and happy disposition, she quickly became a general favorite. There was one disadvantage, however, in Mr. Osborn's house, which rendered it unsuitable for a home for Mary, and that wasshe had no female companion with whom she might associate. It was true there were her young cousins, but one gets tired of always romping with children; and the housekeeper, who also acted as nurse, was a vulgar, low-bred wretch, whom Mary could not endure, though Mr. Osborn thought her an excellent creature, and reposed every confidence in her. So sometimes I am afraid time hung heavily on her hands. I saw Peter, Mary's father, often; for I was obliged to pass his snug little place whenever I had occasion to go to London. Frequently, of a mild pleasant evening, I would stop and chat an hour. I loved to hear him talk and speak of the joy he felt in his child's recovery. Thus passed many months. At last I was told by Peter that Frank Evans was living in London, studying law; his father was dead; and Frank Evans, tired of the idle dissipated life he had been indulging in, determined to settle down and gain an honorable living from a profession. He often visited Mary, and Mary was always delighted to see him, for they were old acquaintances. "And I believe," said Peter, "that Mary loves him, for he is always mentioned in her notes to me. He is a good lad at heart, and I hope-hope-hope-" stammered Peter; "and I hope so too," I said. Peter blushed, and felt, I am sure, extremely happy. And so it was. Evans was living in London, and hearing that Mary was living with her uncle, called on her. Mary was greatly pleased with his visit, for his presence recalled to her mind long forgotten days; which, though really painful to dwell upon, yet afforced her a certain morbid pleasure, termed by most people melancholy. At length Evan's visits became so frequent that even Mr. Osborn, one of the blindest of mortals, could not help remarking them. He was not of a suspicious nature, curiosity appeared to be his greatest fault. So, when he thought that Frank might mean something by coming so often, he did not ask him his "intentions;" but determined rather to watch, and thus endeavor to discover the attraction. This was an easy task. A closet off the parlor communicated with his bedroom, and so afforded him a safe place to listen, while from the key-hole he commanded a full view of the apartment. No sooner did he conceive this idea, than he determined to put it into execution. The next time Evans made his appearance, he was snugly esconced in his hiding-place; he saw Mary start forward to meet her visitor when he entered, and then they sat together on the sofa, and talked in whispers by the hour. That they were in love, was clear enough to Mr. Osborn; and he thought they had engaged themselves, but it might be only fancy, he would watch and see. He was not long in doubt; in a few days he found that his suspicions were correct, and that Evans wished their engagement to be a secret. Why? he could not discover; but he saw that Mary yielded a reluctant consent. This concealment had a bad effect on Mary's mind; again she was subject to frequent fits of abstraction, but Mr. Osborn regarded them as a natural consequence of love, and therefore of no importance. He never allowed Mary even to suspect, that he was aware of her engagement; but he considered it his duty, to let her father know that Evans was a constant visitor. The father, Osborn saw, was gratified, so he returned to his old post to watch and fancy, how astonished they would be, if he were suddenly to break in upon them, and tell how long he had been a silent listener. But he would be depriving himself of too much pleasure, were he to do so, it was he thought, as good as any play only a great deal longer and far more natural. Often would he laugh and chuckle inwardly at their silly speeches, and sometimes would he feel inclined to cry, she acted her part in such a gentle, winning manner. 'Twas then he'd think Evans loved her not so much as she did him. But her's was woman's love! Mary had now been a year with her uncle, and was looked upon as permanently cured. About this time it was necessary that Mr. Osborn, should leave his home for a week to transact some business in Liverpool. Mary would not feel his absence he thought; yet it did occur to him that it would be better did she go to her father's till his return, but, then, he was not to be long away, and the housekeeper "good motherly old soul," would be as kind, and take as much care of her, as if he were present. "Twas in an evil hour that he thus decided. Ere he returned poor Mary was—no more. It appears that the day after he had left, Evans called as usual, and after being an hour or so with Mary, the house was alarmed by piercing shrieks interrupted only to give place to maniacal shouts of laughter. The housekeeper was out with the children for a walk, and a clerk in the shop rushing to the room, discovered Mary in the farthest corner, crouched down, her hands before her face, giving utterance to the fearful cries and laughter that had alarmed him. Evans was standing in DURING THE TIME OF COURTING HER. 1847 One mahogany work box, and £. s. D. sent by railway... 050 1847 1847 One spice cake, and small one ditto, the middle of the room gazing with terror on the PRESENTS GIVEN TO M― P——, BY T—— A— unhappy girl, and did he but venture to approach, her dreadful cries were redoubled. It was only on his leaving the room that she allowed herself to be conducted to her chamber by the housekeeper who now returned. The seizure, Evans said, was sudden; and at the time it came on they were talking of their intended marriage, nor could he account for the aversion she displayed towards him. Her father was immediately sent for; the poor old man appeared heart-broken. At his request Dr. Bernard was called in, who ordered her instant removal to his establishment. Here she gradually sank in spite of all his care and attention. If spoken to of Evans, she would burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter, which added much to her weakened state. The day before her death, Rose was with her sister for many hours; what passed between them I never heard; but whatever it was, Rose could never again behold Evans without manifesting the utmost dislike and indignation. Mary was buried beside her mother. 