[20] "Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out upon the brook that brawls along this wood."

As you like it.

[21] Even so recently as during Wesley's time [See Southey's Life of Wesley] will be perceived the fondness of this celebrated preacher for divination by lot, and by the casual opening of the Bible, expecting thereby the peculiar and immediate guidance of the Almighty!

[22]

"At bello audacis populi, vexatus et armis Finibus extorris, complexu avulsus Juli, Auxilium imploret; videatque indigna suorum Funera: nec quum se sub leges pacis iniquæ Tradiderit, regno aut optatâ luce fruatur: Sed cadat ante diem, mediâque inhumatus arenâ."

"Yet shall a race untamed, and haughty foes, His peaceful entrance with dire arms oppose: Oppress'd with numbers in th' unequal field, His men discouraged, and himself expell'd, Let him for succour sue from place to place, Torn from his subjects and his son's embrace. First let him see his friends in battle slain, And their untimely fate lament in vain: And when at length the cruel war shall cease, On hard conditions may he buy his peace: Nor let him then enjoy supreme command, But fall untimely by some hostile hand, And lie unburied on the barren strand."

[23] Le Vite de Piu celebri Architecti, &c.—Pagina 358, Roma 1768.

[24] It was not, however, until the year 1768, during the administration of Lord Townsend, that the royal assent was given to an act for limiting the duration of parliament to eight years.

[25] At this point of time the Irish House of Lords met at the hour of three o'clock in the afternoon; but when the house was engaged in the hearing of appeals they regularly assembled at the hour of nine o'clock in the morning.

[26] "Every Lord that comes not within a quarter of an hour after prayers, if he be a Bishop or Baron, he, is to pay one shilling, and if he be any degree above, two shillings to the poor man's box."—Standing Orders of the Irish House of Lords, p. 13. Printed by Sleater, Dublin, 1778. The title of the work was, "Rules and Orders to be observed in the Upper House of Parliament of Ireland."—The Clerk of the House was treasurer of the poor's box.—p. 39.