takes cognizance of all manner of causes and disorders growing and
committed upon the place, called _pye powder_, or _pedes pulverizati_.
Some fairs are free, others charged with tolls and impositions. At free
fairs, traders, whether natives or foreigners, are allowed to enter the
kingdom, and are under the royal protection in coming and returning.
They and their agents, with their goods, also their persons and goods,
are exempt from all duties and impositions, tolls and servitudes; and
such merchants going to or coming from the fair cannot be arrested, or
their goods stopped. The prince only has the power to establish fairs of
any kind. These fairs make a considerable article in the commerce of
Europe, especially those of the Mediterranean, or inland parts, as
Germany. The most famous are those of Frankfort and Leipsic; the fairs
of Novi, in the Milanese; that of Riga, Arch-angel of St. Germain, at
Paris; of Lyons; of Guibray, in Normandy; and of Beauclaire, in
Languedoc: those of Porto-Bello, Vera Cruz, and the Havannah, are the
most considerable in America.

HALBERT.

* * * * *


THE VIRGINAL.

(_For the Mirror_.)


A rare and beautiful relic of the olden time was lately presented to the
museum of the Northern Institution, by William Mackintosh, Esq. of
Milbank--an ancient virginal, which was in use among our ancestors prior