the change; and no wonder, seeing that he could almost boast of a body guard as bold as the bowmen of Robin Hood. His Indian friend speedily became a sort of foster-brother, and his tribe as faithful as the most attached tail of gillies that ever surrounded a Highland chieftain. Even the stupid kine lowed on finding themselves suddenly transported to a boundless range of the richest pasture, and, up to the date of the last advices, were improving rapidly in condition, and increasing in numbers. The little garden was smiling like a rose in the desert; grass, over-abundant, gradually giving way to thriving crops; and the kine so well satisfied with their gang, that herds and inclosures were alike unneeded to keep them from the corn. The Indians continued friendly and faithful, occasionally bringing presents of venison and other game, and were uniformly rewarded from the stores of a dairy overflowing with milk, butter, and cheese. Attached as the red man was to his own mode of life, he was at length induced, with his wife, to form part of the establis ment in the capacity of grieve or head shepherd-a duty he undertook the more cheerfully, as it still left him opportunities of meeting and communing with his friends, and reconnoitring the antlered denizens of the forest. Let us hope, therefore, that no untoward accident will occur to mar this beautiful picture of sylvan life; that the M'Dougal colony will wax stronger and stronger, till every section of the prairie is forced to yield tribute to the spade and the plough; and that future generations of the clan will be able to say for themselves, and impress upon their children,

Happy the man whose highest care A few paternal acres bound; Content to breathe his native air

In his own ground.

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,

Whose flocks supply him with attire:
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter fire.

Thus let me live unseen, unknown,
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie!'

Table Talk.

FOR THE OLIO.

WRESTLING.-Homer has treated us to an account of the Greek mode of wrestling, but he has evidently taken the license usually allowed to poets.

The wrestling of the Greeks, if we may judge from their bas-reliefs and coins, was neither elegant nor scientific: it appears to resemble the manner of the Switzers of the present age, who depend not upon the dextrous use of the legs, but endeavour to lift each other from the ground, when he who is lifted, may of course, be easily thrown on his back by the other.

***

WOMEN. Your cynic philosophers affect to speak contemptuously of women, but even the cold calculating Chancellor, he whom Pope justly styles the "wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind," has done them justice. A more elegant compliment, however, could not be paid them than that of Cornelius Agrippa, who, in his curious tract "De laudibus feminarum," thus speaks of the constancy of women:-When our Saviour rose from the dead, he appeared first to women, not to men; and it is also manifest that, after the death of Christ the men forsook the faith, but it has not been proved that the women ever abandoned the Christian religion. * * * Our Saviour was betrayed, sold, bought, accused, condemned, suffered, was crucified, and finally given to death by no others than by men. He was renounced by St. Peter, forsaken by the rest of his disciples, and was accompanied solely by women to the cross and to the tomb." Shall a quality for which we most prize the dog be overlooked in our own species?

*

*本*

HUMAN STATURE.-Were the human race constantly decreasing in stature as novelists and poets would have us believe, what a race of pigmies would the present generation be! In very large cities and towns, a decay of physical strength and a smallness of stature must be obvious, but this is not the case in the country. There are thousands in England at this day, who are little inferior in bodily strength to their barbarous ancestors, when they opposed the Roman invader, and the peasants of Italy; if they possess not their courage and spirit, they have frames as well knit as the soldiers of Cæsar's legions. Examine the defensive armour of the English, and you will find that not one suit in twenty is too large for a well-formed man of the present day. The skeletons which have been discovered at Pompeii are not of larger dimensions than those of the modern Italians. The huge bones found sometimes in this island are the remains of antediluvian animals, or,

perhaps, of the elephants brought hither by the Emperor Claudius. *** RETRIBUTION.-Those who hate cruelty will find consolation in the fact, that the inventors of barbarous punishments, and of instruments for the destruction of mankind, have been the victims of their inhuman contrivances. Philaris was roasted to death in the brazen bull, which his refined cruelty had prompted him to fabricate, to please a tyrant. Richard the First of England taught the French the use of the cross-bow, and was himself slain by a shot from that engine. The carcass of him who erected the gibbets of Montfaucon, was not long after suspended upon one of them; and, if I mistake not, the inventor of the "Maiden," a description of guillotine formerly used in Scotland, perished by his own invention.

