his native county was what one catalogue | famed and best known of all coffee-houses, calls a lignified hog, and another a tree root which had grown into that shape. The customer and donator was Richard Cromwell. The medical profession had, of course, special houses of resort, which supplied the place of modern lecture-rooms, reports and journals, and where the conversation of the many eminent men who attended was the chief study of the inexperienced. The walls were hung round and the tables covered, in inverse proportion to the respectability of the house, with puffs and announcements of popular pills, drops, lozenges, and dentifrices; private rooms were assigned for interviews or consultations. Summonses for even the physician of the Crown were received of these houses. This gave rise to what is now a very stale trick among young practitioners, and detailed with great glee by Ben Allen and his friend in "Pickwick." The doctors, among whom Dr. Hannes in his young life made himself conspicuous, were accustomed to send their boys in hot haste to seek their masters during exchange hours at some place under medical patronage. "Was Dr. Hannes (or other, as it might be) in attendance, as he was wanted immediately-by his Grace of Such-and-such." Unto which demand the famous and witty Dr. Radcliffe, prototype of Abernethy, was wont to rejoin :"That he was afraid it was the Duke that was wanted immediately by the Doctor." The table at the head of which," surrounded by apothecaries and chirurgeons," it was his habit to deliver this repartee was at Garrway's, in Change Alley. Another occasional house for physicians was Child's, in St. Paul's Churchyard, where Dr. Mead was the first man. Child's was also the meeting place of Sloane, Whiston, Halley, &c., and in Addison's time had been monopolized by Doctors of Divinity and young men fresh from Cambridge and Oxford. A still more favored school of medicine was the Bull's Head, in Clare market. Here Dr. Radcliffe waited, among a conclave of doctors, for the last bulletin on the health of the Duke of Beaufort, and upon hearing of his death, annouced his retirement from active life; here the notorious quack, Dr. Gibbon, flourished through the satire of Tom Brown and the contempt of his brethren; and here came Surgeon Bancroft, who commemorated in a famous epitaph upon his child's tombstone in Covent Garden the physician whose ignorance caused its death. Will's Coffee - house, which through its connection with "Glorious John," is the most stood at No. 1, Great Russell-street, opposite the future site of the house that succeeded it in position, under Addison's patronage, namely, Button's. It derived its name from its founder, William Urwin. Dryden first made it the resort of wits, frequented it all his life, and erected it into such an authority in the critical art, that he himself condescended to answer in his prefaces the objections that he there heard advanced against his productions. The wits' room was upstairs on the first floor. The company graduated in literary position, from the "crowd of philosophic mutes" about the door and in the lower part of the room, to the large table where a crowd of little writers assembled "second-rate beaux and wits, who," says a contemporary satirist, "were conceited if they but had the honor to dip a finger and thumb in Mr. Dryden's snuffbox," the attainment of which distinction forms the only story of Halcro, the minstrel, in Scott's "Pirate." These were chiefly authors of comedies and fugitive pieces. The Spectator tells of a fop who entered Will's on the strength of his poesie of a ring and Ned Ward says he heard a Panegyric on Orange Water and a Satire on Dirty Weather. Then came the upper table, where "three or four of the first class were rendezvoused;" and last, the seat of the immortal poet. In most of the coffee-houses there was this seat of honor, occupied by Radcliff, the Major, R. Cromwell, &c., respectively. At a rather later period it is spoken of as a matter of course by Addison. It is notified that in the Smyrna Coffee-house, Pall-mall, “the seat of learning is now removed from the corner of the chimney on the left hand towards the window, to the round table in the middle of the room, over against the fire." Dr. Johnson says that when he was thinking of writing a life of Dryden, Swinney gave him the information, "that at Will's Dryden had a particular chair for himself, which was set by the fire in winter, and was then called his winter chair, and that it was carried out for him to the balcony in summer, and was then called his summer chair." There were, of course, other houses less eminent where literature was the chief topic; among the rest, Wat's, where amateur acting was the chief amusement, and the drama the subject of conversation. The scene of the "Hind and the Panther Traversed" is laid at Will's, of which there is the following description:— As I remember, said the sober mouse, I've heard much talk of the Wits' coffee-house; Thither, says Brindle, you may go and see So does he shine, reflecting from afar Dryden's snuff-box is thus alluded to: "Bayes (Dryden): Pray take notice of it, 'twas given me by a person of honor for looking over a paper of verses, and indeed I put in all the lines that were worth any thing in the whole poem.' Next in rank to Will's, was Wat's, "where the drama was the chief subject of conversation;" and the Grecian, whose name might justly imply it to have been the resort of scholars and philosophers, though really derived from its founder, Constantine, a Greek. Here resorted Dr. Halley, the astronomer, Dr. Sloane, and even Sir Isaac Newton, to discuss the last meeting of the Royal Society, and thus communicate its results to the general