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SON.

The seat of Law is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world; all things in heaven and earth do her homage; the very least as feeling her care, the greatest as not exempted from her power; both angels and men, and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy.-HOOKER. Ceremony keeps up all things; it is like a penny glass to a rich spirit, or some excellent water; without it, the water were spilt, the spirit lost.-SELDEN'S TABLE-TALK.

He that studies books alone, will know how things ought to be; and he that studies men will know how things are.-COLTON'S LACON.

There is such a sin as oppression, which consists not in that gross violation of justice which is cognizable by law, and against which the wisdom of all civilized nations has provided, but in taking such an advantage of the weakness and necessities of the poor, as converts them into mere instruments of a superior power, the victims of selfish emolument, with no other consideration than how far their physical exertions may be rendered subservient to the gratification of an unfeeling rapacity. -ROBERT HALL.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TOURIST.

DR. JOHNSON has some remarks on the value of first impressions, before the mind becomes, either by custom or association, so prejudiced as to prevent its deciding clearly between right and wrong. I shall, therefore, make no apology for giving you an account of the first impressions of a young soldier on the horrible effects of slavery. On being about to leave Antigua he thus writes:

myself; and our first impulse was, to threaten to
shoot the driver if he did not desist. I am not
ashamed to say, that, after drawing off to such a
distance that our small shot could not seriously
injure the vagabond, we peppered his legs pretty
That we should have adopted so
handsomely.
summary a mode of punishment, had we lived
twice as long in the world, I will not say; but my
conscience has never reproached me for the steps
which we took to show our disapprobation of the
diabolical act.

"I have too often witnessed the application of
the lash to old and young, male and female, and
have too frequently heard their cries and lamenta-
tions, ever to forget it; nor shall I ever cease to
hold in utter detestation and abhorrence this infer-
nal system."-See Rough Sketches, Life of an old
Soldier, by Lieut.-Colonel Leach. pp. 19, 21.
Surely, after reading this, no Briton valuing
justly his rights can vote for any candidate
who upholds the continuance of such a system
any longer-but must insist on immediate
abolition.

Your early insertion will oblige

S.

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to a public and exemplary death;
thereby presenting to the amazed world,
and transmitting down through applauding ages,
the most glorious example
of unshaken virtue,

love of freedom, and impartial justice,

ever exhibited on the blood-stained theatre
of human action.
Oh! Reader!

pass not on till thou hast blessed his memory;
and never-never forget

THAT REBELLION TO TYRANTS

IS OBEDIENCE TO GOD.

JUDGE JEFFRIES' TREATMENT OF RICHARD BAXTER.

"Before I bid adieu to the spot where so many of my earliest and much-valued military friends and companions were taken to their long homes, I must say a word or two on the idea which I formed of the system of slavery. I am well aware that different persons look at this question in different points of view; but I am willing nevertheless to believe, that the numbers in England who view it with the same degree of indignation, horror, and disgust, which I ever have done, preponderate beyond all comparison; and that the time is not far distant, when the voices of those will be silenced who are not ashamed to declare that an unfortunate negro, writhing under the lash of the merciless slave-driver, for laying aside his spade for a THE hatred with which Jeffries regarded the few minutes in the heat of a tropical sun, or for Presbyterian party found a free vent on the trial some offence equally trivial, is infinitely better off, of the celebrated Richard Baxter, for publishing decidedly more happy, and in a more enviable si- what was termed a seditious libel. The language tuation, than the labouring peasant in the mother which, during this trial, Jeffries applied both to country. Facts are stubborn things; and, although the counsel and to the defendant, was more gross, many years have rolled over my head since I left vulgar, and indecent, than had ever before been the West Indies, I have not yet forgotten what the heard in a court of justice. Interrupting Mr. system of slavery was in 1803, 1804, and 1805. Wallop, the counsel for Mr. Baxter, he said, The first exhibition of the kind which met my eye, "Mr. Wallop, I observe you are in all these dirty a few days after landing in Antigua, was a huge causes; and were it not for you gentlemen of the slave-driver flogging, most unmercifully, an old long robe, who should have more wit and honesty decrepit female negro, who appeared bowed down than to support and hold up these factious knaves with misery and hard labour. I know not what by the chin, we should not be at the pass we are her offence was, but she was one of a gang, as at."-"My lord," said Mr. Wallop, I humbly they are termed, of negroes, of different sexes and conceive that the passages accused are natural ages, working with spades under a mid-day tropi- deductions from the text."-"You humbly concal sun. A brother officer, who was with me on a ceive!" cried Jeffries, "and I humbly conceive. shooting excursion, felt as astonished and indig- Swear him-swear him!" Soon afterwards he nant at this unnatural and inhuman proceeding as ' added, “Sometimes you humbly conceive, and

