reindeer as her property, and whatever increase these may have belong to her of right, till she quits her father's house. These two deer. if fortunate, may increase to a numerous troop to which the father adds, according to his ability. When his daughter leaves him, he also presents her with kitchen utensils, silver gobblets, spoons, &c. All her kindred, also, who have received presents from the bride, are bound to return equivalent on this occasion. In short, the young couple now procure a tent, and commence housekeeping for themselves.

"Conjugal fidelity is as scrupulously observed in Lapland, as in any country of Europe; and what has been reported of a community of women, has been the mere offspring of invention, or made up by some traveller who has formed his opinion of the whole nation from the conduct of some profligate individuals. The children are brought up to labour, and are taught what may be useful in their future life"

Such are the incidents of a Lapland courtship and marriage. The Colonel tells us, that he could not recover any of the tender effusions which the Laplanders are understood to compose en passant. They are, perhaps, lost, dispersed in air, or having answered their purpose, are forgotten. A song composed by a Finland peasant girl, has so much nature and peculiarity in it, that I have attempted to present it in an English

dress.

ABSENCE.

Ah would my true love but appear!

My well known friend, for ever dear!

My kisses soon should meet his lip,

Though wolves' black blood did from it drip.

How would I clasp his hand in mine,

Though serpents did his wrist entwine!
Hast thou no skill, thou passing wind,
No tongue to tell my love my mind,
To show my thoughts, how true they be,
And bring his kind returns to me?

I would renounce the Curé's fare,
The dresses gay his daughters wear;
Rather than from my lover part;

He whom I strove with honest art

To snare, when summer shot its flame,
And during winter's frost to tame.

Such are the simplicities of Finland affection and poetry!

HERMIT.

CURIOUS SPECIMEN OF COURTSHIP AT MADRAS BY PUBLICK ADVERTISEMENT.

THE hyperbolical compliments of the Orientals have long been notorious among the cold blooded nations of Europe. That which would be stared at as bombast, among us, passes current in India, as every day phraseology. We may smile at the language of passion, in that torrid region, but we caution against the adoption of its rant, amid the cool glades and perpetual verdure of the British islands.

We should be glad, also, to know the genuine opinion of the natives, whether Hindoos, or Mussulmen, on a people which differs so essentially from them in the article of marriage, and its perliminaries. What do they think of European courtship? What can they think of an advertisement like the following, copied from the front page of the Madras Gazette of May 23, 1807? Fancy beholds some good old Pundit, taking up this

paper, to look for publick news, and casting his eye, in the first place, on this address-then lifting his hands in wonderment at the strange vagaries of this indescribable nation, which the inscrutable destiny of the Cali-yug had established as his governours!

"O Rama! O Chrishna! O Bhavani ! O Saramangala !
How superiour are the genuine sons of Hindoostan!

Advertisement.

A. U. M."

To that lady on whom nature has been lavish in her gifts, whose amiable person and beauteous form receive redoubled lustre from the infinitely more estimable endowments of a truly noble and generous soul. To her, whose personal accomplishments are embellished and adorned with a disposition of mind that is loveliness intermingled with real dignity-And to her, whose every talent leads to fortune, teaches her to know its value. only as it ought to be known, and affixes her in that sphere of being, whose every movement discovers and places her above it. You will perhaps conclude, noble fair, that the youth whose mind searches after and aspires to an alliance of this nature, will regard wealth and rank as but of secondary consideration. If so, madam, your inference is pronounced right, is just The native grandeur of your soul, and its favour (with that of his God) will ever be his first and great concern to deserve. Do not, therefore, consider this as held forth in idle sport, or view it in any other light than that the most honourable; for every information respecting the gentleman will be made known, on application, through whatever channel she will do him the honour to adopt, and that in a manner frank and unreserved. His miniature will not be denied He trusts and doubts not from her character, but she will be equally ingenuous on her part. He also begs that mere punctilios, or a too nice notion of female delicacy, will not cause her to remain silent to this publick call; but that (as may be expected) she will show herself above the generality of the sex, neither (as is sure to be the case with a mind thus endowed, amiable and liberal) persuade herself that she is not the one he is in quest of; that she can make but a pitiful comparison with a character of such perfection, as he would be most ready to tell such, she certainly must!-The gentleman, rather than say any thing of himself, will refer the lady to whomsoever she will please to name, as it may better become such to speak on the subject. All unmeaning applications &c. will be treated with marked contempt.-The lady may address her letter to the gentleman himself, sealing and directing it to be left at the office of this paper. A stranger begs leave to say, the gentleman is handsome in person, unexceptionable in mind, and a man of birth and fortune.

ANECDOTES.

