words, the young messenger of good put into the hands of the father five francs, and then, turning round to cast a look of pity and satisfaction on the poor family, who were dumb with emotion, she disappeared. The history of these five francs is the most remarkable part of this affair. This little benevolent fairy was, it is almost unnecessary to say, the same pitying spectator who had been addressed by the abstractor of the loaf at the police office. As soon as she had heard what was said there, she had gone away, resolved to take some meat to the poor family. But she remembered that her mamma was from home that day, and was at a loss how to procure money or food, until she bethought herself of a resource of a strange kind. She recollected that a hair-dresser, who lived near her mother's house, and who knew her family, had often commended her beautiful hair, and had told her to come to him whenever she wished to have it cut, and he would give her a louis for it. This used to make her proud and pleased, but she now thought of it in a different way. In order to procure money for the assistance of the starving family, she went straight to the hairdresser's, put him in mind of his promise, and offered to let him cut off all her pretty locks for what he thought them worth. | ADDRESS OF THE EDITORS. EIGHT years have now elapsed since the commencement of CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH JOURNAL. The present number is the first of the ninth annual volume. Again permitted by custom to enter for a few minutes into communication with our friends, we feel gratified in informing them that the circulation of our work continues undiminished, reaching from sixtyfive to seventy thousand copies weekly. We need scarcely say that we accept this fact as the best evidence that could be given that our labours are upon the whole appreciated by the public. That we may frequently fail to please, is to be expected from addressing so large and varied an auditory; but we can confidently say, that our anxiety to render the work generally attractive has never from the first experienced the least abatement. The great leading principle on which we set out has never for a moment been lost sight of, namely, that of furnishing weekly a sheet of healthful moral instruction and innocent entertain Naturally surprised by such an application, the ment. We have not at any period of our labours hair-dresser, who was a kind and intelligent man, made felt inclined to alter the character of our work in any inquiry into the cause of his young friend's visit. Her essential respect, except in as far as the exhaustion of secret was easily drawn from her, and it caused the one class of subjects, and the presumed mental prohair-dresser almost to shed tears of pleasure. Hegress of the class we address, may have led us into feigned to comply with the conditions proposed, and fields which we did not think of entering in the earlier gave the bargainer fifteen francs, promising to come and claim his purchase at some future day. The part of our career. At all times the utmost care has little girl then got a basket, bought provisions, and set been taken to prevent the intrusion of any article or out on her errand of mercy. Before she returned, the paragraph which could be considered on any reasonhair-dresser had gone to her mother's, found that lady able grounds objectionable. On this point, we believe come home, and related to her the whole circumstances. So that, when the possessor of the golden tresses came we may challenge the most rigid investigation. Imback, she was gratified by being received into the open modesty in all its shapes, slang, and vulgarisms, have arms of her pleased and praising parent. been excluded with a rigour of watchfulness, more fixed and determined than any other principle which we are conscious of acting upon.* When the story was told at the police office by the hair-dresser, the abstraction of the loaf was visited by no severe punishment. The singular circumstances connected with the case raised many friends to the artisan and his family, and he was soon restored to health and comfort. A NEW GAS FOR LIGHTING. Ir has long been known to men of science, that, if pure water could be decomposed into its two constituent gases at a cheap rate, the hydrogen would afford means of lighting much superior to the gas formed from coal, now in general use. The great difficulty is to obtain the hydrogen at an economical rate. Are we to suppose, from the following paragraph, which lately appeared in the Times, and was quoted into the Athenæum, that a cheap means of disengaging the hydrogen has at length been discovered? We present the paragraph, as one having some claim to attention, from the importance of the result aimed at, though how far it is entitled to credit we are altogether ignorant : was "An experiment in gas-lighting, by made on Thursday evening on a piece of waste ground at - in presence of several scientific gentlemen, who Amongst other considerations which we continue to hold in view, is one bearing reference to the class we address. Though the work, as we have been assured, is read by a considerable number of persons belonging to the upper and leisurely classes, it is now, as before, framed chiefly for that large department of society, who, being engaged in the duties of the counting house, the shop, the work-room, or those of their private dwellings, have little leisure for the cultivation of their minds. In seeking to improve the moral and intellectual character of this large class, we have disregarded all party considerations and party clamours, holding rigidly to our early conviction that the happiness of individuals depends chiefly on circumstances within their individual control-namely, on their own industry, skill, self-denial, and observance of the laws which regulate the economy of their being. We lations; but neither do we lament being forbidden to do not undervalue the importance of political regu from all the efforts which may be made for their enlightenment. A consideration of these circumstances will make it obvious, that the benefits supposed to be conferred by Chambers's Edinburgh Journal and other cheap publications are probably overrated. The benefits, if there be any, are confined to the respectable order of artisans and others to whom we have alluded; but to the bulk of the rural population, and to the large section composing the inferior class of labourers, they are not extended, simply because such persons either cannot read, or possess tastes altogether inconsistent with literary recreation. To those who entertain the opinion that in ignorance alone is there either happiness or security, this announcement will doubtless be agreethe apprehension that, if this great empire is to be able. In us, it excites contrary feelings, and leads to destroyed, it will be by an upward