the "human form divine," by thatching their pumpkins with black-hued chimney-cans! MAJOR.-I had almost forgotten to introduce to you my old friend, Captain Mackinnon of the Royal Navy.

LAIRD.-Guid guide us, man, has the puir body been standing at the Shanty door, in a' this plump o' rain?

York, reaches only to twenty-five years; some years it runs up to thirty.

"A few instances which have come under my own knowledge, show such utter disregard of common prudence and common sense, in reference to health, that I can not avoid mentioning them, in the hope that my friends in America may read and profit by these home-truths. A beautiful and intelligent, but rather faded American lady of twenty-six years of age, was com plaining bitterly of the infirm health of herself and her little son, about nine years old. In the

MAJOR.-Calm yourself, good Laird! I allude not to the Captain's corpus, but to the volume which he has recently launched, and which is named "Atlantic and Trans-At-course of a long conversation, it transpired that lantic."

LAIRD. Is the skipper a freend o' yours? MAJOR. He is. I met him in Antigua, some years ago, and in his book he gives a most graphic amount of a hurricane which devastated that island at the period of his visit.

DOCTOR.-I have read the Captain's production with considerable pleasure. He is a close observer and an accurate describer, though I think he is overly partial to our neighbour, brother Jonathan.

MAJOR.-Perhaps he is. Mackinnon is a warm-hearted fellow, and having received much kindness and hospitality in America, naturally speaks well of his entertainers. However, he never conceals the truth when it falls under his ken, as witness the following passage. Having asked the question why a greater mortality should prevail in the United States than in England, he observes :

she rarely went out of doors, never solely for exercise. Her rooms in winter were not suffered to be at a lower temperature than 70, and they were often above 90°. She was in the habit of eating a hearty meat breakfast; meat again for luncheon; and a third time at dinner. If by any chance she took a walk, either during wet wea ther or dry, she had nothing to protect her feet but light and thin shoes, such as an Englishwoman would be considered almost insane to appear abroad in. Who can wonder at her delicate health, or faded beauty?

666

But your little boy,' said I, what sort of a life does he lead to make him so tender ?' "I fear to let him out at all,' she replied, 'he is so delicate; and his appetite is quite gone.' "Do you, then,' pursued I, 'keep him all day in this stifling stove heat?'

"What else can I do?' she ejaculated with a sigh.

"As I had previously seen this young urchin play a tolerable knife-and-fork when his mother was absent, I determined to watch him narrowly, and examine his diet. I had not long to wait; "No stranger landing in New York, can fail to for on the succeeding day, I peeped into the be painfully struck by the pale, wan, slight, and room where luncheon was prepared, and perceiv delicate appearance of both men and women. Af-ed the "tender chicken" regale himself with the ter residing some time in the country, and acquir ing a knowledge of their habits, instead of being surprised that so many of them die prematurely, one is astonished that they manage to live as long as they do, or look so well.

following dainties, after he had first looked care fully round to see that the coast was clear. Taking up a small pitcher, he poured some molasses into a plate, then cut a large slice of butter, and

mixed it well with the molasses.

"You nasty little beast!' exclaimed I to my self; that is a capital receipt for bile, indigestion, and other complaints of the stomach.'

overcome with anger and nausea, and rushed out of the room to inform his mother. To my intense astonishment she was not at all surprised, but ap peared to consider the exploit as a matter of

"In a lecture recently delivered in New York by Dr. Fitch, it is mentioned, as a striking fact, that in the States only four out of every hundred individuals live to the age of sixty. In England, however, he asserts that seven out of every hun- bout the table with an anxious eye. Suddenly he Seizing a spoon with one hand, he looked a dred attain that age. Still, though the climate in pounced upon some pickles, and having amalgathe latter country is warmer, and more tempe- mated them with the other ingredients, he comrate, it is much damper, and has all those atmos-menced eating this hideous mess. I was quite pherical and other conditions which contribute to produce an immense amount of consumption. The people are so confined and closely packedmillions live so poorly, and in such miserable habitations-that a far greater tendency to the above disease exists in England than in America. Why then should a greater mortality prevail in the United States? The reason is to be found in the different habits of the people. In England, the experience of the old is reverently regarded, and taken as a guide; while in America, experience is but little estimated, and the young consider themselves more knowing than their fathers. The result is, that they often find a fool for a teacher, and die prematurely for their presumption.

