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HIEREDITARY RIGHT.

Your city, after the dreadful fire, was rebuilt, not presently, by raising continued streets; but at first here a house, and there a house, to which others by degrees were joined. Sprat's Sermons.

Since truths, absolutely necessary to salvation, are so clearly revealed that we cannot err in them, unless we be notoriously wanting to ourselves, herein the fault of the judgment is resolved into a precedent default in the will. South.

So near is the connection between the civil state and religious, that heretofore you will find the government and the priesthood united in the same person. Id.

'Tis the divinity that stirs within us; 'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter, And intimates eternity to man. Addison's Cato. I saw hereabouts nothing remarkable, except Augustus's bridge. Id. on Italy.

I still shall wait

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HEREDITABLE,'adj. Fr. hereditaire; HEREDITAMENT, n. s. Lat. hæres, hareHEREDITARY, adj. dium. Whatever HERED'ITARILY, adv. may be occupied as HER'ITABLE, adv. an inheritance: hereHERITAGE, n. s. ditament, a law term denoting inheritance: hereditary, that which descends by right of inheritance; a birthright: heritable, whatever may be inherited heritage, an inheritance or estate: in divinity, the people of God.

O Lord, save thy people, and bless thine heritage.
Common Prayer.
To thee and thine, hereditary ever
Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom.

Shakspeare.

These old fellows
Have their ingratitude in them hereditary. Id.
He shall ascend

The throne hereditary, and bound his reign
With earth's wide bounds, his glory with the heavens.
Milton.

By the canon law this son shall be legitimate and
heritable, according to the laws of England. Hale.
Thus while the mute creation downward bend
Their sight, and to their earthly mother tend,
Man looks aloft, and with erected eyes
Beholds his own hereditary skies. Dryden's Ovid.

When heroic verse his youth shall raise,
And form it to hereditary praise.
Id. Virgil.
Adam being neither a monarch, nor his imaginary
monarchy hereditable, the power which is now in the

world is not that which was Adam's.

Locke.

He considers that his proper home and heritage is in another world, and therefore regards the events of

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this with the indifference of a guest that tarries but a day. Rogers. Here is another, who thinks one of the greatest glories of his father was to have distinguished and loved you, and who loves you hereditarily. Pope. - HEREDITARY DISEASES. The opinion that certain diseases, such as scrophula, gout, &c., are hereditary, has been held by physicians ever since the days of Hippocrates, and indeed seems to be confirmed by the experience of mankind in all ages and countries. Dr. Brown, in his Elem. Med., affirms, that, A taint, transmitted from parents to their offspring, and celebrated under the appellation of hereditary, is a mere tale, or there is nothing in the fundamental part of this (the Brunonian) doctrine. The sons of the rich, who succeed to their father's estate, succeed also to his gout: Those who are excluded from the estate, escape the disease also, unless they bring it on by their own conduct. Though Peter's father may have been affected with the gout, it does not follow that Peter must be affected; because, by a proper way of life, that is, by adapting his excitement to his stamina, he may have learned to evade his father's disease. If the same person, who, from his own fault and improper management, has fallen into the disease afterwards by a contrary management, and by taking good care of himself prevents and removes the disease, as it has been lately discovered, what then is become of the hereditary taint?'-Such is Dr. Brown's reasoning against the existence of hereditary diseases; but the fallacy of such arguments need scarcely be pointed out. To say, that because, by the use of medicines, or, what is in fact the same thing, by a strict regimen, a person may avoid a certain disease, he therefore inherits no taint or liability to such diseases, is indeed a bold assertion. The observations of every day afford fresh proof that the diseases of the father but too generally descend, with some modification, to the children, either in the shape of weakness, or illness, or, as is more frequently the case, of liability to the same.

HEREDITARY HONORS have been long esteemed useful in a well-governed state, as tending to excite a laudable ardor and generous emulation in acts of virtue and heroism. We shall only quote a judicious sentiment delivered by Dr. Watson, bishop of Llandaff, in the house of lords, upon a question respecting the Scotch peerage, in February 1787: Whatever may be said of ancestry no man despises it, but he who has none to value himself upon; and no man will make it his pride, but he who has nothing better.'

