at this moment hundreds of fellow-beings in a state of slavery. Yes, you who conquered under the banners of Freedom, you who are now the first magistrate of a free people, are, strange to relate, a slave-holder. That a Liverpool merchant should endeavour to enrich himself by such a business, is not a matter of surprise; but that you, an enlightened man, strongly enamoured of Freedom—you who, if the British forces had succeeded in the Eastern States, would have retired with a few congenial spirits to the rude fastnesses of the Western wildernesses, there to have enjoyed that blessing without which a paradise would be worthless, and with which the most savage region is not without its charms;—that you, I say, should continue to be a slave-holder, a proprietor of human flesh and blood, creates in many of your British friends both astonishment and regret. It has been said by some of your apologists, that your feelings are inimical to slavery, and that you are induced to acquiesce in it at present merely from motives of policy. The Only True Policy Is Justice;

AND HE WHO REGARDS THE CONSEQUENCES OF AN ACT RATHER THAN THE JUSTICE OF IT, GIVES NO VERY EXALTED PROOF OF THE GREATNESS OF HIS CHARACTER

Of all the slave-holders under heaven, those of the United States appear to me most reprehensible; for man is never so truly odious, as when he inflicts on others that which be himself abominates. The hypocritical courtesan who preaches chastity, yet lives by the violation of it, is not more truly disgusting than one of your slave-holding gentry bellowing in favour of democracy."

Rushton died in 1814. He was a man of great virtue, s patriot on a large scale, a philanthropist in the true sense of the term, a practical Christian; his life was spent in advocating justice at home and abroad, and doing works of mercy and kindness to his fellow-men. I have dwelt so much on the consistency of the philanthropy of Rushton, because it is Jo rarely encountered of a perfectly unsectarian character. The lives of Clarkson, Buxton, Sturge, Rushton, and Romilly, afford striking exceptions to this rule. There is, however, in the variable atmosphere of the mind, influences which seem to excite the pity of men for one class only of unfortunates, or at one period, for a particular train of calamities, or peculiar description of suffering; and at another time, and in the case of persons in misfortune, of some particular community, which seem to stifle every emotion of sensibility. If we love justice and liberty abroad, we cannot be otherwise than faithful to their interests at home. If we hate the injustice that is offered to black men in Africa or the West Indies, it is also incumbent on us to reprobate all the oppressions that are done under the sun to white men in European countries. If the cruelty of slave-trading is the cause of enormous suffering which we deplore, and use all our efforts to put an end to, the wrongs and suffering inflicted by evictions, dispossessions, and destitution of thousands, ay, tens of thousands of our fellow-creatures at our own doors, are gigantic evils which we are called on to devote a large share of our philanthropy to remove or to alleviate; but if, instead of doing this, we lend our countenance and support to a system which suffers such evils to exist, what is to be said of our philanthropy? Why, either that we are mistaken enthusiasts, like Granville Sharpe, who united efforts for the abolition of slavery in Africa with advocacy of the maintenance in Ireland of the atrocities of the Penal Code, or mere pretenders to a love of justice, who speculate in theoretical benevolence, and exercise practical inhumanity in our political conduct, with respect to millions of our fellow-subjects, guilty only of a creed not fashioned like our own.

Oh! it is time to put away these unworthy pretensions to philanthropy. All pretexts for intolerance are pretences for persecution. The basis tor true philanthropy must be large and deep, capable of sustaining tolerance in affairs of religion and matters of political opinion; capable of enabling men to deal with their fellow-creatures of all climes, creeds, and politics, in a forbearing, Christian spirit.

No. VI.

THE CHARACTER OF LADY BLESSINGTON, AS DECIPHERED BY HAND-WRITING. BY THE REV. O. F. O.

