recital is, excepting a few slight changes of phraseology, the composition of William Thom, now of Inverury in Aberdeenshire. Thom is still a hand-loom weaver; but his wife, the faithful participator of all the above miseries, has been taken from him. Of late he has been brought into a little notice, in consequence of the appearance of some of his poems in the newspapers. Their merit is considerable, and the author appears to be a man of modest and virtuous character. We would hope that Fortune has still in store for him things proportioned to his deservings.] the floating bridges, and threatening all who ventured across with sea-sickness, if with no worse danger. The water had already taken possession of some of the wretched outskirts of the city, adding more misery where there seemed enough before, while flags floated from the tower, where we stood, to warn the inhabitants of their danger; and before we quitted our station, guns from the fortress, the appointed signal on such occasions, bade those remove who had aught to save. But pleasant sites and natural advantages are the easy tools of a limited monarchy-nought but an absolute will could have compelled a splendid capital from the depths of a swamp. The founding of Petersburg might be the grant of civilisation to Russia, but it was also the sign-manual of autocracy; and Peter the Great reasoned more like the despot than the philanthropist, in foreseeing that wherever the imperial queen-bee thought fit to alight, there would the faithful or servile Russians swarm." To the many magnificent buildings of St Petersburg, however, its palaces and quays, our authoress gives the due meed of praise. LETTERS FROM THE BALTIC. NEITHER title-page, dedication, nor preface, tells us any thing of the writer of these Letters from the Baltic, newly published. Their lively, chatty style, however, would of itself give assurance that we are indebted to a lady for the work, even if, in the course of it, certain allusions did not put the matter beyond question. To say no more than the truth, we have of late seen no production of a light kind, in which good sense, and a tact for the observation of the useful, are so agreeably displayed in union with quickness of fancy, and a sharp though refined feeling of the ludicrous. The purpose of our tourist was to visit a relative in the hyperborean province of Esthonia, to the north of St Petersburg, and in the dominions of the Russian Czar. Of course, she took her way through the Sound, and up the Baltic. In the German Ocean, the steam-vessel which conveyed her sustained a severe storm, and was thrown into imminent peril, chiefly through the greed of the proprietors in overburdening her fore-decks with masses of lead, which, in the hour of alarm, the united strength of all the crew was unable to move. This circumstance we notice only to express our reprobation of such unwise and reckless conduct-conduct but too common, we fear, with those who have in charge the loading of passengervessels. Let the reader suppose our tourist fairly free of this danger, and in sight of St Petersburg. "Behind us Cronstadt had sunk into the waters, and before us Petersburg seemed scarcely to emerge from the same, so invisible was the shallow tablet of land on which it rests. Altogether, I was disappointed at the first coup d'œil of this capital; it has a brilliant face, but wants height to set it off. The real and peculiar magnificence of Petersburg, however, consists in thus sailing, apparently upon the bosom of the ocean, into a city of palaces. Herein no one can be disappointed. Granite quays of immense strength now gradually closed in upon us, bearing aloft stately buildings modelled from the Acropolis, while successive vistas of interminable streets, and canals as thickly populated, swiftly passing before us, told us plainly that we were in the midst of this nor thern capital ere we had set foot to ground." he escape being torn in pieces by his companions. As for the dogs, it is heart-rending to think of the num bers which pay for their fidelity with their lives." She also acknowledges warmly the hospitality of her reception. One friend, a Baron S., who chanced to be fort-major of the city, exhibited his anxiety for her comfort in a curious way, and one strikingly characteristic of this great empire of soldiers. As an earnest," says the fair tourist, "of his intentions, he further begged to leave at my disposal for the present, and for as long a time as I should think fit to retain -a soldier. As he evidently attached no more importance to this proposition, and perhaps less, than if he had offered me an extra pair of walking-shoes, all scruple on my part would have been misplaced; nevertheless, it was with undisguised amusement that I saw one of these military machines mount immoveable guard at my door. He was a brow-beat, rusty mustached, middle-sized man, with hard lines of toil on his sunburnt face; his hair, according to the compulsory and unfortunately disfiguring system of cleanliness adopted in the Russian army, clipped till the head was barely covered or coloured; and his coarse drab uniform hanging loosely about him-for soldiers' coats are here made by contract, according to one regulation size, and, like the world, are too wide for some, too tight for others. But the sense of the ludicrous extended itself to my hostess, on my requesting to have a chair placed for him. A chair!' she exclaimed, what should he do with it?-standing is rest for him'-and, in truth, the Russian soldier is like his horse-standing and lying are his only postures of repose. I found my poor sentinel a willing, swift, and most useful messenger in this city of scanty population and enormous distances, and, without much selfapplause, it may be added, he also found me a kind mistress; for the tyrannical, inhuman mode in which inferiors are here addressed, is the first trait in the upper classes which cannot fail to disgust the English traveller. Our communication was restricted, nevertheless, to a smile on my side, as my orders were interpreted to him, and to Sluschouss (I hear), upon his receiving the same. And these significant words are indeed the motto of the lower orders." Now came the pleasures of a Russian customhouse. These things are bad enough in England; in most parts of Europe they are frightful annoyances. "To witness the devastation of an English writing-desk, was a curious sight to an uninterested spectator. First, the lock excited great anger, and was a convincing proof that little was to be done with Bramah by brute force; and, this passed, there ensued as striking an illustration of the old adage of a bull in a china-shop, as could possibly be devised. Every touch was mischief. They soiled the writing-paper, and spilt the ink; mixed up wax, wafers, and water-colours. Then, in their search for Russian bank-notes, the introduction of which is strictly interdicted, they shook out the blotting-book, whence a shower of letters of introduction, cards of address, and a variety of miscellaneous documents, floated to