PUBLIC opinion is beginning to make itself heard in Italy, and it pronounces an unequivocal censure on the Jesuits. Our readers are aware that in the spring of this year a disturbance took place at Pisa, in consequence of the arrival in that city of certain "Ladies of the Sacred Heart," who are understood to be female Jesuits. On that occasion, the windows of the house in which they had taken up their abode were broken by a mob, who shouted, "Down with the Jesuits! Away with the Nuns!" No doubt the Jesuits would exclaim against any conclusion being drawn from the cry of a mob; but what will they say to the formal Resolution of a municipal body? They have, it seems, a scholastic establishment at Placenza, in the Grand Duchy of Parma. The Municipal Council of that city were recently called on to vote a sum for defraying its expenses. These gentlemen, probably, have sons in that very establishment: this, and their social position, suggests the possibility of their being competent judges on the question on which they speak. Of course they are unprejudiced, (in the sense in which prejudice is usually charged on the opponents of Jesuitism,) for they are members of the Roman Catholic Church. They voted the required sum, then; but also voted the following Resolution :

"The Council, without hesitation, admits the debt of 5,200 livres owing to the reverend Fathers the Jesuits, charged by the Government with the direction of the Gymnasium of St. Peter. But, whilst obeying the legal necessity of acknowledging this expense, they cannot help thinking that the Gymnasium neither answers the object proposed, nor the expectations which had been entertained of it. A sense of duty imperatively compels them to declare, that the present state of the Gymnasium is a just ground of sorrow and complaint on behalf of the whole town, and that the experience which has been had of it till the present time leaves but little hope for the future.

"The parents are in great consternation at the incredible demoralization (della demoralizazione incredibile) which

has become prevalent in these schools: they are surprised to see their children progress only in disobedience and disorder. Those who are able, remove their sons; but this number is but small. The gravity and extent of the present evil, as well as the still greater ones which are feared in the future, give us courage to demand a prompt and efficacious remedy.

"To this end, the Council, the interpreter of the wishes of the public, respectfully requests the Government to take whatever measures it may think most efficacious for a reform in the system of teaching and education of youth, which at present are at an extremely low ebb. The Council hopes that its request will not be denied; for it is an old and recognised truth, that on the education of youth depends primarily the peace of families; and, secondly, the order, tranquillity, and strength of states."

"We can hardly imagine stronger language," remarks the Semeur; "yet the Municipal Council of Placenza has not dared to say all. It is for us to complete the expression of its heartfelt convictions by adding, that the power which the Jesuits enjoy in the States of Parma, placed under the almost immediate influence of Austria, is precisely of the nature attributed to them by the Abbé Gioberti, in his Prolegomenes. They are there, as in the other parts of Italy, the auxiliaries of the foreigner; so that it is not only as fathers of families, but as patriots, that the Members of the Council censure these Jesuits."

Of M. Gioberti's work, above mentioned, we may say, that the author's sincere aim appears to be the moral and social elevation of his native country,Italy; that he points out the Jesuits as the prime enemies and hinderance to the realization of the wishes of every Italian patriot; and that his work has made a great sensation in the Peninsula. We may also mention, that seven or eight months since a great number of the inhabitants of Tuscany addressed a memorial to their Government, protesting against the system of education adopted by the Jesuits.-Ibid.

THE DURATION OF

MARRIED

LIFE. The tables of the mean joint life-time of men and women show that, in this country, husbands and wives married at the age of twenty-six live, on an average, twenty-seven years together, the widows living rather more than ten years (10.4) after their husbands' deaths, and the widowers more than nine years (9.3) after their wives' deaths. When

the husband is forty, and the wife thirty, the mean term of married life is twentyone years, the widows living thirteen years after their husbands, and the widowers five years after the deaths of their wives. The tables furnish ready answers to a great number of questions of this kind, and others in which two lives are concerned.-Registrar-General's Report.

CURIOUS ESTIMATE OF WEALTH. -During the interval between the two Rebellions of 1715 and 1745, the arts of peace were cultivated in England, and the national wealth augmented; but no portion of that wealth altered the habits of the Highland Chieftains, who, looking continually for another rebellion, estimated their property by the number of men whom they could bring into the field. An anecdote, illustrative of this peculiarity, is told of Macdonald of Keppuch, who was killed at the battle of Culloden. Some Low-Country gentlemen were visiting him in 1740, and were entertained with the lavish hospitality of a Highland home. One of these guests ventured to ask of the landlord what was the rent of his estate. "I can bring five hundred men into the field," was the reply. It was estimated, about this time, that the whole force which could be raised by the Highlanders amounted to no more than twelve thousand men; yet, with this inconsiderable number, the Jacobites could shake the British throne.-Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745.

