66

"My bonny mare! I've ridden you when Claver'se rode behind,

And from the thumbscrew and the boot you bore me like the wind;

And, while I

have the life you saved, on your sleek flank, I swear, Episcopalian rowel shall never ruffle hair! Though sword to wield they 've left me none-ye* Wallace wight, I wis,

Good battle did on Irvine side wi' waur weapon than this."

By far the finest composition of this collection is the ballad of "Willy Gilliland." It relates to the period when the Popish Charles II. was serving the interests of Mother Church with ingenious devotion, by persecuting the Protestant Church of Scotland in the name of the Protestant Church of England; trying to drive the people out of Presbytery, which he believed to be heresy, into Prelacy, which he equally believed to be heresy. Willy Gilliland" was one of the persecuted followers of the Covenant, many of whom took refuge And now the gates are opened, and forth in galin the north of Ireland, after the gallant but unfortunate fight at Bothwell Brig, and made no un- Prick jeering grooms and burghers blythe, and worthy addition to a population the most determined and warlike in the British empire. The But one has persecution was carried into Ulster, and it is painful to reflect that bishops, known to posterity by To ride the lasting monuments of piety and learning, did not hesitate, in those dark days of Protestantism, to countenance the brutal persecution of the Kirk of Scotland:

Up in the mountain solitudes, and in a rebel ring,

He has worshipped God upon the hill, in spite of church and king;

And sealed his treason with his blood on Bothwell-bridge he hath ;

So he must fly his father's land, or he must die
the death;

For comely Claverhouse has come along with grim
Dalzell,

And his smoking rooftree testifies they 've done
their errand well.

In vain to fly his enemies he fled his native land; Hot persecution waited him upon the Carrick strand;

His name was on the Carrick cross, a price was on his head :

lant show

troopers in a row.

little care for jest, so hard bested is he

outlaw's bonny mare, for this at last
is she!

Down comes her master with a roar, her rider
with a groan,
The iron and the hickory are through and through
him gone!

He lies a corpse; and where he sat, the outlaw
sits again,

And once more to his bonny mare he gives the
spur and rein;

Then some with sword, and some with gun, they
ride and run amain;
But sword and gun, and whip and spur,
that day
they plied in vain!

That the whole of this little volume is not Repeal and Romanist ballads is an unexpected courtesy; still it would have been as well to have omitted such doggrel as the glorification over the massacre of 1641, entitled "Rory O'Moore." Besides, the "historical" introductions are scarcely less than laughable. They tell us, for instance, that the charge of rebellion against Hugh O'Niall, in the time of James I., is now "totally disbelieved"! and that O'Moore, one of the assassins of the British in 1641, was descended of a chieftain slain at Mullaghmast, a massacre, the story of which was a pure forgery by Mr. O'Connel. The book is got up very creditably, and it is much better, even armed with all their poison and falsification, that His blithe work done, upon a bank the outlaw the Irish should read such books than read no

A fortune to the man that brings him in, alive or dead!

And so on moor and mountain, from the Lagan to the Bann,

From house to house, and hill to hill, he lurked an outlawed man.

rested now,

thing.

1. Notes on a few more Trials with the Mesmerists in a second search for Clairvoyance, by JOHN FORBES, M.D.

2. Notes on yet another Trial, by JOHN FORBES, M.D.

3. Human Magnetism, by W. NEWNHAM, Esq., M.R.S.L.

4. The Seeress of Prevorst, translated from the Ger-
man, by Mrs. CROWE.

5. Somnambulism, translated from the German, by
J. C. COLQUHOUN, Esq., Advocate.
6. Mesmerism in Disease, by H. STORER, M.D.
7. A Discussion on Mesmerism-Phrenology and
Mesmerism, translated from the French.

