duct, after some time, acquired them the name of Methodists; though not without allusion probably to an ancient school of physicians of that denomination.

MORAVIANS.

The founder of this religious society was Nicholas Lewes, Count Zinzendorf, a native of Saxony, and who died at Chelsea in 1760. The Society was first instituted in Moravia, from whence they derive their appellation. Their principal establishment in England is in the neighbourhood of Bradford, in Yorkshire.

MASONRY.

A mason who has written for a weekly publication, says, that we are well informed from holy writ, that the building of king Solomon's temple was a most important crisis, from whence we derive many mysteries of our art. This great event took place above 1000 years before the Christian era, consequently many centuries before that wise and learned philosopher, Pythagoras, brought from the East his sublime system of truly masonic instruction to illuminate the western world; yet, remote as that period was, we date not from thence the cominencement of our art, for, although we are indebted to that wise and glorious king of Israel for many of our mystic forms and hieroglyphic ceremonies, yet the art itself is coeval with the creation of the world, when the great and glorious Architect of the Universe, upon masonic principles, formed from chaos this beautiful globe, and commanded that master science, Geometry, to lay the rule for the planetary orbs, and to regulate, by its unerring laws, the motions of that stupendous system in just proportion, rolling round the central sun.

QUAKERS.

"Be advis'd then, by me friend, take the Quaker's by. way,
"Tis plain, without turnpikes, so nothing to pay!"

The sect denominated Quakers, first appeared in the year 1650, in the reign of Charles 2d; they were founded by one Fox, who, in 1665, after a series of persecutions, was confined in Scarborough Castle. The year preceding, sixty Quakers were put on board the ship Black Eagle, and exported to America.* Such was the persecution this sect met with in the reign of their "good friend Charles," as they denominated him, as will be seen from the following remarkable address which they presented to James 2d, on his accession to the throne:

"We are come to testify our sorrow for the death of our good friend Charles, and our joy at thy being made our Governor. We are told thou art not of the Church of England any more than we; and therefore we hope, thou wilt grant unto us the same liberty which thou allowest thyself."

The derivation of the term Quaker is somewhat obscure, but as the Ranters are thus denominated from their ranting, or boisterous worship, so may be fairly concluded that Quakers received that appellation from the meekness of theirs; being, during their worship, or supposed to be, in a state of fear and trembling, or in other words quaking for their offences.

* See Pensylvania.

BIBLE SOCIETIES.

It is a singular fact, that the first Bible Society that ever existed was established by some Roman Catholic Prelates in France in 1774.

NICENE CREED.

"Have they told Providence what it must do,

Whom to avoid, and whom to trust to ?

As if religion were intended

For nothing else but to be mended."-Hudibras.

Manifold were the disputes of the Fathers of the Church, in its earlier days, as to what portion of the Scriptures were, and what were not, the word of God. Contention at last ran so high, that their flocks began to think for themselves, and to hold similar disputations. The holy fathers, however, foreseeing that shepherds would be nothing without flocks, agreed to end their differences, by setting the matter at rest for ever. Wherefore, the heads of the Church were summoned to meet in Council at Nice, in 325, in order to settle the knotty question. The result of their labours was, the celebrated Creed, called the Nicene Creed, from the place where the holy disputants had met.

SUNDAY SCHOOLS.

Robert Raikes, of Gloucester, was the originator of Sunday Schools, and spent his life in acts of kindness and compassion; promoting education as a source of happiness to his fellow beings, and bestowing his exertions and bounty to benefit the helpless. He died 5th April, 1811.

Charity Schools were first instituted 1687.

BELL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION.

This national system of education originated with the Rev. Dr. Bell, of Madras, from whom it derives its appellation.

LANCASTERIAN SYSTEM.

So called from Joseph Lancaster, one of the Society of Friends. This system differs very little, if any, from the Bell system. The advocates of the latter (Bell) tax the former with piracy; and the former retaliate by saying, that the system, although originating in a measure with Dr. Bell, would have laid dormant if it had not been for Joseph Lancaster.

