Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

assured I shall ever bear a grateful recollection of your
kindness."

which is seldom witnessed in this country. In Great
Britain, there appears to be a constant dread of doing
or saying something which is improper. A young I cannot conclude these desultory observations with-
woman is afraid to speak her mind or give her opinion out endeavouring to point out to parents the extreme
freely in a company where there are gentlemen, and propriety of giving their children a knowledge of the
there is little wonder that she is so diffident, seeing French language. To travel in France without know
that many silly young men make a practice of quiz-ing the tongue is a great misery, and makes a person
zing and satirising any marks of intelligence displayed little better than one who is deaf and dumb. There
by the younger part of the female sex. Besides being can be no doubt that in a few years the intercourse
afraid of this species of notice, our young ladies al-
betwixt this country and France will be infinitely
ways seem deeply impressed with the fear of speaking greater than at present, and that then it will be greatly
to any one of the other sex, whose fortune, rank, and
for the advantage of many individuals to be able to
family, they are not thoroughly acquainted with. Per-
converse fluently in the French language. Little be-
haps this is on the whole a very commendable practice, nefit, as I found by experience, is gained by knowing
though it may be carried to a ludicrous extreme. The how to read French, or even speak it, as boys are
French ladies seem to have a happy kuack of speak- often taught at schools not kept by adepts. The spo-
ing freely to a stranger, without fearing that he will ken French is a sort of short hand, in which the words
entrap them into an elopement, or that they will
are cut down so unmercifully that they are often ex-
lower their dignity by conversing with him on terms ceedingly difficult to be comprehended. I would ad-
of simple courtesy or politeness, I was particularly vise no one to proceed to France, presuming upon his
struck with this unaffected cordiality of manners on
school French; unless at the same time he has been
the following occasion:-One day, while travelling in the habit of conversing familiarly with an able
in the diligence-not the imperial-I experienced master, as that forms the species of education in French
considerable annoyance from a matter in one sense
which ought to be cultivated most assiduously.
trivial. The weather was beautiful and serene, the
apple-trees by the roadside were bending under loads
of ripening fruit, the country here and there showed
glimpses of secluded villages situated in the bosky
dells, and the whole scenery of earth and sky seemed
but a finely tinted picture spread out to please the eye
of the traveller. As the day drew to a close and shut
out this agreeable prospect, the heat in the diligence
became inconvenient, though perhaps only to myself.
My feet most unfortunately swelled in my boots, and
I experienced no small degree of pain. Buoyed up
with the idea that I would be able to get at my slip-
pers in my luggage as soon as the vehicle rested at
one of the towns we were to pass through, I con-
tinued to sit out the misery. The vehicle at length
stopped; I spoke to the conducteur, who either would
not or could not comprehend my poor smatter of
French. My wish to get at my travelling-bag was,
however, comprehended by a young French lady who
sat opposite to me. She addressed me in English,
and begged that I might allow her to act as my in-
terpreter. I viewed her as an angel from heaven
sent to my relief. No sooner had I told her my situ-
ation, than she became deeply interested, and pro-
mised me all the aid in her power when the diligence
stopped for supper at a town where she was to leave us.
We now entered freely into conversation together
upon all kinds of topics; and at last, in the openness
of her heart, the young lady made me acquainted with
part of her history. She mentioned that she had been
absent from France for four years, as a governess
in England, and that now she was on her way
kome to see her "father and mother, and sisters and
brothers; and oh she was so very happy; her heart was
all flutter; she was greatly agitate; for she was now
very near the town where her papa did stay; and he

was to be waiting for her; and he was such a good,

THE SHEEPSTEALING DOG.
In the pastoral and sequestered district of Tweeddale,
where the manners of the people retain a simplicity
scarcely known elsewhere, crimes of capital magnitude
occur very rarely. There is no want of small offences,
perhaps, such as assaults, thefts, and so forth, most of
which are punished with a short imprisonment in the
tolbooth of Peebles. But it is not above once in an
age that a native of this primitive district is doomed
to expiate his guilt at Edinburgh or Jedburgh. It
might be supposed, that, in the border counties, where
at no remote period habits of predatory warfare pre-
vailed, a little cattle-lifting or so would neither be un-
frequent nor regarded severely; but this is not the
case. Offences against property, if considerable either
in kind or in extent, are looked upon with as much
horror and reprobation in this province as in any
other; the guilty parties are spoken of as lost and
unhappy creatures; and their relations generally find
it very difficult to stand up against the painful feeling
which their name excites, but, leaving the locality,
seek to hide their shame in distant countries. In-
deed, the few instances of heinous crime which have
occurred in Peeblesshire during the last eighty years,
are traditionally remembered in almost every parti-
cular; and the descendants and collateral relations of
the parties, even to the fourth generation, could still

be pointed out. Such events become, like the chival.

rous adventures of an earlier period, the materials of
grandam tales for the amusement of children, to whom
they are never related without many a solemn adino-
nition respecting the danger of allowing the heart to
be tempted to violence, or the eye to go a-hungering
after the goods of another.

But above this mark

flocks), and which was now suckling its own lamb as
if it had never been absent. On inspecting it care-
fully, it was found to bear an additional birn upon its
face. Every farmer, it must be mentioned, impresses
with a hot iron a particular letter upon the faces of
his sheep, as a means of distinguishing his own from
those of his neighbours. Mr Gibson's birn was the
letter T, and this was found distinctly enough im.
pressed on the face of the ewe.
there was an O, which was known to be the mark of
the tenant of Wormiston, the individual already men-
tioned. It was immediately suspected that this and
the other missing sheep had been abstracted by that
person; a suspicion which derived strength from the
reports of the neighbouring shepherds, by whom, it
appeared, the black-faced ewe had been tracked for a
considerable way in a direction leading from Wor-
miston to Newby. It was indeed ascertained that
instinctive affection for her lamb had led this animal
across the Tweed, and over the lofty heights between
Cailzie and Newby; a route of very considerable dif-
ficulty, and probably quite different from that by
which she had been led away, but the most direct that
could have been taken. Mr Gibson only stopped to
obtain the concurrence of a neighbouring farmer,
whose losses had been equally great, before proceed-
ing with some of the legal authorities to Wormiston.
Millar, the shepherd, observing the approach of the
formidable group, ran off and attempted to hide him.
self in a field of grain, where he was taken into cus-
tody. On arriving at the farm-house, Mr Gibson
knocked, and was answered by the unfortunate far-
mer himself, who, supposing it to be a friendly visit,
expressed much pleasure at seeing his neighbour, and
desired him to walk in. Mr Gibson, whose feelings
were now affected in a way he had not calculated
upon, declined the proffered hospitality, and with a
choking voice, said that Mr. (here he mentioned
the name of a well-known messenger, resident in
Peebles) wished to speak to him in the close. "Mr

want

!" cried the farmer; "what can Mr. with me ?" He retired for a moment into the house, and, after whispering a word or two to his wife, reappeared. Mr Gibson, who was in the passage, saw the unfortunate woman throw her head distractedly upon the table at which she was sitting, and exclaim, "Oh, death, come and break my heart!" The farmer was then conducted with his shepherd to Peebles, where bail to a large amount was in vain offered for

them by their friends. On a search of the farm, no

fewer than thirty-three score of sheep belonging to various individuals were found, all bearing the condemnatory O above the original birns; and it was remarked that there was not a single ewe returned to Grieston, the farm on the opposite bank of the Tweed, which did not minny her lambs-that is, assume the character of mother towards the offspring from which she had been separated.

