OR,

Literary and Scientific Mirror.

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No. 221.-VOL. V.

Literature, Criticism, &c.

TALES OF A TRAVELLER.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1824.

We were about to continue the observations we commenced last week upon the merits of Mr. Washington Irving's "Tales of a Traveller," when an unforeseen circumstance occurred which rendered it absolutely necessary for us to leave home for a short time, uncertain of the precise day of our return. Under these circumstances, and prehensive that we may be delayed beyond the time for the publication of the Kaleidoscope, we shall, in lieu of our own remarks, substitute a critique of the Examiner, upon the genius and writings of Mr. Irving.-Edit. Kal.

[FROM THE EXAMINER.]

by Lady Emily at her netting, or that would not be smiled |
upon by that quintessential spirit of the Holy Alliance,
Prince Metternich himself, who smiles on every body, in-
cluding the Countesses of submissive Counts, who know
how to rise in the world as well as English Marquisses.
To some instances of this excess of Chesterfieldian disci-
pline, so singular in a native of the United States, we shall
presently advert, having expressed quite sufficient in a
mere introduction to a brief review of a publication, which,
whatever its merits, forms no very adequate apology for a
world of preface.

PRICE 34d

young man of common powers coming to London with a manuscript in his pocket, which is to make his fortune, sinking finally into a hackney writer of all work, is any thing but new; and possibly nothing can less resemble the origin of the existing class of inferior yet necessary retainers of the press, than Mr. Irving's tale of "The Poor Devil Author," a sketch, by the way, which does the heart of the author no very extraordinary honour, was it even favourable to his head. In point of fact, the general verisimilitude of all this has gone by, and for a very mercantile reason-there is a more general demand in the market. The history of Buckthorne, a supposed mercenary of a higher class, is, in his character of a dependant on the press a perfect nullity; and as to all the rest of him, it is hammered out of the Adventures of the Strolling Player in Goldsmith. There is some pleasantry and now and then a lively and ingenious turn in the narrative; but in other respects it is trite, shadowy, and factitious, from beginning to end.

