Autographs

Not long &0, autograph-collectioff was geodralJy &ö.ééFcd at as the " Autoraph Manta,-" but a mere liberal estiate is now inadf, and it s conceded bat the collector liavo rescued irom estruetion a greaí many docurnents vhieh have not only personal, but, fr&. uently, even hisioiical valué. For exmple, the original Magna Charta ranled by King John, in the yoar 1215 nd generaily oonsidered to be thé Obarter of Liberties," upon wbicb tba oeíai and poljtical freedom of the Brith people s basod, i of the greatest alue. lt bears the seal of the Kin? who could not vvrite), and of a large umüer of the nobles, and is now to be een in the Briüêk Museum. Jet tbia dontical document would bave been lost ut for the observant good sense of an ntiquanan, wbo was also a collector of utographs Having occasion to visit is tailur, be found that artist about uttiñg up a piece of old parchment to oiivert it into "neasures." Ou examnation, the parchment was recognized a Magna Charta, was rescued from estruction, and wíis sjirrendered to roper official custody, as the proporty f the nation. By the way, there are two origináis of Iagoa Charta in the Oottonian collooi(Vi of mnnuscripts in the British Mueum, and thia h::s puzzled many perons- like the dupücation of Oiiver Cromwell'a skulls ; oue büing shown ia he Ashmolean Museum at Oxford and nother Cambridge ; the Jatter, beine omparatively undersized, was repreented, by a foraer exhibifor, aa "the ïead of Cromwell- when he was a uy." The fact is, both the copies of lagna Charta aro origina!. Many copes vvere mado in 1215 for distribution mong the counties, and a copv wag ent to each cathedral, aud ordered to e publicly read thereiü twice every car. 3 The most accurate and complete copy 8 that still proserved in Lincoln Catheral, and a fac simde of this has been enraved by order of the late Commisioners of the Public Records of Enland. The öreat Charter, as well s the Charter of tho Forests, is in jtitiu. It may seem strange, yet is very rué, that Magna Charta, exacted by he nobles oí England from a King who lesired to be more absolute than thoy iked, was especially framed to prepare their own rights and privileges- in a word, to give power to the noSility and the laudownera. The word "vi'llein " whicb denotes the mere cultivators óf the soil, mechanicB and poorer classes, occurs only once in Magna Charta, whioh' inoluded all freemen generallv. As the villeinage gradualiy disappöared, and the seri's became freemen, they eame under the protection of the Üreat Charter