sometimes you are very positive; you talk of your skill in church history, and of your understanding Latin and English: I think I understand something of them too, as well as you, but, in short, must tell you that, if you do not understand your duty better, I shall teach it you." Upon this Mr. Wallop sat down. On Baxter endeavouring to address the court, Jeffries stopped him. "Richard! Richard! dost thou think we will hear thee poison the court? Richard, thou art an old fellow, an old knave, and thou hast written books enough to load a cart. Every one is as full of sedition, I might say treason, as an egg is full of meat. Hadst thou been whipped out of thy writing trade forty years ago it had been happy. Thou pretendest to be a preacher of the gospel of peace, and thou hast one foot in the grave. It is time for thee to begin to think what account thou intendest to give; but leave thee to thyself, and I see thou wilt go on as thou hast begun; but, by the grace of God, I'll look after thee! I know thou hast a mighty party, and I see a great many of the brotherhood in corners, waiting to see what will become of their mighty don, and a doctor of the party (looking at Dr. Bates) at your elbow; but, by the grace of Almighty God, I will crush you all."

When the chief justice had finished his summing up, Baxter said, "Does your lordship think that any jury will pretend to pass a verdict upon me upon such a trial?""I'll warrant you, Mr. Baxter," replied Jeffries; "don't you trouble yourself about that." The jury immediately found a verdict of guilty.-Roscoe's British Lawyers.

EXPEDITIOUS TRAVELLING.

(From the Newcastle Courant, dated 1712.) Edinbro', Berwick, Newcastle, Durham, and London Stage Coach begins on Monday, the 13th October, 1712; all that desire to pass from Edinbro' to London, or any place on that road, let them repair to Mr. John Ballies, at the Coach and Horses, at the head of Canon-gate, Edinbro', every other Saturday; or to the Black Swan, in Holborn, every other Monday. At both of which places they may be received in the stage coach, which performs the whole journey in thirteen days without any stoppages (if God permit), having eighty able horses to perform the whole journey; each passenger paying four pounds ten shillings, allowing each passenger 20lbs. luggage; all above, 6. per lb. The coach sets off at six o'clock in the morning.-Performed by Henry Harrison, Richard Croft, Nicholas Speight, Robert Garbe.

VALEDICTORY STANZAS.
Farewell!-the word is on my tongue,
The feeling in my heart,

With all those thoughts of sorrow, wrung
Which come when we depart
From those with whom the winter's day
Grew even shorter still,

While something yet remained to say-
Some promise to fulfil.

Farewell!-some eyes will mark the word,
Which love and grief combine-
Some hearts will memories record,
Delightful still to mine;

And mine, in musing upon this,

Will still more fondly beat,
While fancy raised pourtrays the bliss
'Twill be again to meet.
Farewell-farewell! I name no name,
But kindred thoughts will roam
To those who kindred feelings claim,
In many a happy home;
The parting word-the parting glance-
The tear which lately flowed,
Remembered yet will tell, perchance,
On whom my rhyme's bestowed.

Printed by J. HADDON and Co.; and Published 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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THE Journal de Physique contains an | posed of lava, cinders, and ashes, this interesting narrative of some travellers, who had the hardihood to descend the crater of Vesuvius, and examine its burning focus. Though the relation of their adventure is not charged with many facts, it is upon the whole interesting.

