and if so, from Jack's account he was undoubtedly a villain capable of any crime.

"I almost wish that he had been of the party, if such is the case, for if he remains here, I fear that our May will be exposed to danger," said Miss Jane. "Surely no one would venture to injure a young lady living with you," observed Headland.

Miss Jane then told him of the annoyance to which May had been subjected from Gaffin's son.

Headland naturally felt indignant. "Strong measures must be taken to get this man Gaffin and his son out of the way," he remarked. "As soon as Harry returns we will see what can be done; in the meantime I will ride down to the cottage and ascertain that your young friend has reached it in safety, and will wait to escort her back."

He soon caught sight of her at about half-way to Adam's cottage. At the same moment a person resembling the man who had spoken to him on the previous night appeared, and seemed about to address May, who quickened her pace, when catching sight of Headland, he apparently thought better of it and

advanced to meet him.

66

Good-day, Captain Headland," said the man, looking up at him with cool assurance; "your friend Mr. Harry Castleton will have a long chase after the lugger a wild-goose chase I suspect it will prove. I have been inquiring into the truth of the story you heard, and I find that it was spread by a wretched old mad woman whom the people about here take to be a witch. The sooner she is ducked in the sea and proved to be an ordinary mortal who has lost her senses, the better. It is disagreeable for a man in my position to have his character belied in this way.'

"We certainly heard a story from a mad woman, but she spoke in a way which led us to suppose she described an actual occurrence," said Headland. "From what you say, I conclude you are Mr. Gaffin, who addressed me last night."

"The same, at your service, Captain Headland. I have no further questions to ask, however, since you can give me no account of my old shipmate; I am sorry to hear of his death. Good-day to you, sir," and Gaffin moved on, taking the direction of the mill.

This last interview left a still more unfavourable impression on Headland's mind of Mr. Miles Gaffin. He did not like the expression of the man's countenance, or the impudent swagger of his manner, while it was evident by the way he talked that he was a person of some education. Headland tried to recollect whether he had before seen him, or whether his old protector had ever mentioned his name.

Having seen May enter Halliburt's cottage, he rode to the Texford Arms and put up his horse, resolving to wait in the neighbourhood till she should again come out; he would then have time to get back and mount his horse, which he told the ostler to keep saddled, and to follow her.

He in the meantime took a few turns on the pier, and got into conversation with two or three of the old seafaring men who were standing about; the younger were at sea in their boats, or had gone home after the night's fishing. He made inquiries about the man he had just met. They all repeated the same story; their opinion was that he had been a pirate, or something of that sort, on the Spanish Main, or in other distant seas, and having for a wonder escaped, he had returned home to follow a more peaceful and less dangerous calling, though still in reality unreformed and quite ready to break the laws of his country. From the description they gave of his wife, Headland thought that she must have been an Oriental, and this strengthened his idea that he was the man of whom Jack had spoken. Had he inquired about the Halliburts he might have learned the particulars of May's early history, but he still remained under the impression that she was a ward of the Miss Pembertons, and had merely come down to visit the dame, as she would any other of the villagers suffering from sickness or sorrow.

Notwithstanding Gaffin's assertion that he knew nothing about Jacob being carried off, the men were certain that though he might not have been present, it had been done at his instigation, as his crew were known to be ready to engage in any daring undertaking he might suggest. They, however, feared that there was very little prospect of the lugger being captured.

"That mate of his would sooner run her under water or blow her up than let a king's officer come on board, and it will be better for poor Jacob if the cutter does not come up with her," observed one of them.

Headland borrowed a glass and swept the horizon several times, but no craft like the cutter appeared. At length he went back to the spot whence he could watch Adam's door for May's appearance. She came out at last, and he hurried to the inn to get his horse. He soon again caught sight of her, and followed her at a distance till she reached Downside. If Gaffin was, as he supposed it possible, watching her, that person took good care to keep out of his sight. After waiting for a few minutes Headland rode up to the cottage. He thought it would be prudent to let Miss Jane know of his having again seen Gaffin, and he took an opportunity, while May was out of the room, to tell her. She thanked him warmly.

