Whatever was the Chief-Justice's motive, he met the prisoner's plea with great fairness and good humour, and argued for Mr. Rosewell's view of the defectiveness of the indictment, against Mr. Solicitor Finch, Mr. Serjeant Jenner, and the Attorney General. The exception raised was granted, that such and such words were spoken concerning Jeroboam, or other kings of Israel; the mere "innuendo " that the words had reference to English kings could not maintain the indictment for such a serious offence as high treason, unless it were also positively averred that such was the designed construction of the words.

The indictment charged him with saying, "We have now had twowicked kings together (innuendo—the late king and the reigning king), but if they (the people) stood to their principles, he did not fear but they might overcome their enemies (innuendo-the king)." Upon which Jeffreys observed, that although the allegation of spoken words, bearing in themselves a manifest application to the English government, would have made the indictment positive; yet if it were only averred that words, otherwise harmless in themselves, were uttered, and then innuendo so and so, this would not be positive enough to make the indictment good. "If you had worded it," it was thus he argued, "that Mr. Rosewell, while confessedly discoursing of the late and present kings, had said, 'We have now had two wicked kings together,' you then had brought it home to him; but you do not lay it that it was spoken. of the two English kings at all. That construction you put only in the innuendo. In common cases, such as action for defamation, there must be a positive averment that the words had designed reference to the plaintiff―a mere innuendo will not do it. Till within the last seven or eight years it was even necessary to recite a colloquium (opprobrious epithet) uttered with reference not only to the plaintiff, but to his trade; and though I confess, now that declarations are made more concise, you need only say, he spoke such and such words of the plaintiff, without insisting upon the colloquium, still it must be averred to be spoken of the plaintiff; and if such be the requirement in an action of that nature, how much more so in the case of a capital offence where the life of a man is concerned."

Here Mr. Rosewell fervently thanked his lordship for so lucidly explaining, and so impartially setting forth his own meaning.

The Solicitor-General urged that as the commencement of the indictment charged the prisoner with conspiring the death of the king, and then went on to state that, in the fulfilment of that intention, he spake so and so of two wicked kings, no farther allegation as to the objects. pointed at was necessary.

The Chief-Justice had good reasons for stoutly maintaining his own position, and for again amplifying on the basis already laid down. But it was not only on this ground that he amused himself and his auditors by finding fault with the Attorney-General's mode of drawing indictments. When the case came to be argued three days after, the faulty Latin in which such documents were generally constructed became the theme of another encounter of wits, in which Lord Jeffreys and Mr.

Justice Walcot, besides Pollexfen, the prisoner's counsel, were arrayed against the Attorney-General, the Solicitor-General, Mr. Justice Holloway, and Mr. North; Mr. Rosewell ingeniously enlisting the ChiefJustice on his side by an appeal to his learning (never supposed to be very profound), and declaring that the indictment was drawn up in such Latin as he was quite sure his lordship had never before heard. So here was another weapon with which to assail the Attorney-General, who was of course responsible for the legality of the instrument; and the agents of the Crown were now to be abused for their mode of compiling a document which would have answered its purpose abundantly well, had there been no other motive for instituting a mock combat on its classicality. Jeffreys loved to deal a heavy blow; and, provided he could do it with impunity, it mattered not who was the victim.

Mr. Pollexfen and the Justice now therefore directed their main attack against the following specimen of law Latinity:-after the words, "We have now had two wicked kings," occurred, " Quod si ipsi starent ad fundamentalia, ipse non timebat," &c., meaning "that if they stood to their principles he did not fear but they should overcome their enemies." Here Mr. Attorney was informed that the place which he had given to the word ipsi was such as to make it apply to the kings, and not to the people, so that his Latin after all meant that the kings were to stand to their principles. This was fought out long and stoutly on both sides, the Solicitor-General maintaining that the several alleged expressions in the bill were distinct statements; though, had they all constituted one continuous sentence, he admitted the validity of his lordship's position, viz., that the relative should apply to the last antecedent, according to grammar. "And I think,” replied Jeffreys, "that it must be taken to be an entire speech, and you lay it in the indictment to be so; and then the relative must go to the last antecedent, or else Dr. Busby, that so long ruled in Westminster School, taught me quite wrong; and he had tried most of the grammars extant, and used to lay it down as a positive rule that the relative must refer to the next antecedent."

Mr. North begged to remind his lordship that one of the supposed wicked kings being dead [Charles I.], ipsi, being a plural word, could not refer to them, but must be taken to refer to populus, which was a noun of multitude.

Lord Chief-Justice.-Mr. North, the argument turns both ways upon that. Certainly the prisoner did not express himself in that ambiguous way It is so loose a hung-together indictment as truly I have scarce seen. I think it very uncertain who are meant by the "enemies." It may be you, Mr. Solicitor, or Mr. Attorney. It may be the Court. Nobody knows who it is. Everybody knows that to preachers in conventicles and to those that meet there, the judges and all that are for the support of the laws may be reckoned to them as enemies. But when it is so uncertain who are meant, how can we supply it by an innuendo And I would ask you, Mr. Solicitor, whether, if the prisoner had said (as most likely he did), "If you will stand to your principles," and the indictment should put it si ipsi, would that be good?

Solicitor-General.-My lord, we put it as the witnesses swore it.

Lord Chief-Justice. They did swear the words according to their apprehension; but no doubt, in common form, he must have spoken them as I say.

Attorney-General.-They swore the words so; and we could lay them

no otherwise.

Lord Chief-Justice.-Well, Mr. Attorney, will you move anything? Attorney-General.-No, my lord.

