COURT OF PIE POUDRE. This is the lowest, and at the same time the most expeditious (as the title implies), court in the kingdom. It was established to settle on the spot disputes arising at fairs or markets. It is said to be called the court of pie poudre, curia pedis pulverizati, from the dusty feet of the suitors; or, as Sir Edward Coke says, because justice is there done as speedily as dust can fall from the feet; but Blackstone, who says thus much of this court, inclines to the opinion of Daines Barrington, who derives it from pied puldreaux (a pedlar in old French), and says it signifies, therefore, the court of such petty chapmen as resort to fairs or markets. Fosbroke says-Courts similar to pie poudre courts were usual both with Greeks and Romans, who introduced fairs into Germany and the North. TURNPIKES. The etymology of turnpike is as follows:-In early times it was the custom to fasten a pike, or spear-head, loosely to the top of a post, in order to prevent the intrusion of travellers not duly authorised to pass. This turning round, of course presenting a point on every side, gave rise to the name turnpike. They were erected as early as A.D. 1267, as we find a grant of a penny for each waggon passing through a manor.- -See Index or Catalogue of the Patent Rolls, Henry III. 51, m. 21. A toll was also imposed in the reign of Edward III., for repairing the road between St. Giles and Temple Bar. The first act for the repair of the public roads was passed in 1698. When turnpike-tolls were first demanded, the lower orders of the people evinced much opposition to the measure, and many were punished for pulling down the gates, and maltreating the collectors. WAR WITH FRANCE. "Peace be to France, if France in peace permit, Shakspeare. When the fair were accustomed to behold their lovers with beards, the sight of a shaved chin excited sentiments of horror and aversion; as much indeed as, in this effeminate age, would a gallant whose hairy excrescence should Stream like a meteor to the troubled air." To obey the injunctions of his bishops, Louis the Seventh of France cropped his hair, and shaved his beard. Eleanor of Acquitaine, his consort, found him some little time after their marriage, with this uncommon appearance, very ridiculous, and very con K temptible; and told him, that when she married him she thought she had married a man, not a monk. She revenged herself, by becoming something more than a coquette. The king obtained a divorce. She then married the Count of Anjou, who shortly after ascended the English throne as Henry II. She gave him for her marriage dower the rich provinces of Poitou and Guienne; and this was the origin of those wars which for three hundred years ravaged France, and which cost the French nation three millions of men. All which probably had never taken place, had Louis VII. not been so rash as to crop his hair and shave his beard, by which he disgusted the fair Eleanor. THE AMERICAN WAR. The imposts on stamps, or, in other words, the Stamp Act, may be said to have originated this unnatural and impolitic war, and which commenced at Lexington in 1775. The following is a specimen of the feeling which animated the Americans at that day. When Patrick Henry, who gave the first impulse to the American revolution, introduced his celebrated resolution on the Stamp Act, in the House of Burgesses of Virginia, he exclaimed, when descanting on the tyranny of the obnoxious act, "Cæsar had his Brutus; Charles the First his Cromwell; and George the Third- ""Treason!" cried the Speaker. "Treason, Treason!!" echoed from every part of the house. It was one of those trying moments which are decisive of character. Henry faltered not for an instant; but rising to a loftier attitude, and fixing on the Speaker an eye flashing with fire, exclaimed, "may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the best of it !"* It is said, that George the Third manifested an unbecoming impatience relative to the declaration of war against the Americans; and that when the American Commissioners for the peace were presented to him, he said, "I have been the last man in my dominions to accede to this peace, which separates America from my kingdom. I will be the first man, now that it is made, to resist any attempt to impugn it." LOTTERIES. The first lottery is said to have been drawn A.D. 1569. It consisted of 400,000 lots, at ten shillings each lot; the prizes were plate, and the profits were to go towards repairing the havens of the kingdom. It was drawn at the west door of St. Paul's cathedral. The drawing began on the 11th January, 1569, and continued incessantly drawing, day and night, till the 6th May following, as Maitland, from Stow, informs us in his History, vol. i., p. 257. There were then only three lottery-offices in London. The proposals for this lottery were published in the years 1567 and 1568. It was at first intended to have been drawn at the house of Mr. Dericke, her Majesty's servant (i. e. jeweller), but was afterwards drawn as above mentioned. The first State or Parliamentary lottery took place in the year 1709, and from that time down to 1823 they were annually licensed by Act of Parliament under a variety of regulations. During this century government constantly availed itself of this means to raise money for various public works, of which the British Museum and Westminster bridge are well known examples. But, at the commencement of the present century, a great repugnance began to be manifested in Parliament to this method of raising the public revenue, in consequence of the spirit of gambling which it tended to foster in the great body of the people. So that the government, in the year 1823, consented to the entire abolition both of state and private lotteries. NATIONAL DEBT. The contracting of the English National Debt cannot be said to have been begun before the Revolution of 1688. Even for some years after the accession of William and Mary, the borrowings of the government were for short periods only. The first transaction of this kind of a permanent character arose out of the chartering of the Bank of England in 1693, when its capital of £1,200,000 was lent to the public at 8 