a very quaint and broad dialect. Then we have the curious collection of Songs and Carols from the Sloane MS.; and lastly, the deservedly admired ballad of the Nut-browne Maid reprinted from the earliest known edition.

Of the Songs and Ballads the subjoined religious effusion is a speci

men:

Lestenyt lordyngs bothe elde and zynge
How this rose began to sprynge,
Swych a rose to myn lykynge

In al this world ne knowe I non.
The aungil cam fro heuene tour
To grete Marye with gret honour,
And seyde che shuld bere the flour

That shulde breke the fynds bond.
The flour sprong in heye Bedlem
That is bothe bryzt and schen,
The rose is Mary heuenes qwyn,

Out of here bosum the blosme sprong.
The ferste braunche is ful of myzt
That sprong on crystemesse nyzt,
The sterre schon ouer Bedlem bryzt,

That is bothe brod and long.
The secunde braunche sprong to helle
The fendys power down to felle,
Ther-in myzt non sowle dwlle;

Blyssid be the tyme the rose sprong.
The thredde branche is good and swote,
It sprang to heuene crop and rote,
Ther-in to dwellyn and ben our bote,
Euery day it schewith in prysts hond.
Prey we to here with gret honour,
Che that bar the blyssid flowr,
Che be our helpe and our socour,
And schyd vs fro the fynds bond.
The notes are interspersed with
scraps of antiquarianism and philo-
logy, conveyed in a pleasing and po-

pular form. Those on the Feest treat us with some choice early receipts in English cookery. Of the philology we give the following as a sample, from the notes on the Songs and Carols. Many English philologists have considered the expression me thinks as an ungrammatical barbarism. "In Saxon there were two verbs, one neuter, pincan, making its preterite buhte, to seem, the other transitive, pencan, making its preterite pohte, to think. Our think is the representative of the latter, except in the phrase me thinks, which is preserved from the Middle English, and which is composed of a verb in the third person sing. (the Saxon pince), with a dative of the pronoun. Literally translated, it is, it seems to me.'

The following is the interesting illustration of the motto to the first Song:

was common to most of our western counties during the middle ages. It was the well-known motto of the English rebels of the fourteenth century. Holinshed, speaking of the troubles in the reign of Richard II. and of the rebel priest, John Ball, says: When all the prisons were broken up, and the prisoners set at libertie, he being therefore so delivered, followed them, and at Blackheath, when the greatest multitude was there got togither (as some write) he made a sermon, taking this saieng or common proverbe for his theame, whereupon to intreat,

When Adam delv'd and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman ? and so continueing his sermon, went about to proove by the words of that pro. verbe, that from the beginning all men by nature were created alike, and that bondage or servitude came in by unjust oppression of naughtie men.'

So Adam reutte, vnd Eva span Wer was da ein eddelman ? Agric. Prov. No. 264, where there is as good a sermon on the subject as was ever made by John Ball. See, also, the collection by Gruter.

"The same proverb occurs amongst a MS. collection of popular sayings in Latin leonines, in the Brit. Mus, translated thus:

Quum vanga quadam tellurem foderit
Adam,

Et Eva nens fuerat, quis generosus erat? "I have never seen the proverb in French; but in a Norman manuscript of the thirteenth century in the British Museum is the pictorial illustration of it which forms the vignette at the head of this note.

"

Christian Theology, by John Goodwin, Selected by Samuel Dunn. - We are obliged to Mr. Dunn for giving to us, in a cheap and commodious form, some of the best of these treatises of Goodwin, which were not controversial; and for making some volumes of scarcity accessible to the general reader. A short but satisfactory biography of the writer is prefixed. It is not to be expected that the entire works of this author will ever again be in request; therefore this "Selection" by Mr. Dunn will enable the religious reader to satisfy himself of Goodwin's talent and piety;-while the more curious theologian and scholar may be led to a closer intimacy with his longer publications. It will be recollected that Goodwin's name is joined in history indissolubly with that of John Milton: both had the honour or disgrace of having their works burned by the hands of the common hangman; Milton had suffered cremation before; but Goodwin was turned out of his vicarage, and died in the year of the plague, 1665.

Sacred Pneumatology, or the Scripture Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, by the Rev. J. Wilson.-We have read this volume with pleasure, and recommend it as a faithful and just exposition of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, as given to us in Scripture. It is full and complete, and the practical necessity of possessing correct notions on this mysterious subject, is not only forcibly urged in one discourse, but, as it ought, pervades the spirit of the whole volume. We hope it may be of service in awakening some of our sectarian brethren to the sense of the errors of their heretical opinions: and by preserving those who have not erred, in

soundness of that belief in which the Church has bred them up.

Essays on the History of Painting, by Mrs. Calcott, 1836.-This is a pleasing volume, imparting much information on the art of painting in Egypt, Greece, and Ancient Italy. The chapter on the colours used by the ancients is highly interesting, and it is given in full and technical detail. We shall expect to receive much pleasure from the next volume, which will bring the history of the art into modern times, and cast us among pictures which exist, and which we can compare with the criticism; for we confess, to read of ancient painters and painting, as we have done, without a possibility of seeing a specimen of their art, has always been more a labour of duty than love. But to hear the wife of Mr. Calcott expatiate on Claude, and Titian, and Poussin, will be indeed drinking the waters of inspiration at the fountain head.

