CHARLES MACKLIN.

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advocates of a free trade to India, and the friends of the "incorporated company;" but at length the long-supported monopoly of that powerful body yielded to the act 3 and 4 Will. 4. c. 85., for continuing the charter till 1854, which, in fact, has put a limit to the Company's commercial character, by enacting that its trade to China was to cease on the 22d of April, 1834, and that the Company was, as soon as possible after that date, to dispose of their stocks on hand, and close their commercial business. The functions of the East-India Company are now, therefore, wholly political. The Company is to continue to govern India, with the concurrence and under the supervision of the Board of Control, till the 30th of April, 1854.

"The territorial revenues at the disposal of the EastIndia Company (says Mr. M'Culloch) have, for a lengthened period, equalled those of the most powerful monarchies. At present they are greater than those of either Russia or Austria, being inferior only to those of Great Britain and France! Still, however, the Company's financial situation is the very reverse of prosperous. Vast as their revenue has been, their expenditure appears, in most instances, to have been still larger; and at this moment their debts exceed 60,000,0007.!”

In the age of Nero the East-India trade was carried on by the river Nile; the merchandise proceeded in caravans to the Red Sea, where it was embarked for the Indian Ocean. The specie annually carried from Rome upon this account, according to Pliny's computation, amounted to about 300,000l. sterling; and the usual returns, which arrived in December and January, yielded, in clear gain, a hundred for one!

1. When was the East India Company incorporated?

2. What causes had been long operating in favour of its incorporation?

3. What was the state of the East India trade in the time of Nero?

LESSON CXCII.

JULY THE ELEVENTH.

Charles Macklin.

ON the 11th of July, 1797, at the great age of 107 years, died Charles Macklin, for many years styled "the Father of the English Stage." He established his fame by his

performance of Shylock in the "Merchant of Venice," in which he followed nature, truth, and propriety, with such effect, as to excite universal admiration, and draw from Pope the following couplet,—

"This is the Jew

That Shakspeare drew.”

As a dramatic writer he appears to much advantage in his "Man of the World" and "Love à la Mode," which still retain a considerable share of their original popularity. He was a man of good understanding, which he had improved by a course of reading, perhaps desultory, but sufficient to enable him to bear his part in conversation very satisfactorily.

While his memory remained, his fund of anecdote was immense, and rendered his company highly agreeable. His age, however, had, in his opinion, conferred a dictatorial power; and it was not easy to argue with him, without exciting his irascible temper, which showed itself in much coarseness of expression.

By his firmness and resolution in supporting the rights of his theatrical brethren, they were long relieved from a species of oppression to which they had been ignominiously subjected for many years, whenever the caprice or malice of their enemies chose to exert itself. We allude, says one of his biographers, "to the prosecution which he commenced and carried on against a certain set of insignificant beings, who, calling themselves The Town,' used frequently to disturb the entertainments of the theatre, to the terror of the actors, as well as to the annoyance and disgrace of the public.'

1. What was the age of Macklin ? and what was he styled ?

2. By what did Macklin establish his fame? and in what couplet did Pope record it?

3. What had, in his opinion, conferred on him a dictatorial power?

LESSON CXCIII.-JULY THE TWELFTH.
Erasmus.

ON this day, in 1536, expired at Basil, in Switzerland, Desiderius Erasmus, the most celebrated of all those men of letters who were engaged in the revival of true learning. He was a native of Rotterdam, in Holland.

Of his Latin style the following character is given by

an excellent judge, Dr. Jortin : "The style of Erasmus is that of a man who had a strong memory, a natural eloquence, a lively fancy, and a ready invention; who composed with great facility and rapidity, and who did not care for the trouble of revising and correcting; who had spent all his days in reading, writing, and talking Latin; for he seems to have had no turn for modern languages, and perhaps he had almost forgotten his mother tongue. His style, therefore, is always unaffected, easy, copious, fluent, and clear; but not always perfectly pure and strictly classical. His verses are plainly the composition of one who had much learning and good sense, and who understood prosody or the technical part of poetry, but who had not an equal elegance of taste, and an ear for poetical numbers: so that upon the whole he is rather a versifier than a poet, and is not to be ranked amongst the Italian poets of those days."

