needed not concern himself about her, that she was settled in the ancient Catholic and Roman religion, and that she meant to lay down her life in defence of that faith, he still thought it his duty to persist in his lectures and exhortations, and to endeavour her conversion.

During this discourse the queen could not forbear sometimes betraying her impatience, by interrupting the preacher; and the dean, finding that he had profited nothing by his lecture, at last bid her change her opinion, repent of her former wickedness, and settle her faith upon this ground, that only in Christ Jesus could she hope to be saved. She answered, again and again, with great earnestness: "Trouble not yourself any more about the matter; for I was born in this religion, I have lived in this religion, and in this religion I am resolved to die." Even the two earls perceived that it was fruitless to harass her any further with theological disputes; and they ordered the dean to desist from his unseasonable exhortations, and to pray for her conversion. During the dean's prayer she employed herself in private devotion from the office of the Virgin; and after he finished, she pronounced aloud some petitions in English for the afflicted Church, for an end of her own troubles, for her son, and for Queen Elizabeth; and prayed God that princess might long prosper and be employed in His service. The Earl of Kent observing that in her devotions she made frequent use of the crucifix, could not forbear reproving her for her attachment to that Popish trumpery, as he termed it; and he exhorted her to have Christ in her heart and not in her hand. She replied with presence of mind, that it was dificult to hold such an object in her hand without feeling her heart touched with some compunction.

She now began with the aid of her two women to disrobe herself; and the executioner also lent his hand to assist them. She smiled, and said, that she was not accustomed to undress herself before so pany, nor to be served by such valets.

large a comHer servants,

seeing her in this condition, ready to lay her head upon the block, burst into tears and lamentations; she turned about to them, put her finger upon her lips, as a sign of imposing silence upon them; and, having given them her blessing, desired them to pray for her. One of her maids, whom she appointed for that purpose, covered her eyes with a handkerchief; she laid herself down, without any sign of fear or trepidation; and her head was severed from her body at two strokes by the executioner. He instantly held it up to the spectators, streaming with blood and agitated with the convulsions of death. The Dean of Peterborough alone exclaimed, "So perish all Queen Elizabeth's enemies." The Earl of Kent alone replied, "Amen." The attention of all the other spectators was fixed on the melancholy scene before them; and zeal and flattery alike gave place to present pity and admiration of the expiring princess.

Thus died, in the forty-fifth year of her age, and the nineteenth of her captivity in England, Mary Queen of Scots, a princess of great accomplishments both of body and mind, natural as well as acquired; but unfortunate in her life, and during one period very unhappy in her conduct. The beauties of her person, and graces of her air, combined to make her the most amiable of women; and the charms of her address and conversation aided the impression which her lovely figure made on the hearts of all beholders. Ambitious and active in her temper, yet inclined to cheerfulness and society; of a lofty spirit, constant and even vehement in her purpose, yet polite, and gentle, and affable in her demeanour; she seemed to partake only so much of the male virtues as to render her estimable, without relinquishing those soft graces which compose the proper ornaments of her sex. In order to form a just idea of her character, we must set aside one part of her conduct, while she abandoned herself to the guidance of a profligate man; and must consider these faults, whether we admit them to be imprudences or crimes, as the result of an inexplicable, though not uncommon,

inconstancy in the human mind, of the frailty of our nature, of the violence of passion, and of the influence which situations, and sometimes momentary incidents, have on persons whose principles are not thoroughly confirmed by experience and reflection. Enraged by the ungrateful conduct of her husband, seduced by the treacherous counsels of one in whom she reposed confidence, transported by the violence of her own temper, which never lay under the guidance of discretion, she was betrayed into actions which may, with some difficulty, be accounted for, but which admit of no apology, not even of alleviation. An enumeration of her qualities might carry the appearance of a panegyric; an account of her conduct must, in some parts, wear the aspect of a severe satire and invective.

Hume.

RODERICK RANDOM'S PROGRESS AT SCHOOL.

