SALES OF COINS AND MEDALS. Some unique specimens of English coins, in gold and silver, were lately put up for sale at Mr. Sotheby's rooms, in Wellingtonstreet. Among them were the following English coins, from the conquest:-Stephen, with Horseman's Mace, sold for 131. Edward the First's Groat, "Civitas London," weighing 84 grains, and in good preservation, 51. 15s. 6d. These two were said to have been formerly in the collection of Thomas Hollis. Richard the Third's Half Groat, inscribed "Ricardus," &c.-"Civitas Cantor," a unique specimen, weighing 23 grains, sold for 71. 10s. Richard the Third's Penny, struck at Durham by Bishop Sherwood, well preserved, 41. 4s. Henry the Seventh's Penny, with the Arched Crown, the first coinage struck at Canterbury, a very fine specimen, and said to be of great rarity, 61. 8s. 6d. Perkin Warbeck's Groat, said to have been struck by the Duchess of Burgundy, sister to Edward the Fourth, dated 1494, sold for 211. Henry the Seventh's Shilling, with numerals, 31. 11s. Henry the Seventh's Groat, inscribed, "Henri Septim." &c. a unique specimen, 101. 5s. There were also some beautiful specimens of gold coins, many of which produced very large sums; as did also some curious and interesting coins of Charles I., said to have been struck during his troubles. Among these latter were the Half Groat, struck at Aberystwith, with the date of 1646, and the Exeter Half Crown, type of the Oxford money, 1644; the latter of great rarity and interest, as proving that all the Exurgat money was not coined at Oxford. There were, besides, about two dozen specimens of the siege money of Charles I. and II., including Blondeau's Half Crown, and the famous petition Crown of Charles II., by Thomas Simon. The Broad, or Twenty

Shilling Piece of Charles I., was knocked down at 17 guineas and a half, to Mr. Bolland, the barrister, who also bought, besides many other lots, the Proof Guinea of Geo. III., by Pingo, of the date of 1774, at

21. 16s.

The collection of curious coins, &c., belonging to the late John Terwin, Esq. was lately sold by Mr. Southgate, of Fleet-street. It included the following:-Queen Elizabeth's Twenty-five Shilling Piece, which was knocked down at 31.; the Ten Shilling Piece of Charles I., struck during his residence at Oxford, 11. 11s. 6d. ; the Pontefract Shilling of Charles I., date 1643, rl. 14s.; the Shilling of the Commonwealth, by Blondeau, 31.; the Crown of Oliver Cromwell, 21. 15s.; and the Half-crown and Shilling of Oliver Cromwell, 11. 14s. There was great competition for many of these lots, and particularly for the four last.

POMPEII.

A beautiful fountain has lately been discovered in this city, the interior ornamented with mosaic, and with shells arranged in somewhat a whimsical manner. Four Corinthian columns are introduced as ornaments, and the whole is so beautiful, that the King of Naples has paid a personal visit to Pompeii to see the fountain. In the immediate neighbourhood of this fountain have since been discovered five glass bottles, which have been deposited in the Borbonico Museum. Upon clearing them, one was found to contain a sort of buttery or oily substance, which appears originally to have been olive oil. In another were found a quantity of olives preserved in a species of buttery slime.—These olives, which must have been plucked in the reign of Titus, are in as perfect a state of preservation, as if they had been taken from the tree in the reign of Francis I.

ODE,

Presented to JOHN MARTIN, Esq. on his Illustrations of "Paradise Lost."

By JOHN ABRAHAM HERAUD.

Of Genius the creative eye,

Sees visions not in sleep, Air-drawn by waking phantasy, In day-dreams wild and deep, In silence and in solitude,

In long procession, pass

The shadows of the Great and Good,

He formed the formless, and the mass, Such as the mind, and mighty as its mood. GENT. MAG. April, 1827.

Sublime-unfathomable-vast-
Creation-Chaos-Hell-

Life-Death-the Future-and the Past
Power-Passion-and Fate's spell!
The Poet weeps; he strikes the shell;
And both in extacy;

And paints the thought invisible,
In words and tones of harmony
Sublimely picturesque, and musical as well.

That apt Imagination may

Each lofty form conceive,

The wondrous scene, the bright array,
The elegance of Eve,

And read, and understand, and feel,

And worship as they gaze-
Oh! Language hath the warmth of zeal,
But Painting boasts the blaze;
Her blazon spreads a gorgeous book,
Like a wide firmament,

Wherein the Man-the Child-may look,
The learned and the iguorant

Know with a glance, rapt like the Seer at the brook;

Inspired like him, when suddenly

The heavens were opened broad,
And he saw with the purged eye

The visions of his God-
Such visions shadowy vast and dim,
Were those by MILTON told;
Such as in spirit seen by him,

MARTIN! do thou to sense unfold

And to the fleshy eye, in lineament and limb;

"Till this gross frame that thralls us here
Become all spirit, bathed

In the celestial atmosphere,
By plastic genius breathed
About its revelations thus,
So realizing Faith ;

The beatific scene, for us,

Prepared by Man's best lover, Death,

Great as the human Soul, divine.y glorious.

