"But then the debts ?" inquired the deeply sorrowing woman. "As to them," returned her son-in-law, shrugging his shoulders, "a bankruptcy must be declared, and the creditors must take what remains: a disagreeable step, it is true, but a thing of almost daily occurrence now-a-days. The creditors must take the residue after your claims are satisfied, and that is nothing but the law. You have not put your name to any mortgage or bond, have you ?" The poor widow was greatly in the dark as to this advice of her son-in-law, and it was necessary for him to make it much clearer before her mind could comprehend it. When she did, however, she suddenly rose up from her seat, and exclaimed: "Do you then really think that I will let my dead husband, in his grave, be declared a bankrupt? No, never, never! He has not behaved well to me, but I am his wife, and bear his name, and it shall never be disgraced as long as I can call a single farthing my own!" And to this decision she adhered, in spite of all that her refined and enlightened son-in-law could urge to the contrary; and he not only strenuously urged, but at length grew violent on the subject. For indeed, how deeply important it was to himself, it was impossible to make the poor despised motherin law understand. "And now we must begin ourselves seriously to retrench," said he to his dejected wife. "Yes, certainly; but how ?" That is the difficult question. Caroline wished, in the first place, to know in what her husband really could himself retrench. Well; the daily visits to his club at the hotel-those he could not give up, or what would people say? Besides, the expense was a mere bagatelle. Part with his riding horse? No, that would never do; it would look very queer to see a public functionary going about his official business to distant places on foot, nor was there a horse to be hired in the place which he would like to ride; besides, after all, the cost of keeping a horse is very little after he is once bought. Caroline's own attempts at retrenchment were made with much the same result. Besides, she could not at all see why she was to deny herself of everything, more especially when all her expenses were such mere trifles in comparison with those of her husband. If she spoke to her most confidential friends on this terrible subject of money, the reply always was: "What need can there be for all this worry? with a handsome income like yours, and only one child, there cannot be any cause of anxiety;" and Caroline was only too willing to believe it, never, of course, knowing that her friends shook their heads behind her back, saying: "Ah! who knows what the real state of the case may be !" Ah! falsehoods of this kind are of constant occurrence in daily life, and honest intentions become by this means guilty. People follow their natural impulses to give consolation and assurance; they are unwilling to wound their friends' feelings, and therefore endeavour to soothe them on any superficial grounds-cradling them, as it were, in a false security, from which they must wake sooner or later. This fear of giving pain, of speaking painful truths which in the end only increases the evil, appears to take its root in pure kindness of heart, and therefore to be very excusable; for instance, towards sick people. Frequently, however, it is quite the contrary, and has its root in the want of love. True love must be honest to the very core; it is long-suffering and kind; therefore it cannot wound, and must bless even where it gives pain. Love of this kind poor Caroline never met with; in the heart of her mother aloze could its fresh fountain have been looked for, and from her she might have heard the truth. But how was it possible for the good woman to give a judgment on circumstances with which she was totally unacquainted? Besides, Caroline had, in consequence of the representations of her husband, began to feel some bitterness towards her mother. She, who as a girl had indulged in such tender sentimental feeling, was now angry with her mother because she was willing to make any sacrifice that the credit of her husband might be sustained. NEW CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE. PENITENT AUTHORS. Or some of the most distinguished writers i cannot be said, unfortunately, as it has been of one, that "in his last moments he had no cause to wish anything blotted out that he had ever writ ten." They seem to have taken little or no thought (to use the words of old Robert Wilmot) “ths: whatsoever is committed to the press is commende to eternity; and that it sha. stand a lively witness with our conscience, to our comfort or confusion, in the reckoning of that great day." Occasionally, after the awful mischief has been done, the authors have repented of the evil of their ways, and have repeated, in effect, the words of Pope: "Curst bo the verse, how well soe'er it flow, Or from the soft-eyed virgin steal a tear." Thomas Carew sometimes wrote in a strain of loose revelry, of which he deeply repented in his latter days. "He died," says Clarendon, "with the greatest remorse for that licence, and with the greatest manifestation of Christianity, that his best friends could desire." tinism. When Jeremy Collier published his "Shor Dryden's conscience smote him for his liberlish Stage," "glorious John" stood abashed, like View of the Profaneness and Immorality of the Eng the fallen archangel at the rebuke of Zephon, "And felt how awful goodness is, and saw He, to some extent, excused his offences by plead Robert Herrick, though the most exquisite lyrica poet of the seventeenth century, produced some pieces which did not at all become one ministering at the altar, or belonging to the sacred profession. He also published a "recantation" of his errors:- That one of all the rest shall be The