unless in cases of necessity, except they are brought to church: parents, in other instances, who give the subject the consideration it demands, voluntarily take their children to the place consecrated to that purpose.

I apprehend that, where the Rubric is precise in its directions, an individual is not at liberty to act contrary to it without some urgent necessity. That orders the Priest to come " to the font:" the gentleman who, on the occasion I allude to, officiated for the Rector, who was absent in the couutry, chose to solemnize the rite in the Vestry." The Font is to be filled with pure water;" and, as Archdeacon Yardley observes, "it ought to be pure, both in regard to decency, and to the spiritual significancy of it, as employed to wash away sins," he made use of a basin; which seemed, by the thick scum of dust on the surface of the water, to have served the same purpose some days, if not weeks. The appearance of the surplice accorded with the other outward decencies.

The first question was omitted, as apparently unnecessary. The exhortation, and two following prayers, I conclude, were read verbally right, because I now and then caught a sentence of them; but the delivery was so rapid, and in a provincial accent, that, unless I had been previously acquainted with the substance of them, my ignorance would not have been much instructed on that occasion. Except from the words "Let us pray," the transition from the exbortation to the prayers would have been unnoticed, no hassocks being provided for kneeling. The Gospel omitted, the exhortation upon the words of it was given with the celerity of the former one: and the prayer following sharing the fate of the Gospel, the concluding words of the exhortation formed a very strange prelude to the words addressed to the godfathers and godmothers. The questions and answers which follow seemed a race between the Priest and Clerk, which should most effectually assist in the quick dispatch of the ceremony. The latter took the sole responsibility for the infant on himself; not allowing those who attended for that purpose time for more than a mental assent. We were briefly asked, whether we believed

the Articles of the Christian Faith, without having them specified; which the Clerk alone most liberally vouched for. When the Lord's Prayer was begun, the Minister looked round for something, which he certainly was not long in finding, for, by the time he got to the middle of it, he pulled a chair towards him to place one knee on, and which was pushed away at the beginning of the next prayer.

Thus irreverently was the helpless infant placed in the arms of Christ: thus was the Covenant apparently regarded as "an unholy thing," by one of "the stewards of the mysteries of God."

God

When the Church of England separated from the Church of Rome, she threw off with the heavy yoke, not only her unsound opinions, but her cumbrous and gaudy trappings, retaining with "the truth as it is in Christ," such outward ceremonies and dress, as appeared in the judgment of wise and good men, calculated to impress such reverent and solemn feelings as would fix the attention, heighten the devotion, and purify the mind. But, unless "things be done decently and in order," "our excellent Liturgy, compiled by Martyrs and Confessors," will rapidly sink into contempt. Churches planted by Apostles, and once in a flourishing condition, have disappeared. forbid that should be the fate of ours: yet who can tell what will be her condition, if disgust instead of devotion be excited by her Ministers; if, joined to outward assaults, the gar rison be treacherous, and with their loins ungirt, without their breastplate, their feet unshod, their heads bare, without either sword or shield, stand unarmed in the breach themselves have helped to make? Will not her numerous enemies, dissonant in their sentiments, and differing on every other point, join, as they always have done, in making common cause against our holy Mother? Who shall sustain her, if her own sons fail her? Who will reverence her, if her own children insult and contemn ber? May their eyes be opened before it be too late, to the inestimable blessings enjoyed by those who, from circumstances as well as from free choice, can really and truly call himself A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

C. S.

Mr.

Mr. URBAN,

PERMI

June 2.

ERMIT me to tender for your amusement and to the ingenuity of your Readers, whose communications will be highly acceptable, the following account of a Medal, which has recently come into my possession. I should premise that its metal is silver, and its size somewhat less than that of a half-crown.

The obverse exhibits two full-length male figures with bats, perukes, swords, having coats buttoned to the lowest part,-apparently in the cos tume of the middle or later part of the seventeenth century; one of them appears to be offering his snuff-box to the other, who is either putting the pinch to, or actually pinching the offerer's nose. The legend is

Faites-vous cela pour m'affronter? On the reverse,-a figure, also fulllength, with a lantern, is opening the earth; the sun at the same time shining in full lustre upon him;-with reference, we apprehend, to Diogenes' celebrated search after Athenian honesty. The legend,

Je cherche du courage pour mon maistre.

