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on which the eye could scarcely rest. Life, and light, and motion, appear to be inseparable. The dew of morning lay upon nature like a brilliant veil, realizing the beautiful image of Horace, as applied to woman:

"Vultus nimium lubricus aspici."

By and by the songs of the early workmen were heard ; nature had awoke and Owen, whose heart was strongly, though unconsciously, alive to the influence of natural religion, participated in the general elevation of the hour, and sought, with freshened spirits, the house of his entertainer...

Good mornin', an' thank you both, gintlemen. To tell yees the truth," he added, with a smile, "I long to be among my ould friends—manin' the people, an' the hills an' the green fields of Tubber Derg-agin; an', thanks be to Goodness, sure I will soon.'',

In fact, wherever Owen went, within the bounds of his native parish, his name, to use a significant phrase of the people, was before him. His arrival at Frank Farrel's was now generally known by all his acquaintances, and the numbers who came to see him were almost beyond belief. During the two or three successive days, he went among his old "croniens ;" and no sooner was his arrival at any particular house intimated, than the neighbours all Sithes were left idle, spades were stuck flocked to him. in the earth, and work neglected for the time being; all crowded about him with a warm and friendly interest, not proceeding from idle curiosity, but from affection and res

As he entered this hospitable roof, the early industry of his friend's wife presented him with a well-swept hearth and a pleasant fire, before which had been placed the identical Frank chair that they had appropriated to his own use. was enjoying "a blast o' the pipe," after having risen; to which luxury the return of Owen gave additional zest and placidity. In fact, Owen's presence communicated a holi-pect for the man. day spirit to the family; a spirit, too, which declined not for a moment during the period of his visit.

Owen, as we said, was prompt in following up his determinations. After breakfast they saw the Agent and his father, for both lived together. Old Rogerson had been intimately acquainted with the M'Carthys, and, as Frank had anticipated, used his influence with the Agent in procuring for the son of his old friend and acquaintance the farm which he sought.

“Jack,” said the old gentleman, “you don't probably know the history and character of the Tubber Derg MacCarthys so well as I do. No man ever required the written bond of a M'Carthy; and it was said of them, and is said still, that the widow and orphan, the poor man or the

stranger, never sought their assistance in vain. 1, myself, will go security, if necessary, for Owen M'Carthy."

« Sir,” replied Owen, “I'm thankful to you; I'm grate ful to you. But I wouldn't take the farm, or bid for it at all, unless I could bring forrid enough to stock it as I wish, an' to lay in all that's wantin' to work it well. It 'ud be useless for me to take it-to struggle a year or two -impoverish the land-an' thin run away out of it. No, no; I have what'll put me upon it wid dacency an' fort."

We shall

com"Then, since my father has taken such an interest in you, M'Carthy, you must have the farm. get leases prepared, and the business completed, in a few days; for I go to Dublin on this day week. I now remember the character of this family; and I remember, too, the sympathy which was felt for one of them who was harshly ejected, about seventeen or eighteen years ago, out of the lands on which his forefathers had lived, I understand, for centuries."

Father,

"I am that man," Sir," returned Owen. "It's too long a story to tell now; but it was only out o' part of the lands, Sir, that 1 was put. What I held was but a poor patch compared to what the family held in my grandfather's time. A great part of it went out of our hands at his death."

"It was very kind of you, Misther Rogerson, to offer to go security for him," said Frank; "but if security was wantin', Sir, I'd not be willin' to let any body but myself back him. I'd go all I'm worth in the world-an', be my sowl, double as much-for the same man."

“I know that, Frank, an* I thank you; but I could put security in Mr. Rogerson's hands here, if it was wanted.

Owen had no sense of enjoyment when not participated in by his beloved Kathleen. If he felt sorrow, it was less as a personal feeling than as a calamity to her. If he experienced happiness, it was doubly sweet to him as reflected from his Kathleen. All this was mutual between them. Kathleen loved Owen precisely as he loved Kathleen. Nor let our readers suppose, that such characters are not in humble life. It is in humble life, where the springs of feeling are not corrupted by dissimulation and evil knowledge, that the purest, and tenderest, and strongest virtues

are to be found.

