paid no farther attention to it. In about two hours after this, I observed an uncommon number of chasseur ants crawling about the floor of the room: my children were annoyed by them, and seated themselves on a table, where their legs did not communicate with the floor. They did not crawl upon my person, but I was now surrounded by them. Shortly after this the walls of the room became covered by them, and next they began to take possession of the tables and chairs. I now thought it necessary to take refuge in an adjoining room, separated only by a few ascending steps from the one we occupied; and this was not accomplished without great care and generalship; for, had we trodden upon one, we should have been summarily punished. There were several ants on the step of the stair, but they were not nearly so numerous as in the room we had left; but the upper room presented a singular spectacle, for, not only were the floor and the walls covered like the other room, but the room was covered also. English language, that might be deposited in a small snuff-box. The principle upon which it is compiled is excellent. While nothing positively useful is omitted, (and many words not to be found in Walker are inserted,) everything that would have enormously increased the size and price is rigorously excluded. It is by these means that the work has been compressed into such a Lillipution volume, which, in leather binding, shining in all the splendour of morocco, is offered for two shillings and sixpence, and with a tuck, like a pocket-book, for three shillings. chambers built at a little distance; but these also were in the same state. I next proceeded to open a store-room at the end of the other house, for a place of retreat; but, to get the key, I had to return to the under room, where the battle was now more hot than ever: the ants had commenced au attack upon the rats and mice, and, strange as it may appear, they were no match for their apparently insignificant foes. They surrounded them, as they had the insect tribe, covered them over, and dragged them off with a celerity and union of strength that no one who has not watched such a scene can comprehend. I did not see one mouse There are many very intelligent persons or rat escape; and I am sure I saw a score to whom, either from an imperfect education, carried off during a very short period. We or the force of provincial habit, such a guide next tried the kitchen, for the store-room is valuable. There are, indeed, several very and boys' pantry were already occupied ; but meritorious works of the kind already existthe kitchen was equally the field of battle, ing, but the mischief is that, like Sir Abel between rats, mice, cockroaches, and ants Handy's inventions for extinguishing fire killing them. A huckster negro came up and escaping from its ravages, when they selling cakes, and seeing the uproar, and the are wanted they are not at hand. A man family and servants standing out in the sun, cannot carry about with him a quarto or "The open rafters of a West India house he said, Ah, misses, you've got the bless-even an octavo volume; nor is it always conat all times afford shelter to a numerous ing of God to-day, and a great blessing it be venient when he is in doubt about the protribe of insects, more particularly the cock- to get such a cleaning.' I think it was about nunciation of a word to run home to his roach; but now their destruction was inevit- ten when I first observed the ants; about library to consult Walker or Nares. Here is able. The chasseur-ants, as if trained for twelve the battle was formidable; soon just the thing which is wanted, a standard battle, ascended in regular, thick files to the after one o'clock, the great strife began with of reference always at hand, and which he rafters, and threw down the cockroaches to the rats and mice; and about three the may carry in his pocket without perceiving their comrades on the floor, who as regularly houses were cleared. In a quarter of an that there is anything at all there. We aumarched off with the dead bodies of cock-hour more the ants began to decamp, and ticipate for this work an extensive sale. roaches, dragging them away by their united soon not one was to be seen within doors efforts with amazing rapidity. Either the But the grass round the house was full of Memoir of John Adam, late Missionary at cockroaches were stung to death on the them; and they seemed now feasting on the rafters, or else the fall killed them. The remnants of their prey, which had been left ants never stopped to devour their prey, but on the road to their nests; and so the feastconveyed it all to their store-house. The ing continued till about four o'clock, when windward windows of this room were glass, the black birds, who had never been long and a battle now ensued between the ants absent from the calibash and pois-doux trees, and jack-spaniards, on the panes of glass. in the neighbourhood, darted down among The occasional observations The jack-spaniard may be called the wasp them, and destroyed by millions those who of the West Indies; it is twice as large as a were too sluggish to make good their retreat. which occur in his letters on the novelty of British wasp, and its sting is in proportion By five o'clock