distant corners of the hall; ransacked the private drawer, of which they were perfectly au fait; displaced all the steel paraphernalia, and then crammed them into their wrong places, cutting their fingers at the same time-the only action which afforded the spectator any unmixed pleasure; and now, smarting with the pain, flung down the lid, and left the grumbling owner to gather his scriptural fragments together as he best could. Beyond the writing-desk, they did not choose to proceed. It was past the regulation time, an i instead of allowing the weary traveller, as is usual in such cases, to take his carpet-bag of necessaries, the smallest article was denied with a stolid pertinacity, which intimated no great sympathy on their parts for the comforts of clean linen." Another extract or two, indicative of the simple and comparatively good characters of the Esthonian peasantry, and we must then close these volumes, with a hearty recommendation of them to the notice of the reading public. "A butcher of the town, having been convicted of the flagrant crime of stealing two oxen from an open pasture near Reval, was now lying in the dungeons beneath us, previous to commencing his dismal journey for life to Siberia. This man was engaged to be married to a young mantua-maker, whose pretty looks and ways had often divided our attention with her fashions. Of course, it was thought and advised by all who wished her well, that the now disgraceful connexion should be relinquished; but, resisting all entreaties and representations, she merely repeated a faithful woman's argument- If he wanted my love to make him happy when he was innocent, how much more does he need it now he is guilty! and declared her intention of accompanying him in his banishment. Accordingly, the mournful wedding ceremony was performed in the prison vault, and a few days after, the innocent and guilty, now become one, started on their cheerless wedding trip. The faithful wife took with her the sympathy and blessings of every true woman's heart, and left behind a character which many an heroic matron, of sterner times, might have envied.* But let not a woman overrate the devotion of her sex. Whatever the sacrifice, whatever the suffering, there is such an instinctive pleasure in its exercise, as would require more than a woman's prudence to forego. The woman, though not in this case, is as often falsely indulgent and banefully unselfish, as the mother, and as often reaps only ingratitude." We regret to say, that the next extract, to be presented in conclusion, proves that the usual concomitant of ignorance, superstition, is abundantly prevalent among the Esthonians, happy as they appear in their simplicity in some respects. In the present instance, the superstitious feeling was evidenced in a somewhat amusing way; but we fear that it is still the same feeling which dragged poor old women to the stake, and persecuted the wise because of their very qualities and acquirements. The writer of the volumes before us was in the habit of sketching the costumes of the country. "One day, to diversify the subject, a tall Estonian peasant was ushered in, bearing a note from a neighbouring family, wherein it appeared that, in consequence of some bantering questions and promises, they had sent the best-looking man the estate could boast, to represent the physiognomy and costume of his class. And truly, as fine and good-looking a young man stood before us as needed to be seen. At first he returned our glance with rather more courage than a peasant here usually ventures to show; but, on being told his errand, blushed like a girl, and proceeded to place himself into the required position, with a mauraise honte which, it must be owned, was at first not limited to himself. He wore the regular peasant's costume-his long hair falling on his shoulders; a coat made of undyed black wool down to his heels, with metal buttons and red leather frogs; and his feet clad in the national passeln, or sandals, of untanned cow's hide. After the first novelty was over, he stood sensibly and respectfully enough; and, being shown his miniature fac-simile, and told that it would go to England, acknowledged it to be regga illos (very beautiful). Half a rouble and a glass of brandy made him happy; and he took his leave in perfect good humour with himself and us. But a few days after, a disastrous sequel to this adventure reached our ears. Under the conviction that he had been subject to the spells of a sorceress, his lady-love cast him off for another; his fellows taunted and avoided him; while, added to this, the innocent victim himself was in the utmost terror of mind lest this mysterious delineation of his person should prove the preamble to his being banished either to Siberia or-to England! It is to be hoped his personal charms soon repaired the first loss; but I could never hear any thing further of my unfortunate sitter." As a variation of the scene, let us now take up the letter-writer, in her relative's house at Reval, in Esthonia. That province presents a fine instance of the state of territorial property and rights in the greater part of Russia. It is divided into about six hundred estates, each of vast size for the most part, which are possessed by a resident noblesse, resembling agreeably the old country gentlemen of England. They appear, indeed, from the description, to be a comparatively simple and happy race, the lowest classes being in that condition of civilisation where despotism does not jar upon the feelings of man, and even proves of service to him, when, as in Prussia, the unrestrained head and guide of the state acts with justice and liberality. We cannot do better than give the reader a further idea of the peculiarities of St Petersburg's position-a city planted by the strong will of one man in a swamp. "No one can judge of the daring position of Petersburg, who has not mounted one of these her artificial heights, and viewed the immense body of waters in which she floats, like a bark overladen with precious goods; while the autumn waves, as if maddened by the prospect of the winter's long imprisonment, play wild pranks with her resistless shores, deriding her false foundations, and overturning, in a few hours, the laboured erections of as many years. We wanted no one to recount the horrors of an inundation, for this is the season when the waters levy their annual tribute. A south-west wind was lifting the gulf furiously towards the city-the Neva was dashing along, rejoicing in its strength, tossing the keels of the vessels over the granite quays, disjointing the planks of * A Residence on the Shores of the Baltic, described in a Series of Letters. 