POETRY. A VISION OF THE FUTURE. Thy chains are broken, thou art free at last! Ah! is it true, and does no doubt remain? Is there no grief in store this bliss to blast, Is this no prelude to an age of pain? Slave, thou art free! has freedom come too late; The words seem meaningless-no joy is there; Each victim is resigned to meet his fate, Each eye is upward cast in mute despair. Slave thou art free! there's no treachery here, Blest Liberty! a Briton's boast is thine; Wipe from thy sable cheek the rolling tear, And let thine eye in undimmed radiance shine. Free like an electric shock conviction cameTruth, white-robed Truth, has won their hearts at last: Farewell to blood, to agony, to shame, The bitterness of separation's past. Free! what a flash from those black eyes was there, What rows of pearl does that wild laugh unsheath: "Free, we are free !" can human nature bear This burst of joy, nor sink awhile beneath? Madly they rush into each other's arms, Each babe is to its mother's bosom pressed, No more the driver's whip creates alarms, Britain has put each horrid fear to rest. Dear Liberty! how beautiful thou art, How sweet thy reign will in Jamaica be; How will the shout arise from every heart. "Her chains are broken, Africa is free!" TO-MORROW. I will to-morrow, that I will, I will be sure to do it; To-morrow comes, to-morrow goes, And still thou art to do it. Thus still repentance is deferred, From one day to another : Until the day of death is come. BREVITIES. The man that dares traduce, because he can The world was sad! the garden was a wild, The man, the hermit, sigh'd-till woman smiled. FREAKS OF ROYALTY.-James I, in a capricious mood, threatened the Lord Mayor with removing the seat of royalty, the meetings of parliament, &c. from the capital. "Your Majesty at least," replied the Mayor, "will be graciously pleased to leave us the River Thames." THE ELEPHANT'S BRAIN.-The brain of the elephant is remarkably small, not more than one twenty third part of the human subject in proportion to the weight of both. MILK.-In consequence of the increased use of coffee, the quantity of milk consumed in Paris is twice as much as as it was eighteen or twenty years ago. HARD HIT.-Two country attornies overtaking a waggoner on the road, and thinking to be witty upon him asked, "Why his fore horse was so fat, and the rest so lean? The waggoner knowing them, answered, "That his fore-horse was a lawyer, and the rest were his clients." REA DING, WRITING, AND SPEAKING.-Habits of literar y conversation, and still more, habits of ex tempo re discussion in a popular assembly, are peculiar y useful in giving us a ready and practical command of our knowledge. There is much_good sense in the following aphorism of Bacon: "Reading makes a full man, writing a correct man, and speaking a ready man." eye. BUSINESS.-A gentleman in the country lately addressed a passionate billet-doux to a lady in the same town, adding this curious postcript-"Please to send a speedy answer, as I have somebody else in my THE TRUTH.-A Yorkshireman and Leicestershireman contending for the superior fertility of their respective counties, the Leicestershireman declared, that he could turn a horse into a field new-mown, and the next morning the grass would be grown above his hoofs. "Pho! that's nothing," cried the Yorkshireman, "you may turn a horse into a field in Yorkshire, and not be able to find him next morn ing." THE MAN OF INTEGRITY. It will not take much time to delineate the character of the man of integrity, as by its nature it is a plain one, and easily understood. He is one, who makes it his constant rule to follow the road duty, according as the word of God, and the voice of his conscience, point it out to him. He is not guided merely by affections, which may sometimes give the colour of virtue to a loose and unstable character. The upright manis guided by a fixed principle of mind, which determines him to esteem nothing but what is honourable, and to abhor whatever is base or unworthy, in moral conduct. Hence we find him ever the same; at all times, the trusty friend, the affectionate relation, the conscientious man of business, the pious worshipper, the public-spirited citizen. He assumes no borrowed appearance. He seeks no mask to cover him; for he acts no stupid part; but he is indeed what he apppears to be, full of truth, candour, and humanity. In all his pursuits, he knows no path, but the fair and direct one; and would much rather fail of success, than attain it by reproachful means. He never shows us a smiling countenance, while he meditates evil against us in his heart. He never praises us among our friends, and then joins in traducing us among our enemies. We shall never find one part of his character at variance with another. In his manners, he is simple and unaffected; in all his proceedings, open and consistent. THE parish in which Camberwell Grove is situated is the east half hundred of Brixton. The