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The grave world appears always to take him at, to his brother Gilbert, for his own use, and the use of the rest of the family. He then settled with his wife at the farm of Ellisland, near Dumfries, and entered the Excise. The rest of his story may be soon told. His conduct was not wise, nor was his life happy. Could we unveil all the struggles of remorse, pride, shame, and despair, in that heart so essentially noble, all the agony, in the latter years of life, of that mind so indefeasibly great, what a lesson it were of wisdom and warning!

his own light and reckless estimate, and as a much
more heedless youth than he really was.
It was
about the time he occupied this farm, on which he
had entered with his brother, that they might pro-
vide a home for the rest of the family, now de-
prived of their father, that Burns formed that con-
nexion with Jean Armour his future wife, which,
as a man of good feeling and true honour, does
him more credit than may at first sight be ima-
gined. When most anxious to repair the injury
in which this young woman had been involved by
what was certainly a mutual imprudence, he was
prevented from establishing his marriage by those
forms which the laws of Scotland sanction, in con-
sequence of the harsh and unjustifiable interfer-
ence of her relatives, and no doubt in some degree
by her own acquiescenee. A disgraced daughter
appeared better than the wife of an honest man in
circumstances so hopeless and desperate as were
those of Burns. His angnish on the occasion is
expressed with great feeling in one of his poems.
Shortly after this it is well known how bright "
change came o'er the spirit of his dream." Ilis
poems were published in Edinburgh; after he had
come to the metropolis of his country, and met
such a reception as no rustic author ever met be-
fore, nor ever will again. The tide of prosperity
flowed, for the time as high as even the hopes of a
poet could have risen; and, caressed and applauded
by the gay and the great, the fair and the learn-
ed, by men of rank and women of elegance, Burns
returned home comparatively a rich man, and fin.
ally formed that matrimonial connexion which is
a trait in his character that none of his biogra-
phers have sufficiently appreciated. This step, we
are warranted in believing, he at last took from
the highest and purest motives. How many pru-
dent mothers, virtuous sisters, and honourable
friends-even Miss Chalmers and Mrs. Dunlop
would not only have pardoned his abandonment of
his future wife, but even have anxiously desired

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to see him form a connexion more suitable to a

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Look on that brow!-the lowest slave,
The veriest wretch of want and care,
Might shudder at the lot that gave
His genius, glory and despair!

Burns died on the 21st of July, 1796, at his house in Dumfries, in his thirty-eighth year, having, beyond any preceding Scotsman, extended and refined the intellectual pleasures of his country. His fame will ever remain an illustrious portion of her literary honours-his misfortunes an indelible disgrace to some of her institutions." A life of literary leisure," he says in one of his lettersand he often repeated the same thing—" with a This he never found; and his notions of compedecent competence, is the summit of my wishes." tence were certainly far from extravagant.

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When the faults of Burns are dwelt upon with seeming zest even by the warmest admirers of his genius, it ought ever to be kept in remembrance, that the boy who did a man's office for his parents, and the man who divided his little fortune with his brother, lived with his infant family, and with all his imputed reckless improvidence, on an income varying from fifty to eighty pounds a-year, and died without once incurring the bur den of pecuniary obligation, or owing any man a shilling! His manly, independent spirit, and almost savage pride, prevented him at least from the debasing consequences which pecuniary inman of his changed prospects, and, above all, to volvement entails on the finest minds; from all one of his extraordinary endowments. Burns him- the pitiful shifts, subterfuges, expedients, and self ascribes his marriage to necessity; but it was complicated meannesses which degrade a man in a necessity which ninety-nine out of a hundred the eyes of his fellows, while they corrode his own young men all honourable men," chivalrous heart, and ultimately destroy all delicacy of chaspirits would have thought it quite justifiable to racter, and completely undermine that self-respect evade. One of the most generous sentiments that which is the prop of so many virtues. The faults any man ever uttered, contains the true reason of of Burns have often been held out in warning to this sacrifice to a high-minded integrity. In writ- young men of talent. They were great and laing to Mrs. Dunlop, Burns says of the marriage mentable, though none of them were those of a he had formed," The happiness of a once much-cold, an ostentatious, or a mean nature. loved and still loved fellow-creature was in my power, and I durst not trifle with so sacred a trust.'

