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SPARE MINUTES. RESOLVED MEDITATIONS AND PREMEDITATED RESOLUTIONS.

HE that will not be persuaded to leap down from an high chamber at once, cometh willingly down by the stairs: and yet the declining degrees of his winding descent make it not less downward to him, but less perceived of him. His leap might have brought him down sooner, it could not have brought him down lower. As I am then fearful to act great sins, so I will be careful to avoid small sins. He that contemns a small fault commits a great one. I see many drops make a shower: and what difference is it, whether I be wet either in the rain, or in the river, if both be to the skin? There is small benefit in the choice, whether we go down to hell by degrees or at once.

He that too much admires the glory of a prince's court, and drawn up thither by his ambition, thinks high places to be the highest happiness; let him view the foggy mists, the moist vapours, and light exhalations drawn up from the earth by the attractive power of the glorious sun-beams: which when they are at highest, either spend themselves there in portending meteors, to others' terror and their own consumption; and either by resolution are turned into rain, or congelation into hail or snow, which sink lower into the earth at their fall, than they were at their ascending. For my part, I may admire such a glowing coal, I will not with the satyr kiss it. As I think it not the least and last praise to please princes; so, I know, it is not the least danger of times to live with them, procul a Jove, procul a fulmine. He presumes too much of his own brightness that thinks to shine clear near the sun; where, if his light be his own, it must be obscured by comparison: if borrowed from the sun, then is it not his, but another's glory. A candle in the night's obscurity shows brighter than a torch at noon-day. And Cæsar thought it a greater glory to be the first man in some obscure town, than the second man in Rome, the head city of the world.

Ir is a common custom but a lewd one, of them that are common lewd ones by custom, to wound the fame and taint the reputation of their neighbours with slanders; and having no less impotency in their tongues, than impurity in their hearts, form both opinions and censures according to the mould of evil in themselves. And this they do, either with the lapwing to divert, by their false cries, the travelling stranger from finding the nest of their filthiness, or with the curtailed fox in the fable, to endeavour to have all foxes curtailed: or, with the fish sepia, to darken with the pitchy ink of aspersions, all the water of the neighbourhood, that so themselves may scape the net of censure, justly cast to catch them. Or else, to have themselves thought as good as any other, they will not have any thought good, that dwells near them. I will therefore suspect him as scarce honest, who would (with a slander) make me suspect another as dishonest. I will not presently disrespect him as dishonest, whom a lewd person dishonesteth with suspi

cion. The devil is not more black-mouthed than a slanderer; nor a slanderer less malicious than the devil.

WHEN I see the sun rising from the east in glory, like a giant ready for the course, within an hour's space obscured with mists, darkened with clouds, and sometimes eclipsed with the moon's inferior body: and however without these, after noon declining, descending, setting, and buried under our horizon; I seem to see an earthly king mounting his throne in glory, yet soon clouded with cares, and fear of dangers sometime darkened in honour by the malicious envy of his subjects: sometimes eclipsed in his dominions by the interposition of foreign powers: and however without these, in a short time descending and setting at the evening of his life, and seldom passing the whole day thereof in perfect continual glory. Then think I, O the odds of comfort in that heavenly and these earthly kingdoms; O the comfort of this odds; there each saint is a glorious king; each king hath his incorruptible crown; each crown a boundless, fearless, endless kingdom. Let me strive for the glory of such a kingdom only, which is a kingdom of such glory.

Felices animæ quibus hæc cognoscere sola,
Inque domos superum scandere, cura fuit.
[ARTHUR WARWICK, 1637.]

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THE DOG.-From the Tomb of Maud de Cobham, Cobham Church near Rochester.

IN attempting to assign a reason for the frequent occurrence of dogs at the feet of tombs, we shall most probably be right if we simply attribute the circumstance to the affection borne by the deceased for some animal of that faithful class. That these sculptured animals were evident. Sir Bryan Stapleton, on his brass at Ingham, sometimes intended for likenesses of particular dogs, is Norfolk, rests one foot on a lion, the other on a dog;

the name of the latter is recorded on a label, Jakke. Round the collar of a dog at the feet of an old stone figure of a knight, in Tolleshunt Knight's Church, Essex, letters were formerly traced which were supposed to form the word Howgo.

