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ELECTRICAL EEL.

THOSE of our readers who are acquainted with the history of the Royal Society, or have read the interesting papers recorded in its Philosophical Transactions, will recollect the very curious and valuable experiments made by Mr. Walsh, in the year 1772, on the Torpedo, or cramp fish (Raia Torpedo), by which he ascertained, not only that the effects produced by its touch were electric in their origin and character, but also that the will of the animal commands the electric powers of its body. Those also who have read, are not likely ever to forget, the learned, instructive, and elegant discourse addressed to the Royal Society in 1774, by Sir J. Pringle, then its president, on delivering to Mr. Walsh the Copleyan gold medal for his ingenious paper. Although it is our object, in this paragraph, to present to our readers an account of a most singular fact which has recently taken place, we would observe, in passing, that the discourse we have referred to was printed, with five others, in 1783, under the title of "Six Discourses, delivered by Sir John Pringle, Bart., when President of the Royal Society; on occasion of six annual assignments of Sir Godfrey Copley's medal;" and that, if they happen to meet with the volume, the purchase and perusal of it will highly gratify their taste for scientific research and elegant composition. Never since we first read these admirable discourses, nearly thirty years ago, have we forgotten the relish which they then produced, or failed to renew it on every fresh perusal.

Other kinds of fish have been found to possess similar properties, in some respects, to the torpedo; but none of them in so remarkable a degree as the Gymnotus Electricus, or Electrical Eel. A specimen of this fish has lately been examined by the Parisian savans. The greatest number were satisfied with a single touch, and consequent shock; but one doctor, either urged by a greater zeal for science, or governed by a more insatiable curiosity, resolved to try the utmost extent of the animal's powers, and seized it with both his hands; but had quickly reason to repent his temerity; for he immediately felt a rapidly-repeated series of the most violent and successively-increasing shocks, which forced him to leap about in a most extraordinary manner, and to utter the most piercing screams, from the agony that he felt. He then fell into convulsions, in consequence of which his muscles became violently contracted, as, from some strange property in the fish, it became impossible to detach the animal from his grasp. In this situation he remained a considerable time, and, in all probability, would have expired under the agony of his sensations, if some of the persons had not suggested the plunging of the hands in water, when the eel immediately dropped off. The doctor has since been dangerously ill.

ANDERSONIAN MUSEUM.

AMONGST the Egyptian antiquities preserved in the Andersonian Museum were two nummies of the cat, which animal was held sacred by the ancient Egyptians, along with the ox and ibis. From the extreme antiquity of the specimens of these animals, it became a question of some interest to ascertain their identity with recent and existing species. This investigation was undertaken by Cuvier, with a view to refute the hypothesis of La Mare, of the transmutation of animals in the process of time, and from the influence of external

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GREENWICH HOSPITAL.

THIS very interesting and valuable institution was founded by King William and Queen Mary, at the suggestion, it is said, of the latter. The building was commenced at an earlier period by Charles the Second, and intended for a palace, in place of the old one, on the site of which it stood. One wing of it, only, was completed, in which the king occasionally resided, and no further progress was made in it until after the Revolution, when a project was formed for providing an asylum for seamen, disabled by age, or maimed in the service of their country. Various places were recommended as the site of this building; but the advice of Sir Christopher Wren was adopted, who proposed that the unfinished palace at Greenwich should be appropriated to this use, and enlarged sufficiently. Accordingly, in 1694, the King and Queen granted this palace, with other buildings and land adjoining, for that purpose, and the sum of £2000, yearly, for carrying this noble work into effect.

Sir Christopher Wren was appointed the architect, and for several years contributed his time, labour, and skill to the foundation of the first new building was work, without any remuneration. The laid on the 3rd of June, 1696, from which time it has been gradually enlarged and improved, until it has attained its present degree of splendour and magnificence.

Greenwich Hospital now consists of four distinct piles of building, distinguished by the names of King Charles's, Queen Anne's, King William's, and

Queen Mary's. King Charles's and Queen Anne's are those next the river: between them is the grand square, 270 feet wide; in the centre of which is a fine statue of George the Second, carved out of a single block of white marble, by Rysbrack; and, in front of them, by the river side, is a terrrace, 865 feet in length. To the south-west of the square stands King William's building, which contains the celebrated hall,

painted by Sir James Thornhill. This artist commenced his undertaking in 1708, and completed it in 1727; thus leaving an almost unrivalled monument of his taste and skill. On the ceiling

are portraits of the royal founders, William and Mary, surrounded by the cardinal virtues, the four seasons of the year, the English rivers, the four elements, the arts and sciences relating to navigation, and other emblematical figures; among which are introduced portraits of Flamstead, the Astronomer Royal, and others.

