perhaps serve as an example:-"I say, Tom, have you heard what has happened to Dick Symonds ?" "No," answered Tom, "not I; what! is he dead ?" " Why, if he a'nt, they have used him very ill, for they buried him last Saturday."

But enough of the race of prize-fighters. They are all much indebted to Mr. Jackson, who has given a sort of respectability to their vocation, while his school has spread a general taste for the noble art of fisticuffs. As he is probably the finest model of Herculean proportion that has appeared for many years, I record a few particulars of his size and stature, as well as some feats of his strength. His height is five feet eleven inches, and he weighs within half a pound of fifteen stone in his clothes. Some time ago he lifted 84lb. on his little finger, and wrote his name, John Jackson, on the wall of Alderman Combe's drawing-room. On another occasion he lifted 2 cwt. with his teeth, and 10 cwt. with both his hands. He has very appropriately placed on the wall of his school a fine engraving, representing an Italian scene, in which the usage of the stiletto is exemplified: from which, I suppose, he would lead us to infer, that it is better to teach men the use of their fists, than leave it to their own malice to suggest more mischievous weapons.

Sept. 15.-Visit to Bedlam. My mind was so full of the dreadful recollections of what I had heard of the old hospital of this name in Moor-fields, that I went prepared to have my feelings harrowed up by the most awful and distressing scenes of human suffering. What then was my surprise to find the New Bethlehem not only divested of every thing shocking and terrible, but exhibiting a character of cheerfulness and comfort that could scarcely be expected to enliven the gloomy abodes of Madness. Nothing can well demonstrate more convincingly the inevitable tendency of all power to abuse, and the necessity of constant vigilance to prevent the degeneracy and perversion of all human institutions, than the state of the old Bedlam Hospital. Will it be believed that, in the nineteenth century, in the heart of the British metropolis, and under the superintendence of physicians of the highest reputation for intelligence and humanity, a system of cruelty was exposed that would disgrace the worst history of the worst times. In cell was found wretch who had been chained down a poor to his bedstead for twelve years, under a load of fetters-compared with which Trenck's were a plaything-that scarcely allowed him liberty enough to turn himself round. No one ever entered the door of his dungeon. His food was pushed in through a hole in the wall; and there he was left to linger out his life without help or hope, till he was rescued by the arrival of the commissioners of inquiry.

one

The heart sickens at the thought of such misery, and gladly turns to the contemplation of the new establishment. It is a hand

some and spacious building, not decorated with too much architectural magnificence without, to mock, as it were, the misery within, but plain and simple in its exterior; and the care of the architect seems to have been properly confined to its true object,the convenience and well-being of the patients. It is calculated to accommodate two hundred; and nothing can exceed the neatness, even to nicety, of the whole establishment, in all the details of its provisions for carrying on the daily incidents of life connected with eating, drinking, and sleeping. There was nothing to offend the sight or the smell; and even in those unhappy cases, where the patients had lost all mental and bodily control, the most complete arrangements were made for securing their cleanliness and comfort, to an extent indeed that could scarcely be looked for in a charity institution, where the patients are received and maintained gratuitously out of the funds of the hospital.

Our visit was made under the most advantageous circumstances; for, just as we arrived, Mr. D, the governor of St. Luke's, was announced, whose object being the same as our own, we went round the hospital together. There was only one patient under restraint, and he was confined in his cell by a light chain. This was a desperate maniac, who had a few days before committed a savage murder on the person of a fellow-patient. He had found, in grubbing up the gravel of one of the court-yards, the blade of an old knife, which he contrived to fix in a handle of wood, and having sharpened it for his purpose, he seized upon his victim, and in the middle of the day, in the presence of a crowd of spectators, laid him prostrate at his feet, with twenty mortal gashes-" the least a death to nature." All the rest were at large, taking exercise in the courts, or roaming about the galleries, the windows of which, with a view to their amusement, were made to command a prospect of the adjacent road. In the course of our round we approached the bed of an old man who was languishing in the last stage of a palsy. He addressed Mr. Das an old acquaintance. Why," said Mr. Ddon't know who I am, do -,"you you?"—"Yes, to be sure I do," said the madman," you are Mr. D." Upon inquiry, it was discovered that this man had once seen Mr. D- about five and thirty years before at the old Bedlam Hospital. Thus it seems that the memory, at least, may remain unimpaired amidst the general wreck of the understanding.

66

There are certain wards set apart for the reception of criminal lunatics. In one of these were assembled nine persons, every one of whom had committed murder; and it required no little exertion of nerve to feel at ease in such company. Amongst this class old Peg Nicholson was pointed out to us, who sometime in the last century attempted the life of King George the Third, and whose appearance, or rather apparition, after the lapse of so many

years, seemed like a resurrection from the dead. Here, too, is Hatfield, who made a similar attempt at a later period; and here, also, are all those mischievous maniacs, whose histories have from time to time served to fill up a column in the public prints;-from the disappointed lover, who fired a pistol at Miss Kelly, to the disappointed half-pay officer, who took a flying shot at Lord Palmerston. We were continually assailed with petitions for a few coppers for the purchase of snuff and tobacco; and many took us aside with coherent well-told tales of the treacherous devices by which they had been trepanned into a place of confinement;-some of which really sounded so probable, that if this were not known to be the commonest of delusions that prevail in these cases, it would have been difficult to withhold belief from such very circumstantial details. We had an example of the ruling passion, strong in madness as in death, in the reply of a poor dancing-master, of whom we were inquiring whether he had any thing to complain of. "Complain of!" said he, " look at my shoes!"--which were certainly not of that light fantastic character to which he had probably been accustomed in his dancing-days. We were much struck, too, with a pretty interesting-looking girl who had gone mad for love. Her hair was floating loosely about her shoulders, and she came tripping up to us, humming an air, and suddenly addressed us-"Did you know Sam Williams?—Ah! he was a sweet youth. But then, do you know, they took him away to India, and there Warren Hastings killed him; but I made him pay a guinea for it, that's what I did!" And then bursting out into a wild hysterical laugh, she turned away and ran off in another direction. Amongst the incurables we saw a poor cracked creature, the miserable victim of nervosity. His fears had at last driven him out of his wits, and he was at this time a prey to the strongest paroxysms of apprehension. All day long he was crouching down and trembling, under an idea that the sky was about to fall; and he cried out to us" Take care! Don't you see it shake? Now it is coming!" There was another man, who fancied himself in the family way, and was under terrible alarm with the notion that he was just about to be brought to-bed of a black boy. In short, it would be endless to recount all the strange and ridiculous delusions which we found possessing the distempered brains of the inhabitants of Bedlam, and ruling them with all the force of reality.

