death might restrain his thoughts within due bounds of modesty and moderation in the midst of his new honours.

The Dey of Algiers is elected from the army; and as the meanest person has the same right to sovereignty as the highest, every_common soldier may be considered as heir-apparent to the throne. Every person, besides, has a right to vote on the election; and this being concluded, he is saluted with the word " Alla Barek!" that is, God bless you, and immediately invested with the caftan, or insignia of royalty: the Cadi addressing him in a congratulatory speech, which concludes with an exhortation to the practice of justice, equity, and moderation. The Deys, after their exaltation, generally disdain the meanness of wishing to disguise their humble extraction; on the contrary, when Mahomet Basha was in possession of that dignity, in a dispute with the deputy-consul of a neighbouring nation, he is said to have thus frankly acknowledged his origin-" My mother sold sheeps' trotters, and my father neats' tongues; but they would have been ashamed to have exposed to sale so worthless a tongue as thine."

The kings of Poland are crowned in the cathedral dedicated to Saint Stanislaus, a majestic structure in the city of Cracow, and where are preserved the relics of that saint, the ancient bishop and patron of the nation; who being murdered in this church in the 11th century by Boleslaus the Bold, the king and nobles walk in procession to his shrine the day before the coronation, to expiate the crime; and several kings on these and other occasions have offered vessels of gold and silver at his tomb.

In Turkey, the Mufti, as high priest and patriarch of the Mahometan religion, girds on the sword to the Grand Signior's side, which ceremony answers to the coronation of our kings; and here, perhaps, it may not be amiss to observe, that the mines of Golconda, in the East Indian empire, have, it is said, furnished the principal diamonds which adorn all the crowns in the world.

*

THE CRESCENT AS A SYMBOL.

The crescent was the symbol of the city of Byzantium, now Constantinople, which the Turks have adopted. This device of the Ottoman Empire is of great antiquity, as appears from several medals, and took its rise from an event related by Stephens the geographer, a native of Byzantium. He tells us that Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, meeting with mighty difficulties in carrying on the siege of that city, set the workmen in a very dark night to undermine the walls, that his troops might enter the place without being perceived; but luckily for the besieged, the Moon appearing, discovered the design, which accordingly miscarried. "In aeknowledgement of this deliverance," says he, "the Byzantiums erected a statue to Diana, and thus the crescent became their symbol."

MEDIATISED PRINCES.

A Mediatised Prince is an unhappy victim of those Congresses, which, among other good and evil, purged with great effect the ancient German political system. By the regulations then determin. ed on, that country was freed at one fell swoop from the vexatious and harrassing dominion of the various petty princes who exercised

* See artile Constantinople, &c.

absolute sovereignities over little nations of 50,000 souls. These independent sovereigns became subjects; and either swelled, by their mediatization, the territories of some already powerful potentate, or transmuted into a state of importance some more fortunate petty ruler than themselves; whose independence, through the exertions of political intrigue, or family influence, had been preserved inviolate. In most instances, the concurrence of these little rulers in their worldly degradation was obtained by a lavish grant of official emoluments, or increase of territorial possessions, and the mediatised prince, instead of being an impoverished and uninfluential sovereign, became a wealthy and powerful subject. But so dominant in the heart of man is the love of independent dominion, that even with these temptations, few of the petty princes could have been induced to have parted with their cherished sceptres, had they not been conscious, that in case of contumacy, the resolutions of a diet would have been enforced by the armies of an Emperor. As it is, few of them have yet given up the outward and visible signs of regal sway. The throne is still preserved, and the tiara still revered. They seldom frequent the courts of their sovereigns, and scarcely condescend to notice the attentions of their fellow nobility. Most of them expend their increased revenues in maintaining the splendour of their little courts at their ancient capitals, or in swelling the ranks of their retainers at their solitary forest castles.

Such, reader, is a mediatised prince, a term constantly appearing, although little understood, in the political morceauxs of the day.

ROMAN NAMES.

If you please to compare, says Camden, the Roman names, that seem so stately because you understand them not, you will disclaim them in respect of our meanest names, For what is Fronto, but beetle-browed; Coesius, but cats'-eyes; Paetus, but pink-eyed; Cocles, one eye; Naso, bottle-nose, or rather nosey; Galla, maggot (as Seutonius interpreteth); Selo, ape's-nose; Ancus, crookedarm; Pausa, broad-foot; Strateo, squint eye; Suillius, swine-ear'd; Capeto, jobber-noll; Calous, broad-pate; Crispus, curl-pate; Flacas, loll-ears, or flag-eared; Labeo, blobber-lip; Scaurus, knobbed-heel; Varus, bow-legged; Pedo, long-shanks; Marcellus, hammer; Cilo, petty-long-pate; Chilo, flat-lips. Those great names also, Fabius, Lentulus, Cicero, Piso, Stoto, are no more in our tongue than beanman, lintel, chick-pease, pease-cod-man, branch; for, as Pliny saith, these names were first appropriated to them for skill in sowing these grains.

