QUEEN ISABELLA AND HER MINISTER.-A SCENE. -The following scene is reported by the Madrid correspondent of the Times, to have taken place at the Palace betwixt the Queen of Spain and her Minister Benavides, on the 25th ultimo, when he waited upon her Majesty to announce to her the refusal of the King to return to the Palace. On his [Benavides] arrival from the Prado, he proceeded with a heavy heart to the Palace of the Queen. He gave his name to the majordomo on duty, a gentleman bearing a striking resemblance, in solid stateliness, to those mute but expressive Chinese or Hebrew figures in the windows of large grocery establishments, who nod, respectfully familiar, to the passers-by, and invite to the aromatic luxuries within. "I am Benavides, Minister of Gobernacion, and, I pray an audience of her Majesty," said the Minister, lifting his spectacles with his thumb and finger, in order that the full blaze of his intellectual beauty should produce its effect on the beholder. The silent official nodded and disappeared. The Queen looked at the woe-begone countenance of her faithful Minister. I am not aware that his Excellency is a desperate performer on any musical instrument, but at that moment he looked as if he had passed whole days in playing on the Pandean pipes, and with such energy and perseverance as to have blown his face to a single point. "What news, Benavides? Hombre! what ails you? has anything happened! Narvaez come back,- Carlists in Madrid,-mamma returned,my little brothers and sisters got the measles? Well, what has happened?" "Your Majesty-oh, your Majesty!" "Your Majesty-his Majesty the King"— Oh, the King! I see. Well, how are the rab bits?" 66 May it please your Majesty I have not inquired: Had I thought-" "Well, never mind the rabbits. What does the King say?" "It is my most painful duty to communicate to your Majesty that his Majesty has refused to return to the palace-until-four-months-shall have elapsed. After that time-perhaps- emay-under certain circumstances-consent" A flush of indignation passed over the brow of the descendant of Charles III., but it was only for a moment. 66 Her Gracious Majesty is a child of nature, a detester of puerile ceremony; she does not at all resemble her solemn predecessor, who allowed his face and hands to be scorched because the proper officer was not near to remove him from the fire, or the fire from him; and still less that other ethereal Queen of Castile, who punished the audacity of the Cunque, Paquo-I mean, his Majesty refuses Barcelona manufacturer for having presented her with a pair of silk stockings, thereby presuming to return to the Palace. Excellent! Look you, that a Queen of Spain could have legs like a mere Senor Benavides, I told you, your chief, and your mortal! Queen Isabella will never allow herself colleagues, what was to happen when you made me to be reduced to charcoal,-it she can help it; and, come here from La Granja before the heat of sumalas for the decay of queenly pride, she well knows mer had yet passed away. I know the King better that she has these useful, though commonplace, than you do; I knew he would not come back; and members, and rejoices in the robustness and solidity you might, if you had listened to me, have spared of her understanding. She was at that moment me this additional insult, which if I forget, may,rioting in the freshness of a substantial mutton cut-but, never mind,-your intentions were perhaps let, and laughing heartily, from time to time, at one of her unwieldy and dignified attendants, giving vain chase to a favorite and saucy dog that had made too free with the Royal table. "The Minister of Gobernacion," said the lord in waiting, "to demand an audience of your Majesty." "Let the Minister of Gobernacion enter; he comes from Paquo," Royalty is reported to have answered. Senor Benavides advanced, solemn and sad as the messenger "who drew Priam's curtains at the dead of night and told him Troy was lost." good. But what fools Pacheco and all of you must The Queen, though evidently with the trace of | faring Sketches among the Greeks and Turks, by a anger and insulted pride on her countenance, Seven years' Resident in Greece. laughed again as the Minister retired, at the failure of the Ambassador of the Prado, and more so at the outrage offered her in the reasons insinuated for that failure. She, however, returned to her ordinary occupations, and that evening was on the Prado and in the theatre as usual. Such is the scene, more or less exactly reported, said to have taken place between the Queen and her Minister of the Home Department. THE INTERIOR OF A HAREM.-"The women made me sit down; and when I placed myself in the usual European manner, they begged me in a deprecating tone not to remain in that constrained position, but to put myself quite at my ease, as if I were in my own house. How far I was at my ease, installed à la Turque, on an immense pile of cushions, I leave to be imagined by any one who ever tried to remain five minutes in that pos ture. A NEW HEROINE.