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Glancing in another direction, yonder simpering Greek from Moldavia, with the rosary in his fingers, is in treaty with a Kalmuck as wild as the horses he was bred amongst. Here comes a Truchman craving payment from his neighbour Ghilan (of Western Persia), and a thoughtless Bucharian is greeting some Agriskhan acquaintance (sprung of the mixed blood of Hindoos and Tartars). Nogaïs are mingling with Kirghisians, and drapers from Paris are bargaining for the shawls of Cashmere with a member of some Asiatic tribe of unpronounceable name. Jews from Brody are settling accounts with Turks from Trebizond; and a costume-painter from Berlin is walking arm-in-arm with the player from St. Petersburg who is to perform Hamlet in the evening.

"In short, cotton merchants from Manchester, jewellers from Augsburg, watchmakers from Neufchâtel, wino-merchants from Frankfort, leech-buyers from Hamburgh, grocers from Königsberg, amber dealers from Memel, pipe-makers from Dresden, and furriers from Warsaw, help to make up a crowd the most motley and most singular that the wonder-working genius of commerce ever drew together."

"The spot on which the fair is held is undoubtedly the fittest to be found in Europe for such a purpose. The two rivers at whose junction it stands not only rank among the largest in our division of the globe, but are both of them navigable to a great distance, and one, in particular, is of importance in a commercial point of view, from its being now, by canals, in communication both with the north of Europe and with some of the finest provinces of Asia. Great as is the quantity of goods transported by land, it bears no proportion to the cargoes conveyed by the countless armament, already alluded to, floating on every side; most of them hulks, averaging from forty to one hundred tons burden, besides the steam-boats and ships of greater size on the Volga. Compared with all this, the extent of shipping was most trifling when the fair was first planted here. But of the many proofs that can be brought in favour of the new site, none is more striking than that furnished by the great increase in the business of the fair. Not many years ago the sales at Makarieff did not exceed the value of fifty millions of roubles; now, as we have seen, even by the official valuation, it is much more than double. The sales, even in 1832, an unfavourable year, were valued at 123,000,000 of which 89,500,000 were for goods belonging to European Russia, 16,700,000 for Asiatic goods, and 17,000,000 for foreign

articles."

One word more on the state of Russian manufactures, and we take our leave of Mr. Bremner.

"Where are these boasted manufactures of Russia? We traversed it from north to south in search of them; but our search was fruitless. There are, undeniably, many establishments of industry, but they are on the most limited scale. Those in the large cities are not fit to supply the wants of half the population around them; and even those in the smaller towns do not suffice for the demands of the neighbourhood. The highest of their cloth manufactories, .for instance, produces only coarse stuffs, worn by none but the poorer classes, who have never made use of English goods, and who therefore, let them wear what they may, can never be reckoned among our lost customers.

"The only tenure which England has of the Russians, or of other foreign nations, as purchasers of her manufactures, lies in the superiority of the goods she produces. Not one of these nations will buy a single web from us-nor do we see why they should-after the day when they can procure as good and as cheap an article at home. That the Russian mannfacturer, however, is not likely to be soon in a condition to drive us even from his own market, far less from that of any other state, the slightest acquaintance with that country will very satisfactorily show. In no part of it did we see many articles of native manufacture that would be worn by any person above the lowest rank. Even the finest of the goods which we saw at Nishnei-the best place that a stranger can visit in order to know what Russian manufacturers can produce-were rude and clumsy. Those which we afterwards saw at Toula must be described in the same terms; and, lastly, all that we have now seen produced by the high-sounding 'manufactories' of Odessa are, if possible, of still meaner character. In short, all that we saw of the products of Russian looms, confirmed us in the belief, that England has no more reason to fear that she will be driven from the market by them, than she has to fear that the cotton spinners of Manchester, and the clothweavers of Huddersfield, are to be ruined by the formidable rivalry of the linsey-wolsey of the thrifty housewives of the Scottish Highlands, and the honest homespun of Cumberland.”

THE FUR CLOAK.

A REMINISCENCE.

Ir was in the winter of 1805, that I was dining at Mr. Jefferson's, when, soon after leaving the table, I was seized with an ague, and obliged to leave the charming circle that collected in the drawing

room.

Mr. Jefferson, with almost paternal kindness, insisted on wrapping me in his fur cloak, which, while it completely shielded me from the night air, had the more powerful effect of conquering my shiverings, by exciting my imagination.