1848 1848 1848 P and S P. 020 One grey muff, superior quality.. 0 15 0 090 080 3lbs. of brandy snap, best quality. 026 1848 and 49, 4 pairs of kidd gloves, 2s. 1848 One net of lace, for collar to ware 0 per pair.. 1 6 1848 and 49, 2 best tortoise shell combs 026 1848 2 pairs of kidd gloves for her friend W 030 1348 1848 1848 1848 A YOUNG Yorkshire traveller, some time ago, sents:" Paid also for 3, Misses M, M- to S- A-, for Miss M- 076 076 FROM JOHN CANADA, (FOR SELF AND FAMILY) TO MAJOR CULPEPPER CRABTREE. DEAR MAJOR, included, and design, in that capacity, to open a Our entrance brief correspondence with you. upon a new year of existence-an occasion which always suggests a candid review of the past, and a considerate forecast of the future-is the only apology I shall offer for this frankness. It is nearly seventy years, you know, since my A letter to our beloved relative John Bull, countrymen undertook a bold and somewhat hafrom his cousin "Brother Jonathan," pub-zardous experiment in this new world. They did so, in the face of many prevailing convictions, and against the prophecies of civilized mankind. It was quite generally expected that the career which they then marked out for themselves, would prove a disastrous failure; and loud and longcontinued was the merriment, or the obloquy, as parties chose to take it, with which the mistakes and awkwardness of their rude beginnings were received. lished in the February number of Putnam's excellent monthly, has fallen into our hands, -now if the said letter contained only such matters as strictly related to our beloved relative's home farm, we should not interfere, as we are well aware that our Uncle Bull is generally able to answer for himself, and that no other party can show such a satisfactory balance sheet, or one so likely to create a smile at any little mistake that may have crept into Brother Jonathan's figures. Besides, Brother Jonathan knows that, though very good natured, Uncle Bull has a curious way with him of showing up any absurdities into which he may, in his transition state, (called hobbledehoy, I think,) be betrayed: knowing these things then, I should not interfere in this matter, had I not seen in the letter some passages relating to myself and family-for instance, Brother Jonathan calls us "slaves governed from a distance," and declares that, because we are not ungrateful to We would our Uncle, we shall never get on. fain then, jot down a few figures just to convince you that we are not so backward as Brother Jonathan insinuates, and that sticking by Uncle Bull is not so bad or foolish a thing after all—there are one or two other matters, too, which we shall also remind Brother Jonathan of, but to begin, the passage in his letter which we complain of is:-" The Canadas, under European rule, would remain what they are; under our tutelage, they would grow into powerful communities."-Be this then our text: our aim, to show that Cañada, under monarchical institutions, has not only not come out of the small end of the horn, but has actually taken a whole horn to herself, and is quite as capable as Brother Jonathan of sounding her own praises thereon. A LETTER TO JOHN BULL. My Dear Cousin, I HAVE elected myself a representative of twentythree millions of constituents,* black and white Now I wish to show you that their attempt has not failed; that their experiment is no longer an experiment; that time has sanctioned and fulfilled their most swelling hopes; that what was once a timid and shrinking conjecture-vague aspiration rather than firm faith-has become a victorious fact; and that doubt and dismay no more beset our path, which, on the contrary, we tread with The ominous the buoyancy of assured success. cloud is passed, and across its receding folds we see the many-colored iris of suffused and tranquil sunshine. Just read, my dear Major, after this last sentence, the article which we selected from the same number of Putnam that contained this, and which we sent you, on which we have made a few comments-however, to resume, read it I say, and judge for yourself:I am aware you will exclaim, at this slightly elated outset of mine, "Oh! that boastful and vainglorious people, will they never have done? Are we doomed to hear for ever its reverberating flatulencies about the 'model republic' and the Let me 'greatest nation in all creation?" answer you frankly, that I hope not! The bombast into which our irritable vanity has been too often betrayed, is as distasteful to most of us as it can be to you; but at the same time bear in mind, that I for one shall not allow myself to be frightened into any tameness of statement, in what I may have to say, by any menaces of your wit. Ridicule is terrible to me-as terrible perhaps as an army with banners-and yet there is a thing still more terrible. It is this-want of fidelity to my most cherished convictions; untruth in the We Ameriassertion of my character and aims. cans are devoted to democracy from our mothers' breasts, and are therefore forward and proud to proclaim what we suppose will further its claims to regard. What I wish to present to you is, the influence of that democracy on the physical, political, social, and moral condition of the people. Looking upon it as the central and organic principle of our nationality, working itself out freely, through all the †That is to say, TRUTH.