may be interested by learning that he was the grandfather of that excellent man and excellent poet, William Cowper, whose writings have long been peculiarly loved and prized by the members of the religious community which, under a strong delusion, sought to slay his innocent progenitor.* "Though Spencer Cowper had escaped with life and honor, the Tories had carried their point. They had secured against the next election the support of the Quakers of Hertford; and the consequence was, that the borough was lost to the family and to the party which had lately predominated there." conducted with a malignity and unfairness which to us seem almost incredible; and unfortunately, the dullest and most ignorant judge of the twelve was on the bench. Cowper defended himself and those who were said to be his accomplices with admirable ability and selfpossession. His brother, much more distressed than himself, sate near him through the long agony of that day. The case against the prisoners rested chiefly on the vulgar error that a human body found, as this girl's body had been found, floating in water, must have been thrown into the water while still alive. To prove this doctrine, the counsel for the Crown called medical practitioners, of whom nothing is now known except that some of them had been ac- Notwithstanding the fact that Lord tive against the Whigs at Hertford elections. Macaulay has given so large a space to To confirm the evidence of these gentlemen, this case, he has read it with more than two or three sailors were put into the witness- ordinary carelessness. He "The says: box. On the other side appeared an array of case against the prisoner rested chiefly on men of science whose names are still remem- the vulgar error that a human body bered. Among them was William Cowper, not a kinsman of the defendant, but the most cele- found, as this poor girl's body had been brated anatomist that England had then pro- found, floating in the water, must have duced. He was, indeed, the founder of a dy- been thrown into the water while still nasty illustrious in the history of science; for alive." The argument was exactly the he was the teacher of William Cheselden, and reverse. It was urged that the fact of William Cheselden was the teacher of John her body floating proved that she was Hunter. On the same side appeared Samuel thrown into the water after she was Garth, who, among the physicians of the capital, had no rival except Radcliffe, and Hans dead; and it was sought to be inferred that she had been strangled-that if, as Sloane, the founder of the magnificent museum which is one of the glories of our country. was argued on behalf of the prisoner, The attempt of the prosecutors to make the su- she had drowned herself, her body would perstitions of the forecastle evidence for the pur- have been filled with water, and would pose of taking away the lives of men, was treat- have sunk. The evidence as to whether ed by these philosophers with just disdain. the body did in fact float or sink was, as The stupid judge asked Garth what he could we have seen, contradictory. The postsay in answer to the testimony of the seamen. My Lord,' replied Garth, I say that they are mortem examination was delayed so long mistaken. I will find seamen in abundance to that the medical testimony had really no swear that they have known whistling raise the foundation of facts to rest upon. At the wind.' The jury found the prisoners Not Guil- trial an attempt was made on the part of ty, and the report carried back to London by the prisoner, to establish the insanity of persons who had been present at the trial was, the girl; but nothing more was proved that every body applauded the verdict, and that even the Stouts seemed to be convinced of their than might be easily shown to have ocIt is certain, however, that the malevo-curred in the case of any love-sick girl lence of the defeated party soon revived in all its who was, or fancied herself, the victim of energy. The lives of the four men who had an unrequited passion. Lord Macaulay's just been absolved were again attacked by treatment of this evidence is amusing. means of the most absurd and odious proceeding Three of the circumstances on which he known to our old law, the appeal of murder. relies to prove her insanity are: First, This attack too failed. Every artifice of chicane That "she sometimes hinted a dislike of was at length exhausted; and nothing was left the sect to which she belonged "—(rather error. to the disappointed sect and the disappointed faction except to calumniate those whom it had been found impossible to murder. In a succession of libels, Spencer Cowper was held up to the execration of the public. But the public did him justice. He rose to high eminence in his profession; he at length took his seat with general applause, on the judicial bench, and there distinguished himself by the humanity which he never failed to show to