glory of my work and me." Schiller's "Robbers" was a sort of safety-valve to let loose the indignation of an independent and powerful mind at the vexatious restraints of society, and the mingled joys and excitement of an entirely lawless and predatory state of existence. In after years, Schiller was so sensible of the dangerous tendency of the brilliant hues thrown over vice in this play, that he resolved to make amends by writing a second play, in which the same characters should be introduced, and the ultimate consequences of their immorality should be made manifest. His design was prevented from being carried into execution by his premature death. Jean Racine, after having produced seven tragic master-pieces for the French stage, declared it to be his conviction, not only that all writers of novels and plays were so many "public poisoners of the human mind," but that he himself was one of the most dangerous among the number. He determined to write no more tragedies, and, indeed, no more verses, and to atone for those he had already written by the most severe and strict penance. Such was his remorse for his past transgressions, that he contemplated nothing less than turning Trappist; and it required all the efforts of his confessor to dissuade from this project. Churchill's life was one round of dissipation, energy, and self-reproach. In one of his poemsthe "Conference," in which an imaginary lord and himself are the interlocutors-he takes occasion to give public expression to his compunction and selfreproach. The lord rebukes him, setting forth the errors of his life. "Think (and for once lay by thy lawless pen), 'Tis the tale which angry conscience tells, When death was nigh at hand, Robert Greene wrote a tract called "A Groat's worth of Wit, Bought with a Million of Repentance," which concludes thus: "But now return I again to you three (Marlow, Lodge, and Peele), knowing my misery is to you no news; and let me heartily entreat you to be warned by my harms; delight not, as I have done, in irreligious oaths, despise drunkenness, fly lust, abhor those epicures whose loose life hath made religion loathsome to your ears; and when they soothe you with terms of mastership, remember Robert Greene (whom they have often flattered) perishes for want of comfort. Remember, gentlemen, your lives are like so many light tapers, that are with care delivered to all of you to maintain; these, with wind-puffed wrath, may be extinguished, with drunkenness put out, with negligence let fall. The fire of my light is now at the last snuff. My hand is tired, and I forced to leave where I would begin; desirous that you should live, though himself be dying.-ROBERT GREENE." A few weeks before his death, the "witty" Earl of Rochester dictated and signed in the presence of witnesses the following solemn declaration :For the benefit of all those whom I may have drawn into sin by my example and encouragement, I leave to the world this my last declaration, which I deliver in the presence of the great God, who knows the secrets of all hearts, and before whom I am now appearing to be judged. That, from the bottom of my soul, I detest and abhor the whole course of my former wicked life; that I think I can never sufficiently admire the goodness of God, who has given me a true sense of my pernicious opinions and vile practices, by which I have hitherto lived without God and without hope in the world; have been an open enemy to Jesus Christ, doing the utmost despite to the Holy Spirit of grace. And that the greatest testimony of my charity to such is, to warn them in the name of God, and, as they regard the welfare of their immortal souls, no more to deny his being, or his providence, or despise his goodness; no more to make a mock of sin, or contemn the pure and excellent religion of my ever blessed Redeemer, through whose merits alone, I, one of the greatest sinners, do yet hope for mercy and forgiveness." The proper education of his children was an object of deep concern to his heart. He expressed his wish that his son might never become a wit, that is (as he himself explained it), one of those wretched creatures who pride themselves in opposing God and religion, but that he might become an honest and religious man. No fortunes or honours were comparable, he said, to the love and favour of God, in whose name he blessed his children, and to whose protection he committed them. He strictly charged those in whose custody his papers were, to burn all his profane and lewd writings. To all whom he had injured he was ready to make restitution to the utmost of his power, and of those to whom compensation could not be made, he prayed for their and God's forgiveness. Those who had injured him he freely forgave as he hoped to be freely forgiven of God. He gave a full account of his debts, and ordered payment to be made of them all, 66 as far as his estate would go," and was confident if all that was owing to him were paid to his executors, his creditors would all be satisfied. And thus as much as in him lay he showed that "his mind was now possessed of another sense of things than ever he had formerly." VARIETIES. 1. Plover. 2. Opossum. 3. Lee. 4. Banterer. 5. Kestrel. 6. Haughty. RIVER DATS DISEMBARKING 4 BOOM MUD PEI-HO NORTH FORT 13.CUNS 03 03 2800M 05 06 a 70 MICH WATER 120 120 8. Janus. 10. Forester. MARK MUD 11. French gun-boat. 12. Coromandel. 13. Starling (aground). 7. Cormorant. SAGACITY OF RATS.