"After dinner, one day, at Gore House, a nobleman was conversing with me, relative to my power of telling characters by hand-writing, and requested me to exhibit a specimen of my skill in this particular. We were standing near Lady Blessington, who was much interested in the topic. In consequence of endeavours having often been made at compromising the interpreter, by adducing specimens of persons present, I usually prefaced my analysis with the demand of an assurance from the querist, that he is not so far interested in the persons he inquires about, as to care what is said of them. This assurance was given in such a manner as, I believe, completely to conceal from Lady Blessington the fact, that it was her hand-writing which was shewn to me. It must be observed, that the specimen was taken from correspondence long past, apparently, as, though at that time I did not know her Ladyship's writing sufficiently to recognize it; yet, afterwards, I discovered various proofs of the hand being younger than those letters of her writing sent to me subsequently. In perfect ignorance, therefore, that the note was written by

Lady B , I declared, from investigation of the envelope,

that the writer possessed great talent, in which the two elements of quick perception of the character of others, ami a facile adaptation of her own to persons and circumstance*, predominated. That the judgment was less powerful than the observation, the former being affected by prejudice; that the writer possessed great powers of veiling her real sentiments, except hatred, which, like her impulses generally, was intense; that naturally the temper was quick, impetuous, open, and turbulent; but that necessity had induced the action of a powerful- will to curb it, and that custom had so far altered its development, that few would suspect the depth of real womanly affection latent under the surface of conventional ease. Jealousy, however, was patent, and that profuse liberality still remained as a relic of the former self. The attachments would be as steady as the antipathies would be strong, and the writer would never forget a service for an injury. The moral principle acted through the head, not the heart; in other words, expediency, not right, swayed her; tact, not responsibility, was her guide; and the warmth, if any, of lofty principles, emanated more from the effervescence of mental conception of their beauty, than of heartfelt association with their excellence and importance.

"Upon the nobleman jocularly exclaiming, that the writing was ' my Lady's,' a significant pause ensued. Lady Blessington, however, acknowledged, as far as 1 remember, the justice of the character, by some observation which, with her usual dexterity, she contrived should at the same time turn the current of conversation; certain it is that, though frequent notes from herself, afterwards enabled me to corroborate or correct my opinion, I found no reason to change it; and, indeed, in all cases, a first glance at the writing is generally more effective than a too studious examination of it. Circumstances afterwards caused me to know more intimately than most, and far more than even Lady Blessington was aware of, the great lines of her career, and I can trace them to exact conformity with the delineation here given of her character.* . ~ J, Q ,•

* The trust to be placed in the power laid claim to, of reading

No. VII.

MONSIEUR EUGENE SUE.

A correspondent of Lady Blessington, one of England's foremost men, and of the master-spirits of his time, thus estimates the labours of Monsieur Eugene Sue, " The Wandering Jew," in a letter to her:

"Sue's 'Wandering Jew' seems to me a failure, and I don't like the attack on the Jesuits, whom I have always honoured for their immense services to science, letters, and humanity. Here, I dare say, you do not agree with me.

"But though I shall never, I suppose, turn Catholic, I feel if I had been a Catholic, I should never have been anything else. I love the grand enthusiasm of its earnest believers, and the child-like faith of its simple flocks. I love its ascent into faith above reason."

No. VIII.

PROSECUTION OF EDMOND POWER FOR LIBEL ON JOHN BAGWELL, ESQ.

Extracts from "Angell's Report of the Trial, Bagwell v. Power, before Lord Norbury and a special jury, at Clonmtl,

character by the hand-writing of the person on whom judgment is to be pronounced, is entirely one of confidence in the truth and inteifrity of the party pretending to that power. For unless we are assured he had no previous knowledge of the hand-writing submitted to him, and moreover are certain that the account he gives of the judgment he has formed was immediately and wholly the result of the examination of the hand-writing shewn to him, and that no subsequent light had been thrown on it, by personal acquaintance with the writer of a later date than that of the experiment, the pretended power of deciphering character by hand-writing cannot be admitted or relied on.