LITERARY TASTES OF THE STUARTS.-King James I. was a great patron of the drama. He was the first of our Kings who formed a company of actors; and such actors, too, as he had! Burbage, Shakspeare, Kemp, Heming, Condell, Lowen, Taylor. They were frequently summoned to play before him, and were always paid, and liberally too, for their performances. Nor did he confine his encouragement to his own

Nor

servants: the Queen's players, (as they were called,) the players of Prince Henry, and the players of the Prince Palatine, were summoned every Christmas to play before him. The usual rates of remuneration, we may add, were generally accompanied by a further sum by way of His Majesty's reward. A love of literature was hereditary in the family of the Stuarts. Henry, Prince of Wales, a boy of only eighteen when he died, had Owen, the epigrammatist, Michael Drayton, and Joshua Sylvester on his list of pensioners and annuitants. Authors presenting him with their books went away with some substantial mark of his good-will. Rowland Cotgrave, the learned author of the dictionary which bears his name, received his bounty; nor was the amusing Coryatt overlooked by the young and discerning Prince. King Charles I. would appear to have imbibed his love of art from his elder brother; for King James had no particular predilection that way. was Charles without his brother Henry's taste for literature, or his sympathy with literary men. It would, perhaps, be difficult to name any author of eminence unprotected or unnoticed by the King. Ben Jonson was his Poet Laureate, and Davenant succeeded to the laurel at Jonson's death. The plays of Shirley, Massinger, and May were read by him in Ms., and then acted at court before him. He altered passages, for he was a poet himself, and he suggested subjects. His taste was excellent. The tasteful Carew filled the office of Sewer in Ordinary; Quarles received a pension; Denham and Waller were about his court; Falkland, Fanshawe, and Suckling, about his person. Nor were the elder poets overlooked: he quotes Chaucer in his letters, draws allusions from the drama, borrows a prayer from Sydney's "Arcadia," and finds in Shakspeare a solace in his suffering. Frazer's Magazine.

EXCAVATIONS BY ANTS.-At the town of New-Valencia, which they visited, they were struck with the extensive excavations formed by the ants, resembling subterranean canals, which, when filled with water, often undermine the building. The burning of the larvæ and the fumigation of the cavities, have been employed to extirpate those troublesome insects; but the Franciscans of St.

Domingo, when these means prove ineffectual, elected a saint, by lot, to defend them against their ravages! Humboldt.

CROCODILES OF THE URITUCU RIVER.-After quitting Calobozo, our travellers forded the Uritucu, a river filled with a breed of crocodiles, so remarkable for their ferocity, that they often come out of the water to pursue dogs upon the shore. They were here shown a tent, in which their host of Calobozo, Don Miguel Cousin, had witnessed a most extraordinary scene. While sleeping along with a friend, he was aroused by a horrible noise of violent shakings, by which clods of earth were thrown into the middle of the tent. A young crocodile, two or three feet long, instantly darted from under the bed, flew at a dog near the door, and, missing him, ran towards the river. Upon examining the spot, it was found that the crocodile, in a state of lethargy under the dried mud, (which it had entered when in a soft state,) had been awakened by the noise, or by the smell of the dog, and burst forth like a mud

volcano, escaping amid the shower of clay which it had cast from its tomb.Humboldt.

AUSTRALIAN FARMERS AND THE COCKATOOS.-While on the subject of the settlers' troubles, I may mention that the cockatoos annoy the farmer in Australia, as much as the crows do in England. They attack his wheat and maize, when the grain is ripening, by hundreds; indeed, I may say, by thousands; and it requires a very active watchman to keep them from doing serious injury to the crop, not so much from the quantity they eat, as from what they destroy and scatter. These birds, which, by the by, furnish an excellent dish, that occasionally formed part of our dinner, are remarkably cunning. While the flock are busily feeding on the farmer's wheat, two of their number are left on some neighbouring tree to keep watch: these, on the approach of danger, give a loud, shrill scream, which at once puts the thieves to flight, and renders it very difficult for the sportsman to get a shot at one of them.-Trade and Travels in the Far East.

*

PUBLISHED

He ar

rived in Colombo March 25th, left on the 2d of April, reached Jaffna on the 4th, and remained there until May 25th, being detained by the change of the monsoon. He sailed from PointPedro, in a small square-rigged vessel, for Batticaloa; and after lying at anchor some days off Mulliteevo, on