parts of the country, and that these Sub-Committees regulate their own subscriptions, manage their own affairs, defray their own expenses, and transmit to the Central Committee such contributions as they are able to collect and such matériel as may be suggested from time to time by the Central Committee.

'That a Ladies' Committee be established, whose duties shall be to collect matériel and to prepare it in such manner as may be suggested to them from time to time by the Central Committee.

That the Society adopt the Badge and the Flag which have been recognized by the International Convention of Geneva.'

The Central Committee was presided over by Lieutenant-Colonel Loyd-Lindsay, V.C. M.P.; and Captain Charles John Burgess acted as secretary. The admirable manner in which this excellent Society did its work requires no comment; neither does the prompt and noble generosity with which its efforts were seconded by the British public. The amount, set forth in the subjoined accounts, of considerably over 300,000l. contributed in money and stores, is by no means an adequate measure of the good effected; for to this should be added, if we could estimate it, the value of the personal services of our fellow-countrymen, of the ladies who acted as nurses, and above all of the medical profession-services rendered with characteristic British pluck, endurance, and humanity.

BRITISH NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR AID TO THE SICK AND WOUNDED IN WAR.

Abstract of Receipts and Expenditure, for the sufferers in the FrancoGerman War, from July 20, 1870 to March 31, 1871.

Dr.

Subscriptions received from various contributors, estimated at
about 100,000 in number
Proceeds of stores, horses, waggons, and other transport material
sold on cessation of the present active operations of the Society

£ s. d.

294,455 15 10

2,473 2 0 £296,928 17 10

Cr.

Expended in relief, food, medical stores, &c., and charges
Grants to Aid Societies, Ambulances, &c.

Balance at Bankers'

£ s. d.

133,818 0 4

89,898 12 10

£223,716 13 2

73.212 4 8

£296,928 17 10

The value of the stores received from the public was estimated at

45,000l.

APPENDIX XVI.

LAURENCE STERNE.

LAURENCE STERNE was born in Clonmel in 1713. His family were English, his father a lieutenant in the army, being the grandson of Dr. Richard Sterne, Archbishop of York. In his ninth year, Sterne was placed at school in Halifax, and remained there nine years. In his autobiography, he gives us the following anecdote of his school days. I remained at Halifax till about the latter end of the year 1731, and cannot quite omit mentioning this anecdote of myself and schoolmaster. He had the ceiling of the schoolroom new whitewashed-the ladder remained there. I, one unlucky day, mounted it, and wrote with a brush in large capital letters "Lau. Sterne," for which the usher severely whipped me. My master was very much hurt at this, and said, before me, that never should that name be effaced; for I was a boy of genius, and he was sure I should come to preferment.' In 1732, he was sent to Jesus College, Cambridge. Having completed his course at the University and received orders, he was promoted to the living of Sutton and, shortly afterwards, was made a prebendary of York, through the interest of his uncle Doctor Jacques Sterne, prebendary of Durham and canon residentiary and precentor of York. He married a young lady at York, through whose family he obtained a second living-that of Stillington. He resided twenty years at Sutton; and there, he tells us, he diversified the duties of the cure of his two parishes by books, painting, fiddling and shooting. In 1759, he published the first two volumes of Tristram Shandy,' and continued to issue the successive volumes, alternately with sermons, until the year 1767, when the ninth and last volume of his celebrated novel appeared. He published his 'Sentimental Journey' in 1768, after a tour through France and Italy. Sterne's great ambition was literary distinction. First, I protest,' says he, 'that, in commencing author, my aim was honest; and next, that I wrote not to be fed, but to be famous.' There is much of beauty and deep feeling in his writings; but it greatly to be deplored that a clergyman should have given to the world the gross indecencies of 'Tristram Shandy.' Sterne died in London in March 1768. His epitaph, as follows, was written by his friend, David Garrick :

is

Shall pride a heap of sculptured marble raise,
Some worthless, unmourned, titled fool to praise ?
And shall we not, by one poor grave-stone learn
Where genius, wit, and humour sleep with Sterne.

APPENDIX XVII.

SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT AND THE CONVERSION OF

ENGLAND.

SAINT GREGORY, surnamed the Great, on account of his illustrious actions and holy life, was born in Rome in 540, was consecrated Pope on September 3, 520, and died in 604. It was he who first conceived, and carried out, the idea of the conversion of England to Christianity. One day, when a simple monk, he saw several English youths exposed, in the market, in Rome, for sale as slaves. Struck with their beauty, he inquired, of what nation they were. 'Angles,' was the reply, 'Not Angles,' said he, 'but Angels.' It is a pity that the prince of darkness should have possession of the souls which dwell in those fair forms.' He shortly afterwards offered himself to Pope Benedict I., as a missionary, to preach the Gospel in Britain. His Holiness approved of the undertaking, and, with his blessing, dispatched Gregory and several of the monks of his monastery of Saint Andrew on the mission.2 The populace, learning this, flocked about the Pope, remonstrating on his having deprived them of one they loved so much. Apostolical

