even negligence of his external dress; but | friend, who was of a very tall stature, and he paid the most scrupulous attention to personal cleanliness.

with whom, as one of his very lougest acquaintances, he used that freedom, upon his want of decorum in going about and peeping down the chimnies to see what his neighbours were to have for dinner.

He was constitutionally melancholy; yet, in the familiar intercourse of daily life, the prominent characteristic of his mind was its incessant playfulness-a quality which rendered his society peculiarly ac ceptable among females and young persons. He took great delight in conversing with little children, whom he generally contrived to lead into the most exquisitely comical dialogues. He was fond of giving ludicrous appellations to the places and persons around him. His friend Mr. Hudson, the dentist's house, was built in the Tuscan order; a celebrated snuff manufacturer's country seat was Sneezetown; the libraries at watering-places were slop shops of literature. He called a commander of yeomanry (who dealt largely in flour) Marshal Sacks; a lawyer, of a corpulent frame, Grotius; another, who had the habit of swelling out his cheeks, Puffendorf.gency. He often humorously remonstrated with a

He very rarely retired formally to his closet; it was as he walked in the hall of the courts, or as he rode between Dublin and his country seat, or during his evening strolls through his own grounds, that he meditated his subjects. Sometimes as he lay in bed he had, like Rousseau, and with a more fortunate memory, creative visitations, which he often declared were to him more delightful than repose. One of his most usual and favourite times of meditation was when he had his violin or violin. cello in his hand; he would thus forget himself for hours, running voluntaries over the strings, or executing some trivial air, while his imagination was far away, collecting its forces for the coming emer

RECOLLECTIONS OF AN ANTIQUARIAN.

LORD MAYOR AND LORD MAYOR'S DAY.

Ir appears, from the best authorities, that the name of Mayor was not attached to the chief officer of the city until the year 1192. Before that period he was denominated bailiff; under that title Henry Fitz Alwyne officiated at the coronation of Richard I. and this same citizen, in the year 1192, assumed, in the first civic record extant, the title of Mayor.

The name, according to Verstegan, comes from the ancient English maier, able or potent, of the verb may, or can. The learned antiquary says "This honourable name of office in the chief and most famous city of our realm is divers ways written; some write it maior, some mayor, and others maire. And because maior (major), in Latin, signifies greater, or bigger, some not looking any further, will needs, from thence, make it maior; but seeing the names of Sheriff and Alderman cannot be drawn from the Latin, why should it be thought that Mayor comes from maior? Certain it is, that as the other names of

offices are not derived from the Latin, no more is this, but the name originally cometh from the Teutonic, as do the afore-noted others. lt is in the Netherlands well known; where not only the chief magistrate of Louvain (the ancientest town of Brabant) is called the Meyer, but almost every country town had an officer so called: as, in like manner, divers of our country towns in England, as well as our cities have. So it is, likewise, a name of office in the country towns of France, their now written maire coming first to be known among them by the German Francks, the ancestors of Frenchmen. For the etymology thereof we are to note that, as in our own English, to may signifieth to have might, or power; so a mayer is as much to say, a haver of might, one that hath or may use authority."

During the mayoralty of Fitz Alwyne, an office then dependent on the crown, and which he held for twenty-four years, the city first obtained its jurisdiction and conservancy of the river Thames, and a

water bailiff was appointed as a deputy || of these ordinances, however, seems to have to the Mayor. King John was the first met with the slightest regard. Edward III. who conferred on the citizens the privilege first made the office of Mayor obligatory of choosing their chief magistrate, who had on the person chosen, who, on refusal of hitherto been appointed by the King-serving, was fined one hundred marks. Henry III. seems to have considered the city merely as a body for the exercise of experiments of rapacity; for almost every year, on some frivolous pretext, he took away some privileges, which the citizens re-purchased at the price stipulated by the monarch; and on one occasion it cost them eleven hundred marks. They bought the privilege, in the year 1254, of presenting their new Mayor annually to the Barons of the Exchequer, in the absence of the King; whereas, before that period, they were obliged to repair to the King's residence, in any part of England, to present their chief magistrate. It may be entertaining to give in this place an instance of one of the exactions of this chartergiving sovereign. A convict confined in Newgate for the murder of a prior, a rela-rupt judge, suspended all the charters of tion of the Queen, contrived to effect his escape, and the King immediately demanded three thousand marks of the city, as an atonement; he even degraded both the Sheriffs, and put in prison several of the principal citizens, till this unjust demand was complied with.