We have not room to enter more particularly into a description of Greenwich Hospital; but it is one of the most interesting and useful institutions which our regard the benevolence of its design, country can boast; and whether we the magnificence of its structure, the extent of its resources, or the excellence of its economy, it is every way worthy of a great, a generous, and a Christian people, and admirably calculated, by exhibiting the gratitude and respect of the nation to its gallant naval defenders, to stimulate succeeding generations to rival their exploits and participate their glory.

ANECDOTE OF NAPOLEON,

66

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convinced that it was so. The viands were excellent, the wines exquisite, the table coNAPOLEON, sitting one day surrounded by vered with an abundance of massy silver plate; his friends, related the following anecdote, in short, the young traveller was obliged menwhich, he said, will do wonders as a lesson, if tally to admit, that he had never partaken of it is but listened to, and remembered. "There more delicate fare, or seen a greater display of lived once, at Marseilles, a rich merchant, magnificence; and he was more than ever conwho received one morning, through the hands founded upon ascertaining, from one of the of a young man, a letter, strongly recommend- persons near him, that the banker gave a ing the bearer to his notice; the young man similar entertainment once or twice a week. was of good fortune, and wanted only an in- While coffee was serving he ruminated on all troduction into society; he brought also a let-that he had witnessed; but his young ideas ter of credit to a large amount. The merhad to arrange themselves into that mutual chant, after having read the letter of recom- dependance of cause and effect which would mendation, instead of either throwing it aside easily have brought the whole to the level of as waste paper, or shutting it up in a drawer, his understanding. Young man,' said his examined it, and, finding that it formed only host, tapping him on the shoulder, 'you are one of the four sides of the sheet, tore it in absent, and almost pensive; have you made a two, placed the written half in a leaf of his bad dinner?' But the expression of his eyes, portfolio, and then, folding the other half, so and the inflexion of his voice, in pronouncing that it would serve for writing a note, put it into these words, seemed to mean, Has not your another portfolio, which already contained a fear of a bad dinner yet vanished? The young number of similar papers. Having completed man blushed, as if he had really heard the lathis little measure of economy, he turned ter sentence, but the good-humoured financier towards the young man, and invited him to understood his blush, and, laughing, said, 'No dinner for that very day. The youth, ac- offence; you are too young to understand how customed to a life of elegance and luxury, felt masses are formed, the true and only power; but little inclination for dining with a man whether composed of money, water, or men, it who could thus appropriate the privileges of is all alike. A mass is an immense centre of the chiffonier, by depriving him of his waste motion, but it must be begun-it must be paper; he accepted the invitation, however, kept up. Young man, the little bits of paper and promised to return at four o'clock. But which excited your derision this morning are as he descended the narrow staircase, from the one among the means I employ for attaining it."" counting-house of his banker, his mind rapidly "A fine story this, that you have been reverted to the observations he had made upon telling us, Buonaparte," said Josephine, smithat small gloomy room, with the two long ling; to me the most marvellous part is, offices that led to it, encumbered with ledgers that you have been speaking for a quarter of that were half smothered with dust and smoke, an hour together, and that to women only." and where ten or a dozen young persons were working in silence, whose faces appeared to his jaundiced eyes like perfect skeletons. He thought of the windows, plastered with a thick coat of mud, through which no ray of the beautiful sun of Provence could ever penetrate; the little bowl of box-wood, filled with saw-dust, to serve for powder, the broken writing-desk, the dressing-gown of the banker; and all these recollections, rushing at once upon his mind, produced the reflection, I have done a foolish thing in accepting the invitation; but no matter, a day is soon passed.' The duties of the toilet were discharged rather for his own satisfaction than in compliment to the host who expected him; and, that done, he proceeded to the street of Rome, where his banker's house was situated. As the latter had told him his wife did not live in that part of the mansion occupied by the counting-house, he begged, on arriving, to be conducted to the lady. A number of valets in rich liveries led him across a small garden, filled with rare and exotic plants; and, after conducting him through several apartments sumptuously furnished, introduced him to a handsome drawing-room, where he found his banker, who presented him to his wife and mother; the former was young and pretty, the latter not yet old, and both were dressed in rich stuffs, and adorned with fine pearls and sparkling diamonds, which attested the wealth of the honest and laborious head of the family; he himself was no longer the his personage guest had seen in the morning; he seemed to have left behind, amongst the dusty ledgers and portfolios, the man of the black velvet cap and woollen dressing-gown, while the manners and conversation of fifteen or twenty visitors, who were assembled in the drawing-room, led to the inference that this house was one of the best, if not the very best, in the city. Dinner was served, and he was

