Specimen copied from Wycliffe's Bible, among the Royal MS. in the British Museum.

["In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life: and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehendeth it not.]

found only in the Bible, and that every person should have the privilege of searching it, and judging for themselves with regard to its doctrines. For the benefit of his countrymen, Wycliffe, like his great successor Luther, devoted several years of his life to the completion of a translation of the Old and New Testaments into his native tongue. This is the oldest English version of the Scriptures that is now extant. His translation of the New Testament has been twice printed, firstly, in folio, London, 1731; secondly, in quarto, in 1810. The translation of the Old Testament still remains in manuscript. The accompanying engraving is a copy of the manuscript in the British Museum, of the five first verses in the first chapter of John. At the beginning of the chapter is a figure designed to represent St. John writing his Gospel, with an eagle by his side.

HULL, or Kingston-on-Hull, is a large seaport and borough town in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It is situated on the great inlet of the Humber, which forms the great oulet by which the eastern rivers of England discharge themselves into the German Ocean; and while it thus opens an easy access to the sea on the east, it commands, at the same time, by its various branches, the interior navigation of the west. The docks, which add so much to the commercial prosperity of the town, were commenced in 1774. The town is situated thirty-eight miles from York, and about 170 north from London, and contains about 85,000 inhabi

tants, the greater part of whom are connected with commercial pursuits.

Hull was founded by Edward I, from whom it received the name of King's Town, now Kingston, to which it was added upon Hull, to distinguish it from Kingston-upon-Thames, and other places of similar appellation. In the reign of Edward III, it supplied sixteen ships for the invasion of France, when London only furnished twenty-five. During the contests between the houses of York and Lancaster, Hull continued faithful to the latter. During the civil wars in more modern time, in the reign of Charles I, the first open hostilities occurred at Hull, and by its extraordinary and long protracted defense, it may be said to have been one of the primary causes of the downfall of the royal cause.

During the civil wars which took place in the reign of Charles I, the possession of Hull became a matter of the first importance to both the royal and the parliamentary party, as it contained a larger quantity of stores and ammunition than the Tower of London: and after the long and fruitless altercations which took place between Charles and the parliament, both parties prepared to decide the contest by force of arms.

The king, in order to secure the town, sent the Earl of Northumberland forward from the city of York to take possession in his majesty's name; but the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses, unmindful of their recent declaration, "that they would adhere to his majesty against all his enemies with the utmost of their lives and fortunes," declined to receive the king's general, and after some hesitation and delay, admitted Sir John Hotham as governer by order of parliament.

On the 23d of April, 1642, his majesty, attended by his son, and by a train of from two to three hundred of his servants, with many gentlemen of the county, set out early in the morning from York for Hull, and when he was within about four miles of that place, he sent forward an officer to inform the governor that he intended that day to dine with him. This unexpected honor John Hotham was not disposed to accept, and he dispatched a message to the king, humbly beseeching him "to decline his intended visit, seeing that he, as governor, could not, without betraying the trust committed to him, open the gates to so great a train as his majesty was attended with." The king, however, continued to advance, and Sir John ordered the bridges to be drawn up, the gates closed, and the soldiers to stand to their arms round the walls. The king having arrived at Beverley Gate demanded entrance, at least for himself and twenty of his attendants; but the governor continued to plead the trust reposed in him by Parliament, protesting at the same time upon his knees, that he wished God might bring confusion upon him and his, if he was not a faithful and loyal subject of his majesty. The threats and the entreaties of the king were, however, alike unavailing, and in the evening he retired to Beverley. The next morning he sent a herald to Sir John, summoning him once more to open the gates on pain of being proclaimed a traitor, in case of refusal, and with a promise of forgiveness for the past if he consented. The herald, like his royal master, proved unsuccessful, and the king, grievously disappointed, returned

