mer passion that prevents a second. It is only the hardening of the heart from years and harsh untender business. If you could get so much master of your just grief, as to think of a second match, I may be tempted also to try to be happy with you. I wish you joy of the sun's now turning his all-enlivening and beautiful face towards us. May the genial spirit of the returning year animate and cheer you, and yet again make you happy! Than which nothing can give greater pleasure to your's, "J. THOMSON." The Gatherer. Duelling Condemned. It is not so generally known as it should be that her Majesty has deliberately and publicly approved herself in the practices of duelling; and in accordance with her avowed sentiments, the following passages have been introduced into the articles of war. " We hereby declare our approbation of the conduct of those who, having had the mis. fortune of giving offence to, or of injuring or insulting, others, shall frankly explain, apologise, or offer redress for the sameor who, having had the misfortune of receiving offence, injury, or insult, from another, shall cordially accept a frank explanation, apology, or redress for the same -or who, if this be refused to be made or accepted, and the friends of the parties shall have failed to adjust the difference, shall submit the matter to be dealt with by the commanding officer; and we accordingly acquit of disgrace or opinion of disadvantage, all officers who, being willing to make or accept such redress, refuse to accept challenges." The British Museum and National Gallery.-The House of Commons has voted £50,020 for rooms to be added to the British Museum; £6,217 to enable the trustees of that institution to purchase certain collections; £1,500 for the National Gallery; and £8,850 for the geological survey of Great Britain and Ireland. Important to Ballad-singers. On Saturday last a ballad singer was advertised for to appear at the office of a new publication on that and the following day. The parties were no doubt expected to give specimens of their street-singing, which the publisher would of course make his substitute for church music on Sunday. Bunhill Fields.-A hundred and twenty years ago Bunhill Fields was an open space, and was, on one occasion, used as a place of execution. In 1718, one John Price, who had previously been the common executioner, was hanged there for the murder of Elizabeth Price, the wife of a watch man in Moorfields. He was subsequently hung in chains at Holloway. In May, 1827, his skeleton was discovered in Catherinestreet, and exhibited for some days at the Cock and Horses, Holloway. A Walking Gallows.-Lieutenant Heppenstal, in 1798, acquired the surname of the Walking Gallows, from the following circumstance:-He was a remarkably tall, robust man, and had a habit of expertly executing straggling rebels, when he happened to meet them, by twisting his own cravat round their necks, and then throwing it over his own brawny shoulder, and so trotting about at a smart pace, with the rebel dangling at his back, and choaking gradually till he was totally defunct, which generally happened before the lieutenant was tired of his amusement. This ingenious contrivance was in the humour of the year 1798 in Ireland, during martial law, and was not discountenanced, investigated, or called in question by any court of justice. Varieties of Spoken English.-" Should a peasant of the Yorkshire dales, and one from the vales of Taunton, and another from the hills of the Chiltern, meet together, they would require an interpreter to become intelligible to cach other; but in this dilemma what county could produce the Englishman so versed in provincial dialects as to assist his three honest countrymen? The romance of "Octavien Imperator," which was written possibly earlier than the reign of Henry VI, is in the Hampshire dialect nearly as it is spoken now."-E'Israeli. A Fossil Elephant.-Professor Jarocki, of Warsaw, records that digging a well in June, 1829, there was found, in a white quarzose, slightly calcareous sandstone, the head, a tusk, and a grinder of an elephant, now preserved in the museum of Krzeminiec. Several other bones, which were too firmly attached, were left in the rock. Here, then (says Professor Pusch, in a memoir on the formations of Podolia and Southern Russia), we have an elephant in the middle of a rock, containing only seashells, and at a depth of 456 feet beneath the surface. Unbelief. In the correspondence of the Rev. John Campbell, a serious friend, Mr. Ritchie,writing to him, says, "We must watch against unbelief. One day, whilst I was a boy, my mother heard me weeping in my room at prayer. She asked me, why? I said, 'The Lord will not give me a new heart.' She answered, Dinna fear that: turn to Ezek. xxxvi.' Ay, but,' said I, 'it is no said there, that he will give it to Jock Ritchie.' " 4 LONDON: Printed and Fublished by AIRD and BURSTALL, 2, Tavistock-street, Covent-garden. Sold by all Booksellers and Newsmen. GLORIOUS WARFARE.