crown, peevishly remarked, that if he had known the prisoner was so well furnished with cases, he would have come better prepared. Throckmorton coolly replied, that he had no law, but what he had learned from Mr. Sergeant Stanford himself, when attending in parliament. At length Griffin, the attorney-general, fairly lost all patience at the dexterity and acuteness displayed by the prisoner, and called out, "I pray you, my lords, that be the queen's commissioners, suffer not the prisoner to use the queen's counsel thus ; I was never interrupted thus in my life, nor I never knew any thus suffered to talk as this prisoner is suffered; some of us will come no more at the bar, an we be thus handled."

The jury acquitted the prisoner; for which (such was the degree of freedom then in England) they were immediately imprisoned, and those who did not make due acknowledgement of their fault in deciding according to their consciences, were afterwards heavily fined by the star chamber, even to the ruin of some of them, particularly the foreman and another, who lay in jail eight months.

LONG SPEECHES.

His late majesty observed one day to a gentleman of high literary character, and of distinguished political reputation, that oratory in this country was carried to a height far beyond its real use; and that the desire of excelling in this accomplishment, made many young men of genius neglect the more solid branches of knowledge. "I am sure," said his majesty, "that the rage for public speaking, and the

extravagant length to which some of our most popular orators carry their harangues in parliament, is very detrimental to the national business, and I wish that in the end it may not prove injurious to the public peace." It is remarkable, that the opinion of the king agrees exactly with that of Aristotle, who says, "Nothing so effectually contributes to the ruin of popular governments, as the petulance of their orators." (Polit. lib. v.)

EARL OF CARNARVON.

In the debate relative to the impeachment of the treasurer, the Earl of Danby, in the House of Lords, 1678, several noblemen spoke very warmly on both sides of the question, and among others the Earl of Carnarvon, a nobleman who had never opened his lips before in the house. Having been dining with the Duke of Buckingham, the duke (who intended no favour to the treasurer, but only ridicule) had got the earl to promise, before he went to the house, that he would speak upon any subject that should offer itself. Accordingly he rose in the debate, and spoke as follows: "My lords, I understand but little Latin, but a good deal of the English History, from which I have learnt the mischiefs of such kinds of prosecutions as these, and the ill fate of the prosecutors. I could bring many instances, and those very ancient; but, my lords, I shall go no farther back than the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign; at which time the Earl of Essex was run down by Sir Walter Raleigh. My Lord Bacon he ran down Sir Walter Raleigh, and your lordships know what became of Lord Bacon.

The Duke of Buckingham he ran down my Lord Bacon, and your lordships know what happened to the Duke of Buckingham. Sir Thomas Wentworth, afterwards Earl of Stafford, ran down the Duke of Buckingham, and you all know what became of him. Sir Harry Vane he ran down the Earl of Stafford, and your lordships know what became of Sir Harry Vane. Chancellor Hyde he ran down Sir Harry Vane, and your lordships know what became of the chancellor. Sir Thomas Osborne, now Earl of Danby, ran down Chancellor Hyde; but what will become of the Earl of Danby, your lordships best can tell. But let me see that man that dare run the Earl of Danby down, and we shall soon see what will become of him."

This speech being delivered with a remarkable humour and tone, the Duke of Buckingham, both surprised and disappointed, cried out, "The man is inspired, and claret has done the business." The majority, however, were against the commitment.

JEREMY TAYLOR, BISHOP OF DOWN. This eloquent prelate, from the fertility of his mind and the extent of his imagination, has been styled the Shakespeare of Divines. His sermons abound with some of the most brilliant passages, and embrace such a variety of matter, and such a mass of knowledge and of learning, that even the acute Bishop Warburton said of him, "I can fathom the understandings of most men, yet I am not certain that I can always fathom the understanding of Jeremy Taylor." His comparison between a married and a single life, in his

sermon on the Blessedness of the Marriage, is rich in tender sentiments, and exquisitely elegant, imagery. Marriage," says the bishop, "is the mother of the world, and preserves kingdoms, and fills cities, churches, and even heaven itself. Celibacy, like the fly in the heart of an apple, dwells in a perpetual sweetness; but sits alone, and is confined, and dies in singularity; but marriage, like the useful bee, builds a house, and gathers sweetness from every flower, and labours and unites into societies and republics; and sends out colonies, and fills the world with delicacies; and obeys their king, keeps order, and exercises many virtues, and promotes the interest of mankind; and is that state of things to which God hath designed the present constitution of the world. Marriage hath in it the labour of love, and the delicacies of friendship; the blessings of society, and the union of hands and hearts. It hath in it less of beauty, but more of safety, than a single life; it is more merry and more sad; is fuller of joys and fuller of sorrow; it lies under more burthens, but is supported by all the strength of love and charity; and these burthens are delightful.”

REPORTERS.

When the tax on newspapers, proposed by Mr. Pitt in 1789, was under discussion in the House of Commons, Mr. Drake said that he disliked the tax, and would oppose it from a motive of gratitude. "The gentlemen concerned in writing for them had been particularly kind to him. They had made him deliver many well-shapen speeches, though he was convinced he had never spoken so well in his whole life."

BISHOP ATTERBURY.

In the debates on the Occasional Conformity and Schism Bills in the House of Lords, in December, 1718, they were very warmly opposed by Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, who said, "he had prophesied last winter this bill would be attempted in the present session, and he was sorry to find he had proved a true prophet." Lord Coningsby, who always spoke in a passion, rose immediately after the bishop, and remarked, that "one of the right reverends had set himself forth as a prophet; but for his part, he did not know what prophet to liken him to, unless to that famous prophet Balaam, who was reproved by his own ass.' The bishop, in reply, with great wit and calmness exposed his rude attack, concluding in these words: "Since the noble lord hath discovered in our manners such a similitude, I am well content to be compared to the prophet Balaam; but, my lords, I am at a loss how to make out the other part of the parallel. I am sure that I have been reproved by nobody but his lordship." From that day forth, Lord Coningsby was called "Atterbury's Pad."

PHILIP, DUKE OF WHARTON.

Philip, Duke of Wharton, in one of his speeches in the House of Lords in the reign of George the First, said, "My lords, there was in the reign of Tiberius a favourite minister, by name Sejanus: the first step he took was to wean the emperor's affections from his son; the next, to carry the emperor abroad; and so

E