In a Dictionary of old French terms, we find that the word Gocet means a small wooden dog, which it was customary to place at the foot of the bed. Now it has been thought that something of this kind was intended in the representation of dogs on tombs, and that this support of the feet merely indicates the old custom of having that sort of wooden resting-place for the feet when in a recumbent posture. But our first supposition appears the more natural, and is supported by the fact, that a large proportion of these sculptured dogs, instead of being placed beneath the feet, are seated on the robe or train, looking upwards with the confidence of favourite animals. Judith, daughter of the Emperor Conrad, is represented on her tomb, (1191) with a little dog in her right hand.

On the tomb of Sir Ralph de Rochford, in Walpole reticulated head-dress and veil, a standing cape to her Church, Norfolk, his lady is by his side dressed in a robe, long sleeves buttoned to her wrists, a quatrefoil fastens her girdle, and a double necklace of beads hangs from her neck. At her feet is a dog looking up, and another couchant. In the chancel at Shernborne, Norfolk, the figure of Sir Thomas Shernborne's lady (1458) has at the right foot a small dog sitting, with a collar of bells.

| Harrowden, Northamptonshire, are the portraits of a On a large antique marble in the chancel at Great man in armour and his wife in a winding sheet. The man stands on a greyhound, and the woman has at her feet two little dogs looking upwards, with bells on their collars. This monument is that of William Harwedon and Margery, daughter of Sir Giles St. John of Plumpton. She died in the twentieth year of Henry VI.

As the custom to which we allude has now entirely passed away, we have felt curious to trace the different examples, and as far as we could, the dates, in which these domestic animals were honoured with a memorial together with their masters or mistresses. The following list of instances in which the custom is observable, is, we believe, correct, and may perhaps be amusing to some of our readers.

On the monument of Robert Lord Hungerford (who died 1459), in Salisbury Cathedral, the feet are sup

ported by a dog, who has a long coil of rope hanging from his collar.

In Newton Church, near Geddington, Northamptonshire, Richard Tresham, who died 1433, has a dog at

his feet.

In Bristol Cathedral an abbot, supposed to be Walter Newbury, 1463, has angels at his head and a dog at his

feet.

The lady of Henry Grene, sheriff of Northamptonshire, in the aisle of Luffwick Church in that county, has at her feet a little dog, with studded collar, 1467. At Roydon, Essex, are two fine brasses of the Colt family, whose mansion was at Netherhall, in that parish. The lady of Thomas Colt, Chancellor of the Exchequer and one of the Privy Council of Edward IV., has a dog at her right foot, 1475.

In the monument in Tewksbury Church ascribed by tradition to George, Duke of Clarence, brother to Edward IV., and his wife Isabel Nevil, the lady has a dog at her feet.

Also in All Saints Church, Stamford, the brass figure of Alicia Brown, 1491, is similarly supported.

In the middle of the choir at Kidderminster is a marble slab inlaid with the figure of a lady between her two husbands, an old and a young knight in armour. She is habited in the surcoat, and mantle, and cordon, and has a little dog at her right.

In a chapel at the end of the north-aisle of the choir at Exeter is a handsome altar monument, with a rich canopy. On the table lies an alabaster figure of Bishop Stafford, who died 1419, with a dog at his feet, and angels at his head.

The figure of an abbot, robed and mitred, in St. John Baptist's chapel, in Westminster Abbey, has a dog at the feet.

In the church of Higham Ferrars is a slab inlaid with the brass figures of a man standing on a greyhound, and a woman with a little dog at her right foot.

In the chancel of Cobham, Kent, is the monument of Joan, wife of Sir Reginald Braybrook. She had five husbands, one of whom was Sir John Oldcastle, who was hanged and burnt in the reign of Henry V., for Lollardism. At the feet of her sepulchral effigy is a little dog. In the north chancel of Northfleet Church, Kent, the figure of Sir William Rikhill has a lion at the feet, and Catherine his wife has a little dog. In the south aisle of the same church are large figures, in brass, of a knight with a greyhound, and a lady with a dog.

