font St. Peter's; but this was subse- Elwood took "a pretty box for him in quently confiscated and made over to the Giles' Chalfont;" and it was here that he Duke of Grafton; and about 1670 he is suggested to him the idea of "Paradise found purchasing a house near Amers- Regained." Milton had given him the ham for fifty pounds. Thomas Elwood manuscript of "Paradise Lost" to pass who, with his wife Mary, rests just be- his judgment on. "I pleasantly said to hind Letitia and Springett, two of William him," the Quaker relates in his life, Penn's children learned his first les-"Thou hast said much here of Paradise sons in Quakerism from the Penningtons. lost, but what hast thou to say to ParaHe was about Guli Springett's age, and dise found?' He made me no answer, speaks of "having been often drawn with but sate some time in muse; then broke her in her little coach through Lincoln's off that discourse, and fell upon another Inn Fields by Lady Springett's footman." subject. After the sickness was over, His first visit to the Penningtons at Chal- and the city well cleansed, he returned font was not promising. "We stayed thither; and when afterwards I went to dinner, which was very handsome," he wait on him there he showed me his writes in his life, "and lacked nothing to second poem, called Paradise Regained," recommend it but the want of mirth and and in a pleasant tone said to me, 'This pleasant discourse, which we could is owing to you; for you put it into my neither have with them, nor, by reason of head by the question you put to me at them, with one another amongst our- Chalfont, which before I had not thought selves; the weightiness that was upon of."" their spirits and countenances keeping down the lightness that would have been up in us.

Save on rare occasions, when he came to see the Penningtons or Elwoods, William Penn was not much in the neighborhood of Jordans after the early years of his first marriage. His Pennsylvanian home latterly kept him much abroad; and after his second marriage with Hannah Callowhill, the daughter of a merchant of Bristol, he seems to have resided much in that city. The headstones that mark the graves of the Penns, Penningtons, Elwoods, Rules, and other Friends in Jordans, are of comparatively recent introduction. They seem to have been oftener used than not in the infancy of Quakerism (even George Fox's grave being so marked out), and to have been prohibited only owing to some members of the society going beyond the simple practice of inscribing merely the name and date upon the stone. About thirty years ago the prohibition was withdrawn and then the Friends of this meeting had tombstones placed to mark such graves as could be identified from the register. Meetings are held at Jordans on Thursdays in May, and Sundays (or first days as Quakers call them) in June. The meeting on the 2d of June last was attended by up. wards of five hundred persons, many of whom stood in the graveyard for want of room in the little meeting-house. Save on such an occasion as this, it is seldom that the echo of wheels disturbs the quiet lane that leads to Jordans; and in the summer, when the leaves are thick upon the limes and beeches, the stranger on his way between Beaconsfield and Chalfont might easily pass it by unno

Jordans is about two and a quarter miles from Beaconsfield on one side and Chalfont St. Giles on the other, and an easy distance also from Chalfont St. Peter's, Amersham, and Penn, where a grandson of William Penn is buried a son of that Thomas Penn who married Lady Juliana Fermor, and was proprietor of Pennsylvania in his day. The meeting-house was therefore conveniently situated for the requirements of this early band of Quakers. Besides being close to the early and later home of the Penningtons, it was not far from Hunger Hill, where the Elwoods settled themselves down to die, and only six miles from Rickmansworth, where William Penn took Guli Springett on her honeymoon. This part of the country was, in fact, a very hotbed of Dissent. In the Bucks Records we find: "General Fleetwood lived at the Vache, in Chalfont, and Russell on the opposite hill; and Mrs. Cromwell, Oliver's wife, and her daughters at Woodrow High House; so the whole country was kept in awe and became exceedingly zealous and very fanatical." A greater than any of these came into the neighborhood of Jordans in 1665. Thomas Elwood had made Milton's acquaintance in London some years before, when hunted out of house and and home by the Aylesbury justices, read Latin to him in his lodging in Jewin Street. When the plague grew hot in the city, the blind poet bethought him of his quondam secretary, and asked him to find him some retreat in his neighborhood. | ticed.