SPENCEAN SYSTEM.

The Spencean System, so called from one Thomas Spence, a political enthusiast, who devised and published a plan, by which the human kind could be provided with sustenance without pauperism. He died October 1814.

EDICT OF NANTZ.

To reconcile the Protestants to his abjuration of their religion, Henry the Fourth, of France, after his reduction of the league, issued an Edict from Nantz, in 1598, tolerating the Protestant religion throughout his kingdom. This was revoked by Lewis the 14th, in 1685; by this bad policy 50,000 French Protestants left France and came to England.

BISHOP'S CROSIER.

Voltaire, in his Philosophical Dictionary, says, "As for auguries, they perished with the Roman empire. Only the Bishops have re tained the original staff, called the Crosier, which was the distinctive mark of the dignity of augur, so that the symbol of falsehood has become the symbol of truth."

Let not institutions vaunt of the sacredness of their insignia, for time and custom alternately defile and hallow all things-that which was emblematical of conclusive foresight from the aspect of the entrails of a brute, is now the rod and guiding staff to immortality.Tempora omnia mutant.

CHANGING OF THE POPE'S NAME.

The custom of altering the names of the Popes after their election to the Popedom was first introduced in the case of some Cardinal being elected whose proper name meant swine-snout,* which, by general consent, being deemed unseemly for such a dignity, was changed to Sergius the Second,

CHRISTIANITY IN ENGLAND.

Gregory the Great, after the arrival of the Saxons, about the year 600, introduced the Christian religion into England. Augustine, the monk, being sent by him to preach the Gospel to the Heathen inhabitants.

ATHEISM IN FRANCE.

Atheism was first taught in France 1629 by Lucilio Vanini, a Neapolitan gentleman, who was convicted and condemned to suffer death.

When he was brought out to the place of execution, he was pressed to ask pardon of God, of the king, and of justice. He answered, he did not believe there was a God; as for the king he had never offended him; and with respect to justice, it might go to the devil! His tongue was first cut out, and then his body burned to ashes.

INQUISITION.

The Inquisition, or Holy Office, as it is impiously termed, may be traced to Pope Lucius, who, at the council of Verona, in 1184, ordered the bishops to procure information of all who were suspected of heresy, and if they could not effect this in person, they were to enjoin it as a duty on their commissioners. In the beginning of the 13th century this order was re-enforced, and the poor Albigenses and Waidenses severally felt its fury. Dominie, usually called Saint Dominie, reduced this to practice, and was, if not the first Inquisitor, yet the founder of that order to which the management of the Inquisition was committed. In 1251 the Inquisition was established in Italy; in 1255 it was extended to France. The horrors accompanying the practice of this office soon excited universal disgust in the best disposed Catholics. It was not fully established in Spain till 1478; but when it was established, it triumphed in all its fury. In Portugal it was received about 1536. The gradual progress of knowledge checked the bloodshed of this tribunal; and it rarely, of

*See Roman Names.

late years, terrified the world by displaying ranks of heretics led to the stake. The triumph of humanity in the entire abolition of this most cruel depositary of power, terrestrial and spiritual, was a prominent good arising from the evils of the French revolution, but it was for the Spanish Cortes to give the death blow.

SECTION VI.

PARLIAMENTS, MAGNA CHARTA, TRIAL BY JURY, FEUDAL LAWS, PUBLIC COURTS OF THE KINGDOM, ORIGIN OF TYTHES, PUBLIC PLOTS, &c.

PARLIAMENT.