HEREDITARY RIGHT, in the British constitution. The grand fundamental maxim upon which the jus coronæ, or right of succession to the throne of Britain depends, Sir William Blackstone takes to be this:-That the crown is, by common law and constitutional custom, hereditary; and this in a manner peculiar to itself: but that the right of inheritance may, from time to time, be changed or limited by act of parliament; under which limitations the crown still continues hereditary. 1. The crown is in general hereditary, or descendible to the next heir, on the death of the last king. All regal governments must be either hereditary or elective ›

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HEREDITARY RIGHT

and as there is no instance wherein the crown of England has ever been asserted to be elective, except by the regicides, on occasion of the trial of king Charles I., it must of consequence be hereditary. Yet, in thus asserting an hereditary right, a jure divino title to the throne is by no means intended. Such a title may be allowed to have subsisted under the theocratic establishments of the children of Israel in Palestine; but it never yet subsisted in any other country; save only so far as kingdoms, like other human fabrics, are subjected to the general and ordinary dispensations of Providence. Nor indeed have a jure divino and an hereditary right any necessary connexion with each other; as some have very weakly imagined. The hereditary right, which the laws of Britain acknowledge, owes its origin to the founders of our constitution, and to them only. This has been acquiesced in by general consent, and ripened by degrees into common law; the very same title that every private man has to his own estate. Lands are not naturally descendible, more than thrones: but the law has, for the benefit and peace of the public, established hereditary succession in the one as well as the other. It must be owned, an elective monarchy seems to be the most obvious, and best suited of any to the national principles of government, and the freedom of human nature; and accordingly we find from history, that, in the infancy and first rudiments of almost every state, the leader, chief magistrate, or prince, has usually been elective; and if the individuals who compose that state could always continue true to first principles, uninfluenced by passion or prejudice, unassailed by corruption, and unawed by violence, elective succession were as much to be desired in a kingdom as in other inferior communities. The best, the wisest, and the bravest man, would then be sure of receiving that crown which his endowments merited; and the sense of an unbiased majority would be dutifully acquiesced in by the few who were of different opinions. But history and observation inform us, that elections of every kind are too often brought about by influence, partiality, and artifice; and, even where the case is other wise, these practices will be often suspected, and as constantly charged upon the successful, by a disappointed minority. This is an evil to which all societies are liable; as well those of a private and domestic kind, as the great community of the public, which regulates and includes the rest. But in the former there is this advantage, that such suspicions, if false, proceed no farther than jealousies and murmurs, which time will effectually suppress justice may be remedied by legal means, by an appeal to those tribunals to which every member of society has virtually engaged to submit. Whereas, in the great and independent society, which every nation composes, there is no superior to resort to but the law of nature; no method to redress the infringements of that law, but the actual exertion of force. As, therefore, between two nations, complaining of mutual injuries, the quarrel can only be decided by the law of arms; so in one and the same nation, when the fundamental principles of their common union are supposed to be invaded, and

more especially when the appointment of their chief magistrate is alleged to be unduly made, the only appeal that can be made is to the sword, and the only process by which the appeal can be carried on is that of a civil and intestine war. An hereditary succession to the crown is therefore now established, in this and most other countries, to prevent that periodical bloodshed and misery which the history of ancient imperial Rome, and the modern experience of Poland, show us to be the consequence of elective kingdoms. But, 2dly, as to the particular mode of inheritance. It in general corresponds with the feudal path of descents, chalked out by the common law in the succession to landed estates; yet with one or two material exceptions. Like them, the crown will descend lineally to the issue of the reigning monarch; as it did from king John to Richard II. through a regular pedigree of six lineal generations: as in them the preference of males to females, and the right of primogeniture among the males, are strictly adhered to. Thus Edward V. succeeded to the crown, in preference to Richard his younger brother, and Elizabeth his elder sister. Like them, on failure of the male line, it descends to the issue female; according to the ancient British custom remarked by Tacitus, solent fæminarum ductu bellare, et sexum in imperiis non discernere. Thus Mary succeeded to Edward VI; and the line of Margaret queen of Scots, the daughter of Henry VII. succeeded on failure of the line of Henry VIII. his son. But among the females, the crown descends by right of primogeniture to the eldest daughter only and her issue; and not, as in common inheritances, to all the daughters at once; the evident necessity of a sole succession to the throne having occasioned the royal law of descents to depart from the common law in this respect: and therefore queen Mary, on the death of her brother, succeeded to the crown alone, and not in partnership with her sister Elizabeth. Again, the doctrine of representation prevails in the descent of the crown, as it does in other inheritances; whereby the lineal descendants of any person deceased stand in the same place as their ancestor, if living, would have done. Thus Richard II. succeeded his grandfather Edward III. in right of his father the Black Prince, to the exclusion of all his uncles, his grandfather's younger children. Lastly, on failure of lineal descendants, the crown goes to the next collateral relations of the late king; provided they are lineally descended from the blood royal, that is, from that royal stock which originally acquired the crown. Thus Henry I. succeeded to William II.; John to Richard I.; and James I.to Elizabeth; being all derived from the Conqueror, who was then the only regal stock. But herein there is no objection (as in the case of common descents) to the succession of a brother, an uncle, or other collateral relation, of the half-blood; that is, where the relationship proceeds not from the same couple of ancestors (which constitutes a kinsman of the whole blood), but from a single ancestor only; as when two persons are derived from the same father and not from the same mother, or vice versa: provided only, that the one ancestor, from whom both are descended, be that from whose veins the blood