This monarch first granted the privilege of having gold or silver maces carried before the chief magistrate; and either on this or some other occasion equally important, the chief magistrate began to assume the title of Lord Mayor, as corresponding, no doubt, with this added dignity to his public appearances. In the year 1474 (in the reign of Edward IV.) an act of Common Council settled the mode of electing Mayors as it at present exists. Various additional privileges were granted from time to time, and generally for a good price, till the reign of Charles I. in whose reign, for the first time, a Lord Mayor was invested with the LordLieutenancy of the Tower; this, however, was but a temporary grant. Charles II. by an arbitrary act, sanctioned by a cor

It may here be mentioned, that it was usual with this King, and with his successor Edward, to appoint a custos of the peace of the city, whenever there was any violent disagreement among the citizens. Edward II. a contemptible monarch, made several bargains with the city, and, at a good price, gave them some valuable regulations. It was in his reign ordained that the Mayor should hold his office only for one year, and that the Aldermen also should be re-elected annually. Neither

the city, and took all power into his own hands. This power, however, was restored by William, and finally settled, beyond dispute, by an act passed in the eleventh year of George I. But it was to George II. that the city was indebted for the charter which constituted all the aldermen justices of the peace. These privileges the city still enjoys, and they watch, with becoming jealousy, every attempt to infringe upon them.

As to Lord Mayor's day, as it is at present celebrated, it would be an act of supererogation to describe it, since there is scarcely an individual who is not fully acquainted with all the pomp and circumstance of this (to the people of London) auspicious day.

DOMESTIC LIFE OF THE FRENCH.
(Continued from Vol. XXII. page 262.)

THE first composition of liqueurs that obtained any great degree of celebrity, was at Montpellier. Towards the middle of the 18th century, a distiller, named Solmini, gained much credit in Lorrain for the

liqueur known by the appellation of parfait amour, it was citron water disguised by being dyed red with cochineal. Next came those liqueurs from the French islands in America, viz. the moyeau of Martinique.

Modern liqueurs are now arranged in, two classes; the one approaches to essences, and bears the title of oil, because they are of a thick and oily consistency; the others are denominated dry. · A physician, named Sigogne, imagined, that towards the beginning of the 18th century, that it was possible to convert sugar into oil, by baking it, and thus giving to the liqueur, in || which it was used, a softness that had not yet been found in any liqueurs. The chief ingredient in this liqueur was saffron; it was called l'huile de Venus; Sigogne gained a fortune by it.

Ices date their origin in France from the year 1660; the French were indebted for them to a Florentine, named Procope, who established himself at Paris.

. Punch was made use of in France, in the year 1781, when peace was signed with England; but it was only then to be had at coffee-houses, and in male societies; there was no drink in France that could ever succeed which proscribed the society of females. Punch is, however, now drank by ladies in those assemblies styled teadrinking, and at balls; and no one seems to regard it, as once, only as the beverage of sailors.

Tea was known in Paris ever since the year 1636; but it had, apparently, little encouragement, and would not have met with any, if a surgeon, named Morisset, had not, in the year 1648, made it the subject of a treatise, which he dedicated to the Chancellor Séguier.

Chocolate was brought into France from Spain. The first who made use of it in France, was the Cardinal Alphonso de Richelieu, brother to the celebrated minister of that name. The Spanish monks had spoken of it as an excellent remedy || against vapours and the spleen. When Maria Theresa, of Austria, came into France, to be married to Louis XIV. she was always accustomed to drink chocolate. This was sufficient to cause all the court to adopt this beverage. But for several years the use of it was confined to the most opulent.

In 1644, coffee was introduced by some merchants of Marseilles, into France, and known by the name of Arabian beaus. Thevenot made use of it on his return from his travels, about the year 1658; but it!

required a more forcible example. Soliman Aga, the Ambassador from the Ottoman Porte, effected this in 1669: he sojourned in the capital for ten months. Several persons of distinction, particularly females, having had the curiosity to pay him a visit, he had coffee served up, and in such a manner as to render it peculiarly attractive. The liquor was poured into china cups; and slaves presented napkius to the ladies fringed with gold.