One of the peculiarities which we formerly noticed in Mr. Irving, is very abundantly made out in his "Tales of a Traveller:" we mean this confirmed spirit of imitation, being in tru h a sort of American mockbird. We shrewdly suspect, that to the appearance and success of of "Highways and Byways," we owe the present production, being a mixture of that notion with the venerable one of the Canterbury Tales. We are first given to understand, that the traveller fell sick at an inn in Mentz, The third part takes us to an Italian inn at Terracina, On the appearance of Bracebridge Hall, we were led and composed these volumes during a period of conva- the entire section being devoted to adventures among the into a somewhat formal expression of our sense of the me- lescence. With little attention to this machinery, for Italian banditti. There is a pleasant portrait of an Engrits and defects of Mr. Irving; and we perceive nothing such we suppose it to be, the first part is entitled Tales lish Milord given here, but still with a due attention to in the present volumes to modify the opinion we then de- of a Nervous Gentleman," a personification of him who the opinion of good company. The depictured Morgue is livered, either as to the extent of his powers and acquire- was supposed to relate the very pleasant story of the only an apparent defect, and so represented as to form a ments, or to that peculiar direction of them, which ensures Stout Gentleman" in Bracebridge Hall. They are re- very distinguishing attribute of rank and high qualities. him so large a portion of fashionable favour. In confor- lated as if told at the hunting dinner of a gentlemanly We have heard that certain literary Americans can assume mity with what we then observed, we learn that the ap- although fox-hunting bachelor of a Baronet, by the dif- this amiable icyness as well as English great men; pospearance of these tales has been anxiously looked for in ferent guests, and are rather incidents or isolated adven- sibly Mr. Irving can say whether we are well informed or the well-bred circles, to whom, after all, that is ever the tures than tales; bearing out our general observation, that not? Whether or no, we can only say, that setting aside most welcome which sails smoothly on the current of their the leading faculty of Mr. Irving is a light and pleasant what nature or nationality may have to do with this haupredominant associations, without startling them by any power of combining reminiscences, for of positive inventeur and apparent insensibility, the solemn coxcombry of fatiguing originality of thought, or offending them with tion there is scarcely an iota. Indeed, our author ex- its assumption is in the highest degree ridiculous. "Grathe intrusion of a sentiment which can disturb the self-hibits a little consciousness on this score, for in his vity being of the essence of imposture," the reserved fool complacency, which is their elysium. In the article to address to the reader, he calls very apprehensively for the melancholy and gentlemanly Master Stephen of which we allude, we not only endeavoured to show that indulgence. Therefore, although several of these Tales fashion,-is always the most amusing as a study, and we Mr. Washington Irving was essentially a writer of this are pleasant in themselves, there is scarcely one of them have frequently seen the fancied eagle look exceedingly class, but that the curiosity is enhanced, and the approba- which is not traceable in its elements if not in its concoc-like an owl, even allowing that the Tenth do fight. tion more pointed, in consequence of so complete a con- tion. "The Adventure of my Uncle," for instance, is With respect to the banditti portraiture in this sketch, we version, to the tone of the best company, of an American in character and locality a loan from the introduction to can say little, or only what we have said before,-that the Republican,-if in sinking the sentiment, Mr. I. has not Quentin Durward. "The German Student" is an avowed strange emotions and wilder passions are not within the dao given up the name. Composition from an Anglo- piece of borrowing, and if we recollect aright, the only grasp of Mr. Irving. The invention in these tales is next to American, exhibiting no small portion of the grace and thing not borrowed is a sneer at German mysticism, nothing; almost every incident being derivable and promenity of the Addisonian school in point of expression, and the destructive fervour of mind and fluctuation of vocative of reminiscences. We may also observe here, ad that without the occasional annoyance of a sentiment principle prevalent at the era of the French revolution. that Mr. Irving might have found out that London Alderalf so bold as even Addison's whiggism, is a curiosity in From the Tale intitled "The Mysterious Picture" in men are improveable, like other people, and that they do he world of fashion; not to mention the insinuating pro- this collection, we expected something forcible in the not amass fortunes with precisely the same greasy uninerties of a studied attention to all the established notions development, but it exceedingly disappoints; and, to tellectuality as in days of yore. The very mechanics in if the individuals composing it, with respect to them- say the truth, Mr. Irving is not a man to deal with the "merry London town," would not in a foreign tour be alves-the adoptions of their self-love, and what they whirlwind of passion-those tempests of mind which strip tray the ignorance of his Alderman Popkins, or of the think they think" in relation to a whereabout so impor- human nature of its surface, and discover the primary Hobbses and the Dobbses, his satellites. Being especially Thus it was our former province to expose a mere anatomy of the soul. To say nothing of length and im- protected by the gentry, and instructed by the clergy, igsort to the picture gallery of any given Knight of the portance of Mrs. Ratcliffe, who did all that a woman can norance so gross is now only to be found among peasantry. re, in order to embody therefrom revived versions of do in this department, Mr. Irving must not pretend to Be it also known to Mr. Irving, that Garrick left off the * Coverleys, the Whimbles, the Honeycombs, the Li- bear up the train. By far the best piece in this commenc-performance of " the London Cuckolds" more than half a rds, &c. a set of personages, who, however amusing in ing portion of the story-telling, is "The Bold Dragoon," century ago, because he thought such general assumptions eir time, have become defunct; or, if not absolutely de- related in the person of an Irish Captain of cavalry. It is very gross. Aldermen are still liable to the latter misforunct, who exhibit in their present avators very different airy and pleasant in the extreme, although, from an author tune, although not quite so much so as courtiers; but it haracteristics. As Madame de Stael observed, in refer- not so entirely on the right side, we might suspect the is no longer polite to assume the fact as of course. May nce to a similar fatiguing recurrence to the personages purity of its morality. not the imputed ignorance of the Municipality of London and manners of the time of Louis XIV., "Astolpho's claim a similar indulgence? Besides-and we are sure anie is the best of all possible mules;-it has but one that we shall here be attended to, as Sir William Curtis salt, it is dead;" a quip by which even the Great Unhas recently visited Italy-some readers may chuse to on may profit, should his evil genius tempt him to the Popkinise that rosy amateur of turtle; and is not Mr. estion of any more jacobite heroism in the style of RedIrving aware, that some of the very highest company enandlet. In respect to Mr. Irving, however, the formdure him? Here is a slip much more serious than want on of a taste and of exclusive associations is not so exof novelty; we trust that Mr. Irving will despatch an exsardinary in itself, as in the individual in which it applanatory gilt-edged note to the father of the city forthars: we cannot exactly say, with. The omission may be serious.