In the Lady Chapel (now the library), at Hereford, near the door, is a large black stone, inlaid with white stone, representing a knight and lady. The knight in this case has the dog at his feet. The same occurs in an adjoining stone.

Before the step of the altar at Digswell, Hertford, is a fair brass figure of a knight in a round helmet, plated armour, straight long sword at his right-hand side, dagger gone, rowells of spurs in a circle, dog at his feet. At the end of the north aisle at Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, is an alabaster monument of a knight in armour, with a greyhound at his feet, and beside him his wife, having at her feet a dog and a griffin.

In Iselham Church, Cambridge, are the portraits in brass of John Bernard and Elizabeth Sakeoyle, his wife. He died 1451. At his feet is a muzzled bear, at those of his wife a little dog.

In the chapel of Greatham Hospital, Durham, previous to it being rebuilt there was a wooden figure much defaced of a man "in the habit of a secular clergyman," with a cap, his head on a cushion, and at his feet a dog. This we suppose to be coeval with the chapel, which

was founded in 1272.

In the south wall of Little Dunmow Church, Essex, is an altar tomb of alabaster, with the figures of a knight in armour, his helmet under his head, his hair cut round; his feet with the lion at them broken off. His lady has

the mitred head-dress richly flowered, a rich stomacher and necklace; and at her feet, which are wrapped in her robe, two dogs.

In Aldwinkle Church, in Northamptonshire, is the brass effigy of a man with a garment reaching to his ancles, standing on a dog.

At Pucklechurch, Gloucestershire, is the figure of a merchant with a purse at his left side, an angel supporting his head, and a dog at his feet.

In All Saints Church, Newcastle, at the feet of Roger Thornton, 1440, is a dog gnawing a bone.

The greyhound is introduced in pictures of ceremonials from the Bayeux tapestry to the Champ de Drap d'Or. Archbishop Greenfield, in York Minster, 1317, has at his feet two dogs, one a prick-eared shock, the other straight-haired and flap-eared; so have the wives of Robert Braunche, at Lynne, 1364. An abbot of L'Espan, near Mans, and another of Evron, in Maine, have a greyhound under their feet. On the French monuments one or both dogs are continually represented gnawing bones or eating acorns; and under the feet of Henry, Seigneur de Pary, in Jard Church, is a dog running.

One of the latest instances in which statues have animals at their feet is, that of Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex, in 1645, and his countess, in Westminster Abbey. At those of Louis Stuart, Duke of Richmond, and his duchess, there (1639,) they are on coronets in that situation. They hold shields of arms on the corners of the slab of the Duke of Norfolk, at Framlingham. In all these instances they are known supporters of the family arms. At the feet of Louis de la Tremouille, who was killed at the battle of Pavia, 1524, in the church of Notre Dame de Thouars, the dog lies as usual, but has the arms on his side. Charles de Bourbon, Earl of Soissons, and his countess, have a lion and a dog at their feet, (1633-1643,) in the Carthusian church of Gaillon. The next disposition in which we find animals is, as supporters of various memorials of the parties. Thus, two elephants of white marble bear up the black marble sarcophagus of Sir H. Wood, knight and baronet, (1671,) in the south aisle of Ufford Church, Suffolk, and two griffins the obelisk on the Marquis of Halifax's monument in Westminster Abbey, (1715.)

THE BOAR. From the Monument of Robert Vere, Earl of Oxford, 1296, Earl's Colne, Essex

ON THE MANUFACTURE OF WATCHES

IN SWITZERLAND.

II.

SWITZERLAND has long furnished the markets of France with watches. It has been asserted that not ten watches are made in a year at Paris, the whole, with scarcely an exception, being brought from Switzerland. The arrangement is this: France furnishes to Switzerland about fifty thousand watch-movements annually, which the Swiss work up into watches, and send back to France, where the French manufacturers merely examine and rectify them.