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Strange!" thought I, "that I, an obscure individual in America, should be wrapped in the same mantle that once enveloped the Czar of Russia-that was afterwards long worn by the patriot hero of Poland, and now belongs to one of the greatest men alive! I wish the cloak could speck and tell me something of each of its possessors. Of the insane despot, to whom it originally belonged, it could tell me of no act of his life half so good as the one by which the cloak was transferred to the good Kosciusko." This brave man, inspired by an inherent and inextinguishable love of liberty, had, when a mere youth, forsaken his native country-the luxuries of wealth, and the allurements of pleasure, to enlist and fight in our cause. Many were the privations he endured and the dangers he encountered for the sake of that righteous cause to which his whole life was devoted. To a courage the most unshrinking and a spirit the most daring, he added a tenderness and delicacy of feeling, almost feminine, and a refinement of taste which led him, amidst the ruggedness and hardships of a camp, to cultivate the gentle arts of peace. The daring soldier in the field of battle, was the tender and sentimental companion of virtuous women; the ornament of the drawing-room, and the favourite of the domestic circle.

Even in garrison, the pursuits of a simple and refined taste were not neglected. At the fort of West Point, where his regiment was long beleaguered by the British forces, we are still led to a spot amidst the rocks, called Kosciusko's Garden. There, on the high and rocky banks of the Hudson, he amused his leisure moments in cultivating flowers. Nature had supplied no soil for their growth, but, with indefatigable toil and inexhaustible patience, he supplied the deficiency of Nature. The spot he had chosen was inaccessible to vehicles of any kind, and he carried the soil himself in baskets and deposited it in the recesses of the rocks.

There, morning and evening, leaving the coarse merriment and sensual pleasures of the camp, he tended his flowers; or giving himself up to the stillness of solitude, would sit on some projecting rock and watch the majestic stream that flowed at his feet, or the clouds that floated over his head.

Who that could then have looked on the slight and tender youth, the pretty boy, for so small and delicate were his form and features, that he seemed little more; who that looked on him, hanging with delight over a bed of flowers, would have recognized in him the commander of armies, the hero of his nation? How lovely is the union of greatness and goodness! It was the blending of these qualities that made Kosciusko as beloved as he was admired, and kindled in other bosoms a portion of that enthusiasm which glowed in his own. Yes, even 1, then a young and thoughtless girl, felt the power of that enthusiasm, which inspired a nation of freemen, and collected thousands round the standard of this patriot soldier.

For days and weeks have I sat, with increasing delight, beside his couch, and listened to the stories of his battles and hair-breadth escapes, of his successes and defeats, his triumph and his captivity, one day a conqueror, the next a prisoner.

Though more than thirty years have since passed, I can still see hlm, as I saw him then, pale, emaciated, wounded; his almost fragile form reclined upon a couch, supported by pillows, with a little table drawn close beside him, on which he leaned his elbow, supporting his head on his hand; that wounded head around which he wore a bandage of black riband, instead of the laurel wreath he l:ad so nobly won. But the indelible scar, which that bandage covered, was the seal of glory.

The little table was covered with books, pens, pencils; with letters from numerous friends, and tributary verses from every European nation. With what delight did I avail myself of his permission to examine all these things, and how kindly did he indulge my youthful curiosity in reading to me many of these effusions of friendship, admiration, and love; yes, love, for I remember well, that one of the letters was from a lady, who had loved him when a volunteer in our army. It began thus:

"By what title shall I address thee, oh being still too dear and

too well remembered! shall I call thee the defender of thy country? oh, no, it is too awful. Hero of liberty? it is too high. Noble Pole? oh! that speaks of another and far distant country; what then shall I call thee, that will bring to recollection the days of past years? I will call thee Kosciusko! other names may need titles, but this is itself the highest title. This, indelibly engraven on my heart, will brightly shine in the pages of history. Welcome, then Kosciusko, welcome to the country that reveres, and to the heart that adores you!"

Such, or nearly such, were the glowing words of this impassioned letter; they were so accordant with the girlish romance of my disposition, that they made an ineffaceable impression on my memory. Perhaps nay, certainly, he ought not to have shown this letter. But, after all, heroes are but men; and he had, alas! too many of the weaknesses of poor human nature, and I cannot deny that vanity was one. I recollect, too, some very beautiful verses sent him by Miss Porter, the distinguished novelist; but they came not from her heart, and therefore did not reach mine. They were complimentary verses, in praise of the patriot and hero. Hero! -how different were my ideas of the person of a hero, from that of Kosciusko.

From my childhood his name had been familiar to my ear, and I had heard of his youthful achievements in defence of our liberty. At the time of his return to our country, his fame had preceded his arrival. His bold enterprises,-his patient endurance,-his invincible courage, his unyielding firmness, and his ardent patriotism, were the daily theme of private circles and public journals, and when he landed on our shores he was welcomed with unbounded enthusiasm, and crowds eagerly ran to catch a glimpse of One of their earliest defenders.