to York. This was the first act of hostility between the king and the parliamentary party, and proved the commencement of that civil war which, for more than four years, desolated England, and ultimately brought her monarch to the block. On his arrival in York, the king sent a message to the two houses of parliament, demanding justice against the governor of Hull, for his treasonable refusal to obey the royal commands; but instead of punishing Sir John Hotham, the Parliament bestowed upon him and his supporters a vote of thanks. The king having mustered about 3800 troops, of which about 3000 were foot, and 800 horse, and procured a supply of arms from Holland, by the sale of the crown jewels. and by the zeal of his royal consort, resolved to commence the war by an attack upon Hull, the fortress of which he hoped to carry, rather by the defection of the governor, than by the force of his own arms. On the king's arrival at Beverley, Sir John Hotham called a council of war, at which it was determined, that the surrounding country should be laid under water, in order to render all access to the town impracticable to the king's army. This resolution was immediately carried into effect; the sluices were pulled up, and the banks of the Humber were cut, so that the next morning, by the aid of the spring tides, the meadows and pastures, to the exten tof two miles on every side of Hull, were inundated with water. The next care of the governor was to put the town in the best possible state of defense; for this purpose the Charter House, hospital, and several houses in Myton-lane, were demolished; the walls and the fort at the south end were fortified with cannon: batteries were erected at the Myton, Beverley, and the north gates; draw-bridges were thrown over the town ditch, which was then both broad and deep; and the country being under water, the royalists could make no near approaches, either to plant their batteries, or to practice any other species of annoyance. While the garrison of Hull were thus making every preparation for defense, the king was not inactive at Beverley: two hundred men were employed in cutting trenches to divert the current of fresh water which supplied the town of Hull; posts were placed at the Humber side in Lincolnshire, to prevent succors being introduced from that quarter, and two forts were erected, one at Paul, a village about five miles below Hull, and the other at Hessle Cliffe, about the same distance above it, to prevent supplies from being conveyed by the river.

The Parliament being informed of the state of affairs, gave orders that some ships of war should scour the Humber, that 500 men should immediately be sent by sea to Hull, and be followed by 1500 more, as soon as they could be got ready. These recruits, together with a considerable sum of money, and a great store of provisions, arrived about the middle of July, 1642, in the Humber, and passing the fort at Paul without any material damage, landed safely at Hull.

The siege of Hull having now commenced, Sir John Meldrum, a Scotch officer, was sent down by Parliament to assist the governor, and greatly distinguished himself in the defense of the town. Notwithstanding the inundation, the king had brought his cannon to play on the town with some effect, and he was answered with equal spirit by guns planted on the walls, though no material result was produced on either side. Reports were raised in the town, that the king contemplated measures of the greatest cruelty against the inhabitants, and that should he succeed in carrying the place, as he intended, by storm, every person, without respect to age, sex, or condition, was to be put indiscriminately to the sword. By these arts, the troops in the garrison were violently inflamed against the royal cause; and about the end of July, :00 of them, under the command of Sir John Meldrum, made a desperate sally from the fortress, and attacked the king's force with so much impetuosity, that they were compelled to retire to Beverley with considerable loss

After the arrest of Sir John Hotham, who was accused of a plot to surrender the town into the king's hands, the custody of the town was intrusted to the care of a committee of eleven, approved by Parliament, and at the head of which was the mayor: soon afterwards Lord Fairfax arrived in Hull, and, on the 22d of July, 1643, was constituted the governor of that place; and within the space of two months the town was a second time besieged by the royalists. The Marquis of Newcastle, having made himself master of Gainsborough and Lincoln, and driven Sir Thomas Fairfax out of Beverley with great slaughter, appeared with his whole force before Hull, on the 2d of September, and immediately began his operations upon the town, from which he cut off its supplies of fresh water, and of provisions, as far as depended on the adjoining parts of Yorkshire. The siege and defense were conducted with all the military skill of that age, and with all the determination of deep rooted hostility, which generally characterizes intestine warfare. The besiegers erected several batteries, which opened on the town, and were answered by an incessant fire from the walls; and the cannon from the block-houses and the forts on the banks of the Hull, near the ruins of the charter-house, carried devastation and slaughter into the camps of the besiegers. After extreme labor and loss of many lives, the royalists, though exposed to a constant and heavy fire from the walls, at length succeeded in erecting a fort, about half a mile from the town, which was called the King's Fort. On this were placed several pieces of heavy ordnance, and a furnace was erected for the heating of balls. The firing of red-hot balls into the town threw the inhabitants into great consternation; but the precautions of the governor prevented them from doing any inaterial injury: and by adding two large culverins to the charter-house battery, and the erection of another fort, which flanked the royalists, he demolished the King's fort, and deprived the Marquis of Newcastle of the means of firing hot balls into the town.