ancient part of the village is the green, and its vicinity; Lut the more pleasant and favourite spot is Camberwell Grove, which commands very beautiful and extended prospects, both of the metropolis and the country beyond it, and over the counties of Surrey and Kent. The living is a vicarage in the archdeaconry of Surrey and diocese of Winchester; charged in K. B. 201.; patron (1829) Sir T. Smith, Bart. The church, dedicated to St. Giles, is a very antique stone structure, the body of which is large, and surmounted with a square tower and neat turret. Here has long been a proprietary chapel of ease, and recently a handsome new district church has been built, after the model of one at Rome, on the south bank of the Surrey Canal, under the authority of the Commissioners for Building New Churches; living, a curacy, subordinate to the vicar of Camberwell. Here are also several places of worship for Dissenters, and a Free Grammar School. Much pains has been taken to do away with the annual fair, held on the Green, which some of the inhabitants deem a nuisance, but being at once a manorial right and source of emolument, it still remains. There is a spring of water on the site of the former houses and grounds of Dr. Letsom, on Grove Hill, near which a youth is said to have murdered his uncle, a catastrophe dramatised by Lillo, in the well-known play of "George Barnwell." A part of the western side of Camberwell is within the Dean's liberty of Lambeth. WINDSOR CASTLE. THIS princely palace of the kings of England is situated twenty-two miles west of London, on the verdant banks of the Thames, which from its serpentine course in this part of it, was in King Edward the Confessor's charter termed "Windleshora," (the winding shore) hence in time it was called Windsor. The magnificent castle is situated upon a hill, which commands a delightful prospect over the adjacent country. It was first built by William the Conqueror, soon after his being seated on the throne of this kingdom; it was subsequently repaired and beautified by his son Henry I. who also surrounded the whole with a strong wall. Henry II. held a parliament here in 1170, and King John, Henry III., Edward I., II., and III., successively resided within its walls. The last prince was born here, and had such affection for the spot, that INTERIOR OF A WEST INDIAN SOME of our readers, who have been accustomed to hear the delightful descriptions given by West Indians of Slavery, may apprehend that the accommodations of a workhouse in the Colonies are very superior to those which are assigned to the poor in our own country. They may imagine, when are driven out to their work every morning, by the lash of the whip, and chained together. Some idea of it may be obtained from the cut in the third page of our third number. We will confine ourselves at present to a short view of the interior of a workhouse in Jamaica. We have the following description. of a flogging in one of these places, given by the Christian Record, a periodical published in Jamaica, by some philanthropic individuals, who well deserve the support of the friends of the Slaves. "A female, apparently about twenty-two years of age, was then laid down, with her face downwards; her wrists were secured by cords run into nooses; her ancles were brought together, and placed in another noose; the cord composing this last one passed through a block, connected with a post. The cord was tightened, and the young woman was thus stretched to the utmost length. A feniale then advanced, and raised her clothes towards her head, leaving the person inde. cently exposed. The boatswain of the work. house, a tall athletic man, flourished his whip four or times round his head, and proceeded with the punishment. The instrument of pu nishment was a cat formed of knotted cords. The blood sprang from the wounds it inflicted. The poor creature shrieked in agony, and exclaimed, 'I don't deserve this!' She became hysterical, and continued so until the punishThe castle is divided into two courts, ment was completed. Four other delinquents the upper and the lower. separated from were successively treated in the same way. One each other by the Round Tower, in which was a woman about thirty-six years of age, resides the governor. On the north of the another a girl of fifteen, another a boy of the upper court are situated the state apartments; same age; and, lastly, an old woman about and on the south various apartments belong-sixty, who really appeared scarcely to have ing to officers of state. The lower court is chifly remarkable as containing that beautiful structure St. George's Chapel. he caused the old buildings to be pulled Around the noble castle is a magnificent and truly royal park, well stocked with timber and deer. The near vicinity of the Thames adds much to the scenery of Windsor and its neighbourhood; various regattas, rowing matches, &c. are annually held on it. they read in a Colonial Paper of