retreat. They reached the first breach in safety, when the Mexicans, who had watched their movements in silence, suddenly assailed them by land and water with tremendous force, and put them all into confusion. The Spaniards, unable to remove their bridge to the second breach, were exposed on a small piece of ground to these numberless assailants, and fell in great numbers, while others perished in the lake, or were taken prisoners. It was with the utmost difficulty that Cortez forced his way with a hundred of his men across the remaining breaches, and gained the open country. Before morning, others were able to extricate themselves from the scene of carnage; but fully a half of the army had perished on this dreadful night, or were reserved to be sacrificed to the idols of the Mexicans. As the survivors were now upon the side of the lake most remote from Tlascala, the only place where they could hope for a friendly reception, they had to commence a long and toilsome march, frequently interrupted by parties of the enemy, who, if they did not attack them, called out, "Go on, robbers! till you arrive at the place where just punishment awaits you." This menacing intimation was not understood by them, till, on ascending the heights which look down on the great plain of Otumba, they saw an immense army drawn out, and ready to receive them. At this spectacle, the hearts of the Spaniards were ready to faint within them; but the heroic spirit of Cortez always appeared to greatest advantage in the most desperate conjunctures. Without allowing his soldiers time to contemplate the fearful array of the enemy, but reminding them that they must choose between death and victory, he gave the signal of battle; rushed, with a chosen band, into the thickest of the fight; and, having seized the sacred standard of the Mexicans, gained, with little loss, a most decisive victory. This remarkable battle, in which a handful of Spaniards defeated the whole forces of the Mexican empire, was fought on the 7th of July 1520. On the following day Cortez reached Tlascala, the inhabitants of which continued faithful to him in all his reverses. The followers of Cortez, who had been unable to maintain their ground in Mexico, supposed that no course was now left them to adopt but to abandon a struggle, to which their numbers and provision were inadequate. But Cortez himself was obstinately bent on effecting the subjugation of the Mexican empire. He employed agents to procure him ammunition, and to collect recruits among the adventurers of the Spanish colonies. The fame of his exploits, and of the rich spoils won at Otumba, brought not a few to join his standard. In a brief space, he found himself once more in readiness for aggressive operations. He then advanced to the lake in which the city of Mexico is situated, and reduced several minor towns to subjection. Part of his troops he employed in fashioning, from a distant forest, the separable parts of a number of brigantines, which he designed to employ against the capital. Much of his time and labour was required to support the spirits of his countrymen against the dangers of their situation, and to counteract the conspiracies which were perpetually formed against himself. At length, by dint of enthusiasm, fortitude, and skill, such as are rarely found in any of the scenes of life, this extraordinary man was able, within six months of his late disastrous retreat, to advance against Mexico with nine hundred Spaniards, of whom eightysix were cavalry, and a vast host of friendly Indians, besides twelve small armed vessels, which, considering the difficulties with which they must have been prepared, were perhaps the most surprising part of the armament. The Mexicans, under their new emperor Guatimozin, had made vast preparations for his reception. The flower of the provinces were collected in the city for its defence; new fortifications had been reared; and the European weapons which fell into their hands at the retreat of the Spaniards, had been fitted upon long spears, with the view of annoying the cavalry. Divided into three parties, each of which was attended by a portion of the brigantines, the army of Cortez made a series of vigorous attacks upon the city; always retiring in the even. ing to their posts, and apparently producing little effect upon the enemy. After wasting a month in this manner, he made a desperate and united attack upon the city, which he had penetrated a considerable way, when the Mexican emperor, after taking measures for intercepting his retreat, called forth new troops, and very nearly renewed the late disaster. The Spaniards only regained their quarters with a loss of sixty men, forty of whom, having been taken alive, were that night sacrificed in their sight to the god of war. The Mexican sovereign now gave out a religious prophecy, that, on a particular day, an end was to be put to the Spanish power; and not only did this give new animation to his subjects, but it greatly dispirited the auxiliaries of his enemy. Cortez, however, with his usual prudence, avoided all danger on this account, by scrupulously abstain. ing, on the appointed day, from every warlike de tive before the triumphant Cortez. The city then extraordinary man expired near Seville on the 2d of December 1547, in the sixty-second year of his age. His remains were interred with great pomp in the chapel of the Dukes of Medina Sidonia, but were afterwards removed to New Spain, in conformity with the desire expressed in his will. The titles of Cortez have passed by marriage to the Dukes of Monteleone, who also retained possession of his immense estates in Mexico up to the recent revolutious in the New World.* FOLLIES AND FRIVOLITIES AT THE IN reference to the Restoration of Charles II., in As soon as Cortez found his authority confirmed by kintosh's History of the Reign of James II. in the 1660, Mr Macaulay, in an article on Sir James Macthe royal sanction, he applied himself with fresh ardour to consolidate his dominion, by the establishment 124th number of the Edinburgh Review, says, “All the of police, by building towns, and encouraging the arts contemporary accounts represent the nation as in a of peace. The struggle with the Mexicans was no state of hysterical excitement, of drunken joy. In sooner decided, than several expeditions were dispatched by him, in order to obtain a more perfect Dover, and bordered the road along which the king the immense multitude which crowded the beach at knowledge of the country. The genius of this man was, however, less fitted for conducting civil business travelled to London, there was not one who was not than for deeds of desperate adventure; and, except- weeping. Bonfires blazed; bells jingled; and the streets ing in a remarkable land expedition to Honduras for were thronged at night by boon-companions, who the suppression of a revolt, he exhibited, after this forced all the passers-by to swallow on their knees period, few of those qualities which have procured him so much celebrity. For several years he main-brimming glasses to the health of his Most Sacred tained himself with difficulty in power, being fre- Majesty, and confusion to Red-nosed Noll." quently superseded by nobles and lawyers sent out for that purpose from Spain. Hurt at this treatment, and aware that an equitable trial was not to be expected in the New World, where the sentiments of justice and generosity were choked by habitual violence and rapacity, he resolved to return to Spain, and vindicate his conduct to the emperor in person. He appeared at Toledo with a costly retinue, and such a display of wealth as was calculated to raise the estimation of those rich countries which he had annexed to the Spanish crown. Some of the Mexican nobility followed in his train. This splendour produced the intended effect. Cortez, now Marquess del Valle de Guaxaca, was received by the emperor with every demonstration of favour and esteem. But although his enemies were silenced, the inflexible policy of the government was not moved by the openness of his bebaHis authority was abridged; and Antonio de Mendoza was appointed viceroy of New Spain, while the marquess was allowed to retain only the powers of captain-general and admiral of the South Seas. The enterprising genius of Cortez, thus confined in its operations, and debarred the further pursuit of political greatness, engaged eagerly in the prosecution of geographical discoveries. Here an ample field lay open to him, in which his active spirit might be laudably employed and fame acquired. During his absence in Spain, Nunez de Guzman had marched with an army from Mexico, towards