As Owen approached his home, he could not avoid contrasting the circumstances of his return now with those under which, almost broken-hearted after his journey to Dub

He raised his hat, and wife about sixteen years before. thanked God for the success which had, since that period, attended him, and, immediately after his silent thanksgiving, entered the house.

lin, he presented himself to his sorrowing and bereaved

His welcome, our readers may be assured, was tender and affectionate. The whole family gathered about him, and, on his informing them that they were once more about to reside on a farm adjoining to their beloved Tubber Derg, Kathleen's countenance brightened, and the tear of delight gushed to her eyes.

"God be praised, Owen," she exclaimed; "we will have the ould place afore our eyes, an what is betther, we will be near where Alley is lyin'.",

There is little more to be said. Sorrow was soon succeeded by cheerfulness and the glow of expected pleasure, which is ever the more delightful as the pleasure is pure. In about a week their old neighbours, with their carts and cars, arrived; and before the day was closed on which Owen removed to his new residence, he found himself once more sitting at his own hearth, among the friends of his youth, and the companions of his maturer years. Ere a twelvemonth elapsed, he had his house perfectly white, and as nearly resembling that of Tubber Derg in its better days as possible. About two years ago we saw him one evening in the month of June, as he sat on a bench beside his door, singing with a happy heart his favourite song of It was about an hour be "Colleen dhas crootha na mo.” fore sunset. The house stood on a gentle eminence, beneath which a sweep of green meadow stretched away to the skirts of Tubber Derg. Around him was a country

naturally fertile, and, in spite of the national depression, still beautiful to contemplate. Kathleen and two servant aids were milking, and the whole family were assembled

about the door.

"Well, childhre," said the father, "didn't I tell yees the bitther mornin' we left Tubber Derg, not to cry or be disheartened that there was a good God above, who might do somethin' for us yet?' I never did give up my trust in Him, an' I never will. You see, afther all our little throubles, he has wanst more brought us together, an' made us happy. Praise an' glory to His name!"

I looked at him as he spoke. He had raised his eyes to heaven, and a gleam of elevated devotion, perhaps worthy of being called sublime, irradiated his features. The sun, too, in setting, fell upon his broad temples and iron-grey locks with a light solemn and religious. The effect to me, who knew his noble character, and all that he had suffered, was as if the eye of God then rested upon the decline of a virtuous man's life with approbation;-as if he had lifted up the glory of his countenance upon him. Would that many of his thoughtless countrymen had been present! They might have blushed for their crimes, and been content to sit and learn wisdom at the feet of Owen M'Carthy.*

FACTORY CHILDREN.

Abraham Whitehead, clothier.-When children, after thir extremity of their fatigue, fallen into errors and mistakes in teen, fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen hours of labour, have, in the piecing, by placing the cording obliquely, has seen the billyspinner or overlooker take his strap or the billy-roller, and say, "Damn thee! close it little devil, close it! and then smite the child with the strap or the billy-roller. Some have been beaten so violently that they have lost their lives on such occasions; through her cheek. He has seen the billy-spinner take the and even a young girl has had the billy roller jammed quite billy-roller and rap them on the head, making their heads crack eight yards, in spite of the din and rolling of the machinery, so that you might have heard the blow at the distance of six or Knew a boy of the name of Senior, his school-fellow, who was killed by a blow from the billy-roller. A woman, in Holmforth, was also beaten to death with this instrument; with which the factory children are oftener beaten than with either stick or strap. These beatings usually occurred at the latter end of the day. when the children were sleepy and fatigued. It is a common could be brought to swear that the practice was a general one, practice to strike the children with the billy-roller. Hundreds and that the children so beaten were blind for two or three days, If any attempt is made to punish the overlooker, the children are sure to be discharged. These atrocities took place in Mr. Brown's mill, of Leeds. Has seen children of the age of seven years, going from their homes at five and six, and sometimes four and five, to their mills. Children of this tender age often for breakfast or tea. The forty minutes for dinner is their only work till ten on a winter's night. They have no time allowed time for rest, and then they are often employed in cleaning the machines.