"I did not forget that, I assure you,'
plied he, winking to the other ladies; "do
you think I should have preached in the same
way to men? They never require it." I was
much struck by this idea of masses as the
foundation of power.-Memoirs of the Duchess
D'Abrantes.

PERSECUTION AND SLAVERY.
FRIENDS AND FELLOW COUNTRYMEN,

Think of the present state of things in the
West Indies. Realize the miseries, the wrongs,
which are there endured. Look especially at
the violated rights of British subjects, and the
persecution of Christian Missionaries, and of
all other Christians. Will you support such a
state of things as this? Or are you resolved
that it shall cease? Remember that all the
money you pay for sugar raised by slave labour
goes to support slavery, and the evils that system
perpetuates. Renounce slave-grown sugar, and
slavery must fall. Give, then, this practical
proof to the government and the slave-holders
that you are in earnest. Let every one who is
the friend of civil and religious liberty, of the
slave and the missionary (and these will be
found to be the best friends to the planter like-
wise, who will soon be ruined by the continu-
ance of the present system), come forward and
give a pledge to use no more sugar raised by
slave labour, since it is stained with his bro-
ther's blood. If this resolution were general
through the country (and by means of active
associations it might speedily be rendered so),
it would strengthen and quicken all the mea-
sures now in operation, and slavery would
receive its death-blow. There is other slave
produce, but nothing that can be compared
with sugar, either in the quantity consumed,
or its effects on the comfort and life of the
slave; while FREE LABOUR SUGAR can now be
obtained both cheap and good, and a little en-
couragement will render it cheaper and better.

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A GRECIAN LEGEND.
THERE lay a ship of Egypt homeward borne,
Where Achelous, from embowering woods,
Pours forth in splendour, and the lonian wave
Plays dimpling round the green Echinades.
Calm slept the silent gusts, and heavily
Her sails hung cloud-like from the unbending mast;
And motionless, above the level waste,
Rose, twined with dragon wreaths, her brazen prow.
The low sweet sound of wakened birds was heard
Night, with its stars, had faded, and from far
From fragrant forests, where the unfolding rose
Blushed through the sylvan twilight; yet no streak
Or rosy glimmerings from her halls of light
Gave note of morn's uprising-sullen, dim,
And scarcely marked beneath the lifted clouds,
Piled dense above, that hour of gentle prime,
Gleamed mist-involved along the shadowy sea.
Day came, but mantled in its gloomiest stole,
With fitful lustre struggling into birth,
And, slowly mounting on his upward path,
Glared pale at intervals the spectral sun.
Hushed as before, the winds of heaven were still,
But o'er the quiet deep began to steal
At first a darkening ripple, and anon
The heave and swell of fast-succeeding waves,
As though beneath, the wildly rolling flood
And ever from the distant vales arose
Were moved in terror from its caverned bed;
A moaning, feeble as the gust which sighs
Round pool and thicket dank, when winter's sun
Sinks prematurely veiled, that sound, dismayed,
The sea-bird heard, and cowered with folded wing;
And round the mariner, with wistful eyes,
Gazed on the clouds and solemn forests, spread
Dim by the lea; but tranquil yet as death
Seemed earth around, and shrouded heaven on high.
So noon went past; but when, in mid descent,
Stooped westering to his goal the Lord of Day,
Along the shore, and from the wooded heights,
Stole sounds of rising music, softened notes
Andeymbal tinklings, and the tone subdued
Drawn from the strings of dulcimer and lute,
Of one lone trumpet, blown as if to pour
Its brazen wail above the heroic dead.

