It was called, in 1246, Crown Field, from an inn or hostery, with the sign of the Crown at the east end, and being then occupied as a market, and partly open, was a fit spot for the erection of a grand public monument. Edward, in 1290, chose it accordingly for the site of one of his crosses. This circumstance, and a slight detail of its history, we find in one of the pamphlets alluded to, entitled, The Downfall of Dagon, or the taking downe of the Cheapside Crosse. The Cross is supposed itself to speak— "And now to see the misery of a high fortune; I that was so stout and glorious, and did not look for a fall, am now become the hateful idoll of the city. I cannot speak much, being of stone, but I will give you a briefe expression of my antiquity: King Edward was the first that built me, and many more crosses in severall townes at the death of good Queen Elenor; and in anno 1441, I was repaired in beautiful manner; then sixe thousand pounds was given to my new erecting, and I have been gilded many times since. I was glorious in several king's reigns and esteemed well in Queen Elizabeth's dayes, beautified at King James his coming into England, and againe at King Charles his coming to the crowne; and I am now accounted for a papist, all my antiquity is lost, I am esteemed and held not fit to have my abiding in the citie; I am called by the name of the Citie Idoll; the Brownists spit at me, and throw stones at me, as they come along the streete, the Formalists hide their eyes with their fingers, the Anabaptists wish me to be knock't to pieces, and the sisters of the fraternity will not come near me; but go about by Watling-streete, and come in againe by Soaper-lane, to buy their provisions of the market folkes." One virulent pamphlet exclaims"O, this crosse, is one of the jewels of the Whore of Rome, and is left and kept here as a love-token, and gives them hope one day, that they shall enjoy it and us againe." The printer adds, as a Finis, "There is not such a superstitious monument .in Spain, France, no, not in Rome, nor in any part of the Christian world, as this crosse is, as travellers report; and that we should gild it, and papists adore it on their knees, (as many witnesses testifie) is abminable." Another writer observes of it,* "Besides being smoake in our own eyes, it is prejudicial to others. It will be an occasion to keep them from coming to look for Christ in a spiritual way, so long as they see him in a visible. It is credibly reported that some have been sent to worship that crosse. Therefore, you that plead for it, your grounds cannot be good, it is a fitter ornament for Rome, or some such place (I meane whilst the image and crosse remained on it) than for this city." To this, another pamphlet, in defence, answers: "These sects can endure no crosse but that on silver, and for Cheapside Crosse it is the abomination of the city, and surplices are smocks of the Whore of Rome; and every thing, though never so laudable and decent, if contrary to their opinion, is by them accounted profane. They like none but sanctified and shuttle headed weavers, long-winded box-makers, and thorow-stitching cobblers, thumping felt-makers, jerkin coachmen, and round-headed buttonmakers, which spoyle bibles, while they thumbe over the leaves with their greasie fingers, and sit by the fire-side scumming their porridge-pot, while their zeal seethes over in applications and interpretations of Scripture, delivered to their ignorant wives and hand-maids, with the name and title of dear brethren, and especially-beloved sisters." These disputes, which were the prelude to its destruction, were followed by the entire demolition of this fine monument, a short time afterwards -viz. on May 2, 1643. Robert Harlowe was intrusted by the Parliament with this important commission, who * Doleful Lamentation of Cheapside Crosse &c. went on the service with true republican zeal, attended by a troop of horse, and two companies of foot, and executed his orders most effectually. The exploit is noticed in the following terms, in a publication of the day : "On the 2d of May, 1643, the crosse in Cheapside was pulled down. A troop of horse and two companies of foot waited to guard it; and at the fall of the top cross, drums beat, trumpets blew, and multitudes of caps were thrown in the air, and a great shout of people with joy. The 2d of May, the Almanack saith, was the invention of the Cross. And the same day, at night, were the leaden popes (effigies) burnt in the place where it stood, with ring ing of bells, and great acclamations; and no hurt at all done in these actions." That the statues on the cross, which are here termed lenden popes, but which seem to have been merely harmless representations of eminent characters, must, as well as the Cross itself, have made a splendid appearance on the great occasions mentioned, we may judge from the information of another pamphlet, which asserts that it was twelve several times adorned and decorated at different periods; and adds, as to the materials (which consisted of stone, lead, and iron, and were ordered to be sold), "some do report that divers of the crownes and sceptres are silver; besides the rich gold that it is gilded with, which, it is said, may be filed and taken off, and yield a good value; so that divers have offered, some 400l. some 5001. But they that bid must offer 10001. for it." Charing Cross is noticed in a " Dialogue between Cheapside Crosse and Charing Crosse, by Ryhen Pameach" (Henry Peacham, author of the Compleat Gentleman) 1641, which has a wood-cut vignette of the Cross, in the act of falling, and two Bishops supporting it, with the following lines:Anabaptist.-0 Idol now, Down must thou. Brother Bull, Be sure it shall. Brownist.