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and unpolluted, and, I presume, irreproachable sources from statistical tables and deliberate reports. Nothing was either exaggerated or over-coloured in pictures which humanity requires to be kept constantly before the public eye brought forward week after week, and day after day, till the evil is arrested, and the remedy found. But you shall hear, if you please, what the Schoolmaster has to say in the present week on this momentous subject; perhaps you may find it less objectionable; it is, at all events, from a quarter you must respect. Reads

HAPPY ENGLAND.

[You are to understand that this was written in Manchester, twenty-four years before Dr. Kay's pamphlet, and in the character of a Spanish traveller in England.]

always been advancing; and the price of labour, the only
Work-
thing they have to dispose, remains the same
houses are erected in one place, and infirmaries in another;
the poor-rates increase in proportion to the taxes; and in
times of dearth the rich even prepare food, and retail it to
them at a reduced price, or supply them with it gratui-
tously; still every year adds to their number."

What say you to this, my Friend? Can you lay your
hand upon your heart, and pronounce this painful descrip-
tion a false one?
This fellow is

Friend. Why, this is worse and worse. more inflammatory than your worshipful self. You never can publish this stuff.

Schoolmaster. And yet it is written by a chief of the conservative party-one of the best and ablest of themMr. Southey.

Friend. Mr. Southey Well, I suppose we must not call him an incendiary, and pander to the basest passions of the mob. "Tis a shocking state we are got into, that is certain; but, after all, least said is soonest mended. It may last our time.-Exit Friend, shrugging his shoulders.

THE LABOURING CLASSES.-THE WOOLLEN
MANUFACTURERS.

"One half of the world does not know how the other lives," is a common saying; "One half does not care how the other lives, is a true one." Last week we gave the state of the manufacturers of cottons. Agricultural labourers, persons engaged in mining, and at the potteries, are often in nearly as bad a condition. Let us then turn to the woollen manufacture of Yorkshire. It is rightly supposed, less liable to fluctuation and sudden depression than the cotton-trade of Lancashire. We quote at large from a careful report drawn up last year, after deliberate investigation. The sum of it may first be given in few words: "On diligent inquiry, it was ascertained that the average support of members of families at Almondbury* and the adjoining hamlets was twopence per day! and that there were hundreds of adult persons who have not tasted butchers' meat for many months, some of whom have not even tasted bread nor tea, but lived upon potatoes."

"We (the Spanish) purchase English cloth, English muslins, English buttons, &c., and admire the excellent skill with which they are fabricated, and wonder that from such a distance they can be afforded at so low a price, and think what a happy country is England! A happy country indeed it is for the higher orders; nowhere have the rich so many enjoyments, nowhere have the ambitious so fair a field, nowhere have the ingenious such encouragement, nowhere have the intellectual such advantages. But to talk of English happiness, is like talking of Spartan freedomthe helots are overlooked. In no other country can such riches be acquired by commerce; but it is the one who grows rich by the labour of the hundred. The hundred, human beings like himself, as wonderfully fashioned by nature, gifted with the like capacities, and equally made for immortality, are sacrificed, body and soul. Horrible as it must needs appear, the assertion is true to the very letter. They are deprived in infancy of all instruction, and all enjoyment; of the sports in which childhood instinctively indulges; of fresh air by day, and natural sleep by night. Their health, physical and moral, is alike destroyed; they die of diseases, induced by unremitting task-work, by confinement in the impure air of crowded rooms, by the particles of metallic or vegetable dust they are continually inhaling; or they live to grow up without decency, without comfort, and without hope; without morals, without religion, and without shame; and bring forth slaves like themselves, to tread in the same paths of misery. The dwellings of the labouring manufacturers are in narrow streets and lanes, blocked up from light and air, not as in our country, (Spain) to exclude an insupportable sun, but crowded together, because every inch of the land is of such value, that room for light and air cannot be afforded them. Here, in Manchester, a great proportion of the poor lodge in cellars, damp and dark, where every kind of filth is suffered to accumulate, because no exertions of domestic care can ever make such homes decent. These places are so many hot-beds of infection; and the poor in large towns are rarely or never without an infectious fever among them-a plague of their own, which leaves the habitations of the rich, like a Goshen of cleanliness and comfort, unvisited. Wealth flows into the country; but how does it circulate there? Not equally and healthfully through the whole system; it sprouts into wens and tumours, and collects in aneurisms, which starve and palsy the extremities. The government, indeed, raises millions now as easily as it starvation; the youngest child was ill of the typhus fever, When visited, they were in a state of actual raised thousands in the reign of Elizabeth. The metropolis of which disease its father died some months before. is six times the size which it was a century ago. It has the time of his decease, there was not a farthing or a nearly doubled during the present reign. A thousand carriages drive about the streets of London, where three gene-farthing's worth of food in the house, nor the least bit of rations ago there were not a hundred. A thousand hack- soap to wash their few rags-nor any means of getting any. The second case was that of a family of three perney coaches are licenced in the same city, where at the same distance of time there was not one. They whose grand-sons, whose income amounted to three shillings, who lived fathers dined at noon, from wooden trenchers, and upon the produce of their own farms, sit down by the light of waxen tapers, to be served upon silver, and to partake of the delicacies of the four quarters of the globe. But the numbers of the poor, and the sufferings of the poor, have continued to increase. The price of every thing they consume has