When he arrived in the little town in which I lived, and became an inmate of the house of one of my relations, I felt emotions it is impossible to describe. My young imagination embodied this "apostle of liberty" (as he was sometimes called) in a form grand, imposing, and venerable; with a figure as commanding as that of our own Washington, and a countenance far more expressive. My fancy pictured him forth with noble features, large penetrating eyes, and an air of loftiness and grandeur. When I was led up to his couch, and saw a diminutive and feeble old man, with a pale face, turned-up nose, little blue eyes, and thin, lightcoloured hair, I could not at first believe that it really was the renowned KoSCIUSKO; and for a time my enthusiasm was entirely extinguished, for there was nothing about him to counteract the effect produced by his appearance, and I must own I never recovered those feelings which his fame had inspired-feelings excited by moral grandeur. His manners and conversation were as little imposing as his person and countenance. I continually endeavoured, by recalling his great actions to mind, to rekindle my enthusiasm. I never succeeded:-nothing he said, or looked, assisted the illusion; no, not even when he described the conflicts in which he had been engaged, could I realise that the pale, feeble, little man, whom I looked upon, was the commander of armies, and the idol of his country. But a tenderer sentiment soon took the place of this high-wrought enthusiasm; for, when he talked of his sufferings, his bosom cares, and anxieties,—his high hopes and his deep despair, it was impossible to listen and not to feel a deep interest and tender sympathy.

His mild countenance, soft voice, and gentle manners, were in harmony with such details.

In our little town, there were few who thought of approaching the great man, and he was left in comparative solitude; at least, to the quiet of the domestic circle of our family.

I was a romantic girl, a young enthusiast, and much indulged. I soon found a low seat beside his couch, on which I every day passed many hours. He loved to talk of himself, and perhaps perceived no one listened to him with so eager and untiring an attention as I did. Who is there insensible to the pleasure of exciting strong emotion, deep interest, and tender sympathy? Some there are, and I think he was one, who felt peculiar pleasure in awakening these emotions in the artless and unsophisticated mind of youth, where they are blended with strong curiosity and astonishment.

My fixed gaze, tearful eyes, and glowing face, so clearly evinced the interest I took in his conversation, that no doubt it led him into details he would not otherwise have given. I have forgotten few of these details, and could fill a volume, were I to write all I remember; but at present will only repeat the account he gave me of the manner in which he became possessed of the Fur Clouk, though the incidents connected with his defeat, following the battle

in which he was made prisoner, and his feelings on the occasion, are so interesting, that I can scarcely omit them. But these are matters of history.

"I expected," said he, "on my arrival at St. Petersburg, to be thrown into a dungeon, and loaded with chains; but no such thing. Catharine, though an embittered, was not a cruel enemy. I had fought only for the liberty of my country, and, although she wished to destroy that liberty, she respected its defender.

"The confinement to which she consigned me was rigorous in the extreme; but I was allowed every comfort compatible with the security of my person and prevention of any intercourse with society.

"My apartment was large and commodious, my table well spread; and books, materials for writing, drawing, and painting, amply supplied.

"Could I for one moment have forgotten my poor, bleeding, and enslaved country, I could have been almost happy. But my country in chains, and struggling for freedom, was a thought never absent from my mind, and produced a restlessness and impatience scarcely to be endured. Imagine a mother hearing the cries of a child in agony, forcibly withheld from running to its assistance, and you may then imagine my feelings. I sometimes thought that, in a dark dungeon, and chained to the ground, I could have endured confinement with less impatience than in my spacious and lightsome apartment, which wore the semblance and breathed the air of liberty, while I was, in fact, as much enchained as if loaded with fetters. I was not indeed fettered with iron chains, but, what was more intolerable, with the eternal presence of men,-by men on whose sympathies I might have worked, had time allowed me. But this was a contingence, against which my sagacious as well as powerful enemy had securely guarded.

"During the eighteen months I was confined at St. Petersburg, I never, for two hours successively, saw the same face. The guard stationed in my apartment was changed every hour. Compute how many hours there are in eighteen months, and you will know how many strange faces I looked upon during the time of my imprisonment. Never for one moment was I left alone!

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Escape was impossible. After a time this conviction brought with it more composure, and I could read, write, and draw: the latter talent was the source of much amusement, and in the creations of my pencil I found a substitute for those of nature. Yes, the flowers grew under my hand, the landscape was lit with sunshine and smiled in verdure; and at times I felt emotions of pleasure, similar, if not equal, to those which living flowers and real landscapes could give. And sometimes, too, I would recover the presence of those I loved;-I would trace their features, and draw eyes that seemed to look at me, and lips that seemed to speak.

