ing the women captive, and reaching the family purse by means of the wife. Was the piety of the public to be stimulated? Rival relics were set up, and impostures of all kinds multiplied without shame, to the impoverishment of the people, the disgrace of the church and the scandal of Christianity. It is revolting to bear record of these villanies, to see sordid advantage taken of the most sacred feelings of mankind, and religion itself subjected to suspicion through the hypocrisy of its professors. But, however humiliating may be the confession, experience has sanctioned it as a truth, that an indigent church makes a corrupt clergy; that in order to secure a priesthood which shall wear well, a permanent provision must be set aside for their maintenance, - such a provision as shall induce men duly qualified to enter the church for it is visionary to suppose that temporal motives will not have their weight in this temporal state of things; and it is unreasonable to expect that persons who are excluded by the rules of society from the usual inlets to wealth, the courts, the camp, or the exchange, and who cannot but know or feel, when they are honestly doing their duty, that they are as good commonwealth's men, to put it upon no higher ground, as any others, and therefore have as good a right to its liberal -regards as any others, should be content to waive this right-such a provision as shall be enough to ensure recruits for the priesthood from all ranks, the highest as well as those below, and so to ensure their easy intercourse with all ranks; for the leaven should leaven the whole lump-such a provision as should encourage them to speak with all boldness, crouching to no man for their morsel of bread, nor tempted to lick the hand that feeds them. Family Lib. ST. GERMAIN EN LAYE. THE forest of Laye, occupying an area of nearly six thousand acres, is still one of the finest in France. In former times it was a favourite scene of royal sport, and Charles V. and Henry IV. successively built a chateau in the neighbourhood, to answer the purpose of a hunting-lodge. The latter of these edifices, which, in its day and generation, was called the New Palace, is now in ruins, while the elder-born still remains entire, an object of wonderment to the Parisian cockney, and a shrine for the English pilgrim, who may be led, by historical recollections, to the tomb of James II. Around the palace, there rose, in the usual course of affairs, a congregation of the dwellings of those who were ambitious of breathing the atmosphere of royalty, and the place-receiving the name of St. Germain en Laye, is now an opulent town of nine or ten thousand inhabitants, with wide, regular, and well-paved streets, and several handsome squares. It is built on the Seine, where the river is crossed by a wooden bridge, more picturesque than elegant, and near it rises the palace, a spacious and somewhat heavy structure of brick, with a terrace extending for two miles along the side of the river. This edifice, although built originally by Charles V. was subsequently altered and enlarged by Francis I. and Louis XIV., the latter of whom, together with Henry II. and Charles IX., was born at St. Germain en Laye. The view from the terrace is one of the finest imaginable, comprehending a circle of fifteen miles, embracing the windings of the Seine, with the city of Paris itself, only twelve miles to the south-east. When James II. more fortunate than the first Charles, was permitted to leave quietly a throne for which he was unfit, he retired to France with his family, to crave the protection of Louis XIV. The Queen arriving first, was astonished at once by the magnificence and condescension of the French prince; he conducted her to the Chateau of St. Germain, where she found herself the mistress of an equipage that would not have disgraced the Queen of France. Among other valuable presents, she found lying on her toilet a purse of ten thousand louis-d'or. James himself, on arriving the next day, was received with the same ostentation of generosity. A revenue was assigned to him of six hundred thousand francs, for the yearly expences of his housekeeping, and officers and guards were marshalled round his sacred person. "Jamais le roi ne parut si grand," says Voltaire, in his sneering way, 66 mais Jacques parut petit." He occupied himself in entertaining the Jesuits, and touching for the king's evil; and received from Rome in return for all his sacrifices for conscience sake, sundry indulgences. An expedition to Ireland, and some conspiracies against the life of his successful rival, filled up the space of eleven years, during which he was the pensioner of Louis; and, in 1700, James II. died at St. Germain en Laye. The Keepsake. THE CHARACTER OF ROWLAND TAYLOR, THE EARLY REFORMER AND MARTYR. Or the many beautiful histories in which Fox abounds, none is more beautiful than that of Rowland Taylor, rector of Hadley. Though a mere country parson, (for he had quitted the household of Cranmer, to whom he was chaplain, in order to reside upon his benefice,) possessed, however, of a high spirit and popular talents, he seems to have taken a lead in his own county; and following in the wake of Bilney, who had preached in the same quarters, contributed to render Suffolk what we have already described it-the soil in which the