"The average of human life in the city of New

course.

"This is, perhaps, an exaggerated example of the great error in diet prevalent at New York. It can not, however, be denied-indeed the citi zens themselves admit it-that life in this city is materially shortened by too full a diet, especially of animal food, and the neglect of fresh air and

exercise."

DOCTOR.-We hear a great deal about the almost prudish modesty of the daughters of the Model Republic. The Captain gives us a droll illustration of the same, which occurred

at the table of a fashionable hotel in Wash- so on downward, until his premises round the ington:base of the house were swarming with magnificent grunters.

"A very beautiful young woman, seated near the top of one of the long dinner tables, suddenly commenced a conversation with another young lady on the opposite side, who was divided from her by several sitters. She was forced to elevate her voice into a scream, to drown the clatter of waiters, knives and forks, &c.

After a discordant dialogue of some minutes' duration, perfectly audible to the whole room, she turned suddenly to the subject of matrimony.

"As for me,' she screamed, as for me, I won't even look at any man (I don't care who he is) over the age of twenty-three. Oh, my!'

"She then subsided into silence; and I could not avoid looking with interest on that expressive, innocent, and beautiful countenance. In repose, she seemed a perfect angel: but the moment her exquisite little mouth opened, and the delicate coral lips parted, what a sound! The illusion was dispelled, and the fable of the peacock sing ing, was forcibly recalled to my mind."

lowed. In a few years he had amassed a consi"Money came in apace; and fame soon folderable sum, and his business had increased so much, that he had several acres of pig-styes, filled with fat and contented grunters. Alas, for all porcine greatness! The horrible odour of his boarders became unbearable. The neighbours grumbled; then loudly complained; and lastly, Our enterprising pig

flew into a violent rage.

boarder was indicted for a nuisance. His enemies prevailed, and this unique and luxurious establishment was broken up forever.

"He had, however, cleared a large fortune.'" LAIRD. I am sorry to break up the sederunt, but I must be off to Toronto. Rax me my hat, Doctor.

MAJOR-What is in the wind now? LAIRD.-Oh, I promised to gang wi' Clarke, to hear Clirehugh to-night.

MAJOR.-Clirehugh, pray who may he be? LAIRD. A musician, last frae New York, but a son o' Auld Reekie. They tell me that he is a graun ballad singer, and that after puir Wilson, few can haud the candle to him in "My wife has ta'en the gee" and " The Laird o' Cockpen."

MAJOR. Of all bipeds, the Yankee is the most prolific in resources. Place him in whatever situation you please, no matter how untoward or disheartening it may be, he will contrive to make the two ends meet, and have something to spare. If ever the problem of how to manufacture a silk purse out of a sow's DOCTOR.-Wait a moment and I shall bear ear is to be solved, Jonathan is the man by you company. I am desirous to hear the tone whom the feat will be accomplished. Jour-of these same minstrels for more reasons than neying by railroad from New York to Washington, the attention of Captain Mackinnon hugh immortalized in Guy Mannering as the was bespoken by one of his fellow-passengers, host of the tavern where the Pleydell and his when the following colloquy ensued:convivial confrères used to hold their high "Do you see that large, many-storied house?' jerks. inquired he.

་

"Yes,' I replied. Who could help taking notice of so huge a pile of building?'

"Well,' continued he, there is a story attached to that house, which gives a good example of Yankee 'cuteness.'

"Let me hear it by all means,' returned I. "Seating himself on a large stone, he related the following story, which I give verbatim.

666

one. He is a lincal descendant of the Clire

MAJOR.-Good night, then, and
"Joy be wi' you a'!"

COLONIAL CHIT-CHAT.

CANADIAN PARLIAMENT.

No public measure of special importance has Some years ago, a 'cute Yankee rented that introduced a bill to amend the laws relating to passed the House since our last. Mr. Hincks house, and set up a distillery. After a year or the University of Toronto, by separating its two he became dissatisfied with his profits, which did not exceed ten per cent. This he regarded as functions as a University from those assigned a very poor return, hardly worth consideration. to it as a College, and by making better So many others were engaged in the same trade, and so much competition existed, that he clearly perceived his gains were more likely to diminish than to increase.

promise for the management of the endowment thereof, and that of Upper Canada Collegesecond reading in a fortnight. Mr. Morin brought forward a measure to extend the elective franchise, and provide a system for the registration of voters.

