tives, having collected their feudal retainers, assailed the city; but they could not enter it, and all their houses and those of their friends in the town were plundered by the mob. In 1433, Fortebraccio, a captain of the pope, revolted, seized Tivoli, and threatened Rome; and in the following year Francesco Sforza, the son of Attendolo, pretending to act in the name of the council of Basle, which was at open variance with the pope, occupied the whole of Umbria, as far as Otricoli. Upon this Eugenius sent his secretary Biondo, the historian, to treat with Sforza, and agreed to make him vicar for life of the March of Ancona, and gonfaloniere of the Roman Church.

Another condottiere however, Piccinino of Perugia, urged secretly by Filippo Maria Visconti, who aimed at enlarging his dominions at the expense of the pope, joined Fortebraccio with a body of horse, and advanced to the walls of Rome. The people, excited by the Colonna, and weary of the oppression of the papal officers, ran to arms, arrested Cardinal Condulmero, the pope's nephew, and invested the pontifical palace, from which Eugenius had just time to escape, disguised as a monk, to Ostia, where he embarked for Tuscany. Fortebraccio and his bands entered Rome, and gave themselves up to plunder and bloodshed, and all sorts of violence. The Romans, being weary of this disorder, sent two bishops to the pope, to beg his return; but the pope remained absent, delegating his authority to the Cardinal Vitelleschi, a bold unscrupulous man, who by means of the sword and the halter, restored peace to Rome and its territory, A.D. 1437. He reconquered Foligno and other towns for the pope, but at last he became suspected of a secret correspondence with the duke of Milan and with Piccinino, and the pope ordered his arrest. Vitelleschi was mortally wounded in defending himself, and being taken into the Castle S. Angelo, died there, A.D. 1440. In 1443, Eugenius returned to Rome, where he opened a council in the Lateran. He formed an alliance with king Alfonso of Naples against Sforza and the Florentines, and thus contributed to keep all Italy in a state of confusion for several years longer. Eugenius died in 1447. His long contention with the council of Basle, and with the antipope Felix, and his other transactions as head of the church, are noticed under EUGENIUS IV. He was the last pope that has been expelled from Rome by an insurrection of the people. He restored many churches and other buildings in that city.

His successor, Nicholas V., is one of the most illustrious in the long series of popes. He restored peace to Rome and to all Italy, ended the schism with the antipope Felix, embellished Rome with useful buildings, restored the walls and the Basilicæ, and began the Vatican library: he may be considered as having begun a new æra for Rome, in which the city recovered from the distractions and calamities of past ages, and became again a seat of learning, of the arts, and of polished society. [NICHOLAS V] In 1452, Frederic III. of Germany came to Rome, where he was crowned by the pope, with great pomp, first as king of Lombardy and afterwards as emperor. He was the last emperor who was crowned at Rome, and the people were greatly rejoiced and almost astonished to see the coronation of a German emperor pass off without tumult and bloodshed.

their guilt, and Porcari and nine of his associates were h..
on the battlements of the Castle of S. Angelo.
Nicholas V. died in March, 1455. He left the p
power firmly established at Rome. He entrusted the
ministration chiefly to churchmen, and this system of be
archical government has continued to the present day. T
senator remained a lay magistrate, appointed by the p
The senator must not be a native of Rome. His ju
diction has gradually dwindled to almost nothing, at
the governor of the city, who is a prelate, has the t
police under his control, and the senator is me.
president of a court of première instance for civil matter
which is composed of himself and three conservator,
lay judges, generally noblemen, who are appointed by t
pope, and renewed every six months, and of the priors.
caporioni, or head of the head-boroughs of the four
districts of Rome. This court, called Tribunale del Car
pidoglio, takes also cognizance of petty offences and
demeanours. The senator has also the superintend
the markets, of the annual horse-races, and attends
great processions and other public ceremonies.

The successors of Nicholas V., during the remainder
the fifteenth century, consolidated the papal power in R.
and Alexander VI. and Julius II., at the beginning of t
following century, extended it to the rest of the domin
of the See of Rome. [PAPAL STATE.]