royal is communicated to each. Thus Mary I. inherited to Edward VI., and Elizabeth inherited to Mary; all born of the same father, king Henry VIII., but all by different mothers. See CONSANGUINITY. 3. The doctrine of hereditary right does by no means imply an indefeasible right to the throne. No man will assert this, who has considered our laws, constitution, and history, without prejudice, and with any degree of attention. It is unquestionably in the power of the supreme legislative authority of this kingdom, the king and both houses of parliament, to defeat this hereditary right; an 1, by particular entails, limitations, and provisions, to exclude the immediate heir, and vest the inheritance in any one else. And this is so extremely reasonable, that without such a power, lodged somewhere, our polity would be very defective. For, let us barely suppose that the heir apparent should be a lunatic, an ideot, or otherwise incapable of reigning; how miserable would the condition of the nation be, if he were also incapable of being set aside! It is therefore necessary that this power should be lodged somewhere; and yet the inheritance and regal dignity would be very precarious indeed, if this power were expressly and avowedly lodged in the hands of the subject only, to be exerted whenever prejudice, caprice, or discontent, should happen to take the lead. Consequently it can no where be so properly lodged as in the two houses of parliament, by and with the consent of the reigning king; who, it is not to be supposed, will agree to any thing prejudicial to the rights of his own descendants. And therefore, in the king, lords, and commons, in parliament assembled, our laws have expressly lodged it. 4. But fourthly, however the crown may be limited or transferred, it still retains its descendible quality, and becomes hereditary in the wearer of it. And hence, in our law, the king is said never to die in his political capacity; though, in common with other men, he is subject to mortality in his natural: because immediately upon the natural death of Henry, William, or George, the king survives in his successor. For the right of the crown vests, eo instanti, upon his heir; either the hæres natus, if the course of descent remains unimpeached, or the hæres factus, if the inheritance be under any particular settlement. So that there can be no interregnum; but, as Sir Matthew Hale observes, the right of sovereignty is fully invested in the successor by the very descent of the crown. And therefore, however acquired, it becomes in him absolutely hereditary, unless by the rules of the limitation it is otherwise ordered and determined in the same manner as landed estates are, by the law, hereditary or descendible to the heirs of the owner; but still there exists a power, by which the property of those lands may be transferred to another person. If this transfer be made simply and absolutely, the lands will be hereditary in the new owner, and descend to his heir at law: but if the transfer be clogged with any limitations, conditions, or entails, the lands must descend in that channel, so limited and prescribed, and no other. See SUCCESSION. HEREFORDSHIRE, a county of England,

whose name is derived from its chief place Hereford i. e. the Army's ford, from its being a strong frontier station of the Saxon and English forces toward Wales. At the period of the Roman invasion Herefordshire was inhabited by the Silures, who also occupied the adjacent counties of Radnor, Monmouth, and Glamorgan, together with that part of Gloucestershire which lies westward from the Severn. In the British language this district was called indifferently by the names of Esslwg Gwent, and Ercinna, words implying an open country of downs, abounding with prospects: hence its inhabitants were denominated Gwyr Esyllwg, Gwr Esyllyr, &c., and, from their derivatives, Syllyrwys.

