the fist of the overlooker. But a foot-a large, stinking, splay-foot-flung suddenly out "with a fung," ere a boy has time by crouching to elude or supplicate, savage as it is, is yet more insulting, and sends to the core of the heart the shame of slavery, that can be extinguished but by undying hatred and deadly revenge.-Blackwood's Mag. MAY MORN SONG. THE grass is wet with shining dews, The throstle glads the spreading thorn, And hark! hark! hark! Chirrup! chirrup! he heralds in That breaks upon thy young cheek now. For mark, love, mark! Chirrup! chirrup! he upward flies, The voice of heaven within them thrill, Where brightest wild-flowers choose to be, And o'er us, hark! High in the air Chirrups the lark: Chirrup! chirrup! away soars he, Bearing to heaven my vows to thee! Blackwood's Magazine. BRITISH NAVY. AT Brighton, balls and dinners, that would be spurned in London, find favour with the finest people: no where does wealth tell with more direct brute force; and, this season, one of the most successful of the plebeian Amphytrions was the head of the well-known house of Trenchard and Co., Cornhill. Mr. Trenchard was a plain unaffected man of business; his wife was comely, noisy, loud, vulgar, overbearing; the daughter, a mass of affectation and conceit. As Mrs. Trenchard was aware that her strength was in metal, she never omitted an opportunity of recalling the company to the recollection of the price of everything, and was a walking tariff: To those who had wealth and titles, she was invariably good-natured and obliging; to those who did not possess either of these qualifications, she was equally rude and disobliging, not so much from ill-humour, as from the prudent consideration that she should gain nothing by the opposite conduct, and from the agreeable novelty of finding that she had those whom she might treat as inferiors, and be rude to with impunity. Mrs. Trenchard was shrewd, and soon saw that a great intimacy subsisted between the Sedley family and Lord Frederick; and caring less for the consequences of promoting it, than she did for the reputation of having "the pleasantest dinners in the world," (which eulogy she was sure to have from those who met there, whom they considered as the pleasantest people,) she never failed to ask Lord Frederick Danesford to meet Lady Sedley. They were amused; the dinner was gay; Lord Frederick danced at the balls with Miss Trenchard, and spent all the time in their house that he did not spend at Lord Sedley's. Mrs. Trenchard vindicated the delicacy of THE Royal Navy consisted on the 1st of her sense of propriety by saying, when she January, 1833, of 22 First-rates .. of 31 Second-rates 68 Third-rates 22 Fourth-rates 101 Fifth-rates ...... ... 108 to 120 guns 78 to 84 74 to 76 50 to 52 42 to 50 26 to 36 95 Sixth-rates with 74 18-gun vessels, and 161 small craft, making in all 574 armed vessels. Mr. Edye estimates the quantity of wood required for the construction of a first-rate of 120 guns at 5,880 loads for an 80-gun ship, 4,339 loads -for a 74, 3,600-for a 52, 2,372-for a fifth-rate, 1,800 loads-and for a sixth-rate, 963. According to him, therefore, it would take, to build the existing 574 ships, not dispatched invitations to both, I suppose, as I ask Lady Sedley, I must ask Lord Frederick: well, if I was Lord Sedley, I know what I would do:"—or to those females with whom she was intimate, she observed, "I never saw anything like it in my life!—such a flirtation, quite shocking!-poor thing! what a pity somebody does not advise her!" She had the recompense of her courtesy and forbearance, in hearing the sea-breeze on the Chain Pier and Marine Parade bring to her ear the murmur of her passing acquaintance, "Why, Lord Frederick Danesford never leaves the Trenchards!-he must mean to marry the daughter.” This, however, was said by those who had been friends of the Trenchards years beforewho, not being initiated into the deeper mysteries of fashion, were forced to content themselves with hearing of an attachment when the parties were in Doctors' Commons -of a duel, when it appeared headed by "affair of honour" in the Morning Post. Such persons are always more eager than any others to obtain some insight into the affairs of their superiors. Much to be pitied as these "fond inquirers" are, it would soothe their pains to know that there is a grade still lower in the scale of worldlings-people who absolutely "burst in ignorance," who, from being unacquainted with persons, confuse and misapply names, and in telling a story, buckle the sins of a young spendthrift on some pious old peer's back, and relate divisions between couples who are known to live like avadavats on the same perch.