“Thus (using the words of the writer) fell this honourable tyrannical company, who had lorded it over the rest of the citizens, by laws of their own making, for an hundred and fourscore years; had made all ranks of men submit to them; neither had they any regard to the meanness of persons’ circumstances, by which they had been the ruin of many families, and had occasioned much rancour and uneasiness every annual election of common-councilmen, when the conquerors always put the vanquished on to the livery; thereby delivering them over to the mercy of St. George, who was sure to have a pluck at them as they assembled and met together; until this gentleman alderman Clarke had the courage to oppose and withstand them; and having taken a great deal of pains and time, at last effected this great work, and brought this insolent company to a final period; for which good deed he ought to have his name transmitted to the latest posterity.” And now it behoves us to inquire who was St. George? Shall we be content to hear of his mighty prowess, his renowned sanctity, and his eminent exaltation as patron saint of our country, and the most famous guilds or fraternities that have ever flourished in Christendom, and know nothing of his origin, history, or reality? Shall we subscribe to the heretical belief that St. George was neither more nor less than a soldier in the army of Diocletian, who rewarded his great military exploits by cutting off his head for advocating the cause of the Christians, and that therefore he was elevated into the calendar of saints and martyrs in the early church? Shall we deny that he ever went to war with an insatiable dragon, who, having eaten up all the sheep and cattle in the neighbourhood, was fed upon fair youths and maidens “from a city of Libya, called Silene, and that he did mortally wound the said dragon and led him through the streets of the city,” as if it had been a meek beast and debonnaire? or shall we give ear to the suggestion that St. George is but another name for St Michael, who is always represented in combat with the dragon? To whatever belief we may incline, the fact of the antiquity of his claims upon Christendom for universal reverence cannot be disputed. Long before he became the patron saint of England, many eastern nations had adopted him in the same capacity; and to his personal and miraculous interference in protecting Richard Cœur de Lion in his conflict with Saladin, are we to attribute his elevation to that dignity in this country? Many orders of knighthood besides that of England have been distinguished by his name in Austria, Bavaria, Burgundy, Montesa, Ravenna, Genoa, and Rome. The most authentic accounts that have come down to us of the individual history and mortal career of this semi-fabulous personage, resolve themselves into a few leading facts. He was a saint of high repute in the eastern church at a very early date, a