which were then blown up with gunpowder, and employed afterwards to form the great Breakwater at Plymouth. Towards the end of 1816, the Scotch introduced the use of suspension bridges, but without extending them, at first, to the passage of horses and carriages. As early as 1813, Mr. Telford proposed to construct a bridge of suspension over the Mersey, at the place where the Duke of Bridgewater's canal communicates with that river. This bridge was to have only four supports, and to be composed of three arches, having, respectively 500 feet, 1000 feet, and 500 feet in span; making a total length of 2000 feet. The boldness of this project frightened the capitalists to whom it was proposed; but it had, at least, the advantage of drawing public attention to this new species of constructions. It caused a number of experiments to be made on the strength of iron, and on its utility when employed for suspension bridges. Captain Brown, who subsequently built the fine suspension bridge at Hammersmith, was the first engineer who erected such a bridge for heavy vehicles in Great Britain. His bridge over the Tweed, at Kelso, was completed in 1820. It is 300 feet in length, by 18 feet in width. The most remarkable bridge of suspension in existence is that constructed by Mr. Telford over the Menai strait, between the isle of Anglesea and Caernarvonshire in Wales. It was finished in 1825. The roadway is 100 feet above the surface of the water at high tide. The opening between the points of suspension is 560 feet. The platform is about 30 feet in breadth. The whole is suspended from four lines of strong iron cables, by perpendicular iron rods 5 feet apart. The cables pass over rollers on the tops of pillars, and are fixed to iron frames under ground which are kept down by masonry. The weight of the whole bridge, between the points of suspension, is 489 tons. In France there is a very pretty suspension bridge over the Seine, at Paris, which is now known, in consequence of the conflict of July, 1830, as the Bridge of Arcole. In the United States such bridges are to be found, though not of the dimensions of the English. That over the Merrimack, at Newburyport, is a curve whose chord measures 244 feet. That over the river Brandywine, at Wilmington, has a chord of 145 feet; that at Brownsville, over the Monongahela, measures 120 feet between the points of suspension. Another, in its vicinity, forms an inverted suspended arch, with a chord of CRIMINAL TRIALS, VOL. I. THE LIBRARY OF ENTERTAINING KNOWLEDGE Nor is there much reading which is better calculated to awaken and detain the attention of an intelligent mind. "There are few books," says the editor, Mr. Jardine, in his introduction," which furnish a larger fund of instruction and entertainment than the State Trials. It has been erroneously supposed that these collections are valuable only to lawyers; but, in fact, their importance and interest equally extend to the general reader. The interest which they excite is uni versal, being founded upon the same principle which brings persons of both sexes, old and young, and belonging to all classes of society, into our courts of justice to witness the trials of criminals; that principle is to be found in the feeling of reality which prevails on such occasions, and the consciousness that the life or liberty of a fellow-creature is at stake, and the facts upon which his fate depends are actually weighed before our eyes. Hence it is that no procession or solemn show, no theatrical representation, nor the most popular preacher, ever attracted greater crowds than the trials of Hatfield or Bellingham, or, in these later years, of the Cato-street Conspirators; and no orator or actor ever addressed an audience of more breathless attention, than that which witnessed the proceedings in those memorable cases. Next in point of attraction to actual presence on such occasions, is the perusal of the written report of what has taken place; and the eagerness with which this report is sought is scarcely less remarkable than the persevering patience and unwearied attention of those favoured few who have endured the heat and suffocation of the day within the four walls of the Court." The present volume contains the trial of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, in the reign of Mary, those of the Duke of Norfolk, Dr. William Parry, and the Earls of Essex | and Southampton, in the reign of Elizabeth, and that of Sir Walter Raleigh, in the reign of James I. They are not all of equal interest; but no one of them is without circumstances the recital of which will well reward the trouble of perusal. The trial of Throckmorton (for his alleged participation in Sir Thomas Wyatt's Rebellion) is less illustrated than any of the others from original sources; and the text, indeed, is taken entirely from Hollingshed. Imperfect, however, as the old Chronicler's account is, it is a very extraordinary and affecting narrative. The behaviour of the judges and of the crown lawyers affords a strange picture of what an English court of justice was in those days. And rarely on the other hand has a defence been managed