The party was composed of several persons, assisted by the usual Neapolitan guides, called Lazaroni. They availed themselves of their carriages to the base of the mountain, where they arrived about midnight, when they proceeded to ascend its sides, mounted on mules, pursuing the usual track, one by one. Amid the thick darkness, the numerous guides, bearing lighted torches, gave to the whole cortége an air that would have been sufficiently solemn and mysterious, but for the gaiety and mirth which the buoyant spirits of the company otherwise remarkably contrasted with it. At about midway, the ascent becomes so steep and difficult that travellers are obliged to alight, and make the rest of the journey on foot. All this upper half of the mountain being com

portion of the adventure is a work of real
toil and fatigue. Accordingly, when they
gained the edge of the volcano, at about
half past two in the morning, they found
themselves overwhelmed with perspiration
and perfectly exhausted; insuperable dif-
ficulties seemed now to present them-
selves to all attempts to make any nearer
approach to the awful mysteries of the
mountain, than the edge of the immense
crater: the inside abyss, extending by
computation, somewhat more than 5700
feet in circumference, has a perpendi-
cular depth of about 200 more, forming a
crater or cup, in the centre of which lie
strewed, masses of recently glowing sco-
ria, and heated ashes, all diversely varie-
gated, from among which the ignited va-
pours find a passage upwards through
numberless rents and little orifices. While
the travellers were deliberating on the
means of descending further, some stones
that came rolling down from the higher
edge of the crater, occasioning a general
agitation of the masses over which they

passed, one of the party, Adjutant Dampierre, feeling at the same time the earth shake under him, was led to exchange his ground.

He had scarce called to a companion, named Wicar, to follow him, when the entire portion of this part of the crater sunk down and disappeared. Soon after still greater masses underwent the same. change, the whole of the small eminences, thereabout, crumbling down successively; so that, in the course of half an hour, what had been the summit of the volcano, was precipitated with an awful noise into the bottom of the crater.

Dejected by difficulties, that seemed au effectual barrier to their accomplishing the object of their journey, they had proceeded to satisfy their curiosity by making the circuit of the crater, when fortunately they discovered a long declivity, or rather a portion of the shelving sides of the crater, much less precipitous than the other parts: though deep, it was seemingly smooth, and conducted immediately to the focus, or burning issue of

74

cessary that persons should succeed each
other at long intervals, for fear of burying
under a torrent of volcanic matter those
that followed them. Every tread dis-
places a mass of ashes through a circuit
of thirty feet of the acclivity.

The church in Falmouth, to which Mr. Holmes refers, was raised by the exertions of the Rev. James Mann, of Berwick-upon-Tweed, 1830. The church then made a request that who was called to his rest on the 13th of Feb. I would take the pastoral charge, to which I acceded, and continued with them till the chapel was destroyed on the 7th of Feb. 1832.

The whole of the collections and subscriptions raised from slave members, and free, were voluntary donations, and amounted to 4s. 2d. currency, or 2s. 6d. sterling, from each individual per annum.

The smallest coin in

the volcano. Without waiting to examine whether there were any other difficulties, such as rents and precipices, which interposed between their curiosity and the innermost mysteries of the mountain, the ambassador's secretary, M. Debeer, taking a Lazaroni with him, set out first to traverse the passage; they had reached half of the descent, gliding down in a torrent of ashes, which their feet displaced as they moved on, when they found themselves at the edge of a precipice, about twelve feet deep, down the face of which it was necessary to descend to reach a lower declivity. The Lazaroni here stood aghast, and refused to proceed. A speedy recourse, however, to the sign of the cross, and invocations to the Madonna and St. Anthony of Padua, giving him fresh courage, he threw himself, with the secretary, to the bottom of the precipice. Another When my house was illegally entered and cliff of less height interposed, but it was overcome with more ease and less relucsearched by William Seyer and Mr. Kitchen of Falmouth, and my papers stolen, they took, tance. At length, amid torrents of rushamong other articles, the Church AccountThis excursion was made with no view Book, in which every sum received was ening lava, ashes, and stones, that incessantly broke away from the declivity, they more important, says the Journal de Phy-tered, together with the manner of its approarrived at the bottom of the crater. Here, sique, than to try the possibility of reach-priation. This book was examined by the with outstretched arms and shouts of joy, ing the centre of the crater, and to show officers and the colonel of the Trelawney regithat were answered by their more timid the practicability of the philosopher, the ment, and I dare the bitterest enemy I have companions with satisfaction and enthu-naturalist, and chemist, exploring at their to produce the least shadow of proof that the siasm, they cheered on the others to fol- leisure this great furnace of nature. The negroes contributed in any way, or for any low them. variety of matters that form the consti-purpose, more than I have stated, or that I ever appropriated any portion of the proceeds tuent elements of it afford an ample field of the church to my personal advantage. for chemical research; from which, perhaps, might be elicited discoveries portant in art or science.

