knowing his honesty, accepted of such terms as he could give them, and gave him a full discharge from all his debts. Some time afterwards, he purchased two sixteenths of a lottery ticket, one of which was drawn a prize of twenty thousand pounds, and entitled him to £1250. He no sooner received this sum, than he invited his creditors to dine with him, and paid every farthing of their original demands upon him.

JAMES II. AND THE UNIVERSITY OF
OXFORD,

At the death of the President of Magdalen College, Dr. Clarke, the society, who possess the right of electing their own head, were about to choose a successor, when they were commanded by the king to elect Anthony Farmer, a man who had promised to declare himself a Papist, and who was known to be of bad principles. The society, in the most respectful manner, entreated that his majesty would either allow them to proceed in their own election, or that he would, at least, nominate a more suitable person. To this entreaty no answer was returned; and when the day of election arrived, the Fellows made choice of Dr. Hough, a sincere Protestant, and a man every way qualified for the important office. Enraged at this instance of disobedience, James immediately sent down a mandate for setting aside Dr. Hough, and electing, not the person originally proposed, but Dr. Parker, one of the creatures of the court, and recently elevated to the See of Oxford. The Fellows refused to proceed to a second election, as the place of President was already legally filled up, and as the

Bishop of Oxford could not be chosen without a violation of the statutes of the college. Dr. Hough himself thus boldly addressed the commissioners : "My lords, you say your commission gives you authority to change and alter statutes, and to make new ones, as you think fit; now, my lords, we have taken an oath, not only to observe our statutes (laying his hand upon the book of the statutes of the college), but to admit of no new ones, or alterations in these. This must be my behaviour here; I must admit of no alteration of them, and by the grace of God, I never will.” The king was so incensed at this fresh contempt of his orders, that he came to Oxford in person, and having commanded the Fellows of Magdalen College to attend him at Christ Church, he asked Dr. Pudsey, the senior of the Fellows that appeared before him, "whether they did receive his letter?" They answered, "they did.” The king replied, "then you have done very uncivilly by me, and undutifully." His reproaches and threats were, however, of no avail: he could not terrify the Fellows into submission. The king then vented his resentment in these terms-"Get you Know I am your king. I will be obeyed; and I command you to be gone. Go and admit the Bishop of Oxford as President of your college. Let them that refuse it, look to it; they shall feel the weight of their sovereign's displeasure!" The Fellows then fell on their knees, and offered their petition to the king; but the king said to them, "Get you gone; I will receive nothing from you till you have obeyed me, and admitted the Bishop of Oxford." On this, they immediately withdrew to their chapel, when Dr. Pudsey again enquired whether they would obey

gone.

the king? They answered, they were as ready to obey his majesty in all things that lay in their power, as any of the rest of his subjects; but the electing the Bishop of Oxford being directly contrary to their statutes, and the positive oaths they had taken, it was not in their power to obey him in this matter. This determination of the Fellows being made known to the king, after several ineffectual attempts to unbend them to his will, he caused Dr. Hough to be deprived of his office, and expelled twenty-five of the Fellows. The Bishop of Oxford was then made President by the king, who soon after turned out most of the Demies, and Roman Catholics were put in their places. About a year after this tyrannical proceeding, the king, finding that his throne trembled under him, restored the Fellows who had so boldly resisted his illegal authority, to their Fellowships. A short time afterwards, he was deprived of his crown, and thus met with the common fate of all wicked princes, who would enslave their people, to gratify their own abominations."

TURKISH PROBITY.

A French merchant, whose house was destroyed by a fire at Constantinople, having with great difficulty packed up some valuables in a trunk, and being obliged to look for his wife and children, on quitting the house, he put his trunk into the hands of the first person he met, who happened to be a Turkish porter. He lost sight of the man in the confusion, and gave up all idea of recovering his property. Some months after, a Turk met him in the street, and told him, that he had the trunk in his possession, with

which the merchant had entrusted him on the night of the fire, and that he had long sought him in order to restore it. The trunk was then returned, without a single article being missing.

AN EXAMPLE FOR BUNGLING LAWYERS.

Chamillart, comptroller-general of the finances in the reign of Louis XIV., had been a celebrated pleader. He once lost a cause in which he was concerned, through his excessive fondness for billiards. His client called on him the day after in extreme affliction, and told him, that if he had made use of a document which had been put into his hands, but which he had neglected to examine, a verdict must have been given in his favour. Chamillart read it, and found it of decisive importance to his cause. You sued the defendant," said he, "for 20,000 livres. You have failed by my inadvertance. It is my duty to do you justice. Call on me in two days."---In the mean time, Chamillart procured the money, and paid it to his client, on no other condition, than that he would keep the transaction secret.

THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE.

In a letter written by the Earl of Chesterfield, to Colonel (afterwards General) Irwin, he says, "My old kinsman and contemporary, the Duke of Newcastle, is at length dead, and for the first time quiet.

"He had the start of me at his birth, by one year and two months, and, I think, we shall observe the

same distance at our burial. I own I feel for his death, not because it will be my turn next, but because I knew him to be extremely good-natured, and his hands to be extremely clean, if that were possible; for after all the great offices which he held for fifty years, he died £300,000 poorer than when he first came into them :-a very unministerial proceeding!"

LUCKY LOTTERY TICKET.

That virtue is its own reward, is a maxim which experience has long ago confirmed; and it is equally certain, that avarice often overleaps itself. A singular instance in support of both these acknowledged truths, occurred towards the close of the last century, in the British metropolis. A merchant, somewhat remarkable for absence of mind, had left his counting-house for the Bank, with a large sum of money, which he intended to deposit there; on reaching Lombard Street, he found his pocket cut, and his pocket book missing. He immediately suspected that his pocket had been picked of all his money, and returning home, mentioned the circumstance to his clerk. What, however, was his astonishment, in finding that he had left the money behind, and that though his pocket-book had been taken from him, yet it contained nothing but a few papers of little consequence.

Pleased with the integrity of his clerk, who gave him the money he thought he had lost, he promised him a handsome present; but neglecting to fulfil his promise, was reminded of it. Unwilling to part with