WHEN Foote was tried in Dublin for the libel upon George Falkener, the printer (whom he had dramatized as Peter Paragraph) the late Judge Robinson was one of the bench. This was an old, crabbed, peevish gentleman, wore a wig of a singular shape, and had his forehead very much broke out in blotches, which (when in an ill temper) he was in the habit of picking off, and throwing down upon the clerks, attornies, &c. beneath the bench. Shortly after his trial, Foote appeared upon the stage as Justice MIDAS, with a costume, wig, and countenance so exactly that

of the judge, and with the blotches which he picked and distributed with gestures so perfly ccording to the model, that the whole audience, by most of whom he was known (especially in the gallery) were convulsed with laughter, many crying out, Robinson! Robinson!

Some gentlemen (of whom Sir Jonah Barrington, judge of the admiralty court in Ireland. was one) surveying the ruins of an old cathedral, and attending minutely to all the technical descriptive expressions, an individual of the party begged to be told distinctly what was the NAVE of a church: "Oh!' replied sir Jonah, "that's the incumbent !" A beneficed clergyman, on being told the above anecdote, observed, that sir Jonah had given a key [K] to the question.

Dominique de Vic, governour of Amiens, of Calais, and vice admiral of France, always made particular inquiry, in whatever place he commanded, for the merchants and artificers of reputable character, and on being informed who they were, and where they lived, he would visit them in the most friendly manner, and request them to dine with him. Of this amiable man, history relates these two affecting anecdotes.

In the year 1586, he lost the calf of his right leg by a gun-shot; and though the part was well cured, yet he could not attempt to ride on horseback, wit out experiencing the most excrutiating pain in his wounded leg, in consequence of which, he retired to Guyenne. He had lived there about three years, when he was informed of the death of Henry the third and the embarrassments of Henry the fourth, and the great need in which he stood of all his good servants He directly had his leg cut off; sold part of his estates; entered into the king's service once more; and rendered him the most signal service at the battle of Ivri.

Two days after this great prince was assassinated, De Vic, going through the Rue de la Ferronerie, and seeing the spot on which this horrid murder was committed, fell senseless to the ground, and died next morning.

DRYDEN AND TONSON.

When Dryden had finished his translation of Virgil, after some delibera. tion with himself, he sent the MS to Jacob Tonson, requiring for it a certain sum, which he mentioned in a note. Tonson was desirous of possessing the work, but meanly wished to avail himself of Dryden's neces sities, which, at that time, were particularly urgent. He therefore informed Dryden, that he could not afford to give so much for it as he demanded. In answer to this, Dryden sent the three following lines to Tonson, whom they were meant to describe:

With leering look, bull-faced, and freckled fair,
With two left legs, with Judas'-coloured hair,
And frowzy pores that taint the ambient air.

When they were delivered to Tonson, he asked if Mr. Dryden had said any thing more. "Yes sir," answered the bearer, "he said: Tell the dog, that he who wrote these lines will write more like them." Tonson imme diately paid the money which Dryden had at first demanded for his Virgil.

THE PRETENDER AND A POOR GENTLEMAN.

A poor gentleman, who had taken no part in the rebellion, but whose humanity had led him to relieve the necessities of Charles, being appre hended before a court of justice, was asked how he dared to assist the king's greatest enemy, and why, having always appeared to be a loyal

subject, he did not deliver up the pretender, and claim the reward of thirty thousand pounds offered by government for his person? "I only gave him," replied the prisoner, "what nature seemed to require-a night's lodging and a humble repast. And who among my judges, though poor as I am, would have sought to acquire riches, by violating the rights of hospitality, in order to earn the price of blood ?"" The court was filled with confusion and amazement at the simple eloquence of this untutored orator. The suit was dismissed, and the prisoner set free. So much stronger an impression does fellow-feeling and a sense of natural equity make on the human breast, than the dictates of political law, though enforced by the greatest rewards, or the severest punishments.

DR. EDWARD YOUNG.

Dr. Young was remarkable for his intimate acquaintance with the Greek authors and had as great a veneration for Eschylus, as parson Adams in Joseph Andrews Indeed, it is said, that he was the gentleman from whom Fielding derived the idea of parson Adams, and whose character he so well delineates. Dr. Young was chaplain to a regiment which served in the war in Flanders. One fine summer's evening, he indulged himself in his love of a solitary walk. Whatever was the object of the doctor's meditations, whether the beauties of the hemisphere and the surrounding landscape engaged his attention, or some passage in his favourite Eschylus occurred to his memory, certain it is, that he was so absorbed in thought, that he proceeded in his walk till he unconsciously arrived in the enemy's camp. The repetition of qui va la? from the soldiers, with difficulty brought him to a recollection of himself. The officer who commanded, finding that the doctor had strayed thither in the undesigning simplicity of his heart, and perceiving in his prisoner an innate goodness which commanded his respect, very politely allowed him to depart, and to pursue his contemplations back again.

