8. Mulieres opulentæ surgite, and audite vocem meam. Post dies and SHE is walking out from her palace, accompanied by two of her ladies and her jester. Death having previously des poiled the motley personage of his habliments, and grotesquely decorated himself therewith, is forcibly dragging away the queen. The fool attempts ineffectually to protect her, whilst the female attendants join in the lamentations of their mistress. (To be Resumed.) WALKING HILLS. It will be scarcely believed that there are hills in France that are locomotive, and proceed every year a certain distance from the place they had stood in during the former; VOL. II.] [No. XI. they are now near the village of Opoetere, a mile distance from Maastice. They are formed of fine sand and are about fifty feet high; it may naturally be supposed that such considerable masses of matter are slow in their movements in proportion to their bulk, and the fact is, that they do not advance more than from ten to twelve feet yearly. The phenomenon was first observed about sixty years ago, and since that time they have passed over, in the direction from North to South, about twenty acres of land. Nothing can arrest the progress of these gigantic travellers; if they happen to meet trees in their way they seize them and oblige them to bear them company. The country folk, as may be well-supposed, do not much like the entry of such guests upon their lands, and therefore have endeavoured to check them by cutting a ditch across their path and turning into it the water of a neighbouring stream; but the hills were not to be stopped so easily; they proceeded directly into the ditch, and as they dammed up the new current of the water, it was obliged to retire into its former channel. Since they have discovered the inefficacy of their means, they even let the unwelcome visitants pursue their journey in peace, and they now quietly travel in a Northern direction, leaving void one portion of land as they occupy another. The marvellous in this phenomenon vanishes when it is known that the wind is the cause of it. The same thing takes place on the coast of Normandy, Britanny, Guienne, and Gascony, and indeed almost all places where there are sand hills. Such hills are a great injury to all lands upon which they settle, and if the proprietors neglect to arrest their progress, which is only to be done by skilful planting, their ruin, in all probability, ensues. Here there is no middle way, either vigorous measures must be adopted to repress the evil or patience collected to endure it. A community of benedictine monks in a district where such hills were common, were, in the last century, in consequence of their neglect, compelled to quit the monastery and take refuge elsewhere, for the hills having passed through a stream and over the walls of a church-yard, were beginning to press against those of the church itself, which they have actually since buried beneath them. A similar accident happened during the life-time of Montague. Several dwelling houses were buried beneath hills of this kind. The inhabitants, says the philosopher of Perigord, declare that the sea has made such rapid progress against them, that they have, within a short time, lost two miles of ground. The same is heaped into hills that move, and make inroads on the land. Not far from the town of St. Paul de Leon, in the department of the Coté du Nord, those sands have travelled a space of sixty-three miles since the middle of the seventeenth century, and they are now at no great distance from the town itself. "I have," says the author of a journey into the Finisterre department, seen from the high road leading to Le Neven, an immense sand hill hanging over and menacing the inhabitants of St. Paul, for whose safety I entertain the greatest apprehensions." Buffon likewise remarks, with respect to this district, that it seems to give credibility to what has been written, both by ancients and moderns, concerning the sand storms in the deserts of Africa, which are said to have swallowed up whole armies. ORIENTAL PETITION. THE following translation from the beautiful idiom of the oriental languages, not having been published on Hastings' trial, will be new to most of our readers. The murder of our Nuncaucar was more relied upon in the impeachment, than that of the supposed writer's husband, one of the native princes, said to have been strangled by order of Mr. Hastings. To the most mighty servant of the most powerful Prince George, King of England.-The lonely and humble slave of misery, comes praying for mercy to the father of children. Most mighty Sir,-May the blessings of God ever shine upon thee, may the sun of glory shine round thy head, may the gates of pleasure, plenty, and happiness, be ever open to thee and thine, may no sorrow distress thy days, may no grief disturb thy nights, may the pillow of peace kiss thy cheek, and the pleasure of imagination attend thy dreams, and when length of years shall make thee intirely engaged from all earthly joys, and the curtain of death shall gently close round thy last sleep of human existence, may the angels of thy God attend thy bed, and take care that the expiring lamp of thy life shall not receive one single blast to hasten its extinction.. Oh, hearken to the voice of distress, and grant the prayer of thy humble vassal; spare, oh spare, the father of my children, save the husband of my bed, my partner, my all that's dear. Consider, O mighty sir, that he did not become rich by iniquity, that what he possessed was the inheritance of the most noble and illustrious ancestors, who when the thunder of Great Britain was not heard on the plains of Hindostan, reaped their harvest in quiet, and enjoyed their patrimony unmolested. Remember thy own commandment, the commandment of Englishmen, that thou shalt not kill, and obey the orders of Heaven; give me back my husband, my Almas Ali Cawn, take all our wealth, strip us of our jewels and precious stones, of our gold and silver, but take not away the life of my husband. Innocence is seated on his brow, the milk of human kindness flows round his heart; let us go wander through the desarts; let us become tillers and labourers in those delightful spots, of which he was once lord and master; but spare, O mighty sir, spare his life; let not the instrument of death be lifted up against him, for he has committed no crime except having vast treasures; by gratitude we had them, though at present thou hast taken them by force. We will remember thee in our prayers, and forget we were ever rich and powerful. My children, the children of Almas Ali Cawn, and thy petitioner, for the life of him who gave them life-we beseech thee from the author of our existence-loveliness-by the tender mercies of the most enlightened souls of Englishmen, by the honour, the virtue, and the maternal feelings of thy most gracious queen, whose numerous offspring must be so dear to her, when the miserable wife, thy petitioner, beseeches thee to spare her husband's life, and restore him to her arms, thy God will reward thee, thy country will thank thee, and she who now petitions will ever pray for thee if thou grantest the prayer of thy humble vassal. This petition, it is said, was presented by the wife of Almas Ali Cawn, to governor Hastings, who, after he had read it, gave orders for Almas Ali Cawn to be strangled, which was immediately done, and his great wealth taken by Hastings. Independent Observer. RECEIPT TO MAKE A MODERN TRAGEDY. TAKE a brave hero and a villain, load one with all the virtues, and the other with all the vices that ever were in existence; jumble them well together, so that sometimes one, sometimes the other may be uppermost. Let the piece be well fermented with battles, and every now and then sprin-. kle over the whole a few scenes of love; let it all boil together for five acts, then let it stand three days to cool, and afterwards serve it up for the stage. LITERARY CONTRASTS. THE ultimate sale of the copy-right of Paradise Lost, produced to Milton's widow eight pounds; and Dryden received from Tonson two pounds, thirteen shillings, and ninepence, for every hundred lines of his poetry. In October 1812, the copy-right of Cowper's Poems was put to sale among the members of the trade, in thirty-two shares. Twenty of these shares were sold at £212 a share, including printed copies in quires to the amount of £82, which each purchaser was to take at a stipulated price, and twelve shares were retained in the hands of the proprietor. This work, consisting of two octavo volumes, was satisfactorily proved at the sale to nett £834 per annum. It had only two years of copy right, and yet this same copy right, with the printed copies, produced, estimating the twelve shares which were retained, at the same price as those which were sold, the sum of 67647. Expense of the last edition of Shakspeare's Works, in 21 volumes: The edition consisted of 1250 copies, making 21 volumes in octavo, and each copy was published in boards for eleven guineas: |