If there was any thing in the management of this asylum to which one might object, it is, perhaps, the unnecessary parade of locks and keys, and bars and bolts;-but upon the whole, we were strongly impressed with the admirable regulations that prevailed throughout, and of the excellent effects of kindness and conciliation in mitigating the violence of this dreadful visitation. The admiration we felt was expressed in every language of Europe, by the various visitors from different countries, who had recorded their

sentiments in the books of the hospital. I select one by way of example, from the pen of the late minister and ambassador of France.

"Cet établissement ne laisse d'autres vœux à former que celui de voir toutes les maisons de la même nature en Europe administrées d'après les mêmes principes, et avec les mêmes soins; et je croirai avoir bien mérité de mon pays et de l'humanité, si je peux contribuer à faire suivre en France les règlemens en les plans de Bethlehem qu'a bien voulu me promettre de me communiquer M. le Gouverneur, à qui j'offre l'expression de ma reconnoissance, comme ami de la morale et de l'humanité.-DE CAZES."

Having concluded our survey, we were glad to escape from this melancholy scene. We had seen examples of almost every variety of mental derangement: Religious enthusiasts;-political projectors;-despairing lovers ;-husbands frantic for the loss of their wives;-wives for the loss of their husbands;-parents for the loss of their children. One only modification of grief seemed wanting, there were no filial instances of the same effects being produced by the loss of parents. In reflecting upon this fact, however, we ought rather to admire the wise dispensation of Providence in thus constructing the human mind, than suppose the younger part of our species deficient in the kindly feelings of affection. In the natural course of events such excessive sensibility must have proved a constant source of misery. Happily it has been ordered otherwise :-and the reasoning that Shakspeare has put into the mouth of the hypocritical king of Denmark, has its just and reasonable effect on the most sensitive mind.

"The survivor bound

In filial obligation for some term

Performs obsequious sorrow: But to persevere
In obstinate condolement, is a course

Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief,
And shews a will most impious to Heaven."

What an awful impression does the contemplation of a spectacle like Bedlam leave upon the mind! How wonderfully, and yet how fearfully, are we made! There is no part of the mysterious subject of evil, with respect to its origin and purpose, that is so inexplicable as this;-and who can help exclaiming, why is it that we are mad? But we are surrounded with mysteries on every side, which baffle our inquiries, and the result of all our boasted knowledge

"Is but to know how little can be known."

If we endeavour to push our conjectures farther, and escape from the narrow circle with which it has pleased Heaven to circumscribe our faculties, the attempt always ends in defeat and disappointment. We have, it is true, a glimmering of the world above us, but if we presume to imagine we can break the bars of

our prison, and soar into these forbidden regions, what is the reWe exhaust our strength in fruitless efforts;-like an imprisoned blue-bottle, who, seeing the light without, tries to escape from the confinement of a room, and bangs himself with piteous violence against the window, humming and buzzing with increas ing impatience at every successive failure of his hopes, till wearied out at last he sinks down into a corner, sore and crest-fallen, to brood in silence over his own ignorance and helplessness.

October 1. Letters from America,-which summon me away. I should lament my departure more if I did not hope soon to renew my intimacy with a country in which I have met with so much hospitality and kindness. It is indeed lamentable to think that two nations so formed by nature to be friendly to each other, should have ever been at enmity. Let us hope that we shall both grow wiser as we grow older. Every impulse of feeling, and every consideration of interest would seem to bind America and England together by the firmest ties of friendship :-" Those then whom God hath joined, let no man put asunder!"

PARTING.

YON fleecy cloud that veils the gentle moon,
My Lelia! seems some lover lingering there,
Whom destiny hath doom'd to sever soon

From all it loves in heaven-that mistress fair.
And now it slowly leaves her, floating bright

Through the soft azure, but more dim appears
As farther from her beams, 'till, dark as night,
The joyless cloud dissolves in dewy tears.
O! Lelia, we must part! For I have been,
At best, a cloud upon thy happiness,

Which thou hast render'd bright like that thou 'st seen;

And like it will I flee in dark distress,

To free thy brow from sadness-for 'twill be

Clear as that cloudless moon, when I have pass'd from thee.

C. L.

SONNET.

O sing that sweet and soothing strain again!

Oft in the quiet night it comes to me,

And memory of the past, and home, and thee,

And joys long gone are ever in its train:

Sweet strains! sweet days! if there be hours when pain
O'er pleasure sways, your joys remembering,

Soon can my heart those weaker thoughts restrain,
And nobler musing to my spirit bring.-

Nor would I prize the uncertain dawning light
Above the splendour of a noon-day sun;
Nor live again the hours, however bright,
And full of joy, as when my life begun,
If my faint knowledge of the just and true,

And good and holy, must desert me too.

E. T.