veste nivea astricte membris adaptata, quasi nuda, et capil lis adscititiis adumbrata, personam comitissa gerit, alboque insidens equo per compita equitat. Oleant hæc forsan aniles fabulas; sed antiquarii, auctoritate graves, hæc et plura de hac re tradunt. Ut ut hæc sint, hoc certum est; cœnobium Coventriæ tantis auri et argenti ponderibus dota tum, tantis gemmarum luminibus illustratum, ut vix parietes ad thesauros continendos sufficerent. Et dictum coenobium, totius insulæ longe ditissimum. Sed hactenus; redeamus ad Lichfeldiam, cujus templum tegmine lignario co-opertum esse traditur; et, ut suspicor, injuria temporis labefactum : nam, in regnis sequentibus, multa regia dona ad id restaurandum memorantur. Nec aliam invenio causam, cur episcopi maternam sedem desererent, et eam ad urbem Cestriam, cas trum occidentale quondam Romanorum, transferrent: aucto ritate concilii provincialis apud Londinum, per Lanfrancum archiepiscopum Cantuariensem, celebrati. Nec Cestria diu remansit honos; secundus enim episcopus Robertus de Lymeri, Normannus, ut credo, nam regibus Gulielmo Rufo et Henrico Primo administer fuit potentissimus, gazis et gemmis Coventriæ inhians, transferri sedem suam ad Coventriam impetravit, et thesauros incontinenter involavit; nam ex una trabe cola quingentas marcas corrasisse dicitur. Hæc prima cœnobii calamitas. Multa surripuit, nec tamen omnia; fundos ingentes et solidos abligurire non potuit. Hic inter monachos Coventrenses, et canonicos Lichfeldenses, episcopi eligendi potestatem divisit. Sed magnæ et acerba lites exinde ortæ sunt; inter hos, antiquitate, et illos, divitiis superbientes. Harum rixarum longas ambages, quæ in tertium seculum, non nisi magna laicorum offensione, protrahebantur, non placitum, nec meum est, persequi. Anno tandem 1224, plenipotentia papæ Honorii tertii tantas potuit componere lites, cujus decreto, ambobus capitu lis, una vice in Coventriæ ecclesia, altera in Lichfeldensi, eligeretur episcopus. Hoc ordine conjunctæ sunt cathedræ et si non cordialiter inter monachos et seculares, at sine litibus judicialibus. Et satis composite res procedebant, usque ad regnum Henrici Octavi, qui monachorum ordines omnes delevit, et eorum fundos prægrandes inter aulicos suos, et proceres regni divisit; conscribens exercitum virorum nobilium et divitum contra agmina papa. Per hæe omnia secula, scientia et veritas sub pedibus conculcata erant; nec sæpe erigebant capita ne quidem sub docta regina Elizabetha. Primus inter episcopos Lichfeldenses et Coventrenses cujus opera adhuc leguntur, erat Joannes Hachettus, qui perduellione flagrante contra Carolum pri

