macy with her he had become familiar with the premises: but that as to the robbery and the arson, he was the criminal.

A more extraordinary instance still will be found in the reign of George the Third.

A man named Daniel was tried for the murder of his wife; a chain of circumstantial evidence was brought to bear against him, and, after a brief consultation, the jury returned a verdict of Guilty. In that verdict the judge concurred: "It was a very proper verdict, and fully borne out by evidence.” Sentence was pronounced, and the criminal warned that his hours were numbered; there was no chance of pardon.

The condemned man protested his innocence; he declared that he had never lifted his hand against his wife; that neither directly nor indirectly was he a party to her death: and that, if they hung him, it would be murder. However, the judge thought otherwise; the jury thought otherwise; the jailer thought otherwise; and the day for poor Daniel's execution was fixed.

Providentially for him, the stated day proved to be that appointed for George the Third's coronation. The young king-ever honored be his merciful memory!—would hear of no such act as an execution on the morning of his coronation. It was in vain one learned judge after another represented that "the law pro

vided for the execution of murderers within forty-eight hours after their receiving sentence, save and except when Sunday intervened; that no Sunday intervened within eight-and-forty hours in the present case, and that Daniel must be hung." The young king hesitated for a moment, and then replied with greater firmness than before, "No! not on my coronation morning." The judge represented "that the case was a very heinous one; that there were no mitigating circumstances attending it; that the man deserved to die, and ought to die." "Very possibly," said the young king, “but not on my coronation morning." The Home Secretary, the Earl of Egremont, was applied to. His lordship declared that there was no precedent for respiting a murderer; that such a departure from established rules would be inconvenient and impolitic; that he had no doubt of the man's guilt, and submitted that the law should take its course. "But not," reiterated the king, "on a day of general rejoicing-not on the day on which I ratify a most solemn compact with my subjects-not on my coronation morning. The man must be respited."

And respited he was.

"All sorts of evils," it was predicted, "would result from this relaxation of the law;" it was the first instance of such "a departure from a judicious and well-considered enactment; it

would "open the door to a host of abuses;" it was a most perilous proceeding."

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To whom?

During the interval created by the respite, one or two of Daniel's friends, moved by his solemn and reiterated protestations, sifted the evidence, and keenly scrutinized his own statements. The result was a complete vindication of the condemned man, and the establishment of the fact, beyond all possibility of dispute, that the unhappy woman had caused her own death by throwing herself, in a fit of pique, from a window, and that her husband was, in no shape or form, accessory to her demise, or privy to it!

A pardon was made out for him forthwith.

But if his execution had not been fixed for the king's coronation day? Or if the monarch had been less merciful, or less firm, or less disposed to contest the point with his minister? How then?

CHAPTER IX.

THE TRAITOR CLERGYMAN.

Rev. W. Jackson.

"Avoid the politic, the factious fool,

The busy, buzzing, talking, hardened knave;

The quaint smooth rogue, that sins against his reason,
Calls saucy loud sedition public zeal,

And mutiny the dictates of his spirit."

OTWAY.

"He who goes about persuading a people that they are not so well governed as they ought to be, will never want eager and attentive hearers," aptly observes one who had made a life-long study of human nature.

Man is a restless, querulous animal; eagleeyed as to the faults of his ruler; blind as a bat to his own; labors under various idiosyncracies; among them this, that those intrusted with the reins of power should be perfect beings.

The rational, thoughtful, and calmly judging will never be rebels: they will find no difficulty touching their earthly allegiance; the highest of all authorities has bidden every right-minded man to be obedient to the civil government under which the providence of God has cast his lot. As God is the origin of power, and the Supreme Governor of the universe, he delegates

authority to whomsoever he will; and though, in some cases, it may be very possible that the governor himself may not be of God, yet civil government is of HIM; for without this there would be no society, no security, no private property; all would be confusion and anarchy, and the habitable world would soon be depopulated.

Nothing can justify the opposition of subjects to a ruler, but overt, decided, and unmistakable attempts on his part to change the constitution, or to rule contrary to law.

The compact between him and his people can only become a matter of question when the ruler attempts to govern independent of, or contrary to the constitution.

No personal misconduct in the ruler, no immorality in his own life, while he governs according to law, can justify either rebellion. against him, or contempt of his authority. For his political conduct he is accountable to his people; for his moral conduct he is accountable to his conscience and his God.

Rebellion in a layman is a heavy and heinous offense; but that a clergyman-a spiritual person-one whose bounden duty it is to preach peace and good will, to inculcate submission to the powers that be, to dwell on the blessings of order and the horrors of anarchy, that he should act the part of a political incendiary, and thirsting for bloodshed, lay himself out to kindle the