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bred person-opened the door; and, calling the lady by her name, requested her to alight. "Where am I?-in God's name, tell me; and why am I brought here?" "You will be informed of every thing, madam, if you please to walk in-doors." "Where is my husband?" said she, in wild affright: sure he will not let me be murdered!" "It was your husband who drove you hither, madam; he is now upon the coach-box!"

All her assurance

This intelligence was conclusive. forsook her. She submitted to be conducted into the house, and sat pale, mute, and trembling; her face and her dress exhibiting the most striking contrast.

The husband, deeply affected, first spoke: he told her, "that she had left no other means to save her from ruin, and he trusted the remedy would be effectual; and, when she quitted that retreat, she would be worthy of his esteem."

She then essayed, by the humblest protestations, by tears and entreaties, to be permitted to return; and vowed that never more whilst she lived would she ever offend him. "Save me," said she, "the mortification of this punishment, and my future conduct shall prove the sincerity of my reformation." Not to let her off too soon, she was shown her destined apartment and dress, the rules of the house, and the order for her confinement during six months! She was completely overpowered with terror, and fell senseless on the floor. When she recovered, she found her husband chafing her temples, and expressing the utmost anxiety for her safety. "I have been unworthy of your affection," said the fair penitent, "but spare me this ignominious fate; take me back to your home, and never more shall you have cause to reproach me."

Her husband, who loved her with unabated affection, notwithstanding all her levity, at last relented; and the same coach drove her back to her home; where not one of the domestics (a trusty man-servant excepted) had the least suspicion of what had occurred. As soon as her husband led her to her apartment, she dropped on her knee, and implored his pardon; told him the extent of

all her debts, begged him to take her to Zutphen for a few weeks, and promised so to reduce her expenditure as to make good the sums she had so inconsiderately thrown away.

Allowing for the excessive terror she had felt when she found, instead of being driven to 's rout, she was proceeding round the ramparts, outside the city gates, which she could not wholly overcome, she spent the happiest evening of her life with her husband; and, from that day, she abandoned her former career of dissipated folly, and became all that her husband desireda good wife and affectionate mother.

There have been instances of persons being confined for many years in these houses; mostly by coercion, but some voluntarily.

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An elderly man, who had acquired a competency, after he had retired from business, took to drinking, and that to an excessive degree; during which fits of intemperance he made away with his property, and showed every symptom of spending or wasting all he had, and reducing himself and family to beggary.

His wife was advised to place her husband in a Verbetering Huis; an act for which he thanked her, and acknowledged it was the only means by which he could be restrained from ruining himself.

At the end of five months' discipline, in a house where all his wants were supplied, and nothing debarred him but intoxicating liquors, he was deemed to be sufficiently reclaimed; and went back to his house, cured, as he hoped, of a vice that he had not acquired in his youthful days. He did not feel the least anger or resentment; but, on the contrary, told his wife and sons, if he should again relapse into that odious vice, to send him back, and there keep him.

For a time he maintained his resolution: but, by degrees, he fell off; and in less than a year he was become as bad as ever. His family were grieved; but such was their fondness of him, they would not again put him into a state of restraint, lest their friends should

reflect upon them, and impute their conduct to sordid motives alone.

One day the old gentleman was missed, and the night passed without tidings: the next morning, the messenger from the Verbetering Huis arrived with a note, informing his wife and family, "that, feeling his own inability to conquer a propensity that was alike ruinous and unworthy of his age and former character, he had betaken himself to his old quarters, where he was determined to live and die, as he saw no other means of avoiding the ignominy of wasting his property, and making beggars of his family."

In Holland, the majority of males is fixed at twentyfive years; and if a young gentleman is very incorrigible, his parents or guardians can place him in one of these institutions; and the same respecting young women.

A tradesman's daughter in the Warmoe's-street, in 1803, formed an attachment to a married man. Her parents, with a view to save her from ruin, placed her in one of these houses for six months. Solitude and reflection, and the religious lectures read to her by the minister who was appointed to attend, wrought a change of sentiment; but the shock was so great that she died soon after her release,-a victim to her unfortunate passion.

An English tradesman, who lived in the same street, had a wife who was rather too much addicted to drinking, and he placed her in one of these houses; but, whether it was the confinement, or some extraneous causes, the unfortunate woman went raving mad, in which state she died.—It is a curious fact, that, of the English who have been placed in these sort of houses, scarcely a single instance has occurred of any radical good being effected, further than the restraint imposed by the rules of the place; whilst, of the native Dutch, in at least one-half the cases that had occurred in 1803, a radical cure had been effected.

All these institutions are placed under the super

intendence of the police; most of them are provided with dark chambers for the confinement of the refractory, and also a geessel-paal, or whipping-post; but no one can be confined in the one, or whipped at the other, without an order from the magistrate; and the latter punishment must be applied in the presence of the visitors, and not by any servant of the house, but by the common executioner; which inflictions are not held as infamous, or even dishonourable; and many instances have occurred in which the great and opulent have had their refractory children punished in this

manner.

During the prosperity of the Belgic republic, these institutions were very beneficial to the community; but, after its decline and fall, and the universal poverty and depravity which ensued, they became less an object of terror, as only the rich, and they were few indeed, could afford to pay for their relatives, to whom such coercion might have been useful.

WIT.

HOW TO BEG.

NOBREGA, who afterwards acted so conspicuous a part as a missionary in Brazil, was once with a laybrother in Galicia, preaching and begging his way, after the manner of his order. They were in the city of Santiago, and had gained no alms that day; for in the market-place, where they probably expected most, a Gallega was amusing himself with preaching a mock sermon to ridicule Nobrega, who had an impediment in his speech, so that they were ashamed to beg among the noisy congregation. At night, he and his companion went to the hospital, and got into a room where a large party of beggars were sitting at table, in high glee, feeding away, and drinking wine. They were disputing at the same time, and as soon as they saw these

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strangers, called them in, saying, "Sit down, brothers, and eat, and you shall be judge between us, for we are disputing which is the best beggar." Nobrega and his companion had had no food the whole day; they sat down among these vagabonds, and played their parts upon what was before them, while their new companions, each in his turn, related the secrets of his trade. The last who spoke was one who had purposely reserved his story, as thinking he had exIceeded all the others. "You know nothing at all about begging," said this fellow. "My way is thisI never beg, but go up to a house-door, and give a deep groan, saying, blessed be Mary, the mother of God,' or any other saint, according to the place where I happen to be. Out come the people to see what is the matter, and then I say, with as pitiful a voice as I can, 'Oh, sirs, great are the mercies which our Lord hath vouchsafed to show me! You must know that I was a slave in Turkey, and the dog of a Turk, my master, led me a cruel life to make me renounce Christ :-he used to flog me bloodily, and swear he would kill me, if I did not renounce my faith. But I always answered him, O dog, I will not turn renegado, for our Lady, or Santiago (I name the saint according to the place I am in) will deliver me. And in fact, brethren, sinner as you see me, even so it came to pass; for one night I was in great affliction, laden with chains, and in a dark dungeon, and I prayed earnestly to our Lady,blessed be God's mercy, the next morning at daybreak I found myself in a Christian country. And now I am going in pilgrimage to her church, to return thanks for so great a miracle.'-Every body gives me noble alms then," and, turning to Nobrega, he said, "what think you, brother,-who's the best beggar?" Nobrega meantime had made a good meal, and having satisfied his appetite, thought it no longer necessary to keep his temper. "You are all thieves and enemies of God," he cried, " you go about stealing the alms which should be for the poor, and deceiving Christian people; you all ought to be hung, and I will accuse you before the ma

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