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ELEMENTS OF THOUGHT. CHANGING SIDES IN POLITICS, OR RELIGION.

were they not used with ceremony, with compliments, and addresses, with legs, and kissing of hands, they were the But yet, methinks, to IT is the trial of a man to see if he will change his side; pitifulest creatures in the world. kiss their hands after their lips, as some do, is like little and if he be so weak as to change once, he will change again. Country fellows have a way to try if a man beboys, that, after they eat the apple, fall to the paring, out of a love they have to the apple.- Selden.

weak in the hams, by coming behind him and giving him a blow unawares; and if he bend once, he will bend again. The lords that fall from the king, after they have got estates by base flattery at court, and now pretend conscience, do as a vintner when he first sets up; you may bring your wench to his house, but, when he grows rich, he turns conscientious, and will sell no wine upon the Sabbath-day.-Selden.

HUMILITY is a virtue all preach, none practise, and yet every body is content to hear. The master thinks it good doctrine for his servant, the laity for the clergy, and the clergy for the laity. But there is a vicious humility. If a man does not take notice of that excellency and perfection that is in himself, how can he be thankful to God who is the author of all excellency and perfection? Nay, if a man hath too mean an opinion of himself, it will render him unserviceable both to God and man. Pride must be allowed to a certain degree, else a man cannot keep up his dignity. In gluttony there must be eating, in drunkenness there must be drinking; it is not the eating nor drinking that is to be blamed, it is the excess. So in pride.

STANDARD OF THINGS.

We measure from ourselves; and, as things are for our use and purpose, so we approve them. Bring a pear to the table that is rotten, and 'tis a fine thing; and yet, I warrant you, the pear thinks as much of itself as the medlar. We measure the excellency of other men by some excellency we conceive to be in ourselves. Nash, a poor poet, seeing an alderman, with his gold chain, upon his great horse, cries in scorn, "Do you see that fellow how big he looks? why, that fellow cannot make a blank verse!" Nay, we measure the goodness of God from ourselves; we measure his goodness, justice, wisdom, by something we call just, good, wise, in ourselves; and, in so doing, we judge proportionably to the country fellow in the play, who said, if he were a king he would live like a lord, and have pease and bacon every day, and a whip that cried "slash."

EQUITY-DISCRETIONARY POWER IN JUDGES.

Equity in law is the same that the spirit is in religion, what every one pleases to make it. Sometimes they go according to conscience, sometimes according to law, sometimes according to the rule of court. Equity is a roguish thing; for law we have a measure, know what to trust to; equity is according to the conscience of him that is Chancellor, and as that is larger or narrower, so is equity. "Tis all one, as if they should make the standard for the measure we call a foot, a Chancellor's foot. What an uncertain measure would this be? One Chancellor has a long foot, another a short foot, a third an indifferent foot.* "Tis the same thing in the Chancellor's conscience.

CEREMONY keeps up all things; 'tis like a penny vial to a rich spirit, or some distilled water: without it the water were spilt, the spirit lost.

Of all people, women have no reason to cry down ceremony; for they think themselves slighted without it. And

# How many inches of difference are there between the foot of Eldon, Lyndhurst, and Brougham? How would the latter have decided many equity cases determined by the former-the case of Shelley's chil dren, for example? But, is it not miserable to have the fortune and happiness of men depend on the weak judgment or caprice of any one individual?

THE ESTABLISHED CLERGY.

The clergy and laity together are never like to do well; it is as if a man were to make an excellent feast, and should have his apothecary and his physician come into the kit chen; the cooks, if they were let alone, would make excellent meat; but then comes the apothecary, and he put rhubarb into one jsauce, and agaric into another sauce. Chain up the clergy on both sides.-Selden.

GOOD SENSE is as different from genius as perception is from invention; yet, though distinct qualities, they frequently exist together. It is altogether opposite to wit, but by no means inconsistent with it. It is not science, for there is such a thing as unlettered good sense; yet, though it is neither wit, learning, nor genius, it is a substitute for each where they do not exist, and the perfection of ali where they do.-Hannah Moore.

