They used to declaim against the Puritans, and swear by his book, the "Basilicon Doron," praise him by lauding his hunting and his horsemanship, and called him the Solomon, "the light of the age."

Waller, the poet, relates the following anecdote: Bishop Andrews and Bishop Neal were standing behind the king's (Charles) chair as he sat at dinner on the day he dissolved his last parliament. He turned round and addressed the two prelates thus: "My Lords, cannot I take my subjects' money without all this formality of parliament." Bishop Neal (of Durham) readily answered, "God forbid, Sire, but you should; you are the breath of our nostrils." Whereupon the king turned and said to Andrews, (Bishop of Winchester,) " Well, my Lord, what say you?" Sire," replied the bishop, "I have no skill to judge of such parliamentary cases." The king answered, "No put-offs, my Lord; answer one presently." "Then, Sire," said he, "I think it is lawful for you to take my brother Neal's money, for he offers it." What a thing this is to relate! surely these men were scarcely sane!

The high English character had greatly declined. There was a Sir H. Lee, who was courtier or croucher, (for that is what he must have been,) who enjoyed the confidence of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Queens Mary and Elizabeth. He wrote the following axioms in his common-place book:

Great part of this is mere "serpentine prudence" or "columbine simplicity."

He would not, with a peremptory tone,
Assert the nose upon his face his own."

Now, reader, be pleased to peruse the following sensible, plain, and well-written petition. If that contained all the poor man's grievances, they were not many :

THE POOR MAN'S PETITION, WROTE 17TH APRIL, 1603.

TO BE PRESENTED TO KING JAMES ON HIS ARRIVAL AT THEOBALD'S PALACE.

Good King, let their be uniformities in true religion, without any disturbances.

Good King, let good preachers be provided for, and, without any bribery, come to their livings.

Good King, let poore souldiers be paide their wages; whilst they be well employed and well provided for when they be maymed.

Good King, let there not be such delaies and craftie proceedinges in the lawes, and let lawiers have moderate

fees. A p-x take the proude, covetuous attornes and merciless lawiers !

Good King, let no man have more offices than one, especiallie in the cases touching the lawe.

Good King, let poore suitors be hard (heard) quietlie and with speede, and dispatched favorablie.

Good King, let ordinarie causes be determined in the ordinarie courts, and let not the chauncerie be made a common shifting-place to prolonge causes for private gaine. Good King, cut off the paltry licenses and all monoplies. Fye upon all close-byting knaveries!

Good King, suffer not great ordonances to be carriede out of the Realme to the enemies, as it hath beene. A plague upon all covetuous, gryping treasurers!

Good King, looke to thy takers and officers of this house, and to their exceeding fees, that pule and powle thy princely allowance.

Good King, let us not be oppressed with so many impositions, powlays, and paisments.

Good King, make not the Lord of Lincoln Duke of Shoreditch, for he is a

Good King, make not Sir Walter Raleigh Earl of Pancrass,

for he is a

Good King, love us, and we will love thee, and will spend our last blood for thee.

The king arrived at Theobald's Palace May 3d.*

ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.

"Such was its simplicity, and each element so responsive to the natural speech of the human heart, that I conceive its Anglo-Saxon founders never dreamed of putting it into writing."-JOHN CARTtwright.

THERE can be only a few of my readers who do not know that, by the laws of England, the people are governed by a king, an hereditary house of lords, and a house of commons, and that such has been the case for more than a thousand years; except during the time of the commonwealth, after they had * From a MS. in Exeter Cathedral.

chopped off the head of the king and abolished the house of lords. The proceedings of those few years so sickened the people by their fanaticism, tyranny, peculation, corruption, and robbery, that they gladly took back the king's son and the house of lords.

Although there never was a written Constitution like the American one, yet its leading principles were all well known: only those parts of it, however, were regarded which suited the various parties that were in power. And so it will ever be in all countries, without the most constant vigilance on the part of the people!

Dr. Wiseman states, "It is singular that we have a letter addressed by one of the oldest popes anterior to the Norman Conquest of 1066, saying the constitution of government of all the other nations of Europe are less perfect than that of England, because they are based on the Theodosian code, (Theodosius died 393,) originally a heathen code; while the constitution of England has drawn its forms and provisions from Christianity, and received its principles from the church."

