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was born Hakan-Syogren, also the son of a poor | pale poverty too often has her seat beneath the turfpeasant, who by his own exertions raised himself covered roofs of the low huts. And yet from the to a high academical rank, and by the most rigid poorest districts of all, from Westmanland and Daeconomy accumulated a fortune of which he made larne, proceed the strongest men. the noblest use; who, old and gray, and looking like a moss-grown rock, still retained a heart full of life and warmth, and who, with his money-box beneath his feet, [Query, is this intended for a figure of speech] assembled round him a troop of promising but poor young men, whom he supported with its contents-a faithful representative of the character of the people of Smaland, and a living proof of the great things that may be achieved by paying attention to what is small in time-in money, in everything. Northwards from Smaland rises East Gothland, one of the largest and most fertile districts of Sweden, and forming with West Gothland the very kernel of the land of the ancient Goths. Deep, dark forests meet us here, which in the heathen-nay, long after, in the Christian time, no one entered without specially commending his soul to God. Memorials of murder are seen the whole way, on trees and stones, and the silence and profound solitude of the woods, and the distance from all inhabited places, awaken uncomfortable thoughts.

We should have been glad to have had some further explanation of this fact, if it be one, for we cannot feel altogether satisfied with that Miss Bremer offers. "So great is the power of spirit over nature! So little can the earth, the old giantess Ymer, effect against the struggling, energetic will of man." Does she mean that people can grow strong, and large in body, whether they are fed or not, if they will only, as the lady in "Dombey" says, "make an effort?"

In East Gothland the Götha Canal," the blue ribbon of Sweden," connects the North Sea with the Baltic. Northward from West Gothland lies Bohuslän, formerly Alfhem, the home of the Vikingr, and whose inhabitants, for ages after the Vikingr had ceased to exist, still bore a very indifferent character among their neighbors. Here Sigrid Storroda laid her plan of vengeance against "the little king," her wooer; and it is said there is still a certain hardness and ruggedness in the character of the inhabitants which are symbolized in that of the physical features of their country. Out of the blue waves rise granite rocks, which resemble a stormy sea suddenly stiffened into ice. In the mountains are found vast gloomy glens, and caverns, and heaths; and here and there, like oases in the desert, a few green fruitful valleys. The sea is the source of all the riches of the country—the field from which yearly millions of silver ears are reaped.

Eastward from this province lies the fine Malar valley, containing the Malar Lake, with which, according to tradition, all the flowing waters in Sweden are connected; and at its effluence, in the Gulf of Bothnia, stands the royal city of Stockholm.

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The approach to Stockholm from the Baltic lies along a far-extended coast of broken rocks. and countless larger and smaller islands and holms." forming on all sides innumerable passages and bays, within which are continually opening inviting little prospects, of which one would gladly take a nearer view, but which are immediately succeeded by some other just as attractive. Many of these holms" look like green bouquets flung upon the surface of the sea; sometimes they are rocks, but never quite barren. Fir woods clothe the heights, and groves of brightest green gleam forth amidst granite rocks. At the foot of the mountains, on abodes of fishermen-little fishing-boats, with their the green shore, stand pretty, neat cottages, the sails furled, lying tranquilly before them on the water. Higher up, on the terraces. we see elegant country-seats and summer-houses, lying embowered in trees; and the nearer you come to the city, the higher rise the buildings, and more closely throng

the mountains.

castle-a granite fortress, with a forest of pines They terminate at length in a crowning its battlements; but suddenly the mountains open, and there lies Stockholm in a magnificent amphitheatre, with its royal palace, its churches, and its mass of houses, encircling the wide harbor, with the flags of all nations flying on its

On the coast of the Vikingr now stand only fish-bosom. ermen's huts, and while the man is out contending with the waves for a subsistence, the wife cultiFollowing thus the shores of the gulf to where vates a little field of potatoes among the rocks, over they stretch towards Finland, we arrive at Torwhich her children and her goats are climbing. nea, where people are in the habit of going to West Gothland, Dalsland, and Wermeland sur-make calls on the "midnight sun," his "salon de round the Wener Lake, the great inland sea of reception" being a certain hill near the Russian Sweden, the most important for her domestic frontier line-which, it seems, is not beyond the trade, and celebrated for the conflicts that have formerly taken place upon its shores. Proceeding northwards from home, we come to Svea, the "people's land," the Manhem, or "Home of Men,' where, according to tradition dwelt the original tribe of the Swedes, as to the south abode that of the Goths. In this region are the largest and oldest mines; for here central Sweden is encircled by her girdle of iron :—

Iron ore forms the ground upon which the houses stand, from which the springs flow, on which lie the poor and unproductive fields. Poor and scanty, therefore, is the nourishment of the people, and

reach of toll-bars, though lying in the everlasting solitude of the measureless primæval forest, "watered by nameless streams, and inhabited by plants and animals unknown to the rest of the world."