the north-west: he had collected in his course a large quantity of gold, and received the submission of many caciques. To the rugged mountainous country which terminated his progress northward, he gave the name of New Galicia. Cortez, desirous to obtain a perfect knowledge of the coast in the same direction, fitted out an armament at Acapulco, which he placed under the command of Hurtado de Mendoza; but violent storms, and the misconduct of the officers employed, defeated the object of the expedition. At length, in 1536, Cortez equipped a second fleet, of which he took the command in person, and, after enduring great hardships, discovered the peninsula of California, and advanced above fifty leagues within the Gulf of California, called also the Vermilion Sea. The Spaniards still name it, from its discoverer, Mar de Cortez. viour. Two vessels, which Cortez sent about the same time with succours to Pizarro, and with orders to steer from Peru to the Moluccas, accomplished the voyage with success. Though Scotland had more cause for alarm on this occasion than the neighbouring country, in as far as threatened to be replaced by episcopacy, the wild her favourite presbyterian forms of worship were feeling of joy did not fail to spread thither as appears from a newspaper which was commenced in Edinburgh early in the year 1661, under the title of Mercurius Caledonius. This print, which professed to "comprise the affairs now in agitation in Scotland, with a survey of foreign intelligence," and consisted of a small quarto sheet, published weekly, was conducted, it must be allowed, by one who, from his connection with the episcopal party, must have been anxious to give as vociferous expression as possible to the popular feeling. He was named Thomas Sydserf, and was the son of a clergyman who had been Bishop of Galloway before 1638, and was now Bishop of Orkney, being the only one of the former bench who had survived the troubles. We have either read, or learned from tradition, that this loyal editor was hanged: if he were so, the literary profession certainly experienced little of either loss or degradation, for he seems to have been as miserable a coxcomb as ever drew quill. A copy of the ten numbers to which his paper extended, exists in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh; and from this we shall make a few extracts. "Our mischiefs," says Sydserf, p. 18, "began with tumult and sedition; and we are restored to our former felicity with miracles. The sea-coasts of Fife, Angus, Mearns, and Buchan, which were famous for the fertility of fishing, were barren zince his Majesty that the poor men who subsisted by the trade, were went from Scotland to Worcester in 1651]; insomuch reduced to go a-begging to the In-country. But now, blessed be God, since his Majesties return, the seas are so plentiful, that in some places they are in a condition to dung the land with soals: an argument suf. ficient to stop the black mouths of those wretches, that would have persuaded the people that curses was entailed upon the Royal Family. As our old laws are renewed, so is likewise our good honest ancient customs; for Nobility in streets are known by brave retinues of their relations; when, during the captivity, a lord was scarcely to be distinguished from Nay the old hospitality returns; for that laudable custom of suppers, which was covenanted out with Raisins and Roasted Cheese, is again in fa shion; and where, before, a peevish nurse would have been seen tripping up stairs and down stairs with a Posset or Berry, for the Laird or the Lady, you shall now see sturdy Jackmen, groaning with the weight of sirloins of beef, and chargers loaden with wild fowl and capon." And not only did the fish come back to the sea, but the water-fowl also came back to at least one of the inland lakes. In the very first number of the Mercurius is the following statement:-"At the town of Linlithgow, equally remarkable for its antiquity and loyalty, his Majesty hath a palace upon the skirt of a a commoner. They sailed for a thousand leagues across the Pacific without seeing any land, but afterwards touched at numerous islands. These expeditions, from which so little resulted, are said to have cost Cortez three hundred thousand crowns. But he hoped that the generosity of the emperor would indemnify him for losses incurred in undertakings of this nature: he also expected to obtain restitution of the estates which, had been unjustly wrested from him during the former suspension of his authority. With these views he returned to Spain in 1540. But his merits weighed lightly in the interested calculations of the Spanish court. Charles V. received him coldly, and evaded his demands. Cortez attended the emperor in the celebrated expedition to Algiers; the vessel in which he had embarked was stranded, and in wading to the shore he lost his valuable jewels. In the combat that ensued he had a horse killed under him, and appeared conspicuous, for the last time, in the field of battle. Charles V. treated him with such neglect, as not even to allow him the favour of an audience. Cortez, on one occasion, forced his way monstration. The Mexicans, thus disappointed by through the crowd, and stood on the step of the emtheir gods, experienced a proportionate depression. peror's carriage. Charles V., astonished at his boldThe city was now so completely hemmed in, that the ness, demanded who he was. "I am one," replied besieged began to suffer from famine and pestilence. the conqueror of Mexico, "who has given you more Still they disputed every inch of ground, and saw provinces than your ancestors have left you towns.' three-fourths of the city laid in ruins and possessed But his boldness gave offence to imperial pride, and by the Spaniards, before their resolution failed. The he was allowed to remain in obscurity. His health nobles then prevailed on Guatimozin to attempt his now rapidly declined: worn out by fatigues, disapescape. He was seized in his canoe, and led a cap-pointment increased his natural infirmities; and this most beautiful lake. This lake hath ever been famous for the great number of swans that frequented it, insomuch that several of our poetical philosophers are of opinion, that, if there be a civil government among the birds, and if divided in several companies and corporations, this same lake must be the Hall or Meeting-Place of the Fraternity of Swans. But to the business, which is most miraculous, and, I hope, shall serve a good purpose, in convincing such as are heretical this kingdom, as England, was oppressed by usurpers, in their allegiance to our most dread sovereign. When they put a garrison in this same palace of his Majes ties; which was no sooner done, than these excellent In this article the writer has used several portions of the narrative in the History of Maritime and Inland Discovery (3 vols. 1830), forming part of Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia. creatures, scorning to live in the same air with these contemners of Majesty, they all of them abandoned the lake, and were never seen these ten years, till the 1st of January last, a day remarkable both for his Majesties coronation at Scone, and for the down-sitting of the present parliament, when a squadron of these royal birds did alight in the lake, and, by their extraordinary motions and conceity interweavings of swim. ming, the country-people fancied them revelling at a country-dance for joy of our gracious Restauration [!]" It is also recorded that a small fish, called the Cherry of the Tay, a species of whiting, returned to that river from a voluntary exile, along with the king. In the early numbers of Mercurius, intelligence of this kind, as well as of a soberer description, is communicated in comparatively sober language. But, as he advances, he gradually addicts himself to a burlesque and hyperbolical style, which renders it very difficult to perceive whether he be in jest or earnest, or whether there be even a foundation in fact for what he appears to state. Under Shrove-Tuesday, he informs us that "our old carnival sports are in some measure revived, for, according to the ancient custom, the work was carried on by cock-fighting in the schools, and in the streets among the vulgar sort, tilting at cocks with faggot sticks. In the evening, the learned virtuosi of the Pallat recreate themselves with lusty caudels, powerful cock-broath, and natural-crammed pullets, a divertisement not much inferior to our neighbour nation's fritters and pancakes." We are also informed by advertisement of the fol lowing coarse, but, we suspect, very characteristic frolic: "On the eleventh