388 
and was confulted upon cafes of honour, 
referred to him from all parts of Europe. 
Legal conveyancing feems at all times, 
and in all countries to have been unneceffa- 
rily redundant in fiyle.« Une oldeft con- 
veyance upon Record defcribes the pre-, 
mifes with almoft as much tautology as 
if it had been drawn inthe temple. I al- 
Jude to the conveyance of the cave of 
Mackpelah, from the fons of Heth to Abra- 
ham, Genefis, 23.—** And the field of 
Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which 
“was before Mamre, the field, and the cave 
which was therein, and all the trees 
which were in the field, that were in all 
the borders round about, were made {ure 
to Abraham.”” 

Among tbe privileges exclufively enjoy - 
ed by the nobility of this country, there is 
one, which probably many of themfelves 
may be ignorant of. By the Charta fo- 
refle, chap. x. every archbifhop, bifhep, 
earl, or Baron, going to the king at his 
command, may, in pafling through the 
royal foreft, take one beaft or two, at 
fight of the keeper, if he be prefent, or in 
his abfence upon blowing a horn, to /bew 
that they do not do it by fiealth. 
The following proclamation of her ma- 
jeftv Queen Ann, is copied from the Lon- 
don Gazette, from March 7 to 12, 1712. 
< It being her majefty’s royal intention 
to touch publicly, for the ev7/, on Tuel- 
day, the 17th of this inftant March, and 
fo to continue for fome time; it 1s her 
majefty’s command, that tickets be deli- 
vered the day before, at Whitehall; and 
that all perfons bring a certificate, figned 
» by the minifter and church-wardens of 
their refpective parifhes, that they never 
received the royal touch.” 
Pigeons are in Perfia a fubje& of game 
laws. To be entitled to the privilege of 
killing a wild pigeon, it 1s neceflary to 
be 2 Muffelman ; and we learn from T’a- 
VERNIER, that Chriftians have frequent. 
ly become Mahometans, to entitle them to 
this qualification of killing game. 
The quantity of corn deltroyed by 
pigeons is amazing. HarTLIB, in his 
« Legacy of Hufbandry,” calculates that 
there were in his time 26,000 pigeon- 
houfes in England; and, allowing 500 
pair to each houfe, and four bufhels year- 
dy to be confumed or deftroyed by each 
pair, it makes the whole the corn loft to 
te no tefs than thirteen millions of bufhels 
annually. It is, however, but juff to fay, 
Extracts from the Port Folio of a Man of Letters. 
{June 
that it has been found, that pigeons, 
like moft other animals, perfecuted for 
real-or fuppofed mischief, are at the fame 
time of ule, as they confume the feeds of 
weeds, and alfo the infeS&ts which are moft 
injuricus to the farmer. 
His prefent majefty’s reign has been 
diftinguifhed by the repeal of a variety of 
penal laws, which were a difgrace to the 
nation. By 12 Geo. III. c. 71 the ener- 
moufly fevere fiatutes againft foreftalling 
and ingrofling are repealed 5 fo that thede 
acts now remain only mifdemeanors at 
common law.—The ftatute ef Elizabeth 
again{ft cottages is repealed by 15 Geo. 
III. c. 32.—The aéts againtt gypfies are 
repealed by 23 Geo. III. c. 51, fo that 
thefe people are now only punifhable as va- 
grants.—The very exceptionable procefs 
again{t perfons ftanding mute, on an ar- 
raignment of felony, iss done away by 
12 Geo. III. c. 20, which enatts that the 
perfon fo ftanding mute, or not anfwering 
direttly to the charge, fhall be convicted, 
and the fame judgment and execution be 
awarded, as on conviction or conteffion. 
—Lafily, fome of the moft rigorous penal 
acts againft Papifts are abrogated by 
18 Geo. IIT. ¢. 6a. 
The laws of this, and indeed all chrif- 
tian countries, againft Jews, were for- 
merly dreadfully fevere. By an aét of 
parliament of Edward the firft, every Jew 
above feven years of age was obliged to 
wear a mark of two cables jeined, wpon 
their upper garment: they were deciared 
to be the king’s flaves; the good chrijiians 
were allowed to take owly half their fub- 
ftance, and laftly no chriftian was per- 
mitted to lie in their houfes. But not- 
withftanding thefe feverities a Jew was 
thereby permitted to purchafe a houfe 
and curtilage; which an enlightened par- ~ 
liament of the eighteenth century would 
not permit. By another ftatute of the 
fame king, if any butcher fold flefh 
bought of a Jew, he was for the firft of- 
fence to be heavily amerced; for the fe- 
cond to be fet in the pillory; for the 
third to be imprifoned; and for the fourth 
to be banifhed from the town where the 
offence was committed. 
“A rich Jew not ranfoming himéfelf, 
king John ordered, for feven days fuc- 
ceflively, one of his teeth to be pulled out ; 
upon which he at laft fubmitted to pay 
the king 10,000 marks of filver.—Stow’s 
Chrenicle, p. 168. By an ordinance of 
king John likewife a Jew could not affign 
a debt due to him by a chriftian, which 
his - 