Nicholas V. was succeeded by Calixtus III., whose p tificate does not exhibit any important feature. The be tory of the city of Rome henceforth becomes identifr with that of the popes, and may be traced, in order of d:: under the heads of PIUS II.; PAUL II.; SIXTUS IV.; 1 NOCENT VIII.; ALEXANDER VI.; and his nephew Bong (CESARE); JULIUS II.; LEO X.; and CLEMENT VII.

Under Clement VII., Rome was stormed, in May, 15. by an army of mercenary and disorderly Germans, led the Constable of Bourbon, who was in the service of Char V., but who led his freebooting bands against Rome w out any commission from the emperor, and with no oth object than to pay his troops their arrears by giving the the plunder of Rome. [BOURBON, CHARLES DE.] This W the last storming and pillage of Rome, but it was also ca of the most cruel. From 1527 till 1798 Rome was not e tered by any hostile army, nor exposed to any political res lution. Of the popes who sat in the papal chair dur this period of nearly three centuries, the most remarka are: PAUL III., PAUL IV., PIUS V., GREGORY XIII, SIXTE V., CLEMENT VIII., PAUL V., URBAN VIII., INNOCENT 1. ALEXANDER VII., CLEMENT IX., CLEMENT X., INNOCTY XI., INNOCENT XII., CLEMENT XI., BENEDICT XIII., Br NEDICT XIV., CLEMENT XIII., CLEMENT XIV., and P: VI. Under Pius VI. Rome was occupied without any res ance by the armies of the French executive Directory, and though not actually pillaged by the soldiery, it was share fully plundered in a more systematic manner by the generals, commissaries, and other agents of the Directory In 1799 it was occupied by the Neapolitans, who als made it pay dear for what they called its deliverance tra the French.

In 1800 the new pope, Pius VII., recovered possessi of Rome, and the memorable events of his long troubled pontificate are noticed under Pius VII. S The last years of Nicholas's pontificate were disturbed by the restoration of 1814 there has been no material cha the news of the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, in the political condition of Rome. The popes who bas 1453, and also by the conspiracy of Stefano Porcari, a Ro- done most for improving and embellishing Rome are:man noble and demagogue, which some writers have Nicholas V.; Paul II., who built the Palace of Venice chosen to look upon as a patriotic effort to restore liberty part of the Corso; Julius II.; Leo X., who began St. P to Rome, while others have considered it as the last struggle ter's church; Gregory XIII., who founded the Roman of the expiring factions led by ambitious nobles, who, flat-lege; Sixtus V., who raised most of the obelisks; Pa tering the populace by empty words of liberty and a re- (Borghese), who built the splendid church of Santa Ma public, had so often brought Rome to the brink of destruc- Maggiore, the palace Borghese, and other structures; 6tion. Porcari had once made an attempt at insurrection in gory XV., who founded the Propaganda; Innocent the Piazza Navona, and the pope had treated him leniently, who embellished the Piazza Navona; Alexander VII, merely exiling him to Bologna. Here he kept up a corre- raised the present building of the University; Inno spondence with other exiles and malcontents, and appointed XII., who built the palace for the courts of justic a meeting at his house at Rome, in January, 1453. Escaping Monte Citorio; Clement XI., Benedict XIV., and a ļ from Bologna, he repaired to Rome, attended by several hun- though not least, Pius VI., who created the Vatican dred men, with whom he was to attack the Capitol, seize the seum. Besides the popes, many cardinals of the Alb pope, re-establish the senate, and renew in short the scenes Borghese, Barberini, Farnese, and other families. of Crescenzio, Analdo da Brescia, and of Cola di Rienzo. greatly contributed to the embellishment of modern Cardinal Bessarion, legate of Bologna, however, having dis- during the last three centuries. The French admin covered the flight of Porcari, had sent information to the tion during its second occupation of Rome, 1810-14, # pope. The conspirators were seized in the midst of their contributed materially to the improvement and ornamen nocturnal meeting, with their arms and other evidence of the city.

1

MODERN ROME (continued).

A sketch of the actual papal administration, its judicial system, its finances, the manufactures and trade of the country, and other statistical details, are given under PAPAL STATE.