-BADAJOS. Those philosophers who hold that man is advancing to a state of perfectability, if we may judge from the signs of the times, are not likely soon to boast that their dream has come true. Peace grows old she halts, and fails-she attempts to resume her former aspect, but symptoms are still apparent which indicate that she must ere long die, what, to the scandal of humanity, may be called a natural death. A mighty party, favourable to war, exists in France. It includes all the most ardent madmen of the day, who dream of nothing but laurel crowns and promotion. Their thirst for glory is increased by the belief that France has now become so strong, that she is more than a match for England. From our own shores they are told that the sea which once defended us from invasion, is to that end efficient no longer, being virtually bridged over by steam navigation; and as our armies have been twice seen in Paris within thirty years, Young France is well disposed to show its sense of the honour by paying London a visit. It would be well that the restless spirits now in motion should ponder on the events of the last war. The scene of horrible destruction at Badajos, represented in our cut, if studied in its details, would make the truly brave shudder at the price which humanity must pay for military fame. The obstinate determination of the assailants and the assailed on that occasion to persevere in the fatal strife, certainly was equal to any display of valour that history or romance can furnish; but how dreadful was the carnage! A few sentences from the life of Wellington, illustrative of the plate, will give some idea of part, and but a part, of the horrors thus witnessed: "There general Kempt (for Picton, hurt by a fall in the camp, and expecting no change in the hour, was not present); there general Kempt, I say, led the 3rd division: he had passed the Rivellas in single files, by a narrow bridge under a terrible musketry fire, and then re-forming and running up the rugged hill, had reached the foot of the castle, when he fell severely wounded; and being carried back to the trenches, met Picton, who hastened with incredible courage, ascended amidst showers of heavy stones; logs of wood and bursting shells rolled off the parapet, while from the flanks, the enemy plied his musketry with fearful rapidity, and in front, with pikes and bayonets, stabbed the leading assailants, or pushed the ladders from the walls; and all this attended with deafening shouts and the crash of breaking ladders, and the shrieks of crushed soldiers, answering to the sullen strokes of the fallen weights. Still swarming round the remaining ladders, these undaunted veterans strove who should first climb; until all being overturned, the French shouted victory; and the British, baffled, but not tamed, fell back a few paces, and took shelter under the rugged edge of the hill. Here, when the broken ranks were somewhat re-formed, the heroic Colonel Ridge, springing forward, called with a stentorian voice to his men to follow; and, seizing a ladder, once more raised it against the castle, yet to the right of the former attack, where the wall was lower; and an embrasure offered some facility. A second ladder was soon placed alongside the first, by the grenadier officer, Canch; and the next instant he and Ridge were on the ramparts. The shouting troops pressed after them; the garrison, amazed, and in a manner surprised, were driven fighting through the double gate into the town, and the castle was won. A reinforcement, sent from the French reserve, then came up; a sharp action followed, both sides fired through the gate, and the enemy retired. But Ridge fell, and no man fell that night with more glory, yet many died, and there was much glory. During these events, the tumult at the breaches was such, as if the very earth had been rent asunder, and the central fires bursting upwards uncontrolled." Great horror has lately been expressed in France for the cruel smothering of some hundreds of wretched Arabs in Algiers. In the ditches of Badajos how many were suffocated by General Phillipon! The horrors which followed the taking of the place were such, that not all the lustre of the triumph could make an Englishman feel other than humbled while he reads them. Some good men have fondly hoped that the world had become too enlightened to renew these awful struggles, worse than useless, as in the end they have ever proved; but the philanthropist will have to lament that the thought was vain. The interested and the impetuous will again press forward to war; and the just and the temperate, carried away by the stream, submit to the evil, as that which is inevitable. THE PHILOSOPHY OF ADVER- To those of a reflective turn of mind, nothing, probably, is capable of affording more material and facility for the exercise of that disposition than the supplementary sheet of the Times newspaper. The average number of advertisements is about six hundred daily-and it is to many a matter of surprise how so large a supply can result out of the transactions of every-day life We have all grades of society, from the beggar to the peer, brought within a very limited focus-illustrating a truth, perhaps more painful than