The magnitude of this crime, the rareness of such offences in the district, and the station in life of at least one of the offenders, produced a great sensation

good papa; he had suffer a great deal; and had he been rich as he once was, his dear Louise should never have gone to be amongst stranger." It was impossible not to be affected by such a burst of tender feeling. As the lagging diligence pursued its heavy way in the darkening night, the amiable young Frenchwoman became every minute more agitated with the anticipation of seeing her parents, and the happy home in Among the narratives of this kind which still enwhich she had been nursed while a child. Eight, tertain the fireside circle in Tweeddale, one of the nine, and ten o'clock passed. The diligence was to most remarkable refers to an extraordinary case of reach the town of S- at half-past ten, which period at length arrived. As the vehicle lumbered across sheepstealing, which took place in the year 1772. A the drawbridge at the outskirts of the fortified walls, young farmer in the neighbourhood of Innerleithen, in Tweeddale, and caused the elicitation of every mithe feelings of Louise found an audible expression-whose circumstances were supposed to be good, and "Oh, my poor heart; it is almost break with joy:" who was connected with many of the best storefarmand when the diligence was brought to a stand, by ing families in the county, had been tempted to comthe harsh cry of "passport" from an official in a cocked hat, who held a lantern forth to get a view of the pasmit some extensive depredations upon the flocks of sengers, her agitation rose to the utmost stretch. But his neighbours, in which he was assisted by his shepher anxiety did not remain long unrequited. While herd. The pastoral farms of Tweeddale, which gedelivering our passports for examination, the thin sil-nerally consist each of a certain range of hilly ground, very-toned voice of an aged gentleman was heard asking something of the conducteur. He was seeking for had in those days no enclosures: their boundaries were his child Louise. "Ah! papa, c'est moi!" cried indicated only by the natural features of the country. Louise from the window of the diligence. I need The sheep were, accordingly, liable to wander, and to hardly tell how soon the door was flung open; it was become intermixed with each other; and at every the work of a moment, and the happy Louise was reckoning of a flock, a certain allowance had to be clasped in the arms of her equally if not still more happy father. Every thing for the time was evidently made for this, as for other contingencies. For some forgotten by the young lady but the delight of arriv-time, Mr William Gibson, tenant in Newby, an exing among her friends; and as the diligence went on its way towards the inn where we were to rest for a few ininutes, I concluded that the embraces of her pashe made to me some hours before. I am glad to say, for the sake of the French character, that I was wrong in my conjectures. The coach was no sooner brought to a pause, than the kind-hearted Louise came up with breathless haste, followed by her relations. She had run for nearly half a mile, in order to perform a trifling act of politeness to a perfect stranger, one whom she had never seen before, and would never see again. I may only add, that she so far wrought upon the conducteur as to make him uncover and open out his cargo on the roof, and allow me to make those arrange ments which circumstances required. "Farewell," said I, as I shook her by the hand, when she was about to move homewards with her aged father, much happiness with your family; and you may rest

tensive farm stretching from the neighbourhood of
Peebles to the borders of Selkirkshire, had remarked
a surprising increase in the amount of his annual

nute circumstance that could possibly be discovered respecting the means which had been employed for carrying on such an extensive system of depredation. The most surprising part of the tale is the extent to which it appears that the instinct of dumb animals had been instrumental both in the crime and in its the business chiefly to his shepherd, the shepherd detection. While the farmer seemed to have deputed seemed to have deputed it again, in many instances, to a dog of extraordinary sagacity, which served him in his customary and lawful business. This animal, which bore the name of Farrow, would not only act under his immediate direction in cutting off a portion of a flock, and bringing it home to Wormiston, but is said to have been able to proceed solitarily and by night to a sheep-walk, and there detach certain individuals previously pointed out by its master, which it would drive home by secret ways, without allowing one to straggle. Some very curious particulars of the sociate are given in an early volume of Blackwood's Magazine, apparently by one who had a minute traditionary knowledge of the transaction. These we shall take the liberty of quoting :—

rents would efface all recollection of the promise which losses. He questioned his shepherds severely, taxed practices of the two thieves and their quadruped as

I wish you

them with carelessness in picking up and bringing
home the dead, and plainly intimated that he con-
ceived some unfair dealing to be in progress. The
men, finding themselves thus exposed to suspicions of
a very painful kind, were as much chagrined as the
worthy farmer himself, and kept their minds alive to
every circumstance which might tend to afford any
elucidation of the mystery. One day, while they were
summering their lambs, the eye of a very acute old
shepherd named Hyslop was caught by a black-faced
ewe which they had formerly missed (for the shep-
herds generally know every particular member of their

|

"with their stolen droves, they avoided, even in the "While returning home," says this authority, night, the roads along the banks of the river, or those that descend to the valley through the adjoining glens. They chose rather to come along the ridge of moun tains that separate the small river of Leithen from the Tweed. But even here there was sometimes danger, for the shepherds occasionally visit their flocks even before day; and often when Millar had driven his prey from a distance, and while he was yet miles from home, and the weather-gleam of the eastern hills be

gan to be tinged with the brightening dawn, he has left them to the charge of his dog, and descended himself to the banks of the Leithen, off his way, that he might not be seen connected with their company. Yarrow, although between three and four miles from his master, would continue, with care and silence, to bring the sheep onward to Wormiston, where his master's appearance could be neither a matter of question nor surprise.

Adjoining to the thatched farmhouse was one of those old square towers, or peel-houses, whose picturesque ruins were then seen ornamenting the course of the river, as they had been placed alternately along the north and south bank, generally from three to six hundred yards from it-sometimes on the shin, and sometimes in the hollow of a hill. In the vault of this tower, it was the practice of these men to conceal the sheep they had recently stolen; and while the rest of their people were absent on Sunday at the church, they used to employ themselves in cancelling with their knives the ear-marks, and impressing with a hot iron a large O upon the face, that covered both sides of the animal's nose, for the purpose of obliterating the brand of the true owner. While his accomplices were so busied, Yarrow kept watch in the open air, and gave notice, without fail, by his barking, of the approach of those who were not of the fancy.

That he might vary the scene of his depredations, Millar had one night crossed the Tweed, and betaken himself to a wild farm among the mountains of Selkirkshire; and as the shepherds have wonderfully minute knowledge of localities, he found no difficulty in collecting part of a flock, and bringing away what number he judged convenient. Sheep are very loth to descend a hill in the nighttime, and more so to cross a river. Millar, to keep as clear as possible of

the haunts of men, on his return brought his drove
over the shoulder of Wallace's hill, opposite, and in-
tended to swim them across a pool in the river Tweed.
But his prey being taken from the most remote part
of the farm, happened to be mostly old ewes (of all
kinds of sheep the most stubborn in their propensities),
and all the exertions of a very active man, intimately
acquainted with the habits of the animals, and as-
sisted by the most sagacious dog probably ever known,
were found inadequate to overcome the reluctance of
the sheep to take the river. Millar continued to exert
himself until the dawn of the morning warned him
that any further effort was inconsistent with his ha-
bitual caution. Still he was unwilling to relinquish
his booty, since, could he only get the sheep across
the river, he was within little more than a quarter of
a mile from the old tower. He therefore left the fu-
ture conduct of the enterprise, as he had often done
before, to Yarrow-crossed the river himself, and went
home, encouraging the dog by his voice, while he was
yet not too distant, so as to risk being heard by some
early riser.
The trustworthy dog paused not, nor
slackened his exertions-the work was now all his
own; such had been his efforts, as he furiously and
desperately drove in first one flank of the drove and
then another, that two of the ewes were forced from
the bank into the river, and were drowned, as they
could not regain their situations for the pressure of
their companions. But he was finally unsuccessful;
for he too knew the danger of being seen in the broad
light of the morning driving sheep where sheep
shou'd na be.' The ewes were observed, in the course
of the ensuing day, wending their weary way home-
ward, and half covered with a new keel with which
Millar had himself marked them in a small sheepfold
in a lonely place on his way. Millar himself was as-
tonished at the stubbornness of the sheep, and the per-
severing energy of his dog; and he told the story to
a respectable sheepfarmer in prison, while under sen-
tence of death."

