and confined in a certain house till they could be shipped off to the American plantations, a party of the guards were commanded to march to the spot; but an officer was first dispatched to the lord-chief-justice, requesting him to send some of his people in order to give this affair a better appearance. "Suppose," said the judge to the officer, "the populace will not disperse, what are you to do then?" "Sir," answered he, "we have orders to fire on them." "Have you so?" replied his lordship; "then take notice of what I say: if one man is killed, and you are tried before me, I will take care that you and every soldier of your party shall be hanged." Having dismissed the officer with a reprimand for his employers, he ordered his tipstaves with a few constables to attend him; and proceeding to the scene of tumult, expostulated with the mob, assured them that justice should be done, and pacified them to such a degree that they quietly dispersed.

This upright judge, having filled his exalted office for a period of twenty-one years with the highest credit to himself and utility to the public, was carried off by a lingering illness in the sixty-eighth year of his age. His body was interred in the church of Redgrave, in the county of Suffolk; where a sumptuous monument was erected to his memory. By his lady, a daughter of sir John Cropley, he left no issue.

A judicious biographer has thus summed up the character of lord-chief-justice Holt; which, irom an impartial review of his ine, appears to be perfectly just." He was one of the ablest and most upright judges that ever presided in a court of justice. He was a perfect master of the common law, and applied himself with great assi duity to the functions of his important office. Possessed of uncommon clearness of understanding, and great solidity of judgment, such were the integrity and firmness of his mind, that he could never be brought to swerve in the least from what he esteemed law and justice. He was

remarkably strenuous in nobly aserting, and as rigorously supporting, the rights and liberties of the subject, to which he paid the greatest regard; and would not even suffer a reflection tending to depreciate them, to pass uncensured, or without a severe reprimand."

As a legal writer he was less distinguished. The duties of his station left him but little leisure; yet he is not unknown to students by his works. In 1708 he published sir John Keyling's Reports, with some annotations of his own, and three modern cases which had attracted great notoriety. Some juvenile frolics are generally ascribed to Holt, but with no great authenticity: yet, as they convey the only existing records of his private character, one of this kind shall be here inserted, which, whether true or false, can reflect but little disgrace upon his memory.

Being once out on a party of pleasure with some young men, and their money being all spent, it was agreed to separate, and try their fortunes singly. Holt put up at the first inn that came in his way, with a bold face; and seeing the only daughter of the family, who was then about thirteen years of age, shivering under a fit of the ague, he immediately conceived an idea how he might turn this circumstance to his advantage. On interrogating the mother, he discovered that the girl had long laboured under this complaint, and that the art of medicine had been tried in vain. On this he shook his head; and bade her take courage, for she should never have another fit. He then wrote an unintelligible scrawl in court-hand on a piece of parchment, and ordered it to be bound round the daughter's wrist. It happened that the charm had the desired effect; and when Holt, without a penny in his pocket, at the end of the week called for his bill, he found the gratitude of the family for his skill and service precluded them from making any demand. He was even considered as a benefactor of the first importance, and they parted with mutual good-will.

In the course of many years, when raised to be a judge, he went the circuit in the same county; and among other criminals at the assizes, was an old woman accused of witchcraft. She was indicted for having a spell by which she could cure such cattle as were sick, or destroy such as were well; and this magical charm, being seized upon her, was ready to be produced in court. Holt ordered it to be shewn him; and having divested it of numerous coverings, found it to consist of the very piece of parchment which he had used in the above case to cure the girl of an ague. He immediately recollected the incident; and with a magnanimity which exalted his character, confessed the trick which he had played. The jury, of course, acquitted the prisoner; and judge Holt's landlady was the last person that was tried in those parts on the absurd charge of witchcraft.

GILBERT BURNET,

BISHOP OF SALISBURY.

Born 1643.-Died 1715.

From 18th Charles I., to 2d George I.

THERE are some men who appear great only while the splendour of rank, or the bustle of station, dazzles the eyes of the spectators; others become magnified as they recede from the public view, and are seen like stars in a distant sky. Of this latter description is Bishop Burnet: a man too much implicated in the various political con vulsions which agitated his time, to escape censure; but whose memory is generally allowed to be clear from any considerable stain.

Gilbert Burnet was descended from an ancient family in Aberdeenshire. His father was a lawyer; and as a reward for his constant attachment to the royal party,. at the Restoration was appointed one of the lords of sessions.

His mother was sister to sir Alexander Johnston, and an enthusiastical Calvinist.

During the Usurpation, Mr. Burnet, having refused to acknowledge Cromwell's authority; had no other employ. ment than the instruction of his own son, which he attended to with the most patient industry; and at ten years of age sent him to the university of Aberdeen, whither he also removed himself to assist in superintending his education. This was so strictly pursued, that the youth was obliged to rise at four in the morning: a practice which became habitual to him; and gave him more time for study, and a larger enjoyment of life, than fall to the share of most men. Whatever is stolen from sleep is certainly added to existence; and though late hours are justly deemed injurious to health, early rising is at once conducive to pleasure and to profit..

Burnet's original destination was the church; yet he was so much attached to the study of civil and feudal law, that nothing could divert his attention from it; and he often declared that he had deduced from this source juster principles of civil society and government, than many of his profession would allow him to possess.

Having satisfied his mind on those topics, he applied with equal ardour to divinity: and as a relaxation, perused a prodigious number of books on subjects of general knowledge; so that he was master of a vast fund of learning before he reached his eighteenth year. Being admitted a probationer preacher, he refused a benefice which was offered him; and having lost his father in 1663, he visited Oxford and Cambridge, where he staid about six months.

Next year he made a tour to Holland and France; and perfected himself in Hebrew, by the assistance of a rabbi at Amsterdam. Here likewise he became ac quainted with the most distinguished divines of the various sects which toleration had united in friendly

intercourse; and having such a pattern before his eyes, he became fixed in a strong principle of universal charity, and an invincible abhorrence of all intolerance in religion.

On his return to Scotland, he was admitted into holy orders, and presented to the living of Saltoun. His abilities would not suffer him to be inactive or useless. He mediated between the episcopalians and the presbyterians with considerable effect, but rendered himself obnoxious to the zealots of both parties. Such is too frequently the only reward of candour and liberality of

sentiment.

Being promoted to the divinity chair of Glasgow, he filled that station upwards of four years, and made himself very acceptable to the duchess of Hamilton; which was the basis of his future promotion. The earl of Lauderdale invited him to London; where he had the choice of four Scottish bishoprics offered him, but he declined them all. On his return to Glasgow, he married lady Margaret Kennedy, daughter of the earl of Cassilis; and shewed the most generous disinterestedness by the manner in which he disposed of her fortune.

His merit and abilities had for some time pointed him out as a proper person to wear the mitre, but he still declined promotion in Scotland. However, on the king's own nomination, he was made chaplain in ordinary; but on giving some disgust to the court, his name was soon after erased from the list.

Finding his enemies beginning to prevail against him, he relinquished his professor's chair at Glasgow, and resolved to settle in London. His reputation as a sacred writer and divine was so great, that notwithstanding the opposition of the court he was appointed preacher at the Rolls chapel, and soon after chosen lecturer of St. Clement's.

His fame being fully established, and his popularity increasing, in 1679 he published the first volume of his History of the Reformation; for which he obtained the