-A gentleman, on his return from the East Indies, was confined to bed from indisposition. The captain and the other passengers happened to be on deck, and the cabin quite still. The gentleman, looking out of his bed, saw a rat come out of a hole opposite. The rat, after reconnoitring, re-entered the hole, and, to the great surprise of the beholder, came out again, dragging after him a large blind animal of the same species, three or four others at the same time pushing him out. After the blind rat had satisfied his hunger, by picking up whatever happened to be on the cabin floor, they retired to their hole. There are many stories of rats having been seen leading a blind companion to drink by means of a straw. PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE.-Sanitary science is yet in its infancy: it can be greatly advanced by bringing into the field the great medical profession of the kingdom, armed with all its science and art, and working under the most advantageous circumstances. There are more than two thousand medical men in London and its vicinity, but they are employed chiefly in treating disease. They are often paid only in proportion to the quantity of medicines that their patients take. The art of preventing disease is not cultivated; it is not taught in any of our medical schools; it is not formally the subject of examination in our universities. The father of a family does not go to the doctor and say to him plainly, "How can I preserve my health? How can I make my children well and vigorous ? How can I develope all their faculties in harmony, to the fullest extent? Constantly advise us, and lead us in the way of a healthy life; preserve us, and I will pay twice as much as I now pay for the plucking of us out of the fire of disease, and the treatment of our sores." Instead of this, the common course is never to consult or to pay the medical man until the evil is nearly done; until consumption has set in, diphtheria is developed in the throat, small-pox is furrowing the skin, fever is racking the brain, and then there is a midnight rush to the great blue and red lights burning in the streets, or in some cases even to the nostrums of quackery. How vainly, the returns show. The utility of curative medicine is evident to every rational mind; the utility of preventive medicine is still more clear. Witness the heakh of the ships' crews in Anson's and then in Cook's voyages; witness the health of the British army in the Crimea, which Miss Nightingale has shown experienced an annual rate of mortality ranging from 117 to 7 in 1000 of the force, according as the principles of preventive medicine were disregarded or observed. Imagine the two thousand members of the most enlightened profession in the country, employed in instructing the public how to preserve their health! How many thousands of lives would then be saved every year in London! The population would also be happier and better. A beginning of a movement has been made in the right direction, under Sir Benjamin Hall's Act. Medical health officers are appointed in all the London districts, and many of them are working courageously in the midst of unhealthy places, and against ignorant opposition, with success. Their reports are replete with interesting facts, and contain many words in season of sanitary truth, well calculated to influence and direct the boards. They have deserved the public appre bation; for they have done quietly a great deal of good work, and it is probable have saved many lives, and pr vented much sickness.-Report of Registrar-General for 1858. BUBBLE AND SQUEAK.-In the House of Commons were two brothers. One, from his sonorous voice, was called Bubble; the other, from having scarcely any voice at all, was called Squeak. On one of O'Connell's nights, some ten members were on their legs at once, the whole honse in an uproar; and while a hundred voices were calling "Order!" little Squeak's voice was distinctly audible over all. Mr., who was present, struck with the fact that the worst voice in the House of Commons could which this effect depended, and shortly after commenced produce so great an effect, investigated the principle on his invaluable lessons to the clergy on the management of the voice. GUILDHALL.-The original Guildhall stood in the street called Aldermanbury, the latter being so named from the aldermen meeting there. It is supposed to have been built by Edward the Confessor, being known as "Guildhall" in the year 1189. Stowe remembered its ruins, and says that in his days it was used as a carpenter's yard. The present building was begun in the year 1411, and completed in about ten years; towards defraying the expenses of which, contributions were made by most of the City Companies, and several sums were received This old hall was greatly from private benefactors. damaged by the fire of London, 1666, but was soon after repaired and beautified at the expense of £2500, from which reparation it has stood to the present time.-City Press, ARTISTIC AND COMMERCIAL USES OF KEW GARDENS.— In the old tropical aquarium, in hothouse No. 6, in Kew Gardens, there is a fine specimen of that wonderful vege table production, the lace or lattice leaf plant of Madagascar: it has been copied by the artificial florists of London, and is becoming very fashionable, many millions of leaves having been made and mounted into wreaths in Clerkenwell alone. It is now being largely exported to all our colonies, and has produced considerable profit to the manufacturers, who have named it the skeletou leaf. This is but one illustration of the commercial value of Kew Gardens to this country. It would not be diffi cult to find many more, and we would direct the attention of carvers in wood and stone to the tropical foliage there so abundantly displayed. tains, which would have saved us three or four miles' walking, but there was a short cut through the cane fields, and so we decided in favour of footing it. Besides our four selves, our party consisted of Nim, Archie, Cupid, Mat Rington's man Joc, and the two maroon guides-ten of us in all; divided amongst the men were our four Spanish hammocks, four blankets, and