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tou and Truro also hold a high position as public schools, and have produced some very eminent men in the literary, scientific and professional walks of life. If we mistake not, Principal Dawson of McGill College, Montreal, is a pupil of Pictou Academy, as is also the Hon. James Macdonald, present Dominion Minister of Justice. Truro turned out, among others, such a very eminent man as Blowers Archibald, Judge of the Court of Vice Admiralty at Halifax, who possessed a political and professional reputation second to none in British America. Chief Justice Ritchie, of the Supreme Court of Appeal at Ottawa, is a protegé of the old Academy at Annapolis Royal. Judge Haliburton, the author of Sam Slick, as he delighted to be called, Judge Blowers, Judge Bliss, and Chief Justice Sir Brenton Halliburton, were graduates of King's, Professor DeMille and Dr. Tupper, with many eminent ministers of the Baptist persuasion, studied at Acadia. But of course these are only a few of the prominent names which such respective institutions have produced.

Among other leaders of politica! or professional pre-eminence in Nova Scotia were the late Judges Johnston and Uniacke, and the late Honourables Messrs. James Boyle Uniacke, Huntingdon, George R. Young, brother of the Chief Justice and son of the celebrated author of the letters of Agricola. To the army and navy also Nova Scotia can point with pardonable pride as to the status of many of her sons who made a career of those professions. In the former, among others, we find such distinguished heroes as General Sir Fenwick Williams, of Kars, Sir Harry Inglis, of Lucknow, and those gallant soldiers, Major Welsford, and Captain Parker who, in the Crimea, led the attack upon the Redan and fell in the service of their country. In naval annals, Captain Sir Edward Belcher, in his peculiar department, is a naine second only to that of Sir John Franklin.

So that in science and literature, as in the professions of Law, Divinity, and Arms, Nova Scotia has produced a roll of names which may justly awaken a reasonable pride in the breasts of their fellow-countrymen.

The trade of Halifax, as is wellknown, in articles of export, such as lumber, oils, and fish of various descriptions and modes of preservation, is principally with the West Indies, and the United States of America, though sometimes extending to Great Britain, the Mediterranean and the Brazils. Its imports are also chiefly drawn from Great Britain, the United States and the West Indies in such articles of commerce as is common to the consumption of the population of Canada. As a shipping port, in comparison with others, Halifax possesses one drawback in having no navigable river leading into a back producing country to which she must be the necessary outlet. And even if she pos sessed such advantages, they would be of limited extent from the natural geographical outline of the peninsula of Nova Scotia, which affords almost every productive inland region a short and easy access to the numerous good harbours along her coast upon the ocean, so that Pictou, Antigonish, Pugwash, Guysborough, Lunenburg, Shelburne, Yarmouth, Digby, Annapolis, and, by the rivers and Bay of Fundy, even such inland towns as Windsor, Horton, Truro, and Cornwallis, are all ports of shipment in themselves, and, to a very great measure, entirely independent of Halifax in their exports, and even, to a considerable degree, of their imports; especially such as they obtain or require from the United States. It is as if a farmer in Lindsay or other inland town of Ontario, could build his vessel and ship his produce to Liverpool, Boston, New York, or Jamaica, bringing back therefrom his supplies, without troubling the merchants, bankers, or brokers of Toronto, or Montreal, to handle his commissions. These natural

results of her unique position will always militate against Halifax as the monopolizing business centre of the Province, or of the Dominion, but they equally benefit the outlying portions of Nova Scotia, on the prosperity of which, as a whole, that of Halifax, to a large extent, is also dependent.

Another present drawback, a matter which, though it may be expensive and difficult to obviate, is not irremediable, is the want of proper shipping facilities at Halifax as the winter port of the Dominion.