and openly expressed his conviction that he should do it' this time. The sub-pulvinary manipulations were, of course, not forgotten, and were closely watched. After a considerable time, and often-repeated strong action of the hands, perceptible through the muscles of the arms, some of our party had a glimpse of the card-case, under the edge of the pillow, without its ligature, and of the ligature without its box! Soon after, we were struck by the sudden and unusual stillness and tranquillity of George, still prone on his field of action; his hands remained motionless in their hiding place, his head and face buried in his pillow, and we began to think he had gone to sleep -when lo! we observed him hurriedly and repeatWe have had enough of clairvoyance for a whole edly putting his fingers to his mouth, as if placing life; yet nothing in or connected with it has sur- something therein, and, almost at the same moprised us half so much as the patience of Dr. ment, we observed some small fragments falling Forbes in his endeavors to arrive at, what he calls, on the floor beneath the sofa, and exactly below the truth-which, with us, is only another form the place of the pillow! These proved to be fragof expression for exposing the fraud. Cui bono? ments of cork-most comminuted, but some still What good can result? If ever there was a case bearing the characteristic form and dimensions of that deserved and received respectful attention, those so ingeniously concealed by Dr. Sharpey in it was the Tynemouth affair;-that case, thanks his card-case. Seaching under the pillow, we to Dr. Forbes and Dr. Brown, was thoroughly found some more of them, and also detected the sifted as our readers will remember there was hiatus valde deflendus in the sofa, through which not one single assertion in Miss Martineau's whole they had found their way to the carpet! The statement relating to Jane that was not absolutely case was now clear; although George made one disproved by her own witnesses. Did this satisfy more effort to deceive us by exposing the card-case Miss Martineau that she had been imposed on? above the pillow still tied by the tape, and finally Not a bit of it. Well, here again the doctor favors by placing it on the floor beneath his master's foot. us with other exposures; one of them so amusingly But our patience was at last exhausted; we laid conclusive that it is worth recording. George hold of the card-case, and announcing George's Goble, copying clerk to "a most respectable gen- roguery and its detection, we forced still more of tleman" in the Temple, (respectable, no doubt the unlucky cork-slips from his hands and from his "respectable" gentlemen and ladies are the tools mouth! Poor George was now fairly beatenwith which knaves work; as the case of St. John and he knew it; all his cunning and impudence, Long and other Old Bailey records testify. What and all his magnetism, deserted him at once; he indeed is the value of a witness who is not respect- woke up in the most natural manner imaginable, able?) was discovered to have "the faculty of without any de-mesmerising process, and with clairvoyance." Accordingly, at said "respectable none of that gentle, progressive unlocking of the gentleman's" solicitation, the doctor consented to senses, exhibited on previous occasions; and throwbe present at a private performance, and was, heing himself on his knees on the ground, in an admits, very much astonished, though a little dis- agony of shame and terror, confessed his roguery, appointed, at finding that said " copying clerk" and implored forgiveness! In doing so, however, was an old hand at these tricks, and had formerly the meek and penitent George, like all other haexhibited in public, under both Mr. Vernon and bitual culprits when detected, of course strenuMr. Brooks. George's great feat was seeing ously asserted that this was his first offence." through a solid body-reading a paper placed in a | The cui bono is again on our lips. Was the recard-case, and so forth. The doctor, having been spectable gentleman," who desired "to seek the taken somewhat unawares on this occasion, pro- truth, and the truth only," convinced? Why he posed another performance, which was agreed to; forthwith wrote to Dr. Forbes, that George "was and he went the second time, accompanied by not awake" when he fell on his knees and made Professors Sharpey and Graham. Of course pre- the confession-that he subsequently awakened cautions were now taken, and an attempt was him "in due mesmeric form!" that "he awoke made not only to test George's power but his hon-in an agony of tears, quite unconscious of what had esty. George, it appeared, when in his mesmeric trance, was accustomed to throw himself about, after a strange fashion, on the sofa, and a suspicion very naturally crossed the doctor's mind that, in this way, he contrived to open the card-case and read the writing. Mr. Sharpey therefore took with him a card-case filled with little bits of cork. "George," says the doctor, "himself proposed that, to do away with all possible suspicion of unfair play, the card-case should be tied up. Accordingly, George himself tied the card-case, in the common cross-fashion, with red tape, &c. George immediately proceeded to the sofa, and went through all his wonted manœuvres, pressing the case to his forehead, and breathing on it with take on ourselves to determine. marvellous energy and unction. He was evidently however, to convince them is not without risk. in better spirits than during the last experiment, Dr. Forbes has himself startled us by the admis