with greater ability than was displayed on this occasion by the prisoner at the bar; who, indeed, by a rare fate for a person in such circumstances, actually won a verdict of acquittal from the jury by his eloquence and consummate dexterity, The demeanour of the Duke of Norfolk, the unfortunate victim in the next case, was in every respect different from that of Throckmorton; and exhibiting as he did neither talent, intrepidity, nor the straight-forwardness of innocence, he was easily crushed before the strength of legal knowledge and skill brought forward to destroy him. There is a speech of one of the crown counsel on this occasion, Mr. Wilbraham, Attorney of the Wards, of great merit as a specimen of forensic eloquence. The account of this trial is enriched by a great deal of original matter from the State-Paper Office. The two concluding trials, however, of Essex and Raleigh, with the Memoirs and Remarks by which they are accompanied, form by far the most interesting portion of the volume. They are both largely illustrated from hitherto unpublished documents, as well as from printed books not generally accessible; and so much pains has evidently been taken by the editor to present them in the most complete form, that he has probably left little to be added by any who shall follow him in examining or narrating the same transactions. could wish to extract a portion of the observations to which these cases give rise, as a sample of the manner in which this part of the work is executed; but separated from the trial itself to which it refers, a passage of this sort would scarcely be intelligible, and we will therefore give the following detail of the infamous treatment to which Raleigh was subjected when a second time immured in the Tower, preparatory to his execution in 1618, on a sentence pronounced fifteen years before. Sir Allen Apsley, the regular lieutenant of the Tower, a man of honour and humanity, being removed, Sir Thomas Wilson was put in his place, with instructions to use every art to entrap his unfortunate prisoner. We "Sir Thomas Wilson," the narrative then prowas at this time Keeper of the State Papers, ceeds, " and there are preserved in the office over which he presided his own original minutes of the conversation and conduct of Sir Walter Raleigh whilst under his charge in the Tower. On the perusal of these papers it is difficult to say whether the preponderating feeling is sympathy for the captive, or disgust and indignation for his unfeeling and treacherous keeper. Sir Thomas Wilson entered upon his charge on the 11th of September, and from that time until the 15th of October, when he was withdrawn from the Tower, his minutes and daily reports to Secretary Naunton show a system of rigid observation, and of artful, ensnaring espionage, on his part, which was never for a moment relaxed. Raleigh's own servant was immediately dismissed, and a man appointed by Wilson took his place. Lady Raleigh and her son were excluded from the Tower, but she was allowed, and even invited to correspond freely with her husband; and then the notes which she sent, as well as Raleigh's answers, were intercepted by Sir Thomas Wilson's man, and sent to the King and Council for their perusal before they were delivered *. Sir Thomas Wilson himself never stirred from his prisoner from the time he opened his lodging in the morning till, with his own hand, he locked him up for the night; at his meals, at his devotions, and during the attendance of his physician and surgeon, this persevering keeper never quitted his apartment. His own feeling towards his unhappy prisoner, and his zeal in the unworthy task in which he was employed, are manifested by the language which he constantly uses respecting him in his reports and letters: he calls him 'hypocrite' and ‘arch impostor,' with other terms of reproach.' The King of Heaven preserve your Majesty,' says he in one of his letters, from having many such dangerous subjects.' Having removed his prisoner into apartments of greater security than those in which he had been placed by Sir Allen Apsley, Sir Thomas Wilson writes to Sir Robert Naunton, one of the Secretaries of State, thus: I have removed this man into a safer and higher lodging, which, though it seemeth nearer heaven, yet 'there is there no means to escape but into hell.' Again, in a letter to the King, he says, I hope, by 'such means as I shall use, to work out more than I 'have yet done; if not, I know no other means but a rack or a halter.' "Raleigh was at this time in the sixty-sixth year of his age; during the whole period of his imprisonment, he was tormented by an intermitting fever and ague; his body was covered with painful imposthumes, and he had a swelling on his left side which occasioned perpetual uneasiness; in addition to which he was afflicted by a hernia. These distressing complaints were represented by Wilson to be either wholly counterfeited or greatly exaggerated; and, as a proof of this, he tells the King, that ، howbeit he is ever and anon puling, pining, and groaning, yet, if I put him into any discourse to his liking, of his last voyage, or former actions, he will talk immediately with as great heartiness, courage, and signs "The following specimen of the treasonable correspondenco thus intercepted, taken from the originals at the State-Paper Office, may be interesting to our readers. The first is a note from Sir Walter Raleign to his Lady: ، 18th Sept.I am very sick and weak. This honest gentleman ، Mr. Edward Wilson, is my keeper, and takes pains with me. My 'swollen side keeps me in perpetual pain and unrest. God comfort 'us! Your's, W. R. LADY RALEIGH'S ANSWER. I am sorry to hear, amongst many discomforts, that your health is so ill. 