From St. James's Gazette.
THE LAST JOURNEY OF PIUS IX.

ROME, July 13.

out after nightfall. Just before midnight torch-bearers belonging to the different Catholic associations began to form a double line from the sacristy door towards AT this time of year, when the night the Piazza, and at five minutes past the is the best part of the day, when the hour the funeral car, containing all that moon is bright and the night breeze fresh, remains of Pius IX., issued from under the announcement of a spectacle such as the arch leading to the Piazza Sta. Marta the transport at midnight through the on the left-hand side of the Basilica. The streets of Rome of the remains of a pope, car was drawn by four black horses and that pope Pio Nono, would have the first pair ridden by postilion in cocked been quite sufficient to keep all Rome in hat- and had a lamp at each of its four the streets and squares through which the corners. Over it was thrown the red velprocession was to pass, apart from any vet cloth that used to be hung from the religious or anti-religious interest in the Loggia of St. Peter's, when the Papal ceremony. In old times the ceremonial benediction was given thence at Easter: was far more ceremonious. Then the it dates from the time of Innocent III., removal from the temporary tomb and the about the year 1200. Beside the car identification of the seals of the coffin were walked priests bearing candles, and beperformed before the nobility and people hind it followed carriages of Church digof Rome, and the remains were accompa- nitaries, the first containing Monsignor nied by all the religious orders, the col- Folicaldi, Archbishop of Ephesus, who leges, schools, and parish priests, the had pronounced the absolution. And canons of the several Basilicas, etc., car- then the torch-bearers fell into the line rying torches or candles, and the funeral from right and left; the houses at the car surrounded by the Swiss Guard. end and sides of the Piazza illuminated. Ranks of soldiers guarded the way; the The light on the faded red velvet cover, guns of St. Angelo fired a salute, and the and the long line of lights winding through Bells of Rome's innumerable churches the crowd, made a very picturesque entolled a funeral knell. This time the semble, as seen from the steps before St. ceremonies within St. Peter's were per- Peter's; and even at this early stage formed in strict privacy, and the proces- there was some confusion. As there sion outside was simplicity itself. There were no police nor troops to keep the line, was no saluting, no tolling, not even at casual cabs forced their way among the St. Peter's, as the bier moved away. The carriages following the bier; and at the beautiful night and the rare spectacle had angle of Castel St. Angelo a disgraceful indeed invited crowds of people; it is es- scene began, which was unfortunately contimated that there were one hundred thou- tinued at intervals up to the very door of sand along the line of the procession, and St. Lorenzo. A group of youths, which at all the approaches to St. Peter's reminded first certainly did not number more than one of the days of great "functions" in fifty or sixty, pushed their way among the the old days. The pavement on the torch-bearers shouting "Viva l'Italia!" bridge of St. Angelo and the steps of St. "Down with the priests!" and (the cleriPeter's were early taken by people who cal papers say) "Throw him into the had come to secure a seat and a good river!" but, receiving no encouragement view; and through the crowd, as at all nor any response but cries of "CanaRoman feste and gatherings of the peo-glia!" from the crowd, ceased operations. ple, there moved the sigararo with his Further on, however, in the narrow streets tray of cigars for sale, and the bruscoli- leading to Piazza Venezia, the scene was naro, or seller of melon-seeds, inviting renewed, and near the church of the Gesu people with his melancholy cry to "pass a regular scuffle occurred. All up the the time" by eating his seeds. There, Via Nazionale the same scenes were retoo, were the sellers of the "official pro- peated, the same turbulent set, which the gramme "for a soldo, and boys with few police seemed powerless to disperse, torches for sale, whose cry of "Ecco moc- keeping up their disgraceful din. They coli" recalled the Carnival. The walls of sang Garibaldi's hymn to drown the St. Angelo were lined with soldiers, who sound of the prayers, and not infrequently had been permitted to remain up to see gave or accepted fight with the bystanders. the sight, and I noticed a great many At the railway station advantage was priests and monks among the crowd- a taken of a newly gravelled square to pelt rare spectacle nowadays; for since 1870 it the carriages, and the military had to be has been very uncommon to see priests | sent for. The road to the gate of St. Lo

renzo was then blocked, but some of the disturbers managed to get by and attempted another demonstration before St. Lorenzo. Here, however, they were finally dispersed. The coffin was then taken into the church and received by Cardinals Monaca la Valletta, Mertel, and Simeoni, exccutors of the late pope.