Of this Medal, which is in remarkably fine preservation, I subjoin what I received from a very respectable authority, the external history.

Upon cutting down a tree in the neighbourhood of Linton, Cambridgeshire, in 1818, a knob upon its trunk was lopped off, and out trundled the subject of the present communication. It had been thrust under the bark, most probably for concealment; as it obviously contains some allusion, personal or political, which might have been coupled with danger: and its insertion had naturally, I suppose, occasioned the wen.

I am too little of a Numismatist to know whether or not this Medal be valuable for its rarity. Perhaps some one of your many Correspondents will take the trouble of enlightening me. Yours, &c. F. WRANGHAM.

of this powerful body of subjects (but, perhaps, I may be wrong), I never could view as consistent with those glorious privileges we derived in 1688. For though I would not wil lingly be thought intolerant to any description of persons whatever in civil and religious liberty, yet I cannot shut my eyes to those abuses which the Catholics bave invariably attached to every species of grant that has been made to them in these kingdoms, pointing out the necessity of restrictive measures with so ambitious, persevering, and persecuting a people.

66

I beg most earnestly to call your attention to the experiment that was made in the days of Charles I.; and to see what miserable effects followed upon concessions which, as Rapin says, were of ill consequence to England," and which he could trace in their origin but to two motives, James's vanity and avarice. I allude and Henrietta Maria; the VIIth, to the Marriage Treaty of Charles I. VIIIth, IXth, Xth, XIth, XIIth, XIVth, and XIXth, of which Articles are as follow:

VII.

"The free exercise of the Roman Ca

tholic Apostolic Religion shall be granted to Madame, as likewise to all the children that shall be born of this marriage.

VIII.

"To that end Madame shall have a Chapel in all the Royal Palaces, and in every place of the King of Great Britain's dominions, where he or she shall reside.

IX.

"The said Chapel shall be beautified with decent ornaments, and the care and custody thereof shall be committed to such as Madame shall appoint. The preaching of God's Word, and the administration of the Sacraments, shall be entirely free; and the Mass, and the other parts of Divine Service, shall be celebrated according to the custom of the holy Roman Church, with all jubilees and indulgences which Madame shall procure from Rome. There shall be also a Churchyard allowed in the City of Loudon, where, according to the custom of the Roman Church, such of Madame's attendants shall be buried, as happen to die, which The shall be done in a modest manner. said Churchyard shall be enclosed, that it may not be profaned.

X.

"Madame shall have a Bishop for her Almoner, who shall have all necessary authority

"The children which shall be born of the marriage shall be brought up by Madame, their mother, till the age of 13 years."

Private or Secret Articles.

1. "That the Catholics, as well ecclesiastical as temporal, imprisoned since the last Proclamation which followed the breach with Spain, should all be set at liberty.

2. "That the English Catholics should be no more searched after, nor molested for their Religion.

3. "That the goods of Catholics, as well ecclesiastical as temporal, that were seized since the forementioned Proclamation, should be restored to them." Rapin's Hist. Eng. Vol. II. pp. 233. 807. Now the first effects of these monstrous concessions, and of the establishment of the Bishop of Maude and his Clergy at the English Court, were domestic dissentions sown between the King and Queen. The disaffected in

Parliament were next instigated against every thing connected with the service of the King, and the tranquillity of the realm. The Queen's house was converted into an assembly of Jesuits, where every thing passing privately between the King and Queen was discussed, obliging the latter to follow their suggestions, after having acquired that influence upon her gentle mind, that nothing could subdue. They inspired her with the greatest hatred of every thing Protestant, and even English, and, subjecting her person to the rules of monastic obedience, crowned the whole, by leading her publicly in penance, on foot, through a public park, in the face of thousands, to Tyburn, to offer up her prayers for the souls of the Gunpowder conspirators, who were sacrificed, as they averred, not to the cause of Treason, but of Religion.

This last circumstance, extracted from an official document, signed "Thos. Coventry, Keeper of the Seals; Marlborough, High Treasurer; Manchester, President of the Council," &c. &c. produced with much earnestness, a few months after, though it took place in the presence of crowds of people, a denial of the occurrence from the French Ambassador, but as he accompanied this assertion with his ability to justify it, if it took place, its force is much weakened; and I cannot, Mr. Urban, with him "m' offre quant & quant de prouver l'on eust tres bien fait de la commettre." (Emb. M. De Bassompierre.)