How thankful would these poor starving creatures have been for the hardest fare of their rude ancestors, with whom their happy condition is so often contrasted.

ascertain the state of the poor, said, the cases were not Mr. Geo. Beaumont, one of the committee appointed to selected, but taken from door to door. The first case was that of a widow, with six children, whose weekly income

was 6s.

At

upon potatoes, and sometimes a litle oatmeal. This poor man was 18s. in arrear with his rent, for which his landlord sold his jenny, which cost him 37., so that if the man had work, he had no means of working. The next case

* Near Huddersfield.

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was a family of ten persons, whose weekly income was 6s., | are employed in weaving woollen ends at ls. 4d. per score; and who, when visited in the evening, were found break- she scoured her own weft, for doing which she had noing their fasts with coarse bread and mint tea, without thing allowed, and took her work to Huddersfield. There sugar. The mother was crying over her distressed offspring. was neither meat, drink, nor money in the house, when Case the fourth-a family of five persons; weekly in- visited. 8. A family of three; weekly income, 1s. 8d.; come 8s.; the wife had been in the typhus fever ten weeks; no bed, excepting some straw, with an old bag for coverthe family lived chiefly on potatoes and salt, balm tea, ing. It was so long since this family had any animal food without sugar; and they had had only four ounces of that they did not recollect the time. They had not had sugar during four weeks. Case the fifth-a family of any bread in the house for the last five years. The old five, whose weekly income for the last twelve months was woman is seventy years of age, and has long been praying 6s.; they lived upon potatoes mixed with salt and water- for death to relieve her from her misery. 9. A family of sometimes an onion to savour this unsavoury food. Case four, whose weekly income was 3s.; they could not tell sixth-a family of seven, all without work, and had not when they had any animal food, and it was two years had more than a pound of animal food during the last four since they had tasted bread. This was the state of men in months. The seventh case was a family of seven, who had middle age, and in the prime of life of young men and not more than 7s. a week for the last three months. These women; what, then, was the state of their aged parents? unfortunate beings had not tasted animal food for eighteen If they searched the workhouse and poor books, they weeks; they lived chiefly upon oatmeal porridge; and, would find that they had so much allowed them as would when visited, they had not a morsel of food in the house; keep them alive, and keep them miserable or pining in they were all pining for want. This was on a Tuesday, workhouses. and they had not had any food since the previous Friday, excepting a little that they borrowed. Case eightha family of seven; weekly income 10s.; they had not tasted animal food for many weeks, and had not had a gill of beer in the house for two years. They knew not how they lived; they were tired of living. The ninth case was a family of five; weekly income, for the last six months, 78.; all the furniture had been taken for rent; not a table or chair left. When visited they had no animal food, no bread, no beer, no tea, no nothing. They had neither tea nor sugar in the house, but lived upon potatoes and oatmeal porridge when it could be prcoured. The tenth was a family of five, whose weekly income was 7s One of these poor creatures had to work all the night before he (Beaumont) took his statement, to finish the work in his loom, for the purpose of saving the rest from dying of actual starvation, as the whole family had not had more than sixpennyworth of food for the three preceding days.