On arriving at the two precipices, it was necessary to adopt the expedient of mounting on the shoulders of a man stationed at the bottom, to give necessary aid, while another standing at the top of the cliff, by means of a stick, was to help the person to scramble upward; he was to rest the feet, however, no where but with In this way the caution and gentleness. The whole sum thus collected was approsummit of Vesuvius was again reached, priated towards paying for the chapel in Fal and each of the adventurers, without ac-mouth, which was destroyed by the magiscident, but in a state of exhaustion and trates, and other breakers of the public peace. fatigue, and covered with ashes and I never received a single fraction of what was smoke. The six of the party who had contributed, being supported entirely by the not essayed this descent into the volcano, Baptist Missionary Society. received their wearied friends with joy, supplying them with refreshments that were very needful to them.

Jamaica is a fivepence, and this was contri|buted by each person, on an average, ten timesduring the year.

M. Houdonart, an engineer, was the next adventurer after M. Dobeer. He encountered the same difficulties and dangers. Mr. Wickers, another of the party, hesitated when he came to the cliffs, but seeing that no assistance could be rendered him, he grew impatient and rushed down, amid similar floods of ashes, stones, and volcanic scoria, as his predecessors. Adjutant Dampiere. M. Bagnins, Physician to the Army, Messrs. Tassinct, and Andres, two French travellers, and M. Moulin, Inspector of Ports, next followed; these all arrived at the crater, after overcoming the same difficulties, and incurring the same dangers as the

others.

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My church accounts were audited every im-quarter of the year by four of my brother missionaries, and a copy transmitted to the Parent Society in London, where any respectable person may see them, and satisfy himself respecting the truth of the statement I have made. The fact is, that instead of gaining any emolument, a portion of what little I possessed was lent on one of the chapels which has been destroyed, and is therefore lost.

VINDICATION OF THE BAPTIST

MISSIONARIES.

WE cheerfully insert the following letter from our respected correspondent, Mr. Knibb. It will serve at once to vindicate the Jamaica Missionaries, and to exhibit in its true character of meanness and falsehood the opposition which they have had to encounter. These excellent men need not fear the verdict of the British public. They have the confidence and the sympathy of the nation. Let them proceed in their work of mercy, and their best wishes will soon be re

The bottom of the crater, of which no correct conclusions can be formed, when examined from above, is a vast field of rugged inequalities, made up of piles of porous lava, sometimes hard and firm, and sometimes extremely yielding and in-alized. secure; particularly just when the travellers reached the focus. The most interesting sight, however, of the whole, was the number of small orifices or vents very properly denominated spiracles, which, both at the bottom of the crater and on the interior face of the mountain, suffer the ignited vapours to escape.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TOURIST.

Dundee, Oct. 30, 1832. SIR,-Having noticed in several of the newspapers, a paragraph, copied from the Cornwall Chronicle, published in Montego Bay, Jamaica, by a Mr. Holmes, in which the assertion is made, that, during my misTheir observations being finished, it sionary career, I collected the sum of twelve was a business of some thought to get thousand pounds, you will oblige me, by perback again-the descent is far less labo-mitting me, through your columns, to repel rious than the ascent. It is not easy to climb eminences, where the supports for the feet are moving with every step; besides, ascending but by one at a time, it is ne

the foul slander. Mr. Holmes has stated a de-
liberate falsehood; and I dare him, and every
editor who has copied the paragraph, with ap-
parent pleasure, to prove the charges they have
promulgated.