public. The Grecian was also much frequented by the more eminent members of the legal profession, who had also other houses in the Squire's, in Fulwood's-rents, and Serle's, in Serle-street, Lincoln's Inn. The parsons also seem to have possessed some houses of a more private nature than those of other classes, for about the time when coffee-houses were in the worst favor in the eyes of Government, it was resolved at Lambeth House that, in order to draw them away from the suspected places, "the chaplains and gentlemen officers should repair, when so inclined, to a still-room, where a good woman should supply them." up tradesmen, admitting, while making light of, that moral example which is the most insisted upon by the supporting side. Coffeehouses, say the former, are but "lay conventicles," "good-fellowship turned puritan," "the hypocrite's ambuscade," the "nonconformist's bull baiting." But the defence is very warm and earnest. Scientific analyses are published in reply the liquid itself being said to resemble "syrup of soot, or essence of old shoes." A pamphlet of 1674 winds the merits of the houses that sell it by calling them "the newsmonger's exchanges, the wise man's recreation, the cit izen's academy, where he learns more wit than ever his grannum taught him. Here it is where we may have the sparkling cyder, the mighty mum, and the recruiting chocolate, and here also that coffee that can alone make us sober and keep us so; so let all that shall hereafter presume to petition against it be condemned to drink nothing but Bonny Clabber all their days." Aubrey commends "the modern advantage of coffeehouses, before which men knew not how to be acquainted but with their own relations." Another writer testifies to "the sage and solid reasonings here frequently to be heard of experienced gentlemen, judicious lawyers, able physicians, ingenious merchants, and understanding citizens in the abstrusest points of reasoning, philosophy, law, and public commerce. As you have here the most civil, so the most intelligent society, the frequenting of whose converse and observing their discourses and deportment, can not but civilize our manners, enlarge our understandings, refine our language, teach us a generous confidence and handsome mode of address, and brush off that pudor subrusticus (as I remember Tully somewhere calls it), that clownish kind of modesty frequently In a famous incident to the best natures." pamphlet of 1673, which contains designs for the general amelioration of the English social condition ("The Grand Concern of England Explained"), among one or two sensible and a host of impossible restraintive measures (such as the universal reduction of wages, the checking of London building, the suppression of stage coaches), it is suggested that coffee, tea, chocolate, &c., be prohibited, for the encouragement of home productions and native drunkenness, and for Such were some of the principal coffeehouses during the reign of Charles. Their character and influences were then so various and unique, that their history, as Disraeli remarks, is that of the habits and morals even more than of the politics of the people. Their civil utility was more appreciated by the people than their political power was dreaded by the Government. In the pamph-the let war and the proclamations we have referred to, the attacking party inveighs against the danger of the discussion of State questions there, and the waste of time among suppression of the idleness and discussion among the "lower orders" which they are said to foster. This is the picture which a "Lover of his country" gives of them : And for coffee, &c., I know no good they do. | Only the places where they are sold are conve- Majesty therefore thinks it fit and necessary nient for persons to meet in, sit half a day, and that the said coffee-houses be put down. discourse with all companies that come in of The legality of this proceeding of Danby's State matters, talking of news and broaching of was the subject of a consultation of the judges, lies, arraigning the judgments and discretion of and it was decided by a narrow majority that their governors, censuring all their actions, and insinuating into the ears of the people a prejudice "the sale of coffee might be an innocent against them, extolling and magnifying their own trade, but as it was used to nourish sedition, parts, knowledge and wisdom, and decrying that spread lies, and scandalize great men, it of their rulers, which if suffered too long, may might also be a common nuisance." The prove pernicious and destructive. But, say there effect of the proclamation was to paralyze all was nothing of this in the case, yet have these London social life; petitions were presented coffee-houses done great mischiefs to the nation, to the King, and it was threatened to carry and undone many of the King's subjects, for they being very great enemies to diligence and indus- the question before Parliament; the judges try, have been the ruin of many serious and could not decide that the proclamation was hopeful young gentlemen and tradesmen who be- according to law; Sir W. Jones, the Attorfore they frequented these places, were diligentney-General, was decidedly averse to it; so students and shopkeepers, extraordinary husbands of their own time and money; but since these houses have been set up under pretence of good husbandry, to avoid spending above one penny or twopence at a time, have got to these coffeehouses, where, meeting friends, they have sat talking three or four hours, after which a fresh acquaintance appearing, and so one after another all day long, hath begotten fresh discourse, so that frequently they have stayed five or six hours together in one of them, all of which time