in any words having the appearance of sense in them, unless they agreed with every word you said. There is one thing, however, that I will say, because in that nobody can contradict me-I will say that though I often talk like a fool, there was once in my life that I acted like a wise man, and that was when I married you, my dear. I hope nobody will put a gag on me when I want to say that." Mrs. Roberts acknowledged this civility by a bow, and a smile, and then went on to explain her intentions for the future. "As soon as this matter is settled, Roberts, I shall be for leaving Paris and going to Baden-Baden. The season here, you know, must be very soon drawing to a close, and no people of real fashion ever stay any where after invitations begin to grow slack. Besides, as I could easily make you understand, if I had time, there are many other reasons which would make our leaving Paris desirable, when we have got dear Bertha Harrington with us. In the first place there would be something extremely disagreeable in having Lady Moreton and Lady Forton for ever spying to find out whether Edward was beginning to be attentive to her, and all sorts of curious peeping besides; and, in the next place, Roberts, it will be quite as well after we leave Paris that you should call her your ward. This sounds respectable in every way, and when there are no people near who are likely to know much about her, or to ask any troublesome questions, there cannot possibly be any objection to it. But, let us be where we will, Mr. Roberts, don't, for mercy's sake, go about talking of our having engaged a young lady to come and board with us." ment in a very particularly good humor, she could not prevent a slight degree of scorn from showing itself both in her look and manner, as she prepared to reply to this question. She had, however, not the least inclination to quarrel with Mr. Roberts, quite the contrary, and she therefore conquered her feelings sufficiently to answer without any appearance of rudeness. 66 "No, sir, she did not; and to tell you the truth, my poor dear Mr. Roberts," she added, after pausing a moment, to tell you the truth, my dear, I certainly think that if she had, I must in justice to myself have refused her flatly, however well I might like the arrangement if brought about in a proper, ladylike manner. But for Lady Moreton to have addressed such a proposal to me, would have been taking a most unwarrantable liberty-a liberty which I truly believe she would not have ventured to take with me for any consideration that could be offered her." "Now, then, my dear love, I must beg you to have the kindness to explain all this to me," replied Mr. Roberts, looking, as he felt, poor man, most completely out of his depth. "I cannot comprehend why her ladyship should be afraid of paying you such a very flattering compliment.' It "A compliment, indeed! But it is no good to be vexed at such nonsense. Now don't fancy I am angry, Mr. Roberts; I do assure you I am not; only it is impossible to help being surprised at such very odd notions. The truth I suspect is, my dear, that you do not yet quite appreciate the place I hold in society. It is not merely the being this man's wife, or another man's wife, which settles this point for one. may do so indeed when the woman is a mere ordinary sort of character, with no particular abilities to distinguish her from the rest of the world; but I should have thought, Roberts, that you had known me well enough by this time to be aware that I lay claim to other sorts of distinction besides that of being your wife, my dear." "No, my dear, I will not," replied Mr. Roberts, with the unmistakeable air of being very much in earnest. "You may quite and entirely depend that I will not; for I give you my word that now you have pointed it out to me, I see perfectly well what you mean, and I am altogether of your opinion about it. I see as plain as possible that it does not sound as it ought to, "To be sure, Mrs. Roberts, I do know and I ought to be thankful for always hav- it, and I don't see very well how I could ing one near me who can so well set me help knowing it," he replied, with the very right when I am wrong. But do tell me least little twinkle of a smile in his eyes; one thing more, my dear, will you? Did" but spite of that, I don't quite catch the her ladyship, downright and bona fide, as we say, did she bona fide propose that this rich young lady, her niece, should come and live with us?" Although Mrs. Roberts was at that mo reason why your dear friend, Lady Moreton, should be so terribly afraid to speak to you, especially when what she had got to say was so very agreeable." "It is quite in vain, my dear friend," returned Mrs. Roberts with a sigh, "totally "And pray, sir, what have I been saying and entirely in vain, to attempt making you to you for the last hour? Have I not been comprehend all the little niceties of high-showing you as plain as that the sun is in bred manners and of high-bred people. the heaven, that I do not mean to go on in Lady Moreton's proposing to me that her this way; or, in other words, that what I niece should come and make part of my do mean is to make