November, was so called from being the ninth month of Romulus's year, which began with March ; but, according to the altered calendar of Numa and Julius Caesar, it was the eleventh month of the year, as it now stands. As the ninth month, it was derived from the Latin words novem, nine, and imber, a shower.

Our Saxon ancestors called this month Blot Monath, or slaughter month, because, as food for the cattle was scarce during the winter season, it was customary for them to kill and salt most of their winter meat during this month. The name is derived from the Saxon word Blotan, to kill or slay. They also call it Wint Monath, or wind month, on account of the tempestuous weather which prevails at this period of the year, when the wind strips the trees of their few remaining leaves.

Synonymes. - In Latin, November; French, Novembre; Italian, Novembre; and Portuguese, Novembro.

November 491

Symbol or Allegory of the Month. - A young man, dressed in clothes the colour of the leaves when they begin to fall; his head was crowned with a garland of olives with the fruit; in his hands he held bunches of turnips and parsnips, symbolical of the produce of the earth during this month; and behind him was the sign of Sagittarius, the Archer, in allusion to the sun entering that constellation on the 22nd of the month. (See our allegorical engraving.)

1st. All Saints is a festival instituted by Boniface IV., when he was allowed by the Emperor Phocas to convert the Pantheon at Rome into a Christian church. It was originally celebrated on the 12th of May, in honour of the Virgin Mary and all Martyrs, but was afterwards ordered to be kept upon November 1st. Many curious customs are still practised in various parts of Great Britain upon this day, similar to the ceremonies of Hallowe'en.

In November, 1808, the celebrated " Orders in Council" were Issued by the British government, which prohibited all trade with

Frame and her allies ; and as a retaliatory measure, in December following Bonaparte issued his ".Milan Decree," interdicting all trade with England and her colonies, thus subjecting almost every American vessel on the ocean to capture. In requital for these tyrannous proceedings, and that England and France might both feel their injustice, Congress decreed an embargo ; but as this failed to obtain from either power an acknowledgment of our rights, and was also ruinous to our commerce with other nations, it was repealed in March, 1809.

On November 30,1782, preliminary articles of peace were signed at Paris by Mr. Oswald, commissioner on the part of Great Britain, and by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and Henry Laurens, on the part of the United States.

November 25th, 1783, New York was evacuated by the British troops.

In November, 1810, all the hostile decrees were revoked, and commercial intercourse with the United States was resumed ; but those of England were not only continued, but ships of war were stationed near the principal American ports, for the purpose of intercepting our merchantmen, which were captured and sent to British ports as legal prizes.

November 3,1783. This was the day appointed for the disbanding of the American army. On the day preceding, Washington issued his farewell orders to his troops, replete with friendly advice and affectionate wishes for their present and future welfare. When the army were to be disbanded new difficulties arose concerning the payment of their wages and rations. The want of resources to carry on the war, and of supreme power to lay and collect taxes, had driven Congress to the expedient of emitting vast sums in bills of credit, which depreciated so much as to be of scarcely any value ; and owing to the interruption of commerce, and the vast quantities of paper money which had been issued, gold and silver were, for a time, almost wholly banished from circulation, and much agitation and alarm were excited among the army. In this state of feeling that part of the army that was stationed at Newburgh were thrown into great excitement by an address to the officers, privately circulated among them, appealing to their passions, and designed to stir them up to violent measures. At this crisis the virtues of Washington shone forth with peculiar luster. He assembled the officers, and his appeal to their honor was weighty and decisive, resulting in the restoration of confidence and tranquillity.

30th. St. Andrew, who was one of the apostles, is said to have been martyred in the year 66, at Patrae, in Greece, upon a cross of the form of the letter X, which has ever since been called St. Andrew's cross. He is the patron saint of Scotland.

This month gave birth to four names renowned in history namely, John Milton, James Ferguson, Martin Luther and Cardinal Wolsey.

James Ferguson was born at Keith, in Banffshire, in 1710. He was the son of a labourer, but by his extraordinary genius raised himself to the highest pinnacle of mathematical and astronomical fame. In 1754 he published a brief description of the solar system, but his greatest work was his 'Astronomy explained upon Sir Isaac Newton's principles, and made easy to those who have not studied Mathematics." He died on the 16th of November, 1776.

John Milton, the distinguished author of "Paradise Lost," and of numerous other

Poetical works, was the son of a scrivener in London, and born in Bread-street, in 1608. During the civil wars between Charles I. and his Parliament, he entered warmly into the defence of the latter, and was afterwards appointed Latin Secretary to Cromwell. He wrote against the King's book, called " Icon Basilike," and was also employed to answer the treatise of Salmasius, entitled " Defensio Regia," which he did in a powerfully written work, entitled, " Defensio pro Populo Anglicnno." He died on the 8th of November, 1674.

Martin Luther, the great apostle of the Reformation, was born at Eisleben, in Lower Saxony, on the 10th of November, 1483. In 1534 he published a translation of the whole Bible, and printed, during the same year, a book against the service of the mass. He died at his native place on the 18th of February, 1546.

That eminent prelate and statesman, Cardinal Wolsey, was the son of a butcher, and born at Ipswich, in 1471. He was at one time in high favour with Henry VIII., and lived in princely state; but at length that capricious monarch, in consequence of Wolsey's opposition to his divorce from Catherine of Arragon, became his bitterest enemy. In 1529 he was deprived of the Seals of State and impeached, though a full pardon was afterwards granted him. He was, however, again arrested on a charge of high treason ; but died at Leicester, on his way to London, on the 28th of November, 1530. BANK OF ENGLAND NOTE (THE).

The Bank of England possesses no security which may not be known by any person who will make himself acquainted with the following characteristics of the paper, the plate printing, and the type printing of the note. The paper is distinguished - 1. By its peculiar colour, such as is neither sold in the shops, nor used for any other purpose.

2. By its thinness and transparency - qualities which prevent any portion of the printing on the note being washed or scratched out without a hole being made.

3. By its characteristic feel, which consists of a singular crispness and toughness, owing to the fact that the Bank paper is made from new linen and cotton, not from rags. 4. By the peculiar wire mark or water mark, which can only be produced when the paper is in a state of pulp; consequently the forger must procure a mould, and make his own paper, both requiring the skill of such first-rate artisans as are not likely to be met with in the haunts of crime. 5. By the three deckle or rough edges These edges are produced when the paper is in pulp; two notes being placed in the mould, and divided lengthways. The deckle is the raw edge of the paper, and cannot be imitated by cutting. 6. By the strength of the paper: a bank note -will lift a hundredweight, if carefully adjusted. The printing is of two kinds, type and plate; the paper is moistened by water driven through its pores by the pressure of the atmosphere; 30,000 double notes are thus moistened in. the space of an hour. The ink used is made at the Bank, from linseed oil and the charred husks and vines of Rhenish grapes; this gives a peculiar velvety black to the mark in the left-hand corner of the note. The notes are numbered by a machine which cannot err; and, lastly, are authorized by the signature of the clerk. The bank notes are printed on the side of the paper which receives the watermark, so that, if the paper be split, the unprinted surface only retains the slightest trace of that mark. (See Bank of England, p. 178.)