ty was rough, and the amount of benevolence small, though
family feeling was strong.

United with violence and robbery, we find the commencement of a very
modern system of police; the first prosecutions on account of offences
of the press.

We are to a certain extent aware that three hundred years ago, the life
of individuals was of less value than now; but we shall yet learn with
astonishment from the old narrative, how frequently deeds of violence
and blood disturbed the peace of households. We find that in a quiet
burgher family the grandfather was the victim of premeditated murder;
the father killed another in self-defence, and the son was attacked on
the public road by highwaymen, one of whom he killed, but was mortally
wounded by the other. Lastly, it will interest many to observe how the
great theologian who then divided Christendom into two camps, exercised
an influence as family counsellor even on the shores of the Baltic, and
how by his word he brought the souls of strangers to obedience and
reverence.

The following communications are again taken from the comprehensive
autobiography of Bartholomaeus Sastrow, Burgomaster of Stralsund. His
own life was unusually varied and rich in experiences. He was sent,
when a young man, with his elder brother to the Imperial Court of
Justice at Spire, to manage his father's lawsuit and to seek a
livelihood for himself. He was first in the service of lawyers, then of
one of the commanders of the Order of St. John, and afterwards found
his way to Italy, in order to wrest from the hands of the Romish
ecclesiastics the heritage of his elder brother, who had been crowned
with laurels and ennobled by the Emperor as an improvisatore in Latin
poetry, and who afterwards, on account of an unfortunate love affair,
had gone with a broken heart to Italy and died in the service of a
cardinal.

The younger brother returned home from Italy in the midst of the
confusion of the Smalkaldic war, entered into the service of the
Pomeranian dukes, who sent him as political agent to the Imperial camp,
and solicitor to the supreme court of judicature of the Diet of
Augsburg. He then settled himself in Greifswald, and gained, as an
expert notary, practice and wealth in Pomerania, removed to Stralsund,
became Burgomaster there, and died at an advanced age in great repute
as a skilful, cunning, hot-headed, and probably often hard and partial
man. Thus he begins his narrative:--

"About the year