At Scammoden in that same neighbourhood, in Yorkshire, the richest agricultural county in the world perhaps, the results of investigation were yet more distressing of thirty-eight cases selected we give nine.

1. A family of three-income 1s. 9d. per week; they sleep in a corner of the loom-shop, upon straw, strewn upon the floor, without any covering except the old clothing which they wore in the day time. 2. A family of four-weekly income 5s.; they lived on potatoes and thin water porridge; no milk, as they could not pay for it; no bread, no meat; had woven 160 yards, and travelled 48 miles, for 16s. 4d. 3. A widow and four children with a weekly income of 4s. 6d. ; they lived upon oatmeal porridge, without milk, treacle, or any thing else; no furniture: their bed was not worth a penny; indeed, they were perishing for want of food. 4. A family of nine, whose weekly income was 78.; the whole of them lay on a bed of straw, in a corner of a wretched hovel, not fit for one of the brute creation to inhabit. They had no bed clothes or other covering, except a dirty coarse wrapper. In this family misery reigned in silent triumph. 5. A family of sine, with a weekly income of 8s.; they laboured fourteen hours per day; they had three beds, and but one blanket for the three, and that was nine years old. These miserable creatures, when visited, were getting their breakfast; the mother had a gill of milk, which she measured out by spoonfuls to their thin water porridge, being only two spoonfuls and a half each. 6. A family of ten, whose weekly income was 10s.; they had only one straw bed for the whole family, they had no bed-clothes, but slept in those which they wore during the day. This family lived chiefly on potatoes, but sometimes had a pound of suet; they had not had a pound of bread in the house, excepting two or three penny cakes, during the last three years. 7. A family consisting of a widow and three children; they

And this is England! rich, glorious, prosperous England! We shall not dare to look at Ireland, nor our own country, though the latter cannot be worse than wealthier England, and in fact is, on the whole, better, how long to continue no one

can tell.

BOOKS OF THE MONTH.

THOUGH the length of the Parliamentary Session has made this a long publishing season, few original works have appeared that promise abiding interest. Yet there are some to be bought, a few to be borrowed, and a considerable number to be glanced over, if they fall easily into one's

way.

To be bought, at least, by all Book-clubs and Subscription Libraries is-The ECONOMY of MACHINERY and MANUFACTURES, by Charles Babbage, Esq., Mathematical Professor, Cambridge—a thorough master of the details of this multifarious subject. The work opens with a discussion on the value of Machinery and Manufactures and their various capabilities of converting worthless substances into useful products-of saving human labour, and time, and gaining many additional powers. We give one small specimen of the writer's manner :—

"The force of vapour is a fertile source of moving power; but even in this case it cannot be maintained that power is created. Water is converted into elastic vapour by the combustion of fuel. The chemical changes which thus take place are constantly increasing the atmosphere by large quantities of carbonic acid and other gases noxious to animal life. The means by which nature decomposes or reconverts these elements into a solid form, are not uffi ciently known; but if the end could be accomplished by mechanical force, it is almost certain that the power neces, sary to produce it would at least equal that which was generated by the original combustion. Man, therefore, does not create power; but, availing himself of his knowledge of nature's mysteries, he applies his talents to diverting a small and limited portion of her energies to his own wants; and, whether he employs the regulated action of steam, or the more rapid and tremendous efforts of gunpowder, he it only producing on a small scale compositions and decompo sitions which nature is incessantly at work in reversing, for the restoration of that equilibrium which we cannot doubt is constantly maintained throughout even the remotest limits of our system.”

