out, he sighed. Still, if it must be, it must, and the idea of Lady Anne was not unendurable; so the good man put on a new wig, like the Laird of Cockpen, and, mounting his mare, rode cannily to Kellie Castle.

But Lady Anne, like Mrs Jean, said No-said it as quietly, with a little surprise, but very little discomposure, and no signs of relenting. "As if men came to the Castle every day on such like errands!" said the wooer to himself, with some heat, and considerable bewilderment, as the turrets of Kellie disappeared behind him, when he went away.

Still more indignant and injured felt the Lady of Kellie; but the culprit said not a word in self-defence: so more parties were given, more invitations accepted, and Lady Erskine even vaguely intimated the expediency of visiting London for a month or two. Anne was full five-andtwenty; and her sister-in-law never looked upon the unmarried young lady but with self-reproach, and fear lest people might say that she had neglected her duty.

But the parties would not do. Quiet, unselfish, sincere, the young ladies and the young gentlemen made Anne Erskine their friend-confided troubles to her told her of love distresses; young men, even, who might have spoken to her-Lady Erskine thought of that subject as principal, and not as confidante; but Lady Anne felt no disappointment. It is true she remembered, with certain quiet satisfaction, that it was her own fault she was still Anne Erskine, and thought kindly of the good man who had generously put it in her power to refuse him; but in this matter Lady Anne's ambition went no further, and Lady Erskine was foiled.

So, under the high window in the west room, Lady Anne sits happily at her embroidery frame, and works the quiet hours away. She is labouring at a whole suit of covers for those high-backed, upright chairs in Lady Colville's drawing-room-and many a pretty thing besides has Lady Col

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ville from the same unfailing loom; and rich are those little girls of Lady Janet's, who sometimes tumble about this pleasant apartment, and ravel the silks with which patient aunt Anne makes flowers bloom for them upon that perennial canvass. Katie Stewart draws a low chair to Lady Anne's feet, and plays with her embroidery frame sometimes; sometimes, among fine linen and cambric, works at garments for Lordie; and sometimes, bending those undisciplined shoulders over a great volume on her knee, reads aloud to the placid, unwearying worker above her, whose shoulders own no stoop as her fingers no weariness. Or Katie sings at her work those songs about Strephon and Chloe which poor Sir Alexander thought so sweet; and Lady Erskine, pausing as she passes, comes in to hear, and to spend a stray half-hour in local gossip, which none of all the three are quite above; and Bauby Rodger expatiates about the room, and makes countless pilgrimages to Lady Anne's own apartment, and now and then crosses the gallery, visible through the half-open door, bearing a load of delicate lace and cambric, which she constantly has in reserve to be "ironed" when she's "no thrang; "-and so they spend their life.

An uneventful, quiet life, sweetened with many unrecorded charities-a life disturbed by no storms, distressed by no hardships-full of peace. so great that they hardly knew it to be peace, and rich with love and kindness into which there entered neither passion nor coldness, indifference nor distrust. The sunshine came and went; the days, all of one quiet sisterhood, passed by with steps so soft they left no print. And as the days passed, so did the years ;slowly, but you scarce could call them tedious; with sober cheer and smiling faces, each one you looked on growing more mature than that which went before-and so Time and the hour passed on unwearying, and five other long twelvemonths glided by into the past.

Ir is trite enough to say "How little do we know ourselves;" and because trite, the chances are, it is quite true.

We are continually raising a laugh against the Americans, because they are given to swagger a little too much, whilst we industriously forget from what quarter their inheritance comes. If an individual may be allowed to make a national confession with as much indulgence as every individual is allowed to make his national boasting, let me be treated leniently if I venture-thus. There is not a more absurdly boastful people on the face of the earth than we, the "Great English Nation." We boast of everything belonging to us. If there be a difference between us and our Transatlantic brethren, it is in this, that as their boasting takes its character from democratic institutions, our boasting is characterised by a dash of aristocratic delicacy. Theirs is more vulgar, that is all; but, nevertheless, as we are daily progressing towards them in politics, so are we in this respect, that our national swaggering is decidedly improving in vulgarity. That regards the manner of our boasting. The matter of it is to be found everywhere, and in everything. We boast of everything belonging to us, and of some few that do not belong to us; for swaggering Pride is twin-brother to Falsehood. We boast of a prosperity from which millions are running away; of a Representative system, which represents not much of the sense, but a very large proportion of the nonsense of the people; of a public morality, at which every man individually laughs in his sleeve-to which so many elections are giving the lie, by a total disregard to the morals of their parliamentary candidates.

