other of two maladies so rare that he had only seen a case or two of the one, and the other never but in a Museum of morbid anatomy. When the body was opened by Vacca at Pisa, where he died, it was found that both those rare diseases existed."

JAMES MILL.

THE DEBATES AT THE CLOSE OF THE WAR.

"At first the Ministers pursued the course of obstinate silence. The Opposition debated each petition in vain; every minister and ministerial member held his peace. No arguments, no facts, no sarcasms, no taunts, could rouse them; no expression of the feelings of the "With the single exception that he had something of country, no reference to the anxiety of particular conthe dogmatism of the school, he was a person of most stituencies, could draw a word from the Ministers and praiseworthy candour in controversy, always of such their supporters. At length it was perceived that their self-denial that he sunk every selfish consideration in antagonists did not the less debate, and that consehis anxiety for the success of any cause which he quently the scheme had failed in its purpose of stifling espoused, and ever ready to the utmost extent of his discussion. The only effect of it, then, was, that all faculties, and often beyond the force of his constitution, the debating was on one side, and this both became to lend his help for its furtherance. In all the relations hurtful to the Government in the house, and more hurtof private life he was irreproachable; and he afforded a ful still in the country. They were forced into disrare example of one born in humble circumstances, and cussion, therefore; and then began a scene of unexamstruggling, during the greater part of his laborious life, pled interest which lasted until the second reading of with the inconveniences of restricted means, nobly the bill. Each night, at a little after four, commenced maintaining an independence as absolute in all respects the series of debates which lasted until past midnight. as that of the first subject in the land-an independence, These were of infinite variety. Arguments urged by indeed, which but few of the pampered children of rank different speakers; instances of oppression and hardand wealth are ever seen to enjoy. For he could at all ship recounted; anecdotes of local suffering and pertimes restrain his wishes within the limits of his re-sonal inconvenience; accounts of the remarkable passources; was firmly resolved that his own hands alone sages at different meetings; personal altercations intershould ever minister to his wants; and would, at every spersed with more general matter-all filled up the period of his useful and virtuous life, have treated with measure of the night's bill of fare; and all were so indignation any project that should trammel his opinions blended and so variegated, that no one ever perceived or his conduct with the restraints which external influ- any hour thus spent to pass tediously away. Those ence, of whatever kind, could impose." not immediately concerned, Peers, or persons belonging to neither house, flocked to the spectacle which each day presented. The interest excited out of doors kept pace with that of the spectators; and those who carried on these active operations showed a vigour and constancy of purpose, an unweared readiness for the combat, which astonished while it animated all beholders. It is recounted of this remarkable struggle, that one night towards the latter end of the period in question, when at a late hour, the house having been in debate from four o'clock, one speaker had resumed his seat, the whole members sitting upon one entire bench rose at once and addressed the chair,-a testimony of unabated spirit and unquenchable animation which drew forth the loudest cheers from all sides of the house."

MR. DENMAN AND THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.

"At length all were restored except Mr. Denman; and it then appeared that he was visited with the royal displeasure, not for this parallel, but for a sentence from Dio Cassius, mistakenly supposed by his Majesty to have been applied offensively to him. In the autumn of 1828 Mr. Denman's memorial, disclaiming the imputation, was at his request laid before the King by his then prime minister the Duke of Wellington, who went much farther, and with difficulty obtained from the reluctant monarch that rank which the advocate had not solicited at his hands. If 'Peace hath her victories not less renowned than War,' this persevering effort of a frank and generous spirit, prompted by a sense of justice, and stimulated by the manly perception of the necessity for independence in the advocate, may be thought to add some lustre even to the name of Wellington."

LORD ELDON AND SIR JOHN LEACH.