***

ROMEO AND JULIET.-This play has ever been accounted among the best of Shakspeare's works. It is, however, we believe, not generally known, that it is founded on a tragedy of real life, that happened about the beginning of the fourteenth century. The story, with all its circumstances, is given us by an Italian novelist, named Bandello, as also by Gizolome da Corte, in his History of Verona. The young lover, as this historian relates, was called Romeo Montecchio, and the lady, Juliet Capello. Captain Breval, in his travels, relates that when he was at Verona he was shewn an old building, in which the tomb of these ill-fated lovers had formerly been broken up, and that he was informed by his guide in all the particulars of the history. The castle of Montecchio, situate between Vicenza and Verona, anciently belonged to the illustrious house of that name, that was the head of a faction against the Capellos. Our immortal bard has made that quarrel the subject of his affecting tragedy, and as the story is founded in truth, it will ever have that effect upon the mind, that no fiction, be it ever so highly wrought, can create.

WRITING." It is curious to observe how writing has had to struggle against power. At first, the feudal baron was ashamed of being able to write, and the signing his name was like putting on his armour, service to be done by an inferior; however, writing became general, and barons were obliged to learn to write in self-defence. The next stage was printing; it was long ungenteel to have printed a book, a kind of blemish on nobility, and indulged in

THE CHOLERA.-A resident at Paris thus describes the effects of the Cholera in that City:-"I have traversed a good portion of the City; it is difficult to describe it now. The Boulevards, formerly the promenade of the idlers and the fashionables, of the wealthy and the swindlers, are now thinly sprinkled with a few melancholy persons, walking as it were, in fear of the malady, of which every one is talking. No carriages, no splendid liveries, even the diplomatic corps conceal themselves. The druggists' shops are, in some places, thronged by persons, each to ask a remedy for a father, a mother, a wife, a husband or a child, or a relation who is dying. In some houses there are several dead at the same moment; and one sees a coffin lying in the passage and covered with a white sheet with a candle lighted at the head, waiting until the black cart approaches, to carry the deceased to a place of burial. It is indeed, a dreadful visitation, which desolates a city, causes the ruin of families, and leaves many a forlorn orphan to weep in misery, or to beg a pittance in the streets."

BRANDING.-The manner in which Naylor, convicted of blasphemy in the time of the Commonwealth suffered his punishment, is thus described by Burton in his diary. The writer was one of the members named to see a part of the sentence carried into execution. "He put out his tongue very willingly, but shrinked a little when the iron came upon his forehead. He was pale when he came out of the pillory, bus: high coloured after tongue-boring. He was bound by a cord by both arms to the pillory; Rich, the mad merchant, sat bare at Naylor's feet all the time. Sometimes he sung, and cried, and stroked his hair and face, and kissed his hand, and sucked the fire out of his forehead. Naylor embraced his executioner, and behaved himself very handsomely and patiently. A great crowd of people there; the sheriff present, cum multis,' at the Old Exchange, near the conduit."

·

ROMAN AMPHITHEATRE-A correspondent of the "Gentleman's Magazine" for the present month, speaking of a Roman amphitheatre discovered at Lillebone in Normandy, says, "When I was there in last October, about fifteen labourers were at work under the per

sonal superintendence of the mayor, who, I was told, was a most zealous antiquary, and possessed of a very valuable collection of curiosities, which have been discovered. About ten years ago, this curious building was so covered up with rubbish as to present a misshapen mound of great magnitude. At present all the south side of it is so cleared away, as to leave the outside walls, more than fifty feet high, quite clear. The inside has been so exposed as to exhibit the dressing-rooms of the actors, and many tiers of benches. The outside is composed of tufa which covers the walls; they are of chalk and Roman brick, cemented together so strongly as to be more like a solid rock than masonry. The road from Havre to Rouen cuts off one end of the amphitheatre, which, when perfect, is calculated to have contained 22,000 persons."

THOMSON, the poet, who exclaims in his Seasons, "Falsely luxurious, will not man awake!" used to lie in bed till noon, because, he said, he had no motive in getting up. He could imagire the good of rising, but he could also imagine the good of lying still. ̧

VOLTAIRE'S RIDDLE.-What is the longest, and yet the shortest thing in the world-the swiftest, and the most slow -the most divisible, and the most extended the least valued, and the most regretted-without which nothing can be done-which devours every thing however small, and yet gives life and spirit to every object however great? (Time.) History of Zadig.