William Kershaw, a clothier. The pieceners are dreadfully beaten; has been beaten himself with a billy-roller, towards night, when he was particularly drowsy, till he repeatedly vomited blood; was then only eight years old; intreated his mother not to complain, lest he should be further beaten.-This was many years ago; but the children are not better the oldest, when a piecener, has had to stop a day or two at treated now; has two children working at a mill at present; home for three successive weeks, on account of being beaten on the head. Has known the unlimited power of punishment on the part of the overlookers; knew the father and mother of a child who was killed by being beaten on the head with the billy-roller. The children are beaten at all times in the day, for the most trivial mistakes, but the greatest complaints have been at night, when the children are drowsy and fatigued.

We again present our readers with an extract from that dark record, the forty days' evidence taken before the Committee of the House of Commons, on the condition of the wretched children in the factories. This is a subject of which we shall never lose sight, till the rank offence which cries to Heaven be removed from among us. It matters little whether the bloated idol, fed with infant blood, be Moloch, Juggernaut, or the god of British commercial idolatry, Mammon :-the sin is alike deep, the expiation alike called for. One of the witnesses examined before the Committee, the Rev. Mr. Gordon of Aberdeen, stated, that some years ago, Dr. Chalmers had from the pulpit told the manufac-beat them with a stick, strap, or billy-roller. Had a brother turers of Glasgow, "That they regarded human beings as so many pieces of machinery, the living principle within them as the power which set the machine in motion; and that their sole object was to get out of the machines as much work as possible with the least expense."

RICHARD OASTLER, Esq.-Has seen little boys and girls of ten years old, one in particular, whose forehead was cut open by the thong, whose cheeks and lips were laid open, and whose back was almost covered with black stripes. The same child informed him, that he had been frequently knocked down with the billy-roller, (a heavy rod of from two to three yards long, and two inches in diameter, with an iron pivot at each end, forming part of the machinery,) and that on one occasion he had been hung up by a rope round the body, and almost frightened to death, for the most trivial mistakes in his work. Has seen the bodies of these poor creatures almost broken down, so that they could not walk without assistance, when they have been seventeen or eighteen years of age; some who, after living all their lives in this slavery, were consigned at that age to poor-houses, and not maintained by the masters, for whom they had worked, as would have been the case had they been negroslaves, but by other people who had reaped no advantage from their labour.

John Goodyear, scribble-feeder.-Considers the long hours the cause of the cruelties upon factory children, which are re their strength. It is a common practice in woollen mills to sorted to for the purpose of compelling them to labour beyond

who nearly lost his eye by a blow, from one of these instruments. The treatment of children grows more and more inhuman; has seen them a hundred times worse treated of late years than he was when young.

Thomas Bennett, slubber. He said, with grief, that English children were enslaved worse than the Africans. Complained when working at Mr. Wood's mill. Dewsbury, "that they had not time to eat;" to which Wood replied, "Chew it at your work." Towards the evening, when the children are drowsy, they are apt to get entangled in the machinery. Saw an instance in which the machine caught a girl who had been drowsy, about the middle, bore her to the roof, and when she came down her neck appeared broken. The slubber ran up to her and pulled her neck and sent her to the doctors.

Benjamin Gummersal, piecener. Has been beaten by the overlooker till black and blue on his face, and has had his ears torn. Became deformed through hard work, and ill treatment; cannot walk at all; is obliged to go up stairs backwards.

Richard Wilson, piecener.-His brother became so deformed that his father was compelled to carry him to the mill. He died at twenty-three. Has seen the children beaten severely towards night.

This story we have abridged from a new work of very great merit, entitled Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry. The tale we have chosen is one of truth and pathos, others are yet more remarkable for

Benjamin Bradshaw, cloth-dresser, of Holbeck, Leeds.When children go to work at five in the morning, and remain till ten at night, they become stupified with labour. Has heard, in the room under which he worked, at Mr Rosin's factory, betched a heart of stone. They were beaten in that mill chefbetween seven and eight, the cries of children, that would have ly with a strap, or leathern belt. His own children bave returne ed home, beaten so severely, that he could not tell the colour a happy vein of humour. We have seen no work better calculated to of their backs. make us know and love our fellow-subjects of Ireland; and heartily do The girls were treated with the same severity ws recommend it to such of our readers as draw supplies from circu- going to the water-closet. He did remonstrate with the m as the boys. He has known a little girl beaten most cruelly for lating libraries. It is worth fifty fashionable novels.

ter respecting the abuse of his daughter, but instead of discharg

ing the overlooker, the philanthropic individual discharged all his children from his employ. Of seven hundred persons on whom he called to ascertain their sentiments on the factory question, seventeen only could write their own names.

