Taught wisely to obtain relief
Through Chancery, who gives her fees
To this and other charities)

It must not, in all parts unsound,

Be ripp'd, and pull'd down to the ground;
Whether (though after ages ne'er

Shall raise a building to compare)

Art, if they should their art employ,
Meant to preserve, might not destroy,
As human bodies, worn away,

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the year 1600, one was issued for Richard Grafton, as appears by a printed copy sold at Sotheby's auction rooms on 13 August, 1840, and in 1604, John Stowe, the historian, obtained one in consideration of his merit and distressed circumstances. In 1623 one was issued for repairing a church at St. Alban's, after which the entries are frequent in parish registers of sums collected after briefs being read. The first mention of them in the statutes was in 9 W. III. c. 25, by which they were exempted from stamp duty. In 1705, an act, passed 4 and 5 Anne, for the better collecting charity money on briefs by letters patent, and preventing abuses in relation to such charities.

Such letters patent were issued by the Lord High Chancellor upon a certificate from the quarter sessions, and had ever since the year 1799 been delivered to John Stevenson Salt, Esq. of the firm of Messrs. Stevenson and Salt, bankers in Lombard Street, Mr. Salt was from that period exclusively employed as undertaker for the purpose of dispersing copies of the briefs and receiving the collections, but still it was always competent for any person to whom, or for whose benefit a brief was granted to appoint his own undertaker, Mr. Salt holding no office or permanent appointment.

Upon receipt of the letters patent the undertaker provided 10,800 printed copies of church briefs, and 11,500 fire briefs, which he caused to be delivered to the churchwardens of the several parishes in England, and a part of Wales, and upon

Batter'd and hasting to decay,
Bidding the power of Art despair,
Cannot those very medicines bear
Which, and which only, can restore,
And make them healthy as before.

To Liberty, whose gracious smile
Shed peace and plenty o'er the Isle,
Our grateful ancestors, her plain
But faithful children, raised this fane.
Full in the front, stretch'd out in length,

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their return being obtained, the undertaker accounted to the claimants for the sums collected, after deducting the expenses of obtaining the brief, and his charges of collection.

Throughout the 18th century, and up to the time of their abolition in 1828, they averaged about eight or ten in number every year. The net sum received from each brief after payment of all expenses, ranged about £200; in some extraordinary cases, however, much larger amounts were realized; and on one brief in 1759 for founding and erecting colleges in New York and Philadelphia a sum of nearly £10,000 was collected.

The fees on soliciting a church brief, were—

The undertaker charged double salary for fire and other briefs, his charge therefore in such cases was above £500.

Where Nature put forth all her strength
In spring eternal, lay a plain

Where our brave fathers used to train

Their sons to arms, to teach the art
Of war, and steel the infant heart;
Labour, their hardy nurse, when young,

Their joints had knit, their nerves had strung;
Abstinence, foe declared to death,

Had, from the time they first drew breath,
The best of doctors, with plain food;
Kept pure the channel of their blood;
Health in their cheeks bade colour rise,

The undertaker was responsible for every agent and collector throughout the kingdom, and his salary was latterly quite inadequate to the trouble and risk attending the business.

This plan of raising money gradually fell into disrepute, and consequent unproductiveness, from an almost universal idea that the briefs were formed by the undertaker, he agreeing to pay the petitioners a certain sum, reserving the benefit of the surplus for himself; so that whatever sum might be collected on a brief over and above such supposed payment was imagined to be paid to him, and therefore, that he and not the petitioners would really profit by any extra benevolence on the part of the public.

This prevailing opinion, though wholly unfounded, operated most powerfully against briefs on the minds of the clergy, the churchwardens, and the public; inducing the clergy in some cases not to read the brief, the churchwardens to be negligent in collecting, and the public to be averse from contributing.

On the passing of the bill abolishing the issue of briefs, a vast number of small balances, some of very old standing, in Mr. Salt's hands were found in the aggregate to amount to a sum of about £2,000, which by arrangement was appropriately paid over to the Commissioners for building new churches.

And Glory sparkled in their eyes.
The instruments of husbandry,
As in contempt, were all thrown by,
And, flattering a manly pride,
War's keener tools their place supplied.
Their arrows to the head they drew ;
Swift to the point their javelins flew ;

They grasp'd the sword, they shook the spear;
Their fathers felt a pleasing fear,
And even Courage, standing by,
Scarcely beheld with steady eye.
Each stripling, lesson'd by his sire,
Knew when to close, when to retire ;
When near at hand, when from afar
To fight, and was himself a war.

Their wives, their mothers, all around,
Careless of order, on the ground,
Breathed forth to Heaven the pious vow,
And for a son's or husband's brow,
With eager fingers, laurel wove;
Laurel which in the sacred grove,
Planted by Liberty, they find,
The brows of conquerors to bind,
To give them pride and spirits, fit
To make a world in arms submit.

What raptures did the bosom fire
Of the young, rugged, peasant sire,
When, from the toil of mimic fight,
Returning with return of night,
He saw his babe resign the breast,
And, smiling, stroke those arms in jest,

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With which hereafter he shall make
The proudest heart in Gallia quake!

Gods! with what joy, what honest pride,
Did each fond, wishing, rustic bride,
Behold her manly swain return!
How did her love-sick bosom burn,

Though on parades he was not bred,

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Nor wore the livery of red,

When, Pleasure heightening all her charms,
She strain'd her warrior in her arms,

And begg'd, whilst love and glory fire,
A son, a son just like his sire!

Such were the men in former times,
Ere luxury had made our crimes
Our bitter punishment, who bore
Their terrors to a foreign shore;

Such were the men who, free from dread,
By Edwards and by Henries led,

Spread, like a torrent swell'd with rains,
O'er haughty Gallia's trembling plains:
Such were the men, when lust of power,
To work him woe, in evil hour
Debauch'd the tyrant from those ways
On which a king should found his praise;
When stern Oppression, hand in hand
With Pride, stalk'd proudly through the land;
When weeping Justice was misled

From her fair course, and Mercy dead:
Such were the men, in virtue strong,
Who dared not see their country's wrong,
Who left the mattock and the spade,

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