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Burns had brought five hundred pounds from Edinburgh, the honourable reward of his abilities. Of this sum he lent or gave two hundred pounds*

I have much pleasure in recording the following circumstance:Mr. Gilbert Burns, a man of considerable literary ability, and in all respects one" of the excellent of the earth," died lately in East Lothian, where he had long lived as the factor of Lord Blantyre. The mother of the poet, who many years survived her illustrious son, lived till her

Let the

warning be coupled with his example in this important point. Neither vanity, nor self-indulgence, nor that contempt of future consequences, which death with Gilbert Burns, who had a large family of his own. This debt of L.200 to his brother-for such he seems to have considered it— necessarily stood over. The exertions of Dr. Currie, and of the other friends and admirers of Burns, had placed his widow far above the fear of want, and every member of the family was respectably settled in life. It seems to have been almost the romance of integrity which induced Mr. Gilbert Burns to devote to the repayment of this loan a sum of money which he received from the booksellers shortly before his death for revising his brother's works. Had Burns survived, it would have gone hard with him before he had taken back this money.

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is sometimes senselessly arrogated as matter of me a Profissor of Humanity. What's Latin for breeches !" "Fem-fem-femina." "No, it's not, Sir; that's Latin for poetical privilege and the mark of a high spirit, a woman. "Femora-" "Can you do it ?" "Don't strike betrayed him, surrounded as he ever was with me, Sir; don't strike me, Sir, an' I will." "I say, can you manifold temptation, into the dishonesty and mean- do it?" "Femorali"-(whack, whack, whack,)" Ah, ness of living beyond his scanty income. In some Sir! ah, Sir! 'tis fermorali-ah, Sir! 'tis fermorali-ah, Sir!" "This thratement to a Profissor of Humanitypoints of pecuniary interest he indeed showed a spirit of poetic chivalry which his critics are well (whack, whack, whack, whack, kick, kick, kick, thump, thump, thump, cuff, cuff, cuff-drives him head over heels entitled, if they please, to call Quixotic. While a to his seat.) Now, Sir, maybe you'll have Latin for, herd of inferior writers, noble or gentle, are every breeches again, or, by my sowl, if you don't, you must strip, day gaining hundreds and thousands by their pro- and I'll tache you what a Profissor of Humanity is!" ductions, Burns declined receiving any remuneraBut a tion whatever for his unrivalled lyrics! few years have passed since it was thought shabby for a gentleman in Scotland to sell the fruits of his garden, or to farm out the game on his estate; and Burns probably had the idea, that to sell songs was equally discreditable to the honour of the Muses." A nation of shopkeepers" has very properly dismissed this superstition. There is no disgrace now except in getting too little.

(To be continued.)

THE SCHOOLMASTER AT HOME IN IRELAND. "Pierce Mahon, come up wid your multiplication. Pierce, multiply four hundred by two-put it down-that's it,

400 By 2

"Twicet nought is one." (Whack, whack.) “ Take that as an illustration-is that one?" "Faith, masther, that's one an' one any how; but, Sir, is not wanst nought, nothin'; now, masther, sure there can't be less than nothin'." "Very good, Sir." "If wanst nought be nothin', then twicet nought must be somethin', for its double what wanst nought is-see how I'm sthruck for nothin', an' me knows it-hoo! hoo! hoo! hoo!" "Get out, you Esculapian; but I'll give you somethin' by-and-by, just to make you remember that you know nothin'-off wid ye to your sate, you spalpeen youto tell me there can't be less than nothin', when it's well known that sportsman Squire O'Canter is a thousand pounds worse than nothin'."

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"Paddy Doran, come up to your Inthrest.' Well, Paddy, what's the inthrest of a hundred pound at five per cent? Boys, some of you let a fox pass there manners, you thieves you.”

"Do you mane, masther, per cent per annum ?” "To be sure I do-how do you state it?" "I'll say, as a hundred pound is to one year, so.is five per cent per annum."

"Hum-why-what's the number of the sum, Paddy ?" ""Tis No. 84, Sir." (The master steals a glance at the Key to Gray.) "I only want to look at it in the Gray, you see Paddy-an' how dare you give me such an answer, you big-headed dunce you-go off an' study it, you rascally Lilliputian-off wid you, and don't let me see your ugly mug till you know it."