-A lady one day complained of the state of her health. Even the newspapers had lost their excitement-"She could not relish her murders as usual!" This is not a jeu d'esprit, but an actual speech; and it is enough to make one fear that the publicity of the journals is not an unmixed good. But as the bad parts of human nature must continue to be exhibited in the thousand mirrors of the press, those who would neutralize the evil should take every opportunity of calling into action the higher and purer sympathies of the heart. And not rarely does the daily news itself supply us with the means of so doing, and present in the very same page an antidote to the poison, although we are only too liable to pass over the former in favor of the chalice which offers a coarser intoxication. That the details of crime, as given daily in the newspapers, indurate the sensibilities-just as frequent public executions used to breed felons at the foot of the gallows-cannot be denied; but they present likewise, and not unfrequently, details of virtue, which require only to be brought prominently forward to counteract the former influence, and maintain a healthy tone in the mind. Among the latter we have just observed, in a provincial journal, an anecdote of female heroism which merits record much more than the most splendid deeds of valor in the field, and we are proud to afford it a wider circulation and a more permanent page. An obliging correspondent, who resides near the place in question, not only vouches for the truth of the facts, but enables us to give the incident with some completeness. "I was determined to omit nothing that should give them a high idea of my savoir vivre,' according to their own notions, and began by once more gravely accepting a pipe. At the pacha's I had managed merely to hold it in my hand, occasionally touching it with my lips, without really using it; but I soon saw that, with some twenty pairs of eyes fixed jealously upon me, I must smoke here -positively and actually smoke-or be considered a violator of all the laws of good breeding. The tobacco was so mild and fragrant that the penance was not so great as might have been expected; but I could scarcely help laughing at the ludicrous position I was placed in, seated in state on a large square cushion, smoking a long pipe, the other end of In a house in Morden Street, Troy-town, Rocheswhich was supported by a kneeling slave, and bow-ter, a young girl called Sarah Rogers, about fifteen ing solemnly to the sultana between almost every years of age, was in charge of a child ten months whiff. Coffee, sweetmeats, and sherbet (the most old. She had laid down the infant for a time, and delightful of all pleasant draughts), were brought to missing it on turning round, ran out in the garden me in constant succession by the two little negroes, to look for it. The child was not to be seen; and and a pretty young girl, whose duty it was to present the poor little nurse, in obedience to a terrible' preme the richly embroidered napkin, the corner of sentiment, rushed to the well. Her fears were only which I was expected to make use of as it lay on too just. The covering of the well was out of reher shoulder, as she knelt before me. These re-pair; and on dragging away the broken boards, she freshments were offered to me in beautiful crystal vases, little gold cups, and silver trays, of which, for my misfortune, they seemed to possess a large supply, as I was obliged to go through a never-ending course of dainties, in order that they might have an opportunity of displaying them all. saw the object of her search in the water at the bottom-a distance of about sixty-three feet. A wild scream broke from the girl at the sight; but she did not content herself with screaming, and she knew that if she ran for aid, it would, in all probability, come too late. Sarah Rogers, therefore—this girl of fifteen-lowered the bucket to the bottom, and grasping the rope in her hands, descended after it. In thus descending, without any one above to steady her, she swayed against the rough stones of the well, and mangled her hands to such an extent, that the flesh is described as having been actually torn from the bones. My bonnet sadly puzzled them; and when, to please them, I took it off, they were most dreadfully scandalized, to see me with my hair uncovered, and could scarcely believe that I was not ashamed to sit all day without a veil or handkerchief; they could not conceive, either, why I should wear gloves unless it was to hide the want of henna, with which they offered to supply me. They then proceeded to She reached the bottom nevertheless; and alask me the most extraordinary questions-many of though standing in three feet water, contrived to get which I really found it hard to answer. My whole hold of the drowning child with her lacerated hands, existence was as incomprehensible to this poor and raise it above the surface. She then emptied princess, vegetating from day to day within her four the bucket, which had filled, and placing her prewalls, as that of a bird in the air must be to a molecious charge in it, awaited the result. That result burrowing in the earth. Her life consisted, as she told me, of sleeping, eating, dressing, and bathing. She never walked further than from one room to another; and I can answer for her not having an idea beyond the narrow limits of her prison. It is a strange and most unnatural state to which these poor women are brought; nor do I wonder that the Turks, whose own detestable egotism alone causes it, should declare that they have no souls."