I am not at all surprised at such men as Mr. Holmes imagining, that the love of money actuated me, in my endeavours to instruct the negroes. His sordid soul was never inspired by a higher motive; and were his character as well known in Scotland as it is in Jamaica,

the same degree of credence would be given

to his assertions.

As the advocates of slavery, and the sup porters of the flogging of females, are still endeavouring to cast the blame of the late disturbances in Jamaica on the Baptist Missionaries, let them come forward like men; I challenge them to prove the assertions they make. I will meet them, on this subject, at any time and place; and a discerning public shall judge upon whom the blame should rest.

The only punishment I wish may be allotted to Mr. Holmes is this, that when he has reaped a full harvest, by traducing the characters of the Baptist Missionaries, he may be compelled to devote the sum at which he affixes my fortune to the instruction of the deeply injured and oppressed sons and daughters of Africa. I remain,

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VENETIAN JUSTICE.

A MOST affecting instance of the odious inflexibility of Venetian courts, appears in the case of Foscari, son to the Doge of that name. This young man had, by some imprudences, given offence to the senate, and was, by their orders, confined at Treviso, when Almor Donato, one of the Council of Ten, was assassinated on the 5th of November, 1750, as he entered his own house.

A reward, in ready money, with pardon for this, or any other crime, and a pension of two hundred ducats, revertible to children, was promised to any person who would discover the planner, or perpetrator, of this crime; no such discovery was made. One of young Foscari's footmen, named Olivier, had been observed loitering near Donato's house on the evening of the murder; he fled from Venice next morning. These, with other circumstances of less importance, created a strong suspicion that Foscari had engaged this man to commit the murder.

he knew, would betray him, and deliver it to
them; the consequence of which, he foresaw,
would be, his being ordered back a prisoner to
Venice, the only means he had in his power of
seeing his parents and friends; a pleasure for
which he had languished with insurmountable
desire for some time, and which he was willing
to purchase at the expense of any danger or
pain.

The judges, little affected with this generous
instance of filial piety, ordained that the un-
happy young man should be carried back to
Candia, and there be imprisoned for a year,
and remain banished to that island for life;
with this condition, that if he should make
any more applications to foreign powers, his
imprisonment should be perpetual. At the
same time they gave permission, that the
Doge, and his lady, might visit their unfor-
tunate son.

prolonged till he beheld his son persecuted to death for an infamous crime, but not till he should see this foul stain washed from his family, and the innocence of his beloved son made manifest to the world.

The ways of heaven never appeared more dark and intricate than in the incidents and catastrophe of this mournful story. To reconcile the permission of such events to our ideas of infinite power and goodness, however difficult, is a natural attempt in the human mind, and has exercised the ingenuity of philosophers in all ages; while, in the eyes of Christians, these seeming perplexities afford an additional proof, that there will be a future state in which the ways of God to man will be fully justified.→→ Moore's Travels in Italy.

66

The Doge was, at this time, very old; he A CHANCELLOR'S PUN. had been in possession of the office above AFTER Lord Bacon had been heavily fined thirty years. Those wretched parents had an by parliament, and reduced to extreme poverty, interview with their son in one of the apart-he wrote to James I. in the following terms:Olivier was taken, brought to Venice, put ments of the palace; they embraced him with 'Help me, dear sovereign lord and master! to the torture, and confessed nothing: yet the all the tenderness which his misfortunes and and pity me so far, that I, who have so long Council of Ten being prepossessed with an his filial affection deserved. The father ex- borne a bag, be not forced in my old age to opinion of their guilt, and imagining that the horted him to bear his hard fate with firmness: carry a wallet.”" master would have less resolution, used him in the son protested, in the most moving terms, the same cruel manner. The unhappy young that this was not in his power; that however man, in the midst of his agony, continued to others could support the dismal loneliness of a assert that he knew nothing of the assassina-prison, he could not; that his heart was formed tion. This convinced the court of his firmness, but not of his innocence; yet there was no legal proof of his guilt-they could not sentence him to death. He was condemned to pass the rest of his life in banishment, at Canéa, in the island of Candia.