"Thus did I seek to beguile the weary monotony of my confinement. But more heavy and more weary was each succeeding day, and there were moments when I felt such disgust in life that I was tempted to destroy it; yet, loathing life, I lived; for against hope I hoped.

"One day, awakening from a sleep into which I had fallen, on opening my eyes, I saw a stranger sitting on the foot of my couch, earnestly regarding me. I started up with, I suppose, a look of alarm, for the stranger said to me, 'Be not alarmed; I bring you good tidings-your inexorable enemy is dead. Catharine died this morning ;-you are free.'

"Free!" I exclaimed, 'impossible.'

"Not impossible,' he answered. 'I am Paul; and I tell you, you are free.'

"After the first emotions of joy and surprise had subsided, the Emperor told me I was at liberty to leave St. Petersburg, and to go to any country I pleased, Poland excepted. He offered me any sum of money I should desire. I declined receiving more than was sufficient to defray my expenses to London, and from thence to America. When he found I would not take the heavy purse he earnestly pressed on me, he took from his shoulders a rich fur cloak he wore, and, throwing it over mine-' Wear this for my sake,' said the Emperor."

On leaving this country for Europe, Kosciusko left this cloak with his revered friend, Jefferson.

APPETITE.

APPETITE is a relish bestowed upon the poorer classes, that they may like what they eat; while it is seldom enjoyed by the rich, because they may eat what they like.-Tin Trumpet.

READING AND BOOKS.

his borrowing a Bible from the convent of St. Swithin, he had to return it uninjured. If any one gave a book to a convent or a give a heavy bond, drawn up with great solemnity, that he would monastery, it conferred everlasting salvation upon him, and he offered it upon the altar of God. The convent of Rochester every year pronounced an irrevocable damnation on him who should dare steal or conceal a Latin translation of Aristotle, or even obliterate a title. When a book was purchased, it was an affair of such consequence, that persons of distinction were called together as witPrevious to the year 1300, the library of Oxford consisted

nesses.

To have the mind vigorous, you must refresh it, and strengthen it, by a continued contact with the mighty dead who have gone away, but left their imperishable thoughts behind them. We want to have the mind continually expanding, and creating new thoughts, or at least feeding itself upon manly thoughts. The food is to the blood, which circulates through your veins, what reading is to the mind; and the mind that does not love to read, may despair of ever doing much in the world of mind which it would affect. You can no more be the "full man” whom Bacon describes, without read-only of a few tracts, which were carefully locked up in a small chest, ing, than you can be vigorous and healthy without any new nourishment. It would be no more reasonable to suppose it, in the of the fourteenth century, the royal library of France contained only or else chained, lest they should escape; and at the commencement expressive and beautiful language of Porter, " than to suppose that four classics, with a few devotional works. So great was the privi the Mississipi might roll on its flood of waters to the ocean, though lege of owning a book, that one of their books on natural history all its tributary streams were cut off, and it were replenished only contained a picture, representing the Deity as resting on the by the occasional drops from the clouds." Some will read works Sabbath, with a book in his hand, in the act of reading! It was of the imagination, or what is called the light literature of the day, probably no better in earlier times. Knowledge was scattered to while that which embraces solid thought is irksome. The Bishop the four winds, and truth was hidden in a well. Lycurgus and of Winchester (Hoadley) said that he could never look into Butler's Pythagoras were obliged to travel into Egypt, Persia, and India, in Analogy without having his head ache-a book which Queen order to understand the doctrine of the metempsychosis. Solon Caroline told Mr. Sale, she read every day at breakfast. Young and Plato had to go to Egypt for what they knew. Herodotus and people are apt-and to this students are continually tempted to Strabo were obliged to travel to collect their history, and to conread only for amusement. Pope says, that, from fourteen to struct their geography as they travelled. Few men pretended to twenty, he read for amusement alone; from twenty to twentyseven, for improvement and instruction; that in the former period, a dozen volumes. And yet, with all this scarcity of books, there own a library, and he was accounted truly favoured who owned half he wanted only to know, and in the second, endeavoured to judge. were in those days scholars who greatly surpassed us. We cannot The object of reading may be divided into several branches. The student reads for relaxation from more severe studies; he is not the pen which Aristotle and Plato held, nor the eloquence with write poetry like Homer, nor history like Thucydides. We have thus refreshed, and his spirits are revived. He reads for facts in which Demosthenes thrilled. They surpassed us in painting and the history and experience of his species, as they lived and acted in sculpture. Their books were but few. But those were read, as under different circumstances. From these facts he draws conclu- Horace says, ten times-" decies repetita placebunt." Their own sions; his views are enlarged, his judgment corrected, and the resources were tasked to the utmost, and he who could not draw experience of former ages, and of all times, becomes his own. He reads, chiefly, probably, for information; to store up knowledge wells he could borrow.-Todd's Student's Manual. from his own fountain, in vain sought for neighbours, from whose for future use; and he wishes to classify and arrange it, that it may be ready at his call. He reads for the sake of style,-to learn how a strong, nervous, or beautiful writer expresses himself. The spirit of a writer to whom the world has bowed in homage, and the dress in which the spirit stands arrayed, is the object at which he must anxiously look.