THOUGHTS ON SECONDARY PUNISHMENTS

BY ARCHBISHOP WHATELY.

FALSE COMPASSION.-In respect to the punishment not only of the supposed insane, and of juvenile delinquents, but of offenders generally, there is afloat in the world much false (not a little of it, I suspect, affected) tendern Merely excessive and misplaced compassion is, indeed, za error as much to be respected as any error can be; but when compassion is withheld from the deserving, and le stowed only on the undeserving, the error is as odious as it is practically noxious. It seems to me one of the worst and most barbarian features of the character of a great part of the nation, that, by the multitude at least, very th sympathy, comparatively, is felt, except for the guilty. The sufferings inflicted by the hand of justice ought, indeed, not to be excessive; that is beyond what the object cal for, and they are at all events to be deplored, since sufer ing is in itself an evil; but that these should be alone, o chiefly pitied by those who are comparatively callous the sufferings from lawless outrage, or apprehended outra. denotes a most disgraceful and a most dangerous state of the public mind. It is said that in Corsica, and in several of the Italian States, while it is hardly possible, by us offer of any amount of pay, to induce a native to accept th office of public executioner, nothing is more easy than t hire, at a moderate price, men who will be ready at thei employer's bidding to assassinate any one he may point ou "He who does an injury to one," says the Latin proverb "threatens it to many." The sense of insecurity, produ ced by every crime that is committed, is by far its worst re sult; petual apprehension, though a less evil in each single c because uneasiness or distress of mind, from per than the actual occurrence of what is dreaded, is an ev which extends to many thousand times more. But fo this, even the crime of murder would be but a compara tively insignificant evil. For there is hardly any countr in which the whole number of persons murdered annual. constitutes more than a very trifling portion of the to: number of deaths. But the apprehension of being mu dered the feeling that one is in continual peril from th hand of the assassin, is one of the most intolerable ev that man can be exposed to. Any one who will but su ficiently reflect on the sleepless and anxious nights, t harassing anxiety, the distressing alarms, the restless au troublesome precautions,-in short, all the evils implied a feeling of insecurity, which are inflicted on thousands every crime actually perpetrated, will be convinced th that person is more truly and properly compassionate ( wave all other considerations,) who sets himself to devi means for the protection of the unoffending, than he whe

kindly feelings are bestowed chiefly on the violaters of the law. And yet the former must prepare himself to expect from the unthinking, who are in most places the majority, to be censured as hard-hearted. In pleading the cause of the innocent in opposition to the guilty-in urging the claims to protection of the peaceable and inoffensive citizen against the lawless plunderer or incendiary, and in wishing that honest men may be relieved from the misery of perpetual terror, by transferring that terror to the evil doer, I am sensible that I expose myself (such is the strangely perverted state of many men's feelings) to the charge of inhumanity.

THE PRESS.

A FREE PRESS has, from the very invention of printing up to the present day, been the constant subject of dread, and the object of enmity and persecution, to all tyrants, and their attendant herds of fawners and sycophants-to all, an short, who "hate the light because their deeds are evil." The efforts of the talented and philanthropic Buckingham, in the East, have been stifled by the aristocratic Directors of an overgrown and bloated monopoly. The efforts of the Constitutionalists in Spain have met the me fate, though from different hands; and most of the principal promoters of the good cause in that country have either perished on the scaffold, or been murdered in cold blood by the soldiers of the "Beloved Ferdinand ;" or are wandering exiles from their homes, considered as traitors and infidels, and, of course, hated as such, by a brutal and ignorant peasantry, the natural effects of their subjection to, and faith in, a bigoted and crafty priesthood. De Wurtz and the patriots of Germany have also been driven into exile, and thrown into dungeons, by a band of petty tyrants, leagued together for their own interests and the common ill.