Eliza Marshall.-Worked at Mr. Marshall's flax mill, Waterlane, Leeds, and afterwards at Mr. Warburton's. Became crooked with excessive labour, and went into the Infirmary. Has been beaten, and has seen other children strapped and kicked down. The master was often present and was as bad as the overlooker; they were as frightened when he came as if they were going to be killed. She was so exhausted at night, that she had to be trailed home. Is deformed from excessive labour in a standing position. Had to crawl to bed on her hands and knees.

Abraham Weldam.-Worked at Judson and Brother's mills at Keighley. Considers the lives of factory children one of extraordinary oppression and slavery. In the mill referred to they were chastised and beaten very cruelly at times; the overlooker was a person of very immoral character, a very bad man; he chastised them with any weapon that came at hand. The overlookers are too often in the habit of availing themselves of their controul over the female children for very improper purposes.

Samuel Coulson, tailor, of Stanningley.-His children get to bed about eleven, but were obliged to be up at two to ensure their arriving in time at the mill, thus allowing them only three hours sleep. An accident befel his daughter, who lost one of her fingers, in consequence of the brutal interference of the overlooker, whilst she was at work, in the after part of the day. She was five weeks in the Leeds infirmary, during the whole of which time her wages were stopped. She had not the least assistance from her employer. One of his daughters was beaten until her back was like a jelly. The wounds had to be dressed a fortnight after infliction, "in the way of a poor sol dier that has suffered at the halberds."

Samuel Smith, Esq. Surgeon of Leeds. The accidents by machinery are of so fearful a character as to entirely disable the sufferers-Has frequently seen accidents of the most fearful kind that it is possible to conceive. Has seen cases in which the arm has been torn off near the shoulder joint, and the upper extremity chopped into small fragments from the tip of the finger to above the elbow. Has seen every extremity of the body broken. A great number of these accidents might have been prevented by some Act to compel the owners of mills to have such horizontal and upright shafts as revolve with great rapidity in situations where children are placed near them, sheathed and covered with boxes of wood, which might be done at small expense, but is often neglected. Many of these accidents take place when the children are exhausted and sleepy from the long period at which they have continued their labour; they are in that state of lassitude and fatigue that they cannot keep their eyes open, and their fingers are frequently involved in the machinery when they are in that helpless state. Had seen a girl 15 or 16 years of age who was much deformed, and ascer tained that she had worked from five in the morning till ten at night, for six months in succession, without being allowed a single minute for food, rest, or recreation; she was obliged to take her breakfast, dinner, and tea, as she followed her work. She was a "scribbler" in a flax mill at Holbeck near Leeds.

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The Norman rhymers appear to have been the genuine descendants of the ancient Scandinavian scalds ; they were well known in the northern part of France long before the appearance of the Provençal poets called Troubadours, and Trouvers, that is, Finders, probably from the fertility of their

Hannah Brown-Worked at nine years of age at Mr. Ackroyd's mill, at Bradford. Has seen the overlooker drag the children about "three or four yards" by the hair of their heads. The master was fully aware the children were thus treated. Has even treated them himself in the manner already described. Peter Smart, overlooker at Mr. Andrew Smith's mill, Dun-invention. The Troubadours brought with them into the dee, was frequently much beaten to keep him up to his labour, often till he was bloody at the mouth and nose. The master was accustomed to beat him as well as the overseer, both with their hands and a leathern strap.

Alexander Dean, overlooker at Dundee.-Was barbarously used by the overseer of Mayfield Mill; was once struck and knocked against the machinery, till he had one of his eyes closed. The instrument with which he was struck was the billy-roller.

Peter Frith, engineer at Winsley.-Was chastised and kicked so severely for being five minutes too late at dinner time on one occasion, (his mother having sent him on an errand,) that his knee was broken in three places. He fell down; but the strap was laid upon him till he arose. He hopped home, leaning on a boy's shoulder.