This transfer of watches from Switzerland to France

is not, however, permitted to be made duty free, a tax of

ten per cent. on the value of silver watches, and six per cent. on that of gold, being imposed. The existence of a tax on so portable an article, leads to smuggling on a scale more or less extensive; but in former times, when the duty was a great deal higher, the smuggling trade was carried on with a boldness almost unparalleled. One manner of smuggling watches was to sew a hundred and twenty, or a hundred and fifty, into the smuggler's waistcoat. The object of the French government in imposing the duty, was quite as much to encourage home manufacture by discouraging foreign, as to obtain an increase of revenue; but the attempt was wholly abortive; not an additional watch was manufactured in the country, nor did the producer or the consumer reap the slightest advantage. The pernicious effects of the system were also experienced in another way, the whole frontier became infested with bands of revenue defrauders, daring and reckless characters, whose avowed profession was to violate the laws. Since the duty has been fixed at a more moderate rate, smuggling has become less profitable; and a considerable number of watches are introduced in a regular and legitimate way.

With respect to the comparative production of watches in Switzerland and in England, it has been stated, by one of the principal manufacturers of Geneva, that one great advantage which the Swiss possess over the English watch-makers, is the low price at which they can produce the flat cylinder watches, which are at the present time much in request. The watch-makers of Great Britain buy largely both at Geneva and Neuchatel, and scarcely a single watch pays the duty of twenty-five per cent., because the risk of clandestine introduction is small. The average annual export to England, is from eight to ten thousand watches, and the average price about ten pounds sterling. In strictness it may be said that the Swiss watches do not interfere greatly with the English home manufacture, because the parties supplied are, in great measure, different. The English watches are far more solid in construction, fitter for service, and especially useful in countries where no good watchmakers are to be found. On the other hand, the Swiss watches require very delicate treatment. English watches, therefore, are sold to the purchaser who can pay a high price; while the Swiss watches supply the classes to whom a costly watch is inaccessible.

The contraband trade is said to be very considerable in this instance, as in that of commerce with France. A considerable sum which might reach the British Treasury if the duty were low, now does not reach it at all; for the duty of twenty-five per cent. is so tempting as to lead to smuggling on an extensive scale, carried on chiefly by French houses. This has been well commented on by an intelligent manufacturer of Geneva.

The English consumer pays the gains of the French smuggler, and pays, too, for that damage, delay, and risk which accompany fraudulent transactions. Can illicit introduction be guarded against in an article of small bulk xposed to heavy duty? Assuredly not; and in as far as seizure can be effectual, the additional cost it imposes must be paid by the consumers of a country which imposes the heavy duty. A low duty would bring to the customs a large quantity of the imported watches. If five per cent. were levied, which is in itself a high duty to impose on the productions of a country that levies no duty at all on British goods of any sort, we think it likely that six or seven thousand watches from Geneva, and nearly double that number from Neuchatel, would be entered at the British custom-houses. Now taking the average value at which these watches would be entered to be six pounds sterling, the amount would hardly be less than 110,0007. sterling, which would give a yearly income of 5,500%.

In a commercial point of view, the surreptitious introduction of Swiss (or as they are more frequently, but erroneously, termed French) watches into England, is perhaps a more important point than the transfer across the French frontier; but this latter has far more of

romance about it. A whimsical instance is narrated as having come under the notice of one of the head customs officers in France. Having on one occasion to travel into Switzerland, the smuggling from which often caused him much official disquietude, he determined to try an experiment on the reputed expertness of the Swiss smugglers. He went to one of the chief watch manufacturers at Geneva, and purchased watches and trinkets to the value of about forty thousand francs; on condition that the seller would guarantee their safe arrival at Paris without paying any duty on crossing the French frontier. The dealer made out the invoice, saying, however, that a premium of ten per cent. must be charged for the risk and expense attending the smuggling of the goods into France; the price and the prenium being payable only when the goods had been safely delivered at Paris. The director agreed to all this, and laughed inwardly at the dealer's assertion, that the watches would be at their destination as soon as the purchaser. The director lost not a moment in sending orders to all the customs officers on the frontier to exercise the most active vigilance on the line of posts, to double the frequency of the rounds, to quadruple their patrols, and to search every traveller scrupulously. Meanwhile he ordered his carriage, and posted off to Paris as quickly as the horses could convey him Hastening into his office, and speaking for a few minutes to some of his attendants, he went to his dress ing room, where the first thing he saw on the table was a casket containing the watches! A subsequent inquiry shewed that the packet had travelled in the very carriage with himself, it having been very adroitly con veyed into one of the travelling boxes of the director's carriage, during the hurried preparations for the home journey.