-Helpe, Wren, We're undone men. It shall not fall To ruin all. The Dialogue, which is very contemptible, is little other than a quibbling upon words. Cheap-Cross says, "she is so crossed that she fears her utter ruin and destruction is at hand." To which Charing Cross replies,-" Sister of The early celebrity of Paul's Cross, as the greatest seat of pulpit eloquence, is evinced in the lines above quoted, which give us to understand that the most subtle and abstract questions in theology were handled here by the Friars, in opposition to the Secular Clergy, almost at the first settlement of that popular order of preachers in England. Öf the custom of preaching at crosses it is difficult to trace the origin; it was doubtless far more remote than the period alluded to, and, as a late writer thinks, at first merely accidental. The sanctity of this species of pillar, he observes, often caused a considerable resort of people to pay their devotion to the great object of their erection. A preacher, seeing a large concourse, might be seized by a sudden impulse, ascend the steps, and deliver out his pious advice from a station so fit to inspire attention, and so conveniently formed for the purpose. The example might be followed till the practice became established by custom. The famous Paul's Cross, like many others in various parts of the kingdom (afterwards converted to the same purpose), was doubtless at first a mere common cross, and might be coeval with the church. When it was covered and used as a pulpit cross, we are not informed. Stowe describes it in his time, as a pulpit-crosse of timber, covered with leade, standing in the mounted upon steppes of stone, and middest of the church-yard, the very antiquitie whereof was to him un The great plague in 1347. See Piers Plowman's Visions, Ed. 1561. Passus Quintus. knowne." We hear of its being in use as early as the year 1259, when Henry III. in person commanded the Mayor to swear before him every stripling of twelve years old and upwards to be true to him and his heirs. From this time its name continually occurs in his tory. "It was used not only for the instruction of mankind by the doctrine of the preacher, but for every purpose, political or ecelesiastical; for giving force to oaths; for promulgating of laws, or rather the royal pleasure; for the emission of papal bulls; for anathematizing sinners; for benedictions; for exposing of penitents under the censure of the church; for recantations; for the private ends of the ambitious; and for the defaming of those who had incurred the displeasure of crowned heads." Bishop King preached the last sermon here, of any note, before James I. and his Court, on occasion of repairing St. Paul's Church. The ceremony was conducted with so much magnificence, that the prelate exclaims, in a part of his sermon," But will it almost be beleeved, that a King should come from his court to this crosse, where princes seldome or never come; and that comming to bee in a state, with a kinde of sacred pompe and procession, accompanied with all the faire flowers of his field, and the fairest rose (the Queen) of his own garden?" Paul's Cross was demolished by order of Parliament, in 1643, executed by the willing hands of Isaac Pennington, the fanatical Lord Mayor of that year, who died a convicted regicide in the Tower. It stood at the north-east end of St. Paul's church-yard, near the spot where a small tree grew sometime since, now decayed. A print of the cross, and likewise the shrouds, where the company sat in wet weather, may be seen in Speed's Great Britain. Cheapside Cross was situated nearly opposite the end of Wood-street, in Cheapside. INQUISITION OF VENICE. The history of Venice has been often written; but, until the French armies, under the Emperor Napoleon, conquered and annihilated it, as an independant power, no history could be more imperfect. The whole of the archives of this celebrated republic fell into the hands of the French, who sent them to Paris; and it was in consulting these authentic documents that Count Darce found the materials for his, important work on this subject. The mysterious policy of the Council of Ten, and the mysterious system of the State Inquisition, was then for the first time brought before the public eye in all their horrors. No one can doubt the truth of the details, for the members of the council are their own historians. The original manuscript is dated June 23, 1455, and is thus headed; "We, the State Inquisitors, having to establish our statutes, for us and for our successors, decree: All the regulations and orders of the tribunal, shall be written by one of us. No secretary shall be employed, except for copying mandates, to be executed without initiating him into the secrets of the council. The tribunal shall have the greatest number possible of chosen observers (spies) as well amongst the nobility as amongst the people and the monks. They may be promised rank and honours, and exemption from paying taxes; and, if they are in debt, or accused of any criminal offence, they may be given a safe conduct, but for eight months only; and to be renewed if their information continues to merit it. "Four of these explorers (spies) shall be constantly attached, without its being known to each other, to the hotel of each of the foreign ambassadors residing in this city, to render an account of all that passes, and of those who come and go. "If they cannot succeed in penetrating the ambassador's secrets, orders must be given to some Venetian exile to endeavour to obtain an asylum in his palace; and measures shall be taken so that he shall not be troubled; but, on the contrary, rewarded according to his services. "The secretaries of the respective embassies must be gained, if possible, in offering them 