to the degree of Sergeant at Law: at the head of these was Mr. Browne, for he was the most ancient of the call. He was at this time possessed of very considerable landed property, besides the advowson of two rectories in the county of Essex, and much of his large revenue was expended in works of beneficence and charity. The endowment of a Grammar Free School at Brentwood, has, among many other benevolent deeds, perpetuated his name in the county of Essex. This establishment exists at the present day, although the constitutions and general government of the school are now widely different from any thing that he had contemplated, for according to the tenure granted by the Queen in 1557, the master was to be a catholic priest nominated by Mr. Browne or by his heirs. There were to be two guardians of the lands and possessions; the body and corporation to be perpetual, and to have a common seal. The master was also to read prayers on Wednesdays and Fridays and to keep the estate in repair; and the children were to be selected from the parish of South Weald. Blessed with a plentiful fortune, enjoying an unsullied reputation, and placed in the way of promotion, he was in a short time appointed sergeant to the king and queen, a preliminary step to his obtaining the high office of lord chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas, to which dignity he was nominated in the year 1558. The prospects of further advancement which it may be reasonably supposed that Mr. Browne justly entertained, soon were blighted, and withered away, for on the death of Mary, which occurred not long after, Elizabeth immediately displaced many catholics who held high offices under the government. To Lord Chief Justice Browne, however, she showed some little regard, for on the eighteenth of November, 1559, she confirmed him in his dignity, but probably in consequence of his known attachment to the ancient faith, and of his steady adherence to the duties which it inculcates, he was removed on the twenty-second of January following, and Sir James Dyer was appointed to succeed him; nevertheless, he was continued one of the justices in the same court, and during the remainder of his life regularly discharged the duties of his office with a scrupulous punctuality; and although a zealous

catholic he still retained the favour of the queen, for only a year before he died she knighted him in the parliament house. He appears to have enjoyed a high reputation as a lawyer, for the learned Plowden stiles him in his Commentaries, "A Judge of a profound genie and great eloquence;” and Anthony Wood adds: "And all eminent men of that age did esteem him as able a person, as any that lived in Queen Elizabeth's time, and therefore fit to have obliged posterity by his pen, had not too much modesty laid in his way. What he did as to that was concealed and partly published under another name." At length, after a life spent in the diligent exercise of every christian virtue, and having deservedly acquired the character of an upright, and just judge, he sunk under the infirmities of nature, and expired at his seat at Southweald in Essex, on the sixth of May, 1567. His body was kept until the 10th of June following, and then interred in the chancel of the parish church. On the ninth of November of the same year, his widow died, and was buried thirteen days after, by the side of her husband, and one large flagstone covered their graves. This lady was the daughter of William Farington, of Farington, in Lancashire, and relict of Charles Booth, Esq. Sir Anthony left no issue. Many of the works published by the Bishop of Ross, iu favour of his royal mistress, Mary Queen of Scots, have been attributed to the pen of this great lawyer, but with what truth it is impossible now to discover.

CATHOLIC MISSIONS.

Letter from Father Sebastian Rasles, Missionary in North America, to his Nephew.

MY DEAR NEPHEW,

For these thirty years back, that I have been living in forests and among savages, I have been so much occupied in instructing them and forming them to christian virtues, that I find little leisure to write frequent letters even to those who are most

dear to me. I cannot, however, refuse to gratify your request, to give you a detail of my occupations.

I am labouring among the Abnakis, a tribe of savages to the south of Canada. There are other missionaries here besides me, but we are very distant from each other. The village where I live is called Naurautsouack; I have built a church here, which is very neat and well adorned. I thought it best to spare nothing that would contribute to its decoration, and to have all the ornaments which are made use of in our holy ceremonies, as beautiful as I could. My vestments, copes, and sacred vessels are such as would be admired in Europe. I have collected about me forty young savages, to assist like a little body of clergy at the divine office in cassocks and surplices. They have each their functions-serving at masssinging the divine office-assisting at the benediction of the blessed sacrament, or in the processions, which are made with a great concourse of savages, who come from a great distance to be present at them. You would be edified with the good order they keep, and the great piety they shew on these occasions.

