upon the forehead, and tied with a ribbon of hyacinth colour, or azure blue. It seems also as if private priests, and even common Israelites, wore a sort of crown, since God commands Ezekiel "not to take off his crown, nor assume the marks of one in mourning." This crown was no more than a ribbon or fillet, with which the Jews and several people in the East girt their heads; and indeed the first crowns were no more than a bandalet drawn round the head, and tied behind, and we still see it represented round the heads of Jupiter, the Ptolemies, and kings of Syria. The more luxuriant crowns originated with the Roman emperors, who had four kinds, still seen on medals, viz., a crown of laurel, a radial or radiating crown, a crown adorned with pearls and precious stones, and the fourth a kind of bonnet or cap, something like the mortier.

In modern heraldry we have the following order and description of the various crowns now in use :

The Imperial crown is a bonnet or tiara, with a semicircle of gold supporting a globe with a cross top.

The British crown is adorned with four crosses, between which are four fleur-de-lis, which is the crest of France; it is covered with four diadems, which meet at a little globe supporting a cross.

The French crown is a circle of eight fleur-de-lis, encompassed with six diadems, bearing at top double fleur-de-lis as the crest. The Spanish crown is adorned with large indent leaves, and covered with diadems terminating in a globe, surrounded with

a cross.

The crowns of almost all other kings are adorned with large leaves, bordered with four, six, or eight diadems, with a globe and cross at top.

The Prince of Wales's crown consists alternately of crosses and fleur-de-lis, with one arch, in the middle of which is a ball and cross, as in the royal diadem.

That of all the other sons and brothers of the king of England consist likewise of crosses and fleur-de-lis alternately, but without an arch, or being surmounted with a globe and cross at top.

That of the other Princes of the blood consists alternately of crosses and leaves, like those in the coronet of Dukes, &c., the latter being composed of leaves of smallage or parsley, and that of a Marquis, of flowers and pearls placed alternately; an Earl's has no flowers about the circle like a Duke and Marquis, but only points rising, and a pearl on every one of them; a Viscount has neither flowers nor points raised above the circle like the other superior degrees, but only pearls placed on the circle itself, without any limited number; a Baron's has only six pearls on the golden border, not raised, to distinguish him from the Earl, and the number of them limited, to show he is inferior to the Viscount.

THE SCEPTRE.

The Greek

The sceptre is of greater antiquity than the crown. tragic poets put sceptres into the hands of the most ancient kings they ever introduce; thus, Achilles is said to have sworn by his staff or sceptre in the first Book of the Iliad.

Among the Romans, the sceptre was first used by Tarquin the Elder. We are informed by Le Gendre, that the sceptre borne by the first race of the French kings was a golden rod, crooked at one end like a crosier,* used by the bishops of the church, and almost of the same height as the king himself. This pastoral staff, or crosier, is held by the bishops in one hand when they give the solemn benediction. The custom also of having the symbol of pastoral authority before the bishops is very ancient. Regular abbots are also allowed to officiate with a mitre and crosier, except in regard to the Greeks, where none but a patriarch had a right to the crosier. The sceptre is likewise prominent in the regalia, or ensigns of royalty, used for the apparatus of a coronation, as the crown, the sceptre with a cross, that with a dove, St. Edward's staff, the globe, and the orb with the cross, four several swords, &c.

ORIGIN OF CORONATIONS IN ENGLAND, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THEIR CUSTOMS.

The first coronation ceremony performed in England, was that of Edmund Ironsides, 1016. Chronology likewise informs us, that the first sermon preached at any coronation was that of Edward the Confessor, in 1041; and the first who is stated to have been touched for the king's evil in 1058.

The first king's speech said to be delivered was that of Henry I., 1107; but it is not a little singular, that the first coronation feast in England is observed to be that which was given on the crowning of Edward I., 1273.

The oath taken at the coronation of Hugues Capet is recorded as follows:-"I, Hugues Capet, who by the grace of God will soon be made king of the French, promise, on the day of my sacre (consecration), that I will distribute justice according to the laws of the people committed to my charge."

Henry IV. was anointed 27th February, 1594, at Chartres. He made his abjurationt on the 25th July preceding, at St. Denis. On the day of his sacre, says Sully, the liguers ran in crowds to see him; they were delighted by his noble appearance; they raised their hands to Heaven, dropping tears of joy, and they exclaimed in ecstasy-Ha! Dieu le benie.

At the coronation of the Emperors of China, it was customary *See Crosier.

Henry IV. of France abjured the Protestant religion.

to present them with several sorts of marbles, and of different colours, by the hand of a mason, who was then to address the new emperor to this purpose

Choose, mighty Sir, under which of these stones

Your pleasure is that we should lay your bones.

They brought him patterns for his gravestone, that the prospect of death might restrain his thoughts within due bounds of modesty and moderation in the midst of his new honours.

The Dey of Algiers is elected from the army; and as the meanest person has the same right to sovereignty as the highest, every common soldier may be considered as heir-apparent to the throne. Every person, besides, has a right to vote on the election; and this being concluded, he is saluted with the word “Alla Barek!" that is, God bless you, and immediately invested with the caftan, or insignia of royalty: the Cadi addressing him in a congratulatory speech, which concludes with an exhortation to the practice of justice, equity, and moderation. The Deys, after their exaltation, generally disdain the meanness of wishing to disguise their humble extraction; on the contrary, when Mahomet Basha was in possession of that dignity, in a dispute with the deputy-consul of a neighbouring nation, he is said to have thus frankly acknowledged his origin-" My mother sold sheeps' trotters, and my father neats' tongues; but they would have been ashamed to have exposed to sale so worthless a tongue as thine.”