We make a very great fuss, and ever have done so, about our "Trial by Jury." A capital thing, indeed, in that theory which supposes the bulk of mankind quite honest, and quite competent. But as public honesty lessens, and political heats class men into parties, trial by jury may not be

the best security to life or property. "Trial by jury," by all means, says the culprit, knowing there is at least one pig-headed brute in the jury-box, and perhaps more than one great rogue that villany is so hedged with the chicanery of law, and the not only permitted, but honoured and fostered malignant subtlety of lawyers, that there is a very fair chance of Honesty being put out of countenance, and Crime walking off unblushingly, even with a triumphant effrontery. O, Ireland Ireland! What is "trial by jury" there. A pretty boast indeed, that might, as it swells in the throat, choke the bragging mightiness of England. Bad is it, indeed, for a people, when the solemnity of law becomes a mockery

when the parade of courts, the ermine of judges, and all the paraphernalia of justice, are only brought before a people to represent a farce. Law, as it is in its results in Ireland, exhibits the mighty doings for little ends which will make the present age ridiculous to posterity. Even in more sober England, is not the virtue of trial by jury deteriorating, simply because morals are deteriorating, knavery more taken under protection, and our great Parliamentary character, which should be the mirror whereby all institutions should dress themselves, a sullied example? We are always averring that "Truth will prevail"-magna est veritas et prævalebit; and we never say this so impressively as when we desire some falsehood to prevail. And Truth does not prevail. On the contrary, all our great public acts of this our new era, of which we boast so much, have been obtained confessedly by "enormous lying;" and so much is lying in favour that it is an additional boast-it is the ornamental fringe to the national habit, to the cloak of national iniquity. The Reform Bill was fathered by enormous lying; so were the successful plottings of the Anti-Corn-Law League. The latter, having succeeded, think it not worth while to deny an iniquity of which, indeed, they think it better

policy to brag. They laugh in your face, and say, How could you be such fools as to believe us, and still to think there are prophets on the earth? Our bragging daily and weekly press teems with swaggerings about our "Honest Traders," free or shackled; while the universal adulteration of coffee with chicory was almost justified, or more than justified, by being treated by the late Government, in parliamentary debate, as a very admissible practical joke ;-and not only so, but the privilege of cheating was with similar lightness extended to every other trade, by the argument of the notoriety that everything is adulterated. "Hæ nuga seria ducunt in mala." A specimen of the truth of this has lately been exhibited. In a great city, so ill taken was the recent order of the Government, prohibiting the adulteration, that grocers felt themselves aggrieved, and withheld their votes from a candidate professedly in favour of Lord Derby's Government.

Very bad principles walk about our streets and all public ways in masks, wearing on their brazen fronts large phylacteries of truth and honesty. To proceed is to give rise to a very serious thought, more fit for the sermon of a divine than my penthat the "Prince of this world," who is the "father of lies," has a very large and truly governing influence in our affairs. It might be continued in this strain-as lying was the first instrument of temptation-" thou shalt not surely die," and became the very principle in our corruption, so it bears still its fruit, it begets its many children- and whatever be the iniquity, multitudes go about in our highways and by ways to proclaim, thou shalt not surely die" for it. If we had not too strongly active this principle within us, we should not have our diversity of opinions, which are, and which are furthered by, the moral confusion of our Babel tongues. The heathen mythology gave their Cerberus his three mouths, representing, it may be presumed, the three great temptations which devour mankind-" the world, the flesh, and the Devil." Every man still makes up his sop of one virtue, though he does not always throw it into the right mouth, nor know how

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surely and quickly the other two may turn upon him.

