the sailors were personated by boys from the naval school at Greenwich. But the most ambitious, and the last of these attempts, was made in 1853, when Mr Fenton, the scenic artist of Sadler's Wells Theatre, and Mr Cooke of Astley's, under the superintendence of Mr Bunning, the city architect, reproduced the old allegorical cars, with modern improvements. First came a Chariot of Justice,' drawn by six horses; followed by standardbearers of all nations on horseback; an Australian cart drawn by oxen, and containing a gold-digger employed in washing quartz; then came attendants carrying implements of industry; succeeded by an enormous car drawn by nine horses, upon which was placed a terrestrial globe, with a throne upon its summit, on which sat Peace and Prosperity, represented by two young ladies from Astley's. Good as was the intention and execution of this pageant, it was felt to be out of place in this modern age of utilitarianism; and this 'turning of Astley's into the streets,' will probably never be again attempted. Soon after this the city barges were sold, and the water-pageant abolished. The yearly procession to Westminster is now shorn of all dignity or significance. The banquet in Guildhall is now the great feature of the day. The whole of the cabinet ministers are invited, and their speeches after dinner are expected to explain the policy of their government. The cost of this feast is estimated at £2500. Half of this sum is paid by the mayor, the other half is divided between the two sheriffs. The annual expense connected with the office of mayor is over £25,000. To meet this there is an income of about £8000; other sums accrue from fines and taxes; but it is expected, and is indeed necessary, that the mayor and sheriffs expend considerable sums from their own purses during their year of office; the mayor seldom parting with less than £10,000. NOVEMBER 10. Saints Trypho and Respicius, martyrs, and Nympha, virgin, 3d and 5th centuries. Saints Milles, bishop of Susa, Arbrosimus, priest, and Sina, deacon, martyrs in Persia, 341. St Justus, archbishop of Canterbury, confessor, 627. St Andrew Avellino, confessor, 1608. Born.-Mahomet, or Mohammed, Arabian prophet, founder of Islamism, 570, Mecca; Martin Luther, German reformer, 1483, Eisleben, Saxony; Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, favourite of Queen Elizabeth, 1567, Netherwood, 1728, Pallasmore, Ireland; Granville Sharp, slavery Herefordshire; Oliver Goldsmith, poet and dramatist, abolitionist and miscellaneous writer, 1734, Durham; Friedrich Schiller, poet and dramatist, 1759, Marbach, Würtemberg. Died.-Ladislaus VI. of Hungary, killed at Varna, 1444; Pope Paul III. (Alexander Farnese), 1549; Marshal Anne de Montmorency, killed at St Denis, 1567; Frederick William III. of Prussia, 1797; Gideon Algernon Mantell, geologist, 1852, London; Isidore Geoffroy St Hilaire, zoologist, 1861. RALPH ALLEN: FIELDING'S ALLWORTHY.' For his public usefulness in improving the national means of epistolary correspondence, the name of Ralph Allen is entitled to rank with those of John Palmer and Sir Rowland Hill; yet we may in vain search for his name in the biographical dictionaries. But for the notice which Pope has taken of him in his verses, it almost appears as if we should have known nothing whatever of one of the noblest characters of any age or country. To give the reader an idea of the services which Allen rendered to the postal institutions of the country, it will only be necessary to state that in the reign of Queen Anne (1710), all previous acts relating to the post-office were abrogated, and the entire establishment was remodelled under what is officially spoken of as 'the act of settlement.' Under this new statute, increased powers were given to the post-office authorities, and the entire service rapidly improved; while each year saw considerable sums added to the available revenue of the country. This progress, however, arose from improvements which had been effected on postroads alone; and although the new act gave facilities for the establishment of cross-posts,' they were not attempted till the year 1720, when a private individual undertook to supply those parts of the country, not on the line of the great post-roads, with equal postal facilities. That individual was Mr Ralph Allen, who, at the time, filled the office of deputypostmaster of Bath. Mr Allen, who, from his position, must have been well aware of the defects of the existing system, proposed to the government to establish cross-posts between Exeter and Chester, going by way of Bristol, Gloucester, and Worcester; connecting, in this way, the west of England with the Lancashire districts and the mail route to Ireland, and