passed, and remains so at this moment. Now if we were to allow this nonsense to pass as true, how would it affect the question? Was the "respectable gentleman" himself, were Dr. Forbes, Professors Graham and Sharpey all in a mesmeric trance, when they saw him open the card-case, and found the fragments of cork in his hands, mouth, and on the floor? One word at parting: Dr. Forbes may rest assured that he cannot minister to minds so diseased-that "respectable gentlemen' or ladies, when they have eaten of the insane root, when they have once declared their faith in humbug, are beyond the reach of logic; whether equally beyond the reach of medicine we shall not The attempt,

sion that "reading the words enclosed in these card-cases would at once establish what is called clairvoyance!" Now in all good humor we must observe that there is a lamentable halt in such reasoning the reading the words enclosed would have proved only that George was a cleverer fellow than the doctor supposed, and able to outwit a doctor and two professors. Why, we have known common conjurors who would have been more than a match for the whole College of Physicians.Athenæum.

From the Athenæum.

AMERICAN FICTION.

Dashes at Life with a Free Pencil. By N. P.
WILLIS. 3 vols. Longman & Co.
Twice-told Tales. By NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.
Vol. II. Boston, Monroe & Co.

was struck with the contrast of its physiognomy to that of New York. There is a look of staid respectability and thrift in everything that strikes the eye in Boston. The drays, carts, omnibuses, and public vehicles, are well horsed and appointed, and driven by respectable-looking men. The people are all clad very warmly and very inelegantly. The face of every pedestrian in the street has a marked errand in it-gentlemen holding their nerves to the screw till they have achieved the object of being out of doors, and ladies undergoing a constitutional' to carry out a system. There are no individuals in Boston-they are all classes. It is a cohesive and gregarious town, and half a dozen portraits would give you the entire population. Every eye in Boston seems to move in its socket with a check-a fear of meeting something that may offend it—and all heads are carried in a posture of worthy gravity, singularly contagious. It struck me the very loaves in the bakers' winTHAT we have a kindliness for American litera-dows had a look of virtuous exaction, to be eaten ture, the readers of the Athenæum "need not now gravely, if at all. New York seems to me to difbe told," and what description thereof finds favor fer from all this, as a dish of rice, boiled to let with us, is also known. One" Ballad of Cassan- every grain fall apart, differs from a pot of mush. dra Southwick" is, in our estimation, worth a Every man you meet with in our city walks with library of imitations of Moore and copies of Mrs. his countenance free of any sense of observation or Hemans: one "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" out- any dread of his neighbor. He has evidently weighs all its teller's treasury of graceful recollec- dressed to please himself, and he looks about with tions of Brereton Hall or the Alhambra: one scrap an eye wholly at ease. He is an integer in the of Mistress Mary Clavers' " Rough and Ready" throng, untroubled with any influence beyond the Life in the Backwoods, more precious than whole risks of personal accident. There is neither albums full of London and Paris fashions or fancies. restraint nor curiosity in his look, and he neither No offence, then, to the pleasant, dashing style of expects to be noticed by the passers-by, nor to see Mr. Willis-no disparagement of his sketches for anything worthy of more than half a glance in the what they profess to be, if we say that they belong persons he meets. The moving sights of the city not to our first-class American literature. His have all the same integral and stand-alone characdialogue is brilliant, his descriptions careful and ter. The drays, instead of belonging to a company, clever. But he is wrong (for England at least) are each the property of the man who drives it; in choosing for his scenery the ball-rooms of May- the hacks and cabs are under no corporate discifair, the green grass of the Chiswick Gardens, and pline, every ragged whip doing as he likes with the starry firmament of the Opera House. We his own vehicle; and all the smaller trades seem do not quarrel with him if to his volume these followed by individual impulse, responsible to lines might have been, as motto, affixed: nothing but police-law. Boston has the advantage in many things, but a man who has any taste for cosmopolitism, would very much prefer New York.