"Now, gintlemen, for the Classics; and first for the Latinarians Larry Cassidy, come up wid your Agop. Larry, you're a year at Latin, an' I don't think you know Latin for frize, what your own coat is made of, Larry. But, in the first place, Larry, do you know what a man that taches classics is called?" "A schoolmaster, Sir." (Whack, whack, whack.) "Take that for your ignorance, you wooden-headed goose, you-(whack, whack)—and that to the back of it-ha! that'll tache you to call a man that taches classics a schoolmaster, indeed! 'tis a Profissor of Humanity itself, he is-(whack, whack, whack,)-ha! you ringlader, you; you're as bad as Dick O'Connell, that no mather in the county could get any good of, in regard that he put the whole school together by the ears, wherever he'd be, though the spalpeen wouldn't stand fight himself. Hard fortune to you! to go to put such an affront upon me, an'

THE SICILIAN VESPERS.

IN the notes on the month of August was mentioned that foul stain on humanity, the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. Along with it is often coupled another diabolical. enormity, named the Sicilian Vespers. There was here no preconcert, though in the progress of these horrible transactions men seem, under the excitement of remembered wrongs and brutal passions, to have become demons.-The inhabitants of Palermo, according to ancient custom, resorted to the church of Sante Espiritu, outside the walls

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of the city, to celebrate the solemnization of Easter.
the way they were watched by the French, who were al-
ways jealous of their assembling. Among them was a
lady, Nymphia by name, the wife of Rogero of Mastran-
gelo, whose beauty made an impression on one of the min-
isters, Droghet. Under the pretext of ascertaining whether
she had arms (which the Sicilians had been forbidden to
carry) concealed under her garments, he approached her,
and was guilty of such disgusting rudeness, that the lady
swooned away in the arms of her husband. The insult
fired all who were present at the procession; but none had
courage to avenge it, until a young man, whose name his-
tory has concealed, but whose memory will ever be dear
to his patriotic countrymen, seized the sword of Droghet,
and plunged it into the lewd owner's heart. A shout of
exultation was immediately raised by the multitude; who,
in the excitement of the moment, swore to exterminate the
odious strangers. As they had no arms at hand, they
seized stones and other missiles, which they hurled with
such effect at the heads of the Frenchmen, that the ground'
was soon covered with dead bodies. The citizens of Pa-
lermo rose as one man, and destroyed every Frenchman on
whom they could lay hands. Their example was followed by
other towns-by none more heartily than Messina; so that
scarcely a Frenchman was left alive from one extremity of
the island to another. This indiscriminate butchery occu-
pied a full month. The church was no asylum for the
proscribed victims; nor, as we are told, though upon autho-
rity somewhat apocryphal, was much mercy shown to the
Sicilian women who had married them.

HINT FOR INVALIDS." It is worthy of particular remark, that it is not in the lungs only that the blood exerts an action on atmospherical air, for a similar function appears to belong to the skin, over the whole body. If the hand is confined in a portion of atmospherical air, or oxygen gas, it is found that the oxygen disappears, and is replaced At the same time, a conby a portion of carbonic acid. siderable quantity of watery fluid transpires, and may be. collected by a proper apparatus. This fact gives us an insight into one grand source of benefit arising from full exposure to the open air."-Dr. Graham's Chemical Catechism.

A GOLDEN RULE.-Industry will make a man a purse, and frugality will find him strings for it. Neither the purse nor the strings will cost him any thing. He who has it should only draw the strings as frugality directs, and he will be sure always to find a useful penny at the bottom of it. The servants of industry are known by their livery; it is always whole and wholesome. Idleness travels very leisurely, and poverty soon overtakes him. Look at the ragged slaves of idleness, and judge which is the best master to serve-industry or idleness.

COLUMN FOR THE LADIES.

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moustachios of some half Turk have charms for her, and she wends her way-La Condessa Catapulta Cavatina-to the lovely land where all above is moonshine, and all below is heroismın and piracy. Thus goes the world of widows. Without knowing or caring what kind of match Heber's masculine and managing widow may have carved out for her tender fancies, it is enough for us to know that she has made eleven thousand pounds by his "Remains," and is now worrying the public again with his "Life and Travels." But we should be sorry to impe-le the progress of the lady's prosperity, or the goodness of the ca:ch which the man of moustaches has made in her, and we recommend its purchase to all those who patronize the Widow of Ephesus class of marriageable dames above forty-five.-W hittaker's Monthly Magazine.

