Crawley.
Good Times for Equity Suitors.—Having lately met with the following particulars in Bishop Goodman's Diary, I send them for insertion, if you think fit, in "N. & Q.:"
"Then was the chancery so empty of causes, that Sir Thomas More could live in Chelsea, and yet very sufficiently discharge that office; and coming one day home by ten of the clock, whereas he was wont to stay until eleven or twelve, his lady came down to see whether he was sick or not; to whom Sir Thomas More said, 'Let your gentlewoman fetch me a cup of wine, and then I will tell you the occasion of my coming;' and when the wine came, he drank to his lady, and told her that he thanked God for it he had not one cause in chancery, and therefore came home for want of business and employment there. The gentlewoman who fetched the wine told this to a bishop, who did inform me."
Abhba.
The Emperor of Russia and the Order of the Garter.—The Emperor of Russia is a knight of the Order of the Garter. Now, according to the statutes of the Order, no knight ought to take up arms against another, or in any way assist anybody so to do.
In illustration of this, we find it stated in Anstis' Register of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, who quotes from Caligula, L. 6., in Bib. Cott., that when the French king wished to borrow a sum of money from Henry VII., to employ in the war with the King of Naples, the answer was:
"Que le Roy ne povoit avec son honneur bailler aide et assistence a icelluy son bon frere et cousin a l'encontre du Roy de Naples, qui estoit son confrere et allye, veu et considere qu'il avoit prise et recue l'ordre de la garretiere. Et si le roi autrement faisoit, ce seroit contrevenir au serment qu'il a fait par les statuz du dit ordre."
Will the Emperor of Russia be deprived of his ill-deserved honours, or what is the course now pursued? It was not unusual formerly for kings to exchange orders, and to return them in case of war.
Oscar Browning.