fixing my residence on the borders of a beautiful stream, I cultívated industriously a small portion of land around it. Hither would my new friends resort, and administering to their comfort my success was complete. Beloved by all, I almost forgot my former sorrows, or if they intruded themselves into my mind, they were but as the fleecy clouds which a light breath will disperse, or which over-rising moonbeams would even fringe with light. This state of happiness did not last long-oppressions and cruelties to which the Aborigines had been exposed, drove them to revenge; and in the madness of their passion, they destroyed my little paradise, and had it not been for a warning I had received, my life must have been sacrificed also. Thus was a bar again placed between me and love, and in the moment, when I thought I had secured the treasure, it was snatched from my possession by the crimes of others.

I have knelt in vain at the shrines of Friendship and Love-I have sought them in solitude and in society, but how few, how evanescent have been their brightest flowers which have been my guerdon. I would give my all for the hand of affection, but alas! it hath ever been held out, only to be withdrawn immediately. Is there such a thing in the world as Destiny? and are the worshippers of Mahomet right in their ideas of Fatality?

*K.*

LINES.

(Written for the Prize for the Van Diemen's Land Annual.)

Majestically slow the queen of night

Moves through her spangled realm-the starry sky

She robes the forest in her silv'ry light,

And smiles, complacent, from her throne on high

Upon a sleeping world-'tis midnight hour!

No mortal sound disturbs the soft repose

Of Nature, save, through yonder roseate bower,
The rustling night wind murm'ring as it goes.
Below-the bay its ample bosom spreads,
Each wavelet crested by the silver ray-
Above-stupendous, raise their rugged heads
The mountains, glitt'ring in their bright array;
And thou, Mount Wellington! sublimely grand,
Above the rest, thy hoary front appears,
(As some proud warrior, mid his vet'ran band,)
Undaunted, mocks the ravages of years!

Fair Hobart, like the mistress of the world,
The mighty empire of the ancient time,
Immortal Rom! whose banners now are furled
Around the ruin of her wreck sublime-
O'er seven hills her infant arms outspreads,
Let none contemn the auspicious simile-
For now the ground degen'rate Roman treads
Is such as, Heav'n avert-her's e'er should be,

Above the town, conspicuous, points to Heav'n
Saint David's spire, and-hark-the solemn toll
Tolls one! and tells the allotted time is giv'n

To Thirty-three, to reach his distant goal
And Thirty-four, like midnight thief steals in,
Whilst death-like slumber holds her noiseless reign.
Oh! would he'd steal away remorse and sin----
Ere he depart, and misery and pain.

Ah me! who but can charge the by-gone year
With dread commission of some cruel theft?
Who, but (surveying through a burning tear)
Must mourn the sad mementos it has left?
Affliction's dearest treasures-they are gone,

And anguished,-bleeding hearts are left instead,
And bright eyes dimm'd-and warm hearts chill'd, alone
Preserve the mem'ry of the voiceless dead.

ON SCANDAL AND DEFAMATION.

MONITOR

"Absentem qui rodit Amicum,

Qui non defendit, alio culpanti; solutos:
Qui captat risus hominum, famamque dicacis;
Fingere qui non visa potest; commissa tacere

Qui nequit; hic NICER est; hunc tu, Romane, caveto!
HOR. SATIRAR. LIB. i, 4.

The Newspapers, of late, have been occupied with some judicious observations, deprecating the prevalence of slander and defamation, which are so disgracefully rife in the town. As the subject is one of considerable importance, as regards the actual welfare of us all, we shall devote a page or two of our present number to its discussion, earnestly soliciting the particular attention of our younger readers thereto, as well as their subsequent reflection.

Of all persons, who, although not exactly indictable for a criminal offence against the laws, are yet highly injurious to society, we think the slanderer the most pernicious and the most despicable. The ruffian, who boldly presents a pistol to your breast, or a knife to your throat, is, in our opinion, infinitely more honourable, than the base, insidious, cowardly slanderer; because, you have, with the one, some chance of escape and resistance; but, with the other,

you have no chance of either; for, shrouded in his secrecy, he is often too subtle and too cunning for detection. And, see, the extensive-nay, the irremediable mischief, which a man, thus bad and black-hearted, can and does perpetrate! Shunning the open light of fair and candid accusation;-too mean and too cowardly to face his victim, like an honest and a just man, he stabs him slily, but effectually, in the dark;-and exults in the havoc which he has accomplished. In this, as in all other small and contracted communities, the vitiated taste for slander, and its twin brother, scandal, is disgracefully prevalent; and many adventitious circumstances combine to foster this taste, and to propagate its iniquitous evils. The old adage says:-"Give a dog an ill name and hang him;" but we say, hang him first, and, then, do as you please with him afterwards: for utter annihilation is, in many instances, infinitely preferable to the burthensome existence, which the slanderer's victim is compelled to bear. And does the slanderer ever reflect upon this? Does he ever think, that his base attempts to blast a man's character are attended with evils-with enormous evils-too often irremediable? Doubtless he does;-but such reflection is a pleasure to his dark heart, and a source of exultation to his callous soul.

