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tures which come into the world alive must breathe, which breath being received into the lungs, must necessarily inflate and puff them up; and though in death it in a great measure expires, yet there still remains so much air in the vesiculæ, as to make them buoyant in water; on the contrary, when still-born, as it is impossible, in that state, for the lungs to receive air, they must consequently subside and sink.

“ Now, this manner of reasoning, however specious it may appear, or whatever authority it may be supported by, is not strictly true, as I myself can affirm, having in the course of my practice, had an opportunity of trying the foregoing experiment upon two different births; the one was born alive, but died soon after; the other dead; when behold the lungs of the former sunk, and those of the other, to our great astonishment, swam. These, together with many other experiments I have since made upon the lungs of different animals, convince me that there is no dependance upon what Dr. Gibson looked upon as infallible; for, although it may sometimes prove true, upon the whole it should be regarded no otherwise than as a very uncertain and precarious proof of the fact in question. I make bold, therefore, humbly to recommend it to all the gentlemen who now hear me (as a thing of the utmost consequence) to take every opportunity to explode such a notion out of our practice, and to be particularly careful to caution our pupils against giving judgment in such cases, since it may come to pass, that on such judgment may depend the lives of many poor unhappy women.

These, Sir, were the remarks made by that learned gentleman, whose name and great merit is well known in London, and whose opinion in this matter I am proud to lay be. fore the public, hoping it may have its due weight, and answer the salutary purpose for which it was delivered. 1774, Oct.

W. P.

LII. Various Anecdotes.--Extraordinary Predictions. ABOUT the year 1735, a book was published, intitled the Cure of Deism. The author, Mr. Elisha Smith, had the misfortune to be confined in the Flect prison, for a debt of 2001. William Benson, Esq. one of the auditors of the Imprest, was high pleased with this work. He inquired who the author was, and, having received the foregoing account,

Extraordinary Predictions. not only sent him a very handsome letter, but discharged the whole debt, fees, &c. and set him at liberty. This deserves to be recorded, as an uncommon instance of generosity and good-nature; though Mr. Auditor Benson, having been thrust into the Dunciad, will probably be known to posterity only as a bad critic:

On two unequal crutches propp’d, he came,

Milton on this, on that one Johnston's name. To Milton he erected a monument in Westminster-Abbey, and gave Mr. Dobson, of New College, 1000l. for translating Paradise Lost into Latin ; Johnston's Latin Psalms he preferred to Buchanan’s. Mr. Benson published, however, a translation of the first and second Georgics, which had merit.

In the year 1747, Mr. M--, a gentleman of an ample fortune, about fifty-five years of age, travelled through Kent, in quest of a wife. He was a widower, and had one son, about twelve years old. The qualifications he re. quired were, that the party should be a widow, between thirty and thirty-five, should have a daughter between six and eight, and be of good repute; but neither birth, beauty, nor fortune, were desired. At length, the happy woman was found at Rochester, where the nuptial knot was tied. Mr. M. however, previously stipulated, that, if he thought fit to be absent from home three or four months, his wife should never ask him where he was going, nor, on his return, where he had been, nor shew the least uneasiness on that account. She was not to stay at London, but only to pass through it. He settled on her a jointure of 5001. a year, and arrayed her in clothes and jewels to the amount of 10001.

The following lines, written by Pope, were occasioned by the removal of an old Doric gate from Chelsea road, into Lord Burlington's gardens at Chiswick. It did belong to Sir Hans Sloane, but he neglecting it, Lord Burlington begged it of him.

PASSENGER.
O Gate, how cam'st thou here?

GATE.
I was brought from Chelsea last year,

Batter'd with wind and weather;
Inigo Jones put me together;

Sir Hans Sloane

Let me alone;
Burlington brought me hither.

A LADY, soon after, seeing a gate carried by between two mey, made these lines extempore, in allusion to the others :

O gate, where art thou going?
But it was not so knowing

As yonder gate

That talk'd of late ;
So on it went, without reply:
At least I heard it not, not I.