-P. D. The use of banners in an army is to terrify the advancing enemy-just as the charging bull is scared by Said constituents to be divided thus-white freemen, the scarfs which are shaken at him by the picaflores in a bull-fight.-P. D. black chattels.-P. D. ramified forms and interests of society, it is the very heart and fountain of our life; nor are its effects as such, speculations or theories with us, but facts. We study it in its actual phenomena; we see its practical operations; and whether these be for good or ill, we know that they are at least well-authenticated, tangible, and permanent. A recent census of the United States, moreover, places it in our power to show just what they are, what attainments they have made in every sphere of national progress, and to demonstrate triumphantly, as I am sure, the solidity and the beneficence of popular government. Bide a wee! Major, and you will see that it is not quite so easy to get at the returns which are to do all this without paying something handsome for the information. lous intriguers, and the most active demagogues. These prizes stand glittering in their eyes, and they feel that they have an equal right to contend for them." A little farther on we are told:-"They engage in a strife for plunder, and they offer to divide the spoils, thus employing the offices of the country, its power, and the control of its treasury as means of corruption at once of fatal tendency and extensive operation." Again,-"There is, perhaps, no subject on which the friends of democratic institutions choose to remain under greater delusion and mystification than that of popular elections,-no remedy having been dis covered for the mischiefs attending them, there seems to be a tacit agreement that silence shall be maintained on the subject, least some degree of discredit should be attached to republica nism." Again,-"Our system of elections Such a demonstration is needed all over Europe, and scarcely less in England than elsewhere. This country has never been adequately represented by travellers and statisticians, who have taken its case into their hands. We find ourselves aspersed rather in many quarters, needless to be mentioned here, by the most unfounded statements, the most illogical inferences. the most damaging insinua- presents exactly the conditions which enable tions, and the most outrageous caricatures. Our unscrupulous and unworthy men, to take the prosperity is often ascribed to any but its true chief control of government into their hands. causes; our errors of a day are set down as permanent characteristics; the eccentricities of a It furnishes to such men the very means and part of us are imputed to the whole of us, as che- inducements which enable them effectually to rished principles of conduct; occasional rudesap public morals, and prey upon the vital nesses of conduct are treated as innate vulgarity; and that devotion to practical ends, which is in- interests of the conntry. That worse results evitable in a state of youthful and ruddy prosper- have not followed such events may be owing ity, degraded into a mean, prostrate, and aban- to the fact, that demagogues have no interest doned worship of money. Indeed, could we believe some accounts that are given of us, we in destroying institutions, the working of which should be forced to confess that slavery was our they can turn to their private advantage." only "institution," and a sharp practice with the bowie-knife our most delectable amusement. Most knowing of Majors! look on this picMeanwhile, these wilful or bigoted tourists do ture and on that, reflect on the convulsion not see the deeper pulses of life beating beneath into which Brother Jonathan is thrown every the surface, and they say nothing of the nobleness and generosity that may be in our heart, nor of the exalted and blissful destiny that we are, consciously and unconsciously, working out for humanity. Hold hard now, Brother Jonathan, and, before going into figures, let us inquire what has been the influence of democracy on your political, moral, and social condition. In page 53 of "Politics for American Christians," a work published by Lippencott, Grambo, and Company, Philadelphia, Anno Domini, 1852, are these remarkable wordsremarkable, we say, when placed in apposition with your glowing description :-"The power of our vast republic, the patronage of its rulers, offices, salaries, the public treasury and its disbursing agencies, distinction and influence are put up, by our system of government, not to the highest bidder, but to be struggled for by the boldest politicians the most unscrupu four years, and then judge of the solidity and benificence of popular governments. "Let all this pass, however, and let us try, under better information or motives, to come at a truer picture of the condition and prospect of the American people. "The United States, to begin at the beginning, John, are a league or confederation, of thirty-one separate and independent republics. They cover a territory which extends from the 26th degree of latitude south, to the 47th degree north, and, in the other direction, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. Consequently, they enjey every variety of climate, from the freezing to the torrid temperate regions; they possess every kind of zones, though the greater part of them lie in the valuable soil, capable of the diversified productions of every kind; and they are exposed, on hill-sides and valleys, to all the genial heats of the sun, and to all the fertilizing influences of the gentle summer rains. The public lands, belonging to the central government alone, amount to lions of acres, which, according to the present more than (12,000,000,000) twelve thousand milestimates of the population of the world, is more than an acre a piece for every man, woman, and child on the globe. Adding to this, the land belonging to the separate States, and that in the possession of private individuals, and you have an area of three