Before the prow of that fast-anchored bark
Passed the wild melody, then died remote,
Calming the billow, and succeeding fast;
Up sprang a voice among the answering rocks,
Shrill as the night-bird's cry-“ Lament! lament!
Fair valleys, and thou, flower-apparelled earth!-
Ye ivy mantled caves, and horrent pines,
And fountains gleaming from your beds of moss!--
Unfathomed ocean,

with incessant roar,

Lifting thy waters limitless and free !--
Who sow with light the azure fields of space.
And ye unchanged and ever-living fires,
Lament! lament! dead is the mighty Pan!"
That voice with morn the Seric coast had heard,
Bathed with its tepid wave; and from the woods,
Sounding with hidden streams, where Ind sends forth
Her clouds of incense from a thousand isles,
One universal altar, slunk appalled
The lurking tiger from his cany lair.
By broad Euphrates, and those flowery meads,
Starred with the wild gourd's blossoms, sternly
paused
The Assyrian horseman, and his bow upraised
Dropped nerveless, smitten with a dread unknown.
Memnonian Thebes made answer to the plaint
With murmurs from a thousand stony lips;
And o'er Cyrene's olive-shaded hills,
And Hellas, with her founts and vales of song,
And green Ausonia, where the trophied Rome
Sat arbitress, supreme of earth and sea,
Fear fell as night-the guest his jewelled cup
Untasted left, and from the threshold turned
The saffron-vested bride, amidst the blaze
Of congregated torches, while the wail
Of sorrow sank beside the bier of death.
So passed the sound o'er wild Iberia's space,
By Tarshish, tower-crowned queen, and far away,
As sought the sun those yet untraversed coasts
Renowned in legends old, with shining groves,
As Fancy deemed, by serpent-watch surveyed,
Died on the wide Atlantic.

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THE IMPOLICY OF SLAVE LABOUR.

OUT, must, along with other charges, be covered by the market price of the produce of the land. A SERIES of valuable papers on the subject Hence, the proprietor who cultivates his estates of Colonial Slavery is now in the course of ap- by slaves, CANNOT, in similar circumstances, compearing in the Cambridge Independent Press. pete, in the same market, with him who employs They are furnished by the Rev. G. W. Crau-free men; he must be PROTECTED by a monopoly; furd, a Fellow of King's College, and cannot or, in plain English, we must SUBSCRIBE, in order fail to do important service to the cause of to enable him to continue working his estate by humanity. We hope they will be extensively then, that slavery introduces into the system of such expensive machines as slaves. It is plain, tecting-duties, that is, a direct tax or sum of labour an ADDITIONAL CHARGE; and, without promoney, levied on the people of the parent state for this service, every slave-colony must, sooner or later, sink into the abyss of bankruptcy and pauperism. This may be proved, first, as a matter of theory; and then, as a matter of experience, from historical evidence.

read; and that their talented author will, ere long, have to rejoice over the annihilation of so impolitic and inhuman a system. The following paper forms the second of the series. In introducing it to our readers, we may be permitted to remark, that Mr. Craufurd has fallen into a slight inaccuracy in stating the amount of the protecting duty on sugar and coffee: it is now £8 on the former, and £24 on the latter; instead of £10, and £28, as stated by Mr. Craufurd.

If we

can persuade men, from motives of PURE HUMANITY or RELIGION, to undertake a good cause, of course it is very delightful but we know, from experience, that the greater part of mankind are very little moved, except by motives of SELF-INTEREST; and even religious persons are NOT SORRY When they find that their exertions in the cause of mercy tend to advance their worldly profit. I feel, therefore, pretty certain of gaining the attention of many, while I address you upon the subject of "the enormous expensiveness of slavery," and show what a heavy burden it lays upon us the people of Great Britain; and what ruin it brings upon the slave-owners and planters in the colonies. When I get to the subject of mere mercy, or religion, the attention of many readers will, I fear, begin to flag.

of

per annum.