Eldin Hardgrave.-Grew deformed after be had worked at Mr. Brown's mill, of Leeds. Had worked for seventeen hours a day all the year round; has been discharged for coming to London to give evidence.

Joshua Drake. The overlooker was accustomed to beat his daughter with a strap, (a heavy thong of leather with a wooden handle,) and sometimes to kick her with his foot. her arms and neck swelled many times from the beatings she

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John Hall, overlooker of Bradford.-Has the names and addresses of two hundred families, who have all deformed children, the whole having been so disabled by the inhuman extent of their labour in tender years at the neighbouring factories. Joseph Sadler.-The temperature of factories varies; it is 80, 90, 100, and even 110. The temperature of Mr. Marsland's mill is about 100; in the dressing rooms, 110. So intense was the application required from the children, that he had frequently seen them exert themselves, with tears in their eyes, and with the most heart-rending entreaties, pray to have their labour alleviated, and to avoid the chastisement that was inevitable. If their food is not brought at the precise moment fixed by factory regulations, they are compelled to go without it. They are often kept a long time without food. It is a com. mon thing to see the children weeping, in consequence of the excessive labour they endure, and their not being able to do the work assigned to them. Has seen terror and apprehension depicted in their countenances when going to work; weeping through the street is an every day occurrence.

north a new species of language called the Roman language, which in the eleventh and twelfth centuries was commonly used in the southern provinces of France, and there esteemed as the most perfect of any in Europe. It evidently originated from the Latin, and was the parent of the French tongue; and in this language their songs and their poems were composed. These poets were much admired and courted, being, as a very judicious modern writer says, the delight of the brave, and the favourites of the fair; because they celebrated the achievements of the one and the beauties of the other. Even princes became Troubadours, and wrote poems in the Provençal dialect; among others, a monarch of our own country certainly composed verses of this kind. The reader will, I doubt not, readily recollect the common story of Richard I., who, being closely confined in a castle belonging to the Duke of Austria, was discovered by his favourite minstrel Blondel, a celebrated Troubadour, through the means of a poem composed by the poet, in conjunction with his royal master. The story is thus related in a very ancient French author, quoted by Claude Fauchet; Blondel, seeing that his lord did not return, though it was reported that he had passed the sea from Syria, thought that he was taken by his enemies, and probably very evilly en treated; he therefore determined to find him, and for this purpose travelled through many countries without success; at last he came to a small town, near which was a castle belonging to the Duke of Austria; and, having learned from his host that there was a prisoner in the castle who had been confined for upwards of a-year, he went thither, and cultivated an acquaintance with the keepers; for a minstrel, says the author, can easily make acquaintance. However, he could not obtain a sight of the prisoner, nor learn his quality; he therefore placed himself near to a window belonging to the tower wherein he was shut up, and sangfa few verses of a song which had been composed conjointly by him and his patron. The King, hearing the first part of the song, repeated the second; which convinced the poet, that the prisoner was no other than Richard himself. Hastening, therefore, into England, he acquainted the barons

with his adventure, and they, by means of a large sum of money, procured the liberty of the monarch.

THE SWORD DANCE.

There is a dance which was probably in great repute among the Anglo-Saxons, because it was derived from their ancestors, the ancient Germans: it is called the Sword-Dance, and the performance is thus described by Tacitus: "One public diversion was constantly exhibited at all their meetings young men, who, by frequent exercise, have attained to great perfection in that pastime, strip themselves, and dance among the points of swords and spears with most wonderful agility, and even with the most elegant and graceful motions. They do not perform this dance for hire, but for the entertainment of the spectators, esteeming their applause a sufficient reward.

This dance continues to be practised in the northern parts of England about Christmas time, when, says Mr. Brand, "the fool-plough goes about; a pageant that consists of a number of sword-dancers, dragging a plough, with music." The writer then tells us that he had seen this dance performed very frequently, with little or no variation from the ancient method, excepting only that the dancers of the present day, when they have formed their swords into a figure, lay them upon the ground and dance round them.

In the Pirate, Sir Walter Scott gives a picturesque and poetical description of the Sword-Dance, in which the "highsouled Minna Troil.figures as in her native element."