"Her Majesty petitioned the House of Lords to be heard by her counsel against a secret committee being appointed to examine her conduct in her absence; and the counsel were at half an hour's notice heard, but in vain. It was on this occasion that Mr. Denman, in allusion to the well-known adviser of the Milan commission, Sir John Leach, whose counsels, so pleasing to the King, were supposed to be guided by the desire of supplanting Lord Eldon and obtaining the Great Seal, made that memorable quotation from Shakspeare, which was so manifestly delightful to Lord Eldon, and certainly as distasteful to Sir John.

'Some busy and insinuating rogue,

Some cogging cozening knave to get some office,
Hath devised this slander.""

*Queen Caroline's Council.

The famous parallel to Nero.

*See Bayle's Dictionary, art. Octavio..

ANECDOTES OF SIR WILLIAM SCOTT.

"Varium

"To illustrate by examples his singularly refined and pungent wit in conversation, or the happy and unexpected quotations with which he embellished it, or the tersely told anecdotes with which he enlivened it, without for an instant fatiguing his audience, would be far less easy, because it is of the nature of the refined essence in which the spirit of the best society consists, not to keep. When some sudden and somewhat violent changes of opinion were imputed to a learned judge, who was always jocosely termed Mrs. et mutabile semper Femina,' was Sir William Scott's A celebrated physician having said, somewhat more flippantly than beseemed the gravity of his cloth, "Oh, you know, Sir William, after forty a man is always either a fool or a physician!'-Mayn't he be both, Doctor?' was the arch rejoinder,-with a most arch leer and insinuating voice half drawled out. 'A vicar was once' (said his Lordship, presiding at the dinner of the Admiralty Sessions), 'so wearied out with

remark.

* Sir W. Scott was, during the latter years of his long extended life, created a peer by the title of Lord Stowell; but it is by his former name that he is known to the profession and to the world.

court.

simplicity, its readiness for application, its force of united appeal to the understanding and to the heart, its comprehensiveness, both as to the objects it embraces, and the dispositions and conduct it inculcates toward them, this precept is divinely worthy of the

neighbour together, well might our divine Master say of them, "on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

his parish-clerk confining himself entirely to the 100th neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his Psalm, that he remonstrated, and insisted upon a varie- neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law." ty, which the man promised; but, old habit proving too In its heart-searching spirituality, its precision and strong for him, the old words were as usual given out next Sunday, 'All people that on earth do dwell.' Upon this the vicar's temper could hold out no longer, and, jutting his head over the desk, he cried, 'Damn all people that on earth do dwell!'- -a very compendious form of anathema!' added the learned chief of the spiritual "This eminent personage was in his opinions ex-place it holds. Taking love to God and love to our tremely narrow and confined; never seeming to have advanced beyond the times before the flood of light which the American war and the French revolution had let in upon the world-times when he was a tutor in Oxford, and hoped to live and die in the unbroken quiet of her bowers, enjoying their shade, variegated with no glare of importunate illumination. Of every change he was the enemy; of all improvement careless and even distrustful; of the least deviation from the most beaten track suspicious; of the remotest risks an acute prognosticator as by some natural instinct; of the slightest actual danger a terror-stricken spectator. As he could imagine nothing better than the existing state of any given thing, he could see only peril and hazard in the search for any thing new; and with him it was quite enough, to characterize a measure as 'a mere novelty,' to deter him at once from entertaining it—a phrase of which Mr. Speaker Abbot, with some humour, once took advantage to say, when asked by his friend what that mass of papers might be, pointing to the huge bundle of the acts of a single session,-'Mere novelties, Sir William-mere novelties.""

THE MARRIAGE LAWS.

"Upon all who cannot afford long journey, those enactments are imperative and effectual; but whoever can afford to pay that price finds them a dead letter. Yet the chief object of the Act was to prevent rich heiresses from being married before due care was taken to secure their fortunes; and to protect young heirs from being inveigled into unequal and injurious matches before they came to years of discretion. Now, whoever has such designs in view, can always command the means of performing the Scotch journey, and thus putting the law at defiance. It is well known that at one time the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, and the Lord Privy Seal, were all married at Gretna Green, and had issue after marriages contracted there."

