Bachelor was a title of rank in the middle ages, between an esquire and knight, from Bas Chevalier.

Villain, in ancient times meant a country labourer.

A boor, in modern language, signifies any unlettered vulgar person; but under the Norman princes, this class, called villains, was divided into vassal boors and free boors; those who were sold with the land, and those who were free, to choose an employer. To this day the distinction prevails in some countries, and particularly in Russia, where the vassal-boors are divided into classes, as boors belonging to the sovereign; mining boors, who are sold with the property; and private boors, who belong to the nobility, and perform the labour on their estates; they amount to 12 or 15 millions.

The three bastard sons of John of Gaunt, by Katharine Swinford, were called Beaufort, from his castle in France, and made Dukes of Somerset and Exeter, and Marquisses and Earls of Dorset.

The battle of Bannockburn was fought on the 25th of June, 1314, between the Scots, under Robert Brace, and the English, under the young King, Edward II. The English crossed a rivulet to the attack, but Bruce having dug pits, which he had covered, they fell into them, and were thrown into confusion. The route was complete, and 50,000 English were killed or taken prisoners.

The Cinque or Five Ports of Dover, Sandwich, Romney, Winchelsea, and Rye, as the nearest points to France, were anciently considered as the keys under a Lord Warden. of the kingdom, and therefore put

Saddles were not used till the third century.

Estrays are animals found at large, without owner; and waifs are stolen property, left by felons; both belong to the lord of the manor.

The Essoign-day is the first day of every term; but usage concedes three days as essoign or excuse.

Quit-rent is so called from whiterent, being to be paid in silver; which, In 1290, the royal family of Scot-in other rents, were paid in kind. land became extinct, and the rights The Spanish Armada, for invading of several competitors were submit- England in 1588, consisted of 130 ted to the arbitration of Edward I., ships, of which 100 were larger than he made his award in favour of John any before built. It conveyed 19,295 Baliol. The Scots were dissatisfied, soldiers, 10.500 seamen, and 2630 and preferred successively William brass cannon. They were to convey Wallace and Robert Bruce, which an army of 34,000 men from the led to an invasion and conquest of Scheldt, in flat-bottom boats. The Scotland by Edward. Fresh dis- English opposing fleet, of smaller turbances in Scotland led him to as-vessels, was about 101 ships. The semble an army at Carlisle, where he Armada returned by the Shetland died, in 1307; but, in 1314, the battle Islands, and not more than half of Bannockburn terminated the war. reached the Spanish ports.

The body of Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, who died in 1427, was found, in 1772, in the ruins of the Abbey of St. Edmondsbury, wrapped in lead. The lead was opened, and the body found fresh. Some brutal workmen stole away the lead, and then threw the corpse into a bole, which they filled up.

Agincourt is a village in Picardy, where Henry V. was intercepted with about 20,000 men, by 100,000 under the Duc d'Alençon, Oct. 25, 1415. The French were defeated with the loss of 10,000 slain, and 14,000 made prisoners, whom Henry barbarously

murdered under a false alarm.

The right of Gleaning is founded on the express injunction of the Mosaic law, which Jesus declared he came to fulfil and enforce.

Racks, for extorting confessions, were made of pulleys, cords, thumbscrews, &c., by which the parties were made to confess whatever was wished.

The writs issued in chancery are those which relate to the crown, which used to be kept in a little bag; and those relative to the subject kept in a hamper; and hence the hanniper-office and petty-bag-office.

A pardon cannot follow an im

peachment by the House of Com- which a decision according to law, and not according to equity, is made. -Vide Gazelee.

Bail is security to appear and answer to some accusation; and, by an abuse of law, is in England exacted Administration till 1710, consisting Queen Anne, in 1702, chose a Whig for claims of debt, but restricted to of Lord Godolphin, Lord Somers, the sums above 251. The vexations of Duke of Marlborough, &c. The Tothe system render it a source of in- ries succeeded, under Harley, Botolerable oppression. The law re-lingbroke, and the Clarendons.

gham; and, in 1766, a change of | of the Peace, in France, amount to men took place, and Mr. Pitt return- several thousand, and are chiefly ed to office. lawyers, with small salaries. They decide petty cases of property, besides keeping the peace, and, in other respects, their functions resemble those of English Justices of the Peace, with this incalculable and exemplary advantage, that no action can be maintained in any court, till the Juge de Pair has certified that he has heard the parties, and finds it impossible to reconcile the difference. By the salique law in France, no female can succeed to the throne. The word writ is derived from the Saxon, writan, to write.

In 1771, the Tory administration of Lord North was formed, and continued through the American war, till 1782, when the Whigs, under the Marquis of Rockingham, came into power. The death of the marquis occasioned a division of the Whigs, and a coalition of Mr. Fox, at the head of one division, with Lord North, at the head of the Tories, in 1783. Late in that year, the administration of the second Pitt was formed, and it continued on Tory principles till the French war in 1801.

