heir good services to the state; and Lord North, who wanted loyal prophecies to bolster up the American war, brought a bill into the House of Commons, to revest, in the Stationers' Company, the monopoly which had thus been declared illegal. The two Universities, it appears, derived an annuity from the company, for their share of the privilege; and for this reason they brought all their strength to put down the solitary bookseller. But he had a good cause, with Erskine to support it; and he triumphed over the minister, the Universities, the Stationers' Company, Francis Moore, Poor Robin, and all other impostors, by a majority in parliament of forty-five votes. This important decision took place on the 10th of May, 1779. The speech of Erskine is full of curious and instructive matter.

The practical advantages to be derived from a monopoly in almanacs-the real blessings which the Stationers' Company had bestowed upon the people, by their long enjoyment of an illegal privilege are admirably put and, what is remarkable, the abuses of almanacs in 1779, described in the following passage, are precisely those which the greater strength of the public intelligence has uprooted, or is uprooting, at the very moment at which we write :

"But the correctness and decency of these publications are, it seems, the great objects in reviving and confirming this monopoly, which the preamble asserts to have been hitherto attained by it, since it states, that such monopoly has been found to be convenient and expedient.' But, Sir, is it seriously proposed by this bill to attain these moral objects by vesting, or rather legalizing, the usurped monopoly in the Universities, under episcopal revision as formerly? Is it imagined that our almanacs are to come to us, in future, in the classical arrangement of Oxford-fraught with the mathematics and astronomy of Cambridge-printed with the correct type of the Stationers' Company, AND SANCTIFIED BY THE BLESSINGS OF THE BISHOPS! I beg pardon, Sir, but the idea is perfectly ludicrous; it is notorious that the Universities sell their right to the Stationers' Company for a fixed annual sum, and that this act is to enable them to continue to do so. And it is equally notorious, that the Stationers' Company make a scandalous job of the bargain; and, to increase the sale of almanacs among the vulgar, publish, under the auspices of religion and learning, the most senseless absurdities. I should really have been glad to have cited some sentences from the one hundred and thirteenth edition of Poor Robin's almanac, published under the revision of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, but I am prevented from doing it by a just respect for the House. Indeed, I know no house, but a brothel, that could

suffer the quotation. The worst part of Rochester is ladies' reading when compared with them."

A parliamentary compensation was made to the Universities for the loss of their privilege; and the Stationers' Company were relieved from the payment of their annuity. They had, therefore, money at command for other purposes. They could not beat down the almanac-makers who opposed them, by a public tyranny; but they accomplished their object by private corruption. The iron grasp of prerogative softened into the smooth touch of influence. They followed the march of the constitution. They bought up the almanacs which individuals continued to put forth. They resisted the circulation of those which could not be corrupted, by every stratagem of commercial cunning. The trade of bookselling was then in comparatively few hands; and the adventurers were, through the intrigues of the retailers, often without a hope, but that of surrendering to the purse of their adversaries. In a few years Carnan's almanacs ceased to exist. Moore's Improved Almanac was inveigled into the company of the old physician, and soon became poisoned by his astrology. The field was again clear for the prognosti cators, and the manufacturers of indecency. The monopoly was again virtually established. The French Revolution came, and brought with it all those wonderful political changes which made men more than ever disposed to be credulous. The illustrious "Francis" then became more terrific in his prophecies, and more sublime in his hieroglyphics. Half the nation wondered and trembled. His sale reached a point which is without a parallel in the annals of imposture; and for fifty years the most spirited, intelligent, and civilized people of the earth, were the dupes of a cheat, the most lame, impotent, and daring of any in the whole history of superstition.