SELFISHNESS.

Selfishness is the besetting sin of our fallen nature. It interferes with and adulterates the love of our neighbour; it excludes from our bosoms the love of God. But self-love, so far from being an illegitimate principle, is an essential part of the constitution of every sentient existence, and in the second great commandment is assumed as such, and constituted, as has just been said, the standard of our love to others. The reasoning of the apostle Paul is beautifully correct, when he says, "he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet: and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy

From the Sunbeam.

ON SEEING A WALL-FLOWER GROWING
AMONG RUINS.

Why love to dwell in lonely nook,
That shelves above yon babbling brook,
Thou pretty perfumed flower?
Thy very looks are foreign quite,
To each low creeping parasite,

That hangs about yon tower.
Growing between the crevice small
Of that old time-worn dreary wall,

Where the dark storm-cloud lowers;
Why bind the hoary head of age?
Garland the old-bedeck the sage?

Why wreathe their brows with flowers?
Come to our gorgeous bright parterre,
Among exotics-beauties rare,

Thy praises let us sing:-
Waste not thy sweets 'midst ruined towers,
Thou'rt formed to grace far lovelier bowers,
Glad herald of the spring!
Thou constant friend! when all is past,
Thy love enduring still doth last,

Cheering their gloomy days.
Unlike the friends of mortal earth,
Whose smiles in sunshine take their birth,
But darken with its rays.

Bloom on in honoured happy state,
Linked with thy friends in lonely fate,
And when I wish to see

An emblem of enduring love,
A simple type of that above,
I'll come and visit thee!

From the Examiner.
FATE! I have askt few things of thee,
And fewer have to ask.
Shortly, thou knowest, I shall be

No more... then con thy task.
If one be left on earth so late

Whose love is like the past,
Tell her, in whispers, gentle Fate,
Not even love must last.
Tell her, I leave the noisy feast
Of life, a little tired;
Amidst its pleasures few possest
And many undesired.
Tell her, with steady pace to come
And, where my laurels lie,
To throw the freshest on the tomb
When it has caught her sigh.
Tell her, to stand some steps apart
From others, on that day,
And check the tear (if tear should start)
Too precious for dull clay.

Even in the United States of America, where com- | Cold then must be the heart, and narrow and selfish mercial enterprise and activity have called into exist- the mind, that can look with indifference on a country, ence so much general prosperity, those moral and "in which one of the greatest political experiments in physical attributes which, in their full developement the history of the world is now performing."-Hyperconstitute a national character, have not yet ripened critical and fastidious the taste, that can record the into maturity, and the Americans have failed to make Backwoodsman eating his fish with a knife instead of advances in science, in literature and the Arts, in a ra- a silver fork, or helping himself unceremoniously to tio corresponding with their accumulated and increasing the wing of a chicken; and yet fail to draw a compariwealth. In painting they have undoubtedly produced son between the security and freedom he enjoys, and clever artists, but they have displayed no original is the means of extending to others, with the violence genius-there is no "American School." In sculpture and barbarism that have distinguished the infancy of they are unknown, we believe, even as copyists. other states. Their infant literature, with a few exceptions, is more English than American; and, although many of their tion; it may have its frothiness and sediment, but its "The national character is yet in a state of fermentapublic speakers are shrewd lawyers, or keen and intel-ingredients are sound and wholesome; it has given ligent political debaters, not one has put forward any proofs of powerful and generous qualities; and the just claim to the higher attributes of oratory. The United States of America have not yet, in fact, passed into the adult age of nations. Their people, from the force of circumstances, rather than by the operation of their institutions, are utilitarians in the more contracted meaning of the word; and this will be the case until the rough and angular points of their social position are rounded by time, and the general diffusion of refinement shall call for those mental enjoyments which are sought for and produced in the later years of national existence.

whole promises to settle down into something substantially excellent. But the causes which are operating to strengthen and ennoble it, and its daily indications of admirable properties, are all lost upon these purblind observers, who are only affected by the little asperities incident to its present situation. They are capable of judging only of the surface of things; of those matters which come in contact with their private interests and conveniences and petty comforts which belong to an personal gratifications. They miss some of the snug old, highly finished and over-populous state of society, where the ranks of useful labour are crowded, and many earn a painful and servile subsistence, by studying the

minor comforts, however, are all-important in the estimation of narrow minds, which either do not perceive or will not acknowledge that they are more than counterbalanced by great and generally diffused blessings."