SIR RICHARD STEELF.

The Crisis, which was published by Sir Richard Steele, January 19, 171, was voted by the house of commons a scandalous and seditious libel, and Steele expelled the house. In his defence, in the house of commons, Steele confessed himself the author of the Crisis, and read the paragraphs complained of by the house, with the same cheerfulness and satisfaction with which he abjured the pretender. However, three days after, he took ample revenge on the Harleys and Foleys, who were his principal opponents, and whom he lashed under the name of the crabtrees and brickdusts, in the eleventh number of The Lover. It is said, that Mr. Minshull, Mr Moore, Mr. Lechmere, bishop Hoadley, and Mr. Addison, were all concerned with Steele in the composition, revisal, and correction of the Crisis.

ANECDOTE OF KING CHARLES THE FIRST.

The day after his Majestie arrived att Southwell, walking about the town, as it was his practice to do, he went into the shop off one James Lee, a fanatical shoemaker. Finding his person was not known, he entered into conversation with Crispin, and in the end was measured for a pair off shoes. Lee had no sooner taken his Majestie's foot into his hand to measure him, than eyeing him very attentively, he was suddenly seized with a panick, and would not go on. The King, surprised att his behaviour, pressed him to proceed; but Crispin absolutely refused, saying, he was the customer himself ha i been warned off in his sleep the night before; that he was doomed to destruction; and those would never thrive who worked for him. The

forlorn monarch, whose misfortunes had opened his minde to the impressions off superstition, uttered an ejaculation expressive off his resig nation to the will off Providence, and retired to the palace, which was the place off his abode.

LORD CHIEF JUSTICE HOLT.

The following anecdotes of Lord Chief Justice Holt, are sufficiently remarkable for our insertion

The law and justice were never administered with more effect than when he presided in the King's Bench, and all their terrours sat on his brow. It happened that a poor, old, decrepit creature was brought before him as a sinner of great magnitude. "What is her crime?" "Witchcraft." "How is it proved?" "She uses a spell." "Let me see it?" A scrap of parchment was handed to him. "How came you by this?" “ A young gentleman, my lord, gave it me, to cure my daughter's -ague." "Did it cure her?" "O yes, my lord, and many others." I am glad of it. Gentlemen of the jury, when I was young and thoughtless, and out of money, I, and some companions as unthinking as myself, went to this woman's house, then a publick one: we had no money to pay our reckon ing. I hit upon a stratagem to get off scot free. On seeing her daughter ill, I pretended I had a spell to cure her. I wrote the classick line you see; so that if any one is punishable it is I, not the poor woman the prisoner." She was acquitted by the jury, and rewarded by the chief justice.

MARSHAL WADE.

The following anecdote of Marshal Wade is related in Noble's Biogra phical History of England. The figure of Time on this general's monu ment, in Westminster Abbey, has no forelock, which circumstance is explained by a fault of this officer, who did not "take Time by the forelock," when employed in Scotland to suppress the rising rebellion of 1745.

Marshal Wade was greatly attached to gaming, and not very nice in the company he gamed with. Once, when at play, he missed a very valuable gold snuff box, richly set with diamonds. Enraged, he swore no man should leave the room until it was found; and insisted upon an immediate search. A gentleman, who sat on his right, dressed as an officer, with clothes much worn, and who, with great humility, had asked and obtained

In the Banbury cause, he told the house of peers, that they ought to respect the law which had made them so great; presiding over which, he should disregard any of their decisions. He would not even condescend to give them a reason for his conduct. In the same manner he set the commons at defiance. They sent to demand reasons. He gave none. The speaker and a select number of the house went in person to the court of King's Bench. His answer was: "I sit here to administer justice: if you had the whole house of commons in your belly, I should disregard you; and if you do not immediately retire, I will commit you, Mr. Speaker, and those with you. Where there is a right," said he "there is a remedy." When it was urged, that no injury could be done by a returning officer refusing a legal vote, against the sense of the other judges, he directed a satisfaction to be given. Neither his compeers, nor the houses of parliament separately, could bend, or even both of them collectively, intimidate him. His invincible courage was equalled only by his incorruptible integrity. Queen Anne was compelled to dissolve the parliament, that the acrimony between the two houses might cease. A mob assembling before a trepan house, in Holborn, the guards were called out. Suppose," said he, " the populace will not disperse; what will you do?”“ Fire on them,” replied an officer," as we have orders." "Have you so! Then take notice, that if one man is killed, and you are tried before me, I will take care that every soldier of your party is hanged." Assembling his tipstaves, and a few constabies, he went to the mob and explained to them the impropriety of their conduct: at the same time promising that justice should be done against the "crimps." The multitude dispersed.

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