giving independent postal inter-communication to all the important towns lying in the direction to be taken. Previous to this proposal, letters passing between neighbouring towns were conveyed by strangely circuitous routes; for instance, letters from Cheltenham or Bath for Worcester or Birmingham, required to go first to the metropolis, and then to be sent back again by another post-road. This manner of procedure, in those days of slow locomotion, caused serious delays, and frequently great inconvenience. Mr Allen's proposition necessitated a complete reconstruction of the mailroutes; but he proved to the Lords of the Treasury that this was a desideratum-that it would be productive to the revenue and beneficial to the country. By his representations, he succeeded in inducing the executive to grant him a lease for life of all the cross-posts that should be established. His engagements bound him to pay a fixed rental of £6000 a year, and to bear all the costs of the new service. In return, the surplus revenue was to belong to him. The enterprise was remunerative from the first. From time to time, the contract was renewed, always at the same rental; each time, however, the government required Allen to THE TIMES TESTIMONIAL include other branches of road in his engagement (the new districts were never burdens to him for more than a few weeks), till at his death the crossposts had extended to all parts of the country. Towards the last, this private project had become so gigantic as to be nearly unmanageable, and the time was anxiously awaited when it should become merged in the general establishment. Mr Allen died in 1764, when the post-office authorities absorbed his department, and managed it so as to quadruple the amount of proceeds in two years. Mr Allen had reaped golden harvests. In an account which he left at his death, he estimated the net profits of his contract at £10,000 annuallya sum which, during his term of office, amounted, on his own shewing, to nearly half a million sterling! Whilst in official quarters his success was greatly envied, he commanded, in his private capacity, universal respect. In the only short account of this estimable man which we have seen, a contemporary writer states, that he was not more remarkable for the ingenuity and industry with which he made a very great fortune, than for the charity, generosity, and kindness with which he spent it.' It is certain that he bestowed a considerable part of his income in works of charity, and in supporting needy men of letters. He was a great friend and benefactor of Fielding; and in Tom Jones, the novelist has gratefully drawn Mr Allen's character in the person of Allworthy. He enjoyed the friendship of Chatham; and Pope, Warburton, and other men of literary distinction, were his familiar companions. Pope has celebrated one of his principal virtues, unassuming benevo lence, in the well-known lines: 'Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame, Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.' society of London and his native city of Bath, near Mr Allen divided his time between the literary which city stood his elegant villa of Prior Park. A codicil to his will, dated November 10, a short bequest: For the last instance of my friendly and time before his death, contains the following grateful regard for the best of friends, as well as for the most upright and ablest of ministers that Honourable William Pitt the sum of one thousand has adorned our country, I give to the Right pounds, to be disposed of by him to any of his children that he may be pleased to appoint.' THE TIMES TESTIMONIAL. A remarkable instance was afforded, a few years ago, of the power of an English newspaper, and its appreciation by the commercial men of Europe. It is known to most readers at the present day, that the proprietors and editors of the daily papers make strenuous exertions to obtain the earliest possible information of events likely to interest the public, and take pride in insuring for this infor mation all available accuracy and fulness; but it is not equally well known how large is the cost incurred by so doing. None but wealthy proprietors could venture so much, for an object, whose importance and interest may be limited to a single day's issue of the paper. In 1841, Mr O'Reilly, the Times correspondent at Paris, received secret information of an enormous fraud that was said to be in course of perpetration on the continent. There were fourteen personsEnglish, French, and Italian-concerned, headed by a French baron, who possessed great talent, great knowledge of the continental world, and a most polished exterior. His plan was one by which European bankers would have been robbed of at least