'Tis merely sorrow and grief that, with wind, hath gathered into your side. I hope your health and comforts will mend, and 'mend us for God. I am glad to hear that you have the company and 'comfort of so good a keeper. I was something dismayed at the first, that you had no servant of your own left you; but I hear this and God in mercy look on us! Your's. 'Knight's servants are very necessary. God requite his courtesies, of cheerfulness as the soundest and strongest man alive.' "Such was the mind and disposition of the man to whose custody Raleigh was delivered; though, towards his prisoner personally he adopted a mild and insinuating demeanour, with an appearance of candour and sympathy calculated to gain his confidence, and to induce him to make disclosures; introducing himself to him as one whom the King of his gracious and princely goodness had sent unto him, because his Majesty knew him to be a person of more honesty than cunning.' "The story of Sir Walter Raleigh is one of those which seem to belong to the romance of history; and circumstances and anecdotes respecting him, which are trivial and unimportant in themselves, become attractive and valuable from the universal interest excited by the character of the extraordinary man to whom they relate. With this view we extract a few passages from the minutes of Sir Thomas Wilson. « ، 12th September, at night. "This evening finding him reading the Psalms, I 'told him that there he had the best comfort; that there he had a man and a king,—and the best man and the 'best king that ever was, who had as great affliction as ever any had, and yet by his constancy and faithfulness he overcame all; and so might he. Hereupon he began and told me from the beginning to the end of ali his misfortunes; how first, at his Majesty's coming in, Northampton, Suffolk, Salisbury, and the rest, 'plotted to get him and Cobham out of favour, and to get every thing into their own hands; then he went to the arraignment at Winchester, and said, "it was as ' unjust a condemnation, without proof and testimony, as ever was known." So went he along his thirteen ' years' imprisonment, and the means he took to procure liberty for his voyage; his disasters there, and all the tedious circumstances, and then the betraying of him by Sir Lewis Stukely on his return. After this I told him that if he would but disclose what he knew, the King would forgive him and do him all favour; aye," quoth he, "how should I be assured of that? The King will say when it is told, the craven ' was afraid of his life, else he would not have told it. Therefore no, God-a-mercy!" I told him that if he * would write to the King, I would ride and carry it, and assured him upon my life that I would return him a gracious answer. Whereupon he made a pause, 'as if he were half persuaded to do it. Then supper came up, and after he had supped, he got courage “ again to say he knew nothing worth the revealing. 6 ' ever. ، ، 13th September. This day, upon his complaint of his misery, I gave him counsel and comfort to bear his affliction with patience, upon the assurance of God's mercy, and the example of such as God had suffered 'to be as grievously afflicted as flesh and blood could bear, and yet had restored them to as great felicity as He took occasion thereupon to commend the magnanimity of the Romans, who would rather have their deaths by their own hands than endure any that was base or reproachful. To which I answered, that "they were such as knew not God, nor the danger of 'their souls to be damned to perpetual torment of hell for destroying their bodies, which God had made a | | "Raleigh afterwards wrote a letter to the King, which is published in Cayley's Life, vol. ii. p. 153 ; the date of this letter has hitherto | been considered to be uncertain, but as it appears unquestionably from Sir Thomas Wilson's papers that a letter was sent to the King from Raleigh on the 18th September, and as an ancient copy of the letter, preserved with Wilson's papers, at the State-Paper Office, is indorsed with that date, we may probably conclude that this was the letter then sent. The letter is too long for insertion here; it merely consists of a vindication of his Guiana Voyage, and contains no disclosures whatever of facts which were not known and notorious before." ، temple for the Holy Ghost to dwell in." To which he 'said, "it was a disputable question; for divers did 'hold opinion that a man may do it, and yet not despe“ rately despair of God's mercy, but die in God's favour." Whereto this discourse of his tended it is easily seen, but I think he hath no such Roman courage. Mr. Lieutenant tells me he hath had like discourse with ' him heretofore, who charged him with such intent upon occasion of having so many apothecary's drugs †, and such like; "which it were well," saith he, were not suffered to be here." "Why," saith Raleigh, "if you take away all these means from me, yet, if I had such a mind, I could run my head against a post and kill myself." 