It is obvious, then, that, in attaining any of these ends, except, perhaps, that of amusement, reading should be performed very slowly and deliberately. You will usually, and, indeed, almost invariably, find that those who read a great multitude of books, have but little knowledge that is of any value. A large library has justly been denominated a learned luxury-not elegance-much less utility. A celebrated French author was laughed at on account of the poverty of his library. "Ah," replied he, "when I want a book, I make it!" Rapid readers generally are very desultory; and a man may read much, and know but very little. "The helluo librorum and the true scholar are two very different characters." One who has a deep insight into the nature of man, says that he never felt afraid to meet a man who has a large library. It is the man who has but few books, and who thinks much, whose mind is the best furnished for intellectual operations. It will not be pretended, however, that there are not many exceptions to this remark. But, with a student, in the morning of life, there are no exceptions. If he would improve by his reading, it must be very deliberate. Can a stomach receive any amount or kind of food, hastily thrown into it, and reduce it, and from it extract nourishment for the body? Not for any length of time. Neither can the mind any easier digest that which is rapidly brought before it. Seneca has the same idea in his own simple, beautiful language Distrahit animum librorum multitudo;-Fastidientis stomachi multa degustare, quæ ubi varia sunt et diversa, inquinant, non alunt."

It is by no means certain that the ancients had not a great compensation for the fewness of their books, in the thoroughness with which they were compelled to study them. A book must all be copied with the pen, to be owned; and he who transcribed a book for the sake of owning it, would be likely to understand it. Before the art of printing, books were so scarce, that ambassadors were sent from France to Ronie, to beg a copy of Cicero de Oratore, and Quintilian's Institutes, &c., because a copy of these works was not to be found in all France. Albert, abbot of Gemblours, with incredible labour and expense, collected a library of one hundred and fifty volumes, including everything; and this was considered a wonder indeed. In 1494, the library of the Bishop of Winchester contained parts of seventeen books on various subjects; and, on

DR. NATHANIEL BOWDITCH.

DR. NATHANIEL BOWDITCH, of Boston, in the state of Massachusetts, in America, was born at Salem, in the same state, in 1773. He was removed from school at the age of ten years, to assist his father in his trade as a cooper, and was indebted for all his subsequent acquisitions, including the Latin and some modern languages, and a profound knowledge of mathematics and astronomy, entirely to his own exertions, unaided by any instruction whatever. He became afterwards a clerk to a ship-chandler, where his taste for astronomy first showed itself, and was suffi ciently advanced to enable him to master the rules for the calculation of a lunar eclipse; and his subsequent occupation as supercargo in a merchant-vessel sailing from Salem to the East Indies, led naturally to the further development of his early tastes, by the active and assiduous study of those departments of that great and comprehensive science which are most immediately subservient to the purposes of navigation. It was owing to the reputation which he had thus acquired for his great knowledge of nautical astronomy that he was employed by the booksellers to revise several successive editions of Hamilton Moore's Practical Navigator, which he afterwards replaced by an original work on the same subject, remarkable for the clearness and conciseness of its rules, for its numerous and comprehensive tables, (the greatest part of which he had himself re-calculated and re-framed,) and for its perfectly practical character as a manual of navigation. This work, which has been republished in this country, has been for many years almost exclusively used in the United States of America.

Dr. Bowditch, having been early elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at Boston, commenced the publication of a series of communications in the Memoirs of that Society, which speedily established his reputation as one of the first astronomers and mathematicians of America, and attracted likewise the favourable notice of men of science in Europe.

During the last twenty years of his life, Dr. Bowditch was employed as the acting president of an Insurance Company at Salem, and latterly also as actuary of the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company, at Boston: the income which he derived from these employments, and from the savings of former years, enabled him to abandon all other and more absorbing engage. ments, and to devote his leisure hours entirely to scientific pursuits. In 1815 he began his great work, the translation of the Mécanique Céleste" of Laplace; the fourth and last volume of which was not quite completed at the time of his death. The

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American Academy, over which he presided for many years, at a very early period of the progress of this very extensive and costly undertaking, very liberally offered to defray the expense of printing it; but he preferred to publish it from his own very limited means, and to dedicate it as a splendid and durable monument of his own labours and of the state of science in his own country. He died in March 1838, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, after a life of singular usefulness and most laborious exertion, in the full enjoyment of every honour which his grateful countrymen in every part of America could pay to so distinguished a fellow-citizen.

