as

have Thomas Tuson, Martyr; a young man born at Ipswich, but coming to London, was apprenticed to one George Goodyeer, and turned preacher. He was soon apprehended, and, appears from Fox, exhibited a great deal of obstinacy and arrogance before the Bishop. After several examinations he was sentenced to suffer. On the fifteenth is Thomas Went, Martyr; a shearman of Essex, and on the sixteenth comes Thomas Browne, Martyr; a poor labouring man, born at Histon, in the diocese of Ely, who came to London, married, and commenced preacher, and endeavoured to disseminate the principles of Calvin. Upon his examination, like Went, he shewed the usual spirit of pride and self-sufficiency, and was condemned. We have now a female martyr, Isabel Foster, wife of a cutler, in Fleet-street; and on the eighteenth we have two martyrs in one day, Joane Warne, alias, Lashford, and John Lomas. The first was a young woman, twenty years of age, daughter of Robert Lashford, a cutler in London, and married to John Warne, an upholder; she seems to have been the most forward of the whole company in expressing her sentiments before the Bishop, for the last seven were examined together, and all suffered at the same time. Fox, although ever ready to vilify Bishop Bonnor, nevertheless acknowledges, that in this instance he exerted every means in his power to remove the perverseness and obstinacy of these persons, so that their lives might be saved, as all of them, with the exception of the two first, were poor illiterate people: but his charitable endeavours met only with abuse and derision. It seems also that Fox was put to his shifts for a virgin martyr, for he has denominated Joane Warne a maid martyr, although a married woman. The second martyr › on the eighteenth, John Lomas, was a very young man of Tenterden, in Kent; an artificer and enthusiast, who went about delivering opinions of his own, which at length caused his apprehension. The nineteenth furnishes us with Ann Alebright, alias, Champnes, Martyr, a poor married woman, of the parish of Smarden, in Kent, and a Calvinist. On the twentieth, are Joane Catner, and Agnes Snoth, Martyrs. The one a poor woman of Hithe, and the other a widow of Smarden, both infected with the doctrines of Zuinglius. We have on the

All

twenty-first, William Waterer, and Joane Sole, Martyrs: the first an artificer, and the second a spinster, of Horton. these seem to have been poor ignorant people, but enthusiastically headstrong and perverse: uttering opinions in contradiction with each other. They were condemned together, and suffered at the same time at Canterbury. Fox gives us little more than the names of the nine last martyrs of this month, and says of them, "In the most principal and cheefest matters, they did not greatly discord." They were all very poor men, labourers, and artificers of Kent, six of them suffered together at Canterbury, and the others at Wye and Ashford. Their religious opinions seem to have been very confused, yet none of them were wanting in presumption. I have now, Sir, gone through January, and certainly the collection of martyrs for this month is a little extraordinary. The first, a man of restless spirit, attacking others, but suffering himself during a long life, but little molestation for his religious opinions, and dying in his bed at a good old age, the Rector of a Catholic Parish. Of another martyr we are ignorant when or how he died. Then we have several who were hanged for treason and rebellion: certainly a curious set of martyrs, of whom John Fox himself seems almost ashamed. Here we have a married woman graced with the title of a Maid Martyr, and there we have several maintaining opinions and doctrines diametrically opposite to each other: but among the whole number, not a single one defended the doctrines contained in the thirty-nine articles. And yet they are all good Protestant Martyrs.

It appears that six persons had been convicted for the maltreatment and robbery of a Mr. Maxwell; five were Protestants, and the other a Catholic, all of whom were recommended to

mercy by the jury. In consequence of which, the five Protest-ants were reprieved and escaped punishment; the Catholic alone, who appeared to have been the least culpable, was executed at Glasgow, on the 29th October last, in the presence of a multitude of spectators much greater than usual on such occasions. The following is the dying declaration of the unfortunate victim:

DYING DECLARATION OF FRANCIS CAIN.

“1, Francis Cain, acknowledge here publicly the justice of my sentence. As I know that all accessaries to the crime of highway robbery are, by law, liable to death. I acknowledge having been in company with others when Mr. Maxwell was robbed; I acknowledge that I got a fair trial; I blame no person for the evidence given against me in court; I die in peace with, and goodwill towards, all men; I freely forgive all men who may have intentionally or unintentionally injured me, and I feel as grateful to the jury, who recommended me to the royal mercy, as if that mercy had been extended to me.