per cent. The debt at the time of the Revolution in 1688 amounted to £664,263; on the first of February 1817, when the English and Irish exchequers were consolidated, to £840,850,491; and in 1839, the total of unredeemed debt was £853,519,647. FRANKING LETTERS. In the Parliamentary History, vol. xxiii., is the following very curious anecdote concerning this privilege. It occurred in the debate on the Post-office bill in the year 1660. "Colonel Titus reported the bill for the settlement of the post-office, with the amendments. Sir Walter Earle delivered a proviso, for the letters of all members of parliament to go free during their sitting, Sir Heneage Finch said, 'It was a poor mendicant proviso, and below the honour of the House.' Mr. Prynn spoke also against the proviso. Mr. Bunckley, Mr. Boscawen, Sir George Downing, and Sergeant Charlton, for it; the latter saying, the counsel's letters were free. The question being called for, the Speaker, Sir Harbottle Grimstone, was unwilling to put it, saying he was ashamed of it: nevertheless, the proviso was carried, and made part of the bill, which was ordered to be engrossed. The Lords subsequently disagreed to this proviso, and it was ultimately thrown out. At a subsequent period, however, both Houses did not feel it to be below their honour to secure for themselves this exemption from postage." All parliamentary and official franking was abolished by the Act 2 and 3 Vict. cap. 52, which established the present uniform rate of Postage. REPORTING OF PARLIAMENTARY SPEECHES. The practice of reporting originated in 1736, with Mr. Cave, the proprietor of the Gentleman's Magazine, but William Woodfall, the printer of The Diary, 1789, was the man who first reported the Parliamentary debates in a proper manner. He was to be seen every night in the gallery of the House of Commons, with his cane-head in his mouth, never varying his posture, and never taking a note; and yet the following day reporting the speeches without the loss of a single word, though perhaps he would call at the theatre in his way home to see a new farce, or a new performer, for his criticism; and yet his memory disposed of such various gleanings without the least confusion, or any apparent technical help. What an enviable talent! BUDGET. M. Ch. Coquelin says, that the word budget, in its present signification, has passed into France from England: the latter country having first borrowed it from the old French languagebougette signifying (and particularly in old Norman) a leather purse, It was the custom in England to put into a leather bag the estimates of receipts and expenditure presented to parliament; and hence, as Coquelin observes, the term passed from the containant to the contained, and, with this new signification, returned from this country into France; where it was first used in an official manner in the arrêtés of the Consul's, 4th Thermidor, year X., and 17th Germinal, year XI. HERALDRY, TITLES AND DIGNITIES, VARIOUS ORDERS AND INSIGNIA, ORIGIN OF VARIOUS ROYAL AND NOBLE FAMILIES, CHRISTIAN NAMES, &c. HERALDRY. The late Lord Courtney, who was of one of the oldest families in Great Britain, having married a Miss Clack, who was much inferior in point of birth, a conversation took place (at which the late Bishop of Exeter was present) on the disparity of the connection. "What is your objection?" said the bishop to a lady, who took the principal part in the conversation. "Want of family, my lord." "Want of family!" echoed the bishop. "Why, I'll prove her of better family than his lordship's. He may, perhaps, trace his family as far back as the conquest, but the family of the Clacks are as old as Eve!"-So, reader, it may almost be said of Heraldry, the true origin of which is lost in the mazes of antiquity. In a small work, published in 1721, entitled The British Compendium, or Rudiments of Honour, is the following passage:"Abel, the second son of Adam, bore his father's coat quartered with that of his mother Eve, she being an heiress, viz., gules and argent; and Joseph's coat was party-per-pale argent, and gules." Heraldry came first into general use about the year 1100. As regards crests, the assumption of them took its data from Edward the Black Prince assuming the device of the blind king of Bohemia, who was slain at the battle of Crecy. Prior to that period, they were only allowable by grant. Another writer says, Harry, surnamed the Fowler, Emperor of the West, who regulated the tournaments in Germany, was the first who introduced those marks of honour, Armouries, or Coats of Arms. Before that time we find nothing upon ancient tombs but crosses, with Gothic inscriptions, and decorations of persons entombed. The time of Clement IV., who died A.D. 1268, is the first whereon we find any arms; nor do they appear struck upon any coins before the year 1336. Camden refers the origin of hereditary arms in England to the time of the first Norman kings. Chronology says, coats of arms and heraldry were introduced in 1100, and that the arms of England and France were first quartered by Edward III., 1358." HERALDS. In the days of chivalry, the principal employment of the herald was to carry messages of defiance, or proposals of peace, from one sovereign prince or chieftain to another; and in such high esteem was the office held, that the senior heralds were styled. kings, and the sovereign himself vested them with the dignity by pouring a gold cup of wine on their heads, and proclaiming their style and title. In modern times, the principal business of the herald is to proclaim peace and war, to superintend all royal and state ceremonies, particularly coronations, and the installations of the knights of different orders; to arrange public funerals, to record and emblazon the arms of the nobility and gentry, and check all spurious assumptions in this respect. HERALDS' COLLEGE. The College of Arms, commonly called the Heralds' College, is situated on the east side of St Bennet's Hill, Doctors' Commons, at the south-west end of St. Paul's Churchyard. It was destroyed by the fire in 1666, but rebuilt about three years after. It is a spacious brick edifice, having an arched gateway in front, leading |