your poor little income family, would be something absolutely in- half as much again as it is at present? Have sulting. No, sir, if we do make up our you understood me, Mr. Roberts, or have minds to think such a thing desirable, the you not?" said his wife, with some appearonly possible way in which it can be brought ance of displeasure. about will be by my offering to do them this great and most important service as a friend; confessing however, frankly, at the same time, that one great reason for my doing so, independent of my affection for them, arises from my wish of securing for my own dear girls so eligible a companion. This is the way, sir, in which these sort of things are always done among real ladies and gentlemen." "Yes, to be sure, my dear, I see it all now," replied Mr. Roberts, laughing. "There's a proverb, you know, that goes to it exactly, the truth is not at all times to be spoken.' Do it exactly in your own way, and then, of course, I know it will be well done. Upon my word and honor I would not interfere with your management of the business for any thing that you could give me. Do it your own way, my dear, from first to last." Mr. Roberts sighed; but he took up the pen, did with it as he had been desired to do, and only said as he presented the check to his lady, "I hope, my dear, that it won't be inconvenient to my lady to let the young heiress come to us immediately." LOWELL OFFERING. From the Athenæum. Knight's Weekly Volume-No. 1. William WE shall hereafter treat separately of the "That is all that I ever wish or desire, my dear Mr. Roberts," said she, with a pleasant, good-humored smile," and depend third volume of this rapidly-growing library. upon it I will set about the negotiation with The first treats of a subject too familiar to our all convenient speed, and, if nobody inter-readers to call for critical examination. Nos. feres with me, I don't feel the least doubt 4, 5, 6, and 7 again, are old friends, and need but that I shall bring it to a favorable ter- no more than a word of welcome. There remination. Meanwhile, my dear, I must mains, then, but the selection from 'The Lowtrouble you to give me another check for ell Offering;' and this, as we had already dealt a hundred pounds. There are a good been passed over, but for a letter from Miss with its matter (Athen. No. 722), must have many little things that dear Edward and the Martineau, which, as a cordial recommendagirls cannot do any longer without, besides tion, and a pleasant piece of writing, must be several small housekeeping bills that the advantageous to the publication, and not withpeople neglected to send in last week. out interest to the reader :Here's your check-book, dear, and here's the pen and ink.” Why, my dear Mrs. Roberts, this is the seventh. It is, upon my word and honor, Mrs. Roberts, this is the seventh hundred I have drawn for since we left London," replied the frightened husband. "It is a great comfort, to be sure, the knowing that you pay ready money for every thing, but yet, my dear, you must see that it will be impossible for us to go on in this way. I can't bear to refuse you, as long as I know there is any money left. But, upon my word and honor, we must not go on so." "Your interest in this Lowell book can scarcely equal mine; for I have seen the factory girls in their Lyceum, and have gone over the cotton-mills at Waltham, and made myself familiar on the spot with factory life in New England; so that in reading the 'Offering,' I saw again in my memory the street of houses built by the earnings of the girls, the church which is their property, and the girls themselves trooping to the mill, with their healthy countenances, and their neat dress and quiet manners, resembling those of the tradesman class of our country. My visit to Lowell was merely for one day, in company with Mr. Emerson's party,-he (the pride and boast of New England as an author and philosopher) being engaged by the Lowell factory people to ment tea was over, for a walk, and, if it was lecture to them, in a winter course of historical winter, to the lecture-room, or to the ball-room biography. Of course the lectures were de- for a dance, or they got an hour's practice at livered in the evening, after the mills were the piano, or wrote home, or shut themselves closed. The girls were then working seventy up with a new book. It was during the hours hours a-week, yet, as I looked at the large au- of work in the mill that the papers in the 'Ofdience (and I attended more to them than the fering' were meditated, and it was after work lecture) I saw no sign of weariness among any in the evenings that they were penned. There of them. There they sat, row behind row, in is, however, in the case of these girls, a strongtheir own Lyceum-a large hall, wainscoted er support, a more elastic spring of vigor and with mahogany, the platform carpeted, well cheerfulness, than even an active and cultivatlighted and provided with a handsome table, ed understanding. The institution of factory desk, and seat, and adorned with portraits of a labor has brought ease of heart to many; and few worthies; and as they thus sat listening to to many