of June, six brewster wives, are to run from the Thicket [probably Figgot] Burn, to the top of Arthur's Seat, for a groaning cheese of one hundred pounds weight, and a Bud. gell of Dunkel Aquavitæ and a Rumpkine of Bruns week Mum for the second, set down by the Dutch midwife. The next day after, sixteen fishwives are to trot from Musselburgh to the Cannon-cross [the cross of the Canongate] for twelve pair of lambs' harrigals." course, that the late infection among the horses in An advertisement, supplementary to the preceding, Owing, probably, to the want of encouragement at was exhausted, they were almost broken-hearted at the sudden disappearance of the whale to the depths below. The bleeding fish, however, still pursued its course along the coast, and neared the shore, off Hastings in Sussex, where it got into shallow water. The fishermen of this town immediately assembled all their strength, and soon vanquished the defenceless enemy. The tackle was well adjusted, and the expiring whale was towed and drawn on the beach by capstans, amid shouts of triumph. This was considered a deed so worthy of commemoration, that a sum was set apart by the captors, as a premium for the best poetical effusion on the subject. Among the number who, on this occasion, invoked the muse, old Gedge's great grandfather's brother, Tom, was dubbed the Fisherman's Poet Laureate. The lines which gained him this distinction, were these A mortal great whale comed off our coast, indud! The Folkstoners coud'nt catch un, but the Hasteners dud. This elevation above his fellows was not to be per- Amidst the rejoicings for his majesty's coronation, were the gossip, Put the gown upon the bishop as Wodrow, in his Diary (MS. Advocates' Library), has the following memorandum:-"It is the constantly believed tradition that it was Mrs Mean, wife to John Mean, merchant in Edinburgh, who threw the first stool when the service-book was read in the New Kirk, 1637, and that many of the lasses that carried on the fray were preachers in disguise, for they threw stools to a great length." It is, nevertheless, highly probable that Mrs Geddes took a conspicuous part in "the Casting o' the Stules," as this great day was called, though not perhaps the first to lend a blow. Samuel Johnson, the pamphleteer, in a tract dated 1694, distinguishes Jenny Geddes, the herbwoman, as the leader in the riot. We must leave to some more painstaking antiquary the task of clearing up this obscure but important point in our history. At this festive time horse-racing was revived in many parts of the country, and, in particular, was practised at Leith every Saturday. "Saturday, March 2. Our accustomed recreations on the sands of Leith was much hindered, because of a furious storm of winde, accompanied with a thick snow; yet we have had some noble gamsters that were so constant at their sport, as would not forbear a designed horse-match. It was a providence the wind was from the sea; other. wise they had run a hazard of drowning or splitting upon Inchkeith. This tempest was nothing inferior to that which was lately in Caithness, where a bark of fifty ton was blown five furlongs into the land, and would have gone farther, if it had not been arrested by the steepness of a large promontory." [!] To the gentlemen of the Fife Hunt, it may be interesting intelligence that no place seems to have then been more conspicuous for its races than Cupar. The Mercurius of 1st February contains an advertisement, assuring such gentlemen as designed to frequent the Herbwomen-so called with a reference to their station in the High Street of Edinburgh, near the Tron Church. consequence, one whose acquaintanceship is well worthy Poor old Matthew Gedge followed the profession of John Charnam doth live here, I, John Charnam, Half-annum, deam, do mean hop, step, an' jump; an' After several months had passed in such contention, a circumstance occurred that brought the old dame, however reluctant, was compelled to yield. A man an argument most triumphant, and to which his man named Wilkinson had been for some years a barber in the town, although originally bred a shoemaker; so, as shaving fell off, he took up that of cobbling. This change gave offence to Mr Scardifield, the first shoemaker and cobbler in the town; and young Tom Gedge was requested to write a few lines, by which the said Wilkinson might be put into utter insignificance. Tom tried, and received twenty shillings for his production. The poetry not only appeared in manuscript, but Scardifield had it painted on a large board, and placed over his shop windowJohn Scardifield, a man of good renown, As any in this pretty little town, Lives here, a cobbler in his stall, Who will make or mend shoes with any of them all; To place bad leather on the people's toes. This youth of promise had been christened Tom, because it had been the favourite name in the family for ages, or ever since old Gedge's great grandfather's brother Tom obtained celebrity as a poet under the following circumstances:-A whale that had been wounded, perhaps in the North Seas, had wandered into the British Channel, and there attracted the attention of several fishermen belonging to the town of Folkstone, in Kent, who were out mackerel-catching in their well-constructed boats. The energies of every man were directed to the capture of the huge monster. They occupied several hours in the endeavour to entangle it in their nets, or to force it on the Kent-wroiting poetry, but whot meak such a woundy clatish shore; but after having in vain employed every means that could be devised, in which their strength * This article has been received from a literary gentleman in England, and we give it a place, not from any merit it possesses, but from the national characteristics it exhibits, and the amusing specimen it affords of the Sussex dialect. Such a wonderfully clever effusion produced the desired effect, and the jibes became so grating to Tim Wilkinson, that he applied to young Tom Gedge to write a counteracting poetical show-board forthwith. endeavoured to win over old Gedge, that his influence Tom hummed and hawed so long, that Wilkinson with the poetical youth might produce a few lines that should annihilate Scardifield outright. This was ra ther an embarrassing affair to the old man, who perdame, who at once replied, "Thot's whot cums o' ceived the inconsistency; but he submitted it to his ter for? A tell e whot; a think if Tom do set up a poetry-shop, a moight as well serve one as t'other we his articles, just as 'twere we brooms." This was a clenching argument; still there was a more powerful reason in favour of Tom's undertaking the business. Tim offered forty shillings, and therefore it is not surprising that he at once agreed to Wilkinson's pro posal. In the course of the succeeding night, he hammered out the following inimitable lines Here lives a shoemaker who people shaved, To wear his ill-made boots and worthless shoes, That pinch their toes, or make them liinp and woddle, And sets one's teeth on edge to see them try to toddle. Two pounds were paid for them by Wilkinson, and many printed copies were handed about the town; but it never appeared on a board to compete with its rival over Scardifield's window. Tom's mother's opinion was found to be correct. She prophesied that no more fools would be found to commission such stuff, and old Gedge at length softened into silence, although, till the day of his death, he believed his son to be a prodigy of poetical genius. Tom, having received a few quiet hints regarding the folly of his aspirations, took his mother's advice, and settled down as a broom-maker, in which occupation he sustained the glory of the family, and is now at the head of one of the most thriving families in the weald of Sussex. THE DWELLINGS OF RUDE NATIONS. ACCORDING to the most accurate accounts of our species, Man is to be viewed simply as an improveable | savage-a being possessing the most brutal propensities, and naturally so defective in intellectual developement, that he is hardly elevated in his condition above the beasts of the field. Yet he is endowed with a wonderful possibility of cultivation. His mind is so susceptible of improvement, that he has the power of raising himself to a high pitch of civilisation and social comfort. We now propose to take him in this character, and exhibit him in different stages of his progress from utter barbarism to refinement. This may be done in different ways; but it appears to us that both instruction and entertainment will in a peculiar degree be afforded, by detailing merely the various descriptions of dwellings he has formed