The materiel of the next division, which is entitled "Buckthorne and his Friends," is collected, "sans peur at sans reproche," from the Essays and Citizen of the World of Oliver Goldsmith; the "Literary Dinner," borrowing additionally from the similar dinner described by Smollett in Humphry Clinker, as given by himself to his corps of reviewers. It is pleasant, in reference to a conversing and a carving partner, in the persons of the bookselling firm who give this dinner; but we can only We know the thing is neither rich nor rare, say, that if the lofty Mr. Murray has told Mr. Irving that But wonder how the devil it got there he arranges his guests above and below the salt, in the ecause we are by no means insensible to the graceful po- form of a Russian nobleman's table, at which the visitors of Mr. Irving and to the well-bred ease of his humour; at the lower end drink inferior wine, while those at the only at a loss to account for that absolute submis- head swallow claret, he has satirised himself more than on, to the drawing-room, which he so invariably mani-his said guests, and his Laureats and Crispinusses more Not a sentiment which could possibly be queried than his "poor devils." The often-told story of a vain

re are

Would, however, that the foregoing was the only defect in the Banditti Tales; but without requiring political observations out of place, we cannot help feeling some disgust at a writer, who, in describing such a state of society as these stories treat of, is never led into a single generous remark upon the grossness of the tyranny and oppression, which can reduce an energetic and capable

people into a mental and social bondage so gloomily and always does with buried treasure, particularly when it has
inexorably destructive.
Not a word, however, of this been ill gotten. Be that as it may, Kidd never returned
nature is breathed by our American, in allusion to this to recover his wealth; being shortly after seized, at Bos-
merciless and systematic annihilation of mind and capa- ton, sent out to England, and there hanged for a pirate.
bility in one of the fairest portions of Europe. Advertence About the year 1727, just at the time that earthquakes
is made in another place to the sound of a Prussian drum, were prevalent in New England, and shook many tall
where a Prussian drum had no right to be; and to an sinners down upon their knees, there lived near this place
Austrian band, where any thing but concord was connected a meagre miserly fellow, of the name of Tom Walker.
with its intrusion; but never is our Republican Tory at a He had a wife as miserly as himself; they were so miserly
fault. The ligatures of the Holy Alliance, and the gauzy that they even conspired to cheat each other. Whatever
filaments of the best company, cling to him from one end the woman could lay hands on she hid away; a hen could
of the book to the other.
not cackle but she was on the alert to secure the new-laid
Part the fourth and last consists of a few additional tales egg. Her husband was continually prying about to detect
in the assumed character of Knickerbocker; and, as we her secret hoards, and many and fierce were the conflicts
had occasion to remark in our observations upon Brace that took place about what ought to have been common
bridge Hall, they are uniformly the most spirited of Mr. property. They lived in a forlorn-looking house that
Irving's inventions, the locality and scenery being at stood alone, and had an air of starvation. A few strag.
first-hand. Spirit-moving they can scarcely be entitled, gling savin trees, emblems of sterility, grew near it; no
but the humour is pleasant, and the incident and associa-smoke ever curled from its chimney; no traveller stopped
tion less hacknied.* The story of Wolfat Weber, in re- at its door. A miserable horse, whose ribs were as articu-
ference to force and originality, is the best in the whole late as the bars of a gridiron, stalked about a field where
a thin carpet of moss, scarcely covering the ragged beds
of pudding-stone, tantalized and balked his hunger ; and
sometimes he would lean his head over the fences, look
piteously at the passer-by, and seem to petition deliverance
from this land of famine.

collection.

To conclude, Mr. Irving is a pleasant, imitative writer, whose chief merit lies in a light and evanescent vein of humour on the surface, a gentle ripple of the mind, and a highly polished style. The latter, indeed, is pro. bably his principal distinction, and, we may almost assert, typical of the mind which it conveys, always smooth and elegant, without the exhibition of any of those distinctive forms of expression and peculiar collocations with which originality of conception will invariably clothe itself. The man of ardent imagination and vigorous conception uniformly arrays his thoughts in a language of his own; the style of Mr. Irving is a highly-wrought general style. Dr. Johnson has done harm as a critic in more than one respect; possibly he did Mr. Irving no vast good when he observed, that he who would do this thing without that, and that thing without the other, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison."

THE AMERICAN USURER.