The circulation of obscenity has always formed a part of the policy of the legitimate venders of almanacs. This extraordinary circumstance (we say extraordinary, for we are sure the members of the Stationers' Company would, individually, shrink with horror from such a proceeding) has arisen from the almanac-makers servilely following the precedents of past generations. It was high fun, in the time of Charles II., to laugh at the Puritans, and to insult their opinions by every possible violation of decency. The buyers of almanacs were probably of two classes-those who believed in astrology, and those who believed in nothing; and for the latter class a dish of ribaldry was annually prepared, which it was considered impossible by the worshipful men of Ludgatestreet to season too highly. The ribaldry, like the astrology, was always at the command of the dominant party in the state

the one for insult, the other for delusion. Within a dozen years after the restoration, the members of the Society of Friends were the marks for persecution. The Stationers' Company printed an almanac, which they 'entitled " A Yea and Nay Almanac for the people called, by the men of the world, Quakers." It is impossible to imagine any production, not only more atrociously libellous upon the faith and morals of this highly respectable body of people, but more disgustingly revolting to common sense and decency. Poor Robin was in vogue at the same time. His character, for more than a century and a half, was the most abominable that could well be imagined. He sometimes canted and blasphemed in the same breath; and at others was so desperately obscene, that no expression but that of Erskine will convey an adequate idea of his enormities "The worst part of Rochester is ladies' reading when compared with them." This degradation of our country existed without change till this very year; and, at the moment at which we are writing, there are probably persons looking into Poor Robin for 1828, to see whether Christmas-day will fall on a Thursday or a Friday, who will there encounter filth which has certainly not been openly printed in any other shape since the days when a general corruption of society reconciled such abominations. And yet his Majesty's proclamation against vice, profaneness, and immorality, has been read fifty thousand times during the last fifty years, and a society, especially established for the enforcement of that proclamation, has instituted five hundred prosecutions against apple-women for selling pennyworths of nonsuches during divine service! The hypocrites! The Stationers' Company could publish their indecencies with impunity because they were rich; while the Vice-society would go poking about to make examples of that most atrocions of offences-the alliance of a small quantity of iniquity with a full measure of poverty and wretchedness.

It is difficult at the present day to look upon the tremendous denunciations of the evil productions of the Stationers' Company, by the eloquence of Erskine, and not wonder that such enormities were not immediately put down by the force of public indignation. The truth is, that the people, with whom all real reforms in the general condition of society must originate, were not strong enough in knowledge or virtue to demand better things. The Stationers' Company made a large profit by pandering to vice and ignorance; and it was not for them to hasten any change which would necessarily involve new expenses. The real calculations of all the almanacs were ready to their hands in the Nautical Almanac, which is always published three years in advance; the weatherprophecies were always to be found as good

and true as ever, by going back to the old storehouse of forgotten imposture; and for the prognostications and the ribaldry, the more ignorant, and the more stupid, the better they answered the purpose, for ignorance and stupidity could be bought at a small price. In the mean time the intelligent and respectable part of society saw very little of the astrology and the filth. The clergyman had his especial calendar, with the lessons for the day. For the schoolmaster there were White's Ephemeris, and the Ladies' and Gentlemen's Diary; and the squire had his Rider's British Merlin, which told him all the fairs in the country-side. These worthy persons sometimes saw Moore, Partridge, and Poor Robin; but they did not stop to consider how much real knowledge these productions shut out from the popular mind, and how much positive evil they introduced. They heard of their enormous circulation; they saw them in every cottage and workshop; they even obtruded into their own kitchens, and sometimes reached the very drawing-room. If they were thought of at all by the better informed, they were treated as harmless absurdities, which the people themselves would some day or other grow ashamed of; and thus they were left to work their own cure.

And the people have grown ashamed of them. For twenty years education has been marching onward with a sure step. The people have learned, not only to read and write, but to think. They have applied themselves to investigate those natural phenomena, which are constantly before their eyes, and which are evidences of the directing wisdom of an Almighty Providence who has arranged all things for our good. In learning the first principles of science-in ascertaining the great land-marks of philosophy-they have become satisfied that one grand and harmonious arrangement prevails throughout all nature;-and that every thing which exists -the whole system of the universe-may be referred to undeviating natural causes. When, therefore, an almanac-maker affirms that an eclipse or a comet are indicative of disturbances in particular states-and that certain conjunctions of the stars foretel that a king shall die, or a minister be removed, they know, of themselves, that the almanacmaker is an impostor; and that nothing but the most deplorable ignorance could ever have allowed such opinions to prevail.

The publication of the British Almanac for 1828, under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, was one of the greatest benefits which such a society could have conferred upon the people. Without this plain demonstration of the reform which could be effected in the character of popular almanacs, coming, as the experiment did, from a society that could not be bullied or bought out of the field, the

empire of astrology might have lasted for fifty years longer, in spite of the disgust of the people to whom its delusions were addressed. Let us see the change which one short year has produced.