The Anglo-Polish Harp. By J. Jones, Esq.-" Dumagh i shooma chak ust?"Are your brains clear?' exclaimed his Majesty of Persia to Sir John Malcolmand we may ask ourselves whether our brains are clear, for not having before brought to notice Mr. Jones's volume of the Anglo-Polish Harp?" The warm spirit of Liberty, and hatred of oppres sion, which honourably distinguishes the volume, is supported by a sound poetical feeling, which appears in varied forms of odes, elegies, &c. and in all we think successfully. We do not say that Mr. Jones's poems are as carefully finished as they might be; we do not say that they have the daring bursts of genius, that brilliant flame which burst from the chariot-wheels as Byron shouted to his Parnassian steeds, and urged them on their career of glory; nor has he the ætherial touches of Wordsworth, to which the feelings of the heart respond, and Nature claims as her own;-non cuivis homini, &c.-these gifts are not bestowed on all men; but Mr. Jones is a poet; his odes are spirited, his sonnets elegant. His tragedy of Longinus' we cannot so well judge, as we have only a few detached pieces of it in the volume; but whenever it comes before us entire, we will give it our best attention. Had we room, we would have corroborated and approved our praise by extracts; but as we have not, we recommend our readers to get the volume, and at once indulge their taste and improve their moral feelings by the perusal.

The collection of pictures which formerly adorned the palace of the Elysée Bourbon has been recently sold by auction at Paris, and produced 30,000. Three years ago they were exhibited at the rooms of Messrs. Christie and Manson, in London, and offered for sale by private contract. Eighteen only were then sold for about 6,4007., (see our Vol. II. p. 194,) and the remainder returned to the French capital.

Messrs. Christie and Manson were offered 40,0001. for the entire collection, which the agents of the Duchess de Berri unwisely refused. At the present sale: -The Breakfast, by Teniers, sold for 24,500 francs-The celebrated Village Dance, by Ostade, 22,000-An Interior, by Terburg, 15,200-The Ghent Fair, by Teniers, 15,900 - A Landscape, by Hobbema, 22,100- Hawking, by Wouvermans, 17,500-The Marriage of Cana, by Jan Steen, 13,500-The Three Cows, by Paul Potter, 12,100-A Portrait of Gerard Dow, by himself, 10,700 - The Square at Amsterdam, by Vander Ley

den, 9,950-Landscape by Both, 9,150Landscape, by Ruysdael and Berghem, 8,000-The Trumpeter, by Wouvermans, 7,500-The Return from Market, by the same artist, 6,730-The Philosophers, by Gerard Dow, 8,250- The White Horse, by Carl du Jardin, 7,555 — Flowers and Fruit, by Van Huysum, 7,100.

Sir Francis Freeling's collection of pictures was sold at Christie's on the 14th April. It was particularly rich in the best productions of our native artists. Etty's Cleopatra embarking on the Cydnus was sold for 210 guineas; his Sabrina for 53 guineas.-The Shrimpers, by Collins, 122 guineas.-A Market-boat on the Scheldt, by Stanfield, 170 guineas.— Wilkie's inimitable Bagpiper (for which that artist received about 20 guineas) brought 111, and was the cheapest picture, according to real value, sold on this occasion; the same sum was paid for Landseer's Rat Hunting, and by the same purchaser, Mr. Vernon, who must now possess an English gallery of the very first order.

New Works announced for Publication. Some Account of the Lives of the Compilers of the Liturgy; collected and arranged from the best Authorities: with notes and references. By the Rev. JOHN A. BOLSTER.

History of the Inductive Sciences, from the earliest to the present times. By the Rev. W. WHEWELL, M.A.

The Mechanical Euclid; containing the elements of Mechanics and Hydrostatics, demonstrated after the manner of the elements of Geometry.

The Roman Catholic Doctrine of the Eucharist: The Scriptural Argument considered, in reply to Dr. WISEMAN. BY THOMAS TURTON, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge.

A Letter to the Ecclesiastical Com

missioners for England, upon the Ap. portionment by them of Episcopal Patronage between the Dioceses of London and Rochester. By J. T. BARRETT, D.D., Rector of Beauchamp Roding,

Essex.

The Christian Professor, by the Rev. J. A. JAMES.

Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons, Summer, by the Rev. H. DUNCAN.

A new Life of Chatterton, by JAMES DIX, Esq.

An arrangement to read the whole Bible in the course of the year, pointing out the portion for Morning and Evening Worship, and for Private Meditation.

Family Prayers from the Book of Common Prayer, of the United Church of England and Ireland; compiled after the plan recommended by the late Rev. THOMAS SCOTT, A.M.

A Second Edition of Dr. Long's History of New South Wales, with numerous additions, detailing the affairs of the Colony to the close of 1836.

The Rise and Progress of the British Power in India. By PETER AUBER, M.R.A.S. late Secretary to the Hon. Court of Directors of the East India Company.

The Credibility of the Gospel His. tory, including a critical Examination of Strauss's Life of Jesus; adapted for the use both of theological students and of the general reader. By Dr. A. THOLUCK.

Historical Sketch of Calvinism in connection with the State, in Geneva and France, till the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. By Dr. G. WEBER.