Commons) _which, &c., is not merely unprotected by law--it is positively
illegal_. Even the presence of auditors is a violation of the standing
orders of the House."

ED. S. JACKSON.

* * * * *

FOLK LORE.

_High Spirits considered a Presage of impending Calamity or Death_:--

1. "How oft when men are at the point of death
Have they been merry! which their keepers call
A lightning before death."

_Romeo and Juliet_, Act v. Sc. 3.

2. "C'était le jour de Noel [1759]. Je m'étais levé d'assez bonne heure,
et avec une humeur plus gaie que de coutume. Dans les idées de vieille
femme, cela présage toujours quelque chose do triste.... Pour cette fois
pourtunt le hasard justifia la croyance."--_Mémoires de J. Casanova_,
vol. iii p. 29.

3. "Upon Saturday last ... the Duke did rise up, in a well-disposed
humour, out of his bed, and cut a caper or two.... Lieutenant Felton
made a thrust with a common tenpenny knife, over Fryer's arm at the
Duke, which lighted so fatally, that he slit his heart in two, leaving
the knife sticking in the body."--_Death of Duke of Buckingham_; Howell.
_Fam. Letters_, Aug. 5, 1628.