2 vols. London: John Murray. The first Esthonian sketch which we shall present, refers to an annoyance which Britons cannot think of without a shudder-namely, the presence of hosts of wolves about the country residences and farms. "One day, when, fortunately, perhaps, unescorted by the huge dogs, we were mounting a hill to a neighbouring mill, my companion suddenly halted, and, laying her hand on mine, silently pointed to a moving object within fifty yards of us. It was a great brute of a wolf stalking leisurely along its high bristly back set up, its head prowling down-who took no notice of us, but slowly pursued the same path into the wood, which we had quitted a few minutes before. We must both plead guilty to blanched cheeks, but beyond this to no signs of cowardice; and, in truth, the instances are so rare of their attacking human beings, even the most defenceless children, that we had no cause for fear. They war not on man, unless under excessive pressure of hunger, or when, as in the case of a butcher, his clothes are impregnated with the smell of fresh blood. This is so certain an attraction, that peasants carrying butcher's meat are followed by wolves, and often obliged to compound for their own safety by flinging the dangerous commodity amongst them; or if in a sledge, three or four of these ravenous animals will spring upon the basket of meat, and tear it open before their eyes. Wherever an animal falls, there, though to all appearance no cover nor sign of a wolf be visible for miles round, several will be found congregated in half an hour's time. Such is their horrid thirst for blood, that a wounded wolf knows that only by the strictest concealment can ANCIENT RUINS IN CENTRAL AMERICA. [We extract the following paper from a late number of the Athenium. Having been present at the meeting referred to, at the British Museum, we can speak as to the correctness of the Athenæum's report. We add, at the conclusion, a few obser vations of our own.] THE reports which have from time to time reached us, and been published, respecting the extraordinary monuments scattered over Central America, have awakened public interest rather than satisfied it: we are happy, therefore, to have it in our power to offer some particulars of the explorations of a late traveller the Chevalier Friedrichsthal, of Vienna. The chevalier is a distinguished botanist, and proceeded to America to carry on his physical and botanical researches; but was so struck with the account of these ruins, that he resolved to visit the province of Yucatan; and he considers them of such interest and importance, that he is anxious that an exploring expedition, with all necessary means and appliances, should be sent out expressly to make a complete survey of them. On Saturday last the chevalier met at Mr J. E. Gray's, at the British Museum, a party of gentlemen, *This journey did not continue farther than Moscow, for there, in consideration of his wife, a pardon reached the offender. ate traveler The ch proceeded to Dotanical re punt of these of Yucatan; importance, dition, with bald be sent ey of them at Mr J. E of gentlemen, seow, for there, offender. 1 "I landed, in the month of December 1838, at the mouth of the river St Juan, in the Central American state of Nicaragua, with the intention of exploring that unknown part of the western continent. I I proceeded first to the large lake bearing the name of the state, and penetrated into the interior of the province of Chondales, on its north-eastern shore, inhabited by some scattered tribes of Mosquito Indians, and passed round its northern shore to the city of Granada. After having visited the interesting islands of the lake, the largest of which, from its innumerable burying-places, seems to have been another Meroe of the extinct nation once settled in those regions, I directed my steps to the neighbouring lake of Managua, then -crossed the Cordilleras, and took the route, bordering the Pacific, towards the southern gulf of Nicoya. I ascended and measured the most important of the isolated volcanoes to be met with in this track, collected many geological specimens, and a rich booty of mountain plants. Having passed the Aguacate Mountain, I ascended to the high plain of Costarica, almost surrounded by extinguished volcanoes, among which one, situated between the city of Caotago and the shore of the Atlantic, rises to the height of nearly 12,000 English feet. At the commencement of the rainy season, I descended through the wild forests of the river Zarapiqui to the northern harbour of St Juan, and embarked for the United States, touching in my passage at Jamaica, St Domingo, and Cuba. or degenerate age in art. The Chevalier Friedrichsthal, on being appealed to on these points, declared it his belief that the ruins were not more than seven hundred years old an opinion which appeared to us utterly irreconcilable with the history of the country. It seemed to us that the ruins, as now pictured, were in a style of art resembling that prevalent in some of the ancient temples of India or Burmah; and, at all events, bore marks of skill in sculpture which proved them to be the work of a people considerably advanced in artistic skill, but of whose history all trace was gone even in the days of Cortes; in short, that they must have been erected thousands of years since, though, whether by a race connected with the old world, or having an entirely isolated civilisation, we have no means of judging.] DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A MARINE AND A [BY CAPTAIN BASIL HALL.] THE words Marine and Mariner differ by one small letter only; but no two races of men, I had well-nigh said no two animals, differ from one another more completely than the Jollies' and the Johnnies.' Jack wears a blue jacket, and the Jolly wears a red one. Jack would sooner take a round dozen than be seen with a pair of braces across his shoulders; while the marine, if deprived of his suspenders, would speedily be left suns culotte. A thorough-going, barrack-bred, regu lar-built marine, in a ship of which the serjeant-major truly loves his art, has, without any very exaggerated metaphor, been compared to a man who swallowed a set of fire-irons; the tongs representing the legs, the poker the back-bone, and the shovel the neck and head. While, on the other hand, your sailor-man is to be likened to nothing except one of those delicious figures in the fantoccini show-boxes, where the legs, arms, and head, are flung loosely about the right and left, no one bone apparently having the slightest organic connexion with any other; the whole being an affair of strings, and springs, and universal joint! Waldeck has already briefly noticed, there are scarcely Highly gratified with the results of this first voyage, and animated by the accounts of the American traveller, Mr Stephens, respecting the antiquarian riches of the southern provinces of Mexico, I left the States in the month of July 1840, and entered the peninsula of Yucatan, at its eastern shore, resolved to connect with my physical and botanical researches an examination of these ancient monuments. The actually independent state of Yucatan bears the appearance of a poor and sterile country, far inferior to the lands on the Atlantic borders in general. Its crust of stone marl is in many parts of the inhabited districts, to a great extent, bare and without any alluvial soil. The deepenings and basins only, peculiar