-Aims and Ends, a Novel. Select Biography. THE REV. GEORGE CRABBE, L.L.B. (Concluded from page 264.) RETURNING to an earlier period of Mr. Crabbe's life, we find that in the year of his introduction to Mr. Burke, he also became known to Lord Chancellor Thurlow, who presented him to rectories in Dorset and Lincoln, consecutively: he had previously a curacy at Strathorn, a village near Belvoir Castle, where he married, and became a father. He left Strathorn for the rectory of Swefling, in Suffolk; but after a lapse of more than twenty years, he returned to Leicestershire, where he prepared for the press those poems which Mr. Fox had approved of. Accordingly, in 1807, Mr. Crabbe collected and published his poems in illustration of Village Manners, under the three parts of a Parish Register-Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials-which passed through several edi tions. This success awakened the author to new exertions; for, from 1785, in which year he published The Newspaper, till the year 1807, Mr. Crabbe did not appear in print. In 1810, he published The Borough, combining the homely features of a populous borough with a noisy sea-port, and the manners of the different classes of inhabitants. In 1812, appeared Tales in Verse, introducing characters principally from the middle class of life, and incidents such as were likely to befall them. Early in the following year, Mr. Crabbe was presented, by his munificent patron, the Duke of Rutland, to the rectory of Trowbridge, in the diocese of Salisbury, and with it to a smaller benefice in that of Lincoln, which the indulgence of the Bishop enabled him to hold. The only subsequent poetical publication, by Mr. Crabbe, consisted of two volumes enti tled Tales of the Hall, which appeared in 1819. It is said that Mr. Murray, the publisher, has for some time had in his hands another poem by Mr. Crabbe, but has not hitherto, in the present state of the public taste, ventured to print a volume of verse, even by so popular an author. There may be some truth in this statement; but, we believe, the more substantial reason for not publishing the volume to be Mr. Murray's intention to include the poem in an uniform and embellished edition of Mr. Crabbe's collected works, the production of which has long been projected, and may now be encouraged by the recent republication of Lord Byron's works, in an economical and elegant form. Mr. Crabbe's only prose publications are a Funeral Sermon on the late Duke of Rutland, and an Essay on the Natural History of the Vale of Belvoir, written for Mr. Nichols's History of Leicestershire. The characteristics of Mr. Crabbe's style of poetry are originality of thought, truth, depth, and pathos of description, with much of the happy diction and polished versification of Goldsmith. Exception has, however, been taken by certain critical writers, to his dwelling too long on the dark specks in the character of our rustic population, and painting more deeply its unpleasing than agreeable features. One of these writers, in that excellent critical journal, The Athenæum, however, tempers his summary of Mr. Crabbe's poetical character with the following beautiful passage: "It must not be inferred from what we have said, that Crabbe never deviates into the paths of peace, and happiness, and virtue: he indulges us with many beautiful snatches of that nature; yet they are generally as brief as they are brilliant, and may be compared to a few stars in a tempestuous night, which only aggravate the general gloom." The late Mr. Gifford, in the Quarterly Review, had previously expressed kindred opinions of Mr. Crabbe's taste and talent; and Mr. Croker, in his laboriously annotated Boswell's Johnson, observes— "The publications of Mr. Crabbe have placed him high in the roll of British poets; though his having taken a view of life too minute, too humiliating, too painful, and too just, may have deprived his works of so extensive, or at least so brilliant, a popularity as some of his contemporaries have attained. He generally deals with the 'short and simple annals of the poor;' but he exhibits them with such a deep knowledge of human nature-with such general ease and simplicity, and such accurate force of expression, whether grave, gay, or pathetical-as, (in the writer's humble judgment,) no poet, except Shakspeare, has excelled." But, whatever may be thought of the poet, it is