THREE FEMALE DANCERS.-The Schoolmaster has nothing to do with dancers or singers, and only gives the subjoined bit of playful raving for the sake of the striking moral to be appended to it.

gum and elephant's tooth; prior muscle never had its equal

BISHOP HEBER'S WIDOW.-THE WRITING WIDOWs.-Our women are all heroines now; the newspapers say, that Lady Harcourt, whose noble husband could hardly have been consigned to the earth when the late king was buried, sent for twelve tickets to St George's Chapel. A snug funeral party this. Of course they all got tickets, and were well entertained. No doubt her ladyship was very much at her ease, and has con tinued so ever since. Yet it is not so much by women of rank, who are bred up to this stony-heartedness as a part of their education, and think much the same of a dead husband as of a castoff gown, that our indignation has been excited of late. It is with the "weeping widows," the " undone and bereaved of all their souls held dear," the walking hearses of a husband's be [It is scarce necessary to say, that since this clever though loved memory, black and tragic from top to toe-the writing severe paper was written, the widow of the amiable and exwidows-those sorrowing authoresses, who, in insatiable fond-cellent Heber has wedded and separated from the Greek adness for the dear dead-and-gone, and "in a holy desire to give venturer, to whom it was believed she was secretly married the world some knowledge of the virtues and various perfec- when the last of Heber's works was played off against public tions of him whom they shall never cease to deplore, whose credulity and sympathy. On the subject of these letters image they treasure in their heart of hearts, and whom they a late No. of the Edinburgh Review observes "About some day and night implore heaven that they may soon rejoin in the feelings of a domestic nature, which allow the veil only to be grave; make books and sell them for the highest price they can lifted upon solemn occasions, and with a trembling hand. get; blustered up by puffery of all kinds, demands on the " Among those letters, one is, we perceive, endorsed to my dear collections of college friends," or, "the sympathy of sorrowing wife, in case of my death.' It requests her to be comforted relations," and on the humbugability of the public in general. concerning him, to bear his loss patiently, and to trust in the These are the true Widow-of-Ephesus tribe; and, we will con- Almighty to raise up friends, and give food and clothing to herfess, it would not seriously afflict our souls to see them thrown self and her children."" Any one who had seen an advertiseinto public scorn, or hear the first application for assistance, the ment to this effect must surely have exclaimed "an enemy hath first presentation of the prospectus of "The Recollections and done this!-or, would interpret the notice into a scandalous Remains of the late lamented Honourable Reverend Charles expedient for extorting money by purchasing suppression. 1 Montague Antonio Belville, with fac-similes of his writing, and his billets doux and epigrams in the magazines, carefully collected, with notes, by his affectionate and disconsolate widow, the Honurable Amelia Antoinetta Isabinda Seymour" answered in every instance by "Madam, you are an impostor! No wo"The names of the three Poetesses of Motion, whom it is man who cared for a husband's memory, would make such the good fortune of rich and luxurious England to possess at an exhibition of him. You only want to parade yourself this season, are inscribed above. Of Brugnoli we have spoken before the public, and get money and a second husband as fast as you can."-There is not one of the scribbling widows before,-she is the impossible Grace; Heberle is the goddess of that has not "changed her condition" with the greatest alert- None can equal Brugnoli, for her muscles are at once composelegance and art; Taglioni of elastic joy-of grace in ecstacy. ness possible. The latest candidate on the list has been poored of ivory and Indian-rubber-she is a creature of vegetable Heber's widow; this lady was the widow par excellence, all devotedness, all sublime, all the mother of the Gracchi. But nobody better knew what she was about, when softening the "sentimental reader" was the question. With an alacrity worthy of an undertaker, she collected every fragment of the dead that she could turn into money, enlisted every friend he had in the scheme, made a Jew's bargain with a bookseller, and out came the quarto:-The late Bishop Heber's Travels in India," &c. "with sketches, engravings, vignettes," and, she ought to have added, in justice to the sentimental reader, with a variety of weak correspondence and of childish and uzepiscopal verses: but the whole tenderly blazoned with notes by his widow! Now, to those who have hearts in their bosoms, and have known the loss of any for whom they felt even common regard, the idea of hunting over their papers, conning their letters, gather ing every scrap that fell from their hands, recalling the familiar penmanship, the familiar phrase, till almost the familiar voice is in the ear, and the dead seems to stand before them; is one of the most repulsive thoughts that can come into the mind; in fact, those who have any heart at all, shrink from it wholly and cannot prevail upon themselves to go near any object which calls back the image; and if they make any exertion, it is to avoid all recurrence to sensations which cannot return without great pain. But not so with the she-editor. The Widow of Ephesus first looks to the market, considers how much better books will sell if they are taken in time; and then before the breath is well out of the husband's body, she is neckdeep in his trunks, turning out his portfolios, cutting extracts out of his books, and inditing circulars to all his friends for every fragment of his letters; then comes, without a moment's delay, the "Proposal for publishing the Life and Remains, with Notes by his Widow!" The book is published; sympathy with some, shame with others, common charity with the rest, make a considerable sum of money; which the world, of course, conceive that they are contributing for the support of a worthy man's children, and giving into the hands of a worthy widow. But the money is scarcely lodged, when, lo! the widow is a wife; some gay lounger of St. James's air has caught her taste, and wooed her to be his, by virtue of his knowledge of her subscription; or she has been charmed by the grin and guitar of some exquisite, who, though figuring as a peruquier in the sunny south, figures as a Marquis in foggy England; or the