the whole was over; before the scenery and objects by which he was more painful. It builds its nest in trees and sun-down the negro houses were also clear-surrounded are not deficient in liveliness. The old houses, and sometimes in the rafters of a ed out in the same way; and they told me following are specimens. room. The jack-spaniards were not quite they had seen the black birds hovering about such easy prey, for they used their wings, the almond-trees close to the negro houses which not one cockroach had attempted. as early as seven in the morning. I never Two jack-spaniards, hotly pursued on the saw those black birds before or since, and window, alighted on the dress of one of my the negroes assured me that they never were children. I entreated her to sit still, and seen but at such times.” remain quiet. In an almost inconceivably short space of time, a party of ants crawled upon her frock, surrounded, covered the two jack-spaniards, and crawled down again to the floor, dragging off their prey, and doing the child no harm. "From this room I went to the adjoining bed-chamber and dressing-room, and found them equally in possession of the chasseurs. I opened a large military chest full of linen, which had been much infested; for I was determined to take every advantage of such able hunters. I found the ants already inside: I suppose they must have got in at some opening at the hinges. I pulled out the linen on the floor, and with them hundreds of cockroaches, not one of which escaped. Calcutta. Cross. pp. 404. [Uupublished.] London: 1833. THIS little volume records the life of a young man engaged as a missionary in India, whose To his surviving friends it will, no doubt, be career was prematurely closed by death. interesting. "You, my dear aunt, are a lover of nature! you would be pleased with balsams and eggplants and other exotics, growing in the open air and without cultivation-with the unwonted splendours of the moon, and the lesser luminaries of heaven-with the fami cleared of such company as rats, mice, cock-visits, and minus (a kind of thrush) are not "There is a sameness in the scenery on the banks, which is rather wearying; unlike the Rhine, the Hoogly flows through a flat Below Chinsurah abundance of THIS is a curiosity-the Iliad in a nutshell-country. c. We now left the house, and went to thel a complete pronouncing dictionary of the trees clothe each shore, but here are long was still some chance of happiness for me in this world, and that I should have the satisfaction of inflicting summary vengeance on one who had been to me such an inconceiv tracks of waste ground, covered with high | Rabelais, and Voltaire, sneered now and then, An Answer to a Pamphlet entitled Observations on the Rejected Local Courts' Jurisdiction Bill, addressed to the Trading Interests. pp. 16. London: 1833. Richards. "Next morning, according to agreement, I called upon the bravo, who took me aside, and spoke as follows: Sir, as I am a man of "My dear sir,' said he, moved by my honour, and anxious to oblige my friends, I distress, I see but one method by which must state candidly how things stand between you can rid yourself of the dreadful load us. My particular friend, Stein, has sent me which oppresses you. You must assassinate a letter by you, requesting my services for Smalldshodt! The thing is easily done. the disposal of Mr. Smalldshodt. Another You are as big and as strong as a drayhorse; particular friend writes me by Mr. Smalldhe is weak, and therefore little likely to offer shodt, that this young gentleman is anxious resistance. Suppose you strangle him? I should do the same service by you, and Nay, you need not shudder; I shall lend you requesting my assistance accordingly. Now, if I oblige the one, I must oblige the other; both requests must be complied with, or neither; so make your choice. If you are "I told him I had already made the at- exceedingly anxious to get rid of your comtempt, and failed. a hand. Generous man! "Shoot him then.' panion, I of course, to gratify you and Mr. Stein, will be ready to do it; but then, as I "This also I had attempted with no bet-am guided in all I do by strict justice, I must ter success. "Hocus him.' "The thing could not be done. THIS pamphlet is an able one; but, throwing They proceed to Venice: an interview takes place with the bravo. take the liberty of obliging Mr. Smalldshodt and my other friend, by treating you in a similar way.'" He philosophizes very finely on the base ness of Smalldshodt; and resolves, like Macbeth, to "proceed no further in the business:" a resolution which the bravo, being "a man of honour," approves. He hies back to Gottingen, and flies to his friend "Stein looked grave, stroked his chin, and appeared for a minute involved in deep thought. At last, striking himself on the forehead, and starting from his chair, he exclaimed, I have it! Smalldshodt is a more extraordinary character than I imagin-Stein. ed, and, from what you state, I am satisfied "On reaching Gottingen, the first thing I that to annihilate him either by drowning, did was to call on Stein, to whom I related shooting, strangling, hocussing, or gunpow-my adventures. His generous nature was der, will be no easy matter. My worthy delighted to find me so completely