Deeply and broadly, in the mean time, have the An-very caprices and appetite of self-indulgence. These glo-Saxon race laid the foundations of freedom and civilization in the North American continent. Useful though common education is more generally diffused than in Europe. Christianity has taken deep root.-Washington Irving's Sketch-Book. The principles of self-government in local and in general affairs have trained men in the exercise of their public duties have taught them the value of social order, and given security to person and to property.*

are Notre Dame and St. Paul. The former runs the

Such, in our opinion, is independent America; and, following in the same path, though with unequal steps, and marked by some unfavourable peculiarities, such is the state to which Canada is approximating.

With these preliminary remarks, we shall proceed whole length of the town, and from the Quebec to the with the difficult task of tracing to their true source Recollet suburbs forms a continued street 1344 yards in the unhappy events which have lately taken place in length and 30 broad. Montreal contains numerous Canada. "How inadequate and unsuccessful," says churches, chapels and public buildings. The principal are the Hôtel Dieu, the Convent of Notre Dame, the Lord Bacon,* "that human knowledge is, which we Montreal General Hospital, the Hôpital des Sœurs- have at present in use, may appear from things commonGrises, the Recollet Convent, the Convent of Grey-Sisters, the Seminary of St. Sulpice, the New College, they asserted. It is certain that the true knowledge of English and Scotch churches, and the Government-things is the knowledge of causes." It is the absence of House. The new Roman Catholic Cathedral, on the this "knowledge of causes" which has, in our opinion, Place d'Armes, ranks amongst the first buildings in North America. The corner stone was laid on the 3d of September 1824. It is built of granite, which is found in abundance in the mountain from which the city takes its name, and it contains seats for a congregation of 10,000 persons.-The Canadas as they are.-Bouchette's British

Dominions in America.

*The abolition riots, the piratical incursions on the Canadian frontier, and the occasional infliction of "Lynch-law," seem to militate against this opinion; and, unless a moral or physical power be found to prevent the recurrence of such events, they will, undoubtedly, seriously affect the peace and security of American society. We believe that such a controlling power will be found if the evil continue; while up to the present time, these

contributed so much to perplex the discussions on Canada, and which has exercised so baneful an influence over the welfare of our Canadian provinces. It would at the same time be presumptuous in us to assume that we can supply knowledge so desirable, when Parliamentary Committees and learned and Salaried Commissioners have failed, it would seem, to

disgraceful occurrences, though too frequent to be passed over in silence, cannot in justice be considered as more than exceptions to the general good order that prevails. * Nov. Organum, vol. i. p. 150.

Mr. Roebuck, with the zeal of a partizan, ex- tion of some powerful nobleman, or the licentious claims:

Against the correctness of these opinions we beg leave to enter a most emphatic protest; and jejune and imperfect will any legislative measure be which assumes them to be sound, or deals with the administrative errors of the colonial government of Quebec, and The majority of our colonies have been first inhabitthe abuses of the colonial office in Downing Street, as ed by men without education, driven by poverty or the only difficulties to be overcome. We seek not, misconduct from their native land, or by adventurers however, to defend or palliate the errors of the one, or anxious to improve their fortune; but the settlement of the abuses of the other. With Mr. Roebuck, we in- New-England was distinguished by peculiar circumdignantly condemn the petty tyranny which has so fre- stances, and all the events attending it were novel and quently galled a somewhat impatient but generous unprecedented. The settlers belonged to the more in* If not, why is Lord Durham sent to make further in-dependent classes in their native land. Their union quiries, and why does not Parliament proceed at once to on the soil of America presented the singular phenomelegislate? non of a society containing neither lords nor common