This unfortunate youth bore his exile with more impatience than he had done the rack; he often wrote to his relations and friends, praying them to intercede in his behalf, that the term of his banishment might be abridged, and that he might be permitted to return to his family before he died. All his applications were fruitless; those to whom he addressed himself had never interfered in his favour, for fear of giving offence to the obdurate Council, or had interfered in vain.

After languishing five years in exile, having lost all hope of return, through the interposition of his own family, or countrymen, in a fit of despair he addressed the Duke of Milan, putting him in mind of the services which the Doge, his father, had rendered him, and begging that he would use his powerful influence with the State of Venice, that his sentence might be recalled. He entrusted his letter to a merchant, going from Canéa to Venice, who promised to take the first opportunity of sending it from thence to the Duke; instead of which, this wretch, as soon as he arrived at Venice, delivered it to the chiefs of the Council of Ten.

This conduct of the young Foscari appeared criminal in the eyes of those judges; for, by the laws of the republic, all its subjects are expressly forbid claiming the protection of foreign princes, in any thing which relates to the government of Venice.

Foscari was, therefore, ordered to be brought from Candia, and shut up in the State-prison. There, the chiefs of the Council of Ten ordered him once more to be put to the torture, to draw from him the motives which determined him to apply to the Duke of Milan. Such an exertion of law is, indeed, the most flagrant injustice.

The miserable youth declared to the Council, that he had written the letter in the full persuasion that the merchant, whose character

for friendship, and the reciprocal endearments
of social life, without which his soul sunk into
dejection worse than death, from which alone
he should look for relief, if he should again be
confined to the horrors of a prison; and, melt-
ing into tears, he sunk at his father's feet, im-
ploring him to take compassion on a son who
had ever loved him with the most dutiful af-
fection, and who was perfectly innocent of the
crime of which he was accused; he conjured
him by every bond of nature and religion, by
the bowels of a father, and the mercy of a
Redeemer, to use his influence with the Coun-
cil to mitigate their sentence, that he might be
saved from the most cruel of all deaths-that
of expiring under the slow tortures of a broken
heart, in a horrible banishment from every
creature he loved. "My son," replied the
Doge, "submit to the laws of your country,
and do not ask of me what it is not in my
power to obtain."

Having made this effort, he retired to another
apartment; and, unable any longer to support
the acuteness of his feelings, he sunk into a
state of insensibility, in which condition he re-
mained till some time after his son had sailed
on his return to Candia.

Nobody has presumed to describe the anguish of the wretched mother; those who are endowed with the most exquisite sensibility, and who have experienced distresses in some degree similar, will have the justest idea of what it was. The accumulated misery of those unhappy parents touched the hearts of some of the most powerful senators, who applied with so much energy for a complete pardon for young Foscari, that they were on the point of obtaining it, when a vessel arrived from Candia, with tidings that the miserable youth had expired in prison a short time after his return.

Some years after this, Nicholas Erizzo, a noble Venetian, being on his death-bed, confessed that, bearing a violent resentment against the senator Donato, he had committed the assassination for which the unhappy family of Foscari had suffered so much.

At this time the sufferings of the Doge were at an end; he had existed only a few months after the death of his son His life had been

ROME.

[From the Metropolitan.]