On the 14th of September, Lord Fairfax ordered the banks of the Humber to be cut; and the country being thus laid under water, the royalists were obliged to abandon all their works, except those on the banks of the river. On the 20th of the same month, the royalists made their approaches to the town on the west, and erected batteries, on which they placed heavy artillery; and, on the 27th, they repaired the fort of Paul, and erected another at Whitgift, near the confluence of the Ouse and the Trent, in order to prevent Hull from receiving supplies by water. But the ships of war, which the Parlia mant had stationed in the Humber, soon demolished these forts; so that the attempt to cut off supplies proved ineffectual.

The siege, which had continued nearly six weeks, was now drawing to a close; for the Marquis of Newcastle, perceiving that his efforts to carry the town must be unavailing, called a council of war on the 11th of October, the deliberations of which resulted in a determination immediately to raise the siege. This was carried into execution the same night; the Marquis drew off his forces; and taking care to prevent a pursuit by opening the canals, destroying the bridges, and breaking up the roads, he retired with the greatest part of his army to York, and detached the remainder into Lincolnshire. On the following morning, when it was perceived that the enemy was gone, Lord Fairfax commanded that the day should be observed as a day of public thanksgiving, and the anniversary was celebrated at Hull in the same manner till the restoration.

ensuing session. This was the last time he took the lead in this great question. On the 10th of June, 1806, Mr. Fox, who was then in office, brought it forward at Mr. Wilberforce's special request. He rightly calculated on the superior influence of ministerial power. The bill, under the auspices of government, passed the lower House by a majority of one hundred and fourteen to fifteen; and through the efforts of Lord Grenville, was, at length, triumphant in the Lords. But the triumph was fairly given to Mr. Wilberforce. In the following year, his return for Yorkshire, which county he had represented in several successive Parliaments, was warmly contested; but such was the ardor with which the friends of humanity espoused his interest, that their subscription far exceeded the expense of his election, although more than £100,000.

"He remained in Parliament for many years, until he was nearly the father of the House. About the year 1825 he retired into domestic life. In 1797, he married Miss Barbara Spooner, the daughter of an opulent banker at Birmingham. We believe that it was about this time he published his celebrated work on Christianity. It was his only work on religious or miscellaneous subjects. His lady and four sons have survived him. His eldest daughter died unmarried, in 1829. His other daughter married the Rev. J. James, and died within twelve months of her marriage.

"In his domestic life, he was playful and animated to a degree. He was extremely fond of children, and would enter into their gambols with the gaiety of a school-boy. In his person there was nothing calculated to excite attention; but, when his countenance was animated by conversation, the expression of the features was very striking. He died July 27th, 1833, aged seventy-three years. His remains are interred in Westminster Abbey, close to those of Pitt and Canning. It was not less honorable to the age than to his memory, to witness men of every rank, and every party, joining together to pay the last tribute of homage to a man whose title to public gratitude was exclusively founded upon his private worth and his disinterested services to mankind. A columnar memorial of this distinguished individual has been placed in this native town, at the foot of the Junction Bridge."

LEEDS, BRADFORD, AND HUDDERSFIELD.

LEEDS, a large borough in the West Riding of Yorkshire, is considered one of the richest and most populous commercial towns in the county. It is 189 miles north-west of London, and twentyfour west of York. Population of the town about 90,000. The population of the parish is upwards of 150,000. The town is situated on the summit and sides of an eminence gently rising from the north bank of the Aire. The valley in which the principal part of this town is situated is quite extensive." A number of manufacturing villages are situated in this section of the country. The tall chimnies, issuing forth clouds of smoke, are every where seen peering above the surrounding buildings.

To the extent and variety of the manufactories carried on in this town and its vicinity, particularly the manufacture of woolen cloth, which within a few years has been brought to a very high state of perfection; to this, in a great degree, may be attributed the prosperity of the West Riding of Yorkshire. In the parish, clay is dug and used in making fire-proof bricks, the neighborhood abounds with coal mines, and on the banks of the Aire are numerous mills for various purposes.