During his public career, for a long series of years, his sympathies have been directed in an exclusively practical direction. His great powers never wandered from a most vigorous contest with what he deemed enormous practical evils. He showed the great principles of free-trade, and filled every mind in England with vivid images of the folly and absurdity of the then existing state of things with regard to the Corn-laws. He cleared away rubbishhe exposed fallacies-he elicited important admissions from both the leaders of the two great aristocratic parties. He made Lord John Russell and Sir Robert Peel both profess themselves hostile in principle to all commercial fetters, and finally, having caused the light to reach the great statesmen of the age, he has seen his views adopted, and the Corn Laws repealed. THE City of Chichester, on the Brighton and South Coast Railway, is twenty-eight miles east from Portsmouth, and sixty-one from London. It has a population of about 8,000. Near the center of the city, at the intersection of the four principal streets, stands the Cross, a view of which is given in the annexed engraving. It is considered one of the most finished erections of the kind in England. It was built about 1480, by Bishop Storey. The cross was intended to shelter the market-people. Its vaulted roof is supported by a thick central pillar, surrounded by a seat, and by a series of arches octagonal in form, and highly ornamented by coats of arms and other ornaments. Chichester is a place of great antiquity, and is supposed to have been the town called Regnum, alluded to by Strabo, and to have existed long prior to the Roman invasion. That it was a considerable station of that people is evident from the number of their coins and other antiquities found in the neighborhood. In the reign of Stephen, Chichester obtained its first charter, which was confirmed by several subsequent sovereigns. It forms a county of itself, and has sent two members to parliament ever since the year 1295. From the situation of this city, near a spacious arm of the sea, it would appear advantageously situated for commerce, but this seeming advantage is rendered useless by extensive sand banks, which prevent the passage of vessels which draw much water. The Cathedral, which is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is the most remarkable edifice in this city. It is 410 feet in length from east to west, including the Lady Chapel; its width from north to south at the transepts is 227 feet, the choir is sixty-two feet, and the central tower and spire 297 feet in height. The architecture of the cathedral is that of the thirteenth century. Over the western entrance is a magnificent window, which was partially destroyed by the parliamentary forces, but has since been repaired. The ends of the transept are handsomely finished with turrets on each side, between which is a beautiful window; that on the south side is of exquisite workmanship. The east end of the cathedral is also handsomely finished. The interior consists of the nave, which is lofty and spacious, vaulted and groined with great skill and beauty, and beside its center and side aisles, has a second aisle on each side, intended for chantries and chapels; as many traces of the altars that were erected for that purpose may yet be seen. There are some interesting monuments in the cathedral, among which are the splendid chantry of St. Richard; the tomb of William Chillingworth, the learned and able defender of Protestantism; Flaxman's monument to the poet Collins, &c. One of the chapels is appropriated to the monuments of the family of the Duke of Richmond; a large vault was constructed in the year 1750. Over the entrance to this vault is a stone with the inscription "Domus Ultima," (Last House,) on which Dr. Clark, one of the Residentaries, wrote an epigram that has been classed among the first in our language: "Did he who thus inscribed this wall, WINCHESTER. THE city of Winchester, sixty-two miles from London, is situated in the bottom of a rich grassy vale, through which flows the Itchin, a small river which passes into the sea at Southampton. It contains at present a population of about 10,000. The origin of the city of Winchester lies concealed in the farthest depths of British antiquities. Tradition, and the evidence of our oldest historical monuments, concur with the probability afforded by the situation of the place, in making it out as having been one of the earliest settlements of the first inhabitants of the island. In this way it may possibly have existed as a village in the woods for a thousand years before the Cristian era. When the Romans first landed in Britain, about half a century before the birth of Christ, the tract of country in which Winchester stands, appears to have been peopled by a Belgic tribe, who had come over from the continent about two hundred years before. If it had been, as is commonly thought, the capital of England in the time of the Britons, it regained that distinction under the Saxons, on the union of the country under one sceptre in the beginning of the ninth century, by Egbert, king of Wessex, to whose original dominions it had belonged. From this time till the reign of Edward the Confessor, in the middle of the eleventh century, Winchester retained the dignity of chief city of the realm. Here Alfred and Canute principally resided and held their courts. Even after the erection of the abbey and palace of Westminster by the Confessor, and the attachment which he showed to that