Reformation took the kindliest root. The collateral effect of his influence and example may be thought, perhaps, to be discovered in a circumstance which comes out quite incidentally in the annals of that period; that one Dr. Drakes, who was afterwards burnt at Smithfield, and one Yeomans at Norwich, had both, we find, been connected with Rowland Taylor; the former having been made deacon through his means, the latter having been his curate at Hadley. We will not enter into all the details of this thrice-told tale of sorrow ;-his pastoral faithfulness ;- his successful teaching, so that his parish was remarkable for its knowledge of the Word of God;-his efforts to introduce to each other rich and poor, by taking with him in his visits to the latter some of the more wealthy cloth-makers, that they might become acquainted with their neighbours' wants, and thus be led to minister to their relief:-his bold defiance of the Catholic priest whom he found in possession of his church, surrounded by armed men, and saying mass;—his reply to John Hull, the old servant who accompanied him to London when he was summoned there before Gardiner, and who would fain have persuaded him to fly ;-his frank and fearless carriage before his judges ;—his mirth at the ludicrous apprehensions he inspired into Bonner's chaplain, who cautioned the bishop, when performing the ceremony of his degradation, not to strike him on the breast with his crosing-staff, seeing that he would sure strike again; -his charge to his little boy, when he supped with him in prison before his removal to Hadley, not to forsake his mother when she waxed old, but to see that she lacked nothing; for which God would bless him, and give him long life on earth and prosperity ;his coming forth by night to set out upon his last journey; his wife, daughter, and an orphan foster-child watching all night in St. Botolph's churchporch, to catch a sight of him as he passed;-their cries when they heard his company approach, it being very dark; his touching farewell to them, and his wife's promise to meet him again at Hadley;-his taking his boy before him on the horse on which he rode, John Hull lifting him up in his arms; his blessing the child, and delivering him again to John Hull, saying, "Farewell! John Hull, the faithfullest servant that man ever had ;"-the pleasantries, partaking, indeed, of the homely simplicity of the times, with which he occasionally beguiled the way;-the joy he expressed at hearing that he was to pass through Hadley, and see yet once before he died the flock whom, God knew, he had most heartily loved and truly taught ;-his encounter with the poor man who waited for him at the foot of the bridge with five small children, crying, "God help and succour thee! as thou hast many a time succoured me and mine;"-his enquiry, when he came to the last of the alms-houses, after the blind man and woman that dwelt there; and his throwing his glove through the window for them with what money in it he had left ;-his calling one Soyce to him out of the crowd on Aldham Common, to pull off his boots and take them for his labour, seeing that "he had long looked for them;"-his exclaiming last of all with a loud voice, as though the moral of his life was conveyed in those parting words, "Good people, I have taught you nothing but God's Holy Word, and those lessons that I have taken out of God's blessed book, the Holy Bible; and I am come. hither this day to seal it with my blood;"-these, and other incidents of the same story, combine so many touches of tenderness with so much firmness of purpose,-so many domestic charities with so much heroism,such cheerfulness with such disaster, that if there is any character calculated to call forth all the sympathies of our nature, it is that of Rowland Taylor. God's blessing is still generally seen on the third and fourth generation of them that love him; and if Rowland could have beheld the illustrious descendant which Providence was preparing for him in Jeremy Taylor, the Monday.-Received ten pounds from my rector, Dr. Snarl, being one halfyear's salary. Obliged to wait a long time before my admittance to the doctor, and even when admitted was never once asked to sit down or refresh my self, though I had walked eleven miles. Item. The doctor hinted he could have the vacancy filled up for fifteen pounds a year. Tuesday.-Paid nine pounds to several different people, but could not buy the second-hand pair of black breeches, offered to me as a great bargain by Cabbage the tailor, my wife wanting a petticoat above all things, and neither Betsey nor Polly having a shoe to go to church in. Wednesday. My wife bought a petticoat for herself, and shoes for her two daughters, but unluckily, in coming home, dropped half-a-guinea through a hole which she had never before perceived in her pocket, and reduced all our cash in the world to half-a-crown. Item. Chid my poor woman for being afflicted at the misfortune, and tenderly advised her to rely on the goodness of God. Thursday. Received a note from the ale-house at the top of the hill, informing me that a gentleman begged to speak to me on pressing business ;went, and found it was an unfortunate member of our strolling company of players, who was pledged for sevenpence half-penny: in a struggle what to do the baker, though we had paid him on Tuesday, quarrelled with us, in order to avoid giving any more credit in future; and George Greasy, the but- Friday-A very scanty dinner, and pretended therefore to be ill; thus, by avoiding to eat, I might leave something like enough for my poor wife and children. I told my wife what I had done with the shilling; the excellent creature, instead of blaming me for the action, blessed the goodness of my heart, and burst into tears. Mem. Never to contradict her as long as I live, for the mind that can argue like her's, though it may deviate from the more rigid sentiments of prudence, is even amiable in its indiscretion, and in every lapse from the severity of economy, performs an act of virtue superior to the value of a kingdom. Saturday.