vanished like the intoxicating pleasures of that period. I am like a man that has been carried off during his sleep from some smiling and delightful valley, and who awakes amidst the ice and gelid snows of a lofty mountain."

The courtiers regarded him with a mixture of wonder and embarrassment; they were desirous of turning the expressions of the Duke into a jest, and they answered him with raillery; but Otto was silent, and appeared not to hear them; he was absorbed in thought, and kept looking at the picture. Some were piqued, and others fearing they should be importunate, said to each other" The Duke is in an ill humour; he is always carried away by his love for painting. We had better leave him to himself."-They soon after quitted the church.

Gottfried had insensibly drawn nearer to the Knight. He had heard all the conversation above cited, but he did not understand it; he had only found out that in the course of it they spoke of the picture that the beautiful gentleman was viewing with so much attention. As for him, he was alternately occupied with the handsome Prince, for so the courtiers had named him, and the splendid light of the temple; but the more he regarded Duke Otto the more he felt drawn towards him by that fine and expressive countenance, and when he had spoken, the exquisite tone of his voice, so manly, and yet sosweet when not in anger, had made on the child a most lively impression. He approached still nearer; and when the other noblemen, whose presence had intimidated him, were withdrawn, he became more bold, and taking the Duke by the hand, he said to him-"Pray lift me up; I want to see that picture with the child, but it hangs too high."-Otto looked with surprise at the little boy that accosted him so familiarly, and struck with his countenance so pale yet so interesting, with his extraordinary costume, he took him in bis arms and lifting him up he shewed him the picture. The light of a neighbouring lamp shone full on the face of Gottfried, and the emotion of the Duke was such that he was on the point of letting him fall.-"Gracious

God; exclaimed he, it is the same countenance as that of the infant Jesus in that painting! What an astonishing resemblance!"— And in effect the likeness was striking. The features of Gottfried were regular, but they espe cially possessed that celestial expression that a painter endeavours to give to those of Christ, only that Gottfried was thinner and older than the child on its mother's knees. Terrified at the Duke's emotion, and at the exclamation, he threw his little arms round the neck of Otto to prevent himself from falling, and their cheeks met with infantine innocence the child pressed the Duke's with a kiss. Otto returned it with ardour, and pressed the amiable little creature to his bosom: an indefinable sentiment pervaded his soul; he seemed again as if enjoying a state of innocence, and to have again become the pious little Otto described by the sacristan."Ah why am I not what I was then ?" thought he, with feelings of deep repentance, while the tears gushed from his fine dark eyes." Heavenly little angel," said be," you see me weep like a child: yes I often wept then; the tears of childhood were only those I shed; not any since till now."— Gottfried replied " An angel! did you say? I know how the angels sang when our Saviour came into the world: and do you know I came into the world the same day, but it was for him the angels sang "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace,good will towards men."

He then recited, with a sweet and clear voice, the Christmas hymn that his mother had taught him; nor could the Duke forbear repeating it after him. The child then looked again at the picture." Mamma," said he, “has not got a beautiful red gown like that: but look, there is you!" and he pointed with his finger to the first of the three magi, who was represented worshipping on his knees the holy child. This painting was by an eminent German artist, and he had painted the three Kings in the costume of his country; that which Gottfried pointed to was dressed in green, like the Duke; who replied with a smile" Very true, my child, it is

the introduction of the Hookah into China, even to his majesty's residence at Jeho, has called forth from him a general order to forbid the culture of tobacco, which is prepared for the bookah in every province of China. The agriculturalists are ordered to desist from plant ing any more, and the venders of it to seek some other mode of obtaining a livelihood.

Tobacco being a mere luxury, and not a necessary of life, is the reason of the above order.

FORM OF RECANTING CHRISTIANITY.

A case has also been noticed of a Tartar noble family, of the Imperial kindred, the members of which comprised some persons who had received the Portuguese or European religion. His majesty says they have all recanted long ago, and trodden on the cross, and further inquiry is unnecessary; but orders that the images which they had not previously destroyed, be forthwith

burnt.

DISCOVERY OF A MURDER.