INCORPORATION OF VILLAGES.

The following places have been proclaimed under the Municipal Corporations Act of Upper Canada, as Incorporated Villages, to take effect from the first Monday in January next, when the first election will be held in each, viz:

"His arrangements were capital. Squeakers, Brampton, in the Township of Chinguacousy, he placed in the garret; porkers, next floor; and' and County of Peel, one of the United Counties

Trenton, (heretofore known by the names of Annwood and Trentport,) situated partly in the Township of Sidney in the county of Hastings, and partly in the Township of Murray, in the County of Northumberland, one of the United street in Hamilton, from pure want and Counties of Northumberland and Durham. Pro- exhaustion. On the inquest, her husband clamation dated 25th September, 1852. Trenton stated that the last money he had, he spent as Incorporated, to be annexed to and form part on the preceding evening in purchasing bread of the County of Hastings. The Sheriff of the for his family. The heartless conduct of those County of Hastings, to be the Returning Officer, Irish landlords who expatriate their helpless for first Election: paupers, to die in foreign lands, cannot be too strongly reprobated.

The City of Toronto, two members.............
The Western Towns, comprising Goderich,
Chatham, London, St. Thomas and Wood-
stock, one member

The Niagara Towns, comprising Simcoe, Ni-
agara, St. Catherines and Cayuga, one
member......

The Brant Towns, comprising Brantford, Paris,
Galt, Guelph and Berlin, one member......
The City of Hamilton and the Town of Dun-

das, one member for both ....

The Lake Towns, comprising Belleville, Cobourg, Port Hope and Peterborough, one member......

The City of Kingston and the Town of Picton,
one member for both

The River Towns, comprising Brockvilie,
Prescott and Cornwall, one member.......
The Towns of Bytown and Perth, one member
for both.....

1

1

1 2

DEATH OF THE GREAT DUKE.

are collecting the minutest details of the closing

scene.

attempt any thing like a tribute to the memory of the deceased, is a task from which we shrink: the Death has conquered the hitherto invincible- very ablest and most practiced pens in England the great Duke, the Iron Duke, the Duke, as men are already at work in framing new chronicles of were wont emphatically and most appropriately his life; the most sagacious minds are elucidating to call him. And we looked for this intelligence his character; the most industrious of reporters to come upon us speedily, for Death stole no march upon him who never was taken by surprise; and he knew, and we all knew, that his career was For gossiping particulars of the Duke's death drawing to a close; his work was done. Never- we make no place. Happily there was no excitetheless, the sensation created by this event has ment or curiosity for incessant bulletins; the been profound at home, and will be profound in public was at the same moment made acquainted every quarter of the globe, wherever British men with his illness and his decease. He breathed his have been accustomed to pronounce the name of last on the afternoon of Tuesday, the 14th of Wellington with fond and unquestioning reverence. September, afrer a brief succession of epileptic Whether dwellers in populous cities or amid the fits, to which of late years he had been subject, sparse inhabitants of rural districts, whether and to which his vigorous frame finally succumbed. broiling on the plains of Hindostan or ice-bound Until the morning of that day he had been in the Arctic seas, the tidings cannot reach indifferent enjoyment of his customary health; nor was there hearers. Grief or regret will scarcely be endangered, for the time was come; but insensible indeed must be the soul, in which emotions will not be stirred. To attempt to probe these, or to

at first any apprehension entertained that the end was so nigh. He was insensible for some hours before his death, and yielded up his valorous and loyal spirit, without a struggle or a sigh. By his

side were his second son, Lord Charles Wellesley, Lady Charles, a medical attendant, and a valet. The room wherein he died was a small one, in Walmer Castle, the habitual and favorite residence of the Duke during the autumnal months, and held by him in virtue of his ofe of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. It stands close to the seabeach, about a mile from Deal; facing it lie the Downs and the Goodwin Sands; from its windows, on a clear day, the coast of France is visible. It is picturesque from its age and associations, but somewhat dreary of aspect. None of the attributes of power and state and wealth and honour were around his Grace of Wellington. Walmer Castle is inconveniently small, and is furnished with exceeding plainness.