-Wrote a sermon which on Sunday I preached at four different parish churches, and came home excessively wearied, and excessively hungry -no more than two-pence halfpenny in the house-but see the goodness of God! The strolling player whom I had relieved was a man of fortune, who accidentally heard that I was as humane as I was indigent, and from a generous eccentricity of temper, wanted to do me an essential piece of service. I had not been an hour at home when he came in, and declaring himself my friend, put a fifty pound note into my hand, and the next day presented me with a living of three hundred pounds a year. ple in the Forum with eleven pair, and the show lasted three days. A. u. 552, the three sons of M. Valerius Levinus exhibited twenty-five pairs; and thus these shows increased in number and frequency, and the taste for them strengthened with its gratification, until not only the heir of any rich or eminent person lately deceased, but all the principal magistrates, and the candidates for magistracies, presented the people with shows of this nature to gain their favour and support. This taste was not without its inconveniences and dangers. Men of rank and political importance kept families, as they were called, of gladiators-desperadoes ready to execute any command of their master; and towards the fall of the republic, when party rage scrupled not to have recourse to open violence, questions of the highest import were debated in the streets of the city by the most despised of its slaves. In the conspiracy of Catiline so much danger was apprehended from them, that particular measures were taken to prevent their joining the disaffected party; an event the more to be feared, because of the desperate war in which they had engaged the republic a few years before, under the command of the celebrated Spartacus. At a much later period, at the triumph of Probus, A.D. 281, about fourscore gladiators exhibited a similar courage. Disdaining to shed their blood for the amusement of a cruel people, they killed their keepers, broke out from the place of their confinement, and filled the streets of Rome with blood and confusion. After an obstinate resistance, they were cut to pieces by the regular troops. The oath which they took upon entering the service is preserved by Petronius, and is couched in these terms; "We swear after the dictation of Eumolpus to suffer death by fire, bonds, stripes, and the sword; and, whatever else Eumolpus may command, as true gladiators, we bind ourselves body and mind, to our master's service." From slaves and freedmen the inhuman sport at length spread to persons of rank and fortune, insomuch that Augustus was obliged to issue an edict, that none of senatorial rank should become gladiators; and soon after he laid a similar restraint on the knights. Succeeding emperors, according to their characters, encouraged or endeavoured to suppress this degrading taste. Nero is related to have brought upwards of four hundred senators and six hundred knights upon the arena; and in some of his exbibitions, even women of quality contended publicly. The excellent Marcus Aurelius not only retrenched the enormous expenses of these amusements, but ordered that gladiators should contend only with blunt weapons. But they were not abolished until some time after the introduction of Christianity. Constantine published the first edict which condemned the shedding of human blood; and ordered that criminals condemned to death should rather be sent to the mines, than reserved for the service of the amphitheatre. In the reign of Honorius, when he was celebrating with magnificent games the retreat of the Goths and the deliverance of Rome, an Asiatic monk, by name Telemachus, had the boldness to descend into the arena to part the combatants. The Romans were provoked by this interruption of their pleasures, and the rash monk was overwhelmed under a shower of stones. But the madness of the people soon subsided; they respected the memory of Telemachus, who had deserved the honours of martyrdom, and they submitted without a murmur to the laws of Honorius, which abolished for ever the human sacrifices of the amphitheatre." This occurred A.D. 404. It was not, however, until the year 500, that the practice was finally and completely abolished by Theodoric. Some time before the day appointed for the spectacle, he who gave it (editor,) published bills containing the name and ensigns of the gladiators, for each of them had his own distinctive badge, and stating also how many were to fight, and how long the show would last. It appears, that like our itinerant