blow, imparted by a class who, to the scandal of the age, are left in utter ignorance of the first principles of social organisation. Fully assured that, without a right and universal system of education, the community cannot advance either individually or in the aggregate, we have felt desirous of contributing to that object such assistance as was within our power. During the last four years, most of the scanty leisure left by the task of conducting this periodical sheet, has been devoted to the preparation of a series of Educational Treatises on what we conceive to be an improved plan. Aided in this task by gentlemen in whose abilities we had confibooks, while others are in preparation to complete dence, we have been enabled to issue twenty distinct the proposed series. The success of these works, we are glad to say, has gone beyond our most sanguine anticipations. Of one of the treatises alone, the Introduction to the Sciences, upwards of thirty thousand copies have been sold, the work being now in extensive use in schools in every quarter of the United Kingdom. Another task connected with popular instruction has occupied, for the last two years, a portion of our spare time. During that period we have superintended the republication, in a cheap form, of works of approved character, some of them furnished with elaborate annotation. Of these "PEOPLE'S EDITIONS," many of which are of an informing, some of an instructive character, while others may have at least the effect of promoting a taste for polite literature, thirty-two have up to this date appeared.+ We are happy to say that, notwithstanding a wide-spreading competition in the same walk-a competition, however, which perhaps flatters fully as much as it injures these publications have also been very successful, as many as fourteen thousand having been sold of some of those first printed. The quantity of printed paper thus sent abroad is enormous. That it may be for good, none can wish more earnestly than the individuals whose strange were invited to witness the result. A small gasometer enter on the consideration of them, seeing that they fortune it has almost involuntarily become to prepare already engross so much attention, while the other matters are nearly neglected. We may here advert to a misapprehension which we believe exists respecting the circulation of such works as the present. They are generally regarded as works perused by the labouring classes-a great mistake, we are convinced, as far at least as our own sheet is concerned. This paper is read, we believe, by a class who may be called the elite of the labouring community; those who think, conduct themselves respectably, and are anxious to improve their circumstances by judicious means. But below this worthy order of men, our work, except in a few particular cases, does not go. A fatal mistake is committed in the notion that the lower classes read. There is, unfortunately, a vast substratum in society where the printing-press has not yet unfolded her treasures. Some millions of adults of both sexes, in cities as well as in rural districts, are till this hour as ignorant of letters as the people were generally during the middle ages. To these, then, all appeals from such sheets as the present, are sounded in vain; and till it shall be satisfactorily arranged in what manner or form they shall be initiated in a knowledge of the alphabet, no possible benefit can be derived by them was erected for the purpose, which was connected by tubes with a furnace built of brick, and containing thrce retorts, one of which was supplied with water from a syphon, another was filled with tar, and both being decomposed in the third retort, formed the sole materials by which the gas was produced. The process appeared to be extremely simple, and the novelty of the experiment consisted in the fact, that the principal agent employed to produce the gas was common water combined with tar; but, according to the theory of the inventor of this new species of gas, any sort of bituminous or fatty matter would answer the purpose equally as well as pitch or tar. After the lapse of about half an hour employed in the experiment, during which time the process was explained to the company, the gas was turned into the burners, and a pure and powerful light was produced, perfectly free from smoke or any unpleasant smell. The purity and intenseness of the flame were tested in a very satisfactory manner, and those who witnessed the experiment appeared perfectly satisfied with the result. The great advantage of this sort of gas over that produced from coal, consists, it was said, in the cheapness of the materials employed in its production, the facility with which it is manufactured, and the perfection to which it is at once brought, without the necessity of its undergoing the tedious and expensive process of condensation and purification; for in this instance, as soon as the preliminaries were completed, the light was produced in a perfect state within a few feet of the gasometer, which, although of inferior size, was said to be capable of affording light for ten hours to at least five hundred lamps or burners. With regard to the comparative expense, it * With the view of preserving, as far as possible, a unity of was also stated that one thousand cubic feet of gas madesign and sentiment throughout the work, and of excluding nufactured by this process could be supplied to the pub- every thing which might have a tendency to infringe upon its lic for about one-third the price now charged by the character, we have been under the necessity of rejecting the casual contributions of doubtless many kind friends, and of relycoal-gas companies; and it was said to be equally available for domestic use, and more safe than the common ing exclusively upon our own resources, with the assistance of gas, inasmuch as small gasometers might at a trifling individuals whose names and reputation are a guarantee for the expense be fixed at the back of grates in private dwell-purity and literary correctness of their writings. Among these ings, from which the gas could be conveyed in Indiarubber bags to any part of the house, thereby preventing the many accidents which occur by the use of tubes and pipes. who has conquered the difficulty hitherto experienced in bringing this species of gas into use, superintended the arrangements, and evinced a natural anxiety to bring his experiment to a successful issue. He has taken out a patent for his discovery." valued assistants, we are happy in naming the venerable Mrs Amelia Opie, Mrs S. C. Hall, and Miss Agnes Strickland. Mrs Hall's "Stories of the Irish Peasantry," composed with the benevolent intention of improving the tastes and habits of her countrymen, we are glad to know have been received with pleasure by the majority of our readers; and we take the opportunity of stating, that tales