called Porta Latina, caused him to be put into a cauldron of boiling oil, from whence he suffered no pain, and come forth without harm. This is supposed to have happened before the Evangelist was exiled to the isle of Patmos, where he wrote his "Revelation's."

8.-1829.-LORD COLCHESTER DIED, ÆTAT. 71.

The Right Hon. Charles Abbot, first Lord Colchester, son of the Rev. Dr. Abbott, was born at Abingdon, October 14th, 1757. Having completed his studies at Oxford, he made a continental tour to improve himself in foreign law; on his return in 1782, he took his Law Degree, and was soon after called to the bar. In 1795 he obtained a seat in Parliament, and from that period his public life rose gradually into popularity. After having filled the offices of chief secretary for Ireland, and keeper of the Privy Seal; he succeeded to the Chair of the House of Commons in 1802. This situation he filled with great credit to himself, and advantage to the country till 1817, when his ill state of health compelled him to quit office. Shortly after his retirement, the king, as a mark of royal favor for past services, created him a Peer by the title of Baron Colchester. In the House of Lords he continued to maintain that active and serviceable character which he had attained whilst a member of the lower house, and after a severe attack of erysipelas, he died at his house in Spring Gardens, Westminster. His remains were privately interred in Westminster Abbey.

10.-1829.-THOMAS YOUNG, M.D. F.R.S. died, ÆTAT. 55.

An eminent scholar and philosopher; and senior physician to St. George's Hospital. He published a number of scientific works and contributed largely to the Philosophical Transactions; Transactions of

the Linnean Society; Encyclopædia Britannica; Nicholson's Journal; and other periodical works. He was also one of the editors of the Nautical Almanack. The Article on Egypt contributed by him to the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica will hand his name down to posterity, as one of the most erudite Egyptian scholars the world ever produced. He died in Park Square, London, and was buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey.

16.-ROGATION SUNDAY.

So called from Rogare, to beseech; and the second Sunday preceding Whit-sunday. The early Christians appropriated extraordinary prayers and supplications for the three first days of this week, as a preparation for the devout observance of our Saviour's ascension, on the day next succeeding to them, denominated Holy Thursday.

19.-ST. DUNSTAN,

Archbishop of Canterbury, was born in 925, in the reign of Athelstan, who gave him lands at Glastonbury, where he founded a monastery. King Edgar made him bishop of Worcester, and in 959, archbishop of Canterbury. The pope confirmed the appointment, and made him his legate. Dunstan extended the papal power in an arbitrary manner, though opposed by the English clergy, for which he deprived many of their benefices, and placed monks in their room. On the death of King Edgar in 975, he placed his son Edward on the throne, who being a minor, Dunstan assumed the regency. Under his successor Etheldred, however, he lost his influence and died of grief in 988.

19.-1536.-ANNE BOLEYN BEHEADED.

Hume says, the executioner of this unfortunate queen, was a Frenchman, from Calais, who was supposed to have uncommon skill. This is borne

out by the following incident traditionally preserved in France, and published in Houssaie's Memoires:

Anne Boleyn being on the scaffold, would not consent to have her eyes covered with a bandage, saying that she had no fear of death. All that the divine, who assisted at her execution, could obtain from her was that she would shut her eyes. But as she was opening them at every moment, the executioner could not bear their tender and mild glances: fearful of missing his aim, he was obliged to invent an expedient to go behind the queen. He drew off his shoes, and approached her silently; while he was at her left hand, another person advanced at her right, who made a great noise in walking, so that this circumstance drawing the attention of Anne, she turned her face from the executioner, who was enabled by this artifice to strike the fatal blow, without being disarmed by that spirit of affecting resignation which shone in the eyes of the lovely Anne Boleyn.

20.-ASCENSION DAY, or HOLY THURSDAY.

The Thursday but one before Whitsuntide, and the day on which our Saviour ascended to Heaven from the Mount of Olives; and held his last conversation with his disciples, before his ascension.

20.-1828.-HENRY MATTHEWS DIED, ÆTAT. 38. This gentleman was the author of a very popular volume, entitled Diary of an Invalid, and of numerous articles in the New Monthly Magazine. The best tribute we can pay to his memory is by extracting the following memoir from The Ceylon Gazette.