-Way was fortunate and speedy, for her scream providentially had drawn several persons to the spot, and Sarah Rogers had presently the delight to see the bucket ascending with the infant. Still the brave and generous girl was unsatisfied; and when the bucket was lowered for herself, she could not be prevailed upon to enter it till they had assured her of the safety of the child. The infant was found to be severely, but not dan gerously hurt; while it was feared that its preserver would lose for ever the use of her hands. But this, we are happy to say, is now not likely to be the case. The wounds will in all probability yield to the influence of care and skill, and Sarah Rogers will be able, as heretofore, to earn her bread by the work of her hands. But she is a poor, solitary girl, with no relations able to assist her, and even no home upon earth but that of the grateful parents of the child. These, unfortunately, are not in a condition to render their aid of much importance. They have declared, it is true, that for the future Sarah Rogers shall be like one of their own family; but the husband is nothing more than a clerk on board her majesty's ship Poictiers, and is probably but ill prepared to sustain such an addition to the number of his household. Would it not be well, in a case like this, in which governments are necessarily passive, for such private individuals as have not more pressing claims upon their liberality, to come forward, and do honor publicly to fidelity and intrepidity, even when found in a poor, little, friendless servantgirl?-Chambers. SAILORS' PRANKS.-During the night, some of those on deck would come below to light a pipe or take a mouthful of beef and biscuit. Sometimes they fell asleep; and, being missed directly that anything was to be done, their shipmates often amused themselves by running them aloft with a pulley dropped down the scuttle from the fore-top. One night, when all was perfectly still, I lay awake in the forecastle. The lamp was burning low and thick, and swinging from its blackened beam; and with the uniform motion of the ship the men in the bunks rolled slowly from side to side, the hammocks swaying in unison. Presently I heard a foot upon the ladder, and, looking up, saw a wide trousers leg. Immediately Navy Bob, a stout old Triton, stealthily descended, and at once went to groping in the locker after something to eat. Supper ended, he proceeded to load his pipe. Now, for a good, comfortable smoke at sea, there never was a better place than the Julia's forecastle at midnight. To enjoy the luxury, one wants to fall into a kind of dreamy reverie, known only to the children of the weed. And the very atmosphere of the place, laden as it was with the snores of the sleepers, was inducive of DEATH OF DR. ANDREW COMBE.-"We an- this. No wonder, then, that after a while Bol's nounce with great regret," says the Times, "the head sank upon his breast. Presently his hat fell death of Dr. Andrew Combe, which occurred at off, the extinguished pipe dropped from his mouth, Georgie Mill, near Edinburgh, on the night of Mon- and the next moment he lay out on the chest as tranday last. Dr. Combe was only forty-nine years of quil as an infant. Suddenly an order was heard on age, and, although he had long been afflicted by deck, followed by the tramping of feet and the hauldisease of the lungs, no expectations were entering of rigging. The yards were being braced, and tained of his dissolution until within a week of that soon after the sleeper was missed, for there was a event. His immediate illness was a sudden attack whispered conference over the scuttle. Directly a of bowel complaint, under the weakening influence shadow glided across the forecastle, and noiselessly of which he sank without pain. Dr. Combe was approached the unsuspecting Bob. It was one of one of the physicians in ordinary to the Queen, and the watch, with the end of a rope leading out of sight corresponding member of the Imperial and Royal up the scuttle. Pausing an instant, the sailor presSociety of Physicians of Vienna, and his works, the sed softly the chest of his victim, sounding his slumchief of which were- The Principles of Physiology bers, and then, hitching the cord to his ankle, reapplied to the Preservation of Health,' A Treatise turned to the deck. Hardly was his back turned on the Physiological and Moral Management of when a long limb was thrust from a hammock opInfancy,' and 'The Physiology of Digestion,' had posite, and Doctor Long Ghost, leaping forth waripassed through a number of