With regard to popular education, Rome has adopted no general and uniform system. The rectors of some parishes, ided by charitable individuals, have established parish school, in which poor boys, from five to twelve, are instructed gratis. Other schools are kept by the Scolopj, the fathers of the Christian doctrine, the Ignorantelli, and other clerical congregations, in which boys are taught, either gratuitously or for a trifling fee, writing, arithmetic, grammar. All the children of each parish are required to attend at the parish church every Sunday afternoon to hear the catechism explained, and to be questioned by the rector on points of religion and morality. Besides this, the curate Sotto Curato) of the parish generally keeps a private school, in which he teaches, for a trifling remuneration, writing and the rudiments of Latin. There are also sixty schools, called regionarie, kept by private teachers, in which about 2000 boys of the middle classes, by paying from half a dollar to a dollar a month, are taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and the elements of Latin and French. These schools are subject to the inspection of a deputation of clergymen, who report to the Cardinal Vicario. Several charitable instituions, such as the Orphans' Asylum, that known by the name of Tata Giovanni, the foundling hospital, that of S. Michele already mentioned, supply elementary instruction o their inmates. Females are instructed in some convents, and in the Conservatorj, where a number of poor girls are odged, boarded, and instructed, and partly defray, by the produce of their labour, the expenses of the institution, the emainder being made up by legacies and subscriptions. Some evening schools for the children of the working lasses have of late years been opened at Rome by benevoent individuals.

rectors of parishes, 1439 priests non-incumbent, 2012 monks or friars, besides 31 prelates, with the rank of bishops, belonging to the papal court. The numbers of nuns was 1456. The whole population consisted of 148,903 individuals, besides 4500 Jews.

The police in Rome is maintained by the Carabineers, a well selected and well equipped military body, resembling the French gendarmes. They are under the orders of the governor of Rome, who is a prelate.

Rome has an insurance company, a bank, and a savings' bank; these institutions have all been established within a few years. The Monte di Pieta is a much older foundation. [MONT DE PIETE.]

Rome had no municipal council when the French took possession of it in 1809, its financial administration being in the hands of the home department. Count Tournon established a municipal council, consisting of the principal nobles and citizens. Its revenues, derived from various taxes and rent of buildings, amounted to 2,800,000 francs which was found sufficient for the expenditure. We are not acquainted with the alterations that have been made since the restoration of 1814, except that we find in the Motuproprio of Leo XII., 1824, under the head of the 'Organization of the Communes,' that with regard to the city of Rome, the rights of the senator and conservatori, and of the Roman people, are maintained in their present state,' which seems to mean the state in which they were before the French occupation.