In 1801, another Tory administration was formed under Addington.

De facto is applied to actual possession, and de jure, to right.

In 1804, the Pitt administration A Hindoo jury, agreeable to anwas restored. Early in 1806 Pitt cient custom, consists of five perdied, and a Whig administration sons, chosen from among the elders; succeeded under Mr. Fox; but he two by the plaintiff, two by the dedying in September, a Tory admi-fendant, and the fifth by the administration, under Perceval and El-nistrator of justice. don, succeeded in the February following. Perceval was shot in 1812; but the same administration was continued by George IV., under Liverpool, till Liverpool's death, in

1827.

A mixed administration succeeded of Whigs and Tories under Canning, who died in the same year; and was succeeded by Lord Goderich and a Tory party, and replaced, in 1828, by the Duke of Wellington, who, in 1830 was succeeded by Earl Grey and the Whigs.

The Act of Union with Scotland was the 5th of Anne, cap. 8, and consisted of 25 articles, one of which provides, that the land-tax of Scotland shall be but in a fixed proportion to that of England.

The battle of Culloden, in which the Guelphs, under William Duke of Cumberland, defeated the last of the Stuarts, took place in April, 1745, near Inverness. Nearly 3000 of the Scots were killed on the field, or barbarously slaughtered afterwards in the pursuit; while the executioner made terrible examples of many others. Prince Charles, after wandering as a fugitive, and experiencing many romantick adventures, escaped to France, and died at Rome, in 1788.

The Juges de Paix, or Justices

Twelve persons, assembled for an unlawful purpose, constitute a riotous assembly.

The number of barristers, in 1831, was 1132, whose fees constituted one fourth of the whole expenses of lawsuits; conveyancers and pleaders, 132; London attorneys, 9342; country attorneys, 2742; total number of lawyers in England and Wales, 13,348, being 453 more than there were on the 1st January, 1830. For the 10 years ending 1830, the attorneys paid, in duties on articles of clerkship, admissions, and yearly certificates, nearly 100,000l. sterling.

The wall of Adrian and Severus, built to prevent the eruptions of the Scots and Picts, extended from the Tyne to Solway frith, and was 80 miles long, 12 feet high, and 8 in thickness, with watch-towers.

The Romans divided Britain into four provinces.

1. Wales, called Britannia. 2. South of the Thames, called Britannia prima.

3. The counties from the Thames to the parallel of the Humber and Mersey, called Flavia Cæsariensis. And,

4. The Northern Counties, called Maxima Cæsariensis. They also occupied Scotland to

the parallel of the Forth and Clyde, called Valentia. And further north, in the eastern half, were the Picti; and, in the western, the Scoti; who were identified with Hibernia or Scotia.

In 237, Severus kept the imperial court at Eboracum, now York; and, in 312, the Emperor Constantine was born at York, his mother (Helena) being understood to be his father's mistress, and an inn-keeper's daughter at Colchester; for his father married another in her lifetime.

Romans introduced the gods of the

wars to drive them out of Normandy on the French side, and wars of encroachment on the other side. The English princes gained bloody victories at Cressy, Poictiers, and Agincourt; but they were finally driven out of France in the reign of Henry VI., and lost Calais, by surprise, in the reign of Mary. It was to the English people a fortunate loss; but the rival policy of the two governments have, even since then, caused half as many years of war as of peace.

Wat Tyler's rebellion took place

In religion the Britons were De-in 1399, and Jack Cade's in 1450. ists, or disciples of the druids; the Both began in Kent, were very fatal to London, and terminated by the the way for the dethronement of death of their leaders. One paved Richard II., by his cousin, Henry Duke of Lancaster; and the other to the destruction of Henry VI., and the House of Lancaster, or the Red Roses, by their cousins of the House of York, or the White Roses. The first battle was at St. Albans, in 1455, and the last at Tewkesbury, in 1471; and, in the 16 years, above 30 great battles were fought, the counwhole of the nobility exterminated. try half depopulated, and nearly the

Grecian Mythology; the Saxons were idolaters, and called the days of the week after the objects and gods of their worship. In 597, Pope Gregory sent Augustine to preach christianity in the south, and Paulinus in the north. It spread till Adelfrid, King of Deiri, or Northumbria, which included Maxima Cæsariensis, sustained the Saxon religion, and made conquests on all sides, slaying no less than 1200 monks in a battle near Chester. Being afterwards defeated and succeeded by Edwin, he became a convert to Paulinus; and, after struggles for a century, christianity prevailed.

In this war the nobles, to seduce their vassals to join their standards, emancipated them; and, in 30 years The Trojan princes were contemporaneous with the British princes bled' the commoners to purchase after, the statute of alienations enaabout 1000 years. The Romans go-land, and gave a new character to verned 400; the Saxons about 600; and the Norman succession about 765 years to this time.

