good hours of travelling at three knots, above the town of La Guira and the coast. Its elevation is calculated to be nearly three thousand feet above the level of the sea.

Extremely gratifying, indeed, is the novelty of the view, when the extended plain of Caraccas first bursts upon the sight, and presents a clear and not distant prospect of this once handsome, and still interesting and extensive city. The town and its suburbs are spread over nearly half a plain, 12 miles in extent, beyond which are fields in a fine state of cultivation, and bounded by a small village at the foot of the mountains by which the plain is enclosed on all sides. The houses have mostly tiled roofs and whited fronts, and the numerous spires which rise from among them, announce a city of no ordinary interest, and encrease the beauty of the sight. When we descended on the plain we passed through a gate, where a real each was demanded for admittance, and we began immediately to be enclosed by the ruins of the awful visitation of 1812, which struck us on all sides. The inhabitants calculate, that half the town was destroyed by the earthquake, and that 10,000 of the inhabitants perished on the same melancholy occasion. Perhaps one of the most impressive records of this event, is the cathedral clock, which stopped at the moment of the shock, and remains fixed at that time, the hands pointing to ten minutes after four, to commemorate the terrible circumstance, and to perpetuate the recollection of an awful instance of the instability of human structures and human existence. Be ye also ready! We passed by several fonts where spring water from the mountains, beautifully clear, is constantly emptying itself into a bason, over a stone bridge, leaving the spacious remains of a church now re-building, and the barracks, on our left hand; hence we passed the market-place, into the street where stands the Posada del Rey,' which we had selected for our abode. We were here joined by Mr. Lindsay, the contractor for provisions, &c. for the Spanish forces, and the only foreigner allowed to reside in Caraccas; in a short time we sallied forth to take a view of the interior of the town. The streets of Caraccas are much the longest I ever saw, and perfectly straight, crossing each other at right angles. Standing in the centre, they extend as far as the

eye can reach on each hand. The houses have uniformly white fronts, and generally a balcony to each window, on the first floor; the latter are frequently of red brick. Each respectable house has generally a paved square in the centre, and a wide and excellent entrance. The town abounds with shops and pulperias, which contain a very tolerable assortment of goods of all descriptions, mostly imported from St. Thomas's, and brought over here from La Guira upon mules, subject to an import duty of 19 per cent. The market-place is a tolerably large square, but it is situated below the level of the town, and the descent into it is by several steps, which rendered it extremely wet and dirty during our stay. Here were meat, fowls, vegetables, and fruit, pretty abundant, and reasonable in price. Peaches, green peas, and other luxuries of Europe, with all the fruits peculiar to these regions, oranges, lemons, citrons, limes, pomegranates, potatoes, cabbages; and fresh beef 25lbs. for a dollar, peaches ten for a real, and the peas a real for about a pint, We visited also the churches, and the cathedral, the latter is a spacious fine building, and greatly ornamented, as is the custom of the Catholics; the altar pieces embossed all over with gold and silver ornaments, figures of the Virgin Mary, or a saint in every niche, models of the crucifixion, and a variety of altars, in the cathedral particularly. The monks were at prayers with lighted wax candles in their hands, kneeling. The decoration of the churches must have occasioned immense expense, as the gold and silver ornaments abound in all directions. Over the door of one is this inscription: Ave Maria purissima sin Pecado original concevida.' A loose stone in the church-yard in front, I pocketed as a memento mori.' We were fortunate in getting admission into the cathedral, as it is only open on particular days. The college remains in use, and is now visited by about two hundred students. There is also a nunnery, of which we saw only the outside. Mules were standing about the town in lots of ten and a dozen each, to convey the different articles of merchandize, &c. from one part to another, and to La Guira, where they are sent every Tuesday and Friday with produce, consisting of cocoa, hides, coffee, &c. We met great numbers on our road from La Guira, laden principally with hides, on account of the

6

weather.

The

weather. A tolerably brisk trade in the shops in the small way, but not much appearance of business upon a large scale. We found very tolerable lodgings at the Posada, an excellent breakfast of most delicious chocolate, &c., and a tolerable dinner, and decent beds. The inns at Caraccas are famous for abounding with fleas, Capt. Wilson was incommoded by them, but they did not disturb my rest. The expense about three dollars a day, and half a dollar each, for the keep of the mules. There are many most excellent houses in Caraccas, extremely clean, well furnished, and comfortable in the inside. Most of the inhabitants keep musical instruments of some kind, and pianos not unfrequently. The band played on Sunday morning, but their music was not remarkable good or pleasing. The population is now from 30 to 35,000 people, including all ranks. town is quite open on all sides, and entirely undefended by any fortification; consequently, any military force in possession of the surrounding mountains, must have possession of Caraccas were also. Last year, when Bolivar was at Victoria, the inhabitants almost all deserted the town, and hastened to La Guira, where many embarked for the colonies. On this occasion the first and most delicate women of Caraccas, were seen trudging on foot over the mountains to La Guira. A respectable inhabitant told me, Bolivar was much feared by the Spaniards. At La Guira it was believed by some people, that the patriots would soon have possession of Caraccas. We called on the Captain General of the Province on the evening of our arrival, and were invited by him to dinner on the following day, which invitation we accepted, and met a large party. On Sunday morning the inhabitants were flocking to church, and among them we discovered several fine women, but none that quite came up to European whiteness, although much fairer than their countrywomen of La Guira and Porto Cavello.

