practised by succeeding monarchs. The second sword is pointed, though some what obtuse, and is denominated the Sword of Justice to the spirituality; its blade is forty inches long, and one and a half broad. The third, or Sword of Justice to the temporality, is sharp at the point, of the same length as the former, and one and three-quarters in breadth. Customs of Warious Countries. GENOESE MATCH-MAKING-Marriage is, at Genoa, a matter of calculation, perhaps more so than any where else; it is generally settled between the relations, who often draw up the contract before the parties have seen one another; and it is only when every thing* else is arranged, and a few days previous to the marriage ceremony, that the future husband is introduced to his intended partner for life. Should he find fault with her figure, or her manners, he may break up the match, on condition of defraying the expences incurred. But this is seldom the case; the principal object, that of interest, being once settled, the bride follows the portion as a matter of course, and is often scarcely minded. There are in Genoa marriage brokers, who have pocket-books filled with the names of marriage girls of different classes, with notes descriptive of their figures and their fortunes. These people go about endeavouring to arrange connections; if they succeed, they get a commission of two or three per cent. upon the portion. The contents of their memorandums are often very curious. she possesses health,-enjoys a good character,-and, what is rather singular, is not of a masculine make, nor given to gossiping. P. J. R. more superstitious than sailors. They FIDDLER'S GREEN.-Few persons are have an idea that there is a place nine miles beyond the dwelling of his Satanic Majesty, called "Fiddlers' Green," in which there is plenty of grog and merriment-and here safely convoyed, that none can ever more disturb them. P.J. R. Benserade THE POET was a man of great wit, and a priest. He used to dine abroad in company every day. Some one wrote these lines upon him. What makes our lively bard to-day Look in so dull and sad a way? Does aught portend his fatal doom?No; he's obliged to dine at home. He had satirized a knight of the order of St. Michael, in some of his verses, and was well thrashed by the knight himself. wrote Some witling of the day Our bard is in a wretched way, And beat him like the very Devil. NAPOLEON was the high priest of the to overthrow the worship men paid to it, revolution, but being impolitic enough the sacerdotal garment fell from off his shoulders, and his power set for ever. A SLUT DESCRIBED. Unlaced her stays, her night-gown is untied, A female sloven is an odious sight. ON JOHN TROLLOP, Who made these stones to roll up: Diary and Chronology Tuesday, August 23. St. Tydvill in Wales. Full Moon 5m after 10 Morn. August 23, 1303.-To-day was murdered, in accordance with the sentence passed on him by King Edward I. the renowned Scottish hero, Sir William Wallace, who was basely betrayed into the hands of the English by his treacherous countrymen. His disgraceful trial and death is thus related by Matthew of Westminster :-" After innumerable crimes, he was brought by the king's officers before himself, attended by the nobles of the kingdom of England, on the Vigil of St. Bartholemew, where he was condemned to a most cruel, yet most worthy death. Firstly, he was drawn at the tail of a horse through the fields of London, to a very lofty gibbet erected for him, upon which he was hung; afterwards, he was taken down half-dead, embowelled, and his intestines burned by fire; lastly, his head was cut off, and set upon a pole on London Bridge, whilst the trunk was cut into four quarters. His body, thus divided, was sent into four parts of Scotland.Behold, such was the unpitied end of this man, whom want of pity brought to such a death." Wednesday, August 24. High Water 36m aft 2 Morning-55m aft 2 After. Dry August and warm does harvest no harm. St. Bartholemew brings the cold dew. Ray's Proverbs. This is about the time when the watery spell of a weeping St. Swithin has nearly ceased to draw down the tears of Cœlum, the forty days of lamentation ending yesterday. The proverb, therefore, relates to the speedy clearing up and settling of the weather to-day. Another saying will explain well the above adage : All the tears that St. Swithin can cry, Thursday, August 25. St. Gregory of Utrecht, abh. A.D. 776. Sun rises 59m after 4-Sets Om after 7. August 25, 1270.-St. Louis, King of France, died in Africa, in a battle with the Moors. This unfortunate expedition was the sixth and last crusade. The misfortunes of this prince extinguished the religious enthusiasm which greatly reduced the population of Europe during two centuries. Friday, August 26. St. Genesius of Arles, Mar. 4th Cent. High Water 40m after 3 Morn.