Apparent, his own son he made that son his hero-he fomented this fa mily discord into a civil war-he then took upon himself the office of a mediator, with an army at his heels erected an intermediate Government in a subordinate Janissary's hand, and poured his French troops into the Capital of the Empire. He took the King, the Heir-Apparent, the Queen of Spain, with him; he bound them hand and foot-he made the King and his Heir successively abdicate their Crown, when they were as free as the felon who is confined in your gaol; he made-oh, infamy of horror! this Queen bastardize her own legitimate son, and brand herself as a degraded Prostitute!!! He then quoted those very infamies against them in Spain, as proving them unworthy to return, and base to their Country. Opposed in these detestable perfidies, he murdered thousands of Spaniards in cold blood, and at last insulted that high-spirited Nation with his infamous brother's election, by him, to the vacant throne! It is this man we are to fight; our deliverance and that of Europe are combined we are to fight him locally in Spain. But I address men of good sense, qual to their high spirits; they will follow me in the sentiment that Spain is Britain; that her cause will be felt in every inch of your coast, and of the Island we inhabit. Struck to the heart by a domestic visitation* (which the duty of a resigned Christian could alone have enabled me to survive) I am still animated with zeal for of me so dear a sacrifice."-The Grand Jury voted the sacred cause of public spirit, which has claimed a congratulatory Address to his Majesty.

I

Mr. URBAN,
Sept. 21.
CANNOT think that the construc-
tion your Correspondent AMIC.

p. 696, has put upon the 20th verse of the first chapter of Genesis, accords with the meaning of the inspired Writer of the Pentateuch. The most proper method of illustrating Scripture is, by comparing it with the context. In the 22d verse it is said, "And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth." And in the second chapter, which gives a more particular account of the manner of the Creation, we have these words, "And out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air." These passages need no comment; they are full to the purpose

If the meaning of Amic. is just, nơ reason can be assigned, why the Almighty should command Noah to take with him into the ark, "of fowls also by sevens, the male and the female, to keep seed alive upon the face face of all the earth;" (ch. vii. v. 3) when the fowl of the air were, by their peculiar formation, enabled to exist under the waters as well as in the open firmament of Heaven. But this is, in the strongest language, contradicted in the 21st, 22d, and 23d verses, where the sacred Author tells us, "All fleshi died, that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man-all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed, which was upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle, and the creeping thing, and the fowl of the Heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth. And Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark." There can be no occasion to enlarge farther upon the subject. Yours, &c.

TAHSAR.

Mr.

Mr. URBAN, Birmingham, Aug. 10. Tview of the Chapel at Knowle,

HE annexed (Plate 1.) is a South

or Knoll, co. Warwick, though on too diminutive a scale to do justice to that beautiful structure.

I refer to your vol. LXIII. p. 419, for a full description of it, together with the history of its foundation and guild; though the writer of that acCount commits a small error in supposing Dabridgecourt's brass to be stolen, as it still remains in the Chapel, though torn from its slab. Dug dale's transcript of this inscription [History of Warwickshire, p. 961, ed. Thomas] is so very incorrect, that I hope you will insert the following accurate copy.

Of po' charite prape for pe sowolle of maister John dawbbes courtt, esquer, who decessed the rvj dape of July, An'o M. v. co xliiijo. and for pe sowlleg of Katrine and Elsabeth his wpves, on whose sowlles Th’us have mercy, A. M. E. N.

A

Yours, &c. WILLIAM HAMPER

Mr. URBAN, Temple, Aug. 23. SHORT account of the principal Founders and Restorers of the Saxon and Anglo-Saxon Laws may not, perhaps, be unacceptable to the numerous Readers of your telligent Magazine.

in

The chief were Ina, Alfred, Edgar, and Edward the Confessor. When Alfred succeeded to the Monarchy of England, founded by his grandfather Egbert, he collected the various customs he found dispersed in the kingdom, and reduced and digested them into one uniform system or Code of Laws in his Dome-book, or Liber Judicialis; this he compiled for the use of the Court Baron, Hundred, and County Court, the Court Leet, and the Sheriffs Tourn; tribunals which he established for the trial of all causes, civil and criminal, in the very districts wherein the complaint arose; all of them subject, however, to be inspected, controlled, and kept within the bounds of the universal or Common Law, by the King's own Courts; which were then itinerant, GENT. MAG. September, 1808,

being kept in the King's palace, and removing with his household in those royal progresses which he continually made from one end of the kingdom to the other. And this book is said to have been extant so late as the reign of Edward IV. but is now unfortunately lost. 1 Black. 64; 4 Black. 404.

-This Code was called the West Saxon Lage, or Laws of the West Saxons, and obtained in the Counties to the South and West of the Island from Kent to Devonshire.

The local constitutions of the antient kingdom of Mercia, which were observed in many of the Midland counties and those bordering on the principality of Wales, and probably abounded with many British or Druidical customs, were called the Mercen

Lage, or Mercian Laws.

