The King of Prussia, in his correspondence with Voltaire, relates the following anecdote of the Czar Peter, as illustrative of Russian despotism:--"I knew Printz, the great marshal of the court of Prussia, who had been ambassador to the Czar Peter, in the reign of the late king. The commission with which he was charged proving very acceptable, the prince was desirous of giving him conspicuous marks of his satisfaction, and for this purpose a sumptuous banquet was prepared, and to which Printz was invited. They drank brandy, as is customary with the Russians, and they drank it to a brutal excess. The Czar, who wished to give a particular grace to the entertainment, sent for twenty of the Strelitz Guards, who were confined in the prisons of Petersburgh, and for every large bumper which they drank, this hideous monster struck-off the head of one of these wretches. As a particular mark of respect, this unnatural prince was desirous of procuring the ambassador the pleasure (as he called it) of trying his skill upon these miserable creatures. The Czar was disposed to be angry at his refusal, and could not help betraying signs of his displeasure." W.G.C. * * * * * POSTHUMOUS HONOURS. Poliarchus, the Athenian, according to Ælian, when any of the dogs or cocks that he particularly loved, happened to die, was so foolish as to honour them with a public funeral, and buried them with great pomp, accompanied by his friends, whom he invited on the _solemn_ occasion. Afterwards he caused monumental pillars to be erected, on which were engraven their epitaphs.[4] JOHN ESLAH. [4] The late Duchess of York paid the latter honours to her little canine friends, at Oatlands. * * * * * THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Ascham, in the Epistle prefixed to his "Toxophilus," 1571, observes that "Manye Englishe writers usinge straunge wordes as Lattine, Frenche, and Italian, do make al thinges darke and harde. Ones," says he, "I communed with a man which reasoned the Englishe tongue to be enriched and encreased thereby, sayinge, Who will not prayse that feast, where a man shall drincke at a dinner both wyne, ale, and beere? Truly (quoth I) they be al good every one taken by itself alone; but if you put malmesye and sack, redde wyne and white, ale and beere, and al in one pot, you shall make a drinke neither easye to be knowen, nor holsom for the bodye." A.V. * * * * * ROYAL WISH. When King James I. first saw the public library at Oxford, and perceived the little chains by which the books were fastened, he expressed his wish that if ever it should be his fate to be a prisoner, this library might be his prison, those books his fellow prisoners, and the chains his fetters. J.E.H. * * * * * EPITAPH _On a Marine Officer, in the churchyard of Burwick-in-Elmet, Yorkshire._