to complete the proposed series will forthwith appear in the Journal. | and diffuse it. Edinburgh, January 2, 1840. * First Book of Reading - Second Book of Reading-Third Boolk of Reading-Moral Class-Book-First Book of English Composi Book-Natural Philosophy, Second Book-Rudiments of Chetion-Introduction to the Sciences-Natural Philosophy. First mistry-Animal Physiology---Euclid's Elements of Plane Geometry-Solid and Spherical Geometry-Elements of Algebra--Elements of Drawing and Perspective---History and Resources of the British Empire---History of the English Language and Literature---Principles and Practice of Elocution---History of Greece, its Literature and Arts--- Exemplary and Instructive Biography-- Directory of Infant Education--- Also, School-Room Maps of England, Ireland, Scotland, Europe, Palestine, and North America, each about Five Feet square + Addison's Essays, Moral and Humorous---Lamartine's Travels in the Holy Land---Paley's Natural Theology, with Additions--Lay of the Last Minstrel, Lady of the Lake, and Marmion, by Scott ---Cottagers of Glenburnie, by Mrs Hamilton---Crabbe's Parish Register, and other Poems---Franklin's Life and Essays (greatly improved)---Life and Travels of Mungo Park---Butler's Analogy of Religion-Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield-Tennant's Anster Fair, and other Poems-Smollett's Roderick Random-Lord Bacon's Essays-Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd, and other PoemsAdventures of Robinson Crusoe-Life of Robert Burns-Poetical Works of Robert Burns-Prose Works of Robert Burns---Clarke's Travels in Russia, with Notes---Defoe's Complete English Tradesman---Imprisonments of Silvio Pellico---Locke's Conduct of the Petræa, and the Holy Land--- Stephens's Incidents of Travel in Understanding---Stephens's Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia Greece, Turkey, and Poland - Godwin's Caleb WilliamsGrahame's Sabbath, and other Poems-Self-Control, a Novel, by Mrs Brunton---Guizot's History of Civilisation---Piso's Letters from Palmyra-Also, in connection with the Series, Chambers's Tour in Holland and Belgium. LONDON: Published, with permission of the proprietors, by W.S. ORR, Paternoster Row; and sold by all booksellers and newsmen.-Printed by Bradbury and Evans, Whitefriars. publishers or their agents; also, any odd unmbers to complete Complete sets of the Journal are always to be had from the sets. Persons requiring their volumes bound along with titlepages and contents, have only to give them into the hands e! any bookseller, with orders to the: effect CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF "CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,” "CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE," &c. NUMBER 418. STORIES OF THE IRISH PRASANTRY. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1840. "Mind not high things: but condescend to men of low estate." ST PAUL. "IT'S ONLY MY TIME." "PADDY-Paddy Blake-Paddy, I say," called out Mr Manvers, seeing that Paddy Blake had left his long, heavy, narrow spade standing upright in the side of a ditch he was making to keep his neighbour's giddy young colt out of his potato garden, and having so done, commenced pulling his long "big coat" over his brawny shoulders. "Paddy Blake," repeated Mr Manvers, "where are you going to ?" "Is it where I'm going to, sir? Bedad, then, I'm just going over to Castle Connel wid a bit of a message for Mary Tomlins." "And why cannot Mary Tomlins go herself?" "Oh, she's busy, she says, at the squire's." "Well, and you were busy at your ditch." "Ay, yer honour, but that's my own, and poor Mary would lose her eightpence if she broke her day's work, and it's a good step to Castle Connel." "Paddy Blake, how many children has Mary Tomlins ?" may say under every paytee we have to depind on "Then charge Jerry Deasy, or whatever his name Paddy Blake looked exceedingly perplexed, and "Charge Mr Deasy two pounds for the colt's damage, or rather for the time you were occupied in his service, instead of mending the ditch." "Lord, sir! is it a tame nagur you'd be afther making me? Sure it was only my time.” "And pray what property has a poor man but his time? What property has any man not born to fortune but his time?" "It's a mighty poor fortune," replied Paddy, shaking up the handful of straw that kept the sun out of the crown of his hat in summer, and the rain out of it in winter, and which at all times was seen peeping out of the holes of his hat. "It is a noble fortune, if put out to proper interest," An Irishman is quick of "Oh, thin, throth, I'm ashamed, sir, ye'd ask sich a observed Mr Manvers. question. Is it my sister's slip ov a girl! Childre! | understanding, and Paddy replied, “Irish interest is bedad she hasn't made up her mind to a batchelor | yet." "And how many children have you, Paddy Blake?" "Why, thin, the Lord forgive me-I was going to say I had more than was good of 'em, and that would have been a lie, for they're all clane-skinned, wholesome, good-hearted childre, as ever broke a poor man's bread or cheered his heart wid their innocent ways. Let me count," and he held up his great thick red fingers. "I've five-Jim and Larry-no, Kathleen's next to Jim-thin Larry-thin-bedad, I don't rightly know whether Tommy or Lanty is next to Larry; but oh, I remimber now-Tommy and Lanty came together. Twins, the heavens look down on us! in the hard season too-and thin Shelah." "But," said Mr Manvers, " you said fire, and now you have counted six; I suppose you count twins as one." mighty small, plaze yer honour." "Granted; but though sixpence is not as good as a shilling, it is better than nothing; better for you to earn sixpence than nothing, my good friend." "Tare an ages, havn't I just tould yer honour it's I "Then you have been idle all that time !" Paddy laughed, scratched his head, and replied, "Well, and suppose you had not so occupied your "Bedad, yer honor, as far as the eatin' and the drinkin' goes, they are two; then I'm all out together, for time, when you wanted potatoes and cabbages, and there's another besides Shelah, the darlint! Yer green meat for the cow," said Mr Manvers, "you would honor must have the wife to reckon the childre, if ye have been obliged to purchase it." want to know their number-there's a houseful of 'em, any way." "Oh," said Mr Manvers, "I only inquired because I wished to ascertain whether you or Mary Tomlins could best afford to waste a day." "Sure, sir, as to that-poor girl! if she went to Castle Connel, havn't I tould yer honour she'd break her day, and lose her eightpence?" Is it buy it, ye mane? Ah, thin, ye're a mighty pleasant gintleman; where would a poor craythur like me get the money?" "Now," said the gentleman, "Paddy Blake, I have you. If you save money, you make money; if you employ your time in doing what would cost money, you save money; and yet it is