acceptable-that, as there is "but one step between the sublime and the ridiculous," so is there but one, and a very trifling one too, between destitution and wealth. Many a nobleman's equipage and household effects,-nay, his very patrimony itself, are frequently disposed of by the king of auctioneers, Mr. George Robins, under the favourable auspices of a disguised advertisement, while, at the same moment, an announcement of a more explanatory and personal nature brings to light, after years of wretchedness and obscurity, some wasted form-the sun of whose fortune has risen as the author of the bequest has "fallen into the sear and yellow leaf,"-placing him, inasmuch as money is concerned, on a level with a duke. In fact we know not, from hour to hour, where the "see-saw' of life will leave us. A slight deviation of the balance may place him "up" to-day who was "down" yesterday, and the scornful frown of insolence may be as suddenly changed into the hypocritical smile of the parasite as the turn of the fitful winds. The limits of our columns will not permit the inquiry at length into the system of advertising as pursued in these days, because an analysis of the various descriptions of advertisements would necessarily compel a series of notices on the subject. Nevertheless, in a mere sketch, we may point out how rife a supplement of the Times is with events, both premeditated and accidental; and how replete with characteristics incidental to the several passions of human nature that medium of publicity always appears. The glittering parade of the ball-room and the banquet, in one column of the paper, is dimmed by an announced funeral cortège, in an advertisement, in the very next column; while the indecent haste with which a candidate for a parliamentary seat claims the patronage of a borough, vacated by the former member, whose death probably appears in the same paper, is a specimen of legislative economy at once revolting and disgusting. In fine, a supplement to the Times is not only a sufficient study to inculcate moral lessons in the reader; but, what is more, it impresses the mind with the truth of the vanities, the hatred, the extravagance, the meanness, the tyranny, and numerous other alloys with which our better nature is intermixed, reminding us that be traced to be the effect, partly, of political causes. It is not for us to say whether the innumerable applications for employment in the columns of the London press-some of them amounting even to beseechingsare the results of over-population, or a bad system of government; or whether, which is as probable as the first two propositions, money is so thoroughly monopolised as to be in the hands of a select few, who care little about anybody's wants but their own. Surely the world is sufficiently wide and fertile for all; but the purposes for which it was designed are most miserably misap plied and misunderstood (in some instances very wilfully) by wealth and station. In the present day the "mind labourer" is increasing in a far greater ratio than the "body labourer." The latter can gain a livelihood when the former, as the Times supplement daily proves, is by far the most destitute of any member of society. As mind increases, the chances of anything like equitable adjustment in the acquirement of remuneration seem to vanish, leaving the mass in a worse condition than they are represented to have been centuries ago. Let us take the case of the "body labourer." In the fourteenth century, during the reign of Edward III, the agricultural labourer received, during harvest, threepence a day, besides diet, or twopence per quarter for thrashing wheat. Now, at that period, threepence was equal to five shillings at this present time. In the fifteenth century a workman's wages were sixpence a day. In the nineteenth century, 1845-the days of civilisation and of enlightened government-the average wages of the Dorsetshire labourer, notwithstanding the attempts made by interested parties to throw discredit on the fact, are eight shillings (and in some instances only six shillings) per week! Taking, therefore, the labourer of the fourteenth century in comparison with our's of the present age of "reform," we find the former earned thirty shillings per week, while the labourer of 1845, in Dorsetshire, can earn only eight! being in proportion of about four to one in favour of the days of Edward III. Taking the comparative cheapness of necessaries in these days also into consideration, the result is an increase of nearly five to one in favour of the agricultural labourer in the thirteenth century. So much for the "improvement" of the working classes, and the regeneration of England in the days of reform! We might pursue this subject still further, but it is not the exact purport of our present article. If our ancestors, in the time of Edward, could catch a glimpse at the advertising sheet of the Times of this day, it would indeed "frighten them from their propriety." They would naturally conclude there was not " something rotten in the state of Denmark"-but that something was wrong in the state of old