The crash of music, echoing loud Its summons to th' assembled crowd; EXECUTION OF THOMAS WENTWORTH, EARL OF STRAFFORD, LORD-LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND, IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. THE Scaffold was erected on Tower-hill; the earl, when ready, left his chamber; Archbishop Laud', as he had requested, was at his window to give him his blessing as he passed; the feeble old man raised his hands, but was unable to speak, and fell back into the arms of his attendants. The earl moved on; the lieutenant desired him to take coach at the gate, lest the mob should tear him to pieces; he replied that it was equal to him, whether he died by the axe or by their fury. The multitudes extended far as the eye could reach; the earl took off his hat several times and saluted them; not a word of insult was heard; "his step and air," says Rushworth, 66 were 1 Who soon afterwards followed his friend to execution. those of a general marching at the head of an army to breathe victory, rather than death." From the scaffold he addressed the people, assuring them that he had always had the welfare of his country at heart; it augured ill for their happiness, he told them, to write the commencement of a reformation. in letters of blood; he assured them that he had never been against parliaments, regarding them as the best means under GOD to make the king and his people happy. He turned to take leave of his friends, and seeing his brother weeping, he gently reproached him. "Think," said he, that you are now accompanying me the fourth time to my marriage-bed. That block shall be my pillow, and here I shall rest from all my labours.' He then began to undress, saying, "I do as cheerfully put off my doublet at this time as ever I did when I went to bed." He knelt and prayed, Archbishop Usher, and other clergymen, kneeling with him. He laid down his head to try the block; then telling the executioner that he would stretch forth his hands as a sign when he was to strike, he laid it finally down, and giving the signal, it was severed at a single blow. CHRISTIAN UNITY. THOU who didst die for all and each, Still on thy little band impress, Thy last and dying care was this, 66 Thy members' unity!" Count Zinzendorff, (translated by Miss Cox.) ENGLISH MANUFACTURING LABOURERS. (From "KOHL'S ENGLAND AND WALES.") It is well for us to hear what foreigners say against us. Though the following extract is, we trust, not entirely true, we fear that there is some truth in it. "It is a strange thing that all over the world, in America and in Europe, there should exist such a very unfavourable opinion of English labourers, and that their undeniable skill and industry, in their particular vocations, should be unable to remove the universal impression of their immorality, lawlessness, ignorance, and brutality. Even where it is found necessary to employ them, this is always done reluctantly and fearfully. I was in Austria shortly after the English labourers had been dismissed from the railroads making there, because their turbulence, brutality, and drunkenness, occasioned all kinds of riots and accidents. I went to Saxony, and found that there, too, all the English labourers had been turned away, because their conduct was found quite insufferable. I went to Frankfort, and met a papier maché manufacturer, who told me, with rueful shakings of the head, that he was indeed compelled to employ English labourers in some parts of his business, because they understood their business so well, and were so remarkably skilful in it, but that he longed to get rid of them, because they were the most troublesome, ignorant, and unmanageable of his work-people. I went to Belgium, and read an interesting report of an English Poor Law Commission, in which the evidence of a great manufacturer of Philadelphia, concerning English labourers, was given at full length. This gentleman testified that onefifth of the work-people, in the American factories, were foreigners, most of them Englishmen, whom, however, the manufacturers employed very unwillingly, on account of their being so dissipated and discontented.' They were, besides, universally dis liked, because they were so given to drunkenness. The American labourers are always found better educated, more intelligent, and less given to sensual indulgences. No strikes or combinations of workmen are ever known among the American labourers, as among the English, who are always combining to force higher wages from their masters. The superiority of the American labourers is chiefly attributed to their superiority of education. The American masters are always very particular in having the children of their labourers sent regularly to school. "I came to England, and read further reports on the subject, all equally confirmatory of these statements. A Swiss manufacturer of Zurich, testified that he employed in his factory from six to eight hundred work-people of all nations, Swiss, Saxons, Bavarians, French, Danes, Norwegians, Poles, Hungarians, Prussians, Dutch, Scotch, and English, and that these last were 'the most disorderly, debauched, unruly, and least respectable and trustworthy of any nation whatsoever whom we have employed.' This gentleman further stated, that in saying this he spoke the feelings of all the continental manufacturers with whom he was acquainted, more particularly that of the English manufacturers, settled in different parts of Europe. "He found also that English labourers of the highest class, as to skill and pecuniary remuneration, generally lived worse, and indulged themselves in lower ways than those of a far inferior rank of other nations. The townspeople of Zurich dread the English workmen as inmates, on account of their unruly and disorderly behaviour. The English workman of the first class will often spend half his nights in the wine-shop, will let his children grow up in all kinds of ignorance and brutality, and will live in the midst of dirt and disorder; while a German or Swiss labourer, of the very same class, reads, studies nature, cultivates music, has a clean and tidy household, and gives his children an excellent education. This report, while it affords a startling testimony to the ignorance and brutality of the uneducated English, is also a proof, let it never be forgotten, of the admirable candour and generosity of the nation. In no other European country would such a statement have been patiently heard, much less printed and published. This gentleman returned shortly afterwards to Zurich, with an English lady whom he had married in England. The work-people of his establishment hastened to welcome them, to present their master with a little congratulatory address, and his wife with various interesting little specimens of national industry, as nuptial presents; all, except the English labourers, who remained sullen spectators of the general rejoicing, and gave no signs whatever of cordiality and satisfaction! "Thus unanimous is the voice of the world concerning the English manufacturing labourers." EXTRACT FROM A VILLAGE SERMON ON THE LITURGY. KNEELING. MAKING THE RESPONSES. If we reverence God's name, we shall think every thing of importance that affects His service. Our Liturgy is not only most scriptural, most solemn and beautiful in language, but it is also admirably fitted for the worship of a congregation, having great life and variety in its different portions, if it is properly performed. It has its solemn introduction by the Clergyman, its solemn Confession of sin made by all, the Clergyman leading his flock; the solemn Absolution pronounced by the Priest in the name of CHRIST, the Great Head and High Priest of the Church, who left to His Ministers the power of binding and loosing; then prayer and songs of praise, and readings of God's Word mingled together, |