"I acknowledge, that Mr. Maxwell was much hurt, and wantonly injured; and I regret it most bitterly. But I feel some consolation in these my last moments, to be able to state in the presence of that God of truth, before whose awful tribunal I am about to appear, that I never struck or hurt Mr. Maxwell; that I never took a farthing or a farthing's worth of property from his person; that I advised my companions not to attempt to rob Mr. Maxwell, and still more strongly advised them not to strike or hurt that gentleman. While I bow with resignation to the divine will, to the justice of my sentence, I wish to state, that I think my feelings have been unnecessarily harrowed up since my sentence. On Saturday, the 4th, or Sunday, the 5th of this month, I do not precisely recollect which of these days it was, I was visited among others, by two young Protestant gentlemen ; one of them a tall man. Religion became the subject of conversation, and it having been understood or supposed by them, that I either proposed myself, or had been advised, to send for Mr. Scott, and embrace the Catholic religion, a significant hint was given me by the tall gentleman, that if I sent for Mr. Scott, and embraced the Catholic religion, it might militate against my

getting a reprieve, notwithstanding my recommendation to mercy by the jury. I think it will be acknowledged, that such a hint would have been sufficient to appal the mind of a man of superior years than I am, in the awful situation I then was. It did in effect so work upon my mind, as to induce me to write, on the 6th current, by the hand of a protestant gentleman, who visited me on that day, the following letter to my mother:

DEAR MOTHER,

Glasgow, 6th Octr. 1823.

< Since I saw you on Saturday, I have been thinking on what you said, regarding sending Mr. Scott to visit me, and I have now made up my mind on that subject; so that however much I esteem you as my parent, and am bound to obey your lawful commands, you will excuse me at this time, for refusing to comply with your request, as I have my Bible, which I believe to be the word of God, and also several good men, who visit me and my companion, who explain to us the word of God, and which I am satisfied, is calculated by the blessing of God, to enlighten my mind in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, as the only Saviour of sinYou will therefore not send Mr. Scott to me, as I have instructed Mr. Mc'Gregor not to allow him to come to me, though he should call "

ners.

"Soon after that I altered my mind, and I wish to publish in this court, my recantation of that letter, and hope that this public recantation will do away the scandal I may have given to Catholics, by allowing the hope of escaping an ignominious death, to make me momentarily renounce that religion, the practice of which I bitterly regret having neglected during my life, but in the profession of which, I now declare it to be my greatest consolation to die, I also wish to state here publicly, that while in consequence of the hint already alluded to, I was hesitating what religion to embrace, it was held out to me as a kind of threat, that if I sent for Mr. Scott, and embraced the Catholic religion, my companion, alluded to in my letter to my mother, would be removed from me, and that I would be left alone on my final determination to embrace the Catholic religion; that hint or threat was put in execution, and before the Rev. Mr. Murdoch was admitted for the first time to see me, my companion, Edward M'Caffer, was removed from the cell, and put in with the other three prisoners. I think it will be ac

knowledged, that solitary confinement is one of the greatest punishments, next to death, that can be inflicted; and I feel convinced, that that punishment was inflicted on me in consequence alone of embracing the Catholic religion; and from which punishment of solitary confinement, I feel certain that I would have been exempted, had I embraced the Protestant religion. I wish also to state, that although I am ignorant of the real cause why mercy was not extended to me, as well as my companions, sentenced for the same crime; that although it was hinted to me, that my embracing the Catholic religion might militate against my getting a reprieve, which in fact has been denied me; yet I feel convinced that had any individual proposed to the government, or to the judges who tried the case, the circumstance of my being a Catholic, as a motive to induce them to withold a reprieve from me, they would have spurned at such a proposal, and resisted it with indignation.

"I wish however to state, that the circumstances I have mentioned, have been the cause of much suffering to me in my awful situation; that my spirits have been much depressed at seeing my companion in misery, proved to be as criminal as myself, and not more strongly recommended to the jury than I was, taken from my side and freed from an ignominious death, while I alone, out of six who were present at the robbery, am doomed to suffer. These reflections weighed still more powerfully on my mind, from the consideration of the fact, that of the six indiuiduals who were present at the robbery, five were Protestants, and I alone of the six was, or should have been a Catholic; that I alone of all the six die for that crime, while all my five Protestant companions have in different ways escaped the last rigour of the law. I finish, by again declaring in the presence of my God, that I advised my companions not to commit the robbery; that I advised them not to strike or hurt Mr. Maxwell; that I did not strike him myself, and that I did not take any thing from his person. I wish to accuse no person; I wish to hurt no person; I as freely, from the bottom of my heart, forgive all men, as I hope to obtain from God pardon and forgiveness for my own offences, through the merits of my redeemer Jesus Christ. I submit myself with resignation to the