neighborhood, had crowned the long rising importance of London, Winchester continued for a considerable period to dispute pre-eminence with its rival. During the reigns of the Conqueror and his two sons, in particular, it may be said to have still maintained an equality with London. It was not, perhaps, considered to have altogether lost its old metropolitan supremacy till the reign of Richard I, towards the close of the twelfth century. Modern Winchester derives its chief importance from the ancient and splendid Ecclesiastical See, of which it is the seat. While the other bishops rank according to the date of their consecration, the Bishop of Winchester holds the next place after those of London and Durham. In point of opulence, also, this see has always been reckoned the first in England. About a mile out of Winchester, situated amidst the beautiful watermeadows, lies the ancient Hospital of St. Cross, or St. Croix, which, after the cathedral, forms the most interesting sight of Winchester and its neighborhood. This Hospital was founded in the early part of the thirteenth century-the period at which the majority of religious houses and charitable institutions sprang up-by Henry de Blois, bishop of Winchester, and brother of king Stephen. It was originally founded for the support of "thirteen poor men past their strength," and it was provided that they should have lodging, clothing, and a daily allowance of wheaten bread, meat, and ale; and it was also provided that a hundred others, the poorest that could be found in the city, of good character, should be dined in a common hall, called "The Hundred Mennes' Hall," with the right to carry away so much of their allowance as they could not consume. According to the foundation there was to be a master, a steward, four chaplains, thirteen clerks, and seven choristers for the church. The masters, one after another, however, had so succeeded in absorbing the income of the charity by the time that Wykeham was appointed bishop, that he was obliged to have recourse to the law to recover the alienated property. This property was then of the annual value of £400-no inconsiderable sum in those days. A vast addition to this income was made by Cardinal Beaufort, bishop of Winchester, who endowed it, in 1444, with land to the value of £500 yearly; at the same time appointing, that in addition to the existing number of persons in the establishment, there should be maintained two priests, thirty-five brethren, and three sisters to act as nurses to the sick of the community. To accommodate this large number of persons he almost re-built the Hospital, giving to the enlarged building the beautiful title of Domus Eleemosynaria Nobilis Paupertatis, or the Alms-House of Noble Poverty. The Hospital was deprived of a considerable portion of its revenues by Henry VIII; nevertheless, enough was left for the maintenance of thirteen brethren, a master, steward, and chaplain-the present establishment; and the funds have, within the last hundred years, so increased in value, that the post of master has been a sinecure of considerable emolument. Ale and bread are still supplied to such applicants as apply before the daily provision-a sadly diminished one-is exhausted. SOUTHAMPTON. SOUTHAMPTON is one of those few places which, after a gradual decay, has sprung into renewed life and activity. This prosperity it owes to its excellent port. As early as the time of king John, the town was considered as of importance on this account. In the middle ages, it was used by the English kings as the most convenient place of embarkation for troops to France, and its banks witnessed the departure of the brave Englishmen who won the fields of Cressy, Poictiers, and Agincourt. The protestants, driven from the Netherlands by the persecution of the Duke of Alva, about the same time, settled in Southampton, where they introduced certain kinds of cloth not before known in England, and contributed very largely to the prosperity of the town. The first cause of decay was the Great Plague, which desolated the place in 1665. The people fled from the town in despair, and so deserted did it become that grass grew in its streets, and the place did not recover its commerce for a century and a half afterwards. Victoria Pier was erected in 1832, and the Docks, the source of the sudden revival of the port's prosperity, were commenced in 1836. The first dock was opened in 1842. The opening of the Railway to London, and the selection of this place by the Government, as a port for their mail steamers, has given a great impetus to its prosperity. In 1846, the value of its exports was £2,196,275, a sum only a little inferior to that of Glasgow the same year. ISAAC WATTS. THIS eminent divine, poet, and philosopher, was born at Southampton in the year 1674. His father, who was a deacon of a dissenting congregation, was several times imprisoned for non-conformity, and his mother was known to have sat frequently on a stone near the prison door patiently waiting for some communication with her husband, with the doctor, when an infant, at her breast. When very young, he took great delight in reading; and the promise he gave of abilities and industry produced an offer from some gentlemen to charge themselves with his education at one of the English universities. But this kind proposal he declined, declaring his resolution to take his lot among the dissenters. At the age of fifteen, he wrote Latin and English verses, which displayed considerable poetical talents. Having finished his academical |