We need not inquire after other examples of a similar kind, of which there are doubtless many; but will proceed to notice another system of smuggling. In 1831, the director of the French Customs made a report to the Minister of Finance, on the subject of the fraudulent introduction of watches and other articles into France by means of dogs. An effort had been made in 1825 to check smuggling by horses, but after that time dogs were more employed than before. The first attempts at this singular mode of smuggling were made in the neighbourhood of Valenciennes, from whence it spread to Dunkirk and Charleville, and afterwards to Thionville, Strasburg, and Besançon. In 1823 it was estimated that one hundred thousand kilogrammes of goods were thus introduced into France, in 1825 nearly two hundred thousand, and in 1826 a still greater amount; all these estimates being reported as rather under the mark. The calculation has been made, on an average, at two and a half kilogrammes per dog; although the dogs carry sometimes as much as ten or twelve kilogrammes each. The estimate further supposes, in certain districts, one dog in ten is killed; in other districts, one dog in twenty. In the opinion of many of the customs officers, the number destroyed is very much less than this ratio would indicate. Various manufactured products have been thus introduced, even to the value of ten or twelve hundred francs per dog.

that

The dogs which are trained to these nefarious purposes, are conducted in packs to the foreign frontier. They are kept without food for many hours, and are then beaten and laden, and at the beginning of the night their masters, which are generally selected at two or started on their expedition. They reach the abodes of three leagues distance from the frontier, as speedily as they can, where they are sure to be well treated and provided with food. The cunning craft of this plan is pretty obvious; for the poor animals, dreading the l usage which they receive on the frontier, use all their speed and sagacity to get to the French side, where plenty and good treatment await them. It is said that they

adversary.

do much mischief by the destruction of agricultural | valueless, because he cannot bring it to bear upon his property, inasmuch as they usually take the most direct course across the country. They are, for the most part, dogs of a large size.

many

The report states, that these carrier dogs, being so tormented by fatigue,.hunger, and ill-usage, and hunted by the custom-house officers in all directions, are exceedingly subject to madness, and frequently bite the officers. The dogs, it was stated, have also been trained to attack the custom-house officers in case of interference. Not weeks ago a circumstance occured illustrative of the hazards which these men run. Some officers, unarmed as it would appear, saw a troop of dogs passing towards the frontier in a manner which excited their suspicion that the dogs, although not actually bearing loads, were smuggling dogs, (in fact they were going to fetch their loads;) and were about to stop them, but the dogs commenced an attack which drove off the officers, and left the way open to the sagacious animals. Among the measures proposed for the suppression of this mode of smuggling, a premium of three francs per head has been allowed for every frauding dog (" chien fraudeur") destroyed; but this plan appears to have been wholly inefficient, though the cost to the gorerument has been so considerable, viz., eleven thousand francs per annum before 1827, and fifteen thousand francs per annum for some years afterwards. More than forty thousand of these ill-used and hard-working animals were destroyed between 1820 and 1830; and premiums to the amount of more than a hundred and twenty thousand francs were paid for their destruction.

The French Government has tried many and varied plans for abating this nuisance. Severe measures of police have been proposed, too severe in fact to be executed. The prefects have required individuals who conducted dogs in leashes, to take out passports as if for foreign countries. The attempts, however, have been ineffectual.

