destitute of all feeling, would have been irresistible, demanded the liberation of his friend. "On whose account," he was asked, “do you speak in favour of a ci-devant, of an enemy to the public good?" On my own account," replied Mercier, with that noble dignity which a mean or a guilty conscience can never assume. "In the name of literature," continued he, "I come to demand justice. If Florian be actually guilty; if, indeed, he shall be convicted of treason against his country, inflict on him the punishment he merits; but if, on the contrary, his innocence can be proved to you; if instead of his supposed crimes you shall discover in him only virtues, then at least promise me to release him from captivity, and to restore to society a peaceful and virtuous citizen." "Virtuous!" exclaimed a loud rough voice, in the midst of a general murmur of tumult, "impossible! The man who could compose verses in praise of the queen, cannot be otherwise than the enemy of his country, and in every respect a dangerous character." Mercier was obliged to retire, but the death of the tyrant soon liberated his friend Florian.

PROMPT REPLY.

Mr Erskine, in defending a client under prosecution for a libel, quoted a sentence or two from a printed book; he was hastily interrupted by the late Justice Buller, who said it was no defence of one libel, to quote another and a worse libel in support of it." Mr. Erskine immediately turned to the jury, and said, "You hear, gentlemen, the observation of his lordship, and from that observation, I maintain that you must

acquit my client. His lordship says, that the work under prosecution is not so libellous as the quotation I have just read. Now, gentlemen, that quotation is from a work universally allowed to be classical authority, on the character of the British government. It is from the pen of the immortal Locke. Shall we condemn a writer who is declared not to go the length of that great and good man?"

NEWSPAPER LITERATI.

The benchers of Lincoln's Inn some years ago passed a bye-law, excluding gentlemen who wrote for the newspapers from their society. This illiberal proceeding was brought under the consideration of the House of Commons, by a petition from a gentleman against whom it operated; and there it met with such unmingled condemnation, that the benchers were shortly afterwards induced to rescind the obnoxious resolution.

In the discussion to which the subject gave rise, Mr. Sheridan observed, "Much illiberal calumny had been cast upon these gentlemen, (the reporters) which it was time should now be fully confuted. He had to state then, that there were amongst those who reported the debates of that house, no less than twenty-three graduates of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, and Edinburgh; those gentlemen were all in their progress to honourable professions; and there was no possible course better than that which they had adopted, for the improvement of their minds, and the acquisition of political experience. They had adopted this course from an honest and honourable

REE-SPOKEN ALSASSA

A:ter the death of Culties vi
actor. Don Pedro Rouguns, atsar
w kmg. James vi. being requeste
inton of the state of affairs an

er told James," that he saw sev
as maiesty, who would importune
Sablished religion in Enziand,

yearken to their advice, est
ent of it when it was too late.
od seat displeased with s
bassador with some zeal,
customary in Spain to advise wit
-Yes surped the ambassa
that's the reason our affairs succ

HE CARL OF

This nooteman whose brid det hum so disumquished in dorings tempora gade biserfum sus enibision

TIME AND ETERNITY

When Archbishop Leighton was minister diaph in Scotland, this question was asked of the at their provincial meeting.If they preached duties of the times?" When it was found that Mc L. did not, and he was blamed for the answered, "If all the brethren have preached t fimas, may not one poor brother be suffered to prac on eternity? May ministers preach on the subject of eternity, and hearers hear in the view of that pet and momentous concern.

PERFUMERY TAXES

Mr. Sheridan, speaking in condensin de
proposed tax on perfumery, enumerand de sticles
of lavender, milk of roses, &c. and at the
commissioners, in distinguishing the sp
culars of taxation, under this denomination, must le
gifted by nature with noses as acute as pointers" He
then concluded an erratic, but at the same for
most entertaining speech, with applying to the House
of Commons the following lines from Pope's Bage
of the Lock:

"Our humble province is to tend the fair,
Not a less pleasing, though less glorious care;
To save the powder from too rude a gale,
Nor let the imprison'd essences exhale."