Of Time gained, or saved by contrivance, we have this familiar illustration from the printing press :—

"In the old method of inking types, by large hemispherical

balls stuffed and covered with leather, [sheep-skin] the printer, after taking a small portion of ink from the ink-block, was continually rolling them in various directions against each other, in order that a thin layer of ink might be uniformly spread over their surface. This he again transferred to the type by a kind of rolling action. In such a process, even admitting considerable skill in the operator, it could not fail to happen that a large quantity of ink should get near the edges of the balls, which not being transferred to the type became hard and useless, and was taken off in the form of a thick black crust. Another inconvenience also arose, the quantity of ink spread on the block not being regulated by measure, and the number and direction of the transits of the inking-balls over each other depending on the will of the operator, and being irregular, it was impossible to place on the type a uniform layer of ink, of exactly the quantity sufficient for the impression. The introduction of cylindrical rollers of an elastic substance, formed by the mixture of glue and treacle, superseded the inkingballs, and produced considerable saving in the consumption of ink; but the most perfect economy was only to be produced by mechanism. When printing-presses moved by the power of steam, were introduced, the action of these rollers was found well adapted to the performance of the machine; and a reservoir of ink was formed, from which one roller regularly abstracted a small quantity at each impression. From three to five other rollers spread this portion uniformly over a slab (by nost ingenious contrivances varied in almost each kind of press,) and another travelling roller, having fed itself on the slab, passed and repassed over the type just before it gave the impression to the paper."

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A PLEASANT, companionable book, into which, if found lying in an inn window, or on a steam-boat table, we may dip at random, and be sure to bring up such lively passages as this, describing a ride through the streets of Delhi :

"Riding through the town requires much management, and some skill. It is necessary to shout, push, and kick the whole way to warn the multitude to get out of the road. Occasionally you have to squeeze past a string of loaded camels, or start away from a train of elephants; and if your horse be frightened at these last animals, which is frequently the case, it needs some ingenuity to avoid being plunged into the caldrons which simmer on each side of the way, in front of the cooks' shops. The fear is mutual very often; and the elephants, in attempting to escape from the approach of a horseman, may well be supposed to throw the whole street into a fine confusion. In one of my strolls through the city on horseback, I was nearly swept away by a species of simoom, caused by the progress, through the dusty town, of some important personage travelling in

state.

"When overtaken by such a storm, it is a long time before you can recover either your sight or position. The idle cause of all this tumult was reposing quietly in a shining, Every one connected with the construction of machin-yellow palanquin, tricked out with gilt moulding in every He was preceded by a large retinue of ery, or with manufactures and trade, should read this possible direction. strange-looking beings, mounted on horses and dromedaries laborious digest. The moral consequences of the manu- and dressed in the most fantastic style. The animals were facturing system lie out of the author's road. He is, more covered with scarlet housings, bound by gold lace, their over, an economist out and out, a Pharisee of the Pha- bridles studded with shells; round their necks were collars risees, save in the Truck system, which we are glad to find of gold or silver, with little drops hanging to them, that Mr. Babbage reprobates. When we can obtain a Govern- camels were likewise adorned with bells." kept time most admirably with their jogging measure. The ent of angels, or of angel-men, to apply the strict principles of political economy, for the good of the whole human race, we shall all be economists as rigid. Till then the hearts of many will misgive and shrink from some of the palpable consequences of the system, well as it works in theory and for some in practice.

EMIGRANT BOOKS.STATISTICAL SKETCH OF UPPER
CANADA. BY A BACKWOODSMAN.-CANADAS. BY

A. PICKEN.

BOTH works may be read with advantage by persons meditating emigration. The latter work is a compilation from many late volumes, with useful tables, maps, &c., &c. The author of the first work broaches as original the plan of what he calls Infant Emigration, which is only a revival of ndenting or selling children to the colonies. The idea will be eagerly grasped at by churchwardens in England; and revolting as the plan is, infant bond-servants may be as comfortably placed in the Canadas, as are parish apprentices at home, and have besides a speedier prospect of emancipation; as they could, and no doubt would, if they found it convenient, decamp across the frontier as soon as their legs would bear them. This writer gives encouragement to weavers and persons of trades for which there is no demand, to emigrate; by the assurance that they may make very good American farmers though not trained to agricultural labour. Those linen weavers who are accustomed to throw the shuttle with both hands, make capital wood-choppers, as they can wield the axe with either hand, to the help of both. Emigrants whose object is New South Wales or Van Diemen's Land,

The source of the Ganges, the river of Indian worship, was thus first seen by the retinue of Captain Skinner.

