The Guy Fawkes' Prayer
SIR,—Other readers besides myself may have been puzzled by some of Janus's references to the form of prayer with thanksgiving formerly used on November 5th. He seems to imply that this form first came into use in 1761. Actually the observance of November 5th was instituted by an Act of Parliament 3 Jac. I,c.I ; and a special form of service was drawn up by the bishops and issued by royal authority in 1606. This form was revised at the Restoration and adopted by Cotivocation in 1662; and annexed to the Prayer Book of that year. It has, therefore, a considerably longer history than 1761. Nor do I understand why .Janus refers to the inclusion in 1690 within this service of -Willian of Orange's landing in England as "irrelevant." For it was on November 5th that the "Protestant wind," which had blown his expedition down the Channel, permitted it to land in Torbay ; and thus to effect what our forefathers in that epoch regarded as a second Providential deliverance of the nation from popery and absolutism. "As soon as I landed," wrote Gilbert Burnet, "I made what haste I could to the place where the Prince was ; who . . . asked me if I did not now believe predestination. I told him I would never forget that providence of God which had appeared so signally on this occasion."
These services were disused afer 1859 as a result of a royal warrant, issued by Queen Victoria upon a request from Parliament.—Yours faith-
fully,
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