"When the dream of life, from morn to night, Was Love, still Love!-"

*I strolled up the Broadway between nine If his tales are all of susceptible Romeos or selfish and ten, and encountered the morning tide down; Bertrams, and of ladies "who kissed through the and if you never have studied the physiognomy of lattice;""the tender passion" gets so ill-treated this great thoroughfare in its various fluxes and in these careful days of ours, that we must not refluxes, the differences would amuse you. The cavil at the artist skilled in its windings, if, clerks and workies have passed down an hour beenamored of his subject, he treats of it somewhat fore the nine o'clock tide, and the side-walk is too frequently. But we should have been grateful filled at this time with bankers, brokers, and specufor more fruitage and less flower-work for more lators, bound to Wall street; old merchants and characters, and fewer charming phrases. We junior partners, bound to Pearl and Water; and should have been glad of them, for one selfish rea-lawyers, young and old, bound for Nassau and son, if only as affording us materials for extract. These, as matters stand, are somewhat wanting. "Brown's day with the Mimpsons" is the story of a citizen's genteel wife, entertaining unawares an angel" of an American, who can command tickets for Almack's. "Miss Jones' Son" is the farce played off by a London diner-out at Stratfordupon-Avon. "Ernest Clay," a bundle of lost leaves from the life of a Don Juan. Then there are one or two Chinese tales-but it is not till we come near to the close of the second volume that we have a glimpse of the new country. Some Passages from a Correspondence" (probably contributed to one of the American periodicals) contain a few tangible hits, and intelligible hints e. g. the following town-pictures

66

I took a stroll or two while in Boston, and

Pine. Ah, the faces of care! The day's operations are working out in their eyes; their hats are pitched forward at the angle of a stage-coach with all the load on the driver's seat, their shoulders are raised with the shrug of anxiety, their steps are hurried and short, and mortal face and gait could scarcely express a heavier burden of solicitude than every man seems to bear. They nod to you without a smile, and with a kind of unconscious recognition; and if you are unaccustomed to walk out at that hour, you might fancy that, if there were not some great public calamity, your friends, at least, had done smiling on you. Walk as far as Niblo's, stop at the greenhouse there, and breathe an hour in the delicious atmosphere of flowering plants, and then return. There is no longer any particular current in Broadway. For

Warm in the close fold of a mother's heart,
Scarce from her breast a single pulse receiving
But it was sent thee with some tender thought,
How can I leave thee-here! Alas for man!
The herb in its humility may fall,
And waste into the bright and genial air,
While we-by hands that minister'd in life
Nothing but love to us--are thrust away-
The earth flung in upon our just cold bosoms,
And the warm sunshine trodden out forever!

eigners coming out from the cafés, after their late | No place to treasure up its lov'd and lost breakfast, and idling up and down, for fresh air; But the foul grave! Thou, who so late wast country people shopping early; ladies going to sleeping their dressmakers in close veils and demi-toilets; errand-boys, news-boys, duns, and doctors, make up the throng. Toward twelve o'clock there is a sprinkling of mechanics going to dinner-a merry, short-jacketed, independent looking troop, glancing gaily at the women as they pass, and disappearing around corners and up alleys, and an hour later Broadway begins to brighten. The omnibuses go along empty, and at a slow pace, for people would rather walk than ride. The side streets are tributaries of silks and velvets, flowers and feathers, to the great thoroughfare; and ladies, whose proper mates (judging by the dress alone) should be lords and princes-and dandies, shoppers, and loungers of every description, take crowded possession of the pavé. At nine o'clock you look into the troubled faces of men going to their business, and ask yourself to what end is all this burden of care?' and at two you gaze on the universal prodigality of exterior, and wonder what fills the multitude of pockets that pay for it! The faces are beautiful, the shops are thronged, the side walks crowded for an hour, and then the full tide turns, and sets upward. The most of those that are out at three are bound to the upper part of the city to dine; and the merchants and lawyers, excited by collision and contest above the depression of care, join, smiling, in the throng. The physiognomy of the crowd is at its brightest. Dinner is the smile of the day to most people, and the hour approaches. Whatever has happened in stocks or politics, whoever is dead, whoever ruined since morning, Broadway is thronged with cheerful faces and good appetites at three! The world will probably dine with pleasure up to the last day -perhaps breakfast with worldly care for the future on doomsday morning!"