Until she can derive the full advantages of such a desirable position, the cars of the Intercolonial must be able to run alongside of the steamships at the docks, and she must have elevators with the necessary facilities for receipt, storage and shipment of grain. But these wants have been so clearly pointed out by Sir Hugh Allan that it is unnecessary to refer to them further than to regret the want of foresight which has allowed them to be unprovided for, and the want of enterprise which still permits them to continue So. There is sufficient capital lying idle in Halifax to complete all such necessary works, which would doubtless yield a remunerative return on the outlay. As Doctor Johnson said of old Scotchmen, they like everything about Scotland except the way back to it,' so it is with most Nova Scotians who have acquired fame or fortune. The Williamses, Inglises, Cunards, Collinses, Murdochs, and others, prefer comparative obscurity in London, or other parts of England, to prominent pre-eminence in their native land. Such want of patriotism is fortunately more rare in the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec, and will also, probably, decrease in Nova Scotia; especially when the Duke of Edinburgh takes up his residence there as Admiral of the station, and the Princess Louise shall occupy, in suminer, Mr. Cunard's splendid mansion on the north-west arm.

Another want at Halifax, often noticed by strangers, is that of a public library at all worthy of the literary culture and social reputation of its citizens. Surely some dead men's wills have been improperly drawn. Has the spirit of Sir William Brown, of Liverpool; of Bates, of Peabody, of Astor, and other book-benefactors of humanity, no aspirants to sympa thetic fame in that Canadian city by the sea? But let us hope that patriotism will revive, that the hard times' (dismal word) will soon be over, and picture to our minds the 'good times coming,' when over the Canada Pacific Railway shall pass, on to the Intercolonial, rich freighted cars of teas, and silks, and other precious merchandise from China and Japan, borne along the quays to the steamer's side at Halifax, and thence onward to the world's centre of commerce in the common home of the Dominion, and of the UNITED BRITISH EMPIRE; when the fertile plains of the Red River valley, the Saskatchewan, and other thickly-settled portions of the great North-West, shall supply wheat enough to feed all the British millions, and keep it ever moving onward, night and day, along its thousands of miles of completed railway toward the sea, whose ports will afford ample accommodation for all possible quantities of shipment or storage.

When these times come, as come they will in the life time of liv ing men, Haligonians will look back with wonder at that want of faith in the future of Canada which had so long delayed the accomplishment of such stupendous results by neglecting to prepare for their earlier reception. With her fisheries, her mineral wealth, her water powers, her climate, her harbours and unrivalled site upon sea, Nova Scotia must necessarily become a great and prosperous country, and Halifax, in spite of itself, a city of corresponding magnitude.

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THE CHARMS OF COUNTRY LIFE.

AN IMITATION.

BY DOUGLAS BRYMNER.

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Beatus ille, qui procul negotiis,
Ut priscor gens mortalium,
Paterna rura bobus exercet suis,
Solutus omni fenore.

-Horace, Epode II.

H00 canty he, as free frae care an' fash
O' shop an' trade, as Adam in his prime,

Wha yokes his cattle on his ain bit farm,

An' o' the three months' bills ne'er coonts the time. Nae sodger he, stirred up by pibrech wild,

Nor tarry sailor, facin' roarin' wave,

He steers awa' fra croon o' causey clash

An' seeks nae saucy flunkey's snash tae brave.

He maistly dauners roon' his wee bunched grapes,

Or keeks at Crummy as she loots tae graze,

Or wi' bricht jockteleg the bushes prunes,
An' sticks a graft on sappy, growin' days.
Or frae the skeps he taks the hinny fine,

Or wi' his shears he clips the weel fleeced ewes,
Or, when the misty days o' hairst are on,

Pu's russets, greenings, or the crisp fameuse.

'Tis gran' tae gaither pears o' ane's ain graft,

An' grapes that ye hae watched wi' unco' skill, To sen' your freen's and neebours when they're ripe, In token o' kin' wishes an' gude will.

'Tis blythe, tal lie in gloamin' o' the glen,

Or on the gerse tae beeck when sun's alowe,

When birds are whistlin' like the mavis sweet,

An' dream, while burn soughs joukin' roon' the knowe.

When winter roars wi' mony an angry thud,

An' weet fa's plash, or snaw keeps dingin' doon,

He wi' his gun gangs oot tae look for sport,

Tae drive the moose deer wi' his weel horned croon ;

Or aifter paitricks reenges faur an' wide,

Or the bit hare knocks tapsleteerie ower,

Or howlet, wi' its dazed an' bleerie e'en ;

My troth! he lauchs tae see the crettur glower.