The population of modern Rome consists of a very mixed race, and the admixture is yearly renewed. The deaths at Rome exceed the births, which is owing in a great degree to the number of people who live in a state of celibacy, not only in consequence of their religious vows, but also from choice. The population is yearly recruited from the provinces; a number of young men come to the capital in quest of employment or to pursue their studies, and many of them settle there. Tournon justly observes that it is out For scientific education there is the university called of the question to look at Rome for any descendants Archiginnasio della Sapienza, which is attended by nearly of the antient Romans, even among the Transteverini, who 000 students, and has a library, a cabinet of natural history, bý tradition claim that descent. It is in the elevated country nd other collections: next comes the Gregorian or Roman near Rome, among the Sabine, Alban, and Cimini mountains, ollege, which is now again in the hands of the Jesuits; that we may expect to find the descendants of the antient t has a collection of antiquities and an observatory; and the inhabitants of those districts. The men in the city of Rome olleges Nazareno and Clementino, for boarders chiefly of are not generally favoured by nature, with the exception of he higher class. An account of the Gregorian college is the Transteverini, who are usually well made; the women iven in No. I. of the Quarterly Journal of Education.' are far superior with regard to form, but after the first Several public libraries are daily opened at Rome; the period of youth, they become lusty and large, owing proprincipal are those of the Dominican convent of La Mi-bably to their sedentary habits; their busts however are erva, and that of the Augustine convent, called Angelica. generally handsome. Charitable establishments are more numerous at Rome han in any other Italian city. The principal hospitals re those of S. Spirito and S. Michele, already noticed n the first part of this article; the fever hospital of the Lateran; the hospital of La Consolazione, at the foot of the Capitol, for surgical cases; that of San Gallicano, for cutaeous diseases; that of the Incurabili, or S. Giacomo, near he Corso; the lying-in hospital of S. Rocco: the hospital of Santa Trinita dei Pellegrini, for poor convalescents; and that f the Ben Fratelli, in the island of the Tiber, already menoned. The Orphan Asylum, the Foundling Hospital of 5. Spirito, and the house for the insane, must also be eckoned. The whole annual revenue of these establishments mounts to 840,000 dollars, of which about one-half is deived from endowments, and the remainder is supplied by he papal treasury. The pope distributes yearly out of his wn private purse from 30,000 to 40,000 dollars among the oor. A commission of subsidies distributes about 172,000 ollars more among poor families. There is also a society or portioning poor girls on their marriage, which expends bout 132,000 dollars yearly for that purpose. It is reckoned hat about 1000 girls are yearly portioned in this way. Serristori, Statistica; Morichini, Su gli Stabilimenti di Pubblica Beneficenza in Roma.) See also Tournon, b. iv., c. 7. The lower orders at Rome live generally very poorly, heir means of support being scanty and precarious. They epend much on charity, and when years of scarcity or olitical convulsions occur, the amount of suffering is very reat, as was the case when the French overthrew the apal government in 1809. A great part of the population epend, either directly or indirectly, for their subsistance on he papal court, the cardinals and prelates, the nobility, The foreign ministers, and foreigners in general.

The clergy of the city of Rome consisted, in 1838, of 54

With regard to their moral qualities, the people of Rome may be said generally to be remarkably keen in their perceptions, disposed to criticism and satire, and yet guarded in the utterance of their sentiments, serious and rather pompous, but withal warm-hearted. Revenge and jealousy are still a source of crimes among the lower orders. The modern Romans,' says Tournon, are full of intelligence; they have a strong feeling of self-respect, and although prone to anger under provocation, they are, in the common relations of life, gentle, benevolent, and warm-hearted, and particularly expressive of their gratitude. In the manifold relations which I have had with all classes of the Roman people-in the meetings for the drawing of the conscription, so obnoxious to a country to which war and its stern necessities had been strangers for ages; in the midst of the popular festivals; in the fairs and markets-nowhere have I seen traces of that turbulence and ferocity which travellers have been pleased to ascribe to the modern Romans. I have found, among the inhabitants of the most secluded districts of the Campagna, a remarkable mildness of manners, not unmixed with a certain degree of natural politeness; when often alone among them, or in the midst of the formidable Transteverini, my confidence in the good disposition of the people has never been betrayed for a moment, and my own experience, to which I may add that of every other Frenchman in an official situation like myself, has given me a full conviction that it depends entirely upon the government to make these people as orderly and peaceful as those of any country in Europe.' (Etudes sur Rome, vol. ii., p. 104.)

The amusements of the people of Rome are chiefly connected with religious festivals. The principal are those of the Holy Week, when the evening service and Miserere at the Sixtine Chapel are celebrated, at which however only a privileged few can be admitted; but then there is the cross

