OAK-OAKUM. curious and ornamental, particularly one with pendulous branchlets (the Weeping Oak), and one with branches growing up close to the stem, as in some kinds of poplar. Among the Greeks and Romans, the oak was sacred to Zeus or Jupiter; and it has been connected with the religious observances of many nations, as of the ancient Celts and Germans. -The TURKEY OAK or ADRIATIC OAK (Q. cerris), now very frequently planted in Britain, is a large and valuable tree, very common in the south-east of Europe, and in some parts of Asia. The timber is imported in considerable quantity into Britain for ship-building and other purposes. The leaves differ from those of the common oak in their acute lobes, and the cups of the acorns are mossy, i. e., have long, loose, acute scales. Similar to this, in both these respects, are the AUSTRIAN OAK (Q. Austriaca), abundant near Vienna, and the SPANISH OAK (Q. Hispanica).—The CORK OAK or CORK-TREE (Q. suber) is noticed in the article CORK; the HOLM OAK or EVERGREEN OAK (Q. ilex), another of the species found in the south of Europe, in the article ILEX. Of the North American oaks, some are very valuable as timber trees. Perhaps the most important is the WHITE OAK (2. alba), an invaluable large tree, the leaves of which have a few rounded lobes. It is found from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada; and in some places forms the chief part of the forest. The timber is less compact than that of the British oak; that of young trees is very elastic.-The OVERCUP OAK, or BUR OAK (Q. macrocarpa), a middle-sized tree, having its acorns almost covered by their globnlar cup, grows chiefly in dry woods, along rivers, &c., in W. New England to Wisconsin and southwards.The CHESTNUT OAK (Q. prinus) is also a much-esteemed timber tree, common from Penna, southwards, -The SWAMP WHITE OAK (Q. discolor), a closely allied species, is probably merely a variety. The LIVE OAK (Q. virens), an evergreen species, with entire leathery leaves, is regarded as a tree of the first importance in the United States, from the excellence of its timber and its value for ship-building, so that efforts have been made by the government to protect it and to promote the planting of its acorns. Yet it is not a very large tree, being seldom more than forty-five feet in height, with a trunk of two feet in diameter. It grows on the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico, and as far north as Virginia. It once abounded on the Sea Islands, now so celebrated for their cotton.-The RED OAK (Q. rubra), a large tree, with sinuated and lobed leaves, the lobes toothed and bristle-pointed, yields great part of the Red Oak Staves exported from Canada and the north of the United States to the West Indies; but Red Oak Staves are also produced in the Middle and Southern States by the SCARLET OAK (Q. coccinea), a very similar species, by the BLACK OAK or QUERCITRON OAK (Q. tinctoria), another species with the lobes of the leaves somewhat toothed, better known for the dye-stuff which its bark yields (see QUERCITRON), and by the Willow Oak (Q. phellos), a large tree with lanceolate leaves and a willow-like aspect. The timber of all these species is of very inferior quality. These are the American oaks of greatest economical and commercial importance, but there are numerous other species, some of them trees, some mere shrubs, of which some grow on poor soils, and cover them in compact masses; resembling in this a single European species (Q. viminalis), a native of the Vosges, 6-8 feet high, with slender tough branches, which makes excellent hedges. The BLACK JACK (Q. nigra) is an American oak, chiefly notable for the abundance in which it grows on some of the poorest soils. It is a small tree, and its timber of little value. The bark is black. Some of the Nepaulese oaks are large and valuable trees, as are some of those of China and Japan, of Java, of Mexico, &c. The oaks of Java and the other Indian islands have generally the leaves quite entire. The bark of most of the species of oak is capable of being used for tanning, and is used in different countries. The cups and acorns of the VALONIA OAK (Q. Egilops) are exported from the Morea and other parts of the Levant, in great quantities, for this purpose, under the name of Valonia. See LEATHER. The tree resembles the Turkey Oak, and has very large hemispherical mossy cups. The cups are said to contain more tannin than any other vegetable substance.