a Slave strength to express her agonies by cries! The boy of fifteen was the son of the woman of thirty-six! She was indecently exposed, and cruelly flogged, in the presence of her son! and then had the additional pain to see him also exposed, and made to writhe under the lash! It is to be observed, to complete the hideous but faithful picture of the system of Slave government, presented to us by the narrative of this transaction, that these unfortunates re ceived this punishment for an offence which their owner, it was strongly suspected, had compelled them to commit, and that, too, under the terror of the lash; a circumstance accounting for the cry 'I don't deserve this!' Painful and melancholy as is the above detail, we know it to be but too faithful a picture of what is transacted, from week to week, by order of the Magistrates, within those abodes of human misery and degradation-the workhouses of our island." (From the Watchman, Feb. 5, 1831.) "ST. ANDREW'S VESTRY.-Mr. Fox'said, the system to which he alluded was still continued in the workhouse. He alluded to the system of stretching the Negroes by a block and tackle, when they were about to be flogged. He had pledged himself, as a Magistrate, to bring the matter before the Commissioners, with a view to its abolition, for it was a cruelty which ought many abuses which still exist. He was free to add, he did not approve of the present system of stretching by the block and tackle during the infliction of flagellation. "Mr. Fox said, he hoped so disgraceful a system would be done away with. He was ready to make his oath, that he knew a Negro who was of no service to his owner, from the effects of stretching by means of the block and tackle, and he had no doubt there were many other instances. In what light would the Planter appear in the eyes of the British Parliament, with this fact staring them in the face? "Col. Robertson said, I myself knew a Negro who was totally useless, in consequence of being stretched in the workhouse. "During this discussion, the majority of the Commissioners retired from the Board, one or two at a time." that Honourable and Noble Member of the Im- Slaves to be alarmed at the idea that their labours "Much praise is due to Mr. Fox, for his determined conduct on the occasion, and the bold and fearless manner in which he brought the subject under the consideration of the Board. We entreat him, as well as Colonel Robertson, In the succeeding number of the Watch- to persevere in their benevolent endeavour to man they say, rescue the parish from its present stigma." "The attention of our readers in Great Britain is especially called to this subject, because it would be impossible to rouse public opinion in this Island, at least to such a pitch as would insure the removal of the evil. “There are a number of persons who will not be sparing of their abuse for the exposure, or the appeal to the sympathies of the inhabitants of Great Britain and ireland, which we have thought proper to make. They feel decidedly averse to subjects of this kind being brought under the notice of liberal-minded men in Great Britain, from a conviction that they can. not fail to be noticed, and consequently remedied. "In order to convey to our distant readers some idea of the mode of punishment alluded to, it is necessary to be more particular. So far then, as decency will permit, we shall endeavour to describe it: A Slave about to be flogged in the St. Andrew's workhouse is prostrated on the ground, with his or her face downwards, and the body indecently exposed to the gaze of the bystanders. The arms are extended, the wrists being made fast,-the legs are brought close together, and are secured by a rope at the ancle, which rope passes through a block, and is hauled taught,' stretching even to agony every muscle, and until every joint of the wretched sufferer is heard to crack. Then comes the boatswain, a strong muscular man, who swinging the cat two or three times round his head, at each stroke sends it with tremendous force, cutting into the flesh of-it may be a girl just ripening into womanhood, or an aged female, whose head is hoary from length of years, and occasioning the blood to flow most copiously! 