unhappy men who stood, as he had stood at the bar. Many who seldom trouble themselves about pedigrees 66 an odd proof of insanity, in the mouth of Lord Macaulay ;) second, that " she complained that a canting waterman, who was one of the brethren, had held forth against her at a meeting," (which happened to be true, and seems to be a tolerably reasonable ground of annoyance ;) and third, that, to two or three of her associates she owned she was in love." (Alas, for all young ladies from sixteen upward, in white satin, and their confidantes in white linen, if this is to be taken as a proof of insanity!) But when Lord Macaulay comes to the facts connected with Cowper's writing to announce his intention of staying at the house, his dining there, his return in the evening, and his mysterious disappearance at night simultaneously with the girl, he condenses them into the following words, "He, like an honest man, took no advantage of her unhappy state of mind, and did his best to avoid her," (it was, to say the least, an odd mode of avoiding her that he adopted.) "It was necessary, however, that he should see her when he came to Hertford at the spring assizes of 1699, for he had been intrusted with some money which was due to her on mortgage. He called on her, for this purpose, late one evening, and delivered a bag of gold to her." (The "bag" exists only in Lord Macaulay's imagination- the "gold" was the petty sum of six pounds and a few odd shillings, which Cowper had received for her as interest on a sum of two hundred pounds which he had placed out on mortgage on her behalf, and the payment of which certainly did not make it necessary that he should be with her from two till four, and again from nine till half-past ten at night.) "She pressed him," adds Lord Macaulay, "to be the guest of the family, but he excused himself and retired." It is worth while, as a matter of philological curiosity, to enumerate over again the facts which one of the greatest masters of the English language can compress into the phrase "he excused himself and retired." Cowper went to the house on his arrival in the town, dined there with the family, left at four, returned at nine, supped, wrote his letters, was present whilst his bed and his bedroom fire were ordered, and the maid was sent up to warm his bed; sat alone until half-past ten o'clock at night with a girl who he knew was violently in love with him, and who had been in the habit of addressing the most passionate letters to him under a feigned name, and then-" abiit-excessit-evasit-erupit." His departure only announced by the slamming to of the street-door. This is Lord Macaulay's notion of "excusing himself and retiring." He and the girl disappeared together. In the morning he is at other lodgings in the town, and she a corpse in the milldam. For the charge that Lord Macaulay makes that "the prosecution was conducted with a malignity and unfairness which to us seem almost incredible," we can not discover the slightest ground. Certainly | none is to be found in the very ample and detailed report in the State Trials. Indeed, a far greater latitude was allowed to the prisoner in his defense than would be permitted at the present day. What authority Lord Macaulay may have had for describing Hat sell, who presided at the trial, as "the dullest and most ignorant judge of the twelve," we know not. He seems to have tried the case with strict impartiality and very fair ability, and his charge to the jury was decidedly in favor of the prisoners. We have frequently had occasion to remark upon the caution which ought to be observed before relying upon Lord Macaulay's marks of quotation. An amusing instance of this occurs in the passage we have just cited. A sailor of the name of Clement deponed that he had frequently observed that when a corpse was thrown into the sea it floated, whereas, if a man fell into the water and was drowned, his body sank as soon as life was extinct. In confirmation of this he cited his own experience at the fight off Beachy Head, where the bodies of the men who were killed floated about, and at a shipwreck, where between five and six hundred men were drowned, whose bodies sank. This evidence was curious, and if it had been proved whether Sarah Stout's body floated or sank, would have been valuable. The judge felt, no doubt, that it was so; and when Garth swore that "it was impossible the body should have floated," and boldly stated his belief that "all dead bodies fall to the bottom unless they be prevented by some extraordinary tumor," he directed his attention to the evidence which had been giv *13 State Trials, 1157. en, and asked him "what he said as to the sinking of dead bodies in water ?" Garth replied that: "If a strangled body be thrown into the water, the lungs being filled with air, and a cord left about the neck, it was possible it might float, because of the included air, as a bladder would." Upon this the judge recalled his attention to the question as follows: He finds for once the Quakers and the Tories united (or rather, we ought to say, he assumes their union; for from first to last in the trial there is not a particle of evidence that political feeling intervened,) and he infers that they could only be united for the purpose of committing a judicial murder; that the object of the Quakers was to" send four innocent men to the gallows rather than let it be believed that "Baron Hatsell.