THE BARD OF LIBERTY. A singular looking man was standing one dreary winter's evening, by the low fire of a public-house in Cardiganshire. He had walked many miles with the hope of reaching the residence of a friend before the night set in. He was an admirable pedestrian, often walking thirty or forty miles in the day; but on this occasion, he had experienced unusual fatigue, and determined to take up his lodging at the country inu. He was short in stature, with long hair floating over the high collar of his blue coat; his nether garments were made of the strong, but almost obsolete material of corduroy, and his shoes were fastened with buckles. He had just begun to enjoy the genial warmth of the fire, when a pedlar entered, and in humble and earnest tones requested a night's shelter, entreating the landlord to pay himself from his pack, as he had no other means of defraying the expense. The publican, disregarding his pale countenance and feeble voice, ordered him in a surly and contemptuous tone to leave the house directly, as he was not compelled to harbour men who could not pay for their accommodation. The first comer was moved by the distress and disappointment of the poor wanderer, and taking the solitary shilling in his hand, which was to pay for his own bed, he thrust it into his hand, and seizing the long staff and the double wallet with which he invariably travelled, he thus addressed the landlord. "Villain!" he said, "do you call yourself a man? You, who would under any circumstances, turn out a poor exhausted traveller on a night like this! You are a disgrace to humanity; and I will not stay under your roof another minute. Turn out the poor traveller at your peril! You dare not refuse the money he can now offer you !" He immediately quitted the house, and a walk of several miles brought him to that of his friend, but the inclemency of the weather so affected him, that he had a long and dangerous illness. Yet he never for a moment regretted the generous act, although it involved much inconvenience from loss of time, and severe bodily suffering. Our young readers may feel some interest in learning a few more particulars of this man, who was a poet, an antiquarian, and a practical Christian. Edward Williams, or, Tolo Morganug, was a native of Glamorganshire, and resided, during the greater part of his life at Flemingstone, in that county. His father was a stone-mason, and brought him up to the same business. The delicacy of his health prevented his being sent to school in his youth, and he learned his alphabet by watching his father inscribe grave-stones. His mother had married below her station in life, and he derived from her a refinement, which was, perhaps, one of the causes of his shrinking from the company and diversions of boys in his own rank. At nine years of age, he began to work at his business; and returned every night to the side of his mother, with whom he read and talked of what he read. He went to work with a wallet on his shoulder, containing books and papers, and always remained alone when the masons dined at a public house. They often found him, on their return, sitting on a stone reading or transcribing, with his humble meal by his side untouched. His absence of mind was, on one occasion, somewhat inconvenient. His father, going away with his usual companions, left him in charge of a parsonage-house, which had been left by the tenants for the purposes of repair, with the live stock on the premises. When the men returned from dinner, they found, to their great dismay, that while he was in a state of complete absorption over his book, pigs, geese, and ducks were amusing themselves in various parts of the house; a calf occupied the kitchen, and a donkey displayed his graces in the parlour.. In 1781, in his 35th year, he married, and the daily necessities of a wife and increasing family, compelled him to give up the higher efforts of a pen which had produced some valuable poems, and to descend to the profitable but wearisome employment of composing, and then inscribing "vile doggrel" on tombstones. That his skill as a mason was not contemptible, is evinced by the fact, that he was employed in the erection of the monument in Ross Church, to the benevolent John Kyle, who is immortalised by Pope, as the Man of Ross. The fine dust arising from the use of the chisel, proved so injurious to his lungs, that he determined, for a time at least, to open a small shop at Cowbridge, where he sold books, stationery, and groceries, and where he introduced the free labour sugar. It was thus announced by a paper in the window-"East India sweets, uncontaminated by human gore." On the subject of slavery he felt deeply. His whole nature revolted at the great sin of holding property in human beings. He had not a mere theoretical abhorrence of the traffic in souls, for his principles had to be put to a severe test. He had three brothers who sought their fortunes in Jamaica, one as a sculptor, the others as bricklayers. They obtained regular employment and good remuneration