6. This is a fact-a fact which we defy the assembled Magistrates and Vestry of St. Andrew's to disprove. Humane men would suppose that corporal punishment is of itself sufficiently excruciating, and that all but those whose consciences are seared as with a hot iron, would gladly spare any superadded pain, such as that arising from the application of the block and tackle. Those, however, who live in a land of slavery know that, natural as such a proposition may be, it is but a vain one when entertained in reference to a majority of the Slave-owners and Managers. These can listen to the statements of cruelty, and yet retire from the board one or two at a time,' and thus elude the question. But will the absentee proprietors in St. Andrew's sanction this atrocious abuse? Will Lord Chandos, the leader of the West India body, and the heir to the Hope estate, within four miles of this workhouse, and with more than 310 Slaves, all (saving infants) subject to the dreadful block and tackle-will EDITOR'S BOX. "Fiat justitia ruat cœlum." HAPPINESS. TO THE EDITOR OF THE TOURIST. Sir: You will undoubtedly excuse the liberty which readers might suspect, from his article in the third a well-wisher takes, in suggesting that some of his number, under the head of "Happiness," whether he is not a Deist-at any rate a Socinian. The Editor will oblige his readers by inserting a definition of happiness, given by John Newton, in his preface to Cowper's Poems. attainments, in an elegant taste, in the exertions "If happiness could have been found in classical of wit, fancy, and genius, and in the esteem and converse of such persons as in these respects were most congenial with himself, he would have been happy. But he was not. He wondered (as thousands in a similar situation will do) that he should continue dissatisfied, with all the means apparently conducive to satisfaction within his reach. But, in due time the cause of his disappointment was discovered to him-he had lived without God in the world. In a memorable hour, the wisdom which is from above visited his heart. Then he felt himself a wanderer, and then he found a guide the religion. of the Bible, which, however discredited by the misconduct of many who have not renounced the Christian name, proves itself, when rightly understood and cordially embraced, to be the grand desideratum which alone can relieve the mind of man anxieties, inspire it with stable peace and solid hope, from painful and unavoidable and furnish those motives and prospects which. in the present state of things, are absolutely necessary to produce a conduct worthy of a rational creature, distinguished by a vastness of capacity which no assemblage of earthly good can satisfy, and by a principle and pre-intimation of immortality. We learnt the causes of our inquietude-we were directed to a method of relief-we tried, and we were not disappointed. We are now certain that the Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth. It has reconciled us to God, and to ourselves, to our duty, and our situation. It is the balm and cordial of the present life, and a sovereign antidote against the fear of death" This may probably not be the best definition of happiness that might be found; but it is the first which came to hand, and it is to the purpose. Peckham, Oct. 8. GRADUAL EMANCIPATION. TO THE EDITOR OF THE TOURIST. VERITAS. some member of the Anti-Slavery Society, to inform Sir: An immediate abolitionist will be obliged to him, through the medium of the TOURIST, whether it is true, as reported, that the Governors of the Chartered Slave Colonies have received instructions from the Secretary of State not to urge on the in Council of the 2d of November as law? If this Legislative Assemblies the adoption of the Orders is the case, it is high time for the friends of the NEGRO SLAVERY. TO THE EDITOR OF THE TOURIST. Sir: Numerous and cruel as the oppressions are by which the poor Negroes are tormented and destroyed, the most afflictive of all is the parsimony with which they are maintained, whilst they are, coerced to the enormous amount of labour already described in my second letter. This inadequacy of subsistence is placed out of dispute by the express admissions of the Colonists, the statements of their Assemblies, and the recitals of their laws. When their circumstances-which a large proportion of the Planters are necessitous and embarrassed in them are at all times-their Slaves are not only scantily fed, but often subjected to absolute want. These well-established facts clearly evince what many on this side of the Atlantic may find it difficult to believe, that, under some circumstances, British Planters are capable of subjecting their hard-worked labourers to famine " at the cost," to repeat the strong, but just language of Dr. Collins, "of the blood of their own species." Dr. Collins was a physician and Planter of much experience, who had, a great part of his life, resided in the West Indies, Trade, and compiled it chiefly with the humane inand who wrote a pamphlet in defence of the Slave tention of pointing out to his brother Planters such abuses in the treatment of their Slaves as he deemed inessential to their system, which he hoped to induce them to reform. Mr. Hibbert, the Agent for Jamaica, published a new edition of the work, which I, therefore, quote from, as an authority that will not be likely to be disputed. In reasoning to persuade the Planters to be more liberal in their allowance of food, he urges their own self-interest, in "the great labour which a well-fed Negro is capable and in his long exemption from disease, and its posof executing, in proportion to one who is half starved, sible