of fire suspended above the Confession in St. Peter's church, | The satirical humour for which the modern Romans ha whither thousands resort, and the aisles of that vast temple been long celebrated, has been noticed under PASQU!Y. become a sort of fashionable promenade. On Easter Sunday The upper class at Rome consists of two distinct or? the pope officiates with great solemnity in St. Peter's church, the hierarchy or clerical dignitaries, cardinals and pre after which he ascends the balcony in front of the building, who constitute the court and cabinet of the pope, and and gives his benediction 'urbi et orbi.' Then comes the have in their hands the government, and fill the princ: great procession of the Corpus Domini, the Thursday after offices in the administration; and the lay nobility, with Trinity Sunday, when the pope and all the clergy walk round titles of princes, dukes, marquises, and counts, who live y the colonnade of St. Peter's. Next comes the festival of St. the revenue of their estates, and have little or no influ Peter, on the 29th of June, when, in the evening after the in political affairs. In the middle class, 'mezzo ceto, ceremonies of the day, the whole exterior of that magnificent lawyers form an important order; they are divided int building, with its swelling dome, lantern, and cross, is lighted avvocati concistoriali, who alone can plead before up first by paper lanterns, which give a soft ethereal light, and sovereign in concistoro, or papal privy council; 2, a then, at a given signal, another set of thousands of bright cati rotali, who plead before the other courts; 3, cur. lamps are suddenly ignited, as if by magic, spreading like a or patrocinatori, who are the same as the English solicito blaze of fire along that vast structure. Then follows the 4, notaries, who form a corporation under the prefect Girandola, or fireworks on the castle of St. Angelo, which the archives. In the early part of the present century are far superior to any other fireworks in the world. The advocates Bartolucci, Bontadossi, Angelotti, Lasagni, Christmas festivals are also splendid. All these have been distinguished among the members of their profes described by most travellers who have visited Rome, and Among the physicians and surgeons, Bomba, Egidi, G some of them most beautifully by Madame de Staël in her nelli, Trasmondi, Savetti, had a considerable reputation. 'Corinne.' The artists form another important body at Rome. M... of them are foreigners, but they generally live on gu terms, and there is a sort of professional fellow-fe among them all. The life which the artists lead at R their studies, and their meetings, have been described ! Stendhal and other travellers. The Academia of S. Luck the fine arts, is the connecting bond of all the artists. Rome. France and other countries have their separ academies, or 'pensionats,' where a certain number of art of their respective nation are boarded and pensioned their government for a certain period. The antiquar.:: have also their academy. Among these the names of V: conti, Fea, Nibby, Ré, and others are well known.

The profane amusements are those of the Carnival, with its horse-races in the Corso and the masks in the streets; the inundation of Piazza Navona twice a week, in the month of August; the bull-fights and fireworks during the summer season; and the vignate, or country excursions in the autumn. There are generally two if not three theatres open at Rome, one for the Opera Seria, and another for the Buffa, but although the people are very fond of music, yet their rulers, through regard for their profession, abstain from attending plays, and this renders the amusement less national than at Naples or Milan. The fashionable carriagedrives are along the Corso, and outside of the Porta del Popolo, and along the road to Porta Pia.

We must refer for other particulars concerning the habits and pastimes of the modern Romans to books of travels, and especially to that under the name of Stendhal, Rome, Florence, et Naples,' and also the Promenades dans Rome,' by the same author, and Miss Waldie's Rome in the Nineteenth Century.'

·

The language of Rome is good Italian, but the lower orders, like those of every other country, fall into grammatical inaccuracies, wrong inflections, &c., and have moreover a drawling way of speaking, which is peculiar to them, and is easily recognised. The popular dialect thus disfigured, though much more intelligible than that of most other countries of Italy, is called Romanesco, and there are burlesque poems written in it. One of these is entitled 'Meo Patacca,' the name of a bravo or leader of the lower class of Rome, who, hearing of the siege of Vienna by the Turks, proposes to march to its relief, but after many delays and episodes, the whole troop vent their courage upon the poor Jews of Rome, whose district they take by storm. The following is a sample of the style:

The mercanti di Campagna, or great farmers, who r the vast estates into which the Campagna is divided, s longing, to the nobility, or to various churches, conver charitable institutions, or corporations, are a wealthy cl they live in a good style at Rome, have their counte houses, and employ numerous agents, clerks, messeng and servants. The smallest of these farms requires capital of 20007., and the largest of above 20,000l. Al the whole of the Roman lowlands, from Corneto to I racina, are in the hands of about 150 of these farm. of whom one-third, and those the wealthiest, reside at Ro Both Châteauvieux and Tournon give animated descript. of the farm of Campomorto, which is among the largest.

Rome is well supplied with provisions; butchers' meat a game, and vegetables are good and abundant; the com country wine is small and light, but the Romans are ge rally a sober people. Cheese, butter, ricotta, and o produce of the dairy, is plentiful and varied.