The author of "Europe during the Middle Ages" states that "mutual responsibility pervaded the whole Saxon period. The laws of Ethelbert, King of Kent, (862,) are the oldest laws descended down to us. The laws of Withred (from 694 to 725) were passed during the first five years of his reign, amid a concourse of clergy, headed by Breathwald, Archbishop of Canterbury: they partake more of an ecclesiastical than a temporal character. Alfred's laws (872) were derived partly from the unwritten collections, and partly from the observances of the people, and partly from the Book of Exodus. The laws of Edward the Confessor (from 1042 to 1066) exhibit an improvement in the social principles of combination; also a great advance in the principles of feudality: but as yet there was no uniformity."

During the last sixty years there has been great efforts made by some of the best men of that period to obtain a reform in the elections of the commons' house of parliament; while those in power (as crafty as the rogue who, while running away, calls out the most lustily, stop thief!) cried out against innovation. Mr. Cobbett, in a lecture at Manchester in 1831, notices this cry of the corrupt, and stated that he finds the old institutions to be sixteen in number, viz. :

1. The common law of England.

2. An hereditary king, having well-known powers and prerogatives.

3. An hereditary peerage, with titles and privileges, and certain legislative and judicial powers.

4. A house of commons, chosen by the people; and in the choice of whom the peers are forbidden to interfere.

5. A court of chancery, having a chancellor at the head of it, appointed by the king.

6. Three courts of law, the judges of which are appointed by the king.

7. Juries, to try causes and accusations under the advise and assistance of the judges.

8. Courts of quarter sessions, and petty sessions, and justices of the peace.

9. Mayors and magistrates, to administer justice in cities and towns.

10. Sheriffs, to impanel jurors, and to execute the writs and other legal commands of the judges and justices.

11. Coroners, to examine sudden and accidental deaths of any of the people.

12. Constables, to obey the judges and justices in the performance of acts necessary to the keeping of the peace and the execution of justice.

13. Manorial lordships, having in most cases the power of appointing constables, and other petty officers for keeping the

peace.

14. Jails, for the purpose of enabling the sheriff to keep safe the criminals committed to his charge.

15. Parish stocks, for the punishment of petty offenders. 16. A church established by law, having a ritual also established by law.

Among the benevolences of former times there were briefs granted in case of fires: the modern system of insurance has superseded them. These briefs were read in churches, and the collections were handed over to the sufferers,

In the reign of Edward I. there were briefs for the repairs of London Bridge.

There is a custom founded on the 21st chap. of Exodus, v. 28, called a Deodand, from Deo dandum, (given to God.)

"What moves to death, or killed the dead,

Is deodand, and forfeited,"

A penalty is laid, or the thing itself is forfeited to charitable purposes, which takes away any person's life. This cautionary law makes people careful. There was a fine of £1500 laid upon the boilers of the steamer Victoría, which blew up at Hull about four years past. This is one of the duties of the coroner's office.

Such may be said to be the constitution of England, under

which system she has become what she now is; but under it she has also been great and happy.

During the commonwealth there were a few changes for the better, and some much for the worse. Some I have alluded to, in speaking of Judge Hale. In 1655 special juries were first introduced, which seem to have been occasioned by the want of more information in mercantile concerns than ordinary juries possessed; and there were also some regulations about granting

new trials.

TORTURE.

"Power unjustly obtained never is of long duration."-SENECA.

MR. JARDINE, in his excellent work on the use of "Criminal Torture in England," states the last instance of it was in 1640. It began under Henry VIII. Fifty-six warrants were issued for the application of the bloody rack from Edward VI.'s reign to Charles I. ; yet against all the well-known laws, and contrary to an express provision of magna charta. It was applied as the king's prerogative.

The following is the description of the court of star chamber, by Lord Bacon: "This court of star chamber is compounded of good elements, for it consisted of four kinds of personscounsellors, peers, prelates, and chief judges. It descendeth also to four kinds of causes-forces, frauds, crimes, various stellionates, (cheating,) and the inchoations of middle acts toward crimes, capital or heinous, not actually committed or perpetuated." Here was no trial by jury nor trial by a man's peers, which was guarantied by magna charta as every Englishman's birth-right. God preserve us all from such "good elements," say I. It was a horrible den of persecution and robbery, admirably suited to the capacities of the "four kinds of persons," who,

"As dogs that fight about a bone,

Will play together where there's none."

In 1688, when they had what they used to brag about, a "glorious revolution," which merely brought a new family to reign over them, they had the Bill of Rights, which Paine describes with the following biting sarcasm: "What is it but a bargain which the parts of the government made with each other, to divide powers, profits, and privileges? You shall have

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