for his convenience and pleasure, from the rudest kind of but in his uncultivated state, up to the princely palace and temple in his era of intelligence and refinement. Nothing is so significant of the utter intellectual darkness of man in his perfectly savage condition, as his ignorance of the art of constructing a shelter for himself against the inclemency of the weather. Such uncivilised nations as have no means of recording their ideas by writing or otherwise, and subsist upon wild fruits and roots of plants, or by hunting, fishing, or pasturing cattle, at first, and before they know how to construct the most humble sort of tents or huts, live at random in the open air, or inhabit caves in rocks and under ground: if, however, their country be covered with forests, they shelter themselves for the night in thickets, and in the hollow trunks or in the tops of trees. In this state of rudeness as to shelter from the inclemency of the seasons, they continue for a longer or shorter period, according as their climate is favourable for agriculture, or national character and surrounding circumstances may render them inclined either for commerce or war. Many of the American tribes, on being first visited by the people of Europe, had advanced so little beyond the primeval simplicity of nature, that they had no houses at all. During the day they sheltered themselves from the scorching rays of the sun under thick trees, and at night they formed for themselves a shed with their branches and leaves, which they deserted in the morning, and never thought of it again. In the rainy season, they retired into coves, which were either natural or hollowed out by their own labour. The Gauchos, a rude people inhabiting the extensive plains named the Pampas, stretching in a westerly direction from Buenos Ayres in South America, during summer live unprotected by any sort of habitation. They sleep with their whole families in the open air, wrapped up in the skins of animals. They, however, have by this time advanced so far in the scale of civilisation as to be able to construct for winter wretched small cabins of mud, with one apart. ment. Some of the indigenous or native tribes of the inhabitants in Cinaloa, a province of Mexico, bordering on the Gulf of California in North America, were formerly among the rudest people either of North or South America. They had no houses. In the rainy season, to procure some shelter, they gathered a bundle of strong grass; then binding it together at one end, and opening it at the other, they fitted it to their heads, and they were thus covered as with a large The cone-shaped bundle of grass answered the purpose of a roof or a penthouse for throwing off the rain, and it kept them dry for several hours. Reeds were sometimes used by them for the same purpose. They formed a shed with the branches of trees to screen them from the sun, and in cold weather they slept in the open air around large fires. cap. All authors agree, ancient as well as modern, that, in the infancy of the world, while mankind still remained in their primitive state of barbarism, natural caverns, or similar natural covers and retreats, were almost the only habitations upon the earth for such tribes as wished for some sort of shelter. Then air with sultry heats began to glow, | Mankind continued long to take shelter under ground from the injuries of the seasons or of enemies, before they betook themselves to erect fabrics on its surface. The country of Judæa, one of the four regions into which Canaan or the Holy Land, a part of Asia, was divided, being mountainous and rocky, has every where on its surface numerous caverns, which were used as dwellings by the inhabitants of the councivilisation, they were in the habit of fleeing to them try. We are told in the Bible that, when advanced to for shelter from their enemies. During times of trouble, not only they themselves, but their goods, lay concealed in these asylums. In a cave at Makkedah, the five shua. In caves the Israelites hid themselves from the Canaanitish kings thought to hide themselves from JoMidianites and Philistines. David, during his exile, often lodged in caves at Adullam, Engedi, and other places; and it was in a cave that Elijah lived when he fled from Jezebel. But it would be quite unnecessary to multiply instances of this nature. It appears that these caves were often of great extent; for in the sides of the cave of Engedi, David and six hundred men concealed themselves. And Strabo, a celebrated Greek author on geography, who died soon after the Christian era, informs us, that, in Arabia, there were caves sufficiently large for hold. ing four thousand men. In Africa, a chain of high southern direction, through Egypt, and onwards along mountains extends from the mouths of the Nile, in a the shore of the Arabian Gulf, otherwise named the Red Sea. These mountains are composed of granite, marble, alabaster, and, towards the south, of even softer stone than alabaster. It is an undisputed historical fact, that, in the earliest ages of the world, a rude nation of shepherds, called Troglodyte or Troglodytes, belonging to Ethiopia, an extensive ancient country to the south of Egypt, lived in the natural Bruce, the well-known traveller, describes some of crevices of the rocks on the sides of these mountains. this nation of Troglodytes as still remaining in exisAnd although the Nile annually overflowed its banks in Egypt, yet, farther up to the south in Ethiopia, it was confined in its channel by high and rocky banks in the midst of parched and solitary deserts; in these rocky banks, also, the Troglodytes burrowed. In the course of time, as their country furnished very little wood, they learned to make inby labour, to enlarge the clefts into spacious caverns, struments capable of excavating the rocky banks, and, of the Nile, afforded them safe and dry retreats from which, being considerably elevated above the surface the sultry heat of the climate; for, having very few the river, and, at the same time, agreeable ones from trees to screen themselves from the scorching rays of the sun at noon-day beating upon their sandy deserts, these vaulted caverns of earth and stone, which were at first but retreats for a short while during day till the heat was abated, in after-times became, by means of art, capacious and comfortable dwellings. The vale of Ipsica, in Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean, affords another similar example of such subterranean excavations as are supposed to be the oldest human abodes to be seen in existence on the globe at the present day. This vale has, for eight miles long, a series of caverns, which, in the earliest times, were inhabited by an uncivilised race of men. But the caverns or grottoes, some of which have inhabitants at the present time, are excavated in such shapes as to bear a nearer resemblance to modern dwellings than those of Egypt and the adjoining parts of Africa, already alluded to. They are divided into apartments, and also into stories, which require ladders for getting up to them; and there are as many separate doors to the fields as there are rooms in a cavern, no one com tence. municating internally with another. These improvements on the original form of the natural crevices, must evidently have been thought of when those inhabiting them had made considerable advances in civilisation; and Diodorus Siculus of Greece, a universal historian, who flourished about forty-four years before the Christian era, tells us that the Baleares or Balearians, the ancient inhabitants of the islands of Majorca and Minorca, which, as well as Sicily, lie in the Mediterranean, lived in subterranean dwellings on the sides of rocks and precipices. The ancient Germans, also, retreated from the cold of winter into subterraneous caves dug out by their own labour, and cavities were also the repositories of their corn, and carefully covered with litter from their cattle. These it eluded the search of their enemies while they were laying waste their country. In the north of Kamtschatka, a large and long peninsula on the east coast of Siberia, which forms part of Russia in Asia, the rude people make subterraneous excavations for habitations during the winter months, which, by being under the surface of the ground, best retain the heat in that cold region. Some, however, of the dwellings in the north of Kamtschatka are only half sunk in the earth, and they are covered clay above them for a plaster. And the Esquimaux, or roofed with the rough branches of trees, and with who dwell at Davis' Straits, and in California, a long peninsula in the Pacific