-Galls (q. v.) or Gall-nuts are in great part obtained from the oak therefore called the GALL-OAK (Q. infectoria), a scrubby bush, a native of Asia Minor, with bluntly serrated, ovate-oblong leaves.-The KERMES OAK (Q. coccifera), on the leaves of which the Kermes (q. v.) insect is found, is a low bush, with evergreen spinous leaves, much resembling a holly, a native of the south-east of Europe.-Of oaks with sweet and edible acorns, may be mentioned the BALLOTE OAK (Q. Ballota or Gramuntia), an evergreen with round spiny-toothed leaves, a native of the north of Africa, the acorns of which are regularly brought to market in Algeria and in Spain, and are long and cylindrical; the Italian Oak (Q. Esculus), closely allied to the common oak; and the DWARF CHESTNUT OAK (Q. chinquapin or prinoides) of North America, a small shrubby species, which has been specially recommended to cultivation on this account. Other North American species, and some of the Himalayan species, also produce edible acorns. From the acorns of some species, oil is made in considerable quantity in different parts of the world, and is used in cookery.-The leaves of the Manna Oak (Q. mannifera)-a native of the mountains of Kurdistan, having oblong, blunt-lobed leaves-secrete in hot weather a kind of manna, a sweet mucilaginous substance, which is made into sweetmeats, and very highly esteemed. The name Oak is sometimes popularly applied to timber trees of very different genera. Thus, AFRICAN OAK is another name of African Teak. See TEAK. Some of the species of Casuarina (q. v.) are called Oak in Australia. The STONE OAK (Lithocarpus Javenensis) of Java, so named from the extreme hardness of its timber, is a tree of the same family with the true oaks. OAK BEAUTY (Biston prodromaria), a moth of the family Geometrida, a native of England, about an inch and a half or two inches in expanse of wings; the upper wings with two brown curved bands, and margined with black, the lower wings with one brown band. The caterpillar feeds on the oak. OA'KHAM, the county-town of Rutlandshire, England, in the vale of Catmos, 25 miles westthe Syston and Peterborough branch of the Midnorth-west of Peterborough. It is a station on land Railway. In former times, there was a castle here; it is now in ruins, with the exception of the portion used as the county-hall. The church, the interior of which was beautifully restored in 1858, is an edifice of the perpendicular style, and has a fine tower and spire. The Free Grammar-school, with an annual endowment of about £700 a year, was founded in 1581. Pop. 2948. OA'KUM, a tangled mass of tarred hempen fibres, is made from old rope by untwisting the strands and rubbing the fibres free from each other. Its principal use is in Caulking (q. v.) the seams between planks, the space round rivets, bolts, &c., for the purpose of preventing water from penetrating OANNES-OASES. OANNES, the name of a Babylonian god, who, in the first year of the foundation of Babylon, is said to have come out of the Persian Gulf, or the old Erythræan Sea, adjoining Babylon. He is described as having the head and body of a fish, to which were added a human head and feet under the fish's head and at the tail. He lived amongst men during the daytime, without, however, taking any food, and retired at sunset to the sea, from which he had emerged. O. had a human voice, and instructed men in the use of letters, and in all the principal arts and sciences of civilisation, which he communicated to them. Such is the account of him preserved by Berosus and Apollodorus. Five such monsters are said to have come out of the Persian Gulf; one, called Anedotos or Idotion, in the reign of Amenon, the fourth king of Babylon; another in that of the fifth king; and the last, called Odacon (or Ho Dagon), apparently the Phoenician Dagon, under the sixth. Many figures of O., resembling that of a Triton, having the upper part of a man, and the lower of a fish, or as a man covered with a fish's body, have been found in the sculptures of Kouyunjik and Khorsabad, as well as on many cylinders and gems. O. is supposed to have symbolised the conquest of Babylonia by a more civilised nation coming in ships to the mouth of the Euphrates; but he is apparently a water-god, resembling in type and character the Phoenician Dagon, and the Greek Proteus and Triton. Oannes. Helladius, Apud Phot. Cod. 279, pp. 535, 34; Richter, De Beroso; Cory, Anc. Fragm. p. 30; 1 