It is attributing too much to Erasmus to represent him as the sole reviver of good learning; for he had some predecessors, and many able coadjutors; but no one contributed so much as he to throw discredit upon the barbarism and ignorance of the schools, or to make literature agreeable, and ally it with good sense and solid criticism. He was a great public benefactor; and therefore he is justly regarded as one of the principal glories of his age and country. His memory is equally honoured at the place of his birth and of his death. veral of his relics are preserved at the latter place; and at the former the house in which he was born, is marked with an inscription, and his statue in bronze decorates the great square.

1. Who expired on this day, in 1536?

2. What is the style of Erasmus ?

3. Where is his memory honoured?

Se

LESSON CXCIV.-JULY THE THIRTEENTH.

The Horse.

THIS noble animal undoubtedly excels all others in beauty and usefulness. The most esteemed breeds of horses are, the Barbary or Arabian horses, remarkable for their fleetness; the English race-horse and hunter, which combine beauty with swiftness; and the English draught

horses, which are distinguished for their size and strength, &c.

In Africa horses still maintain their original independence, and range at pleasure in herds of several hundreds, having always one or more as an advanced guard, to give an alarm against the approach of danger. The notice is expressed by a sudden snorting, at which the main body gallops off with the most surprising swiftness.

In Arabia almost every man possesses his horse, which lives in the same apartment with himself and family, and is considered as constituting an important part of it. It is fed with the most regular attention, is cleaned with an incessant assiduity, and is never, on any account, illtreated. An Arab occasionally appears to carry on a conversational intercourse with his horse, and his attachment to the animal excites in return a corresponding affection. Bishop Heber says his Arab horse had "almost as much attachment and as coaxing ways as a dog. This seems the general character of the Arab horse. It is not the fiery dashing animal I had supposed, but with more rationality about him, and more apparent confidence in him than the majority of English horses."

In no country, however, has the breed of horses been more attended to than in Great Britain; nor are they excelled in swiftness or beauty by the coursers of Barbary or Arabia, while in supporting fatigue they are much superior to either. But by the absurd practice of running our race-horses at two or three years old, working others long before their limbs are knit or their strength come, and cruelly exacting from them services far beyond their powers, their usefulness is soon destroyed, and their lives materially shortened.

The age of a horse under eight years old is mostly to be known by his teeth. The horse has twenty-four grinders, four tushes, or single teeth, and twelve front teeth, or gatherers. Mares in general have no tushes. The black marks, or cavities denoting the age, are to be found in the corner front teeth, adjoining the tushes. At four years and a half old, the mark teeth are just visible above the gum, and the cavity is distinctly to be seen. At five, the remaining colt's teeth are shed, and the tushes appear. At six, the tushes are up, and appear white, small, and sharp, with a small circle of flesh growing near them; the horse's mouth is then completed, the corner teeth being filled up. At eight, the black marks disappear.

It is computed that there are a million and a half of

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horses employed, for various purposes of utility and pleasure in Great Britain, which are probably worth twentytwo millions sterling. Cuvier says, "It may safely be asserted that more horses are consumed in England every ten years, than in any other country in the world in ten times that period, except those which perish in war.”

1. For what are the different breeds of horses distinguished? 2. What consequences follow the absurd practices of too early running and over-working the English horses?

3. What says Cuvier on the subject?

LESSON CXCV.

JULY THE FOURTEENTH.

Patriotism of Peter the Great.

THE most interesting period of the Russian history is that of the reign of Peter, surnamed the Great. The name of the several countries and provinces of Russia, extensive, rich, and fertile, was confounded, among foreigners, with that of the capital; and the first power on the continent required all the lustre of the reign of a great man to take that rank among the sovereigns of Europe which of right belonged to it.

To conquer his neighbouring enemies, Peter began by creating a marine, after having conquered his own natural aversion to water. On his return from a successful war, he sought instruction by travelling into foreign countries, and, superior to vulgar prejudices, he thought nothing beneath him by which he could benefit society; hence he was seen frequenting the dockyards, dressed as a workman, as he followed the lessons of surgery, anatomy, and physic. Returned to his states, to which the turbulence of a deluded soldiery had called him, he reestablished his rights over the provinces, which, in the general disorder, fomented by ambitious kings, had been forcibly separated from the empire; he led new levies against his formidable enemy, Charles XII. of Sweden, the glory of whose arms resounded through Europe, and made neighbouring nations tremble.

Such perseverance in the pursuit of a just but difficult war; such activity in creating the establishments of civilization, conceived and executed in the midst of battles, was at length crowned with success: he recovered the possessions of his ancestors, and transferred the seat of government to the centre of his conquests.