Wales continued a separate sovereignty till Edward I., in 1283; and Scotland till its king succeeded of right to both kingdoms in 1603. Ireland was invaded by Henry II. in 1172, but never quite conquered till the time of Cromwell. The Legislatures of England and Scotland, were united in 1706; and, of Great Britain and Ireland, in 1800.

society.

The wars of the White and Red Roses arose thus. Edward III. had three sons, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, and the Duke of Lancaster; each of whom had sons The Prince of Wales died before him; and he was succeeded, of right, by his minor grandson, Richard II., who became unpopular, and banished his cousin, Henry of Lancaster. Henry returned, headed the malcontents, who, on dethroning Richard, The wars in France, in which made Henry king, in prejudice of England was involved for nearly the Duke of York and his family, two centuries, arose from the Dukes who yielded to the succession of of Normandy being Kings of Eng- Henry V. and VI. The latter marland. They held Normandy under ried Margaret of Anjou, who quar fief granted to Rollo, and were too relled with the then Duke of York, powerful for their lord. Intermarry-grandson of Edward III.; a contest ing too in the French court, they acquired titles to the Frer ch crown, which France opposed; ind, hence,

ensued, and the duke, and one of his sons, were killed at Wakefield. His sons fled, found partizans, an

the 7th century was the precursor of Edwin, King of Northumbria, in Alfred in the 9th, and an exemplary improver and ameliorator. His coinage is still in existence; and, though he improved Yorkshire, yet, so late as the reign of Edward III., there

the war continued till the Lancas- | kind,—as in honey, bread, ale, oxen, trians were destroyed; and the bro- sheep, poultry, cheese, butter, and thers, Edward IV. and Richard III., fish, equal to a 15th or 20th of the successively filled the throne. Henry produce. VII., who killed Richard in 1485, was great grandson to Lionel, a fourth Son of Edward III. ; and his mother was widow of Henry V., and had him by a second husband, of the name of Tudor; but, to remove doubts, he married the daughter of Edward IV., and, though he behaved very ill to her, had by her two sons, Arthur, who died before him, and Henry the Eighth Henry had also a daughter Margaret, who was married to the King of Scotland; and, on his grand-children dying without issue, her descendant, James VI. of Scotland, succeeded to the crown as James I. of England; and, from a daughter of his, there descended the

House of Hanover.

was no recorded town in the now

saturated county of Lancashire.

The pound sterling was, in Saxon times, a pound troy of silver, and a shilling its twentieth, consequently above three times as large as at present.

Wakes and annual feasts were established by the Saxons, in celebration of the Saint's day of their parish church; and market-towns were then designated as such.

The male line of the Stuarts in the fourth descent were set aside by Originally juries were 12 men, who, act of parliament at the revolution, on oath, certified their belief of innoowing to their being Catholicks. But, cence. Then, in formal trials, they in 1715 and 1745, the son and grand-were the persons present; and, in son of James II. made vigorous ef- time, fixed at 12. forts to recover their hereditary rights. In those years they landed in Scotland, and marched into England; but the first was defeated near Preston, and the second, after retreating from Derby, was defeated at Culloden, on the 16th of April, 1746. Both victories were followed by numerous vindictive executions, and the victory at Culloden by a military butchery little creditable to the powers of the time. This male line is now extinct.

After the battle of Hastings, a list was taken of William's chiefs, amounting to 629, and called the Battle Roll; among whom the lands and distinctions of the followers of Harold were distributed. The northern counties held out; and York was defended, but taken, its defenders put to death, and the whole country devastated, many ancient towns being utterly destroyed.

The division of the kingdom into The first coinage in England was ascribed to Alfred; but there is evicounties, hundreds, and tithings, is under the Romans, at Camulodu-dence that some counties bore their num, or Colchester; and forty varieties of it are to be found in cabi- names, and had those divisions 150 nets. The Britons had no coinage, years earlier. and, as a substitute for gross barter, paid metal by weight.

The tithing meant every 10 families; and the hundred 10 tithings, governed by a head constable or baiIn 628, the first stone church was liff, who held courts for the trial of built by Edwin, King of Northum-causes; and the hundred is still liabria, at York, which soon after was ble for damages by unlawful acts. covered with lead, and then glazed. Till then, houses and buildings were triver of trial by jury, but we have Alfred also was said to be the conof wood, or plaster or mud. The evidence of such trials long before building of Wearmouth Abbey soon his time. In a cause tried at Haafter led to the bringing of glass-warden, in Flintshire, nearly a cenmakers from the continent.

Rents, down to the conquest, and chiefly afterwards, were paid in

tury before Alfred, we have a list of the twelve jurors, confirmed too by the fact that the descendants of one