-6m after 4 Aftern. Aug. 26, 1316-Fought the Battle of Cressy, where King Philip de Valois was defeated in an attack of Edward III. King of England. Some historians have attributed the defeat of the French, on that glorious day, to several pieces of cannon which the English used for the first time. A Benedictine German Monk, named Schwartz, about ten or twelve years previous, had discovered the invention of gunpowder. Roger Bacon, another English friar, had also, about the same time, written on the great explosions which salt-petre, confined, could produce. In the battle of Cressy, not less than 30,000 French perished. Froissart relates, that the English agreed previous to the battle, to take no ransom. Among the dead they found the King of Bohemia, Count Alencon, bro ther of the king, and the flower of the French nobility. Philip, having received two wounds, one on the neck, the other ou the thigh, rode, in the dread of being made prisoner, to the walls of Ambroie. "Open your gates," said he," it is the After the victory, unfortunate King of France." Edward laid siege to Calais, which was taken, and retained by the English 210 years after. Saturday, August 27. St. Casarius, Bish. and Conf. A.D. 542. Sun rises 3m after 5 sets 56m after 6. August 27, 1830.--Expired Count Lewis Segur, ET. 77. He was one of the most elegant and popular writers of the present day, as his works, which are very numerous, bear evidence. M. de Segur served in the American war of Independence under La Fayette, was afterwards sent ambassador to Russia, and subsequently to Prussia, at the beginning of the Revolution; he contrived to escape the Guillotine, although he was proscribed, and retired into complete seclusion, from which he was drawn by Napoleon when he assumed the helm of affairs. He enjoyed the favour and confidence of the Emperor to the last. After the restoration, he again went into retirement, but in 1818, was called to the Chamber of Peers by M. de Cazes. He has left a son, General Philip de Segur, the heir of his talents and his liberal opinions, and whose literary merits have already obtained him a seat in the French Academy. Sunday, August 28. THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. Lessons for the Day.-2nd book of Kings, 19 ch. Morn.-2nd book of Kings, 23 ch. Evening. August 28, 1645.-Died Grotius. This wise Hollander was the friend of the famous Barnaveldt, and took part with him in the Arminian dispute. Implicated in the disgrace of Barnaveldt, he was condemned to perpetual imprisonment in the castle of Louvestein, from which he was released by the ingenious contrivance of his wife. She sent him a chest full of books, and he was afterwards carried in the chest from his prison. He went to France, and there wrote his famous treatise on War and Peace; but as he did not flatter Cardinal Richelieu, he found himself neglected, and was obliged to quit France for Sweden, where he was honoured by the Queen with the title of Am. bassador. It is a question among historians, whether Grotius was a Catholic or Protestant. In addition to his treatise De Jure Belli et Pacis, he wrote a religious work called "The Christian's Vade Mecum." His Latin History of the Republic, from the death of Philip the Second to 1609, is generally esteemed. Monday, August 29. St. Merri, abb. High Water, 42m aft 5 Morn-6m after 6 Aftern. August 29, 1526.-Louis the Second, King of Bohemia and Hungary, defeated at the Battle of Mohats, by Sultan Soliman the Second. Louis, endeavouring to save himself after the defeat, fell into a marsh, where he was drowned. Soliman then overran the whole of Hungary, with more than 200,000 men. His soldiers returned, loaded with spoil, to Adrianople. As Louis left no issue, the Emperor Ferdinand the First, his brother-inlaw, became master of the two kingdoms of Bohe mia and Hungary, which have since been vested in the House of Austria. Part 48, enlarged to six numbers, will be ready on Magazine Day- Also, No 5 of the ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SCRAP BOOKS. Illustrated Article. NARRATION OF A PINT BOTTLE. For the Olio. I could tell many a tale Since first had my birth: It was not always my lot to be a body without a spirit; and though I am now thrown aside as useless, I may, in some hereafter state, be resuscitated, and pass through an ordeal of usefulness, subservient to generations that will succeed those which are, like shadows, passing away. Without arrogating to myself a singular presumption in narrating parts of my history, and without violating the rules of necrological talebearers, I select those portions only which I consider will justify my appearance, since I confidently assert, that I have been held up to many a friendly notice for a sight of the "bee's wing," with unusual pleasure. If I may claim the privilege of having a poetical taste, I might say, that, like a flower, I VOL. VIII, G a See page 99 was blown into existence. Whether by "bottle conjuror," or not, it is unnecessary to say. But it is pretty clear that, even in my earliest