Dr. Bowditch's translation of the great work of Laplace is a production of much labour, and of no ordinary merit. Every person who is acquainted with the original must be aware of the great number of steps in the demonstrations which are left unsupplied, in many cases comprehending the entire processes which connect the enunciation of the propositions with the conclusions; and the constant reference which is made, both tacit and expressed, to results and principles, both analytical and mechanical, which are coextensive with the entire range of known mathematical science: but, in Dr. Bowditch's very elaborate commentary, every deficient step is supplied,-every suppressed demonstration is introduced, every reference explained and illustrated; and a work which the labours of an ordinary life could hardly master is rendered accessible to every reader who is acquainted with the principles of the differential and integral calculus, and in possession of even an elementary knowledge of statistical and dynamical principles. When we consider the circumstances of Dr. Bowditch's early life, the obstacles which opposed his progress, the steady perseverance with which he overcame them,-and the courage with which he ventured to expose the mysterious treasures of that sealed book which had hitherto only been approached by those whose way had been cleared for them by a systematic and regular mathematical education, we shall be fully justified in pronouncing him to have been a most remarkable example of the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties, and well worthy of the enthusiastic respect and admiration of his countrymen, whose triumphs in the field of practical science have fully equalled, if not surpassed, the noblest works of the ancient world.-Farewell Address of the Duke of

Sussex.

MRS. BLACKWELL;

AN INSTANCE OF FEMALE GENIUS AND INDUSTRY.

ALEXANDER BLACKWELL was a native of Aberdeen: the date of his birth cannot be positively stated, but may be supposed to have taken place about the year 1700. Having clandestinely married a young woman of his native town, he was obliged to leave the place, and with his wife came up to London; where his first employment was that of corrector of the press to Mr. Wilkins, an eminent printer. He afterwards was enabled to set up as a printer on his own account, in a large house in the Strand; but the fact of his not having served a regular apprenticeship to his business becoming known, an action was brought against him; the unsuccessful defence of which ruined him, and one of his creditors threw him into jail. In this emergency, the genius of his wife prompted the means of assistance. She happened to possess a taste for drawing flowers, and the acknowledged want of a good Herbal at that time (1735) suggested to her the means of exerting her talent in a manner advantageous to herself. She hired a house near the Botanic Garden at Chelsea, in order to be able to procure the necessary flowers and plants in a fresh state, as she had occasion for them; and not only made drawings of the flowers, but also engraved them on copper, and coloured the prints with her own hands. Her husband added the Latin names of the plants, with a short account of their principal characters and uses, chiefly taken, by permission, from Miller's "Botanicum Officinale." The first volume of the work appeared in 1737, in large folio, containing 252 plates, each of which is occupied by one distinct flower or plant. The second volume, completing the number of plates to 500, appeared in 1739. The drawings are in general faithfal; the style of the engravings, though hard, is fully on a level with those of the same age; and as a laborious work, executed in the short space of four years by the unassisted industry of one woman, its accomplishment raises our wonder, and our

admiration no less of the perseverance and assiduity of the author, than of her genius. Happily these qualities procured her the notice and patronage of many persons of rank and character, and likewise of many scientific men; and, on the completion of the first volume, Mrs. Blackwell was permitted to present a copy of it, in person, to the College of Physicians, who made her a handsome present, and gave a testimonial, under the hands of the president and council of the institution, characterising her work as "most useful," and recommending it to the public. By the profits of her labours she was now enabled to release her husband from his confinement, besides having supported herself during her employment upon the work.