Those persons who had tasted coffee with Soliman Aga, were desirous of taking it at their own houses; others had it, by way of ostentation, served at their tables after dinner. But the coffee berry was scarce, and very dear; it was not to be procured except at Marseilles.

In the mean time an Armenian, in the year 1672, set up a shop at Paris, where coffee might be had to drink ready made. Four years after, there were such a number of coffee merchants, that the government were obliged to establish a community of them. The name of Limonadiers was given exclusively to those who sold lemonade.

Before the establishment of coffee-houses the chief nobility all frequented public houses. In Rabelais we find mention made of The Pine Apple public house, and also in Villon and in Regnier. The house that bore the sign is still standing in la rue de la Juviere; and is kept by an ironmonger; it is No. 6, and may be seen as one enters by the bridge of Notre Dame. The Baron de Blot, chamberlain to Gaston, Duke of Orleans, was among the witty convivialists at The Pine Apple. Under Louis XIV. the reputation of this public house was yet in its glory: Chapelle, Boileau, and La Fontaine read their works there; and oftentimes Racine, Moliere, and the physician Bernier, were found among them.

The Café Procope, now the Café Zoppi, in la rue des Fossés-Saint-Germain-des-Prés, was originally the spot where the literati were accustomed to assemble. Another celebrated coffee house was that of De Laurent, rue Dauphine: Saurin, Lamothe, Dauchet, Boindin, and Rousseau, the lyrical poet, used to frequent it. At length we find females permitted to enter these places. The author of The Commercial Dictionary,

writes as follows, in 1741:-" Ladies of Beauvais were very famous. Under the the first quality very often stop their car- reign of Henry IV. the handles of the riages before the doors of the most cele- knives were wrought in grotesque figures, brated coffee-houses, and coffee is carried particularly one kiud, that had on it the to them in silver coffee-cups.”—The French head of a Chinese joss; since which time ladies of the present day stop in their car- these knives were called Chinese knives. riages before the Cafe Tortoni, on the Before it was customary to drink out of Boulevard, at the corner of la rue d'Artois.vessels of metal or earthen ware, the French A boy goes, as formerly, to wait on them drank out of horns. It is the fifteenth at the door of the carriage; sometimes century that boasts of the silver cups of they actually enter the coffee-room. Cus-Tours, and the drinking cups of Pontarlier, tom does not forbid them to go and take The drinking cup differed from the comice at the Palais Royal, in the Café de Foi, mon cup from its being raised on a foot, or in the garden opposite this coffee-house. so that it was a kind of chalice; these cups Every time a great feast was given the were made of various kinds of materials, guests were seated on benches (in French earthen ware, crystal, gold, and silver. banes, whence came the word banquets). Fortunat, in a piece addressed to Queen Amongst Princes and great men the seats Radégonde, described a feast at which were mere benches; but they were cover- every kind of eatables was served up in difed with carpeting to render them more ferent sorts of dishes; the meat on silver, easy. Poor people sat upon straw; and the vegetables on marble, the poultry on students also, were ranged according to glass dishes, the fruit in painted baskets, and the milk in black glazed pottery, in the form of porridge pots.

their different classes.

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries napkins were named doubliers. In process of time, instead of a napkin folded twice, each guest had two, one shorter than the other, which was taken away at the end of the last course. Henry III. a Prince who was occupied in researches after every kind of voluptuousness, had his table-cloths plaited in the most curious manner.

From the commencement of the fifteenth century, Rheims became famous for the manufacturing of table linen; and it was one of the gifts offered by that town to the Sovereigns of France. When Charles VII. made his entry into Rheims, the sheriffs presented him with fine flowered table-cloths. Under the reign of Louis XIV. the French linen manufactures for the table must have very much fallen off; for Madame de Maintenon being desirous, in the year 1682, to establish a manufacture for this kind of linen, sent for five-and-twenty workmen from Flanders.