The facility, with which the slanderer's avocations are pursued in this place, is a great inducement to any low-minded man_ to indulge his petty spirit of paltry revenge, with no great trouble, but, with too sure effect. A mere shake of the head, or an uplifting of the eye, or a well-timed exclamation may consign a good and an honest, and an upright man to perdition, as far as his earthly affairs are concerned and he, the poor devil in question, has no means whatever of punishing the aggressor, but by breaking his head, or slitting his ears-a mode of chastisement, by the way, admirably suited to this class of offenders, and one, therefore, to be most highly recommended. But, then, the law interposes its authority; and if a person were ever so fully justified, we presume, he would be punished selon de régle—that is, in plain English, “according to law," just in the same way as you prosecute a man for stealing your turnips, or pilfering your gooseberries. But what, we should like to know, would be the penalty for slitting a slanderer's ears, or, as aforesaid, for breaking his sconce? It would come under the denomination of a "battery," probably; and the judge, after a suitable speech, would impose as suitable a fine, and there would be an end. Now, let us ask any high-spirited, right-minded, honest man, whether he would not run the risk of as heavy a fine as could be imposed, for the supreme gratification of slitting a slanderer's ears, or cracking his skull-or both? We need not wait for an answer; and we do most heartily and sincerely hope, that this, or some similar plan; will be speedily adopted in this delightfully -and-most-inveterately-slander-loving-and-scandal-loving town, yclept Hobart Town: If such a course were pursued towards two or three most "honourable men;" whom we rould name;

vast benefit would be conferred upon the whole human race, and the intrepid avenger would richly deserve the grateful acknowledgments of a "discerning public.'

But to be serious. Would any respectable man (we put honor and honesty entirely out of the question) defile himself by slander? -Would any man-to go farther-with any decent feeling, even countenance the slimy, filthy venom of the slanderer? We should think not-or, if he did, he would be, in the emphatic language of Horace, a "black man :”—

"Hic NIGER est: hunc tu, Romane, Caveto !"*
"Who'er can slily scoff an absent friend,
Or, when he's slander'd, dares not him defend;
Who, pleased with lawless laughter, for the name
Of Droll, can trifle with his neighbour's fame,
What he ne'er saw, invent, nor hide things seen,
Of him beware! For baseness lurks within."

From the earliest ages, the propagator of slander and scandal has been held-and most deservedly held-in the highest contempt even by those, whose greedy ears, he has tickled with his tittletattle; but, like every other vice, the habit becomes confirmed by practice and encouragement, and the offender is tolerated, like the votary of any other bad passion. But, this ought not to be the case; for while the sins of the drunkard, the gambler, and other habitual offenders against moral decency, are confined, in their effect, within, comparatively, a very limited boundary, those of the slanderer are as boundless as those of the Arch Enemy himself, and are scattered abroad without the infliction of any misery upon the perpetrator himself. Not so the propensities of other confirmed profligates: for while they outrage the usages of society, in the pursuit of such propensities, they suffer in their own persons, as much, if not more than, any persons, who may be affected by their conduct. The slanderer, therefore, pursues his iniquitous and mischievous course, without 66 of those any punctious visitings," which the mental or bodily sufferings of other bad men invariably and perpetually produce, and he has every inducement and encouragement, which befit the estimable character of a coward and a poltroon.

com

That man must be, indeed, a paragon of perfection in whom no fault can be discovered; and few of such paragons are, we suspect, likely to be found here: but, although these raræ aves are, "like angel visits, few and far between"-if popular rumour is to be credited, there is no lack of persons, of an opposite character. Almost every stranger, who arrives in the Colony, if he be, by

We translate the spirited passage, which contains this forcible line, for the peculiar benefit of the "country gentlemen," and of our female readers to the classical scholar, we need not hint, that, it is to be found in the 4th Satire of the 1st Book.

any means, an object of observation and enquiry,-no matter in however slight a degree-is sure to have some monstrous offence or bad propensity fostered upon him." He is a very good sort of a fellow," says the skipper who brought him out, and whose opinion is zealously backed by his friends" but" and here follows the slander, which is greedily swallowed, and implicitly believed,— till it flies over the whole town, gathering magnitude in its progress, like Colman's story of the "The Three Crows," and affording the good, kind-hearted, scandal-hating people of Hobart Town, the comfortable and consoling reflection, that the new arrival is not a whit more amiable than themselves.

This, the most ordinary origin of slander, is easily accounted for. Nearly every ship, which comes hither from England with passengers, brings a most heterogeneous and curious collection, and the skipper, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, is abundantly and particularly deficient in every one of those qualifications, which can conduce to the comfort of his cargo. Every person, therefore, of any decent feeling, who expects to be treated with at least common civility, properly and emphatically resents the conduct of your all-in-all, and most despotic "Captain." What then, is the consequence? Why, that this same Captain, who has, generally in his Agent here, a person of some notoriety and standing, and a most ardent and adhesive coadjutor in all his movements; if, therefore, he stigmatizes all, or any of his passengers; and represents him, her, or them in any particular point of view, his representation is received as incontrovertible truth; and the poor passenger is, at once, and, as it were, by wholesale, branded with a blot, which may, and, sometimes, actually does cling to him for life! If a gentleman is seen speaking to, or offering even the most trivial civility, to a lady-there is an intrigue on the tapïs;—if he enjoys his temperate glass of wine, and lifts an extra drop to his lips, he is a drunkard; and if, in the ordinary intercourse of a shipboard existence, he inveighs, somewhat loudly and angrily, against the provoking conduct of a seaman, he is a blasphemer and a reprobate. Such and so easily is the character of a man, darkened and blasted by evil-minded and evil-acting individuals; and, it is not difficult to see, how very easily such means are made available, here, to the wicked and malicious ends of the mean and cowardly perpetrators.

But, we hope, a better state of things is approaching. We hold the remedy in our own hands; and if we shall have an example set us, by those, whose station in society here, ought to place them far above the encouragement of calumny and slander, a reformation may soon be effected. In the mean time, we would earnestly urge every person to look upon a slanderer with suspicion and abhorrence; let him rest assured, that he, in his turn, will become the victim of his malevolent tongue; and let us advise all persons, slanderers or otherwise, if they can speak no good of a man, to speak no evil.

T.