The more he thought, the more puzzled he became. The only conclusion he arrived at was that Gaffin and the mate of the vessel in which he had been

When May came in, Headland had the opportunity of conversing with her, and no longer felt surprised that she should so completely have won Harry's affections. Though he thought her inferior in some respects to Julia, he acknowledged to himself that.

66

It is a pity Sir Ralph could not be induced to see her," he thought, and he resolved to advise Julia to try and get her father to call at Downside, if possible, before he was aware of Harry's attachment, so that he might be perfectly unprejudiced.

Headland naturally wished to be back at Texford, though unwilling to go without being able to take any news of Harry. At last, as evening was approaching, he rode once more to a point in the village where he could obtain an uninterrupted view of the sea, but the cutter was still not in sight. Accordingly, wishing the Miss Pembertons and May farewell, he set off on his way to the park. He could conscientiously assure Lady Castleton that she need not be at all anxious about her son, as there was nothing surprising in the cutter not having returned. Sir Ralph seemed vexed at not seeing him, but made no other remark.

Captain Headland felt conscious that though Julia was anxious to be with him, her mother took every means in her power to prevent their meeting alone without showing too clearly that she was doing so. Julia found an opportunity, and told him her father was aware of their love, but had said that he would reserve any expression of his intentions till he had seen Harry. With this Headland was compelled to be content.

The baronet was perfectly polite, if not cordial to him, during the evening, and next morning he asked him if he would again ride over to Hurlston. Algernon apologised for not accompanying him on the plea of illness. Headland could not help suspecting that he was sent to be kept out of Julia's way; and but for her sake and Harry's, he would at once have left Texford.

He spent the day by first going to the village, and then calling at Downside, after which he took a long ride over the downs to the south, whence he could see the cutter should she return. Again he was doomed to disappointment. On his way back he met Mr. Groocock, and begging the steward to accompany him mentioned what he had heard about Gaffin.

"The man is a mystery to me, Captain Headland. I believe him to be all you have heard. But he has possession of the mill, and until his lease is up the law will not allow us to turn him out. The law, you see, captain, assists rogues as well as honest men, provided they keep within it, and there is no evidence we can bring to prove that he is what people say he is. If smuggled goods were found in his mill they would be seized, or if his vessel was taken with contraband aboard she would be captured and there would be an end of her, and if it is true that his people have carried off the fisherman's son they will be punished, but the law cannot touch him or his vessel for that, and so you see he will laugh at us as he has done for these years past. But the master he serves will play him a scurvy trick in the end, as he does all his willing slaves, I have no manner of doubt. In the meantime, if he keeps his wits awake as he has hitherto done, he may do all sorts of things with impunity."

To the truth of these remarks Headland agreed. As they rode on Mr. Groocock kept frequently looking up at him.

"If it's not an impertinent question, Captain

66

No," answered Headland, "I have been very little in England at all. I was born abroad, and have been at sea the greater part of my life."

"Of course, of course, I ought to have thought of that," said Mr. Groocock to himself; then he added, "I beg your pardon, captain, but you remind me of some one I knew in former years, that made me ask the question without thinking; you are much younger than he would have been by this time." Headland would willingly have inquired of whom the steward spoke, but the old man at once abruptly changed the conversation, and they shortly afterwards reached the gates of Texford."

The evening passed by much as the previous one had done, though Lady Castleton and Julia had become still more anxious at not seeing Harry. Julia thought of poor May, who would, she knew, feel still more anxious, and she resolved, if possible, to go over to Downside the next day to see her and show her sympathy.

OPENING PARLIAMENT.

