Walking from Edinburgh to London.—Mr. Ross Fraser, who, accompanied by a collie dog, started from Edinburgh on August 15th to walk to London in eight days, an average of about fifty miles per day, arrived in London on Sunday evening about eight o'clock. The pedestrian was awaited by a large concourse of people at Shoreditch Church, and heartily greeted. The route taken was from Edinburgh viâ Berwick, Newcastle, Durham, Darlington, Northallerton, Boroughbridge, Wetherby, Doncaster, Retford, Newark, Grantham, Stamford, Huntingdon, Royston, Ware, and Edmonton. Mr. Fraser seemed somewhat footsore on his arrival, but the dog appeared in no way the worse for the journey. The walk has not been accomplished in the time originally laid down, as Mr. Fraser's feet gave way owing to the unsuitability of his boots for the task he had taken upon himself. After a rest on this side of Berwick he resumed his walk, and finished the journey in excellent health.
WILLIAM, PRINCE OF ORANGE.
GREAT EVENTS.
The great events which occurred in August, 1588, and November, 1688, are worthy of our remembrance and grateful acknowledgment before God, therefore we bring before our young readers, in a special way, the subjects of the Spanish Armada and the accession of William of Orange, which are of the greatest importance to all true Englishmen.
The following extracts, taken from an address, by Lord Robert Montagu, at a commemoration meeting at Leicester, will give our young readers an interesting and truthful account of the great historical facts referred to, in a very concise form.
He said there had been many commemoration meetings throughout the country, and why did they hold them? What were those meetings? Well, if he were asked that question, he should say that that meeting was a protest, and it was a commemoration. It was a protest against a conspiracy which had extended throughout the country, and had lasted a great number of years—a conspiracy to introduce one Romanizing practice after another into the worship of the Church of England, and endeavouring to assimilate, by all means possible, the Church of England to the Church of Rome. It was a protest against an attempt to reduce this country again, and bring it under the domination of Rome. It was a protest against the attempts that all Governments in recent years had had in hand, and made—no matter whether Liberal, Whig, or Conservative—to establish diplomatic relations with Rome. It was, lastly, a protest against an attempt, now a few centuries old, to ruin the backbone of Protestantism in Ireland—he meant the Protestant landlords, who were the chief friends of the union between England and Ireland. On all those points they protested.
But then that meeting was also a commemoration. Commemorations, it was true, might be good, or they might be bad. No one would ever think of merely commemorating bloodshed and slaughter, but they often commemorated the deeds of daring and prowess on the part of their ancestors, and they did so in the hope that others would follow their example. He knew not whether that kind of thing was good, because such commemorations tended to increase and foster national pride; but there was one kind of commemoration which was absolutely and naturally good—he meant the commemoration of the signal mercies which God had vouchsafed to the land. In doing so, they were merely taking the advice of King David, who, speaking of his own people, said, "They remembered not the mercy of the Lord, and so they provoked Him at the Red Sea." And so also the Apostle said, "We have received mercies, and therefore we faint not." Therefore, what he (the speaker) proposed to do that evening was to ask them to consider the mercies God had shown to this country—great and signal mercies—in the year 1588, in the year 1688, and in the year 1788; and, in doing so, he hoped he should be able to bring this thought into their minds—that, having received mercies, they should "faint not."