Here, nevertheless, we find the personages of the novel, and others, forming comfortable picnic parties; and as there is, we suppose, no great probability that many of our readers will follow their example, (at least, during the present year,) we will turn to Miss Bremer's sketch of the scene.

On the top of the hill the ground was tolerably flat. Pines and birch-trees grew on it, and rich

masses of heath showed themselves between rocks assailed by the sound of repeated heavy blows, and trees. There were about a hundred persons mingled with the most piteous cries of terror and assembled in various groups, most of them well agony. Scarcely had he time to comprehend that furnished with hampers of wine and provisions. a grand public execution was the cause of these Various languages were heard-Swedish, Finnish, distressing sounds, when he was seized by the Russian, German, and French. The prospect was Shah's attendants, and hurried forward to the boundless over the dark wooded region, on which royal presence. On his passage a greater and more the sun shone without seeming to light it. Softly revolting shock awaited him. Executioners dragglowing, but without rays, it stood just over the ging the yet palpitating trunks of eight headless horizon, and flooded the figures on the hill with victims, decapitated before the Shah, met him in purple light. Soon this was overshadowed by a his path, and rudely shoved him aside, to make cloud, and here and there on the horizon could be way for their hideous train of carnage and mutiladistinguished rising columns of smoke, that marked tion. On reaching the court circle, pale, agitated, the spots where the cultivation of the desert had and confused, he remained for some seconds in an begun, and the spirit of agriculture had penetrated attitude of speechless horror. The Shah, with an beyond the polar circle. The night was warm, air of composure which would have done him honor tranquil, and pleasant, and the mountain now on the field of battle, inquired if the envoy was ungleamed all over with little fires, kindled to drive well; and then, for the first time, in language of away the gnats. All seemed to invite to the calm just indignation, learnt what even the most despotic enjoyment of this great festival of nature. court of Europe would think of the bloody and barNow it was twelve o'clock, and at this moment the barous reception just given to its representatives. cloud rolled away, and the sun issued forth in full Besides the appearance of insult offered to a friendsplendor. ly sovereign, no light shade of odium was cast upon the throne, when thus converted from a seat of judgment and mercy into the shambles of a butcher. It is rumored that the king of kings, abashed by so well deserved a reproof, hung his head in the silence of youthful shame, and that the idignant envoy, on repeating his complaint to the prime minister, received the consoling assurance that he had probably earned by twenty minutes of annoyance the satisfaction of putting an end to a barbarous and hateful practice, which, though belonging to the good old times of Persia, was not the less a scandal to the age and a dishonor to the crown. There is a deep moral in such accidents—the finger of Providence appears in them. It is not to be supposed that the court of Persia sought purposely to We take it for granted that the authoress has the unwilling eye-witness of a brutal spectacle of insult a great power, by making its representative herself made this excursion, and though she has blood. No one, perhaps, thought of the indecency introduced her fictitious personages into the scene, of coupling a public execution with the audience that it is faithfully described. We cannot, how-of a foreign ambassador. The Shah, from a misever, help regretting that, instead of a very flimsy taken sense of duty, or an hereditary passion for and insipid nouvellette, she did not give us a sim-executions, having ordered that the supposed crimple account of her "Summer Journey," which, with her thorough knowledge of the country, and usually pleasant style, could hardly have failed to make an agreeable book. As it is, we have felt some disappointment, which we have expressed with less hesitation, from having had, on former occasions, a more welcome duty to perform. The great charm of Miss Bremer's earlier works is their truth, freshness, and domestic simplicity.

The Frenchman of the party saluted its appearance by firing a pistol in the air; a German princely pair, who had come thither on a wedding tour, by a conjugal kiss extraordinary; and the company in general, by a grand attack on the hampers brought with them with a precaution by no means unnecessary, as at the only house of public entertainment within any possible distance the hostess, being also chief medical officer of the district, had absented herself to perform a surgical operation; so that all the entertainment the house afforded was a place to cook in, if anything could

be had to cook.

Let her beware of affectation and mannerism.

PERSIA AND TURKEY.

A CURIOUS and dramatic scene is reported to have lately taken place at the court of Persia.