The customs which had been in

troduced on the Danish invasion and conquest, and which were principally. maintained in the North, in the rest of the Midland counties, and also on the Eastern coast, went under the name of Dane Lage, or Danish Laws.

These three Laws were, about the beginning of the eleventh century, in use in different counties of the realm; but King Edgar, observing the ill effects of these three distinct bodies of Laws prevailing at once in separate parts of his dominions, projected and began one uniform Digest or Body of Laws, to be observed throughout the whole kingdom.

Edward the Confessor, his grandson, afterwards completed this design; but probably this was no more than a revival of King Alfred's Code, with some improvements suggested by necessity and experience; particularly the incorporating some of the British, or rather Mercian customs, and also such of the Danish as were reasonable and approved, into the West Saxon Lage, which was still the groundwork of the whole. This was the rise and original of that admirable system of maxims and unwritten customs, which is now known by the name of the Common Law, as extending its authority universally over all the realm; and which is doubtless of Saxon parentage. 4 Black. 404.

At the time of the Conquest the. Laws of Edward the Confessor were

the

the standing Laws of the Kingdom, and considered as the great rule of the rights and liberties of the Eng lish, who were so zealous for them. that they were never satisfied till the said Laws were reinforced and mine gied for the most part with the Coronation Oath. Hale's Hist. p. 95, 86. Accordingly, we find that the Conque, ror at his Coronation, on the Christmas day succeeding his victory, took an oath on the altar of St. Peter, Westmin ster, in sense and substance the very same with that which the Saxon Kings used to take at their Coronations; adding further, that he would make no distinction between the English and French. Fort. Pref. 26. Arg. Ant. p. 12.

William having now solemnly bound himself to govern chiefly by the Laws of Edward the Confessor, it became necessary, as his followers were foreigners, and strangers to the Laws and Customs, to have them ascertained; and for this purpose he summoned twelve Saxons from every County, to inform him and his Lords upon oath, what the antient Laws were; and Alured Abp. of York, who had crowned William, and Hugh Bishop of London, by the King's command, wrote down with their own hands the return made by these Jutors; and Ingulphus, who was an Englishman, who had been Secretary to the Conqueror, and afterwards made by him Abbot of Crowland, has transmitted to posterity this account of his Laws: "I brought this time with me (says he) from London to my Monastery the Laws of the most just King Edward, which my Lord William, the renowned King of England, had proclaimed to be authentic, and to be always inviolably ob served through the most grievous penalties, and commended them to his Justices in the same tongue they were set forth, lest through ignorance we or ours might happen to offend." Ingul. Hist.; Seld. Ead. p. 1723 Whelock's edit. of Lambarde's Archaion, 158, 159; Wilkins, Leg. Saxon. 216.

Littleton distinguishes, in every section of his work, what the Common Law is; that is, the Law established by William the Conqueror, from that which has been ordained by Charters or Statutes since his time. Disc. Prel. D. 42,

The Laws of William I. are, in

general, little other than transcripts of the Saxon Laws or Customs. Sullivan, Lect. xxviii. p. 288, 292.

The great Selden, in his notes on Eadmer, was the first who attempted to render these Laws into Latin; but he left many parts of them (on account of the rudeness of the Norman tongue) untranslated as he found them. The very learned Ducange, at the instance of Gabriel Gerberon, of the Benedictine Order, who published the works of St. Anselm, translated the whole of these Laws into the same language, which translation is added at the end of Gerberon's edition. Dr. Wilkins, in his Code of Antient Laws, amongst which he has inserted these of William, has likewise translated them into Latin, neither entirely adopting the version of Selden or Ducange; but frequently varying from both...

The principal Founders and Restorers of the Saxon and Anglo-Saxon Laws, from whose Codes William compiled his Laws, were the following: The Laws of Ethelbirht-He was King of Kent, and the first Christian King of the Saxons. He began his reign in 561, and died in 616. The Laws of Hlothare and Eadric. -They were Kings of Kent; the first began to reign about 673, and died in 685; the other was his nephew, and reigned but about a year and a half after him.

The Laws of Kihtræd.-He succeeded his brother Eadric as King of Kent, and died in 725.

The Laws of Ing.-He was King of

the West Saxons: began his reign in 688, and died about 728. The Laws of Alfred.-He was grandson of Egbert, and King of the West Saxons; succeeded to the throne in 872, and died in 901. Fœdus Alfredi & Guthruni.-Guthrun, the Danish General, was invested by Alfred with the title of King of East Anglia about 878. The Laws of Edward (the elder).→→ He succeeded his father Alfred, and ascended the Throne in 901, and died about 924. Fadus Edwardi & Guthruni. The Laws of Athelstan.-He suc ceeded his father Edward in 924, and died in 940. Judicia Civitatis Londoniæ. These Laws were published under the reign of Athelstan...

The