The temperature of Caraccas has been most deservedly admired, and dwelt upon by its literary visitors.

The

purity and coolness of the atmosphere, imparts a charm to every surrounding object; and being freed from the lassitude and apathy, which warmer climates, more or less give rise to, you feel a briskness of spirits, which is soon communicated to the movements,

and fits you for the reception of positive enjoyment. The thermometer during our stay, was 71° at Caraccas, and 86° at La Guira. Caraccas, in the possession of an industrious people, would be quite a paradise, and a most desirable place of residence.

The return to La Guira occupied little more than three hours and a half, as it was principally descending, and the weather being fine, we stopped no where, except on the summit of the mountain, to admire the beautiful view of Caraccas in the valley below, which we could now see with great distinctness. The saddle mountain, (La Silla) is not perceptible in the town; but immediately on leaving it, the mountain is observable, towering above its companions, and also distinguished by the shape, from which it very deserv edly derives its name.

I purchased the latest Caraccas Gazettes and some handkerchiefs.—On my return to La Guira, I also collected a few specimens of the substances, which formed the mountains over which I passed, intending also to preserve them, as remembrances and testimonials, of this most useful and agreeable excursion.

La Guira, the shipping port of Caraccas, forms a pretty object from the sea, on which side it is fortified, but not very strongly.-It is situated in a valley betwen the mountains, and like Caraccas, was half destroyed by the earthquake of 1812.-The houses are mostly built of mud and stones, have tiled roofs and whited fronts. The forts are placed at different heights upon the mountains parallel with the town, and command an extensive sea view. perpetual surf, running upon the beach, renders landing always troublesome, and sometimes impracticable. A jetty is constructed to obviate this, but as it does not extend far enough, the landing is not much improved, asthe sea is very frequently breaking over it. The town is irregular and full of ruins.

A

There is now a considerable quantity of cocoa at La Guira, and rather a brisk trade with St. Thomas's. It is now crop time. Petrullo is the principal merchant. In a conspicuous situation at the end of one of the principal streets, stands a small monument, placed there by Ferdinand to the memory of some of his "Loyal Subjects," who became "Victimas de Furor Revolutionario." -a sorry monument to have been erected by a 66 grateful Monarch.”

Porto Cavello is principally remark

able

able for its harbour, which is spacious and convenient. The town is long and narrow, and divided into two parts by a bridge, which crosses a salt water ditch, running under a wall pretty strongly fortified. There is also a strong fort next the sea, which commands the entrance into the harbour. From the ditch, and marsh which it occasions, the most unwholesome exhalations must arise. The town is considered unhealthy from this cause: the mornings and evenings here are, notwithstanding, generally very agreeable and cool. The houses are generally white, as usual, and there is also considerable intercourse with St. Thomas's. Mules are frequently exported hence to Jamaica, and sometimes to the windward islands, St. Kitts, &c. The capture of Santa Fé by Bolivar, is known, and believed here. Morillo is at Barquismeto, scarcely three days journey. Some English soldiers captured by the Spaniards, from part of d'Evreux's division, have been forwarded to Morillo from here, and compelled by him to join the army, in preference to putting them to death. In some instances their wives have been allowed to follow them. Colonel Urslar was captured in a sloop, between the island of Coche and Margaritta, and is now prisoner at Caraccas. The commandant of marine, here acquainted us with this, which our subsequent visits to La Guira and Caraccas unfortunately confirmed. By this cir cumstance, the Independents have lost the services of a valuable officer.

The whole of the Spanish squadron, with the exception of the Nympha corvette, and a brig, which are at the Havannah repairing, came in here during our stay. It consisted of a brigantine, a three-masted schooner, and three other schooners. The two former are fine vessels, and fast sailers. They passed us on their way to Cumana, while we were at La Guira. At the latter place it was stated, that after calling at Cumana, they had directions to proceed to the mouth of the Orinoco; but this is not positive. I rather imagine they will consider it best to continue to blockade Margaritta. W. C. J.

For the Monthly Magazine. ACCOUNT of the EXHUMATION and RE-INTERMENT of ROBERT BRUCE; in a Letter from an Observer to his Friend.