universally acknowledged that Mr. Crabbe was one of the mildest and most amiable of men; and one of the last records of his kindly nature was his liberal reply to an application in behalf of Mr. Leigh Hunt. Mr. Crabbe continued to reside at Trowbridge until his death. Of the high estimation in which he was held by his parishioners, and of the circumstances attendant upon his decease, the following passages from a letter which lately appeared in The Athenæum convey an interesting outline : "Crabbe came to Trowbridge some eighteen years ago; at first he was but lightly looked upon by the Dissenters-a numerous body there; but when they became acquainted with his worth of heart, and vigour of mind, and his unwearied kindness to the poor of all persuasions, he grew a great favourite, and was warmly welcomed to all missionary meetings, Bible societies, and other associations for the benefit of the labouring classes. He mixed but little with the gentry around him; the houses to which he chiefly resorted as a friend, was to that of Mr. Waldron, his colleague in the magistracy, and that of Mr. Norris Clarke, an eminent clothier; with every one else he was friendly, but not intimate. He was fond of the exercise of long walks; and as he studied geology, he seldom went out without a hammer in his pocket, which he applied to all kinds of curious stones. He was sometimes in danger during these examinations; for he would stop readily in the middle of the public road, to pry into the merits of a fractured stone, and did not always hear the warnings of drivers of coaches and carts. "His income_amounted to about eight hundred a year; but he was a mild man in the matter of tithes : when told of many defaulters, his usual reply was, 'Let it be-probably they cannot afford to pay so well as I can afford to want it-let it be.' His charitable nature was so well known, that he was regularly visited by mendicants of all grades: he listened to their long stories of wants and woes with some impatience, and when they persevered, he would say, God save you all, I can do no more for you,' and so shut the door. But the wily wanderers did not on this depart; they knew the nature of the man; he soon sallied out in search of them; and they generally got a more liberal present on the way from his house than at the door. He has even been known to search obscure lodging-houses in Trowbridge, to relieve the sufferers whom misfortunes had driven to beggary. He was, of course, often imposed upon by fictitious tales of woe, which, when he discovered, he merely said, 'God forgive them-I do.' "Crabbe was particularly anxious about the education of the humbler classes, and gave much of his time to its furtherance. In his latter days the Sunday School was his favourite place of resort, and there he was commonly to be found in the evenings between seven and eight, listening to the children; 'I love them much,' he once observed; ' and now old age has made me a fit companion for them.' He was a great favourite with the scholars; on their leaving school, he gave them a Bible a-piece, and admonished them respecting their future conduct. His health was usually good, though he sometimes suffered from the Tic Doloureux. His sermons were short, but pointed, and to the purpose; but his voice latterly had failed, and he was imperfectly heard. Not long ago, he met a poor old woman in the street, whom he had for some time missed from the church, and asked her if she had been ill. Lord bless you, sir, no,' was the answer; but it's of no use going to your church, for I can't hear you.' Very well, my good old friend,' said the pastor, you do right in going where you can hear;' and he slipped half-acrown into her hand, and went away. He had prepared a selection of his sermons for the press, as well as a new volume of poems; but he delayed their publication, saying, They will do better when I am dead.' was only one week ill. On the night before he died, he said to a maid-servant who had lived long with him, 'Now, in the morning, when I am dead, go you to bed, and let others do what must be done; but while I am living, stay you beside me.' He died at seven o'clock on the morning of the 8th of February, 1832." He "The principal shops in Trowbridge were half closed as soon as the melancholy event became generally known. Mr. Crabbe's remains were deposited in a vault at the southeast corner of the chancel in Trowbridge Church. The principal inhabitants in the town joined in the funeral procession." We abridge many of these facts from the last published volume of the Annual Biography and Obituary, wherein the early particulars are acknowledged to be from the New Monthly Magazine, 1816. Former Prosperity of Birmingham.