* 
1803.] 
€¢ Nobles and Commons, by your leave, 
Here lie the bones of Matthew Prior, 
The fon of Adam and of Eve. 
Can Bourbon or Naflau go higher ?” 
is faid to have been taken from a Scotch 
epitaph in the church-yard of Dundee. 
Alert lies a man 
Com’d of Adam and of Eve, 
If any will climb higher, 
I give him leave. 
ARCHBISHOP SECKER. 
Archbithoo Secker, it appears, 
originally bred a Diffenter, and even in 
the height of his preferment preached ex- 
tenpore. Thofe who recollected him 
uled to fay, that he preached with a mo- 
dulation of voice approaching toa whine, 
which gave rife, in 1755, to the following 
epigram by Horace Walpole. 
Our bifhops perplex us to know who they are, 
There’s Winton and Exon, and Ebor and Sar," 
Bat our prefent Archbifhop no comment can 
want, 
In his own proper name he figns Thomas Cant. 
MR. SMEATON. 
How intimately true tafte is conne&ed 
with a folid judgment, and how great be- 
nefit may be derived frem a proper appli- 
cation of the moft minute remarks, is one 
ficiently evinced in the following anece 
dote. 
When Mr. Smeaton rebuilt the Edy- 
ftone light-hou/e, as a primary point of 
improvement, he was defirous to enlarge 
the bafe. On this cecafion the natural 
figure of a large {preading oak prefented 
itielf to his imagination ; which he thus 
defcribes as an illuftration ot his defign, 
Conneéted with its roots that lie hid be- 
low the ground, it rifes from the furface 
thereof with a large {welling bafe, which 
is generaily at the height of about one 
diameter reduced by an elegant curve, 
concave to the eye; when<e its ttper di- 
minifhies more flow, after which a prepara- 
tion of more circumference becomes ne- 
ceflary, for the ftrong infertion and eftay 
blifimeat of the principal: boughs. Such 
was the luggeition which led Mr, Smeaton 
to con truat acolumn, for fuch is the Edy- 
ftone Light houfe, of the greatett tability, 
fo as to refit the a@tion of external vio- 
lence, when the quantity of matier is 
given whereof it is to be compofed. 
ROYAL OAK AT BOSCOBEL, 
- The following infcription was placed 
many years ago on a ‘tone over the door 
leading to the famous oak tree in which 
King Charles IT. faved himlelf after the 
battle of Worcefter. 
a Monraty Mac, No. tos. 
Extrais from the Port-folio of a Man of Letters. 
was, 
September,‘ 1587, records the executiva 
U 
© Felicifs: Arboré quam in Afyli 
Potentifs: Regis Car. 2di. guem Deus Opt. 
Max: 
Per quem Reges regnant, hic crefcere voluit, 
Tam in perpet: Rei tante memoriam, 
Quam foecimen firma in regem fidci, 
Muro cintam, 
Pofteris commendant, 
Bafiltus et Jana 
Fitzherbert, 
Quercus amica ay 
THE JEWS 
Among the patent Hos ey in the Tower of | 
London, are many which beara particular 
relation to the hiftory of the Jews in the 
middle ages, at leaft as to their reficence 
in England. John’s cruelty to the Jews 
has long been noticed by our hiftorians, 
and need not be recapitulited here. But 
Henry the Third feems to have had a fill 
more rooted enmity againft them: and it 
is more than probable that the fpirit of 
crufading was accompanied by many 
hardthips toward the Jews. Their con- 
verfion it fhould teem was a favourite ob- 
ject with many of our kings. The ftory 
of William Rufus and the Jew has often 
been recorded. Henry III. a a patent of 
his fourth year granted to Elizabeth, the 
daughter of Rabbi Moyfes, the bifhop of 
the Jews, as he is called, who had lat rely 
been converted, a penny a day. And 
Henry it appears took effectual means ta 
increafe the number of his converts; at 
Jeaft he muft have obtained a great many 
from motives of temporal concern; for 
in his twenty firt year he placed a tallage 
on the Jews of 10,000 marks. By a pa- 
tent in his thirty-ninth year, dated Febru- 
ary 24, he fold them all ¢3 his brother 
Richard, Earl of Cornwall, for sooo 
marks, By another, in the forty. fifth ofhis 
reign, he ordered all their chetts to be ex- 
amined and their goods f{eized for. the 
royal ufe. 
In his fifty-fixth year Henry founded 
the domus converjorum, where the Ralls 
Chapel now ftands in Chancery-lane, for 
converted Jews: it was a foundation much 
encouraged by his fon, who, in his eighth 
year, groaee that the, Friars Preachers 
fhould make it a principal bufineis to 
preach for their converfion. Edward, 
however, was by no means lefs {crupu- 
lous than his father in_his exactions from 
them, and the letters patent of the time 
afford many fingular and interefting pic- 
tures of the hardihips which they fuffered. 
AN INFERNAL MACHINE. 
The Journalift of the reiga of Henry 
the Third of France, under the month of 
of 