One day that Tom Walker had been to a distant part of the neighbourhood, he took what he considered a short cut homewards through the swamp. Like most short cuts, it was an ill-chosen route. The swamp was thickly grown with great gloomy pines and hemlocks, some of them ninety feet high, which made it dark at noon-day, and a retreat for all the owls of the neighbourhood. It was full of pits and quagmires, partly covered with weeds and mosses, where the green surface often betrays the traveller into a gulf of black smothering mud; there were also dark and stagnant pools, the abodes of the tad. pole, the bull-frog, and the water-snake; where the trunks of pines and hemlocks lay half drowned, half rotten, looking like alligators sleeping in the mire. Tom had long been picking his way cautiously through this treacherous forest; stepping from tuft to tuft of A few miles from Boston, in Massachusetts, there is a rushes and roots, which afforded precarious foot-holds deep inlet winding several miles into the interior of the among deep sloughs, or pacing carefully like a cat, along country from Charles Bay, and terminating in a thickly the trunks of trees; startled now and then by the sudden wooded swamp or morass. On one side of this inlet is a screaming of the bittern, or the quacking of a wild duck, beautiful dark grove: on the opposite side the land rises rising on the wing from some solitary pool. At length abruptly from the water's edge into a high ridge, on which he arrived at a piece of firm ground, which ran out like a grew a few scattered oaks of great age and immense size. peninsula into the deep bosom of the swamp. It had been Under one of these gigantic trees, according to old stories, one of the strong holds of the Indians during their wars there was a great amount of treasure buried by Kidd the with the first colonists. Here they had thrown up a kind The inlet allowed a facility to bring the money of fort, which they had looked upon as almost impregnasecretly, and at night to the very foot of the hill; the ele-ble, and had used as a place of refuge for their squws vation of the place permitted a good look out to be kept and children. Nothing remained of the old Indian fort that no one was at hand; while the remarkable trees but a few embankments, gradually sinking to the level of formed good land-marks by which the place might easily the surrounding earth, and already overgrown in part by be found again. The old stories add, moreover, that the oaks and other forest trees, the foliage of which formed a devil presided at the hiding of the money, and took it contrast to the dark pines and hemlocks of the swamp. under his guardianship; but this, it is well known, he It was late in the dusk of evening when Tom Walker reached the old fort, and he paused therefore awhile to rest himself. Any one but he would have felt unwilling to linger in this lonely melancholy place, for the common people had a bad opinion of it, from the stories handed serted that the savages held incantations here, and made down from the time of the Indian wars; when it was assacrifices to the evil spirits.

pirate.

An ingenious correspondent accuses Mr. Irving of something more than an imitative spirit; for he assures us that

the following passage in Knickerbocker is every word copied from Franklin; and he asks if an author who can be proved guilty of so direct a plagiarism in one instance, is likely to confine himself to one? It is a description of the peregina tion and mode of a New Englander or Yankee, and is to be coming to the years of manhood, is to settle himself in the world, which means nothing more than to begin his ram

found in Knickerbocker, page 131:-"His first thoughts, on

bles. To this end he takes unto himself for a wife some

dashing country heiress; that is to say, a buxom rosy-cheeked | wench, passing rich in red ribbands, glass beads, and mock tortoise-shell combs, with a white gown and morocco shoes for Sunday; and deeply skilled in the mystery of making apple sweat meats, long sauce, and pumpkin pie. Having thus provided himself like a true pedlar with a heavy knap. sack, wherewith to regale his shoulders through the journey of life, he literally sets out on the peregrination. His whole family, household furniture, and farming utensils, are hoisted into a covered cart; his own and his wife's wardrobe packed up in a firkin; which done, he shoulders his axe, takes staff in his band, whistles "Yankee Doodle," trudges off to the woods, as confident of the protection of Providence, and relying as cheerfully upon his own resources as did ever a patriarch of yore, when he journeyed into a strange country of the Gentiles. Having buried himself in the wilderness, he builds himself a log-hut, clears away a corn-field and potatopatch; and Providence smiling upon his labours, is soon surrounded with a snug farm, and some half-a-score of flaxenheaded urchins, who by their size seem to have sprung all at once out of the earth, like a crop of toad-stools."

with any fears of the kind. He reposed himself for some
Tom Walker, however, was not a man to be troubled
time the trunk of a fallen hemlock, listening to the
boding cry of the tree-toad, and delving with his staff into
a mound of black mould at his feet. As he turned up the
soil unconsciously, his staff struck against something hard.
He raked it out of the vegetable mould, and lo! a cloven
skull, with an Indian toniahawk buried deep in it, lay be
fore him. The rust on the weapon showed the time that
had elapsed since the death-blow had been given. It was
a dreary meinento of the fierce struggle that had taken
place in this last foot-hold of the Indian warriors.