COLUMN FOR THE YOUNG.

THE ROYAL GAME OF GOOSE.

THIS game is little known or practised in Scotland; but we have worse fire-side pastimes, and shall therefore give such a description of it, as may enable any ingenious young persons to play at it. It may be played by two persons ; but it will readily admit of many more, and is well calculated to make children ready at reckoning the produce of two given numbers. The table for playing at goose is usually an impression from a copper-plate pasted upon a cartoon about the size of a sheet almanack, and divided into sixty-two small compartments arranged in a spiral form, with a large open space in the midst marked with the number sixty-three; the lesser compartments have singly an appropriate number from one to sixty-two inclusive, beginning at the outmost extremity of the spiral lines. At the commencement of the play, every one of the competitors puts a stake into the space at No. 63. There are also different forfeitures in the course of the game that are added, and the whole belongs to the winner. At No. 5 is a bridge which claims a forfeit at passing; at 19, an alehouse where a forfeit is exacted, and to stop two throws; at 30, a fountain where you pay for washing; at 42, a labyrinth which carries you back to 23; at 52, the prison where you must rest until relieved by another casting the same throw; at 58, the grave whence you begin the game again; and at 61, the goblet where you pay for tasting, The game is played with two dice, and every player throws in his turn as he sits at the table; he must have a counter or some other small mark which he can distinguish from the marks of antagonists, and according to the amount of the two numbers thrown upon the dice he places his mark; that is to say, if he throws a four and a five, which amount to nine, he places his mark at nine upon the table, moving it the next throw as many numbers forward as the dice permit him, and so on until the game be completed, namely, when the number sixty-three is made exactly; all above it the player reckons back, and then throws again in his turn. If the second thrower at the beginning of the game casts the same number as the first, he takes up his piece, and the first player is obliged to begin the game again. If the same thing happens in the middle of the game, the first player goes back to the place the last came from. It is called the game of the goose, because at every fourth and fifth compartment in succession a goose is depicted, and if the cast thrown by the player falls upon a goose, he moves forward double the number of his throw.

SCRAPS.

ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. NATIONAL CONTRAST.-In a noisy mob, two handsome young women, who were much alarmed, threw themselves into the arms of two gentlemen standing near, for safety: one of the gentlemen, an Irishman, immediately gave her who had flown to him for protection, a hearty embrace, by way, as he said, of encouraging the poor eratur. The other, an Englishman, immediately put his hands in his pockets to guard them. Two officers, observing a fine girl in a milliner's shop, the one an Irishman, proposed to go in m buy a watch-ribbon, in order to get a nearer view of he "Hoot, mon," says his Northern Friend, "there's na occa sion to waste siller, let us gang in and speer if she can ge us twa saxpences for a shilling." It is notorious, that in one of the Duke of Marlborough's battles, the Irish brigade, on advancing to the charge, threw away their knapsacks and every thing which tended to encumber them, all whe were carefully picked up by a Scotch regiment that follow to support them. It was a saying of the old Lord Twyral, at a period when the contests between nations were decid

by much smaller numbers than by the immense ma which have taken the field of late years, that to constitu the beau ideal of an army, a General should take ten the sand fasting Scotchmen, ten thousand Englishmen after i hearty dinner, and ten thousand Irishmen who have jus

swallowed their second bottle.

EARLY RISING.-The difference between rising at and rising at eight, in the course of forty years, suppos a person to go to bed at the same time he otherwise wok amounts to 29,000 hours, or three years, one hundred and twenty-one days, and sixteen hours; which will afford eg hours a-day for exactly ten years; and is in fact t same as if ten years were added to the period of our li in which we might command eight hours every day fore cultivation of our minds and the dispatch of business.

THE WINTER GUEST.

I love to listen, when the year grows old
And noisy; like some weak life-wrinkled thing
That vents his splenetic humours, murmuring
At ills he shares in common with the bold.
Then from my quiet room the Winter cold
Is barred out like a thief; but should one bring
A frozen hand, the which December's wing
Hath struck so fiercely, that he scarce can hold
The stiffened finger tow'rd the grate, I lend
A double welcome to the victim, who
Comes shivering, with pale looks, and lips of blue,
And through the snow and splashing rain could walk,
For some few hours of kind and social talk:
And deem him, more than ever, now-my friend.