-But you do not observe one who had their light within her had my question: the seaman said that those that committed suicide," ,"* and that the Tories die at sea and are thrown overboard, if you do were urged on to the same atrocity by not tie a weight to them, they will not sink-"the prospect of winning two seats from what do you say to that?" "Dr. Garth.-My Lord, no doubt in this thing they are mistaken. The seamen are a superstitious people: they fancy that whistling at sea will occasion a tempest. I must confess I have never seen anybody thrown overboard, but I have tried some experiments on other dead animals, and they will certainly sink: we have tried them since we came hither."* the Whigs" Lord Macaulay makes no account of the feelings that would be awakened amongst relations, friends, and neighbors by the sudden and violent death of a young and beautiful girl, who, whether murdered or not, had unquestionably been cruelly trifled with by a man who, if not directly, was at any rate indirectly the cause of her death. Religious and To gratify his political and family aver sions, Lord Macaulay has raked up the ashes of poor Sarah Stout, and has revived a not very creditable incident in the history of a very eminent family. He ex Now in this, we confess, it seems to us that the judge appears to greater advan-political fanaticism" are motives the powtage than the physician. Garth was evi- er of which Lord Macaulay was certainly dently desirous to evade the question, and not likely to underrate. Yet it might he attempted to do so by a sneer. The have been supposed that the religion of superstition of the sailors had nothing to Sarah Stout was one which he would have do with the question whether a man kill- been disposed to treat, if not with respect, ed in battle and falling into the water at least with tenderness, however mistak floats or sinks. Garth was compelled to en his more mature convictions might admit he had no experience on the sub- lead him to consider it to be. ject. He said, and said truly, that "the object of tying weights to a body is to prevent it from floating at all, which otherwise would happen in some few days." The well-known instance of the floating of the body of Caracciolo, notwithstand-presses surprise that none of the biograing the weights which were attached to his feet, will occur at once to the mind of the reader. The inquiry of the judge was pertinent to the evidence, and the reply might have been material to the question of the guilt or innocence of the prisoner. Lord Macaulay disposes of both question and answer in the following words: "The stupid judge asked Garth what he could say in answer to the testimony of the seamen. My Lord,' replied Garth, I say that they are mistaken. I will find seamen in abundance to swear that they have known whistling raise the wind.'" There was no stupidity that we can discover in the question, and the answer is misquoted. Lord Macaulay, however, does not trouble himself with the facts of the case. *State Trials, 1158. Ibid. 1158. 66 phers of the poet Cowper should have alluded to this adventure of his grandfather. An old proverb might have told him that there are certain families among whom it is a breach of good manners to make any mention of "hemp." We think it was Quin who once introduced Foote to a company as a gentleman whose father was hanged for murdering his uncle." Polite and pious biographers such as Hayley and Southey generally avoid all allusion to such disagreeable subjects. Lord Macaulay is puzzled by what appears to him unnecessary delicacy, and has made the whole scandalous story (for scandalous it must remain, even taking the most favorable view) as notorious as possible. Where one reader dives into the State Trials, a thousand will read Macaulay's * Vol. v. p. 237. fifth volume; and all the world now has | liam Cowper, behaved extremely ill to à the advantage of knowing that the grand- pretty Quaker girl, and had a narrow father of "that excellent man, excellent escape of being hanged for murdering her. poet," as Lord Macaulay justly calls Wil-I From Blackwood's Magazine. THE FAREWELL [THERE is, or there was, a tradition in Shetland that seals come sometimes on shore, and, divesting themselves of their skins, dance upon the sands, after which they resume their covering and return to their natural element. It is said that on one occasion a female seal, who may be considered as a sort of mermaid, having