The tyrants of India, of Spain, and of Germany, knew fall well that their deeds could not stand the scrutiny of knowledge, with her myriad eyes," and that the press was the most efficient disseminator of that knowledge which Was to lay open "their secret ways;" and they did not hesitate to sacrifice the promoters of freedom in their respeclive dominions, in order that they might continue their system of oppression and misrule. But a day of retribution is at hand. The nations are awakening to a sense of their strength and of their rights. A change has come o'er the spirit of the time; knowledge is overflowing the boundaries attempted to be set to it; and it is worthy of remark, that those who most strenuously, and apparently most successally, attempted to stem the fertilizing torrent, will be the first to be swept away by its power. The expiry of the East India Charter is at hand, and it is not likely to be rewed. Shall such arbitrary power over the weal or wo of millions be again trusted to the hands of those who have much abused it? Shall India be again delivered into the hands of that Company

"Whose minions could despise

The heart-wrung anguish of a thousand cries; Could lock, with impious hands, their teeming store, While famished nations died along the shore?" Will Germany longer submit to her present rulers? Shall Be land that gave birth to the Fathers of the Reformation to the men but for whom we might, even now, have been deprived of the blessings of religious freedom-longer lie at the mercy of some petty tyrants, whose education has kept then in ignorance of the interests and feelings of their people, and who bow and cringe at the nod of the more powerful tyrants of Austria and Prussia?

"Shall blind and despot monarchs quell
The land whence Luther sprung;
Where Klopstok hymned, and Korner fell,
And wizard Schiller sung?"

No Kings must now live for the people—the people will lenger live for them. Over Burns' "wee bit German laries" a storm is about to burst, which, to use the words of an eloquent writer, "shall sweep the puny apes of monarchy and their tinsel state from off the land; and, as sure

as there is a God in heaven, there are those now alive who will live to see at least the western half of Germany a republic, 'one and indivisible." " But, to return to our subject, from which we have wandered so far.

No men could better read the signs of the political horizon than Pitt, and the Ministers of his time; no men sooner perceived the growing influence and ability of the press, and no men likely to be less scrupulous and unhesitating about the means to trammel her growing strength, and avert the coming storm. Pitt, after taxing the light of God's day, appropriately set about taxing the light of knowledge; and the unjust, oppressive, and partial Taxes on Knowledge, were the result of his philanthropic exertions. This is the "Heaven-born statesman"-this the man

"Whose thrilling trump shall rouse the land,
When fraud and danger are at hand."

Not content with thus limiting the extent of the sphere of the press; and, to the utmost of their power, virtually denying to the poorer and more industrious portion of the community any knowledge of, and the use of any strictures on, the conduct of their rulers, no threats, promises, or gold were spared, to intimidate, cajole, or bribe this formidable enemy to bad government, to turn the remaining portion of its strength to their own uses, and to make it mere ly the organ and tool' of a despotic government. The free utterance of public opinion, through the press, was stopped for a time; but, since then, the desire for knowledge has advanced with unwearied step in spite of all obstacles—

"In vain they trace the wizard ring;

In vain they limit mind's unwearied spring;" and with that desire the power and influence of the press has increased to an amazing extent. The mass of the talent of the country now seeks a vent through the periodical press. It is undeniably the leader of public opinion, and the ablest descanter on public topics. Its title to these distinctions, and the merits of the various leading journals, we reserve for discussion till another opportunity.

[The above is sent us by an anonymous, or rather an initial correspondent. The communication bears certain marks of juvenilty, but is, on the whole, conceived in so hopeful a spirit, that we believe our readers will be gratified with the sentiments expressed. Their appearance has another value. There is no doubt that they are the sentiments of millions of growing minds in this country, and in France and Germany. We are all aware of the seed that has been sowing for half a century, and it is curious to watch its germination.]