their shops have been, &c., their business has, &c., their servants have, &c., their custumers, &c., &c., &c. The proclamation for their suppression, dated 20th December, 1675, takes the same tone. It sets forth that coffee-houses are the great resort of idle and disaffected persons, that they have produced very evil and dangerous consequences, as well as that many tradesmen do there misspend much of their time who might otherwise be employed about their lawful calling; moreover, that in them divers false, malicious, and scandalous reports are spread about to the defamation of his Majesty's Government and the disturbance of the peace of his realm. His that it was deemed advisable-reserving license-to rescind the order within a fortsome restraintive enactments concerning the night of its promulgation. In later times, Button's in Great Russellstreet; the St. James's; the Grecian, in Devereux-street; White's, in St. James'sstreet; and others, raised the coffee houses to their height as places of amusement; but they had by this time lost their national and most of their social power. They were superseded by the essayists and journalists, by the organization of party in Parliament, and by the professional establishments and scientific societies whose place they had almost alone previously supplied. But before the Revolution it is easy to understand how necessary they were to the political action of the people, to the facilitation of commerce, to the cultivation of taste and the dissemination of news throughout the country, to the promotion of medical practice and general science, and, not least in such times, to the encouragement of habits of decorum, regularity and sobriety. LECTURES BY MISS MARTINEAU. - Miss Harriet Martineau, the distinguished authoress, with a desire to instruct by information regarding the political and social aspect of the Russian government, and its present chief, has lately been giving a series of lectures in the Lake district, illustrative of what | she considers dangerous to the peace and well-being of Europe and the world. Her language was suitable to her audience, who were principally of the working class, and who express their gratitude for the lady's endeavors to convey instruction to them. From the Edinburgh Review. THE SIEGE OF RHODES IN IN speaking of Rhodes in its historical connection with the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, we naturally point to three sieges equally memorable. The first is the four years' siege which terminated in the conquest of the island by the Order, under Fulk de Villaret; the second is the subject of this article; and the third is that which is perhaps the best known of all, as resulting in their capitulation and loss of the island. The first may be said to have reawakened the fame and importance of Rhodes; and the last to have created that of Malta. Though no such obvious historical sequence can be said to flow from the second, inasmuch as it left the fortunes of the island in the hands in which it found them, it is richer in brilliant and suggestive details than either of the other two, as reported by contemporary historians. It occurred, moreover, at an epoch when the success of the defence was even of more importance to Europe than the actual possession of the place can be said to have been to Asia half a century later. Mahomet the Second, conqueror of Trebizond and Byzantium, was a more dangerous neighbor than any of his successors on the Turkish throne. Whoever would entertain such conjecture of this small point of time as we can lend him, must be pleased to place himself under the guidance of two chroniclers who have led over the ground all subsequent historians of the Sovereign Military Order of St. John of Jerusalem, from Bosio and the ingenious Abbé Vertot to the Chevalier Taaffe, the last knightly encomiast of his illustrious brethren. They are by name one William Caoursin, vice-chancellor and public orator of the Order for the time being, and one Mederic or Mary Dupuis, a French soldier (as we take it) of Auvergne. We shall also have the assistance of an anonymous artist, whose original *1. Gulielmi Caorsin Rhodiorum Vicecancellarii obsidionis Rhodiæ urbis descriptio. Ulm, 1496. 2. Relation du Siège de Rhodes. Par MARY Du PUIS. 3. History of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. By Chevalier TAAFFE. London: 1852. sketches (and very original they are) were copied by the medium of woodcuts, and printed with Caoursin's book at Ulm in 1496. Caoursin was not a native of Rhodes, as it has been the fashion to consider him, but of French Flanders :-" Gallus Belga Duacius" -as he styles himself. Our readers may possibly agree that his assertion of his own nationality as a brave Belge is corroborated by the manner of his Commentaries. They are written in the true vein of a public orator; of a man who was always officially upon his legs, in days when "orationes habita" were more exclusively the mark of the scholar, and more carefully conned and delivered than they are at present. The language is Latin, and such Latin as became the official mouthpiece and recorder of the great and Sovereign Order of St. John, the military bulwark of Christendom. There is a noble turgidity in the style; a tendency to run into sonorous and Euphuistic triplets of expression, in almost every sentence far outdoing in their grave and decorous volume Cæsar's thrasonical brag of "I came, saw, and overcame." Caoursin was a man to whom every subject naturally arranged itself under three heads. It would perhaps hardly be unfair to say that he viewed the world as composed of three principal ingredients, of which " Magister Rhodi," the Grand Master, was the first; "Ordo perillustris," the Order of