This county is bounded on the north by Shropshire, on the north-east and east by Worcestershire, on the south-east by Gloucestershire, on the south-west by Monmouthshire, on the west by Brecknockshire, and on the north-west by Radnorshire. Its form is nearly an ellipsis; but some detached parishes are situated beyond the general outline: of these, Farlow is surrounded by Shropshire; Rochford is included in the county of Worcester; and Lytton Hill in that of Radnor: a considerable tract of land called Futhog, with a few acres on the Devandin Hill, is insulated by Monmouthshire. Its greatest extent, from Ludford on the north to the opposite border near Monmouth on the south, is thirty-eight miles. Its greatest width, from Clifford on the west to Cradley on the east, is thirty-five miles. It includes about 80,000 acres, and is divided into eleven hundreds, containing 221 parishes, one city, and six market-towns.

The general aspect of Herefordshire is extremely beautiful: its surface being finely diversified, and broken by swelling heights. From these elevations the prospects are extremely fine; but peculiarly so from the Malvern Hills on the east, and the Hatterell, or Black Mountain, on the west. The fertility of the soil is great; and the county is clothed in almost perpetual verdure. The courses of the rivers and brooks may be traced from any of the adjacent eminences by the rich lines of wood which skirt their margins: much valuable timber is also scattered over the county in hedge-rows, as well as on the sides and summits of the knolls and higher elevations. Every part seems uniformly productive; except, perhaps, on the northern and western outskirts. The general character of the soil is a mixture of marle and clay, containing a large proportion of calcareous earth. The substance is mostly limestone of different qualities; in some parts, particularly near Snodhill Castle, assuming the properties of marble, and becoming beautifully variegated with red and white veins. Towards the western borders the soil is cold, and retentive of moisture, but still argillaceous, with a base of soft crumbling stone, which decomposes on exposure to the atmosphere; or of nodules of impure limestone. The eastern side of the county is principally a stiff clay, of great tenacity and strength, and in many places of a red color; a great proportion of the hundred of Wormelow, on the south, is a light sand. Deep beds of

gravel are occasionally met with in the vicinity of Hereford; and the sub-soil of several of the hills is of siliceous grit. Fullers'-earth is sometimes dug near Stoke; and red and yellow ochres, with tobacco-pipe-clay, are found in small quantities in different parts of the county. Iron ore has been met with in the parts bordering on Gloucestershire; but none has been dug of late years, though from the considerable quantities that have been discovered imperfectly smelted, and from the remains of hand-blomaries that have also been found, it has been thought that some iron works were established here as early as the Roman times.

Herefordshire is particularly famous as a cyder county; yet this, though a favorite object of its husbandry, is by no means the only one: cattle, sheep, swine, corn, hops, &c., have equally strong claims on the attention of the farmer. Plantations of fruit trees are found in every aspect, and in soil of every quality, and under every culture. The most approved site is that which is open to the south-east, and sheltered in other points, but particularly in the opposite direction; for though Virgil and the other Roman poets celebrated the west wind as the most genial in Italy, and Philips, in his Poem on Cyder, recommended the same aspect,

the west, whose gentle warmth Discloses well the earth's all-teeming womb,, Invigorating tender seeds; whose breath Nurtures the orange and the citron groves, Hesperian fruits, and wafts their odors sweet Wide through the air, and distant shores perfumes, it is an unquestionable fact, that the westerly winds, and therefore a westerly exposure, are particularly unfavorable to the fruit trees of Herefordshire they are more cold, as blowing over a considerable tract of the Welsh mountains, which are often covered with snow even late in the spring; and they are more unkind, because from that point proceeds a much more than equal proportion of those fogs and blue mists which Dr. Beale calls the disgusts of the Black Mountain.' This may be properly termed a woodland county; many species of trees growing up spontaneously, and becoming strong and vigorous in a very short period. The oak, elm, poplar, and willow, are particularly four ishing, but are seldom suffered to attain full maturity, unless on the estates of the nobility and most eminent landed proprietors. Coppicewood is extremely abundant, the sides and summits of many of the hills and upland grounds being covered with extensive plantations. The ash coppices are very valuable and numerous : those of the alder are also plentiful in low and marshy situations; the former are regulated under a general system, and are cut about once in eight, ten, or twelve years, according to the uses for which the wood is designed. The principal part of the county is enclosed; and as most of the enclosures are bounded by hedgerows, it has a very sylvan and woody appear

ance.