Martin! On heaven's exalted verge,
Thou stand'st, and to the abyss,
Wherein the fierce infernal surge

Doth burn and sweat and hiss,
Through chasm and from high battlement,
With hideous ruin down,

Hurl'st the Arch-rebel, shamed and shent, And shattered with the thunder-stone,

His flaming spear half-quenched his strength and courage spent.

Martin! thou treadest the floors of hell
Mighty as Thalaba,

Who in the power of Faith did well-
Such power hath Genius-ah!
Mighty in faith is it, and brave

To dare-Audacious One!
The Image of the Voice,-which clave
Hell's hollow deep, and from the swoon
Of Death roused up the Fallen upon the
sulphurous wave,-

seen.

The fiat of his strong right hand
Creates the light full-soon-
The sun leaps forth at his command,
His left begets the moon-
The stars are kindled by his speed,
The Word Omnipotent!
Intensely I gaze, till I, indeed,

Reel drunken with astonishmentMilton of Painters! on.-Who dare most, best succeed! ❤

On two Infants in Plaster of Paris.
By JOHN TAYLOR, Esq.

PRETTY studious Infant pair,
Happy in their busy care,

This who cons th' instructive page,
That whom graphic toils engage.
Well in either cherub face
We their diff'rent feelings trace:
This we see, delighted reads,
Sketching that what Fancy breeds.
If from vivid Nature caught,
Or the skilful Sculptor's thought,
Offspring of a gentle mind,
Taste and tenderness combin'd.
Surely by a Parent plann'd,
Fashion'd by a Parent's hand.
Artist, if the babes are thine,
Who suggested this design,
May they, in their future scope,
Gratify thy proudest hope;
Ne'er from Virtue's precincts stray,
But her dictates still obey;
This advance to letter'd fame,
That high graphic honours claim,
Models both of duty prove,
To reward thy skill and love.

The above Ode does not include all Mr. Martin's Illustrations, having been written while the work was in the course of publi

cation.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, March 20. On the Duke of Devonshire presenting a petition from the Roman Catholics of Abbey Leix, the Lord Chancellor gave a short history of the Roman Catholic question during the last 20 years, and showed from the failure of all the arrangements proposed (a failure arising out of the incompatibility of political power in the hands of the Roman Catholics, with the safety of the Church and Constitution) that to pretend to take the subject into consideration would be but a vain delusion, exciting unfounded hopes in the Roman Catholics, and well-grounded fears in the Protestants.

March 23. On the re-committal of the CORN TRADE BILL, Mr. Grant explained that the resolutions had been made to correspond with the difference between the Winchester and Imperial measures. They had been now altered according to the scale of the Imperial measure. According to the calculations he had made, it would be proper to have a scale, the basis of which would be, that when Wheat was at 60s. the quarter of Winchester measure, the Imperial quarter would be 61s. 10d.; but which he took at 62s. The corresponding duty would be 20s. 74d.; but which, for obvious reasons of convenience, he took at 20s. 8d. Thus the price of the Imperial quarter being 62s., the duty would be 20s. 8d., rising or decreasing 25. by each variation of 1s. in price.

April 2. On the order of the day for the second reading of the Corn Duties Bill being moved, Sir T. Lethbridge rose to oppose it, and stated that, instead of being called a bill for the protection of corn, it ought rather to be entitled "A Bill for the more effectual encouragement of speculation-the more rapid discouragement of producing grain in Great Britain, and for the more certain promotion of corn production in all foreign countries." The Hon. Baronet moved, as an amendment, that the Bill be read a second time that day six months.-Mr. C. Grant vindicated the Bill. He contended that an alteration was imperatively called for in the high prohibitory system of the Bills of 1815 and 1822. In fact those Bills had utterly failed in practice, because they were erroneous in principle; and, in their result on British manufacture, they might be considered a kind of premium on the manufactures of foreign countries. As a proof of the futility of the Bill of 1822, he might remind the House, that the Legislature had

since been obliged to interpose to allow of the importation of grain. Much had been said of agricultural distress; but in truth, agriculture was not such a ruinous occupation as many asserted. A stronger proof could not be given that agriculture was worth following at the present time, than that much capital was investing in it. A great deal of money had lately been laid out in the improvement of under-draining; and the importations of manure were increasing every year. The Hon. Gentleman concluded with stating the prices of corn in various foreign countries, in order to shew that foreign grain could not be imported into this country in such quantities, and at such rates, as injuriously to interfere with our agriculture. Mr. Western objected to the Bill, and thought it would be better to encourage agriculture at home.-Mr. Whitmore spoke in favour of the Bill.-Mr. Bankes thought that it would be much better for the landed interest and the country at large, to stand by the law of 1822, than to accept the present Bill.-Mr. Portman was of opinion that, with a few alterations respecting the averages, the present Bill would be highly useful.-Sir T. Gooch said, that his chief objection to the Bill was, that, whenever it passed into a law, it would have the effect of stimulating foreigners to bring poor lands into cultivation.