The young Shah has been passing the holy month of Ramazan, which happens this year to coincide with the dog days, in a spacious garden not far from Teheran. The envoy of a great Christian sovereign having demanded an audience of his majesty, an hour was appointed for the ceremony. His Excellency, on arriving in due season at the royal encampment, was ushered into a tent, where he reposed a moment, while his arrival was announced to the Mahometan successor of Darius and Xerxes. Scarcely had he taken a seat, when his ears were

inals should be tortured and beheaded before him, the same hour, from a mere motive of convenience, the audience in question was probably appointed for without any further design or consideration. But the diplomatist was naturally disturbed by so great an outrage to his sense of propriety, and, unrestrained by the stiffness of a lace coat, the man's heart leaped unconsciously forth, and for once at a royal audience the plain, unpremeditated truth was spoken out with becoming freedom. Prince D. had a right to take offence, and, at a distance of many hundred furlongs and versts from the scene, there was one to whom he could appeal for redress, and who was not to be offended with impunity. It is difficult to bring such actions into comparison with each other, and not at the same time to contrast them mentally with the improvements, whether in matters of administration or of policy, which are daily observed in Turkey. Far from presiding in person at the solemn expiation of crime by personal suffering, the sovereign of Turkey issues with reluctance his warrant for a public execution, and allows no capital sentence to be carried into effect without an open trial, a legal conviction, and the sanction of his supreme council. He has abolished torture-he has forbidden the punishment of the bastinado, and the measures of his government tend continually to an equal administration of the laws

to all classes of his subjects. The same benevo- | lence appears in his external policy. Though united by ties of amity and mutual good will with all the powers of Europe, he joins with no alliance of sovereigns in a league against constitutional principles and the progressive improvement of society; he maintains order in his own dominions; but even in the performance of that supreme duty, he tempers justice with mercy.-London Chronicle.

From the years to come
Mournful glances cast,—

What are they to me,
Toiling towards the day;
God hath given light,
Light for all my way.

N. Y. Eve. Post.

A WOMAN'S PLEA FOR MERCY.

THE CONDEMNED POISONER, CHARLOTTE HARRIS.-Some char

"CAPRICES" is the name of a volume of poems published without the author's name, by Robert itably disposed inhabitants of Taunton recently memorialized Carter & Co., of this city. We have looked it the Home Secretary to spare the life of this convict, condemned for poisoning her husband, and now awaiting her accouchement, over with more than usual interest, because we have previous to the sentence of the law being carried into effect. Sir found more in it than in most of the volumes of George Grey has officially announced his regret that the case presents no grounds that warrant his interference with the due respectable poetry which are laid on our table-course of law. The prisoner is expected to be confined every more thought, more spirituality, and a deeper insight into nature. We have neither space nor time for anything like an analysis of its merits and blemishes the latter are mostly verbal-but we give our readers what they will probably like better, a sample of the collection :

THE GLOWWORM.

Deep within the night,
Toiling on its way,
With its feeble lamp
Giving out a ray.

Close about its path
Sombre shadows meet,
And the light is cast
Only at its feet.

Castle-top and grange
Off within the dark;
What are they to it,
Groping by its spark?
Castle-top and grange,
Orchard, lane and wood,
Human homes asleep,
Precipice and flood.

What are they to it,
Groping by its ray;
God hath given light,
Light for all its way:

Light to know each step
Of the toilsome ground;
Wherefore should it pry,
Questioning, around?

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day, and as soon after as possible the extreme penalty of the law
will, it is stated, be carried into effect.-Daily News.

STILL keep the night-lamp burning,
I must have constant light;
Those horrors, else, returning,
Harrow mine inward sight:
The drop-the noose--each feature
Of that bad scene I see,
Where they bear forth yon creature
From childbed to the tree.

Her pinioned arms deny her

Her infant's last embrace;
Since they may not untie her,
They lift it to her face.
And then-yes, I should banish
Such fancies overwrought,
But they refuse to vanish,

Those spectres of my thought.
'Tis true, if aught could smother
Pity, it were her crime;
But I shall be a mother
Too, in a little time.
To think if I were lying,
Foretasting every pang,
Counting each moment flying,
And, after all, to hang!
To feel each cordial proffered
My sinking frame to prop-
Was succor only offered

To save me for the drop!
Better at once to end me,

Than, like that hapless wretch,
To soothe, sustain, and tend me,
And nurse me for Jack Ketch!

The law, with strange compassion,
Her unborn babe reveres,
Whose mind despair will fashion,
And agonizing fears:

Preserved by mercies tender,

An idiot but to be;

Nay, what these thoughts may render
My own, disquiets me.

Mother and queen, forget not
Pardon is in thine hand;
For woman's pity, let not

This hanging shame our land;
But cause the mob ferocious
The spectacle to miss,
Inhuman and atrocious,
Of butcher-work like this.

Punch.

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FATAL FACILITY; OR, POISON FOR THE ASKING.

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