In conclusion, there is much that is interesting and w. that is good in modern Rome, both materially and moral but it ought to be borne in mind that the state of soc is totally different from what it is in England, Pr-i or France. English travellers have not sufficiently atte to this; they have judged of Roman society after the L lish standard; they have contrasted its stationary but or condition, with the prodigious activity, excitement, and petual agitation of the population of Britain. But the man race can accommodate itself to various condition can thrive and be content under very different institut: It is neither possible nor perhaps desirable to mai once a complete revolution in the habits and ideas é. the nations of the earth; that must be the slow wori time, of education, and of spreading intercourse. This been the great mistake of the so-called republicans age; they have considered man as a plastic being, they could remodel at will, without any consideration. his moral feelings, habits of thought, and early imp sions, which will not easily bend themselves to the w another.

The great mass of the population of the city of Rome shown, of late years, that it is, generally speaking tolerable harmony with the form of government. li government would but take care to accommodate gradually to the very slow change which must be ta place even in the minds of the people of Rome, that w be sufficient at present for the purposes of peace, we and good government, without any violent and su change in the established form of society. Some rem on this subject which were elicited by the abortive ins..

ection of the northern papal provinces, in 1831, in which novement Rome and the southern provinces did not partiipate, may be found at the end of an article upon 'Rome End the Papal Government,' in No. xxi. of the Foreign Quarterly Review,' January, 1833.

the advantage of teeth so formed; but Leibnitz, in a letter
to John Bernoulli, states that Römer had communicated
the invention to him twenty years before the date of De la
Hire's publication. Römer is said to have designed several
machines for representing the motions of the planets, and
particularly one which exhibited the revolutions of Jupiter's
satellites; by this machine it is said that the immersions
and the emersions might be determined with great pre-
cision.
Having remained ten years in France, Römer returned to
Copenhagen, where the king, Christian V., made him pro-
fessor of astronomy. He was at the same time employed in
reforming the coin, in regulating the weights and mea-
sures, and in making or repairing the public roads. Having
acquitted himself in the performance of these scientific
commissions to the satisfaction of his sovereign, he was
named chancellor of the Danish exchequer, and assessor of
the supreme tribunal of justice. At length, under Frederic
IV., he became burgomaster of Copenhagen, in which city
he died, September 19, 1702, having suffered at intervals
from the stone during the three last years of his life.

Peter Horrebow, one of his pupils and his successor in the chair of astronomy, published (1735), under the title of 'Basis Astronomia, the series of celestial observations made by Römer, with a description of the observatory at Copenhagen, and an account of the manner in which the instruments were used.

In determining the apparent places of celestial bodies, it had, previously to the time of Römer, been the practice to observe their altitudes and azimuths, and also their distances from one another or from some body whose place was already found. The trouble of computing the rightascensions and declinations from these elements was conchange in the practice of observing, by which this trouble was avoided. He used what is called a transit telescope, with a clock, and also a mural quadrant; with these he observed directly the differences between the right-ascensions (in time) and between the declinations of the sun and the planets or the fixed stars. It is right to remark however that Picard had somewhat earlier fixed in the plane of the meridian a telescope, by which he could, it is said, obtain altitudes between 56° and 61°. Now a space equal in extent to five degrees cannot be seen at once in a telescope, and therefore it is probable that this was moveable in altitude to that extent; and if Römer was at any time a witness to the performance of the instrument, he may have taken from it the idea of making a telescope turn on a horizontal axis through 360 degrees in the plane of the meridian. It appears also that De la Hire contended with Römer for the honour of having been the first to fix a quadrantal instrument in that plane.