mislaid her skin upon the land, and being thus unable to return to the sea, came into the possession of a Shetlander, with whom she lived for some years as his wife, and bore him several children. One of the children having accidentally found on the beach an old hide, brought it to his mother, when it proved to be the longlost skin. With many tears and marks of agitation, the mother put it on, and tak ing an affectionate leave of her children, plunged into the sea, and swam off in company with a large male seal who had eften before been seen hovering on the coast.] HUSBAND, farewell! for many a year I can not now but feel and say; This earth was not my native home, O F THE SEAL. I longed to float on ocean's breast, In sparry grot or marble cave. There was the region of my birth; And there I dwelt a happy bride, Or breathe beyond the salt-sea tide. But fortune has redressed the wrong That bound me to the dreary land: I haste to quit th' unkindly strand. Of what I lose in thee and thine. My children! there indeed I feel That parting is a bitter pain: From yonder rock, at evening hour, When soft the mermaid's music rings, THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. 1861.] From the London Journal of Sacred Literature. 66 THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, AS FORETOLD IN THE BOOK OF GENESIS. WHEN Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had spoiled Jerusalem once, and was preparing for his second visit of final desolation, and when Jeremiah heard already "the with the quick ear of prophecy snorting of his horses from Dan," Hananiah the son of Azur of Gibeon, took upon him to assure the people of Israel that the yoke of the Chaldean was broken, and that within two full years the cap tivity should return. A very solemn Jeremiah answered him: scene followed. Amen, the Lord do so, the Lord perform thy words! Nevertheless, hear thou this word. The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old, prophesied both against many countries and against great kingdoms, of war and of evil and of pestilence. The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known that the Lord hath truly sent him." It happened so in this case. Hananiah's word perished, and he himself died; Jeremiah's word lived, and was accomplished; the cities of Judah were made desolate without inhabitant. It is evident that this principle applies to the written prophecies of Scripture. Prophecy is a miracle of knowledge, and accomplished prophecy announces divine prescience. It is impossible therefore to over-estimate the importance of the prophetic evidence of Holy Scripture. But if it can be shown that prophecies were written after the events to which they refer; or that having been written before, they have failed of accomplishment, this evidence of their divine origin is of course destroyed. Both methods accordingly have been tried, nay, are being tried at this moment. The argument of Porphyry in the second century, that the famous prophecies of Daniel were written after the events had come to pass, is reproduced in the midst of us now; and great pains are being taken to show that the prophets of Scripture have spoken many times without any corresponding fulfillment. It may not therefore be lost labor to select a prophecy which occurs at the very commencement of the history of the -that of Noah respecting his human race-t three sons. This prophecy can not have been written after the event, for the event has been in all past ages, and is now. And we find the prophecy in the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament three hundred years before Christ, and in the Samaritan Pentateuch seven hundred years before him. And as to its fulfillment, every honest-minded inquirer must acknowledge that it has been as minute, special, and particular, as the most exacting faith can demand. We have said that this prophecy occurs at the commencement of human history; it was uttered just after the deluge. That terrible act of judgment, of which traces are to be found in the traditions of every people, makes a break in the story of our race. The world before the flood had no prophetic chart of its fortunes, and its history was but a tale of violence and blood. The human family prevented from its natural increase by the internecine strife which filled the world, seems never to have extended beyond the reAnd before, gions of Central Asia. But other destinies were in store for man. in fulfillment of these destinies, the sons of Noah began to overspread the earth, He, to whom the end is known from the beginning, prophesied the fortunes of the infant race. The prophecy is in the form of a poem, in three stanzas: "Cursed be Canaan, A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem, the tents of Shem: And Canaan shall be his servant." Before, however, proceeding to the illustration of these words, we have a few remarks to make. The word which we |