"Hum!" said Tom Walker, as he gave the skull a
kick to shake the dirt from it. "Let that skull alone,"
said a gruff voice. Tom lifted up his eyes, and beheld a
great black man seated directly opposite him, on the stump
of a tre. He was exceedingly surprised, having neither
heard nor seen any one approach; and he was still more
perplexed on observing, as well as the gathering gloom
would permit, that the stranger was neither negro nor
Indian. It is true he was dressed in a rude half Indian
garb, and had a red belt or sash swathed round his body;
but his face was neither black nor copper-colour, but
swarthy and dingy, and begrimed with soot, as if he had
been accustomed to toil among fires and forges. He had
a shock of coarse black hair, that stood out from his head

|

in all directions; and an axe on his shoulder. He scowled
for a montent at Tom with a pair of great red eyes.
"What are you doing on my grounds?" said the black
man, with a hoarse growling voice." Your grounds,"
said Tom with a sneer, no more your grounds than
mine; they belong to Deacon Peabody." Deacon Pea
body be dd," said the stranger, as I flatter myself
he will be, if he does not look more to his own sins and
less to those of his neighbours. Look yonder, and so
how Deacon Peabody is faring."

Tom looked in the direction that the stranger pointed, and beheld one of the great trees, fair and flourishing with out, but rotten at the core, and saw that it had been nearly hewn through, so that the first high wind was likely to blow it down. On the bark of the tree was scored the name of Deacon Peabody, an eminent man, who had waxed wealthy by driving shrewd bargains with the In dians. He now looked round, and found most of the tall trees marked with the name of some great man of the colony, and all more or less scored by the axe. The one on which he had been seated, and which had evidently just been hewn down, bore the name of Crownishield; and he recollected a mighty rich man of that name, who made a vulgar display of wealth, which it was whispered he had acquired by buccaneering.

"He's just ready for burning!" said the black man, with a growl of triumph, "You see I am likely to have a good stock of firewood for winter." But what right have you," said Tom, "to cut down Deacon Peabody's timber?" The right of a prior claim," said the other. • This woodland belonged to me long before any of your white-faced race put a foot upon the soil.". "And pray who are you, if I may be so bold ?" said Tom.-“O, I go by various names. I am the wild huntsman in some countries, the black miner in others. In this neighbour hood I am known by the name of the black woodsman. I am he to whom the red men consecrated this spot, and in honour of whom they now and then roasted a whre man, by way of sweet-smelling sacrifice. Since the red men have been exterminated by you white savages. I amuse myself by presiding at the persecutions of Quakers and Anabaptists; I am the great patron and prompter slave dealers, and the grand master of the Salem witches

"The upshot of all which is, that, if I mistake not," said Tom, sturdily, "you are he commonly called oid Scratch."-"The same, at your service," replied the black man, with a half-civil nod.

a

Such was the opening of this interview, according to the old story; though it has almost too familiar an air to be credited. One would think, that to meet with such a sir gular personage, in this wild, lonely place, would have shaken any man's nerves; but Tom was a hard-minded fellow, not easily daunted; and he had lived so long wa termagant wife, that he did not even fear the devil. is said, that after this commencement they had a long and earnest conversation together, as Tom returned homeware The black man told him of great sums of money w had been buried by Kidd the pirate, under the cakt on the high ridge, not far from the morass. All the were under his command, and protected by his power, that none could find them but such as propitiated his favo These he offered to place within Tom Walker's react having conceived an especial kindness for him; but the conditions were may easily be surmised, though T were to be had only on certain conditions. What the never disclosed them publicly. They must have bee very hard, for he required time to think of them, and, D was not a man to stick at trifles where money was in ves There was one condition which need not be mentic being generally understood in all cases where the cr grants favours; but there were others about which, the of less importance, he was inflexibly obstinate, Hea sisted that the money found through his means she euployed in his service. He proposed therefore that Tim should employ it in the black traffic; that is to say, us he should fit out a slave ship. This, however, Tou re lutely refused: he was bad enough in all conscience, t the devil himself could not tempt him to turn slave-deale

Finding Tom so squeamish on this point, he did insist upon it; but proposed instead that he should ta usurer; the devil being extremely anxious for usurer looking upon them as his peculiar people. To tist objections were made, for it was just to Tom's taste.