consequence-death; for" he adds, "I avow it boldly, a great number of Negroes have perished annually from disease produced by inattention. To be convinced of this truth, let us trace the effect of that system, which assigned for a Negro's weekly allowance, six or seven pints of flour or grain, with as many salt herrings, and it is in vain to conceal what we all know to be true, that in many of the islands they do not give more. With so scanty a pittance, it is indeed possible for the soul and body to be held together, provided a man's only business be how is the body to support itself? What is there to live; but if intense labour be exacted from him, to thicken and enrich the fluids, what to strengthen the solids, to give energy to the heart, and to invigorate its pulsations? Your Negroes may crawl about with feeble emaciated frames, but their at tempts to wield the hoe prove abortive; they shrink from their toil; and being urged to perseverance by stripes, you are soon obliged to receive them into the hospital; whence, unless your plan be speedily corrected, they depart but to the grave." This is not written by a man who is ignorant of the system, or prejudiced against it, but your readers will remember, that it is a very eminent West Indian Planter and Physician who thus avows the horrible truth, that great numbers of these our wretched fellow creatures are, by the sordid and cruel parsimony of their owners, annually-destroyed by inanition, i. e. slowly starved to death! As brevity is as suitable to the convenience of an Editor, as to the taste of the general reader, I shall Sir: Having read in the Cheltenham Chronicle of the 6th inst. a letter you have done me the honour to address to me, I feel that I should be wanting in courtesy if I did not notice some of its contents; and I will follow your example in doing so in entire good humour. I am charged with having used the word "Buxtonites;" with having pointed out no sentiment you had uttered which might be proved fallacious; having avoided every tangible point; inconsistency, and other heinous offences. I am asked why, if I am really anxious for the manumission of my Negroes, I labour to curse them with the blessings which the Anti-Slavery Society would confer? You then proceed to discuss the propriety of compensation, the increase of Slaves depending on good or bad treatment, and are quite in extacy to find that where Slaves are allowed 10 or 12 acres, they actually cultivate them for their own benefit. If, sir, in noticing some of these points, the subject may, from its nature, draw from me some strong expressions, let me assure you that I mean nothing per. sonal, giving you credit for good intentions, however, in my humble judgment, misapplied. If the word Buxtonites has given offence. I am sorry to have used it; but I imagined I was placing you in the situation you most coveted, viz. the leader of the Anti-Slavery Society, a society not the less laudable from any (possibly erroneous) opinion I may hold respecting it; but which I do not hesi tate to say, (speaking of them as a body,) I consider to have proved itself a curse as well to the Negro as to the Planter: and which will eventually prove a curse to the nation. On their heads, in my opinion, lie all the rebellions, massacres, and forfeitures of Negro life, of which we have seen so much, and are, I fear, doomed to see more. They have destroyed the property of the Planter, taken away the means of subsistence from the widow and the fatherless, have changed the character of the Negro from a happy and contented being, (happier, because in a more comfortable state than the British labourer,) to that of a rebel and a murderer. They have un fitted him for that state of liberty to which he was fast approaching, and which, I am still willing to believe, is the object of that Society. I believe, sir, your humanity to the Slave has never led you to visit those Colonies. The ignorance of the AntiSlavery (may I say) Buxtonites is proclaimed from the resident Bishop to the casual visitor; and I will repeat, from impressions imbibed from living among my Negroes, that a happier or more contented class of beings never existed, until cursed with the blessings of the Anti-Slavery Society. man. stance to claim insurance against loss. Let me not have, as you confess by your silence, found it im- CODRINGTON. But (you say) I have pointed out no sentiment you had uttered-I have avoided every tangible THOS. FOWELL BUXTON, ESQ. TO SIR C. B. point. But have you never (speaking of the Planter) used the words atrocious-barbarous-villainous ? Have you not lately referred to an expression (some Sir: Your letter, dated Sept. 10th, has but reyears back) of Lord Grenville, for the express pur-cently reached me. Its contents are very gratifying pose of proclaiming your concurrence in the opinion, to me. So far from confuting, it does not even that " a man who rises in the morning an owner of assail my