By this reading a very perfect and intelligible meaning is obtained, and that too by the slightest deviation from the original yet proposed.

By throwing the action of offering doubt upon "the noble substance," it becomes the natural reference to "his own scandal" in the third line.

Hamlet is moralising upon the tendency of the "noblest virtues," "be they as pure as grace, as infinite as man may undergo," to take, from "the stamp of one defect," "corruption in the general censure" (a very close definition of scandal); and he illustrates it by the metaphor:

"The dram of base

Doth all the noble substance offer doubt,

To his own scandal."

A. E. B.

Leeds.

NATIONAL DEFENCES.

Collet, in his Relics of Literature, has furnished some curious notices of a work on national defences, which perhaps ought to be consulted at the present time, now that this matter is again exciting such general interest among all classes. It was compiled when the gigantic power of France, under Buonaparte, had enabled him to overrun and humble every continental state, and even to threaten Great Britain; and when the spirit of this country was roused to exertion by a sense of the danger, and by the fervour of patriotism. The government of that day neglected no means to keep this spirit alive in the nation; and George III. conceiving the situation of his dominions to resemble, in many respects, that which terminated so fortunately for England in the days of Queen Elizabeth, directed proper researches to be made for ascertaining the principles and preparations adopted at that eventful period. The records of the Tower were accordingly consulted; and a selection of papers, apparently of the greatest consequence, was formed and printed, but not published. This work, which contained 420 pages in octavo, was entitled, A Report of the Arrangements which were made for the Internal Defence of these Kingdoms, when Spain, by its Armada, projected the Invasion and Conquest of England; and Application of the Wise Proceedings of our Ancestors to the Present Crisis of Public Safety. The papers in this work are classed in the order of external alliance, internal defence, military arrangements, and naval equipments. They are preceded by a statement of facts, in the history of Europe, at the period of the Spanish Armada; and a sketch of events, showing the effects of the Queen's measures at home and abroad. As a collection of historical documents, narrating an important event in British history, this work is invaluable; and, as showing the relative strength of this country in population and other resources in the sixteenth century, it is curious and interesting.