To sum up the realities of these volumes lie in their last forty pages, where a few poems are collected. We cannot treat the verses which follow as make-believe. They will have a place among

thePoems of the Heart

66 THOUGHTS WHILE MAKING THE GRAVE OF A NEW

BORN CHILD.

Yet have I chosen for thy grave, my child,
A bank where I have lain in summer hours,
And thought how little it would seem like death
To sleep amid such loveliness. The brook,
Tripping with laughter down the rocky steps
That lead up to thy bed, would still trip on,
Breaking the dead hush of the mourners gone;
The birds are never silent that build here,
Trying to sing down the more vocal waters:
The slope is beautiful with moss and flowers,
And far below, seen under arching leaves,
Glitters the warm sun on the village spire,
And this
Pointing the living after thec.
Seems like a comfort; and, replacing now
The flowers that have made room for thee, I go
To whisper the same peace to her who lies-
Robb'd of her child, and lonely. 'Tis the work
Of many a dark hour and of many a prayer,
To bring the heart back from an infant gone.
Hope must give o'er, and busy fancy blot
The images from all the silent rooms,
And every sight and sound familiar to her
Undo its sweetest link-and so at last
The fountain-that once struck, must flow forever,
Will hide and waste in silence. When the smile
Steals to her pallid lip again, and spring
Wakens the buds above thee, we will come,
And, standing by thy music-haunted grave,
and say,-
Look on each other cheerfully,
A child that we have lov'd is gone to heaven,

And by this gate of flowers she pass'd away!”

And now, a word of friendly welcome to Mr. Hawthorne. We have already so often expressed

Room, gentle flowers! my child would pass to our pleasure in his gem-like tales (being the first,

heaven!

Ye look'd not for her yet with your soft
eyes,
O watchful ushers at Death's narrow door!
But lo! while you delay to let her forth,
Angels, beyond, stay for her! One long kiss
From lips all pale with agony, and tears,
Wrung after anguish had dried up with fire
The eyes that wept them, were the cup of life
Held as a welcome to her. Weep! oh mother!
But not that from this cup of bitterness
A cherub of the sky has turn'd away.

One look upon thy face ere thou depart!
My daughter! It is soon to let thee go!
My daughter! With thy birth has gush'd
spring

I knew not of-filling my heart with tears,
And turning with strange tenderness to thee-
A love-oh God! it seems so-that must flow
Far as thou fleest, and 'twixt heaven and me,
Henceforward, be a bright and yearning chain
Drawing me after thee! And so, farewell!
"T is a harsh world, in which affection knows

we believe, to recommend them to the notice of English tale-readers)—that none, we apprehend, will mistake for covert censure the recommendation we must now give him on the appearance of this second volume-to beware of monotony. We do not say this because he chiefly loves the bygone times of New England-nor, because of his manifest propensity towards the spiritual and supernatural (few since Sir Walter Scott telling

66

a ghost-story" so gravely well as Mr. Hawthorne); and we love the dreamy vein of speculation in which he indulges, when it is natural; not entered dramatically and" of good set purpose", by those who think that "mobled queen is good,' a and fantasy a taking device to entertain and engage: an audience. But we conceive our author to be a retired and timid man, who only plays on his two strings because he lacks courage or energy to, master a third. We have thus given him the support of friendly counsel, and have only to observe : that his second volume of "Twice-told Tales" would be equal to his first, were it not too closely like it.

From the Spectator.

says he knows the sensitiveness of American

BRITISH COMBINATION AGAINST THE AMERI-slaveholders "to the moral and religious senti

CAN UNION.

THE Reverend Henry C. Wright's reclamation against our comments on his call upon the people of Britain to combine for the dissolution of the American Union, (printed in a previous page,) contains no argument: his letter is mere assertion that he thinks thus and wills thus, and assump- | Wright deals in ambiguities: he recommends a tion that his dicta are the dicta of Christianity. Though it is not easy from so illogical and declamatory a piece of composition to gather with certainty what the positions are that the writer intends to maintain, they appear to be these-that every government which tolerates slavery ought to be put down; that a citizen of that government combining with foreigners to put it down incurs no moral culpability; and that governments can be put down by mere talking, without force or bloodshed.

