journey, by performing the ceremony on the spot. The offer was gladly accepted, and thanks being duly returned, the bridal pair, as the sky brightened, was about to return; but the bridegroom suddenly recollecting that a certificate was requisite to authenticate the marriage, requested one, which the Dean wrote in these words:

Under an oak, in stormy weather,

I join'd this rogue and whore together;
And none but he who rules the thunder
Can put this whore and rogue asunder.

II. GRACE AFTER DINNER.

Swift was once invited by a rich miser with a large party to dine; being requested by the host to return thanks at the removal of the cloth, uttered the following grace:

Thanks for this miracle!-this is no less,
Than to eat manna in the wilderness.

Where raging hunger reign'd we've found relief,

And seen that wondrous thing, a piece of beef.

Here chimneys smoke, that never smok'd before,

And we've all ate, where we shall eat no more!

III. SIGN OF THE THREE CROSSES.

Swift in his journies on foot from Dublin to London, was accustomed to stop for refreshment or rest at the neat little ale-houses on the road's sides. One of these, between Dunchurch and Daventry, was formerly distinguished by the sign of the three crosses, in reference to the three intersecting ways, which fixed the site of the house. At this, the Dean called for his breakfast; but the landlady, being engaged with accommodating her more constant customers, some waggoners, and staying to settle an altercation which unexpectedly arose, keeping him waiting, and inattentive to his repeated exclamations, he took from his pocket a diamond, and wrote on every pane of glass in her bettermost room:

TO THE LANDLORD.

There hang three crosses at thy door :
Hang up thy wife, and she'll make four.

IV.

A SCHOOLBOY'S THEME.

The following elegant lines were enclosed in a letter from Mr. Pulteney (afterwards Earl of Bath) to Swift, in which he says; "You must give me leave to add to my letter a copy of verses at the end of a declamation made by a boy at Westminster school on this theme."

RIDENTEM DICERE VERUM

QUID VETAT?

Dulce, Decane, decus, Flos optime Gentis Hibernæ,
Nomine quique audis, Ingenioque celer;
Dum lepido indulges Risu, et mutaris in Horas,
Quò nova vis animi, Materiesque rapit;
Nunc gravis Astrologus, Cœlo dominaris et Astris,
Filaque pro libitu Partrigiana secas.

Nunc Populo speciosa Hospes Miracula promis,
Gentesque Equoreas, aëriasque creas.

Seu plausum captat queruli Persona Draperi,
Seu levis a vacuo Fabula sumpta cado.
Mores egregius mira exprimis Arte Magister,
Et vitam atque Homines Pagina quæque sapit.
Socratica minor est vis, et Sapientia Chartæ,

Nec tantum potuit grande Platonis Opus.

v.

CHIEF JUSTICE WHITSHED.

Swift, in a letter to Pope, thus mentions the conduct of this worthy Chief Justice: "I have written in this kingdom a discourse to persuade the wretched people to wear their own manufactures, instead of those from England: this treatise soon spread very fast, being agreeable to the sentiments of a whole nation, except of those gentlemen who had employments, or were expectants. Upon which a person in great office here immediately took the alarm; he sent in haste for Lord Chief Justice Whitshed, and informed him of a seditious, factious, and virulent pamphlet, lately published, with a design of setting the two kingdoms at variance, directing at the same time that the printer should be prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the law. The Chief Justice had so quick an understanding, that he resolved, if possible, to outdo his orders The grand juries of the county and city were practised effectually with to represent the

The

said pamphlet with all aggravating epithets, for which they had thanks sent them from England, and their presentments published for several weeks in all the newspapers. The printer was seized, and forced to give great bail: after his trial, the jury brought him in not guilty, although they had been culled with the greatest industry. Chief Justice sent them back nine times, and kept them eleven hours, until, being tired out, they were forced to leave the matter to the mercy of the Judge, by what they call a special verdict. During the trial, the Chief Justice, among other singularities, laid his hand on his breast, and protested solemnly, that the author's design was to bring in the Pretender; although there was not a single syllable of party in the whole treatise, and although it was known, that the most eminent of those who professed his own principles, publicly disallowed his proceedings. But the cause being so very odious and unpopular, the trial of the verdict was deferred from one term to another,