The subjoined verses-and it would not be excess of praise to call them sublime were lately composed by Elliott of Sheffield, for the printers of that town, when they celebrated the passing of the Reform Bill, and carried a PRINTING PRESS in triumph in the procession of the trades:—

God said, "Let there be light!"
Grim darkness felt His might,
And fled away.

Then startled seas, and mountains cold,
Shone forth all bright in blue and gold,
And cried, ""Tis day, 'tis day!"

"Hail, holy light!" exclaim'd
The thunderous cloud, that flamed
O'er daisies white;
And lo! the rose, in crimson dress'd,
Lean'd sweetly on the lily's breast,

And blushing, murmur'd « Light !"
Then was the lark upborn;
Then rose the embattled corn;
Then streams of praise
Flow'd o'er the sunny hills of noon;
And when night came, the pallid moon
Pour'd forth her pensive lays.

Lo, heaven's bright bow is glad!
Lo, trees and flowers all clad
In glory, bloom!

And shall the immortal sons of God
Be senseless as the trodden clod,

And darker than the tomb?

No! By the MIND of Man!
By the swart ARTISAN!
By GOD, our SIRE!
Our souls have holy light within,
And every form of grief and sin

Shall see and feel its fire.
By earth, and hell, and heaven,
The shroud of souls is riven;
MIND, MIND alone

Is light, and hope, and life, and power;
Earth's deepest night, from this blessed hour,
The night of minds, is gone.

The second Ark we bring :
"The Press !" all nations sing;
What can they less?

Oh, pallid want! oh, labour stark!

Behold we bring the second Ark

The Press! the Press! the Press!

beginning of the world they had been created, long ere this their race would have been extinct, the first intense frost after the creation would have finished their brief existence. Navigation could have made no progress, for the quantity of water would be always very small, not more than sufficient to serve the domestic and manufacturing purposes of mankind. Let us suppose that the whole of the rivers, lakes, &c., in the world are in a solid condition in consequence of interse and continued frost, (which we must admit if no exception to the general law had existed,) and that spring. is coming when the sun begins to shine longer and more effectual o our earth, a small portion of ice would be dissolved, which would remain on the surface and prevent the sun's rays from acting on the mass, the heat would now be communicated from particle to particle, (in the same manner as in any other solid, for there would be no currents now, as when in the fluid condition,) one circumstanee would add to the smallness of the quantity of water dissolved, namely, its being a very imperfect conductor of heat. Now, just sup pose summer is at hand, when the sun's rays are very powerful, and man has to hide himself in the shade to escape their scorching influence, and to this add the influ ence that the sun would have in the months of Autum still the quantity melted would be very small. In a state of things as mentioned above, we would see no stately river emerging from a glass-smooth lake, watering and fertilizing the land through which it wound its devious

ON THE PURPOSE SERVED IN THE ECONOMY OF NATURE, BY path, until it was swallowed up in the mighty oceaa

THE EXPANSION OF WATER INTO A STATE OF ICE, AND HOW THIS EXPANSION WHICH IS AN EXCEPTION TO THE LAW OF OTHER BODIES, ILLUSTRATES THE DIVINE WISDOM.

All substances, when heat is thrown into them, become larger in their dimensions in length, breadth, and thickness, and when the heat is again abstracted, a corresponding contraction takes place; from this it has been considered as a law, that bodies become larger by the addition of, and smaller by the abstraction of caloric. One would expect from this, that the greater the quantity of heat you throw into a body, the greater would be its increase of volume, and the more you cooled any substance, the more it would contract in its dimensions. Generally this is the case; but there is one striking exception, which serves a very important purpose in the economy of nature. In speaking of a law of nature, I do not mean any inherent property of matter, but a law stamped on it by the hand of the Deity: Nature of herself could neither make laws nor put them into execution, were it not for a far greater power, namely, "Nature's

God."