I

HAD lately in my hands (Nov. 5, 1819) the skull of a great king and

it.

a great hero, Roberti Brussii Scotorum Regis, immortalis memoriæ. His grave was paved and lined, both sides, and head and foot, with hewn square stones; and was covered with three large square stones, each having a large iron ring in His skull was, 490 years after his death, entire. So were almost all the bones, especially the larger ones; but even the os hyoides was entire, so were some of the cartilages of the larynx, which had been ossified. But all the other cartilages of his body, as well as the ligaments, tendons, and all the softer parts, were mouldered into dust. Even the intervertebral cartilages were gone; so that I easily lifted some of the vertebræ and the left humerus, without moving the neighbouring bones. The femur, too, was lifted as easily. It was carefully measured, and found to be 17 inches long; supposing it to have been the fourth part of his whole length (the common proportion in a well made man) his stature must have been 5 feet 10 inches, or, at the utmost, 5 feet 11 inches, making allowance for the want of cartilage at both ends of it. His scull, too, was of the common size, very well formed, with no peculiarity that I could see, except very long styloid processes, by far the largest that I remember ever to have seen. There was not a vestige of encephalon, as I found on putting my middle finger in at the foramen magnum, and turning it round. We found that the sternum had been sawed asunder longitudinally, from end to end. This, no doubt, had been done immediately after his death, according to his own desire, that his heart should be taken out, and carefully embalmed, and sent to Jerusalem, to be buried in the Holy Sepulchre. I presume his whole body had been embalmed. leaden urn, or rather a square leaden box, supposed to have contained his bowels, as it was full of a tallowy or spermaceti-like matter, was found very near his grave. His body had been enclosed in two coverings of thin sheet lead, enwrapping it like a double coat of mail; had been covered with a robe, or shroud, of cloth of gold; that is, of linen, with gold threads in it. That it was linen, not silk, I ascertained by burning a small bit of it at the flame of a taper, and smelling to it while burning; it had the smell of linen (or at least of vegetable matter), not the least of the fetor of silk, feathers, or any animal substance. The body had not been put in a leaden coffin,

A

but

but in a strong oaken one; secured by several strong iron nails, some of which, with a little of the oak timber, preserved, I suppose, by the oxide or carbonate of the iron, sticking to them, I have seen; and I have heard of one piece of it being found, as big as a man's hand. But almost all the coffin, as well as all the softer parts of his body, were mouldered down to a kind of black dust, which covered the bottom of his grave. In that dust was found a plate of copper, somewhat corroded at the edges, with small holes at the corners, through which it had been nailed on the lid of the coffin. On the copper-plate was engraved a cross, and on the cross, at the top a crown, and at the bottom his badge, the same as on the reverse of his coins; so that the evidence that what we saw was the remains of KING ROBERT THE BRUCE was complete. The grave, too, was found accidentally, in the very spot where, as Fordun, one of our oldest Scotch chronicle-writers, mentions, he had been buried ;-in medio chori.

It was suggested, that it would be desirable to preserve his remains from further decay; and for that purpose, as a cheap, but withal an excellent, substance for embalming, by excluding air and water, and resisting putrefaction, pitch was adopted; and all vacuities in the grand new leaden coffin were filled up, by pouring melted pitch into it. The new leaden coffin is very large, almost seven feet long, two feet eight inches broad at the shoulders, and two feet four inches deep.

Dr. Monro, who was also at the resurrection, brought with him an excellent artist, (sculptor,) Mr. Scoular, to take casts of the king's head, and of his face too, if it had remained. Mr. Scoular is a kind of pupil and assistant to Mr. Chantry, whose fame and merit are well known.

inclined to think that those who still possess some interest with the public, are retained chiefly for the purpose of puffing off the books of the concern; at least, it strikes us as a thing somewhat remarkable, that Constable and Co.'s name should be always carefully inserted when any of their own publications are reviewed, while the same thing is not generally attended to in other works.

The first article, entitled Ivanhoe, affords a curious example of this lite rary Machiavelism. Besides the Romance of that name as the text, we have all the Romances by the same author, name and surname, with the Tales of my Landlord, and Constable and Co.'s name to boot, displayed to catch the wandering eye, as if those justly popular works had never before been applauded in the Review, to the very echo that doth applaud again.Of Walter, now Sir Walter, Scott's talents we have a very high opinion, but it is impossible to deny that, had there not been as much pains taken to raise and spread his fame by Mr. Constable, as ever Dr. Solomon of Liverpool took with his Balm of Gilead, he would not have been so widely celebrated as he now is. "Sin," says Mr. Burke, “loses half its guilt by losing its grossness," or some such sentiment, and in this respect the address by which the works of Sir Walter have been impressed upon the public attention may not deserve the odious epithet of quackery, but it is something very like it. The author himself, however, is not to blame; it is his business to make hay while the sun shines, and he has too much knowledge of the world to interfere with a clever system that has proved eminently advantageous to himself. We should not have made this severe reflection on the article intitled Ivanhoe, but for the injudicious attempt to rank him as of an order of genius even higher than Milton! The critic says that he is the only writer who "for the first time for two hundred years" may, without rendering the comparison ridiculous, be compared with Shakespeare. This is a little too much, and but that the critic and Sir Walter belong to the same shop, we should think the reference to Shakespeare dictated by spleen or malice, especially when we see it afterwards remarked that the principal characters