St. John generally, was the second; and "Guillelmus Caoursin, Rhodiorm ViceCancellarius," the third. A touch of scholastic vanity was pardonable in the fifteenth century in a man whose historical commentary was not only written, but printed "quæ per orbem impressorum arte est divulgata." Mary Dupuis is a very different sort of personage. Though Vertot quotes him as eye-witness of the siege, relying on the expression, "selon que je peu voir a l'ueil," it is clear that he does not pretend to be one of the garrison, but only to have visited Rhodes shortly afterwards. The name of Pierre Dupui, a knight of the Priory of Auvergne, is found in the archives of the Order an "che gema in duri stenti E de' perduti beni si rammenti .. gives a picturesque description of Rhodes as it was under the sway of the Order. We quote it at length, as a bird's-eye view which may illustrate and give life and color to the plan which we subjoin, for the clearer comprehension by our readers of the course of the siege : as one of the actual defenders of Rhodes in was reserved for his descendant, Solyman 1840. Mary may have been some relative | the Second, some forty years later. of his, and may have claimed kindred with The Chevalier Taaffe, with the feeling of Raymond Dupuy, the first Grand Master of an exile the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem. Modestly conscious of his own literary inferiority, as well as of his imperfect military science, he styles himself "gros et rude de sens et de entendement," but is ready, for the information of "ceulx les quieulx en vouleront savoir des nouvelles," to describe, as briefly and truly as possible, what he had seen with his own eyes no long time after the siege was raised, as well as what he had heard from many who were actually present and witnesses of all, both Knights of the Order and inhabitants of the town. Although his narrative is thus at second hand, it has every appearance of being as correct in details as Caoursin's; and they are both confirmed in the general outlines of the story by the despatch written by the Grand Master to the German Emperor within a month of the raising of the siege. This despatch is given at full length by the Chevalier Taaffe in his recent history: we are not aware that it was ever published before. No one with a map in his hand or head can wonder that the Grand Turk should have been anxious to dislodge the Chevaliers of St. John from the island of Rhodes and its appurtenances. Tradition was in favor of the attempt. They had been driven back step by step from the Holy Land itself, from Cyprus, and along the coasts of Asia Minor. Convenience urged him on. They must have been in his eyes a pestilent set of warlike wasps, placed there on purpose to vex the Crescent and uplift the Cross: a hive of mischief-makers, who were always setting him and his neighbor, the Soldan of Egypt, by the ears, or at least perpetually intriguing for a temporary neutrality with the one, more successfully to harass the other. Posted at the corner of the Egean and the Levant, they commanded both seas, to the great actual detriment of his navy, whether warlike or commercial. Policy, moreover, made it imperative on him to clear them out of the way. His most cherished idea was an assault upon the Cross in its stronghold: nothing less than the subjugation of Italy itself. To attempt this with the Knights of Rhodes in his rear would have been dangerous if not impossible. He resolved to attack them simultaneously, and failed; only succeeding for a short time in the establishment of his power at Otranto. The conquest of Rhodes "-Rhodes, that lovely island,-rich, salubrious, and diversified with beautiful upland and lawns, remarkable from its quantities of roses, whence probably the name. On the top of a plain in the north-east stands its capital, also called Rhodes, as round as if drawn by a compass, nor unlike the full moon, when partly in light and partly shade-the side of the port, where the shade, and the city, the part in light, glittering water bathes the foot of the houses, being in like gold. And in the still mirror of the port (which itself is also a round) is the best place possible to observe the lunar reflexion at that ecstatic moment. Note, however, it is only one side (the eastern) has the sea and that commodious port, and three the land. This in its varieties had rising ground and hillocks, some of them close to the ramparts; and as far as the eye could reach, even from the steeple of St. John's, the view was loaded with orchards, gardens, villas, and most splendid forest-trees, and waving corn, and vineyards, and pastures full of well-bred cattle and fine fleet horses." There is the Chevalier Taaffe in his original English. As corroborative evidence, let us put beside him Mary Dupuis, in his original French. He points out the military disadvantages implied in the picturesque beauty been long enough in use in the fifteenth cen of the situation. Heavy ordnance had not tury to make the Knights aware of the lifeand-death importance of fortifying and maintaining the hill of St. Stephen : "Laquelle ville de Rhodes est asaise en beau pays et de belle venue de toutes pars bien murée et tourrée et à la muraille a XXII piex despesseur et plus; et y a de beaux fosses et larges tours à fons de cuve, et la ville la mieulx clause que je veix oncques qui soit au monde comme je croi, et est bien garnie d'artillerie tant grosse que petite et de tous autres batons, et y a toujours beaucoup de nobles et vaillans chevaliers et de toutes les nations du monde qui sont chacun jour prests et appareillés de combatre pour la foy Catholique et défendre la Chrétienté, et qui souvent courent en Turquie, et qui jamais n'ont paix anx Turcs et |