THE
HE scene was a very odd one upon which the
lieges gazed when the two Houses assembled
for the first time in the reign of Henry VI. It was
deemed advisable that the people should see their
sovereign by his appearing in the meeting of the
Estates, though little more than three years of age.
Accordingly, "the queen, his moder," brought him
up to Windsor, and in a chair, on the back of a
"fayre courser," he was taken to Westminster. Mul-
titudes flocked to look upon the only scion of the
renowned hero of Agincourt, little imagining that
forty years later, when a drivelling idiot, he would
be conducted through the city, with both feet tied
together, under the belly of the horse! "It was a
strange spectacle," says Speed, "and the first time
it was ever seen in England, an infant sitting in his
mother's lap, on the throne, and before he could tell
what English meant, to occupy the place of sovereign
direction in open Parliament." The Chancellor's
speech was quite as odd as the circumstances under
which it was delivered. Beaufort, Bishop of Win-
chester, afterwards Cardinal, who held the office,
expatiated upon the importance of good counsellors
to the king, doubtless believing himself to be one of
the best examples of the class. He illustrated their
qualities by observing that "an elephant had three
properties; the one, in that he wanted a gall; the
second, for that he was inflexible, and could not
bow; the third, in that he was of a most sound and
perfect memory; all which properties he wished
might be in all counsellors." Lord Coke drew from
this source his "Character of a Member of Parlia-
ment," which Dean Swift burlesqued in the squib.
entitled, "The Elephant, or the Parliament Man,
written many years since, and taken from Coke's
Institutes."

"E'er bribes convince you who to choose,
The precepts of Lord Coke peruse.
Observe an elephant, says he,

And like him let your member be.
First, take a man that's free from Gaul,
For elephants have none at all;
In flocks or parties he must keep,
For elephants live just like sheep;

Stubborn in honour he must be,
For elephants ne'er bend the knee.
Last, let his memory be sound,
In which your elephant 's profound;
That old examples from the wise,
May prompt him in his Nocs and Ayes.
Thus the Lord Coke has gravely writ,
In all the forms of lawyer's wit:
And then with Latin and all that,
Shows the comparison is pat.

Siam, for elephants so famed,

Is not with England to be named:
Their elephants by men are sold;

Ours sell themselves and take the gold."

Happily, corruption has long ceased with us to be an engine of government, nor is there an assembly in the world more thoroughly imbued with the spirit of manly independence than the Imperial Parliament of these islands.

It was in right royal fashion that the Lady Elizabeth proceeded to meet the magnates of the land for the third time on Monday, the 2nd of April, 1571. She left Whitehall about eleven o'clock. At the head of the procession appeared her guard of honour, followed by knights, bannerets, and esquires. Then trooped along spiritual and temporal peers, judges and justices, succeeded by the Great Seal of England, and the other officers of state, bearing the emblems of their station and authority. Next came the queen, wearing a mantle furred with ermines, a collar richly set with jewels, and a wreath or coronet of gold, seated in her coach, the first instance of the kind on record. It was drawn by two palfreys covered with crimson velvet, richly embroidered and embossed. The Master of the Horse, a flock of ladies in waiting, with a shoal of heralds, pursuivants, and trumpeters, completed the spectacle. When seated on the throne in the Upper House, the knights, citizens, and burgesses were summoned from the Lower, who made their appearance as best they could in the scant space allotted to them. Thus spoke the Queen's Highness:

"My right loving Lords, and you our right faithful and obedient subjects, we, in the name of God, for his service, and the safety of this state, are now here assembled, for his glory I hope; and I pray that it may be to your comfort, and the common quiet of our, yours, and all ours for ever."

The Chancellor then stated the cause of meeting, and directed the Commons, "standing on a heap together below," to retire to their own place, and elect a Speaker. Their choice fell upon one of the members for Ludgershall, in Wiltshire.

