Richard was now more at ease, although he still dreaded the dukes of Hereford and Norfolk. In 1398 a quarrel occurring between these noblemen, they were both banished. The latter died abroad; but Hereford, who by the death of his father the Duke of Lancaster now inherited his title, returned to England with a party of adherents. He landed at Ravenspur in Yorkshire, and at first laid claim only to his family inheritance; but being joined by Northumberland and many other nobles, he marched with an increasing army westward, and after taking Bristol, he seized Richard, who had returned from Ireland, and brought him a captive to London. In a parliament which assembled at Westminster in September, 1399, Richard was declared to be deposed, and Henry of Lancaster proclaimed king, as Henry IV.

EXERCISES.-I. Define, Vengeance, exclaimed, revolt, residence, population, penalty, inheritance, and bestowed. 2. Give a brief account of the rebellion under Wat Tyler. 3. Trace out the chief circumstances that led to the discontent of the reign of Richard II. 4. Say how this reign ended.

THE SCHOOL.

SAMUEL ROGERS.

Reverend, respected for age.
Quickening, giving new life.
Copse, a wood of small trees.
Imps, sons or offspring.
Rifled, robbed.

Elfin, of an elf or wandering
spirit.

Triumph, joy of the conqueror.
Mandate, a command.

Mute, silent, without speech.
Cherished, reared up with care.
Caldron, a large kettle.
Owlet, a young owl.

Sibyl, a heathen prophetess.
Prowess, great strength.
Scrip, a small bag.

Tresses, flowing locks of hair.

Soothed, gave ease.

The school's lone porch, with reverend mosses grey,

Just tells the pensive pilgrim where it lay.

Mute is the bell that rung at peep of dawn,
Quickening my truant feet across the lawn;
Unheard the shout that rent the noontide air
When the slow dial gave a pause to care.
Up springs, at every step, to claim a tear,
Some little friendship formed and cherished here;
And not the slightest leaf but trembling teems
With golden visions and romantic dreams!

Down by yon hazel copse, at evening blazed
The Gipsy's fagot; there we stood and gazed,-
Gazed on her sun-burnt face with silent awe,
Her tattered mantle, and her hood of straw;
Her moving lips, her caldron brimming o'er;
The drowsy brood that on her back she bore ;
Imps, in the barn with mousing owlet bred,
From rifled roost at nightly revel fed;

Whose dark eyes flashed through locks of blackest shade,

When in the breeze the distant watch-dog brayed;
And heroes fled the Sibyl's muttered call,
Whose elfin prowess scaled the orchard-wall.
As o'er my palm the silver piece she drew,
And traced the line of life with searching view,
How throbbed my fluttering pulse with hopes and fears,
To learn the colour of my future years!

Ah, then, what honest triumph flushed my breast; This truth once known-To bless is to be blest! We led the bending beggar on his way

(Bare were his feet and his tresses silver grey),
Soothed the keen pangs his aged spirit felt,
And on his tale with mute attention dwelt.
As in his scrip we dropped our little store,
And sighed to think that little was no more,

He breathed his prayer, "Long may such goodness live!"

'Twas all he gave,-'twas all he had to give.

Angels, when Mercy's mandate winged their flight,
Had stopped to dwell with pleasure on the sight.

NOTE. SAMUEL ROGERS, born 1763, near London, although following the calling of a banker, was an author of considerable finish and merit. The "Pleasures of Memory" and "Italy" are his chief works. He was a most generous patron of young and striving artists and men of letters. His house was a centre of attraction to all the poets, artists, and other distinguished men of his time. He died, 1855.

EXERCISES.-I. Define,-Pensive, teems, romantic, tattered, revel, scaled, orchard, and attention. 2. Describe the first school to which you went. 3. Tell in simple prose the last incident described by Rogers in the foregoing piece. 4. Describe any gipsy's encampment that you have seen.

THE MARKET.

Intimate, well known.
Honesty, fairness in act.
Maxim, a common rule or truth.
Inability, not being able to do.
Consented, agreed to.
Estimating, putting a value

upon.

Confidence, with full trust.
Paltry, of very small worth.

Morality, right and wrong doing.
Commercial, relating to trade.
Consistent, in harmony with.
Condemn, to find guilty.
Valid, strong.

Purchaser, one who buys.
Gloss, a false outside.

Legitimate, right, according to
law.

"Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small. But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have; that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."Deut. xxv. 15, 16.

In this passage from the code of laws given by Moses to the children of Israel, we are plainly taught the in

timate connection which exists between national morality and national prosperity. Not only is it true that "honesty is the best policy," as regards individuals, but it is also equally so of communities, whether they are families, schools, institutions, boroughs, or states.

It is a common saying that the one leading principle of all successful trading is "to buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest market." Now the question may be put, Is this commercial maxim consistent with the old Bible rule, that each should do to others as he would wish that they should do to him?

Let us see what ought to be the law of all our market dealings. We must bear in mind that all trade, commerce, and market dealings in general are neither more nor less than various forms of exchange of property, carried on between parties by mutual consent, and on a principle of equality of values. If, for instance, a little child is sent to get a sovereign changed, and one, taking advantage of its inability to count correctly, should give only nineteen shillings, you would at once condemn the action as a shameful fraud. The fact that the child consented to the exchange you would not accept as a plausible, much less as a valid, excuse.

Now the conditions of all fair exchange are, first, willingness on the part of both parties to barter, and second, fair equality in the values of the commodities to be bartered. It is the absence of the first which makes slavery wrong and unjust. Unless a man willingly parts with his freedom and his labour no one can justly deprive him of it. As to the second condition, namely, the values of the goods sold or exchanged, many points have to be considered in estimating them. We often find that the owner of goods for sale puts a higher

price upon them than the intending purchaser does. One broad principle, however, may be laid down with confidence, as applicable to all market dealings, and it is this,—that whatever tends to deceive either the buyer or the seller as to the real worth of the goods is, in itself, of the nature of fraud. That is, if I, by word or deed, put a gloss on an inferior article, and, on the strength of that false appearance, sell it for more than it would have fetched had its real quality been openly shown, then I break the law, "Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure." And, in the same way, to take advantage of the ignorance of another (as in the supposed case of the child exchanging money before referred to) is of the nature of a sin against the law which forbids having in one's bag "divers weights, a great and a small ”—one for him who is capable of knowing, and a smaller one for him who is weak or ignorant.

You are all familiar with the story of Jacob and Esau : how the former, taking advantage of his brother's extreme hunger, made the hard bargain by which he gained the valuable birthright for a paltry mess of pottage. And while we condemn the folly of the one, we must not overlook the unbrotherly and selfish fraud of the other, who enriched himself at the expense of his impatient brother.

It sometimes happens, however, that we find a certain commodity plentiful to abundance in one locality, as for instance, oil and ivory in Africa, or hides and oxen in America, and at the same time much sought after in another. In such cases, legitimate trade allows and sanctions the purchase of these super-abundant articles at a cost far below what their market value would be,