showmen, they sometimes exhibited paintings of what the sports were to contain. On the appointed day, the gladiators marched in procession with much ceremony into the amphitheatre. They then separated into pairs, as they had been previously matched. At first, however, they contended only with staves called rudes, or with blunted weapons; but when warmed and inspirited by the pretence of battle, they changed their weapons, and advanced at the sound of trumpets to the real strife. The conquered looked to the people or to the Emperor for life; his antagonist had no power to grant or to refuse it; but if the spectators were dissatisfied and gave the signal of death, he was obliged to become the executioner of their will. This signal was the turning down the thumbs, as is well known. If any showed signs of fear, their death was certain; if on the other hand, they waited the fatal stroke with intrepidity, the people generally relented. But fear and want of spirit were of very rare occurrence, insomuch that Cicero more than once proposes the principle of honour which actuated gladiators, as an admirable model of constancy and courage, by which he intended to animate himself and others to suffer everything in defence of the commonwealth. The bodies of the slain were dragged with a hook through a gate called Libitinensis, the Gate of Death, to the spoliarium; the victor was rewarded with a sum of money contributed by the spectators, or bestowed from the treasury, or a palm-branch, or a garland of palm ornamented with coloured ribbons; ensigns of frequent occurrence in ancient monuments. Those who survived three years were released from this service, and sometimes one who had given great satisfaction was enfranchised on the spot. This was done by presenting the staff, rudis, which was used in preluding to the combat; on receiving which, the gladiator, if a freeman, recovered his liberty; if a slave, he was not made free, but was released from the obligation of venturing his life any further in the arena. Gladiators were divided, according to the fashion of their armour and offensive weapons, into classes, known by the names of Thrax, Samnis, Myrmillo, and many others, of which a mere catalogue would be tedious, and it would be the work of a treatise to ascertain and describe their distinctive marks. Lib. Enter. Know, The Note Book. I will make a prief of it in my Note-book. M.W. of Windsor THE INVENTION OF PENS.-Reeds cut in the same manner as our pens are of great antiquity. In India, the lower classes and children write with sharp pointed instruments, on the leaves of various plants. Both of these methods were common to the Romans. Pens made from quills are noticed by Isidore, who died in 636. Mabillon mentions a manuscript of the Gospels, written in the ninth century, in which the Evangelists were represented with quills in their hands, which quills were called by the ancient authors "calami ;" and it is probable that this word was em ployed by older writers than Isidore to signify writing pens, where, for want of other proofs, we understand reeds. THE FIRST USE OF PERFUMES.-The use of perfumes was common among the Hebrews, and the Orientals in general, before it was known to the Greeks and Romans, and seems to have been at first entirely devoted to sacred offices, as an incense to the gods, the anointing of the priests, or the embalming of the dead. Afterwards perfumes, such as musk, myrrh, and saffron, were carried in small boxes suspended from the neck; perfumed or scented boxes, called pouncet boxes, are noticed by Shakspeare as being used by the fops in the time of Henry IV. THE BIRTH OF the Lord ChancelLOR.-The birth and existence of this illustrious orator depended upon a chance circumstance, which will strike every one with wonder. The father of Lord Brougham, it is well known, was proprietor of Brougham Hall, and a fine estate in the north of England, which still form the patrimony of the family. He was about to be married to a lady in his own neighbourhood, to whom he was passionately attached, and every preparation had been made for their nuptials, when, to Mr. Brougham's great grief, his mistress died. To beguile himself of his sorrows, he determined on travelling, and came to Edinburgh; where, wandering about on the Castle hill, to view the city, he happened to inquire of a fellow idler where he could find respectable and convenient lodgings. By this person he was directed-not to the New Town, or to any of the fashionable hotels, for at that time no such thing existed in the Scottish capital but to Mrs. Syme, sister of Principal Robertson, widow of the Rev. Mr. Syme, minister of Alloa, who then kept the largest and most genteel boarding and lodging establishment in town, in the second flat of M'Lellan's land, head of the Cowgate (marked No. 8), the front windows of which look straight up the Candlemaker Row.Here Mr. Brougham forthwith proceeded to settle himself; and though he did not at first contemplate a permanent residence in this city, he soon found occasion to make that resolution; for, falling in love with Miss Eleanor Syme, who was a young lady of great merit and beauty, he abandoned his early sorrows, and espousing her, lived all the rest of his life in Edinburgh. He resided for some time after his marriage in Mrs. Syme's house, and thereafter |