recovered friend, there is only one way of giving him a from the infliction under which I laboured quietus. You must take him to Venice, and so grievously when he last saw me; but he get him murdered by a bravo.'"' was any thing but pleased with the conduct of the bravo, whom he represented as being under many obligations to him in the way of business; and who, he declared, ought to have stuck at no point to oblige him. "Had I known,' said he, that the chief ruffian would have had any scruples on the subject, I should have furnished you with an introductory letter to another of the profession; one indeed not so deeply indebted to me as the first, but who, nevertheless, would not have been prevented from obliging me by any he disposed of had at the time large sums false qualms of conscience, or any idle sense upon them, which, however, he never of honour. But, no matter! if you are satistouched. He eschewed all sorts of mean-fied, so am 1; and may you never again fall ness and peculation; and, if he received the stipulated price for his trouble, it was all he asked, or indeed would accept. These fine traits of character made him much liked; Fraser's Magazine. The forthcoming and he was looked upon not only as the number of this spirited periodical contains, most respectable, but most talented, of his among other clever papers, one entitled profession in that part of Italy. Having "The Philosophy of Sneering, by a Modern perused Mr. Stein's letter, he desired me to Pythagorean.' The writer represents him- call next day, when he would give me self as never having known unhappiness his answer, and say whether he would or until, in an evil hour, he became acquainted would not undertake the business to which with Wilhelm Smalldshodt, a brother prac-it referred; while I returned to my hotel, in titioner of the healing art, in the city of better spirits than I had been in for some Gottingen. This worthy person is a first-months. I saw that I was now on the point rate sneerer; and whereas Cervantes, Swift, of getting rid of my tormentor, that there THE PERIODICALS, under the despicable tyranny of Smalldshodt.' Excellent man! When I reflected upon his friendship to myself, and his continued enmity against him who had so cruelly oppressed me, and who, in fact, had sought my life, I saw that there was still virtue in the world; and that, though it should be banished from every other spot, it would yet find an abode in the manly bosom of Frederick Stein." Reader, would you know how this ends, buy the Magazine. It costs only half-acrown, and contains five shillings' worth of good reading. extracts. Arnold's Magazine of the Fine Arts. The lowing that I have somewhat overrated these very unworthy of the costly material it is present number maintains the established disadvantages, others of equal force still re-constructed of; and so far from bestowing reputation of the work. In the paper enti- main to be got over. So much space is oc- any grandeur on the whole, tends to make. tled "Artists and Dealers" the tricks of the cupied by windows, that, except at the ends the building itself appear still meaner by the latter, and the slavery in which they hold of the apartment, there is very little room unfortunate opposition of colour. the former, are pointed out. On the all-for hanging pictures at all; neither do I see "It might have been supposed that we agitating subject of the National Gallery how the difficulty is to be overcome, and the should have taken warning by this "unforthere are some remarks by a correspondent, place rendered at all available for the pur-tunate affair," yet similar mismanagement is who exposes ably, we think, the unsuit-poses of a gallery, unless the interior were likely to arise from false economy and the ableness of Whitehall Chapel for the purpose. to undergo very great alteration, such as subterfuges to which it leads. The › chief From this article we shall make a few clearing away the present galleries and the consideration seems to be to cut down esticolumns against the walls, closing up many mates as low as possible, the consequence of of the doors, blocking up all the windows which is, that it is found necessary to apply internally, and lighting the whole from above, for further grants of money, so that the pubeither by one or more skylights in the ceiling. lic save nothing in the end, while the buildWere there, however, nothing else against ing itself is certain to suffer more or less by this plan, what in such case is to be done this tortuous and zigzag way of proceeding. with the present splendid ceiling? which, by Let us hope that such will not be the case the by, is so singularly out of a place in a with the National Gallery, should a new chapel, although an unconsecrated one, that structure, and to this we think it must come I wonder the Bishop of London has not at-at last, be erected for it. If our economy tacked Mars and the other heathenish deities grudges such an edifice as will redound to who now figure there. our national credit as a piece of architecture, it would be more discreet to make no attempt whatever at external display, but content ourselves with a plain, substantial, John Bullish, unsophisticated, brick building, thereby disclaiming all pretensions