1. Poor Robin is no more. He expired, like the Laird of Dumbiedikes, blaspheming and calling for brandy. His last words were a compound of the most drivelling idiotcy, and the most heartless depravity. He was about one hundred and sixty-eight years of age: and he presented the perfect image of a man who, by miracle, had lived so long; with a vivid recollection left of the depravity of generations long past, upon which he gioated with all the weakness of a fifteenth childhood. The abominations which cannot be reprinted, were mixed up with such absurdities as

"If it don't snow I don't care. But if it freezes It may if it pleases, And then I sneezes, And my nose blow."

Poor wretch! he is gone to his account. 2. Season on the Seasons, one of the weakest and most stupid of the astrological cheats, is also defunct.

3. Partridge still flourishes. His predictions are calculated "For the meridian of London ;" and he tells the intelligent people of this metropolis, that the eclipse of the moon, in October 1829, "may be considered to relate to Portugal and Spain, betokening insurrections, troubles, and discords." He also indulges us in his almanac for this next year of our redemption, 1829, with "Observations on the nativity of a lady, born March 21, 1805, at 7h. 45m. P.M. Latitude 53° 15" —showing that in the twenty-seventh year of her age, she will have "marriage and a pleasant time"-and that her fifty-first year will be "very dangerous, and perhaps death." Four pages are occupied with this edifying dissertation on "Genethliacal Astrology.' Is it not time that John Partridge were gathered to his fathers? He blasphemously maintained in his almanac for 1828, that "the moon is the true giver of life." But he will find that the moon cannot save him in this extremity. We are glad to see that he has ceased to be impious.

Francis Moore has ceased to blaspheme; -and he has changed his politics. He does not now, in his hieroglyphic, predict a persecution of the Catholics, according to the most approved Brunswick methods;--but he predicts, that "the way is now made open, by honourable enactment, for men of all persuasions to vie in promoting the interests of their king and country." Bravo! When astrologers can talk common sense, there is some hope that even a Duke of Newcastle may reform in duc season. But Francis Moore still prognosticates about the weather; -still talks of Saturn as producing storms

in January ;-still prophecies "the death of his Holiness ;"-still gives a column of the influence of the moon's signs on the body-"hams, legs, ancles, feet," and other parts, too numerous and disgusting to mention;— and still argues, that the Turkish war will be greatly affected by Jupiter being in his own house. He evidently prophecies in trammels. Like old Lilly, he is desirous of spending the remainder of his days in peace; and is, therefore, "careful of launching out too far in the deep." We are half sorry for him. He weeps over his old companion Robin, with something like human sympathies. "How silent are the approaches of death!-how unseen are the trap-doors of the grave!"-Poor fellow! We venture to prophecy that he will die harmless, with all his teeth out. He is truly become an object of commiseration. His prophecies hawked in the streets by the venders of ballads. We have before us all his prognostications for the year 1829, with hieroglyphies, ten times more wondrous than his own--and all for a penny. He could fall no lower.

are

5. But the Stationers' Company have at length published an excellent and cheap Its information is perpopular almanac. fectly pure and inoffensive ;-it is beautifully printed; and, with the exception of the list of Quarter Sessions, and several minor matters, is very accurate. This publication is the highest mark of respect that could have been paid to the almanac of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. The editor of the "Englishman's Almanac" (the new one of the Stationers) attempts to sneer at the pretensions of the society, by saying, that he "has not attempted to delude either himself or the public with the idea that he has prepared an annual publication

which shall be useful to all classes." But the Stationers' Company, in the same advertisement declare, that their object "is to present, in a small compass, all classes of society with much useful, interesting, and diversified information." They have accomplished their object, whatever the modesty of their editor may think. They have produced the best imitation of the British Almanac which has yet appeared. They have wisely associated themselves in the same good work as the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge-the attempt to beat imposture out of the field by common sense and good taste.

SOUTH AMERICAN SKETCHES.

No. I.

FACUNDO QUIROGA, GOVERNOR OF LA

RIOJA, ONE OF THE INTERIOR PRO

VINCES OF LA PLATA.

(From the Monthly Mag.-No. XXXVI.)