6

mer in the neighbourhood, but did not take kindly to
honest courses, and his new master having no work
of a different kind in which to engage him, he was
remarked to show rather less sagacity than the ordi-
nary shepherd's dog.

BIOGRAPHIC SKETCHES.

ELI WHITNEY.

ELI WHITNEY, the Arkwright of America, and one
of the most intrepid and persevering improvers that
ever lived-whose name, nevertheless, has as yet been
totally unknown in Britain-was the son of a respect-
able farmer at Westborough, Worcester county, Mas-
sachusetts, where he was born in the year 1765. Very
early, young Eli gave striking indications of the me-
chanical genius for which he afterwards was so dis-
tinguished. His education was of a limited character
until he had reached the age of nineteen, when he con-
ceived the idea of entering a college. Accordingly,
notwithstanding the opposition of his parents, he pre-
pared himself, partly by means of the profits of his
manual labour, partly by teaching a village school, for
the freshman class in the university of New Haven,
which he entered May 1789. Soon after he took his

degree in the autumn of 1792, he entered into an en-
gagement with a gentleman of Georgia, to reside in
his family as a private teacher. But on his arrival in
that state, he found that another teacher had been
employed, and he was left entirely withcut resources.
Fortunately, however, among the passengers in the
vessel in which he sailed, was Mrs Greene, the widow
of the celebrated general, who had given him an invi-
tation to spend some time at her residence at Mulberry
Grove, near Savannah; and on learning his disap-
pointment, she benevolently insisted upon his making
her house his home until he had prepared himself for
the bar, as was his intention.

but it was not deemed prudent to gratify their curio. sity until the patent right had been secured. So de. termined, however, were some of the populace to possess this treasure, that neither law nor justice could restrain them; they broke open the building by night, and carried off the machine. In this way the public became possessed of the invention; and before Mr Whitney could complete his model and secure his patent, a number of machines were in successful operation, constructed with some slight deviation from

the original, with the hope of evading the penalty for violating the patent right. A short time after this, he entered into partnership with Mr Miller, who, having considerable funds at command, proposed to him to become his joint adventurer, and to be at the should be patented. If the machine succeeded in its whole expense of maturing the invention until it intended operation, the parties agreed to share equally all the profits and advantages accruing from it. instrument of their partnership bears date May 27, 1793.

The

Connecticut, where, as far as possible, he was to perImmediately afterwards, Mr Whitney repaired to fect the machine, obtain a patent, and manufacture and ship for Georgia such a number of machines as would supply the demand. On June 20, 1793, he presented his petition for a patent to Mr Jefferson, yellow fever in Philadelphia, at that period the seat then secretary of state; but the prevalence of the of government, prevented his concluding the business until several months afterwards. We have not space sufficient at our disposal to give a satisfactory detail of the obstacles and misfortunes which for a long time hindered the partners from reaping those advantages from the invention which it should have procured for them, and which they had an ample right to expect. These difficulties arose principally from the innumer. able violations of their patent right, by whica they suits. The legislature of South Carolina purchased, were involved in various, almost interminable, law. in 1801, their right for that state for the sum of fifty thousand dollars a mere "song," to use Whitney's own phrase, "in comparison with the worth of the thing; but it was securing something." It enabled them to pay the debts which they had contracted, and Whitney had not been long in her family before a divide something between them. In the following complete turn was given to his views. A party of gen-year, Mr Whitney negociated a sale of his patent tlemen, on a visit to Mrs Greene, having fallen into a right with the state of North Carolina, the legislature conversation upon the state of agriculture among them, of which laid a tax of two shillings and sixpence upon expressed great regret that there was no means of every saw (and some of the gins had forty saws) emcleansing the green seed cotton, or separating it from ployed in ginning cotton, to be continued for five years, which sum was to be collected by the sheriff's its seed, remarking, that until ingenuity could devise in the same manner as the public taxes; and after some machine which would greatly facilitate the pro- deducting the expenses of collection, the proceeds were cess of cleansing, it was in vain to think of raising faithfully paid over to the patentees. No small porcotton for market. "Gentlemen,” said Mrs Greene, tion, however, of the funds thus obtained in the two "apply to iny young friend Mr Whitney: he can make lawsuits which it was deemed necessary to prosecute Carolinas, was expended in carrying on the fruitless any thing." She then conducted them into a neigh-in Georgia. A gentleman who was well acquainted bouring room, where she showed them a number of specimens of his genius. The gentlemen were next introduced to Whitney himself; and when they named their object, he replied that he had never seen either cotton or cotton seed during his life. But the idea was engendered; and it being out of season for cotton in the seed, he went to Savannah, and searched among the warehouses and boats until he found a small portion of it. This he carried home, and set himself to work with such rude materials and instruments as a Georgia plantation afforded. With these resources, however, he made tools better suited to his purpose, and drew his own wire, of which the teeth of the earliest gins were made, which was an article not at that time to be found in the market of Savannah. Mrs Greene and Mr Miller, a gentleman who, having first come into the family of General Greene as a private tutor, afterwards married his widow, were the only persons admitted into his workshop, who knew in what way he was employing himself. The many hours he spent in his mysterious pursuits afforded matter of great curiosity, and often of raillery, to the younger members of the family. Near the close of the winter, the machine was so nearly completed as to leave no doubt of its success. Mrs Greene then invited to her house gentlemen from different parts of the state; and on the first day after they had assembled, she conducted them to a temporary building which had been erected for the machine, and they saw with astonishment and delight that more cotton could be separated from the seed in one day, by the labour of a single hand, than could be done in the usual manner in the space of many months.

with Mr Whitney's affairs in the south, and sometimes acted as his legal adviser, observed, that in all had never seen a case of such perseverance under such his experience in the thorny profession of the law, he persecution; "nor," he adds, "do I believe that I ever knew any other man who would have met them with equal coolness and firmness, or who would have obtained even the partial success which he had."