are

to us but theoretical or mythological persons. We know nothing about

them,

them, and never feel assured that we fully comprehend their drift, or enter rightly into their feelings. The same genius which now busies us with their concerns, might have excited an equal interest for the adventures of Oberon and Pigwiggin, or for any imaginary community of Giants, Amazons,or Cynocephali. The interest we take is in the situations, and the extremes of peril, heroism, and atrocity, in which the great latitude of the fiction enables the author to indulge. Even with this advantage, we soon feel, not only that the characters he brings before us are contrary to our experience, but that they are actu ally impossible."-And yet, forsooth, Mr. Jeffrey, you do think that it is not ridiculous to compare the author to Shakespeare!-Pray did you ever hear of one Smollet, a countryman, too, of your own? Do you think his characters are drawn with less truth and nature than those of Sir Walter Scott?But the whole article is, we again repeat it, dictated, we will not actually say, by an invidious spirit; but the excessive praise seems to be the most cruel and ingenious irony.-We must give one specimen which is without parallel. Mr. Jeffrey selects a scene of which he says-" We know no passage in epic or dramatic poetry more full of life, interest, and energy."-Now this passage is a mock heroic parody of sister Ann's cloud of dust description in the tale of Blue Beard, which has been adapted for stage effect, not only in the melo-drama, but in the tragedy of Pizarro, in a dialogue between a blind man and a boy.-Ah! Mr. Jeffrey, you are a wag,-a wicked wag ;and Lady Scott should snub you again for this.

The second article bears the title of Finance formerly our Scottish neighbours were much addicted to metaphysics; then they betook themselves to something they called moral philosophy; but of late they seem to be absorbed in political economy; and are now, along with parson Malthus, controverting the expediency of the divine command, "increase and multiply." In the present number of the Edinburgh Review, there are no less than six articles devoted to subjects of political economy. Is there any class of readers that can stand this? As to the one on Finance, we believe that the public are quite satisfied that the only way either for nations or individuals to become rich, or to get out of

difficulties, is by reducing their expen diture below their income; and the Reviewer can tell us no more.

The fourth article relates to the Sta tistical Annals of America. It is understood to be from the pen of the Rev. Sidney Smith, and one passage in it should be printed in letters of gold, with this for its title," THE CONSEQUENCES OF BEING TOO FOND OF

GLORY."

"Taxes upon every article which enters into the mouth, or covers the back, or is placed under the foot-taxes upon every thing which is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell or taste--taxes upon warmth, light, and and the waters under the earth-on every locomotion-taxes on every thing on earth thing that comes from abroad, or is grown at home-taxes on the raw material-taxes on every fresh value that is added to it by the industry of man--taxes on the sauce which pampers man's appetite, and the drug that restores him to health- on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope which hangs the criminal-on the poor man's salt, and the

rich man's spice-on the brass nails of the

coffin, and the ribands of the bride--at bed or board, couchant or levant we must pay : The school-boy whips his taxed top-the beardless youth manages his taxed horse, with a taxed bridle, or a taxed road; and the dying Englishman pouring his medicine, which has paid seven per cent. into a spoon which has paid fifteen per cent.-flings himself back on his chintz bed which has paid twenty-two per cent.--makes his will on an eight pound stamp, and expires in the arms of an apothecary, who has paid a licence of a hundred pounds, for the privilege of putting immediately taxed from two to ten per cent. him to death. His whole property is then

Besides the probate, large fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel; his virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble; and he is then gathered to his fathers to be taxed no more."

The fourth article is a critical examination of the first principles of Geology. It is the best paper in the number, for the critic, if he is not himself a geneologist, is a very acute sifter of evidence.

The fifth article is on the poor laws; the sixth on the abuse of charities; and the eleventh on taxation, and the corn laws. We class them all together. They are sensible, clever papers, but shockingly dull, every thing that can be said on these subjects has been already said, and the Reviewer in mercy to his readers, if he does not wish us to spoil our sets of the Review, by giving it up, should try his hand at something else.

The seventh article is regarding Mr.
Accum's