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amined on a charge of assaulting another Chinese sailor. The complainant was examined according to the customs of his country; a Chinese saucer being given to him, and another to the interpreter, they both advanced towards the window, directed their eyes to heaven, and repeated in their own tongue the following words:" In the face of God I break

this saucer, if it comes together again China man has told a lie, and expects not to live five days; if it remains asunder China man has told the truth, and escapes the vengeance of the Almighty." They then smashed the saucers in pieces on the floor, and returned to their places

to be examined.

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For as yourselves your empires fall, And every kingdom hath a grave

Thus those celestial fires,

Though seeming mute,
The fallacy of our desires
And all the pride of life confute.

For they have watched since first
The world had birth.

And found sin in itself accursed,
And nothing permanent on earth.

Habington.

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Twilight ends.

November 23.

FESTIVAL OF ST. CLEMENT. Hatters have a tradition that while St.

Clement was fleeing from his persecut rs his feet became blistered, and to afford him relief he was compelled to put wool between his sandals and the soles of his feet. On continuing his journey, the wool, by the perspiration, motion, and pressure of the feet, assumed a uniformly compact substance, which has since been denominated felt. When he afterwards settled at Rome, it is said, he improved the discovery; and from this circumstance has been dated the origin of felting. Hatters in Ireland, and other Catholic countries, still hold their festival on St. Clement's day.

Hats are first mentioned in History at the time when Charles VII. made his triumphant entry into Rouen, in the year 1449. In F. Daniel's account of that splendid wageant, he says, that the prince

astonished the whole city by appearing in a hat lined with red silk, and surmounted by a plume of feathers; from this period their general use is dated, and henceforward they gradually took place of the chaperoons and hoods, that had been worn before. In process of time, from the laity, the clergy also took this part of the habit; but it was looked upon as a great abuse, and several regulations were published, forbidding any priest or religious person to appear abroad in a hat without coronets, and enjoining them to keep to the use of chaperoons made of black cloth with decent coronets; if they were poor, they were at least to have coronets fastened to their hats, and this upon penalty of suspension and excommunication. Indeed, the use of hats is said to have been of a longer standing among the ecclesiastics of Brittany by two hundred years, and especially among the canons; but these were no other than a kind of cap, from which arose the square caps worn in colleges and public schools. Labinian observes, that a bishop of Dol in the 12th century, zealous for good order, allowed the canons alone to wear such hats, enjoining, that if any other person came with them to church, divine service should be immediately suspended. It appears that the art of manufacturing felt hats was known in Spain and Holland, previous to its introduction into England, in the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII.; and in the second year of the reign of James I. the felt-makers of London became a corporation, with a grant of many privileges.

Felting is the union of animal hair with wool in such a manner as to produce a firm compact substance.

The manufacture of hats, as an article of commerce, prevailed greatly in France, and exports were made to England, Spain, Italy, and Germany; but England has ultimately become the grand mart for hats.*

LAW PLEASANTRIES

I am a joker by birth, and look upon every thing in the world as capable of affording fun. The Law Reports, if rightly understood, are, in fact, mere supplements to Joe Miller. I do not care what they are, ancient or modern, Coke or Vesey, Law or equity, you may extract

The Hat-maker's Manual, 1829, 18mo.

fun from all. The rules as to the legal measure of abuse which you may give a person may exemplify. To say to a man,

You enchanted my bull," Sid. 424, to say, "Thou art a witch," or that a person "bewitched my husband to death," Cro. Eliz. 312, is clearly actionable. Quære, Whether it be not also actionable to say to or of a young lady, "You enchanted me," or "She enchanted me," or, as the case may be, "She enchanted my brother, my dog," &c., or "She's a bewitching creature, or to put the exact point, "She's quite bewitched poor Tom."

On the other hand, you may say if you please of another, "That he is a great rogue, and deserves to be hanged as well as G. who was hanged at Newgate;" because this is a mere expression of opinion; and perhaps you might think that G. did not deserve hanging.-T. Jones, 157. So also you may say of any Mr. Smith, that you know, "Mr. Smith struck his cook on the head with a cleaver, and cleaved his head; the one lay on the one side, and the other on the other;" because it is only to be inferred that thereby the cook of Mr. Smith died, and this in the reported case was not averred, Cro. Jac. 181. A fortiori, you may say, Smith threw his wife into the Thames, and she never came up again;" or "Mr. Smith cut off Tom's head, and walked with it to Worcester;" because this is all inference; and his cook, wife, or Tom, as the case may be, for all that the Court knows, may be still alive.