Ir e'er you've seen an artist sketching,
The purlieus of this ancient city,

I need not tell you how much stretching,
There is of truth, to make things pretty ;-
How trees are brought, perforce, together,

Where never tree was known to grow;
And founts condemned to trickle, whether
There's water for said founts, or no;-
How even the wonder of the Thane,

In stretching, all its wonder loses,
As woods will come to Dunsinane,
Or any where the sketcher chooses.
For instance, if an artist see,--
As at romantic Tivoli,-

A waterfall and ancient shrine,

Beautiful both, but not so plac'd,
As that his pencil can combine

Their features in one whole with taste,-
What does he do? Why, without scruple,
He whips the temple up,-as supple
As were those angels, who (no doubt)
Carried the Virgin's house about,-
And lands it plump upon the brink

Of the cascade, or wheresoever
It suits his plaguy taste to think

"Twill look most picturesque and clever.
In short there's no end to the treacheries,
Of man, or maid, who once a sketcher is.
The livelier, too, their fancies are,

The more they falsify each spot;
As any dolt can give what's there,

But men of genius give what's not.
Then come your travellers, false as they,-
All Piranesis, in their way;

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Eking out bits of truth with fallacies,
And turning pig-sties into palaces.
But, worst of all, that wordy tribe,
Who sit down-hang them!-to describe;
Who, if they can but make things fine,
Have consciences, by no means tender,
In sinking all that will not shine,
All vulgar facts, that spoil their splendour ;-
As Irish country squires, they say,

Whene'er the Viceroy travels nigh,
Compound with beggars, on the way,
To be lock'd up, till he goes by;
And so send back his Lordship marvelling,
That Ireland should be deem'd so starveling.

THOMAS MOORE.

76

MIRACULOUS ESCAPE.

:

COMMISSION EXCHANGED.

boat to be hoisted, and we fired two shots at the approaching alligator, but without effect. IN the papers of Richard, Earl of Cork, it THE following account is taken from an The report of the piece, and the noise of the is related, that, towards the conclusion of American paper, to which it was communi- blacks from the sloop, soon made Campbell Queen Mary's reign, a commission was signed cated by the captain of a Guinea ship acquainted with his danger; and he saw the for the persecution of the Irish Protestants: "The bosom of the ocean was exceedingly creature making for him; and, with all the and, to give greater weight to this important tranquil; and the heat, which was intolerable, strength and skill he was master off, made to affair, Dr. Coke was nominated one of the commissioners. The doctor, on his way to had made us so languid, that almost a general the shore. And now the moment arrived, in wish overcame us, on the approach of the which a scene was exhibited, beyond the power Dublin, halted at Chester, where he was evening, to bathe in the waters of Congo. of my humble pen to describe. On approach- waited upon by the mayor, to whom, in the However, myself and Johnson were deterred ing within a short distance of some canes and course of conversation, he imparted the object from it by the fear of sharks, many of which shrubs which covered the bank, while closely of his mission, and exhibited the leathern box we had observed in the progress of our voyage, pursued by the alligator, a fierce and ferocious that contained his credentials. The landlady and those enormously large. At length, Camp- tiger sprang towards him, and that just at the of the inn where the interview took place, being a same instant that the jaws of the first enemy Protestant, and having overheard the conversabell alone, who had been making too free with the liquor-case, was obstinately bent on going were opened to devour him. At this moment, tion, seized an opportunity, while the doctor was overboard; and although we used every means Campbell was preserved. The tiger, eager for attending the mayor to the bottom of the stairs, in our power to dissuade him, he dashed into his prey, by overleaping him, encountered the to exchange the commission for a dirty pack The water of cards, on the top of which she facetiously the watery element, and had swam some dis-gripe of the amphibious monster. tance from the vessel, when we on deck dis- was covered with the blood of the tiger, whose turned up the knave of clubs. The doctor, covered an alligator making towards him from efforts to tear the scaly covering of the alliga-not suspecting the trick which had been played behind a rock that stood at a short distance tor were unavailing; while the latter had also him, secured his box, and pursued his way. from the shore. His escape I now considered the advantage of keeping the tiger under Arriving at Dublin, on the 7th of October, water, by which the victory was soon obtained, 1558, he lost no time in presenting himself to impossible; and I asked Johnson how we should act. He, like myself, affirmed the im- for the tiger's death was now effected: they Lord Fitzwalter and the privy council; to possibility of saving him, and instantly seized both sunk to the bottom, and we saw no more whom, after an explanatory speech, he preupon a loaded carbine to shoot the poor fellow of the alligator. Campbell was soon recovered sented his credentials in the box, which, to the before he fell into the jaws of the monster. I and conveyed on board; and, the moment he astonishment of all present, contained only a did not, however, consent to this, but waited leaped on the deck, he fell on his knees, and pack of cards! The doctor, greatly chagrined, with horror the tragedy we anticipated. Yet, returned thanks to God for protecting him." returned instantly to London, to have his comwilling to do all in our power, ordered the mission renewed: but while waiting a second time on the coast for a favourable wind, the news reached him of the queen's death.-Lord Fitzwalter afterwards related the circumstance to Queen Elizabeth; which so much pleased her, that she afterwards allowed the good Protestant woman an annuity of forty pounds per

