* but Upas of Japan where the spotless rose of Sharon should alone have waved its petals to the breeze I refrain. .! May * # * was Every particular elicited combines to deepen the shock, and to exasperate tacit wonder. We have reason to believe that the unworthy scheme had been nurtured in the mind of the culprits for many weeks preparatory to the metropolitan journey. My simplicity, dear friend, long tried and well known, was put in motion to suggest the plan. It is galling to learn one's self a puppet in the hands of the Ungodly. But woe to those who jerk the string! When I recollect the vigilant assiduity with which Mr. Pecker has watched over the accumulation of the fortune of which Pheretrix; when I recollect the heavenly patience with which that suffering angel, his wife, encountered the caprices of one of the most vague and violent natures which ever disturbed the feminine frame; when I count up my own chastenings thrown away, my own counsels in semblance pursued, in reality listened to with heartless indifference or Jesuitical mockery,-do you think I am unable to foresee issues in the shadowy womb of Time, or to turn a deaf ear to the bolts of Retribution? No, dear friend, in such junctures as ours, compliance is culpable, and meekness but a disgusting latitudinarianism! Remember the pious women of old. What Judith underwent **** On the turpitude of P's leave-taking billet (registered against her, where ** ** *) I will not write. Here is a copy of Mr. Niblett's laid before you in all its literality-a suppressive discretion exercised with regard to the more vituperative portions of which your peculiar friend is the victim. "Both my beloved Penelope and myself were too well aware of the persevering nature of your attempts to seclude herself and her fortune to have any alternative, save in a temperate reserve and a wise secrecy. The expedients by which misunderstandings had been encouraged between us, coëval with the perpetual announcement to the world of an engagement as yet undeveloped, made us both aware, that no unconstrained intercourse could take place so long as she remained your inmate and the object of your schemes. This much in explanation of the self-denial we have felt ourselves called upon to practise, and to account for our employing my admirable friend, Mrs. Drangton, as a vehicle of communication. The height of living up to the semblance of so unnatural a line of conduct, while purpose works its Heavenward way secretly, is what few are privileged to realise so successfully and humbly as "Yours, &c., &c., &c. "AMBROSIUS NIBLETT." Poscriptically subjoined to this revolting document, is a formal request to Mr. Pecker, to demand the immediate transmigration of P- -'s fortune, hitherto so wisely administrated by him. A portion of it-we apprehend for the express purposes of insult-is wanted immediately :-tó be applied to the consummation of the Popish structure erecting on Grace Marie Hill.-It is the intention of the unworthy pair to winter in Rome!-But they may meet, in their guilty security, writings on the wall they little expect!! The abstraction of so large a sum of ready money as Mrs. Niblett's fortune will not be accompanied by a chasm in the well-regulated affairs of our brother-in-law-so that we engage you to contradict every credence to that effect, which may be diffused at Wailford. Well, are we aware of the insuppressive activity of Mr. Niblett's machinations. But Tinglebury is become painful to us; an wider spheres of activity are developing their vistas before our ken, among the benighted populations of France, Germany, and Italy, than the daily routine of a small and unintellectual country village can satisfy. Our souls expanded by Belgravia, provincial life becomes henceforth distasteful to us! We shall travel,-and it may be, shall meet with the fugitives in a strait place, where no tergiversation will suffice to screen them from the awful sentences of Mr. Pecker's eloquence.-I do not promise journalismbut you may hear from us on our progress. Secresy involving the dates and the place of our departure, may I beg your heartfelt participation till permission to divulge is accorded to you. Thus they went up into a ship. . . . . All is haste, here; confusion and incertitude. You will hardly receive this, indeed,—until our England joined to democratic idols, and handed over to the governance of Papistical domination, no longer numbers among its denizens,-Your discouraged, but indignantly resigned Sister and friend in DIANA RILL. His own burden Mr. Pecker could bear, he says,-devotedlybut that his country should be lost owing to the intrigues of an artful woman, is indeed, of galling bitterness; though nothing