There have indeed been but few instances in which the author of such inestimable advantages to a whole country as those which accrued from the invention of the cotton gin to the Southern States, was so harshly treated, and so inadequately compensated, as the sub. ject of this sketch. He did not exaggerate when he said that it raised the value of those states from fifty to one hundred per cent. "If we should assert," said judge Johnson, "that the benefits of this invention The farmer and his servant were tried at Edinexceed one hundred millions of dollars, we can prove burgh in January 1773, and the proceedings excited the assertion by correct calculation." Besides the an extraordinary interest, not only in the audience, violations of his right, he had to struggle against the but among the legal officials. Hyslop, the principal efforts of malevolence and self-interest to deprive him witness, gave so many curious particulars respecting of the honour of the invention, which he did trithe instincts of sheep and the modes of distinguishing umphantly. In 1803, the entire responsibility of the them both by natural and artificial marks, that he whole concern devolved upon him, in consequence of was highly complimented by the bench. The evidence the death of Mr Miller. In 1812, he made applicaclosed on the second day at five o'clock, and the speech tion to Congress for the renewal of his patent. In his of the Lord Advocate, with the replies of Messrs Crosmemorial he presented a history of the difficulties bie and Rae, the prisoners' counsel, occupied till eleven. which he had been forced to encounter in defence of The jury, which was then enclosed, sat till five o'clock his right, observing that he had been unable to obtain next morning (Sunday), when they gave in a verdict, any decision on the merits of his claim until he had finding the master guilty by a plurality of voices, and been eleven years in the law, and thirteen years of the servant unanimously. The counsel for the unhis patent term had expired. He set forth that his fortunate men pleaded for, a few days, to prepare some invention had been a source of opulence to thousands objections to the verdict; and this being granted, the of the citizens of the United States; that, as a labourcourt met once more in February, and took these into saving machine, it would enable one man to perform consideration. They rested, firstly on the illegality the work of a thousand men; and that it furnishes to of a verdict given on a Sunday, and secondly on vathe whole family of mankind, at a very cheap rate, rious circumstances which were alleged to be out of We have in vain searched the best British ency- the most essential article of their clothing. Hence he rule in the references of the verdict to the indictment clopædias for a description of the machine which Mr humbly conceived himself entitled to a farther remu. and the evidence. All of them were overruled by the Whitney thus constructed, but we learn from the neration from his country, and thought he ought to court, and sentence was pronounced. The unprece- Encyclopædia Americana that it consisted chiefly of a be admitted to a more liberal participation with his dented step was then taken of an appeal to the House process of circular saws, which by a rotatory motion fellow-citizens in the benefits of his invention. It of Peers; but this was decided to be incompetent, and dragged the cotton betwixt wires, leaving the seeds to does, we must confess (says Mr Whitney's American the judgment of the law was accordingly executed. fall to the bottom, while the cotton so cleaned was biographer), strike us with no little surprise, that the The general tradition is, that Yarrow was also put carried off by a rotatory brush playing upon the saws. southern planters, gentlemen who enjoy a great and to death, though in a less ceremonious manner; but An invention so important to the agricultural interest, just reputation for elevation and generosity of characthis has probably no other foundation than a jeu and, as it has proved, to every department of human ter, should not have taken some means of conveying. d'esprit, which was cried through the streets of Edin- industry, could not long remain a secret. The know- to Mr Whitney an adequate and substantial testimony burgh as his dying speech. We are informed by the ledge of it soon spread through the state; and so great of the gratitude which they must have felt towards same writer in Blackwood, that the dog was in reality was the excitement on the subject, that multitudes of one to whom they were so incalculably indebted. purchased, after the death of Millar, by a sheepfar-persons came from all quarters of it to see the machine; | far, however, from this having been the case, even

Sn

the application just mentioned was rejected by Congress on account of the warm opposition it experienced from a majority of the southern members.

Some years before, in 1798, Mr Whitney, impressed with the uncertainty of all his hopes founded on the cotton gin, had engaged in another enterprise, which conducted him, by slow but sure steps, to a competent fortune. This was the manufacture of arms for the United States. He first obtained a contract through the influence of Oliver Wolcott, at that time secretary of the treasury, for ten thousand stand of arms, amounting to one hundred and thirty-four thousand dollars, which was to be fulfilled within a little more than two years. This was a great undertaking, as may be inferred from the facts, that the works were all to be erected, the machinery was to be made, and much of it to be invented; the raw materials were to be collected from different quarters, and the workmen themselves, almost without exception, were yet to learn the trade. The impediments he was obliged to remove were too numerous and great to allow him to fulfil his stipulation as to time, and eight years instead of two elapsed before the muskets were all completed. The entire business relating to the contract was not closed until January 1809, when (se liberally had the government made advances to the contractor) the final balance due Mr Whitney was only two thousand four hundred dollars. It is universally conceded that his superior genius and industry greatly contributed to the improvement of the manufacture of arms, and indeed to the general advancement of arts and manufactures; for many of his inventions for facilitating the making of muskets were applicable to most other manufactures of iron and steel.

In 1812, he entered into a new contract with the United States for fifteen thousand stand of arms, and in the meantime executed a similar engagement for the state of New York. In January 1817, he married the youngest daughter of Pierpont Edwards, late judge of the district court for the state of Connecticut. For the five subsequent years he continued to enjoy domestic happiness, a competent fortune, and an honourable reputation, when he was attacked by a fatal malady, an enlargement of the prostate gland, which. after causing great and protracted suffering, terminated his life on the 8th of January 1825. In person, Mr Whitney was considerably above the ordinary size, of a dignified carriage, and of an open, manly, and agreeable countenance. His manners were conciliatory, and his whole appearance such as to inspire respect. He possessed great serenity of temper, though he had strong feelings, and a high sense of honour. Perseverance was a striking trait in his character. Every thing that he attempted he effected as far as possible. In the relations of private life, he enjoyed the affection and esteem of all with whom he was connected.

These flies are almost our only sorts for trouting with,
and we have them of all sizes, down to the minutest
midge.

And now, as to the manner of dressing them, we shall be fitly brief, inasmuch as careful instructions on this point are to be met with in most works upon angling. These, however, are over-complex and refined to be readily understood and followed; and therefore we shall unfold in a few sentences our more simple method. Practice alone can bestow neatness and expedition in this kind of manufacture, which, we opine, is needful for all zealous anglers. Our materials for the making-up of flies are as follow: Hooks, and small round gut; a pair of brass nippers for twisting hackles; a point for dividing the wings; a pair of fine scissors; orange, yellow, and green silk thread of all sizes; good cobblers' wax inclosed in a piece of soft leather; a hare's ear; some brown wild-drake, teal, and pheasant feathers; the fur of a mouse, squirrel, and water-rat; a few wings of lark, snipe, landrail, and starling; and lastly, red and black hackles, taken from the neck and head of an old cock at Christmas; these should be fully formed and free from softness. Plovers' herls, and those of the peacock, are used by some, yet we deem them superfluous, as also tinsel, except for large flies.

insect is visible, those very flies which shortly before were seized with avidity; and this rejection is owing, as may be seen, to a new succession of ephemeræ, occasioned by an atmospherical change, at which period the imitation alone, as far as concerns colour and size, is the proper persuasive wherewith to ensnare fish. Yet, with regard to the artificial salmon fly, we pretend not to guess for what it is taken, as, from the manner of using it, its motions are altogether unlike those of any insect existing, and very unlike those of the dragon-fly, which it is made to resemble. We therefore agree with the theorists as to it, that it is taken by hungry fish foolishly and ignorantly, and on account merely of its seeming existence.