Let us suppose the case, that a certain colony possesses 40,000 slave labourers; the first cost of which is £1,600,000, naming, as the average price of slaves, £40 a head. This labour is put in motion, and sustained, at an annual expence of £20 a piece, or £800,000 as the total. (Some planters will tell us, that the average expence of slaves is even £24 or £26 per annum, but I have taken a low estimate.) This sum of £20 a piece is supposed to include only food, clothing, lodging, superintendence, medical advice, and the sustenance of the young, infirm, aged, and females, when, through pregnancy, they are unfit for labour, for the race of slaves must be kept up. But, to these natural wages of labour, we have to add the annual interest on the FIRST cost of the labourers, namely at six per cent, the rate of colonial interest, £96,000. To this we must add insurance on the capital vested in this perishable commodity; say at the low rate of three per cent. This gives an additional expenditure of £48,000. First, let me show the ruin which it necessarily Further, it is well known that slave labour is brings upon the planters and slave-owners. Land much inferior in productiveness to free labour, by is every where cultivated at the simple expence at least five per cent. This deduction from the the support, that is, the maintenance in food, master's profits is the same as outlay. We have clothing, and lodging, of the race of labourers. here, therefore, another expence equal to £80,000 These are the NATURAL WAGES of labour. AcciFurther, all the incidental disabilidental circumstances, indeed, may cause fluctua- ties PECULIAR TO SLAVE labour, such as sulks, tions in them, and changes for a short time; but running away, imprisonment for SLAVE OFFENCES, this is the centre, or natural level, determined by inability to work after being flogged, &c., &c.: the constitution of things. The market price of all these are equal to one per cent, or £16,000 produce must cover this expence, together with more. Adding all these expences together, we the WEAR and TEAR of all MACHINES or implements find that they amount to £1,040,000 per annum. used; besides a certain profit on the capital em- Now, suppose a colony stocked with 40,000 FREE ployed. Now, the race of slave-labourers (so labourers. The whole expense of their support, their masters assure us) receive the same mainte- and for the perpetuation of the race of labourers, is nance as the free. In addition to which, while about £20 a piece, or £800,000 per annum. infants, before they are able to work, when they To this sum the masters of free labourers have noare sick, and in the decrepitude of old age, they thing to add. The labourer takes care of himself draw their subsistence from the funds of their and his family, and, under all circumstances of owner, without making ANY RETURN. And sickness, or other adversity, pays his own way. planters assure us, that, at such seasons, they are We may perceive, therefore, that the masters in very handsomely provided for. Again, the planter the slave colony pay for their labour £240,000 is said to furnish all his slaves liberally with food more than the masters in the free colony. Hence, and raiment. Now, in furnishing supplies, the eco- it follows, that the WHOLE CAPITAL INVESTED IN nomy of an individual, who has only himself, or AGRICULTURAL SLAVES IS LOST, or CONSUMED every his family, to consult for, must be always superior SEVEN years. This is the price of slavery. This to that of a man who has under his charge a great is nature's revenge for the violation of natural number of families, who, all of them, consider rights. I have supposed this colony to contain WASTE as no LOSS TO THEM. This must be, even 40,000 slaves. All our slave colonies put towhen he himself is the proprietor, RESIDENT on gether contain, at least, 400,000 full-grown workhis property. But the proprietors of three quar-ing slaves. Hence it follows, that the sum paid ters of West Indian estates are persons resident in for their labour, over and above the cost of free England; and their affairs are conducted by labour, is not less than £2,400,000 per annum. AGENTS, whose only interest is to make sugar as Pretty expensive work this! But some persons fast as possible, and get their COMMISSION paid: will say, all this is only THEORY; and your calwhile, upon them, no loss, occasioned by the culations may be quite wrong. Let us come, waste of slaves' lives, or the waste of property, then, to history, facts, and documents; and, as a ever falls. Here, then, is a DOUBLE DRAIN upon specimen of slave colonies, we will take Jamaica; money the wastefulness of the slaves themselves, an island fertile, abounding in valuable proand that of the overseer or agent. Besides, when ductions, well situated for commerce and highly slaves are indolent, or refractory, or criminal, the favoured by England. whole pecuniary loss falls upon the owner.