either in energy or rigour.

Heberle is a creature of the most refined art: her exquisite powers seem to transcend mortality; and yet we fancy we can discover their origin, progress, perfection, in the traces left behind. But it is like looking in the Pyramids for marks of masonry Attitude is the forte of the divine Heberle: she is great, too-ye gods, how great!-in the graceful exertion of while they delight, simply as if they were specimens only of power: she seems to do those exquisite movements that dazzle the gifts that had been given to her.

make up our prescription for mental disease, we should say Could an apothecary so commingle essences, that he might Recipe, the power, and the grace, and the form of Heberle : mix them in some vase of witchery: let lights innumerable, odours inexpressible, and tones inconceivable, fiil the air and impreg nate it with delight; and at some favourable moment of returning spirit, draw up the curtain. Such a vision floating behind it! If music can cure the bite of a tarantula, then is Heberle a specific for the Cholera."

The sister of the young foreigner thus bepraised, died of Cholera in two hours illness, before this paragraph could have travelled the rounds. Heberle fled in horror. This incident may teach a better style of joking to theatrical critics.

DAHLIAS.

The Dahlia was a flower unknown in Europe within the last twenty years; it is a native of the marshes of Peru; it was called after Dahl, the famous Swedish botanist. Its varieties at present amount to nearly 500. The most beautiful flowering time of the dahlia is from the beginning of August to the middle of October; a temperature of ten or twelve degrees appears to be the most favourable for them. The dahlia is multiplied by seeds and parting the roots; the French say, by slips and grafts; but they are so easily increased by the two first methods, that the others need not be adopted even if practicable. The double varieties, that flower first in the time, are those whose time of florescence soonest terminates, while the latter plants, whose first blossoms are lovely, generally furnish the finest flowers, on the approach of winter.

THE LIVERPOOL RAILWAY.

MECHANISM AND ITS MARVELS.-This is the age of mechanical invention, and we have no doubt, that before its course is run out, we shall have made a prodigious advance in the power of man over nature. The railway system is of itself a great triumph. We are not to be discouraged by the accidents which from time to time occur in its use, for in every instance of those accidents the misfortune has been fairly earned by the folly or rashness of the sufferer. Two or three things of this kind have lately happened on the Liverpool Railway. But what is to be expected, if a clown who thinks he can outrun a vehicle flying thirty miles an hour, is crushed in consequence. Another fellow gets drunk, and will choose no place to sleep off his drunkenness but the middle of the railway; the engine comes, with the rapidity of a shaft of lightning, and before the engineer can see that there is any thing before him but the sky, the body is cut in two. Another clown chooses to hang on the engine, at full speed, as he would hang on the shafts of his cart; warning is of no use to him; he drops off, and is ground into powder at the moment. But those are no more impeachments of the system than the possibility of breaking one's neck by a fall from a firstfloor window is an argument for living on the ground. Even the more serious doubt, whether the railway be in reality the cheaper, as it is decidedly the more rapid and powerful mode, vanishes before just consideration. The expense of the Liverpool railway has been heavy, and like all commencements, there have been errors, and even some unnecessary expenditures in the undertaking. A railway, too, on which the chief articles of carriage must be the bulky products of manufacture, or the still bulkier raw material, must have dimensions that can scarcely be required for the usual intercourse of the country. There may have also been a rather ostentatious attention to magnificence in the design, which, however laudable and even fitting in a great national monument, is not required in a mere instrument of connexion between two trading towns in a remote part of the kingdom. But this is of all faults the most venial. We hope that no London railway will be constructed without a view to the national honour. It is a nobler monument than all the triumphal arches of Rome. We say, then, that the Liverpool railway is an experiment no longer; that it has fully succeeded. The profits may be less than the sanguineness of speculation imagine. But the facts are ascertained that a steam-engine can carry weights to which no animal power is equal, with a rapid ity that sets all animal speed at defiance; and that it can do this without intermission, without regard to night or day, frost or sunshine, the height of summer, or the depth of the most inclement season of the year. If the Liverpool railway were not to pay its own expenses, all that could be rationally said would be: There has been some rashness or clumsiness in the details, but you have got all that an inventive people can require. You have got a new and mighty power of nature; such things are not vouchsafed for nothing; and your business is now to bring to it the observation and ingenuity with which you have been furaished by Providence for such purposes, and to bring this noble principle, this new revelation in mechanics, into the active and manageable employment of man.

