The citadel of Boodroom, which is generally agreed to occupy the place of the ancient Halicarnassus, is supposed to contain many valuable remains of ancient sculpture, hitherto preserved with the greatest circumspection from the eyes of Europeans. On this subject Mr. Beaufort furnishes the following anecdote:-"Some years ago, a French frigate, being at Boodroom, the commander expressed a great desire to see the marbles in the fortress; but the then governor absolutely refused to admit him without direct orders from the Porte. The commander had interest; the ambassador was set to work; and in a short time the frigate returned, bearing the necessary ferman. The governor put it to his forehead, in acknowledgment of its authority, and declared his readiness to proceed. Arrived at the outer gate, Effendy, said the governor, "the orders of my imperial master must be implicitly obeyed." "Let me in then," exclaimed the impatient captain. "Undoubtedly," replied the Turk, " for so I am enjoined to do by the ferman; but as it contains no directions about your coming out again, you will perhaps forgive this momentary pause, before we pass the draw-bridge." The French commandant, not choosing to put such dangerous irony to the test, departed.

George I.

1

Among the few individuals who had retained under the new reign the places that they held or occupied about Queen Anne was Dr. Younger, Dean

of Salisbury. Anticipating the change of sovereigns, he had applied with such success to render himself master of the German language, that he was continued in the office of Clerk of the Closet, which gave him great access to the King, behind whose chair he usually stood at chapel. With Younger His Majesty often talked during the service, a circumstance which, as being indecorous, naturally excited much offence. Lord Townsend, then one of the secretaries of state, animated by a sense of loyal affection, ventured to acquaint him that his deportment at chapel gave cause of regret, mingled with animadversion, to many of his most attached subjects; beseeching him at the same time particularly to abstain from conversing with Dr. Younger. Far from resenting the freedom taken with him, His Majesty promised amendment, and Lord Townsend strongly enjoined the Clerk of the Closet to observe in future the most decorous behaviour on his part. Finding, however, that they resumed or continued the same practice, Lord Townsend sent Younger a positive order, as secretary of state, directing him, without presuming to present himself again in the royal presence, to repair immediately to his deanery. Dr. Younger, conceiving the injunction to proceed from the King, obeyed without remonstrance or delay; and the secretary, waiting on His Majesty, informed him that the Dean had received a kick from a horse which fractured his skull, of which accident he was dead. George I. expressed the deepest concern at his loss, and never entertained the most remote idea of the deception which had been practised on him. Several years afterwards, before which time Lord Townsend had quitted his employment, the King going down to review some regiments that were encamped on Salisbury Plain, the Bishop and Chapter of that city had the honour to be presented to him, and to kiss his hand. But when Younger approached for the purpose, His Majesty, overcome with amazement at beholding again a man whom he had long considered as no more, could scarcely restrain his emotions. As soon, however, as circumstances permitted, he sent for the Dean into his presence, and a mutual explanation took place. Conscious of the rectitude and propriety of the motives which had actuated Lord Townsend in his conduct, he never expressed any sentiment of anger or of resentment: but contented himself with promising Younger to confer on him a mitre, as soon as an occasion should present itself; an assurance which he would have probably realized, if the Dean had not shortly afterwards been carried off by death.-Wraxall's Historical Memoirs..

The King.

Dr. Lettsom has left us the following character of our present afflicted monarch: "We are apt to talk much of the King, as if we were familiar with him; but of all men in the kingdom I think he is the least known; from the little knowledge I possess of him I believe him to be one of the best informed men in Europe. In speaking German and French he has no hesitation, and he is the finest reader I ever heard. In philosophy, mathematics, mechanics, and in the higher sciences, I doubt whether any character living can claim such a happy combination. He is friendly to his inferiors, and kind to his servants and domestics; and if Heaven grant him health, the great political interests of the country will be safe."

"Burke's Character of William the Conqueror.

"He had a body suited to the character of his mind; erect, firm, large, and active: a countenance stern, and which became command. Magnificent in his living, reserved in his conversation, grave in his common deportment, but relaxing with a wise facetiousness, he knew how to relieve his mind and preserve his dignity; for he never forfeited by a personal acquaintance the esteem which he had acquired by his great actions. Unlearned in books, he formed his understanding by the rigid discipline of a large and complicated experience. He knew men much, and therefore trusted them but little; but when he knew any man to be good he reposed in him an entire confidence, which prevented his prudence from degenerating into a vice. He had vices in his composition, and great ones: but they were the vices of a great mind; ambition, the malady of every extensive genius; and avarice, the madness of the wise; one chiefly actuated his youth, the other governed his age. The vices of young and light minds, the joys of wine and the pleasures of love, never reached his aspiring nature.

Introduction of Christianity into Northumbria.

Edwin, King of Northumbria, married Ethelburga the daughter of Ethelbert, King of Kent; and, previous to the marriage, he pledged himself not to molest that lady and her attendants in the observance of their religion, and even held out a hope that he would embrace it himself. Accordingly, when Ethelburga arrived at the court of Edwin, in 625, she was accompanied by Paulinus, a minister who had laboured twenty-four years in Kent, and who came with the queen in the character of a bishop. For almost two years, however, he seems to have been merely her private chaplain; at least his labours for the conversion of the Northumbrians had little or no effect. It was long before Edwin could be prevailed on to relinquish the gods of his fathers. He indeed consented to the baptism of his infant daughter Eanfled, who was baptized on Whitsunday, 626, with eleven others of his family, and was the first in Northumberland who received the sacred rite; and some time after he desisted from the worship of idols; but it was not till Easter the following year that he openly embraced the religion of Jesus. Yet before making a public avowal of his sentiments, he held an assembly of his nobles and counsellors, in the hope that he would prevail with them to concur in his resolution. Their concurrence was easily obtained. As soon as the assembly had been convened, and the subject had been proposed by the king for discussion, Coifi, his highpriest, who was no doubt acquainted with the sentiments of his royal master, rose and addressed him to the following effect: "It becomes you, O king, to inquire into the nature of that religion which is now proposed to us. In regard to that which we have hitherto held, I solemnly declare, that I have found it altogether worthless and unprofitable: none of your people has been more devoted to the service of our gods than I; yet many receive from more ample favours, and greater honours, and prosper more in all their undertakings. If the gods had any influence, they would surely give the greatest share of their favours to their most zealous servant. Wherefore, if the