only your time put out to interest, as it were, that returns you the profits of "And if you go to Castle Connel, and break your its industry. Do you understand me ?” day, what will you lose?" "Loose! nothing, sir." "Oh yes, you will!" "Not a ha'porth, plaze yer honour-sure it's only my time." "And is not your time worth a halfpenny, Paddy Blake?" "Sorra a halfpenny I can get for it these bad times," replied the ready-witted Paddy, "fixing" his coat more firmly on his person, by shrugging his shoulders. "Suppose you finish that fence," said Mr Manvers, "is not that worth something?" "Finish the fence, sir! the ditch you mane. If I don't finish the ditch, that baste of a coult, to say nothing of the pigs, will be all over, and, indeed, I "Oh! I see what yer honour's driving at, fast "Much better than you do, undoubtedly; and it is a PRICE THREE HALFPENCE. the shilling, the sixpence is better than nothing. You can obtain no sale for your time, but you can occupy it yourself, and it behoves you to do so more industriously because of your difficulties. You can bestow additional care on your little half acre, or acre, or whatever it is, and make it produce better. A man with a small plot of land, if he understands the value of time, can, as I have already said, put it out to good Irishman his health, and he is not rack-rented, it is interest. As long as the Almighty leaves the poor marvellous what he can effect in a small way by intime-provided," continued Mr Manvers smiling, "he dustry-patient and steady industry, and attention to does not neglect the days of sunshine, and, leaving his little bit of ground unfenced, go scampering over the country, attending to the business of others, consoling himself when the night comes, and his work is still undone, with the exclamation, Sure it was only my time!" "And, sir, would you never have us do a hand's turn for a neighbour?" "Indeed I would. I have never loved Ireland so well as when I have seen a group of warm-hearted Paddys 66 They're a large family, sir," said Blake, smiling in his turn. "Yes, and a fine one too, for I have seen them assemble by dozens to build a widow's house, to cut a those who need assistance is one of the great and neighbour's turf, to stack a neighbour's corn; to assist guiding principles of Irish life; God bless them for brought tears into the grey laughing eyes of Paddy it!" added the Englishman, with a warmth that Blake; "but that is altogether different from the habit they have of acting upon the saying, 'Sure it's only my time. Why, time-time, with its innumerable uses-time IS THE ONLY FREEHOLD MAN RECEIVES DIRECT FROM THE ALMIGHTY. I would not have you Mr Manvers looked, and felt sorry, for he knew there was a great deal of truth in this, but he also knew, that if the Irish peasant felt his own value, understood and managed his time, and, by so doing, became independent (for a poor man can be as independent as a rich one, if he manages properly), he could stand as erect, and complain of an injury with as great a certainty of redress, as an Englishman. I wish I may live long enough to see the Irish peasant understand his own value; his doing so will make him a better man, and a better subject. "Things are better for you than they used to be," observed Mr Manvers; "your children receive education if you choose to permit it; you are taught, or with your natural quickness you can learn without teaching, an improved system of farming; you can make your bit of ground produce three times as much as it did in former days. Prizes are given by agricultural societies to those who do best; Loan Societies* are established; a poor man can have (to him) the large sum of three or five pounds, and return it by regular weekly instalments of a few pence; but, Paddy, these good things would produce good seven fold, if you knew the value of time, and regulated your employments according to that value. Suppose, now, you go to Castle Connel, you leave that fence in so unprotected a state, that the colt or the pigs will be into the garden before you return." "The o'oman would mind them, now she's aware of it," returned Paddy. "To do which, she must leave her spinning." "Well, then, Jim, he's not at the school this afternoon; he can keep them out as well as me, only he's as wild as a young hawk." "And cannot he do your niece Mary's message?" "God bless yer honour! you've a long head, so you have; think of my not thinking of that; he can do the message as well as me, and betther, for he's lighter footed. And as this is Sathurday, he'll be home from school, and 'll have a half holiday." "His time," said the steadfast Englishman, "is of less value than yours; only such a journey will help to wear out his shoes." Paddy Blake laughed. "Oh! no, God bless you, sir, whinever he's going a walk, he takes off the shoes; that is, whin he has 'em, which he hasn't had this two months back, though he soon will, plaze God, from the school, yer honour. He has a power and all of good marks; they count for something, and he'll have the price of a pair of brogues out of them one of these days." "There!" exclaimed the Englishman, exultingly; "there! it is only his time, properly employed, that can win him not only education, but reward for diligence! Oh, Paddy Blake, I wish I had you in England for twelve months." "I'll be happy to gratify or accommodate yer honour by any means in my power," said Paddy, slyly, while taking off his coat to resume his work. "Very good, Paddy; I should like to show you what a fine family estate TIME is to the whole population. As I told you before, it is the only freehold that man has direct from the Almighty, and ought not to be neglected. They know how to employ the phrase it's only my time !' in a very different manner to what you do. 'How,' I inquired of a tradesman" "A what, plaze yer honour?" interrupted Paddy. "A tradesman. How is it that I left you a poor workman, and find you a prospering dealer?