a lawful succession have made their sovereign: but if thy good providence has ordered it otherwise, and thou seest that I should prove one of those kings whom thou givest in thine anger, take from me, O merciful God! my life and my crown; make me, this day, a sacrifice to thy will; let my death end the calamities of France, and let my blood be the last that is spilt in this quarrel."

EXTRAORDINARY PRAYERS, &c.

THE following singular narrative has already appeared in print; but as some of my readers may not have met with it, we here insert it.

"A few days ago," says one, "I happened to make one of a large company, in which, among other topics of conversation, our settlement in New Holland was discussed. We soon began to turn our thoughts to the unhappy convicts: various tales were told respecting them; but one in particular struck my notice as peculiarly un

common.

"Rather more than five years have elapsed since John was, apprehended for the commission of a capital crime: the action was proved against him to the clear conviction of the jurors, and he was accordingly condemned. The keeper of his prison, who in innumerable other instances has shewn himself possessed of the warmest philanthropy, observing signs of great contrition in the prisoner, pitied him, and from pitying began to sympathise with his afflictions. He visited and discoursed with him;

but soon found that, although nearly thirty years of age, he had but faint ideas of a Supreme Being, and fainter still about a future state. In this deplorable situation he appeared dreadfully alarmed at the near prospect of dissolution, and tortured almost to madness by gloomy apprehensions of misery after death. The benevolent keeper did all in his power to alleviate his present distress, and, in part, dissipate his horrors; assuring him that there was a good and gracious God above, who would look down upon him with compassion, and, if he repented, would most assuredly pardon all his past errors; that he himself (the keeper) would instantly go and fetch him a prayer book to help his religious meditations; and that he hoped to find him more composed at their next meeting. '0, Sir! exclaimed the poor distressed criminal, his eyes streaming with tears, I cannot read; I never did read; I never tried to read at all! Oh! I shall go to hell!' The keeper was inexpressibly shocked at this exclamation; but, as the unhappy man had been respited during his majesty's pleasure, he promised him that he would himself soon instruct him to read; meanwhile that he would daily discourse and pray with him. He immediately went out of the cell, and in a few minutes returned, bringing with him an alphabet, with each letter printed by itself on a card. He explained their uses; and concluded with saying, that the English language, and several others, were nothing else but words formed by a different combination of these letters.

"The poor fellow sat still upon the floor for a few minutes, as if absorbed in contemplation; at length he took hold of the keeper's hand, and said, with a sigh, 'Ah, Sir! I am dull and stupid; I shall never be able to learn.' Then suddenly, as if struck with an instantaneous lucky thought, he swept up all the letters into one heap, and, desiring his kind friend to kneel down with him, he looked at the ceiling, as towards heaven. 'Good God!' cried he, with his hands violently clasped together, 'you know what a blockhead I am, and that I never can learn this hard thing; but you know also that you made every thing, and can look into our thoughts. Look into mine, and, as you are wiser than any man, do me a favour. says that these letters have all the English words in them: you know if he speaks truth. Take, I pray you, these cards, and make the best prayer you can for me; then read it out to yourself, and think as if I made it, for I promise you I will try to be a good man; only let me know what you have written, that I may be as good as my word.'

Mr.

"After this singular supplication they both arose, and the convict felt himself more easy. Soon after a pardon was offered, on condition of his going to Botany Bay for fourteen years."

The following is an account of an illustrious commander and constable of France, as given by Brantome: " Every morning (says the historian), whether he was at home or in the army, on a march or in camp, he never neglected to recite and hear his paternosters. But it was a

saying among the soldiers, 'Take care of the paternosters of Monsieur the Constable:' for whilst he was muttering them over, he would throw in by way of parenthesis, as the occasion of discipline or war demanded, "Hang me that fellow on the next tree-pass me that other through the pikes-bring me hither that man, and shoot him before my face-cut me in pieces all those rascals who are so audacious as to defend that steeple against the king-burn me that village-set fire to all the country for a quarter of a league round:" and all this he would do without the least interruption to his devotions." Strange devotion truly!!

The famous Mr. George Edwards, at the end of his Gleanings of Natural History, made use of this remarkable petition: "My petition to God (if petitions to God are not presumptuous) is, that he would remove from me all desire of pursuing natural history, or any other study, and inspire me with as much knowledge of his divine nature as my imperfect state is capable of; that I may conduct myself for the remainder of my days in a manner most agreeable to his will, which must consequently be most happy to myself. What my condition may be in futurity is known only to the wise Disposer of all things: yet my present desires are (perhaps vain and inconsistent with the nature of things), that I may become an intelligent spirit, void of gross matter, gravity, and levity, and endowed with a voluntary motive power either to pierce infinitely into boundless ethereal space, or into solid bodies; to see and know how the parts of the

great universe are connected with each other, and by what amazing mechanism they are put and kept in perpetual and regular motion. But (O vain and daring presumption of thought!) I most humbly submit my future existence to the supreme will of the One Omnipotent."

Dr. Dodd, in an oration delivered at the dedication of Freemasons' Hall, Great Queen Street, May 23, 1776, thus addressed the Deity: Consummate Architect and wondrous Geometrician, direct us to make the blessed volume of thy instructive wisdom the never erring square to regulate our conduct; the compass, within whose circle we shall ever walk with safety and peace; the infallible plumb-line, and criterion of rectitude and truth."-These are figures quite in style for a freemason.

John Boys, D. D., Dean of Canterbury, gained great applause by turning the Lord's prayer into the following execration, when he preached at Paul's Cross on the 5th of November, in the reign of James I. "Our pope which art in Rome, cursed be thy name; perish may thy kingdom; hindered may thy will be, as it is in heaven, so in earth. Give us this day our cup in the Lord's Supper; and remit our monies which we have given for thy indulgencies, as we send them back unto thee; and lead us not into heresy; but free us from misery, for thine is the infernal pitch and sulphur, for ever and ever. Amen."