statements; but then it is very successful Slaves, and does not liberate them before he retires in exposing the errors of your own. Thus stands to bed, is a villain?" I do not know whether these the controversy. You charged me with misreprewill come under the denomination of tangible points, sentation. I replied by challenging you to the proof. and would rather have avoided noticing them, for II gave you a wide field. I called your attention to have no wish to be personal. I will proceed to all I had said or written on the subject of Slavery, answer the question, why, wishing the manumission and invited you to select and expose any errors in of my Negroes, and admitting the benefit I should my facts, or any fallacy in my arguments. Am I reap from their manumission, I still hold them in not entitled to construe that silence into a most empha bondage? You would not, sir, yourself urge manu. tic concession? I want no other vindication. You mission, if you did not think they had reached that have made a charge, and you have failed to establish it. point of moral advancement and instruction, which I must apprize you that I shall never attempt to to use the words of the Archdeacon of Jamaica) justify any harsh epithets which may have fallen would make manumission a boon (a blessing to from me in the warmth of discussion. If I have them) instead of a curse; and this, sir, is the point of used the terms "atrocious," "barbarous," " "villain. difference between us. I forego what I believe would ous," as applied to the body of Planters, I regret it. eventually be a benefit to myself; I defer what I You who accuse others of "making assertions believe would be a boon to the Slave, because (with which they do not themselves believe;"-you who the Archdeacon) believe he is as yet unfitted for charge upon their heads "the rebellions, massacres, it, and his present manumission would be to me a and forfeitures of Negro life," which have recently loss-to him a curse. And this leads me to the stained the annals of Jamaica; you who describe question of compensation-compensation (as you as "calumniators," and their doctrine as "hypochoose to put it) "for a benefit conferred:" but critical humbug"-their acts as "a curse to the here again is the falacy. I ask not compensation, Planter," "a curse to the Negro," a curse to the but insurance from loss. My Negro, by the laws of nation;"--you who-(not in the excitement of debate, England, is as much my property as any other species but in the retirement of your closet-not in a 10 years' of property; if you benefit my property, I ask no controversy, but in three short letters) assume such compensation; if, by hastily depriving me of it, I a license of invective, must surely be no stern critic suffer loss, I am in honour and good faith entitled to on the language of your opponent. I close this part compensation; and I have a right in the first in- of the controversy with this single observation. You One topic alone remains. You taunt me with the sale of my Slaves, and the profit which I derived from them. I have had my share of calumny. You remind me of one of that troop of libels with which I have been assailed. I have hitherto allowed it to remain unnoticed, because it rested on the authority of anonymous or hireling writers; but when a person so respectable as Sir C. B. Codrington gives it in any sort the sanction of his name. I have no alternative but to reply to it; and I trust you will excuse me for taking this opportunity of doing so. Though I am far from ascribing the greater part of it to you, yet, being compelled by your letter to allude to it, I could not do so without repelling the whole accusation The charge first appeard in 1824, and thus it ran: First-That in the year 1771 I prevailed on Mrs Barnard to place 20,0001. in a West Indian House. My reply is-This is hardly possible, as I was not born till 15 years afterwards. Secondly-That in 1793, I sent a Mr. Gosling to the West Indies to sell my Negroes. I reply again, that I was not born at the period. Thirdly-That Mrs Barnard dying in 1792, I, who had married her neice, became her executor, and the manager of her West India property, her heir-and that I derived from her 170,0001. I deny that I married her neice, or became her executor, or managed her property; and some confirmation of my statement is derived from the fact, that I was about six years old at the time-an early age for matrimony, executorship, or the management of affairs in America. I deny that I became her heir or inherited from her 170 000l. I did not derive a shilling from her. I was not mentioned in her will. Fourthly--That I sent out a respectable Gentleman to extort the last shilling from my West India creditors, and to sell my Negroes. I deny that I practised extortion on my West India creditors, for I never had a West India ereditor. I deny that I sent out a respectable Gentleman, or any Gentleman at all, to sell my Negroes, for