TRANSMISSION OF ARTICULATE SOUNDS.-One of the curious results of the railway will probably be some improvement in the communication of sound. Every body knows the contrivance, which has now become so common in the shops of workmen and tradesmen, the tin tube by which a message is conveyed through all parts of the house, at the moment, and which of course saves the delay and trouble of sending a servant. Those tubes are capable of much more general application, and might be very conveniently applied to every house. The principle is now to be tried on a large scale. It is proposed, by means of a small tube throughout the length of the Liverpool and Manchester railway, to convey information as quickly as in conversation. The length of the longest tunnel of the Liverpool and Manchester railway is about 6,600 feet, but it is thought that articulate sounds could be transmitted not only through the tunnels, but along the whole length of the railway. Its convenience on the railway would he obvious, as by a few men stationed at regular distances several miles apart, warning could be instantly given through the speaking-pipe of any obstruction or accident. But the probability is, that it will be discovered that not only can the words of a speaker at Liverpool be transmitted to Manchester, but that they can be transmitted through any distance however great, and with an almost instantaneous rapidity. The progress of sound through the air is well known to be 1142 feet in a second, and it is a singular fact that the feeblest sound travels as rapidly as the loudest; thus a whisper has the speed of a burst of thunder.

But by all the experiments on tubes it appears that the trans-
mission of sound is infinitely more rapid than in the open air, or
actually occupies no time whatever. A series of experiments
made a few years ago by M. Biot and other French mathemati-
cians when the iron pipes were laying down for conveying water
to Paris, seems to promise an unbounded power of transmission.
They joined long ranges of those pipes to each other, so as to
that the lowest whisper at one end of the tube was heard with
make a continued tube of several miles.
The results were,
the most perfect distinctness at the other, and that it was heard
instantaneously. The moment the speaker at one end was seen
to apply his lips to the tube, his words were heard at the other.
If this discovery should be substantiated by the railway tube,
man will possess another power over nature of the most curious
tion as it is, would be a toy to an instrument by which a public
and the most useful kind. The telegraph, admirable an inven-
order or any other piece of intelligence could be conveyed at its
full length from the seat of government to a seaport, or any other
important spot of the kingdom, equally in fog and clear weather,
night and day, and without even the delay that occurs by the
telegraph. The sailing and triumph of a fleet, the surprise of
an enemy, a stroke that might decide the fate of a nation, might
be the consequence of this simple invention. And its value
would be still enhanced, if in the course of time, it could be
turned to the iudividual
se of the community; if a system
could be established allowing every body to avail himself of this
mode of communication; like the Post Office, the intercourse
of which was originally established only for the uses of the state
and monarchs, but is now turned to the service of every man
who desires to write a letter.

MR. COULTHURST, THE AFRICAN TRAVELLER.-It is with feelings of deep regret that we have to announce the death of this long and melancholy catalogue of men of spirit and talent who young and enterprising traveller-another victimn added to the have fallen a sacrifice to their enthusiasm on the subject of African discovery. Mr. Coulthurst had, it appears, made a fortnight's journey from the Old Calabar river into the interior, when, for reasons unknown at present, he returned to that place, and embarked on board the Agnes, a Liverpool vessel bound for Fernando Po. It was during this voyage that this intelligent and amiable man breathed his last, on the 15th of April.

THE AFRICAN EXPEDITION. The expedition will proThe steam-boats, bably leave Liverpool in a day or two. one of which is composed of iron, are two of the neatest and most elegant construction, and have been very generally admired.

THE IRISH WIDOW'S FAREWELL TO HER

INFANT.

