Henry. In the face of the congregation to which he belonged, he swore that the child poor Jessy bore was not his. The oath was not believed: and the clergyman, whose doctrines he had neglected to follow, wept while he deplored to me his want of success in changing his heart. He was expelled from that religious society, and the distracted father brought the action in question, as well to receive damages for an irreparable injury, as to redeem his child's otherwise spotless name from aspersion. "When the record came down to be tried, the case was clear; but Jessy's evidence was necessary, and she was led into court, half dead with fear and shame. She was but as the ghost of what she had been; and her silent look, the tone of her sweet voice when she at length broke silence and predicted her own death, calling in agony upon her seducer to look up to heaven and witness the wreck he had made on earth, impressed me with an idea that she already belonged to the kingdom of spirits. A coldness spread over my whole frame. Her pale lip trembled. I looked upon the man that I might know another like him. The judge wiped his eyes, and sighed over the depravity of human nature. A universal silence expressed the loudest commiseration, and heartfelt pity accompanied the pale creatúre as she retired from the crowded seat of justice. The jury awarded five hundred pounds damages; for it was proved that Mr. had a valuable property. No defence was made, as the defendant's attorney was a man of honour, and absolutely refused to be instrumental in any attempt to injure the reputation of Miss Previously to the trial, however, all his property had been conveyed away; and his bail having surrendered him, he took up his residence in the Marshalsea, together with his wife, for he had forsaken his Jessy on account of another. There he was condemned to remain for three years, under the statute of frauds. "Some time after, I often rode past poor Jessy's place of residence, in the hope of seeing her. Alas! this unfortunate creature's mind became deranged: by constantly dwelling on her grief, the seat of thought burst, from its own fulness. Her insanity was a pensive, deep melancholy. She was never heard to utter any complaint; but the exclamation My God!' was so continually heard to fall from her silver tongue, that it was evident her mind was incessantly occupied by the horrors of retrospection. I have seen her pluck a beautiful flower, in a lovely garden which she had delighted to trim in the days of her happiness; look at it wistfully (then I thought she was comparing what she had been to it), place it in her breast affectionately (then I shed a tear-for, 'poor dear,' said I, 'thus you ought to have been cherished by love');—dash it from her,' with the mournful cry of My God!'-' Ah!' said I mentally, 'so you were served: first admired-then plucked-and cast away when you expected to be placed in the bosom of truth.' 6 "It scarcely need be added, that Jessy, like the flower she had thrown away, withered rapidly, and mingled with the dust whence her beautiful form had sprung. She now lies in the west corner of the meeting-house-yard of, and many a sigh of regret is heaved over her green grave." No. XII. CIVIL-BILL PRACTICE. "There is no power in Venice Can alter a decree established: 'Twill be recorded for a precedent; And many an error, by the same example, SHAKSPEARE. "In the centre of a flourishing town, forty miles from Dublin, stands a handsome structure, called the Court-House. I was seated to advantage in it on the opening of the quarter-sessions of the peace. In a gallery running round the house was a large congregation of the lower orders: the men were dressed in blue frieze great-coats, and the women in red cloaks. Marks of strong interest and anxiety animated their countenances, which were all of the ancient Hibernian cast. The lower part of the house was crowded with |