HONESTY THE BEST POLICY.

A young Woman who was in service, at a large Inn, in Yorkshire, observed a Traveller drop from his pocket-book, a banknote, she picked it up, and consulted with her fellow servants whether she should return it to the owner. They laughed at her scruples and told her to keep it, which, alas! she consented to do. In the course of time, she was well settled in the world, having married a respectable tradesman; and she had forgotten that she had ever been a thief. But after she had been married a few years, she fell into a deep decline. In this state she was awakened to a sense of her sins. She became, through grace, a sincere penitent, and was deeply impressed with the value of true religion. She sometimes felt its comforts, and enjoyed something of that peace of God, which passeth all understanding. These happy seasons, however, were only like the early dew, and it was not till after her death, that the Clergyman who visited her, found out the cause of that gloom and sadness, which so often sat upon her dying countenance, and disquieted her spirit. To a friend she had told the cause, in an agony of grief. It was having taken the Bank-note, which she had found on the floor. She would willingly have given fifty times its value to have found out the Traveller, that it might be restored, but in vain; he was wholly unknown. This thought preyed upon her mind most severely at times, and in a great measure embittered her last hours. Let my young readers learn from this, the value of honest principle. Oh, tremble lest you be tempted for a little paltry gain to turn conscience into an enemy, to vex and harass you, both living and dying.

You may see money lying about, and drawers left open, and many opportunities to pilfer, but remember that God's eye is upon you, and "be sure your sin will find you out," in one way or other. And ever remember that a desire, an effort to make restitution where you have done wrong, is a necessary part of true repentance.

TRIAL AND MARTYRDOM OF KING CHARLES

THE FIRST.

The demeanour of Charles on this most dreadful occasion was such as to elicit the admiration even of his enemies. When he was first brought before the so-called high court of justice sitting in Westminster Hall, he looked upon them with a stern air, yet without any manifestation of trouble, and took the seat assigned to him in full front of his judges. When the indictment was read, and the King was desired by the president to plead, he at once refused to do so. Without any alteration of countenance, or hesitation of manner, he desired to know by what authority they presumed by force to bring him before them? and who gave them power to judge of his actions? He told them that he was their lawful King, and they his subjects, who owed him duty and obedience; and that he would not so much betray himself and his royal dignity as to answer any thing they objected against him, which were to acknowledge their authority; though he believed that every one of themselves, as well as the spectators, did in their conscience absolve him from all the material things which were objected against him.

An irrepressible murmur of approval run through the assembly; and the soldiers and officers were scarcely able to keep order in the court: indeed, several incidents occured on that memorable day, which showed how harshly the whole proceeding grated on the feelings even of those who had before been enemies to the King. When the name of Lord Fairfax was called over amongst the list of Judges, a loud voice was heard to answer, "he has more wit than to be here." In fact, Fairfax had refused to take any part in the trial, and used the small power which was left to him to prevent its fatal issue. When the impeachment was read, in which it was said that the suit was instituted "in behalf of the good people of England," the same voice exclaimed, in a still louder tone, "No, nor the hundredth part of them! it is false !Cromwell is a traitor!" upon which one of the officers bade the soldiers fire into the box whence those presumptuous words were uttered; but it was quickly discerned that it was the general's

wife, the Lady Fairfax, who had uttered both those sharp sayings; and she was presently persuaded or forced to leave the place, to prevent any new disorder. But the words which she dared to utter expressed the general sense. The spectators in the galleries gave vent by their murmurs and exclamatious to their excited feelings even the people offered up prayers for the king's preservation, and their generous tears expressed their returning love for him. But their sympathy came too late. Cromwell's brutal and fanatical soldiers, armed with partisans and halberts, repressed the feeling of the multitude; and, being instigated by bribes, or urged to madness by their fanatical preachers, cried out "justice! justice !"-a name, alas! how often perverted to the vilest uses of treason and delusion!

Three times was the King brought before this mock-tribunal, and as often declined their jurisdiction. On the fourth day, after a few witnesses had been examined, who proved that they had seen him at the head of his army at Edgehill, Naseby, and other places, for this was the amount of the charge brought against him, sentence of death was passed. During the whole of these trying scenes, his behaviour was such as does honour to his memory as a King and as a Christian. Firm and fearless, he maintained in each reply the utmost perspicuity of thought and expression; mild and equable, he rose into no passion or overexcitement: his soul, without effort or affectation, maintained a perfect self-possession, and seemed to look down with pity on all the attempts of human malice and iniquity; nay, when subjected to the vilest indignities, as he was led through the ranks of soldiers, he calmly submitted to insult without one passionate word or murmur.

On the sad particulars of his execution we will not dwell at large; suffice it to say, that his soul being prepared, not merely by the religious exercises of a few days, but by the devotion of many years spent in self-denial and obedience to God's laws, he met his death with the holy fortitude which became a Christian, but not without having first prayed to God for the forgiveness of his enemies, and having addressed to them many words most suitable to the times, and worthy of the remembrance of after ages;-"Now, sirs," said he, "believe it, you will never go right, nor God will never prosper you, until you give God His due, the King his due, that is, my successor,-and the people

their due. I am as much for them as any of you. You must give God His due, by regulating rightly His Church, according to the Scripture, which is now out of order: to set you in a way particularly now I cannot; but only this,―a national synod freely called, freely debated among themselves, must settle this, when every opinion is freely heard. For the King" [here he seems to have been interrupted or overcome by his feelings, and did not express himself fully]-" the laws of the land," he said, "will clearly instruct you for that...... For the people, truly I desire their liberty and freedom as much as any body whatsoever; but I must tell you that their liberty and freedom consist in having government,-in having those laws by which their lives and their goods may be most their own. It is not their having a share in the government, that is nothing appertaining to them." He then declared that he died a Christian, according to the profession of the Church of England; and, after a brief conversation with the excellent Bishop Juxon, who attended him with pious fidelity during his last hours, he calmly laid his head on the block; and a single stroke of the axe severed it rom his body!

At the instant when the blow was given, a dismal universal groan was uttered by the people, as if by one consent, such as was never before heard; and, had they not been dispersed by the soldiers, it is likely that there indignation would not then have ended. The same feeling of grief and dismay pervaded the whole city. Many persons closed their houses, and passed the day in fasting and prayer within their secret chambers, in hope to avert the wrath of God for their tremendous crime. A like sensation pervaded the whole land, as soon as the report was spread of this fatal execution. Every one looked on his neighbour with silent astonishment. Scotland itself repudiated, with indignation, all consent or participation in a deed to which she had but too much contributed. Even foreign nations, under whatever form of government, exclaimed, with one voice, against the enormous crime, and rejected the example with horror, as a most heinous insult on law and justice.

The murder of Charles has been rightly called a martyrdom. A martyr is one who dies for religion's sake; and such was unquestionably the cause of Charles's death. It was a sincere attachment to God's true apostolic Church which brought him to the scaffold. Charles believed the visible apostolic Church to be,