The scene of his imprisonment was shifted to London on leaving Ireland, October 21st, 1680.

It is unnecessary in this short sketch to give any account of his trial. Friday, July 11th, was fixed for his execution; and at an early hour he was conducted to the scaffold, stretched on a hurdle, and drawn to Tyburn. The dauntless spirit he had displayed in prison (during six months of which, his only companion being the warder, no one else was permitted to communicate with him) never forsook him. A hundred years had elapsed since a Roman Catholic bishop had been thus executed there; and thus an immense multitude had collected. On the scaffold he delivered a short address, protesting his innocence as to the charges made against him, pardoned his enemies, prayed God to be propitious to him through the merits of Christ, and the intercession of the blessed Virgin and the Saints.

His remains were interred, at his own request, in the Church of St Giles, and with them a copperplate, on which was the following inscription :

"In this tomb resteth the body of the Most Rev. Oliver Plunket, late Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of all Ireland, who, when accused of high treason, through hatred of the faith by false brethren, and condemned to death, being hanged, at Tyburn, and his bowels being taken out and cast into the fire, suffered martyrdom with constancy, in the reign of Charles II., king of Great Britain, on the 1st day of July 1681." (Translated

from the Latin. See Dr Moran's "Memoir of Dr Oliver Plunket.")

We could extract much from the biography of this excellent divine that would interest the reader, were he of any denomination professing Christianity; but we cannot do more than give a mere sketch of his history and martyrdom, and some portion of one of his letters, to show "what manner of man he was," and a part of one relating to him, by an intimate friend of his, a Mr Corker, to a lady, whose name is not given :

:

"The trial being ended, and he condemned, his man had leave to wait on him alone in his chamber, by whose means we had intercourse with each other. And now it was I clearly perceived the Spirit of God in him, and those lovely fruits of the Holy Ghost-charity, joy, peace-transparent in his soul; his countenance so divinely elevated; such a composed mixture of cheerfulness, constancy, love, sweetness, and candour, as manifestly denoted the Divine goodness had made him fit for a victim, and destined him for heaven. None saw or came near him but received new comfort, new fervour, new desires to please, serve, and suffer for Christ Jesus, by his very presence. . .

"He continually endeavoured to improve and advance himself in the purity of divine love, and, by consequence, also, in contrition for his sins past; of his deficiency of both which this humble soul complained to me, as the only thing that troubled him. Indeed, the more we love God,

the more we desire it; and the more we desire it, the more we love. . . . In him was fulfilled that (rule) of the Canticles, viii. 6: fortis est ut mors dilectio. This love had extinguished in him all fear of death. A lover feareth not death, but rejoiceth at the approach of the beloved. Hence the joy of our holy martyr seemed still to increase with his danger, and was fully accomplished by an assurance of death. The very night before he died, being now, as it were, at heart's-ease, he went to bed at eleven o'clock, and slept quietly and soundly till four in the morning, at which time his man wakened him. . . . So much had the loveliness of the end beautified the horror of the passage to it. . . . As he gave up his soul, with all its faculties, to the conduct of God, so for God's sake he resigned the care and disposal of his body to unworthy me. . . For an instance of this, the day before he suffered, when I sent a barber to him, the barber asked him whether he should leave anything on his upper lip; he answered he knew not how I would have it, and he would do nothing without my order; so that they were forced to send for me before the barber could finish his work. Another mark of his strange humility was that, about an hour before he was carried to execution, being desired to drink a little glass of sack to strengthen his spirits, he answered he was not at his own disposal, but at mine, and that he must have leave from me before he could either taste or refuse it.

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Whereupon, though I was locked up, yet, for his satisfaction, his man and the keeper's wife came to my chamber, and then returning back, told him I enjoined it, upon which he readily submitted. . . . The most savage and hard-hearted people were mollified and attendered at his sight; and many Protestants, in my hearing, wished their souls in the same state with his. . . . All believed him innocent.

"When he was carried out of the press-yard to execution, he turned him about to our chamberwindows, with a pleasant aspect, and, with elevated hands, gave us his benediction. . . . Sweet Jesus grant us His grace to follow his example, to the end we may deserve his present patronage and future company in eternal glory, which is the daily prayer of, Madam, your devoted servant in our Lord, CORKER."

Extract from a letter of Dr Plunket to Mr Corker :

"But why should I speak of Saint John, whereas his Master, who was free from original, all venial, and actual sins, suffered cold, frost, hunger, prisons, stripes, thorns, and the most painful death of the cross? That of Tyburn compared, as I hear the description of it, is but a flea-biting. I ought therefore cheerfully desire it, heartily covet it, and joyfully embrace it; it being a sure way, a smooth path, by which I may, in a very short time, pass

from sorrow to joy, from toil to rest, and from a momentary time or duration to never-ending eternity. I pray, excuse errors. I hope soon there will be lacrymarum finis-the happy finis-which will draw me to that place where I may, in a great measure, recompense, or speak an interest with the greatest of Princes, to remunerate the favours and charities conferred upon your obliged friend,

"OLIVER PLUNKET."

With this brief record of Dr Plunket, our AngloRoman Martyrology must conclude.

Ample subject for spiritual edification has already been supplied-ample subject for humiliation to members of the so-called "Reformed" English Church.

We are aware that it will be urged by the bigoted and self-sufficient, as well as by the lazy and indifferent, amongst us, that "It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest;" but to such we simply reply, is it an "ill" physician that probes the angry wound, or searches deeply into a disease, that he may prescribe a fitting cure?

It is high time that the "root of bitterness " should be eradicated, the "railing accusations" silenced, and the blessed "fruits of the Spirit " cultivated amongst us, which that Word that cannot err tells us are "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, charity."

Then, and then alone, shall we prove our one