editions, and attained a ly, whipped the rope from Bob's ankle, and fastened celebrity rarely equalled both in Europe and Ame- it like lightning to a great lumbering chest, the prorica. Just before his last attack of illness he was perty of the man who had just disappeared. Scarceactively engaged in the preparation of a communi-ly was the thing done, when, lo! with a thundering cation intended for insertion in the Times, on a subject of the greatest moment within his peculiar branches of philanthropic inquiry--namely, the nature and causes of the ship fever, which has swept off, within the last few months, so many hundreds of the unfortunate Irish in their emigration to the United States." AT INTERESTING ANTIQUARIAN DISCOVERIES MALTA. We understand that Mr. William Winthrop, United States' Consul at this city, and Mr. Walter Lock of the royal artillery, have been engaged during the past month in excavating a temple at Citta Vecchia, which, doubtless, owes its origin to the earliest inhabitants of the island, and may be considered a most remarkable relic. This curious Phoenician relic, or "Church of the Saracens," as the country people have already begun to call it, is situated in a pretty valley, not far from the small church of Virtu, and can easily be found by those who, as antiquarians, in search of tombs, have made themselves acquainted with that part of the island. Travellers and others, who take an interest in antiquarian researches, will be amply repaid for their trouble in visiting this temple, which will carry their speculations back to the earliest ages, and be found wholly unlike any other place in Malta or Gozo now known to exist.--Times. bound, the clumsy box was torn from its fastenings, and, banging from side to side, flew towards the scuttle. Here it jammed; and, thinking that Bob, who was as strong as a windlass, was grappling a beam and trying to cut the line, the jokers on deck strained away furiously On a sudden the cbest went aloft, and, striking against the mast, flew open, raining down on the heads of the party a merciless shower of things too numerous to mention. course the uproar roused all hands, and when we hurried on deck, there was the owner of the box, looking aghast at its scattered contents, and with one wandering hand taking the altitude of a bump on his head.-Adventures in the South Seas. Of SHAKSPEARE'S HOUSE.-The present proprietors of the place of our great poet's birth are, it appears, compelled to sell it, by the terms of the will of a former owner. The house is a freehold, and is valued at something like £2,000. This valuation has been formed on the number of visitors. In 1846 it was calculated that something like 3,000 people had visited the house, though not more than 2,500 had entered their names in the book kept for the pur pose. The house will be sold by auction in the course of the summer, and one or two enthusiastic Jonathans have already arrived from America, determined to see what dollars can do in taking it away. The timbers, it is said, are all sound, and | rable serfs; so that a people progresses or retroit would be no very difficult matter to set it on grades in the same direction, pari passu, with the wheels and make an exhibition of it. We hope and laws under which they live. If they be martial, trust that no such desecration awaits it. Wholly like those of Lycurgus, the people will become solirrespective of Shakspeare, as one of the few exist-diers; if they be commercial, like those of Cartha ing examples of an English yeoman's residence of gena, they will become a trading, instead of a warlike the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it merits to be pre-people. If the well-being of a nation is not consulted served and retained among us.-Globe. THE INFLUENCE OF LEGISLATION ON THE HABITS AND MORALS OF THE PEOPLE.-To a person who may take the trouble of looking on the laws of any country, and the position of its inhabitants, both in a moral and physical view, with the eye of a good statesman and a sound philosopher, it will obviously appear that their social habits, national impulses, feelings, and sympathies, are in a great degree engendered, controlled, and created by the spirit of the constitutional code under which they live. Where the principles of human freedom are recognised in the legislative enactments of a country, the people become imbued with the same sentiments, and the national mind takes its caste accordingly; but wherever despotism reigns--where the rights of the subject are invaded by the power of the laws, rather than protected by their sacred authority-there the soil is congenial to serfdom, and slavery becomes fashionable. by the lawgivers, the people are often inclined to follow the same example, and neglect themselves. While industry is not encouraged and protected by legislative enactments, as is the case in Ireland, the people become idle, and oftentimes depraved: where sanitary enactments, are not passed, the people become filthy, and a total disregard for all cleanliness marks their customs and