rammed down into the cases: when they are filled, the bolts are withdrawn, and the framework moved onwards or upwards, as the case requires. This ancient method of construction has been recently introduced into England, under the name of concrete, which resembles the EuλExTpov of the Greeks, the opus signinum of Vitruvius.* The material is composed of a small proportion of lime, mixed with rough sand, pebbles, and old materials, which are placed while wet into the framework. The whole process is minutely and admirably detailed in the papers furnished by Messrs. Godwin, Abraham, and Taylor, to the Transactions now before us. Mons. Cointereau in his Ecole d'Architecture Rurale,' has detailed the method adopted in France, where it is called 'pisé, pisay,' the concrete beton,' the 'smalto' of the Italians. A somewhat similar practice has long obtained in parts of Devonshire, and is called dry cob; it is preferred to wet cob, as there is less settling. These walls of dry cob were called by the Romans parietes formacei, walls made in frames. Pliny gives an account of the mode of construction, and their great durability:- Quis non in Africâ Hispaniâque ex terrâ parietes, quos appellant formaceos, quoniam in formâ circumdatis utrinque tabulis, inferciuntur verius quam instruuntur, ævis durant incorrupti, imbribus, ventis, ignibus, omnique cemento firmiores?' &c. San Isidore, the Gothic archbishop of Seville, in his directions to builders, follows the language of Pliny. He terms the method formatum sive formarium. A perusal of that curious book, the Encyclopædia of the Eighth Century, sufficiently demonstrates that the Goths were anything but ignorant of those arts which contribute to the well-being of social life. This cob is now made use of both by Moors and Spaniards. We have seen it raising in Andalusia and Barbary, while it is the usual mode of building at the Cape of Good Hope, the other extremity of Africa. It is called by the Spaniards tapia, of which the etymology is as uncertain as that of our cob. Covarrubias,§ a fanciful philologist, alone ventures to approach it. He derives it from the Arabic tapia, an earthen wall; a derivation not to be met with either in Souza Weston, who have traced the Arabic words engrafted into the Portuguese and Spanish languages. The rad and dab of Spain is called tapique. Most of the ancient cities of Spain, especially of the southern and western provinces, are surrounded with walls of concrete cob; those of Seville and Cordova (the finest specimens) Pliny, xxxv., 12. Vitruv. Sub fin. viii. Sti. Isidori Etymol. xv. 9. § Covarrubias. Tesoro de la Lingua Castellana, ii., 183. or 1 remain almost in the same state as they existed at the conquest from the Moors, 600 years ago. They have precisely the same appearance as worn-out Devonshire cob, particularly some cob walls close to the churchyard at Colebrook, near Crediton. In Spain this outer plaster was sometimes painted al fresco, as the walls of Babylon were ornamented with coloured representations of the great huntings of Ninus and Semiramis.* The villages of Andalusia are generally built of cob plastered, and very carefully whitewashed with the col de Moron; they are scattered, far and wide between, amid the wild waste of uncultivated plains, overgrown with the cistus, the ilex, and the cork-tree, the haunt of the vulture and the robber. The closepacked cottages glitter in the bright sun and blue sky, like whitened sepulchres, the abodes of squalid poverty, which is borne in that glorious climate with oriental resignation. The red towers of the Alhambra and the exquisite elegance of the fairy interior, contrast painfully with the abject condition of the pauper inmates, and present a melancholy picture of the fallen state of a noble land, where the arts and industry of the enlightened Moor have quailed beneath the palsying touch of the tasteless, destructive Spaniard. We have thus traced cob, in its progress hand and hand with commerce and civilization, to the straits of Gibraltar. The vast Atlantic now opens, that sea over which an air of danger and mystery was cast by the Phoenicians, jealous of their profitable monopoly of the tin of England and the amber of the Baltic. The identity of the western part of England with the Cassiterides of the ancients, is fully gone into by Borlase. It is admitted by Bochart, § Mannert, || Heeren, and the best geographers of all nations. We can have no doubt, as cob was introduced by the Phoenicians into all their other colonies, that it was brought by them into the West of England, and adopted generally from its cheapness, and facility of construction, even in a country abounding in stone, marble, and granite. To inquire, however, fully into the causes which have perpetuated this ancient architecture so peculiarly in the west of England would be extending a paper already, perhaps, too much extended: we will, therefore, conclude with a very satisfactory remark. Cob, we have seen, Diodorus Siculus, ii. 8. If we had leisure to cross the Atlantic, we might visit those cob pyramids of the sun (Bel, Ha Hλos) at San de Teotihuacen, in Mexico (Bullock's Mexico, p. 411), whose existence may be cited as another proof of the eastern source of the inhabitants of that mysterious continent. Antiquities of Cornwall, ch. 7. Bochart, Canaan, i. 39. Mannert. Géographie der Griecher und Römer. Britannia, c. 1, was tainted from the beginning with apostacy and treason. It was reserved for this happy corner of England, in securing to itself all the architectural advantages, to reject the infidelity and rebellion of Cain and Canaan, Cadmus and Hannibal. Cob in Devonshire is built by good men and true, loyal and faithful. Cob in Devonshire has become orthodox and conservative; and long may these good old cob walls give a dry, comfortable shelter to a simple, obliging, kind-hearted peasantry; and may their progeny continue to dwell therein in health, contentment, and independence, as their honest forefathers have done so many generations before them! ART. X.-1. Report of the Record Commission, with Minutes of Evidence.-pp. 937. 1836. 2. Observations on the Report from the Committee of the House of Commons. By the Commissioners of Public Records. 3. A Leaf omitted out of the Record Report.-pp. 228. 1836. 