And to all these drawbacks we have to add a permanent and incurable one. The slave proprietor has introduced an EXPENSIVE MACHINE into his system, with which the master of free labourers is not burdened, namely the SLAVE HIMSELF. The annual interest of the first cost of this machine, and its restoration, before the machine is wORN

The sugar of the West India planter is protected in the British market by a difference of £10 per ton, levied on the sugar of the East. His coffee by a difference of £28; his rum by 11s. 6d. per gallon, and the like with other articles. He and the West India merchant have, in effect, a monopoly of the trade and of the market. Surely, this island snoULD ABOUND IN

WEALTH. What MORE COULD NATURE OR LEGISLATION DO FOR IT? Let us look at the picture of their condition drawn by able observers, and by the inhabitants themselves. Mark this aetail of forty years! the great

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In 1792, says Bryan Edwards, mass of the planters are men of oppressed fortunes, consigned by debt to unremitting drudgery mocks their grasp, of happier days, and a release in the colonies, with a hope, which eternally from their embarrassments.'

In the same year a Committee of the assembly appointed to examine into the state of the sugar trade, report that "In the course of twenty years, 177 estates in Jamaica have been sold for the payment of debts; 55 estates have been thrown up; and 92 are still in the hands of creditors -total 324! And, it appears, from a return made by the provost marshal, that 80,121 executions, amounting to £22,563,786 have been lodged in his office, in the course of twenty years!"

In 1804, a Report of the Assembly in Jamaica, printed by order of the House of Commons, states that-"Every British merchant holding securities on real estates, is filing bills in Chancery to foreclose, although, when he has obtained his decree, he hesitates to enforce it, because he must become the proprietor of the plantation, of which, from fatal experience, he knows the consequence. No one will advance money to relieve those whose debts approach half the value of their property, nor even lend a moderate sum without a judgment in ejectment, and release of errors, that, at a moment's notice, he may take out a writ of possession, and enter on the plantation of his unfortunate debtor. Sheriff's officers, and collectors of taxes, are every where offering for sale the property of individuals who have seen better days, and now must view their effects purchased for half their real value, and at less than half their original cost. Far from having the reversion expected, the creditor is not often satisfied. All kind of credit is at an end. A faithful detail would have the appearance of a frightful caricature."

In 1807, the Assembly reports that--" within the last five or six years, 65 estates have been abandoned; 32 sold under decrees of chancery; and 115 depending in chancery. In five years, total 212! The sugar estates lately brought to sale, and now in the Court of Chancery, in this island and in England, amount to about one fourth of the whole number in the colony! In fine, they observe" Under a continuance of the present circumstances, your committee anticipate, very shortly, the bankruptcy of a much larger part of the community, and, in the course of a few years, of the whole class of sugar planters, excepting, perhaps, a very few in peculiar circumstances."

In 1812, the Assembly addressed themselves to the king, and represented their ruin as complete. "The crop of coffee is gathering in," they say, "but its exuberance excites no sensation of pleasure. If the slaves of the coffee plantations are offered for sale, who can buy them? The proprietors of the old sugar estates are themselves sinking under accumulated burdens. If ever there was a case demanding the active and immediate interference of a paternal government, to relieve the burdens, and alleviate the calamities of a most valuable and useful class of subjects, it is that of the coffee-planters in Jamaica."

In 1813, Mr. Marryatt stated in the House of Commons that "There were, comparatively, few estates in the West Indies that had not, during the last twenty years, been sold or given up to creditors."

In 1830, in an address to parliament, they pray that "in consequence of the alarming and unprecedented state of distress in which the whole British West India interest is involved, parliament would adopt prompt and effectual measures of relief, in order to preserve them from inevitable ruin!" The only way to avert it is to free their slaves. To crown the whole, they have been obliged to borrow from Parliament, THIS VERY YEAR, near £1,000,000.

120

Such is the history of slavery in Jamaica, in spite of all its natural and acquired advantages; and such has been, and will be, the melancholy fate of every colony cultivated by slaves. It does not depend upon accidents. It is the natural and inevitable result of a false system of labour.

An able writer at the Cape says, "In this colony we enjoy a most favourable climate and situation, much good land, and many valuable productions. We are not burdened with a national debt, the support of fleets or armies, nor Yet any of the artificial evils of old states. poverty is the general rule, and the most moderate independence the rare exception. There are many causes for this, but we can now point to one which would alone account fully for our depression, in the absence of all the rest.

