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hended them in the execution of his duty. They were liable to a penalty of forty shillings each. A smaller fine was taken.

PLAIN REASONING ON AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT.

A WORTHY minister, in cautioning his audience of the tendency of the business, the cares, and the diversions of life, to induce a neglect of the great interests of the soul and eternal things, used the following plain, but certainly sound and argumentative method. "This evening," said he, "we are come to appear before God in worship; we see ourselves here, and see each other; we are sure it is a reality, and not a dream; yet seven years ago this evening was at so vast a distance from us that we scarce knew how to realize it to our thoughts, and make it, as it were, present: but now, all that long distance is vanished, and this evening is come; those days are all passed, and this hour is upon us. Thus it is in the case of death and judgment. Seven years hence, it is most likely, some one or more of us, and perhaps every one of us, shall appear before the bar of God our Judge; that appointed hour will come, however it seem afar off now; and then it will be as real an appearance as this present hour is, but a much more solemn one; we shall see and feel ourselves there, and know it is not a dream, but an awful reality.-Labourers' Friend Magazine.

STAMFORD BULL BAITING.

THIS barbarous practice, which has annually disgraced the town of Stamford on the 13th of November, is at last put down by the direct interference of the Secretary of State. There having been a prevailing opinion at Stamford and elsewhere, that the bull running was legal, being established by custom, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, with a view of setting the question at rest by the decision of the Court of Queen's Bench, caused an indictment to be preferred against several of the ringleaders. This indictment was tried at Lincoln before Mr. Justice Park and a special jury, when several of them were found guilty; and upon their being brought up for

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COTTAGE GARDENING.

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judgment in the Court of Queen's Bench, the Court unanimously declared the practice to be illegal; the Lord Chief Justice, in particular, said, "It was supposed there was some matter of law-at first there was a supposed old charter for the future it must be considered as an illegal practice." In consequence of this decision, a troop of the 14th dragoons, under the command of Captain Harvey, was sent into the town of Stamford, together with twelve metropolitan policemen. Placards, apprising the public of the arrival of the military force, and of the illegality of the bull-running, and cautioning them against the repetition of it, were posted in the town and neighbourhood; and it is to the energy and exertions of the force, so sent down by the Secretary of State, that the threatened and attempted repetition of these barbarous scenes was prevented, without any loss of lives or serious injury. The bullards (as they are called) mustered in strong numbers. They had provided two fierce bulls to be hunted and tormented on the occasion; but the bulls were seized and pounded by the police; and, although the ruffian mob remained in considerable numbers, no serious breach of the peace took place. The determination of the government, and the cool but firm and active behaviour of the police, have put down bull-running in Stamford.Globe.

COTTAGE GARDENING, AND LOVE OF FLOWERS.

IF cottagers' gardens give pleasure to travellers and country residents, do those whom necessity or inclination lead to the more crowded haunts of London, or of our manufacturing and commercial towns, derive less gratification from the sight of pots of beautiful flowers, with which, in many instances, the humblest dwellings are ornamented?

Such as cannot add to the number of cottage allotments, may yet contribute from their own gardens, or by a little gift of purchased additions, something towards improving the beauty or the value of those of their poorer neighbours-a few seeds, a cutting of a plant, a few grafts of a valuable fruit-tree, or some buds, cost the possessor nothing, but, in truth, extend his enjoyment of

the beauties of nature, by enabling him to see, to the right and left, those splendid productions of the vegetable world, which, but for such cheap kindness, must continue to be confined to his own domain. Even in the closest cities and towns, a love for, and skill in, raising a few geraniums, myrtles, or such other exotics as require pots, may be exerted for the ornament of the window of the lowliest residence; and, by adding to the charms of home, retain many who would otherwise be wanderers from their own dwellings.—Altered and abridged from the SATURDAY MAGAZINE, by a Correspondent.

USEFUL EDUCATION.

THE foundation must be laid in good religious principles. "This being done; the education of which I speak, consists in bringing children up to labour with steadiness, with care, and with skill; to show them how to do as many useful things as possible; to teach them to do them all in the best manner; to set them an example in industry, sobriety, cleanliness, and neatness; to make all these habitual to them, so that they never shall be liable to fall into the contrary."-From a Morning Paper; sent by a Correspondent.

UNLAWFULNESS OF INOCULATION FOR THE SMALL-POX.

Ir is an offence indictable as a public nuisance for any person or persons to inoculate for the small-pox: this offence is punishable with fine and imprisonment; and surgeon-apothecaries subject themselves to a fine of £50, and an imprisonment of two years, as often as they are guilty of it. Further; parents or nurses, for wilfully, unlawfully, and injuriously, carrying or exposing children infected with the small-pox into, on, or over any public highway, lane, street, or alley, near which are dwelling-houses, or over which her Majesty's subjects pass, are also subject to fine and imprisonment. Several deaths have recently occurred from mothers inoculating their children." Correspondent of the Cornwall Gazette."-Morning Post.

