was given on account of its prevalence in Palestine, and its ancient one ornithogalum,' literally signifies bird's milk. When to this we add that its blossoms, of a greenish white, resemble at a little distance the dung of birds, the conjecture of Linnæus becomes still more probable, and a curious elucidation appears, to be afforded of an obscure passage of Scripture.

Enough has been said to establish the claim of botany to the favour of the elegant and the wise, as a pursuit both healthful and innocent, profitable and pleasant. Linnæus, to whom every botanist must say, as Dante said to Virgil, "Tu duca, tu Signor, e tu Maestro," is intelligible in his original garb to but few ladies; but there are many excellent works in our own language which will lead them farther than the generality will choose to follow.

Eve, as described by the hand of Milton, "walked forth among her fruit and flowers, to visit how they prospered;" and we cannot imagine an employment better adapted to Paradise, or recommend a more graceful and pleasing occupation to Eve's fair daughters.

The good and sagacious Owen Feltham has said, that "to have a mind which delights in innocent employment, is daily rising to content and blessedness." Those, therefore, who have opened to us new sources of rational amusement, and like Linnæus, Ray, Tournefort, and Withering, have been our pioneers on the road of science, deserve our grateful acknowledgments and affectionate remembrance. In the absence of more valuable gifts, let us pay them with appropriate offerings:

"Manibus date lilia plenis, Purpureos spargam flores."

TO A FRIEND ON HER BIRTH-DAY.
This is the day sacred to love, and mirth,
And tender wishes; this the favour'd day,
Sweet superstition! when the artless lay
Is welcomed, and the token little worth,
And the fond vows that live and have their birth
In the affectionate heart. A holiday
It is, for good and gentle, fair and gay-
My lovely Jane, it gave thee to the earth:
And thou hast trodden life's paths with wise glee,
Maid of the laughing eye! Were I the queen

Of that so famous land of Faery,

Where quaintest spirits weave their spells unseen,
No better benison I'd seek for thee

Than to be happy still as thou hast been.

M.

THE CENSUS.

WE have received divers epistles respecting the Census, which Parliament has so judiciously ordered to be taken for the

benefit of the infant science of Political Economy. All of them contain severe strictures upon that measure, for what reason it was at first difficult to conjecture: one of them inquired if we did not think the proceeding impious, and whether Parliament, being actuated by the same motive which prompted King David on a similar occasion, would not draw down the same punishment upon this nation which was inflicted upon the Israelités? Another solicited us to inform the writer, whether we did not believe that Government had availed itself of a state of peace to try if the country could not afford to make an addition to the numbers of the militia. Some of these letters, if published, would infallibly put us into the hands of the Attorney-general; for they charge our rulers with nullifying Magna Charta, and dragging forth and violating family secrets and social confidence. Others, abusing Mr. Vansittart, without mercy, lay all to the score of taxation, and breathe downright sedition. We therefore recommend the Home Department to be active; to double the centinels in the park; reinforce the police offices; and put the City light-horse on the alert. We should not think this recommendation complete, if we did not hint at a farther and most important precaution, that all routes or assemblies at houses of persons of either sex, living in a state of "single blessedness," whether high or low-whether at Saint Giles's or Saint James's, should be narrowly watched by the Bow-street patroles, so that suspected characters might be arrested, in case of alarm, at a moment's notice. Having thus done our duty as good citizens, and handed over the inflammatory letters to the proper authorities, we shall enable our readers to judge from what quarter we feel an apprehension of danger, by the sequel. The real cause of discontent, among the parties to whom we allude, seems to be the forced disclosure of certain personal secrets, which are generally deemed sacred and inviolable among particular classes, and the knowledge of which, being made general, must operate greatly to wound l'amour propre of the classes in question. It is contended that a clause should have been inserted in the Census-act, to prevent such disclosures where they might be injurious to individuals, upon due proof being offered thereof in the shape of affidavit, or otherwise. The following extract from a communication relative to the grievance complained of, will throw some light on the business, and put our readers in the possession of facts. The writer's name is Ebenezer Wigginbottom, parish-clerk, school-master, and shopkeeper, of Bungay in Suffolk, where he has been lately employed in making the Population-returns. We number Mr. Wigginbottom among our correspondents, in the department of deaths and marriages; and the good man generally accompanies his monthly communications with gratuitous observations on

the weather, the state of the crops, feats of bell-ringing in his neighbourhood, or Bungay tittle-tattle.

After some irrelevant matter, he writes :-" You will be surprised to hear that our peaceable place is in an uproar, and I am in a sad state of turmoil from being the unhappy cause. By obeying the orders of Government, I am embroiled among some of my oldest friends, past all redemption. You must understand I have lately been much occupied in making up the Populationreturns; and I can assure you, that though a penalty of five pounds is affixed to every breach of the law, or evasive answer to the questioning-officer, I could have profited to the tune of hundreds by making false returns, at the price of the penalty for each. I trust, however, that though preponderating motives abounded, I was inflexible in my duty to the public; and I have, in consequence, been insulted and contemned by those who were formerly my best friends. It is principally by unmarried persons, or those past the meridian of life, that I am thus treated. I am become so obnoxious, that no persons of that description will follow me in the responses in the church-service of a Sunday, and my customers, too, fall off. But to the point: on entering a house, I commonly ask for the master-if marriedthe number of his family, and so on, agreeably to my instructions. The first house where I met with a rebuff, was that of an elderly single lady, who called herself Mrs. Oldfish, upon which I said, I believed she was not a widow. That is no business of your's, Mr. Wigginbotton, put me down Mrs. Oldfish.' Indeed I cannot, madam,' I replied, 'I dare not make a false return;' so I wrote down Miss Zepherina Oldfish. I next demanded, what age? She here faltered exceedingly, blushed and looked pale by turns, and them amid convulsive agitations, she articulated, That is of no consequence, they can't want me for the militia.' Madam,' said I, there is a penalty if an improper answer is given; I must write down the truth.' Now, more agitated, she stammered, Don't threaten me, Mr. Wigginbottom-don't be impertinent the Government is unreasonable, oppressive. What pretty times we live in! What will it require next, I wonder?' Here she faltered still more in her speech, and appeared to be ill. Betty!' she cried,' Betty!' ringing the bell violently, my sal volatile. Do call again, Mr. Wigginbottom; I'm ill, indeed I am very, very ill.' Not wishing to appear rude, and being unsuspicious of a trick, I left her, thinking to call again the next day. I did so; and to my dismay, found she had left Bungay for Scarborough that morning at daybreak; beyond a doubt, that she might evade my questions, as she knew the returns must be completed by a particular day. I was forced to leave a blank opposite her name, in the column of ages, in my book; but when she comes back I shall levy the full penalty.