FITZ-ROY.

This name, so generally borne by the illegitimate scions of royalty, was first given to a natural son of Henry the Second: it was considered a great honour at that period to have a sirname, as will appear by the following. In 1110, Henry 2d matched one of his illegitimate sons to a rich heiress of Fitz Aymon. The lady had a poetical turn; and when the king told her that his son's name was Robert, she thus addressed him

"It were to me a great shame,

To have a lord without twa name."

On which Henry conferred on him the name of Fitz-roy. About this period, sirnames began to be used by people of rank in England.

PLANTAGENET.

The etymology of this name, which has been borne by our English kings of the house of York, will not perhaps be unacceptable. It is derived from the two words planta genesta, or genista, that is, the plant broom. It was first given to Fulke, Earl of Anjou, who lived a hundred years before the conquest. He having been guilty of some enormous crimes, was enjoined by way of penance to go to the Holy Land, and submit to a severe castigation: he readily acquiesced, dressed himself in lowly attire, and, as a mark of humility, wore a piece of broom in his cap, of which virtue this plant is a symbol, in the hieroglyphic language; and Virgil seems to confirm it, by calling it humilis genista, the humble broom.

This expiation finished, Fulke, in remembrance of it, adopted the title of Plantagenist, and lived many years in honour and happiness. His descendants accordingly inherited the name, and many successive nobles of the line of Anjou not only did the same, but even distinguished themselves by wearing a sprig of broom in their bonnets.

STUART.

"Thrice happy he whose name has been well spelt

In the Despatch. I knew a man whose Loss

Was printed Grove, altho' his name was Grose."-Byron. The name of this truly unfortunate family was originally Steward, and which was derived from the following circumstance. After the murder of Banqhuo, Fleance his son fled into Wales, where he thrived, and fell in love with the Welsh Prince's daughter, by whom he had a son, named Walter. This Walter flying Wales for murder, was entertained in Scotland, and his descent once known, he was preferred to be Steward to king Edgar'; from which office the name of Steward, but altered to Stuart, became the sirname of all his posterity. From this Walter, descended Robert Steward, who was after, in right of his wife, king of Scotland.

PERCY.

It was the custom, in the reign of William 1st, when a town or castle surrendered, for the principal person to bring and present to the Conqueror the keys on the point of a spear; and Holinshead says, that when Malcolme, king of Scotland, besieged the castle of Alnwick, in 1092, and had reduced the garrison to the last necessity, a young knight, willing to take some hardy enterprize in its defence, took a swift horse, and without armour or weapon, except a spear in his hand, on the point of which he bore the keys of the castle, rode into the camp of the enemy, who supposing he came to surrender them, received him with joy, and unsuspected led him to the king. The knight then couched his spear, as if he intended with reverence to present him the keys; but watching his opportunity, he urged on his horse, and ran the point into the eye of the king, killing him on the spot. That done, he clapped spurs to his horse, and by his swift flight saved his own life. From this circumstance originated the name of Pierce-eye, then Piercy, but now Percy.

ALGERNON.

During more than a hundred years, the Normans in England shaved their faces. W. de Percy (who accompanied Duke Robert

in 1096 to Palestine) was styled on account of singularity as to this point, William Alsgernons, or William with the Whiskers. From this old French name springs Algernon, a favourite appellation in the noble family of Percy.

CECIL.

The true name, observes Aubrey, is Sitstilt, an ancient Monmouthshire family. "Tis strange they should leave off an ancient British name for a Roman one, which I believe. Mr. Verstegan did put into their heads, telling them they were derived from the Roman Cecilli.

CHARLES MARTEL.

Charles Martel, famed as the founder of the abbey of St. Dennis, and as grandfather of Charlemagne, derived his sirname from the use of that death dealing instrument, the Martel, which in the days of knighthood, says Dr. Meyricke in his "Ancient Armour," was among the offensive arms of chivalry.

JOHN OF GAUNT.

