Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

twenty centuries , one can look back into Judea , ancl see the usurper , Adonijah , on hearing how his half-brother , Solomon , had been anointed king , by command of their common father , David , fleeing to lay "hold on the horns of the altar " at Gribeon , ancl we can almost fancy that we , too , hear the new king exclaiming when the tidings are brought to him : " If ho will show himself a worthy man , there shall not a hair of him fall to thc earth : but if wickedness shall be found in him , he

shall die . " And we can easily imagine we see Benaiah , tho son of Johoiada , the year following , savagely slaughtering Joab , by his cousin Solomon ' s command , even after he had " fled unto the tabernacle of the Lord , ancl caught hold on the horns of the altar , " vainly hoping to there find sanctuary . But , though blood is said to be thicker than water , the common ties of kith and kin did not avail in the least to save the two offenders from thc fatal penalties of their treason . Indeed the heathen nations seem

to have held the privilege of sanctuary more sacred than the Jews ; though no man could ever count on safety anywhere who had offended his monarch and the priesthood as well . Macaulay has well remarked , that " in times when life ancl when female honour were exposed to daily risk from tyrants and marauders , it was better that the precinct of a shrine should be regarded with an irrational awe than that there should be no refuge

inaccessible to cruelty ancl licentiousness . " Our Saxon forefathers duly regulated the privilege of sanctuary by law , ancl therein protected the offender for thirty days , at tho expiration of which he was safely handed over to his relations ; thus giving him some time in ivhich to arrange for those money mulcts which were then , as now , too frequently the unequal punishment of crimes . It was in their clays that tho custom arose at Beverley ivhich Mr . Andrews has ably but not exhaustively chronicled in a few pases .

In the able History and Antiquities of the Town and Minster of Beverley , from the prolific pen of our late Reverend Brother , George Oliver , we are told : — " It was reserved for Athelstane , the benefactor of the town of Beverley , to unite the whole kingdom under one head , by the annihilation of the Danish sovereignty ; " and how , "in the first year of his reign , he gave a charter of liberties to the church ancl town of Beverley , which placed it at the head of the East Riding of Yorkshire : " ancl , after

particularizing a few of those , ho adds : " The right of sanctuary was now first vested in the Church of St . John , by tho pious munificence of Athelstan , ancl a Fridstol , or chair of peace , was placed in a conspicuous situation near the altar , as an emblem of protection to the refugee . Tho limits of the sanctuary , called Leuga , were comprehended within the circumference of a circle , of which the church ivas the centre , and whose radius was about a mile . It was defined by four crossesone of ivhich still [ 1829 ]

, remains in a dilapidated state . These crosses were placed on the four principal roads leading to the town . One was called Molescroft Cross , and stood near Leckonfield Park ; another towards North Burton ; a third towards Kinwal graves ; ancl the lasttc the south of Beverley , on the road which led to the ferry across the Humber . " The penalties for arresting any malefactor within the crosses were very severe , —two hundreth , each hundredth containing eight pounds ; which was doubled to four hundredth within

the town ; increased to six hundredth if within the walls of thc churchyard . : which was doubled to twelve hundredth if within the church : and again increased to eig hteen hundredth , besides penance for sacrilege , if within the doors of the choir ; "but if he presumed to take him out of tho stone chair near the altar , called Pridstol , or from among the holy relics behind the altar , the offence was not redeemable with any sum , but was then become sine emendatione , boteles , and nothing but the utmost severity of the offended Church , " says Pegge , " was to be expected , by a dreadful excommunication , besides what the secular power would impose for the presumptuous misdemeanor . "

When our ancient operative brethren at Beverley had completed "the north porch , and the ivest front , ivith its majestic towers and battlements , and , perhaps , some of tbe windows in the choir and east end , " as Bro . Oliver expresses it , Richard H . confirmed , among other liberties and privileges , " its sacred right of sanctuary ; which , within a very few year's , afforded its protection to Sir John Holland , kni ght , half-brother