666 66 21st September.-This day I was sitting by him while the barber was trimming and keeming (combing) my head. He told me he was wont to keem his head a whole hour every day before he came into the Tower. Asking him why he did not so still, he said, "he would know first who should have it; he would not bestow so much cost of it for the hangman." "On Sir Thomas Wilson's announcing to him that he was about to leave him, being recalled from his charge, Raleigh told him that he knew that as soon as he was gone he should be delivered over to the secular arm, as they called it, and desired Wilson to tell the King that he could do him better service here than in the grave; and yet,' said he, what have I to do with life? My age is fit for the grave; my reputation is lost; my body weak and full of pain; nothing can be more welcome to me than death." GALLERY OF PORTRAITS. THE Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge have this month commenced a publication which will require several years for its completion: it is a ' Gallery of Portraits' of those eminent men of modern times who have given the greatest impulses to their age, and whose likenesses are, of course, calculated to be universally interesting. The Society, while they thus hope to impart to many families the pleasure and instruction derived from contemplating the representations of the most distinguished amongst mankind, expect, by the careful execution of those engravings, to diffuse a taste for art at a very cheap rate. Each number, containing three portraits printed upon paper about the size of this Magazine, is sold for half-a-crown;-and it further contains a sketch of the life of each individual whose likeness is found in the collection. The first number comprises Dante, the great Italian poet-Sir Humphrey Davy, our own eminent chemist-and Kosciusko, the Polish general and patriot. We give an extract from the Life of Davy : "The autumn of 1815 is rendered memorable by the discovery of the safety-lamp, one of the most beneficial applications of science to economical purposes yet made, by which hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives have been preserved. Davy was led to the consideration of this subject by an application from Dr. Gray, now Bishop of Bristol, the Chairman of a Society established in 1813, at BishopWearmouth, to consider and promote the means of preventing accidents by fire in coal-pits. Being then in Scotland, he visited the mines on his return southward, and was supplied with specimens of fire-damp, which, on reaching London, he proceeded to examine and analyze. He soon discovered that the carburetted hydrogen gas, called firedamp by the miners, would not explode when mixed with less than six, or more than fourteen times its volume of air ; and further, that the explosive mixture could not be fired in tubes of small diameters and proportionate lengths. Gradually diminishing these, he arrived at the conclusion that a tissue of wire, in which the meshes do not exceed a "+In one of his Reports, Wilson says, 'the things he seems to make most reckoning of are his chemical stuffs, amongst which there is s many spirits of things, that I think there is none wanting that ever heard of, unless it be the Spirit of God!' We hail this improvement as an important step in the art of governing a people in quiet by the operation of their knowledge, instead of their fears; and as one of the many proofs which we daily receive, that knowledge of any kind has in great part ceased to be exclusive. certain small diameter, which may be considered as the I came to a shilling at the old rate. This is a vast imultimate limit of a series of such tubes, is impervious to the provement. The speed, also, with which new laws are inflamed air; and that a lamp, covered with such tissue, may be used with perfect safety even in an explosive mix- promulgated in this cheap form is deserving of all praise, ture, which takes fire, and burns within the cage, securely for the sixth number, or sheet of the publication, which cut off from the power of doing harm. Thus when the atwe purchased in the beginning of May, contains an act mosphere is so impure that the flame of the lamp itself dated the 9th April, 1832. cannot be maintained, the Davy still supplies light to the miner, and turns his worst enemy into an obedient servant. This invention, the certain source of large profit, he presented with characteristic liberality to the public. The words are preserved, in which, when pressed to secure to himself the benefit of it by a patent, he declined to do so, in conformity with the high-minded resolution which he formed upon acquiring independent wealth, of never