and other misdemeanours, that were not by common law provided against; but happily for future ages, the power and jurisdiction of this tyrannical authority was absolutely abolished by statute 17th of Charles. It is indeed extolled by Lord Bacon, who styles the statute for the erection of this most despotic court a good law." And in like manner, Sir T. Smith, in his Commonwealth of England," advances in its defence," that it was useful to govern those who were too stout for the ordinary courts of justice."

BOARD OF GREEN CLOTH.

This Board, which takes cognizance of all matters of court etiquette, from the shape of a buckle to the cut of a petticoat, takes its name from even a more simple circumstance than the preceding, viz. from the table, where the most puissant council sit, being covered with green cloth!

COURT OF PIE POUDRE.

This is the lowest, and at the same time the most expeditions (as the title implies) court in the kingdom. It is said to be called the court of pie poudre, curia pedis pulverizati, from the dusty feet of the suitors; or, as Sir Edward Coke says, because justice is there done as speedily as dust can fall from the feet: but Blackstone, who says thus much of this court, inclines to the opinion of Daines Barrington, who derives it from pied puldreaux (a pedlar in old French), and says, it signifies, therefore, the court of such petty chapmen as resort to fairs or markets. Fosbroke says-Courts similar to pie poudre courts were usual both with Greeks and Romans, who introduced fairs into Germany and the North.

TURNPIKES.

Turnpikes were first instituted in 1267, by a grant of one penny for each waggon passing through a certain manor.

WAR WITH FRANCE.

"Peace be to France, if France in peace permit,
The lineal heritance to our own; if not,

Bleed France, and peace ascend to Heaven!"

Shakspeare.

When the fair were accustomed to behold their lovers with beards, the sight of a shaved chin excited sentiments of horror and aversion; as much indeed as, in this effeminate age, would a gallant whose hairy excrescence should

"Stream like a meteor to the troubled air."

To obey the injunctions of his bishops, Louis the Seventh, of France, cropped his hair, and shaved his beard. Eleanor of Acquitaine, his consort, found him, some little time after their marriage, with this uncommon appearance, very ridiculous, and very contemptible; and told him, that when she married him she thought she had married a man, not a monk. She revenged herself, by becoming something more than a coquette. The king obtained a divorce. She then married the Count of Anjou, who shortly after ascended the English throne. She gave him for her marriage dower the rich provinces of Poitou and Guienne; and this was the origin

* Henry 2d.

of those wars which for three hundred years ravaged France, and which cost the French nation three millions of men. All which probably had never taken place had Louis 7th not been so rash as to crop his hair and shave his beard, by which he disgusted the fair Eleanor.

THE AMERICAN WAR.

The impost on stamps, or, in other words, the Stamp Act, may be said to have originated this unnatural and impolitic war, and which commenced at Lexington in 1775. The following is a specimen of the feeling which animated the Americans at that day.

When Patrick Henry, who gave the first impulse to the ball of the American revolution, introduced his celebrated resolution on the Stamp Act, in the House of Burgesses of Virginia, he exclaimed, when descanting on the tyranny of the obnoxious act, "Cæsar had his Brutus; Charles the First his Cromwell; and George the Third- ""Treason!" cried the Speaker. "Treason, Treason!!" echoed from every part of the house. It was one of those trying moments which are decisive of character. Henry faultered not for an instant; but rising to a loftier attitude, and fixing on the Speaker an eye flashing with fire, exclaimed, " may profit by their example. If this be treason make the best of it!"

It is said, that George the Third manifested an unbecoming impatience relative to the declaration of war against the Americans; and that when the American Commissioners for the peace were presented to him, he said, "I have been the last man in my dominions to accede to this peace, which separates America from my kingdom. I will be the first man, now that it is made, to resist any attempt to impugn it."

LOTTERIES.

"In the lottery of life should dame fortune beguile,
From this maxim divert not your eyes;

That, however the goddess may simper and smile,
She has always two blanks to a prize."