—Mr. John Taylor, of Birmingham, was a man of great industry and ingenuity: to him the public are indebted for the gilt button, the japanned and gilt snuff-box, with the numerous class of enamels; also, the painted snuff-box, at which employ one servant earned 31. 10s. per week, by painting the boxes at a farthing each. In his shops were weekly manufactured buttons to the amount of 800%. exclusive of other valuable articles; and eighty guineas have been given him for a single toy made at his shop. He died in 1775, at the age of 64, after acquiring a fortune of 200,0002. P. T. W. Lawyers' Beards.-Upon All Soul's Day, in the first year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the Judges made an order, which was imperatively enforced in all the Inns of Court, that gave great offence to the lawyers, "that no fellow of these societies should wear a beard above a fortnights's growth."-T. GILL. Aristippus.-Aristippus, on his way from Corinth to Asia, was shipwrecked on the island of Rhodes; and accidentally perceiving a geometrical figure on the sand, he exclaimed to his companions-" Take courage, I see the footsteps of men.' P. T. W. 66 Bigarrures." A celebrated architect was speaking of the difficulty there would be in destroying London Bridge. "None at all," said his friend, "shoot it!" The other evening, at the performance of the "Israelites in Egypt," a would-be wit asked a gentleman sitting next to him, whether the scene of the Temple was intended to represent the Egyptian Hall, in Piccadilly. "No, sir," was the reply; "but most likely Mrs. Grange's, within a few doors of it, for it is the Temple of Ices (Isis)." A countryman, at a loss to describe one of Guerinot's pirouettes, likened it to a turnstile in fits. Three Reasons for not going to the Play. "There is nothing in the world I am so fond of as a play, Tom," said an old lady to her nephew," and, but for three reasons, I should be a great frequenter of the theatres." "And what may those reasons he, my aunt ?" "Why, Tom, first, I hate the trouble of going thither; next, I hate the trouble of staying there; and, lastly, I hate the trouble of coming home again." dear When Rogers was expected at Pisa, on a visit to Byron, his lordship placed the complimentary lines that have lately been so much talked about, under the cushion of the sofa whereupon he intended to seat the banker-bard, with the secret pleasure of seeing him repose in unconscious security upon his literary volcano.-New Anti-Jucobin. Curious Chair-At Longford Castle, Wiltshire, there is a steel chair, remarkable for the human labour, perseverance, and ingenuity displayed in its execution. It was made by Thomas Rukers, at the city of Augsburg, in the year 1575; and consists of more than 130 compartments, all occupied by groups of figures, representing a succession of events in the annals of the Roman empire, from the landing of Eneas to the reign of Rodolphus the Second.-P. T. W. A certain eminent leading Counsel is celebrated at the bar for the following mode of examining a witness:-"Now, pray listen to the question I am going to ask you. Be attentive; remember, you will answer as you please, and remember, I don't care a rush what you answer," &c. &c. The Learned Lord now on the Woolsack, somewhat weary of the monotony of his perorations, one day accosted him in the street. "Ha! is it you, C ? Now, pray listen to the question I'm going to ask you. Be attentive; remember, you will answer as you please, and remember, I don't care a rush what you answer, How are you ?” French Blunders.-A French author, who "Tour through Engrecently published a land," calls plumb pudding, poudin de plomb, (lead pudding), and translates Shakspeare's The Minister Pitt, he says, was called Billy, Winter's Tale, into Conte de Mr. Winter! because he introduced so many bills into parliament. T. GILL. Chinese Dispensary.-In China there is a stone, ten cubits high, erected in the public squares of the cities; on this stone are engraven the names of all sorts of medicines, stand in need of any relief from physic, they with the price of each; and when the poor go to the Treasury, where they receive the price each medicine is rated at.-P. T. W. is a cure for gout?" was the question of an Abernethy.-"] "Pray, Mr. Abernethy, what "Live upon indolent and luxurious citizen. sixpence a day and earn it," was the pithy answer. 1 |