Sam.. v. 4; Bunsen, Egypt's Place, vol. i. p. 706; Layard, Nineveh, p. 343. Oar. The OAR, a wooden instrument by which a person sitting in a boat propels it d through the water. The form found in practice to combine greatest power with lightness, is that shewn in the figure. From a to b is the blade of the oar, thin and nearly flat, though occasionally somewhat curved, so as to present a concave C surface to the water; from b to d is round or square, gradually thickening towards d, that the part ce may nearly balance the part ac. At de is the handle, which is grasped by one or both hands oar rests at c on the row-lock, and in many cases some device is resorted to, to retain the oar from slipping outwards. In the 30 Thames, a leathern stop, called a button, is used; sometimes a pin in the gunwale of the boat passes through the oar (but this weakens the oar, and precludes feathering); at other times, the oar is fastened to the pin by a leathern thong. action of an oar in moving a boat is that of a lever, the rower's hand being the power, the water the fulcrum, against which the oar presses, and the row-lock the point at which the opposition caused by the weight of the boat and its cargo is felt. Feathering an oar consists in turning it, immediately on leaving the The vertical position must be resumed. Feathering diminishes the resistance offered by air, wind, and small waves; it also adds greatly to the beauty and grace of rowing. The best oars are of Norway fir, though some are made of ash and beech. O'ASES, certain cultivated spots in the Libyan desert (called also Auasis, Ouasis, or Hoasis) which produce vegetation, owing to the presence of springs issuing from the ground. The principal oases are those lying to the west of Egypt, a few days' journey from the Nile, and known to the ancients by the name of the Greater and Lesser Oases, and that of Ammon. It is supposed that they were known to the Egyptians during the 12th dynasty under the name of Suten-Khenn, but no evidence of their occupation by the Egyptians earlier than Darius has been found in situ. By some of the ancients they were called the Islands of the Blessed, or compared to the spots on a panther's skin. Their name is supposed to be the Coptic Ouahé (Inhabited Place). They are first mentioned by Herodotus in his account of the destruction of the army of Cambyses by the storm of sand, or simoom. Equally celebrated is the visit of Alexander the Great to the oasis, which he successfully accomplished after the conquest of Egypt, and passed through the desert a nine days' journey before he reached the Temple of Ammon, the priests of which declared him the son of that god, and the future conqueror of the entire world. Herodotus describes that of El Wah, or the Oasis Magna of the Romans, which contained the oracle of Ammon, and which lies seven days' journey west of Thebes. It appears to have been anciently frequented by caravans going to the Pillars of Hercules. Strabo mentions three oases: the first seven days' journey west of Abydos; the second, west of the Lake Moeris ; the third, near the oracle of Ammon. Pliny mentions two oases; so does Ptolemy, who calls them the Lesser and Greater. Under the Roman empire, they were used for temporary banishment of criminals of state, and the poet Juvenal was sent there. Olympiodorus, a native of the Thebaid, gives a glowing description of them in the days of Theodosius the Younger. Under the Byzantine emperors, water, so that the flat blade of the oar the emperors banished there the heads of the la horizontal, and in preserving this position until Catholic party, at the instigation of the Arians, in just before the fresh dip, when of course the the 4th c., and Athanasius himself is supposed 19 OASES-OAT. to have taken refuge in them. In the 5th c., originated. The oasis is nine miles broad and two Nestorius, the Bishop of Constantinople, was long, contains El Garah Gharmy, and Menchyeh, has banished there. He was rescued by an excursion a population of about 8000 inhabitants, possesses date of the Blemyes, but expired soon after his arrival and other trees, grows cereals, and has sulphurat the Nile. The oases were then a place of ous springs, a salt lake at Arachieh, and many desolation and horror, occasionally plundered by ruined temples, a necropolis, and other remains. Beduins. They fell, 913 A.D., into the power The oracle of Ammon is supposed to have been at a of the Arabs, after having been