While on salmon flies, we may notice the most effective kinds for Scottish rivers. These may be reduced to five or six; and first, the professor's on a large scale, with its mallard wings, yellow silk body, and red or black hackles, only let the hackles be brought down somewhat farther on the hook than is done on the trouting fly. Second, wings of a mottled turkey or pheasant tail feather, with brown or lemoncoloured mohair body, thread of gold tinsel, and light brown hackle; the upper part, to resemble the head, may be varied with a little dark mohair or a black turkey feather, and white tips; the body of black or hackle. Third, a dark fly, winged with deep brown purple mohair, black hackle and silver tinsel, with a scarlet or crimson tuft at the tail, and yellowish head, (These three are excellent flies for Tweed and Tay.) Fourth, a gaudy fly, with wings of the guinea-fowl or teal feather, scarlet or carmine-coloured mohair body, and scarlet hackle, to be used when the water is rather turbid. Fifth, a light blue or green body under dark hackles, with mallard, teal, turkey, or ash-coloured wings, and tinselled according to the Argyleshire). A sixth, formed with yellow wings mood of the water (a first-rate fly for the rivers in and hackles, although a glaring fly, we have seen used on Clyde with great success. Peacock feathers sometimes make excellent wings and tufts for our Scottish stream fishing. Salmon flies are of different sizes, according to the seasons, and are not always regulated in this respect, as some aver, by the mood of the water.

Commencing your operations, the first step is to lay out the intended wings and body before you; wax your silk, and applying one end of it to the gut and hook together, wrap them both round four or five times, commencing a little below the end of the shank, and proceeding downwards; you then fasten, by drawing the disengaged end of the thread through under the last turn of the wrapping. Work the silk upwards to where you commenced, then take your wings, which are still separated, and lay them along your hook, so that their extremity or tips shall reach its curve; twirl the thread twice round the upper part, which lies along the shank top; then, taking it under, press firm, and clip off the unnecessary portion of the feather; divide with your point or penknife, so as to form the two wings; take up the silk betwixt them, and wrapping again round at the head, bring it back crosswise; then lift your hackle, and lay the root of it down along your hook, whip the thread over, as far as your first fastening, seize the top of the hackle with your nippers, and whirl it round in the same manner; fasten and lengthen the body to your liking with fresh floss silk; fasten once more, and your fly is made. This last fastening ought in our opinion to be the same as that used in arming bait-hooks, for which we quote Hawkins's directions:-"When you are within about four turns of A GREAT deal has been offered upon this matter by the bend of the hook, take the shank between the forevarious writers, which we deem absurd and unnecesfinger and thumb of the left hand, and place the silk sary. Trout are no doubt nice and capricious feeders; close by it, holding them both tight, and leaving the but any pretensions in anglers to classify and distir end to hang down; then draw the other part of the guish their favourite flies, according to the month, silk into a large loop, and with your right hand turnare totally without reason. The colours of water and ing backwards, continue the whipping for four turns, sky are the only indicators which can lead us to seand draw the end of the silk (which has all this while lect the most killing hook, and even these are often hung down under the root of your left thumb) close, deceptive. We have fished in one stream where dark, and twitch it off." When the body of your fly is reand, in the next, red flies, took the lead. There is no quired to be of hare's ear or mouse skin, pull out a trusting to the fancy in certain places. On Tweed, small quantity of the fur, and lay it along the silk, we have seen it veer about, like the wind, in one moafter the wings are formed; twist together, and then ment, without a note of preparation. Most rivers, wrap as if the thread were bare, and fasten as above. however, are more steady; and when the water is of In making flies, keep all tight, guard against heavy a moderate size, may be relied on with at most two wings and much dubbing; the fibres of your hackle sorts of flies all the year round. For ourselves, our ought to be short and lie near the head of the fly; they maximum in every Scottish stream is reduced to only are intended to resemble legs, which in the real insect four descriptions of artificial flies, with one or other are always so placed. Such is our method of fly-dressof which we engage to catch trout over all the king-ing, commendable both for its simplicity and expedi. dom. Knowledge and practice have convinced us of tion. It differs, we find, somewhat from that gene- for trout to feed on, and also relaxes their inclina

THE GENTLE ART.
FLIES.

the needlessness of storing up endless and perplexing varieties, which some do, to look knowing and

scientific.

Foremost is the fly commonly called the professor's, after Professor Wilson of Edinburgh. The wings are formed of a mottled, brown feather, taken from the mallard or wild-drake; the body is of yellow floss silk, rather longish, and wound about close to the head with a fine red or black hackle; tails are often used, but we think them unnecessary. Instead of a yellow silk body, we sometimes adopt one of pale green, especially in loch fishing. Our next fly is of a sombre cast. The wings are formed of the woodcock, snipe, or lark feather, it is no matter which; the body is of hare's ear, darker or lighter, as it pleases the fancy. Our third fly is dubbed with mouse or water-rat hair, and hath wings of the starling or the fieldfare. Our last is a plain hackle, black or red, without wings, and called commonly the palmer. I

Give them red and black flies in

A large hook ought to be used when the fish first begin to ascend, and especially near the sea. Smaller ones are most successful high up, and during close-time. After the salmon have spawned they become less shy, and on their return to the salt water will leap almost at any sort of insect. We are of opinion that at times a small wren would be no bad lure for these fish, at any rate more acceptable than those showy imitations of kingfishers often used. And now, let us notice how the changes of water first, as to the water. and sky influence fish in their choice of flies; and clear, a hare's ear body, especially during spring, kills When a stream is small and well; also the dun or mouse-body fly and small black hackles at a later season. If large and brown, the red professor suits best; next to it a plain palmer, both of which are efficient all the year over. When in ordinary trim, we angle with any sort, being more nice concerning the size than the colour of our flies; and this we remark that in much used rivers the trout reject large insects, and rise freest at midges sible on the Clyde about Lanark, where a very miand the smaller ephemera. This is particularly vi nute fly is requisite; and yet on this river, during summer, large fish are caught with the green-drake and May-flies, in opposition to the general liking. In Highland streams trout are by no means so sagacious with bread and cheese at the end of a cable, they are a fish as in those of the south. You may catch them so wrapt in greed and ignorance. Treat them invariably to large hooks, for their gullets are wondrously capacious, and they make no objections to honest rations. abundance, the most tough, indigestible morsels you them, and scorn your tit.bits and nail-lengths. As can well invent; they have no false appetites about to the influence of the sky in determining the food of fish, let it be noted that artificial flies are taken best on dull windy days, when natural ones are rare; also in the mornings and evenings, during bright hot weather. A powerful sun, however, is unfavourable for fly-fishing, as it breeds huge swarms of insects rally practised, being in a manner self-taught, and not tion to stir freely. Close weather, portending thunencumbered with any unnecessary display. And here der or rain, white clouds, and a storm, all hinder fish let us notice what we have seen broached concerning from rising well. During such times they remain artificial flies, namely, that they are seized by trout near the bottom, or in their usual hiding-places. for no likeness that they possess to any living insect, Warm summer nights bring good sport if the fly but merely because of their motion and seeming self- angled with be large and black. A crow's feather existence. We can barely see what is meant by this wrapt round a bait-hook may be used successfully, distinction. The illustration, however, follows. An- especially in deep still waters and lochs, near the side, glers may observe, say these theorists, that when fish where the hugest fish prowl in search of food. White rise well, they will not refuse your most maimed and though many anglers advise them. Recommend us flies in imitation of moths are next thing to useless, torn imitation; nay, a bare hook, with hardly a ves- always to pitch-black flies for night-fishing. Many it tige of feather upon it, will entice them as readily as the monster we have hooked, not a yard's distance from your most carefully dressed fly. This we admit, for the shore, with this expedient. What they are taken we are of opinion that colour and size alone cause the for, nobody knows; beetles or mice, it is of little small matter. allurement needful to raise trout, and that shape is of consequence. Loch flies in general should be large, Still we have no doubt that the artiand in spring of a dark colour, progressively becomficial fly is taken as a known and particular insect:ing lighter the nearer you approach autumn. Green bodies we have found excellent in many places, espesometimes in a drowning and sometimes in an active cially in Highland lochs. condition; since, be it observed, in many rivers the the natural fly at certain seasons, and no doubt it is Some anglers greatly use caprice of trout is truly remarkable on this point, and a killing bait, but somewhat troublesome to collect. they will reject at times, and on clear water, where every The May-flies are those best adapted for this kind of

angling. They ought to be gathered previously from under stones by the water-side, and kept in a small flannel bag. When used, transfix two on your hook at the same time, and angle as you would with worm, only nearer the surface, and with a short line.