occasion for noble and generous their lecturer, all wakeful and interested, all deeds. The ease of heart is given to those well-dressed and lady-like, I could not but feel who were before suffering in silent poverty, my heart swell at the thought of what such a from the deficiency of profitable employment sight would be with us. The difference is not for women, which is even greater in America in rank, for these young people were all daugh- than with us. It used to be understood there, ters of parents who earn their bread with their that all women were maintained by the men of own hands. It is not in the amount of wages, their families; but the young men of New however usual that supposition is, for they England are apt to troop off into the West, to were then earning from one to three dollars a settle in new lands, leaving sisters at home. week, besides their food; the children one dol- Some few return to fetch a wife, but the greatlar (4s. 3d.), the second-rate workers two dol- er number do not, and thus a vast over-prolars, and the best three; the cost of their dress portion of young women remains; and to a and necessary comforts being much above multitude of these the opening of factories was what the same class expend in this country. a most welcome event, affording means of It is not in the amount of toil; for, as I have honorable maintenance, in exchange for pining said, they worked seventy clear hours per poverty at home. As for the noble deeds, it week. The difference was in their superior makes one's heart glow to stand in these mills, culture. Their minds are kept fresh, and and hear of the domestic history of some who strong, and free, by knowledge and power of are working before one's eyes unconscious of thought; and this is the reason why they are being observed or of being the object of any adnot worn and depressed under their labors. miration. If one of the sons of a New England They begin with a poorer chance for health farmer shows a love for books and thought, than our people; for the health of the New the ambition of an affectionate sister is roused, England women generally is not good, owing and she thinks of the glory and honor to the to circumstances of climate and other influ- whole family, and the blessing to him, if he ences; but among the 3800 women and girls could have a college education. She ponders in the Lowell mills when I was there, the ave- this till she tells her parents, some day, of her rage of health was not lower than elsewhere; wish to go to Lowell, and earn the means of and the disease which was most mischievous sending her brother to college. The desire is was the same that proves most fatal over the yet more urgent if the brother has a pious mind, whole country-consumption; while there and a wish to enter the ministry. Many a clerwere no complaints peculiar to mill life. At gyman in America has been prepared for his Waltham, where I saw the mills, and conver- function by the devoted industry of sisters; sed with the people, I had an opportunity of and many a scholar and professional man dates observing the invigorating effects of MIND in his elevation in social rank and usefulness from a life of labor. Twice the wages and half the his sister's, or even some affectionate aunt's toil would not have made the girls I saw hap- entrance upon mill life, for his sake. Many py and healthy, without that cultivation of girls, perceiving anxiety in their fathers' faces, mind which afforded them perpetual support, on account of the farm being incumbered, and entertainment, and motive for activity. They age coming on without release from the debt, were not highly educated, but they had plea- have gone to Lowell, and worked till the mortsure in books and lectures, in correspondence gage was paid off, and the little family properwith home; and had their minds so open to ty free. Such motives may well lighten and fresh ideas, as to be drawn off from thoughts sweeten labor; and to such girls labor is light of themselves and their own concerns. When and sweet. Some, who have no such calls, at work they were amused with thinking over unite the surplus of their earnings to build the last book they had read, or with planning dwellings for their own residence, six, eight, the account they should write home of the last or twelve living togther with the widowed mo Sunday's sermon, or with singing over to them-ther, or elderly aunt of one of them to keep selves the song they meant to practise in the house for, and give countenance to the party. evening; and when evening came, nothing I saw a whole street of houses so built and was heard of tired limbs and eagerness for bed; owned at Waltham; pretty frame houses, with but, if it was summer, they sallied out the mo- the broad piazza, and the green Venetian The most cruel and violent acts of his blinds, that give such an air of coolness and i greatest, and probably the last, of those men who pleasantness to American village and country rose by the sole energy of their natures and the abodes. There is the large airy eating-room, capricious influences of Asiatic manners, from the with a few prints hung up, the piano at one lowest orders