Mr. Blackwell resided for some time at Chelsea with his wife; after which he was employed by the Duke of Chandos, in superintending some agricultural operations at Cannons. At this time he published a work on agriculture, which was productive of great benefit to him; for the Swedish ambassador, having transmitted a copy to his court, was directed to engage the author, if possible, to go to Stockholm. This engagement Blackwell accepted, leaving his wife and child in England for the present, and was received in the kindest manner at the court of Sweden, lodged in the house of the prime minister, and allowed a pension. The King of Sweden happening soon after to be taken dangerously ill, Blackwell was permitted to prescribe for him, and fortunately effected a cure. This caused him to be appointed one of the King's physicians, with the title of doctor, although it does not appear that he ever had taken a degree in medicine. While thus comfortably situated, he sent his wife several sums of money; and she was on the point of sail. ing to join him at Stockholm, when his prospects were at once ruined, and his life sacrificed. Having been accustomed in England to the free utterance of his sentiments, which were warm in defence of the principles of civil liberty, he was probably not sufficiently guarded in his expressions under an arbitrary monarch; or, perhaps, like all those who have risen rapidly to court favour and opulence, he might have malicious enemies, ready to misconstrue or misinterpret his expressions: as a stranger, a native of another country, this is the more probable. However it may be, he was apprehended on suspicion of being connected with a plot which had been formed by one Count Tessin, for overturning the constitution of the kingdom, and altering the line of succession. The application of torture forced from him an acknowledgment of guilt, which, however, it is difficult to believe in: and this instance adds another to the numerous cases in which fear, agony, or mental alienation, have overcome respect for truth,-perhaps, prevented the victim from recognising it. At any rate, there appears to have been no motive for Blackwell's joining in a conspiracy against his benefactor; and it is scarcely likely that, had he been really implicated, he would, just at this moment, have sent for his wife and child to join him at Stockholm. He was tried before a royal commission, and sentenced to be beheaded; with other aggravations of his punishment, which were not, howinflicted. In the course of his trial, some imputations were thrown upon the King of Great Britain, which, in conjunction with other circumstances, caused the recal of the British ambassador from Stockholm.

ever,

Blackwell was executed July 29, 1747. On the scaffold, he protested his innocence, pointing out, as corroborative of his assertions, the want of all motive for engaging in a plot against the government. Happening to lay his head wrong upon the block, he remarked good-humouredly that, as this was. the first experiment, no wonder that he required a little instruction.

The date of Mrs. Blackwell's death is not ascertained: her work was afterwards republished on the Continent.

COMMON-PLACE PEOPLE.

COMMON-PLACE people are content to walk for life in the rut made by their predecessors, long after it has become so deep that they cannot see to the right or left. This keeps them in ignorance and darkness, but it saves them the trouble of thinking or acting for themselves.-Tin Trumpet.

EMIGRATION TO AUSTRALIA.

THE vast island-or rather continent of Australia, is, in many respects, one of the most important of British colonial possessions. It stands completely isolated, as it were, both physically and morally. The owners of the soil are few in number, compared with the extent of surface; few obstacles are presented by them to the spread of colonization, while they afford a fair field for an experiment on aborigines, conducted on Christian and rational principles. There is no neighbouring power to watch and control-no mixture of different races of colonists, to create apprehensions of an explosion. The entire country seems freely open to British enterprise and emigration: while, on its eastern, western, and southern coasts, three distinct experiments of colonization, conducted on distinct principles, are in progress. Two of them, New South Wales, and Western Australia, have manifested their characters by their fruit-Southern Australia is only begun.

When emigration to British America and the United States was the "rage," abundance of books of travels and "Emigrants' Guides," appeared; and now that the tide is setting towards Australia, there is no lack of works to stimulate emigrating zeal, or to direct the intending emigrant. We have "South Australia in 1837-8," by Robert Gouger, Esq.; "Six Months in South Australia," by T. H. James, Esq.; the "Land of Promise," by "One who is going;" and a "Hand-Book for Australian Emigrants," by Samuel Butler, Esq., whom, judging from his preface, we may term "one who has gone." This is all right enough." In the multitude of counsellors there is safety." One publication may be written in too glowing a style; another, perhaps by a disappointed man, may be cold and depreciating; while a third may be dictated from purely interested motives-an advertisement written large. But surely the truth can be elicited by comparison; and shame would it be, if in this age of rapid communication and abundant publication, any delusion should gain a general hold on the public mind, or that hundreds of emigrants should quit their native shores, to live and die in misery and disappointed hope.

There is one thing which all the Guide-books and Hand-books that can be written, cannot do for a man-to decide for him whether he himself is a fit subject for emigration. We read about a fine soil, a mild climate, abundance of land, and capital prospects; and perhaps, somewhat tired or disgusted by temporary circumstances, we fancy we should like to "try our luck" far away from our present annoyances or inconveniences. A man who emigrates in this hap-hazard way may succeed: but he is turning emigration into a kind of lottery. He who emigrates in the right spirit, is one who does not start away, from pique, or impatience, or any temporary annoyance, but who coolly calculates and compares his chances and probabilities. Such a man thinks for himself, and for his family too; and if he is determined to work as well as think, and is able to work, there is every reasonable ground to think that he will succeed, if success is within the range of probability and possibility.