Nor must it be urged that all this happened in a dark and unenlightened age. The days of Shakspeare were scarcely past. The names of Bacon, Coke, Ben Jonson, Spelman, Selden, Dr. Wm. Hervey, Cowley, Milton, Lord Clarendon, and the vir tuous Evelyn, shew the state of learning at this period, equally distinguished by its enlightened introduction and circulation of Newspapers, and by that Royal patronage and encouragement given to the Arts in ge

neral.

These are serious consequences, and such as require in a Protestant Government and Nation, like ours, more than ordinary hesitation, before we admit to power a portion of our fellow-countrymen, already enjoying liberty of worship, who are

at

at the mercy of the revived Order of Jesuits and Foreigners, who, from the nature of the Catholic Hierarchy, can Dever cease to have an influence upon them, dangerous, in the highest degree, to every blessing, spiritual and temporal, enjoyed by a Protestant Englishman. CHRISTIANUS.

Mr. URBAN,

You

June 4.

YOUR Correspondent E. F. B. having revived the subject of the initial designation LL.D. upon which, as he remarks, we have already had "much debate ;"-as the original agitator of the question proposed thereupon, I beg to be forgiven for adding one word more respecting what, perhaps, is of greater import ance than some of my informants and answerers seem to be perfectly aware. That LL.D. as a re-duplication (if that term be at all allowable), may be regarded as a practice amongst the Roman writers, sufficiently common to justify its adoption and continuance amongst ourselves, I have no objection to concede to "E. F. B."That LL.D. may signify Legis Legum Doctor, I am equally willing to concede to "Gaven Croom."-That D.L.L. may by some persons have been written to designate themselves as Doctors of both Laws, Civil and Canon; or that the custom which has so long" obtained of designating the Law Degree by the letters LL.D." may have originated partly in the ambiguity of the initials J. C. D. or D. C. L." according to the opinion of R. C. (vol. LXXXVII. ii. p. 487), I might, without much reluctance, perhaps, also concede ;-although I confess that I do not exactly feel the full force which I am persuaded that your Correspondent wishes to give to his argument: but in truth and fact, good Mr. Urban, it was not the origin, or even the propriety of these particular letters as distinctive marks of the highest degree in the faculty of Law, which is conferred in the University of Oxford, that at all entered into my consideration, when I addressed to you my first Letter on the subject:-but the questions implied in the doubts which I expressed respecting the confusion likely to ensue upon a change which might subject that learned body to the charge of unacknowledged error, or positive inconsistency, were these: If the

letters LL.D. had been improperly employed during so many ages, why were they uniformly continued until this present æra? and if properly, why are they now changed? Have the Heads of Houses now, for the first time, discovered what R. C. appears to have known so long ago,that "it is certainly improper" to annex LL.D.; although, to the most worthy names which are entered upon the University books for centuries, they will be found annexed. Or, how otherwise is it that the same Degree, conferred in the same form and manner, is no longer to be marked similarly, unless for some such reason as that which I before hinted at-a compliance with fashion, and a desire of change, rather than a conviction of error; which cannot very decently be charged upon so learned and venerable a body, of whom it cannot be imagined that they ever lightly adopted that which I am afraid, almost afraid to suppose, they have rather lightly abandoned. LL. D.

covery of many human bones filled with lead, dug up at Newport Pagnell, in Bucks, in 1619, said to be taken from Weever, and with the additional remark, that the writer, from the position of the body, as mentioned by that author, judges it to have been "buried before, or very soon after, the establishment of Christianity" in this country. Iu another Number, a Correspondent states that, in 1727, the greater part of the town of Newport Pagnell was consumed by fire, together with the parish church; and that the leaden covering of the roof of that building being melted, ran amongst the ruins into many of the graves, whence your Correspondent states that he himself afterwards saw many bones taken, which were filled with the lead so melted, particularly a thigh bone, &c.

Not having Weever's book at hand, I shall be obliged by any of your Correspondents affording me authentic information respecting the circumstances alluded to, more especially with regard to the position of the dead body spoken of by Weever, and which gave rise to the conjecture respecting its so early interment.

must

I