PERHAPS the English reader cannot be more promptly initiated into the manners, customs, and modes of feeling, which prevail in a particular and important district of La Plata, than by a brief biographical notice of one of the most extraordinary individuals of the present time the facts of which are gathered from a personal residence in the province itself, over which that individual at present

"Holds sovereign sway and mastery." Facundo Quiroga is the son of a wealthy estate-holder of those fine plains called the Llanos, forming part of the rich province of La Rioja, in which are situated the celebrated Famatina mines. Quiroga commenced his career of personal independence, by running away from his father, and associating himself with a band of vagabonds of all descriptions-thieves, deserters, and cattle-stealers. With these companions he led a wandering life for the space of three years, at which time the greater part of them were taken prisoners, and made soldiers of. As the hue and cry followed Quiroga also very closely, he disguised himself as a peon, or labourer, and went to Mendoça, where he worked in a vineyard for several months.

Prior to the revolution, every working man was obliged to have a letter of licence, certifying his good character, without which he was liable to be sent to the army. During Quiroga's forced sojourn at Mendoça, an alcalde, or judge, met him one day in the street, and asked him for his licence. Quiroga hesitated at first; and then putting his hand under his poncho, apparently for the purpose of giving the paper, he suddenly drew his knife, and stabbed the alcalde, who fell dead on the spot. He then instantly made his escape, and wandered for more than four months among the wilds to the southward, leading the life of a savage. At length, he was tempted to return to the town, and some of his female acquaintances betrayed him.

Amongst the Spaniards and their descendants (for what reason it would be difficult to divine), murder is looked upon as a very venial crime; and it is scarcely ever severely punished. On the present occasion, the Spanish authorities contented themselves with making a soldier of Quiroga.

About six months after this event, Beresford's expedition arrived, and took possession of Buenos Ayres: when all the king's troops were collected together to drive out the invaders, and Quiroga, among the rest, was

marched to Buenos Ayres. Here he remained some years, when an unforeseen circumstance caused him to desert. He was one day placed as a centinel at the gate of the quartel (barrack), when an officer came up, and asked him some question; to which he returned an insolent reply. The officer immediately drew his sabre, and gave Quiroga a blow with the flat of it; upon which the enraged soldier sprang at his superior, disarmed him, and cut him down. By this time, some of the soldiers had made their appearance, with the intention of taking him into custody; but his ferocious looks alarmed them, and he was allowed once more to make his escape. Having procured a horse, he again took the road to Mendoça, dressed as a gaucho, which was literally his own character; for he was capable of any of the feats practised by this half-savage class of the South American community: he could break-in a wild horse-lazo, hamstring, slaughter, and cut up a wild bullfight with a knife or sabre-and endure hunger and thirst unrepiningly, when obliged by necessity. In riding, in particular, he was singularly skilful, and might almost be said to "grow upon his horse." On his road to Mendoça, so audacious was he, that he even ventured to enter the town of San Luis, although he knew that his life was forfeited to the laws. Instead of taking a circuitous route, he rode boldly into the Plaza (great square), and dismounted at the door of a pulperia (low tavern), where some guitar playing and dancing was going forward. he was known to be a stranger, an alcalde soon made his appearance, and demanded his passport; upon which he repeated his first exploit, as above alluded to. He made a motion as if to give the required document; but, instead of so doing, he drew a pistol, and shot the alcalde dead. He then instantly jumped upon his horse, and attempt. ed to escape; but his beast was flagged, and fell with him, so that he was taken without difficulty.

As

He contrived, however, to effect his escape, and joining Dupuis, the governor of the province of San Luis, was presented by him, as a reward for his eagerness in the massacre of the Spaniards, with a lieutenant's commission. He soon afterwards returned to La Rioja, and arrived there just as an expedition was preparing by Davila, the then governor of that province, against a military chief named Corro. In this service Quiroga soon attained the rank of captain; and finally rose to be second in command, the governor's brother, a gallant young man, being first.

Quiroga now, for the first time in his life, began to entertain ambitious views, and to see the possibility of making himself absolute in his native province; and the tyrannical conduct of the two Davilas, soon afterwards gave him the opportunity of putting

his views into effect. The governor had, just at this time, forced such heavy contributions on the inhabitants of the province, that all but those immediately connected with the government offices were inimical to him; and Quiroga, who was very popular among the gauchos of the Llanos, soon found that they would prove willing assistants if he attempted a revolution.