habits. There are, to be sure, many exceptions to this view of the subject; but as a general rule, it usually holds good; from the social, moral, and physical condition of a people, we may justly infer what is the nature of the laws, and the principles of the government under which they live. There is scarcely any country without capabilities peculiar to itself, and calculated to render its people happy; there is no land or clime without its resources, adapted to the necessities of its inhabitants, and fit to supply them with everything that nature requires, it properly developed. So that when we see a nation poor, and the humbler portion of the community in a state of wretched misery, we will unquestionably find, on due inspection, that there is a screw somewhere loose in the legislative machinery. If we wish to elevate the people, we must first begin by elevating the laws-we must commence this noble task by reforming legislative abuses, and the improvement of the people's condition will follow as a natural consequence.—People's Journal. This proposition cannot be better proved than by referring to the southern states of America, which form a portion of the Great Western Republic. In those states, there is what may be termed a species of moral freedom recognised in their laws and institutions. While they claim the proud privilege of being free of all the world beside, and hoist the starspangled banner in the name of liberty-they legal ize slavery in its darkest shape. That divine attribute-the gift of the Creator-free-will, they have MR. VERNON'S GIFT TO THE NATION.-The the temerity to destroy, and the audacious effrontery rumor which has prevailed for some time, that Mr. to advocate their right of doing so. While the laws Vernon intended to present his fine collection of teach the free subjects of those slave states to assume pictures to the nation, is now a certainty, that gena tone of independence with respect to foreigners, it ileman having placed it at the immediate disposal of also makes them the advocates of that human traffic the trustees to the National Gallery. For this noble which has shorn the American eagle of half its act, the public is most deeply indebted to Mr. Verplumes, and sullied her boasted flag, impressing on non, and it is to be hoped that some public acknowthe stripes and the stars an indelible stain at which ledgment of it will be made. Consisting, for the tyrant man should hang his head and blush. The most part, of modern works, this collection will Irish emigrant goes over to South America, filled form the nucleus of a really national gallery of with the enthusiasm of the Celt-hatred of oppres- British art, which the trustees will now feel comsion, and declaiming against every species of slave-pelled to increase. Fear of the imputation of favorry; but, in too many cases, he soon feels the magic itism and jobbing has hitherto prevented the trus touch of those boasted liberal institutions, which tees from purchasing modern works; but this must makes the Yankee the most self-important man in be overcome. One other advantage likely to result the world-he conforms, after a short residence, to from this important gift is an early alteration at the the customs of the country; and it is ten chances National Gallery. Its enlargement has been comout of eleven, but he becomes a slave owner himself, menced; but it seems clear that a fresh building for and a most invincible advocate for the expediency the national collection must be found, sufficiently of that infernal jurisprudence, which excludes the large to encourage constant donations, or that the man of color from the circle of the great human fa- Royal Academy must be provided for elsewhere, mily, and reduces him to the level of the brute crea- with the same end in view. Our opinions as to the tion. I have conversed with an Irish slave owner necessity of this have been hitherto expressed.—The from the state of Alabama, and vainly endeavored Builder. to show him the injustice of American slavery. He told me that he was once as great an advocate for its abolition as I was-that previous to his going out to America he was an abolitionist and a high conservative in Irish politics. Under the laws of the Roman Republic, Rome became mistress of the world; and her sons, imbibing their principles, the stern supporters of liberty. But in after times, when the laws of the tyrant predominated, the ancient Roman race became, as it were, extinct, and the sons of Italy, no longer able to bear her proud eagle, degenerated into an abject race of mise REINHART'S DEMISE.-This venerable Nestor of European artists died lately, aged eighty-six years, of which he passed fifty in the Roman capital. Having been acquainted with all the notorieties of the age, none who came to Rome neglected to see Reinhart. His works are scattered over Europe, from Stockholm to Sicily, amongst which his engravings are not to be forgotten. He was a great friend of the open air and the chase, which latter he practised up to a few years before his demise.-The Builder. |