Mr. Butler has produced a very readable "Hand-Book for Australian Emigrants," though he has left an opening for an imputation on his judgment, by the extravagant manner in which he praises the penal colony of New South Wales. His book commences with the following general description of Australia :

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"AUSTRALIA, OF NEW HOLLAND, is situated in the Pacific Ocean, and forms the largest island in the world. Lying between 9 degrees and 38 degrees of south latitude, and 112 degrees and 153 degrees of east longitude, it forms an extent of land, which, from its geographical position, and its natural productions, abounds in interest both to the philosophical inquirer, and to all who wish to make it the place of their residence. It extends 2000 miles from north to south, and about 2,600 from east to west, cut near its centre by the tropic of Capricorn,-its northern portion is included in the Torrid zone, but all its southern region enjoys the salubrious climate of the Temperate belt.

"It has been divided into three principal parts, discovered at different periods, each possessed of a different history, but all of them having been employed for the purposes of colonization by the over-crowded population of the Old World. It consists of New South Wales, or Eastern Australia, on the east; South Australia, in the centre; and the Swan River settlement, or Western Australia, on the west of its extra-tropical range.

"New Holland was discovered by Don Pedro Fernando de Quiros, a Spanish nobleman, in 1609. He appears to have made

the land in the vicinity of Torres Straits, and named it Australia of the Holy Spirit; but it afterwards received the name of New Holland, from the number of Dutch navigators by whom it was visited, and whose voyages, if not earlier made, seem either to have been the earliest recorded, or the most generally made known. The Spanish monarch, at the time, was too much occupied with the splendid acquisitions made to his foreign dominions by the genius of Columbus, to attend to the progress of eastern discovery, and additional portions of this region of the globe were successively made known by the spirit of commercial enterprise, or the good fortune of individuals. The correct and indefatigable Dampier was the first English navigator by whom the coast of New Holland was visited. He received his naval education among the buccaneers of America, and in a cruise against the Spaniards, he doubled Cape Horn, from the east stretched towards the equator, fell in with this continental island, made an accurate survey of its shores, which, on his return to England, he presented to earl Pembroke, and which gained him the patronage of William III.

"But the illustrious Cook was the first who gave the most extensive information, and dispelled many illusions, regarding this extensive region, during his first and his third voyages in 1770 and 1777. Previous to this, the eastern coast was almost entirely unexplored, but by him there was made known the existence of a vast island, almost equal in extent to the whole continent of Europe. Since that time it has engaged much of the attention of the British government and people. Many experiments have been tried, and with varied success, until the tide of public approval has turned so entirely in its favour, that even the wealth and the comforts of home, the length of the voyage, and the distance of the scene, are held as nothing when compared with the health and the independence of Australia.

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"Occupying a position considerably nearer to the south of the equator than England is to the north, the climate is consequently both warmer in summer and milder in winter than with us. most remarkable feature, attested by the report of all who have visited it, is the great uniformity of the temperature throughout almost the whole extent. It is not varied to a high degree even at different seasons of the year, nor liable to sudden transitions from cold to heat. So much is this the case, that invalids from India are now conveyed there instead of being subjected to a tedious voyage to Europe, or a laborious over-land journey to the valleys of the Himmaleh. This peculiarity arises in great measure from the large proportion which sea bears to land in the southern hemisphere; on this account the temperature of places, at the same distance from the different tropics, north and south, is cooler in the latter than in the former; 35 in the one having been found by observation to correspond with 370 and 38° of the other. For eight months in the year the weather is mild and unbroken. The sky is seldom clouded, and although refreshing showers frequently fall, it is subject to none of the periodical rains which deluge the torrid zone. The sun looks down during two-thirds of his annual course in unveiled beauty from the northern heavens, and for the remainder the frost is so slight as but to require the kindling of a fire for the purposes of great warmth, morning and evening; while, in Sydney, snow has been so seldom seen as to have endowed it with the name of

white rain.

While this is the general characteristic, it must only be understood as the average of the whole, not as liable to no exception at any precise period, or at any particular place, which would of itself form one of the strangest exceptions to the economy of nature in every other portion of the earth's surface, that has ever been presented to the observation of man. The heat is greater in the interior than on the sea-coast during summer, and the cold more intense in winter. At Paramatta, the thermometer rises 10° higher in summer, and falls the same number lower in winter, than at Sydney. But this is only at noon in summer, when the coolness of morning and evening again restores the balance; and in winter, the contrast arises from the more than European mildness of the one place, rather than from the excessive cold of the other.

"These statements are made with more immediate reference to New South Wales, although applicable to the whole island. But in South Australia especially, the atmosphere is pure, dry, and elastic; even when the hot winds blow, which come periodically four times every summer, and continue from twenty-four to thirty-six hours at a time, the lungs play freely, and no difficulty is felt in breathing. During their prevalence on one occasion, when, according to Dr. Lang, the thermometer stood at

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