-had you a fortune left you?" "No, sir,' he answered; 'I had only my time." "But sure he had the trade, any way," observed Paddy Blake," and that was something." "Nothing, unless he had applied his time to gain it. You cannot swallow a trade, as you can food; you must take time to learn it. One of my own labourers has managed, by industry, by carefulness, by never misapplying but always properly applying his time, to take a small farm." "Ah, sir!" said poor Paddy, shaking his head, "in England I've heard tell the landlord builds the house, and the tenant gets his bit of ground, be it much or little, in good condition; he is not expected to lay out money on it at all, only keep it as he gets it; and above all, my o'oman heard tell at the big house that there's a Labourers' Friend Society in England to look afther the cottchers. Oh, if the Lord would put it into some kind Christian's heart to do the same thing here, wouldn't it be a fine thing?" "So it would," said the benevolent gentleman; " and I assure you there is a great deal of kind feeling towards the Irish peasantry abroad in England." "You may well say abroad, sir," chimed in Paddy; * I was greatly pleased to see one of those set on foot by Browne Clayton, Esq., near New Ross, and close to the unfortunate barn of Scullabogue. At that time, the autumn of 1838, it worked well, and in that spot was a beautiful type of Christianity-returning good for evil "it's so far abroad that it will be long before it comes "Now, Paddy Blake, do not be ungrateful; it is not "Your condition is improving; I do not mean your individual condition, because as yet you do not manage your time as well as you might, nor have you as much employment as you ought to have, but your national condition is improved, and there is a school for your children, there is." "I know, yer honour; we are better off on the whole than our fathers war; I'll not deny it." "And will be still better; the constant communication between Ireland and England is of great advantage; the prices you obtain for your eggs, butter, and small merchandise, in that way, is much increased; you are more thought of; and if English capitalists can once be convinced, as I am, that they can live amongst you without danger, and you will resolve to make the best use of time and its advantages, why, please God, in a few more years you will be as you ought to be, as the great bulk of the English gentry desire to see you, as remarkable for your prosperity as you are for your ability." Many thanks to yer honour; I'll go to the ditch now and send the boy to Castle Connel; he'll be back in less than no time. And sure now I think of it, all Mary wanted of Katty Donovan (that's the o'oman at Castle Connel) was the loan of a beatle."" "A what?" inquired the Englishman; "a beetle! What can she want of a beetle ?-one would think she could catch them in plenty." "Oh, plaze yer honour, it's a beatle; a thing for "And what of it?" inquired Mr Manvers. thrift and industry go hand in hand, they can remove little time for spinning," she said, "except when the *Gentle, good-natured. leen to card flax to-morrow afther school hours, and sure that would save her own time, for while the little girl was carding, she could be spinning-and tache little Shelah to knit over-hours: supposing she only began with garters, it was something. Sure that would save her time, and blind Abel would tache the twins to make baskets; that would turn a penny: and the two big boys could gather rushes and switches. And more she would do-and-sure-God look down upon his honour! She would strive to hinder any one belonging to her from saying or thinking, 'Sure it's only my time!" THE COLONY OF METTRAY. THE colony of Mettray, or great juvenile penitentiary plary among the reformed criminals. Equal care has The colony will be under the government of a committee of twenty members, chosen from amongst having for its president M. Gasparin, a peer of France, the most eminent of its founders and promoters, and who has distinguished himself by his patronage of committee have decided that before any youth can be many useful and philanthropic institutions. The Ecole des Contre-Maitres, shall be in a perfect state. received from the prisons, the school of monitors, or It has already commenced, and consists of twentyfive youths, of from twelve to eighteen years of age. The building in which they are placed is within fifty yards of the Chateau of the Viscount de Bretignières, who shares with M. Demetz, the original projector, tess, with a zeal worthy of imitation by other members the direction of the establishment; whilst the viscounof the aristocracy, takes delight in the prospect of watching over the domestic comforts of the young colonists. A friend of mine, Dr Harrison Black, who lady, who is still in the prime of life, assured him lately paid a visit to the colony, informs me that this almost with tears in her eyes that she had never tasted of real happiness until she associated herself in the benevolent labours of her husband. To aid in the reformation of society-to turn from the paths of vice the poor children who must otherwise become harmeans of honourable subsistence is an occupation of dened criminals-and to guide them to virtue and the which she may indeed well be proud. I would say to those dames of the aristocracy, who, in spite of the thousand schemes devised by the class to which they belong to command enjoyment, still find a void in CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH JOURNAL. their minds who exchange their fortunes for what the world calls pleasure, and are still not pleased-who pay dear for happiness and are not happy-who have balls and routs to cheer them, and yet are not cheered -to such as these I would pronounce the name of de Bretignières, and say, "Go thou and do likewise." The expense of supporting the colonists at Mettray has been calculated at 160 francs per head per annum, which is much less than the expense to the government of maintaining them in prison, and it is hoped that their labour in the colony will after a short time cover the expense which they may occasion. The sum required from the government or the departments which may send young offenders from their prisons to the colony, is sixty centimes (sixpence) per day, which would, supposing that there are to be 300 colonists, as that is the number on which the estimate of 160 francs per annum is founded, give a profit to the establishment of 59 francs each per annum, to cover building and general expenses. The government has adopted this charge of sixty centimes per day, and has ordered a certain number of young offenders to be sent to the will of course be reduced, colony at that rate; but if the success of the establishment should admit of reduction. The amount demanded from the government by the society was only fifty centimes per day, but this sum was considered by the Minister of the Interior as too small, and he proposed sixty centimes. There is every reason to believe, that if this first experiment should turn out well, the government will propose to the Chambers an annual grant for the parent colony of Mettray, and any others to which it may give rise. At present the government has done nothing more than engaged to send a certain number of persons at the sixty centimes a-day, unless we are to consider the present of a fire-engine to the establishment in the light of an encouragement. It is intended that the colonists of Mettray shall once aweek exercise themselves in the use of this engine, and in the event of any fire occurring within their reach, that they shall perform the service which in large towns is executed by the regular organised force of sapeurs et pompiers. This is a judicious arrangement, for it will have the double effect of giving to these poor outcasts the