Now, with regard to all this our national boasting, we see pride walking before, and know who cometh after. Pride goes before a fall. We were never so proud; and perhaps this marks our progressing, and is the finger-post to our steps. "Facilis descensus." There are who think all will be well, either from a habit of indolent thought, or vacuity of thought; and they thus admit deception into their own minds, and send it forth into others. This false hope stays honest doing. It is well characterised by the great historian Thucydides, wherein he treats of the argument of Hope which encouraged the Melians. "You trust in Hope, and know not her character; Hope is never discovered until she hath irreparably deceived." This is the idea, perhaps not the words. When the day comes that people lift up their hands and say, "Who would have thought it!" they then, too late, discover the world's false hope to be the elder daughter of the Father of lies.

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Quorsum hæc?" Why set up as universal censor? Simply because the matter touches to the quick of the individual man; because I feel myself somewhat progressing towards the condition of the nervous gentleman who finds too many annoyances come home to himself. If a man had but a single string of sensitiveness upon which only a Paganini might play, and he might be at liberty to reserve all the rest for himself, things might be endured; but when all his strings are stretched upon himself, the unfortunate instrument, and many cheats are playing upon all, it must be expected that he will be a little out of tune, and take the relief of complaining. The sensitive man was never in a worse predicament. He knows not what to wear, nor what to eat. So that these grave reflectious-and grave they are-properly considered, have arisen from reading the last exposure of cheatery, in extracts taken from the Lancet.

"ADULTERATED CAYENNE PEPPER. The Lancet gives the following results of an analysis of twenty-eight samples of Cayenne pepper obtained at different shops :-That out of the twenty-eight

samples of Cayenne pepper subjected to analysis, twenty-four were adulterated; that out of the above number four only were genuine; that out of the twenty-four adulterated samples, twenty-two contained mineral colouring matter; that red lead, often in large and poisonous quantities, was present in thirteen samples; that Venetian red, red ochre, brick dust, or some other analogous ferruginous earths, were contained in seven samples; that cinnabar, vermilion, or sulphuret of mercury, was detected in one sample; that six of the samples consisted of a mixture of ground rice, turmeric, and Cayenne, coloured with either red lead, or a red ferruginous earth; that six samples contained large quantities of salt, sometimes alone, but more frequently combined with rice and a red ferruginous earth, or with red lead; that one of the samples was adulterated with a large quantity of the husk of white mustard seed; that two contained rice only, coloured with red lead or a ferruginous earth. As is well known, red lead and vermilion, or sulphuret of mercury, are highly deleterious substances, both being characterised by the very peculiar circumstance that they are not, like the majority of other compounds, when received into the system, at once eliminated therefrom, but remain in the body for a considerable time, gradually accumulating, until at length they occasion the peculiar symptoms which distinguish their presence in large amount. Thus, however small the dose taken from day to day, the constitution is yet liable, by the repetition of the dose, to be at length brought under the influence of the poison, and to become seriously affected. But the quantity of red lead and mercury introduced into the system in adulterated Cayenne pepper is by no means inconsiderable, since it commonly forms a large portion of the article. Some idea of the amount of these substances fre

quently present may be formed from the fact that, in a pinch of cayenne moistened and diffused over a white plate, or a piece of glass, they may be distinctly seen by the eye alone. What punishment, we would now inquire, ought to be inflicted on the parties guilty of the crime of mixing these deleterious substances with articles of diet? The case made out, we submit, is one which, for the sake of the public health, strongly demands the interposition of the Legislature. The man who steals one's purse commits a less crime than he who, by tricking our food, robs us of health. In a recent leading article we pointed out the fact that the law, in its present state,

actually offers a remedy, which, if carried into effect, would to some extent meet the present case. Parties guilty of vending adulterated articles of food may be proceeded against for the recovery of the amount paid for them. We trust that some spirited individuals, having the welfare of the public at heart, will ere long proceed to enforce that remedy.'"

Now, this is frightful enough, and likely to make nervous gentlemen of us all; but when we remember that this is but one exposure out of many, coming from the same quarter, we all may well say, there is no knowing what to eat or to drink. They say, and say sometimes falsely, that knowledge is power. It would be well if it were a power to help ourselves. If such be its discoveries, either the world's common traders were once more honest, or "ignorance" was really "bliss," and "'tis folly to be wise." Being, however, made wise, do let us try to be a little wiser, and put a stop to universal and outrageous cheatery.