Ocean, parallel to the western part of the continent of North America, from which it is separated by its deep gulf, when they were first visited by Europeans, and long afterwards, used to pass the whole winter in deep recesses under ground, some of which were formed by the hand of nature, and some were excavated by themselves; and during all that time, they never ventured into the open air. In the numerous Aleutian, or Aleutan, islands of the North Pacific Ocean, extending in a chain, like the arc of a circle, from Kamtschatka, in Asia, to the promontory of Alashka, in North America, the savages dwell in subterranean caverns. These abodes under the surface of the ground are so large, and are divided into so many compartments, that they may well be called subterraneous villages; for one cavern contains inhabitants. The tops of these mansions are covered fifty, one hundred, or even one hundred and fifty with turf, and are almost on a level with the adjacent country; so that, as the turf soon becomes green, they can scarcely be distinguished from the natural surface. in his expedition were crossing a field, the ground When two officers who accompanied Captain Meares suddenly gave way, sinking beneath them; and they found themselves, to the infinite astonishment and alarm of both parties, in the midst of a numerous family of the savages, who were busily taken up with various domestic occupations. Cartwright, in the first volume of his Journal of Transactions, assures us, that, in the peninsula of Labrador, on the east coast of North America, where the frost is most intense, he met with a family living in a cavern hollowed, not out of the earth, but out of the snow. This extraordinary habitation was seven feet high, and ten or twelve in diameter; a large piece lamp was burning, while the inhabitants were lying of ice was used as a door; and in the snow cavern a on skins. At a short distance was a kitchen, also constructed of snow. Similar accounts are given by Parry of the snow and ice-huts of the Esquimaux. While thus, at every period of the history of the world, the uncivilised tribes of the human race, in some regions of the earth, are regardless of any shelter at all from the weather, or are, like foxes, sleeping in the crevices of rocks, or are, at best, living in vage natives of other countries covered with wood, rudely constructed subterranean habitations, the saare spending their nights in almost impenetrable thickets, or they are sleeping either in the decayed hollow trunks of trees, or, like monkeys, upon the tops of them. The Bosjesmans or Bushmen, originally a tribe of Hottentots inhabiting the interior part of Southern Africa, wander over hills and dales, hunting and plundering for a precarious subsistence. Bushes and clefts in rocks, serve them in common with the beasts thickets, as well as holes made in the ground and solate tracts of the plains and almost inaccessible of the field for their habitations. They dwell in debeings, in the most forlorn and abject condition. They parts of the mountains, and are, perhaps, of all human no doubt are still so ignorant as to be unable to fell a tree for constructing a cabin to shelter themselves. The dwelling of one of these Bosjesman Hottentots, who is so fortunate as to have acquired a dwelling, consists of a small mat of rushes or grass called tonggrass, bent between two sticks into a semicircular shape over a hollow in the ground, scooped out into the form of the nest of the ostrich. The mat is about three feet high and four feet wide. Within it he lies while asleep, coiled up after the manner of most quadrupeds. His house he easily carries about with him on his back. But it ought to be mentioned that the Namaqua Hottentots, who inhabit the north-western parts of the same division of South Africa, have ca. bins which are much superior to those of the Bosjesman Hottentots. They consist of framework of the shape of a complete hemisphere, ten or twelve feet in diameter; and which framework is composed of sticks bent into semicircles, and the sticks so bent remind us of the shape of the couples or framework of a modern mansion in a civilised country, and of the adaptation of this shape in both instances for the particular purpose of letting the rain run down. The Namaqua Hottentots have nothing for covering their framework but matting made of sedge. In the interior, and among the mountains, of New Guinea, a large island in the South Pacific Ocean to the north of Australia, is a race of Haraforas, who live in trees, which they ascend by the assistance of a long pole, serving the purpose of a ladder or staircase, and it they draw up after them to prevent surprise during sleep by an enemy. But the Papuans, or oriental negroes, in the plains of New Guinea, are not so rude a race as these mountaineers or the New upon stages which are raised aloft, and rest upon poles Hollanders. They have huts made of planks of wood, generally fixed in the sea. These huts are thus elevated above the water for security from the attacks of the Haraforas sallying down from the mountains, or other enemies. Each tenement in the water contains several families, having cabins ranged on each side of a wide common hall in the middle. The smoke, rising above the sea from every part of the roof, which is composed of slight clumsily joined planks of timber, and which has no chimney, gives the marine tenement a picturesque appearance. The hall has two doors, one towards the sea and another towards the land, so that, according to the quarter whence danger is threatened, they may betake themselves either to their canoes or the woods. This reminds us that, by similar instinct in regard to danger, the door of the beaver's hut is always at a considerable depth under the surface of a river, and it is invariably on the side farthest from the land. When disturbed by its enemies, this creature attempts to escape either by swimming with surprising swiftness to a distance underneath the water, or rather by betaking itself to large vaults excavated at regular distances in the ad-ligion, which is the true source of all sound morality, We shall in another paper proceed to describe the character of the tents and huts which mankind commenced to erect in one of their more advanced stages. SCHOOLS IN THE FACTORY DISTRICTS. WHILE the peasantry of England are for the most part unhappily brought up in a perfectly uneducated condition, the children of the factory towns and vil. lages, notwithstanding the closeness of their applica. tion, generally possess the elements of education, such as reading and writing and the first principles of religion and morality. It appears that much of this good, in the absence of parish schools, has been ef. fected by means of Sunday-schools and other philanthropic establishments, planted and upreared chiefly by the work-people themselves, unaided by opulence, and unpatronised by power. "It is a sublime spectacle (says Dr Ure)* to witness crowds of factory children arranged in a Sunday-school. I would exhort the friends of humanity, who may chance to pass through Cheshire or Lancashire, not to miss a Sunday's visit to the busy town of Stockport, which joins these two counties. It contains 67 factories, in which 21,489 operatives of all ages are employed comfortably for their families. The Sunday-school of this place was erected by the voluntary contributions, chiefly of mill-owners, in the year 1805. It is a large, plain, lofty building, which cost L.10,000, having a magnificent hall for general examinations and public worship on the uppermost story, capable of accommodating nearly 3000 persons, besides upwards of forty comfortable apartments for the male and female schools, committee and library rooms, on the other floors. On the 16th of June in the above year, the committee, teachers, and children of the then existing Sunday-schools, assembled on the elevated site of the new building, to celebrate, in a solemn manner, the commencement of this noble enterprise, the foundation-stone having been laid the evening before. Many thousand inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood having joined them, the whole multitude raised their voices in a hymn of praise to the Father of Light and Life, in which they were accompanied by a full band of music. The treasurer then pronounced a solemn prayer, dedicat. ing the intended edifice to God, and imploring his blessing on its objects. In a concluding address he said, "Our meeting together this day on this spot has nothing in it of parade or show-nothing that can allure the eye by its splendour, or beguile the imagination by its pomp. It is nevertheless