"We possess about 35,000 slaves. The first cost, at £40 a piece, is £1,400,000. The natural wages of labour is just the sustenance of the labourer; but this the slaves get, and over and above we lose annually,

1. The interest of the first cost
2. Insurance

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3. Inferiority of slave labour (5 p. c.) 4. Accidents peculiar to slave labour Making a difference against us in favour of countries that employ free lbaour of per annum.

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£84,000

42,000 70,000 14,000

£220,000

Total loss in every seven years £1,540,000 Nor is this all. A large portion of the active capital of the colony is thus locked up, and taken from its natural use-viz., promoting improve ments, and extending cultivation and trade. And many of our farmers, particularly in the wine districts, commenced their business on borrowed money, on which they paid six per cent. If, as it is now manifest, the capital sunk in the first cost of slaves perishes every seven years, or, to meet all objections respecting numbers, say, every ten years, the fate of such farmers could have been easily foreseen. It was impossible, not from the local or accidental circumstances, but from the immutable order of things, that they could compete, in the same markets, with the wine growers of Europe, who have the whole of this money capital always at command to meet the various demands of their manufacture and trade. No one need be surprised that, in consequence of this enormous waste, we find ourselves so often on the

brink of ruin, and now and then at the very bot

APHORISMS.

Who knoweth not that time is truly compared to a stream that carrieth down fresh and pure waters unto that salt sea of corruption which environeth all human actions? And therefore if man shall not, by his industry, virtue, and policy, as it were with the oar, row against the stream and inclination of time, all institutions and ordinances, be they never so pure, will corrupt and degenerate. -LORD BACON.

Riches are the baggage of virtue; they cannot be spared nor left behind, but they hinder the march.-IB.

Those who study particular sciences, and neglect philosophy, are like Penelope's suitors, that made love to the waiting-woman.-ARISTIPPUS.

As that which rises from the bottom of a still is

but a vapour, and becomes not a drop till it settles upon the upper part of it; so that which comes from the body is but a base disturbance, and comes not to the proper form and nature of a sin till consented to and owned by the soul.-DR. SOUTH.

It is the chief concern of wise men to retrench the evils of life by the reasonings of philosophy; it is the employment of fools to multiply them by the sentiments of superstition.-ADDISON.

It cannot escape observation, that when men are too much confined to professional and faculty habits, and, as it were, inveterate in the recurrent

employment of that narrow circle, they are rather disabled than qualified for whatever depends on the knowledge of mankind, on experience in mixed affairs, on a comprehensive and connected view of the various, complicated, external, and internal interests which go to the formation of that multifarious thing called a "" state."-BURKE.

ANECDOTE OF MILTON.

JAMES the Second, when Duke of York, expressed one day a great desire to see old Milton, of whom he had heard so much. The king replied, that he felt no objection to the duke's satisfying his curiosity; and, accordingly, soon afterwards James went privately to Milton's house, where, after an introduction which explained to the old republican the rank

But the hours speed on, and Time, as he flies,
Over the valleys breathes witheringly;
And the fairest chaplet of summer dies,

And blossomless now is the wild-briar tree.

The strong have bowed down, the beauteous are
dead;
The blast through the forest sighs mournfully,
And bared is full many a lofty head,

But there's fruit on the lowly wild-briar tree.

It has cheered yon bird, that, with gentle swell,
Sings, "What are the gaudy flowers to me?
For here will I build my nest, and dwell
By the simple, faithful, wild-briar tree."
Wild Garland.

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Thy service clean, thy constitution sound;
Amidst a world of changes thou hast stood
Fix'd to thy post, illustriously good;
Unwarp'd, inflexible, and true, whate'er
Thy fiery toils, and thou hast had thy share;
For never Stoic of the porch has felt
A frame more firm, or less disposed to melt;
And sooner than o'er thine, mankind might seek
For iron tears o'er Pluto's marble cheek.
Yet hast thou shown, in fulness and in want,
Virtues that ne'er in rugged bosoms haunt;
Grate-full when loaded, and when empty seen
With a still fairer and more beauteous mien ;
For polished is thy make, and form'd t' impart
Light to the mind, and solace to the heart.
When numb'd by vapours, or a frowning sky,
When deadly gloom has weigh'd down every eye,
When dark my views, or doubtful my career,
I've sought thy radiance, all has soon been clear;
Nature her face has hasten'd to resume,
Each doubt decamp'd, and glee succeeded gloom.

tom of it." Such is the cost of slavery to the of his guest, a free conversation ensued be. ASTHMAS, SHORTNESS of BREATH, &c. &c.—

planter.