It is impossible to avoid a general suspicion of everybody and everything. reigns-that there is no good thing I do verily believe that Prince Humbug advocated but for the value of the evil it brings with it, and for the selfish ends it promotes. Thus, the universal demand for education on the part of the public press-what is it for? but that, the more readers, the more buyers of newspapers. The cry is taken up for the facility of making dupes in every direction. Educate, educate, say the diurnal, the hebdomadal press, that every man, woman, and child may read (their Bible is the pretence meaning is) our newspapers. It is they who send knowledge-mongerers a-mountebanking about the country, and setting up their lecture-rooms, where the pupils are taught the fantastic tricks of tumblers; for the head is where the heels should be, and the heels uppermost, kicking at heart is out of its place, too near the the heavens, in which position the ground, and loses its upward aspiration. Useful knowledge, says the modern schoolmaster, is earth-knowledge. Instinct gave the heathen a better notion of this matter

- the

Verily, the "prince of this worldTM” has agents everywhere-consequently the press teems with advertisements of Genuine Articles." Did you, honest reader, ever read one adver"tisement that told you of any deterioration whatever? With whom, now-a-days, would you like to play odd and even in the dark? Would you take any man's brick out of his hand as a sample of his house, and take his title-deeds without a scrutiny? When next we taunt our Transatlantic friends with their "smart men," they may fairly retort upon us, that we pay smart-money" at home for every article we buy. Often as I have been tempted to take up this subject-our boast of superior honesty-I have abstained, hardly knowing where to begin, and doubting how it would be borne by a people of traders in all ways, or of willing dupes, who admit the maxim, and, for its advantages, bear the disadvantages-" Qui vult decipi, decipiatur;" but at length this stinging gnat of Cayenne pepper has made up the intolerable burthen, and broken the back of my irresolution. And though I would fain wait for a cooler moment for this peppery argument, I do not know when to expect it. For, writing now in the midst of elections, though the weather is hot, the political heats are hotter, and give very little promise of abatementthreatening greater heats. But as people do now, some time of the day, seek the shade, and love to be cool, I venture upon this sedative of our heats. The few truths in these observations may at least tend to keep down the thermometer of our own overweening pride. They who are in the habit of taking large quantities of Cayenne are likely, contrary to their expectation, to be quiet enough; for the accumulation of the poison may slowly, but surely, give them their quietus, however hot and ardent their human passions now, while they are

heaping lead upon lead in their own stomachs, enough for every man to supply his own coffin withal. A little pepper-dust, duly administered, may settle all other heats and animosities.

"Hi motus animorum atque hæc certamina

tanta

Pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescant."

Which, truly translated, may stand for the following advertisement :"Adulterate pepper, warranted to settle The proudest stomachs and most fiery mettle."

I perceive that, in many large places, certain Milk Companies are set up, professing to sell the real genuine unadulterated milk. It might appear strange that one milk company in a town or city should issue such an advertisement, and that none of the old milk people venture either to take offence at the implied charge of adulteration, or venture upon counteradvertisements. Not very long ago, there was a quarrel between two milksellers, and one confessed at one of the police-offices what he said it was no use to deny, that they drew largely upon the "black cow"-in their trade language, the pump. Two gentlemen in their walk suddenly came upon a milk-boy with his cans. As he looked young, they thought they might catch him. One of them, therefore, said hastily to him, "I know you put hot water in the milk, it is so different." The boy vindicated himself at once: "No, indeed, sir; we always puts it cold." Let me recommend to milkmen, that they should go voluntarily before the magistrate of the township, and make affidavit that they have not, do not, and will not, by themselves, or persons employed by them, in any way dilute or adulterate the article; and there is very little doubt they will get the best custom, most profitable patronage, besides that which used to be reckoned money's worth -the preserving a milk-white conscience.

If a man forges a bill, he is transported: is he that forges an article of consumption less guilty? If a poor rogue-I only pity him by comparison

obtains a little money under false pretences, he is sent to the treadmill for cheating an individual. What