"Upon calling at the house of another lady, to whom I was well known, my mind being made up not to be again baffled, I commenced, as usual, by explaining the nature of my errand. She reddened deep as scarlet, and wondered why the Government was so particular with unmarried persons, and if they might not be returned in a general way. She affirmed that she had done all she could for the support of Church and State; she had helped to work a standard for the Bungay light-horse; had been careful never to employ a tradesman who was a radical; had given five pounds for the benefit of the Constitutional Association; had thrown up her subscription at the best circulating library in Norfolk, because that audacious paper, the Morning Chronicle, had been taken in there; and at her last whist-party had absolutely used dirty cards, because a package which she had ordered from London had not arrived; and she could procure none in her neighbourhood, but at a shop, the owner of which had shocked her feelings, by declaring that he thought a Methodist, or Roman Catholic, if not worth one shilling, had as good a chance for Heaven as his Grace of Canterbury. Now, Ebenezer,' said she, you have long known me, and know that I am a good subject; why then must my personal affairs be made known to all the world?' Madam,' I replied, the returns are only seen by Government in London.' Nonsense,' she rejoined, don't think to cheat me. You have a wife, Mr. Wigginbottom, curious as married women always are-husbands can't keep secrets, you will let it out to her, and the whole town will have it. No, no, you can only levy the fine for contumacy-exact it-there is a five-pound note-do your worst.' Having said this, she marched out of the room with a stately air of triumphant scorn, muttering revenge for the arbitrary conduct of Government, and saying something about the ingratitude of persons in authority. A few days after, I heard she had given largely towards the erection of a Methodist chapel, had subscribed again to the circulating library, and had been heard to argue stoutly for Major Cartwright's system of universal suffrage.'

Our friend Wigginbottom continues: "A lady, a good customer of mine, (for you know, Mr. Editor, that I deal a little in the way of snuff and tobacco, besides groceries and hardware) refused to see me on the subject of the Population-act, but ordered her servant to give me what particulars were necessary, and to show me her family-bible, where her age was inscribed. There she was entered thirty-nine, though I am certain it should have been ten years more. The figure three appeared newly written in, upon an erasure which had no doubt obliterated a four. I did not wish to be litigious in this case: indeed the law could not have helped me without farther proof, so I made

the entry-Abigail Scraggs, spinster, 39,' and went away, fully convinced I had been mystified."

The pertinency of the ladies, according to our Correspondent, was exceeded by that of the other sex. Our honest friend Ebenezer met with much trouble from single men; one, among many instances which he has communicated, we shall record. We are well aware of the irritability of the genus, and that it is susceptible of acute pain on the attacks of curiosity, as it lives, like the garden spider, in the centre of its own web, the vibration of a single cord of which induces the mealy cuticle which covers its angular physiognomy, to put on a fever redness, and the lividi occhi, as Tasso calls them, or, in plain English, the "livid eyes" engulfed therein, to flash, what the lake poets sublimely denominate, an "emerald light;"-for be it known, that greenness of colour and morbidness have more than a common affinity, and bachelorship is, according to the best medical practitioners, a state of actual disease. Mr. Wigginbottom says he called twice upon Mr. Theophilus Weazel, a gentleman of this description, aged fifty-two or fifty-three years. The first time he could not be admitted, as Mr. Weazel had employed an artist of celebrity in surgery, in the important operation of cutting and mollifying his corns. On the second visit he was admitted into the presence. Well knowing the man, we can fancy our friend Ebenezer standing with his hat in one hand, and his list book in the other; an ink-bottle, having a pen stuck in it, suspended from his buttonhole ready for action; the points of his toes forming the centre of a St. Andrew's cross with the opposite angles of the room; while the official dignity of his countenance was tempered by an air of humility, arising from a recollection that Mr. Weazel bought goods at his shop. This expression is never witnessed in government officials, who have no copartnership with similar extraneous interests, but depend entirely upon the "powers that be." The latter description of officials are the pontifices majores, and the others but underlings; yet all bear in their countenances somewhat of "a valiant severity" when among equals or inferiors. Ebenezer says, he first broke silence, after a mutual recognition. The conversation we shall give exactly as it reached us.

E. I am come, Sir, to inquire the number of inhabitants in this house, their ages, employments, and means of living, in pursuance of an Act passed in the 2d Geo. IV. being an act for ascertaining the population of these kingdoms.

W. (reddening.) What the devil, Wigginbottom, have I to do with population?

E. True, Sir; but I must do my duty you know, Sir.

W. Very well; but I stand alone in the world :-I have no children; population is nothing to me, I don't increase it, and Malthus says, it is the increase of population that is the ruin of