prevail on them to lay aside. This was the mart for slaves, collected from all parts of England, and particularly young women, whom they took care to provide with a pregnancy, in order to enhance their value. It was a most moving sight to see, in the public markets, rows of young people of both sexes tied together with ropes, of great beauty, and in the flower of their youth, daily prostituted, daily sold :-execrable fact!wretched disgrace !-men unmindful even of the affection of the brute creation! delivering into slavery their relations, and even their very offspring.

Vita S. Wulfstan, in Anglia Sacra, ii. 258.

LOUVOIS.

THE war of 1688 was excited by Louvois, the French minister, to secure himself in his office, which he judged to be in danger, from perceiving, as he thought, an alteration in Louis XIV.'s disposition towards him. The story is thus related by the Duke de St. Simon, in his Memoirs : "The castle of Trianon was just built, when the King perceived a defect in the proportion of one of the windows. Louvois, who was naturally insolent, and who had been so spoilt that he could hardly bear to be found fault with

by

by his master, maintained that the window was well proportioned. The King turned his back on him, and walked away. The next day, the King, seeing Le Notre, the architect, asked him if he had been at Trianon. He answered in the negative. The King ordered him to go thither, and told him of the defect which he had discovered in the window. The next day, the King again asked him if he bad been at Trianon: he again answered that he had not. The following day the same question was again asked by the King, and the same answer given by the architect. The King now saw clearly, that Le Notre was afraid of being under the necessity of declaring either he or his minister was in the wrong, and with some anger he commanded Le Notre and Louvois to meet him the next day at Trianon. No evasion was now possible; accordingly, they met : the window was immediately mentioned: Lou vois persisted in his former opinion: Le Notre remained silent; at last, the King ordered him to measure the window: he obeyed; and while he was so employed, Louvois, enraged that such a criterion was resorted to, discovered his chagrin, and insisted, with acrimony, that the window wasexactly like the rest. When Le Notre had finished, Louvois asked him what was the result. Le Notre hesitated. The King, with much pas, sion, commanded him to speak out. He then

declared,

declared, that the King was in the right, and that the window was not proportioned to the rest. Immediately, the King turned to Louvois, told him there was no enduring his obstinacy, and reproached him with much vehemence. Louvois, stung with this reprimand, which was, pronounced in the presence of many courtiers, as well as of workmen and footmen, returned home, furious with rage. At his house he found St. Fouange Villeneuf, the Chevalier de Nogent, the two Tilladets, and some other of his most devoted friends, who were much alarmed at seeing the state of mind he was in. It is all over," said he; I must have lost all credit with the King, from the manner in which he has been treating me only about a window. I have no re-, 'source but in war, which will divert his attention 'from his buildings, and will render my assistance

necessary; and, by G-, war he shall have." He kept his word: war was declared a few months afterwards, and he contrived, in spite of the King, and of the other powers, to render it general."

Thus did a childish dispute between a vainglorious prince and an insolent minister, on the most trivial occasion, kindle a war, which lasted for eight years; which raged in Ireland, in France, in the West Indies, upon the seas, in Spain, in Savoy, in Flanders, and in Germany,

in which millions of treasures were spent, many thousand lives lost, all the towns and villages of the Palatinate burned, and that whole country reduced to a scene of universal desolation.

THE RIVAL PUBLICANS.

By the late Dr. Lyon.

I KNEW two publicans, Sam Henry, and Tom Irwin. Henry was a civil, obliging fellow, and opened a little alehouse at the sign of the Goose, which he drew with his own hand, whence he obtained the name of Sam Goose, with which he seemed to be so well pleased, that he used often to draw a humorous comparison between himself and that animal. His wit, which was of a peculiar cast (for it was without gall), drew many people to his house, which was badly furnished; for the best room had only one old table, so infirm, that it was supported by a log of wood, and a chair, reserved for the priest of the parish (who loved a mug of good ale), with a piece of a broken lookingglass, in which many a rustic Helen had often surveyed the opening rose of beauty. Sam was as happy as any man on earth, with a constant smile on his countenance: the guest was equally welcome, whether he paid in money, or

left

left a memorial in chalk. Irwin was of an envious disposition; he had scraped some money together, and as he found that Henry made out a living on a trifle, he thought that he might do wonders on forty times the sum. He built a Jarge house with three rooms, half a dozen, glass windows, with suitable furniture, a large oak table, that reflected the countenance of all that encircled it; drinking glasses instead of horns; and a bell into the bargain, which was the first of the kind ever known in the country. Every thing was ready to the sign; for a public house without a sign, is like a book without a title-page, or a bishop without a mitre. What was the sign, then, do you think?-A Fox running off with a Goose, alias Sain himself, some of whose features could be traced in the Roman sentinel. A new broom sweeps clean, and a new house will draw customers; and notwithstanding the excellent colour and flavour of Sam's fat ale, and the inexhaustless fund of his humour, yet he found that some of his old customers could pass by with a "How d' ye do?" A couple of farmers in the neighbourhood enabled Sam, however, to out-top his rival in a house and furniture, with a sign of his own device, the Goose running away with the Fox. His rooms were constantly crowded, and the standing toast was, "Success to our host, and may the Goose always run away with the Fox."

THE