In the year 1707, John Needs, a Winchester scholar, foretold the deaths of Mr. Carman, chaplain to the college, Dr. Mew, Bishop of Winchester, and himself, within that year, to several of his school-fellows, among others, to Geo. Lavington. This exposed him to much raillery in the school, and he was ludicrously styled Prophet Needs. Mr. Carman died about the time he mentioned. For this event, however, he had little credit, it being said, that the death of such an old man might reasonably be expected. Within the time prefixed Bishop Mew also died, by a strange accident. He was subject to fainting fits, from which he was soon recovered, by smelling to spirits of hartshorn. Being seized with a fit while a gentleman was with him, perceiving its approach, he pointed eagerly to a phial in ihe window; the visitor took it, and in his haste, poured the con. tents down the bishop's throat, which instantly suffocated him. This incident was accounted for in the same manner as the other. As the time approached which Needs had prefixed for his own dissolution, of which he named even the day and the hour, he sickened, apparently declined, and kept his chamber, where he was frequently visited and prayed with by Mr. Fletcher, second master of the school, and father to the late Bishop of Kildare. He reasoned and argued with the youth, but in vain; with great calmness and composure, he resolutely persisted in afüirining that the event would verify his prediction. On the day he had fixed, the house-clock being put forward, struck the hour before the time; he saiv through this deception, and told those that were with him, that when the church-clock struck, he should expire. He did so.

Mr. Fletcher left a memorandum in writing to the above purport; and Bishop Trimnell, about the year 1722, having heard this story at Winchester, wrote to New college, of which Mr. Lavington was then fellow, for farther information. His answer was, that " John Needs had indeed foretold that the Bishop of Winchester (Mew) and old Mr. Carman should die that year; but then they being very old men, he had foretold for two or three years before, that they should die in that number of years. As to foretelling the time of his own death, I believe he was punctually right.

Dr. Lavington gave the same account to his friends after he was Bishop of Exeter.

1774, Dec.

LIII. Description of a Picture in Windsor Castle, representing the

Interview between King Henry VIII. and Francis I. of France. This picture is very remarkable, as well on account of the importance and singularity of its subject, as of the immense number of figures which it contains, the variety of matter which it exhibits, and the manner in which the whole is executed.

It is preserved in the royal castle at Windsor ; but, being there placed in the king's private apartments below stairs, which are seldom permitted to be shewn, hath long remained, in great measure, unknown to the public.

The interview between the two monarchs was on Sunday, June 7, 1520, on the open plain, within the English pale, between the castle of Guines and Ardres. It continued twenty-eight days. The right-hand side of the picture ex, hibits a bird's-eye view of the market-place, church, and castle of Guines, with part of the town walls and the surrounding ditch. In the fore-ground of this is the English cavalcade (hereafter mentioned ;) over these, in the back ground, and towards the top of the picture, is a view of the morass which lies on the north side of the town, and of the river that runs from thence towards Calais. Several persons are sitting on the roof of the shambles, and others standing at the doors of the houses of the town, looking at the cavalcade. The town-guard also is drawn up and under arms in the market-place.

In the middle of the left-hand side of the picture, and near the castle gate, is the elevation of the principal front of a most stately square castellated palace, intended to represent that magnificent temporary palace, made of timber, which was brought ready framed from England, and after the interview, was taken down and carried back. Besides a chapel, and the royal apartments, it contained lodgings for most of the great officers of state, hung with the richest tapestry, and cloth of gold and silver, paned with green and white silk, the favourite colours of the house of Tudor.

On the plain before the palace are two superb conduits, cased over with different kinds of marble, framed in pannel; from both of these, through masks of lions' heads, red wine is discharged into cisterns, and from thence through like masks, to the populace, who, by their looks and actions, express its various effects from hilarity to inebriety. Near these conduits, in the lower part of the fore-ground, stand two men, facing each other, and dressed alike, in blue caps, like tiaras, with golden tassels, and cocks-tail feathers, and yellow gowns with black lace and black tufted frogs. They have long scymetars by their sides, and are sounding long trumpets, to announce the near approach of the English cavalcade. On their left-hand are many spectators, and among them two gentlemen conversing together. These figures being placed thus conspicuously in the fore-ground, and being much more laboured and finished than any that are near them, are supposed to be the portraits of the painter of this piece, and of Edward Hall, who was enjoined by King Henry to draw up the description of the interview.

In the fore-ground, on the right-hand side, is the very numerous English cavalcade, marching out of the town of Guines, and entering the castle gate by a bridge thrown over the ditch. Its farther progress is not here represented; but it may be supposed to have passed from the castle, through the sally-port, to the place of interview, along the valley, and by the side of the rivulet there described. The guns of the castle are represented as firing while the king passed. The advanced guard consisted of his guard of billmen, with their officers. Then follow three ranks of men on foot, five in a rank, and all unarmed. After them are five of Wolsey's domestics on horseback, two of which are his chaplains, the one in a black gown bearing his cross, and the other in a scarlet gown carrying his hat on a cushion, Of the rest, two are dressed in black, with massy gold chains, (perhaps his chamberlain and steward of the house. hold,) and the other in a white linen habit, not unlike a mo. dern surplice. Whether these three carry any ensigns of office is uncertain, as their backs are turned to the specta.

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