to rival or compete with any of the similar establishments in other countries. If we must be parsimonious with our money, at least that is no reason wherefore we should be equally sparing and frugal with our discretion." "Independently of these objections, we do not perceive how any material addition could hereafter be made to the building, should an increase in the collection require it, with greater facility than in any other si "From what has just transpired in the House of Commons, it appears that some idea is entertained of converting the Banqueting House at Whitehall into a national gallery, or, to speak more correctly, of depositing the national collection of pictures in that building; for nothing has been stated as to any particular alteration of the building itself. I cannot say that this scheme promises much in any shape for the future eclat and reputation of such a museum of paintings. Its chief, no, its only advantages, are that "Something was said in the house about the situation is sufficiently central, and that hanging up the pictures against a screen, or the structure is ready built, so that it may screens, and by adopting this method it soon be prepared, as well as ever it can be, would certainly be found possible; yet beyond for the reception of the pictures. On the accomplishing that, it would, we apprehend, other hand, this last-mentioned circumstance be found a failure; while the general effect carries along with it a most formidable ob- of the interior would be sadly impaired, and jection, since an edifice erected for a very the whole would have a strange make shift, different purpose is not likely to prove par-patched up, and squeezed up, appearance. ticularly well suited for one which requires We very much question, likewise, whether to be most carefully studied by the architect. the distance between the wall and the screen It is not enough that there may be ample would not be then found less than would be room for hanging up all the paintings; it is desirable, except for the smaller pictures; imperatively requisite that they should be and whether the inconvenience of two series displayed to the utmost advantage, both as of windows would not be sensibly felt. regards individual subjects and the entire collection. There must be some kind of classification observed, or the whole would become nothing but a splendid chaos-a mere jumble, as to schools, styles, subjects, and sizes. At least it will be said, all the tuation." paintings will be select, so that there cannot be any very violent contrasts in point of merit. "To be serious, and the reflection is I will admit this; but then it should seem enough to make us so, it says very little for that the more valuable the entire collection the love of art in this country, at least for is, so much the greater care ought to be the estimation in which art is held as a taken in its arrangement, and that every national object, that while the little capital picture shall be seen in the most satisfactory of the little kingdom of Bavaria has become manner. Holding such opinions, I cannot the general admiration of all Europe for the but think that the banqueting house is as in-splendour of its public galleries, such apathy, eligible a place as could have been pitched or worse thau apathy, together with so much upon, aud that a mere warehouse of equal extent might be far better accommodated to such a purpose. The interior is 110 feet by 55, and 57 high, and has two series of windows on each side. No objection can certainly be made to its length; but its other dimensions are most unfortunate: the distance from side to side is so great, that the light, coming as it would from the side, would not fall sufficiently strong upon the pictures; then, again, as to height, it is far beyond what even the very largest pictures in the collection would properly require, so that either a great portion of the upper part of the walls must be left quite bare, or paintings hung up where, however they might contribute to the general effect, their merits would be for the most part lost. Al The Musical Cyclopædia, Part II. We are pleased that the second part of this work enables us to confirm the favourable opinion which we gave upon the first. The introductory treatise on the principles of music, is remarkably well executed. Among the melodies are some fine Scotch airs, and some of the best productions of Arne, Shield, Storace, and other composers of eminence. FOREIGN ARTICLE. Mémoires de Mademoiselle Avrillion, Première Femme de Chambre de l'Imperatrice, sur la Vie privée de Joséphine, sa Famille et sa Cour. Paris: 1833. L'Advocat. ANOTHER of the pleasant and harmless forgeries which are continually issuing from the French press. It is a wonder that the jobbery and jobbing manifests itself here. public is not tired with these endless disserEver is their some sueaking interest, or tations on the cachemires of Josephine, the some sneaking parsimony that thwarts a peccadilloes of Pauline, or the imperial inmore liberal policy when it attempts to show expressibles of Napoleon. But, for the last itself. While we are princes in many pri- four hundred years the whole history of our vate speculations, we certainly are a nation friends over the water has been