STRANGE METAMORPHOSIS.

-

Mr.

whilst engaged one morning in painting a scene at the Theatre, was much annoyed by some gentlemen who, looking on, were giving their opinions very freely, and suggesting to him a variety of extremely injudicious alterations; at length, being completely out of patience with their conceit and impertinence, he observed, "Excuse me

Diary and

Wednesday, May 9.

Venus rises 49m. aft. 3 morn.

On this day, the ancient Romans held the festival of Lunaria, or of nocturnal spirits, which lasted three days.

Thursday, May 10.

Anniversary of the battle of Lodi, which was fought in the year 1796.

Friday, May 11.

Mercury rises 12m, aft. 4 morn.

Earl of Chatham died 1778.

Fast with the Jews-Death of Elijah, 2 Kings, ii. 11.

gentlemen, but I make it a rule always to proceed with my painting according to my own notions, and for the following reason; some years ago I had a commission to paint a garden-scene for a provincial theatre; whilst occupied in executing it, I was advised by one person to make such an alteration; importuned by another to put this; entreated by a third to add something else; and being at that period a novice in my profession, I was all submission and complaisance, yielded to the opinion of each new critic, and made whatever alteration was suggested, 'till one morning, stepping back from my canvas to take a general survey of my performance, I perceived, alas! my garden-scene was a street!"

A MAN named "Cæsar," married a girl of the name of "Roma;" (both common names in modern Rome). They lived in the Piazza Navona, close to Pasquin's statue, where, on the day of their marriage, was found the following piece of advice to the bridegroom:"Cave, Cæsar, ne tua Roma respublica fiat!" The man replied next day, "Cæsar imperat!" but his antagonist rejoined, "Ergo coronabitur!"-Travels in Italy.

A PERSON having an even number of counters in one hand, and an oddnumber in the other, how to tell in which hand the even numbers are, let the person multiply the number in his right hand by an odd number, and the number in his left hand by an even, and let him then tell you, if the sum of the products together be odd or even. If it be even, the even number is in the right hand; and if it be odd, the even number is in the left hand.-Hooper's Rational Recreations.

SINGULAR FACT.-At the execution of Caraccioli at Naples, his body was thrown into the sea; however, the body three weeks after rose again and floated with the immense load of 250lb. attached to it.-Life of Nelson.

Chronology.

Saturday, May 12.

The Right Hon. Spencer Perceval assassinated,

1812.

EASTER TERM EN DS.

Sunday, May 13.

THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER,

Lessons for the Day.-4 ch. of Deuteronomy,

morn, 5 ch. of Deuteronomy, even.

Monday, May 14.

Full Moon, at 5 afternoon.
Tuesday, May 15.

Sun rises 44m, aft. 4. sets 48m, ast 7.

Illustrated Article.

PIERRE LOUVOIS.

(FOR THE OLIO.)

AT the time the French army held possession of Italy the most strict and rigorous measures were put in force by them, to suppress the lawless habits of the inhabitants; which, under a weak form of government, had risen to such a height of crime as to require more than ordinary severity to check. These laws were not alone in force against the natives, for they fell with undiminished rigour on such of the French troops as were caught in the commission of any act contravening the strict code laid down for their observance, and punishment came so swiftly after the offence as to be attended with at least one salutary effect, that of taking place whilst its cause was yet fresh in the remembrance of the shuddering spectators.

In the northern part of Italy was quartered a small division, consisting of a few VOL. IX.

See p 323

regiments of the line, under the command of a General Duval. He was a man of a morose and stern disposition, a strict martinet, and one but little prone to pardon any offences committed by the soldiery under his comm and; but, on the other hand, he was just, and not slow in rewarding merit, when such fell under his observation. His notice had for a short time been attracted to a lad about eighteen years of age, for whom he began to feel some interest. Pierre Louvois, which was the youth's name, was a general favourite in the regiment to which he belonged, though his manners and dispositions were but little in accord with those of his rank; there was a sort of dignity and lofty bearing not exactly in unison with the situation of a private, but yet it had never been the cause of his creating a single enemy amongst his associates. His mother, who said she was the widow of a soldier, had lived in the neighbourhood of Montpelier, of which part of the country, however, she was not a

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