of society to all but the supreme end, and the united libraries of the girls, form- dignity of the Mussulman empire. Like Hyder ing a good-looking array of books, the rocking Ali, or the low-born heroes who, in past ages and in various countries, disputed the ascendency of chairs universal in America, the stove adorned the cross over the crescent, Mehemet Ali found in summer with flowers, and the long dining-within himself resources equal to the pressure of table in the middle. The chambers do not anthe most eventful times, and superior to the deswer our English ideas of comfort. There is clining tendencies of his race and of his creed. there a strange absence of the wish for priva- But, unlike any of the other heroes of Mahom cy; and more girls are accommodated in one medan history, he was resolute without fanatiroom than we should see any reason for in cism; and he combined to a remarkable degree such comfortable and pretty houses. In the the habitual exercise of arbitrary and absolute mills the girls have quite the appearance ofla-power with a true respect for more civilized coundies. They sally forth in the morning with tries and a practical tolerance of other forms of their umbrellas in threatening weather, their religion. If we attempted to sum up his charac calashes to keep their hair neat, gowns of print ter in one word, it would be in that of "self-posor gingham, with a perfect fit, worked collars session." or pelerines, and waistbands of ribbon. For life, such as the destruction of the Mamelukes, Sundays and social evenings they have their were performed with a coolness and design quite silk gowns, and neat gloves and shoes. Yet distinct from the ordinary excesses of oriental through proper economy, the economy of vengeance. The administration of Egypt was conducted with the same stern indifference to all educated and thoughtful people, they are but the steady growth of that power which the able to lay by for such purposes as I have Pasha was laboring to establish. During the mentioned above. The deposits in the Low- events of 1840, when a less prudent or a more ell Savings' Bank were, in 1834, upwards of timorous man might have compromised his exist114,000 dollars, the number of operatives being ence by an act either of defiance or of submis 5000, of whom 3800 were women and girls. I sion, he kept his temper, and therefore he kept thank you for calling my attention back to this his pashalik. To his immortal honor, he forwardsubject. It is one I have pleasure in recurring ed the British mails to India whilst our fleet was to. There is nothing in America which ne-attacking Syria and menacing Alexandria; and cessitates the prosperity of manufactures as of on no subsequent occasion has he betrayed the agriculture, and there is nothing of good in their factory system which may not be emulated elsewhere-equalled elsewhere, when the people employed are so educated as to have the command of themselves and of their lot in life, which is always and every where controlled by mind, far more than by outward circumstances. I am, &c. H. MARTINEAU. Could more be said without weakening the cheering impression of the above? smallest resentment for conduct which, on the part of certain high servants of the Crown of England, was harsh, impolitic, and unjust. Indeed, we may here allude with peculiar satisfaction to the very marked reception given by the Pasha to the present Governor-General of India, when he passed through Egypt a few weeks ago; and we trust that the treaty which was rapidly negotiated at that interview, will afford a permanent and effectual protection to our overland communications with India. Lastly, as if even death itself was not to find him unprepared, or as one who is anxious to witness at least the commencement of his own posterity, the old man retires from the shores of the Nile, which he has once more opened to life and to a second great ness, and betakes himself in meditation, if not in devotion, to the consecrated City of the Prophet. It is, however, premature to assume that his career is already closed. His life is probably even MEHEMET ALI.-Since the Emperor Charles now better than that of Ibrahim; and in the viV. retired to the monastery of St. Just, the world cissitudes which are now crowded on the survivhas scarcely witnessed so singular and unexpecting members of the Ottoman empire, it is imposed an act of voluntary abdication as that of Me-sible to foresee any secure repose but in the grave. hemet Ali, which has just been announced by the Some uncertainty, indeed, still hangs about the French telegraph. Although the retirement of actual fulfilment of this great and sudden deterthe Pasha of Egypt from public affairs to the pre-mination. Within a few weeks, and by the last cincts of the Holy Cities, cannot be compared, in accounts from Egypt, the Pasha was in all his political importance, to the seclusion of the august head of the House of Austria in the 16th century, yet as an instance of individual force of character, it is not less remarkable; and it would seem as if the most signal renunciations of political greatness were to crown the lives of those men who had been most eager in the pursuit of it.Mehemet Ali will occupy a conspicuous position in the history of oriental nations, as one of the usual vigor of body and mind-full of projects and active designs which seem calculated rather to prolong the duration of his life and power, than to forestall the close of them; and at no time was the abrupt cessation of his interest in public affairs more unforeseen.