treated in of "shopkeepers" in regard to public en- the same strange and familiar manner, from couragement of art. Our gin shops may the famous Cronique de l'Etoile, which well excite astonishment by their impudent treated of the last fashion in doublets or ostentation; but our palaces! aye, there's duels, the most important masquerades, the rub! our palaces are most contemptible the most amusing conspiracies and abortions. To say nothing of the wasteful-sassinations, which diversified the reign of ness and mismanagement which have attended the whole progress of Buckingham Palace, the building and pulling down again, the altering and re-altering, and patching up, after being erected at an expense of £70,000, the marble arch in front of it is in its design as Henry III. down to the present time of Bourrieune, Abrantes, and a hundred others, where the victories of the emperor and the dishes at his table, figure in one and the same page, and where the glorious deeds of arms of M. de Marechal stand in close and strange contrast with the tendres liaisons of Madame la Marechale. However, our readers will recollect that noble and philosophic episode in Candide, wherein is demonstrated the tremendous consequences which arise from stretching out the left foot in walking in place of the right; and perhaps a new fashion in tippets, or a change in the heels of boots, may have as great an influence on the world as a great battle lost, or a mighty king dethroned. Therefore, the Memoires of Mademoiselle Avrillion, the empress's femme de chambre, should be treated with as much reverence as the biography of the Duke of Wellington, or the revelations of Prince Talleyrand. patriarchal country of Bavaria. The epithet is excellent; only a French femme de chambre would have called a person "patriarchal," who did not possess a cachemire. She proceeds: "The first time I saw the king, I was in my chamber, arranging some of the objects of the emperor's toilette, a gentleman, dressed with the greatest simplicity, agreeable in countenance, and rather stout in person, came in. He asked me if her majesty was satisfied :-he expressed himself with so exquisite a politeness, and entered into so many details, that I took him for a groom of the chambers. It was not for some days after, that, on seeing him with the empress, I discovered that my groom of the chambers was the king of Bavaria." "Such was the state of things," conti- says, that had ever been knowu in this nues Avrillion, "when she permitted that I should be presented to her; or rather, when she asked to see me, without allowing me to know that she was the person whom I saw. It was a Good Friday, the eve of the day when the Consular court was leaving "The good-natured honesty of the king of Paris for St. Cloud. I was sent for to my Bavaria was particularly extraordinary to me, cousin's, (we must give her own elegant (the femme de chambre!) who for so long phraseology,) where I awaited the orders of a time had been accustomed to the scrupuMadame Buonaparte. At the moment when lous etiquette of the Imperial court. The all the servants were at table, a negro be-king was an excellent father, and loved his longing to the service interieure, (which is subjects as he did his children. At Munich, difficult to render in English,) came to fetch one might see him almost every morning me, and carried me by I don't know how dressed in a simple frock, walking alone and many passages, corridors, and secret stair-on foot, and conversing with the meanest of The memoirs open with the following im-cases, into an anti-room, where the first his subjects. Most of the inhabitants! portant history of our heroine's elevation to valet de chambre, M. Frere, awaited me. (there are 50,000) he knew personally: he her post. It will be as well, however, to I shall not endeavour to paint the state of enquired into all their private grievances, and give the reader an idea of Mad. Avrillion's anxiety under which I laboured, up to the redressed them all. It was no wonder that colleagues. moment when I heard the door opened. he was generally beloved. "To obtain an interview with Mad. Buo"In a few minutes the door opened, and naparte, without exciting any suspicions, for the first time I saw that angel of goodabove all, the suspicions of her first femme ness, who immediately dissipated my fears, de chambre, was a matter of great difficulty.and dispelled my anxieties. The order of service in Mad. Buonaparte's "She approached me as though she had household was thus composed: near her known me for years; and with her sweet person was her ancient femme de chambre, voice, and her touching accents, said to me, old, ugly, and avaricious, but who had ne-in a tone as pure as it was kind, 'You are vertheless managed to obtain a great hold the relation of M. Dunan? [How different on the mind of her mistress. Coupled with was the speech of the King of France to the her was Mad. Germon, to whom the gowns Englishman, whom he addressed for the were confided; she was famous as a milliner first time. 