pliment that can be paid to his tact and univer sality, to say that he made himself very accept able to us youngsters without diminishing our respect for his power of caustic repartee, or our regard for him. "Colonel Bartlett and that learned and eccen tric grandson of Governor Langdon, John Elwyn, both lived at the Rockingham House. Each was a conversationalist of rare power, though of marked difference; and quite a controversial spirit, though masked, seemed to grow up be tween them. From others who sat at the genial board of that famed hostelry, I have had many graphic accounts of the little sparring matches which not unfrequently arose between them. Judge Odell and the rest always sheltered them selves in complete silence when one of these "scraps " broke out. Each antagonist addressed his remarks to them, and not to his opponent. "Major Coburn's cellar furnished a copious supply of that renowned March Madeira, sup plied by the brothers March themselves to him, and therefore of unexceptional pedigree. This
had qualities, like many mythological beverages. Silently the auditors sipped the generous fluid, and the sparks of collision disappeared, and were forgotten." It is gratifying to be assured that a kins man, Dr. Samuel C. Bartlett, ex-president of Dartmouth College, cherishes the purpose of writing amemorial of this distinguished member of the Bartlett family. We may thus hopefully look forward to the possession of something of enduring value that shall transmit to posterity in befitting lines the portraiture of a very remarkable man. The engraving that accompanies this sketch is from a portrait, at the age of forty, painted by Professor S. F. B. Morse. The original is owned at Concord, N.H., by the widow of a nephew of Ichabod Bartlett — the late Judge William H. Bartlett, a jurist whose untimely death the people of New Hampshire have not yet ceased to deplore.
THE COURT OF STAR CHAMBER. By John I). Lindsay. I. ACCORDING to the popular idea the Court of Star Chamber was a secret tribunal wielding unlimited power and in fluence in the middle ages, practising mon strous oppressions, and serving no good purpose whatever, — a tyrannical relic of ancient barbarity used to vent the baser de signs of wicked sovereigns, — a place for punishing annoying interferences with the unjust doings of the king and his favorites, — a tribunal as cruel as any inquisition, as unlimited in its power over the lives and liberty of the people as the Venetian Coun cil of Ten — and whose proceedings were conducted in absolute secrecy; whose vic tims were condemned without notice, or any
opportunity of defense, and whose whole history was a history of unjust persecution and arbitrary oppression. Very different indeed is the truth. Instead of being regarded as a tyrannical institution, the Star Chamber was for ages looked upon by the English people, espe cially those of the middle and lower classes, as the one place where the wrongs perpe trated by the wealthy lords could be re dressed, — where they could be relieved of the oppressions of the rich landowners, and the tyrannies and extortions of petty offi cials, — where justice would be administered honestly, and substantial right done fear lessly, — where no tampering with venal