sentiment of their being of value in society, and will cause them to be looked upon with favour by those whom they may be able to assist. With the view of providing a fund for the young colonists when discharged, it has been decided that about one-third of their entire earnings in the colony shall be put aside as a reserve fund, which is to be paid to them on their leaving; and as within the immediate neighbourhood of Mettray there are two or three manufactories, the proprietors of which have promised to employ them a certain number of hours daily, added to the fact that they will be taught to manufacture in the colony itself the various articles which are required in country districts, such as wheels, agricultural instruments, wine casks, &c., it is hoped that when their time is expired, they will have a sum of money sufficient to place them for some time above the reach of want, even if they should not immediately get into occupations. But the most important encouragement held out to them is the intention of M. de Bretignières to divide his property into small farms, and to let them to the most deserving of the colonists. Deserving young men will thus have an opportunity of establishing themselves; and when the first prejudice arising from their former condition shall be removed, they may marry advantageously in the district in which they are placed. Further, for the obliteration of feelings of disesteem in their own minds, it is intended that a certain number shall be annually removed from their classes into the school of monitors. Thus, in a single year, a certain number of the young criminals must exchange their condition according to their own good conduct, and in the event of other colonies being formed, the number of contre-maîtres that will be required will be so large that there will be no difficulty in providing for the deserving, even in the second and third degree. The society intend strictly to limit the number of colonists to those children who are ordered by the tribunals to detention, as having offended the laws without a knowledge that they had committed a crime. The committee in this respect seems rather to have given way to necessity than reason, for the law has laid down very imperfect rules as to offences committed by youth, with or without discernment. In France, all children under sixteen years of age may be acquitted on the ground of having acted without discernment, but unless claimed by their parents or friends, they are ordered to be detained in prison for any period of time up to the age of twenty, and in the majority of cases they are ordered to remain for the whole time. pline might not have been too much for this lad. The No females are to be received in the colony of Met- quantity of vegetables. Vegetables are also to be Such is a brief sketch of what may be considered a a host of youths who would otherwise most likely go very interesting movement for the melioration of criminal punishment in France, and reclaiming to society on from step to step in villany, and ultimately either expiate their offences on the scaffold, or perish in the criminal jails of the country. tain. FOREIGN AND BRITISH PICTURES. The printed rules of the society state, that the boys We perceive in a late number of the "Art-Union, or who may be entrusted to their charge are to receive Monthly Journal of the Arts," a rather curious statement It appears that from Italy, Holland, Belgium, and moral and religious instruction, and what is called respecting the importation of foreign pictures into Briprimary education, and that they are to be taught some handicraft occupation connected with agriculture. By Germany, as reported in a return from the Custom-house, religious instruction, it is meant that they shall be there were 7050 pictures imported in 1833; 7459, in brought up according to the Roman Catholic faith; 1834; 7591, in 1835; 10,421, in 1836; 6637, in 1837; and and as a proof of this, a Roman Catholic chaplain is 6484, in 1838-making a total of 45,642 pictures in six "We did not (continues the writer of the article) consider it necessary to procure returns of the number of appointed to the establishment. In a country where years, and yielding a duty to government of L.12,108, 4s. freedom of faith has been established by constitutional 7d. the continent; but if we add to the above only a comcharter, and where, although the Roman Catholic religion has been declared to be that of the majority of pictures imported from France and the other nations of the nation, it is not the religion of the state, this ex-paratively small amount of import, we shall arrive at the Now, it is clusiveness in the colony of Mettray is calculated to conclusion, that every year brings into England 8000 detract from the general credit of the institution; but pictures, to be sold and distributed; and which, unevery allowance must be made for the obstacles which questionably, are sold and distributed. may be 200 true pictures, which bring large prices, and the founders have had to encounter. The Roman assumed, as matter of course, that of these 8000, there Catholic clergy in France, although not of the same influential character in society as the clergy of the find their way into the collections of connoisseurs; the established church in England, are still a powerful remaining 7800 are miserable copies, desired only by are chiefly the produce of Flemish youths, copies from body, and it was essential to propitiate their good will persons who seek to furnish their walls, and are for the in an institution of this nature. Moral instruction is present content to supply A WANT upon easy terms. They the great object in the first instance, and the commore than the cost of the canvass-which, by the way, is mittee will take care that such instruction be not old masters, painted by direction of their tutors, and not subjected to A TAX, as it is with us. They are then obscured or perverted by the religious dogmas of any disposed of by these tutors to itinerant dealers, for little church. Under the head of attributes of the different officers fitted into ungainly and ungraceful frames-the older the England-the worthy Hollanders considering them good of the colony, we find the following in the printed better, or, if new, made to seem old-and shipped off to The duty paid at the Custom-house is rules :The personnel will consist of a director, a chaplain, enough for us. merely nominal-one shilling for each picture, and one a schoolmaster, three females (sœurs hospitalieres), an inspector of works, and twelve foremen or chiefs shilling per square foot of canvass. If, therefore, the frames, bring five or six guineas each, the speculator has (contre-maîtres), to three hundred colonists, two serving-Cuyps, da Hooges,' and 'Ruysdaels,' including the men, a gate-keeper, and a physician. made a profitable harvest, and prepares for another trip. 