'Get out of the way, you dirty in those days, and had for some time made blackguard,' said that monarch, in a tone all the dresses of Josephine. as impure as it was ungentlemanly.] You The whole of this anecdote is admirable. may be tranquil,' proceeded Josephine; I The commencement, where the femme de give you my word, from this time you may chambre dilates on the pleasing simplicity of consider yourself as one of my house.'” a foreign court as contrasted with the etiAnd the bargain was concluded, and Mad.quette of her own; speaks excellently of the Arvillion, after many doubts, delays, and ladies'-maid, and of the court, of which she disappointments, commenced her glorious formed so distinguished a member. The occupation. representatives of a thousand kings and "cheerfursts” is simple in his habits, and so patriarchal as never to have seen a cachemire shawl; the mushroom monarchy is deluged with theatrical ceremonies, and overrun with mountebank chamberlains; the fault of all "It is known that Prince Eugene gene- parvenus, from the upstart emperor, who rally wore moustachios: now, his mother wishes to establish a regal and respectful found that he was much better without them. etiquette, to the retired butcher, who strives Why,' said she to the emperor, have you to graft the elegant refinements of Clapham presented Eugene before he had time to make on the barbarous habits of Whitechapel. his toilette, or even to shave his moustache? And then "the king spoke with so exquiThis speech made the emperor smile, and he site a politeness, that I mistook him for a humbly excused himself for not having taken groom of the chambers!" There is more sufficient precaution on so important a sub-sense and satire in this remark than perhaps ject. The empress was afraid that the first the old lady herself comprehends; it shows impression would not be favorable to the what true politeness is, after all; and that the prince, and she determined that he should courtesy which is extraordinary in a king, is sacrifice his moustachios. It was done by no means extraordinary in a groom of the before the day was over-the moustache was chambers. "The next was a protegé of Mad. Campan's, who superintended the linen and the cachemires; but she never was employed to dress the Empress, nor did she ever accompany her in any of her voyages." The fourth was a young lady, of whom, we grieve to say, little good can be reported; it is only to be remarked, "that General Rapp was not the only person on whom this young person had conferred her favors." She describes the marriage of Eugene Beauharnois with the princess of Bavaria; and tells a story about his moustachios, which, though very absurd, is somewhat touching. Such were the persons who assisted at the toilette of Josephine, and such the obstacles overcome by au Avrillion! The first femme de chambre, old, ugly, and avaricious-the dragon! what difficulty must there have been in lulling her to sleep! Next, Mad. Germon, the couturiere, the chosen guardian of the gowns, and the skilful maker of the same: was it nothing to blind the jealous eyes of such a person to accustom the delicate form of the imperial Josephine to wear other robes than those of the famous milliner-to submit to any stays but the Germonian ? The lady of the linen and cachemires was not so formidable; she never dressed Josephine, but still she had influence with her comrades, and friendship from her kind mis-no more." tress she was no mean obstacle, seeing she One can fancy the fond motherly coquetry held absolute sway over the Consular cache- of Josephine in this scene, and the emperor mires, and undisputed sovereignty over the condescending to relax his grim features into Imperial towels. a smile at the weakness of his imperial spouse. It is lucky, however, that we can add, that, after the destruction of his moustache, the "success" of Eugene was complete. On the fourth person it is unnecessary to comment; the single affections of the ardent Rapp might be pardoned, but to encourage numerous admirers outrages all decency-even the decency of the Consular court ! The whole book is full of such profound sentiments on such awful subjects. The following letter from Napoleon, of which a facsimile is given, is characteristic of the polished and gentlemanly feeling of that distinguished person. “My Friend: I have received thy own letter, and am rejoiced to hear that you are The old lady then proceeds to expatiate on in a place which pleases, and that your the astonishment exhibited by the bride at health is good. Who can be more happy than | receiving a cachemire shawl; the first, she' you are? I forbid your seeing Madame Tal lien on any pretext whatever; I will admit the new inhabitants, will necessarily tend to If she slight me when I woo, SCIENCE AND ART. They are so frequent, that persons are absolutely deterred from going on the river, and the watermen, consequently, are almost unemployed. The establishment of this railDURING the present session of parliament way will cause the steam-vessels to be reThis is a curious specimen of Napoleon's the company who have undertaken this im-stricted from navigating the Thames above taste and morality. The elegant little joke portant work have obtained an act authoriz- Deptford, and, by preventing the numerous about the lovers of Josephine must be parti-ing them to carry it into effect. accidents that daily occur, the present fear cularly edifying to all English married persons. of persons