a million sterling; the conspirators having reaped about £10,000, when they were discovered. The grand coup was to have been thisto prepare a number of forged letters of credit, to present them simultaneously at the houses of all the chief bankers in Europe, and to divide the plunder at once. How Mr O'Reilly obtained his information, is one of the secrets of newspaper management; but as he knew that the chief conspirator was a man who would not scruple to send a pistol-shot into any one who frustrated him, he wisely determined to date his letter to the Times from Brussels instead of Paris, to give a false scent. This precaution, it is believed, saved his life. The letter appeared in the Times on 26th May. It produced a profound sensation, for it revealed to the commercial world a conspiracy of startling magnitude. One of the parties implicated, a partner in an English house at Florence, applied to the Times for the name of its informant; but the proprietors resolved to bear all the consequences. Hence the famous action, Bogle v. Lawson, brought against the printer of the Times for libel, the proprietors, of course, being the parties who bore the brunt of the matter. As the article appeared on 26th May, and as the trial did not come on till 16th August, there was ample time to collect evidence. The Times made immense exertions, and spent a large sum of money, in unravelling the conspiracy throughout. The verdict was virtually an acquittal, but under such circumstances that each party had to pay his own costs. The signal service thus rendered to the commercial world, the undaunted manner in which the Times had carried through the whole matter from beginning to end, and the liberal way in which many thousands of pounds had been spent in so doing, attracted much public attention. A meeting was called, and a subscription commenced, to defray the cost of the trial, as a testimonial to the proprietors. This money was nobly declined in a few dignified and grateful words; and then the committee determined to perpetuate the memory of the transaction in another way. They had in their hands £2700, which had been subscribed by 38 public companies, 64 members of the city corporation, 58 London bankers, 120 London merchants and manufacturers, 116 county bankers and merchants, and 21 foreign bankers and merchants. In November, the committee made public their mode of appropriating this sum: namely, £1000 for a Times Scholarship' at Oxford, for boys in Christ's Hospital; £1000 for a similar scholarship at Cambridge, for boys of the city of London School; and the remainder of the money for four tablets, to bear suitable inscriptions-one to be put up at the Royal Exchange, one at Christ's Hospital, one at the City of London School, and one at the Times printing-office. NOVEMBER 11. MARTINMAS. St Mennas, martyr, about 304. St Martin, bishop of Tours, confessor, 397. Martinmas. St Martin, the son of a Roman military tribune, was born at Sabaria, in Hungary, about 316. From his earliest infancy, he was remarkable for mildness of disposition; yet he was obliged to become a soldier, a profession most uncongenial to his natural character. After several years' service, he retired into solitude, from whence he was withdrawn, by being elected bishop of Tours, in the year 374. The zeal and piety he displayed in this office were most exemplary. He converted the whole of his diocese to Christianity, overthrowing the ancient pagan temples, and erecting churches in their stead. From the great success of his pious endeavours, Martin has been styled the Apostle of the Gauls; and, being the first confessor to whom the Latin Church offered public prayers, he is distinguished as the father of that church. In remembrance of his original profession, he is also frequently denominated the Soldier Saint. The principal legend, connected with St Martin, forms the subject of our illustration, which 1 THE BOOK OF DAYS. mest valued relics Vata var was declared, it was carried 1.8 1948 cape-in French, resciveri, ature consequence, but file terul intrusted with its and thus, according way, Tur English words chapel and The anons of St Martin of un tai a lawsuit, for sixty this cloak, each claiming The Count Larochefoucalt to the proceedings, by sacriating the contested relic to the A FATHER AND SON. Which holy Martin afterwards A genial saint, like Martin, might naturally be expected to become popular in England; and there are no less than seven churches in London and Westminster, alone, dedicated to him. There is certainly more than a resemblance between the Vinalia of the Romans, and the Martinalia of the medieval period. Indeed, an old ecclesiastical calendar, quoted by Brand, expressly states under 11th