Articles of ordinary use, however small may be their intrinsic value, which have once been the property of men who have been good and great--how rare the conjunction!--are always invested with a peculiar interest. They often afford a clue to the tastes of those who once possessed them. On this account we have great pleasure in laying before our readers a representation of the silver tea-service which belonged to the celebrated William Penn, the founder and legislator of Pennsylvania, whom Montesquieu denominates the modern Lycurgus. He was the son of Admiral Penn, was born at London in 1644, and was educated at Christchurch, Oxford. At college he imbibed the principles of Quakerism, and having endeavoured to disseminate them by preaching in public, he was thrice thrown into prison. It was during his first imprisonment that he wrote "_No Cross, no Crown_." In March, 1680-81, he obtained from Charles II. the grant of that territory which now bears the name of Pennsylvania. In 1682 he embarked for his new colony; and in the following year he founded Philadelphia. He returned to England in 1684, and died in July, 1718. He was a philosopher, a legislator, an author, the friend of man, and, above all, a pious Christian. In addition to the reasons above given, the sketch of the tea-service is an object of curiosity, as showing the state of silversmith's work in England, at the close of the seventeenth century, for articles of domestic use. CURIOUS FIGURES ON A SMALL SHRINE. [Illustration: [++] Soldiers Watching the Body of Our Lord.]