But gin he brags a sonsy Scotch gude-wife,

Tae mak' the hoose look bright wi' winsome smile, Wha hauds the weans fu' trig, the stove ne'er toom, Wife, weans and cheer will sune his toils beguile. For in the byre the bonnie brockit kye

Are stripp'd till no' ae drap o' aifterins bide, An' then, ae gless o' toddy, het an' strong, Afore his pow the red Kilmarnock hide.

'I'd suner far hae that, than unco' vivers,
Sic like as oysters frae famed Caraquet,
Or lobsters frae wild Nova Scotia's coast,
Or salmon loupin' frae dark Saguenay's net.
Nae prairie-hen, nor sappy bubbly-jock

Wad gust my gab, nor pleasure mair my hause,
Than weel boiled parritch frae my ain gude aits,
That boo'd in hairst e'er tichtly bun' in raws.

'A braxy, boiled wi' neeps, or cured in hams,
Or a bit beastie fattened for a mairt,
Tastes unco' weel, an' gaucy barn door hen
Is nae that ill tae warm a body's heart.
It's fine when a' the stubble's been turned ower,
Tae see the owsen pechin' noo nae mair,
An' the braw chiels sit roou the kitchen stove
An' wi' the lave cast aff their carkin care.'

John Thamson, frae the big shop i' the toon,
Had a' thae thochts gaun bizzin' thro' his brain.
He advertised he'd sell oot a' his wares,

An' on the lan' wad try tae mak' his ain.
But, bide awee! he'd barely got twa offers,
Frae Robin an' frae Sandy for his stock,

Than he took tent, an' thocht he'd draw mair cash By mindin' woo' in hanks, than on the flock.

THE MONKS OF THELEMA.

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BY WALTER BESANT AND JAMES RICE,

Authors of Ready Money Mortiboy,' 'The Golden Butterfly,' 'By Celia's Arbour,' etc., etc.

CHAPTER XL.

Now the nights are all passed over
Of our dreaming, dreams that hover
In a mist of fair, false things,
Nights afloat on wide wan wings.'

THE day before the wedding.

In his two-roomed cottage, Alan awoke with the feeling of gratitude that he should only have one more night in that uncomfortable lean-to. The house which he had decided on Occupying contained four rooms, and they were larger.

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It was meant as a surprise for Alma: the furniture was ordered and ready, waiting to be sent down: it was the furniture of the Future it came from an establishment recently started by two young ladies, one of whom was a distinguished alumnus of Girton. They had solemn eyes and touzly hair, and dressed to match their green and grey papers.

'I want furniture,' said Alan, a little overwhelmed at being received by two figures which looked as if they had stepped straight down from the walls of the Grosvenor; 'I want cottage furniture, which shall be beautiful as well as fit for its purpose.' 'Furniture,' suggested one, which shall be a model and a lesson.'

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'Furniture,' echoed the other ladyupholsterer, which shall be in harmony, not in contrast, with woodland nature.'

And it ought to be cheap,' said Alan, 'if it is to represent the ideal cottage furniture.'

This suggestion, however, met with no response. The two-pair solemn eyes glared coldly upon the purchaser at the mention of cheapness.

'We will furnish your cottage for you,' said one, with severity. 'When our designs are completed we will let you know. Good-morning.'

Alan left the presence of these Parnassian cabinet-makers with humbled heart.

What a lovely cottage they would have made, but for circumstances which caused the dispersion of the things they had got together! It would have been divinely beautiful. The windows were to have diamond panes, in grisaille, to open on hinges: the rooms, each with a dado, were to be prepared and painted in grey and green: Dutch tiles were to adorn the stoves, and the fenders were of brass: no carpets, of course, but matting in wonderful designs cabinets for the inexpensive blue and white china: chairs in black wood and rush, with tables to correspond.

That cottage, for reasons to be detailed, was never furnished. The two touzly-haired, solemn-eyed prophetesses of domestic art were obliged to content themselves with sending in their bill. This document caused Alan's strong frame to shiver and tremble as shivers the mighty oak under the cold breath that comes before a tempest.

Early in the morning Alan paid a visit to his betrothed. He came bearing gifts. They were plain and sub

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