Water, in being cooled, decreases in volume, until it arrives at the 40th degree of Fahrenheit; when, instead of contracting further, it begins to expand, and continues to do so, until it assumes the solid condition. On the contrary, on adding caloric to ice, instead of expanding, (as, according to the law one would expect,) it actually contracts until it again arrives at the 40th degree of Fahrenheit, where it throws off this peculiar character and follows the usual law.

Had the Deity made no exception to the general law of expansion,-mark the consequences-when the cold weather of winter had set in with its usual attendant frost, the water on the surface of rivers, lakes, &c. would have been cooled, consequently contracted, and of course would have fallen to the bottom, and again another layer would have been cooled and fallen also, and so on until the whole had become one mass of solid ice, which would have proved fatal to the lives of the animals contained in it; man would have been deprived of fish as a constituent of his food, and no traces of their having once existed would be seen, except, perhaps, in the heart of a block of ice, as the bones of the mammoth just now are found in the earth; for suppose that at the

The ocean herself would stand still, she would now refuse to obey the calls of the moon, as she was wont; angling, and all the other modes of fishing would be unknown as arts; ship-building, as an art, would also be unknown. Numberless, indeed, are the privations that man would be subjected to, too numerous to be mentioned here.

The very circumstance of these being an exception to this law, proves, that the Deity, at the beginning, in arrangpurpose of his mighty plan, was not indifferent as to the coming matter, and stamping laws thereon according to the fort of the inhabitants of the earth, and did not create, unthinkingly or without a purpose; but, knowing the conse quence of every action, he obviated evils by making exceptions to general laws; and there is none that shows the Divine Wisdom more than this exception to the general law of expansion. When, then, we see such an arrangement, so well calculated for our comfort and furtherance in socie ty, can we for a moment stand on as spectators and not join our feeble voices in thanksgiving to the Great God whose infinite foreknowledge saw beforehand how much such a law, without an exception, would annoy us, and removed the cause of annoyance.-[This is another juvenile essay of good promise.]

STANZAS.

BY DAVID VEDDER.

WHEN the orb of morn enlightens
Hill and mountain, mead and dell;
When the dim horizon brightens,
And the serried clouds dispel;
And the sun-flower eastward bending
Its fidelity to prove,-
Be thy gratitude ascending,
Unto Him whose name is love.

When the vesper-star is beaming,
In the coronet of even;
And lake and river gleaming,
With the ruddy hues of heaven;
When a thousand notes are blending
In the forest and the grove,-
Be thy gratitude ascending,
Unto Him whose name is love.

When the stars appear in millions,
In the portals of the west;
Bespangling the pavilions
Where the blessed are at rest;
When the milky way is glowing
In the cope of heaven above,-
Let thy gratitude be flowing,
Unto him whose name is love.

POETRY FOR THE YOUNG.

THE DOVE SENT FORTH FROM THE ARK.
Go! beautiful and gentle Dove,
And greet the morning ray,
For lo! the sun shines bright above,

And night and storm are passed away.
No longer drooping here, confined

In this cold prison, dwell;
Go! free to sunshine, and to wind,
Sweet bird, go forth, and fare thee well!
Oh! beautiful and gentle Dove,

Thy welcome sad will be,
When thou shalt hear no voice of love,
In murmurs from the leafy tree:
Yet freedom, freedom shalt thou find,
From this cold prison's cell:
Go thou to sunshine, and to wind;
Sweet bird, go forth, and fare thee well!
MY BIRTHDAY.

"My birthday !"—what a different sound
That word had in my youthful ears!
And how, each time the day comes round,
Less and less white its mark appears!
When first our scanty years are told,
It seems like pastime to grow old;
And, as Youth counts the shining links,
That time around him binds so fast,
Pleas'd with the task, he little thinks

How hard that chain will press at last.
Vain was the man, and false as vain,

Who said "were he ordain'd to run His long career of life again,

He would do all that he had done."
Ah! 'tis not thus the voice, that dwells
In sober birthdays, speaks to me;
Far otherwise-of time it tells,