The House then divided, when there appeared-for the second reading, 243; for the amendment, 78; majority, 165.

April 3. Sir John Newport called the attention of the House to the state of the Church

Establishment in Ireland, and moved, "That it appearing from an Irish Statute of 12 George I. cap. 9., that many of the Parish Churches in that kingdom (Ireland) were then (1726) in a state of such great decay that Divine Service could not be performed in them—and that it having been stated, that the necessary repairs could not be effected, in consequence of the opposition of the Popish Inhabitants out-voting the Protestants in vestry-the Act went on to declare, that no Popish Inhabitants should have a right to vote at such a vestry; that although the power under that Statute was vested in Protestants only, nevertheless many churches and steeples continued to be in a state of the most ruinous decay, until they had become absolutely dangerous; that it appeared in the highest degree unjust, that those churches should be rescued from dilapidation only at the expense of those, who, constituting the great majority of the

population in most of the parishes of Ireland, were, by the Act of the Legislature, excluded from voting for the levying of the sums necessary for such purposes; and that leave be given to bring in a Bill to provide for the building and repairing the Parish Churches in Ireland in a manner more equitable."

Mr. Goulburn opposed the motion, observing that it was very true, the Protestant Parishoners only had the right of voting the rates for the building and the repair of Churches; but it ought to be recollected, that, in exercising that power of imposing a tax on the Catholics, they at the same time must lay a tax on themselves to a similar amount. Was it not reasonable, therefore, to suppose, that the Protestant would avoid taxing himself rather than rejoice in the power of taxing the Catholic? He begged to inform the House, that since he had commenced his connexion with Ireland, he had done much to mitigate the pressure arising from the building of Churches. Much had been done in the way of mitigation within the last five years-Parliament had lent much money for the purpose, and without demanding interest. In consequence of the Parliamentary grants, six hundred and sixtyfour Churches had been built, and five hundred and twenty-five glebe houses. Thus, instead of parishes destitute of Churches and residences for the Ministers, Ireland had places of Protestant worship that were weekly filled with still increasing congregations, and a respectable clergy, who brought, among other benefits, the advantage of a residence among their parishoners. Mr. Plunkett and Mr. Peel strongly opposed the resolution.

Sir J. Newport having replied, and obtained leave to withdraw his resolution, moved for leave to bring in a Bill for amending the laws for building, re-building, and repairing Churches, and for relieving the occupying tenants of land in Ireland from the burthen of Church Rates, in certain

cases.

HOUSE OF LORDS, April 6. The report of the SPRING GUNS BILL was brought up. Some conversation occurred relative to the propriety of permitting the use of spring guns in houses, hot-houses, walled-gardens, &c. Two divisions took place; the first, on a clause proposed by Lord Ellenborough, permitting the use of spring guns in gardens; this was rejected by a majority of 39 to 17; the other, upon a clause proposed by the Marquis of Lansdown, allowing of the use of these engines in dwelling-houses; this was carried by a majority of 29 to 27.

April 9. The third reading of the SPRING GUNS prohibition Bill was proposed

by Lord Wharncliffe; and, after a slight opposition from Lord Ellenborough, carried by a majority of 28 to 19.

The GAME LAWS reform Bill was then re-committed; and the House continued occupied with the discussion of its several clauses for nearly three hours, in the course of which no less than five divisions took place: the result of the divisions was generally favourable to the Bill; the Marquis of Londonderry was its most decided opponent, and he succeeded so far as to have the further discussion of the measure put off to the 7th of May.

In the HOUSE OF COMMONS, the same day, the Chancellor of the Exchequer moved to postpone the Committee of Supply; and, in answer to a question proposed by Mr. A. Ellis, he admitted that it is designed by Ministers to appropriate the house recently erected for the lamented Duke of York, to the Royal Society, the Antiquarian Society, and the National Gallery.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, April 10.