“After emerging from a grove of reeds, (many of them broken and strewed on the ground, which gave a variety to the cause of our slipping, though the effect was much the same,) we found ourselves on the point of a projecting crag that beetled o'er its base,' and gave us the first glimpse of the Ganges, which was rapid and broad, but dark and sandy as it flows through the plains. If the sound of Jumoona excited my followers to a high pitch, at merely the commencement of their pilgrimage, how much more so would the thrice welcome shout of Gunga Jee! when they had at length gained it, after a painful journey of more than thirty days. Gunga Jee! was the universal cry for some minutes; and Gunga Jee! was echoed by the woods and hills around, till it reached the ears of the slowest of my stragglers, when, calling upon its name long before they sight they had been so long toiling to obtain. saw it, they endeavoured to rush forward, and enjoy the The Hindoos salaam'd and muttered its name over and over again ; and even the unbending Mahometan seemed in some way softened by the scene. I sat on one side, to allow full scope much as they were by the veneration of the river." to their feelings, affected by the beauty of the picture as

MIRABEAU'S LETTERS FROM ENGLAND.

Or the authenticity of these letters, written in the scapegrace days of Mirabeau, there are some doubts. The name of their author is the chief attraction, and the introduction of such names as Romilly, then a young barrister, and Chatham in the noon of his fame. Many of the passages in these letters do look like after thoughts, though the probability is in favour of their authenticity.

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THE book for drawing-room tables in the autumn of 1832 It is elegantly embellished. The sketches of Shakspeare's heroines, Rosalind, Beatrice, Imogene, and Miranda are written with a fine feeling of the beautiful in their characters. Thus of Rosalind :

O! fleetly sped my gallant Grey

Like wild bird o'er the hill;
Full well it knew the love-ward way,
And guessed its master's will!
With swifter pace my wishings flew,
My heart leaped yet more free;
It well the priceless value knew
Of one fond hour with thee.

"Barry Cornwall's Songs" will not add much to his "Everything about Rosalind breathes of youth's sweet prime. She is fresh as the morning, sweet as the dew-fame as a poet, though some of them are rather pretty. awakened blossoms, and light as the breeze that plays He is becoming Radical, even imitative, at humble distance, among them. She is as witty, as voluble, as sprightly as of the author of Corn-Law Rhymes. The Leveller is Beatrice: but in a style altogether distinct. In both, the but one production of this sort, which we can give out of wit is equally unconscious; but in Beatrice it plays about us like the lightning, dazzling, but also alarming; while many. THE LEVELLER. the wit of Rosalind bubbles up and sparkles like the living fountain refreshing all around. Her volubility is like the bird's song; it is the outpouring of a heart filled to overflowing with life, love, and joy, and all sweet and affectionate impulses. She has as much tenderness as mirth, and in her most petulant raillery there is a touch of softnessBy this hand it will not hurt a fly!"

LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. BY SIR D. BREWSTER, Is a book to delight boys, and a guide to juvenile experiments. It contains explanations of the arts of necromancy, phantasmagoria, mysterious writings on the wall, &c., &c., &c., spectral illusions, echoes, ventriloquism, aerial spectres, agglers' tricks, the Invisible girl, Automaton chess-player, and, in brief, many curious things put together in a long course of peculiar reading. As a specimen of the work we welect The Art of Breathing Fire, an art which is still practised to the wonderment of many. This is an ancient feat, but the old method is not exactly known. Now, ac. cording to Sir David

The King he reigns on a throne of gold,
Fenced round by his "power divine;'
The Baron he sits in his castle old,
Drinking his ripe red wine:

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But below, below, in his ragged coat,
The beggar he tuneth a hungry note,
And the spinner is bound to his weary thread,
And the debtor lies down with an aching head.
So the world goes!

So the stream flows!

Yet there is a fellow whom nobody knows,
Who maketh all free

On land and sea,

And forceth the rich like the poor to flee!

The lady lies down in her warm white lawn,
And dreams of her pearled pride;

The milk. maid sings, to the wild-eyed dawn,
Sad songs on the cold-hill side:

And the Saint he leaves (while he prattles of faith)
Good deeds to the Sinner, as scandal saith,
And the scholar he bows to the face of brass,
And the wise man he worships a golden ass!
So the world goes, &c.