We have built two chapels about three hundred paces from the village, one dedicated to the blessed virgin, the other to the angel guardian. As they are both in the ways which lead to the woods, or into the plain, the savages never pass them without saying some prayers. There is a holy emulation among the women who shall adorn most the chapels they have the care of, when the procession is to go there. Every trinket they have, bits of silk, and printed calicoes are all made use of for the purpose.

All my Neophytes do not fail to attend at church twice a day, once early in the morning to hear mass, and in the evening to assist at the prayers which I say at sunset. As it is necessary to fix the imagination of savages, which is too apt to be distracted, I have composed prayers in their language, to make them enter into the spirit of the august sacrifice of the altar. These prayers they sing or recite aloud during mass. Besides the discourses which I address to them on Sundays and festivals, I seldom suffer a common day to pass without

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making some short exhortation, to inspire them with a horror of the vices, to which they are most subject, or to strengthen them in the practice of some virtue.

After mass I teach catechism to the children and young people. A great number of grown up persons attend, and answer with great docility to the questions which I ask them. The rest of the morning until noon, is reserved for those who wish to speak to me. Then they come in crowds to communicate to me their difficulties and uneasinesses, or to tell me the subjects of complaint they have against one another, or to consult me about their marriages or other particular affairs. have to iustruct some-console others-re-establish peace where families are divided-calm the troubled conscience-correct some by reprimands mixed with sweetness and charityand, in fine to send back, if possible, all of them satisfied.

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In the afternoon I visit the sick, and go to the huts of those who stand in need of particular instruction. If they hold a council, which often happens among savages, they depute one of their principal men to fetch me to their deliberations. Immediately I go to the place where the council is assembled. If I think they have come to a wise resolution, I applaud them for it; if otherwise, I give them some strong and solid reasons for my opinion, in which they generally acquiesce. To all their public feasts I am also invited. Every one who is invited brings his plate made of wood or bark. I give a blessing to the meat, a portion of which is put upon each plate. The distribution being made, I then say grace, and every one retires with his share. Such is the order of the feasts.

In the midst of such continual occupations you cannot conceive how rapidly the days pass away. On some occasions I can scarcely find time to say my office, or to take a little repose at night. For discretion is not the virtue of savages. But for some years I have made it a law never to speak to any one from night prayers till after the morning's mass, and I have forbidden them to interrupt me during that time, except for some very important affair, as to assist a dying person, or any other thing which will not admit of delay. This time I have for my private prayer, and to repose after the fatigues of the day.

When the savages go to the sea to spend some months in the taking of wild ducks, bustards, and other fowls which abound here, they made up a church in the island, which they cover with bark, and close to it make me a little hut for my abode. Thither I take with me my chapel ornaments, and the service is performed there with as much regularity, and the same attendance, as in the village,

Such, my dear nephew, are my occupations. As to what regards me personally. I neither speak, hear, nor see any thing, but what is savage. My diet is simple and light; I never could form my taste to the smoked flesh and fish of the savages. I generally take Turkey wheat bruised, and made into bouillie (thick gruel) with water. The only seasoning is a little sugar, which I put in to take off the insipidity. For we have sugar here in the forests, made of the boiled juice of the maple tree, which the women collect in the spring.

The whole nation of the Abnakis is christian, and very zealously attached to the preservation of the Catholic faith. And this makes them firmly attached to an alliance with us (French) rather than the English, who offer them greater advantages. But they think that unless they keep up our friendship, they would soon be left without a missionary, without a sacrifice, without sacraments, and without any practise of religion, which would soon throw them back into their former infidelity. The English have hitherto in vain attempted to break the good understanding that exists between us. I cannot but own that these beginings of misunderstanding between the English and them fill me with alarms, lest the flocks, which Providence for so many years has committed to my care, and for which I should like to sacrifice the remainder of my life, should come to be dispersed.

The governor-general of New England sent some years back, one of the cleverest parsons of Boston to establish a school at the lower part of the river, to teach the children of the savages, and keep them at the expense of Government. The salary of the minister was to increase in proportion to the number of his scholars. He omitted nothing that he thought would draw them to him. He went to seek them, he caressed them, he