Lavish'd unwisely, carelessly—
Of counsel mock'd-of talents, made
Haply for high and pure designs,
But oft, like Israel's incense, laid
Upon unholy, earthly shrines-
Of nursing many a wrong desire-
Of wandering after Love too far,
And taking every meteor fire,

That cross'd my pathway, for his star!
All this it tells, and, could I trace

Th' imperfect picture o'er again,
With power to add, retouch, efface,
The lights and shades, the joy and pain,
How little of the past would stay!
How quickly all should melt away-
All but that Freedom of the Mind,
Which hath been more than wealth to me;
Those friendships, in my boyhood twined,
And kept till now unchangingly;
And that dear home, that saving Ark,
Where Love's true light at last I've found,
Cheering within, when all grows dark,
And comfortless, and stormy round!

trained practitioner to shame. John Williamson, alias Johnny Notions, was some twenty years back the practical philosopher of his parish, South and Mid Yell, in Shetland. He practised inoculation with the greatest success, because his practice was guided by sound principles. His most remarkable proceeding was, allowing the small-pox matter to mellow, or meliorate, by long keeping. First procuring the best matter, he kept it for seven or eight years; and peatreek dried it. His only healing-plaster was a cabbageleaf. Johnny Notions, besides his high faculties, was a tailor, joiner, watch-mender, blacksmith, gunsmith, &c. &c.-a most invaluable kind of person in a rude and unaccommodated society, where the Jack-of-all-Trades is supreme.

THE OLDEN TIME. The stories told of the fine climate of Scotland, cannot be wholly fabulous. In every country parish the old people remember, or were told, of weather so warm, even in May, that the ploughs were unyoked soon after sunrise. Travelling through the meadows in the loans of Fearn, (a parish in Easter Ross,) in some places drops of honey were seen on the dew on the long grass and plantain, sticking to their shoes, as they walked along on a May morning! In other parts their shoes were oiled, as with cream, in going through the meadows. Sweetness and fatness!These were the times! When a man could buy a pair of shoes or brogues for 10d., and a stone of cheese for the same money! Unfortunately, a famine, or severe scarcity, sometimes visited these Highland Goshens.

OLD RENTS.-Mr. Fordyce of Ardo, who circumnavigated the globe with Anson, when he took possession of his estate, found the mansion-house, and forty acres, let for L.3, 6s. 8d. a-year. Wishing to go abroad again, he offered to renew his tenant's lease, and asked if he would give a rent of L.5. "Na, by my faith; God has gi'en me mair wit," replied the Aberdeen man. In a few years afterwards this farm produced a rent of L.1, 5s. an acre!

A HIGHLAND CURE.

A farmer in the Highlands had a very careless servant, and from the artful manner in which he concealed his faults, it was with considerable difficulty, and not till serious losses had ensued, that they could be discovered. One of his chief crimes consisted in his reckless management of the plough. He did not consider it of much importance whether the soil was regularly turned up or not; he thought it enough if he got the surface to bear an even and proper appearance, so as to conceal the blemishes that were below. With this view, when his plough stumbled upon any impediment, or jumped over a part of the furrow, which it ought to have turned up, in the next round or bout he took care to make the plough run so deep, as to turn up a sufficient quantity of earth, both for the present furrow, and to cover the part he had previously leaped over. This was a very common occurrence with him; and he seemed to exult in the execution of the deception; for on its completion, he was known frequently to exclaim, "That haps that." His master had, in consequence, suffered conJOHNNY NOTIONS, A RUSTIC ESCULAPIUS. Besides siderable detriment. He had tried every means he could Mr. Hornbook of the Clachan," every district in think of for reclaiming his servant from the error of his Scotland, thirty or forty years ago, had its rural me- ways, but all in vain; and at last he resolved to disical practitioner. In thinly-peopled regions, these may miss him. Before putting this ultimatum into execution, till be found, of both sexes, though the surgical department however, he wished to make trial of an expedient which generally left to the men, while the old ladies are the had not hitherto occurred to him. One day, while the onsulting physicians. There must be great ignorance and servant was ploughing, and pursuing his usual practice of resumption among members of this ungraduated faculty; happing, or covering, his master quietly followed him down But only the conceit and bigotry of science can deny that one of the furrows. He had not proceeded far when seve hese self-educated physicians, like rare self-educated per- ral minor jumps occurred; at last the raising and downfall ons in other professions, sometimes discover knowledge of a great quantity of earth, which extended over a large nd enlightened experience which may put the regularly-scar, caused the servant to exclaim, with much emphasis,