"Mr.

Wills and testaments are a great source of fun. There is a case in 6 Vesey, p. 194, Townley v. Bedwell, in which the Lord Chancellor (Eldon) held that the trust of real and personal estate by will, for the purpose of establishing a Botanical Garden, was void, for a rather singular reason, as it appears in the report, viz. because the testator expressed that "he trusted it would be a public benefit!" The Solicitor-General (Sir William Grant) and Mr. Romilly compared it to the case of a gift of a piece of land for the purpose of erecting monuments of the naval victories of this country. The Lord Chancellor said in that case the heir might pull them down, and in this he might destroy the garden; but his Lordship thought, upon the expression of the testator, that "he trusted it would be a public benefit," he might venture to declare it void! The reason was, of course, that it was within the statutes of mortmain.

In the case of Isaac v. Gompertz, cited 7 Ves. 61, Lord Thurlow declared an annuity given for the support and maintenance of the Jewish Synagogue in Magpie Alley to be void,-a highly proper decree. A similar fate was awarded to a bequest for the dissemination of Baxter's Call to the Unconverted, 7 Vess. 52.

Swinburne, part 4. sect. 6, art. 2, mentions a bequest of a legacy to a person, on condition of his drinking up all the water in the sea; and it was held that, as this condition "could not be performed," it was void. The condition "to go to Rome in a day," which Blackstone mentions in his Commentaries as void because impossible to be performed, may soon, perhaps, cease to be so, and consequently become good, if rail-roads are introduced upon the Continent.

In 1 Rol. Ab. 45, it appears that in the country, when men pass cattle, it is usual to say, "God bless them!" otherwise they are taken for witches. This reminds me of the salutation in Bohemia, where, if you meet a peasant, you pass for a heathen unless you say to him, "Blessed be the Lord!" or, in case he salutes you thus, unless you answer, "In eternity,

Amen!"

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In Vanity,

The German boasts little; the Englishman despises all other nations; the Frenchman flatters every body; the Italian estimates cautiously; the Spaniard is indifferent.

In Euting and Drinking,

The German is a drunkard; the Englishman liberally profuse; the Frenchman delicate; the Italian moderate; the Spaniard penurious.

In Offending and Doing Good,

The German is inactive; the Englishman does both without consideration; the Italian is prompt in beneficence, but vindictive; the Spaniard indifferent. In Speaking,

The German and French speak badly, but write well; the Englishman speaks and writes well; the Italian speaks well, writes much and well; the Spaniard speaks little, but writes well.

In Address,

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Death, why so fast ?-pray stop your hand,
And let my glass run out its sand :-
As neither Death nor Time will stay,
Let us implore the present day.
Why start you at the skeleton?
"Tis your picture which you shun;
Alive, it did resemble thee,

And thou, when dead, like that shall be :-
But tho' Death must have his will,
Yet old Time prolongs the date.
Till the measure we shall fill,

That's allotted us by Fate ;-
When that's done, then Time and Death
Both agree to take our breath!

The miller caused figures of prophets and other scripture characters, with verses from scripture, to be painted without and within-side his summer-shelter; these are nearly obscured by time and weather, and the twenty pounds a year for maintaining them go nobody can tell where.

November 24.

SECOND SIGHT.

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Dr. Johnson, who, a few years before his death, visited Scotland, the country in which a belief in its existence still prevails, has superseded every othet account of it by what he has left to us on the subject. He says

"We should have had little claim to the praise of curiosity, if we had not endeavoured with particular attention to examine the question of the second sight. Of an opinion received for centuries by a whole nation, and supposed to be confirmed through its whole descent by a series of successive facts, it is desirable that the truth should be established, or the fallacy detected.

"The second sight is an impression made either by the mind upon the eye, or by the eye upon the mind, by which things distant or future are perceived, and seen as if they were present. A man on a journey, far from home, falls from his horse; another, who is perhaps a

work about the house, sees him bleeding on the ground, commonly with a landscape of the place where the accident befals him.. Another seer, driving home his cattle, or wandering in idleness, or musing in the sunshine, is suddenly surprised by the appearance of a bridal ceremony, or funeral procession, and counts the mourners or attendants, of whom, if he knows them, he relates the names, if he knows them not, he can de scribe the dresses. Things distant are seet at the instant when they happen. Of things future I know not that there is any rul for determining the time between the sight and the event.

