Extracts from the Public Newspapers.

47

Inquests were lately held at Uttoxeter, on the bodies of Harriet and William Foster, the one three years old, and the other younger. The death of the elder was occasioned by drinking oil of vitriol out of a phial.-The distracted mother carried the child into a neighbour's house, and when she returned to her own dwelling, she found her infant so dreadfully burnt, by a spark from the fire falling into its cradle, as to occasion its death.-Derby Reporter.

We cannot help pitying the condition of those poor mothers, who are obliged to leave their homes, and have not an infant school in the village to send their children to.-ED.

Foolish Superstition. At the Marlborough-Street Office, a most strange and disgusting instance of folly and superstition, as well as cruelty was displayed. The wife of a shoemaker in Oxford-road was unfortunately snapped at and bit by a little dog, whose foot she had unfortunately trod on. The husband went to the lady who owned the dog, and asked to see him. The lady supposing that he wished to ascertain whether the -dog was mad or not, allowed him to see it. He seized it, and dashed it to the ground, and jumping with both his heels on its head, killed the creature on the spot. The next day the man got hold of the body of the dog, and took a knife and cut out its heart. The man said in his defence, that he did this because he had heard that, if the dog was killed, the person bitten would not go mad;-and that he cut out the heart for his wife to eat, having been told that this was an infallible preservative against any damage from the bite. This story is too disgusting to relate, but, as there was such folly in this man, there may be in others, and we therefore avail ourselves of this opportunity of exposing so horrible a superstition.-The man is to appear at the sessions.

A melancholy instance of the evils arising from boys being allowed to amuse themselves with guns, occurred on Tuesday morning at Cheltenham. A boy, about 14 years of age, named Luke Heywood, residing at Montpellier Retreat, had been in the habit of shooting at sparrows and other small birds, in the trces behind the house, although he had been repeatedly warned by the neighbours of the danger of the practice. He was amusing himself with his accustomed sport in the yard, in company with two other boys; when, the gun being cocked, he turned round to speak to his sister, about eleven years old, who was looking at him through a window; and by the trigger coming in contact with his clothes, the gun exploded, and nearly the whole contents were lodged in the upper part of the right side of his sister's face; at the moment the accident happened she could not have been four yards from the muzzle. Her face was dreadfully lacerated; and although expectations are entertained that her life may be saved, no hope remains that she will ever recover the use of her right eye.-Bath Chronicle.

Gaming. We have to add another victim to the dreadful passion for gaming. Mr. -, an English gentleman, arrived in Paris about three months ago, and at first took up his residence in an hotel; he became acquainted with a black-leg, who when in London resides near St. James's-street; by this individual he was induced to visit the Paris gaming-houses, but not until he had been fleeced of the greatest part of his property by this same person, in what is termed private play. The unfortu nate gamester had, during the three months, lost the whole of his fortune. On Friday night he staked the last five guineas of which he was possessed. Driven to despair by finding himself completely ruined, he threw himself into the river and was drowned. His hat was found, and within it a short note, indieating the motives by which he was actuated in committing this dreadful act.

Horticulture.There lately grew on the branch of an appletree, grafted only in the spring of this year, in the garden of R. Pinkington, Esq. of the Willows, near Preston, an apple of the Hawthornden kind, which measured ten inches in circumference. The same graft has shot out four branches, measuring two feet ten inches, one foot eight inches, one foot six inches, and one foot four inches in length.

Tooth-ache.-At a recent meeting of the London Medical Soelety, Dr. Blake stated the extraction or excision of teeth was unnecessary. He was enabled, he said, to cure the most desperate cases of tooth-ache (unless the disease was connected with rheumatism) by the application of the following remedy to the diseased tooth :-Alum, reduced to an impalpable powder, two drachms; nitrous spirits of ether, seven drachms; mix, and apply them to the tooth.

The Tallipot Tree.-A leaf of this extraordinary tree has lately been brought over from the island of Ceylon, of which place it is native, and is now in the possession of the Rev. Richard Fletcher, of Hampstead. The leaf is in a good state of preservation, and measures fully 11 feet in height, 16 feet across its widest spread, and from 38 to 40 feet in circumference. If expanded as a canopy, it is sufficient to defend a dinner party of six from the rays of the sun, and in Ceylon is carried about by the natives for that purpose.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We have received the communications of P. L.; E. M.; Alpha; and an Anonymous Correspondent; also Suggestions on Visiting the Sick; and an article on Penny Clubs. We are sorry that the verses of St**rt did not arrive till our present number was printed; we must therefore keep them for our next.