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THE

AND

EDINBURGH WEEKLY MAGAZINE.

CONDUCTED BY JOHN JOHNSTONE.

THE SCHOOL MASTER IS ABROAD.-LORD BROUGHAM.

No. 29.-VOL. II. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1833. PRICE THREE-HALFPENCE®

TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES.

both are imputable, in no mean degree, to some the abuses of others. Our excise laws, and opof our bad civil and social instituions, and to pressive system of taxation, have been the fosterers of blear-eyed, bloated GIN; our profuse and profligate expenditure has nursed mincing, pinching, apish GENTILITY. Which folly is, in its remote consequences, the most pernicious, it is not very easy to decide. We shall afterwards return to them; and, in now introducing our American documents, would only premise that the poor uneducated Scotch or English manufacturer, who

the

Drinks to forget his griefs and debts;

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HOWEVER it may gall our pride, we are shewing good sense in quietly following, in many important points, the example which our rebellious child America is setting us. TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES, to which we are friendly, were it only as they are an instrument of facilitating rational social intercourse among the people, are the growth of America; where, after a struggle of several years, they are triumphing at last. Whether, relatively, we are a soberer or more intemperate people than the Americans, is not a topic of instructive debate. Both nations are, perhaps, chargeable with excess enough in the use of ardent spirits, but or, it may be, to deaden the gnawings of hunger, with this differrnce, that the miserable and desor stifle the shame, and allay the shiverings of titute condition of tens of thousands of our la- nakedness, though often a more degraded being, bouring poor, make the ever-ready" dram," the is also much more an object of compassion and "meat, drink, fire, and fending," a far more power sympathy than the American slave of intemperful temptation than where the more equal distribution of wealth, and the better payment of la-fortable existence, may either use spirits, or vinous ance; who, well-provided with the means of combour, prevent intemperance from becoming so per- beverages, at his own discretion, for his personal renicious in its relative consequences, though equally freshment, or to heighten the enjoyments of social debasing and demoralizing to its victim. In Ame intercourse. The first document we present is rica, a man may be a considerable drunkard without so certainly inflicting misery and destitution on his family by his selfish and brutalizing appetites: no adequate apology for, but still some palliation of this vice. That the intemperance of the British poor arises in a considerable measure from the privations, and hardships, and absolute destitution to which they are periodically liable, requires no demonstration; and to repeat that drunkeness is but an aggravation of their worst calamities, is one of those unquestionable truisms which carry con. viction to the judgment, but, unhappily, almost always fall short of imparting energy to resolu. tion. The comparative temperance and moderation in the use of spirits among the comfortable classes, is, of itself, a clear proof, that habits of excess generally arise, either from the pressure of actual distress, or from the precarious and fluctuating gains of labour-from what is overpaid, as certainly as from what is underpaid; both extremes being alike adverse to the formation of steady habits. There are many minor concurring causes to which we cannot now advert. GIN and GENTILITY, . e. Intemperance and Vanity are the present twin curses of the British people; and

MINUTES OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED
STATES, 1832, ON THE SALE OF ARDENT
SPIRITS.

The Pastoral Association, and the General Associations of Massachusetts, and the General Association of Connecgelical ministers of the Gospel, at their last Meeting passed ticut and Maine, embracing more than five hundred Evanthe following resolutions, viz.:

.1.. Resolved, that, in the judgment of this Association, the traffic in ardent spirits, as a drink, is an immorality, and ought to be viewed and treated as such throughout the world.

2. Resolved, that this immorality is utterly inconsistent with a profession of the Christian religion, and that those who have the means of understanding its nature and cffects, and yet continue to be engaged in it, ought not to be admitted as members of Christian churches.

3. Resolved, that in our view, those members of Christian churches who continue to be engaged in the traffic in årdent spirits as a drink, are violating the principles and requirements of the Christian religion.

Among the means which the Lord has graciously owned and blessed during this year of of jubilee, many of our reports specially commemorate the influence of Temperance Societies. It is now a well-established fact, that the common use of strong drink, however moderate, has been a

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