mum, rector erat sanctæ Andreæ ecclesiæ apud Londinum, et circa annum 1641, liturgia Anglicana a senatoribus populi solis, rege et optimatibus dissentientibus, reprobatæ et interdictæ firmiter adhæsit; et dum cultum divinum celebrabat, decurio rebellis, cum altero sicario, in ecclesiam ruit, et minaciter jubet eum desistere. Jussa injusta contemnens Marris ausa in precibus perseverabat. Ilie furore plusquam fanatico æstuans, scloppum usque ad os hominis obtrudens, instantem, ni desistat, minitatur mortem. Cui sereniter sacerdos, "Fungor ego officio meo, miles; fungere tu tuo." Perculsus ille erubuit, et abiit. Hachettus, Carolo secundo restaurato, factus episcopus Lichfeldiæ et Coventriæ, templum cathedrale pene obrutum, turrim cuspidatam, seu potius obeliscum Gothicum procerissimum, altissimum, et pulcherrimum, tormentis fractum et eversum, culmina plumbea disjecta et direpta, parietes et columnas, et laquearia fœdata et nuda, equorum bellicosorum et stercoris grande receptaculum, palatium episcopale simili ruina turpatum invenit. Hoc neglexit, domo canonica contentus, sed totis viribus ad domum Dei restaurandam incubuit. Nam postridie ejus diei qua Lichfeldiam intravit, diluculo primo servos equosque suos ad sordes a templo removendas extimulavit. Quotque inchoavit acerrime, paucis annis feliciter integravit; nam, partim de propriis sumptibus, partim magnates regni exorando, viginti et tria millia librarum, ingentem eo tempore summam, in hoc opere tam nobili consumpsit. Præsul hic doctus et strenuus fidei Anglicana defensor erat contra Jesuitas, et concionator sui temporis celebris: stylus autem ejus rudis est et obsoletus. Huic successit episcopus, a regia meretrice in cathedram intrusus, qui, tali patrona dignus, monstrum fuit avaritiæ; cui nihil episcopale, nihil sacrum, nisi auri sacra fames. Merito tandem ab archiepiscopo Cantuariensi mulctatus est; cujus ex crapula aurea, ut ita dicam, præsens palatium episcopale grande satis et splendidum emicuit. Huic successit vir magni ingenii et doctrinæ Gulielmus Lloyd, cui linguæ orientales quasi vernaculæ erant. Illi proximus fuit Joannes Hough, vir omni laude dignus, qui juvenis adhuc, Magdalenæ collegii apud Oxoniam præses electus fuit, contra illegalia mandati Jacobi Secundi qui virum legibus inhabilem in hanc dignitatem eligi jusserat. Ob hoc, irato rege, expulsus erat; sed anno proximo, rege ipso ab Anglia expulso, restitutus, et post aliquot annos ad diœcesin Lichfeldensem evectus, ubi multos annos ab omnibus, honoratus vixit, donec ab Anna regina in divitem Vigornia cathedram translatus fuit. Aulicis. elegantiæ, religiosis, pietatis, omnibus Christianæ benevolentia optima documenta præbuit, usque

ad plusquam nonagesimum ætatis annum. Huic successit Chandlerus, primum canonicus, deinde episcopus Lichfeldensis, et postea translatus ad ditissimum diœcesin Dunelmiæ. Ille propugnator strenuus fidei Christianæ contra gigantes istos infideles Collinsium et Tindalium, qui apostolos et evangelistas nequitia et ignorantiæ audaciter insimulant, quia prophetias Veteris Testamenti historiis Novi aptaverunt. Huic successit Richardus Smalbroke, qui miracula Christi, contra Woolstonum, fidei desertorem et calumniatorem, docte et acute defendit. Hujus successor fuit Fredericus Cornwallis, comitis de Cornwallis patruus, qui annos octodecim diœcesin Lichfeldensem, diligenter, sapienter, at amicissime administravit, et nunc cathedram archiepiscopalem Cantuariensem splendide ornat. Hujus successor fuit Joannes Egerton, ducis Bridgwateriensis patruelis, et hæres proximus, vir doctus, elegans, et in rebus agendis acutus et perspicax. Post biennium ad Dunelmiam evectus fuit. Illi successit Brownlow North, comitis Guildfordiæ filius, et Domini North, gazæ regiæ custodis et rerum publicarum curatoris, frater fraterrimus, qui biennium quoque hic commoratus, ad Vigorniam translatus est. Episcopus vere nobilis, comis, et benignus, diœcesi nostræ nunc præsidet Richardus Hurd, qui apud academiam Cantabrigiensem studiis huma nioribus contemporaneis omnibus facile antecessit; critici acuminis et promptæ doctrinæ quamplurima exemplaria adhuc juvenis edidit. Deinde dialogos quosdam historicos, politicos et morales, scripsit, qui magno fructu a literatis leguntur: postea prophetias Veteris et Novi Testamenti, claro et insigni ordine digessit et explicuit. His ingenii et pietatis documentis, morum suavitate, et egregia vultus gratia inductus, comes de Mansfield, judicum nostrorum merito princeps, et legum non magis quam virorum acutissimus judex, regi nostro hunc commendavit, ut fieret præceptor principis Galliæ et fratris ejus secularis episcopi Osnaburgensis. Ex illo igitur spes Britanniæ nunc pendet. Discipuli ejus, ut audivi et spero, bonarum artium studiis alacriter incumbunt, et rapidi proficiunt; et ex illo, precor, derivata virtus in patriam populumque fluat, 1797, June.