transitions, I partook something of the nature of a "bottle imp;" and I was, therefore, removed from the glass-house in which I first obtained an embryo, and destined, like Hamlet's ghost, "for a term," to make my appearance in the character of a slender Pint,-empty as a vapour, possessing rather a long neck, a thick bottom, and an unalterable strait stomach, capable of retaining many "drops of comfort" in measurable liquid. The first moist element I tasted was water,fire, air and earth I had passed through. Others, it might be anticipated, of the same family were united in common fellowship with me on my first adventure from the glass-house to the wine cellar; but let them speak for themselves, if so disposed, inasmuch as their experience differs from mine. I dictate only in the first person singular, and hope to avoid any reflections having a tendency to bring me, or my contemporaneous associates into disrepute. 203 By the busy hum of "wine! wine! wine!" I discovered that I was intended to be bottled off, filled, corked down, and laid on side in silent, cool and dark pressure, choked up to my neck, with a dash of whitening on my breast, and placed in a layer of sawdust in a darksome bin. Oh! what a wine vault was this under-treasured place! And I was surprised to hear my superiors laugh and chat by the influence which the wine they drank out of large, long glasses, produced. They were merry indeed, and very sly in their regality, as they sate on the upturned vats and smoked each other; and I was reconciled to my doom, when I learnt that I was filled with port wine of the same quality which kept them so cheerful. Thus, in company with many dozens of the like kindred, I was destined to lie, till, like an old coin, I should become incrusted, and this happened to exceed the space of seven years. Surely, it was a happy release of apprenticeship when I was, one morning, raised out of the civic cellar, by a notorious wine-taster that frequently swallowed more than he purchased. As a little one of the "very particular," without being then opened, I was conveyed to his house, for the good of a love-sick young lady visiting there, and a mixture of bark was suggested, but abandoned. The corkscrew, like that of an inquisitor, or a twinge of the gout, pierced my cork head, and forth the life-blood bubbled into a decanter held gingerly by an elderly, abstemious looking maiden aunt, that kept the cellar keys and her brother's bachelor house in trim order. "Now, my dear Letty!" said she, as she gurgled the beads round the surface of the wine-glass, and giving it her niece to drink, she took another herself, with a prudish sip. At this interim, the young huzzar officer who had made such an impression on Letitia's heart entered, and joined in the draught. I was removed, and, sans ceremonie, turned heels uppermost, and suspended by my neck in a gloomy bottle-rack, with quarts and pints and other "fragments dire." To be brief in detail, I suffered many ups and downs-shaken even to the rattles with noisy shot, and drenched to the skin with filtering water, and rubbed to my vitals with a bristling brushfilled with coffin-oil-at another with sand. Sold at one time to a bottlemerchant-found at another time with a candle in a chum-room in the Bench. Like a lying-in lady, I was often ham pered in the straw, and made a great litter about me. Strung by the neck, and carried by a charity boy into the fields for holding tittlebats,—then exchanged for marbles, and riding in an old woman's pocket into jail, to administer comfort to her condemned son. Indeed I had many hairbreadth escapes, changes and chances-" one bottle, in his time, plays many parts." I was picked up in haste at "Wapping Old Stairs," and a jolly captain, for want of a better, made me his temporary pocket-pistol, with a pint of what he called the "real." When arrived in the "Gulf of Florida," and my last drop was shed into his gulp, he stopped me with the latitude and longitude, and dropped me into the gigantic arms of the ocean-" May we ne'er want a friend, nor a bottle to give him." After having been driven by wind and wave, and passing, like Jonah, three days and nights in the carcase of a whale, I was relieved by a Greenlander, who discovering me in his anatomical process, and considering me a supernatural water spirit of the blue bottle genera, flung me, fearfully, into the sea again; where I wandered to and fro till picked up on the Sussex coast by a smuggler. Taking a fancy to me, he withdrew my paper contents, and singing "All's well!" on perusing them, buoyed me even to chocking with pure spirit," which ever and anon he drank. By my assistance, in the dark seas, he felt an enthusiastic vein of fortitude. Becoming a companion with him, I was no sooner emptied than replenished. Even his wife and children sought his jerkin pocket to take a draught, when seated jollily smoking by the evening fire-the blast assailing every reachable