John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, famed for his stature, strength, and prowess, son of Edward 3d, and brother to the Black Prince, was so called, because he was born at Ghent in Flanders; Ghent is pronounced Gand, from whence came the corruption of Gaunt.

FAMILY OF BOURBON.

Henry, Prince of Bearn, afterwards Henry 4th, was born 13th Dec. 1553, and was the immediate heir to the crown of France, on the possible extinction of the house of Valois, in the person of the reigning monarch and his younger brothers, the dukes of Anjou and Alencon. The latter died in 1584, and the former, Henry 3d, being assassinated in 1589, the Prince of Bearn then ascended the throne as Henry 4th. This young prince was the son of Anthony de Bourbon, duke of Vendome, and Jane D'Albert, queen of Navarre, who by this marriage gave the title of king to her husband. Anthony was descended from Robert, sixth son of St. Louis, the ninth of that name, and the ninth king of France, from Hugh Capet, the first of the third race of the French monarchs.

Robert, who was born in 1256, married Beatrice of Burgundy, the daughter of Agnes, heiress of the house of Bourbon, in consequence his son Louis took the name of Bourbon, and with that title was created duke and peer of France.

As the sovereignties of France, Spain, and the two Sicilies, &c. are now in different branches of the house of Bourbon, and the former further secured by the coronation of Charles 10th, this account of the origin of that house may not, at this particular period, be thought superfluous.

THE ST. ALBAN'S FAMILY.

The first ancestor of the St. Alban's family was the eldest son of king Charles the Second, by Mrs. Eleanor Gywnne, better recollected under the familiar appellation of Nell Gwynne. He was first created Earl of Burford by his royal sire, and afterwards Duke of St. Alban's, and Grand Falconer of England.

DUKE OF LEEDS.

The ancestor, who laid the foundation of this noble family, was a young man named Osborne, who served his apprenticeship to Sir William Hewit, lord mayor of London in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Sir William lived on London Bridge, was a pin-maker, and his daughter, during Edward Osborne's apprenticeship, accidentally fell from her father's window into the Thames, and Osborne plunged after the young lady, and saved her life at the risk of his own. This act much added to the favourable opinion which the master had for the apprentice, and as soon as the latter had served his time, Sir William Hewit said to him, "Osborne, you are a deserving youth, and have faithfully served me for seven years. I am under considerable obligations to you; you have saved the life of my only daughter at the peril of your own. You have therefore the best claim to her; she is at your service if you choose to accept of her in marriage, and the most considerable part of what I am possessed of shall hereafter be yours." Osborne gladly accepted the generous offer, and the eldest son of that marriage was Hewit Osborne, who was knighted by the Earl of Essex, under whom he served in Ireland, for his services in the field The family soon after became ennobled. Thomas Osborne, the first duke of Leeds, was prouder of the circumstance of his ancestor having acquired wealth and station by his honesty and intrepid spirit, than he was of any of the subsequent services of the family, and once related the circumstance with conscious pride to Charles the Second.

ORIGIN OF VARIOUS NOBLE FAMILIES.

The Marquis Cornwallis is lineally descended from Thomas Cornwallis, merchant, who was sheriff of London, 1378

The house of Wentworth was founded by S. W. Fitzwilliam, who was an alderman of London, and sheriff in 1506; he was a retainer of Cardinal Wolsey, and knighted by Henry 8th, for his attachment to that prelate in misfortune. He built the greater part of the present church of Undershaft.

The Earl of Coventry is descended from John Coventry, mercer and lord mayor in the year 1425; he was one of the executors of the celebrated Whittington.

Laurence de Bouveries married the daughter of a silk mercer at Frankfort on the Maine, and settling in England laid the foundation of the house of Radnor.

The ancestor of the Earl of Essex was Sir William Capel, lord mayor of London in 1503.

The ancestor of the Earl of Dartmouth, Thomas Legge, or Legget, a skinner, was twice lord mayor-in 1347 and 1354, and lent King Edward 3d no less a sum than 3001. for his French war.

Sir William Craven, merchant tailor, and lord mayor of London, was ancestor of the present Earl Craven.

The Earl of Warwick is lineally descended from William Greville, a citizen of London, and "flower of the woolstaplers."

Thomas Bennett, mercer, sheriff in 1594, and lord mayor of London 1603, laid the foundation of the fortunes of the Earls of Tankerville, who are lineally descended from him.

The ancestor of the Earls of Pomfret was Richard Fermour, who having amassed a splendid fortune as a citizen in Calais, came to