annum.

TAVISTOCK ABBEY.

THESE are the ruins of a monastery, coeval with the very ancient town of Tavistock, in Devonshire, in which they stand. This antiquity, however, only appertains to the endowment, as the edifice was destroyed by the Danes, though it subsequently arose from its ruins with considerable enlargement. It was founded by Ordgar, Earl of Devonshire, in 961, in consequence of an admonition to that effect, which he is stated by tradition to have received in a dream. It was completed by his son in 981, richly endowed, and consecrated to St. Mary the Virgin, and St. Rumon (a gentleman of whom we can give no account), in 997. The abbey church was dedicated in 1318, by Bishop Stapleton; and in 1539, the monastery was surrendered to the king, by John Peryn, the last abbot, when its revenues were found to amount to £902: 5:7-no inconsiderable sum in those days. This establishment is remarkable, as having contained, at a very early

THE HEDGEHOG AND THE SNAKE.

HAVING occasion to suspect that hedgehogs, occasionally, at least, preyed upon snakes, Professor Buckland procured a common snake (Coluber natrix), and also a hedgehog, which had lived in an undomesticated state, some time in the botanic garden at Oxford, where it was not likely to have seen snakes, and put the animals into a box together. The hedgehog was rolled up at the first meeting; but the snake was in continual motion, creeping round the box as if in order to make its escape. Whether or not it recognized its enemy was not apparent; it did not dart from the hedgehog, but kept creeping gently round the box; the hedgehog remained rolled up, and did not appear to notice the snake. The professor then laid the hedgehog on the body of the snake, with that part of the ball where the head and tail meet downwards, touching it. The snake proceeded to crawl; the hedgehog started, opened slightly, and, seeing what was under it, gave the snake a hard bite, and instantly rolled itself up again. It soon opened a second time, repeated the bite, then closed as if for defence; opened carefully a third time, and then inflicted a third bite, by which the back of the snake was broken. This done, the hedgehog stood by the snake's side, and passed the whole body of the snake successively through its jaws, cracking it, and breaking the bones at intervals of half an inch or more, by which operation the snake was rendered entirely motionless. The hedgehog then placed itself at the tip of the snake's tail, and began to eat upwards, as one would eat a radish, without intermission, but slowly, till half of the snake was devoured, when the hedgehog ceased from mere repletion. During the following night the anterior half of the snake was also com

period, a school for Saxon literature, and
an ancient printing press, soon after the
introduction of printing into England.
In Exeter College, Oxford, there are pre-
served copies of certain books which
were printed here, in the year 1525, by
Dan Thomas Rychard, one of the monks
of the abbey. Its possessions, with the
borough and town, were granted at the
time of the dissolution to John, Lord Rus-
sell, ancestor of the present noble pro-
prietor, the Duke of Bedford. The un-
fortunate Lord William Russell was re-
turned to the House of Commons from
this borough, as also the celebrated John
Pym, in the reign of Charles I. There
are still, as partly appears from the above
engraving, sufficient remains of this ve-
nerable fabric, to indicate its former ex-
tent and beauty; though now much
mutilated and applied to various uses.
Within the parish there are also remains
of old Morwell House, formerly the hunt-
ing seat of the holy Nimrods of Tavistock.pletely eaten up.

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