November: The Vinalia, a feast of the ancients, removed to this day. Bacchus in the figure of Martin.' And thus, probably, it happened, el of St Martin is connected with that the beggars were taken from St Martin, and rary curiosities termed a palin-placed under the protection of St Giles; while the Martin, having occasion to visit Rome, set former became the patron saint of publicans, m the journey thither on foot. Satan, tavern-keepers, and other dispensers of good eating in on the way, taunted the holy man and drinking. In the hall of the Vintners' Company of London, paintings and statues of St using a conveyance more suitable to a Martin and Bacchus reign amicably together side In an instant the saint changed the Old into a mule, and jumping on its back, by side. On the inauguration, as lord mayor, of Sir Samuel Dashwood, an honoured vintner, in 1702, comfortably along. Whenever the transthe ......demon slackened pace, Martin, by making a of the cross, urged it to full speed. At an utterly defeated, exclaimed: Sa te Signa: temere me tangis et angis: ལས ་ ་ a tibi subito motibus ibit amor.' Nsh -- Cross, cross thyself: thon plaguest St Martin, happening at that e new wines of the year are drawn aded, when cattle are killed for de geese are in their prime, is ver most parts of Christendom. og abuanaes, the day is marked cose; our bird of Michaelmas cacheng sacrificed at Martinmas. he north of England, a fat ox is logy from Martiumas, the usual de l'ed for winter use. In the most conspicuous figure in which was their company had a grand processional pageant, patron saint, Martin, arrayed, cap-à-pie, in a magnificent suit of polished armour; wearing a costly scarlet cloak, and mounted on a richly plumed and caparisoned white charger: two esquires, in rich liveries, walking at each side. Twenty satyrs danced before him, beating tambours, and preceded by ten halberdiers, with rural music. Ten Roman lictors, wearing silver helmets, and carrying axes and fasces, gave an air of classical dignity to the procession, and, with the satyrs, sustained the bacchanalian idea of the affair. A multitude of beggars, howling most lamentably,' followed the warlike saint, till the procession stopped in St Paul's Churchyard. Then Martin, or his representative at least, drawing his sword, cut his rich scarlet cloak in many pieces, which he distributed among the beggars. This ceremony being duly and gravely performed, the lamentable howlings ceased, and the procession resumed its course to Guildhall, where Queen Anne graciously condescended to dine with the new lord mayor. Born.-John Albert Fabricius, scholar and editor, 1668, Leipsic Firmin Abauzit, celebrated man of learning, 1679, Uzès, in Languedoc; Earl of Bridgewater, founder of the Bridgewater Treatise Bequest, 1758; Marie François Xavier Bichat, eminent French anatomist, 1771, Thoirette; Dr John Abercrombie, physician and author, 1781, Aberdeen. Died.-Canute the Dane, king of England, 1035, Shaftesbury; Thomas, Lord Fairfax, Parliamentary general, 1671; Jean Sylvain Bailly, eminent astronomer, guillotined at Paris, 1793; Joshua Brookes, eccentric clergyman, 1821, Manchester. A FATHER AND SON: SINGULAR SPECIMEN On 11th November 1821, died the Rev. Joshua Brookes, M.A., chaplain of the Collegiate Church, Manchester. He was of humble parentage, being the son of a shoemaker or cobbler, of Cheadle Hulme, near Stockport, and he was baptized, May 19, 1754, at Stockport. His father, Thomas A FATHER AND SON: NOVEMBER 11. A MANCHESTER CLERGYMAN. at them as 'blockheads.' On one occasion, the Your house, we well know, 'Jotty Bruks,' as he was usually called, may be regarded as a perpetual cracker, always ready to go off when touched or jostled in the slightest degree. He was no respecter of persons, but warred equally and indifferently with the passing chimney-sweep, the huxtress, the mother who came too late to be churched, and with his superiors, the warden and fellows. The last-mentioned parties, on one Brookes, was a cripple, of uncouth mien, eccentric manners, and great violence of temper, peculiarities which gained him the sobriquet of Pontius Pilate.' Many stories are told of his rude manners and impetuous disposition. He removed to Manchester while Joshua was yet a child, and, in his later years, occupied a house in a passage in Long Millgate, opposite the house of Mr Lawson, then high-master of the Manchester Grammar School. At that school Joshua received his education, and, being a boy of quick parts, was much noticed by the Rev. Thomas Aynscough, one of the Fellows of the Collegiate Church, by whose assistance, and that of some of the wealthier residents of Manchester, his father was enabled to send him to Oxford, where he was