The first lottery is said to have been drawn A. D. 1569. It consisted of 400,000 lots, at ten shillings each lot; the prizes were plate, and the profits were to go towards repairing the havens of the kingdom. It was drawn at the west door of St. Paul's Cathedral. The drawing began on the 11th January, 1569, and continued incessantly drawing, day and night, till the 6th May following, as Maitland, from Stowe, informs us in his History, vol. i. p. 257. There were then only three lottery offices in London. The proposals for this lottery were published in the years 1567 and 1568. It was at first intended to have been drawn at the house of Mr. Dericke, her Majesty's servant (i. e. jeweller), but was afterwards drawn as above mentioned.

NATIONAL DEBT.

This national burden takes its origin, or data, from the reign of Henry 7th, when it was 14301.* At this period, in the reign of George 4th, it is 800,000,0001. !

See Value of Money,

FRANKING LETTERS.

In the 23d volume of the Parliamentary History is the following very curious anecdote concerning this privilege. It occurred in the debate on the Post Office bill, in the year 1660.

"Colonel Titus reported the bill for the settlement of the post office, with the amendments. Sir Walter Earle delivered a proviso, for the letters of all members of parliament to go free during their sitting. Sir Heneage Finch said,' It was a poor mendicant proviso, and below the honour of the House.' Mr. Prynn spoke also against the proviso. Mr. Bunckley, Mr. Boscawen, Sir George Downing, and Serjeant Charlton, for it; the latter saying, the counsels' letters were free. The question being called for, the Speaker, Sir Harbottle Grimstone, was unwilling to put it, saying he was ashamed of it: nevertheless, the proviso was carried, and made part of the bill, which was ordered to be engrossed. The Lords subsequently disagreed to this proviso, and it was ultimately thrown out. At a subsequent period, however, both Houses did not feel it to be below their honour to secure for themselves this exemption from postage." -Parliamentary History.

REPORTING OF PARLIAMENTARY SPEECHES.

Woodfall, the printer of the Morning Chronicle, was the man with whom this custom originated, and that paper was the first in whose columns those reports first appeared. He was to be seen every night in the gallery of the House of Commons, with his cane head in his mouth, never varying his posture, and never taking a note; and yet the following day reporting the speeches without the loss of a single word, though perhaps he would call at the theatre in his way home to see a new farce, or a new performer, for his criticism; and yet his memory disposed of such various gleanings without the least confusion, or any apparent technical help. What an enviable talent!

SECTION VII.

HERALDRY, TITLES AND DIGNITIES, VARIOUS ORDERS AND INSIGNIA, ORIGIN OF VARIOUS ROYAL AND NOBLE FAMILIES, CHRISTIAN NAMES, &c.

HERALDRY.

The late Lord Courtney, who was of one of the oldest families in Great Britain, having married a Miss Clack, who was much inferior in point of birth, a conversation took place (at which the late Bishop of Exeter was present) on the disparity of the connexion. "What is your objection?" said the bishop to a lady, who took the principal in the conversation. "Want of family, my Lord." "Want of family!" echoed the bishop. 'Why, I'll prove her of better family than his Lordship's. He may, perhaps, trace his family as far back

66

as the conquest, but the family of the Clacks are as old as Eve!"So, reader, it may almost be said of Heraldry, the true origin of which is lost in the mazes of antiquity.

In a small work, published in 1721, entitled The British Compendium or Rudiments of Honour, is the following passage :-" Abel, the second son of Adam, bore his father's coat quartered, with that of his mother Eve, she being an heiress, viz. gules and argent; and Joseph's coat was party-per-pale, argent and gules."

We are also informed by Gerard Leigh, one of the oldest writers upon heraldry, that Jesus Christ was a gentleman of great lineage and King of the Jews. We are also told, that Michael is at the head of the order of archangels, and that his ensign is a banner hanging on a cross, and he is armed as victory, with a dart in one hand, and a cross on his forehead, or the top of his head; archangels being distinguished from angels by that sign. Usually, however, he is painted in coat armour, in a glory, with a dart, throwing Lucifer headlong into a flame of fire and brimstone.

