to be hanged more than all the rest, for bringing in the Scots," the smith said," he spoke like an honest man :" and so they parted.

While the King and his supposed mistress remained at Mr. Norton's, he went into the kitchen, the better to conceal himself, and, as he was standing by the fire-side near the jack, the cook-maid desired him to wind it up; but he fumbling till the spit stood still, the cook struck him, and calling him a black blockhead, asked where he had lived, that he had not learnt to wind up a jack? The King modestly answered, that he had not been long in his lady's service.

Being on the sea-coast in Dorsetshire, waiting for an opportunity of procuring a vessel, the King's horse lost another shoe, on which the smith was sent for, who, upon looking at the rest of the shoes, said that some of them were made near Worcester. This man, when he had finished, went to consult with one Wesley, the presbyterian minister of Charmouth, who was then at prayers, so that before he had finished, the King and his company were gone to Bridport. Just as they came into the town, they saw the streets full of Cromwell's soldiers, who were about to embark for Jersey. However, there was no help, and the King, who thought it the best way to blunder in amongst them, led the horses as soon as they alighted into the stable, which made the soldiers complain of his rudeness. Having taken the bridles off, and called the ostler to give the horses some oats, the man said, "Surely I know your face, and I have certainly seen you somewhere." This was no pleasant discourse to the King, who, however, thought it best to ask him where he had lived. By his answers, he found that he was a native of Exeter, where he had been an ostler at an inn adjoining to one Mr. Potter's, at whose house the King had lodged in the early part of the rebellion. Upon this, the King said, "Friend,

London Public Houses.

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you have certainly seen me at Mr. Potter's, where I lived about a year in his service." The man replied, "Then I remember you a boy there;" and then he pressed him to take a pot of beer with him, which the other declined, saying, he must go and wait upon his master, and get his dinner ready; but that upon his return he would drink with him.

The King and his company, however, withdrew from thence, immediately after dinner, and, leaving the London road, proceeded through bye-ways to a village called Broadwater; and it was very well they did, for the smith's intelligence being carried to Lyme, twelve troopers were dispatched in pursuit of them, and arrived at Bridport in less than half-an-hour after the King had left the town. After various adventures, Charles got on board a small vessel near Shoreham; and, though the master discovered who he was, yet, with great fidelity, he conveyed him safely over to Fecamp, a small harbour in France.

LONDON PUBLIC HOUSES.

THE following extract is taken from a London paper. "We should be glad that public-houses should have a free trade if they could have it without injury to others; but when we see how much the vice of drunkenness is increasing, and that the keepers of public-houses appear themselves to do nothing to check it, it is fit the law should. We would refer particularly to the state of London and its neighbourhood on a Saturday night and Sunday morning, when it is well known that too many labouring men, whose week's earnings ought to have gone for the support of their families, have spent the whole in the alehouse and the gin shop, and are seen reeling about, or lying in the streets, in a state of beastly NO. 2.-VOL. VIII. E

insensibility. It is fit that something should be done to put a stop to this evil; and there would be much good, in a regulation which should, on the Sabbath-day, prevent public-houses being the cause of so much harm. We are inclined to think that the better description of publicans would have no objection to a proper regulation; and as for those whom it would deprive of a profit derived from that which ought to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, and who profit by the profanation of that day-the profanation of which brings thousands to ruin-the loss of such profits would be a matter of little concern to any body, and excite no pity in the minds of right thinking people.'

POTATOES.

A PAPER, by Mr. Smith, on the best method of planting and managing potatoes, was read at the "West of England Agricultural Society." The writer seems to consider the present method of planting them, and hoeing them up, as injurious to the plant, by cutting off the horizontal fibres, and by keeping off the rain from the roots. This reasoning was approved of by some of the members of the society; whilst others were of a different opinion. The matter, however, is certainly worth consideration. If the old method is continued, the earthing up should begin before there is any danger of hurting the side shoots.

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Middling-sized (whole) potatoes (says Mr. S.) are the best for planting.". And "The system of well hoeing up' at once cuts off the crop by destroying the horizontal shoots of the plant, and leaves only a few shoots around the very bottom of the plant to yield produce. By the time the 'well hoeing up' is finished, the soil around the potatoes is in slope like the roof

of a house, being two sides of a triangle. The earth, by this plan, is drawn from the root of the plant to nourish the stalk, and the rain that falls is necessarily guided off from the plants, and flows principally into the spaces between the rows of the potatoes. As water filtrates through the earth in straight lines, and does not spread horizontally, when so passing it cannot afford sustenance to the potatoe plants; consequently the present mode of earthing up potatoes' prevents, in a great measure, the potatoes receiving the beneficial effects of the falling rain-water, and thereby the soluble particles of the manure are not applied to them to increase their vital principle. Besides the sun has more advantage to absorb the moisture from the earth, it being formed like two sides of a triangle, to the very serious injury of the growing potatoe crop. And great mischief is done by cutting off the horizontal shoot of the potatoe plants, the great source of the young potatoes.

"The following plan of raising potatoes will be found, on trial, to be preferable to the present method. Take middling-sized potatoes, soak them for eight or twelve hours, according to their dry state, in water, or in the drainings of a dung heap, which will saturate the potatoes with a very rich nutritious juice, invigorating their vital principle, and enabling the potatoes to grow and exist on their own resources or nature, without depending on the rain or the moisture of the lands for support. After the land is well dug or ploughed, mark it out in rows eighteen inches asunder; each row is to be made into a trench in the same manner as you make trenches for celery; each trench to be nine inches deep, and twelve inches wide. The dirt that is removed to form the trenches, to be put on each side of them. Dig the bottom of the trench evenly, and as you dig it, plant your potatoes four or five inches deep, and twelve inches apart. Place your manure in the

trenches after the potatoes are planted. When the potatoes are grown six inches high, pull down around them some of the earth lying on each side of the trenches; this is to be continued until the surface of the land is level. By this plan an accession of earth is made to the potatoe plants, in a way most likely to be beneficial to them, allowing an uniform influx of rain water, an exclusion of the rays of the sun, and a preservation of the horizontal shoots of the plants, thereby ensuring the best crop."

ADVANTAGES OF STUDYING THE
SCRIPTURES.

It is well known that a very great improvement has, within these few years, taken place among the female prisoners in Newgate, for which we are greatly indebted to the exertions of that excellent lady, Mrs. Fry; and this change seems to have been brought about by the means which the Almighty has appointed, the hearing and reading the sacred Scriptures. Mrs. Fry, and her brother Mr. Gurney, in an excellent letter to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, regret that some of the Roman Catholic clergy who act as chaplains in the Irish prisons, should endeavour to prevent the reading of the Scriptures in the prison-schools. "They thus (says the letter,) banish the most powerful instrument which Divine Providence has put into our hands for the instruction and correction of depraved characters. In using these expressions, we speak from long and attentive observation. Among the numerous instances of moral improvement which have happily taken place among the female criminals of