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THE CHRISTIAN'S VOW.

(Well suited for the consideration of those who have been, or who are about to

be confirmed.)

Dost thou, in thine own name agree

To all that others vow'd for thee,
When thou were in thine Infancy?
"I do."

Dost thou renounce each kind of sin?
The wicked thought that shall begin
To Satan's power thy soul to win?
"I do."

The word that mischief may create ?
The lying lips which angels hate?
The oaths that none but fools repeat?
"I do."

The sinful act? the accursed deed,
That stain'd the first of Adam's seed?

The vice that makes the parent bleed?

"I do."

"God's grace be with thee, child of earth!
Blest heir of heaven! esteem the worth,
Imparted by the second birth,

"To you."

Sent by PRIN.

EXTRACTS FROM THE Public NewSPAPERS, &c.

The term sovereign, as applied to a piece of money, is not new in the history of our coinage, for so far back as the reign of Edward VI. there were both sovereigns and half-sovereigns.

The French have lately conceived the idea that the Chinese are nearly exempt from the Asiatic cholera by their habitual use of tea, and under this notion a much larger quantity is yearly imported into France than formerly, and the infusion is becoming a much more common beverage than heretofore. THE THAMES TUNNEL.-This great undertaking is now making very rapid progress-820 feet are completed, leaving only 100 feet more to reach low-water mark on the Middlesex side. The entire length of the tunnel will be 1,300 feet. The sectional area of the excavation is 22 feet 6 inches in height, and 38 feet in breadth.

IMPORTANT SAVINGS IN SEED WHEAT.-It has been stated that if dibbling wheat, as practised in Norfolk, Suffolk, and some other counties, was generally adopted, full 10,000,000 bushels of seed might be saved on the 4,000,000 acres of wheat grown annually in England and Scotland; and, allowing eight bushels to each person, would support 1,250,000 persons, who, if employed in weeding the crops, might double them.-Globe.

Mr. Henry House, in November, took up, in his father's garden at Thurloxton, from under a stalk, 188 potatoes, weighing thirty pounds, the produce of one planted whole; the stalk measured seven feet in length.Taunton Courier.

TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES IN AMERICA.-At a meeting of the Ashmolean Society at Oxford, a Mr. Delaval, of Ballston, New York, gave a sketch of the rise and progress of Temperance Societies in the United States, and of the immense change they have wrought in society. In one State, he assured his hearers, where there had been one thousand three hundred distilleries, there were now two hundred. In agricultural districts nine-tenths of the farmers drink only water, and were becoming quite rich by feeding their cattle on the apples of which they used to make cider. Insurance Companies would insure vessels which did not carry spirits, 5 per cent. lower than others. Whole States had taken up the subject, and framed laws to prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquors. The State of Massachusets had recently enacted, that no intoxicating liquor should be sold in a less quantity than 15 gallons, with the exception of what is wanted medicinally; for which purpose people were appointed, in the ratio of 1 to 2,000, to sell them on medical certificates. Tenessee and Connecticut had also made prohibitory enactments.-Literary Gazette.

DRUNKENNESS. Lately a man named Gillet, a bricklayer's labourer, was received into St. George's Hospital, dreadfully injured, having been knocked down and run over by a horse and cart, while crossing Bolton-street in a state of intoxication. He is not expected to recover.

At the Town Hall, Southwark, an elderly man of the name of James M'Cormack, was charged with being found drunk, and incapable of taking care of himself, at two in the morning. The charge having been fully proved, an officer said he was sorry to observe that the defendant had within the last four or five years become so inveterate a drinker as to have ruined himself. When he first knew him he was a highly respectable salesman in the Borough-market, and was the owner of five first rate houses in the parish, and he was going on making money, when suddenly he took to drinking, and in a short time his business went away, he got rid of his houses, and became what he now appeared-a poor distressed man. He was committed, in default of paying the usual fine.

CAUTION. A melancholy event occurred at Pickwick. A little girl named Windsor, aged eight years, was left in the house, in the absence of her mother, when her clothes came in contact with the fire, which burned so rapidly, that before the child was discovered she was burnt in a most shocking manner. She died the next morning.-Bath Post.

CRUELTY PUNISHED.-On the 5th and 6th November the usual bullbaiting took place at Wells, but not as heretofore with impunity. The miserable animal was tortured both by men and dogs-its legs were raw from the shoulder to the hoof-and its sufferings for those two days were too agonizing to be here described. The Bath Society for the Prevention of Cruelty, had their efficient country agent on the spot, observing these barbarities; and with the assistance of the police of the city, sanctioned and supported with spirit by the humane magistrates of Wells, convictions have been obtained against seventeen of the most guilty, which it is hoped will prove to them and to the country in general, that bull-baiting is against the laws of England, as much as against the laws of religion.—Bath Post.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We have received the communications of Benevolus; F.; N. B.; G. P. ; Y.; E. W.; E.; A.

We return our best thanks to a Layman for his obliging letter: we cannot see the M. H.

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