'Canalettis,' and 'Titians,' upon which to exercise the Perhaps he goes to Italy, where studious lads are in abundance; and brings over a cargo of Raphaels,' eloquence of some famous auctioneer. The business of more space than we can at present afford it; we may preparation is easily learned the process of making them aged is the work of a day; but this is a topic requiring hereafter take occasion to illustrate this article, by some explanations concerning the tricks of a trade, notorious for resorting to them. The sœurs will attend to the infirmary and all the domestic details of the establishment. The inspector will superintend the labour of the colonists under the orders of the director, and the contre-maîtres will be held responsible for the conduct of the colonists in their respective divisions. They are to study the character of each, and report upon it to the inspector. Amongst the regulations for the colonists we find it stated, that when first admitted, they are to be kept apart, until, by their good conduct, they shall have shown that they are worthy of joining with those who wear the uniform of the colony. When this proof shall have been given, they are to wear the uniform, and mix with the mass in their studies, labours, and recreations. The food for each colonist is to be daily, on the week days, one pound and a half of bread made of The Gazette des Tribunaux gives a curious instance to two parts wheat flour, to be divided into four equal It is clear, then, that these 7800 pictures displace a proportionate number of works by our own artists. The works entering England, except such as are produced by evil demands a remedy. A very simple one is at hand. Let a large, and not a nominal, duty be levied upon all our own artists abroad; pictures of a genuine character, not add so materially to the cost of a true picture, as to and of a high value, will not be prejudiced by it; it canprevent its transmission hither for sale; but it would altogether exclude from the market the miserable daubs which are sent to this country to pick our pockets, and, worse, to pervert our tastes." The writer proceeds to make some further remarks on the impropriety of admitting foreign pictures into Britain at a low rate of duty, but on this point we entirely differ from him. We say, It is, we think, of the utmost importance to art, that the people of every country should see specimens of the productions of their neighbours; nothing being so effectual in breaking down local and personal prejudices. For example, there can be no doubt that art would be prodigiously improved in Edinburgh by the free exhibition of pictures from England, let alone continental productions, and that England might be similarly benefited by the public show of works of modern foreign artists; while Ireland, in its turn, may be advanced by the importation of pictures from all parts together. In fact, as long as each portion of the United Kingdom jealously excludes pictures from its neighbours, and all together exclude (from public exhibitions) works of respectable foreign painters, art must continue on a narrow and paltry footing, unworthy of the great and opulent people by whom it is expected to be supported. THE WANDERING JEW. THERE is something so striking and impressive in the idea of a human creature being doomed to wander perpetually over the earth, restless and without hope of rest, deprived of the prospect of peace which the grave holds out to all other terrestrial beings, fated to outlive every social tie, and to see generation after generation, of descendants it may be, passing away successively from before his eyes-there is something so striking in the idea of such a lot, that it is no wonder mankind should have had their interest strongly excited by the legend of the Wandering Jew, and that the subject should have been a favourite one with the lovers of poetry and romance. To fanaticism and imposture, the fiction has held out equal temptations. At various, periods since the commencement of the Christian era, individuals have assumed the character of the Wandering Jew, and have succeeded in attracting notice, and gaining credence, to a greater or less extent, from their wondering contemporaries. being then about thirty years of age. He remembers Such is the story of the Wandering Jew, as told by When as in faire Jerusalem Our Saviour Christ did live, The wicked Jews with scoffes and scornes That never till he left his life, Our Saviour could get rest. When they had crowned his head with thornes, In scornful sort they led him forthe His own dear cross he bore himselfe, Thou scest, nowe draweth neare." "I sure will rest, but thou shalt walk, From this hour forward, the ballad continues to say, He hath past through many a foreigne place, And lately in Bohemia, With many a German towne ; All the alms given to him (the ballad further says) he It is extremely probable that this legend had its origin in the words used by Christ to the Apostle Peter, on the latter asking what would become of John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. The answer "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that was, to thee?" In consequence of this expression, we are told, "the saying went abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die." Although it is expressly pointed out, in the remainder of the same passage, that the language of Christ could not properly bear any such meaning, yet the conclusion of "the brethren," strangely modified and misapplied, seems to have been adopted by the primitive Christians, to have become intermingled with their traditions, and finally to have taken the form of the legend of the The conferences with learned men mentioned in the Wandering Jew. This, in its early or original shape, ballad are no fiction of the minstrel's brain, as we learn is detailed by Matthew Paris, monk of St Albans, who from the work called the Turkish Spy, where an acflourished in the thirteenth century. The story was count is given of the impression made on the Parisian current before his day, in England and elsewhere, but sarants by the appearance among them of another he was probably the first who regularly chronicled all Wandering Jew. Though the plan of this work is the particulars. In 1228, the monk informs us, an fictitious, like that of the Citizen of the World for Armenian archbishop came to England, to visit the example, yet the incidents narrated in it are in most shrines and relics preserved in our churches. Being instances real, and such is the case with the following entertained at the monastery of St Albans, this eccle- story of the Wandering Jew, who figured in Paris siastical dignitary was anxiously interrogated as to about the year 1643. the religious condition of his country, and, among city, if he may be called a man, who pretends to have Here is a man come to this other questions, a