stoop at us who are the rubbish of those ruins? Methinks
I hear your former achievements interceding with you not to
sully your glories with trampling on the prostrate, nor clog
the wheels of your chariot with so degenerous a triumph.
The most renowned heroes have ever with such tenderness
cherished their captives, that their swords did but cut out
work for their courtesy: those that fell by their prowess sprung
up by their favours, as if they had struck them down, only to
make them rebound the higher. I hope your highness, as
you are the rival of their fame, will be no less of their virtues.
The noblest trophy that you can erect to your honour, is to
raise the afflicted. And, since you have subdued all oppo-
sition, it now remains that you attack yourself, and with acts
of mildness vanquish your victory. It is not long since, my
lord, that you knocked off the shackles from most of our party,
and by
grand release did spread your clemency as large
as your territories. Let not new proscriptions interrupt our
jubilee. Let not that your lenity be slandered as the ambush
of your further rigour: for the service of his majesty (if it be
objected), I am so far from excusing it, that I am ready to
allege it in my vindication. I cannot conceive fidelity to my
prince should taint me in your opinion; I should rather ex-
pect it should recommend me to your favour. Had not we
been faithful to our king, we could not have given ourselves
to be so to your highness: you had then trusted us gratis,
whereas now we have our former loyalty to vouch us.
see, my lord, how much I presume upon the greatness of your
spirit, that dare prevent my indictment with so frank a con-
fession, especially in this, which I may so justly deny, that
it is almost arrogancy in me to own it; for the truth is, I was
not qualified enough to serve him: all that I could do was
to bear a part in his sufferings, and give myself up to be
cherished in his fall. Thus my charge is double, my obe-
dience to my sovereign, and what is the result of that-my
want of a fortune. Now, whatever reflections I have on the
former, I am a true penitent for the latter. My lord, you see
my crimes! As to my defence, you bear it about you! I
shall plead nothing in my justification but your highness'
clemency, which, as it is the constant inmate of a valiant
breast, if you graciously please to extend it to your supplicant
in taking me out of this withering durance, your highness
will find that mercy will establish you more than power, though
all the days of your life were as pregnant with victories as
your twice auspicious third of September.

Your highness' humble and
submissive petitioner,

You

J. C.

THE following singular specimen of Scottish pulpit eloquence, in the seventeenth century, is extracted from an old tract, entitled "A Sermon preached in St. Giles Kirk, at Edinburg, commonly called Pockmanty* Preaching, by Mr. James Row, some time Minister of Strowan." The tract is published without date, but its contents appear to determine the time when the sermon was preached to have been in the year 1643, when the solemn league and covenant was formed at Edinburgh by the persuasion (according to Hume) of Sir Henry Vane, one of the commissioners from the English parliament, then at open war with the misguided Charles. The text is from Jeremiah xxx. 17: "For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord; because they called thee an outcast, saying, this is Zion, whom no man seeketh after."

what

The preacher thus commences and anatomises his discourse: "I need not trouble you much by telling you is meant by Zion here-ye all ken it is the poor kirk of Scotland; for the kirk of Scotland is wounded in her head, in her hands, in her heart, and in her feet. First, in her head, in the government; 2dly, in her hands, in the discipline; 3dly, in her heart, as in the doctrine; 4thly, in her feet, as in the worship." The first of these general divisions was naturally susceptible of subdivision, and the preacher displayed much quaint ingenuity in pointing out in what respects the kirk had been affected in each of her five senses, particularly in that of hearing, "by the bringing in of the organs," since which she has become "as deaf as a door nail." After discussing the second and third general heads, Mr. Row proceeded as follows:

Now I come to tell you she is wounded in her feet, and that I call the worship of the kirk of Scotland. The kirk of Scotland was a bonny trotting nag, but then she trotted sae hard that never a man durst ride her but the bishops, wha, after they got on her back, crosslanged her, hapshacked her; and when she became a bonny pacing beast, they took great pleasure to ride on her; but their cadging her up and down from Edinburgh to London, and it may be from Rome too, gave her sik a het coat, that we have these twelve months bygone been stirring her up and down to keep her fra foundering: yea, they made not only a horse, but an ass, of the kirk of Scotland. How sae quo' ye? What mean ye by this? I'll tell you how they made Balaam's ass of her: ye ken well

* Portmanteau.