Mr. Hobhouse presented a petition from the Shareholders in the County Fire Office, complaining, in the first place, of various defamatory statements published by the Commissioners of Revenue Inquiry, particu larly in their fourteenth report; - and secondly, of the obstructions which those Commissioners had thrown in the way of the legal proceedings by which the Directors of the County Fire Office had sought to vindicate their character. The Hon. Gentleman spoke at some length in support of the petition. Sir R. Wilson, Mr. Hume, and Sir F. Burdett, spoke in support of the petition. Mr. Wallace, the Attorney and Solicitor General, and Col. Davies, defended the Commissioners of Inquiry.-The petition was ordered to be printed.

Mr. Hume moved for, and obtained leave to bring in a Bill to abolish imprisonment for debt upon mesne process.

Mr. H. Grattan also obtained leave to

bring in a Bill to prevent the destruction of Roman Catholic Chapels in Ireland.

April 12. Mr. C. W. Wynn moved that that the Speaker do issue his Warrant for a new Writ for the election of a Member for the Borough of Newport, in the room of the Right Hon. George Canning, who has accepted the situation of Chief Commissioner of his Majesty's Treasury.- This announcement was received with cheers; and a new Writ was accordingly ordered.

The two Houses this day adjourned; the House of Lords to the 2d of May, and the Commons to the 1st of May.

SPAIN.

An extensive plot has been discovered in General Rodil's division of the Army of Observation, assembled on the Spanish frontiers. They were, on a given signal, to disband, and part to go over to the Portuguese, and part into the interior, to join confederates. But before the time fixed for the execution of this plot, the ramifications of which were very extensive throughout the whole army, 40 common soldiers were arrested and immediately shot, together with eleven inferior officers, and five officers of different ranks. Gen. Rodil, as well as the Commander-in-Chief, Gen. Sarsfield, sent an express to the King, to inform him that they could not answer for the army; they requested their dismissal, as they saw it was impossible to keep the troops to their duty.

From Madrid we have an account of one of those disgusting scenes of religious foolery which King Ferdinand has so frequently exhibited. On 24th March, his Majesty washed the feet of some poor people, and afterwards waited upon them at their repast, in the presence of a number of Grandees.

PORTUGAL.

According to the late convention between Great Britain and Portugal, her Royal Highness the Infanta engages to provide the necessary buildings for hospitals, barracks, stores, magazines, &c. for the British Auxiliary Army, according to the regulations of the British service. Provisions and forage are to be placed at the disposal of the

British Commissariat, at a distance not greater than six leagues (Portuguese) from the head quarters of each British detachment, except in cases where a different arrangement shall be made. The British Commissary-General is, for the present, to provide these supplies, charging the same to the Portuguese Government. These charges being duly verified, the Portuguese Government is to pay the amount thereof forthwith, every three months, or let the same be carried over to the credit of the British Government, as may be considered most convenient by the contracting parties. The charge of provisions and forage to commence from the day of the landing of the British troops in Portugal; and shall cease, from the day of their departure, or of their passing the frontiers of Portugal. The forts of St.

Julien and Bugio to be occupied by British troops.

NORTH AMERICA.

The refractory and factious spirit of the House of Assembly of Lower Canada has been such, as to render it an indispensably necessary duty on the part of the Governorin-Chief (Lord Dalhousie) abruptly to prorogue the parliament. Whilst the conduct of the Legislative Council has been characterised by loyalty and wisdom, that of the House of Assembly has displayed only the rankest spirit of unjustifiable opposition to the measures of Government. Their refusal to comply with the wishes of the Governor is not confined merely to the necessary supplies for the service of the State, but extends even to those which are confessedly indispensable to the establishments of education and charity, and the local public improvements of the province.

A Columbus (Ohio) paper states that a boat had arrived at Steubenville, which had on board the bones of a non-descript animal, one of which was 20 feet in length, 8 in width, and weighed upwards of 1200 pounds; the back bone was 16 inches in diameter, and the ribs 9 feet in length! It is calculated from the size of the bones, that the animal, when living, must have been about 50 feet in length, 20 to 26 in width, and about 20 feet in height; and it must have weighed at least 20 tons! These bones Louisiana, and form the greatest natural were found near the Mississippi River, in curiosity ever beheld. This animal, says the American Editor, must have so far transcended the mammoth in size, as the mammoth a dog!

SOUTH AMERICA.

A letter, dated La Guayra, Feb. 28, says, "We have had serious disputes since the arrival of Bolivar. The finances are in a dreadful state of confusion. In the mean time Bogota is in a state of revolution, calling out for a federation, and opposed to Bolivar, who has resigned his situation as President of the Republic. This is, no doubt, preparatory to his being elected President for life, with the Bolivian Constitution, which his friends appear to be preparing the way for here. There is, however, a good deal of opposition to it, but Bolivar will carry his point."

attack), and the certainty that his Lordship would be wholly incapacitated from resuming the high office which he had so long and so honorably filled, rendered it evident that a new Minister must be appointed; and it was