100 crowns per month, simply for revealing the communications that a noble Venetian may have with the minister. These overtures must be made by a Monk or a Jew; these fellows sneak in every where. "Whenever the senate nominates an ambassador to a foreign court, the tribunal will send for him, and order him to dive into the secrets of the prince, and find out the reports of his ambassądor at Venice: he will make these communications to the tribunal, with out mentioning them in his dispatches to government. "Independent of this precaution, similar instructions will be given to his secretaries, who are besides directed to acquaint the tribunal, if their master demands or accepts any thing for himself or friends. "When the tribunal shall have judged the death of any one necessary, the execution shall never be public. He shall be secretly drowned at night, in the Canal Orfano. Every two months the letter-box for Rome shall be brought, and the letters opened, to see what the Papists are doing. "The governors of Cyprus and Candia are authorized, secretly, to take away the life of any person whom they may think dangerous. "If a noble Venetian reveals to the tribunal that proposals have been made him from an ambassador, he shall be authorized to carry on the correspondence; and, when the fact is ascertained, the intermediate agent shall be secretly drowned, provided it be neither the ambassador himself nor his secretary legation, but a person whom one may feign not to know. "If, for any offence whatever, a Patrician seeks an asylum in the palace of a foreign minister, care must be taken to kill him there without delay." We will not extend our quotations: these will suffice to show the merits and demerits of this weak and wicked government, even the virtues of which were stained by the considerations of sordid interest. FEBRUARY Takes it name from Februa, an epithet given to Juno, as the goddess of purification; while others attribute the origin of the name to Februa, a feast held of the Romans in this month, in behalf of the manes of the deceased. ASTRONOMICAL OCCURRENCES IN FEBRUARY. Oh, thou beautiful And unimaginable ether! and Is this blue wilderness of interminable seen The leaves along the limpid streams of Eden? He was Bishop of Sebaste in Armenia, and suffered martyrdom in 316, under the persecution of Licinius, by command of Agricolaus, governor of Cappadocia and the Lesser Armenia. 5th. Saint Agatha. She suffered martyrdom under Decius, in the year 251. 14th. Saint Valentine. Valentine was an ancient presbyter of the church. After a year's imprisonment at Rome he was beaten with clubs, and then beheaded, in the Via Flaminia, about the year 270, under Claudius II. The modern celebration of this day is well known. 15th. Septuagesima Sunday. The institution of this and the two following Sundays cannot be traced higher than the beginning of the sixth or the close of the fifth century. Shepherd says, "When the words Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima (seventieth, sixtieth, and fiftieth) were first applied to denote these three Sundays, the season of Lent had generally been extended to a fast of six weeks, that is, thirty-six days, not reckoning the Sundays, which were At always celebrated as festivals. this time, also, the Sunday which we call the first Sunday in Lent, was styled simply Quadragesima, or the fortieth; meaning, no doubt, the fortieth day before Easter. Quadragesima was only the name given to the season of Lent, and denoted the Quadragesimal or Forty Day's Fast. When the three weeks before Quadragesima ceased to be considered as weeks after the Theophany (or Epiphany), and were appointed to be observed as a time of preparation for Lent, it was perfectly conformable to the ordinary mode of computation to reckon backwards, and for the sake of even and round numbers, to count by decades. 22d. Sexagesima Sunday. 29th. Quinquagesima Sunday. PAUPERISM IN EUROPE. Among the 178,000,000 individuals who inhabit Europe, there are estimated to be 15,900,000 beggars, or persons who subsist at the expense of the community, without contributing to its resources. In Denmark, the proportion is five per centum; in England ten per cent.; in Holland fourteen per cent; in Paris 102,856 paupers out of a population of 530,900; in Liverpool 17,000 out of 80,000; in AmsterThese dam 108,000 out of 217,000. numbers in every instance, it is believed, are on the increase. COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE POPULATION, REVENUE, AND DEBT OF THE PRINCIPAL MODERN STATES. CASE OF AN INNOCENT MAN CONDEMNED FOR MURDER. The Dame Marjel, a woman of fortune and fashion, whose residence was in the Rue des Macons, in Paris, on the 27th of November, 1689, supped, according to custom, with the Abbe Poulard, a prelate who occasionally lodged in the house and superintended the management. The Dame Marjel retired to bed, as usual, but the next morning she was found murdered in her bed, with fifteen stabs of a knife, or sharp instrument. An investigation was immediately instituted. On examining the bed, which was filled with blood, a piece of a cravat of Malines' lace, quite bloody, was found, with a napkin twisted in the form of a nightcap. That night-cap also was saturated with blood, and marked with the letter S.; the letter with which all the linen of the house was marked. It was conjectured that the murdered lady, in defending herself from the assassin, had torn from him the piece of lace cravat and the napkin worn as a night-cap. In one of her hands several hairs were found. The bellropes near the bed were found twisted and tied up, so as to be out of reach; and in the ashes of the bed-room fire a knife was found with the handle nearly burnt off. There was no appear |