councils of the said William Hardinge, baking him a pastry and plum-cakes, and keeping com. pany with him on the Lord's day, and she suffering Hardinge to kiss her, they being only admitted to sojourn in this plantation on their good behaviour, were ordered to be sent out of this town, within one month from the date hereof; yea, in a shorter time if any miscarriage be found in them.

"Edmund Dorman, plaintiff, entered an action of slander or defamation against Jeremiah Johnson, defendant. The plaintiff informed against him, that he had heard that J. Johnson had reported at John Olvarde's house, that he heard Dorman at prayer in a swamp, for a wife, and there were other circumstances of scoffing, &c.

"The defendant was asked, whether he granted the thing, or denied. The defendant desired proof, and that the witnesses might speak apart; John Olvarde was first called, who testified, that Johnson being at his house, he heard him say that he heard Edmund Dorman at prayer in a swamp, (by John Downes's,) for a wife, and said, "Lord, thou knowest my necessity, and canst supply it; Lord, bend and bow her will and make her sensible of my condition or necessity.'

"Stephen Bradley being called, also testified the same thing. The defendant being asked what he had got to say for himself, said he thought

Bradley did it out of revenge; but he was told he must prove him a false person upon record, or perjured, or that he doth it out of revenge at this time. The defendant further said, that he did expect some other persons that were present at John Olvarde's, would have been here, therefore did refuse to make his defence further at this time, and desired that the witnesses might not be sworn.

"Then Jeremiah was told, that it is a fearful thing to come to that height of sin as to sit in the seat of the scorner. Therefore the Court told him they should defer this business, and warned him to attend the next particular court to answer thereto."

In an American paper, a copy is given of some of the early Blue Laws of Connecticut, many of which, especially upon points of religion, are of a most singular character. Thus :

"No one shall run of a sabbath day, or walk in his garden or elsewhere, except reverently to and from church.

"No one shall travel, cook victuals, make beds, sweep houses, cut hair, or shave, on the sabbath day.

No woman shall kiss her child on sabbath or fasting days.

"No one shall read common prayer, keep Christmas or saint's day, make minced pies, dance,

play cards, or play on any instrument of music, except the drum, the trumpet, and the jew's-harp.

"No one shall court a maid without first obtaining the consent of her parents; five pounds penalty for the first offence, ten for the second, and for the third, imprisonment during the pleasure of the court.

Every male shall have his hair cut round according to a cap."

BURKE AND LORD THURLOW.

During the discussions on the regency question, in 1788, Lord Thurlow is said to have trimmed between the contending parties with considerable skill. In alluding to the King's afflicting illness, his Lordship employed some very pathetic expressions in the House of Peers, which occasioned the following sarcastic observations from Burke."The theatrical tears then shed were not the tears of patriots for dying laws, but of lords for their expiring places; the iron tears which flowed down Pluto's cheek rather resembled the dismal bubbling of the Styx, than the gentle murmuring streams of Aganippe; in fact, they were tears for his majesty's bread, and those who shed them would stick by the King's loaf, as long as a single cut of it remained, while even a crust of it held together." (Prior's Life of Burke, p. 334.)

f

LORD THURLOW'S DEFENCE OF HIMSELF IN THE

HOUSE OF PEERS.

"At times, Lord Thurlow was superlatively great. It was the good fortune of the Reminiscent, to hear his celebrated reply to the Duke of Grafton, during the inquiry into Lord Sandwich's administration of Greenwich hospital. His Grace's action and delivery, when he addressed the house, were singularly dignified and graceful; but his matter was not equal to his manner. He reproached Lord Thurlow with his plebeian extraction, and his recent admission into the peerage; particular circumstances caused Lord Thurlow's reply to make a deep impression on the Reminiscent. His Lordship had spoken too often, and began to be heard with a civil but visible impatience; under these circumstances he was attacked in the manner we have mentioned. He rose from the woolsack, and advanced slowly to the place from which the chancellor generally addresses the house; then, fixing on the duke the look of Jove, when he grasps the thunder :"I am amazed," he said, in a level tone of voice,

at the attack which the noble duke has made on me. Yes, my Lords," considerably raising his voice, "I am amazed at his grace's speech. The noble duke cannot look before him, behind him, or on either side of him, without seeing some

of

noble peer who owes his seat in this house to his successful exertions in the profession to which I belong. Does he not feel that it is as honourable to owe it to these, as to being the accident of an accident?-To all these noble Lords the language of the noble Duke is as applicable and insulting as it is to myself; but I do not fear to meet it single and alone. No one venerates the peerage more than I do ; but, my lords, I must say that the peerage solicited me,-not I the peerage. Nay more,-I can say, and will say, that as a peer Parliament, as speaker of this right honourable house, as keeper of the great seal,—as guardian of his majesty's conscience, as lord high chancellor of England,-nay, even in that character alone in which the noble duke would think it an affront to be considered, but which character none can deny me-as a man, I am at this moment as respectable-I beg leave to add, I am at this time as much respected, as the proudest peer I now look down upon." The effect of this speech,

both within the walls of Parliament and out of them, was prodigious. It gave Lord Thurlow an ascendancy in the house which no chancellor had ever possessed; it invested him in public opinion, with a character of independence and honour, and this, though he was ever on the unpopular side of politics, made him always popular with the people."-(Butler's Reminiscences, p. 199.)