In the will of Saint Remy, Archbishop of Rheims, who lived in the sixth century, spoons are made mention of. Knives were used a long time instead of forks; it is mentioned in an inventory that Charles V. made of his plate in 1379. Under the first Kings of the third race, the knives made at

There exists now in Lyons a manufacture of pottery, which, according to a tradition among the country people, was established before the invasion of the Romans. In 1757 and 1758, when they were digging the earth round the hill of St. Genevieve, at Paris, in order to make the foundation for the new church dedicated to that Saint, they found a vast quantity of Roman pottery. In the garden of Luxembourg, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, many more discoveries were made of the same kind.

In the provincial inns, and amongst the country people, is yet to be seen a piece of furniture called a dresser; the dishes are ranged symmetrically on the dresser shelves. Among Princes they were dishes of gold and silver that were set out on the shelves. Monstrelet, describing the magnificence of the Duke of Burgundy during his stay at Paris, informs us, that in the saloon of his house, where he took his meals, was a square dresser, which was raised on steps, with shelves; and that it was loaded with the most elegant and costly plate, both gold

and silver.

(To be concluded in our next.)

THE VISION OF LAS-CASAS.

FROM THE GERMAN OF ENGEL.

LAS CASAS, the eloquent, the indefa- This emotion overpowered his strength, tigable defender of the Americans, lay and he sunk into a profound sleep. Sudstretched on his death-bed in his ninetieth denly he thought that the stars of heaven year. For a long period preceding his lay scattered beneath his feet, and that he demise, all his thoughts were directed to- || ascended, supported on clouds, through wards the happiness of a better world; boundless space. At an immense distance and though now about to enter that world he beheld rays of dazzling light issuing he trembled on the brink of eternity. from majestic obscurity; and on every side Conscious of the purity of his heart and innumerable legions of beings rose from the innocence of his life, he had encounter- and descended to inferior worlds. Scarceed, without dismay, the angry glance of ly had his eye gazed and his soul admired, Kings, and he dreaded no earthly judge; when an angel with the severe brow of a but the judge before whom he was speed-judge, appeared before him, and opened a ily to be summoned, was God, and he was awed by the supreme sauctity of infinite justice. Thus the strongest as well as the weakest eye is overpowered by the dazzling beams of the sun.

At the foot of his couch was seated an aged monk, who had long been his faithful friend. Equal in virtue to Las-Casas, he loved him as a brother; inferior to him in courage and talent, he respected him even to admiration. He was continually near his death-bed, and observed with sorrow the decay of nature, though he still endeavoured to rouse the hopes of his dying friend; but the great thought of eternity filled the soul of Las-Casas; he begged the old man to retire, and leave him in the presence of his judge.

Las-Casas collected himself: he recalled the past to his memory, and cast a retrospective glance over his whole life: but to whatever point he fixed his attention he discovered errors and faults; he saw them in their full magnitude, and their consequences lay extended before him like a vast ocean. His good actions, on the contrary, seemed poor, covered with blemishes, and void of the fruits which he had expected they would produce; like a feeble streamlet which loses itself amidst the sands of the desert, and whose banks are adorned neither with flowers nor verdure. At this aspect, overwhelmed with shame and repentance, in his imagination, he knelt down before God, and fervently exclaimed, “Oh, Almighty Father of mankind, do not condemn me; let me find grace in thy presence!"

book which he held in his hand. A shuddering like that of death, like that which seizes the criminal at the sight of the scaffold, chilled the heart of the old man when the immortal being pronounced his name, and enumerated all the noble faculties with which Heaven had endowed his mind, all the mild and generous affections, the seeds of which had been diffused through his blood, and named the opportunities for the exercise of virtue, the aids and encouragements which his situation afforded him. At this moment, all that was good in him seemed to belong to God, and only his errors and sins appeared to belong properly to himself.

The angel commenced the history of his life; he turned in search of the inconsiderate aberrations of his youth, but they were no where to be found; the first tear of repentance had obliterated them. The tear alone was visible in their stead; and every serious resolution to do well, every joyful emotion on the fulfilment of a duty, every sentiment of virtue and humility, and every triumph over terrestrial nature, which is ever revolting against Heaven, were carefully noted down. Hope then began to kindle in the heart of Las-Casas : for, though his errors were more numerous than grains of sand on the sea shore, yet his life abounded in acts of goodness; and these acts became the more frequent, and his faults the more rare, in proportion as his years increased, in proportion as experience and reflection developed the energy of his mind, and the habit of fulfilling his duty strengthened his desire and