weakening their most taking argument; viz., the apparent injustice of subjecting unequal crimes to equal penalties. The consideration of punishments of inferior degree led him to speak of penitentiaries. We cannot follow him through his various details on this head, which оссиру the most considerable part of his volume, and a long appendix. He was clearly of opinion that a prison might be rendered a school of reformation. But while he contends for the necessity of seclusion and strict superintendence, he deprecates all extreme harshness, and particularly disapproves of solitary confinement. Some remarks on the penitentiary system in the United States, repeated and reinforced in subsequent pamphlets, engaged Mr. Roscoe in a controversy with several writers of that republic, which commenced in 1825, and was only finished with his last exertions in this world. His intense application to this labour perhaps tended to shorten his days. But it was a cause to which he begrudged not the remains of his strength. It was a point where he was happy to say, Hic cæstus artemque repono. He had the comfort to hear that his arguments had not been vainly wafted over the Atlantic; that a milder plan had been adopted in the treatment of those unhappy beings, whom it was his hope, and struggle, and prayer, to restore to the condition of useful citizens, and the higher dignity of good men. Dr. Traill mentions having heard him declare, not long before his departure, "that no literary distinction had ever afforded him half the gratification VOL. III. I he received from the reflection on the part he had taken in this great question; and he expressed his satisfaction, that he now might be permitted to think that he had not lived altogether in vain." He was then fast approaching the period when such reflections are most of all precious. In the winter of 1827, in consequence of intense application to his work on Penitentiaries, to which he was urged by the approaching departure of a vessel for America, he was attacked with paralysis of the muscles of the tongue and mouth. His friend and physician Dr. Traill was immediately called; the patient was freely bled, on which he recovered his speech, and the introduction of a seton into his neck removed the paralytic affection of his mouth. Intense study was forbidden, and after an interval of perfect relaxation from his literary occupations, he recovered sufficiently to be able to complete his botanical work and the catalogue of Mr. Coke's library, and to correct for the press his latest tracts on prison discipline. It was a great satisfaction to find his intellect quite entire ; and it remained so to within an hour of his death.* For some time he had entertained a design of translating, in concert with Dr. Traill, Lanzi's "History of Italian Painting," a work which his own increasing years, and the various avocations of his associate, induced him to relinquish; with the less regret, as it devolved upon his son to execute the task, to his own and his father's honour. The last public works of Mr. Roscoe were, a letter congratulating the Lord Chancellor Brougham on his elevation to the woolsack; and an earnest solicitation to La Fayette, on the arrest of Polignac and the other Carlist Ministers, urging him, by the utmost exertion of his authority and influence, not to let the * Dr. Traill's Memoir. triumph of the "three days" be stained by bloody and vindictive executions. So accordant were all the acts of Roscoe's life and pen. Though he was now incapable of sustaining the excitement of promiscuous society, in the bosom of his family, and with a few old and valued friends, he still enjoyed an innocent cheerfulness. Death approached, not unforeseen, yet gently—rather announced by increasing weakness, than by actual pain. He looked calmly on the passage he had so soon to make. Not many days before his last, he was heard to declare, "that he thanked the Almighty for having permitted him to pass a life of much happiness, which, though somewhat checkered with vicissitudes, had been on the whole one of much enjoyment; and he trusted that he would be enabled to resign it cheerfully whenever it pleased God to call him.” That call was made on the 30th of June, 1831, when a fit of influenza ended the life of Roscoe. His many friends, and many more who would gladly have been his friends, will look impatiently for the publication of his correspondence, and the more perfect picture of his mind and habits, the more minute narrative of his transactions, which may be expected from Mr. Henry Roscoe. Meanwhile, we trust we have done him no injustice, and have gratified our own feelings, by thus publicly testifying our respect to his memory. From a general survey of what Roscoe was, did, and wrote, his character seems happily expressed in the words of Tacitus: "Bonum virum facile credas, magnum libenter." The goodness of his heart appears in every page of his writings, and was in all his ways; but to discover the extraordinary powers of his intellect, and the noble energy of his will, it is necessary to consider the variety of his accomplish ments, and the perseverant efforts of his long life for the benefit of his kind. His brightest literary praise is unquestionably that of a biographer and historian; but it was a far higher glory, that he was a greyheaded friend of freedom. The Romans went forth from their city, when threatened with a siege, to thank the Consul who fled from Cannæ, because he had not despaired of the republic. How should that man be honoured, who, after the disappointment of a hundred hopes, after a hundred vicissitudes of good and ill, never despaired of human nature? P.S. We are aware that Mr. Roscoe wrote many things in periodicals, &c., of which we have given no account. Among the rest, a poem on the progress of engraving. But we cannot forbear to mention "The Butterfly's Ball," which, though published merely as a child's book, has the true spirit of faëry poesy, and reminds one of the best things in Herrick. [The Life of Roscoe by his son, alluded to in the last paragraph but one, appeared in 1833, in two large octavo volumes. It is principally compiled from Roscoe's extensive correspondence, and is a valuable contribution both to the literary and political history of the times;—but the preceding Memoir is so complete in itself, and so sufficient for the purpose with which it was written, as explained by the author in the opening pages, that it has not been thought advisable to add to its length by supplementary matter, or renewed discussion.-D. C.] CAPTAIN JAMES COOK. It is by no means easy to do justice to this great and good man, or to distinguish, amid the acts and accidents of his life, what was personal from what was adventitious; what was truly admirable from what was only extraordinary. Any child will wonder when shown the picture of a man who has sailed round the world; but this wonder past, an inconsiderate or uninformed mind might inquire, what did Cook that might not have been done by hundreds? To circumnavigate the planet, even twice or thrice, could not, in the eighteenth century, make a Columbus or a Magelhaens, any more than a trip from the Archipelago to the Black Sea would make an Argonaut. To the unique greatness of him, who, in the faith of science, first sought a westward passage to the East, Cook had no claim; and in wild adventures, marvellous sights, appalling privations, hair-breadthscapes, and terrific daring; in the romantic, the imaginative, the poetical, his voyages, though by no means barren, are certainly far exceeded by those of earlier discoverers. Whether any landsman, however scientific, can fairly appreciate the merit of Cook as a navigator and an improver of navigation, is extremely doubtful; certainly, words cannot convey the peculiar nature or aspect of his difficulties, and therefore must give a very inadequate apprehension of his skill |