by the honours and enjoyments of peace and of age-the life of the Duke of Wellington stands alone in history. In him, at least, prosperity will trace a character superior to the highest and most abundant gifts of fortune. If the word "heroism” can be not unfairly applied to him, it is because he remained greater than his own posterity, and rose above the temptations by which other men of equal genius, but less self-government, have fallen below their destinies. His life has nothing to gain from the language of panegyric, which would compare his military exploits or his civil statesmanship with the prowess of an Alexander or a Cæsar, or with the astonishing career of him who saw his empire overthrown by the British General at Waterloo. They were the offspring of passion and of genius, flung from the volcanic

THE GREATNESS OF THE GREAT DUKE-WHEREIN depths of revolutions and of civil war to sweep

IT CONSISTED.

they indulged or employed. Unvanquished in the field, his sword was never drawn for territorial conquest, but for the independence of Europe and the salvation of his country. Raised by the universal gratitude of Europe and of this nation to the highest point of rank and power which a subject of the British monarchy could attain, he wore these dignities and he used that influence within the strictest limits of a subject's duty. No law was ever twisted to his will, no right was ever sacrificed by one hair's breadth for his agrandisement, There lived not a man either among his countrymen or his antagonists who could say that the great Duke had wronged him; for his entire existence was devoted to the cause of legal authority and regulated power. You seek in it in vain for those strokes of audacious enterprise which in other great captains, his rivals in fame, have won the prize of a crown or turned the fate of nations. But his whole career shines with the steady light of day. It has nothing to conceal, it has nothing to interpret by the flexible organs of history. Everything in it is manly, compact, and clear; shaped to one rule of public duty, animated by one passion-the love of England, and the service of the Crown.

with meteoric splendour across the earth, and to collapse in darkness before half the work of life Ir aught can lessen this day the grief of England was done. Their violence, their ambition, their upon the death of her greatest son, it is the recol- romantic existence, their reverses, and their crimes lection that the life which has just closed leaves will for ever fascinate the interest of mankind, no duty incomplete and no honour unbestowed. and constitute the secret of their fame, if not their The Duke of Wellington had exhausted nature greatness. To such attractions the life and and exhausted glory. His career was one un-character of the Duke of Wellington present no clouded longest day, filled from dawn to nightfall analogy, if he rose to scarce inferior renown, it with renowned actions, animated by unfailing was by none of the passions or the arts which energy in the public service, guided by unswerving principles of conduct and of statesmanship. He rose by a rapid series of achievements which none had surpassed to a position which no other man in this nation ever enjoyed. The place occupied by the Duke of Wellington in the councils of the country and in the life of England can no more be filled. There is none left in the army or the Senate to act and speak with the like authority. There is none with whom the valour and the worth of this nation were so incorporate. Yet, when we consider the fulness of his years and the abundance of his incessant services, we may learn to say with the Roman orator, "Satis diu vixisse dicito," since, being mortal, nothing could be added either to our veneration or to his fame. Nature herself had seemed for a time to expand her inexorable limits, and the infirmities of age to lay a lighter burden on that honoured head. Generations of men had passed away between the first exploits of his arms and the last counsels of his age, until, by a lot unexampled in history, the man who had played the most conspicuous part in the annals of more than half a century became the last survivor of his contemporaries, and carries with him to the grave all living memory of his own achievements. what a century, to what a country, to what achievements was that life successfully dedicated? For its prodigious duration-for the multiplicity of contemporary changes and events, far out-numbering the course of its days and years-for the invariable and unbroken stream of success which attended it from its commencement to its close, from the first flash of its triumphant valour in Indian war to that senatorial wisdom on which the Sovereign and the nation hung for counsel to its latest hours-for the unbending firmness of oharacter which bore alike all labour and all prosperity-and for unalterable attachment to the same objects, the same principles, the same duties, undisturbed by the passions of youth and unrelaxed

To

The Duke of Wellington lived, commanded, and governed in unconscious indifference or disdainful aversion to those common incentives of human action which are derived from the powers of imagination and of sentiment. He held them cheap, both in their weakness and in their strength. The force and weight of his character stooped to no such adventitious influences. He might have kindled more enthusiasm, especially in the early and doubtful days of his Peninsular career; but in his successful and triumphant pursuit of glory, her name never passed his lips, even in his addresses to his soldiers. His entire nature and character were moulded on reality. He lived to see things as they were. His acute glance and cool judgment pierced at once through the