"and voices their quires and copes could exprefs, "attended by many Prelates and Nobles, who "payd this laft tribute to her memory. This 66 was counted a piaculous action of the King's by many, though fome have not stuck to say, "that as Queen Elizabeth was willing to be rid "of the Queen of Scots, yet would not have it "her action, and being it could not be done "without her command, when it was done fhe "renounced her own act. So, though the King cc was angry when he heard his Mother was taken away by a violent death, recalling his Ambaf

fador, threatening war, and making a great "noife, (which was after calmed and closed up "with a large pension from the Queen,) yet he "might well enough be pleased that such a spirit was layd, as might have conjured up three "kingdoms against him."

66

JOHN KNOX.

Of this celebrated Reformer, who difgraced his useful and refpectable character by outrage and violence, the Regent Earl of Morton faid, when he attended his funeral, "There lies a man, who "in his life never feared the face of a man; wha “hath been often threatened with dag and dag

ger, but yet hath he ended his days in peace " and honour; for he had God's providence "watching over him in a special manner when "his very life was fought."

Timoleon, the Reformer of Corinth, when he caused his brother's blood to be fhed, turned afide his head, covered it with his cloak, and wept. The Scottish Reformer, however, not only performed the great work in which he was engaged with earneftnefs, but occafionally added want of feeling toward the perfons who fuffered for it. In defcribing the murder of Cardinal Beaton, he introduces a joke about his corpulency, and adds, "these things we write merrily." When he relates an account of an exhortation which he gave to the unfortunate Queen Mary, he adds, " "I made the Hyæna weep

His

writings are in the fame ftyle with his fpeeches, and bear titles expreffive of the agitation and violence of mind of him who penned them; as, "The First Blast of the Trumpet against the

*The elegant Mary herfelf, on feeing the bleeding body of a young gentleman brought near her, who had been fhot by fome of her foldiers, faid, "I cannot be responsible for "accidents, but I wish it had been his father." So nearly equal in brutality are the polite and the coarse, the uncultivated and the refined, the Sovereign and the peasant, when they fuffer their minds to be transported by the violence of paffion, or corrupted by the partiality of prejudice.

"monftrous Regiment of Women;" and " A "brief Exhortation to England for the speedy "embracing of Chrift's Gospel, heretofore by "the Tyranny of Mary fuppreffed and banished."

Knox in one of his Sermons told his hearers, "that one Mafs was more frightful to him than "ten thousand enemies landed in any part of the "realm." This gave much offence to Queen Mary. Lord Darnley, whom fhe foon afterwards married, was prevailed upon to hear him preach, and he entertained his ears with this text from Ifaiah," O Lord, other Lords than thou have "reigned over us ;" and, fpeaking of the government of wicked Princes, he said, "that they

were fent as tyrants and fcourges to the people "for their fins;" adding, "that God occa"cafionally fets boys and women over a nation, "to punish it for its crimes," &c.

To animate the mob of Perth to pull down cathedrals and monafteries, he exclaimed, "Pull "down the nefts and the rooks will fly away. Yet, as it is fagaciously and humanely observed by Mr. Andrews, in his judicious and excellent Continuation of Dr. Henry's valuable History, "he restrained his followers from blood; not " even by way of retaliation did a single man of "the Roman Catholic party lofe his life for his "religion,

66

cc religion, if we except the Cardinal, who fell as "much on account of his defpotifm as his bigotry. To a fierce unpolished race like the "Scots, a stern tasteless Apostle like John Knox "was perhaps necessary."

BUCHANAN.

THE following curious account is taken from the Thirteenth Book of the Scotch Hiftory of that learned and elegant writer,

"About this time, 1500, a new kind of mon❝fter was born in Scotland *. In the lower part "of its body it resembled a male child, nothing "differing from the ordinary shape of the human

body, but above the navel, the trunk of the ઃઃ body, and all the other members, were double, "reprefenting both fexes, male and female. The "King (James the Fourth) gave special order "for its careful education, efpecially in mufic,

* A very ingenious Surgeon, lately arrived from the Eaft-Indies, fays, that he left alive in Bengal, fome years ago, a boy of eleven years of age with two heads, the one joined to the crown of the other, with a part of the neck appended to it, having the appearance of having been decapitated. When this Gentleman left the Eaft-Indies the boy was in perfect health.

" in

"in which it arrived to an admirable degree of "fkill; and moreover it learned several tongues; "and fometimes the two bodies did discover fe❝veral appetites difagreeing one with another, "and fo they would quarrel, one liking this, "the other that; and yet fometimes again they "would agree, and confult as it were in com"mon for the good of both. This was also me"morable in it, that when the legs or loins 66 were hurt below, both bodies were fenfible of "this pain in common, but when it was pricked, "or otherwise hurt above, the fenfe of the pain "did affect one body only; which difference "was alfo more confpicuous at its death, for "one of the bodies died many days before the "other, and that which furvived, being half pu-' "trified, pined away by degrees. This monster "lived twenty-eight years and then died. I am "the more confident," adds the Hiftorian, " in "relating this ftory, because there are many "honeft and credible perfons yet alive who faw "this prodigy with their own eyes."

LORD BURLEIGH

was very much preffed by fome of the Divines of his time, who waited on him in a body, to make fome alterations in the Liturgy. He defired

them