"The Blue Bag" is a collection of political parodies on

This art is performed more simply by the modern jug-popular songs, which without much point are amusing gler. Having rolled together some flax or hemp, so as to

form a ball the size of a walnut, he sets it on fire, and al- enough.—Croker-go-bragh sets out with

lows it to burn till it is nearly consumed: he then rolls round it while burning some additional flax, and by these means the fire may be retained in it for a considerable time. At the commencement of his exhibition he introduces the ball into his mouth, and while he breathes through it the fire is revived, and a number of burning sparks are projected from his mouth. These sparks are too feeble to do any farm, provided he inhales the air through his nostrils."

To London there came a poor lawyer from Erin,
Ah! heavy the mud on his brogues old and thin,
Through his threadbare groen coat, his red elbows were peering,
Nor had he a stocking to cover his shin,

NEW NOVELS.

There is generally a second crop of novels about this season, to appear spick and span new at the watering places ; two belong to Scotland, "The Highland Smuggler," by Mr. This volume is to be among the last of Murray's Fa-Fraser, author of Kuzzilbash, which we have not yet read mily Library, which has it seems turned out a bad concern. Of THE EDINBURGH CABINET LIBRARY, The 3d voof the History of India has appeared, and completes this useful portion of a well-conducted series.

WILDERSPIN ON INFANT TUITION

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is merely mentioned here as a work recently published. The subject of Infant Education deserves an article to it

of which this book must be the text.

In Poetry there are several small volumes lately published. The 8th volume of the cheap edition of Byron contains the whole of Childe Harold, with a few additional vituperative , which neither add to the beauty of the poem, nor do any honour to the memory of the poet.

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but see noticed with approbation in the reviews: and "Clarenswold, or Tales of the North," a neat volume in its outward shew, and of fair promise otherwise, if the author be, as we understand, still very young.

THE HEIDEN MAUER, by the American author of the Spy, Pioneers, Pilot, &c. &c. will prove a disappointment and a provocation to many. It is a romantic story, laid in Germany. Mr. Cooper must keep to Sea, or to his own side of the Atlantic, and to his own line, in which he is

unapproachable.

CONTARINI FLEMING, by the author of Vivian Grey, or at least universally attributed to that gentleman, has been bandied about among the weekly critics like a shuttle-cock the excessive praise of the one, drawing forth the sneers of another; the book exhibits some power, alloyed with much absurdity, and wilful perversion, both of taste and judg ment.-Enough, and too much of books merely to be glanced at if they fall in one's way.

EARLE'S RESIDENCE IN NEW ZEALAND will be perused with interest by those who already know something of the character of the manly and energetic race depicted

CHAUNTS OF THE PEOPLE.

Mr. Earle's anticipations of the rapid civilization of the | for the prowess and achievements of particular Clans, which New Zealanders appears sanguine to us who cannot see will prove yet more interesting. with his eyes. It would, however, be as presumptuous in us to pronounce them wholly unfounded, as it is rash in him, to assert that the labours of the Missionaries in New Zealand have been worse than useless. If the constant practice of cannibalism among the New Zealanders had not been previously sufficiently established, Mr. Earle's direct testimony might settle the point; to satisfy his curiosity he visited a chief while the process of baking a young runaway female slave was going on.

"Atoi received us in his usual manner; and his handsome open countenance could not be imagined to belong to I shudso savage a monster as he proved himself, to be. derd at beholding the unusual quantity of potatoes his slaves were preparing to eat with this infernal banquet. We talked coolly with him on the subject; for as we could not prevent what had taken place, we were resolved to learn, if possible, the whole particulars. Atoi at first tried to make us believe he knew nothing about it, and that it was only a meal for his slaves; but we had ascertained it was for himself and his favourite companions. After various endeavours to conceal the fact, Atoi frankly owned that he was only waiting till the cooking was completed to partake of it. He added, that, knowing the horror we Europeans held these feasts in, the natives are always most anxious to conceal them from us, and he was very angry that it had come to our knowledge; but, as he had acknowledged the fact, he had no objection to talk about it. He told us that human flesh required a greater number of hours to cook than any other; that if not done enough, it was very tough, but when sufficiently cooked it was as tender as paper. He held in his hand a piece of paper which he tore in illustration of his remark. He said the flesh then preparing would not be ready till next morning; but one of his sisters whispered in my ear, that her brother was deceiving us, as they intended feasting at sunset.