held by the place called Om-Beydah, or the temple of Nekht-herEgyptian monarchs and their successors till that hebi. From this, it would seem that the oasis did period; and they are described by Edrisi (1150 not fall into the power of Egypt till about the 5th A. D.) as uninhabited; by Abulfeda (1240 A. D.) and C. B. C. The celebrated Fountain of the Sun is at by Leo Africanus (1513 A.D.), as inhabited and Siwah Shargieh. It is 30 paces long, 20 broad, six cultivated, and quite independent, having three fathoms deep, with bubbles constantly rising to the fortresses. The first modern traveller who visited surface, steaming in the morning, and warmer at them is supposed to have been Poncet (1698 A. D.). night. Close to it are the remains of the sanctuary Subsequently, in 1792, Browne discovered the oasis of Ammon. 4. El Dakkel, or the Western Oasis, lies of Ammon at El Siwah; and it was visited in 1798 about 78 miles south-west of Siout. The principal by Hornemann, and in 1819 by Cailliaud. It lies in ruin at Dar-el-Hadjar consists of a small temple, 29° 12′ 20′′ N. lat., and 26° 6 9" E. long. Drovetti dedicated to Khnumis by the Roman emperors, and Minutoli also visited the same spot. Nero and Titus. At Ain Amoor, between this oasis and the Oasis Magna, is a temple built under the Roman empire.-Herodotus, iii. 26; Strabo, ii. p. 130, xvii. pp. 790, 791, 813; Ptolemy, iv. 5, 37; Minutoli, Reise zum Tempel des Jupiter Ammon (Berlin, 1824); Hoskins, Visit to the Great Oasis (Svo, Lond. 1837); Champollion, L'Egypte, p. 282. OAT, or OATS (Avēna), a genus of grasses, containing many species, among which are some valuable for the grain which they produce, and some useful for hay. The Linnæan genus Avena, less natural than most of the Linnæan genera, has been much broken up. The genus, as now restricted, has the spikelets in loose panicles, the glumes as long as the florets, and containing two or more florets; the pale firm, and almost cartilaginous, the outer palea of each floret, or of one or more of the florets, bearing on the back a knee-jointed awn, which is twisted at the base. The awn, however, tends to disappear, and often wholly disappears in cultivation. Those species which are cultivated as corn-plants have comparatively large spikelets and seeds, the spikelets-at least after flowering-pendulous. The native country of the cultivated oats is unknown, although most probably it is Central Asia. There is no reference, however, to the oat in the Old Testament; and although it was known to the Greeks, who called it Bromos, and to the Romans, it is probable that they derived their knowledge of it from the Celts, Germans, and other northern nations. It is a grain better suited to moist than to dry, and to cold than to warm climates, although it does not extend so far north as the coarse kinds of barley. The grain is either used in the form of Groats (q. v.) or made into meal. Oatmeal cakes and porridge form great part of the food of the peasantry of Scotland and of some other countries. No grain is so much esteemed for feeding horses. Besides a large quantity of starch-about 65 per cent.-and some sugar, gum, and oil, the grain of oats contains almost 20 per cent. of nitrogenous principles, or Proteine (q. v.) compounds, of which about 16 or 17 parts are Avenine, a substance very similar to Caseine (q. v.), and two or three parts gluten, the remainder albumen. The husk of oats is also nutritious, and is mixed with other food for horses, oxen, and sheep. From the starchy particles adhering to the husk or seeds after the separation of the grain, a light dish, called sowans, is made in Scotland by means of boiling water, was once very popular, and is very suitable for weak stomachs. The grain is sometimes mixed with barley for distillation. The Russian beverage called quass is made from onts. The straw of oats is very useful as fodder, bringing a higher price than any other kind of straw. The varieties of oats in cultivation are very These oases are now held by Muggrebi Arabs, a powerful race in the Desert, capable of raising 30,000 men, who supply camels and guides to travellers. The oases are four in number: 1. El Khargeh, or the Oasis Magna, the Greater Oasis of Ptolemy; 2. El Kasr, or Oasis Parva, the Lesser Oasis; 3. Siwah, or the Oasis of Ammon, the most northerly; 4. The Western Oasis, or Dakkel, mentioned by Olympiodorus, and visited by Sir Archibald Edmonstone in 1819. Of El Khargeh, full