After intriguing with his friends for a short time, he threw off the mask, and took the field against the Davilas, at the head of about three hundred gauchos, half of whom were armed with sabres, and the remainder with knives and lazos. The governor became alarmed at this formidable conspiracy, and held himself aloof from action; but not so his more gallant brother.

Success attended Quiroga. Davila's troops were defeated and dispersed, and their commander slain. He made, however, a desperate resistance, killing five of his opponents with his single arm: his sabre at length breaking, he retreated into a hut, from whence, after a vain struggle on his part, he was dragged forth by his long hair, on which he greatly prided himself. One of the strongest of his merciless enemies then seated himself on the dead body of Davila's horse, and throwing the unfortunate commander on his back across his knee, drew his head down by the hair, and after feeling the edge of his knife, with all the coolness of an experienced butcher, deliberately severed his head from his body; for, before the fight commenced, Quiroga had given orders to his men that Davila should have no quarter. As soon as he was dead, they disfigured his body most brutally. *

The governor, when he heard the news of his brother's defeat, fled away to Catamarca; and Quiroga, who was anxious to extinguish the family, tried a great many arts in order to procure his return, promising to treat him kindly. But Davila was too well acquainted with the object of his opponent to again trust himself within reach of his sword.

The members of the Cabildo now begged of Quiroga to take upon himself the office of governor; but this did not, at the moment, coincide with his views. He considered that it was better for the present merely to retain the command of the troops; by which means he would be more absolute than the governor himself, whom he might displace whenever it answered his purpose. He, therefore, with mach pretended humility, told the cabildo that an iguorant man like himself was not qualified to fill so important an office, and that they had better elect some one else: at the same time, however, he took care to have it privately intimated to them

This fact was communicated to the author in the village of Chilecito, by Dona Manuela Davila, the beautiful and accomplished sister of the unfortunate

commandant.

on whom it was that he wished their choice to devolve. This was a man named Agueros, who had, during many years, been a travelling pedlar, and who possessed all the cunning and chicanery of his profession. This plan succeeded to his wishes; and Quiroga's influence was now unbounded. He also, by this time, possessed enormous estates-almost half the Llanos being his property-with a large number of cattle and horses; so that he left Agueros at full liberty to exercise what peculation he pleased in his office, and turn it to the best account, so long as he took no political measures which were disagreeable to his employer.

Although Quiroga is, in person, a small, spare man, with a downcast countenance, he is possessed of great muscular and constitutional strength; and, owing to the influence which a strong mind always possesses over weak ones, he governs his followers as much by fear as by attachment. On one occasion, a man from the country came before him with a large sabre-wound on his arm, which he complained had been given him by one of the gauchos then on guard, without any provocation. Quiroga ordered the guards into the apartment; and the wounded man pointed out the gaucho who had struck him. Quiroga addressed the gaucho as follows:"I shall punish you for two reasons; first, for the injustice you have done to this poor man; and, secondly, for not having used your sabre more dexterously than in the infliction of a mere flesh-wound, which is a disgrace to a soldier of mine." He then snatched a sabre from the man who stood next to him; and the gaucho, fearing what was about to take place, lifted his arm to protect himself-when Quiroga severed his arm from his body at a blow, and it fell pow erless on the floor.-" Take him out," he added, as the man was bleeding to death, "and let the rest of you learn, from my example, how to strike." The infliction of such a blow from a small spare man like Quiroga, appeared to the men like the effect of magic, and they conveyed their dying comrade out of the apartment without a word.

Like most South American landholders, Quiroga does not despise any means of gain, however small; and, therefore, he keeps a shop at one end of his house, supplied with all the articles in request amongst the gauchos-as Manchester prints, men's coarse clothing, shirts, jackets, drawers, ponchos, red baize for making them, brandy, wine, Yerva de Paragauy, sugar, dried meat, bread, salt, red pepper, lard, tallow, candles, dried fruits, knives, flints and steels, tinderboxes, tobacco, paper, small common prints of the Virgin and saints, shoes, bridle-bitts, stirrups, hide-reins, lazos, balls, and every other article in request. Of course, all the gauchos who wish to stand in favour with