The kings of Poland are crowned in the cathedral dedicated to Saint Stanislaus, a majestic structure in the city of Cracow, and where are preserved the relics of that saint, the ancient bishop and patron of the nation; who being murdered in this church in the 11th century by Boleslaus the Bold, the kings and nobles walk in procession to his shrine the day before the coronation, to expiate the crime; and several kings on these and other occasions have offered vessels of gold and silver at his tomb.

In Turkey, the Mufti, as high priest and patriarch of the Mahometan religion, girds on the sword to the Grand Signior's side, which ceremony answers to the coronation of our kings; and here, perhaps, it may not be amiss to observe, that the mines of Golconda, in the East Indian empire, have, it is said, furnished the principal diamonds which adorn all the crowns in the world.

THE CRESCENT AS A SYMBOL,

The crescent was the symbol of the city of Byzantium, now Constantinople, which the Turks have adopted. This device of the Ottoman Empire is of great antiquity, as appears from several medals struck in honour of Augustus, Trajan, and others, and took its rise from an event related by Stephens the geographer,

a native of Byzantium. He tells us that Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, meeting with mighty difficulties in carrying on the siege of that city, set the workmen in a very dark night to undermine the walls, that his troops might enter the place without being perceived; but luckily for the besieged, the Moon appearing, discovered the design, which accordingly miscarried. "In acknowledgment of this deliverance," says he, "the Byzantiums erected a statue to Diana, and thus the crescent became their symbol." Crescent has also been applied to three orders of knighthood: the first of which was instituted by Charles I., King of Naples and Sicily, in 1268; the second by René of Anjou, in 1448; and the third by the Sultan Selim, in 1801. The last-mentioned order is still in existence.

MEDIATISED PRINCES.

A Mediatised Prince is an unhappy victim of those Congresses, which, among other good and evil, purged with great effect the ancient German political system. By the regulations then determined on, that country was freed at one fell swoop from the vexations and harassing dominion of the various petty princes who exercised absolute sovereignties over little nations of 50,000 souls. These independent sovereigns became subjects; and either swelled, by their mediatisation, the territories of some already powerful potentate, or transmuted into a state of importance some more fortunate petty ruler than themselves; whose independence, through the exertions of political intrigue, or family influence, had been preserved inviolate. In most instances, the concurrence of these little rulers in their worldly degradation was obtained by a lavish grant of official emoluments, or increase of territorial possessions, and the mediatised prince, instead of being an impoverished and uninfluential sovereign, became a wealthy and powerful subject. But so dominant in the heart of man is the love of independent dominion, that even with these temptations few of the petty princes could have been induced to have parted with their cherished sceptres, had they not been conscious that, in case of contumacy, the resolutions of a diet would have been enforced by the armies of an emperor. As it is, few of them have yet given up the outward and visible signs of regal sway. The throne is still preserved, and the tiara still revered. They seldom frequent the courts of their sovereigns, and scarcely condescend to notice the attentions of their fellow nobility. Most of them expend their increased revenues in maintaining the splendour of their little courts at their ancient capitals, or in swelling the ranks of their retainers at their solitary forest castles. A greater number were mediatised after the dissolution of the German Empire in 1806, and a few more after the peace of 1815.

ROMAN NAMES,

If you please to compare, says Camden, the Roman names, that seem so stately because you understand them not, you will disclaim them in respect of our meanest names. For what is Fronto, but beetle-browed; Coesius, but cats'-eyes; Paetus, but pink-eyed; Cocles, one eye; Naso, bottle-nose, or rather nosey; Galla, maggot (as Suetonius interpreteth); Silo, ape's-nose; Ancus, crooked-arm; Pansa, broad-foot; Strabo, squint-eye; Suillius, swine-ear'd; Capeto, jobber-noll; Calvus, broad-pate; Crispus, curl-pate; Flaccus, loll-ears, or flag-eared; Labeo, blobberlip; Scaurus, knobbed-heel; Varus, bow-legged; Pedo, longshanks; Marcellus, hammer: Cilo, petty-long-pate; Chilo, flatlips. Those great names also, Fabius, Lentulus, Cicero, Piso, are no more in our tongue than bean-man, lentil, chick-peas, peascod-man; for, as Pliny saith, these names were first appropriated to them for skill in sowing these grains.

FITZ-ROY.

This name, so generally borne by the illegitimate scions of royalty, was first given to a natural son of Henry the Second: it was considered a great honour at that period to have a sirname, as will appear by the following. In 1110, Henry II. matched one of his illegitimate sons to a rich heiress of Fitz-Aymon. The lady had a poetical turn; and when the king told her that his son's name was Robert, she thus addressed him

On which Henry conferred on him the name of Fitz-roy. About this period, sirnames began to be used by people of rank in England.

PLANTAGENET.

The etymology of this name, which was borne by our English kings from Henry II. to Richard III. inclusive, is extremely uncertain. It is supposed to be derived from the two words planta genesta, or genista, that is, the plant broom, and first given to Fulke, Earl of Anjou, who lived a hundred years before the Conquest. He, having been guilty of some enormous crimes, was enjoined by way of penance to go to the Holy Land, and submit to a severe castigation: he readily acquiesced, dressed himself in lowly attire, and, as a mark of humility, wore a piece of broom in his cap, of which virtue this plant is a symbol in the hieroglyphic language; and Virgil seems to confirm it, by calling it humilis genista, the humble broom.