It will be readily seen, that these modes of smuggling are such as England is in a great measure shielded from, by her sea-girt situation. They tend to show how strong is the temptation to the illicit introduction of articles of merchandize, when the articles are small in bulk compared with their value, the import duties large, and the passage across the frontier not interrupted by physical impediments. We offered these details, in the first instance, in more immediate connexion with the Swiss watch-trade; but they apply to a considerable variety of

commodities.

EASY LESSONS IN CHESS.
X.

THE third method of opening your game is called the
QUEEN'S BISHOP'S PAWN'S GAME, from the circum-
stance of that pawn being moved one square at the
second move.
This move was censured by Philidor as
being very ill played, because by advancing his Queen's
Pawn two squares, your adversary regains the advantage
An assertion which, as Sarratt says, it
is presumed cannot be proved. Indeed it has been
shown by the analysis of the two celebrated Italian
players, Ercole del Řio and Ponziani, that the move may
be made without danger.

of the move.

game

The Queen's Bishop's Pawn's is seldom played, probably because Philidor's censure of it may yet have some influence; and also because none of our great players has condescended to patronise the game. There are, however, many striking and peculiar features about this opening: the first player may often succeed in getting an open game, and have a variety of pieces at command; while his antagonist, unless he play correctly, has no time allowed him to bring out his pieces, and although he may have a numerical advantage, it is

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The following game is selected from a series of games played by the members of the Bristol Chess Club. It is well calculated to illustrate the opening to which the young student's attention is now directed.

QUEEN'S BISHOP'S PAWN'S GAME.
BLACK.

WHITE.

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This move is a very good one, but difficult for you to understand without explanation. It prevents him from playing K. Kt. to B. third square,—a very desirable move for him at the present juncture. Examine this move attentively, and notice its effect in preventing him from playing out the Kt. to K. B. third square. If you had played Q. Kt. to Q. second square, the effect on him would have been the same; but the objection to this move is, that your Q. B., now so usefully employed in commanding five squares, would have been rendered powerless.

10. Q. B. to K. third square.

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Black does quite right to abandon his Q. R. to your Q. B. He now threatens your Q. Kt. P., the capture of which will give him a momentary advantage, worthless, however, on account of not being able to follow it up. A Queen in the adversary's field can seldom do much unless supported by pieces; and, in cases like the present, when she ventures among the adverse pieces she runs great risk of being lost. It is a fault very common to young players to employ their Queens more than any other piece. They naturally imagine that because she is the most powerful of all the pieces she can do most execution; whereas, real strength at chess consists, not in the rapid predatory movements of one piece, but in the combination of several pieces. The most accomplished chess player, before he begins to attack, gradually establishes a combination of pieces and pawns, which, when brought to bear, often proves irresistible; and most especially so, when his incautious or inexperienced antagonist wastes his strength in skirmishes, and while gaining temporary advantages neglects to form his defence or counter attack.

18. Q. B. takes Q. R.

19. Q. B. takes K. B.

20. K. to Q. second square.

21. K. B. to Q. B. second square. 22. R. to Q. Kt. square.

18. Q. takes Q. Kt. P.

19. Q. takes Q. R., checking. 20. Q. to Q. Kt. 7th sq., checking. 21. K. takes Q. B.

22. Q. to Q. R. sixth square. Q. B. P. takes Kt.

23. Kt. to Q. Kt. fifth sq., checking. 23. 24. Q. takes Q.

The manner in which your adversary's Queen is won is skilful it is a necessary consequence of a succession of moves foreseen by White, and played with boldness and precision. White has a won game, and we need not pursue the game further. Observe that Black's K. R. and K. Kt. are still at home, and throughout the game they have contributed nothing whatever to its defence. You must avoid leaving your pieces at home unemployed. You would probably smile if a better player than yourself proposed that you should give him the odds of a Rook and a Knight; that is, that these pieces should be removed from the board before you began your game. You would despair of being able to stand against him during a dozen moves, and yet, by keeping these pieces shut up and unemployed, while your adversary brings all his pieces and pawns into play, the effect on your game is similar to giving him the odds of the pieces which you do not use.

The following problems are ingenious. We can assure our young chess students, that they are correctly stated in the diagrams, and hope to find that the solutions have been discovered by many.

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