IRISH SKETCHES.

[From Inglis's Journey in Ireland in 1834.]

In

I FOUND the city of Kilkenny a large, well-built, beautifully situated, and very interesting town. fact, I scarcely know any town more interesting or more picturesque. There are many streets in Kilkenny, though only one principal one, where the best shops are situated; and although Kilkenny is not what it has been, it is still a little capital for this part of Ireland, and supplies both the surrounding gentry and the country dealers.

Kilkenny is full of interesting objects and remains. In my first walk through the town, I saw for the first time one of the "round towers." It is close to and almost forms a part of the cathedral, a large ancient pile, surrounded by venerable trees. One must be an antiquary, in order to be a thorough enthusiast in round towers; at the same time, the singular form,

and great height, and dark hue, and known antiquity,

and mystery too, attached to these pillars, must be striking to any one, however little of an antiquary.

But let me leave externals, and ask, in what state are the people of Kilkenny? I wish I could have contemplated their situation with as much com. placency and pleasure as I did the city itself, and the natural beauties that surround it: but I am compel. led to say, that I found the most wide-spread and most aggravated misery. The population of Kilkenny is about 25,000; and I can state, after the most anxious inquiry and personal observation, that there were at the time I visited Kilkenny upwards of 2000 persons without employment. I visited the factories. The principal of these used to support two hundred men with their families: it was at eleven o'clock, a fair working hour, that I visited these mills, and how many men did I find at work? ONE MAN! And how many of the eleven wheels did I find going? ONE; and that one, not for the purpose of driving machinery, but to prevent it from rotting. In place of finding men occupied, I saw them in scores, like spectres, walking about, and lying about the mill. I saw immense piles of goods completed, but for which there was no sale. I saw piles of cloth at 2s. a-yard, with which a man might clothe himself from head to foot for 10s.; but there were no buyers: the poor of Kilkenny are clothed from Monmouth Street. heaps of blankets, enough to furnish every cabin in the county; and I saw every loom idle. As for the carpets which had excited the jealousy and fears of Kidderminster, not one had been made for seven months; it was but an experiment, and had utterly failed: and just to convey some idea of the destitution of these people, when an order recently arrived for the manufacture of as many blankets for the police as would have kept the men at work a few weeks, bonfires were lighted about the country-not bonfires to communicate insurrection, but to evince joy that a few starving men were about to earn bread to support their families.

I saw

I spent part of a day on a race-ground, about four miles from Kilkenny, where some steeple races took place, and where a large concourse of persons was as sembled. I was particularly struck with the difference in the display of luxuries at an Irish and an English merry-making. Gingerbread and other dainties are exhibited at a race or fair in England; here I observed carts filled with good common household bread. This was deemed a luxury.

This being an assemblage of " Kilkenny boys," who, next to Tipperary boys, bear the best fighting character, I thought to have had it to say, "it's there where one 'il see the fightin' that 'll do his heart good;" but several things prevented this exhibition. There was but little money among the lower orders to buy whisky; and torrents of rain had the effect of thinning the field. I saw plenty of "boys" with their shillelahs, but the fighting was only desultory. There were abundance of booths, and Irish pipes, and Irish jigs, and "boys" who appeared to have hired a fiddler for their own exclusive use, dancing a pas seul within a circle of admirers.

A charming country lies between Kilkenny and Freshford, the first town on the road. The views, looking back on Kilkenny, are very striking, and the banks of the Nore, near to which our road lay, are finely wooded, and are adorned by several bandI was every where delighted with some country seats. the magnificent thorns, which, both in the hedges by the wayside, and as single trees in the neighbouring parks, were entirely covered with their white, pink, and fragrant blossoms. Freshford is a poor little place; but I saw multitudes of pigs and mountains of manure about the doors.

From Freshford to Johnstoun, where we stopped to breakfast, the country is less interesting; the fields were so completely covered with daisies, that they appeared as if spread over with lime; and I observed a greater quantity of pasture land than I had usually

seen.

Beyond Johnstoun to Urlingford, three miles farther, the country gets poorer; and Urlingford stands almost on the skirts of the Bog of Allen, a branch of which we soon after entered. Of all the bogs of Ireland, we hear most in England of the Bog of Allen; the reason of which is, that it is the largest, extending through a great part of the centre of Ireland: and although separated and intersected by belts of arable land, by gravel hills, and by reclaimed portions of land, is, with all its branches, one bog-the Bog of Allen. The branch which we crossed extended about twelve miles to the left; and to the right it broke into several branches, extending to a much greater disIt presented a dreary expanse of dark-brown herbage, here and there broken by heaps of dry turf; here and there, too, little patches had been reclaimed ; and wherever there was an elevation, it was covered of the reddish-brown level around. with the finest green, agreeably relieving the monotony

tance.

The houses

erected on the skirts of the bog were wretched in the extreme, and the people in the lowest scale of humanity.

The second day I spent at Cashel was market day; and among other sights I was greatly amused by the country people driving bargains for pigs. A man, a pig-dealer, would come to a countryman who held a pig by a string. "How much do you ask ?" "28s." the buyer; and the proprietor of the pigs holds out the answer might be. "Hold out your hand," says his hand accordingly; the buyer places a penny in it, and then strikes it with a force that might break the back of an ox: "Will ye take 20s. ?" The other shakes his head-" Ask 24s., and see if I'll give it ye," says the pig merchant. The owner again shakes his head. It is probable that by this time some one among the bystanders-for there is always a circle formed round a bargain-making-endeavours to accommodate matters; for it is another instance of the kindly feeling towards each other, that all around are anxious that the bargain should be concluded. Again the merchant says, "Hold out your hand," and again a tremendous blow is struck, and a new offer made, till at last they come within a shilling perhaps of each other's terms, when the bargain is struck; and the shilling about which they differed, and probably two or three others, are spent in whisky punch "screeching hot."

Sitting in the evening at the window of the inn, I saw a sight such as I never saw in any other part of naked in the street. the world-a lad twelve years of age, and upwards, I say naked: I do not mean without a rag; but I mean so entirely in rags, that he might as well have been stark naked. All he had on him was a jacket, and a few tatters of a shirt, hanging in stripes here and there. Public decency would not permit such a sight in England; and viewing such a spectacle, one is tempted to ask, is there no clergyman, no magistrate, no decent man in Cashel, who, for the sake of sheer modesty, would throw a pair of trousers to the ragamuffin? When I was at Cashel, potatoes had become so dear, that bread was partly substituted for them by the poor. A baker's shop chanced to be situated precisely opposite to the inn; and I saw very many children buy a halfpenny worth of bread, and divide it into two or three pieces,

for the supper of as many.