"Colombo, Saturday, May 24, 1828.

"It is with feelings of no common regret, in which we are sure that our readers will fully sympathise, that we have to announce the death of the Hon. Henry Matthews, Esq., Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Ceylon. This me

lancholy event took place at his house at Mutwall, at one o'clock in the morning of last Tuesday, 20th May; and in the evening of that day, his remains were interred in St. Peter's Church, in the Fort of Colombo, with the honors due to his rank. The funeral was attended (his Excellency the Governor being absent from Colombo) by the Chief Justice, the Members of his Majesty's Council, the gentlemen of the several services, civil and military, and other European inhabitants of the place; by the second Maha Modelier, and many of the principal Modeliers and chiefs, as well as a considerable number of the most respectable natives, desirous of testifying their respect to the memory of the deceased. Mr. Matthews was born in 1789. He was educated at Eton, and afterwards became a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. In 1817 he left England for the Continent, on account of ill health; and on his return in 1819, published his Diary, which is well known, and generally admired. In the latter end of 1821, having been previously called to the bar, he was appointed Advocate Fiscal of Ceylon, and fulfilled the duties of that office with the warm and unqualified approbation of his Majesty's government, till last October, when he was promoted to the Bench, on the vacancy occasioned by the death of Sir Hardinge Giffard. The short period during which it was permitted to Mr. Matthews to exercise his judicial functions, fully realized the expectations even of those who had been in the habit of listening to and admiring his brilliant efforts of an Advocate. His natural talents were of the very highest order. Strength of mind, quickness of perception, and accuracy of judgment, directed and tempered a warmth of feeling which influenced every action of his life, and an ardour in the discharge of his public duties, which neither fatigue nor bodily sufferings could damp, nor any thing but death itself extinguish. His attainments, independantly of such as were incidental to his profession, were those of an elegant scholar and a polished gentleman. It is scarcely necessary to add, that the death of such a man is a severe loss, not only to his profession, but to the public. But it was in all the private relations of life, and above all, in the bosom of his family, that it was most pleasing to contemplate his amiable and endearing qualities. As a husband and a father, his conduct was above all praise. Such indeed was his devotedness to the dearest objects of his affection, that he might have been supposed to be wholly absorbed in them, if the number of his friends, who now deplore his loss, did not testify that his heart was as capacious as it was open and accessible. His highly cultivated mind and

extensive information, his manly and generous sentiments, and the playfulness of his imagination, rendered him the charm and delight of society; and not to love him, was scarcely possible. Kind and affectionate as was his life, his end was in every way worthy of it. On the bed of sickness and of death, his body worn down by lingering disease, he was still the same; his thoughts still fixed on every one, rather than himself. Fortitude the most undaunted, resig nation the most exemplary, marked his last moments, and gave proof, cheering and undeniable, of a mind calmly conscious of its own rectitude."

26.-ST. AUGUSTIN, or AUSTIN.

Austin, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, was a Roman monk, and sent by Pope Gregory the First with forty others, to convert the inhabitants of Britain, about 596. On landing at Thanet, they informed King Ethelbert of their business, who, as an example to his subjects, embraced Christianity himself, but never attempted to bring over his people by force. Austin was consecrated at Arles archbishop and metropolitan of the church. fixed his seat at Canterbury, and endeavoured to form an alliance with the Welch bishops, who had long before embraced Christianity; but in this effort he was unsuccessful. He died at Canterbury on this day, 607.

27.-VENERABLE BEDE.

He

St. Bede was born near the river Wear, in Durham, in 672. When seven years of age, he was received into the monastery of Wearmouth, and under the abbot Benedict, and his successor Ceolfrid, his infant mind received the rudiments of that knowledge which has rendered his memory immortal. He was ordained deacon at the age of nineteen, and priest at thirty. By living a secluded life, he made himself master of every branch of learning, and produced a number of works of great merit. His Ecclesiastical History alone is sufficient to immortalize his memory. He died in 735, and was canonized by the Romish church.