to that kind of formation, where mould is accumulated, are fit for cultivation. There are, however, on the north-eastern coast, and in the south of the peninsula, very rich woodlands, but these are in possession of the indolent Indians, who scarcely produce enough for their own immediate wants. There are no mountains, and only a chain of low hills in the west, and not even a single river throughout the whole monotonous plain; consequently, the breeding of cattle is attended with great difficulties. The difference between sailor and marine was strikingly exemplified in a well-known instance of mutiny on board a frigate. The captain was one of that class of officers, now happily extinct, whose chief authority consisted in severity. To such an excess was this pushed, that his ship's company, it appears, was at length roused to actual revolt, and proceeded in a tumultuous, but apParently resolute body, to the quarterdeck. tremely curious to remark, that the same stern system of likewise been applied to the marines, without weakening discipline which had driven the seamen into revolt, had the paramount sense of duty under any circumstances. Such, at all events, was the force of habit and discipline, that when the captain ordered them to fall in, they formed instantly, as a matter of course, across the deck. It is ex At his further orders, they loaded their muskets with ball, and screwed on their bayonets. Had the corps now proved traitors, all must have been lost; but the captain, who, with all his faults of temper and system, was yet a clear-headed officer, calculated upon a different result. Turning first to the mutineers, he called out, "I'll attend to you directly!" And then addressing the soldiers, he said, with a tone of such perfect confidence of manner, and so slightly interrogative, as to furnish its own answer, "You'll stand by your king and country ?" The marines thus appealed to said nothing, but grasped their fire-arms with an air of resolution "Then, royal and loyal marines, we don't care for the blue-jackets!" And, stepping forward, he seized the two principal ringleaders by the throat, one with each hand, and calling out, in a voice of thunder, to the rest, instantly to move off the quarterdeck, he consigned the astonished and deserted culprits to the master-at-arms, by whom they were speedily and quietly placed in double irons---and the whole mutiny was at an end! But this is not all. The fate of the disciplinarian and the disciplined forms at once one of the most appalling and the most affecting stories we ever read-and with it we shall conclude. It is 350 years since the Caucasian race first set foot men respecting the supposed origin and date of the The successful issue of the recent mutiny, and his confidence in his own resources, had taught the captain to believe that he could command the services of his people, not only on ordinary occasions, but at moments of utmost need. Here was his grand mistake. The obedience he exacted at the point of the lash had no heartiness in it; and when the time came that the argument of force could no longer be used, and when the bayonets of the marines had lost their terrors, there was read to him, and in letters of blood, the bitterest lesson of retributive justice that perhaps was ever pronounced to any officer since the beginning of the naval service. The frigate under command of this officer, when in company with another ship, chased two French frigates off the Isle of France. As his ship sailed much faster than her consort, he soon outstripped her, and closed with the enemy single-handed. The Frenchmen, seeing only one ship near them, and the other far astern, shortened sail, and prepared for the attack, which, however, they could hardly suppose would be undertaken by one ship. In this expectation, however, they underrated the spirit of its commander. Seeing the enemy's frigates within his reach, and well knowing what his men could execute if they chose-never dreaming for a moment that they would fail him at this pinch---he exclaimed, “We shall take them both! steer right for thein !" This was the last order he ever gave! The men obeyed, and stood to their guns; but they stood there only to be shot to death. They folded their arms, and neither loaded nor fired a single shot, in answer to the pealing broadsides which the unresisted and astonished enemy were pouring fast in upon them! Now had arrived the dreadful moment of revenge for them; as their captain, who was soon struck down like the rest, lived only long enough to see the cause of his failure, and to witness the shocking sight of his crew cut to pieces, rather than move their hands to fire one gun to save the credit of their commander---all consideration for their own lives, or for their country, appearing to be absorbed in their desperate determination to prove at last how completely they had it in their power to show the sense of the unjust treatment they had received. FLOCKING OF THE SCOTTISH POOR TO LARGE The following extract from a recent number of the RICH AND POOR CHILDREN. I met the rich man's children So warmly clad and gay- I saw them reach their home I watch'd them sit at eve I sigh'd, for then I thought His famish'd wife to spurn, Oh, ye! the rich man's children, And haughty step, I pray, A priceless gem appear. Upon the waters cast 420 1,097 Thy bread, and thou shalt find Inmates of Edinburgh House of Refuge, from 1st October 1839 to 1st September 1840 (Edinburgh and Leith), That, after many days, Persons sheltered in Night Refuge of ditto, 91 191 ten lines, as follow: tion.' 140" Shall even Pity's tear The act, seen far behind, THE FAR WEST. A. G. fellow, I will speak English, and you may speak Ame- EFFECTS OF FOOD ON THE FORM AND CHARACTER OF Food influences all the external characters of quadrupeds. Without adverting to the different appear ance of an ill-fed beast and one which has an abundant supply, we may remark that the form of the young ani mal that suffers a deprivation either in the quantity or quality of its food, never becomes perfectly developed, either in its bulk or proportions. The integuments of such a one never present the gloss of health, neither is the constitution at large often free from disease; internal congestions take place, and the mesenteric glands fre quently become schirrous. On the contrary, in propor tion as the supply within prudent limits is liberal, so is the growth extended, and the form reaches to the standard of the parent, It often also exceeds the parent stock, from the excess of nutritive stimulus applied; and thus horses, oxen, and sheep, brought up in low marshy lands, where the herbage is luxuriant, obtain a monstrous size. Horses, in particular, when bred and pastured in the rich flat lands of Lincolnshire, become expanded in bulk, and it is from such sources that our carriage and heavy troop horses are supplied. To what a degree of monstrosity may not our bacon hogs be fed; and our prize-oxen exhibit the extraordinary powers of food when forced on an animal by increasing the supply and restraining the expenditure. It is from our artificial mode of feeding cattle that our markets are now furnished with veal all the year round, and lamb is common some months before it appeared on the tables of our forefathers.