for their industry, and they wrote to Edward, urging him to accept from them an annuity of £50 per annum, which, by diminishing the necessity of so much manual labour, would enable him to pursue his favourite studies. But he refused to accept their offer, for the money was earned in a land of slaves, the planters paid them for their work by the money which the labour of the slaves produced. "I cannot touch the money," he said, "it is the price of blood; it is the purchase of humanity's birthright; rather would I starve than be fed on the contaminated gains of that detested slave trade." This must have been a great temptation to him, but another was in store. One after another, his three brothers died; they had acquired considerable property in Jamaica, and he was their heir. It partly consisted of slaves, for at the time of which we are speaking, England had not abolished slavery in her colonies. He did not hesitate for a moment to decline administering to the estate. His friends exhausted the usual arguments to induce him to alter his determination, vainly endeavouring to persuade him that he had no right to allow his views to interfere with the higher duty of providing for his numerous family. "What!" he said, "would you have me bring the oppressed negro's curse on the heads of my children? No! never with my consent shall they defile their conscience with such guilty lucre! The ban of the Almighty is on slavery and all its concomitants. He hates it; and His displeasure must await all who love either it or its gains. No! I will not purchase a curse for myself and my offspring, by such unhallowed participation." (To be continued.) HONESTY. WITH honest heart go on your way, Down to your burial sod, Then like a happy pilgrim here, And every thing along your way, Your sons and grandsons to your tomb Shall come, their tears to shed; And from their tears sweet flowers shall bloom men, AN UNPLEASANT MEETING. One of our (William Whitfield,) who had gone the previous evening to the entrance of the bay, suddenly found himself close to a bear, which had advanced within twenty feet of him and there stood. Considering it imprudent to attempt to retreat, he prepared to act on the defensive only, brought the gun to his shoulder and fearlessly awaited the expected attack, when another bear appeared in sight, and came up at a brisk pace within forty yards of him and halted, In this position the three stood for several minutes, when, to his inexpressible delight, he was relieved from this most unenviable situation by their turning round and walking to seaward; he then made all possible haste to the ship, rejoicing at his narrow escape: Dr. Armstrong's Personal Narrative of the Discovery of the Northwest Passage. PETRIFIED WOOD IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS.-On excavating to some extent we found the entire hill a ligneous formation, being composed of the trunks and branches of trees; some of them dark and softened, in a state of semi-carbonization. Others were quite fresh, the woody structure perfect, but hard and dense. In a few situations the wood, from its flatness and the pressure to which it had for ages been exposed, presented a laminated structure, with traces of coal. The trunk of one tree, the end of which protruded, was 26 inches in diameter by 16 inches; that of another, a portion of which was brought on board, was seven feet in length, and three feet in circumference; and dense in structure, although pronounced then to be pine. Other pieces, although still preserving the woody structure, had a specific gravity exceeding that of water, in which they readily sunk, from their having undergone an incipient stage of impregnation with some of the earthy products. of the soil. Numerous pine cones, and a few acorns. were also found in the same state of silicification. The trunks apparently extended a considerable distance into the interior of the hill, and were bituminous and friable. Many of those which were embedded crumbled away on being struck with a pick-axe, which readily found its way into any part of them, rendering their removal impossible; some of them were in such a state of carbonization as to approach lignite in character. The whole conveyed the idea of the hill being entirely composed of wood. As far as our excavations were carried, nothing else was met with except the loamy soil in which they were embedded; but the decay of the wood in some places appeared to form its own soil. The petrifactions, with numerous pieces of wood, were strewn everywhere over the surface of this and many of the contiguous hills. Many specimens of these were obtained, varying from one to fourteen inches in length, the longest not exceeding five or six in circumference; they consisted of portions of the branches of trees. Some of them were impregnated with iron, (brown hæmatite,) had a distinct metallic tinkle when struck, and were heavier than other pieces without the metallic impregnation or sound; they were simply silicified, the sand entering into the com |