We inquired why and how he had murdered the poor girl. He replied, that running away from him to her own relations was her only crime. He then took us outside his village, and showed us the post to which she had been tied, aud laughed to think how he had cheated her " For," said he, "I told her I only intended to give her a flogging; but I fired, and shot her through the heart!" My blood ran cold at this relation, and I looked with feelings of horFor at the savage while he related it. Shall I be credited when 1 again affirm, that he was not only a handsome young man, but mild and genteel in his demeanour? He was a man we had admitted to our table, and was a general favourite with us all; and the poor victim to his bloody cruelty was a pretty girl of about sixteen years of age!" This is sorry progress in civilization.

HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS AND CLANS.

THIS is the first approach that has been made to anything like a regular history of that singular portion of the Scottish people, which has, for a half century, fixed the attention of the rest of Europe. The History of the Clans could not have fallen into better hands than those of Dr. Browne, from private and personal considerations even more than ability and literary qualification. His former writings eyinced that warm and enthusiastic feeling towards the Highlanders, and intimate acquaintance with their characteristic peculiarities, without which other requisites would have been comparatively a dead letter. Part I., which appears in a shape worthy of the permanent place to which the work is entitled in Scotchmen's libraries, is devoted to the carly history, antiquities, manners, language, poetry and music of the Gael, and to their wars with the Danes. It gets over a great deal of curious ground, and clears the way

As we wish our pages to reflect as closely as possible the
image of the time, we cannot pass over without notice
what is called the mob poetry, when it appears in the vigorous
and definite shape of these Chaunts. Barry Cornwall's
songs reflect a softened resemblance of "the spirit bitterer
than aught in books," but it is merely the shadow of the
Who is
stern and rugged substance which we find here.
the author of these effusions composed evidently with pur-
pose prepense?

THE POOR MAN'S SONG.

I'll sing a song, and such a song
As men will weep to hear-

A sorrowing song, of right and wrong,
So brethren, lend an ear.

God said to man, "This pleasant land
I make it wholly thine."

I look and say on this sad day,
There's not one furrow mine.

God said to man, "Increase, enjoy,
Build, till, and sow your seed;"
But through the land the Lord gave nic,
My children beg their bread.

The north belongs unto the crown,
The south to the divine;

And east and west Wealth holds her hands,
And says the rest is mine,

God said to man, "All winged fowl,
The finned fish of the flood,

The heathcock on his desert hills,
The wild deer of the wood-

Take them and live." The strong man came,
As came the fiend of yore

To Paradise-put forth his hand,
And they are mine no more.

I saw the rulers of the land,

In chariots bright with gold
Roll on-I gazed my babes and I,
In hunger and in cold.

I saw a prelate, sleek and proud,
Drawn by four chargers, pass:
How much he seemed like Jesus meek,
When he rode on an ass!

A trinket of a Lord swept by
With all his rich array,

And waved me off, my babes and I,

As things of coarser clay.

There followed close a hideous throng
Of pert and pensioned things-
Muck-worms, for whom our sweat and blood
Must furnish gilded wings.

I will not tell you what I thought,

Nor for my burning looks

Find words; but they were bitterer far

Than aught that's writ in books,

I'll set my right foot to a stone,

And 'gainst a rock my backStretch thus my arm, and sternly say, "Give me my birthright back.”

WHISTLEBINKIE

We must not forget; a snug little collection of capital song just published in Glasgow, for the daily and hourly co sumption of a merry or a pensive public. But we defi individual merits for the present.

DRINKING.-Lime applied to trees makes them put for leaves, and flourish, and produce food early; but then kills them! Wine cheers and stimulates men, and mak them put forth flowers of wit; but then there is no dou it shortens life.

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