his judges with resignation and composure.  Some of his expressions (says his biographer) imply much good-humour in this last extremity.  The day before his execution, he was seized with a bleeding at the nose.  “I shall not now let blood to divert this distemper,” said he to Burnet, who was present; “that will be done to-morrow.”  A little before the sheriffs conducted him to the scaffold, he wound up his watch.  “Now I have done,” said he, “with time, and henceforth must think solely of eternity.”  The sad tragedy of the death of the virtuous Lord Russel, (says Pennant,) who lost his head in the middle of Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields, took place on July 21st, 1683.  Party writers assert that he was brought here in preference to any other spot, in order to mortify the citizens with the sight.  In fact, it was the nearest open space to Newgate, the place of his lordship’s confinement.  Without the least change of countenance, he laid his head on the block, and at two strokes it was severed from his body.  He was, at the time of his death, only forty-two years of age.  To his character for probity, sincerity, and private worth, even the enemies to his public principles bear testimony.  At Woburn Abbey is preserved, in gold letters, the speech of Lord Russel to the sheriffs, together with the paper delivered by his lordship to them at the place of execution.

P.T.W.

* * * * *

INDEPENDENCE OF PORTUGAL.

(For the Mirror.)

Portugal was first created into a monarchy on the 27th of July, 1139; on which day, Dom Alphonso I., son of Henry, Count of Burgundy, the son of Robert, king of France, was proclaimed at Lisbon, after having vanquished and slain five Moorish kings in the battle of Campo d’Ourique, where he was unanimously chosen as sovereign of Portugal by his army.  This dignity was confirmed to him by the first assembly of the states-general at Lamego.  In commemoration of this event, the Portuguese arms bear five standards and five escudets.[1] After the unfortunate expedition of Dom Sebastian I. to Africa, where he was slain in the battle of Alcazar, the crown devolved upon his great uncle, the Cardinal Dom Henry, a man of 67 years of age, and who reigned but 17 months.  At his death there were several claimants for the succession, and the kingdom in consequence became the theatre of civil war.  Philip II. of Spain, the most powerful of these, sent an army, under the Duke of Alba, into Portugal, and completed the conquest of the country with little opposition.  This event took place in the year 1580, and the kingdom of Portugal remained under the dominion of Spain until the 1st of December, 1649, the day on which the Duke of Braganza was proclaimed king with the title of Dom Joao iv.  Since that time Portugal has maintained its independence.  For a more detailed account, see L’Abbe Nertot’s “Revolutions of Portugal.”