is new under the sun; and I recal the precedent of Cleopatra in allayance of his self-reproach. He cannot forget that it was at Mrs. Niblett's instance he quitted Tinglebury. Had he remained there firm to his post as head of the Anti-Free-Intercourse Association, (which you may remember, was always my anxious counsel and sincere aspiration)—the hideous torrent which has overwhelmed Britain, might, he has reason to think, have been stayed and the Anti-Corn Laws not have passed into the legislature of the Empire! : FEUDALITY. THE Feudal System-Pride and Shame From fortress grim that fenced above But 'neath such despot Man became M The spreading links which Traffic bound The feudal times-those times are flown,, The serf's become the citizen: J. S. D. COTTON MANUFACTURES IN MALTA; OR, A VISIT TO ZEITUN. It was the afternoon of one of the hottest days ever felt in Malta during the month of May, 1846. The thermometer had stood at 84 degs. in the shade; and in the sun, owing to the great refraction of the paved streets and white houses, it would have risen nearly 20 degs. higher. As evening approached, however, a light breeze from the north-east gently fanned the heated island, and it became possible to undertake with pleasure our contemplated drive to the manufacturing town of Zeitun. Let not the reader smile at the pompous expression. Within the narrow limits of Malta the blessings diffused by this and other centres of industry are as great, comparatively, as those which Manchester and Leeds and Sheffield and Birmingham distribute over our own beloved island. They employ the poor, and by employment preserve them from want, and its child-beggary, and its companion-crime. Valetta swarms with paupers; in Zeitun not a single hand is held out to solicit charity from the stranger or the resident. Passing through Porto Reale, we threaded the intricate labyrinth of fortifications which renders it inaccessible to an enemy, and emerged through St. Ann's gate into the open country. A short drive round the head of the harbour, which already was agitated by a fresh breeze that sent the billows dashing high in foam and fury against the entrance points, brought us to a large prison, erected by an experimental governor on the principle of "solitary confinement. The walls are there, white and shining in the sun, as smiling and as gay as if they encircled a palace; and they have little reason to look sad,, for no prisoner has ever heaved a sigh within them. Many years have rolled by since the public money was thus spent, and there seems every likelihood that the building will be transmitted to posterity under the appropriate name which it now bears, of "Bouverie's Folly." Half-an-hour more found us asking the way of an old man who was strolling home from his work, and beguiling the walk with the notes of a pastoral pipe. He directed us through the Casal of Tarxien, and then continued his amusement, playing as earnestly as if the eyes of an audience were upon him, but evidently quite absorbed in the rude melody which he himself made, and completely regardless of us and the whole world. I like the Maltese. They are not angels, except in comparison with the Italians; but they have a thousand good qualities, among which love of country is pre-eminent. That they do not love the English is explained by the contempt with which we thoughtlessly treat them. Every time we call them "smaitches" we knock a nail into the coffin of our supremacy. For my own part, I have never received an uncivil word from a Maltese; and must say, on the contrary, that a more obliging people I never met. From personal experience I can testify that they have not that accursed habit of "asking for more, which seems to beset every other nation on the shores of the Mediterranean. Thus much I say, because my light-hearted piper did not ask for a "pour boire," as he might have done had he been a Frenchman; nor for a "bottiglia," like a Neapolitan; nor for "qualche cosa,' like a Sicilian; nor for "baksheesh," like an Arab. He went his way, and we went ours, forgetting us as, except for this circumstance, we should have forgotten him. Zeitun is about six miles from Valetta; the roads, or rather lanes, are rough, and our four-wheeled carriage jolted tremendously. There is nothing worthy of remark on the way, but the extraordinary parched appearance of the square fields, divided by stone walls; the absence of trees, except a few stunted mulberries, and abundance of Casals or Burghs, with large domed churches. The approach to Zeitun is good; the streets are clean, though extremely narrow; and the people at once strike you by their comfortable appearance. We were bound to the house of Mr. P, a mer |