you

new doctrines, which are preached to us, appear to you upon examination to be better and more certain, let us hasten to embrace them without delay."

To this speech of the high-priest, another of Edwin's grandees presently assented in these remarkable words; "So short, O king, is the present life of man on earth, compared with that extent of time which is hid from our view, that it seems to me like the sudden flight of a sparrow through your house, when you are at supper with your generals and ministers in a winter evening, and the hall is heated by a fire in the midst, while furious storms of rain or snow are raging without. It comes in at one door, but presently goes out at another; and though it feels not the wintry tempest when within, yet it enjoys only a momentary calm while it passes from winter on the one side to winter on the other, and then disappears from our eyes. Such is the life of man; it appears for a little space, but what follows it, or what has preceded it, we cannot tell. If, therefore, this new doctrine presents us with something more certain, it ought by all means to be adopted."

While others expressed their concurrence with these sentiments, and none appeared to oppose them, Coifi requested that Paulinus should now discourse to them more fully about the God whom he preached; and, when the bishop had finished his discourse, the high-priest exclaimed, "Long have I been convinced that our worship is vanity, since the more I sought for the truth in it, the less I found it: but now I openly profess, that by this preaching we clearly discover that truth that can give us life, salvation, and eternal felicity. I therefore propose to your majesty, that we hasten to profane those temples and altars which we have foolishly venerated."

Upon this the king openly renounced idolatry, and professed his adherence to the faith of Christ. Then turning to Coifi, he asked him, who ought first to profane the altars and temples of the idols. "I," replies the highpriest, "for who is more proper than myself to set the example to others, in destroying through the wisdom granted me by the true God, the things which I have worshipped in my folly?" And immediately renouncing idolatry, he begged the king to give him arms and a horse, both of which it was unlawful for him to use, according to the rules of their superstition; and, Edwin having complied with his request, he mounted the horse, and with a sword by his side, and a lance in his hand, he rode to the idol temple at Godmundham, not far from the king's palace on the Derwent, where this assembly appears to have been held. Upon reaching the scene of his for mer idolatries, he threw his lance into the building, in order to profane it, and in token of defiance to the idols whom it contained. This was the sig nal for its destruction; for those who accompanied him, following his example and his orders, presently burned it to the ground.Young's History of Whitby.

A contented Bishop..

A friend coming to see the learned bishop Prideaux, while he was labour. ing under great privations and distress, and saluting him in the common form of, "How does your Lordship do?" He replied, "Never better in my life, only I have too great a stomach; for I have eaten that little plate which the sequestrator left me: I have eaten a great library of excellent books; I have eaten a great deal of linen, much of my brass, some of my

pewter, and now I am come to eat iron; and what will come next I know not."

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College Anecdote.

In the course of the publication of the Spectator in folio, the paper, as it came, was commonly hung up within the bars of the coffee-houses at Oxford and Cambridge. A wag at the University, who stole in to read No. 154, which bears for its motto that well-known passage from Juvenal, Nemo repentè fuit turpissimus, wrote underneath the following free translation:-" It is a long while ere one becomes a Senior Fellow."

ON THE ORIGIN OF GRACE AT MEAT.

�༠།མལ་ཧཱུྃ་༥༠༠་ལ་

To the Editors of the Northern Star.

IT appears not a little remarkable that the greater part of our popular customs, as well sacred as profane, may without much difficulty be proved to have originated at a time when the world was altogether immersed in paganism and idolatry; yet this is a circumstance (especially as far as regards religious ceremonies) at which we need not be surprised; for the religion of the ancients, however degraded it may appear when we consider the unworthy objects to which it was addressed, had in it, notwithstanding, many affecting tokens of the gratitude due from creatures to their Creator, several of which have with the greatest propriety been adopted in the service of the true God.

That the minds of the ancients were deeply impressed with the idea of a superintending providence is most forcibly proved by their scrupulous attention to one ceremony, which amongst others has continued in use from their times to our own. Whatever might be their haste, or whatever situation they might be in, it appeared to them a crime of no ordinary magnitude for any one to eat before he had offered a part of the provisions to those deities whom they worshipped. Athenæus informs us that the neglect of this duty was an impiety, of which none but those who denied the existence of the gods durst be guilty. That it was never omitted by any who paid attention to their religion is proved from the following passage in the ninth Iliad :

"The first fat offerings to the immortals due,
Amidst the greedy flames Patroclus threw."

So also Virgil observes in the first Æneid,—

"She said, and on the board in open view
The first libation to the gods she threw.”

This practice of presenting, before the commencement of their meals, a part of the provision to their deities was in imitation of the greater sacrifices offered in their temples. When the worship of the living God began to supersede those adorations which had been paid to the works of men's hands, sacrifices were still continued, and we learn that the Israelites were enjoined by the Mosaic Law to present before the Lord a part of their fruits and