The etymology of the word Parliament, is properly a French, or Norman word, signifying to speak the mind, and was originally spelt parle û ment. Parium la mentum, id est, a meeting of the Peers to lament and complain to each other of the enormities of the country, and thereon to provide for the same, is a definition frequently to be met with in the old writers; and according to Lord Coke, it is called Parliament, from parler la ment, every member speaking his mind for the general good of the commonwealth. Barrington derives it from a compound of two Celtic words, parly and ment, or mend. The ancient Parlemens of France, were unlike the Parliaments of England. In France, the Parlemens were courts of justice. All their edicts were grounded on the ordonances of the king. When there was any opposition to those ordonances, the king went in person, and held what is called a Lit de Justice. He declared before them, that the ordonance before them was his actual will, and ordered the proper officer to register it. There was no mode of objecting to the will of the king, after a Lit de Justice.

It was common with the kings of France to seize upon the lands of their nobles, and make an ordonance of sequestration, against which there was no remedy. The lands were annexed to the crown.

Had the nobles of France defended their rights as the Barons of England did, France would not have remained so long a nation of slaves. The first Parliament in England was in 1116.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Although the first Parliament was in 1116, yet the House of Commons, as now constituted, takes its data from the following.

In the reign of Henry III., says Maitland, May 14th, 1264, Earl Montfort, after defeating the king's troops, called a Parliament at Winchester, in the king's name, which is shown by Dr. Brady, to be the first, wherein two knights for each county, and two burgesses for each borough, were summoned, and was the original of the House of Commons.

Members obliged to reside in the places they represented, 1413: Francis Russell, son of the Earl of Bedford, was the first peer's eldest son who sat in the House of Commons, 1549; that remarkable

for the epoch, in which were first formed the parties of court and country, June 16th, 1620; a peer elected, and sat as a member of the House of Commons, 1649; the House of Commons committed a Secretary of State to the Tower, November 18th, 1678; their Speaker refused by the king, 1679; bill passed for triennial parliaments, November, 1694; the first British one met, October 24th, 1707; triennial act repealed, May 1st, 1716; act passed for septennial ones, 1716; their privilege of protection from arrest for debts, relinquished, 1770; the lord mayor and an alderman of London, committed to the Tower by the House of Commons, 1771; Sir Francis Burdett committed to the Tower by the House of Commons, on the motion of Sir Thomas Lethbridge, April 9th, 1810.

THE KING'S SPEECH.

The first King's Speech, as it is termed, was delivered by Henry the First, in the year 1107.

MAGNA CHARTA.

Magna Charta, or the Great Charter, may be said to derive its origin from Edward the Confessor, who granted several privileges to the church and state, by charter; these liberties and privileges were also granted and confirmed by Henry I., by a celebrated great charter, now lost; but which was confirmed, or re-enacted by king John, on the 15th June, 1215. The ground where the latter, accompanied by the pope's legate, and other prelates and followers, met the barons, was between Staines and Windsor, at a place called Runnymede, but better known in modern times, as Egham race course, and which is still held in reverence, as the spot where the standard of freedom was first erected in England.

There, it is said, the barons appeared with a vast number of knights and warriors, and both sides encamped apart, like open enemies. The barons, in carrying their arms, would admit but of few abatements; and the king's commissioners, as history relates, being for the most part in their interests, few debates ensued. The charter required of him was there signed by the king and his barons, which continues in force to this day, and is the famous bulwark of English liberty, which now goes by the name of Magna Charta.

It is related, that this very document was lost for near two centuries, and was discovered at last by the celebrated Sir Robert Cotton, who, on calling upon his tailor one day, discovered him in the act of cutting up an old parchment deed, with a great number of seals attached thereto. His curiosity was awakened, and he examined it minutely, when he discovered that it was the Great Charter, or Magna Charta of England! He took possession of it, and had it not been for this timely rescue, the palladium of England's liberties, would have been appropriated to the unholy office of measuring his majesty's lieges for coats and breeches. It is now deposited in the Cottonian Library, in the British Museum.*

It is a curious circumstance also, that out of twenty-six barons who signed Magna Charta, only three could write their names; the remainder merely signing, or having signed their marks.

TRIAL BY JURY.

Some authors have endeavoured to trace the origin of juries, up as high as the Britons themselves, the first inhabitants of our islands;

* See Cottonian Library.