Father,' said they, what have you done? In allowing Gregory to depart, you have ruined us, injured Rome, and offended Saint Peter.' The Pope sent messengers to recall him; and, on the third day of his journey, he was overtaken, and retraced his steps to Rome. This was only a temporary delay of his project; for, immediately on his promotion to the pontifical chair, Gregory dispatched Augustine, prior of his own monastery of Saint Andrew's, and several monks to Britain. These according to Mabillon and other writers, were Benedictine monks. They landed in the island of Thanet, on the east coast of Kent, in 596. They were well received by Ethelbert, King of Kent, whose wife Bertha, daughter of Charibert, King of Paris, was a Christian; and, in a short time, the monarch and great numbers of his subjects were baptized.3 Augustine was made Archbishop of Canter

1 Non Angli, sed angeli.'

2 St. Gregory had built and endowed six monasteries in Sicily, out of his estates in that island. He also established that of Saint Andrew in his own house in Rome. In latter times Saint Andrew's was occupied by the monks of Calmaldoli.

3 There were some Christians in Britain, before the arrival of Saint Augustine. We learn from Bede and William of Malmesbury, that when Bertha was married to Ethelbert in 566, she was accompanied by Lethard, or Luidhard, Bishop of Senlis, who resided in the British Court, as her chaplain and almoner.

bury, Ethelbert's capital; and, ere long, he and his companions established several monasteries, and cathedrals, aided by the king, and with the full approval and co-operation of the Holy See. The further progress of the work, thus happily initiated, is familiar to all readers of English history.

6

APPENDIX XVIII.

STATUTE OF MORTMAIN.

MORTMAIN, from the Latin mortua manus, a dead hand. Manus mortua (mortmain) is a phrase,' says Hottoman in his 'Commentaries on Feudal Words,' which is applied to those whose possession, if I may so say, is immortal, who never cease to have an heir. For which reason the property never reverts to the first lord: nam manus pro possessione dicitur, mortua pro immortali.' Such is the case in corporations, universities, and religious communities.

'By the common law,' says Blackstone, 'any man may dispose of his lands to any other private man, at his own discretion; especially when the feudal restraints of alienation were worn away; yet, in consequence of these, it was always, and is still, necessary for corporations to have a licence of mortmain from the crown, to enable them to purchase lands: for, as the King is the ultimate lord of every fee, he ought not, unless by his own consent, to lose his privilege of escheats, and other feudal profits, by the vesting of land in tenants that can never be attainted or die: and such licences of mortmain appear to have been necessary, among the Saxons, about sixty years before the Norman Conquest. But besides this general licence from the King, as lord paramount of the kingdom, it was also requisite whenever there was a mesne, or intermediate lord between the King and the alienor, to obtain his licence also (upon the same feudal principles) for the alienation of the specific land and if no such licence was obtained, the King or other lord might respectively enter upon the lands so alienated in mortmain, as a forfeiture."

In the ninth year of Henry III., A.D. 1225, an Act of Parliament was made, to restrain the prodigality of the people, in bestowing lands upon religious foundations; particularly in a manner which deprived the King and the lords of the manors of their respective rights. This was called the Statute of Mortmain, which enacted, 'That it shall not be law.

1 Commentaries, book ii., c. 20.

ful, from henceforth, to any to give his lands to any religious house, and to take the same land again, and to hold of the same house; nor shall it be lawful to any house of religion to take lands of any, and to lease the same to him of whom they received it: if any, from henceforth, give his lands to any religious house, and thereupon be convict, the gift shall be utterly void, and the land shall accrue to the lord of the fee.'

This statute was supplemented by several successive Acts, passed to meet the attempts to evade it. The last was that referred to in the text, the 9th of George II., chapter 36, wherein it is enacted, that'no lands, or tenements, or money to be laid out thereon, shall be given for, or charged with any charitable uses whatsoever, unless by deed indented, executed in the presence of two witnesses twelve calendar months before the death of the donor, and enrolled in the Court of Chancery within six months after its execution (except stocks in the public funds which may be transferred within six months previous to the donor's death), and unless such gift were made to take effect immediately, and were without power of revocation; and that all other gifts should be void.'

APPENDIX XIX.

THE GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF ENGLAND.

Eton College.

THIS great public school, or rather college, is situated at Eton, a small town in Buckinghamshire, on the left bank of the Thames, twenty-one miles from London, and immediately opposite to Windsor, with which it is connected by an iron bridge. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI., by whom it was liberally endowed for the education of 'poor and indigent boys,' destined for the Church. The establishment consists of a provost, appointed by the Crown, seven fellows, one of whom is viceprovost, two chaplains, called conducts, two lay-clerks, ten choristers, two masters, eight assistant masters, and seventy King's scholars.' Besides the King's scholars, there are about six hundred pupils, called oppidans, who attend the college, but reside outside, either with some of the masters or in boarding-houses connected with the establishment. A few, chiefly of noble families, occupy private lodgings, under the care of their tutors. The cost of the education of an oppidan ranges from 1501. up to 2001. a year. Under the statute, the education of the

1

1 From the Latin, oppidum, a town.