T. S."

XCII. Letter written at Paris by Dr. Benjamin Franklin. Communicated by the Gentleman who received it.

April 22, 1784.

I SEND you herewith a bill for ten Louis d'ors. I do not

pretend to give such a sum: I only lend it to you. When you shall return to your country, you cannot fail of getting into some business that will in time enable you to pay all your debts. In that case, when you meet with another honest man in similar distress, you must pay me by lending this sum to him, injoining him to discharge the debt by a like operation, when he shall be able, and shall meet with such⚫ another opportunity. I hope it may thus go through many hands before it meets with a knave to stop its progress. This is a trick of mine for doing a deal of good with a little money. I am not rich enough to afford much in good works, and so am obliged to be cunning, and make the most of a little.

1797, Sept.

XCIII. Letters from the Earl of Orford to Governor Pownall.

LETTER I.

Strawberry Hill, Oct. 20, 1783. I AM extremely obliged to you, Sir, for the valuable communication you have made to me. It is extremely so to me, as it does justice to a memory that I revere to the highest degree; and I flatter myself that it would be acceptable to that part of the world that loves truth; and that part will be the majority as fast as they pass away who have an interest in preferring falshood. Happily, truth is longer-lived than the passions of individuals; and, when mankind are not misled, they can distinguish white from black.

I myself do not pretend to be unprejudiced; I must be so to the best of fathers; I should be ashamed to be quite impartial. No wonder then, Sir, if I am greatly pleased with so able a justification. Yet I am not so blind but that I can discern solid reasons for admiring your Defence. You have placed that Defence on sound and new grounds; and, though very briefly, have very learnedly stated and distinguished the landmarks of our Constitution, and the encroachments made on it, by justly referring the principles of liberty to the Saxon system, and imputing the corruptions of it to the Norman. This was a great deal too deep for that superficial mountebank Hume to go; for a mountebank he was. He mounted a freteau in the garb of a philosophic empiric, but dispensed no drugs but what he was

authorised to vend by a royal patent, and which were full of Turkish opium. He had studied nothing relative to the English Constitution before Queen Elizabeth, and had selected some of her most arbitrary acts to countenance those of the Stuarts; and even hers he misrepresented; for, her worst deeds were levelled against the nobility, those of the Stuarts against the people; hers, consequently, were rather an obligation to the people; for, the most heinous part of common despotism is, that it produces a thousand despots instead of one. Muley Moloch cannot lop off many heads with his own hand; at least he takes those in his way, those of his courtiers; but his bashaws and viceroys spread destruction every where.

The flimsy, ignorant, blundering, manner in which Hume executed the reigns preceding Henry VII. is a proof of how little he had examined the history of our Constitution.

I could say much, much more, Sir, in commendation of your work, were I not apprehensive of being biassed by the subject. Still, that it would not be from flattery I will prove, by taking the liberty of making two objections, and they are only to the last page but one. Perhaps you will think that my first objection does shew that I am too much biassed.

I own, I am sorry to see my father compared to Sylla; the latter was a sanguinary usurper, a monster-the former the mildest, most forgiving, best-natured of men, and a legal minister. Nor, I fear, will the only light in which you compare them stand the test. Sylla resigned his power voluntarily, insolently, perhaps timidly, as he might think he had a better chance of dying in his bed if he retreated, than by continuing to rule by force. My father did not retire by his own option: he had lost the majority of the House of Commons. Sylla, you say, Sir, retired unim peached-it is true, but covered with blood. My father was not impeached, in our strict sense of the word, but, to my great joy, he was in effect. A secret committee, a worse in quisition than a jury, was named-not to try him, but to sift his life for crimes; and out of such a jury, chosen in the dark, and not one of whom he might challenge, he had some determined enemies, many opponents, and but two he could suppose his friends. And what was the consequence? A man, charged with every state crime almost for twenty years, was proved to have done-what? paid some writers much more than they deserved, for having defended him against ten thousand and ten thousand libels (some of which had been written by his inquisitors), all which libels were