grew enraged, and is said to have exclaimed, "that he was an unhappy prince, who maintained a great number of lazy insignificant persons about him, none of whom had gratitude, or spirit enough, to revenge him on a single insolent prelate, who gave him so much disturbance." On this, four knights repaired to Canterbury, and assassinated the archbishop at the altar of his cathedral, Dec. 29, 1171. For this the king was obliged, by the pope, to do penance at Becket's tomb, where he was scourged by the monks, and passed the whole day and night fasting, on the bare stones. The murderers were sent on a penance to the Holy Land, where they died, and Becket was canonized two years after.

15.-ST. SWITHIN.

St. Swithin was a native of Winchester, celebrated for his virtues. He was the tutor both of Ethewolph and of Alfred; and besides establishing churches in most parts of his diocese for the spiritual advantage of his people, he likewise built bridges, and other public works. At the back of the altar in the cathedral of Winchester, is a chapel, in which the shrine of St. Swithin was formerly kept; his skull is said to have been deposited in the cathedral at Canterbury. Swithin is the patron saint of Winchester cathedral, and one of the parochial churches in that city is also dedicated to him.-Winchester Guide.

Tradition says Bishop Swithin was buried in the church-yard at Winchester, from whence it was resolved to remove, or translate, his remains into the church, but on the day when his translation was to take place it rained violently, and continued to do so for the thirty-nine days following, which prevented the ceremony, as it was thought that Swithin, disliking the exhumation, had taken this means of manifesting his objections, and hence the common report of forty days' rain.-Gentleman's Magazine.

19.-1821.-King George IV. CROWNED.

My crown is called content:

A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy.

Shakspeare's Henry VI. 19.-1829.-ANTHONY HIGH MORE DIED, ÆTAT. 70. A solicitor of Gray's Inn, and a philanthropist of some eminence. He published several works, the principal of which are The History of Mortmain and Charitable Uses; Reflections on the Law of Libel; A Treatise on the Law of Idiotcy and Lunacy; and A History of Public Charities in the Metropolis. He was a friend of the celebrated Granville Sharpe, and followed in the steps of that good man. A life passed with such a guiding-star, cannot fail to have been one of essential service to the great purposes of human life.

20.-ST. MARGARET.

She was the daughter of a pagan priest, and born at Antioch. Refusing to abjure her religion, she was first tortured, and then beheaded, in the year 278.

22.-ST. MARY MAGDALEN.

This festival was instituted by King Edward VI., and discontinued at the period of the reformation.

MARY MAGDALEN.

From the Spanish of Bartholomé Leonardo de Argensola.

Blessed, yet sinful one, and broken-hearted?
The crowd are pointing at the thing forlorn,
In wonder and in scorn;

Thou weepest days of innocence departed,
Thou weepest, and thy tears have power to move
The Lord to pity and love.

The greatest of thy follies are forgiv'n,
Even for the least of all the tears that shine

On that pale cheek of thine.

Thou didst kneel down to him who came from heaven,
Evil and ignorant, and thou shalt rise

Holy, and pure, and wise.

It is not much that to the fragrant blossom
The ragged briar should change, the bitter fir
Distil Arabian myrrh;

Nor that, upon the wintry desert's bosom,
The harvest should rise plenteous, and the swain
Bear home the abundant grain.

But come and see the bleak and barren mountains
Thick to their tops with roses, come and see;
Leaves on the dry dead tree:

The perished plant, set out by living fountains,
Grows fruitful, and its beauteous branches rise,
For ever, towards the skies.

B.

Many doubts exist as to the identity of Mary Magdalen, notwithstanding which there are numerous churches dedicated to her memory. A very ancient one is situated at Eynesbury in Huntingdonshire, and presents an extremely venerable, as well as picturesque, appearance.

St. James the Great, the son of Zebedee, and the brother of John the Evangelist, was born at Bethsaida, in Gallilee, and was the first of the apostles who suffered martyrdom.

It is supposed that he first preached the gospel to the dispersed Jews, and afterwards returned to Judea, where he preached at Jerusalem, when the Jews excited Herod Agrippa against him, who had him beheaded with a sword, about the year 44. St. Clement of Alexandria relates, that his accuser was so struck with his constancy, that he became converted, and suffered with him. The Spaniards pretend that they had St. James for their apostle, and boast of having his body; but their pretensions have been refuted by Baronius in his Annals.

This is the first day oysters are allowed to be sold in London.

25.-1827.-THOMAS FURLONG, ÆTAT. 33.

Envy not the poet's name,
Darken not his dawn of fame;
'Tis the guerdon of a mind
'Bove the thralls of earthly kind:
'Tis the haven for a soul
Where the storms of genius roll;
It often lights him to his doom-
A halo round an earthly tomb?
The whirling brain and heated brow,-
Ideas that torture while they grow;
The soaring fancy over-fraught,
The burning agonies of thought;
The sleepless eye and racking head,
The airy terrors round him spread;
Or freezing smile of apathy,
Or scowl of green-eyed jealousy;

Or haggard want, whose lean hands wave
Unto a cold, uncover'd grave:

Oh! these must win a poet's name!
Then darken not his dawn of fame.

R. Montgomery.

The life of a poet, in general, has but little in it for the pen of a biographer. For this truly talented "bard of Erin" we can do little more than reprint the tribute which appeared, at the period of his death, in the Literary Gazette. It was furnished

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to that journal by a friend of the deceased, Mr. J. B. Whitty, the popular author of Tales of Irish Life, and other works.

"Irish literature has sustained a severe loss by the premature fate of this gentleman. Among his countrymen, he ranked high as a poet, and it was fondly imagined by his friends-among whom he numbered nearly every man of worth and talent in Ireland that time alone was wanted to develope more fully those talents which had even thus early reflected lustre upon his character. Though not sufficiently known in England, it cannot be out of place here to give a brief memoir of this son of song,' who had, in despite of untoward circumstances, at the early age of thirty, secured himself a conspicuous place in the literary annals of Ireland.

"Mr Furlong was born at a place called Scarawalsh, within three miles of Enniscorthy, in Wexford. His father was a thriving farmer, and gave him an education suitable to a youth intended for the counting-house; and, at fourteen, he was bound apprentice to a respectable trader in the Irish metropolis. The ledger, however, had less attraction for him than the muses; but though he lisped in numbers,' he did not let his passion for poetry interfere with his more useful and more important duties. Through life he retained the friendship of his employer; and when that gentleman died, some years ago, Mr. Furlong lamented his fate in a pathetic poem, entitled The Burial.

"During those leisure moments of which commercial business admits, Mr. Furlong cultivated polite literature with the most indefatigable industry; and long before the expiration of his apprenticeship, he had become a contributor to various periodical publications in London and Dublin. His devotion to the forbidden nine did not escape some of those sages who have an instinctive abhorrence of poetry.