4. A Letter to Patrick Frazer Tytler, Esq. By the Rev. Joseph Hunter, F.S.A. 1836. THE number of persons throughout the civilized world who now spend the greatest portion of their waking hours in reading, is one of the most remarkable peculiarities of the age in which we live. The widened spread of education—the abundance and cheapness of books-the long continuance of peace, which has prevented many young men from entering into the army and navy;-the want of means on the part of many persons of good condition and connexions for indulging in expensive pleasures;-have all contributed to this important change. Public libraries, instead of presenting only a lonely scholar here and there, as in times past, are now crowded with daily visitors; and the museums, institutes, and reading-rooms, which are everywhere springing up at home and abroad, are, at certain periods of the day or season, constantly frequented: In most instances this apparent thirst for knowledge, is merely an easy method of wearing the hours away, or the strenuous idleness of a set of imbecile pretenders, who are alike incapable of producing anything excellent themselves, or of duly appreciating the excellence of others. It is not to be denied, however, when all these deductions have been made, that the mere acquisition and communication of information, both with respect to the past and the present, is now proceeding with a degree of rapidity and strength, of which former ages could afford no example. Among other curious and instructive objects of inquiry, a considerable siderable portion of the attention of each of the states of Europe has, since the commencement of the present century, been directed to the elucidation of its own early history. For this purpose measures have been proposed, or are now in progress, to collect, arrange, and publish all the material documents connected with their internal or external political transactions. In this career, it was not likely that England, with its wealth and enterprise, and possessing stores so much more valuable and extensive than any of its neighbours, should be left behind. It appears, accordingly, that various parliamentary reports respecting our records were made between 1719 and 1800. In this last year a royal Commission was issued, in pursuance of a laborious report prepared by a Committee of the House of Commons, which had sat upon the subject. The report sets forth,— that the public records of this kingdom are, in many offices unarranged, undescribed, and unascertained; that many of them are exposed to erasure, alteration, and embezzlement, and are lodged in buildings incommodious and insecure; and that it would be beneficial to the public service that the records contained in many of the public offices and repositories should be methodised; and that certain of the more ancient and valuable amongst them should be printed.' The commission of 1800, accordingly, empowered the twelve persons named in it to 6 regulate and digest the records, rolls, instruments, books, and papers, in any public offices and repositories; and to cause such of the said records, &c., as are decayed and in danger of being destroyed, to be bound and secured; and to make exact calendars and indexes thereof, and to superintend the printing of such calendars, and original records, and papers, as they should cause to be printed.' A second commission was issued in 1806, and the commissioners were increased to fifteen; a third in 1817, when they were increased to seventeen; a fourth in 1821, when they were increased to twenty-one; a fifth in 1825; and the sixth and last in 1831when the commissioners were increased to twenty-five. The purpose of all these commissions has been essentially the same; and so far as the following observations apply to them, the whole six may be considered as one, extending from 1800 to the end of 1836. As the state and contents of our public archives had long ceased to attract attention, the issuing of the commission in 1800 was viewed with general satisfaction. It recognized in our records a degree of importance which the general public had not previously believed them to possess; and the labours of the commissioners were expected to make numerous and important additions to our historical and constitutional knowledge. For a considerable period these hopes were fondly cherished. One set of folios succeeded another, which all supposed to contain mines of information, and which some purchased, but none ever read. At last suspicions began to spring up. The large sum of 10,000l. a year was regularly voted, paid, and spent. Inquiry began to be made, in which of the volumes of the commission the precious treasures were to be found?—but no answer was ever given. In the mean while the folios continued to multiply, and as the few which were occasionally opened were not found to possess the interest that had been expected, distrust and dissatisfaction gradually spread. At last, in 1829 and 1830, direct charges were made against the commission, for the extravagance and want of judgment said to be manifest in the management of its concerns. A new commission issued in 1831, and a temporary calm succeeded. A clamour, however, soon again arose, both within and without the commission, which, after leading to much and acrimonious personal dissension, ended last year in the appointment of a committee of the House of Commons to inquire into the whole transactions of the board, from its appointment in 1800 to the end of 1836. The committee has now published its report, to which is annexed an appendix of evidence, of such appalling magnitude, that the very sight of it is sufficient to extinguish the interest which it is intended to awaken. Notwithstanding this discouraging appearance, and the partiality occasionally displayed both by members of the committee and witnesses, we can assure those who are specially attached to the cause of sound historical and constitutional research, that of all the subjects which, for several years past, have been brought before them, the Record Commission possesses the strongest claims to their close and candid consideration. The words of the first commission, which are repeated almost verbatim in each of those which followed, announce the duties of the commissioners to be of the clearest and most precise description. They are,-1. To preserve and arrange the records; 2. To render them accessible to the public; and 3. To print such of them as in an historical or constitutional view they might deem most important. The character of the commission must necessarily depend upon the manner in which those duties have been performed. I. When a public body voluntarily undertakes, or is commanded, to arrange archives of any kind, the first step which it seems natural to take, is to ascertain, with as much precision as possible, where these are to be found. This course was adopted by the committee of the House of Commons, which preceded the first record commission, as appears by the following extract from their report: Their first proceeding, as the necessary foundation of all the rest, was to prepare a list of all the public repositories in England in which any |