-Encyclopædia of Rural Sports. SLIGHT CIRCUMSTANCES. Sir Walter Scott, walking one day along the banks of the Yarrow, where Mungo Park was born, saw the traveller throwing stones into the water, and anxiously watching the bubbles that succeeded. Scott inquired the object of his occupation. "I was thinking," au swered Park, "how often I had thus tried to sound the rivers in Africa, by calculating how long a time had elapsed before the bubbles rose to the surface." It was a slight circumstance, but the traveller's safety fre quently depended upon it. In a watch, the mainspring forms a small portion of the works, but it impels and governs the whole. So it is in the machinery of human life; a slight circumstance is permitted by the Divine Ruler to derange or to alter it; a giant falls by a pebble; a girl at the door of an inn changes the fortune of an empire. If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter, said Pascal, in his epigrammatic and brilliant manner, the condition of the world would have been different. The Mahometans have a tradition, that when their prophet concealed himself in Mount Shur, his pursuers were deceived by a spider's web which covered the mouth of the cave. Luther might have been a lawyer, had his friend and companion escaped the thunder-storm at Erfurt; Scotland had wanted her stern Reformer, if the appeal of the preacher had not startled him in the Chapel of St Andrew's Castle; and if Mr Grenville had not carried, in 1764, his memorable resolution as to the expediency of charging "certain stamp-duties" on the have bowed to the British sceptre. Cowley might never plantations in America, the western world might still have been a poet, if he had not found the Faery Queen in his mother's parlour; Opie might have perished in of his young companion, Mark Otes, while he was drawmute obscurity, if he had not looked over the shoulder ing a butterfly; Giotto, one of the early Florentine painters, might have continued a rude shepherd boy, if the notice of Cimabue as he went that way.-Asiatic a sheep drawn by him upon a stone had not attracted Journal for September. "They "Whence goes In the commencement of my tour, several of my SYMBOLIC WRITING. travelling companions from the city of New York THE North American Indians, who possess generally a found themselves at a frightful distance to the west, fluent and comprehensive language, have no idea of alpha- when we arrived at Niagara Falls; and hastened to betic writing, or of inscribing words in distinct forms; amuse their friends with tales and scenes of the west. therefore, like all primitive people, when they wish to At Buffalo, a steam-boat was landing with four hundred write any account of a transaction, they resort to paint-passengers, and twelve days out. ing or carving hieroglyphics. Dr W. Cook Taylor, in "From the west." In the rich state of Ohio, hundreds "Where from?" his "Natural History of Society," presents a specimen were selling their farms and going to the west. In of this kind of pictorial narrative, purporting to be the the beautiful city of Cincinnati, people said to me account of an expedition undertaken by the French against an Iroquois tribe. The symbols are arranged in it is not far enough west." In St Louis, 1400 miles "Our town has passed the days of its most rapid growth; "The first line contains the arms of France, surmounted off New York, my landlady assured me that I would by a hatchet; and near are eighteen symbols of decades. be pleased with her boarders, for they were nearly all The hatchet or tomahawk, being the Indian symbol of merchants from the "west." I there asked-" Whence war, as the calumet is of peace, this signifies--- a hundred come those steam-boats laden with cork, honey, hides, and eighty Frenchmen undertook some warlike expedi- bars of silver, which those men have been for hours &c.?" "From the west." "Whence those ponderous The second line contains a mountain, with a bird spring-shouldering and putting on board that boat?" ing from its summit, and a stag with a moon on its back. come from Santa Fe-from the west." The mountain was the cognisance of Montreal, and the this steam-boat, so richly laden with dry goods, steambird signifies departure. So that this line reads, they engines, &c.?" "She goes to Jefferson city." "Jefferdeparted from Montreal in the first quarter of the stag son city! where is that?" "Far to the west." "And month, corresponding to our July.' Yellow Stone?" where goes that boat laden down to her gunnels-the "She goes still farther to the west." "Then," said I, "I'll go to the west." I went on the Yellow Stone. * Two thousand miles on her, and we were at the mouth of Yellow Stone River-at the west. What! invoices, bills of lading, &c., a wholesale establishment, so far to the west! And those strangelooking long-haired gentlemen, who have just arrived, and are relating the adventures of their long and tedious journey-who are they? "Oh, they are some of our merchants just arrived from the west." that keel-boat, that Mackinaw-boat, and that formidable caravan, all of which are richly laden with goods?" to the west, ha? Then," said I, "I'll try it again; I These, sir, are outfits starting for the west." "Going will try and see if I can go to the west."* What, a fort here, too?" "Oui, monsieur, oui, monsieur" (as a dauntless and semi-barbarian-looking jolly fellow dashed forth in advance of his party on his wild horse to meet me).** "Ne parlez vous l'Anglaise ?" "Non, monsieur, I speaks de French and de Americaine; mais je ne parle pas l'Anglaise." "Well, then, my good MICROSCOPIC VIEW OF THE FLY. The eye of the common house-fly is fixed so as to enable its prominent organs of vision to view accurately the objects around in every direction; it is furnished with 8000 hexagonal faces, all calculated to convey perfect images to the optic nerve-all slightly convex all acting as so many cornea-8000 included within the space no larger than the head of a pin !--all hexagonal-all of the best possible form, to prevent a waste of space! This is so wonderful that it would stagger belief, if not vouched for by being the result of the microscopical researches of such men as Lewenhoeck, and others equally eminent. From a newspaper. ELOCUTION. Perhaps nothing so soon betrays the education and association as the modes of speech; and few accomplishments so much aid the charm of female beauty as produces the disenchantment that necessarily follows a a graceful and even utterance; while nothing so soon discrepancy between appearance and manner, as a mean intonation of voice or a vulgar use of words.J. F. Cooper, in the Deer-slayer. Printed and Published by W. and R. CHAMBERS, Edinburgh. DINBURGE CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF "CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE," "CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE," &c. many instances!