"You shall open a broker's shop in Boston, ne month," said the black man. I'll do it to-morrow, you wish," said Tom Walker." You shall lend met at two per cent. a month." Egad, I'll charge tour replied Tom Walker." You shall extort bonds, forecie mortgages, drive the merchant to bankruptcy-"drive him to the d-1," cried Tom Walker, eagerly "You are the usurer for my money!" said the black with delight. When will you want the rhino?"

..

4

T

gain.

Thus Tom was the universal friend of the needy, and he acted like a "friend in need;" that is to say, he always exacted pay and good security. In proportion to the distress of the applicant was the hardness of his terms. He accumulated bonds and mortgages, gradually squeezed his customers closer and closer, and sent them at length dry as a sponge from his door.

In this way he made money hand over hand, became a rich and mighty man, and exalted his cocked hat upon 'Change. He built himself, as usual, a vast house of ostentation, but left the greater part of it unfinished and unfurnished, out of parsimony. He even set up a carriage in the fullness of his vain-glory, though he nearly starved the horses which drew it; and as the ungreased wheels groaned and screeched on the axletrees, you would have thought you heard the souls of the poor debtors he was squeezing.

The Traveller.

A SUTTEE.

[From the Scotsman.]

The following very interesting letter was sent by an
Edinburgh gentleman now in India, to his friend in this
country, with a request that it might be published in our
journal, of which the gentleman who wrote the letter is a
reader. We feel much honoured by the request, and shall
be most happy to lend the aid of our press and our pen to
any measure calculated to abolish the horrid practice al-
luded to by our intelligent correspondent.
"Poonah, October 1, 1823.