SCRAPS.

ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.

MOORE.

stated above, the population of Great Ritain being fourteen millions, the allowance, therefor, of meal to each individual, from one day old and upwards, to that population, would be twenty-six pecks yearly, or one half perk Further, besides corn to the horses, each horse

"That haps that." His master immediately seized him by the collar, took his bonnet from his head, and, with a cane, inflicted a smart blow on the cerebellum. The thunderstruck culprit stood amazed, and it was sometime before either opened their lips. At last the master placed the bon-will consume in twenty-four hours-two stone of hay; per week. net on the poor fellow's bruised head, and staring him in the face, said, "That haps that." This practical lesson had the desired effect, and reclaimed the servant from his besetting sin.

V.

this is a very moderate allowance. At this rate the num ber of stones consumed are two millions per day, or fourteen millions per week, or seven hundred and thirty mi lions yearly. Allowing, therefore, two hundred stones per acre, on an average, to produce the above quantity, the number of acres would amount to three millions six hundred and fifty thousand acres of land. Now these acres planted with potatoes, and supposing the produce to be twenty bolls per acre, the quantity produced would be twenty-three millions of bolls, being upwards of eight. three pecks yearly, or one peck and a half per week to each individual.-Glasgow Chronicle.

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ORCHARDS IN SCOTLAND.-Mr. Cobbett, in his account of Scotland, speaking of the orchards on the banks of the Clyde, says, an orchard is not a mere matter of ornament or of pleasure here, but of prodigious profit; under the apple and peartrees are gooseberry or currant bushes, very well managed in general; and these orchards very frequently yield more than a hundred pounds sterling in one year from an English acre of land! Like other things, the fruit here has fallen in price since the time of the panic; and therefore the pecuniary produce of orchards, like that offi elds and manufactories, has been greatly diminished. But these orchards are always a source of very considerable income. I think that my friend, Mr. M'Gavin, Hamilton, told me that his orchard, which is less than an Eng lish acre, has yielded him eighty pounds a-year clear money; and it is no uncommon thing for the proprietor of ten or a deten acres to sell the fruit by auction upon the trees, for something approaching a hundred pounds an acre. In our apple countis no man thinks of any thing but fruit to make cider and perry; here the whole is table fruit, and I have never seen so great a variety of fine apples in England, at one time, as I saw on the table of Mr. Hamilton, of Dalzell House."