The principal rivers and streams of this county are the Wye, the Lugg, the Munnow, the Arrow, the Frome, the Team, and the Ledon.

The Wye has been often celebrated for the extremely picturesque and diversified scenery which adorns its meandering channel. Rising near the summit of the Plinlimmon Hills, in Montgomeryshire, it flows between the counties of Brecknock and Radnor, and afterwards enters Herefordshire near Clifford, the reputed birthplace of the ill-fated fair Rosamond. Winding to the east, above Clifford Castle, it glides beautifully between orchards, meadows, and comfields, till it reaches the abrupt and commanding eminence of Mawbech Hill: thence, darting suddenly through the bold arches of Bred wardine bridge, it flows on to Hereford, through a more level but still extremely pleasant country. From Hereford to Ross, its features occasionally assume greater boldness; though more frequently their aspect is placid: but at the latter town, wholly emerging from its late state of apparent repose, it resumes the brightness and rapidity of its primitive character, as it forms the admired curve which the church-yard of Ross commands. The celebrated spire of Ross church, peeping over a noble row of elms, here fronts the ruined Castle of Wilton, beneath the arches of whose bridge the Wye flows through a charming succession of meadows, encircling at last the lofty and well-wooded hill crowned with the majestic fragments of Goodrich Castle, and opposed by the waving eminences of the Forest of Dean. The mighty pile or peninsula of Symond's Rock succeeds, round which the river flows in a circuit of seven miles; though the opposite points of the isthmus are only one mile asunder. Shortly afterwards the Wye quits the county, and enters Monmouthshire at the New Wear.

This river is navigable to Hereford in barges of from eighteen to forty tons; but either a large or a small supply of water is equally fatal to the navigation. The latter is experienced during the greater part of every dry summer, when shoals barely covered with the stream occur very frequently in winter, heavy rains, or snow dissolving on the river's banks, within the county, have the effect of gradually adding a few inches to the depth; but when these rush into its channel, from the mountains of Brecknock and Radnorshire, they occasion an almost instantaneous overflow, and give it a force which defies all the ordinary means of resistance and control. By this impetuosity considerable quantities of land are frequently removed from their situations on one side or the other, and new channels are thus formed in various places: to this impetuosity is also to be ascribed the want of a sufficient number of bridges to render the communication safe and easy between different parts of the county. In the whole extent of the Wye through Herefordshire there was only one bridge (at Hereford) till the year 1597. An act of parliament was then obtained for erecting a second at Wilton; and since that time two more have been added; the one at Bredwardine, by an act passed in the year 1762; and the other at Witney, by an act passed in 1780. That at Bredwardine, which is built of brick, after sustaining some damage by the great flood of 1795, has continued to resist the impetuosity of the river; but

that of Witney has been already twice destroyed, and was again renewed on stone piers in the year 1802. The principal fish taken in the Wye is the salmon, which is found in it at all times, but only in perfection between the months of December and August. They were formerly more abundant than at present; so much so indeed, that, in the indentures of apprenticeship at Hereford, it was once a clause that the apprentice should not be compelled to live on them more frequently than two days in a week. Their passage up the river is now, however, so much obstructed by iron works, that unless the water is swelled far above its usual height, they cannot advance.

