crown, the celebrated statute of Drogheda was passed in 1495. It received the designation of Poyning's Law, from the name of the lord deputy under whose administration it was passed. Its most memorable enactment prohibited any parliament being held in Ireland until the king should be certified by his lieutenant of the causes of calling the parliament, and of the measures intended to be brought forward in it, and should have given his consent in council to the holding of the parliament. The legislative body of Ireland was thus brought under the executive government of England, and the turbulent Anglo-Irish barons were prevented from uniting themselves into a body which might resist the English government. Poyning's law also, enacted that all statutes "lately" passed in England should be law in Ireland: and in interpretation of this, the whole of the English statute law, prior to the eighteenth year of Henry VII., was transplanted to Ireland, while the later English statutes down to the period of the Union, have only been law in Ireland in as far as they were confirmed by the Irish parliament. By other enactments of Poyning's law, the warlike followers of the nobility were limited, and crimes were to be punished with the formalities of law, instead of the spirit of private revenge.Chambers" Educ. Course. Baronial Castles. [Note 1.] 34. Before this great era, all the towns in England owed their origin to certain castles in their neighbourhood, where some powerful lord generally resided. These were at once places of protection to the feudal vassals and prisons for all sorts of criminals. In them, likewise, was usually a garrison, which depended entirely upon the nobleman's support; and thither artificers, victuallers, and shopkeepers, naturally resorted, to furnish him and his attendants with all the necessaries they might require. The farmers also, and the husbandmen in the vicinity, built their houses there, with the view of being protected against the numerous gangs of robbers called Robertsmen, who hid themselves in the woods by day, and infested the open country by night. Henry endeavoured to transplant the towns from such unfavourable localities, by inviting the inhabitants to more commercial situations-Simpson's Goldsmith. A Yeoman of Henry VII's Time. [Note 1.] 35. My father was a yeoman, and had no lands of his own, only he had a farm of 31. or 47. by year at the uttermost, and hereupon he tilled so much as kept half-a-dozen men. He had a walk for an hundred sheep, and my mother milked thirty kine. He was able, and did find the king a harness, with himself and his horse, while he came to the place that he should receive the king's wages. I can remember that I buckled his harness when he went to Blackheath Field. He kept me to school, else I had not been able to preach before the king's majesty now. He married my sisters with 57. or twenty nobles a piece, so that he brought them up in godliness and fear of God. He kept hospitality for his poor neighbours. And some alms he gave to the poor, and all this did he of the said farm. Where he that now hath it payeth 167. by the year, or more, and is not able to do anything for his prince, for himself, nor for his children, or give a cup of drink to the poor.-Bishop Latimer's Sermons. [Notes 29, 15.] Dramatic Performance. 36. In the reign of Henry VII., 1487, that king in his castle at Winchester, was entertained on a Sunday, while at dinner, with the performance of Christ's descent into hell.-Pulleyn's Etymological Compendium. Scolds. [Notes 38, 39.] 37. In the third year of the reign of Richard III., two women, Isabella, the wife of William Pery, and Alienore Slade, were presented for common scolds, and fined one penny each, which twopence were the whole perquisites of the court. And at the same time, an order of the court was made, that the tenants of the manor should not scold their wives, under pain of forfeiting their tenements and cottages. Now, this was all very well and extremely fair, as apparently binding upon both parties. But see the mischief of it; at least of the last order of the court. In the 23rd year of Henry VII., the immediate successor of Richard III., I find another order made, that the tenants' wives should not scold (their husbands, of course) under the penalty of a six and eighty-penny fine, half to go to the repairs of the chapel, and half to the lord of the manor. So that in fact, it would appear, that by the restraint laid upon the husbands in the third of Richard, the wives gained such an advantage over them, as in the twenty-third of his successor (ie., only twenty-two years afterwards) to render it absolutely necessary to raise the fine for female scolding from one penny to six shillings and eight-pence!!!-Was ever anything like it.-Heraldic Anomalies. Interesting Memoranda. 38. Singular articles of expense from the accounts of Henry VII., in the exchequer : £. s. d. 7th year-Itm., a fello with a berde, a spye in rewarde 0 40 0 to my lord Privy Seal fole in rewarde 0 10 0 8th year-Itm., to Pechie the fole in rewarde £ s. d. 0 6 8 to the Welshmen on St. David's day 0 40 0 Itm., to Ricd. Bedon for writing of bokes 0 10 0 to the young damoysell that daunceth 30 0 0 13th yr.-Itm., to Mastr Bray for rewardes to them that brought cokkes at Shrovetide to the Herytick at Canterbury 0 20 0 068 39. Shewing the slow progress the art of printing had yet made, Bacon says, the king had (though no good schoolman) the honor to convert a heretic at Canterbury.-Seward's Anecdotes. [Note 36.] QUERIES. The best answer to each will be published. 