particulars have been given by M. Hoskins, who discovered it lying about 125 miles west of the Nile. having a stream of water rising near the village of Genah, on the north-west of the oasis, and lost in the sand. It is bounded on the cast by Hagel-belBadah. North of El Gem lies the metropolis, El Khargeh, which consists of a series of covered streets and open bazaars. The temple lies two hours' journey from it, in a fine situation; the sekos has a vestibule of 500 feet, with pylons, or gateways, the first of which has a decree in Greek, dated in the reign of Galba (68 A. D.), against forcing persons to farm the revenue, preventing imprisonment for debt, preserving the dowries of women, and limiting the office of strategos for three years. The temple has other decrees prevent ing the officers of government from smuggling. It has an avenue of sphinxes and three pylons; on the third, Darius is represented offering to Amen Ra, Osiris, and Isis; while Nekht-her-hebi (Nectabes) continued the ornaments of the temple about 414340 B. C. The sekos is 140 feet long, and represents Darius offering to Amen Ra, or Khnumis, the ramheaded god, and Osiris; while in the accompanying scenes are seen Anta, or Anaitis, Raspu, or Reseph. In the vicinity is a magnificent necropolis of 150 sepulchres, of a late period, with Doric and Corinthian capitals. There are several temples at other spots of the oases. 2. El Kasr, the Oasis Parva, lies four or five days' journey south-east of Siwah, called the Wah-el-Bahnasa, or Wah-el-Menesheh, contains no monuments older than the Roman, congisting of a triumphal arch, subterraneous and other aqueducts, several hot springs, a necropolis, and Christian church. This oasis was first conquered by the Arabs; and in its vicinity is another oasis called Wady Zerzoora, with others adjoining, of inferior interest. 3. Siwah, or the Oasis of Ammon-one of the first discovered, and repeatedly visited, has, unfortunately, not been seen by any one acquainted with hieroglyphics-lies west of the Natron Lakes. It would appear from Minutoli that the temple was built by Nekht-herhebi, or Nectabes I., in honour of the god Khnum, Ammon Khnumis or Chnebis, who, as the deity of water, presided over the water from which the oasis OAT-OATES. numerous, and some highly esteemed varieties are of which is cultivated in some northern countries of recent and well-known origin. It is doubtful if for meal, but which is more generally 1egarded by they really belong to more than one species; but farmers as a weed to be extirpated, springing up so the following are very generally distinguished as abundantly in some districts as to choke crops of species: 1. COMMON OAT (A. sativa), having a very better grain. Its awns have much of the hygro loose panicle, which spreads on all sides, and two or metrical property which gains for A. sterilis, a three fertile florets in each spikelet, the paleæ quite species found in the south of Europe, the name of smooth, not more than one floret awned; 2. TAR- the ANIMAL OAT, because the seeds when ripe and TARIAN OAT (A. orientalis), also called HUNGARIAN fallen on the ground resemble insects, and move OAT and SIBERIAN OAT, distinguished chiefly by about in an extraordinary manner through the having the panicle much more contracted, and all twisting and untwisting of the awns. The seed of turned to one side; 3. NAKED OAT (A. nuda), the WILD OAT has been sometimes used instead of differing from the Tartarian Oat chiefly in having an artificial fly for catching trout.-Amongst the the palese very slightly adherent to the seeds, which, species of oat useful not for their grain but for therefore, fall readily out of them, whilst in the fodder are the DowNY OAT-GRASS (A. pubescens) other kinds they adhere closely; 4. CHINESE OAT and YELLOW OAT-GRASS (A. flavescens), both referred (A. chinensis), which agrees with the last in the by some botanists to the genus Trisetum-the short characters of the pale and seeds, but is more like awn being like a middle tooth in the bifid palea— the Common Oat in its panicle, and has more and both natives of Britain, the former growing on numerous florets, 4-8, in the spikelet; 5. SHORT light ground and dry hills, especially where the OAT (A. brevis), which has a close panicle turned to soil is calcareous, the latter on light meadow lands. one side, the spikelets containing only one or two-Other species are found in Britain, continental florets, each