A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
WHILE the month is yet November it may be considered still relevant to refer to the prayer which once graced the Book of Common Prayer entitled: " A form of prayer with thanksgiving to be used yearly upon the fifth of November ; for the happy Deliverance of King James I and the three estates of England, from the most traiterous and bloody-minded Massacre by Gunpowder: And also for the happy arrival of His Majesty King William on this Day, for the Deliverance of our Church and Nation."
On this it may be observed (1) that it corrects the ideas of those persons who still think that the three Estates of the Realm are King, Lords and Commons ; (2) that England, rather than Britain, is right,-because though the union with Scotland had taken place when the prayer was promulgated (in 1761, over the name of Bute, as Secretary of State) it had not in 1605, when' the bloody-minded attempt was made ; and (3) that the dexterous but irrelevant intro- duction of King William III was calculated to commend the prayer to Jacobites and Hanoverians alike. When the prayer was dropped I have not discovered. On the whole I am for reviving it ; there is much to be said for the perpetuation of ancient customs.
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