1. The following Thomases lived in the reign of Henry VII.; state as briefly as you can, for what each was noted. Thomas Astwood, Thomas Bouchier, Thomas Boleyn, Thomas Broughton, Thomas Cranmer, Thomas Cressenor, Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Fulford, Thomas Howard, Thomas Langton, Thomas Pope, Thomas Stanley, Thomas Stafford, Thomas Thwaits, Thomas Trenchard, Thomas Wolsey, Thomas Wyatt. 2. Can you mention any other Thomases who lived in this reign? If so, state for what each was noted. *3. Give the names of the remarkable persons born in this reign. 4. Give the names of the remarkable persons who died in this reign. 5. What right had Henry VII. to the throne of England? 6. Give a succinct account of Catherine of France. 7. What is known of the British king Arthur? 8. How is it that the daughter of the Earl of Huntly who married Warbeck, is called in some books, Lady Douglas, and in others, Lady Gordon ? 9. What females of historical note lived in the reign of Henry VII.? 10 How many children had Henry VII.? Give their names and the dates of the birth and death of each. * The reign of Henry VII. commenced on the day that he won the victory of Bosworth-field, which, according to the best authorities, was on the 22nd of August, 1485. Mr. Farr says (Hist. Eng. p. 232) that it was in 1484. PRACTICAL LESSONS FOR THE NURSERY OR SCHOOLROOM. By WILLIAM MARTIN, Author of "The Intellectual Calculator," "Intellectual Primer," &c., &c. NO. II.—PRACTICAL METHOD OF TEACHING ARITHMETIC. WE promised in our last to give a continuation of Practical Lessons in Arithmetic. In our first lesson we went through a series of numbers up to twelve in the tangible and abstract forms; we shall now proceed to the addition table, and to the lessons which should be founded upon it. Before we proceed it will, however, not be irrelevant to our subject to say something concerning the "memory," and its use in arithmetical combinations. There are two kinds of memory, so to speak; one may be called the "verbal" and the other the "essential" memory. To the former, or verbal memory, belongs the learning of "tables," "spelling words," "dates," mathematical formulæ, &c. The latter, or essential memory, has to do with occurrences and their particulars," with "things and their qualities," with "principles and their exponents," with "ideas and their combinations." By the verbal memory we, as it were, fix mechanically on the mind preliminary data; by the essential memory we acquire that recondite knowledge which we apply to everything within the sphere of our intuition. The great eror of education has been in not making a nice distinction between these two parts of our mental economy, and of using the one when we ought to have applied the other. The merest tyro in educational matters will have observed that in many children the verbal memory predominates, and that such children are called quick children, and are said to be able to learn anything, while others who have it not, but who perhaps are largely endowed with the "essential" memory, get the name of "dolts" or " dunces." Of the former class of children nothing is more common than to see them learn column after column of spelling lessons, and repeat, parrot-like, page after page of "grammar rules," "theorems," and catechisms." The other class of children, who abhor the committing of anything to memory without definite ideas, are equally quick at remembering persons, places, and things, the circumstances of events, the particulars of everything brought under the evidence of their senses, and have generally associated with this faculty a spirit of curiosity and inquiry, an active nervous temperament, and great powers of imagination. Now the experienced teacher has to take advantage of this or that condition of the mind according to the subject he has to teach, and the "verbal memory" is a most valuable auxiliary in the teaching of arithmetical tables, and in other matters to which we have referred, but it is very injurious to push this verbal memory beyond its legitimate and proper limits. While "tables," "spelling lessons," "mathematical and other data," fall strictly within its province, the circumstances of history, the facts of geography and the natural sciences do not. These belong to the essential memory, and are to be mastered by being dovetailed in the mind by the powers of observation, attention, and reflection. If we adapt the mere verbal memory to the acquisition of real knowledge, we soon find that a great deal may be learned, and a very little known. But we must not rush into the opposite extreme, a and repudiate the "verbal memory" entirely. Both are equally necessary in the work of education. To know, for instance, the addition, multiplication, and pence tables, the abstract rules of grammar, the definitions of geometry, the chronology of dates, &c. are most important matters; we could not indeed do without them. They are pivots upon which the mind may be said to turn, and therefore, as regards the teaching of arithmetic, we would insist peremptorily upon the tables being thoroughly learned. There must be no break in them whatever; they must be, as it were, stereotyped in the mind, ever at hand and ever ready. Presuming, then, the addition table to be thoroughly mastered, it will be the teacher's next object to question all the pupils thoroughly on the combinations, as follow: These questions may be then reversed, as 2 and 1 how many? 3 and 2 how many? 4 and 3 how many? 5 and 4 how many? 6 and 5 how |