This important functionary, greatly scandalised that a charge of high treason against a Dissenter should have issued only in a tilt against himself, had already expressed his anxiety that his lordship would at once give judgment, the government being greatly concerned in the matter, much more so than ten such men as the prisoner at the bar. Jeffreys admitted that the government was concerned, but who more concerned than the prisoner, whose all was at stake? Time was therefore taken to deliberate; the prisoner was carried back to the King's Bench, and Sir John Talbot obtained a royal pardon, which at the next term Mr. Rosewell pleaded at the bar of the Court of King's Bench, and was discharged. In the interval between the two terms, King Charles had died, so that this act of justice was one of his last as well as one of his best deeds.

[In abbreviating his lordship's harangue, and exhibiting its meaning, the smallest possible liberty has been taken with the language, his English being very good.]

A SABBATH IN PARIS.

BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON.

WHEREVER we may wander, during other days, our heart flies home on the Sabbath. That queen of days is never so truly an epitome of heaven as when we spend it among our own people in the house of the Lord. We have seen Paris in all seasons-in the height of its festivity, and in the depth of winter; and its streets of palaces, its splendid boulevards, and gorgeous spectacles, always charm us into fairy land; but we have never lost our preference for foggy, smoky, slushy London, because one day in the week we have always pined to return. A Sunday in Paris is a sad day to a believer in Christ. There is no sign of sacred respite from earth, or of hallowed aspiration to heaven. The shops are open as usual, labourers are engaged in their ordinary work, the traffic as at other times rolls along the street, and the day of rest is all unhonoured and despised. "England, with all thy faults, I love thee still." With all the flagrant offences of St. Giles', New Cut, and such like centres of Sunday trade, the Lord's-day is regarded among us as a rule; and no foreigner can fail to observe the difference in our streets. Our soul has longed and thirsted after the assemblies 7

VOL VI.-NEW SERIES.

of the saints, when constrained to sojourn in the gay capital.

The

verse of Dr. Watts has been sung with unusual emphasis, and with deeper meaning:

The Upper Room used for Baptist worship in Paris.

The last Sabbath of the last year saw us anxiously inquiring for the French Baptist congregation in Paris. We asked information in vain; till the thought struck us that perhaps in the English Independent Chapel we should hear some tidings. Trudging along the weary length of the interminable Faubourg St. Honoré, we entered the congregational room some time after service commenced, but we regret to say quite soon enough for our liking, for a more profitless service it was never our misery to witness. If that cause does not come to ruin it will be a miracle, if such be the usual preaching in the room. However, our patient listening to a sermon as destitute of matter as the vacuum of an air-pump sharpened our appetites, and made us the more anxious to find out our next kinsmen. Like the Irish jury, who sat in inquest upon a hat and coat found by the side of a river, we returned the verdict, "Found empty," and went on to try again elsewhere. We gained from a Christian friend the information that the Baptists met somewhere near the Romish Church of St. Roch. By searching the directory we found that there was a school-room in one of the streets near the church, and

rightly guessing that this would be the appointed spot, away we hastened. No board or placard gave us assistance; we entered a little yard, and followed a couple who were going upstairs. The upper room in Jerusalem flashed before our eyes. We mounted, saw a little notice on a door, entered, and found ourselves in the humble room. A brother at the

other end was instructing a few lads; a few poor people were sitting upon chairs waiting for service. We took our seats, and thought of many things, wondering most of all if the Lord would bless our souls in that strange place of prayer. We were soon recognised. A friend, standing by the stove, came over and whispered our name, and asked if we were the actual person. Even so, we replied; and then with joyful haste he fetched the pastor, with the news that an English Baptist minister had sought them out diligently. The pastor gave us both his hands, and we saluted each other in the name of the Lord. Meanwhile the congregation gathered, until about eighty or one hundred occupied the chairs. They were a company in which most classes were represented the wellattired French lady, the tradesman, soldier, and workman. To our great joy we soon perceived that the working class preponderated. The solid, substantial stuff out of which earnest churches are made was manifestly before us. No religious movement which has begun among the rich, and gained the countenance of the noble, has ever been permanent; the flame burns most surely when the fire commences from below. The fishermen are, after all, under God, the movers of the world.

"The despised names which shew that the truth has taken deep root in the heart of the labouring poor, are worth more to a country than the most glorious titles, which only shew that it has reached the learned and exalted. It is beautiful to see the high mountain peaks golden and rosy in the dawn; but when the light shines on the village, in the plains and hollows, it is day."

The pastor requested us to speak a word to the people. We did so, and a Canadian brother, equally versed in English and French, translated for us. As this is an age of improvements, and all nations are advancing, we would recommend our brethren to learn that noble language which we speak on this side the Channel, so as to get rid of this troublesome process of interpretation. We took for our text the words, "The brethren which are with me salute you," and took occasion to convey the sympathies of the baptized in Britain to the little flock in France. Wandering from our theme, we charged them to maintain and preach the full Gospel of the grace of God, to extol and love the person of the Lord Jesus, and to look for the abiding power of the Holy Ghost. Despite the disadvantage of uttering sentence by sentence, we felt much pleasure in the task, while the eyes of the audience gave flashing evidence that the truth was delightful to their hearts. When we had finished, the minister addressed the unconverted in such a style as to indicate that the Revival spirit was burning in his heart. He preached pardon to the vilest of the vile, and bade all the hearers remember that the blessings and mercies of the covenant could only be possessed by those who had passed from death unto life. Then followed the prayer-meeting, at which all remained.