The opening of Parliament is the same now as it was three centuries ago. There is the sovereign present either in person or by commission. There are the Lords in stately robes, but occupying one of the most splendid apartments in the world, with historical frescoes on the wall, and the softest of cushions on the seats. There are the Commons, "standing on a heap," elbowing and jostling one another as aforetime. But no Ludgershall-never otherwise than an insignificant hamlet, with the lord of the manor hard by-now returns two representatives, to influence by voice or vote the government of the country and the destinies of the empire. During the discussions on the first Reform Bill, a highspirited gentleman suddenly rose, and addressing

the Speaker, said, "Sir, I am the proprietor of the borough of Ludgershall; I am the population of Ludgershall; I am the member for Ludgershall; and in each capacity I vote for the disfranchisement of Ludgershall."

The successor of the great queen, James I, rode on horseback to meet his first parliament. That unkingly monarch went along leeringly regarding the spectators at the windows, who laughed at him in return, for he sat as awkwardly in the saddle as he walked, or rather shuffled about upon his legs. Unlike his predecessor, whose speech was short, pointed, and pertinent, he inflicted a terribly long address upon his audience, abounding with the tedious learning and pedantic arts with which he was familiar. It occupies nineteen octavo pages of close print! He began with "My lords of the Higher House, and you knights and burgesses of the Lower." But at a little later date, having summoned Lords and Commons to attend him at Whitehall, he came out with an oration which runs through twenty-seven pages of print: and this was followed two days afterwards by a second harangue, not quite so long, explanatory of the first. Discipline of this kind was likely to prepare those upon whom it was inflicted to amuse themselves with any odd incident that might occur in the course of their legislative labours, however trivial in itself. Under the date of Thursday, May the 31st, the third month of the session, the entry occurs in the Commons' Journal, "A jackdaw flew in at the window." The sable bird was called omen to the Bill" under discussion, which was shortly afterwards thrown out. Some two years later the entry appears, "A strange spanyell, of mouse colour, came into the House of Commons." In harmony with precedent, but after a long lapse of time, a dog boldly entered St. Stephen's while Lord North was speaking. Not content with taking a place in the assembly, the animal began to bark loudly. "Sir," said the Prime Minister, appealing to the Speaker, "I am interrupted by a new member." Still the dog went on with his yelp, and the minister with his joke, remarking, "Sir, the new member has no right to speak twice in the same debate."

The misguided and unhappy Charles I set out on one occasion to meet the representatives of the nation, in a manner which no sovereign ever did before, or has done since. It was the memorable Long Parliament, assembled on Tuesday, the 3rd of November, 1640. Preparation for the commencement of the session began in the Commons at nine o'clock in the morning, by calling over the names of the members returned, swearing in those present, and choosing a Speaker. Towards high noon the king left Whitehall, and, not caring to encounter the gaze of the populace, proceeded by water to Westminster Stairs, were the chief officers of the crown were in attendance to receive him. Thence he walked to the Abbey, and heard a sermon by the Bishop of Bristol. Immediately afterwards he met the Lords and Commons, approved the Speaker presented by the latter, and dismissed them to their deliberations. Many were present upon that occasion destined speedily to undergo strange vicissitudes and bitter experiences. There was King Charles, doomed to die upon the scaffold by a fragment of the very parliament he was opening; Juxon, Bishop of London, the Lord Treasurer, whose sad office it was to attend his master in the last extremity; Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had to lay his head upon the block on Tower

Hill; Finch, the Lord Keeper, who saved himself from merited chastisement by a hasty flight to Holland; Windehank, Secretary of State, who absconded to France; Pym, the parliamentary chieftain and the best debater of his time, whose decease was celebrated at Oxford with feasting and bonfires; Falkland, who fell in the ranks of the Royalists at the battle of Newbury, often known to murmur abstractedly to himself and to his friends, "Peace, peace! Hampden who received his death-wound in the service of the parliament on Chalgrove field; and Cromwell, then little known, but soon to be lord paramount over England, Ireland, and Scotland.