of the highest importance, to the rising generation, to the town of Stockport, and as far as its influence extends, to the nation. We meet to erect a perpetual standard against ignorance and vice, to confirm and render permanent an establishment intended to train up the children of this town in knowledge and virtue. We expect thousands of children will here be taught not only the grounds of human science, but the first principles of the Christian religion; that rePhilosophy of Manufactures, p. 408. Knight, London, In the annual report of this admirable institution for 1833, the committee state, that, since its commencement, the names of 40,850 scholars have been inscribed on our registers, a considerable part of whom have received a moral and religious education within our walls. Part of the fruit of these pious labours is already reaped in a temporal point of view, in the general decorum that pervades this town and neighbourhood, and the regard for the liberties, lives, and properties of others, evinced by the Stockport population at a period of political excitement, in which they were too much disregarded at other places. The well-judged liberality of the public has now made Sunday-schools so numerous in our borders, that it is hardly possible to approach the town of Stockport in any direction, without encountering one or more of these quiet fortresses, which a wise benevolence has erected against the encroachments of vice and ignoThe advocates of general education hear no more of the danger of educating the lowest classes; on the contrary, the necessity of doing so is generally insisted upon the people are extravagantly complimented upon the proficiency they have already made, and appear to be in as much danger of suffering from the effects of artful and injudicious flattery, as they have done in times past from the unnatural neglect with which they have been treated.' rance. When I visited this school a few months ago, there were from 4000 to 5000 young people profiting by the instructions administered by 400 teachers, distributed into proper classes, and arranged in upwards of forty school-rooms, besides the grand hall in the top of the building. I witnessed the very gratifying sight of about 1500 boys, and as many girls, regularly seated upon separate benches, the one set on the right side, and the other on the left. They were becomingly attired, decorous in deportment, and of healthy, even blooming complexions. Their hymn-singing thrilled through the heart like the festival chorus of Westminster. The organ, which was excellent, was well played by a young man who had lately been a piecer in the spinning-factory of the gentleman who kindly attended me on the occasion. In visiting the several school-rooms, I observed that each subordinate teacher usually concentrated his attention to one bench of children, about ten or twelve mind in contact, so to speak, with the mind of each, in number; whereby he was enabled to place his and thus remarkably to facilitate their acquisition of knowledge. The proficiency made by some of them in learning, from Sunday teaching alone, is truly wonderful, and indicates a zeal in the gratuitous instructors, and a docility in the pupils, alike laudable. The unrivalled growth of the factory establishments of Stockport, which work up now, it is said, as much cotton as those of Manchester, may be fairly ascribed, in no small measure, to the intelligence and probity of the recent race of operatives trained up in the nurture of its Sunday-schools. ་ courage, by the effectual means above mentioned, the The good effects of educating and training the infant poor are well exemplified in some of the factory villages. In the township of Turton, two miles from Egerton, already mentioned, there is a charity school in which ten or twelve boys are boarded and educated. This privilege has been enjoyed for nearly a century and a half. Henry Ashworth, Esq., proprietor of the cotton-mills of Turton and Egerton, states that he has heard it remarked, that during the recollection of the oldest officers and residents of the township, only two instances were known where the persons who had been educated under this privilege had received parochial relief. One of these never could learn his alphabet, and was, in fact, a kind of half idiot. In the other case, relief was claimed only in extreme old age, and when the family of the pauper had deserted him. The children were all of the labouring classes, and were annually selected by the guardians of the poor. The Messrs Ashworth, deeply impressed with the above results, of training up children in the way they should go, have introduced into their establishments infant schools, under the care of young females of superior habits." In such seminaries they are sure that the children learn to be obedient and orderly, and to restrain their passions; and they are equally sure that, in a large proportion of cases, it is not so at their own homes. At two schools connected with their two works, and at another school supported by Messrs Ashworth and others jointly, one hundred and fifty children, from three to nine years of age, have had for many years the benefits of education, with the happiest consequences. The mule-spinners, even the most rude and uneducated, and who do not make very nice distinctions, always prefer children who have been educated at an infant school, as they are most obedient and docile. Such children are bespoke beforehand by the workmen, who engage their own piecers. This is the most pointed way in which the effects of these infant schools have appeared; and it is a most unequivocal proof of their usefulness, equally pleasing to the parents and the patrons. Other characteristics will doubtless be manifested as the children grow up. Animated with a moral population, our factories will flourish in expanding fruitfulness, for they possess deeper and more extensive roots than is commonly conceived, even by many of the manufacturers themvent all despondent misgivings. Indeed, I met with selves; a fact which, if well considered, should pre. only a few individuals who feared foreign competition, and these were gentlemen little versant in mechanical science, and of narrow views in political economy." SINGLE LADIES IN INDIA. THE greatest drawback upon the chances of happiness in an Indian marriage, exists in the sort of compulsion sometimes used to effect the consent of a lady. Many young women in India are almost homeless; their parents or friends have no means of providing for The neglect of moral discipline may be readily de- them except by a matrimonial establishment; they tected in any establishment by a practised eye, in the feel that they are burdens upon families who can ill disorder of the general system, the irregularities of the afford to support them, and they do not consider individual machines, the waste of time and material themselves at liberty to refuse an offer, although from the broken and pieced yarns. The master the person proposing may not be particularly agreemeanwhile may lose his temper on finding that his able to them. There cannot, indeed, be a more indulgence of the vices of his men is requited by in- wretched situation than that of a young woman who difference to his interests; since he never doubts but has been induced to follow the fortunes of a married that the payment of wages gives him a claim to their sister, under the delusive expectation that she will zealous services, however indifferent he may show exchange the privations attached to limited means in himself to be to their vital interests. It is therefore England for the far-famed luxuries of the East. The as much for the advantage, as it is the duty, of every husband is usually desirous to lessen the regret of his factory proprietor, to observe, in reference to his wife at quitting her home, by persuading an affectionoperatives, the divine injunction of loving his neigh-ate relative to accompany her, and does not calculate bours as himself; for in so doing he will cause a new beforehand the expense and inconvenience which he life to circulate through every vein of industry. has entailed upon himself by the additional burden. It appears that the artizans of the United States Soon after their arrival in India, the family, in all are treated on this principle, and they are accordingly probability, have to travel to an up-country station; declared to be more moral than the agricultural po- and here the poor girl's troubles begin. She is thrust pulation. At our establishment,' says our authority, into an outer cabin in a budgerow, or into an inner Mr Kempton, the proprietors (deeply sensible of room in a tent; she makes perhaps a third in a the value of religious nurture) paid the greater part buggy, and finds herself always in the way; she disof the minister's salary after building a meeting house; covers that she is a source of continual expense; that and they frequently officiated themselves at the evening an additional person in a family imposes the necesmeetings, which were well attended. We would not sity of keeping several additional servants, and where keep any workers that would drink spirits, nor did there is not a close carriage she must remain a prithey at other establishments. Almost all of them soner. She cannot walk out beyond the garden or belong to temperance societies. In the New England the verandah; and all the out-of-door recreations in States, no man will get employment who is known to which she may have been accustomed to indulge in at drink. In America, the employer is viewed rather as home are denied her. Tending flowers, that truly a tradesman to whom the work-people dispose of their feminine employment, is an utter impossibility; the labour, than as a person having a hostile interest. garden may be full of plants (which she has only seen The manufacturers are always anxious that the chil-in their exotic state) in all the abundance and beauty dren should be well educated, as they find them so much the more useful and trustworthy. I hope the mother-country will not disdain to take a word of advice from her meritorious daughter, and that the mill-owners of Old England will study to dis of native luxuriance, but except before the sun has risen, or after it has set, they are not to be approached; and even then, the frame is too completely ener vated by the climate to admit of those little pleasing labours, which render the greenhouse and the parterre so interesting. She may be condemned to a long me. lancholy sojourn at some out-station, offering little society, and none to her taste. If she should be musical, so much the worse; the hot winds have split her piano and her guitar, or the former is in a wretched condi tion, and there is nobody to tune it; the white ants have demolished her music-books, and new ones are not to be had. Drawing offers a better resource, but it is often suspended from want of materials; and needle-work is not suited to the climate. Her brother and sister are domestic, and do not sympathise in her ennui; they either see little company, or invite guests merely with a view to be quit of an incumbrance. If the few young men who may be at the station should not entertain matrimonial views, they will be shy of their attention to a single woman, lest expectations should be formed which they are not inclined to fulfil. It is dangerous to hand a disengaged lady too often to table; for though no conversation may take place between the parties, the gentleman's silence is attributed to want of courage to speak, and the offer, if not forthcoming, is inferred. A determined flirt may certainly succeed in drawing a train of admirers around her; but such exhibitions are not common; and where ladies are exceedingly scarce, they are sometimes subject to very extraordinary instances of neglect. These are sufficiently frequent to be designated by a peculiar phrase; the wife or sister who may be obliged to accept a relative's arm, or walk alone, is said to be "wrecked:" and perhaps an undue degree of apprehension is entertained upon the subject-a mark of rudeness of this nature reflecting more discredit upon the persons who can be guilty of it, than upon those subjected to the affront. Few young women, who have accompanied their married sisters to India, possess the means of returning home; however strong their dislike may be to the country, their lot is cast in it, and they must remain in a state of miserable dependence, with the danger of being left unprovided for before them, until they shall be rescued from this distressing situation by an offer of marriage.-Miss Roberts's Scenes and Characteristics of Hindostan. Column for the Boys. STORY OF THE FARMER AND THE SOLDIER. Boys are apt to form very ridiculous notions regarding the splendour and delights of a soldier's life, which, instead of being one of happiness, as they imagine, is perhaps the most miserable in the world. While the youth of genius and industry is rising in the pursuit of his peaceful and honourable occupations, how often is his thoughtless early companion, who has embraced the career of a soldier's life, spending his best years in the listlessness of an unidea'd range of duty, becoming old in doing nothing, and only preparing for himself, most likely, a painful conclusion to a valueless existence! Boys who are not aware of the sufferings which often accompany the soldier's career, may possibly profit by the perusal of the following little story, written by Mrs Sigourney, an American authoress : It was a cold evening in winter. A lamp cast its cheerful ray from the window of a small farm-house, in one of the villages of New England. A fire was burning brightly on the hearth, and two brothers sat near it. Several school books lay by them on the table, from which they had been studying their lessons for the next day. Their parents had retired to rest, and the boys were conversing earnestly. The youngest, who was about thirteen, said, "John, I mean to be a soldier." "Why so, James ?" "I have been reading the life of Alexander of Macedon, and also a good deal about Napoleon Bonaparte. I think they were the greatest men that ever lived. There is nothing in this world like the glory of the warrior." "It does not seem to me glorious, to do so much harm. To destroy multitudes of innocent men, and to make such mourning in families, and so much poverty and misery in the world, is more cruel than glorious." "Oh, but then, John, to be so honoured, and to have so many soldiers under your command, and the fame of such mighty victories-what glory is there to be compared with this ?" 66 James, our good minister told us in his sermon last Sunday, that the end of life was the test of its goodness. Now, Alexander, that you call the great, got intoxicated, and died like a madman; and Napoleon was imprisoned on a desolate island, like a chained wild beast, for all the world to gaze and wonder at. It was as necessary that he should be confined, as that a ferocious monster should be put in a cage." "John, your ideas are very limited. You are not capable of admiring heroes. You are just fit to be a farmer. I dare say that to break a pair of steers is your highest ambition, and to spend your days in ploughing and reaping, would be glory enough for you.' The voice of their father was now heard, calling, 66 Boys, go to bed." So ended their conversation for that night. Fifteen years passed away, and the same season again returned. From the same window a bright lamp gleamed, and on the same hearth was a cheerful fire. The building seemed unaltered, but among its inmates there were changes. The parents who had then re | tired to rest, had now laid down in the deeper sleep of the grave. They were pious, and among the little circle of their native village, their memory was held in sweet remembrance. In the same chairs which they used to occupy, were seated their eldest son and his wife. A babe lay in the cradle, and two other little ones breathed sweetly from their trundle-bed, in the quiet sleep of childhood. A blast with snow came against the casement. "I always think,” said John, “a great deal about my poor brother, at this season of the year, and especially in stormy nights. But it is now so many years since we have heard from him, and his way of life exposed him to so much danger, that I fear we have strong reason to believe him dead."