Opinions differ very much as to who is chiefly to blame for this disgraceful exhibition of feeling; the Liberals try to excuse themselves by saying they received provocation; but I myself watched a group of Roman 'Arrys before the ceremony began, who had evidently come with no other intention than to make a row. Then they say that either the business should have been done really in secret, or else that the clericals should have asked the government for troops to keep order, instead of adopting a middle course; or that they should have removed the pope's remains by day. To the latter objection traditional custom is opposed, to say nothing of the intense heat of the sun in the midday hours. To the former objections, there is the answer that the hour chosen was one when the streets are usually most empty. Thus Pio Nono made his last journey through as turbulent a scene as any he lived in. He now rests at St. Lorenzo, under a very simple monument, which by his will was not to cost more than two thousand francs, and which bears the simple inscription: "Ossa et Cineres Pii Papæ IX. Vivit A. LXXXV: in Pontif A xxxI, M. vII, D. Orate pro Eo."

sterling, and the religious ceremony can first be read over the body. It is unnecessary to say that the Catholic priest refuses church burial to any one electing to be cremated. Protestant pastors, on the contrary, willingly accord it. The cinerary urns bear the name of one or two Jews. These are arranged outside the cremation hall in an open portico, and are solid and artistic, bearing the names of the deceased, etc.; some were richly decorated with fresh flowers. My guide now takes me into the spacious hall where the religious ceremony, when given, is read, and where the body is laid before its removal to the receptacle underground where cremation takes place. I may mention that the public are not admitted to the ceremony at any time, only the nearest relations of the deceased; and that nothing is seen of the process. We now, not without a feeling of awe, as well as of deepest interest on my part, descend by a dark, winding staircase into the subterranean chambers where the burning is performed. My guide with much intelligence explained the process, which is highly elaborate and conducted on scientific principles. We see the huge preparations in the form of coal, and the burning-oven, also on a vast scale, finally the receptacle for the ashes. Nine hours of preliminary preparation are necessary; and it must be explained, in order to remove any feeling of repugnance on the part of the reader, that the body is not burned in flame but is reduced to ashes by air heated to six hundred degrees Réaumur. Two hours elapse before the ashes are collected-six pounds being usual in the case of a man, four in that of a woman. As I have before said, the process is not visible and is so scientific that every element of horror is eliminated. The ceremony takes place in silent soAMID pleasant fields outside this at-lemnity, only the necessary officials and tractive little city stands the famous cremation hall, with the exception of that at Milan the only one in Europe. The building itself is handsome, is built on classic models, and faces the ordinary burialground, or kirchhof. Before describing what I have just seen I will mention that this cremation hall is of two and a half years' date only, and was built by an association or Vercin of some of the most learned and thoughtful men in Germany. Fifty-two persons, five of whom were women, have in this space of time chosen such a form of burial, one body being sent from New York. The cost of the mere process of cremation is about five pounds

XXII.

From The Pall Mall Gazette.

A GERMAN CREMATION HALL.

GOTHA, June 26.

one or two near relatives being admitted. I think few visitors will visit this cremation hall without being deeply impressed in favor of a system so advantageous to the living, and, it must be admitted - at least, of France and Germany also advantageous to the dead. Here, as in France, the law compels such prompt interment that in many cases it has been known to take place before the breath had left the body. In Algeria I have known personally a victim of this misapprehension; and my German friends all speak to me in warm terms of the new system as, irrespective of other advan tages, preventing premature burial.

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