WHEN Edward VI. had suppressed an insurrection in Cornwall, Kingston, a provost, was sent with dreadful powers to Bodmin, and waiting on the mayor, told him he wished to have a gallows erected, for there must be an execution in town after dinner. The mayor gave the necessary orders, fixed his eye upon a neighbouring miller, whom he knew had been concerned in the revolt, invited the provost to his house, where they dined, and drank together as friends. After dinner, the mayor, impatient of delay, told the provost he had punctually executed his orders. "You will oblige me, says the provost, "if you will lead me to the place," which done, "Is it strong enough," says the officer; doubtless, says the magistrate; "Then get up and try," says the provost. You are not in earnest! says the other; " Indeed I am," replied the provost, "for you are one of the rebels, and the gallows you erected for another, is only for yourself," and immediately executed him.

Hutton's Court of Requests, p. 270.

DANTZIC is called Gedanum in latin; and the German word is derived from the verb dantzen, which signifies, to dance. The origin of this etymology is the following; a number of peasants generally assembled on the spot where it is built, and intending to build a town, they applied to the bishop, whose property the ground was, for leave to build houses upon it, who gave them as much ground as they could encircle whilst holding each other by the hand, and making a round in the form of a dance, Regnard's Travels.

ARIOSTO made no distinction in his food, but always eat of that which was next him, and often eat a small loaf or roll after he had dined. He was in general so lost in meditation, that he attended little to what passed. It so happened that a stranger once came to visit him at dinner time, and while his guest was talking, Ariosto eat the meat that was set before him; for which being afterwards reproved by his brother, he only cooly re"plied, "That the loss was the stranger's, and that he ought to have taken care of himself."

As he himself could pronounce very well, so it was a great penance to him to hear others pronounce ill that which himself had written excellent well. Insomuch as they tell of him, how coming one day by a potter's shop that had many earthen vessels ready made to sell on his stall, the potter fortuned, at that time, to sing some stave or other out of Orlando Furioso, I think where Rinaldo requested his horse to tarry for him, in the first book, the 32d stanza.

Ferma, Baiardo, mio, deh, ferma il piede
Che l'esser senza de troppo mi nuoce.

Stay, my Bayardo, stay!-thy flight restrain,
Much has thy want to day perplex'd thy lord.

Or some such grave matter fit for a potter: but he plotted the verses out so ill-favouredly (as might well beseem his dirty occupation,) that Ariosto being, or at least making semblance to be in a great rage withal, with a little walking stick he had in his hand, brake divers of the pots; the poor potter,

put quite beside his song, and almost beside himself, to see his market half marred before it was a quarter done, in a pitiful tone or manner, between railing and whining, asked, What he meant to wrong a poor man that had never done him injury in all his life? Yes, varlet! quoth Ariosto, I am yet scarce even with thee for the wrong thou hast done me here before my face, for I have broken but half a dozen base pots of thine, that are not worth so many half pence, but thou hast broken and mangled a fine stanza of mine worth a mark of gold. Life of Ariosto, p. 91.

A West Indian, who had a remarkably fiery nose, having fallen asleep in his chair, a negro boy who was in waiting, observed a musquito hovering round his face. Quashi eyed the insect very attentively; at last, he saw him alight on his master's nose, and immediately fly off." Ah, d-n you heart," exclaimed the negro, "Me d-n glad see you burn you foot." Edinbro' Budget, p. 159.

SOME Courtiers brought before pope Benedict XII. his father clothed otherwise than beseemed his condition; he would not acknowledge him untill he had reassumed the habit of a miller, nor give him any thing but wherewithall to buy a mill. He often said popes should neither have kindred nor* allies, and that they were not administrators of church livings to enrich their own kindred. Matthieu on Phillippa the Catanian, tr. by Sir T. Hawkins, p. 347.

*Original "not."

AT dinner to day I happened to mention the tomb of Petrarch's Laura, which I often visited formerly in the convent where she was buried; and of which I this morning, in vain, enquired the place. "There is nothing singular in your disappointment," said one of the party," the convent in which her ashes reposed, is sold and demolished, and the chapel, in which a tomb-stone indicated her rest, is now transformed into a stable of mules and of jack-asses. If you will take a walk after dinner, you shall have an opportunity to deplore this shocking outrage offered to beauty and genius." I accompanied him; the chapel was inhabited by six mules and their drivers, as civilized and sensible as themselves, by two jack-asses, laying down on the tomb-stone of Laura. It was not without some difficulty, that we could remove them so far as to see that of the inscription, nothing remained but "Laura," and " requiescat in pace." No! not even her remains have been left unpolluted by the abominable monsters, that revered nothing, either sacred, respectable, or admirable. Duten's Memoirs.

THERE are three requisites to form conjugal happiness, prudence, good-nature, and love. Prudence and good-nature are very different things, and not under command; but, whenever they appear, love is as sure to follow, as the chaise the horses. When this trio meet, happiness will grow with time, and, like the oak, flourish in old age. No decays of beauty, or of health; no mutilations of body, or wrinkles of the face, can diminish it

B b

But if we look into the world, we shall find the matches of this amiable description almost as thinly scattered as the righteous men in Sodom.

Hutton's Court of Requests, p. 387.

THE duchess of Burgundy, when she was very young, seeing an officer at supper one evening with Lewis XIV. who had no reason to be proud of the beauty of his countenance, was very loud in the ridicule of his person. "Madam," said the king to her, still louder, "I think hin one of the handsomest men in my kingdom, for he is one of the bravest!"

J. C.

THE dreadful massacres in South America, by which millions of poor Indians were savagely ex-. tirpated, haye rendered the Spanish name detestable on that vast continent. One of the generals of this nation, however, was not insensible to the dictates of humanity. He was desirous to spare the effusion of blood, and to owe his conquest to the more innocent arts of stratagem. With this view, he proposed to the chiefs of certain nations, who adored the sun, that either of the two parties which appeared to be visibly protected by heaven should reign over the other, who moreover should embrace their religion: that the Americans therefore should implore the assistance of the sun; while the Spaniards should invoke the protection of the invisible and supreme being whom they adored as Lord of the sun and of the whole world. This being consented to, the next day the Spanish general assured the American chiefs, that he had