The ecclesiastical history of Britain is generally made to commence, after some conjectural hypotheses as to the original preaching of Christianity, with the celebrated conversion of a king named Lucius, in the latter part of the second century. The two writers on our ecclesiastical antiquities who have most claim to deference for learning, as one of them has for critical judgment, Usher and Stillingfleet, as well as those of a secondary, yet respectable character, such as Collier, unite in receiving this as an authentic fact. Yet some have always been found to doubt, among whom we may place Whitaker and Henry, as rather more peremptory than the rest; the former being certainly not over sceptical in matters of historical tradition. But Dr. Lingard and many others of our contemporaries, though under the necessity of moulding the story into a less questionable shape than it has come down to us, have not ventured to reject the whole as a fable, or to deny that a certain king during the reigns of the Antonines was the means of spreading the light of the Gospel over a part at least of our island, after having sought and received instruction at the hands of the Bishop of Rome.

In King James's singular narrative of the Gowrie Conspiracy, his majesty states, that Alexander Ruthven, younger brother of John Earl of Gowrie, having conducted him into a chamber of Gowrie House, which the king calls “a little studie,” suddenly “locked too the studie doore behinde him,” and at that instant, changing his countenance, put his hat on his head, and drew a dagger from the girdle of Andrew Henderson, a servant of the Ruthvens who had been previously stationed in the little study, clad in armour, to await his majesty's coming. His majesty goes on to relate, that young Ruthven held the point of Henderson's dagger to the king's breast, declaring that he “behoved to be in his will, and to be used as he list.” The king adds, “that Ruthven swore many bloody oaths that if the king cried one word, or opened a window to look out, that dagger should presently go to his heart.” He then adds, and it is the first word which seems to have been uttered in explanation of the cause of this singular outrage, that Alexander Ruthven affirmed “that he was sure that now the king's conscience was burthened for the murthering of his father.” The king replied (according to his own account) with singular coolness and self-possession. He “begun to dilate” (these are the words of his narrative) “how horrible a thing it was for his assailant to meddle with his majesty's innocent blood, assuring him it would not be left unrevenged, since God had given him children and good subjects, and if there [were] neither, God would raise up stocks and stones to punish so vile a deed.” After this oration upon regicide, which, considering the character of the king, and the circumstances of tremendous personal peril in which he was suddenly placed, is not very likely to have been uttered exactly in the way stated, the king proceeded to notice the allusion which had been made by Alexander Ruthven to the death of his father, “protesting before God,” his majesty says, “that he had no burthen on his conscience” on that account, “both in respect that, at the time of his father's execution, his majesty was but a minor of age, and guided at that time by a faction which over ruled both his majesty and the rest of the country; as also, that whatsoever was done to his father, it was done by the ordinary course of law and justice.”

I forward herewith ten objects of antiquity, found some time since in France. They were discovered by labourers employed on the railroad near the town of Amiens, at a spot where other objects of the Gallo-Roman period were met with. The men came to a leaden coffin of great thickness, which contained two skeletons. By the side of the smaller skeleton, supposed to be that of a female, were the articles numbered one to seven. The three remaining articles; namely, the large bronze pin, the bronze fibula, and the bronze ring, were discovered, it is said, by the side of the larger skeleton.

Sir Henry Dryden has very kindly placed in my hands his notes and drawings illustrative of a discovery of sepulchral remains in the county of Northampton made a few years since, chiefly under his personal inspection.

The care with which the facts disclosed on that occasion have been collected and recorded, and the copious manner in which drawings have been made of the various objects discovered, give an unusual degree of interest to this communication, which I am sure the Society will appreciate in common with all who in such matters have experienced the advantage of being furnished with a full statement of circumstances, and, on the contrary, have felt the embarrassment that frequently arises from non-attention to particulars.

The sword and dagger now exhibited, accompanied by drawings thereof, (Plate XIV.) are said to be those taken from King James IV. after the discovery of his body on Flodden Field, an assertion not recently made, but supported by a tradition of long standing.

By the kindness of George Edward Anson, Esqr. I am enabled to exhibit to our Society a Torquis of fine gold, picked up a few days ago in a Wood, belonging to the Queen as Duchess of Lancaster, in Needwood Forest in Staffordshire. A new Fox-earth had been made just at the place, and the Cubs appeared to have been sporting with the Torquis, which it is supposed they had dug up. It was found in its present state (see Plate VIII.) by the Keeper at the mouth of the hole.