floret awned, the grains short. Almost Europe, North America, Australia, &c. In some all the varieties of oat in cultivation belong to the parts of the Sahara are bottoms of ravines richly first and second of these species. The Naked productive of a species of oat-grass (A. Forskalii) Oat is cultivated in Austria, but is not much much relished by camels. esteemed. The Chinese Oat, said to have been brought by the Russians from the north of China, is prolific, but the grain is easily shaken out by winds. The Short Oat is cultivated as a grain-crop on poor soils at high elevations in the mountainous parts of France and Spain, ripening where other kinds do not; it is also cultivated in some parts of Europe as a forage plant.-Besides these, there is another kind of oat, the BRISTLEPOINTED OAT (A. strigosa), regarded by some botanists as belonging even to a distinct genus, Danthonia, because the lower palea is much prolonged, and instead of merely being bifid at the point, as in the other oats, is divided into two long teeth, extending into bristles. The panicle is inclined to one side, very little branched; the florets, 2 or 3 in a spikelet, all awned, the grain rather small. This plant is common in cornfields, is cultivated in many countries, but chiefly on poor soils, and was at one time much cultivated in Scotland, Wild Oat (Avena fatua). but is now scarcely to be seen as a crop.-Not unlike this, but with the panicle spreading equally on all sides, the outer palea merely bifid, and long hairs at the base of the glumes, is the WILD OAT (A. fatua), also frequent in cornfields, and a variety Far more ground is occupied with oats in Scotland than with any other grain. In all the higher districts, it is almost the only kind of grain which is cultivated. Throughout Scotland, it is the crop that is chiefly sown after land has been in pasture for one or more years. The seed is generally sown broadcast over the ploughed land, which is afterwards well harrowed and pulverised. It is of the utmost importance to have the latter operations well done, as it prevents the attacks of insect larvæ. On soils that are infested with annual weeds, such as charlock, it is common to drill the seed, which permits the land to be hand-hoed and thoroughly cleaned. Oats thrive best upon deep and rich soils, and yield but poorly on thin sandy soils, where they suffer sooner from drought than barley, rye, or wheat. On good soils, it is common to dress oats with 2 to 3 cwts. of guano to the acre. The plant is not easily injured by large applications of heterogeneous manures. The Potato Oat is a variety generally cultivated in the best soils and climates. It is an early and productive variety. Oats of every variety are most successfully grown in a cool and moist climate, and hence when raised in the Eastern and Northern United States decline in value annually. New varieties are constantly introduced from the North under various names, such as the Norwegian, Excelsior, Swedish, Probsteier, &c., which prove more productive for a few seasons, but eventually decline in value. In America and on the continent of Europe, this grain is seldom seen of quality equal to that produced in Scotland; and even in most parts of England the climate is less suitable to it, and it is less plump and rich. OATES (alias AMBROSE), TITUS, was the son of a ribbon weaver, who, having first become an Anabaptist minister under Cromwell, took orders and a benefice in the English Church after the Restora tion. Titus appears to have been born about 1620 in London. He was a pupil of Merchant Taylors' School, whence he passed to Trinity College, Cambridge, took orders, and received a small living from the Duke of Norfolk. This position, however, he forfeited, in consequence of a malicious prosecu tion, in which he narrowly escaped conviction for perjury; and having been afterwards appointed to the chaplaincy of one of the king's ships, he was expelled from it on a charge still more disgraceful In this extremity, he conformed to the Roman Catholic Church, and was admitted as a scholar of OATES. unquestioning reception in evidence of the grossest and most manifest perjuries; and many innocent Roman Catholic gentlemen died the death of traitors at the block. Over the space of two years, the base success of O. was signalised by a series of judicial murders. Naturally, however, as reason resumed its sway, doubts began to be felt; and on the execution of a venerable