matrons of Rome; that the Lateran palace was turned into a school for prostitution, and that his rape of virgins and widows had deterred the female pilgrims from visiting the shrine of St. Peter, lest, in the devout act, they should be violated by his successor. The protestants have dwelt with malicious pleasure on those characters of anti-christ; but to a philosophic eye, the vices of the clergy are far less dangerous than their virtues.

ARCHBISHOP CHICHELEY,

Archbishop Chicheley made an extraordinary and unfortunate mistake in 1415, when, to reform the barber-surgeons, he strictly enjoined that their shops should not be opened on the Lord's day, namely, the seventh day of the week, which the Lord blessed and made holy, and on which, after his six day's works, he rested from all his labour. The Jews were much gratified at this error, but their triumph was of short duration.

CARDINAL DU BOIS.

M. Boudon, an eminent surgeon, was one day sent for by the Cardinal du Bois, prime minister of France, to perform a very serious operation upon him. The cardinal on seeing him enter the room, said to him, "You must not expect to

"treat me in the same rough manner "treat your poor miserable wretches "hospital of the Hotel Dieu." "My lord," replied Mr. Boudon with great dignity, "every one “of those miserable wretches, as your eminence " is pleased to call them, is a prime minister in my eyes."

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PULPIT FLATTERY.

One of the first acts performed by George the Third, after his accession to the throne, was to issue an order, prohibiting any of the clergy who should be called to preach before him, from paying him any compliment in their discourses. His majesty was led to this from the fulsome adulation which Dr. Thomas Wilson, prebendary of Westminster, thought proper to deliver in the chapel royal; and for which, instead of thanks he received from his royal auditor a pointed reprimand, his majesty observing, "that he came

to chapel to hear the praises of God, and not "not his own." This circumstance operated wonderfully on the reverend orator, as from that moment he became a flaming patriot. The Doctor took part with Wilkes, was made liveryman of the joiner's company and lavished large sums upon Mrs. Macauley, the republican historian, in whose honour he caused a small statue to be VOL. I.

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erected in his church at Walbrook; though before he died, he ordered it to be removed, not indeed so much from a sense of the impropriety of the thing, as out of resentment to the lady, who had displeased him by her marriage.

DR. BERKELEY.

As Berkley, the celebrated author of the immaterial theory, was one morning musing in the cloisters of Trinity College, Dublin, an acquaintance came up to him, and seeing him wrapt in contemplation, hit him a smart rap on the shoulder with his cane. The Doctor starting, called out "What's the matter?" His acquaintance looking him steadily in the face, replied, "No matter Berkeley."

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ST. POL DE LEON.

The miracles, which are reported by tradition to have been performed by St. Pol de Leon, far exceed those of any other saint in the calendar. He flourished towards the close of the fifth century, and England is said to have been the country which had the honour of giving him birth.

Saints for the most part have not begun their career of wonders till somewhat advanced in life; but St. Pol, even when a lad at school, gave an

earnest of the future exploits which might be expected from him. The field of the monastery in which he was a student, was ravaged by such a number of birds, that the whole crop of corn was in danger of being destroyed. St. Pol summoned the sacrilegious animals to appear before the principal of the monastery, who also was a saint, called Hydultus, that they might receive the correction they merited. The birds, obedient to his summons, presented themselves to him in a body, but St. Hydultus being of a humane disposition, only gave them a reproof and admonition, and let them go. The grateful birds never after touched the corn of the monastery. In a a convent of nuns hard by, situated on the sea shore, and extremely exposed to the tempestuous wind of the north, lived a sister of St Pol. She represented the case of the convent to her brother, when he ordered the sea to retire four thousand paces from the convent, which it did immediately. He then directed his sister and her companions to place a row of flints along the the shore for a considerable distance; which was no sooner done, than they immediately increased into vast rows, which so entirely broke the force of the winds, that the convent was never after incommoded by them.

These two first essays of St Pol's miraculous

powers, were performed on his native soil, England; but feeling proba the force of the proverb, that " a prophet has no honour in his

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own country," he soon after took a fancy to travel, and walked over the sea one fine morning to the isle of Batz.

A Count de Guythuse was then governour of the island, who laboured under a great uneasiness of mind, on account of a silver bell belonging to the king of England, the possession of which, in defiance of the injunction contained in the tenth commandment, he coveted exceedingly. St. Pol ordered a fish to swallow the bell and bring it over. The mandate was no sooner issued, than obeyed; but the saint thus provided a dangerous rival to his fame, for the bell became almost as celebrated an adept in miracles as himself. As usual however in all cases of competition, the public was benefited; and between the saint and the bell, the want of physicians in the country was entirely precluded. The bell was afterwards deposited among the treasures in the cathedral of St. Pol de Leon.

But the isle of Batz, at the time of the saint's arrival, was visited with even a heavier affliction than the mental uneasiness of its governour, it was infested by a terrible dragon, which devoured men, animals, and every thing that came in