I now left Cashel for the town of Tipperary. Tipperary county, with the exception, I believe, of finest land in Ireland; and certainly nothing can some parts of Limerick, is considered to contain the exceed the fertility and abundance which are spread over the fields.

A WINTER IN HOLLAND.

The frost having set in, which is usually the case in November, the milkinen (melk boezen) are amongst the first to cross the ice, which is at first so thin that the greatest precaution is necessary to save life. A Dutchman even looks at these fellows with surprise, when he sees them crossing the vast sheet of ice which covers the Y, the harbour of Amsterdam, having their sledges, containing four or five barrels with milk fastened to each other with a strong cord, every man to his sledge on skates, the train going rapidly across the ice, choosing the safest path. Should it happen that one of these sledges is about to go through, their beThe ing fastened to each other prevents its loss. weight of the train, and all hands at work, in a few minutes you see them again gliding along with great rapidity. In a day or two, should the frost continue, friends invite friends to cross op schaatsen (on skates) the Y to those favourite and cleanly spots Brock and Waterland, and they would not be taken by surprise should some gentlemen be passing them in their yachts (plaizier schuytjens), having placed bars of iron under their bottoms, after the manner of skates, in full sail; and should there be a tolerable breeze, they'll outrun the skater. Coupled with these amusements, the nobility and gentry are not behind hand with their horses and sledges, which, in Holland, are called narren; the horses are usually ornamented with bells of bright steel or other metal, and while running give warning to the skater. Horse-racing often takes place, the horse being well shod with prongs. A company of a dozen and half-dozen of ladies and gentlemen may be seen gliding along, holding on to a long ornamented stick, having a good skater in front and behind, the ladies being placed on one side of the stick and the gentlemen on the other keeping time. At this time

the ice is so strong, that certain places, in fact, almost any part of it, would not sink under a heavy country waggon. The Dutch are capable of skating seventy or eighty miles in the country. On leaving their homes, in Amsterdam, for a skating journey, they may be on their skates in five minutes, and con. tinue their journey till they reach Rotterdam. Small obstructions are not considered here, a Dutchman walking on his skates over land in passing a sluys, &c.

STATISTICS WORTH KNOWING.

In Great Britain, the number of individuals in a state to bear arms, from the age of fifteen to sixty, is 2,744,847. The number of marriages is about 98,030 yearly; and it has been remarked, that in sixty-three of these unions, there were only three which had no issue. The number of deaths is about 332,708 yearly, 914 daily, and 40 hourly. The deaths among the which makes nearly 25,592 monthly, 6398 weekly, women are in proportion to those of the men as 50 to 54. The married women live longer than those who continue in celibacy. In the country, the mean term of the number of children produced by each marriage is four; riages. The number of married women is to the in towns, the proportion is seven for every two mar. general number of individuals of the sex as one to three; and the number of married men, to that of all the individuals of the male sex, as three to five. The number of widows is to that of widowers as three to one; but the number of widows who marry again is to that of widowers in the same case, as seven to four. The individuals who inhabit elevated situations live longer than those who reside in less elevated places. The half of the individuals die before attaining the age of 17 years. The number of twins is to that of ordinary births as 1 to 65. According to calculations founded upon the bills of mortality, one individual only in 3126 attains the age of 100 years.

The num ber of births of the male sex is to that of the female sex as 96 to 95.-Edinburgh Philosophical Journal.

MAY YOU DIE AMONG YOUR KINDRED.

It is a sad thing to feel that we must die away from our home. Tell not the invalid, who is yearning after his distant country, that the atmosphere around him is soft; that the gales are filled with balm, and the flowers are springing from the green earth; he knows that the softest air to his heart would be the air which hangs over his native land; that more grateful than all the gales of the south, would breathe the low whispers of anxious affection; that the very icicles clinging to his own eaves, and the snow beat. ing against his own windows, would be far more pleaonly more forcibly remind him how far he is from that sant to his eyes than the bloom and verdure which

one spot which is dearer to him than the world beside. He may indeed find estimable friends who will do all in their power to promote his comfort and assuage

his pains; but they cannot supply the place of the long-known and long-loved; they cannot read as in a book the mute language of his face; they have not learned to wait upon his habits and anticipate his wants, and he has not learned to communicate, without hesitation, all his wishes, impressions, and thoughts desolate feeling than that could not visit his soul. to them. He feels that he is a stranger; and a more How much is expressed by that form of oriental bene diction, "May you die among your kindred."—Green

wood.

SHE WAS A PHANTOM.

She was a Phantom of delight
When first she gleamed upon my sight;
A lovely Apparition, sent
To be a moment's ornament;
Her eyes are stars of Twilight fair;
Like Twilight's, too, her dusky hair;
But all things else about her drawn
From May-time and the cheerful Dawn ;
A dancing Shape, an Image gay,
To haunt, to startle, and waylay.

I saw her upon nearer view,

A Spirit, yet a Woman too!

Her household motions light and free,
And steps of virgin liberty;

A countenance in which did meet
Sweet records, promises as sweet;
A Creature not too bright or good
For human nature's daily food;
For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles.
And now I see with eye serene
The very pulse of the machine;
A Being breathing thoughtful breath,
A Traveller betwixt life and death;
The reason firm, the temperate will,
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill,
A perfect Woman, nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort, and command;
And yet a Spirit still, and bright
With something of an angel light.

WORDSWORTH.

LONDON: Published, with Permission of the Proprietors, by On8 & SMITH, Paternoster Row; G. BERGER, Holywell Street, Strand; BANCKS & Co., Manchester; WRIGHTSON & Wkx Birmingham; WILLMER & SMITH, Liverpool; W. E. SOMER SCALE, Leeds; C. N. WRIGHT, Nottingham; WESTLEY & CO. Bristol; S. SIMMS, Bath; J. JOHNSON, Cambridge; W. GAIN, Exeter; J. PURDON, Hull; G. RIDGE, She:field; H. BELLEERY, York; J. TAYLOR, Brighton; and sold by all Booksellers, Newsmen, &c. in town and country.

Stereotyped by A. Kirkwood, Edinburgh. Printed by Bradbury and Evans (late T. Davison), Whitefriars,

[graphic]

CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS EDITORS OF "CHAMBERS'S HISTORICAL NEWSPAPER."

No. 159.

COINCIDENCES.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1835.

WE are often startled by the occurrence of incidents bearing such a reference to each other as there was no reason for anticipating, and which seems to set at defiance the whole theory or doctrine of chances. Cir. cumstances and events appear to take runs. The world, one might almost suppose, is subject to fits of certain courses of action. We have, for our own part, frequently remarked, that, after having been all our lives ignorant of some particular fact, in history, biography, or science, we were twice informed of it in one day, either in conversation or in reading. We also very frequently observe, in the conducting of this sheet, that there is a kind of disposition, as it were, in the articles themselves, to run into resemblances, either in their general scope or in some minor feature; and this often deranges our schemes very materially. An invention useful to man is postponed for ages not a man thinks of it-till all at once it is hit upon by two persons living in distant quarters of the world, and whose names, though expressed in different languages, are almost the same. Misfortunes, too, as most of us could tell without the aid of Shakspeare, come not single spies. And all the world knows that it never rains but it pours.