-Times. THE SUNIASSIE. From Fraser's Magazine. half assumed, the heedless gamesomeness which too often led Montford into dilemmas that, by compromising the credit of the corps, might have provoked graver punishment if subjected to the pitiless analysis of higher authorities. Not that a single grain of vicious or dishonorable feeling could be sifted by even malevolence from the volatile matter which formed the faults of my friend; but he was ever and anon offending the gravity of official ceremony-insulting, out of mere schoolboy fun, the prejudices of the native population-and erring against ONE of the most extensive provinces in the Deccan-as that portion of India is termed which is situated between the rivers Nerbudda and Kistna-is the Goandwanna, a wild, mountainous, and unhealthy district, though the care and culture of the few Mahratta families from Nagpore, that are found in certain parts, have rendered them fertile and productive. The general aspect of the country, however, is unfavorable; and where occupied by the native the common discipline of the service. Goands, almost an entire sheet of jungle. Complaints were constantly being brought This wretched tribe, perhaps the very low- against him by the inhabitants of the towns est in the scale of all the natives of India, and villages through which we passed; though Hindoos of the Brahminical cast, now the house of a surly Mahommedan profess peculiarities that are at variance had been forcibly entered, now a sacred with the tenets of Brahma, permitting them- pigeon had been shot at while roosting on selves the indulgence of animal food, and the very pinnacle of a pagoda; yesterday abstaining only from that of the cow. For half-a-dozen palmyra-trees had been pilfered many years the tradition popular among the of their tari-pots ;* and to-day some namenatives of Lower India, that among the Go- less offence had been offered to the idol of ands there were certain sects that offered Vishnoo itself; while once upon a time he annual human sacrifices to the destroyer, was likely to have fared still worse for havwas ridiculed by the European community; ing dared to pursue one of the dancing but later investigations, and the testimony of an intelligent and inquiring officer, Captain Crawford, of Bengal, whose intimate knowledge of the habits and customs of the east has seldom been equalled, have proved, beyond all doubt, the prevalence of this revolting and terrible practice. It was in the year 1819 that a singular chance, or rather a series of rare events, confirmed my own belief in the existence of a crime, which was then darkly hinted at, but which was only credited by the sepoys and natives of Madras. The regiment to which I was at that period attached, was en route from Bengalore, in Mysore, to Chanda, in Berar, a distance of no less than six hundred miles; when one morning, after reaching our encampment for the day, I sallied out into the jungle, with a brother officer, whose fowlingpiece made frequent and welcome additions to our common-place marching fare. Calvert Montford was a gay-hearted, handsome, generous fellow, and the favorite of the whole corps, from the bluff old commandant to Meer Ali, the flugelman; though, in truth, he was apt, in the exuberant hilarity of youth, to commit vexatious solecisms in the serious matter of military etiquette. Our kind, but stern commanding officer, Major Beckett, was frequently obliged to check, with a severity that was sometimes NOVEMBER, 1844. 21 girls belonging to the temple into the very precincts of that prohibited edifice. But to proceed. We had traversed a considerable quantity of the ground with various success; a few hares and green pigeons had been bagged and confined to the care of Calvert's kootay-walla (dog-keeper), and the day beginning to heaten into true Oriental fervor, we were on our return when we came unexpectedly upon an old grey pagoda in ruins, and so completely hugged in by trees, that we saw it not until we were close upon it. A sharp bark from Calvert's dog attracted our attention towards it, and running round the corner of the building, we beheld a huge brown monkey, squatted on an arch of the temple, and indulging in a series of facial contortions. Montford raised his gun. "Mut màro, sahib !" (do not fire, sir!) cried the dogboy, in evident alarm," it is a sacred monkey, and the Brahmins will be displeased.' But scarcely had the warning passed his lips ere Calvert fired, and down at his feet fell the poor animal quite dead. At the same moment forth from the dismantled pagoda there rushed a being of so appalling, so spectral an appearance, that *The pot, suspended from the cocoa-nut, date, and palm-trees, to receive their sap, or viny juice, for which at certain seasons, they are pierced. |