-for example, while one of the doors THE HIGH-PRESSURE SYSTEM.* Few things strike a visiter to London with so much force, as the symptoms which every where appear of an intense struggle amongst the mercantile classes to attract attention, secure custom, and, to use a phrase of their own, get on in the world. Every expedient that the wit of man can devise, seems to be employed for these purposes, and that often with a degree of effort so disproportionate to the presumable importance of the kind of trade, as might surprise the gravest into a smile. For example, a box, about the size of a travelling show, moving constantly about town on wheels, all placarded over with the important intelligence, that wigs of the best quality are to be obtained at some place, at one pound ten and upwards! Or a similar vehicle, in the shape of a hat, advertising that articles of that kind are to be got somewhere else, at four and ninepence! Is a house burnt down, or a wooden shed erected for repairs, in any considerable thoroughfare?-instantly the walls, brick or wooden, become eloquent all over with placards, red, blue, and green: there are even such things to be seen as tickets, announcing a good piece of dead wall to be let to the highest bidder, as a place whereon to stick advertisements. See, also, the ingenuity of such every-wheremet advertisements as those of Mr Cox Savory, describing silver and gold trinket-work and plate, with exact representations of patterns, and exact prices attached -a course of procedure by which a trader in some narrow street in Eastern London may be said to make all Britain and her dependencies his shop. Every thing is so cut and dry that there can be no mistakethe cable pattern of watch-chain is eight guineas for the weight of seven sovereigns, while the ring and bar pattern is nine guineas for the same weight. Thus, the customer at Thurso, or Sligo, knows precisely what he is about, and a post-letter serves the purpose as well as if he were to call at Cornhill and chaffer for an hour. Mr R. B. Ede is cqually precise in his advertisements of portable laboratories, chemical chests, boxes of mineralogical specimens, &c. There is a Youth's Chemical Amusement Box at sixteen shillings; but a laboratory of ninety specimens costs a guinea and a lialf, and one "with stoppered bottles, French polished cabinet, improved spirit-lamp, and lock and key," is two guineas. And not less minute in his descriptions is Mr Eley, patentee of wire cartridges, the pellets of which, at the distance of a few yards from the barrel," spread as evenly as possible." To make this clear, the advertisement presents diagrams, showing a covey flying across a small space-in the one case, with a few scattered drops of shot, not one of which touches a bird (this being the effect of ordinary shot), while another covey, passing the same amount of space, and fired at by the wire cartridge, seems so equably peppered, that not a bird can be supposed to escape. Thus, by a simple device, the virtue of the contrivance is made obvious to the meanest capacity. Then there are such passionately beseeching notices on the outsides of shops! The "TRUE NOTED HOUSE FOR THE SALE OF DUBLIN BROWN STOUT"-" THE ORIGINAL RAISED LETTER MANUFACTORY"-" OBSERVE THIS IS THE NOTED SHOP FOR GIVING A HALFPENNY A-POUND tion as t aties" at might Fairy peri the sh he was d ly Flor epherd by not a way fixed 8 View accu it is form ated to c slightly c included vid pin-all preventa would sug De result d as Leveale newspaper. PRICE THREE HALFPENCE. only to wear the distinction "with a difference," to baffle all attempts at redress. Hence the pathetic entreaties of the inventors of sauces and children's powders, to observe that none are genuine unless signed with their own names. If we are to believe advertisements, even the patentees of things the most unmentionable in this wide world, are not allowed to enjoy the honour and profit of their ingenuity in peace, but have to keep up a constant fight with pretenders. In the literary and publishing world, there are but a few original-minded persons-a vast number are engaged in producing what is more or less imitative. A peculiarity of style, a class of fictitious characters, form and mode of publication-whatever of new succeeds in engaging public attention, that is immediately followed by hundreds. Even a title-page will be imitated, in order to have a chance of picking up a few miserable crumbs of public patronage. Nay, there have been caitiffs who would steal a man's name to attract attention to their wretched wares. What a compliment to a rival, to try to pass off for him! What is the homage which vice pays virtue to this! What must a man think of himself, who is not only willing but anxious to be mistaken for a different individual! A noted instance of name-stealing occurred in the shopkeeping world a few years ago. The plan fallen upon was to name a child after the rival trader, and then to put up the child's name in such an arrangement of lettering, that the patronymic was not observable. All these things are the result of the enormous con- One other result of the high-pressure system calls for attention. It may have been observed, that in the ant world, there appears to be one set of insects who keep the rest working for them. We are not strictly aware that this is the account of the matter which a naturalist would give; but certainly we have seen appearances in a panic-struck ants' nest of a classification of the tribe into slaves and masters. Just so, in the London world, there is a division into two classes, one of which may be said to make slaves of the other. Money is the basis of this strange tyranny. Competition being so wild, even plain living so expensive, and the temptations to all sorts of extravagance so besetting, a great number of the trading classes are in constant difficulties for the circulating medium. This is the case with many who are, in all ordinary respects, very respectable persons. Industrious they may be to the forfeiture of all rational enjoyments in life and the injury of their health; they may be ingenious in their callings; they may be inspired with an earnest anxiety to bring forward their families respectably in the world, and, indeed, to fulfil every common obligation and engagement. But then they have in all likelihood speculated a little beyond the bounds of prudence, or they live a little ambitiously, or they have vast sums lying out with their customers, or sunk in stock. In short, they need some assistance in the pecuniary way. Now, in London there are also, of course, many persons who are at ease, or more than at ease, in money matters. And it becomes the object of such parties to endeavour to make something out of the less fortunate. This is an end which can be attained in various ways. One of these, the discounting of bills for the struggling parties at a high rate of interest, or with usurious advantages, is a mode of fructifying money largely practised in a half-clandestine