to go on the water will be reBut here is enough of this book; it will serve moved, the watermen will again find employas a groundwork for half a dozen fashiouable ment, and much expeuse to the proprietors of the steam-vessels will be saved, both in novels, and will be perused no doubt by milliners, countesses, ladies'-maids, and other discompensation for damage done to small craft tinguished persons, with much eagerness and and in navigation. The number of passengers to and from London by the steamboats, last year, exceeded 400,000. interest. OUR OLDEN AUTHORS. GEORGE WITHER. THIS writer was more distinguished as a zealous political partisan than as a poet. When serving in the Parliamentarian army he was taken prisoner by the Royalists; and it is said that, when some of them were desirous of making an example of him, Denham pleaded with his Majesty not to hang him, because, as long as Wither lived, Denham could not be accounted the worst poet in England. Wither, however, did not deserve the distinction any more than Denham, as the following graceful lines will prove. They are both good philosophy and good verse. THE SHEPHERD'S RESOLUTION. If she be not so to me, As railways are now extending themselves The commercial intercourse of London, In these days, when labour, the only pro- the emporium of the world, with the conperty of the poor man, is a drug, it is impor- tinent, will be greatly facilitated. The tant to open new sources for its beneficial foreign nails will be landed at Greenwich, and exercise. The projected railway will cause arrive in town nearly one hour sooner than an expenditure of 400,000/. upon its line, at present; and, by the continuance of the one half of which will be in the employ-line to Dover, and from Calais to Paris, pasment of the labouring classes. The railway will be completed with less injury to existing interests than almost any great public work ever performed. It will not intercept established thoroughfares, nor affect existing property, except to improve it. It is intended to be constructed on arches, in such a manner that passengers and carriages may pass along the streets which the line will cross without being in any way obstructed. The road will commence at or near the south end of London Bridge, and terminate at or near Thornton Row, Greenwhich. It will be, when completed, the most durable and splendid structure in the kingdom. It will increase the convenience as well as the facility of travelling. The passenger will enjoy the comfort of coaches more commodiously formed than those at present in use, and totally free from the ordinary accidents, intrusions, and delays, to which other modes of travelling are liable. The time of performing the journey will be rendered certain, and will be only about What care I how kind she be? twelve minutes; there will be neither smoke, Shall my foolish heart be pin'd, If she be not so to me, Shall a woman's virtues move If she be not such to me, And unless that mind I see, Great, or good, or kind, or fair, sengers and letters may be conveyed in fourteen hours, and from Liverpool to Paris in twenty-four hours: thus opening a communication between the great commercial towns of England and the continent of Europe. The advantage to government of an easy, rapid, and economical transmission of troops, horses, cannon, baggage, stores, &c. from Woolwich to London and the west of England, is too important to escape notice. More than 50,000 persons have annually visited Greenwich to view the splendid collection of paintings in the Royal Hospital; and, when the Naval Gallery, about to be erected by order of his Majesty, shall be completed, there can be no doubt that a great addition will be made to the income of the railway, as well as to the funds of the hospital. The demand at Greenwich for post-horses and carriages will be increased, in consequence of numerous travellers from London availing themselves of the railway. Coaches will, for the same reasons, make Greenwich their starting point. noise, nor vibration, whilst the passengers A great improvement in the value of house expenses. The number of untenanted houses in Deptford is enormous, and even in Greenwich it is considerable. By a petition very lately presented to the Admiralty, it appears that there are at present upwards of 900 empty houses in Deptford, and 300 in Greenwich; and it is presumed, from the low rents, and the economy and facility of conveyance to town, respectable families will be induced to occupy many of them, whilst the employment of numerous workmen, in useful improvements, and the contributions of take place; and the two great hospitals of St. Thomas and Guy's will experience much benefit, by the removal of several obuoxious streets and alleys in their vicinity, now generating the most unwholesome atmosphere. It appears, from the evidence taken on the 28th of June, 1832, before the committee of the House of Lords, on the London and Birmingham Railway Bill, that the average number of passengers by stage coaches between Manchester and Liverpool was, before the construction of the railway, 450 per day, and since that period, the average number by the railway, for twenty-one months, has been about 1200 per day. It also appears that the facility and eco |