enough Balaam was going an unlucky gait, and first the angel met him in a broad way, and then the ass bogled and started, but Balaam got by the angel, and till her and battarmed her sufficiently; that was when episcopacy came in, and then they gave the kirk of Scotland her packs. Afterwards, Balaam met the angel in a straight gait, and then she startled mair than before; but Balaam till her again, and whaked her soundly; that was when the five articles of Perth were brought in. The third time the angel met Balaam in,sae strait a gait that the ass could not win by, and then it pleased the Lord to open blind Balaam's eyes, and that is this happy day's work: now God has opened all our eyes. We were like blind Balaams, ganging an unlucky gait, and riding post to Rome; and what was gotten behind him upon the ass wot ye? I'll tell you what was a pockmanty, and what was in it, trow ye, but the Book of Canons, and of Common Prayer, and the High Commission? But as soon as the ass sees the angel, she falls a flinging and a plunging, and o'ergangs the pockmanty, and it hing by the string on one side, and aff goes blind Balaam, and he hings by the hough on the other side; and fain would the carl have been on the saddle again, and been content to leave his pockmanty; but, beloved, let not the false swinger get on again, for, if he get on again, he will be sure to get on his pockmanty also."

This eccentric discourse is closed by several quaint exhortations" to subserve the covenant," which, doubtless, had their intended effect with numbers of the several classes to whom they were addressed.

LINES TO GARRICK.

THE following elegant compliment to the British Roscius appeared in the "Champion, or Evening Advertiser," of July 17, 1742. Garrick made his first appearance on a London stage, October 19, 1741.

O thou, the Phoenix of the age!
The prop and glory of the stage!
Thou Proteus, that with so much ease
Assum'st what characters you please;

That, were Democritus alive,
He at the tragic strains would grieve;
Heraclitus himself would smile
To hear thee in thy comic style.

Where didst thou learn thy wond'rous art
To find the way to every heart?

At once to rise, at once break forth,
In all this sudden blaze of worth?

How does my swelling bosom glow,
To see thy Lear's majestic woe!

Yet, wondrous change! in the same night,
How does thy Lying Knave delight!

When in thy Richard I behold
The tyrant subtle, stern, and bold,
My soul, with various passions tost,
Is in the quick transition lost.

When next I see thy well-feigned woe,
I pity thee, altho' my foe;

With Lady Anne I straight relent,
And am rejoic'd that you repent.

But when the tyrant you resume,
And fix the hapless infants' doom,
Scarce can I think thou play'st a part,
But wish to stab thee to the heart.

How can thy gentle nature bear
T'assume the murdering villain's air?
Search all the characters, you'll find
Not one less suited to thy mind.

'Tis here thy genius is admir'd;
'Tis here thou seem'st almost inspir'd:
Each other part thou actest well,
But 'tis in this thou dost excel.

STEGANOGRAPHY.

THE art of secret writing, or writing in cypher, was, according to Polybius, invented by Eneas, the author of a Treatise on Tactics, and other works: he produced twenty methods of writing in cypher, which no person could unfold, but we doubt much whether they would preserve this quality at the present day. The article Cypher, in Rees' Cyclopedia, by Mr. Blair, the surgeon, is an admirable treatise on the subject; but at the present day, the art has become extremely difficult. Sir Sidney Smith,

it is said, never failed in an attempt to decipher anything that came under his eye, whether the language were Turkish, Arabic, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, or English: of this, a remarkable instance occurred when commanding in Egypt. A letter was sent to him in Arabic, to be forwarded, requesting him first to read it: he did so, and simply returned it to the pacha, who had written it with the key, adding, that if he wished to transmit secrets in future, he would do well to observe two things; the first, to be sure they were sufficiently concealed, and the next, to confide them to other hands. Report adds, that the pacha, ashamed of having been discovered, observed a conduct more correspondent with that loyalty and honour, of which our illustrious countryman had given him so delicate an example.

It is not less strange than true, that this art, so important in diplomacy, as long as couriers are liable to be intercepted, was held in abhorrence by the elector Frederic the Second, who considered it as a diabolical invention. Trithemius, abbot of Spanheim, had composed several works to revive this branch of knowledge; and Boville, an ignorant mathematician, being unable to comprehend the extraordinary terms he made use of to explain his method, published that the work was full of diabolical mysteries. Poissevin repeated the assertion; and Frederic, in a holy zeal, ordered the original work of Trithemius, which he had in his library, to be burnt, as the invention of the devil.

BURNET'S HISTORY.

IN the Lansdown Library, there is a copy of "Burnet's History of his own Times," filled with remarks on the margin in the hand-writing of Swift. They are, as may be supposed, distinguished by great acuteness and wit, and not without some portion of coarseness and malevolence. Burnet appears

to have been no favourite with the dean. We select a few specimens.

Preface, p. 3. Burnet. "Indeed, the peevishness, the ill-nature, and the ambition of many clergymen, have sharpened my spirits perhaps too much against them; so I warn my readers to take all that I say on those heads with some grains of allowance."-Swift. "I will take his warning.

P. 28. Burnet. "The earl of Argyle was a more solemn sort of man, grave and sober, and free of all scandalous vices."-Swift. "As a man is free of a corporation, he means."

I