"This receptive faculty, for power it cannot be called, is neither voluntary nor constant. The appearances have no dependence upon choice: they cannot be summoned, detained, or recalled. The impression is sudden, and the effect often painful. By the term second sight seems to be meant a mode of seeing superadded to that which nature generally bestows. In the Earse it is called Taisch; which signifies likewise a spectre or a vision. I know not, nor is it likely that the Highlanders ever examined, whether by Taisch, used for second sight, they mean the power of seeing or the thing seen.

"I do not find it to be true, as it is reported, that to the second sight nothing

is presented but phantoms of evil. Good seems to have the same proportion in those vision ry scenes as it obtains in real life.

"That they should often see death is to be expected, because death is an event frequent and important. But they see likewise more pleasing incidents. A gentleman told me, that when he had once gone far from his own island, one of his laboring servants predicted his return, and described the livery of his attendant, which he had never worn at home; and which had been, without any previous design, occasionally given him. "It is the common talk of the Lowland Scots, that the notion of second sight is wearing away with other superstitions ; and that its reality is no longer supposed but by the grossest people. How far its prevalence ever extended, or what ground it has lost, I know not. The Highlanders of all degrees, whether of rank or understanding, universally admit it, except the ministers, who universally deny it, and are suspected to deny it in consequence of a system, against conviction. One of them honestly told me that he came to Sky with a resolution not to believe it.

"Strong reasons for incredulity will readily occur. This faculty of seeing things out of sight is local, and commonly useless. It is a breach of the common order of things, without any visible reason or perceptible benefit. It is ascribed only to a people very little enlightened; and among them, for the most part, to the mean and ignorant.

"To the confidence of these objections it may be replied, that by presuming to determine what is fit, and what is beneficial, they presuppose more knowledge of the universal system than man has attained, and therefore depend upon principles too complicated and extensive for our comprehension; and that there can be no security in the consequence, when the premises are not understood; that the second sight is only wonderful because it is rare, for, considered in itself, it involves no more difficulty than dreams, or perhaps than the regular exercises of the cogitative faculty; that a general opinion of communicative impulses, or visionary representations, has prevailed in all ages and all nations; that particular instances have been given, with such evidence as neither Bacon ror Boyle has Deen able to resist; that sudden impressions, which the event has verified, have

been felt by more than own or publish them; that the second sight of the Hebrides implies only the local frequency of a power which is nowhere totally unknown; and that, where we are unable to decide by antecedent reason, we must be content to yield to the force of testimony.

"By pretension to second sight, no profit was ever sought or gained. It is an involuntary affection, in which neither hope nor fear is known to have any part. Those who profess to feel it do not boast of it as a privilege, nor are cons!dered by others as advantageously distinguished. They have no temptation to feign, and their hearers have no motive to encourage the imposture.

"To talk with any of these seers is not easy. There is one living in Sky, with whom we would have gladly conversed; but he was very gross and ignorant, and knew no English. The proportion in these countries of the poor to the rich is such, that, if we suppose the quality to be accidental, it can rarely happen to a man of education; and yet on such men it has sometimes fallen. There is now a second sighted gentleman in the Highlands, who complains of the terrors to which he is exposed.

"The foresight of the seers is no always prescience; they are impressed with images, of which the event only shows them the meaning. They tell what they have seen to others, who are at that time not more knowing than themselves, but may become at last very adequate witnesses, by comparing the narrative with its verification.

"To collect sufficient testimonies for

the satisfaction of the public or ourselves, would have required more time than we could bestow. There is against it, the seeming analogy of things confusedly seen and little understood; and for it, the indistinct cry of national persuasion, which may perhaps be resolved at last into prejudice and tradition." Dr. Johnson concludes with observing,—“I never could advance my curiosity to conviction; but came away, at last, only willing to believe."

Rowlands, in his "Mona Antiqua restaurata," says, "The magic of the druids, or one part of it, seems to have remained among the Britons, even after their conversion to Christianity, and is called Tuish in Scotland; which is a way of predicting by a sort of vision they call second sight;

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