way in the metropolis. The rate of interest varies in proportion to the supposed risk or the necessity of the parties; but it is always so considerable as to cat up a large share of the profits of the unfortunate trader. Another way is to supply him with goods at high prices, he being unable to get them otherwise. And not only must he take the The competitive struggle being so great-individual character. being so little under neighbourly observation-it is not wonderful that amongst many arts, some of a strangely mean kind are resorted to for the purpose of obtaining a trade. The counterfeiting and imitative tricks alone are enough to astonish one who is accustomed to the simple and Νο direct dealings of towns of lesser dimensions. novelty of any kind can be struck out by a more than usually ingenious person, but it is instantly imitated in a hundred quarters, provided only it be understood to be remunerating the original inventor. Patented or not patented, it is all one. The servile herd have should have an elderly gentleman seated on their class and man by man, are eagerly engaged in reducing each other to a state of helpless dependency, so that they may sweat something for their own advantage out of the toils of their neighbours ! THE FORTUNES OF A GERMAN BOY. FRITZ KÖRNER was the son of a tailor at Brunswick, and his father, who was tolerably well to do in the world, proposed bringing Fritz up to his own business. But when the boy was about eight years old, Körner, whose first wife was dead, took it into his head to marry another; and from the time the second Mrs Körner was placed at the head of the establishment, poor Fritz's comfort was at an end. She hated him; and, as she soon produced a little Körner of her own, she was jealous of him. Opportunities were not wanting to show her spite, and though the father wished to protect him, he could not; so when he saw that the child's life would be rendered miserable, and his disposition be spoilt by injustice and severity, and by the contests and dissensions of which he was the subject and the witness, he resolved to send him from home and let him learn his trade elsewhere. He happened to have a distant relation in the same line of business at Bremen ; and to this person he committed the child, with an injunc tion to treat him well, and make a good tailor of him. But Fritz had no aptitude for tailorship; nor, indeed, to speak the truth, did he appear to have an aptitude for any thing-at least, for any thing that was useful, or likely to be advantageous to himself. Not that he was altogether stupid, but that, either from indolence or from not having found his vocation, his energies never seemed awakened; and he made no progress in his business and very little in his learning. The man with whom he was placed was a violent and unreflecting person, who, without seeking to ascertain the cause of the boy's deficiencies, had recourse to the scourge; and when he found flogging did nothing towards the development of Fritz's genius, he tried starving; and that not answering any better, he pronounced him a hopeless and incorrigible little blackguard, and reduced him to the capacity of errand-boy-an office much more to Fritz's fancy, and one, indeed, with which he would have been well contented could it have lasted; but he knew too well that this declension was only a preliminary to his final dismissal, and that, in short, the only thing his master waited for was to find some one travelling to Brunswick, on whom he could rely to conduct him safely to his father. All he wanted, he said, was to get rid of him, and wash his hands of the responsibility. goods he requires, but, in some instances, if forced to seek the favour of a little respite in the matter of bills, he may be compelled to take a vast quantity above what he needs, thus making his case always the worse. The class of middlemen between the manufacturers and retailers are those who chiefly practise this mode of subjugation. Some years ago, a young bookseller in Chancery Lane began to publish in a small way, and met with some success. Tempted to advance a little too rapidly, he became involved in the toils of a wholesale stationer, who not only obliged him to buy all the paper he needed for his publications at perhaps twenty per cent. above a fair price, but to take large quantities of the article which he did not need. So truly was this the case, that on one particular occasion, having applied for the renewal of a bill, a cart-load of unordered paper arrived at his door, along with the intelligence that his request had been acceded to, his reception of the one being the implied condition of his obtaining the other. It is not of course to be wondered at, that the career of this young man, which for a few years had been positively prosperous, terminated in ruin. When some D'Israeli of "the trade" shall write "The Calamities of Booksellers," the world will come to know some curious particulars of the private history of men who have in their day stood high in that walk. It may have seen a man of talent engaged for years in an active course, publishing, and also taking no small share in conceiving and executing, works of great utility and general merit-it may have seen him shunning delights and living laborious days for the sake of these works-yet he may prove to have all the time been making nothing for himself, and that solely because he had come under the necessity of buying his principal material at an advance above the fair price, which absorbed the whole of his profits. This material we have known to be bought on a system of long credits, at seventy per cent. above the price at which it could be obtained in the fair course of trade for ready money. It was once a favourite mode of exciting indignation at the slave-trade, to tell ladies at their tea to look upon every lump of sugar as saturated with the tears of the wretched negroes; those who keep pet-books on their drawing-room tables, little think of the system of oppression through the midst of which many of those pretty volumes have passed. Talk of factory slaves, and workhouse slaves, and so forth! what are they all to the trading been down buying your usual stock for the season." attire, fine horses, and martial air, not to mention the slaves, who have to give the whole of their labour, and sacrifice every enjoyment of life, for the superior who can give credit? dangerous, but sufficient to create embarrassment-in in the city, and seeing a vast lot of goods to all ap- Affairs were in this position, when, one day, Fritz was sent to the other end of the city to fetch some cloth, which being immediately wanted, he was urged to bring with all the speed he could. He performed half his errand without delay; but on his way back he happened to fall in with a troop of cuirassiers, whose brilliant attraction of the music by which they were accompanied, were all too much for Fritz's discretion; and, pectant tailors at home, he fell into the rear of the forgetful of the charge he had received, and the exsoldiers, and