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marching his army against the Persians, he by the way espying two cocks fighting, caused his army to behold them, and made the following speech to them: “Behold, these do not fight for their household gods, for thet monuments of their ancestors, nor for glory, nor for li berty, nor for the safety of their children, but only because? This so enthe one will not give way unto the other.”

couraged the Grecians, that they fought strenuously and› obtained the victory over the Persians; upon which cockfighting was by a particular law ordained to be annuallys practised by the Athenians; and hence was the original of the sport in England derived.

1

It appears that the Romans, who borrowed this, with many other things from Greece, used quails, as well as cocks for fighting.-Cocks and quails, fitted for the purpose of engaging one another to the last gasp for diversion, are frequently compared in the Roman writers," and with much propriety, to gladiators. The fathers of, the church inveigh with great warmth against the spectacles of the arena-the wanton shedding of human blood in sport. One would have thought, that with this, cock-fighting would also have been discarded, under the mild and humane genius of Christianity,-But it was re-, served for this enlightened æra to practise it with new and aggravating circumstances of cruelty.-The Shrove, Tuesday massacre* of this useful and spirited creature, is now indeed in a declining way: but those monstrous barbarities, the battle-royal and Welshmain still continue to be in full force amongst us.-A striking disgrace to the manly character of Britons!

It is probable that cock-fighting was first introduced

into

*To the credit of our northern manners, the barbarous sport of throwing at cocks or. Shrove Tuesday is worn out in this country.

into this island by the Romans.-The bird itself was here Before Cæsar's arrival.

William Fitz-Stephen, who wrote the life of Becket, in the reign of Henry II. is the first of our writers that mentions cocking, describing it as the sport of school-boys on Shrove Tuesday.

Mr Pegge describes the Welshmain, in order to expose the cruelty of it, and supposes it peculiar to this kingdom: known neither in China nor Persia, nor in Malacca, nor among the savage tribes of America*. BRAND.

A description of this horrid diversion will be given in our next,

THE GRATEFUL SCHOLARS. (From Dr. MAVOR.)

DUTY to parents and gratitude to preceptors are virtues which no one was ever deficient in, that prospered and was happy. Yet regardless of the consequences, we daily see children indifferent to their parents' peace, and neglectful of those who have laboured to instruct them.

But can the most ignorant suppose, that the small pittance which a master receives, for his faithful attention to form the youthful mind, is a compensation for his care? And does not his second parent, if he has done his duty, deserve some return from the soil he has culti

vated!

I will charitably suppose that want of reflection rather than want of gratitude, often occasions the neglect of tutors, which no benevolent heart could think of being guilty of, without the blush of shame. Selfish as the world is, there are principles in the human soul, that

only

only want to be awakened, to display their amiable sensibilities. The simple narrative I have to record is not the fiction of imagination. May it teach others to know

what they ought to imitate or avo.d!

During a long and active life, SAVILLE had trained up numbers in the precepts of virtue and good learning. He had exhausted, without enriching himself; and on the verge of the grave, he scarcely knew where to find a refuge from the storm.

Necessity and how bitter that necessity must have been, every delicate mind may judge! drove him to apply for relief to those who had once been under his protection-had eaten at his table, and slept under his roof, during that happy period when hope is young, and the days are unclouded with care.-Some had forgotten his person-others had forgotten themselves. Notwithstanding the philanthropy of Saville's heart, he began to believe the old adage, "that services done to the young and the old are equally useless, as the one forget them, and the other, live not long enough to repay them." His delicacy would not suffer him to make many trials of such ingratitude. He was ready to sink under his misfortunes. Providence, however, directed him to two brothers, who in consequence of his care in their early youth, and their own diligent exertions in maturer years, had obtained a competence in foreign lands, and were returned to spend it with honour in their own. These, instead of turning their backs on his distress, invited him in the most cordial manner to pass the remainder of his days with them. It would have shewn pride rather than humility, in his situation, not to have accepted such a disinterested offer. His days indeed were few, after he found this asylum,

but they

were

were closed in comfort; and his former pupils, having long lost their own, bewailed this second father with tears of grateful remembrance, and inscribed their sorrows on his tomb.

An Amiable Portrait.

JOHN HOWARD,

A CHARACTER FOR INITATION.

YOU have perhaps read of Achilles, and Alexander, and Charles of Sweden. "The world calls these men heroes; but before we give them that noble appellation, let us consider what were the motives which animated them to act and suffer as they did.

The first was a ferocious savage, governed by the pas sions of anger and revenge, in gratifying which he disre garded all impulses of duty and humanity. The second was intoxicated with the love of glory, swoln with ab¬urd pride, and enslaved by dissolute pleasures; and in pursuit of these objects he reckoned the blood of millions as of no account. The third was unfeeling, obstinate, and tyrannical, and prefered ruining his country, and sacrificing all his faithful followers, to the humiliation of giving up any of his mad projects. Self, you see, was the spring of all their conduct; and a selfish man can never be a hero.

You have probably heard something of Mr HOWARD, the reformer of prisons, to whom a monument is erected in St. Paul's church. His whole life almost was heroism, for he confronted all sorts of dangers with the sole view of relieving the miseries of his fellow-creatures. When he began to examine the state of prisons, scarcely

any

any in this country was free from a very fatal and infectious distemper called the goal-fever. Wherever he

heard of it, he made a point of seeing the poor sufferers, and often went down into their dungeons, when the keepers themselves would not accompany him. He travelled several times over almost the whole of Europe, and even into Asia, in order to gain knowledge of the state of prisons and hospitals, and point out means for lessening the calamities that prevail in them. He even went into countries where the plague was, that he might learn the best methods of treating that terrible contagious disease; and he voluntarily exposed himself to perform a strict quarantine, as one suspected of having the infection of the plague, only that he might be thoroughly acquainted with the methods used for prevention. He at length died of a fever caught in attending on the sick on the borders of Crim Tartary, honoured and admired by all Europe, after having greatly contributed to enlighten his own and many other countries with respect to some of the most important objects of humanity. Such was HOWARD THE GOOD; as great a hero in preserving mankind, as some of the false heroes above mentioned were in destroying them."

The young Printer.

WHEN BENJAMIN FRANKLIN was a young man, be worked in a printing-house, in London, as a pressman, and afterwards as a compositor. He applied assiduously to his business; and was very desirous of laying by some money. He drank nothing but water. The other workmen, to the number of about fifty, were great drinkers of VOL. I.

H

beer,