provisions consisting of bread, hard eggs, and jerked hog; besides a demi-john of brandy for "massa," a ditto of rum for themselves, and a third to be filled at the last stream of water we should pass. "Jerked hog" is the name given to the flesh of the wild hog prepared by the maroons; the process of curing I know not, but this I know, that it is most excellent eating, neither salt nor hard, but tender, juicy, and of a smoky, peculiar flavour. | bottom; then up again the opposite side: in fact, we crossed several small valleys, as we wound our way over the lower ridges of the John Crow; but whether valley, ravine, or mountain side, it was still "the bush;" the dense forest was around us; and well for us that it was well that we had a thick, impervious screen between our heads and that globe of fire, whose rays every now and then darted down upon us, whenever they could get a chance, like a flash from a burning-glass. About one o'clock Mat Rington called a halt: we were all glad enough to obey the order; the pla was selected with the eye of an artist-I do no. mean of a pictorial artist, though in truth the spot was picturesque enough;-but, in the present instance, a less noble art than that of painting ha been consulted in the choice of our halting-place, namely, the art of eating, drinking, and resting, with, considering the circumstances, the greatest possible amount of comfort. One of the aforesaid brawling brooks was at car feet; a clump of wild plantains and palmettoes, whose immense thick leaves sheltered us as effec tually from the raging sun as the firmest shingle We passed by the clump of bamboos, associated with Cumba and "song." I looked for her in vain; there were many "field hands" of both sexes at work a short distance off; she might be amongst them, but I would not believe it; I chose to think of her as I had seen her, singing and laughing. We crossed the river over some broad stepping-roof could have done, flourished most luxuriantly stones a little lower down, and an hour and a half's walk at a smartish pace, through waving fields of cane and Indian corn, brought us to the foot of the mountain, and the edge of "the bush." In we plunged for a few yards, to gain the shelter of the trees; then, throwing ourselves down under their grateful shade, we doffed our hats, wiped our brows and looked around us. "There!" said Mat Rington, "so far so good; we have crossed the plain before the sun has had time to burn us much; he may blaze away now: we shall be under cover for the rest of the day." This was pleasant to hear: the way might be, and certainly would be, rough, steep, and fatiguing: but what of that, compared to the fierce tropical sun beating down upon one's brain. Onco more we were en route, the maroon guides leading the way; as we plunged deeper and deeper into the forest, the trees increased in size and in variety. There were some giants, with smooth, rounded, symmetrical trunks, rising to the height of one hundred feet and upwards, without a branch or a limb to break the stately grandeur of their towering stature. Others, dwarf palms, tree ferus, and the like, shaggy, hirsute, thorny, with enormous fan-shaped leaves, broad, smooth, and shiny; or feathery, spiky, prickly, deeply serrated, and farspreading, grew around in all directions, and in every conceivable attitude: while, to enhance the strange and singular beauty of the scene, innumerable creepers and parasitical plants hung festooning down from the lofty branches of the huge forest trees. The cordage and elaborate tracery of the wild vine were conspicuous amongst many others whose names I now forget. Those famous riding and walking-sticks, well known in Jamaica by the name of "supple-jacks," are cut from the wild-vine. The nature of the ground varied considerably as we advanced; it was not all up-hill work: on the contrary, we made several rapid descents into ravines, with a stream leaping and brawling at the and opportunely upon a green velvety slope of set. grass: there we stretched our weary limbs. "Just one hour we will stay here; we can't afford more; we have a deal to do yet before dark. Come, Joe. look alive! put that demi-john down here; cool: in the stream; you may fetch us a few cups full c that cool water; and Joe, mind you fill the othe demi-john from the brook, the last thing before we start. Hullo, Nim, what have you got there?" "Jerked hog, Massa Rington, sa; an' dis here am egg sa, hard egg, an'-hi, Archy! bring de oder ting all de ting! hi, you, oo Coop! (meaning Cupid), what for you oo drop de ting ?" Away ran Nim back to the provision basket where the two boys were apparently doing as much harm as good; pretending to unpack, but in reality overhauling the contents as much for their own amusement as for our advantage. Nim soon set things to rights: a cuff here, and a kick there the negroes were not particula with one another-accompanied with incessant chattering and laughing, two indispensable accompani ments to a black colloquy, speedily effected the desired object, namely, the display before our hungry eyes of the viands we longed for. It was highly amusing to hear Nim ordering those two boys about, while they, grinning fro ear to ear, kept making mistakes, evidently on purpose, ducking every now and then, to escap the blows from Nim's sledge-hammer fist, made. however, more in fun than anger. The best of i was, both the lads understood the matter in hand far better than Nim himself, Archy having laid many a table at Running Water, and Cupid having waited at mess daily for months past; but thes qualifications were entirely overlooked by th arbitrary Nim. "Lebe dat 'lone, Coop-bring dese 'long here: put um down 'long side dese yam-hi! you oc Archy! you no do notin-warra for you no work? tan away, you no good-warra for you push, yea! |