66

ment of mankind." If they are so sensitive, an appeal from this country against slaveholding might possibly have some effect; but an appeal from this country to another portion of the Union to dissolve the established government would not carry with it the general sentiments of mankind, and would raise resistance instead of shame. Mr. combination of foreigners to dissolve the Union; he advances one argument to prove that foreigners may usefully express their reprobation of a specific law of the Union; and then he maintains that he has proved his case. He has said nothing to prove that foreigners are competent to decide on the best frame of government for a nation; and, having failed in this, he has not shown that anything but evil can come out of their intermeddling. The sentiment of nationality rests upon and strengthens a principle of reason. The maxim Every government that tolerates slavery ought that foreigners ought not to meddle with the interto be put down."-So long as men confine them-nal politics of any state, has, like every sound selves to abstractions, there is scarcely any propo- principle of government, been adopted from a con sition, however practically mischievous, that may viction of its utility. If the men who live under a not be made plausible. Let this axiom be applied government and feel its pressure do not know how to a specific case; for example, the United States. to better themselves, what chance is there that The constitution of the Union is far from perfect, men at a distance, unacquainted with all its debut this at least may without exaggeration be said tails, shall be able to accomplish the task? Bein its favor: It has been, (except in occasional sides, once admit the principle that foreigners may moments of excitement, which will occur in all combine to alter the constitution of a state because countries,) found sufficient to enforce the neces- they disapprove of one of its laws or institutions, sary regulations of internal police, and to enable where are we to stop? The Russian may comevery man to enjoy his property in tranquillity; it bine to dissolve the Union because he disapproves has hitherto sufficed to protect the nation from of its want of an emperor; the American to revoexternal aggression; under and through its foster-lutionize England because he thinks monarchy an ing influence, literature and science have flour- evil. Under the specious pretext of reform, the ished, and education has been widely dissemi-old bad system, (not yet entirely abolished,) of nated a rare spirit of energy and enterprise has each government supporting underhand the politibeen developed among the citizens. These are no cal minorities of neighbor states, in order to keep mean blessings to owe to a frame of government: their rulers busy at home, would revive with fresh and on the other hand, it must be considered-if vigor. this government be put down, what other can be "Governments can be put down by mere talkestablished in its place? The constitution of the ing, without bloodshed."-To call Mr. Wright's United States has been a necessary emanation of flourish about Christian and bloodless means the society out of and for which it was framed; no "mere verbiage," implied no doubt of the pow such constitution as Franklin, or Washington, or of Christian principle. If he can so convince t Hamilton could have wished, but such as the ma- reason and mould the sentiments of individuals terials they had to work upon enabled them to put to make real Christians of them, of course th together. If Mr. Wright had it in his power to will relinquish slaveholding and all other dissolve the Union to-morrow, he could not guar-practices. But this is not what he proposes. antee the substitution of any other government. calls upon others to combine to force the sla De facto, then, his cry for its dissolution is, in plain holders to adopt a policy which their own con English, "Cast to the winds all the benefits we tions do not dispose them to adopt. The co derive from our existing frame of government, in he proposes aims not at conviction, but at con order to get rid of an oppressive anomaly which is sion. It is true that few reforms have been confined to a portion of the Union, and even there complished by convincing governments; c leaves a large enjoyment of these advantages." sion, either by actual violence demon Mr. Wright would deal with governments as the of superior force, has been re moralists of the reign of George the Third with even partial reforms have req men-they could devise no means to prevent steal-torted, entire revolutions-and t ing but the gallows; he can devise no means to reform one bad institution but the breaking up of the whole social compact.

solve the American Union con
less-have only been accomplish
and bloodshed.

"The citizen of a government tainted with slave Mr. Wright says he will not n institutions may combine with foreigners to put allusions to himself: it would be down that government."-This vague generality allusions that were never made must also be tried by the test of a special applica- we know nothing; and we spol tion. If true, the American Abolitionist may in- to which he either belongs alre nocently combine with foreigners to compel his of belonging. Our remarks h fellow-citizens to alter their institutions. Mr. than the exposure of false and Wright, when he attempts to argue, shrinks from tics; the assertion of the sound this broad application of his own principle. He binations act and do not teach