Coverdale, who, convinced that the pure word of God ought to be the sole rule of our faith and guide of our practice, laboured earnestly for its diffusion; and with the view of affording the means of reading and hearing in their own tongue the wonderful words of God, not only | to his own country, but to the nations that sit in darkness, and to every creature wheresoever the English language might be spoken, he spent many years of his life in preparing a translation of the Scriptures. On the 4th of October 1535, the first complete printed English version of The Bible was published under his direction. The parishioners of St. Magnus the Martyr, desirous of acknowledging the mercy of God, and calling to mind that Miles Coverdale was once rector of their parish, erected this monument to his memory, A.D. 1837. 'How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! Isa. lii. 7.'

In 1532, Coverdale seems to have gone abroad, and assisted Tyndale in his translation of the Bible; and in 1535 his own translation of the Bible appeared, with a dedication by him to King Henry VIII. It formed a folio volume, printed, it has been thought, at Zürich. If so, Coverdale must have resided there while it passed through the press, as his attention to it was unremitting. He thus had the honour of editing the first

English Bible allowed by royal authority, and the first translation of the whole Bible printed in our language. It was called a special translation, because it was different from the former English translations, as Lewis shows by comparing it with Tyndale's; and the Psalms in it are those now used in the Book of Common Prayer.

In 1538, a quarto New Testament, in the Vulgate Latin, and in Coverdale's English, though it bore the name of Hollybushe, was printed with the King's licence, and has a dedication by Coverdale, in which he says: 'He does not doubt but such ignorant bodies as, having cure of souls, are very unlearned in the Latin tongue, shall, through this small labour, be occasioned to attain unto more knowledge, or at least be constrained to say well of the thing which heretofore they have blasphemed.'

About the end of the year, we find Coverdale again abroad on the business of a new edition of the Bible, on which occasion an event happened which showed the vigilance and jealousy of the Romanists with respect to vernacular translations. Grafton, the celebrated printer, had permission from Francis 1., King of France, at the request of King Henry himself, to print a Bible at Paris, on account of the superior skill of the workmen and the comparative goodness and cheapness of the paper.

Notwithstanding the royal

licence, the Inquisition interposed by an instrument dated December 17th, 1538. The French printers, their English employers, and our Coverdale, who was the corrector of the press, were summoned by the inquisitors; and the impression, consisting of 2500 copies, was seized and condemned to the flames. But the avarice of the officer who superintended the burning of these 'heretical books,' as they were called, induced him to sell some chests of them to a haberdasher for the purpose of wrapping his wares; and thus some copies were preserved.

The English proprietors, who fled at the alarm, returned to Paris when it had subsided, and not only recovered some of those copies which had escaped the fire, but brought with them to London the presses, types, and printers. This valuable importation enabled Grafton and Whitchurch to print, in 1539, what is called Cranmer's, or the 'Great Bible,' in which Coverdale compared the translation with the Hebrew, corrected it in many places, and was the chief overseer of the work. Dr. Fulk, who was one of Coverdale's hearers when he preached at St. Paul's Cross, informs us that he took an opportunity in his sermon to defend his translation against some slanderous reports then raised against it, confessing 'that he himself now saw some faults, which, if he might review the book once again, as he

had twice before, he doubted not he should amend: but for any heresy, he was sure there was none maintained in his translation.' In all these labours Coverdale found a liberal patron in Thomas, Lord Cromwell.

THOMAS SUTTON.

We come now to speak of that remarkable man, Thomas Sutton, the founder of one of London's greatest and most permanent charities-the Charter-house.

'Of noble and worthy parentage, this gentleman,' says the author of the Chronicles of the Charter-house, 'descended from one of the most ancient families of Lincolnshire, was born at Knaith, in that county, in the year 1531. His father was Edward Sutton, steward to the courts of the Corporation of Lincoln, son of Thomas Sutton, servant to Edward Iv.; and his mother Jane, daughter of Robert Stapleton, Esq., a branch of the noble family of the Stapletons of Yorkshire, one of whom was Sir Miles Stapleton, one of the first Knights of the Garter; "ancestors," as the learned antiquary Herne justly observes, "not so low, that his descent should be a shame to his virtues, nor yet so great but that his virtue might be an ornament to his birth." He was brought up for three years at Eton under the tuition of Mr. Cox, afterwards Bishop of Ely, and two years in

siana, a small 8vo volume published in 1677, shows that the world had not been kind to the founder's memory. Herne, in his preface, says: "Sir Richard Baker, Dr. Heylin, Mr. Heylin, and Mr. Fuller say little of him, and that little very full of mistakes; for they call him Richard Sutton, and affirm he lived a bachelor, and so by his single life had an opportunity to lay up a heap of money, whereas his dear wife is with much hon- | our and respect mentioned in his will. Others give him bad words, say he was born of obscure and mean parents, and married as inconsiderable a wife, and died without an heir; but then, to give some reason for his wealth (having no time nor desire to inquire into the means of his growing rich), to cut short the business, they resolve all into a romantic adventure. They say it was all got at a lump by an accidental shipwreck, which the kind waves drove to shore, and laid at his feet whilst the fortunate Sutton was walking pensively upon the barren sands. They report that in the hulk, coals were found, and under them an inestimable treasure, a great heap of fairy wealth. This, I fancy, may go for the fable, and his farming the coal-mines for the moral."

WILLIAM PENN.

The famous Quaker, founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, was born in Windsor on the

14th of October 1644. His father was Sir William Penn, a distinguished admiral, who boasted a high and ancient lineage.

It was in 1681, in compensation for a debt to his father by the Crown, that William Penn received a grant of the Province on the Delaware called the New Netherlands. It was a signally fortunate circumstance, that in the reckless disposal of gifts at that time, one should have fallen into hands like his. Such was the foundation of the colony of Pennsylvania. It was commenced in a spirit of magnanimous justice-incomprehensible to that age,-in an agreement with the natives, and the admission that they had claims to be considered before the colonists took absolute possession.

The ratification of the famous treaty is thus described by a writer in the Edinburgh Review: -The country that now forms the State of Pennsylvania, assigned to Penn by the royal charter, was still full of its primitive inhabitants; and his principles did not permit him to look upon the King's gift as a warrant to dispossess the actual proprietors.

His commissioners having treated with the Indians for a fair purchase of a part of their lands, and for their joint possession of the remainder, he proceeded solemnly to pledge his faith and to ratify the treaty in sight both of the Indians and the planters. A grand convoca