THE

Cottager's Monthly Visitor.

FEBRUARY, 1828.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SOBRIETY.

CYRUS, when quite a youth, at the court of his grandfather, Astyages, undertook one day to perform the office of cup-bearer. He delivered the cup very gracefully, but omitted the usual custom of first tasting it himself. The king reminded him of it, supposing he had forgotten:

No, Sir," replied Cyrus; "but I was afraid there might be poison in it; for I have observed that the lords of your court, after drinking, became noisy, quarrelsome, and frantic; and that even you, Sir, seem to have forgotten that you were a king.' "Does not the same thing," replied Astyages, "happen to your father?"" Never," answered Cyrus." How then?"-" Why, when he has taken what wine he chooses, he is no longer thirsty -that is all."

Happy the man who shall live in those days in which the practice of excessive drinking shall be universally laid aside and detested! At present we can scarcely name a vice more common, or that is carried to a more alarming height. Oh! could we view the scenes which intemperance creates in the NO. 2.-VOL. VIII.

D

alehouse, the tavern, and the festive parlour; what grief, what indignation would stir within us!

Let him that would guard against all approaches of this habit, consider the evils which attend it.

EXCESSIVE DRINKING IS IMPRUDENT. It brings dimness and decay over the faculties of the soul; it has made the rich poor, and the condition of the poor intolerable; it robs a man of his real friends, and gathers round him designing knaves and empty fools; it destroys the taste for innocent and solid pleasure; it arms reflection with a sting; it sows the seed of innumerable disorders; it has brought millions to an early grave.

EXCESSIVE DRINKING IS SINFUL Usually it puts a stop to the exercise of sound reason, and thus levels the noblest distinction between men and brutes; it is an ungrateful waste of the Creator's bounty; it is disobedience; our Lord having expressly commanded his disciples to " take heed, lest at any time their hearts should be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness;" it is a practice of which the natural effect is to stupify conscience; then vice rushes in like a flood, confidence is betrayed, anger storms, the defiled heart meditates fornication and adultery, the robber is wrought up to the ruffian pitch, duty and danger are equally despised.-Go to the drunkard's residence: what injustice, what barbarity, what wretchedness, are exemplified there! Imagine the offender to be poor, and you complete the picture. The parent, who should be the counsellor, the comfort, the ornament, of his family, is its tempter, its trouble, its reproach. His wife and children, when alone, enjoy a respite, and begin to brighten up; he returns, they tremble, and are again distracted. He has spent their money, he has quarrelled, he has met with mischief. He wreaks upon them the spite and fury collected and inflamed amidst a drunken crew; and they must bear it; they must be stunned by his stupid roar; they must hear

The Importance of Sobriety.

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his blasphemy; they must be sickened by the approach of his loathsome person; they, for his prodigality, must appear half-naked, and live half-starved.

Intemperance (we observe with pain) is not confined to men; there are women, who, by "adding drunkenness to thirst," supply a spectacle still more hideous and mortifying. We have beheld mothers staggering with infants in their arms. Should any of our female readers, by their sedentary habits, by the pressure of grief, and by the perpetual recurrence of opportunity, be tempted to indulge,—we entreat them to beware,-to stop,-and thus to preserve their character.

EXCESSIVE DRINKING IS A HABIT SOON FORMED, RAPID IN ITS GROWTH, AND HARD TO ROOT Up. At first a man drinks for refreshment: he then takes a larger draught for pleasure; he still adds a little and a little, till he can never leave his cups without taking a little too much. His appetite increases as it is indulged; the quantity which once intoxicated, now does but just cheer him; he feels a craving, he removes it by excess; he craves again, and becomes miserable, if he does not again receive an extravagant supply. Thus he degenerates into the finished sot; and then, whatever intervals of remorse disturb him, whatever tears flow, whatever promises and vows are uttered, he generally relapses, grows worse and worse, and-dies.

EXCESSIVE DRINKING IS CONTAGIOUS. One drunkard makes many; he is generally what the world calls a social fellow; he secures a companion of the same stamp; they meet; they are joined first by one, and then by another: the circle enlarges; they call for more drink; they feel their spirits elevated; they raise them higher by songs, and jokes, and peals of laughter; they persuade the unthinking that it is happiness; they tell the young it is manly; they allure the frugal by treating them; and when