tiquarian friends; and received encouragement from Camden, sir Robert Cotton, Selden, and others, to go on. He now prepared a part of it for the press, and offered it to a bookseller at the small recompence of 51.; which being refused, he ventured to print it, to the end of the letter L, at his own risk; and it was published under the title of "Archaologus," &c. The reason why he gave it this title instead of Glossarium, was, because it was not strictly speaking a glossary, but a collection of discourses and dissertations under various heads. The second part was not published till long after his death, or in 1607, by his grandson, Mr. Charles Spelman.

2. His next work was, A History of the Civil Affairs of the Kingdom, from the Conquest to Magna Charta, selected from our best historians, and commonly expressed in their own words, 1627.

3. De Sepultura; or, Of Burial Fees, 1628. The above are in Latin.

4. "The History of the English Councils." This work is divided into three parts, each occupying a volume. 1. From the first planțation of Christianity to the coming in of the Conqueror, in 1066; 2. From the Norman

Conquest to the casting off the pope's supremacy by king Henry VIII. 3. The History of the Reformed English Church, from Henry VIII. to his own time.-The first of these volumes was published in 1639, with anno

tations.

5. "The Original, Growth, Propagation, and Conditions of Tenures by Knight-Service in England."-The origin of this work was the following. In the year 1639, the important case of tenures, upon the commission of defective titles, was argued by the judges of Ireland, and after their resolution, was published the same year, by order of the lord deputy, viscount Wentworth. On the fourth point of the case, it was affirmed, that tenures existed in England prior to the conquest; and hence was inferred the prior existence of feuds also. In support of this assertion, divers laws and charters of the Saxon kings, and other authorities, were alledged; and the point being thus established, was followed in the report. It was moreover said, that Spelman, in his Glossary, (verbo feudum) was mistaken, in referring the origin of feuds in England to the conquest; and that his bare conjecture was not of sufficient authority to supersede the force

'of those laws. Spelman, in the work in question, confirms what he had advanced in his Glossary; but observes, that the mistake was committed by the person who drew the breviate for the judge; since he himself had no where referred the origin of feuds in England to the Norman conquest; and consequently, that the passage in his Glossary had been perverted. He had asserted only, that William the Conqueror had introduced the servitudes and grievances of feuds, as wardship, mar riage, and the like, unknown, even to this day, by other nations, though governed by the feudal law; and that between Servitia Militaria and Servitutes Militares, there was a wide difference; the former being noble, heroic, and glorious, allowed only to the freeborn; the latter ignoble, servile, and derived even from bondage.

His posthumous works were, 1. "A Larger Treatise concerning Tithes," &c. 1647.

2. Villare Anglicanum; or, A View of the Towns of England, collected by the appointment, at the charge, and for the use of that learned antiquary sir Henry Spelman; 1656. 3. "The History of Sacrilege," 1698. He also left in MS. 1. "A Scheme of the

Abbreviations, and such other obsolete forms of writing, as occur in our ancient MSS. to facilitate the reading of ancient books and records."

2. "Of Ancient Deeds and Charters."

3. "Of the Original of Testaments' and Wills, and of their Probate, to whom it anciently belonged."

4. "Of the Admiral's Jurisdiction, and the Officers thereof."

Among his papers were also found, 1. A Discourse of the Ancient Government of England in general.

2. Of Parliaments in Particular.

3. And lastly, A Catalogue of the Places and Dwellings of the Archbishops and Bishops of this Realm, now, or of former times, in which their several owners have ordinary jurisdiction, as of a parcel of their diocese, though they be situate within the precinct of another bishop's diocese.

A collection of the English works of sir Henry Spelman was published in 1625, folio, by Mr. Edmund Gibson, afterwards bishop of London. The same person soon after edited another collection, entitled Reliquia Spelmanpiana; the posthumous Works of Sir Henry

Spelman, Knight, relating to the Laws and Antiquities of England; published from the ori ginal MSS. in 1698, folio. Both of these collections were reprinted together in 1723, in one volume, folio. From this collection I select the following extract.

Of the ancient Government of England.

To tell the government of England under the old Saxon laws, seemeth an Utopia to us at present; strange and uncouth: yet can there be 'no period assigned, wherein either the frame of those laws was abolished, or this of ours entertained; but as day and night creep insensibly one upon the other, so also hath this alteration grown upon us insensibly, every age altering something, and no age seeing more than what themselves are actors in, nor thinking it to have been otherwise than as themselves discover it by the present. Like them of China, who never travelling out of their own country, think the whole world to extend no further. As one therefore that has coasted a little further into former times, I will offer unto you a rude map thereof; not like those of the exquisite cosmographers of our latter ages, but like them of old, when as neither cross sails nor compass were yet known to navigators.