In serious earnest, many coincidences are of such a nature as to appear almost beyond the range of the natural course of things. A gentleman whom we shall style F, on retiring voluntarily from a particular office, was requested to point out a fit successor. He named G, with whom he had nearly concluded arrangements, when the prospect of something more advantageous opened upon that individual, and induced him to give up the proffered place. F, by the recommendation of G, then wrote to H, a gentleman engaged in a similar though less desirable office in a distant part of the country, and the letter was on the point of being sent to the post-office, when G called to mention, that, having learned something that gave a different cast to his prospects, he was disposed to accept, and accordingly the place was his. H thus missed, by the narrowest of chances, a situa

tion which it was afterwards learned would have been

[ocr errors]

very agreeable to him; within a very few months, however, F found himself under the necessity of employing an assistant in his own business, and it occurred to him that H was an appropriate person. He therefore sat down to write a letter of proposals, and had nearly reached the conclusion, when he was informed that two gentlemen were waiting for him in an adjoining room. Leaving the letter unfinished, he went to see these visitors, whom, to his infinite surprise, he found to be G and H, the one come to introduce the other. It then appeared that H, having lost his former office in consequence of the dissolution of a copartnery, had come to town in quest of employment, and among other means for obtaining it, had induced his friend to bring him to F, in the hope of such a situation as that identical one which F was in the act of offering to him. It is needless to add that an agreement was immediately made.

Very strange coincidences sometimes occur in the transactions which bring about matrimonial connections. A gentleman once entered a ball-room, in which he saw seated opposite to him a young lady whom he supposed to be one in whom he had some years before felt a tender interest, but from whom, by a series of unpleasant circumstances, he had been so effectually separated, that she had since married another. After using every expedient to avoid approaching this indi

The recent splendid discovery of Sir Charles Bell, of the London University, respecting the nervous system, was made simultaneously by a Signor Carlobelli residing in Italy.

vidual, he discovered at a second look that she was in reality a different lady, one to whom he had been introduced a few weeks before, and with whom he had chanced to travel that very evening in the same coach. This young lady, though he now and for some time after beheld her without any particular interest, and though upon the most careful inspection she could not be said to bear any real resemblance to his former mis. tress, eventually became his wife.

Some years ago, a manufacturer belonging to a town in the south of Scotland, was so favourably impressed by the appearance of an elegant young woman, the daugh. ter of an innkeeper in the Highlands, under whose roof he chanced to spend a night, that he said to his companions, "If I ever be married, it will be to that girl." Nothing came of this declaration for upwards of ten years. At the end of that period, some domestic circumstances rendered it necessary that the lady should take up her residence with a relation! in a town far removed from the scene of her early days. In passing through an intermediate city, she proposed to a friend to go to a furnishing shop for a piece of carpeting, which she understood to be necessary for her accommodation in her new home, but being reminded that the town to which she was going was a famed seat of the manufacture, and that she might there obtain what she wanted at probably a more moderate price, she was induced to give up her intention. Soon after being settled in her new abode, she proceeded to the warehouse of a respectable carpet-manufacturer, in order to make her purchase, and was surprised to observe an unaccountable confusion of manner in the individual who came to serve her. It was the person who so many years before had declared himself unable to marry any but she. Some explanations took place, an intimacy was formed, and in three weeks the parties were joined in wedlock.

It is very needlessly remarked that Truth exhibits in her annals things more wonderful than any represented by poets or novelists. The reason is obviously the necessity which constrains the writers of fiction to keep within the bounds of probability. When we hear of a wonderful coincidence in real life, we are forced to believe it, however improbable it may appear; but when any thing very extraordinary is presented in fiction, we treat it simply as a fault on the part of the author, whom we pronounce a blunderer and an incapable, for resorting to such means for bringing about the desired event. Hence we would calmly see a gamester ruined irretrievably, by his opponent having six times in succession thrown aces; while we would shut any book with contempt, which should set forth such an incident as affecting to any extent the imaginary beings described in it. We happen to be able to illustrate this principle in a somewhat curious manner.

The original old ballad upon which Sir Walter Scott founded his Jock of Hazeldean, is one entitled Jock of Hazelgreen, which relates a story nearly ascending to the wildness of oriental fiction. It commences with the following stanzas :

As I went forth to take the air,
Intil an evening clear,

I spied a ladye in a wood,
Making a heavy bier;
Making a heavy bier, I wot,

While the tears drapped frae her een;
And aye she siched, and said, "Alas,
For Jock o' Hazelgreen!"

The sun was sinking in the west,
The stars were shining clear,
When through the thickest o' the wood
An auld knicht did appear,

PRICE THREE HALFPENCE.

Says, "who has done you wrong, fair maid,
And left you here alane ?"
"Oh! nobody has done me wrong;
I weep for Hazelgreen."

"Why weep ye by the tide, ladye?
Why weep ye by the tide ?
How blythe and happy micht he be,
Gets you to be his bride!
Oh, wha has done ye wrang, fair maid,
And left ye here alane?"
"Oh, naebody has done me wrang;
I weep for Hazelgreen."
"What like a man was Hazelgreen,
Fair May, pray tell to me?"
"He is a comely proper youth,

I in my sleep did see;
His shoulders broad, his armis long,
Sae comely to be seen!"
And aye she loot the tears doun fa'

For Jock o' Hazelgreen.

The old knight is then represented as offering her his eldest son, whom she refuses out of regard to the comely youth of her dreams. An offer of the youngest son is also rejected :

"Young Hazelgreen, he is my love,
And ever mair shall be ;
I'll no forsake young Hazelgreen,

Though him I ne'er should see."
And aye she siched, and said, "Alas!"
And made a piteous meane;
And aye she loot the tears doun fa'

For Jock o' Hazelgreen.

The old gentleman nevertheless takes her up behind him on his horse, and sets off for Edinburgh, where he vainly endeavours, by presents of fine clothes, to gain her love for his son. Proceeding farther on their journey, they at length reach what appears to be the seat of the knight :

When they did come to Hazelyetts,
They lichtit down therein;
Mony were the brave ladyes there,
Mony ane to be seen;
When she lichtit down amang them a',
She micht hae been their queen;
But aye she loot the tears down fa'

For Jock o' Hazelgreen.

Then forth there came young Hazelgreen,
To welcome his father free;
"Ye're welcome here, my father dear,
And a' your companie."
But when he saw this ladye fair,
A licht lauch lauchit he,
Says, "If I getna this ladye,

It's for her I maun dee.

"This is the very maiden fair,
I ance saw in a dream,
A-walking through a pleasant shade,
As she had been a queen.
For her sake I did vow a vow.

I ne'er should wed but she:
Should this fair ladye cruel prove,
I'll lay me down and dee."

"Now haud your tongue, young Hazelgreen,
And let your folly be:

If ye be sick for that ladye,

She's thrice as sick for thee;
She's thrice as sick tor thee, my son,
I've heard her sae compleen;
And a' she wants to heal her woe,
Is Jock o' Hazelgreen."

He's ta'en her by the hand so white,
Led her through bower and ha,
"Cheer up your heart, my dearest May,
Ye're lady cwer them a'

« НазадПродовжити »