entered at Brasenose College. The father went round personally to the houses of various rich inhabitants, to solicit pecuniary aid to send his son to college. Joshua took his degree of M.A. in 1771. In 1789, he was nominated by the warden and fellows of Manchester to the perpetual curacy of the chapelry of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, which he resigned in December 1790, on being appointed to a chaplaincy in the Manchester Collegiate Church, which he held till his death. During his chaplaincy of thirty-one years, he is supposed to have baptized, married, and buried more persons than any other clergyman in the occasion, for some trivial misbehaviour, expelled kingdom. He inherited much of his father's mental constitution, especially his rough manners and extreme irascibility; but the influence of education, and a sense of what his position demanded, tended somewhat to temper his eccentricities. It is curious to mark the reflection of the illiterate father's temperament and disposition in the educated son. The father was fond of angling, and having once obtained permission to fish in the pond of Strangeway's Hall, he had an empty hogshead placed in the field, near the brink of the pond, and in this cask-a sort of vulgar Diogenes in his tub-he frequently spent whole nights in his favourite pursuit. In his later years, while sitting at his door, as was his custom, his strange appearance and figure, with a red night-cap on his head, attracted the notice of a market-woman, who, in passing, made some rude remark. Eager for revenge, and yet unable to follow her by reason of his lameness, old Brookes despatched his servant for a sedan-chair, wherein he was conveyed to the market-place; and, having singled out the object of his indignation, he belaboured her with his crutch with such fury, that she had to be rescued by a constable. He was of intemperate habits and extreme coarseness in speech, and was always getting involved in disputes and scrapes. Joshua, to his honour, always treated the old man with respect and forbearance; and, after getting the chaplaincy, he maintained his father for many years till the latter's death. Such was the father. A few traits of the son will complete this strange picture of a pair of Manchester originals in the last century. Young Brookes was at one time an assistant-master at the Grammar School, where he made himself very unpopular with the boys, especially the senior classes, being constantly involved in warfare with them, physical and literary. Sometimes he would singly defy the whole school, and be forcibly ejected from the school-room, fighting with hand and foot against his numerous assailants, and hurling reproaches him from the chapter-house, until he should make an apology. This he sturdily refused to do; but would put on his surplice in an adjoining chapel, and then, standing close outside the chapter-house door, in the south aisle of the choir, would exclaim to those who were passing on to attend divine service: "They won't let me in. They say I can't behave myself. At another time, he was seen, in the middle of the service, to box the ears of a chorister-boy, for coming late. Sometimes, while officiating, he would leave the choir during the musical portion of the service, go down to the sideaisles, and chat with any lounger till the time came for his clerical functions being required in person. Once, when surprise was expressed at this unseemly procedure, he only replied: Oh! I frequently come out while they're singing Ta Daum. Talking in this strain to a very aged gentleman, and often making use of the expression, We old men,' Mr Johnson (in the dialect then almost universal in Manchester) turned upon him with the question: Why, how owd art ta?' 'I'm sixty-foive,' says Jotty. 'Sixty-foive!' rejoined his aged interlocutor; 'why t'as a lad; here's a penny for thee. Goo, buy thysel' a penny-poye [pie] So Jotty returned to the reading-desk, to read the morning-lesson, a penny richer. A child was once brought to him to be christened, whose parents desired to give it the name of Bonaparte. This designation he not only refused to bestow, but entered his refusal to do so in the register of baptisms. In the matter of marriages his conduct was peremptory and arbitrary. He so frightened a young wife, a parishioner of his, who had been married at Eccles, by telling her of consequent danger to the rights of her children, that, to make all right and sure, she was re-married by Joshua himself at the Collegiate Church. Once, when marrying a number of couples, it was found, on joining hands, that there was one woman without any bridegroom. In this dilemma, instead of declining to marry this luckless bride, Joshua |