er kept many an enemy at bay, who would have rushed
without apprehension upon the spear.

To the successors of the Anglo-Saxon prelates, we mainly owe the
preservation of the forms and spirit of a free government, defended, not
by force, but by law; and the altar may be considered as the corner-stone
of the ancient constitution of the realm.

* * * * *

THE GATHERER.

A snapper up of unconsidered trifles.

SHAKSPEARE.

* * * * *

SERMONS.

Mr. Northcote tells us, that a clergyman, a friend of Mr. Opie's declared
to him, that he once delivered one of Sir J. Reynolds's discourses to the
Royal Academy, from the pulpit, as a sermon, with no other alteration but
in such words as made it applicable to morals instead of the fine arts.

* * * * *

SANCTUARY.

What an eccentricity of wickedness was it to appoint any place where a
murderer should get shelter--a church too! but such were, and are (abroad)
called sanctuaries. Lancaster Church was reserved by Henry VIII. as a
sanctuary, after the abolition of that dangerous privilege in the rest of
England.

* * * * *

CHINESE INGENUITY.

In making toys, the Chinese are exceedingly expert: out of a solid ball of
ivory, with a hole in it, not larger than half an inch in diameter, they
will cut from nine to fifteen distinct hollow globes, one within another,
all loose, and capable of being turned round in every direction, and each
of them carved full of the same kind of open-work that appears on the
fans; a very small sum of money is the price of one of these difficult
trifles.

* * * * *

LOUIS XI. AND THE VIRGIN MARY.

A fool of Louis XI. to whom he did not attend, as not thinking him capable
of making observations, overheard him making this pleasant proposal to our
lady of Cleri, at the great altar, when nobody else was in the church.
"Ah! my dear lady, my little mistress, my best friend, my only comforter,
I beg you to be my advocate, and to importune God to pardon me the death
of my brother, whom I poisoned by the hands of that rascal, the Abbot of
St. John. I confess this to you as to my good patroness and mistress; I
know it is hard, but it will be the more glorious for you if you obtain
it, and I know what present I will make you beside." (_See Brantome's Life
of Charles III_.)

The fool