surface, now gliding off with fierce inconstancy and soaring high into the sky, anon returning to fold it in its burning grasp and lure it to its ruin-when it shone and gleamed so brightly that the church clock of St. Sepulchre's, so often pointing to the hour of death, was legible as in broad day, and the vane upon its steeple-top glittered in the unwonted light like something richly jewelled-when blackened stone and sombre brick grew ruddy in the deep reflections, and windows shone like burnished gold, dotting the longest distance in the fiery vista with their specks of brightness-when wall and tower, and roof and chimney-stack, seemed drunk, and in the flickering glare appeared to reel and stagger-when scores of objects, never seen before, burst out upon the view, and things the most familiar put on some new aspect then the mob began to join the whirl, and with loud yells, and shouts, and clamour such as happily is seldom heard, bestirred themselves to feed the fire, and keep it at its height.

Although the heat was so intense that the paint on the houses over against the prison, parched and crackled up, and swelling into boils, as it were from excess of torture, broke and crumbled away; although the glass fell from the windowsashes, and the lead and iron on the roofs blistered the incautious hand that touched them, and the sparrows in the eaves took wing, and, rendered giddy by the smoke, fell fluttering down upon the blazing pile; still the fire was tended unceasingly by busy hands, and round it, men were going always. They never slackened in their zeal, or kept aloof, but pressed upon the flames so hard, that those in front had much ado to save themselves from being thrust in; if one man swooned or dropped, a dozen struggled for his place, and that, although they knew the pain, and thirst, and pressure, to be unendurable. Those who fell down in faintingfits, and were not crushed or burnt, were carried to an innyard close at hand, and dashed with water from a pump; of which buckets full were passed from man to man among the crowd; but such was the strong desire of all to drink, and such the fighting to be first, that, for the most part, the

whole contents were spilled upon the ground, without the lips of one man being moistened.

Meanwhile, and in the midst of all the roar and outcry, those who were nearest to the pile, heaped up again the burning fragments that came toppling down, and raked the fire about the door, which, although a sheet of flame, was still a door fast locked and barred, and kept them out. Great pieces of blazing wood were passed, besides, above the people's heads to such as stood about the ladders, and some of these, climbing up to the topmost stave, and holding on with one hand by the prison wall, exerted all their skill and force to cast these firebrands on the roof, or down into the yards within. In many instances their efforts were successful; which occasioned a new and appalling addition to the horrors of the scene for the prisoners within, seeing from between their bars that the fire caught in many places and thrived fiercely, and being all locked up in strong cells for the night, began to know that they were in danger of being burnt alive. This terrible fear, spreading from cell to cell and from yard to yard? vented itself in such dismal cries and wailings, and in such dreadful shrieks for help, that the whole jail resounded with the noise; which was loudly heard even above the shouting of the mob and roaring of the flames, and was so full of agony and despair, that it made the boldest tremble,

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It was remarkable that these cries began in that quarter of the jail which fronted Newgate Street, where, it was well known, the men who were to suffer death on Thursday were confined. And not only were these four who had so short a time to live, the first to whom the dread of being burnt occurred, but they were, throughout, the most importunate of all: for they could be plainly heard, notwithstanding the great thickness of the walls, erying that the wind set that way, and that the flames would shortly reach them; and, calling to the officers of the jail to come and quench the fire from a cistern which was, in their yard, and full of water. Judging from what the crowd without the walls could hear from time to. time, these four doomed wretches never ceased to call for help, and that with as much distraction, and in as great a

frenzy of attachment to existence, as though each had an ho noured, happy life before him, instead of eight-and-forty hours of miserable imprisonment, and then a violent and shameful death. qu bogs # of ” nel But the anguish and suffering of the two sons of one of these men, when they heard, or fancied that they heard, their father's voice, is past description. After wringing their hands and rushing to and fro as if they were stark mad, one mounted on the shoulders of his brother and tried to clamber up the face of the high wall, guarded at the top with spikes and points of iron. And when he fell among the crowd, he was not deterred by his bruises, but mounted up again and fell again, and, when he found the feat impossible, began to beat the stones and tear them with his hands, as if he could that way make a breach in the strong building, and force a pas sage in At last, they clove their way among the mob about the door, though many men, a dozen times their match, had tried in vain to do so, and were seen, in-yes, in-the fire, striving to prize it down, with crowbars.

Nor were they alone affected by the outcry from within the prison. The women who were looking on, shrieked loudly, beat their hands together, stopped their ears; and many fainted: the men who were not near the walls and active in the siege, rather than do nothing, tore up the pavement of the street, and did so with a haste and fury they could not have surpassed if that had been the jail, and they were near their object. Not one living creature in the throng was for an in tant stille The whole great mass were mad...

A shout! Another! Another yet, though few knew why, or what it meant. But those around the gate had seen it slowly yield, and drop from its topmost hinge. It hung on that side by but one, but it was upright still, because of the bar, and its having sunk, of its own weight into the heap of ashes at its foot. There was now a gap at the top of the doorway, through which could be descried a gloomy passage, cavernous and dark. Pile up the fire!or od tulle brow old w It burnt fiercely. The door was red-hot, and the gap, wid er. They vainlys tried to shield their faces with their hands,

and standing as if in readiness for a spring, watched the place. Dark figures, some crawling on their hands and knees, some carried in the arms of others, were seen to pass along the roof. It was plain the jail could hold out no longer. The keeper, and his officers, and their wives and children, were escaping. Pile up the fire!

The door sank down again it settled deeper in the cinders tottered-yielded-was down!

As they shouted again, they fell back, for a moment, and left a clear space about the fire that lay between them a and the jail entry. Hugh leapt upon the blazing heap, and scattering a train of sparks into the air, and making the dark lobby glitter with those that hung upon his dress, dashed into the jail.

A

The hangman followed. And then so many rushed upon their track, that the fire got trodden down and thinly strewn about: there was no need of it-now, for, inside and out, the prison was in flames.

BEING A HISTORY of the people, as well as ▲ HISTORY

We have sometimes speculated on the question, Whether our literature has gained or lost, in spirit and grace, by the increased zeal in antiquarian investigation which has marked these latter days? The great alteration which it has produced, in the manner in which past events and characters are commonly presented to the reader, cannot fail to have struck the most inattentive. A certain accuracy of costume, and the exhibition of all phenomena with their proper accompaniments

() The original work closes at the accession of George III.; but there is a Continuation in progress which will include that reign. This article is confined to the original work. It was, we think, set on foot by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, but does not, we believe, form one of its sanctioned publications.

In mentioning this Society, we take the opportunity of expressing our great satisfaction at the recent completion of one of the most valuable of its undertakingsnamely, a series of treatises on Political Philosophy, embracing a view of the principles and different forms of Government that have existed in the world; by which one of the greatest blanks in our graver literature has been admirably supplied. We hope to be able, erelong, to give a detailed account of this most important series.