and respected nobleman, Viscount Stafford, with a strong shock of pity and remorse, public suspicion awoke, and a violent reaction set in. It was only, however, on the accession of James II. in 1685 that retribution overtook the malefactor. Active steps against him were then taken. He was tried before the Court of King's Bench, convicted of perjury, and sentenced to be pilloried, whipped at the cart's tail, and afterwards the Jesuits' College at Valladolid; but was expelled judges and juries vying with each other in their for misconduct, after a trial of a few months. He was again received by the Jesuits, on his earnest protestations of repentance, at St Omer, where he was no less unsuccessful, and was finally dismissed by them in the early part of 1678. He now, as a mere vagabond adventurer, set himself to live by his wits, in the evil exercise of which he devised, about this time, the atrocious scheme with which his name is identified in history. Just then, great excitement and alarm pervaded the Protestant party in England. It was well known that Charles was at heart a Roman Catholic; and his brother, the Duke of York, afterwards James II., was an active and avowed zealot on the same side. The growing confidence of the Roman Catholics was unconcealed; and with or without instant reason, the cry so often since heard arose, and was everywhere re-echoed, that the 'Protestant religion was in danger.' In this fevered state of general feeling, O. saw his opportunity, and dexterously and boldly availed himself of it. He communicated to the authorities the details of a pretended plot, the figment of his own brain, the main elements of which were a rising of the Catholic party, a general massacre of Protestants, the burning of the city of London, the assassination of the king, and the invasion of Ireland by a French army. In certain of its items, the fiction was devised with considerable ingenuity to catch the popular belief. By the strangest coincidence, moreover, there just then occurred in aid of it a series of events which seemed conclusively to attest its genuineness. A correspondence, the object of which was the propagation of the Roman Catholic religion, came to light between the secretary of the Duke of York and Père La Chaise, the confessor and confidant of Louis XIV. Danby, the prime minister, it also appeared, had been busy with intrigues in the same quarter. Finally, Godfrey, the zealous magistrate through whom publicity was first given to the plot,' was found mysteriously murdered. After this, could reasonable doubt exist? Was not the English St Bartholomew already begun? All London went wild with fear and rage; and it seemed at one time likely that a massacre of Roman Catholics would be substituted for the dreaded extermination of the Protestants. The parliament, which might have done something to allay the excitement, was itself swept headlong away by it. The king alone, whose life was threatened, but who, dissolute and indolent as he was, wanted neither courage nor shrewdness, much to his honour, scornfully insisted that the plot was merely some insane delusion, and tried, so far as he could, to control the excesses which followed. Too probably, his interference was of the characteristically easy, insouciant kind; in any case, it did not avail. The story of O. was universally believed; and he became the popular hero of the day. A pension of £900 a year was granted him; a suite of apartments in the palace at Whitehall was set apart as sacred to his use; and wherever he went, the Protestant public wildly cheered him as their saviour. With the aid of a set of suborned ruffians, only one degree less foul than himself, convictions of his victims were readily obtained, Oates in the Pillory.-From a Contemporary Print. imprisoned for life. We might wonder a little at the leniency of the sentence, were it not thus to be explained: it was intended that the severity of the first two items of punishment should render the last one superfluous, and that the wretch should die under the lash of the executioner. But the hide of O. was beyond calculation tough; and horribly lacerated, yet living, his carcass was conveyed to the prison, from which it was meant never more to issue. Very strangely, however, the next turn of the political wheel brought back the monster to the light of day and to prosperity. When the revolution of 1688 placed William on the throne, the Protestant influence triumphed once |