very night."-"Done!" said the devil.-"Done" said "The d-l take me," said he, "if I have made a far- | T, that gentleman, assisted by Mr. S―, immedi Tom Walker. So they shook hands and struck the bar- thing." dtely carried, or rather dragged her into the stream, in Just then there were three loud knocks at the street which act the latter gentleman suffered a little, by incauA few days' time saw Tom Walker seated behind his door. He stepped out to see who was there. The black tiously laying hold of her burning garments. An attempt desk in a counting-house in Boston. His reputation for man whished him like a child into the saddle, gave the was now made by the officiating Bramins to carry back ready-moneyed man, who would lend money out for a horse a lash, and away he gallopped, with Tom on his their victim to the blazing pile, which was resisted by the good consideration, soon spread abroad. Every body re-back, in the midst of the thunder storm. When the clerks European gentlemen present; and one of their number members the time of Governor Belcher, when money was turned to look for the black man, he had disappeared. was despatched to acquaint the magistrate of the woman's particularly scarce. It was a time of paper credit. The Tom Walker never returned to foreclose the mortgage. escape, and learn his pleasure regarding her: but, before country had been deluged with Government bills; the The good people of Boston shook their heads and the messenger returned with instructions from the civil aufamous Land Bank had been established; there had been shrugged their shoulders; but had been so much accus-thority, the Bramins had succeeded in persuading the ina rage for speculating; the people had run mad with tomed to witches and goblins, and tricks of the devil in fatuated wretch once more to approach the fatal pile; and, schemes for new settlements for building cities in the all kind of shapes, from the first settlement of the colony, as she declared, on being asked by those present, that it wilderness; land-jobbers went about with maps of grants that they were not so much horror-struck as might have was her own free will and desire to re-ascend the burning and townships, and El Dorados, lying nobody knew where, been expected. Trustees were appointed to take charge pile, they very properly ceased to interfere, fearful of giv but which every body was ready to purchase. In a word, of Tom's effects. There was nothing, however, to admi-ing offence to the prejudices of the native population on the great speculating fever which broke out now and then nister upon. On searching his coffers, all his bonds and the one hand, or to the civil authorities on the other The in the country had raged to an alarmino degree, and every mortgages were found reduced to cinders. In place of woman declined, however, for some time, to re-ascend the by was dreaming of making sudden fortunes from gold and silver, his iron chest was filled with chips and fearful pile, when three of the attending priests suddenly nothing. As usual, the fever had subsided; the dream shavings; two skeletons lay in his stable instead of his lifted her up and threw her into the fire, at this time burnhad gone off, and the imaginary fortunes with it. The half-starved horses; and the very next day his great house ing with great fury. From this dreadful situation the patients were left in dolefu' plight, and the whole country took fire, and was burnt to the ground. poor sufferer instantly attempted to escape, but the merci. resounded with the consequent cry of "hard times." At ful Bramin priests were at hand to prevent this, if possible, this propitious period of public distress did Tom Walker by throwing large pieces of wood at their miserable victim, set up as an usurer in Boston. His door was seen thronged with the intention, no doubt, of preventing her again disby customers. The needy and the adventurous, the gracing herself by escape, more than from any desire of gambling speculator--the dreaming land-jobber--the putting a speedy termination to her sufferings: but it was thriftless tradesman-the merchant with cracked credit; impossible for any man possessing the smallest pretension in short, every one driven to raise money by desperate to feeling, to stand by and quietly witness such cruelty. means and desperate sacrifices, hurried to Tom Walker. The Europeans, therefore, again interfered, when the woman speedily made her escape a second time from the fire, and ran directly into the river, without any assistance whatever. I have forborne, hitherto, from all remarks on the motives which can influence men to commit such horrid deeds: I simply state the facts to which I was an eyewitness, leaving it to those who have the power, and who, I am well assured, also possess the inclination to introduce such wholesome regulations on those occasions as will, in future, prevent such repeated acts of cruelty and barbarity "DEAR SIR,-During a residence in India of nearly as I this day witnessed; and, finally, the murder of an untwenty years, I yesterday, for the first time, went to wit-willing victim. But to return to my story (for I regret to ness a suttee. The victim chosen for this cruel and un- say the villany of the scene did not close here) no soot er godly exhibition was the widow of a Bramin, who died in had the unfortunate woman entered the water than she was Southern Conkan a few days ago. Twelve o'clock at noon followed by three of the officiating priests, who were diswas the hour appointed by the priests for the ceremony to tinctly given to understand that they must desist from all commence, but the sun had descended more than three farther proceeding in the matter, as nothing farther would hours in the western sky ere the party arrived at the fatal be tolerated until the arrival of the magistrate. Not doubtAs Tom waxed old, however, he grew thoughtful. spot. She at last made her appearance, preceded by two ing their compliance with this injunction, these men were Having secured the good things of this world, he began led horses, handsomely caparisoned, and attended by ten allowed to remain with the woman in the river; but, iro to feel anxious about those of the next. He thought with or twelve Bramins, and about the same number of women, sooner had the gentlemen turned their backs, anxiously regret on the bargain he had made with his black friend, with drums, music, &c. common on those occasions, and looking out for the arrival of authority to put a stop to such and set his wits to work to cheat him out of his conditions. chiefly intended to drown the cries of the sufferer. A few diabolical proceedings, than the same three men attempted He became, therefore, all of a sudden, a violent church- idle spectators accompanied the procession, and but a very to drown the suffering wretch, by forcibly holding her goer. He prayed loudly and strenuously, as if heaven few, considering the scene of action lay in the immediate head under water; and I must allow that death, at this were to be taken by force of lungs. Indeed, one might vicinity of the city, and close to the old Palace; a proof moment, would have been a happy relief to the sufferer. always tell when he had sinned most during the week, by diabolical rites. At first sight of the woman, I was im- Mr. M, who continued to support her in the water to you, if any were wanting, of the frequency of these From this situation, however, she was speedily rescued by the clamour of his Sunday devotions. The quiet Christians, who had been modestly and stedfastly travelling pressed, among others, with the idea that she was more until the arrival of the long-looked-for deliverance in the Zionward, were struck with self-reproach at seeing them- were gone through, which in such cases precede the act of and, to the great joy of his countrymen, he immediately or less intoxicated; but before the various ceremonies person of Mr.. The collector himself soon followed; selves so suddenly outstripped in their career by this new-burning, these doubts had given place to a perfect convic- ordered the principal performers in this tragical scene into made convert. Tom was as rigid in religious as in money tion in my mind that she was in her sober senses, and confinement, and the chief actor, or rather sufferer, to be matters; he was a stern supervisor and censurer of his fully aware of the dreadful act she was about to perform. conveyed to one of the native hospitals. I regret to add, beighbours, and seemed to think every sin entered up to Of this I am the more satisfied from the question being the poor woman died about two o'clock this afternoon, their account became a credit on his own side of the page. often asked her by the European gentlemen present, forsaken by all her own relations and friends, as an outHe even talked of the expediency of reviving the persecu- Whether it was her own wish and inclination to burn cast unworthy creature. The fate of the other performers tion of Quakers and Anabaptists. In a word, Tom's zeal herself?" to which she always returned the same answer, I will not anticipate, as I understand they are to be brought became as notorious as his riches. Still, in spite of all this strenuous attention to forms, that she knew what she was doing, and that it was her to trial for murder. They cannot, however, either with Tom had a lurking dread that the devil, after all, would own pleasure to burn.' Having offered up the more harm-justice or propriety, be capitally punished, it being a cushave his due. That he might not be taken unawares. that was to consume her was afterwards to be lighted, and ment, and sanctioned, they say, and perhaps believe, by less sacrifice of incense on a small fire from which the pile tom of long standing, authorized by the native governtherefore, it is said he always carried a small bible in his having parted with all her golden ornaments to those in Divine authority. But the Hindoo, scriptures only admit Coat pocket. He had also a great folio bible on his count-attendance, she very deliberately, and without shedding a of straw being used on such occasions, and direct that the ing-house desk, and would frequently be found reading it tear, took a last farewell of all she held dear on earth, woman herself should set fire to the pile with her own when people called on business. On such occasions he would lay his green spectacles in the book to mark the ascended the pile, and there laid herself down, with the hand. It would be no very great interference with the replace, while he turned round to drive some usurious bar- ashes of her deceased husband tied round her neck. The ligious prejudices of the natives (if I am correct in my 15entrance was then closed up with dry straw, and the sertion) were the Government in India to promulgate reOn one hot afternoon in the dog-days, just as a terrible terial, and immediately set fire to by the officiating And this, in my opinion, may be done with safety, if cauwhole pile surrounded with the same combustible ma-gulations founded on that law, be it Divine or human. black thunder-gust was coming up, Tom sat in his count-priests. I had placed myself directly opposite to the tiously introduced, and temperately acted upon; when, I ng-house, in his white linen cap and India-silk morning- entrance to the pile, and could distinctly observe the will venture to predict, that you will hear no more f gown. He was on the point of foreclosing a mortgage, unfortunate woman struggling to make her escape from widows burning themselves, either with the dead bodies or y which he would complete the ruin of an unlucky land the flames, which now completely enveloped her; this did with the ashes of their lords. Speculator, for whom he had professed the greatest friend- not pass unnoticed by the attending Bramins, who inship. The poor land-jobber begged him to grant a few stantly began to knock down the canopy, which con"J.T." months' indulgence. Tom had grown testy and irritated, tained nearly as much wood as the pile itself, and would and refused another day. "My family will be ruined and brought upon the pa- had it fallen on her, as they intended it should. All most effectually have secured their victim in the fire, rish," said the land-jobber." Charity begins at home," this while, no one, excepting the officiating priests, replied Tom: "I must take care of myself in these hard interfered; but when the miserable sufferer did make times."-"You have made so much money out of me!" her escape from the flames, and, in running towards the said the speculator. Tom lost his patience and his pity. river, either fell or threw himself at the feet of Major