On this occasion the sovereign had the flower of the English gentry before him, while the Commoners of humbler grade were mostly men of property, character, and discretion. A very considerable majority of both classes were sincere and earnest religionists. A fortnight after the commencement of the session a day of fasting was observed. Speaker and members assembled in St. Margaret's, Westminster, a kind of national church for parliamentary use on particular occasions, hence repeatedly repaired at the expense of the nation. Three days later they received the Holy Communion, and contributed to the usual collection £78 16s. 2d. Scrupulous care was taken to maintain the general integrity of the body above suspicion. In the first year of its existence, Alderman Hooke, member for Bristol, was deprived of his seat for being concerned in a commercial monopoly. Five others were similarly sent back to their homes under a cloud for like greed. A member for Knaresborough, guilty of abusing his privilege, by granting protections from arrest to those who were not his menial servants, of course for a monetary consideration, was ignominiously expelled. Upon his knees at the bar, in charge of the serjeant-at-arms, the jobber listened to his doom: "Resolved-That the House holds Mr. Henry Benson unfit and incapable ever to sit in Parliament, or to be a member of this House hereafter. That the Speaker shall issue his warrant for a new writ to be directed to the sheriff of Yorkshire for electing another burgess to serve in his stead: Exit Benson.

Though upwards of two hundred and thirty years have elapsed since the opening of this famous parliament, yet many of its original members have been represented by direct lineal descendants at every subsequent ceremonial of the kind, not unfrequently returned by the same places for which their ancestors were elected. A few examples may be given from the muster-roll of the new House of Commons.

Such instances, amounting altogether to from forty to fifty, illustrate the hereditary influence of the gentry in largely determining the representation in their respective localities, notwithstanding the more popular character of the constituencies, and the establishment of secret voting.

The

Opening parliament, when the sovereign appears in person, is a very brilliant spectacle to those who are privileged with an interior view, and an attractive one on a bright day to outsiders. But the sunshine cannot be commanded, nor is any human ceremonial, however gorgeous, exempt from the possibility of a mishap. On one occasion, a misadventure occurred, of which William Iv was the victim, when the observed of all observers, who comported himself with great coolness and good sense under somewhat difficult and trying circumstances. It was the 4th of February, 1836. day was unusually gloomy. The apartment fitted up to be temporarily used as the House of Lords, after St. Stephen's had been destroyed by fire, admitted only a scanty supply of light, and the king's sight was imperfect. He was soon, therefore, brought to a pause while attempting to give vocal expression to the royal speech, yet manfully, and with the utmost good-humour, struggled to get through the task. It was hard work, and of no use to bring the document as close as possible to his eyes. At last he came to a standstill, completely puzzled to make out the next word, and said, appealing for aid to Lord Melbourne, who stood on his right hand, "Eh! what is it?" After floundering on a little longer, wax tapers were brought from the library, upon which, in the most perfectly unembarrassed manner, he addressed the assembly as follows: "My lords and gentlemen,-I have hitherto not been able, from want of light, to read this speech in the way its importance deserves; but as lights are now brought me, I will read it again from the commencement, and in a way which, I trust, will command your attention."

With an unfaltering voice he read through the state paper, and was distinctly audible to his hearers from the beginning to the end. The next year he

was no more.

THE NEW WORLD AND THE OLD:

AMERICAN ILLUSTRATIONS OF EUROPEAN ANTIQUITIES. BY PRINCIPAL DAWSON, LID., MONTREAL.

IV. THE REMAINS OF A CITY OF THE STONE AGE.

THE modern Montreal has now overgrown the site of Hochelaga, and it met with no obstacles in doing so save the natural inequalities of the ground. Less than three hundred years, and the clearing of the young forest which must have covered the site, and the ploughing of the fields, had sufficed to remove all traces except those which might remain beneath the greensward. Thus, its very place unknown, the old city reposed until the bones of its sleeping inhabitants were disturbed by the excavations of streets and foundations of houses. For some time this work proceeded without any attention being given to the antiquities uncovered. In levelling the ground large quantities of sand were removed to be used in making mortar, and the workmen merely reburied the bones in the underlying