-" What a pity," replied the wife, "that he would be a soldier!" A faint knocking was heard at the door. It was opened, and a man entered wearily, and leaning upon crutches. His clothes were thin and tattered, and his countenance haggard. They reached him a chair, and he sank into it. He gazed earnestly on each of their faces, then on the sleeping children; and then on every article of furniture, as on some recollected friend. Stretching out his withered arms, he said in a tone scarcely audible, "Brother-Brother!" The sound of that voice opened the tender remembrances of many years. They hastened to welcome the wanderer, and to mingle their tears with his. 66 Brother, Sister, I have come home to you, to die." He was too much exhausted to converse, and they exerted themselves to prepare him fitting nourishment, and to make him comfortable for the night. The next morning he was unable to rise. They sat by his bed, and soothed his worn heart with kindness, and told him the simple narrative of all that had befallen them in their quiet abode. "Among all my troubles," said he, "and I have had many, none has so bowed me down, as my sin in leaving home without the knowledge of my parents, to become a soldier, when I knew it was against their will. I have felt the pain of wounds, but there is nothing like the sting of conscience. When I have lain perishing with hunger, and parching with thirst, a prisoner in the enemy's hands, the image of my home, and of my ingratitude, would be with me, when I lay down, and when I rose up. I would think I saw my mother bending tenderly over me, as she used to do when I had only a headache; and my father with the Bible in his hand, out of which he read to us in the evening, before his prayer; but when I have stretched out my hands to say, 'Father, I am no more worthy to be called thy son,' I would awake, and it was all a dream. But there would be the memory of my disobedience; and how bitterly have I wept to think that the child of so many peaceful precepts had become a man of blood!" His brother hastened to assure him of the perfect forgiveness of his parents, and that daily and nightly he was mentioned in their supplications as their loved, and absent, and erring one. As his strength permitted, he told them the story of his wanderings and his sufferings. He had been in battles by sea and by land. He had heard the deep ocean echo with the thunders of war, and seen the earth drink in the strange, red shower from mangled and palpitating bosoms. He had stood in the martial lists of Europe, and jeoparded his life for a foreign power, and he had pursued in his own land the hunted Indian, flying at midnight from his flaming hut. He had gone with the bravest, where dangers thickened, and had sought in every place for the glory of war, but had found only misery. gave me. God grant that it may be purified by repentance, before I am summoned to the dread bar of judgment." His friends flattered themselves, that by medical skill and nursing, he might eventually be restored to health. But he said, "It can never be. My vital energies are wasted." "Brother," he would say, you have been a man of peace. In the quiet occupations of husbandry, you have served God, and loved your neighbour.” You have been merciful to the animal creation. You have taken the fleece and saved the sheep alive. But I have wantonly defaced the image of God, and stopped that breath which I never can restore. have taken the honey, and preserved the labouring bee. But I have destroyed man and his habitation, burned the hive, and spilled the honey on the ground. You cannot imagine how bitter is now my sorrow for the performance of such abominations." You He declined rapidly. Death came on with hasty strides. Laying his cold hand upon the head of the eldest little boy, who had been much around his bed in his sickness, he said, "Dear John, never be a soldier. Sister-Brother-you have been as angels of mercy to me. The blessing of the God of peace abide with you and upon your house." So saying, he expired. Such was the concluding scene in the life of a being who had fondly anticipated in the soldier's career nothing but splendour and unfading glory. GAME. That game may be injurious to the farmer, raised concerning it than a deliberate investigation cannot be denied; but that a much greater outcry is would justify, is equally incontestible; nor have I the least hesitation in now asserting that partridges, how. rather than injurious to the cultivator of the land. ever numerous they may be, will be found beneficial In the first place, let us inquire what constitutes the food of these beautiful birds. Why, ants' eggs, in. sects of all kinds, and occasionally a few blades of grass, the last taken medicinally as it were, in the mestic poultry. Young partridges never touch grain same way as we see blades of grass swallowed by do. till they have nearly attained maturity till, in fact, the arrival of autumn, when their supply of insect food failing, they pick up the grains scattered amongst applied to the pheasant, with this difference, however, the stubbles. Observations somewhat similar may be that these birds will scratch up the newly-sown wheat, if not prevented, which may be regarded as the extent of their depredations.-Sportsman and Veterinary Recorder. THE CHILDREN OF THE POOR.-Of all qualities, a sweet temper is perhaps the one least cultivated in the lower ranks of life. The peculiar disposition is not watched; care is not taken to distinguish between the passionate child, the sulky, the obstinate, and the timid. The children of the poor are allowed a latitude of speech unknown among the higher orders, and they are free from the salutary restraint imposed by what is termed "company." When in the enjoyment of full health and strength, the ungoverned temper of the poor is one of their most striking faults, while their resignation under affliction, whether mental or bodily, is the point of all others in which the rich might with advantage study to imitate them.-Tales of the Peerage and the Peasantry. SMELLIE'S PHILOSOPHY OF NATURAL HISTORY.In reference to a late leading article on Literary Remunerations, it may be mentioned, as a very remark"That glory which dazzled me in my days of boy-able instance of liberality on the part of a book seller, hood, and which I supposed was always the reward of the brave, continually eluded me. It is reserved for the successful leaders of armies. They alone are the heroes, while the poor soldiers, by whose toil the victories are won, endure the hardship, that others may reap the fame. Yet how light is all the boasted glory which was ever obtained by the greatest commander, compared with the good that he forfeits, and the sorrow that he inflicts, in order to obtain it! Sometimes, when we were ready for a battle, and just before we rushed into it, I have felt a fearful shuddering, an inexpressible horror at the thought of butchering my fellow.creatures. But in the heat of contest, such feelings vanished, and the madness and desperation of a demon possessed me. I cared neither for heaven nor hell. You, who dwell in the midst of the influences of mercy, and shrink to give pain even to an animal, can hardly imagine what hardness of heart comes with the life of a soldier. Deeds of cruelty are always before him, and he heeds neither the sufferings of the starv. ing infant, nor the groans of its dying mother. Of my own varieties of pain, I will not speak. Yet when I have lain on the field of battle, and unable to move from among the feet of trampling horses, when my wounds stiffened in the chilly night-air, and no man cared for my soul, I have thought it no more than just, since my own hand had dealt the same violence to others, perhaps inflicted even keener anguish than that which was appointed to me. But the greatest evil of a soldier's life is not the hardship to which he is exposed, or the wounds he may sustain, but the sin with which he is surrounded and made familiar. Oaths, imprecations, and contempt of every thing sacred, are the elements of his trade. In this hardened career, though I exerted myself to appear bold and courageous, my heart constantly mis that, in 1786, when "the trade" was less accustomed than now to extensive transactions, and when in Scotland, more particularly, there was little disposition to encourage literary men by high rewards, Mr Charles gained with Mr Smellie, the eminent naturalist, for a Elliot, of the Parliament Square, Edinburgh, barquarto volume of six hundred pages, under the title of the Philosophy of Natural History, at one thousand guineas for the first edition, and fifty for every subsequent impression; probably the largest payment relatively that had then been made for literary copyright. LONDON: Published, with Permission of the Proprietors, by OR & SMITH, Paternoster Row; and sold by G. BERGER, HO.well Street, Strand: BANCKS & Co., Manchester; WRIGHTSON & WEBB, Birmingham; WILLMER & SMITH, Liverpool; W. E. SOMERSCALE, Leeds; C. N. WRIGHT, Nottingham; M. BINGHAM, Bristol; S. SIMMS, Bath; C. GAIN, Exeter; J. PUSDON, Hull; A. WHITTAKER, Sheffield; H. BELLERBY, York; J. TAYLOR,,Brighton; GEORGE YOUNG, Dublin; and all other Booksellers and Newsmen in Great Britain and Ireland, Canada, Nova Scotia, and United States of America. Complete sets of the work from its commencement, or numbers to complete sets, may at all times be obtained from the Pub lishers or their Agents. Stereotyped by A. Kirkwood, Edinburgh. Printed by Bradbury and Evans (late T. Davison). Whitefriars |