ANECDOTE OF THE REV. EBENEZER ERSKINE.-At one time, after travelling, towards the end of the week, from Portmoak to the banks of the Forth, on his way to Edinburgh, he, with several others, was prevented by a storm from crossing that frith. Thus obliged to remain in Fife during the Sabbath, he was employed to preach, it is believed, in Kinghorn. Conformably to his usual practice, he prayed earnestly in the morning for the divine countenance and aid in the work of the day; but suddenly missing his note-book, he knew not what to do. His thoughts, however, were directed to that command, "Thou shalt not kill;" and having studied the subject with as much care as the time would permit, he delivered a short sermon on it in the forenoon after the lecture. Having returned to his lodging, he gave strict injunctions to the servant that no one should be allowed to see him during the interval of worship. A stranger, however, who was also one of the persons detained by the state of the weather, expressed an earnest desire to see the minister; and having with difficulty obtained admittance, appeared much agitated, and asked him, with great eagerness, whether he knew him, or had ever seen or heard of him. On receiving assurance that he was totally unacquainted with his face, character, and history, the gentleman proceeded to state, that his sermon on the sixth commandment had reached his conscience; that he was a murderer; that, being the second son of a Highland laird, he had some time before, from base and selfish motives, cruelly suffocated his elder brother, who slept in the same bed with him; and that now he had no peace mind, and wished to surrender himself to justice, to suffer the punishment due to this horrid and unnatural crime. Mr. Erskine asked him if any other person knew any thing of his guilt. His answer was, that, so far as he was aware, not a single individual had the least suspicion of it; on which the good The different species of apples, which grow in central man exhorted him to be deeply affected with a sense of his Russia, were brought from Astrakhan, Persia, and Kabaudia atrocious sin, to make an immediate application to the blood of The European kinds are rare. The apple of Kircvsk, though sprinkling, and to bring forth fruits meet for repentance; but, very large, is agreeable to the taste. Some of them weigh more at the same time, since in Providence his crime had hitherto than four pounds. The transparent apple thrives in the go remained a secret, not to disclose it, or give himself vernments of Vladimir and Moscow; it is said to have beca to pubup lic justice. The unhappy gentleman embraced this well-intend-imported from China, but many consider it indigenous to th ed counsel in all its parts, became truly pious, and maintained Crimea. It is so permeable to light that the seeds are see a friendly correspondence with this servant of the Most High through it. God" in future life. It is added, that after he withdrew, the minister had the happiness to recover the manuscript formerly missing; and, in consequence, preached in the afternoon on the topic he had originally in view.

BENEFIT OF STEAM.-A cry is raised by many against the use of Steam, by its doing away in a great measure the working of the handicraft, and being the means of lowering his wages, maintaining that distress must always be in the country so long as machinery is encouraged, and having a desire, when once the new Parliament meets, that some opposition to machinery will take place. The number of horses in Great Britain for which duty was paid in 1821, was 1,780,000; but an allowance may be made as an increase for the last eleven years, so that the number may be estimated at two millions. Now, supposing that one-half of those horses were set aside in consequence of Steam Carriages, what would be the saving in regard of provisions to the population, estimated at fourteen millions ? We shall allow, therefore, for one million of horses, one peck of corn to each in twenty-four hours, no doubt, a great many of them do not get so much; but, on the other hand, many of them get a great deal more. At this rate, therefore, the consumpt would be sixty-two thousand five hundred bolls each day, or four hundred and thirty-seven thousand and five hundred bolls each week, or twenty-two millions eight hundred and twelve thousand and five hundred bolls in one year. What a large quantity, say meal for corn, to be used and consumed by the people of Great Britain annually, instead of being used for food to horses alone. As * Hides, conceals.

of

A HINT TO SCOTTISH GARDENERS.

It is not a little extraordinary that the gardeners of Res tow, in the government of Jaroslavl, are superior to an Europe. Though unaided by the lights of science, and without resources, contending against a rigorous climate, they sup is probable that they are the descendants of a foreign colons. ply Petersburg and Moscow with all kinds of early vegetables The real Russian gives himself little trouble about such pursuits.-Malte Brun, Vol. 6.

Have these apples ever been grown in Scotland? Have they ever been tried as to their susceptibilities of cultivation in Scoland? If not, why?

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Several poems and other communications are received, and will le attended to at leisure. We have little space for fugitive poetry, The letter of R. P. dated Newcastle, is on a subject near our hearts. It will not be forgotten. To unknown friends in various quarters, w beg to make warm acknowledgments. We have also to acknow the receipt of several books, some of which came just as this Number was going to press.

CONTENTS OF NO. XIX.

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Political Truths
Books of the Month
Notes of the Month
STORY-TELLER.......
ELEMENTS OF THOUGHT
The Press....

Expansion of Water..

SCRAPS-Original and Selected:-Johnny Notions, &c...

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290

296

300

301

3B

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