O, where is thy father, my own lanna-bawn,"
Who kissed the fresh balm of thy lip, as with dawn
He rose, and with eyes raised to Heaven in prayer,
Sought blessings for thee and his wedded love there?
From thence, 'till the day-star sank tired in the west,
He toiled with delight for the pair he loved best;
Then homeward, though wearied, he hastened to twine
His heart in pure fondness with yours, babe, and mine.
Wo, wo to the day, when a blood-thirsting band
Came to levy the tithe and arrears of our land;
Its morn saw thy father young, beauteous, and bold,
Its noontide beheld him pale, gory, and cold.
Redeemer of man! didst thou grant, for one hour,
To thine own chosen priesthood the right or the power
To go in robed state to thy temple and pray,
Then take from distress its last morsel away?
They have taken our blanket-our last one-and where
Shall I shelter my darling? My bosom is bare
And withered; and ah, such a chill's in my heart,
That the grave of thy father more warmth would impart.
I could live for thee, doat on thee, beg through the world,
Nor repine, though by want, ay, even misery unfurled;
But grief for thy parent, and terror for thee,
Have dried up the source of existence for me.

I leave thee, my lanna, all helpless and lorn;
Were it lawful, I'd wish that thou never wert born,
Or rather the tithe-bullet pierced thy young breast,
Then sweetly with thee and my love I would rest.

My fair-haired babe,

THE GLEANER.

HUMBUG.-Every body is not acquainted with the etymology of the word humbug, which is now very generally applied to cholera. It is a corruption of Hamburgh, and originated in the following manner-During a period when war prevailed en the continent, so many false reports and lying bulletins were fabricated at Hamburgh, that at length, when any one would signify his disbelief of a statement, he would sav, You had that from Hamburgh; and thus, That is Hamburgh,' or 'humbug,' became a common expression of incredulity."

EXTRAORDINARY INSTANCE OF STRENGTH AND SPEED. One of the most extraordinary instances of strength combined with speed that we ever recollect to have heard of, took place lately in Manchester. In a warehouse in Dale Street, a conversation lately took place about running between a young man employed there and a porter belonging to the Railway Company, who was waiting at the warehouse for some packages that had to be forwarded by the Railway, when the Railway porter, whose name is Darlington, said he could run 120 yards with a certain package upon his back whilst the ware house porter ran 200 without load. This package contained AN OUT-AND-OUT Skittle-player.—In an imperial city, 120 pieces of prints, weighing about 3lbs. each, and had been lately, a criminal was condemned to be beheaded, who had a packed in an hydraulic press. A wager was made for 5s., half singular itching to play at nine-pins. While his sentence was in ale and half in money, and preparations were instantly made pronouncing, he had the temerity to offer a request to be per- for the race. The package was lowered on the shoulders of the mitted to play once more at his favourite game, at the place of man, and when properly balanced off they started, when to the execution; and then, he said, he should submit without a murutter astonishment of several who witnessed the exploit, the mur. As the last prayer of a dying man, his request was grantman carrying this ponderous load finished his 120 yards, whea ed. When arrived at the solemn spot, he found everything the other, who is, by the bye an excellent runner, was eight prepared. the pins being set up and the bowl being ready. He yards from home. played with no little earnestness; but the Sheriff, at length, A DRAKE BETTER THAN A DUKE.-The Duke of Leeds was seeing that he shewed no inclination to desist, privately ordered very affable with his tenants and people; one of them came up the executioner to strike the fatal blow as he stooped for the to him ore day when he was riding, and told him he had a great bowl. The executioner did so, and the head dropped into the favour to beg of him. The Duke asked him what it was. The culprit's hand, as he raised himself to see what had occurred; man replied, after some hesitation, that he had a little boy who he immediately aimed at the nine, conceiving it was the bowl plagued him day and night to let him see the Duke, and that which he grasped. All nine falling, the head exclaimed, “By-as his Grace was now close to his cottage, he would perhaps do I have won the game." him the great favour to let his son look at him. The Duke INEFFICACY OF GOVERNMENT RESTRICTIONS ON COM-readily consented, and rode laughing to the cottage, where the MERCE. It is the policy of many of the states of Italy rigidly delighted father ran in and fetched his child. The boy stood to exclude British manufactured goods from their territories. amazed, looking at the middle-aged gentleman of not very comYet as we annually take from them merchandize, principally manding exterior before him, of whose greatness and power he raw silk, to the value of two millions sterling, and as no expor- beard so much; and suddenly asked "Can you swim?"—" No, tation of the precious metals is made in payment for the same, my good boy." said the Duke." "Can you fly ?"-" No, I it became a question ir, what shape and by what channels the can't fly neither." "Then I like father's Drake better, for he Italian merchants obtained returns for their produce. Upon can do both." investigation, it appeared that the foreign traders took their remuneration in bills of exchange drawn upon London merchants, by far the largest portion of which were remitted to Manchester and Glasgow from Austria and the German states, in return for those products of British industry against which the Italian governments so strictly closed their ports.--Cabinet Cyclopædia. A life of contemplation is not unfrequently a miserable one; a man should be active, think less, and not watch life too closely.-Mirabeau's Letters.