I was sent to a school at a village hard by, of which my grandfather had been dictator time out of mind; but as he neither paid for my board nor supplied me with clothes, books, and other necessaries I required, my condition was very ragged and contemptible; and the schoolmaster, who, through fear of my grandfather, taught me gratis, gave himself no concern about the progress I made under his instruction. In spite of all these difficulties and disgraces, I became a good proficient in the Latin tongue; and as soon as I could write tolerably, pestered my grandfather with letters to such a degree, that he sent for my master and chid him severely for bestowing such pains on my education, telling him that if ever I should be brought to the gallows for forgery, which he had taught me to commit, my blood would lie on his head. The pedant, who dreaded nothing more than the displeasure of his patron, assured his honour that the boy's ability was more owing to his own genius and application than to any instruction or encouragement he received; that, although he could not divest him of the knowledge he had already

imbibed, unless he would empower him to disable his fingers, he should endeavour, with God's help, to prevent his future improvement. And, indeed, he punctually performed what he had undertaken, for, on pretence that I had writ impertinent letters to my grandfather, he caused a board to be made with five-holes in it, through which he thrust the fingers and thumb of my right hand, and fastened it with whip-cord to my wrist. in such a manner as effectually debarred me the use of my pen. But this restraint I was freed from in a few days by an accident which happened in a quarrel between me and another boy, who, taking upon him to insult my poverty, I was so incensed at his ungenerous reproach, that with one stroke of my machine I cut him to the skull, to the great terror of myself and school-fellows, who left him bleeding on the ground, and ran to inform the master of what had happened. I was so severely punished for this trespass that, were I to live to the age of Methusalem, the impression it made on me would not be effaced, no more than the antipathy and horror I conceived for the merciless tyrant who inflicted it. The contempt which my appearance naturally produced in all who saw me, the continual wants to which I was exposed, and my own haughty disposition, impatient of affronts, involved me in a thousand troublesome adventures, by which I was at length inured to adversity, and emboldened to undertakings far above my years. I was often inhumanly scourged for crimes I did not commit, because, having the character of a vagabond in the village, every piece of mischief whose author lay unknown, was charged upon me. I have been found guilty of robbing orchards I never entered, of killing cats I never hurt, of stealing gingerbread I never touched, and of abusing old women I never saw. Nay, a stammering carpenter had eloquence enough to persuade my master that I fired a pistol loaded with small-shot into his window, though my landlady and the whole family bore witness that I was a-bed fast asleep at the time when this outrage was committed. I was once flogged for having

narrowly escaped drowning by the sinking of a ferryboat in which I was a passenger; another time for having recovered of a bruise occasioned by a horse and cart running over me; a third time for being bit by a baker's dog. In short, whether I was guilty or unfortunate, the correction and sympathy of this arbitrary pedagogue were the same. Far from being subdued by this cruel usage, my indignation triumphed over that slavish awe which had hitherto enforced my obedience; and the more my years and knowledge increased, the more I perceived the injustice and barbarity of his behaviour. By the help of an uncommon genius, and the advice and direction of our usher, who had served my father in his travels, I made a surprising progress in the classics, writing, and arithmetic; so that, before I was twelve years old, I was allowed by everybody to be the best scholar in the school.

Smollett.

CHARACTER OF CHARLES I.

In the character of Charles, as represented by his panegyrists, we find the qualities of temperance, chastity, regularity, piety, equity, humanity, dignity, condescension, and equanimity; some have gone so far as to allow him integrity, and many writers who condemn his political principles give him the title of a moral man. In the comparison of this representation with Charles's conduct, accurately and justly described, it is discernible that vices of the worst tendency, when shaded by a plausible and formal carriage, when concordant to the interests of a faction, and the prejudices of the vulgar, assume the appearances of, and are imposed on the credulous world, as virtues of the first rank.

Passion for power was Charles's predominant vice, idolatry to his regal prerogatives, his governing principle. The interests of the crown legitimated every measure, and sanctified, in his eye, the widest deviation from moral rule.