The river Lugg has its origin in Radnorshire, but enters Herefordshire on the north-west side, near Stapleton Castle: thence, flowing in a southeast direction, it receives the Pinsley near Leominster; and afterwards, inclining to the south, is increased by the waters of the Arrow and the Frome. Soon after its junction with the latter river it falls into the Wye, near the pleasant village of Mordisford. The district of country through which this river flows is fine and fertile, but far less abundant in beautiful scenery than the Wye; though Drayton has characterised the Lugg as more lovlie.' Like the Wye, however, it is subject to sudden overflows, and is frequently swelled by partial rains, which give it great rapidity and force to its junction with that river. These circumstances have operated to prevent its being rendered navigable, though two acts of parliament have been passed for that purpose. The Munnow rises on the Herefordshire side of the Hatterell mountains, and flowing south-eastward is joined near Longtown by the Escle and Olchron rivulets, which have their springs also near the sources of the Munnow: thence flowing southward, through a pleasant and sequestered vale, it is joined near Alterynnis by the Hothny; after which it turns to the north-east towards Pontrilas, and near that place is increased by the united streams of the Dove and the Werme, which also rise in this county; the former at Dorston (Dore's town), and the latter at Alansmoore. Again, turning to the south-east, it forms the boundary between Herefordshire and Monmouthshire, till it quits the county at Llanrothal, and flowing towards Monmouth is received by the river Wye immediately below that town. The Team or Teme enters this county from the confines of Radnorshire and Shropshire, a short distance north-west from Brampton Bryan, and flowing eastward runs into Shropshire, near Ludlow: thence bending to the south it again enters Herefordshire, but soon leaves it for Worcestershire; where, having made a considerable circuit, it once more flows on the borders of this county, of which it becomes the boundary for a mile or two above and below Whiteborn; after which it discharges itself into the Severn, between Malvern Chace and Woodbury Hill in Worcestershire. In the muscle-shells of this river pearls have occasionally been found. The Leedon, or Leddon, rises above Bosbury on the east side of the county, and running to the south gives name to the town of Ledbury; thence

flowing into Gloucestershire it unites with the Severn. The Arrow enters Herefordshire from Radnorshire, and flowing to the east falls into the Lugg below Leominster. The Frome rises near Wolfrelow above Bromyard, and taking a south course is joined by the Lowden near Stretton Grandison; when turning to the southwest it unites with the Lugg above Mordisford. The inland navigation of Herefordshire is very imperfect; though scarcely any county possessing neither iron-works nor any principal manufacture can have greater occasion for its aids. Some medicinal springs have been noticed as rising on the side of the Malvern Hills, aud known among the peasantry by the customary name of Holy-wells. Several petrifying springs are also met with in the neighbourhood of Moccas, Fownhope, Llanrothal, Wormesley, &c., and other hilly parts of the county where the soil is calcareous. Near Richard's Castle a small spring has obtained the name of Bonewell, from the circumstance of its frequently emitting, when disturbed, small bones resembling vertebra and other bones of the frog.

Herefordshire returns eight members to parliament, viz. two for the county, two for the city of Hereford, two for Leominster, and two for Weobly.

Robert Devereux, the celebrated earl of Essex, was born at Netherwood in this county in 1567.

He was beheaded in 1601.-Captain James Cornwall, an excellent naval commander, was born at Bredwardine Castle, and was killed off Toulon, a chain shot depriving him of both his legs, on February 27th, 1743.-He has a noble monument in Westminster Abbey, thirty-six feet high.-David Garrick, the British Roscius, was born at Hereford in 1716, and died in 1779.Nor must we omit to notice, among the eminent persons of this county, the famous Eleanor Gwynn, the celebrated courtezan in the reign of Charles II.-She died in 1687.-It has been also said that John Kyrle, Pope's Man of Ross, was born at Ross, and died in the year 1724, aged ninety. With an income of £500 per annum he was a blessing to the whole county.-Hereford is a bishop's see, and gives the title of viscount to the Devereux family.-Besides the making of cyder, which is very extensive, this county manufactures coarse woollen cloth, hats, and gloves.

HEREFORD, the capital of the above county, is situated on a gentle eminence from the river Wye, on the northern bank of which it stands near the centre of the county. This town was a strong station for the Saxon and English forces. By some it is supposed to have been built on the site of Ariconium, an ancient town mentioned by Antoninus, which was destroyed by an earthquake. A church was built here early in the ninth century by king Melfred, the Mercian, in memory of Ethelbert, king of the East Angles, murdered by king Offa's queen at Marden, in this neighbourhood. Soon after it became a cathedral and a bishop's see: the cathedral was rebuilt by bishop Athelstan between 1012 and 1056. At the Norman conquest it was in ruins; the Welsh having, in the reign of Edward the Confessor, destroyed the cathedral, sacked the city, and carried off the bishop. The preser

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