England. They would have stared at the long columns of applications by servants, cooks, footmen, coachmen, nursery, kitchen, scullery, and barmaids. Yes, noblemen and gentlemen of England, your really noble and chival rous ancestors would have recoiled at the very idea of such things, because the grand feature in their time was the protection of their vassals; times when the baronial halls were open to all (irrespective of station) to partake of the contents of the "wassail bowl," and of the bounties of a brave, openhearted, and high-minded nobility. Then, uuch acts as wholesale clearances and ejections of tenantry were unnecessary and nknown. It was but the other day we saw an advertisement in the Times of a lawyer's clerk, or some such individual, offering to take in law writing at one farthing (!) a folio. A folio consists of seventy-two words. This would amount to one penny per sheet! Then, again, we read the advertisement of a governess who professed to teach all the accomplishments of the present day for eight shillings per week! These are only specimens (and by no means the worst) of the low rate at which people value their services. It may be, hard necessity is their monitor, in the pursuit of this injudicious step. Nevertheless, they materially injure society, because they are the instruments of bringing remuneration for services to the mean level of which they are the loudest and first to complain. On the other hand, there exists a class of employers who are equally, nay, more culpable, and who advertise for clerks at such a wretchedly low remunerative price, that it is almost a pity such men should possess the means of paying for their advertisement. We saw, only last week, an application by some mean impostor (he could have been nothing else) for "an active, intelligent, and industrious clerk," who was to be conversant in accounts, and not to mind work, but to make himself generally useful. Hours, from nine in the morning until eight in the evening. And what think you, reader, this person, who expected his business to be diligently attended to, offered as his clerk's salary? Ten shillings per week! Added to which generous bait, the clerk was to give security! Now, in proportion as the seekers for employment destroy their own prospects by the undervaluation of their services, so, in the same ratio, do these advertisers for clerks, or other servants, risk their property by such offers as that above mentioned. Both classes are equally culpable-the one for offering to work at a price which he knows cannot ensure him an honest livelihood, and the other for holding out a reward (for it is no better) to parties who cannot exist on the miserable pittance offered, and who are by such means tempted to commit themselves by robbing their masters, or otherwise disgracing themselves and connexions. Thanks to the " liberal" employer, he is too frequently the cause of crime and recklessness. It is said we should never be ready to denounce a system without suggesting a remedy for its amelioration. We will do So. Let every class form a society, the principle of which shall be the refusal of each member to work under fair remunerative prices. Thus both master and employer would be protected. The former would thus be compelled to offer fair wages, while the latter would resist temptation, and prove a faithful servant. But, until the present system is changed, society can never improve. Finally, reader, if you wish to gain an insight into the times, and to observe the various workings of society generally, how all are linked together-and how the whole population is in a manner comprised in one circle-look at a supplement of the Times. It is a complete stage, upon which the actors of the day of all grades, rich and poor, will be found to play their enviable or unenviable parts. You have the painful appeal of the author's widow to the pursestrings of affluence, which could admire genius while living, but which could not (or would not) ease the indigence of the poet while on this side of the grave. He may have his monument when life has fled, but the means of existence are denied him. It is well the poet can isolate his thoughts, and soar above all these considerations, and scorning the pounds, shillings, and pence, of a cold and calculating world, rise above the sordid hearts of the thoughtless and selfish! He is the author of his own fame; would that a twentieth part of the wealthy could equally pride themselves! Strange contrasts present themselves in these advertising columns. We have a mere rule (speaking technically, and in the printing sense), separating the announcement of a charity or funeral sermon, from an Italian Opera benefit! Surely this is a faint line between life and death! Then comes a touching appeal of the orphan, side by side with the notice of an aldermanic feast, not a crumb of which falls from the rich man's table, to assist in appeasing the cravings of the modern Lazarus. Here we have the lover and monopolist of Mammon, advertising his thousands to lend, at usurious interest, while close at hand the applicant for a trifling loan, |