monk who sat near him inquired lived about these sixteen hundred years. He says of "if he had ever seen or heard of the famous person himself, that he was usher of the divan (the Jews call named Joseph, who was so much talked of, and who had it the court of judgment) in Jerusalem at the time been present at our Lord's crucifixion and conversed when Jesus, the Christian Messias, was condemned with him, and who was still alive in confirmation of the by Pontius Pilate, the Roman president; that his Christian faith." The archbishop answered, that "the name was Michob-Ader; and that, for thrusting Jesus circumstances were all true;" and, afterwards, one of his out of the hall, with these words, Go, why tarriest train, interpreting the archbishop's words, told them thou? the Messias answered him again, I go, but in French that his lord knew the person they spoke of tarry thou till I come,' thereby condemning him to very well, that the latter had dined with his lord but live till the day of judgment." Such was the account a little while before they left the east, that the man given by this personage of himself. He affected to had been Pontius Pilate's porter, by name Cartaphi-heal diseases by a touch, and was deeply venerated lus, who, when they were dragging Jesus out of the both by the common people and others. door of the Judgment Hall, struck him with his fist, (says the Turkish Spy) I had the curiosity to dis"One day on the back, saying, "Go faster, Jesus, go faster; course with him in several languages, and I found why dost thou linger?" Upon which Jesus looked at him master of all those that I could speak. He told him with a frown, and said, "I indeed am going, but me that there was scarce a true history to be found. THOU SHALT TARRY TILL I COME!" Soon after this He was in Rome, he said, when Nero set fire to the event, Cartaphilus, by his own account, was converted city, and saw him stand triumphing on the top of a and baptised by the name of Joseph. He lives for hill to behold its flames. He saw Saladin's return ever, but at the end of every hundred years he falls from his conquest in the East, when he caused his into a severe illness, and ultimately into a fit or trance, shirt to be carried on the top of a spear with this on recovering from which he finds himself in the same proclamation: Saladin, lord of many rich countries, state of youth which he was in when Jesus suffered, shall have no memorial left of all his glories when he dies but only this poor shirt.' He knew Tamerlane the Scythian, and told me that he was so called bocause he was lame. He seemed to pity the insupportable calamity of Bajazet, whom he had seen carried about in a cage by Tamerlane's order. He knew Mahomet's father very well, and had been often in his company at Ormus. He had heard the emperor Vespasian say, when he understood the temple of Solomon was burnt to ashes, he had rather all Rome had been set on fire.' Here the old man fell a-weeping himself, lamenting the ruin of that noble structure, which he described to me as familiarly as if he had seen it but yesterday." This was, the reader will admit, a goodly range of experience for any one to lay claim to. The appearance of this personator of the Wandering Jew corresponded with his assumptions. "By his looks one would take him for a relic of the old world, or one of the long-lived fathers before the flood. To speak modestly, he may pass for the younger brother of Time." Another Wandering Jew, and one of equal learning, seems to have excited the wonder of the people of Venice, in the year 1687. This new one was more remarkable than the others, in as far as he is said to have made no boast of his antiquity, but to have felt hurt, on the contrary, when it was accidentally discovered. "This personage (says the author of Hermippus Redivivus) went by the name of Signor Gualdi. He remained at Venice some months, and three things were remarked in his conduct. The first was, that he had a small collection of fine pictures, which he readily showed to any body that desired it; the next, that he was perfectly versed in all arts and sciences, and spoke on every subject with such readiness and sagacity, as astonished all who heard him; and it was in the third place observed that he never wrote or received any letter; never desired any credit, or made use of bills of exchange, but paid for every thing in ready money, and lived decently, though not in splendour." The story then goes on to tell that a Venetian nobleman, an admirable judge of paintings, was admitted to see Gualdi's collection, and admired them excessively. At the close of the visit the nobleman "cast his eye by chance over the chamber-door, where hung a picture of this stranger (Gualdi). The Venetian looked upon it, and then upon him. This picture was drawn for you, sir,' says he to Signor Gualdi, to which the other made no answer but by a low bow. "You look,' continued the Venetian, like a man of fifty, and yet I know this picture to be of the hand of Titian, who has been dead one hundred and thirty years. How is this possible?' 'It is not easy,' said Signor Gualdi, gravely, 'to know all things that are possible; but there is certainly no crime in my being perceived, by his manner of speaking, that he had like a picture drawn by Titian.' The Venetian easily given the stranger offence, and therefore took his leave." The issue of the affair was, that the Venetian told the matter to all his friends. Curiosity was aroused, and various parties went to call upon Gualdi. They were disappointed, however; the stranger had left the city, and was never seen again. Of course, the world of Venice came to the conclusion that this personage could be none else but the Wandering Jew, or a philosopher who had been fortunate enough to discover the elixir of life. The matter is certainly capable of a much easier solution, however, and Gualdi's own words afford a ready clue to it. It was on this story, Godwin tells us, that he founded his novel of St Leon, a work of great power and beauty. We have already mentioned the existence of numerous works of fiction which have a similar basis. Of all these, the most interesting, perhaps, is the Reverend George Croly's tale of Salathiel. Mrs Norton's poem of the Undying One deserves especial mention, also, among the compositions which this legend has suggested. Those readers who are not wearied by this subject will find other impostors who have personated this imaginary Wanderer, pointed out in Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible. In the mean time, we shall conclude by quoting a little piece upon this subject from the French poet Beranger, using a version which appears in the "Minor Morals" of Dr Bowring. One glass of water, Christian true! Earth revolves, I rest me never--- Ever, ever, Earth revolves---I rest me never. Ere the wild whirlwind cries, "Depart!" |