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TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We

The hint regarding Public Institutions, will be attended to. should be glad to see the College Museum on such a footing that a popular guide to it would become desirable. But while 28 6d. must be paid at each visit, by child, as well as adults, its treasures are so far

sealed.

We are indebted to several correspondents for pieces of poetry of

tions of this kind.

CONTENTS OF NO. IV.

Manufacturing Operatives,

Page

49 50

THE DUTIES OF THE GREAT-When a prince or prelate, merit; but our narrow limits forbid the insertion of original composi a noble and a rich person, hath reckoned all his immunities and degress of inuocence from those evils that are incident to inferior persons, or the worse sort of their own order, they do the work of the Lord,' and their own too, very deceitfully,' unless they account correspondences of piety to all their powers and possibilties; they are to reckon and consider concerning what oppressions they have relieved, what willows and what fatherless they have defended. how the word of God and of religion, of justice and charity, hath thrived in their hands.Jeremy Taylor an eminent English Divine.

SERVILITY is a sort of bastard envy. We heap our whole stock of involuntary adulation on a single prominent figure, to have an excuse for withdrawing our notice from all other claims (perhaps juster and more galling ones) and in the hope of sharing a part of the applause as train bearers.

BEING CONTENT.-It is a very right thing to be content; scripture and reason teach us the same; that is, we ought to be content with what we have, when we have done the best for ourselves, but not before. If a man is content with dirt, poverty, and rigs, when he might by care and industry better his condi tion, he is a fool to be content. I have seen a mud cabin or cot in Ireland, where they were content to have the pig, the ass, the ducks and fowls, all in the kitchen with the children: and it is said they often burn a stair at a time to save the trouble of getting wood.-In Savoy, the people have a hole in each mattress to move its contents, that they may not be musty; and ac cordingly if a tire is to be lighted the lazy Savoyard immediately resorts to his store-house of straw and shavings. In our own country we frequently see a puddle of water close to the door into which all who enter the cottage must step, and dirty the house, yet an hour's work would draw it off.-In the mountains of Scotland a very poor tract of country, if you ask, why do you not open the window, or cure the smoky chimney! they answer, "It's a' weel eneuch”—an answer fit for a slave, but not for a freemen.-Working Mans Companion.

They don't say, "It's a' weel encuch;" they have more sense; but they say "There's nae reek in the laverock's nest." The smoke helps to warm the hut, and where fuel is always scarce, is the preference in a choice of evils

The Labouring Classes-The Woollen Manufacturers, .
BOOKS OF THE MONTH, Economy of Machinery; Emi-
grant Books,-Statistical Sketch of Upper Canada-Canada,
by A. Picken; Excursions in India; Mirabeau's Letters from
England; Characteristics of Women; Letters on Natural
Magic; Wilderspin on Infant Tuition; The Western Gar-
land; The Heidenmauer; Contarini Fleming; Earle's Re-
sidence in New Zealand; History of the Highlands and Clans
-Chaunts of the People, &c.
........ 51 to 51
American Modes of Thinking; Horse Selling-A Scene at
Tattersall's...

55

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BESIDES appearing in WEEKLY NUMBERS, the SCHOOLMASTER will be published in MONTHLY PARTS, which, stitched in a neat cover, will contain as much letter-press, of good execution, as any of the large Monthly Periodicals: A Table of Contents will be given at the end of the year; when, at the weekly cost of three-halfpence, a handsome volume of 832 pages, super-royal size, may be bound up, containing much matter worthy of preservation.

PART I. for August, containing the first four Numbers, with JOHN. STONE'S MONTHLY REGISTER, may be had of all the Book sellers. Price 7d. For the accommodation of weekly readers, the Monthly Register and Cover may be had separately at the differen places of sale.

EDINBURGH: Printed by and for Joux JouNSTONE, 19, St. James'
Square.-Published by JouN ANDERSON, Jun., Bookseller, 55, Nort
Bridge Street, Edinburgh; by Jons MACLEOD, and ATKINSON & Co.
Booksellers, Glasgow; and sold by all Booksellers and Venders o
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