object very uncourteously. I well remember the hollow night, as I lay dozing with this family, that the preventive service men entered the illicit hut, and drawing their cutlasses terrified the indwellers, but captured them not without the sternest resistance, for their surly and lion-like mastiff took the largest share in the conflict: he strode to one of the officers' necks, and gnarling his throat, pinned him down till he ceased to breathe. Another officer drew his pistol and shot the dog. The smuggler was brought to justice. With other things about his person, I was condemned, but afterwards given to a poor Irish woman travelling to London. Like Mount Etna, or Vesuvius, I held the crater-and was left, in part to the 66 for lodging, at St. Giles's. Being in another's employ, I ran a varied muck, -often under a washing-woman's apron corner house"-for geneva, rum, whiskey, peppermint, or shrub. More than once I held eye-water, vine gar, table-beer, capers. Once I witnessed a fight in a prize ring, and was the Fidus Ascates of the bottle-holder, a famous fellow for "black strap ;"and many a drop did I shed on the champion's puffed eyelid, after the lance had slit it into steaked slices. ܙ܂ ness. The wine merchant sent me with an appearance of age (and it is true, I did begin to be really old in some respects,) to an innkeeper's in Woolwich, which drew my end nearer than any of my former employments. A party of watermen met to celebrate a Regatta. Drinking several bottles dry-the last -a little one - was called up for a parting. It was my turn-I obeyedand like a youth in the militia, I was drawn up for a substitute. On the intoxicated party leaving the house, one This brought me into the society of a of them in bravado, tossed me in the Tattersall better-a good natured soul, air. I fell on a glass conservatory with with a bottle nose, and I rested for a a tremendous crash. My career was long period. Falling off his favourite thus abruptly and dishonourably closed, filly when coursing, he came in first not having wilfully offended any one. at the death. His stock was submitted To many I gave the Elixir of Life-the to the hammer; I was purchased, with Balm of Gilead. To others, I contriothers, by a clergyman, and received buted, unconsciously, to hasten their another respite in his cellar. His lady, ruin, representing too truly, Farquas all ladies should be, was very bene- har's Comedy of "Love in a Bottle." volent, and spent much of her time and But as I was only glass, and to glass money in usefulness. A poor woman I am returned, may all gather a in the village lay sick of a fever; the "Mysterie and Moralitie" by my bitmedical attendant prescribed wine to terness, and be assured that I shall, her succour. This was for me an op- like them, be gathered to my fathers; portune visit. I recollect the kind- and, whatever liquors my successors hearted lady, with tears of compassion, may contain, let it be remembered, they will be for the use, and not abuse, of the living. At this moment, an inge laid me gently in a basket, and like a ministering angel stepped into the room of the dying woman. This was an af- nious urchin is imitating the voice of fecting scene. The spectre-looking, but a jackdaw with horsehair drawn across mild creature was bolstered recumbently my "neck," and my "extremities” are in her bed; her weeping children, of stuck on a high wall, surrounding the both sexes, were sitting and kneeling very spot in which my beauty was round her; her husband, old and grey, slain, to ward off the limbs of climbing in a retired part of the room, leaned on marauders, with the following notice the table, with a book before him, in an placed just above me on a board,— anxious praying attitude. The good "Steel traps and spring guns set here." a bottle, by way of caution to Dram P. Samaritan lady, after half filling the Would this not be a practical motto for glass, offered to the patient's lips the liquid,-but, alas! the blessing arrived Drinkers?" too late, strength departed-peace was hand, and silence crowned the at Corpse in solemn radiancy. What THE FATE OF SERJEANT THIN. portion that remained in me was drank 4 new original Ballad, founded on Fact. at the funeral. Put into the cupboard Weep for the fate of Serjeant Thin, as an evidence of kindness, I was A man of a desperate courage was he, shortly filled with cream and presented More he rejoiced in the battle's din, at the vicarage; then, forwarded to town with "mixed pickle," accompa nied by a relation with a much larger Than in all the mess-room revelry; mouth, in whose society I nearly lost Serjeant Thin was stern and tall, my life by the carelessness of a cat. My rare delicacies were soon devoured -and a youth appointed me his bottle Companion to hold his horse-leeches. were released. I was once more racked and chosen with the rest of my tribe to pass the "cork harbour," and with "Old Port," I retired, into quiet dark |