RÖMER, OLAUS, a Danish astronomer, was born at Arhusen in Jutland, in 1644, of parents who, though not n affluent circumstances, were able to give their son the benefits of a scientific education by sending him to the university of Copenhagen, where he applied himself diligently o the study of astronomy under Erasmus Bartholinus. He was brought into notice by Picard, who, in 1671, was ent from France by Louis XIV. to make celestial observaions in the north, and to verify the position of Uraniburg, once the residence of Tycho Brahé. The French astrononer conceived so great an esteem for the talents of the young Dane, that he engaged him to visit Paris, and when here procured for him the honour of being presented to he king. In consequence of this introduction, Römer was ppointed to instruct the Dauphin in mathematics, a penion was settled on him, and the next year the Royal Acaemy of Sciences made him a member of their body. While in France, Römer was employed, together with IM. Cassini and Picard, in performing geodetical operaions for the survey of the kingdom; he also assisted at he Royal Observatory at Paris, and from the observations which he had occasion to make on the immersions and mersions of Jupiter's first satellite, he was led to the disovery of certain inequalities in the times of the occurrence f these phenomena, which had not before been noticed. t was then first remarked, that between the times of the pposition of Jupiter to the sun and the next following onjunction, the emersions of the satellite from the shadow f the planet took place always later than the times indi-siderable, and the Danish astronomer made an important ated by calculation, and that the difference between the -bserved and the calculated times when the planet was ear the points of opposition and conjunction was about ourteen minutes. A contrary circumstance was observed rom the time of a conjunction of Jupiter with the sun to he next following opposition; for the immersions appeared o take place more early than the calculated times, the diference of the times, when near the points of conjunction nd opposition, being also about fourteen minutes. There appears however to be some uncertainty whether tömer or Cassini (J. D.) is the astronomer to whom the onour of being the first to perceive the inequality belongs, nd Montucla asserts not only that the latter made the iscovery, but that he gave an explanation of its cause. He tates that Cassini published, in 1675, a paper in which it is hown that the phenomena result from the difference beween the times during which the particles of light are assing from the satellite to the earth (the planet being, when in opposition, nearer to the earth than when in conunction, by the whole diameter of the earth's orbit) and in which it is inferred that the velocity of light must consequently be such as to allow it to pass from the sun to the arth in about eight or ten minutes. On the other hand, it s well known that Cassini at first objected to the transmision of light through a part of space in a certain time as a ause of the observed inequality, on the ground that similar nequalities were not observed in the immersions or emerions of the other satellites. Now it is more probable that the rench astronomer should have made objections to the hypohesis of another man, than that he should have abandoned ne which himself had formed; and even if such abandonnent had taken place, Römer ought in justice to be consilered as the real discoverer of this important element in stronomical science, since it is admitted that he took up he subject and gave a precise explanation of the circumtances. The reason why the like retardation or acceleraion of the times was not, then, observed in the second and he remaining satellites is, that the theory of the motions of those bodies was in that age so imperfect, that the times of the phenomena could not be determined by computation vithin the number of minutes to which the optical inequaity amounts. It is now well known that the latter takes place similarly in the phenomena of all the satellites.

Römer was as good a mechanician as an astronomer. It s to him we owe the application of the epicycloidal curve in he formation of the teeth of wheels, by which the movement s rendered uniform; and an account of the invention was sent to the Academy of Sciences in 1675. De la Hire afterwards claimed the honour of having first discovered

ROMFORD. [ESSEX.]

ROMILLY, SIR SAMUEL, was born in London, on the 1st of March, 1757. His grandfather, a French Protestant, was entitled by inheritance to a considerable landed estate at Montpellier, but he quitted France in consequence of the persecutions which succeeded the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and established himself in the business of a wax-bleacher, in the neighbourhood of London. His youngest son, Peter, the father of Sir Samuel Romilly, was brought up to the trade of a jeweller, in which he became successful and eminent. Of the numerous family of Peter Romilly, two sons and a daughter alone survived their infancy, of whom Samuel was the youngest. The early education of Samuel Romilly was extremely defective. He was sent with his brother to a day-school, frequented by the children of the French refugees in London, the master of which was ignorant and tyrannical, and incompetent to instruct his pupils in anything beyond reading, writing, and the rudiments of the French language. The elder brother being intended for his father's trade, it was attempted to lead Samuel's inclination to the business of a solicitor; a disgust implanted in his mind by a view of the discouraging apparatus of an attorney's office in the city, caused the abandonment of this scheine. It was then proposed to place him in the commercial house of the Fludyers, who were near relations of his family, and one of whom, Sir Samuel Fludyer, was his godfather. With a view to this employment he received instruction in book-keeping and mercantile accounts, but the death of both the partners in the house of Fludyer put an end to this promising project, and his father, having failed in severa

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