"There remained," says a distinguished herald, "still in heaven, after the fall of Lucifer, the bright star, and his company, more angels than there ever was, is, and shall be men born in the earth, which God ranked into nine orders, or chorus, called the nine quoirs of holy angels."*

To sum up, it may be said, that heraldry came first into general use about the year 1100. As regards crests, the assumption of them took its data from Edward the Black Prince, assuming the device of the blind king of Bohemia, who was slain at the battle of Crecy. Prior to that period, they were only allowable by grant. Another writer says, 66 Harry, surnamed the Fowler, Emperor of the West, who regulated the tournaments in Germany, was the first who intro. duced those marks of honour, Armouries, or Coats of Arms. Before that time we find nothing upon ancient tombs but crosses, with Gothic inscriptions, and decorations of persons entombed. The time of Clement 4th, who died A. D. 1268, is the first whereon we find any arms; nor do they appear struck upon any coins before the year 1336. Camden refers the origin of hereditary arms in England to the time of the first Norman kings. Chronology says, coats of arms and heraldry were introduced in 1100, and that the arms of England and France were first quartered by Edward 3d, 1358."

HERALDS.

In the days of chivalry, the principal employment of the herald was to carry messages of defiance, or proposals of peace, from one sovereign prince or chieftain to another; and in such high esteem was the office held, that the senior heralds were styled kings, and the sovereign himself vested them with the dignity by pouring a gold cup of wine on their heads, and proclaiming their style and title. In modern times, the principal business of the herald is to proclaim peace and war, to superintend all royal and state ceremonies, particularly coronations, and the installations of the knights of different orders; to arrange public funerals, to record and emblazon the arms of the nobility and gentry, and check all spurious assumptions in this respect.-The Cabinet Lawyer.

* Holme.

HERALDS' COLLEGE.

The Heralds of England were first incorporated by Richard 3d, who gave them a magnificent mansion for their college. The Earl Marshal of England is superior for their college, and has the right of appointing the members of which it consists: namely, three Kings at Arms, eight Heralds at Arms, and four Pursuivants at Arms.

The Kings are, Garter, Clarencieux, and Norroy. Garter was instituted by Henry 5th, for the service of the order of the Garter, and is acknowledged as principal King at Arms. Clarencieux, and Norroy, are called provincial kings, the former having jurisdiction over that part of England south of the Trent, and the latter over the country north of that river. The distinguishing colour of Garter is blue; of the two provincial kings, purple.

The eight heralds are styled, of York, Lancaster, Cheshire, Windsor, Richmond, Somerset, Hanover, and Gloucester, who rank according to seniority of appointment.

The four Pursuivants are blue-mantle, rouge-croix, rouge-dragon, and port-culles.

A building has been lately erected for the Heralds' College, near Charing Cross, and on the first Thursday of every month a chapter is held, in which heraldic matters are discussed.-Ibid.

PEERDOM.

Peerdom is thus defined by Bailey-The dignity of a peer annexed to a great fee. Of late years, we believe, it has been customary to take a great fee from the Peer.

ST. GEORGE AS PATRON SAINT OF ENGLAND.

"St. George he was for England, St. Dennis was for France.
Sing, Honi soit qui mal y' pense.

St. George was chosen the tutelar Saint of England by our ancestors, under the first Norman kings; and the Council of Oxford, in 1822, commanded his feast to be kept a holiday of the lesser rank. Under his name and ensign our Edward the Third instituted the Order of the Garter. Butler informs us, that St. George was born in Cappadocia; that he went with his mother into Palestine, of which country she was a native, where she had a considerable estate, which fell to her son George, who was a soldier, and became a tribune or colonel in the army, wherein he was further promoted by the Emperor Dioclesian, to whom he resigned his commissions and posts, when that empire waged war against the Christian religion, and who threw him into prison for remonstrating against bloody edicts, and caused him to be beheaded. Butler also says, St. George became the patron of the military because he had been military himself, and that his apparition encouraged the Christian army before Antioch, which proved fortunate under Godfrey of Bouillon. There are many idle tales about the dragon, but this was no more than an emblematical figure, purporting, that by his faith and Christian fortitude, he conquered the devil, called the dragon in Apocalypse.

ST. DENNIS, PATRON SAINT OF FRANCE.

"St. Denys had his head cut off, he did not care for that, He took it up and carried it two miles without his hat."

All that we learn of St. Dennis, or St. Denys, is, that he was