In the fourteenth year of the emperor's reign, a district of the province of Keang-nan was inundated; in consequence of which, the emperor ordered the money in the public treasury to be paid out for the relief of the suffering people. Wang-shin-ban, the magistrate of the district, embezzled, however, the money allotted, and applied it to his own use. The viceroy dispatched a newly created Tsin-sze, named Lee-yuh-chang, to go thither and examine this affair. Wang-shinhan, being afraid, entreated the Tsinsze, that he would not publish the matter, and offered to give him 10,000 taels of gold. Lee-yuh-chang, however, was a well-informed and upright man, and was not to be moved by his unrighteous pelf. In this dilemma, Wang-shin-han bribed three of the servants of Lee-yuh-chang, offering them 2000 taels of silver, if they would poison their master; making out a story that he himself committed suicide. When this foul action was perpetrated, they placed his corpse in a fine

coffin, and sent it back to his own home to be buried. The wife of the deceased, reflecting that her husband was not likely in a fit of frenzy to put an end to himself, opened the box containing his apparel, and found traces of blood on one of the garments; whereupon her uncle opened the coffin, and perceiving blood in the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears of the corpse, concluded the deceased had died of poison; and instantly hastened to Peking. No time was lost in apprehending the three servants, who had administered the poison, and who on strict examination, confessed the whole truth. The emperor greatly enraged, ordered the viceroy of Keang-nan to be banished to a distant country, and all the mandarins of the district of San-yang to be beheaded. The whole family of Wangshin-han, without a single exception, were beheaded at one time; and one of his sons, about three years of age, was placed in prison, at command of the emperor, who intends at the age of 16, to behead him also. With respect to the deceased Lee-yub-chang, the emperor himself composed thirty verses to celebrate his virtues, and directed that it should be engraven on a stone tablet and placed before his grave, to signify to all that it was 10,000 times more glorious to die possessing integrity, than to live as a covetous villain. The servants were, at the emperor's orders, cut into small pieces before the grave of the deceased. The widow was elevated to the rank of a lady, and her uncle promoted.

LORD AMHERST'S EMBASSY.

Duke Ho, with whom the accounts of Lord Amherst's late embassy made us so well acquainted, has since been promoted to the presidency over the Western Tartar dominions of China. It seems that the sovereign of the Celestial Empire has not considered his negociations with the British in an unfavourable light, as, besides the Government, he has also granted his Empress's brother permission to wear yellow cloths!

WE

E know not in what measure the critics will allow the nullum Letegit quod non ornavit to the author of these volumes: certain it is, that he has bere adopted a machinery different from any of his preceding prose works; and, in so far as we can call to mind, only paralleled among his poems by the spectral encounter in Marmion, He has now for the first time thrown down the apple of discord without an attempt at explanation, and by mixing supernatural agency with human action, departed essentially from the great line which he has hitherto pursued as a painter of manners and of portraits according to truth. We confess that we are sorry for this departure. The effects of mere superstition seem to us to be fully sufficient for all the purposes even of pure Romance; and to go beyond that sphere into absolute fairy land, in order to influence human beings, alter character, and produce real events, is to push fiction farther than its proper limit, and destroy the verisimilitude of the tale however otherwise admirable constructed. All the subsequent deeds of a man who has been killed in a duel, but revived by a "White Maid," go for nothing; and, however just and accurately drawn his likeness may be, the illusion of identity is annihilated, and

every affair in which he mingles, loses the quality of probability. Indeed we are not sure that the offence does not grieve us the more, in proportion to the excellence and consistency of the other parts: we can relish a groupe of witches flying through the air on broomsticks, or of elves dancing in circles on the sward; of wraiths, apparitions and fiends, which in the end turn out to be the ideal forms of a morbid imagination; and we can even advance another step, and allow their direct influence in productions altogether fabulous and fanciful: but when the grand merit of a book is, by inweaving incident in the shape of pleasing narrative, to represent a particular age and country, individual manners and general history, it may be alleged that it is much deteriorated by the introduction and actual employment of ghosts, spectres, and spirits which never had existence. The author of the Monastery is no doubt armed with many forcible arguments in favour of his plan: we only submit our opinion upon the frame-work, and venture to suggest that the idea of the bible being preserved and the sacred light of the gospel spread by means of a fairy, is rather extravagant for the nineteenth century, as a picture of the sixteenth.