I never had a Negro to sell. The fifth charge is, simply, that I am Judas Iscariot, an enemy to Slavery, though every shilling I possess was wrung from the bones and sinews of Slaves. I repeat I never was master of a Slave-I never bought one, or sold one, or hired one. I never owned an hogshead of sugar or an acre of land in the West Indies. I may as well here state what foundation there is for this widely circulated report. " Some truth There was a Mrs. Barnard. She was my grandthere is though brewed and dashed with lies." father's sister. She embarked a sum of money in a West India House, the greater part of which she lost. The remnant descended to some of my near relations. So far is true-but it is also true that in that property I never happened to be a partaker, I am not, and to the best of my knowledge, NEVER HAVE BEEN THE OWNER OF A SHILLING DERIVED FROM SLAVES. Hoping that the Electors of Gloucestershire will forgive you for having extorted from me this tedious explanation. I have the honour to be, Sir, Cromer, Sept. 21, 1832. Printed and Published by J. CRISP, at No. 13, Wellington-street, Strand, where all Advertisements and Communications for the Editor are to be addresscd. OR, Sketch Book of the Times. "I pencilled things I saw, and profited by things I heard."-LETTER OF A WALKING GENTLEMAN. THE Telegraph, though it has been in geeral use only for a few years, is by no means a modern invention. From the fact of the destruction of Troy being known in Greece before any person could have arrived and communicated the intelligence, it is probable that some sort of telegraph was in use at that time. This may be gathered from the opening scene in a Greek play, in which a watchman descends from the top of a tower in Greece, and communicates the event referred to in these words: "I have been looking out these ten years to see when this would happen, and this night it is done." The earliest mode of transmitting intelligence in this way seems to have been by fires or torches lighted on the highest lands. This, however, must obviously have been a Very defective method; as it could only have given information respecting some definite and expected occurrence, of which it was the preconcerted signal; and nothing could have been known by it of any unexpected events, or of the collateral circumstances attending such as were foreseen. Several improvements were made on this contrivance at different periods, some of which were exceedingly ingenious: but none of them gave sufficient intelligibility and precision to the reports of the Telegraph to make it extensively useful, until the time of the French revolution, about the end of the year 1793. It was then that M. Chappe constructed an apparatus for telegraphic communication in the following way: An upright post was erected on the roof of the palace of the Louvre, at Paris, which was the first station. At the top of this post were two transverse arms, which might be moved in all directions, and with great rapidity, by means of a single piece of mechanism. The inventor next arranged a number of positions of these arms, which should designate the letters of the alphabet, and the key to which needed only to be known to the persons at the extreme stations; reducing the number of positions to sixteen, by the omission of some unnecessary letters. The construction of the machine was such, that each signal was given in precisely the same manner at all times. It did not depend on the manual skill of the operator; and the position of the arm could never, for any one signal, be a degree higher or a degree lower, its movement being regulated by mechanism. M. Chappe having received at the Louvre the sentence to be conveyed, gave a known signal to the second station, which was Mont Martre, to prepare. At each station there was a watch-tower, where telescopes were fixed, and the person on the watch gave the signal of preparation which he had received, and this communicated successively through all the line, which brought them all into a state of readiness. The person at Mont Martre then received, letter by letter, the sentence from the Louvre, which he repeated with his own machine; and this was again repeated from the next height, with inconceivable rapidity, to the final station at Lisle. Two models of this Telegraph were executed at Frankfort, and sent to the Duke of York, and hence the plan and alphabet of the machine came to England. Various experiments were in consequence tried upon it in this country; and one was soon after set up by Government, in a chain of stations from the Admiralty-office to the sea-coast. Notwithstanding, however, the ingenuity with which the machine was at first contrived, and has been subsequently improved, it has never, we believe, been applied so advantageously as might have been expected, to the conveyance of precise or unexpected intelligence. Were this the case, the advantages which we might expect to arise from |