followed them in a direction just opposite to the one he should have taken. But, alas! at the corner of a street, when he least thought of it, who should he run against but his master! Fritz, whose eyes and ears were wholly engrossed by the brilliant cortège before him, was not at first aware that he had run foul his mind to the fact; but no sooner had he raised his of his enemy, till a sharp tug at one of his ears awakened eyes to the face of his dreaded master, than, seized with him, and taking to his heels, ran blindly forward, withterror, he broke away, almost leaving his ear behind out considering whither he was going, till he reached the quay. But here his career was impeded. Some vessels were just putting to sea, and there was such a concourse of people, and such a barricade of carts and waggons, that the road was almost blocked up. Concluding that his master was upon his heels, and that if he slackened his pace he should inevitably be overtaken, Fritz looked about for an expedient ; and saw none but to leap into the nearest vessel and conceal himself, till he thought his pursuer had passed-what he was to do afterwards remained for future consideration. In he had he paused to think, he might, from the similarity leapt, therefore, amongst several other persons, whom, of their movements, have supposed to be also eluding into the first hole he saw, and concealed himself behind the pursuit of a ferocious tailor. But Fritz thought not of them, he thought only of himself; and down he dived There is no making a profit now by buying in the "Oh, no," said the other, "these days are all past. ordinary way. We have to watch till some poor The third and last mode is only to be practised manufacturer is at a loss for money, and then buy where the concern is remarkably profitable, and atfrom him at an immense reduction off the regular prices. tended by unusually small risks. It consists in the kind, we could not make a profit by our business." If we did not get an advantage of this monied man becoming an occult partner of his vic-There is the same spirit in the manufacturing world. tim; and thus, for a certain sum advanced, perhaps Let a capitalist once get possession of any partinot a very large one, realising a very good annual in- cular department of his business, and he will hesicome out of the profits. Opportunities of thus estatate at no amount of occasional loss in order to blishing a service-pipe, as it were, upon the pockets instance of the monopolising spirit occurred a few run competitors out of the market. A remarkable of another man, occur frequently; and the apparent years ago in London. On the project of a new street wonder connected with some men, namely, their in- in the west end of the town being started, it was cessantly working at a prosperous business without necessary to borrow the sum of about half a million getting rich, would be solved at once, were it known in order to carry out the design. An insurance office advanced the money out of its large accumulations; that they are subject to a system of depletion as but though a fair interest was to be allowed, the regular as that practised by the vampyre of eastern lenders also stipulated that the whole of the new prosuperstition. The great struggle in London life is to perty was to be insured against fire in their office. fall into something that will go on paying with little This arrangement, by which they secured an immense trouble; and nothing of the kind answers so well as quantity of business, was actually made part of the catching and subjugating a poor fellow who may be that the monopoly must last as long as the street itself, act of Parliament for the building of the street, so made to work for you. It used to be said in Dubor the office, or respect for statutes, shall endure. lin that the best way of turning a patrimony of Ancient writers declared genius and virtue without three or four hundred pounds to account, was to money to be viler than sea-ware, and recommended lend it to a county-of-Wexford squire, and then worldly substance as a thing which one behoved to get go and live with him, seeing that you were sure ingly execrated the overpowering thirst of gold, and the by whatever means, at the same time that they feelof good entertainment and the best of hunting and baseness and besotted folly of avarice; but our fathers shooting as long as you were the poor gentleman's were totally unacquainted with the power of money as creditor-that is to say, as long as he lived. Nearly the foundation of a tyranny between class and class, the same thing may be done by adroit people in and man and man. Under the influence of this great London with a somewhat larger capital. Buy a power, a state of things heretofore undreamt of has man's independence and a share of his profits, and landed class with a vast influence over the multitude arisen. Apart altogether from the consideration of a you are a gentleman for ever. The Old Man of the living on their territories, we see an employing class Sea, in Sinbad, may be called the type of this class with equally great subject masses, and a trading class of practitioners; but rarer, alas! far rarer, are the limited control over all the rest. These are features among whom the affluent few exercise a scarcely lucky moments when the victim can rid himself of of our social state which have no doubt arisen in harhis burden. The only agreeable consideration is, that mony with nature, and it would not be easy to modify the burden is in general borne in a remarkably philo- them; but it is strange that they are so little obsophical manner. The trading classes are so accusserved, and that there should still be a prevalent imPlavery societies-aborigines-protection societics-people at once; so he slunk back in his hole, and suf pression that we are a nation of freemen. Antiwaste-pipes of surplus philanthropy-what jests ye are, in a country where the whole population, class by vessel, together with the darkness which surrounded tomed to sacrifice ease, tranquillity, and independence, for the sake of business, that it scarcely seems to them out of the proper course of things that they hour, he heard a great hubbub over his head, which led a barrel. When he had lain there for about half an retreat, and was insisting on his being hunted up; a him to believe that his master had discovered his suspicion in which he was confirmed by frequently distinguishing, amidst the din, a voice that ever and anon whenever any one approached the place of his concealcried "Fritz!" He therefore only lay the closer; and in the dilemma-the vessel began to move, and Fritz ment, he scarcely ventured to breathe lest he should be discovered. Presently, however, there was a new feature in for a voyage. This was more than he had reckoned to suspect that, if he stayed where he was, he should be upon, and he was just preparing to emerge, when his courage was quelled by the sound of " Fritz! Fritz!" which appeared to issue from the mouths of half-a-dozen fered himself to be carried to sea. The motion of the |