How many more years shall this wretched system continue, and be actually sUPPORTED by

us?

I remain, Sir,

Your obedient servant,
G. W. CRAUFURD.

King's College, Oct. 3, 1832.

ANCIENT ELECTIONEERING.

A MEMORABLE instance of old English spirit and integrity is recorded of Lady Ann Clifford, Countess of Dorset, Pembroke, and Montgomery, who, by failure of the male line, possessed the great hereditary estates of the Clifford Cumberland family, and the consequent patronage of the borough of Appleby. Sir Joseph Williamson, the profligate minister and secretary of Charles the Second, wrote to her ladyship, suggesting a candidate for the borough. She returned the following laconic and patriotic answer, worthy a better subject than this bartering of the subject's rights :

"I have been bullied by an usurper, I have been neglected by a court; but I will not be dictated to by a subject. Your man sha'nt stand.

"Anne Dorset, Pembroke, and Montgomery."

tween these very dissimilar and discordant characters. In the course, however, of the conversation, the duke asked Milton whether he did not regard the loss of his eye-sight as a judgment inflicted on him for what he had written against the late king. Milton's reply was to this effect: "If your Highness thinks that the calamities which befal us here are indications of the wrath of Heaven, in what manner are we to account for the fate of the king, your father? The displeasure of Heaven must, upon this supposition, have been much greater against him than against me; for I have lost only my eyes, but he lost his head."

THE WILD BRIAR.

THE woods are stripped by the wintry winds,
And faded the flowers that bloomed on the lea;
But one lingering gem the wanderer finds—
'Tis the ruby fruit of the wild-briar tree.

OR the CURE of COUGHS, COLDS, WALTER'S ANISEED PILLS.-The numerous and respectable Testimonials daily received of the extraordinary efficacy of the above Pills, in cming the most distressing and long-established diseases of the pulmonary and respiratory organs, induce the Proprietor to recommend plaints, conceiving that a Medicine which has now stood them to the notice of those afflicted with the above comthe test of experience for several years cannot be too generally known. They are composed entirely of balsamic and vegetable ingredients, and are so speedy in their bene ficial effects, that in ordinary cases a few doses have been found sufficient; and, unlike most Cough Medicines, they any of the unpleasant sensations so frequently complained neither affect the head, confine the bowels, nor produce of. The following cases are submitted to the Public from lane, Mile-end, was perfectly cured of a violent cough, many in the Proprietor's possession:-K. Boke, of Globeattended with hoarseness, which rendered his speech iuaudible, by taking three or four doses. E. Booley, of Queenstreet, Spitalfields, after taking a few doses, was entirely cured of a most inveterate cough, which he had had for many months, and tried almost every thing without success. Prepared by W. Walter, and sold by I. A. Sharwood, No. 55, Bishopsgate Without, in boxes, at 1s. Id. and three in one for 2s. 9d.; and by appointment, by Hannay and Co., No. 63, Oxford-street; Green, No. 42, Whitechapel-road; Prout, No. 226, Strand; Sharp, Cross-street, Islington; Pink, No. 65, High-street, Borough; Allison, No. 130, Brick-lane, Bethnal-green; Farrar, Upton-place, Commercial-road; Hendebourck, 326, Holboru; and by all the wholesale and retail Medicine Venders in the United Kingdom.-N.B. In consequence of the increased demand for this excellent Medicine, the Public are cautioned

When the spring came forth in her May-day mood, against Counterfeits-none can be genuine unless signed by
Mid the bursting buds, by the zephyr wooed,
Methought 'twas a beautiful sight to see,

The green leafy sprays of the wild-briar tree.

When the sunbeams shone with a warmer glow,

And the honied bells were sipped by the bee, Could the woodlands a lovelier garland show,

Than the wreath that hung on the wild-briar tree?

I.A. Sharwood on the Government Stamp, and W. Walter on the outside wrapper.-Be sure to ask for "Walter's Aniseed Pills."

Printed by J. HADDON and Co.; and Publisheď by J. CRISP, at No. 27, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row, where all Advertisements and Communications for the Editor are to be addressed.

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