people, neither rich nor poor; and they possessed in have led to his destruction. But the piety of puritanproportion to their numbers, a greater amount of in- ism was not altogether of a speculative character; it telligence than was to be found in any European nation took cognizance of worldly affairs; and, as the records of their time. of our civil wars and of the commonwealth abundantly The emigrants, or as they deservedly styled them-show, it was scarcely less a political than a religious selves, "the Pilgrims," belonged also to that sect, the doctrine. No sooner, therefore, had the emigrants austerity of whose principles had acquired for them landed on the barren coast described by Nathaniel the name of Puritans. But puritanism corresponded Morton, than they formed themselves into a society in many points with the most absolute democratic by the following instrument: theories. It was this tendency which had excited its most dangerous adversaries; and persecuted by the Government of the parent state,-disgusted by the usages of a society opposed to the rigour of their own principles, the puritans went forth to seek some rude and unfrequented part of the world, where they could express their opinions with freedom, and worship God in their own manner.

The emigrants were about 150 in number, including the women and the children. Their object was to plant a colony on the shores of the Hudson; but after having been driven about for some time in the Atlantic ocean, they were forced to land on that arid coast of New England which is now the site of the town of Plymouth. The rock is still shown on which the pilgrims disembarked.*

Nathaniel Morton, the historian of the first years of the settlement of New England, thus describes the situation of the "Pilgrims:"

"Let the reader with me make a pause, and seriously consider this poor people's present condition, the more to be raised up to admiration of God's goodness towards them in their preservation: for being now passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before them in expectation, they had now no friends to welcome them, no inns to entertain or refresh them, no houses, or much less towns to repair unto to seek for succour: and for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of the country know them to be sharp and violent, subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search unknown coasts. Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wilde beasts and wilde men? and what multitudes of them there were they then knew not; for which way soever they turned their eyes (save upward to Heaven) they could have but little solace or content in respect of any outward object; for summer being ended, all things stand, in appearance, with a weather-beaten face, and the whole country full of woods and thickets represented a wilde and savage hew; if they looked behind them, there was the mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as a main bar or gulf to separate them from all the civil parts of

the world."

This state of things, it must be admitted, was sufficiently discouraging, and such as would have reduced ordinary minds to despair, or have urged the mere enthusiast to deeds of extravagance that would

* This rock is become an object of veneration in the United States. Bits of it are carefully preserved in several towns of the union.

New England's Memorial. Boston, 1826.

"In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, &c. &c., Having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and the honour of our king and country, a voyage to plant, the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; Do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politick, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof do enact, constitute and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony: unto which we promise all due submission and obedience."

This was in the year 1620, and from that time the colony rapidly advanced.

In studying the laws, says M. de Tocqueville, which were promulgated at the first era of the American republics, it is impossible not to be struck by the remarkable acquaintance with the science of government, and the advanced theory of legislation which they display. The ideas there formed of the duties of society towards its members are evidently much loftier and more comprehensive than those of the European legislators at that time: obligations were there imposed which were elsewhere slighted. In the states of New England, from the first, the condition of the poor was provided for; strict measures were taken for the maintenance of roads, and surveyors were appointed to attend them; registers were established in every parish, in which the results of public deliberations, and the births, deaths and marriages of the citizens were entered; clerks were directed to keep these registers;§ officers were charged with the administration of vacant inheritances, and with the arbitration of litigated landmarks; and many others were created, whose chief functions were the maintenance of public order in the community. The law enters into a thousand useful provisions for a number of social wants, which are, at present, very inadequately felt in France.

But it is by the attention it pays to public education that the original character of American civilization is at once placed in the clearest light. "It being," says the law, "one chief object of Satan to keep men from