which afforded him most pleasure in having printed. The elegance of the typography is very great, and Mr. Chalmers, in his Biographical Dictionary, thus mentions it under the article Blackstone. "In November, 1759, he published a new edition of the Great Charter, and Charter of the Forest; which added much to his former reputation, not only as a great lawyer, but also as an accurate antiquary, and an able historian. It must also be added, that the external beauties of the printing, the types, &c. reflected no small honour on him, as the principal reformer of the Clarendon Press, whence no work had ever before issued, equal in those particulars to this." It is inscribed to the Earl of Westmorland in an engraved dedication, surmounted by his armorial ensigns. The historical Introduction immediately follows, and occupies 76 pages, this is succeeded by the Charters of John, Henry the Third, and Edward the First, and other statutes connected with them, contained in 85 pages more. This part of the volume is decorated with ten engravings of the royal seals attached to the instruments, of their original size: the whole of the initial letters used in the work are copper-plate engravings of various public buildings in Oxford; and two historical vignettes are placed on pages lxxvi. and 73. The contents of this volume were reprinted in Sir William Blackstone's Law Tracts, Octavo 1762, Quarto, 1771; the former of which contains some few revisions and additions.

Next to the volume of Sir William Blackstone, may be noticed the short, but exceedingly curious and learned remarks on Magna Charta, contained in the Hon. Daines Barrington's Observations on the more ancient Statutes, from Magna Charta to the 21st year of James I.; the volume being originally published in 1766, Quarto. It was the first work of its author,

and has always maintained its rank, having passed through several editions, each receiving some improvements until that of 1795. The book originated in the perusal of the older and more useless English Statutes, with a view to their consolidation or repeal, a scheme for which is contained in an Appendix to it; in reading these many observations occurred on the laws of every reign, as they illustrated the manners and history of the country when they were published. These remarks, however, were confined to the acts of the thirteenth and three following centuries, which were compared with the contemporary Statutes of most other European nations, and found to be considerably superior.

VI. A HISTORY AND DEFENCE OF MAGNA CHARTA, Containing a copy of the Original Charter at large: with an English translation; the manner of its being obtained from John; with its preservation and final establishment in the succeeding reigns. London 1769. Octavo. VII. An Historical Treatise on the Feudal Law, and on the Constitution and Laws of England, with a Commentary on Magna Charta. By Francis Stoughton Sullivan, LL.D. London: 1770. Quarto. 1772, 1776. Edit. by Dr. Gilbert Stuart, 1777.

VIII. The Charters of London complete, with Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights, with explanatory notes and remarks. By John Luffman. Lond. 1792. Octavo. IX. MAGNA CARTA, printed in LETTERS OF GOLD, by Joun WHITTAKER.

MAGNA CARTA Regis Johannis, xv. Die Junii, Anno Regni xvii. A. D. M.CCXV. LONDINI, apud Johannem Whittaker, M.DCCCXVI.

CONVENTIO inter Regem Johannem et Barones, A.D. M.CCXV. Londini, apud Johannem Whittaker, M.DCCCXVII. Folio.

This very splendid edition of the Great Charter was projected about fourteen years since by Mr. John

Whittaker, of Westminster, for the display of a beautiful invention of Printing in Letters of burnished Gold; and a small portion of the preceding pages was originally intended as a popular introduction to it, though the design was afterwards laid aside, and the materials have since been extended to the present volume. It was at first intended to have printed the Cottonian Charter for the above edition, but it appears from a notice attached to it, that the original was that deposited in the Archives of Lincoln Cathedral, with some of the abbreviations filled up: a passage taken from the Introduction to the "Statutes of the Realm," is also inserted in support of the authenticity of the Lincoln copy; which has been referred to in the former part of this Article. The present volume consists of seventeen leaves printed on the recto only, in black-letter; which, whilst it is exceedingly well calculated for shewing the beauty of the Golden Typography, gives it at the same time a rich hue of antiquity combined with much delicacy of form and character: the text of each page measures 7 inches, by 53. The work is dedicated to his present Majesty, when Prince Regent, in English, but the remainder of its contents are wholly in Latin. Some copies of this superb publication were printed upon purple satin, and others on white, or purple, vellum, the size of a super-royal folio. These were decorated with the most elegant emblematical and heraldical designs, chiefly by Mr. Thomas Willement, introducing the arms of the twenty-five Barons, who became sureties for the due performance of this Charter. In addition to these decorations, which occupy the borders of the various pages, the portraits of the Prince Regent and King John, painted on vellum, were sometimes placed opposite the dedication and title pages. This work was also printed in folio of a smaller

size, on Bristol drawing-paper, with illuminated initial letters; and to these was attached an additional page, containing the names of those Barons whose arms were painted in the large edition. At the end of the Charter is the Covenant of security between King John and his Barons; and the arrangement of the whole volume is as follows: Title, Dedication, Names of the Barons, Magna Charta 11 pages, Title to the Covenant, Covenant 2 pages.

Such, then, are the principal Manuscript and Printed copies of the Charters of Liberties; the most important and extensive of which, though posterity has generally connected them with the name of King John, were in reality passed under the

SEAL OF HENRY THE THIRD.

OF

John, King of England.

HE life of this Monarch in almost every point of view, was marked with an extraordinary fatality of ill-fortune, and disturbed by perpetual storms from his discontented subjects. The offspring of a weak, though valiant Sovereign, it would seem as if the courage of Henry had descended with his kingdom to Richard; whilst his misfortunes and his vices became the portion of John. With all his faults, however, and with a far greater degree of popular hatred than is attached to the character of any Prince in the extended line of English Sovereigns, his life and reign form a subject of very considerable interest: and from their intimate connection with the famous story of this volume, the following rather copious Memoir, has been added to illustrate and to complete the narrative.

JOHN, afterwards King of England, was the fifth son of Henry II. surnamed Plantagenet; and he was born on Saturday, the 24th of December, 1166, in the King's Manor-house at Oxford, his mother being Eleanor, daughter and heir of William, ninth Duke of Acquitaine. From the ample provision which Henry made for his elder sons, and the limited possessions devolving upon John, he received from his father the surname of Sans-terre, or Lack-land: the usual ap