making We are entreated by several anonymous correspondents to his scientific eminence subservient to gain :-'I have enough for all my views and purposes, more wealth might notice their communications, if that notice were only exbe troublesome, and distract my attention from those pur-pressed in a single line. With every desire to oblige, it is suits in which I delight. More wealth could not increase impossible for us to insert any such notice, unless it is intermy fame or happiness. It might undoubtedly enable me esting and intelligible to our readers in general. For let us see to put four horses to my carriage, but what would it avail the cost of a single line which would apply only to one indivime to have it said, that Sir Humphrey drives his carriage dual. There are about twelve hundred lines in each of our and four?' He who used wealth and distinction to such numbers; so that a single line occupies the twelve-hundredth good purpose, may be forgiven the weakness if he estimated part of whatever quantity we sell of the whole impression of them at too high a value." that number. As our impression is now one hundred and twenty thousand, the single line for one individual would be equal to one hundred copies of the entire number;-and our whole body of readers would be taxed eight shillings and fourpence for the gratification of one reader only. PROMULGATION OF THE LAWS. Ir has long been a reproach to the British government that the people, without incurring a large expense which few individuals could bear, were unable to obtain an accurate knowledge of the new laws passed from time to time, while they were liable to punishment for their ignorance of those laws. The public acts of parliament passed in one session amount, upon an average, to 1000 pages, or 250 sheets; and the price of these acts was three-pence for each sheet of four pages. The size of the sheet was exactly one-half of the size of the Penny Magazine. A page of such an act contained about 600 words, while a page of this Magazine contains 1,500 words. It must be evident that such a price amounted to a prohibition against the purchase of the statutes, except to lawyers, to whom they were indispensable; and that by this prohibition it became very possible that a man, with the best intentions, might violate some statute, particularly of those relating to customs and excise, and be thus subjected to undeserved punishment. We are glad to announce that inquiries into this matter, before a committee of the House of Commons, have led to the publication, by the King's printer, of a cheap edition of the statutes passed in the current session. We have now before us A Collection of the Public General Statutes passed in the second year of the reign of King William IV., 1832, beautifully printed upon the paper called royal, and sold at the exceedingly small price of two-pence per sheet of sixteen pages. Each page contains about 600 words, so that we may now purchase for two-pence as much as MONTHLY NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. ་ We shall be glad to receive the Authentic Anecdotes of Bloomfield,' particularly if they relate to his endeavours to carry on his own mental cultivation. It is affirmed, by two correspondents, that the first stone of New London Bridge was laid on the 15th June, and not on the 27th April, 1825. The belief that if a funeral be carried along a path a right of way is established, is not less a popular error because the experiment was tried and yielded to at Woolwich. A writer suggests that the slow increase of population in some agricultural districts, mentioned in Statistical Notes,' No. 1, may be thus accounted for : "The purely agricultural districts do not increase their population, because a certain quantity of land requires only a definite number of labourers, and this number, instead of increasing, has a tendency to diminish in proportion to improvements in agricultural machines, and other means of economising labour. All the children, therefore, which are born in these districts, above the number required to replace their parents, &c., move off to towns and other places where employment can be obtained; and the slow increase, noticed in their population, depends on a corresponding increase in capital and income." The Penny Magazine. will, in most cases, be delivered weekly in the Towns of the United Kingdom, by Booksellers and Newsvenders, to whom Subscribers should address their Orders. It cannot be sent by Post as a Newspaper is, being unstamped. For the convenience of those, who, residing in country places, cannot obtain the Publication at regular weekly intervals, the Numbers published during each Month will be stitched together to form a Monthly Part. That this Part may be sold at a convenient and uniform price, a Books as we think right to give a place to in the Library, will appear MONTHLY SUPPLEMENT, consisting chiefly of Notices of such New with the regular Number on the last Saturday in the Month. The price of the Part, whether consisting of five or of six Numbers, will be SixPENCE; each Part will be neatly and strongly done up, in a wrapper. Thus, the annual Expense of Twelve Parts will be Six Shillings, viz.: 52 Regular Numbers 12 Supplements 12 Wrappers 3. d. 08 6 0 ERRATA. In page 59, line 47 of the second column, for Crompton, read Compton. In page 70, line 18, from the bottom of the first column, for 1774, read 1744, LONDON:-CHARLES KNIGHT, PALL-MALL EAST. Bath, SIMMS. Carlisle, THURNAM. Falmouth, PHILP. Liverpool, WILLMER and SMITH. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, CHARNLEY. Sheffield, RIDGE. Dublin, WAKEMAN. Edinburgh, OLIVER and BOTD. Glasgow, ATKINSON and Co. Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES, Stamford-Street, THE CROCODILE. We have already translated an account of the mode of killing the hippopotamus, from Dr. Rüppell's Travels; to which we shall now add, from the same writer, a description of the somewhat similar way in whic. tne crocodile is caught by the natives of Dongola. "The most favourable season for catching the c ocodile is the winter, when the animal usually sleeps on s ndbanks to enjoy the sun; or, during the spring, after pairing-time, when the female regularly watches the sand islands where she has buried her eggs. The native spies out the place, and on the south side of it (that is to the leeward) he makes a hole in the sand by throwing up the earth on the side on which he expects the crocodile. There he hides himself, and if the crocodile does not observe him, it comes to the usual place and soon falls asleep in the sun. Then the huntsman darts his harpoon with all his might at the beast. To succeed, the iron end ought to penetrate at least to the depth of four inches, in order that the barb may hold fast. The wounded crocodile flies to the water, and the huntsman to his canoe, with which a companion hastens to his assistance. A piece of wood fastened to the harpoon by a long cord swims on the water, and shows the direction in which the crocodile is moving. The huntsmen, by pulling at this rope, draw the beast to the surface of the water, where it is soon pierced by a second harpoon. "The dexterity consists in giving to the spear sufficient strength to pierce through the coat of mail which protects the crocodile, who does not remain inactive after he is wounded, but gives violent blows with his tail, and tries to bite asunder the harpoon rope. To prevent this, the rope is made of thirty different thin lines, placed side by side, and tied together at intervals of every two feet, so that the thin lines get entangled and fastened in the hollows of the animal's teeth. Very frequently the harpoons, through the pulling, break out of the crocodile's body, and it escapes. If I had not seen the fact with my own eyes, I could hardly have believed that two men could draw out of the water a crocodile fourteen feet long, fasten his muzzle, tie his legs over his back, and finally kill the beast by plunging a sharp weapon into his neck, and dividing the spinal nerve. VOL. I. The iron part of the harpoon which is used by the huntsmen is a span long; towards the point it is formed like a penknife, being sharp at one end and on one side There is a strong barb immediately following the edge, and at the other end is a projecting piece to which the rope is fastened. This iron is put on a wooden shaft eight feet long. "The flesh and fat of the crocodile are eaten by the Berbers, among whom they pass for a dainty bit. Both parts, however, have a kind of musk smell so strong, that I could never eat crocodile's flesh without vomiting afterwards. The four musk glands of the crocodile are a great part of the profit which results from the capture, as the Berbers will give as much as two dollars in specie for the four glands, which they use as a perfumed unguent for the hair." When Herodotus was in Egypt about 450 years before the Christian era, the following was the way in which this formidable reptile was taken prisoner : "There are many ways of catching crocodiles in Egypt, but the following seems to me best worth relating. The huntsman puts the chine of a pig as a bait on a hook, and lets it down into the river. In the mean time he takes his station on the bank, holding a young pig, which he beats in order to make it squeal out. The crocodile, on hearing this, makes towards the sound, but meeting with the bait on his way he swallows it down. Then the men begin to pull, and after he is fairly hauled out on dry land, the first thing the huntsman does is to plaister the crocodile's eyes up with mud. If he can succeed in doing this, there is no difficulty in managing the beast; otherwise it is a very troublesome affair." The different treatment which this monster received in different parts of antient Egypt is curious, and not very easily accounted for. In the southern parts, near the cataracts, the crocodile was an article of food, but probably only with a particular caste, as in Dongola at the present day. In other parts, as at Thebes and near the great Lake Moeris (now Keroun), it was fashionable to have a pet crocodile, who was fed daintily and treated with great respect. They put," says Herodotus, " pendents of glass and gold in their ears, and 66 Herodotus. ii. 70, N |