gain.

"I remain, &c.

the same gentleman says, " Mr. Buxton, I see, has taken In a subsequent letter from Poonah, dated 3d January, approve more of Mr. Hume's suggestions than of Buxton's up the matter in the House of Commons; and, though I am, nevertheless, inclined to think that good may arise from Mr. Buxton's persevering in the matter. It may induce the Court of Directors, or the Board of Control, to sanction some orders being sent out here on the subject."

I

TO THE EDITOR. SIR,-I find that the engraving intended to accompany this communication will not be ready in time for this week's Kaleidoscope; and, as I wish the series to be uninterrupted, you will oblige me by the insertion of the follow"For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to de-ing, which may be described without the aid of a vignette. part and to be with Christ, which is far better.-Phil. 1. 23.

P. S. At the request of our correspondent we have ap pended a second title to his department, which, in future, will be "Gymnasia and Miscellaneous Recreations." The motive for adopting this second title is, that our correspondent may have more latitude allowed in the tricks he may have to describe, than if he were limited to gymnastic exploits, which imply feats of strength or activity; whereas there are many excellent recreations which require address and neatness, rather than muscular exertion. Our correspondent intends, occasionally, to vary his collection with some of these, which may also serve to amuse our fair readers, for whom the gymnastic exploits are generally but ill adapted.