millions, two hundred and twentyone thousand, five hundred and ninety-five square miles (3,221,000) in extent. Now Great Britain, exclusive of Ireland, contains 34,000 square miles. The extent of the United States is therefore 95 times as great as that of the island of Great Britain. France contains an area of 197,400 square miles-a territory less than one-fifteenth the size of that of the United States. Austria, including Hungary and the Italian dependencies, contains but 300,000 square miles. Russia is the only nation which exceeds the United States in extent of territory. She has, including her immense Asiatic possessions, a territory of about 4,000,000 square miles. The whole of Europe contains only 3,807,195 square miles, which exceeds by less than one-fifth, or 545,000 square miles, the territory of the United States. The greater part of these immense tracts is almost spontaneously fertile; wherever you strike in the spade or the plough, the corn springs and waves;* mines of iron, more extensive than those of Sweden, and of coal, as inexhaustible as those of England, to say nothing of the gold of California, are deposited in its bowels; rivers, which, with one exception, are the largest in the world, and inland lakes, like seas, connect and lace its fields; its immeasurable forests stand thick with oak, hickory, locust, fir, and woods of the finest fibre; while the great watery highway of the nations stand ready to roll its products to Europe on the one side, and on the other to India, and the farthest East. "Such is the theatre on which the Americans are called to play their parts, and you see that Providence has placed no physical obstacle, at least, in the way of the freest action. Never, indeed, was a more rich, varied, or magnificent residence prepared for any portion of our race. Europe is ten thousand fold more splendid in the accumulations of art; in grand historical monuments; in the treasures of libraries; in the means and appliances of luxurious living; in the numbers of its people: but in all that nature can do to make a dwelling-place for men, the New World is beautiful and blessed beyond measure. "But who are the actors who are placed in this new theatre? Are they worthy of the great drama in which their parts are cast? and will they conduct it to a catastrophe or a triumph? The American people are almost as varied in character as the origins from which they sprung, or the climates under which they live. That stereotyped Yankee, in a long-tailed blue coat, and short striped pantaloons, with a nasal twang to his voice, and a prodigious fondness for exaggerated stories; who appears periodically upon your stage, and who furnishes the staple of stale wit to Nova Scctia book-makers, is an amusing fellow enough, and he would be nowhere more amusing and wonderful than in nearly every part of the United States. He is the type of a class unknown to all, save diligent antiquarians, or those who sedulously explore the curiosities of natural • Vide Martin Chuzzlewit's description of Eden.-P.D. No. 3. history. Some remote and scarcely decipherable antetype of him, might be found in the nooks of New England, but at the West and the South, he would seem to every body about as much like an American, as a dodo resembles an eagle, or the hippopotamus a cart-horse. The American, John, with some odd variations here and there-don't start!-is an Englishman, without his caution, his reserve, his fixed habits, his cant, and his stolidity. He has all the independence of the original stock, all the pluck and determination, with more of quick and restless enterprise. At the East, he displays some of the canpiness or cunning of the Scot; at the South, the vivacity, and light graceful air of the Frank, and at the West, the humor of the Irish crossed with German enthusiasm. But everywhere prac tical energy predominates in his composition. He is facile, changeable, ever open to adventure, taking up a business in the morning which he discards at night, and sleeping in his boots, that he may be ready for a fresh start the next day. Yet if success beckons him to the end of any race, he will persist in it for years, will pursue doggedly for a lifetime what others despise, and if he fails at last, unbroken by care or old age, he will "pick up his traps," and move onward with his children to a new settlement. His weary bones are never laid until he is quite dead, when some successor, indefatigable and elastic as himself, resumes and continues his projects. The house of his prosperity and comfort is always a building and never built. It is no part of his life plan to retire on a plum; he eats his plum as he makes it; then makes and eats it again. In short, then, the American is an inventive, intelligent, driving, and invincible man, with an unexampled adaptability to circumstances." Certainly a modest picture, and not at all overdrawn-what says our other friend, however? does he invest his Yankee brethren with the same attributes? Let us hear him?" We shrink from the use of such terms as would suffice aptly to depict the individual characters of a large majority of the members of the present (1852) Congress, and the legislative character of the whole body.-When we reflect that these men have been chosen by the free suffrages of the citizens of this great, proud, and intelligent nation, we are filled with astonishment, if not dismay, and we exclaim,—If self-respect, if the cause of self-government, if the interests of humanity could not save us this flagrant disgrace, could not the Christians of the country have averted such a calamity." Complimentary this, Major, and not at all at variance with the character already drawn. There is, however, one drop left to sweeten this bitter cup-there is yet left some good in Yankeedom--some hope for the house of DOODLE. Hark!-"There is yet a remnant of good men in Congress, but they are hopelessly |